The Salt Affairs Department established by Zhu Hongsan is similar to the Salt Affairs Bureau in later generations. It does not directly manage the production and transportation of salt, but is only responsible for the taxation of salt and cracking down on illegal salt, that is, the sales of private salt. Salt is indispensable to the human body. It is necessary to ensure that each person needs at least ten kilograms of salt per year when they are alive. Therefore, the amount of private salt per year is extremely large, and the tax lost by the country reaches millions of silver dollars every year.

After Zhu Hongsan's new policy, he liberated all the salt that was originally controlled by the state, and sold all the six major salt farms in Lianghuai to individuals. This way, the salt price would drop immediately, which would reduce some burden for the people. Although the salt price dropped, because the country increased the crackdown on private salt, the annual salt tax became more than before. During the Wanli period, the salt tax collected at most 2.09 million taels of silver. After the salt was liberalized, it collected 3.1 million silver dollars a year in Shenwu, far exceeding the best year of the previous Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the increase in salt tax does not mean that the people are burdened by the people. During the Wanli period, the official statistics of the country were about 60 million people, but later generations estimated that there should be hundreds of millions of people. According to the annual ten kilograms of salt per person, the salt tax in the Wanli period should be about 13 million. Why is it that the only two million left in the hands of the country? Those who are familiar with the Chinese officialdom know that these silvers end up falling into the pockets of officials at all levels.

Like his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Hongsan was a miser who plucked his hair by the geese. How could he watch the taxes he received flow into the officials' pockets? So after occupying the whole country, he found a name to cut off all the salt officials in the Lianghuai industry in the former Ming and Qing dynasties, and confiscated all their property. The big salt merchants who evaded taxes also went to prison one after another, and through various means, they spit out nine out of ten of their illegal income.

After packing up these salt rats, Zhu Hongsan established a new Salt Affairs Department under the Ministry of Taxation of the Central Government. In addition to being responsible for the tax revenue of major salt farms, he was also responsible for the salt industry anti-smuggling teams in various provinces. Therefore, the Salt Affairs Department saw that its status was not obvious, and the chief officer was only a fifth-rank doctor, but had great power. The anti-smuggling teams in various provinces across the country, plus the tax ambassadors of major salt farms, a total of seven or eight thousand people were from all over the country. These people were directly managed by the Salt Affairs Department doctors, so such an important official naturally had to be appointed by the emperor himself.

Yong'an Prefecture is located in Beibu Gulf, and there are several salt fields outside the city. Ma Shaoguang naturally understands how important the Salt Affairs Department is. This time, Ma Shaoguang came to Beijing and thought he wanted to hold some idle positions, but he didn't expect it to be such an important department. After hearing Fu Wenlong's words, he was stunned for a moment.

When Fu Wenlong saw Ma Shaoguang not speaking, he thought he was so happy that he forgot. Fu Wenlong continued, "Ziheng, this time I transferred you back to Beijing, there will be Fang Shutian's recommendation, but don't forget that the final decision was the emperor, and the only one who could speak for you was the imperial concubine in the palace!"

There is no queen in Zhu Hongsan's harem, and there is only one imperial concubine, that is Ma Shaoguang's sister Ma Ruyan. As an older sister, it is reasonable to ask for an official position for his younger brother.

But Ma Shaoguang couldn't help frowning when he heard Fu Wenlong say this: "Father-in-law, the son-in-law went to see his father on the way to come. His father asked the son-in-law to be honest, so the son-in-law didn't want to get involved in the affairs of the harem."

Ma Shaoguang is not a fool either. When he heard what his sister said for him, and the King of Qin personally went to the dock to greet him today, he immediately thought of some reason. It was nothing more than that his sister hoped that he could help the King of Qin and compete with the prince for that position.

Fu Wenlong sighed when he heard Ma Shaoguang say this: "Ziheng, why do you have the same tone as your father? It's different now. Ma Mingyuan's position as the prince's Eastern Palace has been shaken. In addition, Tong Yangjia is eyeing him, the prince is likely to be in trouble. At this time, he still has the abacus of holding the legitimate power and not looking back. Are you and your father a little stupid?"

On the surface, Ma Mingyuan's withdrawal of appearance was just a normal personnel change, but he could hide the eyes of these old men in the court. Ma Mingyuan's loss of power means that the prince's status is unstable, so several big men in the court began to plan for themselves for various purposes.

Fu Wenlong's position in the cabinet is very embarrassing. He is from the Chu Party, but he is not from Huguang, nor is he the counselor who has been with Zhu Hongsan the longest. Fu Wenlong's hometown is in Nanzhili and an official in Guangdong. He was coerced by Zhu Hongsan and joined halfway.

Although Fu Wenlong is now a cabinet master and has a low ranking, he may not be as good as Chen Zilong in the emperor's heart. This incident can be seen from the title of title a few years ago. Although Chen Zilong was unhappy with the title of Earl, he was much better than Fu Wenlong.

Fu Wenlong, as a senior secretary of the Pavilion, had not even obtained a thousand family members of the Jinyiwei, even a title, let alone a title. This means that he had no status in the emperor's mind.

If the prince's status is stable and the prince will rise indisputably after the emperor dies, then Fu Wenlong will probably retire honestly, and the country will give you a first-rate treatment, and then go home to retire and wait for death. But now the prince's status is unstable, and various forces in the court are rising, which makes Fu Wenlong begin to have some other ideas.

Fu Wenlong calculated that he had no contact with the emperor's adult princes, and the only person who was still dating was the King of Qin. The most important thing was that although the King of Qin had a great grandfather, Ma Jiyuan was a princeling. If Fu Wenlong turned to the King of Qin, if the King of Qin inherited the throne, although he could not deal with his own grandfather, Ma Jiyuan probably would have to be at home to support his old age. Fu Wenlong himself is now the chief master, and with the merit of following the dragon, the assistant must be himself.

Although Fu Wenlong and Ma Jiyuan were classmates, Fu Wenlong was several years younger than Ma Jiyuan. If he cultivated himself and trained his character, he would probably live longer than the emperor. Anyway, there were not many emperors in the Ming Dynasty who lived longer. If he lived longer, he might be the chief assistant. This temptation was too great to deal with Wenlong. Therefore, Fu Wenlong, who had no contact with those classmates in the second year of Tianqi, has now begun to attend a poetry party or something and started to contact these classmates.

When Fu Wenlong learned from Fang Fengnian that his son-in-law was going to Beijing to take an important position, he immediately knew that this was his opportunity and his opportunity to approach the King of Qin, so Fu Wenlong said what he said just now after seeing Ma Shaoguang.

But after Fu Wenlong said that he saw that Ma Shaoguang was not very enthusiastic, he couldn't help but ask: "What? Ziheng, do you have any concerns in your heart?"

"My father-in-law, the son-in-law really doesn't want to trek into this muddy water, and the son-in-law doesn't want to be this official. The son-in-law wants to resign and return to his hometown!"

Fu Wenlong was shocked when he heard Ma Shaoguang say this. What should I do if you resigned from office? How can I talk to the King of Qin? Fu Wenlong knew that this son-in-law was gentle on the surface, but in fact, he was like his father in his heart. He was very stubborn.

Fu Wenlong was afraid that his words would hurt Ma Shaoguang's heart, so he suppressed his anger and asked in a whisper: "Son-in-law, what's the matter? But what's the dissatisfaction in his heart? If you have any dissatisfaction, come up with me and I will solve it for you!" What Fu Wenlong said was not a bragging thing. He is now in charge of the Ministry of Personnel. It is not that there are no things he can't do, but very few.

Ma Shaoguang gritted his teeth when he heard Fu Wenlong say this, "My father-in-law, the son-in-law feels that the emperor doesn't like a benevolent king. When the son-in-law died in Xinyang, his mother and wife died. The son-in-law was very cold-hearted, so he didn't want to be this official!"

Ma Shaoguang's meaning is very simple, that is, Zhu Hongsan is not a good thing, and he killed his mother and wife in order to reduce the burden on his life. Ma Shaoguang couldn't get rid of this knot in his heart, so he thought of resigning.

Fu Wenlong and Ma Jiyuan are classmates, in-laws, and good friends, so they naturally know the bad things that Ma Jiyuan was in Xinyang back then. But now, when times have changed, Zhu Hongsan has seized the world and become the emperor. China's promiscuous tradition of being taboo, Zhu Hongsan succeeded in all the dirty things that were right, and murder became a must-kill for the sake of the overall situation.

That's what Fu Wenlong said. After hearing that Ma Shaoguangxin was resentful, he quickly explained to Zhu Hongsan: "Ziheng, you must not say that. There were indeed something wrong with His Majesty the Emperor back then, but it depends on what the situation was! There were more than 300,000 bandits outside Xinyang City, and there were only tens of thousands of defenders in the city. Would you wait to die if you don't run away at this time? Also, although the emperor killed your family's wife, your father, your son, and your brother were all saved by the emperor. Isn't it important to save your life?"

Fu Wenlong is right. Your mother and your wife were killed by Zhu Hongsan, but that was forced. Why didn’t the emperor save the lives of the male members of your family? And after the emperor arrived in Wuchang, he immediately appointed you father and son to the important task. After the founding of the country, he even made your father the chief assistant. This kind of kindness that is no worse than the kindness of saving lives!

The words Fu Wenlong said were also the reasons why Ma Shaoguang was worried. If Zhu Hongsan was really a tyrant, then Ma Shaoguang had already resigned from his post. However, Zhu Hongsan was not good at character, but he was a good master in governing the country. I won’t talk about restoring the Ming Dynasty. Now the entire China is slowly recovering its vitality under Zhu Hongsan’s iron fist governance. This is indeed an indistinguishable fact.

A wise ruler was in the court and had good governance and was very kind to save his whole family. But this wise ruler killed his relatives in order to save him! Ma Shaoguang was deeply educated by Confucianism and also had the great ideal of serving the country and the people. However, while serving the emperor, he also felt guilty about being sorry for his mother, so Ma Shaoguang spent more than ten years in his heart torment.
Chapter completed!