Chapter 617 [First Update]
Liu Tan had previously thought about selling salt at a fair price, and the people might be more enthusiastic about it, after all, it was much cheaper. Before he traveled through time, Liu Tan would also buy a lot of things when he saw a discount in the supermarket.
But even though the Northern Border Kingdom was enthusiastic at the time, they only lined up to buy salt. How come they couldn’t even keep their shops in Yan Kingdom?
While sending Wei Deng to lead the elite troops to maintain order, he asked, "What's going on? Why did they buy so much?"
The people of Yan State don't have much money. No matter how cheap the price of salt is, it is still more expensive than grain at the moment. Do they buy so much salt because they want to eat salt when they are hungry in the future?
The steward wiped the sweat from his head and said with a wry smile, "I...I don't know either."
He had been a businessman for many years. In the beginning, he was a trader on the Silk Road. Later, when he got older and his son was unwilling to inherit the family business, he went to the Northern Kingdom to invest in shops. Because he was honest in doing business, he had business dealings with the properties owned by His Royal Highness the King of the North and was noticed by the King of the North.
He has been doing business for so many years, and this is the first time he has encountered such a scene. He is a little confused.
After hearing this, Liu Tan stroked his chin and turned to Dou Sibo and said, "Send someone to investigate. We must understand what the people are fighting for."
Dou Sibo immediately took the order and left.
Liu Tan turned to the manager and said, "Well, you should limit the quantity for now. Each person cannot exceed two kilograms, and duplicate purchases are not allowed. Buyers must queue up. This should curb the situation."
At least it can reduce the turmoil of salt grabbing, slow down the purchasing speed, and calm everyone's emotions. Then, after Dou Sibo finds out the problem, they can prescribe the right remedy to solve the problem.
The manager immediately took the order and left. In fact, this was what he had in mind, but he had to report such a big matter and ask for instructions.
If His Royal Highness the King of the North had not thought of it, he would have persuaded him. Now that His Royal Highness the King of the North has thought of it, he doesn't need to do anything else and can just do as His Royal Highness says.
Originally, Liu Tan was looking at the construction progress of the new city in Liaoxi County. The houses in the new city had been almost completed, but as for other public facilities and city walls, they would have to be built slowly.
In fact, building a city wall is much more difficult than building a house. After all, it needs to be built very high, and the steel bars required must be thicker and longer.
As a result of this incident, Liu Tan had no time to read the documents.
Not long after, Dou Sibo came running over, sweating profusely, and said, "Your Highness, we've already made preliminary inquiries. The looting is mainly due to rumors that the low salt prices are only temporary and will return to their original price after a while."
Liu Tan frowned and said, "Whoever spread this news? Catch him."
If it was unintentional, then this person is too stupid, but Liu Tan doesn't think that the other party was unintentional at all. If it was intentional, then he is despicable.
Dou Sibo looked at Liu Tan carefully and said, "A few of them are well-known wealthy families in the city..."
Liu Tan looked at him and asked, "Do you know where those wealthy families in Shuofang City are now?"
Dou Sibo wisely stopped talking immediately. He originally wanted to say that Ji County's tax revenue was entirely supported by these wealthy families. Although they also evaded a lot of taxes, without the taxes they paid, Ji County's financial records would be even uglier.
But who is the King of the North? He is Qian Tong who has come down to earth. He should not worry about taxes.
Just look at the sales volume of salt today, there will be quite a bit of tax revenue.
Dou Sibo never doubted whether Liu Tan would evade taxes. It was said that he was very active in paying taxes when he was in the Northern Border Kingdom.
The tax paid by the King of the North once supported half of the tax revenue of the Northern Kingdom. This is only because the overall development of the Northern Kingdom has made it less obvious in recent years.
Dou Sibo immediately ordered people to arrest them, but since they were wealthy families, Liu Tan knew what they were thinking. They just wanted to cause trouble, and many of those who were causing trouble were probably salt sellers.
Their salt must be bought at a high price. After all, there is no new salt-drying method, so the salt is boiled, so the price is naturally very high.
As a result, Liu Tan’s selling price is now lower than their purchase price, and these people are definitely unwilling to accept this.
But Liu Tan was also a little surprised. These people were so bold. The imperial court had directly announced it in a notice. Anyone with a brain should know that even if it was not sold by the imperial court, it was his doing. How could they still be so ignorant of the consequences?
After Dou Sibo captured the man, he immediately sent people to interrogate him, and it didn't take even half a day - these wealthy people were all spineless and uneducated. Most of them were nouveau riche, or descendants of nouveau riche. It was only in Yan State, where the taxation of industries was not very good, that they still had a status and could even live next to the royal palace. This was simply unimaginable in any other vassal state.
Liu Tan's thoughts have gradually been assimilated by the Han people over the years. Although he still does not think that rich families should have a low status, he also feels that these people should be suppressed. They really forget their own surnames when they have some money.
Dou Sibo placed the confession on Liu Tan's desk. Liu Tan waved his hand and said, "I'm too lazy to read it. You tell me what's going on."
Dou Sibo smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, you don't know. I originally thought these wealthy people were blinded by greed and made a mistake, but I didn't expect them to be even bolder than I thought. They basically have absolute power in Yan State, or in Jicheng. Even the commoner Liu Dan suffered at their hands in the past."
Liu Tan was a little surprised: "Liu Dan has suffered losses from them?"
Dou Sibo nodded. "Back then, he wanted to open a shop to increase revenue and cut costs, but no matter what he did, he was squeezed out by these wealthy people and eventually went bankrupt. He even had to sell the shop he had bought at a high price to these people in the end."
Liu Tan's mouth twitched. "Liu Dan, the prince, is really acting like this... What role does the former prime minister play in this?"
Dou Sibo said, "The former Guoxiang was their backer at the time, otherwise how could they dare to bully the prince Fengsun like this?"
Liu understood clearly that it was collusion between officials and businessmen.
These people were used to being domineering in Yan State. Before, these county governors of Yan State had suffered losses at the hands of Liu Tan and had become obedient one by one, but Liu Tan did not have the time to deal with those rich families. The most important thing was that these people were not in his eyes. As long as they did not commit serious crimes, he would not bother to deal with them and lose his reputation.
But now that these people are in his hands, Liu Tan has no intention of letting them go.
Liu Tan smiled and said, "It's just right. The pigs are fattened and ready to be slaughtered. Send someone to interrogate them thoroughly to see if they have done anything illegal and if anyone else is involved. Arrest anyone who is involved, and before this incident, no travel permits will be issued."
Dou Sibo couldn't help but be amazed after hearing this, thinking that His Royal Highness the King of the Northern Territory was really generous in doing things.
He had vaguely heard that His Royal Highness the King of the North was usually very good-tempered and tolerant, but if he really made him angry, then he would be punished, and not only himself, but his entire family might not be able to escape.
The same is true for these wealthy families now.
But Dou Sibo had no objection. It was certain that these rich families had violated the law, and their properties would be confiscated. The money from the confiscations would go into the national treasury. Dou Sibo had been worrying about money these days, otherwise he would not have been so happy to hear that Liu Tan had made salt.
On the one hand, the people were happy to have affordable salt to eat, and on the other hand, the tax on salt was very high, and the sales volume was large. As long as this industry existed, Yan State would have a stable source of tax revenue.
Dou Sibo had people interrogating and arresting people all night long, and at the same time he had to send people to appease the people. He was exhausted, but the results were remarkable.
When he presented the evidence of those people's crimes and reported how many people had been arrested, Liu Tan was stunned.
He thought about it while comparing it with the list. He had previously carefully looked at the current map of Jicheng, on which the locations of some important families were marked.
Dou Sibo almost captured the north of the city with this attack!
This wave not only involved wealthy families, but also a group of officials, and even found out the people related to the witchcraft case of that year.
When Liu Tan saw the words "witchcraft" on the confession, his scalp almost exploded.
All the large-scale bloody cases he encountered since he came here were caused by witchcraft. Every time it was related to witchcraft, the number of people who died was unimaginable. The least was nearly 10,000 people, and if it was more... it could even affect hundreds of thousands of people.
Moreover, he could handle other cases himself, but since it involved witchcraft, especially the witchcraft that had cursed Liu Che, he had to report the matter.
Liu Tan was very troubled and said, "Didn't the State of Yan already clean up the mess? How come there are still some fish that slipped through the net?"
Dou Sibo said, "Back then, the King of Yan and the Prime Minister were both imprisoned, leaving Yan State without a leader. It's said that people were in a state of panic, and no one wanted to be involved in these things. These people weren't involved too deeply, and they might have just helped find some raw materials, so they were allowed to cover up and escape. This time, some people betrayed them."
As for why he confessed, that is very easy to explain. Either he wanted to escape the blame, or he wanted to drag others into the water. In any case, this move really exceeded Liu Tan's expectations.
Liu Tan, with a headache, sorted out the confessions and sighed, "My father has finally forgotten about this matter and won't be angry about it now. If I suddenly tell him about it now, I'm afraid... these people will be in trouble."
Dou Sibo felt a chill on his back. He looked up at Liu Tan and asked, "Your Highness, this isn't a big deal. They're just marginal figures. Otherwise, we..."
Liu Tan said decisively: "Don't even think about it. I will never lie to my father."
What a joke, he is where he is today because he is honest with Emperor Wu of Han. Except for the matter of time travel, he can talk about everything else. In this way, he has earned Liu Che's trust little by little and is where he is today.
Otherwise, even if he makes those weird things, what will happen? Liu Che will benefit from it, but he just doesn't trust you and won't give you any privileges.
Trust is not easy to build, but much easier to destroy.
Did you really think that he hadn't been harmed throughout the witchcraft incident because he was favored? What a joke! It was because Liu Che knew everything about the Northern Border Kingdom, even the situation in his palace, and knew that it had nothing to do with him. Otherwise, once the seeds of suspicion were planted, it would be too difficult to uproot them.
While writing to Liu Che, Liu Tan asked, "How is the salt shop?"
Dou Sibo, who had been thinking about the witchcraft incident, immediately became worried when he heard this. He said, "People are still scrambling for salt. Even though it's limited, everyone's buying as much as they can. People from other villages and towns are even coming in to buy. Many people even start lining up at night just to get salt."
Liu Tan: ??? Why does this scene look so familiar?
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