After the gifts sent by Ma Zhongxi were rejected by Chen Xi, he never mentioned the reform of salt and tea specialty.

In the eyes of a successful official like Ma Zhongxi, everything must be based on stability. Since Chen Xi helped him get 400,000 guan of treasury silver, he escorted 350,000 taels to the court and used the remaining 50,000 taels to buy food for disaster relief, he could already explain to the court that there was no need to move the interests of local gentry at this time.

What followed was spring tea and summer salt mixing. It seemed that Chenxi's previous efforts would have to be wasted, because if there was no change, the tea and salt will still fall into the hands of the Wen family and the Zhong family and other families. When Chenxi arrived at the place, he found that the dominance of the specialized goods was in the Administration and the Envoy, and had nothing to do with him, the governor of the two provinces.

Chen Xi originally went to the construction site in the south of Wuchang City to guide the work of the craftsmen, but now he had to give up everything first and invite Ma Zhongxi to the Governor's Office.

Ma Zhongxi was very polite when he saw Chen Xi. Although there was an opposition in the power structure of the two, the Governor's Office had to speak out in Huguang and decentralize power from the yamen of the governor's office, Chen Xi saved his life and helped him raise 400,000 taels of silver to pay the court. He could only smile at each other in terms of emotion and reason.

When Chen Xi informed Ma Zhongxi about the idea of ​​reforming the salt tea specialty, Ma Zhongxi seemed a little hesitant: "Shen Zhongcheng has been in the local area for a while, and I also understand the origin of the money you helped raise. If the local area is damaged now, I am afraid that no one will help the court transport salt tea and other goods in the next few years. At that time, the price of salt tea in various prefectures and counties in Huguang will remain high. I wonder if Shen Zhongcheng has a solution?"

Ma Zhongxi said it as soon as he spoke, he was just talking nonsense, and he also found reasons for his inaction. For a loyal and upright old minister like Ma Zhongxi, many problems adhere to the doctrine of the mean pursued by civil servants, and always wanted to seek balance and seek a compromise between the court and local gentry.

It was influenced by this conservative and moderate idea that capitalism was in its infancy in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but it was always a short time to cultivate real capitalists. The first idea of ​​merchants when they made money was to buy houses and land, rather than investing in expanding their operations, and would not consider using science and technology to promote the development of productivity.

Chen Xi advised: "Old Ma, how can you know if you don't try it?"

Ma Zhongxi smiled bitterly: "Shen Zhongcheng now has basic military expenditures. Even if the rebellion in southern Hunan, western Hunan and other places often occur, I think there is enough military expenditure to deal with it..."

Chen Xi cursed in his heart and muttered to himself: "This old guy must have learned that I got 800,000 taels of silver from the local officials and gentry, and finally allocated half of it to him. He had an objection in his heart and actually tried to deal with me in government affairs. He didn't think about who risked to save you!"

Chen Xi's face squeezed a smile: "It's not a question of whether the military expenditure is sufficient. Mr. Ma should know that the court has been in a tight budget in recent years. After the reform of the salt and tea franchise in Fujian and Guangdong, local taxes have increased significantly without affecting the agricultural tax, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, and local governments have achieved remarkable results, which can be said to have won multiple goals in one fell swoop."

"Now that I am in Huguang and Jianggan is the governor of Jiangxi Province, I cannot sit idly by and ignore the people. If Mr. Ma does not want to carry out reforms in this regard, then I will do everything for him."

Ma Zhongxi changed color and stood up, looking at Chen Xi with a bright look: "Shen Zhongcheng, it's probably inappropriate for you to do this? You are the governor of two provinces. You should only take care of comprehensive things and not involve practice. Now you have to interfere with local salt and tea transactions. Isn't this... arbitrage?"

Chen Xi knew that Ma Zhongxi was determined to be stable and did not want to cause trouble, so he could only patiently explain: "What are Mr. Ma worried about? I will say here that the reform of the salt tea franchise in Fujian and Guangdong is led by my official. Now I have allocated dozens of ships of supplies from Fujian and Guangdong, and hundreds of ships of supplies will be shipped there one after another. Even if local gentry and merchants join forces to fight against the government, I will say a ruthless saying here: Guan Bao will make them lose all their money!"

Ma Zhongxi never thought that Chen Xi was so tough. He frowned and sat down, thinking secretly: "I have heard of it before. Shen Zhongcheng was stubborn and did not listen to others. Once he made up his mind, he forced himself to implement it. He made the "officials miserable" in the southeast. Many important officials in the court were dissatisfied. I originally thought that the rumors might not be credible, but when I saw them today, it was true. This person's hand was so long!"

Seeing Ma Zhongxi silent, Chen Xi asked, "How is it, is Mr. Ma still worried about this official?"

Ma Zhongxi slowly spoke: "If Shen Zhongcheng wants to use his own strength to put the local people in a situation where there is no tea or salt available, then I will say nothing. If Shen Zhongcheng wants to take this matter on his body, he can only let Shen Zhongcheng. No matter what, you are the governors of the two provinces. I will be ordered to supervise the local people. I don't want to have any disputes with you..."

"good!"

Chen Xi nodded: "Since Mr. Ma said that, then I will lead the reform of Huguang Salt Tea. Although Mr. Ma put his heart back in his stomach, even if there is a problem with this reform, the official will bear it. If the court wants to pursue it, it will definitely not implicate Mr. Ma."

Ma Zhongxi said: "This is what Shen Zhongcheng said himself. Don't blame me for taking the initiative to separate my relationship, and even submitting it to you."

After saying that, Ma Zhongxi seemed to let go of the big stone in his heart, and his expression was much more relaxed. Obviously, Shen Xi took over the matter that he did not want to interfere, and Shen Xi was responsible for what happened, so he could avoid taking responsibility. If the reform was successful and local taxes increased significantly, then he would have his share and would not lose any loss.

After seeing off Ma Zhongxi, Chen Xi immediately called the fifteen newly recruited clerks from the Governor's Office and immediately ordered the matter and did not give Ma Zhongxi a chance to repent.

Chen Xidao: "You can take people to the yamen of the vassal department and ask Ma Fantai to bring this year's tea. As for the salt intake, the Governor's Office will send people to the vassal department to pick them up."

"Starting tomorrow, the Governor's Office will post a list of documents in front of the yamen and at the city gates in the city. How to write the details, I will draft it in advance, and you can copy it. Remember, you must keep an eye on the aristocratic families in the city these days. If they dare to do anything randomly, they will send troops to suppress them!"

Most of the clerks are poor students, and those with slightly better families will not come to the Governor's Office to apply for a post as a staff member who is regarded as a lowly career in the eyes of the gentry. At this time, when he received the order from Chen Xi, he secretly claimed to be quick and then acted quickly.

The Huguang salt tea reform carried out by Chenxi broke the monopoly of aristocratic families over local specialized products and was of great help to improve people's livelihood.

Tea ingots and salt ingots that have been monopolized by local officials and businessmen for decades have been transported to the Governor's Office one after another. In this way, if others want to obtain the right to buy and sell salt tea in Huguang, they must go to the Governor's Office to buy salt ingots.

Because Huguang does not implement the system of official salt system for opening the middle system, local officials and businessmen cannot exchange grain for salt, so they can only purchase it from the Governor's Office in the most basic way.

But once there is competition, the price of salt induces and produces salt cannot form a monopoly. In this way, the price of salt will inevitably fall, and the huge profits of salt tea will be reduced to a certain extent, which seems to be beneficial to the people. However, Chen Xi also knows that doing so will reduce the subjective initiative of local merchants. Merchants are not very enthusiastic about trafficking in specialized goods, which will cause some prefectures to lack basic specialized goods, which will cause retaliatory prices to rise.

But Chen Xi believed that the power of the commercial organization he had cultivated could solve these problems reasonably, and he was not worried that Song Xiaocheng and others would have made mistakes in trafficking tea and official salt.

Since the transportation and sales of official salt and official tea in Fujian Province can be well guaranteed, I believe that Huguang is not much different from Fujian Province. The current problem is to ask Song Xiaocheng to quickly establish contact with merchants from Huguang prefectures to ensure transportation from Fujian Province and Qiongya salt-producing land to Huguang prefectures, and then local vendors transport salt and tea to various county towns and smaller places for sale.

During the end of April and early May, Chen Xi was busy with this matter.

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Chapter completed!