Chapter 140 Crisis and Countermeasures

Li Shuanshuo added a thin stick of firewood to the fire pit, and the firelight made his face red: "The young master said these are the words of the sage, which means that the ideal should be lofty, and if you work hard in that direction, you may get a moderate reward. If you do,

If you set your ideal to be average, your achievements may only be considered inferior.”

Old Man Li stretched out his hand and touched Li Shuansu's head: "My good boy is so amazing. He even knows the words of the saint. Follow the young master and learn from him. The young master has never looked down on us, and we must live up to his expectations."

A look of distress appeared on Li Shuanzhao's face: "What I'm most afraid of now is that I can't keep up with the young master's footsteps. If I follow him, I'll lose him halfway..."

When Su You got up early in the morning, he said goodbye to the Li family and was escorted by Shi Tong to Meishan City.

After entering the city, Su You broke up with Shi Tong and went to the Cheng family.

Cheng Wenying was checking the accounts in the bookstore. When he saw Su You coming over, he couldn't help but be overjoyed: "My nephew is here? Is the problem with Inshang solved?"

Su You said: "Actually, even if I don't go, Inoue will have no problem. Uncle-in-law, can you go to the backyard and create a quiet room? Su You has something to say."

Cheng Wen responded to Su You's request, put down the quill pen in his hand, and said a few words to Cheng San, and the two of them walked into the study room in the back hall.

Su You helped Cheng Wenying sit on the chair, closed the door, and without saying a word, lifted up his robe and knelt down, and kowtowed to Cheng Wenying respectfully.

Cheng Wenying jumped up in fright and helped Su You up: "Xiaoyou, why are you doing this? Get up and talk quickly. Is there any difficulty? Or is your cousin bullying you? Tell me, tell me, uncle-in-law."

Make the decision for you!"

Su You helped Cheng Wenying back to the chair and finished his work. He held his hands to Cheng Wenying and said, "Su You is wrongly loved by my brother-in-law. For six months, we have been as close as father and son. Today Su You has something to say. I hope my brother-in-law will treat me as an adult."

Cheng Wenying sighed: "No one in the Jiangqing family dares to treat you as a child."

Su You cupped his hands and said, "My brother-in-law may think that today's words are not for Jiang Qing's sake, but Su You asked himself, it is all for Jiang Qing's consideration. This is a sign of heaven."

Cheng Wenying became serious: "Qing Jiang is involved, and more than one family is involved?"

Su You said: "Brother-in-law, do you know how much salt Wulongjing and Dahongjing can produce in a day?"

Cheng Wenying smiled: "I heard that the two wells are surging like a flood. The specific output is not yet known, but the returns are so generous. Have you calculated it?"

Su You cupped his hands and said: "Brother-in-law and nephew made an estimate based on the amount and concentration of water. The salt produced by the two deep wells will reach ten thousand catties a day! Based on the price of salt in Bianjing, which is thirty-five copper coins per catty,

The daily income will reach 300 Guan Youqi!"

Cheng Wenying stood up suddenly, his face full of joy: "Three hundred guan per day?! The output of two wells, three or four hundred guan per day?"

Su You had a serious look on his face: "Uncle-in-law, don't get too happy yet. Do you know what this concept is?"

Cheng Wenying was a little confused and didn't know what Su You meant by this sentence.

Su You sighed: "I heard from the prefect that Huang Song's income last year was approximately 40 million guan, which averaged only 130,000 guan for the 300 army prefecture. These two wells can almost equal the tax of a state!"

"This is truly priceless! Uncle-in-law, this is the biggest crisis I, Meishan Jiang Qing, are about to face!"

"Uncle-in-law, based on the two salt springs, we infer that there is a large underground salt pond around the mausoleum. Even if the two wells are not visible, how about dozens of them in the future? How about hundreds of them?"

Cheng Wenying was horrified and sat back on his chair: "You are as rich as your country!"

Su You cupped his hands and said: "In the science and engineering textbooks I teach to children, there is a law called conservation of energy. The state of motion will eventually become equilibrium."

"Jiang Qing's family is like a calm pond. Now this salt well is like a torrent pouring into the pond. Although the pond will return to calm after ups and downs. However, this ups and downs will bring about

Countless turmoil!”

"Now that the salt well has been discovered and the craftsmanship is complete, it will be easy for anyone who wants to seize it. Uncle-in-law, what you get with a raise of your hands, you can lose with a raise of your hands. This is the law of nature."

"The imperial court set a cost of five thousand guan, but now it seems that it is obviously too low. The output of two wells is only half a month, and the rest is huge profits!"

"Who suffers? It's the court, it's the country! Will the officials and the court princes ignore this matter? Will Jiang Qing be allowed to seize the wealth of the enemy country?"

"If we swallow these two wells as a matter of course, it can be expected that there will be a storm in Sichuan's official circles. Zhang Xueshi will definitely be transferred from the fourth line for the crime of negligence and misappropriation of national interests, and colluding with Jiang Qing to embezzle national interests."

"Then what? The imperial court will definitely send another official to abolish Zhang Gong's administration and resume officialdom."

"The first step is to take back the new well, and then count the huge benefits of the new well as a result of political reform. After that, this so-called 'good governance' will definitely be extended to tea and wine step by step..."

"In this way, the prosperous business scene in Sichuan will be gone forever, and the prosperous situation in Meishan that has just begun will also be gone!"

"The Jiang Qing family will be brutally suppressed and forced to bear the name of greed and delusion. The children will no longer have the qualifications to stand in the court in the future!"

"Uncle-in-law, for the sake of the family, not only do you have to give up this advantage, but you also have to give it up very skillfully!"

"Salt affairs are jointly carried out by four families. If you think what I say is reasonable, Su You will definitely devote all his energy and wisdom to planning for the family."

"If the three families don't listen, Su You will still use all his energy and wisdom. However, the Su family will withdraw from the salt business. The share previously held by the Su family will be equally divided among the three families. The Su family will not take any of the huge profits from well salt in the future."

Cheng Wenying was a little confused: "My dear nephew, how did you get to this point step by step? When the aristocratic family intervened in the salt business, wasn't it just to increase the number of coins and facilitate everyone's business? This, this, this... doesn't this become

The cat scratches the glutinous rice cake and can't get its claws out?"

The old man was so anxious that he even used slang words. Su You couldn't help but laugh and said: "It's easy to take off the claws. Can't we just give them to the court?"

The fat on Cheng Wenying's face jumped: "How can that be done? If you say these words, Lao Shi can hold a knife and fight with our uncle and nephew. Do you believe it?"

Su You said with a smile: "And the court may not necessarily agree to change orders from day to day and compete with the people for profit. People may not want to bear the reputation. Jiang Qing now is like the four little pigs I raised last year.

Keep it up slowly until it’s almost time.”

After speaking, he made a knife gesture: "Simple and crude, no brainer and no effort!"

Cheng Wenying shivered with fright: "Xiaoyou, don't make trouble, how can this metaphor be applied to yourself? Hurry up and tell me how to break this situation?"

Su You said: "There is only one way to solve this problem, which is to distribute the benefits reasonably. Only by turning the beneficiaries from small ponds into large lakes can we accommodate such a huge amount of floods."

Cheng Wenying touched his chin: "What do you mean?"

Su You said: "First of all, the new wells must be credited to Zhang Gong's Sichuan New Deal, so that we can get the cooperation and support of the Transshipment Department."

"What is the core of Zhang Gong's new policy? Turning disputes into taxes, so I suggest that the in-laws lobby the government. The method of closing down is too simple. The salt obtained by the wells of the family is best treated as local products, such as the growth of our Qufang.

For example, we can implement a tax-based method and pay taxes based on output, and the tax may be slightly higher to offset the cost of new wells."

"Uncle, you have seen the situation in the mausoleum. The management methods of the official well are terrible and wasteful. Therefore, after our well was changed to the tax law, the court's income was slightly lower than that of the official well, but it saved their management.

Despite the cost and trouble, the net income actually increased instead of decreasing. This became the achievement of Mr. Zhang’s new policy.”

"After the first step is beneficial to the court, then if we continue to drill the well, it will become an act worthy of the court's encouragement."

"Although the profit from one well has plummeted, it has become more reasonable. When the scale increases in the future, the income will be equally generous and the water will flow steadily. This is a century-old plan."

"Once the scale increases, a large number of workers will need to be recruited. Many hidden households, refugees, and even scattered official households in Kuizhou and scattered salt households in Yujing are all targets of recruitment. The population of Meizhou will grow significantly, even if it only changes from hidden households to

Back on paper, this is also a real achievement of the Meizhou local government."
Chapter completed!