Bi Ziyan said slowly: "At the beginning of the country, it was only more than 1,500 pieces a year, but it increased to 7,000 pieces by the Tianshun period. So far, the number of pieces increased to 10,000 pieces after the rule of law. One piece of colored red yarn is worth 15 taels of silver, but the Weaving Bureau ordered the local government of Suzhou to only give only 6 taels of silver per piece. Among them, the central government exploited countless people, so that there was almost no place for Suzhou to breathe."

"The officials thought that the Suzhou Weaving Bureau could be exempted from the Suzhou Weaving Bureau and impose commercial taxes, and then took out part of the Suzhou Prefecture Commercial Tax to be used as gold, flowers and silver in the inner palace, and then selected the imperial merchants from the people to weave them in the palace. In this way, the emperor, officials and the people are all giving it to you."

Li Ruhua shook his head and said, "This matter affects the emperor, the central government, the weaving bureau, the Suzhou government, the gentry, merchants, and the mechanical households. They are in conflict with each other's interests. It is really not easy to use a knife. This matter needs to be thought twice before taking action."

Although Li Ruhua said this, he looked at him with admiration.

Bi Ziyan said, "I have asked the National Taiwan University to ask, and the officials of the Ministry of Justice have submitted a memorial yesterday."

Li Ruhua was shocked when he heard this.

Bi Zi said seriously: "Not only Suzhou, but also many people have seen since they became officials in Beijing. This royal capital is the foundation of all directions, and today the people are mostly poor, while the northern Zhili is still prosperous."

“What is the reason?”

"During the Chenghua period, the imperial villages occupied 45,000 hectares, and by the Hongzhi period, the imperial villages occupied 200,000 hectares. During the Wuzong period, the imperial villages increased from five to more than three hundred at once, and the imperial villages alone were 200,000 hectares, of which more than 20,000 hectares of land were embezzled. Now the imperial villages are filled with imperial shops."

"Zhili pays 170 to 80 cents of grain per mu, with a difference of as much as 300 cents of 300 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of 100 cents of

"To consolidate the foundation of the country, we must enrich people's livelihood, we must suppress mergers, and to curb mergers, we must suppress mergers, and to suppress mergers, we must not abandon the imperial village and weaving them, and the country will have no hope for a day!"

Bi Ziyan's words made Li Ruhua feel disgusted, but he also faintly admired his courage in his heart. This memorial to abolish Suzhou weaving was not a courageous official who dared to attend.

Li Ruhua and Bi Ziyan both looked at Lin Yanchao.

Lin Yanchao sighed, "The national affairs are difficult, just like a person's chronic illness. He cannot be treated with severe medicine or healed himself after resting."

"This matter can be done at first glance, and another matter can be done at first glance, but it is just a sign of skin and skin. The way to govern the country is like a mess. How to do it?"

"As the country is like this, you have prescribed prescriptions for the court. It seems very reasonable, but using it casually is like seeking medical treatment in a hurry. Taking medicine indiscriminately will kill people."

Bi Ziyan lowered his head and said, "The officials and officials are low, and it is inevitable that they will be blinded by a single leaf. But if the prime minister has no practical strategy, then the country will really die!"

Lin Yanchao looked at Bi Ziyan and said, "You are right, but this time you submitted a memorial to the court to abolish the Suzhou Weaving Bureau, which caused a shock in the palace. The emperor didn't say anything, but several big men have long regarded you as a thorn in their eyes."

"The officials are not afraid of death!" Bi Ziyan said with great confidence.

As he said, from the moment he submitted his memorial, he had long put life and death aside. But Bi Ziyan was also wronged, but he was so loyal that he ended up in exchange for his loyalty.

Li Ruhua was also secretly sad when he heard this. The court had lost so many officials like Bi Ziyan over the years.

But seeing Lin Yanchao sneered, "It's easy for you to die, but where do you want the cabinet department to find officials who can be useful in the world?"

"Gei Master?" Bi Ziyan's body shook.

Lin Yanchao sighed: "Although this cabinet department has been in love with you, the capital can no longer tolerate you. From now on, you will go to Nanjing’s Ministry of Works to serve as a deputy to the outsider and sit on the bench for three years. Brother Maofunian, take care of the good times for me, don’t let him make trouble again."

Li Ruhua stood up and said, "I will follow the orders of the elders."

The three-year cold bench is just a reprimand, but it is actually a protective cover.

Bi Ziyan's eyes were filled with tears, and he stood up to salute Lin Yanchao, then gently wiped the tears with his sleeve and then left.

After Bi Ziyan left, only Lin Yanchao and Li Ruhua were left in the cabinet.

Li Ruhua said at the moment: "Reporting to the court, the commercial taxes of the court are prohibited. The taxes of the municipal government and the taxes of the municipal government are indeed not easy to change for a while. Half of the world's taxes come from salt classes, and the salt classes of the Lianghuai are also half of the world. How to manage salt classes is the first in the court! Now that the salt law in Huainan has become the guild law, salt merchants and the people say it is convenient. Huainan's salt tax is also collected, and it is time to change to Huainan's salt tax."

The ban means that the imperial court specializes in buying and selling, and the first came from the salt and iron specialty of the Han Dynasty.

To put it bluntly, the court specializes in salt, wine, tea and other items, and simultaneously conducts equal and accurate economic regulation.

At that time, Confucian scholars opposed this, believing that this move was against the people's profit, which was against virtue and cheap profit, and valued righteousness but neglected wealth. They also proposed that "the outside is not to protect the sea and the people are for use, and the inside is not to stop knives and coins to facilitate the people's use."

However, this statement was opposed by Sang Hongyang and others. Sang Hongyang advocated that "the people do not benefit the tax and the world can be lenient." At the same time, he also believed that this move could ban extravagance and eliminate the path of combining and combining.

Of course, the authors of the salt and iron theory still stand in the Confucian school, but in fact, the Song and Ming dynasties, which claimed to be governing the country by Confucianism, all honestly adopted the method of salt and iron.

When Lin Yanchao was in the cabinet, he wrote a book about Zhang Juzheng's experience in governing the country and imitated the theory of salt and iron.

This book was published after Zhang Juzheng's death. Although it recorded Zhang Juzheng's words and deeds, Lin Yanchao inevitably mixed his own private goods. He criticized the theory of salt and iron at that time.

He believed that the Confucians in Han governed the country and did not suppress annexation internally, so how could they talk about favoring the people? How could they talk about favoring the country with favoring the people?

In today's terms, the economic thought of the Han Confucians neither makes big cakes nor divides the cakes. Once they encounter the Malthus trap, the entire country will sooner or later be inverted and die.

The Han Confucians also frequently quoted the views of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Dew, but Dong Zhongshu also studied and was the director of the Confucian and Legal schools, and there was no such thing as light profit.

As scholars, they habitually rely on the words of sages, otherwise they would not "correct the way and do not seek the benefits, and practice the truth without rushing the results", and would not be changed to "correct the kindness and do not seek the benefits, and understand the way and do not seek the achievements".

But does Lin Yanchao support Sang Hongyang's proposal?

Not necessarily.

Otherwise, he would not have proposed the rules and regulations and gave up the court's specialty in buying and selling salt.

But he is not unaware of the accumulated shortcomings of the rules and regulations.

Lin Yanchao said: "It was a temporary measure to propose the Huainan transportation method. The cabinet department heard that the salt price had soared last year. The salt price was related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Once the court completely relaxed, the merchants were pursuing profits. This side exploited the salt households to lower the salt price, and that side greatly increased the salt price and damaged people's livelihood. In the future, this is the excuse for others to attack you and me."

Li Ruhua said: "Qi Ke Lao, the salt price soared last year because more than a dozen salt ships passed through the Huai River and sank, so that people who were interested in seizing salt in Shandong and other places were hoarding salt. It was indeed several times the price of salt was expensive at that time, but because of this sudden high salt prices, salt merchants and private salt salt owls in various places competed for profit to lose to Shandong, and the salt prices were immediately calmed down."

Li Ruhua has a bit of accusation.

Lin Yanchao knew that Li Ruhua's words were the invisible hands in the legend.

Lin Yanchao said: "After that being said, the people suffered in the end. Many officials in the court have always had prejudice against the law of transportation. When the king supervised the grain and advocated sea transportation, it was not abolished because only seven ships sank."

"The court should be based on the people in its governance. How to stabilize the salt prices, prevent them from soaring, and prevent them from suffering losses, must let the salt merchants in the Lianghuai come up with a charter. If the salt ship sinks again and the salt prices surge, what should we do?"

Li Ruhua understood that what Lin Yanchao said was reasonable. Before, the imperial court used to buy Huai salt and sell specialty, and no matter what happened, it would not blame the salt merchants. Now that the salt merchants are profitable, once there is a mistake, some officials believe that the imperial court does not supervise it.

Li Ruhua said: "I reported to the Master of Ge, Wang Cao was defeated because no one supported him. Now, which salt merchant in the two Huai River is not rich and has made friends with the merchants of the ministers and ministers. Which censor is so ignorant that he would object? When he first implemented the rules of transportation, all salt merchants in the two Huai River rely on the kindness of the Master of Ge, and now he is counting on the Master of Ge to continue to help this."

Lin Yanchao smiled slightly when he heard this: "You can't say that. Now I am also the prime minister of the cabinet. It was not when I was in the wild. Now the treasury is empty and there are three major halls suffering from disaster. The emperor expects merchants from all over the country to help workers. Previously, Wu Shouli, a salt merchant in Huizhou, paid two silver dollars in the name of assisting the court, in order to assist workers in the court, and the emperor paid two silver dollars twice, two hundred thousand taels at a time and three hundred thousand taels at a time. The emperor was very happy in this matter and issued an order to give several members of the Wu family the officials who gave to the Secretary of the Wenhua Palace to the officials of the Secretary of the Wenhua Palace. There was a saying of the Five Secretaries one day."

"If these two Huai Salt Merchants can pay a sum of money to assist in the work of the three major halls, then the matter of the Huaibei salt tax is no problem."

Li Ruhua suddenly realized. It turned out that Lin Yanchao had said this after going around so much.

"Why are there any difficulties? Can't you come up with the money?" Lin Yanchao asked back.

Li Ruhua said: "Reporting to the Master, it's not that I can't afford to pay. A Wu Shouli can help 500,000 yuan. How can I talk about the hundreds of salt merchants in Lianghuai?"

"It's just this time that the emperor collects mining taxes, allowing Chen Zeng and Cheng Shouxun torture the rich salt merchants to be punished by the Jianghuai family. Wu Shouli has an unfilial son named Wu Yanghui, and he told Cheng Shouxun that his family had millions of money to help the big workers. At present, Chen Zeng and Cheng Shouxun are torturing the Wu family's nephew and forcing him to spit out the goods."

"What happened?" Lin Yanchao pondered.

"It's true that the officials dare not deceive. The Wu family took out 500,000 taels to help the big workers, and even if they bought a peace from the court, they were suffering such a bad luck now. Which salt merchant would volunteer to help the workers in the future and reveal his vain to the court?"

Lin Yanchao said: "Cheng Shouxun is just a lackey, and Chen Zeng is the disciple of Zhang Yin, the eunuch of the current Sili Supervisor and the admiral Zhang Cheng of the East Factory."

In fact, in addition to this matter, Zhang Cheng was the one who wanted to deal with Bi Ziyan at the beginning.

Li Ruhua said: "The officials also knew that their background was quite good. I heard that Chen Zeng and Cheng Shouxun went to Jianghuai to run wildly, and he was afraid of Li Sancai, the governor of the Cao River."

Lin Yanchao nodded and said to Li Ruhua: "I know this in my heart."

It has to be said that the emperor's collection of mineral taxes is a precise blow. For example, Sun Long collects commercial taxes in Suzhou, and Chen Zeng targets salt merchants in Huizhou, all of whom have seen the most prosperous places in the world.

Just talking about the Lianghuai Salt Tax, Wu Shouli could give out 500,000 silver to assist the court, and how many salt merchants were among the Hui merchants like Wu Shouli.

In the eyes of the emperor, these people all took advantage of loopholes in the court.

You should know that the reform of the Lianghuai salt tax has been changing all the time. From the founding of the Chinese and French law in the early days to the current outline law, the issue of yuyan has been reformed six or seven times, and the more reformed the problem, the more problems it has become.

At the end of the reform, private salt was flooded, and its armed forces were openly confronted the court. Coastal salt merchants were forced to flee, and honest salt merchants could not repay the salt in hand. The court collected less and less every year.

In the end, the emperor would of course blame the salt merchants in the Huaihe River and sacrificed the mine supervision tax to make this big move.

The tax reform of the salt law is exactly what Huang Zongxi said, which is the harm of accumulation and non-return. Some people in later generations summarized this as Huang Zongxi's law.

In another time and space history, in the 47th year of Wanli, the court finally established the outline and transportation law as the salt law, which solved the problem of salt tax in the Ming Dynasty for two hundred years.

But it also ushered in the glorious era of salt merchants in Lianghuai.

After that, the Qing Dynasty also inherited the Ming Dynasty's rules of conduct, but it was another way to deal with the salt merchants in both Huaihe Rivers.

For example, Qianlong went to Jiangnan six times, and such huge expenses were borne by the salt merchants in Lianghuai. In addition, if there was anything in the court, such as sending troops to fight, building palaces, the emperor and the empress dowager's birthday, the court would always call for money from the salt merchants.
Chapter completed!