MTL - Feng Xing-Chapter 56

When it was Old Zhang's turn, he realized that the procedures for handling salt were not complicated.

He only needs to provide household registration or road guides as proof, and the Salt Transportation Branch will issue a passport. This passport will indicate the name, age, place of origin, and appearance of the vendor. After paying the salt tax ticket at the Yamen, it will be registered for future reference.

This passport is valid for three years, that is, within three years, if he sells salt again, he only needs to come to the salt transportation branch office to pay the salt class ticket, and he can go to the salt farm to pick up salt with the ticket.

The salt ticket is in triplicate, one copy is handed over to the Salt Transportation Department, one copy is kept by the branch office, and the other copy is kept by the vendor. After going to the salt field to pick up the salt, the ambassador of the salt field will indicate the quotation, transport and sell the state and county on the salt ticket, and stamp it with a seal. From then on, during the transportation and sales, the salt and the ticket must not be separated. If there is separation, it will be treated as private salt.

When the vendors arrive at the land of Yinhe, they need to go to the designated Yindi Salt Office with the ticket to submit it, and submit it to the Yandi Department for verification.

In this way, even if the whole set of procedures is completed, it is much simpler than what the old man thought.

Like many people, Lao Zhangtou was also concerned about the checkpoints along the road and whether it was easy to pass the checkpoints. This matter was also resolved by the Salt Transportation Branch.

The random inspection is still the same, but they only need to check whether the weight of the ticket, photo and salt bag is wrong. Regarding this point, the Haizhou branch has also paid for it this time. In the past, the salt came out as a big bag, and it will be repackaged when it passes the prison office.

Not to mention the loss when changing the package, the freight forwarder will have to pay a lot of money just for changing the package, and this kind of packaging is very easy to imitate, and the weight is not fixed. This time, the Haizhou branch directly replaced the salt packets with paper ones, and all subcontracts were completed when the salt came out.

This kind of packaging is waterproof and moisture-proof, it is not easy to imitate, and it has a uniform weight, which is five catties, ten catties, and twenty catties respectively. There is no need to weigh when crossing the dam. This is the idea that Feng Sheng thought of with great effort. If this packaging can be promoted, it will also be beneficial to crack down on illegal salt. Just by looking at the packaging, you can identify whether it is illegal salt or official salt.

Therefore, it is still necessary to pass the card, but compared with the past, the process has been simplified a lot. In addition, the salt tax and miscellaneous items payable by the merchants have already been paid at the salt office. To pass the customs, you only need to show the salt ticket and passport.

No matter how clearly the clerks in charge of the Haizhou Branch explain everything, people still have to experience it firsthand before people believe it. Now only time and facts can prove that the salt reform in Huaibei is effective.

…

In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, Feng Sheng also sent Tong Baihu and a group of Jin Yiwei out.

There is no need for them to do any work, just choose one person to sit in each checkpoint, and perform the role of supervision. Jin Yiwei is the emperor's pro-army, and he gave those subordinates ten courages, and they would not dare to ignore the orders from above to make things difficult for the merchants who passed the checkpoint.

Everyone is working hard, and as time goes by, more and more small businessmen are going to Haizhou.

Many of them came here with their friends only after witnessing other people earning money, and the previous businessman surnamed Meng was to be blamed for this.

That transaction was too hasty, and the market and price were not paid much attention, so the transaction was rushed. Later, several small merchants brought salt back and sold it without going out of Yangzhou. There is a business opportunity hidden in this, many people don't know it, and those who know it keep it secret.

Nothing to do with the price of salt.

The salt from Huaibei is the way from the salt field to Yangzhou. Because it saves the transfer of merchants and many checkpoints, and has the effect of the New Deal, the price of salt is very low. After all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, plus all kinds of manpower and material resources, the cost is only two or two.

But it is also the same as the introduction of salt. The salt from Huainan also passes through various checkpoints to the Tongyang Canal outside Yangzhou City, but the various costs are nearly four taels.

In other words, Huaibei salt is nearly half cheaper than Huainan salt.

What meaning does this represent, I am afraid that only a businessman with a little common sense can know. Official salt is unsalable because the price of salt is too high, so many people would rather take the risk of bringing private salt instead of selling official salt. Now that Huaibei salt is so cheap, it is completely possible to sell Huaibei salt instead of trying to sell private salt.

Those big salt merchants are still sitting still, and some small salt merchants have long been swarming like cats smelling fish. Afraid that they would offend others by appearing in public, they ordered people to search in the market privately. The cost of Huaibei salt, including salt and tickets, was only two taels, and they could earn as long as they bid no more than three taels.

So some small merchants bought salt from Huaibei, and they could sell it all without going out of Yangzhou. This business can really be done, the big business is doing the big business, and the small business is doing the small business, so there are people who travel between Haizhou and Yangzhou, and they only do business on this road.

Knowing that business opportunities are fleeting, and knowing that this kind of business will not last long, many small businessmen have been traveling day and night without sleep and ordering people to wait in line at the Haizhou branch office in order to make as many deals as possible. Because as Huaibei salt has become famous for its high quality and low price, more and more people flocked to Haizhou. What Fang Fengsheng said before may not be enough places to do business, but he hit it right.

Now the Haizhou Subsidiary Yamen has become a scene in Banpu Town, and many people have lined up outside the gate. But Zou Yunpan and Feng Sheng came forward to negotiate with the local government, and opened up several other places in the town for the construction of warehouses for the salt farm.

In addition to the salt drying field set up by Fengsheng and the others, the other three salt fields are currently being rebuilt. Everything is thriving and developing in a good direction, just like flowers blooming from the cracks in the stone road, showing their own future. Vigorous.

But where there is sunshine, there will naturally be shadows. Although Huaibei produces less salt, compared with Huainan, one died of flooding and the other died of drought. But the drought turned to drought, and now there are major changes everywhere, and more than one person has lost his job. These little subordinates can't resist the orders of the direct sub-divisions, and they dare not disobey the imperial envoys, but it doesn't mean that they have no backing.

Usually, I don’t lack filial piety. When something goes wrong, I naturally have to find a backer. Just look for one, and the higher the level, the fewer and fewer people can sit and live.

Naturally, the chief culprit, Fan Jinchuan, must be found first, but Fan Jinchuan also said that the imperial court urgently needs to reform the salt administration, which is the top priority. Of.

Is this wrong?

There is nothing wrong with this, but it is wrong to move other people's money bags!

All kinds of pretentious plausible words and nonsense came one after another, and Fan Jinchuan's stupid temper was also reflected. No matter how eloquent you are, I just hold my own reasons and don't listen to you at all.

The memorials and excerpts of his impeachment were flying all over the sky, and there were important discussions about the Lianghuai salt administration in the court every day. The discussions came and went, nothing less than Fan Jinchuan's daring and misconduct.

But since Emperor Jianping intends to move the Lianghuai Salt Administration, it is certainly not something that can be swayed by just a few words.

He was also very satisfied with Fan Jinchuan's way of handling affairs, guarding against arrogance and impetuosity, and being down-to-earth, knowing that Huaibei was chosen as the breakthrough point. If Huainan was moved as soon as it came up, I am afraid that the court will not be in such a tepid situation now, and I am afraid that Emperor Jianping may not be able to withstand the pressure at that time.

Since it is a trial, then try it first.

Emperor Jianping said so, so that's the only way to go.

Located on the outskirts of Yangzhou, there is a very large garden called Jiangyuan.

Anyone who is a local in Yangzhou knows that this Jiang Garden belongs to the Jiang family.

And this Jiang family is the top ten salt merchants.

The classification of salt merchants is extremely complicated, including market merchants, dam merchants, transport merchants, retail merchants, nest merchants, general merchants, etc. Among them, the general merchant has the greatest power. , all public and private floating expenses and apportionments are apportioned by him, and he is half official and half businessman.

And the Jiang family is a hereditary general merchant, with close contacts with the imperial court. The Jiang family's backer is not a certain official or a certain force, but the current emperor.

As early as several generations before the Jiang family, the head of the Jiang family had the reputation of "befriending the emperor with commoner clothes". Since then, every time the emperor went to the south of the Yangtze River, most of them were picked up by the Jiang family. Not to mention that whenever there was an emergency in the imperial court, the Jiang family would actively raise money for disaster relief and military expenses for the imperial court. The successive heads of the Jiang family all had official titles bestowed by the imperial court, which could be described as extremely honorable.

But everything is good and there is bad, and there is prosperity and decline, and this is not the case.

Jiang Fu had a premonition that the incidents of the Lianghuai Salt Administration in the past few years had happened one after another, and sooner or later something would happen. When he really waited for Emperor Jianping to do something, he became calm instead. Therefore, when Fan Jinchuan first arrived at the Yamen of the Salt Transport Department, other salt merchants were extremely anxious, but he was the only one who took it easy.

But when everyone else was sitting and watching Huaibei Salt, he became anxious instead. Because no one knows better than him what the position of Jiang's General Merchant is based on.

The Jiang family doesn't need to transport and sell salt every year, just relying on the position of the general merchant, they can get rich, because he is in charge of reminders, floating fees and apportionment. If the Huaibei New Deal is implemented smoothly and Huainan is involved, then who will be the general manager of the Jiang family?

For this reason, he specially recruited all the salt merchants under him to come to Jiangyuan to discuss matters.

In the flower hall located on the side of a certain pond in the river garden, the furniture should be made of high-quality rosewood, one inch and one gold, and the furnishings are extremely luxurious without losing the low-key atmosphere.

The first seat is Jiang Fu, and there are five seats on the left and right, ten seats in total.

These ten seats have not changed for many years, there are only ten people, no matter how many salt merchants are in the Lianghuai area, they are all attached to the forces of the ten people here.

Among the ten people here, whoever stomps his feet in Yangzhou will tremble three times.

But today's discussion started with criticizing Huang Jinfu. Different from those small businessmen, Huang Jinfu's behavior is still eye-catching no matter how low-key it is, which does not let Jiang Fu know about the flirting between Huang Jinfu and Huaibei.

Regarding this, Huang Jinfu denied it at first, and then pushed it to the people below. Seeing that Jiang Fu seemed to be making an example of him today, he also broke his can.

Anyway, everyone knew that Huang Jinfu was a shameless person, and he didn't care about face.

"Then according to Uncle Jiang's intention, we don't make any money from the money we send to you? If we don't make any money, where can we get money to pay you the floating fee and allowance?"

Jiang Fu is more than ten years older than Huang Jinfu, and he is only fifty this year, so he will never be able to be called a master. But this uncle is not that uncle, but a respectful title. The head of the Jiang family has always been called the uncle by the salt merchants below, and those below are all masters, and the one at the top is naturally the uncle.

"Then according to what you said, the floating fees and supplements you paid are for me?" Jiang Fu has a thin face, full of bookishness, and looks a bit like a Confucian businessman, but at this time he is so angry that his beard is straightened by Jin Jinfu.

"I didn't say that, I just said that, and that's what I mean. Uncle Jiang knows that I'm not blocking my words, so don't pick up those words."

"I see that you are quite unconvinced. We have always been in the same spirit, advancing and retreating in unison. Now you are secretly transporting salt from Huaibei. First, you didn't say hello to us, and second, you didn't inform me, the general manager. Yes. Is there something wrong?"

The others whispered to each other and nodded, saying that Huang Jinfu's move was inappropriate. Huang Jinfu was probably driven into a hurry, so he simply broke the pot and said, "Then treat it as my fault, and the uncle just said how to deal with it?"

"Let's punish him next year and give up a portion of the salt to the rest of us." Someone suggested. He is the patriarch of the Chen family who is so penny-pinching and has always been known as an iron rooster. This person's stinginess and penny-pinching degree are amazing. One can't help but wonder if the bed in his house is covered with silver, and he spends every day sleeping on it.

"Old man surnamed Chen, don't overdo it, did you pluck the hair on my head?" Jin Fu said angrily.

Jiang Fu said: "Jiang thinks this proposal is good, what do you think?" He said he was asking everyone, but he was actually looking at Huang Jinfu, obviously using him as an example to others.

Jin Fuqi smiled back, stood up and said: "You can do whatever you want, I really think your broken plan is still useful? It just so happens that I have no money to pay this year's floating fee and amortization, so you should share it yourself, I won't accompany you!" "

After finishing speaking, he surrendered and left. His attitude was so tough that everyone was stunned on the spot.