Yangzhou magistrate received a report saying that a large number of troops came outside the city, and cold sweat broke out on the spot. Recently, the civil unrest in Yangzhou has made him anxious, but the civil unrest has been put down. At this time, a large number of troops came?&1t;/p>

Could it be...&1t;/p>

The Yangzhou magistrate suddenly had a very shocking guess. Could it be that the emperor sent him to search the house?&1t;/p>

The name of the blacksmith Emperor Zhuozhuo is very famous. When the Donglin Party and the smuggling Shanxi merchants were searched, all of them dispatched troops.&1t;/p>

For the upper class who are well-informed, they all know the emperor's house search process very well. Usually, factories and guards lead the way and the army cooperates.&1t;/p>

He soon confirmed the speculation that after these Central Army arrived in Yangzhou, they directly blocked all the gates of Yangzhou, and were allowed to enter and not leave.&1t;/p>

All the city gates were taken over by the Central Army, so the defenders naturally did not have the courage to disobey the sacred orders, nor did they have the courage to stop these elite Central Army.&1t;/p>

Then, a group of Central Army, led by the Dongchang and Jinyiwei, headed straight to the salt merchant's residences. Suddenly, there was a mess in Yangzhou City.&1t;/p>

The Jinyiwei and Dongchang all over the streets of the salt merchants, their families and servants, and their houses were sealed. The houses of these salt merchants were all beautifully decorated and covered with quiet gardens. The pavilions and towers inside were all made of pavilions and towers, and even every grass and tree was carefully carved and arranged. It was like a paradise on earth. Even the royal family of the Ming Dynasty was not so luxurious.&1t;/p>

All the salt merchants in Yangzhou were as if they had encountered the end of the world at this time. No one received any news in advance, and the disaster of the house search came to them.&1t;/p>

A large number of people watching the fun soon gathered on the street. They found that these officers and soldiers did not disturb the people. They just arrested the salt merchants.&1t;/p>

Some people applauded, while others felt fear.&1t;/p>

Those actors, brothel women, cooks, garden craftsmen and other groups serving Yangzhou salt merchants. At this time, they suddenly realized that their job was going to be smashed.&1t;/p>

These Yangzhou salt merchants have spawned a large number of luxury industries in Yangzhou, leading to a large number of jobs that are dependent on salt merchants.&1t;/p>

After many large-scale house searches, the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang were experienced at this time. They first arrested the people and sealed the house, then found the house deeds, land deeds, contracts, etc., and seized all their industries.&1t;/p>

The entire Yangzhou City was blocked for three days, and dozens of salt merchants were all seized. After Yangzhou City was lifted, the news spread.&1t;/p>

When the news that all the salt merchants in Yangzhou were searched out, the news was like thunder, and it quickly caused a violent shock in the Jiangnan region.&1t;/p>

The merchants and gentry of Jiangnan were ready to move. The fate of the salt merchants in Yangzhou gave them a feeling of sadness of the death of rabbits and foxes. But at this time, a large number of central troops crossed the Yangtze River.&1t;/p>

These Central Army can all go to the elite troops of the Liaodong battlefield and suddenly cross the river to the south. Three infantry divisions, one stationed in Nanzhili, one stationed in Suzhou, the other stationed in Hangzhou, and another 6 naval team stationed in Songjiang.&1t;/p>

The emperor's attitude was very obvious. While searching the Yangzhou salt merchants, he had already prepared to suppress the rebellion by force.&1t;/p>

Under his tough wrist, the turbulent upper classes were immediately shocked. No one dared to jump out and be the first to be a bird at this time, which would touch the emperor's bad intentions.&1t;/p>

Soon, the search for salt merchants turned into a war of verbalism between the north and the south.&1t;/p>

Southern merchants and gentry frantically criticized the court's search in newspapers, and the handwritten newspapers circulating privately directly criticized Zhu Youxiao as a fool or a tyrant.&1t;/p>

For a time, public opinion surged. As the upper class that influenced the public opinion in this country, their public opinion criticism should not be underestimated.&1t;/p>

But now Zhu Youxiao is not Wu Xia Amon, and there is also an interest group that has been formed behind him.&1t;/p>

Soon the royal consortium launched a counterattack on public opinion. First, it counted the ten crimes of salt merchants in newspapers such as Daming Daily, and then directly placed the shit pot of salt prices in Daming directly on the foreheads of these Yangzhou salt merchants.&1t;/p>

A few days later, Zhu Youxiao issued a sage in the palace, asking all provinces to open up salt intake and reduce the price of salt.&1t;/p>

Soon the Royal Salt Industry Company lowered the price of salt wholesale to a low price of 5 cigarettes per kilogram, and directly cut 15 cigarettes.&1t;/p>

Those salt merchants plan to go crazy, the price of salt suddenly dropped, and many people with inventory jumped off buildings and sold them, and they also started to buy lower-priced salt. However, for many salt merchants who have nothing to do, the business is better.&1t;/p>

First, salt inlets are fully opened, and anyone can get salt inlets, and it is no problem to sell them anywhere, as long as the shipping fee can be afforded. In addition, the reduction in salt prices has also expanded market consumption.&1t;/p>

However, for those salt merchants who traditionally rely on relationships to make a living, this is undoubtedly a disaster. In the past, not everyone could enter this industry, and because of the court's salt tax, the market supply and demand imbalance was caused, which led to huge profits. Now, the court has fully opened the salt quota, and even street vendors can join the trafficking quota, which has caused salt trafficking to lose huge profits directly.&1t;/p>

When an industry imbalance is eliminated, profits are lost.&1t;/p>

Now that the salt merchants in Yangzhou have been taken away by the emperor, salt merchants in other regions naturally dare not jump out to cause trouble and can only accept such a situation.&1t;/p>

Not long after, low-priced salt was continuously transported from the salt drying fields along the coast of Northern Zhili and Shandong to the coastal provinces of the Yangtze River Basin.&1t;/p>

The price of salt has fallen wildly. In areas with more convenient transportation, the price of salt has dropped directly to 6 ounces per catty. In those six provinces with inconvenient transportation, the price of salt has also dropped to around 10 ounces.&1t;/p>

The Royal Consortium is constantly guiding public opinion and attributed the decline in salt prices to the result of searching Yangzhou salt merchants. Naturally, the people applauded and counted the reasons why salt prices remained high in the past to Yangzhou salt merchants.&1t;/p>

Whether the fact is this is the case is no longer important. What is important is that the court successfully turned the blame and put the shit on the heads of the salt merchants in Yangzhou, thus gaining the support of ordinary people.&1t;/p>

In less than a month, the Ming provinces changed drastically. No matter how the upper class in Jiangnan criticized Zhu Youxiao, it could not shake Zhu Youxiao's status.&1t;/p>

After all, at this time, Zhu Youxiao had the army and the support of the people. Those powerful and wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan did not have the support of the people and did not have the army. Can they still make a fuss?&1t;/p>

Moreover, with the arrest of a large number of salt merchants, the lives of those salt merchants were gradually exposed to the public's eyes, and various unscrupulous behaviors were also exposed, which aroused the strong indignation and dissatisfaction of these salt merchants.&1t;/p>

Of course, not every salt merchant is so unbearable, but salt merchants who are extravagant and extremely eager have indeed formed many hobbies. Under extravagant and extremely eager, ordinary enjoyment can no longer make them feel happy, so they will naturally do many unbearable things.&1t;/p>

It doesn't matter whether a boat of people is killed by one blow. What's important is that Zhu Youxiao successfully won public opinion and made another fortune.&1t;/p>

The search operation lasted for more than a month before the total assets of those salt merchants were counted.&1t;/p>

"This search resulted in a total of 36 million yuan in cash, thousands of boxes of various antiques, jade and jewelry, 183 houses, 430 shops, and more than 8 million mu of land." Tian Ergeng presented the list obtained in this search to Zhu Youxiao.&1t;/p>

Zhu Youxiao was also surprised to see so many assets.&1t;/p>

No wonder these salt merchants could spend four or five million taels of silver to build a tower for the Qing emperor after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. And this was after the Three Massacres in Yangzhou.&1t;/p>

During the Qing Dynasty, when the Qing Dynasty entered Jiangnan, a rich household could get more than 100,000 taels of silver. The Ming Dynasty was not without money, but the gap between the rich and the poor was too big.&1t;/p>

On the list, there are more than 3,000 maids in these dozens of salt merchants, which are several times that of palace maids in the palace. The servants are even more numerous, and there are more eunuchs in the palace.&1t;/p>

There are also various assets, such as ships, factories, workshops, etc.&1t;/p>

Those antiques and jades, etc., have to be used to make boxes, and there are thousands of boxes, and there are many big guys who cannot hold boxes.&1t;/p>

It's so rich!&1t;/p>

"It's worth it!" Zhu Youxiao slapped the table. This search obviously made him completely alienated from the powerful and wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan, but the rewards made Zhu Youxiao feel that it was really worth it. The classes in Jiangnan that had too much money were not worth weighing even the groups to deal with next.&1t;/p>

The only price is that the salt tax has been reduced, but in fact there is no big loss. The decline in salt prices will expand market demand and improve the image of the court.&1t;/p>

In those areas of Fujian, only one pound of salt can make a profit, not to mention that the Royal Salt Industry Company still packs salt from outside at a price of 5 pounds per pound, and the salt drying in Fujian will leak, so the salt fields must be transformed, and the production cost is higher than that of the Bohai Bay salt drying.&1t;/p>

In addition, the Royal Salt Industry Company has developed fine salt according to Zhu Youxiao's requirements. It will directly mark the "Royal Imperial" on the packaging, and the quality has risen sharply. The price of a pound of salt is as high as hundreds of yuan, but the sales are very hot.&1t;/p>

After all, fine salt is a rare thing these days, and it has the highest purity, with a sodium chloride content of more than 99.5%. This is the selling point! With the royal name, it is naturally very popular in the market. Those rich people who have a lot of money and have no place to spend food, clothing, housing and transportation are the best. Naturally, the same is true for salt. Although the purity of ordinary coarse salt is not that high, there is not much difference in taste, but the quality is completely different.&1t;/p>

At present, Royal Salt Industry Company is constantly expanding production, not only the decline in salt tax, but also the increase in market demand for special salt in fishery. At the same time, the Royal Alkaline Factory, which has just been established, has successfully fired soda ash. Soda ash will be supplied to dyes, papermaking and other industrial activities. The raw material used for caustic soda is salt. At the same time, salt used in aquaculture will also receive special treatment.&1t;/p>

The size of the salt industry market in Daming will continue to expand with the development of alkali production and fishery. As for the salt tax, Zhu Youxiao does not intend to cancel it, but only lowers the salt tax.&1t;/p>

The salt tax these days is like the fuel tax in later generations. After all, the productivity of this era is so high, and there is no such thing as rude or rough levy to impose salt tax.&1t;/p>

The search for the salt merchants obtained so much wealth this time was a solution to the urgent need for the court. The fiscal budget for the fourth year of the Apocalypse seemed a bit tight, mainly paying for the incomplete tax types, and disasters across the country became more frequent.&1t;/p>

The tax types in Northern Zhili are relatively complete, but the imperial court also has management responsibilities for other provinces and still has to invest in finance every year.&1t;/p>

Nowadays, all the land taxes in northern provinces have been used to provide disaster relief, and the income is invested in local official operating expenses, and there is still a gap.&1t;/p>

The imperial court has many places to use money. Liaodong's infrastructure is being rebuilt. Although the auction of assets has received funds, there is still pressure to invest.&1t;/p>

In the past few years, the imperial court's finances have basically been maintained by seigniorage and commercial income of royal capital. In the fourth year of the Tianqi period, Zhu Youxiao decided to make clear the accounts between imperial finance and royal capital, so he did not misappropriate the funds from royal capital to finance.&1t;/p>

In terms of coin minting, the source of silver that can be produced in the fourth year of the Apocalypse has begun to decrease. It is expected that it will be good to have 20 million yuan in silver coins in the whole year. The profit of coin minting in the copper coins is rising. In the fourth year of the Apocalypse, it is expected to have nearly 5 million yuan in income. Although it is not a big deal, it cannot take on the responsibility.&1t;/p>

Suddenly, he obtained 3.60 million yuan in cash and also obtained a large amount of assets. What else can Zhu Youxiao say? I can only say that this wave is not a loss.&1t;/p>

With this income, the Ming Dynasty can survive the most desperate cold winter. (To be continued...)&1t;/p>
Chapter completed!