Chapter 309: The Road to the South (Twenty-Four)

Hou Dayong talked with Zhang Mei for a long time to salt affairs, but he did not dare to believe Zhang Mei completely. After all, private salt dealers have been rampant in the Zhou Dynasty for decades. It is difficult to solve the private salt problem with just one Sansi envoy. Moreover, if an old official like Zhang Mei can come up with a lot of creative and problem-solving solutions, Hou Dayong does not have much confidence.

When he returned to the mansion, Hou Dayong ordered Meng Shu and Du Gang to go to the court to discuss matters immediately. Soon, Meng Shu and Du Gang rushed to the Nancheng Hou Mansion from different directions at the same time.

Meng Shu had a pitch-black beard, the material on his body was ordinary in color but the material was extremely expensive, and it was a top-quality satin from Hangzhou. When he arrived at the courtyard, Hou Dayong was still discussing affairs in the main courtyard where Fu Ying was. The people knew that Meng Shu was a guest, so they soaked high-quality tea from Shu in the small hall for Meng Shu. After Meng Shu had been the shopkeeper of a rich shop for a long time, he naturally had the temperament of a big shopkeeper who was scattering the good tea carefully and a happy expression.

Du Gang sat opposite Meng Shu. He still maintained the seat of a soldier and ignored the hot tea in front of him. Although Du Gang was the deputy leader of the Feiying Hall, he actually presided over the Feiying Hall. Through several years of development, the Feiying Hall has taken root in the Great Zhou territory. At this time, the division of labor between the Feiying Hall and the Military Intelligence Battalion was already very clear. The Military Intelligence Battalion operated overseas affairs, mainly serving the military, while the Feiying Hall focused on internal affairs, mainly serving the government of the Great Zhou government. Du Gang had more secrets and heavy power, and coupled with the blow brought by Xiao Lianzi's death, he matured quickly. His expression became extremely serious, and every move was rigorous and serious. His words were approaching Shi Hu, and he always said it when he had to say it.

Hou Dayong returned to the courtyard and saw two hardcore confidants waiting in the small hall, he said, "You all come to the study." After entering the study, Hou Dayong did not make a turn and said, "Private salt makes a huge profit. It has captured a lot of income from the court. This is absolutely not possible. The salt profit must be in the hands of the court. How to control the private salt? What are the tricks of the two?"

When Meng Shu heard this, he couldn't help but laugh in his heart: "Previous prefecture said many times before, his butt determines consciousness, and it seems that this is the opposite. Now there is a living example. When Prince Hou was the governor, he encouraged Liu Qilang to sell private salt for profit. Now that he has the power of the court, he will immediately restrict private salt."

Meng Shu had been in charge of a wealthy shop for a long time. How dare he ignore such a profitable private salt? He had worked hard to study private salt. At this time, he was not panicked at all when facing Hou Dayong's sudden attack. After thinking for a while, he slowly said: "I have thought about private salt carefully. As far as I know, the salt administration affairs were first seen in Guanzi."

Seeing Meng Shu's appearance, Hou Dayong inadvertently remembered the scene of Meng Shu and Meng Zhen lying in the Dezhou Taoist in the snowy days. Today, Meng Shu is far from the scholar Meng Shu that day. The times create heroes, and the opportunity is determined by heaven. Sincerity is not to deceive others.

"I remember that in "Guanzi Haiwang", a conversation between Guan Zhong and Duke Huan of Qi was recorded. This was my discussion on salt administration as soon as I saw it. Guan Zhong explained it thoroughly. He believed that people cannot do without salt. A big country has tens of millions of people who need salt. If the price of salt increases by two liters (monetary units). Total, you can earn an additional 2 million yuan a day, and a month will be 60 million yuan. If you announce to a big country with a million people to collect a monthly cap tax of 30 yuan per person. The monthly income is only 30 million yuan, but it will inevitably cause people's discussion and dissatisfaction. Now, if you do not impose a population tax, you can get a tax equivalent to 60 million yuan from operating salt. Therefore, salt tax is a profitable transaction."

Hou Dayong heard the two people talking about salt administration within one day. Meng Shu’s statement was that from the perspective of a businessman, it was different from Zhang Mei, the three officials. He said with interest: “Continue talking.”

"The strategy adopted by Guan Zhong was to buy it from the Qi government to the salt-producing areas at a price of 50 yuan per pot (capacity unit, 100 liters into one pot) and then sell it to the people at a price of 100 yuan. The court could make profits from it. Since everyone has a demand for salt land, the sales of salt will not change significantly due to the increase in salt prices, and the profits of salt are naturally very considerable and stable. Once the theory of Guanzi was released, the benefits of the salt administration were fought between the court and the merchants, sometimes debating the Dongguan and sometimes opening the ban; sometimes the civil system was collected, sometimes the official system was sold; sometimes the official fortune was sold, sometimes the official fortune was sold, sometimes the business fortune was sold, sometimes the business fortune was sold."

Hou Dayong had never heard of this before and said, "That Guanzi is the founder of the Salt Administration."

Meng Shu nodded and said, "You can say this. After Liu Yan served as the Transportation Commission of the Tang Dynasty, it changed again. Liu Yan established a system of private property, official income, commercial transportation, and commercial sales, strengthened control over salt production areas, stabilized salt prices, increased the income of the court, and made officials profit from the government. The people were not short of salt, which was praised by the world."

Zhang Mei, the envoy of the Three Division, also specifically mentioned Liu Yan. Hou Dayong had already had an impression of this person. He praised: "Liu Yan is an amazing person. He started from him and created a situation where merchants were using salt."

"The Prime Minister Hou pointed out the key points. When Liu Yan was appointed as the salt and iron envoy, the annual income of the salt class was 400,000 yuan. After the implementation of the salt method, the income of the salt class reached 6 million yuan, which was half of the national annual income. However, these salt merchants often raised the price of salt, making it difficult for the people to eat salt."

Hou Dayong said: "This is also the result of the merchants pursuing profit. Menglang, you have been in charge of wealthy shops for many years and are considered an old world. Do you think there is any good way to reduce private salt?"

"Private salt has been banned repeatedly. The main reason is that the profits are too high, so poor people often risk the beheading to sell private salt. Cheng Zhijie in the early Tang Dynasty and Huang Chao in the late Tang Dynasty all started by selling private salt. Based on the experience of managing wealthy shops, Liu Yan's approach should be adopted, and officials and businessmen cooperate so that things can be done well. If the court wants to control the salt price, it can limit the highest salt price for each state according to the facts every year. Because the salt-producing areas save freight, the salt price can be lower. Non-salt-producing areas can be priced according to the level of freight. In this way, the court has income, merchants have profits, and the people have salt to eat, which is a happy situation."

When Hou Dayong heard Meng Shu's words, he couldn't help but smile and said, "This is the market price issued by the court."

Meng Shu knew that although Hou Dayong was a high-ranking official in the court, he did not discriminate against merchants and had a good impression of business. The rich shop was created by Hou Dayong. When he saw Hou Dayong, he quickly understood his statement and became more interested, and said, "It is precisely this idea that the rich shops traveled south and north to mobilize bulk goods. He knew the difficulty of freight. Every time the merchant traveled far away, he always walked on the business road with the heavy Zhou Yuantongbao. It was really a very painful thing. The Prime Minister Hou once told me the method of reunion. I tried it in the shop for more than a year, and the effect was not bad. It saved the merchants from being distant from money, which was quick and safe."

"Menglang means to implement a similar Jiaozidi system in the salt administration?"

"I think that the world's salt consists of three types: sea salt, pond salt, and well salt. Hedong is mostly pond salt, and sea salt is produced along the coast, and well salt is in Shu. The scale of well salt in Shu is small. Let's not talk about it for now. Xiaguan has an idea. Hedong produces salt but lacks grain. If a merchant wants to buy salt in Hedong, he can transport grain to exchange for salt first, then take the salt to the salt pond to get salt, and then go to the designated location to sell salt. In this way, merchants can be used to solve the problem of grain shortage in Hedong. The sea salt production area does not lack grain, so you can directly exchange for salt for money."

"Also, if a businessman changes the salt tract, if he is unwilling to go to the salt pond for various reasons or cannot get salt, he can use the salt to the government to exchange for money."

When Hou Dayong was in modern society, he was always in the army and did not have much knowledge of market economy and finance. There is a saying that he had never eaten pork and saw pigs running. His family life itself was shrouded in market economy and finance. With the insights of modern life, Hou Dayong could easily understand the rationality of Meng Shu's suggestions and smiled and said, "Meng Lang is in charge of wealthy shops and has become a big expert. According to Meng Lang's design, salt quotas can be traded and traded. In fact, it is equivalent to money, and it is easy to carry, and will definitely be welcomed by salt merchants and other merchants."

After talking to Meng Shu, Hou Dayong became clearer and clearer about the salt administration. He turned his head and looked at Du Gang, and said, "Meng Lang spoke very well. What do Du Lang have any opinions?"

Du Gang sat upright in the seat. When Meng Shu talked about the salt administration, he was also thinking nervously. When he heard Hou Xiang ask, he said: "There were three gangs of private salt dealers in the Great Zhou Dynasty. One of them was the Haizhou Gang, the main gang was the sea salt dealer. The leader of the Haizhou Gang was Li Kuangsheng. He had more than 3,000 people under his command, dozens of sea boats, scattered in Cangzhou, Dengzhou and other places. The Hanzhong Gang mainly deals with the Jing salt in Shuzhong, and more than 1,000 people; the Zhengzhou Gang mainly deals with the salt in Hedong, and the leader is Wu Qilang. He used to be the most powerful Haizhou Gang. Now the Zhengzhou Gang controls all private salt from Daliang to Lingzhou. There are thousands of people under his command. The Zhengzhou Gang and the Haizhou Gang have one sea and one land, each with their own strengths."

Hou Dayong had a headache for the private salt dealers and said, "Many private salt dealers from Wu Qilang have arrived in Daliang City. There are a group of private salt dealers in Xicheng District. If the rogues in the city are their opponents, they have now become subordinates of private salt dealers. If this continues, these private salt dealers will be overwhelmed and become underground forces."

Du Gang said confidently: "In recent years, Feiyingtang has spent a lot of money on wealthy shops and has done some things. Private salt dealers have been under our control. Most of the important leaders of several large number of private salt dealers are under the surveillance of Feiyingtang. Every move they make has been recorded, including Wu Qilang from Zhongmu, Zhengzhou. All activities have been under control in the past two years. As long as Feiyingtang's investigation ability is far stronger than its action ability, if they want to capture these important leaders at the same time, they will not be able to do so."

Hou Dayong was very satisfied with Meng Shu and Du Gang. He smiled and said, "Wu Qilang is the martial arts coach of a rich shop and a military rank. He obeys me all his actions. There is nothing unusual. But the thousands of private salt dealers under him are all desperate people. If he suddenly loses his livelihood, it will definitely be a disaster. There must be a safe way to appease them."
Chapter completed!