Change of salt production system
It was nearly dusk, and the lights in Minyou Hall had been turned on, casting Ning Lingyi's slender figure behind the imperial desk. She had just finished reviewing a stack of memorials when Nong Zishi was ushered in by an eunuch.
Ever since the incident of the royal family "soliciting donations", his weight in Ning Lingyi's heart has long been incomparable to that of ordinary ministers. There is no minister more capable of governing the country than him.
"Your Majesty." Nong Zishi saluted.
"No need to be so polite, Minister of Agriculture. Please sit down." Ning Lingyi put down her red brush and fixed her gaze on him calmly. "Is this about military rations?"
"Your Majesty, understand." Nong Zishi didn't mince words and sat halfway down on the brocade cushion. "The troops haven't moved yet, but the food and fodder must go first. I've calculated over and over again, and the shortfall is still significant. Moreover, the loss of food while it's being transported to the border is an astronomical figure."
Ning Lingyi nodded slightly. She knew all this.
Even if they obtained millions of silver, they still seemed stretched to the limit in terms of food, fodder, and weapons.
"I understand." She said softly, "The Minister of Agriculture must have come up with an idea."
Nong Zishi bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the current situation is like a boil. If we don't remove the rotten flesh, the whole thing will collapse. The grain transport system is a complex issue, and distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. The tax system is even more difficult to correct. It will not be changed overnight."
"After much thought, I can only think of one place where I can move."
"Salt permit." Ning Lingyi slowly uttered two words.
"Exactly!" Nong Zishi leaned forward. "Salt profits are the highest in the world, enough to support a million soldiers. The Jing family has seized nearly half of this profit in the past few years. Lord Su has already investigated. Old salt certificates are being issued indiscriminately, and seven or eight out of ten on the market are dead. Salt merchants have empty salt certificates but no salt to buy, and the people have silver but no salt to buy. The court also cannot collect the salt tax it deserves. This is the lifeblood of the nation, and it's been blocked by corrupt officials. If it were cleared, great achievements could be made, and there would be no worries about food and fodder."
There was silence in the hall for a moment, and Ning Lingyi remained silent for a long time.
"Minister Nong," she raised her eyes, her gaze as deep as an ancient well, "Do you understand that once this action begins, we will be making enemies with tens of thousands of people? The turmoil it stirs up will probably be ten times more serious than the incident involving the royal family."
Upon hearing this, Nong Zishi showed no fear but a calm smile. He stood up, straightened his robe, and bowed deeply to Ning Lingyi.
"Your Majesty, if you proceed with this, it will only jeopardize the livelihoods of tens of thousands of parasites. If you don't, the Northern Shuo cavalry will march south, jeopardizing the livelihoods of tens of millions of ordinary people! I have long been hated by those people, so let them hate me to the bitter end! This eternal infamy is the responsibility of this old minister! I only ask, Your Majesty, to grant me a sharp sword to cut through this rotten flesh."
Ning Lingyi looked at him with mixed feelings.
It is her fortune and the country's fortune to have such ministers.
"Okay." Her voice was not loud, but firm. "I will allow you to play."
*
The next day, Nong Zishi presented a memorial at the court meeting.
The petition requested that all old salt permits held by the Jing family and its affiliated forces be frozen, and that they could only be exchanged after strict review. At the same time, the "Salt Administration and Clearing Office" was established, headed by Su Qingfan, the Minister of General Affairs of the Imperial Palace, to manage the issuance of new salt permits.
The two most crucial ones were like torches thrown into boiling oil, instantly igniting the entire court.
First, only new permits issued by the Salt Administration and Customs Clearing Office were recognized, and old permits were not recognized. This move was equivalent to completely taking the salt monopoly rights into the hands of Ning Lingyi.
Second, to obtain new salt permits, merchants transported food and fodder to the front line. After inspection, the military directly issued new salt permits and set up centrally managed salt warehouses in the salt-producing areas to specifically redeem the new salt permits.
The beauty of this strategy was that it achieved three goals at once: the front lines received much-needed food and supplies, merchants made stable and generous profits, and the court used it to bypass the corrupt and inefficient old bureaucratic system and keep financial and military power firmly in its hands.
As soon as this proposal came out, the whole court was in an uproar!
The old salt permits are no longer usable, and new salt permits are needed to transport food and fodder to the front line?
This policy completely bypassed the entire civil service system of the Ministry of Revenue, the Grand Canal, and the local salt administration, and directly tied the empire's most lucrative profits to military merit, placing them under the control of Ning Lingyi.
These millions of taels of profit every year were directly taken away by Ning Lingyi. Who would be willing to accept this?
Impeachment memorials flew into the Minyou Hall like snowflakes, and were several times more fierce than the previous royal family turmoil.
Even the experienced and prudent Prime Minister Wang Jingzhi felt under immense pressure in the face of opposition voices that almost occupied 50% to 60% of the court. He made several suggestions, pleading with Ning Lingyi to slow down or choose another approach.
But Ning Lingyi has made up her mind.
She saw through it. This was not only a struggle for interests, but also a struggle for power. If she couldn't pass this test, she would always be constrained by these intertwined forces, and her so-called grand plans would be nothing but castles in the air.
She withstood the overwhelming pressure and rejected all objections, writing in red ink: "As proposed, Su Qingfan and Nong Zishi will work with the Military Affairs Office to implement this immediately!"
The imperial edict was issued throughout the country.
How could the old interest groups sit idly by and wait for death? The powerful and wealthy businessmen, who held on to the now worthless papers, quickly took action.
First, the market was in panic, and rumors spread that the new policy was harsh and the price of salt would soar. People rushed to buy and hoard salt, causing turmoil in the market.
Soon after, the southeastern salt smugglers and local tyrants who had deep interests in the old salt industry openly organized a rebellion!
For a time, the whole country was shaken, and news of rebellion came from several states and counties. The banner raised by the rebel army was "clear the court and punish the peasant bandits", attempting to force Ning Lingyi to compromise by force.
Within the capital, undercurrents were surging, and the voices impeaching Nong Zishi and even hinting that Ning Lingyi "competed with the people for profit and shook the foundation of the country" were growing louder and louder.
Faced with such a situation, Ning Lingyi sneered.
They thought that since she was a woman, even if she was the regent and even if she had made great achievements, she should be like the empress dowagers in history when the country was in turmoil, being gentle to them in every way, making compromises at every step, and relying on their loyalty to maintain the rule.
They thought she would be careful about her reputation, be afraid of the harsh pen of history, and would not dare to bear the reputation of being a tyrant.
Unfortunately, she is not.
She is Ning Lingyi, the Ning Lingyi who crawled out from the mountain of blood, fire and corpses, the Ning Lingyi who recovered Heshuo and went on an expedition to Xiqiang!
She can personally distribute hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land to the soldiers who follow her, and let this fierce army conquer all the unruly places in the world for her!
She is not a weak emperor, she is Ning Lingyi who has military power!
"Send a message to Wang Mengzi and Pan Hao," her voice echoed in the hall, cold and emotionless, "Anyone who raises the flag of rebellion, no matter who is behind it, will be regarded as a traitor to the country and will be executed immediately!"
*
The area of Lianghuai.
This fort was built by the local powerful Feng family. It had high walls and deep trenches, and had ample grain reserves. They openly raised the banner of opposing the new salt permit policy and refused to pay taxes.
The rebellion suppression army led by Pan Hao surrounded the fort tightly. Pan Hao did not rush to attack the city, but took a steady approach, cutting off the fort's connection with the outside world. After a few days, the people in the fort became restless.
That night, the fortress gate quietly opened a crack, and a dark figure was quietly brought before Pan Haojun. It was the old butler of the Feng family. He knelt and wept, "General Pan, my master has been possessed by a demon, and he has admitted his mistakes! I beg you to show mercy. The Feng family is willing to donate half of our property and all our salt permits to support the new policy..."
Pan Hao sat upright on his horse, his armor gleaming coldly in the moonlight. "It's too late. His Majesty has decreed that anyone who raises the flag of rebellion will be executed without mercy. If this trend continues, anyone will rebel, and if they fail, they can surrender. Where will the imperial court's authority be? How will the new policies be implemented? If you had opened the city and apologized before the royal army arrived, perhaps you would have been pardoned. But now that the enemy is at the gates, you are prisoners. What right do you have to negotiate terms?"
His tone became even colder: "Go back and tell your master that if you don't open the gate and surrender by noon tomorrow, our army will break into the fort and leave no one alive."
At noon the next day, the fort gate was not opened.
Pan Hao no longer hesitated. With a wave of his flag, his elite troops surged forward like a tide.
After only half a day of fierce fighting, this fortress that had been in operation for decades was breached.
After Pan Hao entered the fortress, the first thing he did was to take the head of the Feng family and his core followers to the top of the fortress wall, read out their crimes of rebellion in public, and then beheaded them in public.
The wealth, granaries, and even the weapons and armor that the Feng family had accumulated over a hundred years became spoils of war for the rebellious army.
after a while.
Su Qingfan reported to Ning Lingyi, "Your Majesty, Wang Mengzi and General Pan Hao have quelled the rebellions throughout the Jianghuai region. They have confiscated the rebels' property, worth over one million taels of silver, and countless supplies."
Nong Zishi stood aside, his face devoid of joy, only heavy. "Thunderous measures can indeed deter the scoundrels. However, after these few battles, I'm afraid the criticism of Your Majesty from both the literati and the locals will only intensify."
Ning Lingyi stood in front of the window, looking at the gradually whitening sky outside, her back straight and lonely.
"Minister Nong, I know."
"If I'm gentle, they'll think I'm weak and can be bullied; if I draw my sword, they'll call me tyrannical and unjust. Since I'll be scolded either way, I'd rather choose the latter. At least, the sword can carve a path."
She turned around, her eyes sharp as a knife. "The more they scold us, the more it proves that we are right. In this world, strength is the only thing that matters. If they want to scold me, then let them watch what I am doing with this ill-gotten gains!"
After several months of bloody suppression, tens of thousands of people were killed, countless powerful and wealthy people were wiped out, and rebellions in various places were quelled one after another.
In the court, those noisy voices of opposition finally subsided temporarily in the face of the bloody facts.
All opposition is nothing but a joke in the face of Ning Lingyi's absolute strength.
*
Somewhere.
Several businessmen dressed in silk shirts and with extraordinary temperament gathered together.
"Brother Chen, is the news true? Did Mr. Li from Longsheng really get the new permit from General Pan, and exchange it in full for high-quality official salt?" a tall and thin businessman asked in a low voice.
The middle-aged man known as Brother Chen nodded heavily, his eyes still filled with disbelief. "It's absolutely true! I personally sent someone to check it out. It's a full twenty ships of salt, and there's not a single discount! In the old Salt Bureau, they kept cutting corners, and we were lucky to get even 70% of the price. General Pan's inspections are extremely strict, but he's also very straightforward in issuing the quota. Li Laosan's gamble paid off this time, and he's made a killing!"
Everyone was silent for a while.
Previously, most of them took a wait-and-see attitude, or even secretly resisted, after all, the old credit cards they had in hand were worth a lot of money.
Another person hesitated and said, "But Wang Mengzi is in Lianghuai, killing countless people. Our old friends are gone in an instant..."
Brother Chen took a deep breath and lowered his voice, "It's because of the brutal killing that the old path is completely cut off. Now this new path, although it requires approaching the battlefield and is risky, the benefits are greater. Moreover, Ning Lingyi is a man of his word and the process is transparent! Everyone, do you want to wait for death with that pile of waste paper, or try your best to make a better future?"
He looked around at everyone and said, "I've made up my mind. I've sold some of my property and collected a batch of fine leather armor and medicinal herbs. I'll personally escort them to the frontier camp soon. This new salt permit is on the way. My Chen family is leaving!"
Some people showed signs of struggle, some had flickering eyes, but for more people, under the shock of blood and the temptation of huge profits, the balance in their hearts had begun to tilt.
*
Autumn is approaching.
Su Qingfan handed a list to Ning Lingyi: "Your Majesty, this is the list of the new batch of merchants who have been recruited in exchange for military merit. The military garrisons on the front line have reported that there is sufficient food and fodder, and the morale of the army is stable."
Ning Lingyi took the list and looked at it carefully with a calm gaze.
Nong Zishi sat at the bottom, his face a weathered look, but he smiled calmly: "I've shouldered all the blame, but I've finally seen some benefits."
Ning Lingyi put down the list. She knew the heaviness in Nong Zishi's words. Among the tens of thousands of people killed, there were giant pests who deserved their punishment, innocent pawns who were dragged down, and perhaps civilians who took risks out of desperation.
"Prime Minister Nong, I walked through this sea of blood with you. The pen of history will be as hard as iron. If there is any infamy, I will bear it with you."
"But look at the soldiers on the frontiers. They can now eat and wear warm clothes, and have the strength to wield their swords to attack Beishuo. The salt roads throughout the country are now open, and the national treasury is gradually replenished. This is worth it."
Su Qingfan said softly, "Your Majesty, don't worry. The military food crisis has been resolved. We no longer have to worry about food and fodder in the battle with Beishuo."
Ning Lingyi nodded slowly.
The flickering candlelight in the hall illuminated the determined faces of the three people.
A financial storm that swept the world was temporarily calmed amid the swordplay and calculations of merchants.
Corrupt merchants can be punished, royal family members can be killed, and salt permits can be taken away.
Even if Ning Lingyi had to sacrifice tens of thousands of lives, she would still win this national war.
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