After staying in Xuzhou for three days, Ju Ming did not choose to go north, but went to Xiapi, which had just been assigned to Huainan Province.
Xiapi used to be the headquarters of the Huaiyang Army of the Northern Song Dynasty. A new army was also organized here to control the southern part of Shandong. At the same time, it also had the important task of protecting the security of Huaibei and deterring the sea salt production areas in the east.
After the military parade at Xiapi, Ju Ming took a boat along the Salt Canal to Haizhou (Lianyungang).
The urban area of Lianyungang in later generations was still a sea at this time. The seaport of Lianyungang is currently located on a large island, and this large island is Donghai County.
Ships of sea salt all pulled alongside, waiting for the Prince's fleet to pass by first.
Ju Ming said to Bai Sheng: "Raise the flag to convey the order, don't go in the middle of the canal, make way for the salt ship."
"yes!"
Bai Sheng immediately ran to convey the order, and soon the Prince's fleet moved aside, and the salt ship coming from the opposite side also had to be ordered to start.
Fu Zhirou sighed: "Your Highness cares about the people ten thousand times more than a foolish king."
Ju Ming smiled and said, "You are getting better and better at flattering me."
Fu Zhirou in history was actually a remonstrator who had repeatedly remonstrated with Zhao Gou. Because he offended Qin Hui, he was thrown into the Taoist temple. Later he was promoted to the prefect but resigned because he did not want to be in the same dynasty with Qin Hui.
As an official, he spent the rest of his life traveling around mountains and rivers and writing poems for pleasure.
Fu Zhirou said: "When Cai Jing reformed the salt law, there was a government order that even government ships must give way when encountering private salt ships. When passing through Queka, salt ships can have priority."
"Cai Jing has indeed done a lot of practical things." Zhu Ming nodded in approval.
Fu Zhirou said: "But after the rise of Hua Shi Gang, no matter what kind of ship, it had to make way for the Hua Shi Gang's ship. In the end, the salt ship even had to make way for the tribute ship of the local tribute. When Cai Jing returned to the throne for the third time
, the salt law he established has been completely destroyed."
Ju Ming commented: "Cai Jing's salt method is eager for quick success, so you can only take half of it."
"He is just trying to please his superiors," Fuzhirou said.
In the northwest region of the Northern Song Dynasty, Jiezhou salt and Xixia Qingbai salt were mainly consumed.
Just two years after Song Huizong took the throne, the Jiezhou Salt Pond was destroyed by floods, and the imperial court imposed trade sanctions on Xixia salt. For a time, the people of Shaanxi suddenly had no salt to eat. It was at this time that Cai Jing reformed the salt law.
The reform was a great success, not only solving the salt problem of Shaanxi people, but also increasing the salt tax several times in the first year, and invigorating the production, sales, and transportation of salt across the country.
However, bad consequences soon occurred.
Cai Jing passed reforms and converted a large amount of salt tax that was part of the local tax into a national tax without leaving a penny behind.
Local fiscal revenue has dropped sharply, but local officials still need money, so they can only collect more exorbitant taxes and levies from the people.
Secondly, in order to get money for Song Huizong, Cai Jing frantically issued new salt banknotes, which caused the old salt banknotes to depreciate sharply. The salt merchants were violently exploited by the court. He only paid back the salt merchants, but Cai Jing also continued to raise the price of salt, making the salt merchants fiercely exploited.
The cost of salt for ordinary people is rising year by year.
Faced with double oppression from the central and local governments, how can ordinary people withstand it?
At the beginning, Cai Jing also attacked the powerful to extort salt banknotes. But when the Jiezhou Salt Pond was repaired and Shaanxi was no longer experiencing salt shortages, Cai Jing took the lead in using salt banknotes to make profits, making the salt merchants from other places even more miserable.
The result of Cai Jing's salt law reform eventually turned out to be like this: the central fiscal revenue increased greatly, the powerful made a lot of money, while local finance, salt merchants and the people all suffered. The system of entering the central government completely collapsed, and the salt
The merchants were unprofitable, so they no longer helped the imperial court transport supplies to the northwest frontier, and instead purchased salt banknotes directly from the powerful. The border army had been short of daily supplies for years, so a large number of border guards fled.
Now, the Ming Dynasty has learned its lesson and adopted 70% of the content of Cai Jing's salt method, abandoning all the parts that are eager for quick success.
For example, if the salt boat does not pay tolls, this provision will be cancelled, leaving some fiscal revenue for the local government.
The Ruzhong (Kaizhong) system has been fully restored, and the old Song Dynasty salt banknotes (Yan Yin) issued four years after Xuanhe will also be recognized by the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty strictly followed the salt production and carefully issued annual business notes.
Salt banknotes protect the legitimate interests of legal salt merchants.
The price of salt has also dropped, returning to the level at the beginning of Cai Jing's reforms, thereby reducing the cost of living for people everywhere.
The central salt tax will naturally drop sharply, but it will be beneficial to long-term development.
Regardless of other groups, salt merchants from all provinces across the country wholeheartedly supported the Ming Dynasty. Who dared to mention anything against the Ming Dynasty and the restoration of the Song Dynasty? The salt merchant group was the first to be unhappy!
No, when I heard that the Crown Prince was coming to inspect, salt merchants from the Northeast rushed here one after another, bringing countless gifts to express their gratitude for their kindness.
Well, "Northeast Salt" is Shandong and Hebei Sea Salt, which was the official name of the Song Dynasty.
Northeastern salt merchants heard the news and gathered in Xuzhou, then pursued him to Xiapi, and finally caught up with the prince in Haizhou.
Ju Ming briefly met with Northeastern salt merchants and accepted their less expensive gifts, while those particularly expensive gifts were returned.
Then, Ju Ming went to inspect the salt field to learn about the situation of the official and private salt fields in Haizhou.
The salt fields with the highest salt production are basically government-run. However, private ownership is also allowed, and they are not as rigidly managed as in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Even salt households have the right to choose freely. If they feel the treatment is too poor, they can choose not to work.
"Where did the official salt workers come from?" Zhu Ming asked.
Donghai Salt Supervisor Wu Juji replied: "Half are recruitment (employment) and half are Ding Yi (service)."
Zhu Ming asked: "How much money will be given to Ding Yi's salt worker?"
Wu Juji replied: "Following the old Song Dynasty method, we give the household 40,000 yuan per year and two liters of rice per day."
That is to say, forty guan is given to salt households and their families a year, and two liters of rice is given to serving salt workers a day.
If it can be implemented, it will definitely be a high income!
Of course, this salary standard is for the top salt workers, and the income of ordinary salt workers is much less.
Ju Ming nodded to express satisfaction and began to ask about the salt production technology here.
After a question and answer session, Ju Ming returned to Haizhou City. Salt Supervisor Wu Juji's vest was soaked with sweat.
Ju Ming stayed in Haizhou City for four full days.
Several guards dressed in various colors came back to Haizhou Hotel to report.
The first guard to come back reported to Ju Ming: "Your Highness, I asked more than twenty salt men, and they all said that they only gave half the money and rice. In the salt household, the salt men are not allowed to work in private fields. Once discovered, they will be punished. They were beaten up by local gangsters. What's worse, they were falsely accused of stealing salt and sent to jail."
"You are so brave, I will deduct half of the rice directly." Zhu Ming sneered.
Fu Zhirou said: "Salt field officials have always been like this."
Ju Ming said: "Write a letter to the court and ask the Inspectorate, the Ministry of Punishment and the Dali Temple to send people to investigate. After inspecting the Haizhou Salt Farm, the other salt farms will be investigated one by one!"
Fu Zhirou was happy to help with the writing. He quickly wrote the letter and gave it to Zhu Ming to read and sign it.
If all the salt fields in the country were investigated, it is estimated that at least hundreds of officials would be exiled to the northwest to open up wasteland and cultivate land, and even many local officials would be implicated.
Ju Ming asked again: "Are the ships not ready yet?"
Bai Sheng said: "Local officials said that sea-going ships are difficult to find, but I think they just don't want to do it."
Fu Zhirou said: "The officials were afraid that the prince would encounter an accident. They advised him two days ago. But his highness insisted on taking a sea ship, so they could only delay the time."
"Forget it, let's take the inland river." Zhu Ming didn't want to embarrass the local officials.
In fact, Zhu Ming was not motivated. He just wanted to take a sea boat and go north, from Haizhou (Lianyungang) to Banqiao Town (Jiaozhou). The whole journey by sea was less than 400 miles, and he always moved along the coastline.
But the local officials were afraid of encountering a storm, so instead of helping to collect the ships, they deliberately dispersed them.
In desperation, Ju Ming had no choice but to go north along the river.
Upon hearing the news of the prince's departure, the officials at the salt farm breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the matter was over. How did they know that the court would soon send someone to investigate?
Ju Ming went to Jiaodong this time, first to inspect the gold and iron fields, secondly to inspect the sea trade port, and thirdly to inspect the naval warships.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Korea and Japan both traded with China in Dengzhou.
In order to prevent the Liao Kingdom from attacking from the sea, Dengzhou Port was abandoned.
In order to increase fiscal revenue, local officials also requested the opening of a port in Banqiao Town (Jiaozhou), Michigan.
Banqiao Port prospered and fell, and by the time of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, it was completely abandoned. There was no trading seaport in the entire north of the Yangtze River.
How does this work?
Last autumn, Zhu Guoxiang ordered the opening of sea in Shandong.
The cabinet discussed for more than a month and concluded that Dengzhou was too dangerous and Jiaozhou Port was safer. This result was rejected by Ju Ming with one vote!
The Kingdom of Jin did have naval forces, but they were all river naval forces.
There were only twenty or thirty naval ships, all of which were small offshore boats. And there were no professional sailors. They were all troops boarded by the army to fight. When not fighting, these ships were doing business with Goryeo.
Afraid of birds?
Even if Ju Ming didn't know the exact information, he knew that the Ming Dynasty's ships must be more powerful. It should be that the Jin Kingdom was afraid of the Ming Dynasty attacking from the sea.
After Li Bao regained the southeast last year, all the old Song Navy ships in Zhejiang and Fujian, which were relatively sturdy and durable, were transferred to Shandong. They were also transferred together with the sailors and directly established the first Ming Navy in Dengzhou.
But he said that before Ju Ming left Haizhou, a fleet came from the east.
There are only six sea-going ships in the fleet, but all of them are large ships.
As soon as they approached Dengzhou Port, they were targeted by the Ming Navy, and more than thirty offshore warships swarmed around them.
"My own people, my own people!"
On the deck of the first ship, a large number of soldiers shouted wildly, and then hung a crooked flag with the word "Ming".
Xue Daoguang sat down on the deck and looked at the Chinese coastline just around the corner. His heart was broken and he felt like crying.
Anyone who wants to go overseas to find immortals can go there, but he doesn't want to go overseas again.
Six large ships were "escorted" into the harbor. Xue Daoguang was surrounded as soon as he got off the ship. A naval officer asked: "Where are you..."
Suddenly an officer shouted: "This is Zhenren Xue. The Hunjun sent them to go to sea to find immortals. I have seen them in Hangzhou before. I was almost sent there too!"
"They are actually the remnants of the Song Dynasty. Take them all down!"
Xue Daoguang smiled bitterly and said: "I have an old relationship with Your Majesty, the Prince."
"How did you know that there was a change of dynasty?"
"When we returned to Korea, we went to Goryeo to mend the ship and learned the news from Goryeo officials."
