novelAbuy Chapter 140 Response
Chapter 140 Response
Like the Grain Transport Office and the Maritime Trade Office, the Salt Transport Office would also send high-ranking deputy officials to branch offices in various towns.
Two years ago, Sayyid Ajall Toghon Tsar, as the Assistant Director of the Zhejiang Salt Transport Office, was sent to the Jiaxing branch office with the task of "supervising the salt tax". The Jiaxing Salt Transport Office originally had five salt fields under its jurisdiction, but now they have been merged into three fields: Luli, Haisha, and Baolang. In addition, there is one inspection station and one salt warehouse, making a total of five branches.
The output of Baolang Saltworks in Chepu is average, with an annual output of 10,000 yin, which is just reaching the average level. Last year, the total target of the 34 saltworks of Liangzhe Transportation Company was 350,000 yin.
When Tuohuanchaer arrived at Baolangchang, it was already the afternoon of the next day.
He was quite tired after traveling for a day and a night, but he stopped the request of Bao Li, the saltworks commander (a seventh-rank official), Wei Shengfang, the assistant saltworks official (an eighth-rank official), and others to rest for the time being, and went straight to the government office.
"Have you gotten any information?" Tuohuanchaer asked, pointing to several civilians being interrogated in turn.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Tongqing, a rank-9 official, stepped forward and reported: "These three are all residents of the village, belonging to two different salt-producing areas. One of them, Wang Dalang, failed to sell salt and, in anger, filed a complaint."
Why didn't it sell?
"He arrived too late; the thieves had already rowed away. He called for them to return, but they wouldn't listen. So he angrily reported them to the authorities."
Tuohuanchaer stretched out his hand.
Guan Gou understood and instructed the clerk (the head official of the saltworks) to fetch the confession and submit it.
Tuohuanchaer finished reading expressionlessly, then pointed to the second person.
"This man, named Li Liushi, was arrested by patrolmen on his way to sell salt. Upon investigation, it was found that he had illegally intercepted more than eighteen catties of salt and was also involved in selling it. He should be punished for the crime of smuggling salt."
The clerk then shrewdly handed over the confession.
After reading it, Tuohuanchaer pointed to the last person.
"This man was a local ruffian in Chepu Town. He saw the thieves collecting smuggled salt from afar and followed them."
"Following the thief?" Tuohuanchaer frowned.
"No," Guan Gou replied, "They followed the salt vendors and extorted money from them."
Tuohuanchaer nodded, then asked, "Just these three?"
Guan Gou's back was slightly sweaty, and he immediately replied, "The saltworks are short-handed; all the men have already been sent out, and now there are only three left. After nightfall, the patrolmen should return, and perhaps there will be more news then."
After a moment of silence, Tuohuanchaer said, "Release them all."
Guan Gou was startled and stood there stunned.
"The salt producers' livelihood depends solely on their production costs," said Tuohuanchaer. "Now, production costs have remained unchanged for many years, while prices have soared. Of the salt producers and commoners, only one or two out of ten have managed to make ends meet. Let's collect the salt that has been illegally intercepted and release it. In this way, we will not fail the country above, nor will we harm the people below. This is all I can do. As for this rogue, give him seven strokes of the cane and then release him as well."
"Yes," Guan Gou replied, then winked at the clerk, signaling him to take care of it.
"Arrange a place for me to stay; I'll rest here tonight." After saying this, Tuohuanchaer turned and left.
Starting from the 29th, more and more news began to emerge.
On the first day of the tenth month, the Luli Saltworks conducted a "self-inspection and self-correction," sending an official to Chepu. The official reported that some residents were also selling salt privately, the amount unknown. In addition, they provided a peculiar piece of information: the thieves wore red headbands, resembling ancient forehead bands, and were armed with knives and spears. They were menacing and often worked in groups of five, six, seven, or eight, scattering to collect salt. They never lingered in one place; once they had collected enough, they would row away in small boats, disappearing without a trace.
After analyzing the situation, Tuohuanchaer concluded that the thieves must have a large ship anchored at sea, and they would leave quickly and efficiently after collecting the salt.
On the same day, a messenger from the sea sand field reported that no thieves had come to the field to collect salt.
Tuohuan Chaer had someone bring him a map, and he traced the coastline with his finger while muttering to himself, "On the 26th, we were at Lulichang; on the 27th, we arrived at Baolang. The direction was from north to south. Where are we now?"
The attendants around him looked at each other, and finally one of them said, "Sir, why don't you ask the Songjiang, Siming, and Shaoxing tri-regional offices if anyone goes there to collect salt?"
Tuohuanchaer nodded slowly, and just as he was about to say something, an official rushed in and reported: "Sir, the transport commissioner Huo from Hangzhou has sent a document stating that someone in the Wenfen Division is buying smuggled salt, and all salt fields are ordered to strengthen their vigilance."
Tuohuanchaer suddenly stood up, took the official letter, and quickly finished reading it.
Everyone looked at him.
"It's not this person." After a long while, Tuohuanchaer shook his head and said, "The salt collectors speak with a local accent and don't wear headbands, so they are most likely another group of salt collectors."
Everyone looked disappointed.
We finally got a lead, but it's gone cold again. Besides, why are there so many smugglers? One wave after another, endlessly. If this continues, how will we meet the salt tax targets? Will we ever be able to meet them?
Tuohuanchaer seemed to sense everyone's disappointment, so he encouraged them, saying, "The imperial court has been kind enough to repeatedly reduce the salt quota for Liangzhe, but this year it can only produce 350,000 yin. If you put your minds to it and find ways to reduce the miscellaneous corvée burden on the salt producers, there shouldn't be any major problems. Gentlemen, the salt tax is the foundation of the nation, so please don't take it lightly."
"Yes," everyone responded in unison.
Until more than three years ago, the Liangzhe Transportation Company still needed to produce 480,000 yin of salt annually, including 400,000 yin of standard salt and 80,000 yin of surplus salt.
In the first year of the Zhizheng era, Huo Yazhong, the transport commissioner of Liangzhe, requested the exemption of 30,000 yin of surplus salt on the grounds of flooding, which was granted.
In the second year of the Zhizheng era, the then Imperial Censor and Left Chancellor of the Jiangzhe Province, Bierqiebuhua, requested that the salt tax of 130,000 yin be exempted from the salt transport tax of Liangzhe and Fujian. Among them, 100,000 yin of salt in Jiangzhe were exempted, and the remaining 30,000 yin of salt in Fujian were exempted. The exemption was implemented in the third year of the Zhizheng era.
At this point, the production quota of the Liangzhe Transportation Company became 300,000 yin of salt and 50,000 yin of surplus salt.
The amount wasn't actually that high, but the number of salt producers had decreased compared to the past, and the number of people fleeing the country was increasing, which already reduced production capacity. This reduction was simply a formal recognition of the existing situation.
After waving for everyone to leave, Tuohuanchaer sat down again, looking very worried.
As the nation's affairs came to this point, it relied even more heavily on salt taxes.
The annual revenue of over one million ingots from the Liangzhe Transport Office was a significant supplement to the imperial court's finances.
On one hand, there were increasingly impoverished salt producers; on the other hand, there was a treasury riddled with problems; and then there were the illicit salt dealers who were like parasites. Toghonchar seemed to foresee the corruption of the salt law.
The embankment of a thousand miles collapsed in the ant nest.
With salt workers robbing and decaying day and night, how long can the dam of the salt production system be maintained?
While Tuohuanchaer and others were repeatedly investigating along Jiaxing Road, Shao Shuyi had already finished collecting salt at Hengpu and Pudong salt fields.
On the Pingjia ship, Yu Yuan picked up a salted fish and enthusiastically slapped it against the cabin, making a "thump thump" sound.
"It's almost good enough to be used as a shield," he laughed.
Salted fish is like this: dry and hard, almost completely dehydrated, hence the name "dried seafood." It's actually a good deal to buy—back in the Lvsi market, if you came across fish soaking in salt water, you had to haggle hard for the price.
Five thousand catties of salted fish and seven thousand catties of salt cost only thirty-nine ingots in total, which was very cheap.
In the end, the salt merchants competed fiercely to bargain down the price, bringing it down to less than 120 coins per pound. If one was patient enough, the price could even be reduced to 100 coins, leaving one speechless.
Of course, it's still a good deal compared to the fifty coins per catty offered by the government.
"Next time, one hundred coins will suffice," Gao Daqiang said. "There are plenty of people selling them anyway, I'll only give you one hundred and fifty at most. I overpaid before, Brother Shao is still kind-hearted."
Yu Yuan listened from the side, wanting to say something but holding back.
Liang Tai glanced at him and said, "You need to think carefully about who you're working for."
Yu Yuan slumped down, no longer playing with the salted fish.
Gao Daqiang chuckled and said, "After all, you're a scholar, and you can't bear to see the people suffer. But Yu She—do you believe that as long as the government investigates, the salt merchants will turn around and sell you out? You pity him, but who will pity you? This time it was just a surprise attack; next time it won't be so easy. You'd better find another place."
"Where to?" Yu Yuan looked up and asked.
"Changguo Prefecture? Shaoxing or Qingyuan? I think either is fine," Gao Daqiang said.
"No," Liang Tai shook his head. "Li Da Weng is in the prefecture. Next time, we'll have to go north to the Huaidong region."
Gao Daqiang was speechless. He had actually forgotten about this fellow; he had indeed miscalculated.
"How will the government deal with us?" Yu Yuan suddenly asked.
The crowd was momentarily speechless.
In the ensuing silence, Shao Shuyi strode over and laughed, "What else can we do? Investigate, of course. I bet we still haven't figured out who bought the salt this time. You waited outside without introducing yourself, didn't you?"
"No." Everyone shook their heads.
Not only did they not introduce themselves, they barely even mentioned their bandit names, so probably not many people heard them.
Of course, everyone knows that sooner or later some rumors will get out, and that's hard to avoid.
For example, many people know that Zhu Chen is a salt smuggler. How this information got out will likely be spread in the same way in the future. Of course, people now suspect that the name Zhu Chen is mostly fake. Who knows what his real name is?
"It's good that you didn't introduce yourself," Shao Shuyi said. "This time at sea, we collected over 23500 catties of salt and nearly 13400 catties of dried seafood. That's enough. Let's return to port first and pickle the fish."
After saying that, he looked at Yu Yuan and asked, "How much did it cost to collect these fish and salt?"
"A total of 120 ingots, 34 strings of cash, and 400 coins," Yu Yuan replied.
"Not bad." Shao Shuyi smiled with satisfaction.
These days, all the ways to make money are written in the law; if you want to get rich, you have to take risks.
He has already offended quite a few people.
I wonder if Li Daweng has given up.
The investigation into the killing of the official in Tongzhou is probably still ongoing, and it's unclear how far it has progressed.
This time, he bought smuggled salt in Songjiang and Jiaxing, which not only angered the Zhejiang Transport Commissioner, but also probably offended his competitors.
His butt was covered in poop!
But so what? If he had behaved himself, he would have become a vagrant by now, if not dead. I would have broken the law, so what can you do about it?