Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

Salt tax has always been the most important fiscal revenue. For example, in the Song Dynasty, the salt tax could reach 12 million yuan per year. In the late Qing Dynasty, the salt tax revenue was equivalent to the land tax and national tax.

In the early days of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, finance was still relatively weak. In the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, because Shanxi and other border areas were in urgent need of military rations, the government recruited merchants to transport grain in exchange for salt, thus creating the "Open China Law".

According to the military needs of Jiubian, the imperial court successively implemented the method of collecting salt in Nachao, the method of converting Nama in salt, the method of converting salt in Nama, the method of Nanchang in tea, the method of converting Chinese tea into horse, etc.

Because of this, the Ming Dynasty's current salt policy can be said to serve the nine borders, but it also serves to stabilize the national defense of the north and promote the prosperity of Shanxi and other places.

It's just that such huge profits are naturally coveted by all forces.

As pointed out by the cabinet, due to His Majesty's rewards, relatives, nobles and royal relatives all received salt profits from them, which undermined the salt policy to a certain extent.

"Yan Zheng, we must take good care of it!"

Zhu Youtang returned to Qianqing Palace to prepare for government affairs. He had a premonition that the "Accession Edict" would be read out at this time, so he murmured with emotion.

From ancient times to the present, officials at all levels are best at deceiving their superiors.

The salt policy is like a big cake. The essential reason why many small businessmen holding salt quotas cannot get salt is that all forces have extended their tentacles to this big cake.

It has been nearly a hundred years since the Kaizhong Law was implemented. Salt benefits are no longer in the hands of the original small salt merchants in Shanxi and Shaanxi. Instead, they have fallen into the hands of large businessmen in Shanxi, as well as officials in the salt administration system, and even These protective officials in the capital also get a share of the pie.

The reason why many honest small salt merchants cannot get salt is not because the salt factory is really short of salt, but because the relationships between these low-status small salt merchants are not in place.

Just like this, the root cause of the corruption of the salt government was not the emperor's excessive rewards, but the corruption of officials, which led to the failure of salt extraction. In addition, the collusion between officials and businessmen also led to the emergence of regional monopolies in the sales of salt.

The golden sunshine was falling on Fengtian Gate, and Zhou Hongmo, the Minister of Rites, was facing this huge imperial edict and read it as written.

The more than 3,000 civil and military officials kneeling here are listening attentively. It is unexpected and reasonable that the first item of the new policy is to start with the salt policy.

After all, the salt policy is related to Ming Dynasty's finances, and now all parties are competing for this piece of cake.

If His Majesty is fooled into stopping the indiscriminate warnings and asking relatives, nobles and royal family members to leave this piece of cake, then the warnings and warnings given by their officials in the capital will only increase every year.

It's just that this credit is undoubtedly attributed to Xu Pu, so they all cast approving and crowded glances.

Xu Pu felt the scorching gazes coming from all around him, but he knew that he had won the hearts of all the officials, and the corners of his mouth could not help but raise slightly.

Zhou Hongmo seemed to notice the strange behavior of the officials kneeling in front of him, but he raised his eyes and continued to read: "I also heard that the big businessmen in Shanxi and Shaanxi colluded with officials and businessmen, and their quotas far exceeded the stipulated three thousand, resulting in the loss of small businessmen. Salt can be carried. Now it is time to inspect the salt and inspect the salt merchants. The number is limited to three thousand. Any excess will be punished by law. The salt officials are not allowed to make it difficult for small merchants to carry salt. From now on, salt sales will be carried out according to the locality, and no cross-border crossing is allowed. Selling, violators will be patrolled and punished by the censor. Because salt merchants breed evil nowadays, this dynasty has relaxed business restrictions, and those who have been clean for three generations can enter."

"Collusion between government and businessmen?"

As each word entered his ears, not only did the smile on Xu Pu's face disappear, but all the civil and military officials present looked at Zhou Hongmo in disbelief.

Your Majesty's excessive reward is a culprit fabricated by the civil service group to account for the current chaos in the salt administration, but the biggest crux is closely related to their collusion between officials and businessmen.

The reason why the salt sellers in Tiyin never got the salt was because Yanyin's profits were too huge, so their salt officials had set up artificial obstacles and even deliberately created the illusion that the salt farmers were dissatisfied with the squeeze and fled.

Of course, it is not enough to just set up obstacles to extract salt. Only by joining forces with those big salt merchants can we achieve the goal of regional monopoly on the salt industry.

It's just that now the New Deal's spearhead points to the collusion between government and businessmen, and to the big salt merchants who extract benefits from the people for them. It undoubtedly hits them in the face with a stick.

"No, I didn't write that!"

Xu Pu listened to this regulation and shook his head slightly.

What he wants is for your Majesty to realize the mistake of excessive rewards and to restrain the greedy hands of relatives, nobles and royal relatives, instead of beating their officials and the big salt merchants who are complicit in the crime.

Zhou Hongmo originally wanted to continue reading, but found that there was suddenly a commotion below, and scolded him with a straight face: "Quiet!"

"Zhou Shangshu, did you get this accession edict by mistake?" Xu Pu hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't suppress his doubts and asked.

Zhou Hongmo is a township party member of Wan'an. He just saw Xu Pu teasing Wan'an in front of the Meridian Gate and immediately scolded him: "You are so presumptuous, are you not following the imperial edict?"

"I did not disobey the imperial edict, but the regulations drafted by me were not like this!" Xu Pu naturally had no such intention, but he stated the reason for his doubts.

In his long-standing concept, the prince always obeyed his words.

Although this enthronement edict was said to have been negotiated by important ministers like them, most of it was written by him. There should not have been such major changes in it, and there was no reason to point the finger at the collusion between officials and businessmen that was the core of the shortcomings of the salt policy.

"Xu Xu, you also know that our ministers are just drafting, is it possible for your majesty to listen to you?" Liu Ji was also dissatisfied with Xu Pu, and at this time he warned.

Xu Pu felt the hostility of the people around him, his face suddenly darkened, and he stopped saying anything.

Zhou Hongmo actually already knew that Zhu Youtang had made considerable changes to the "Edict of Enthronement". He just wanted Zhu Youtang to summon him yesterday and say those encouraging words, and he vaguely sensed an opportunity.

Now the revision of the "Accession Edict" drafted by Xu Pu reflects that Zhu Youtang did not obey Xu Pu's words. This is not an opportunity for him.

Zhou Hongmo immediately warned the noisy officials present before continuing to read aloud.

Zhu Youtang made changes to many regulations, but no major changes were made.

The great thing about civil servants is not that they have dark hearts, but that they secretly commit shameless acts such as male thieves and female prostitutes, but on the surface they can portray the image of a gentleman.

Take the salt policy provisions just now as an example. The ills they pointed out such as His Majesty’s indiscriminate distribution of salt, rampant illegal salt sales, and salt trading in other places actually exist, and they even need to be solved.

That's why it is true that regulations drafted by civil servants cannot be beaten to death with one stick, and many of them can actually be used.

Article 29: In recent years, the financial resources of the military and civilians across the country have been exhausted. Order to reduce artificiality, except for city walls, piers, passes, warehouses, canals, etc., all other non-urgent tasks such as internal and external yamen, construction of temples, pagodas, temples, houses and walls, etc., have been stopped... There is Si Fei in the outer military guard According to the imperial decree, no man is allowed to be good at service, and no man is allowed to be good at science. Violators will be punished with serious crimes.

Zhu Youtang chose not to change a single word of this regulation.

As for "Instructing the admiral of the Zhejiang City Boti Jusi and the internal officials of Shouzhuchi not to guard local areas and manage sea lanes, and to hand over the authorized edict that has been issued," this article was directly deleted.

The content of the last five articles is the same as that of the enthronement edicts of previous dynasties. They are for recommending talents and advocating etiquette, so no changes have been made.

Zhou Hongzhao secretly breathed a sigh of relief and continued to read: "With the above grace, the imperial edict will be implemented as soon as it is issued. If there is any delay, it will be considered a violation of the regulations, and Xu Xun will be investigated and investigated by the censor."

After the entire "Edict on Enthronement" was read, all the officials present took a deep breath.

It has been widely rumored that the emperor of this dynasty is benevolent (and easy to fool), but this new emperor is clearly sober in the world, perhaps even worse than the previous emperor.

But now "the new emperor is in place and will not be replaced." The Ming Dynasty ushered in the young emperor who was already awake in the world in the "Accession Decree": Hongzhi.