prosperous age

Salt administration was an administrative system for the state to manage the production, transportation, sale, and taxation of salt. During the Zhou Dynasty, "salt officials" were appointed to manage salt affairs.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Guan Zhong of the State of Qi first proposed the "official control of mountains and seas" policy, establishing a state monopoly system for salt.

Emperor Wu of Han implemented a salt and iron monopoly to strengthen centralized power.

In the first year of the Baoying era of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yan reformed the salt law and implemented a local monopoly system in which the salt was produced by the people, collected by the government, transported by merchants, and sold by merchants.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the monopoly system was continuously strengthened, and salt tax became an important source of national revenue.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the salt administration system of the Yuan Dynasty was continued. Salt transport commissioners were established in the six major salt-producing areas of Lianghuai, Liangzhe, Changlu, Shandong, Fujian and Hedong. Sub-commissions, salt tax commissioners, salt fields and inspection stations were set up under them.

The Ministry of Revenue, primarily through the Shandong Provincial Administration Office, was responsible for auditing and verifying salt taxes nationwide.

Therefore, although the Thirteen Offices of the Ministry of Revenue corresponded to provinces, each office also had other responsibilities, such as salt tax verification and the distribution of officials' salaries.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the salt administration followed the old system of the Yuan Dynasty. During the Hongwu period, in order to resist foreign threats and prepare for border reserves, the "open market method" was implemented, modeled after the compromise system of the Song Dynasty.

The method involved the Ministry of Revenue issuing a proclamation to summon merchants to transport grain to border areas or other places lacking grain. The government's grain collection agency would then register the amount of grain delivered and the amount of salt due, and issue the corresponding amount of cash to the granary.

Merchants would use cash to exchange for salt permits at the salt-producing areas, then use these permits to collect salt from the salt fields and transport it to designated regions for sale.

The Kaizhongfa salt monopoly system, based on the official collection of salt at the salt fields, was still a system of private production, official collection, official sale, commercial transportation, and commercial sales.

The advantages of the Kaizhong method lie in saving on transportation costs, replenishing border supplies, and developing the frontier. Hence, it is said in history that "no salt administration method in the Ming Dynasty was better than the Kaizhong method."

During the Hongzhi era, as the revenue of the imperial treasury decreased, the imperial finances began to face a predicament. As a result, Ye Qi, the Minister of Revenue at the time, petitioned to implement the "compensation for tax deductions".

The background to this is that salt merchants at the time had low social status, and although they had money and salt permits, they could not exchange them for salt.

There were two ways to obtain salt permits at the time: one was to transport grain to the border to obtain salt permits, and the other was to ask the emperor for them.

Salt merchants certainly had no chance to ask the emperor for their money, but powerful and wealthy people could. In fact, it was the powerful and wealthy people of the Ming Dynasty who were encroaching on the interests of the salt merchants at that time.

They used their power to obtain salt permits from the emperor and acquire salt from the salt fields to sell and reap huge profits.

Therefore, the salt merchants' counterattack was to encourage Ye Qi to submit a memorial on the "salt certificate conversion method," in which they would pay the court directly to obtain salt certificates, so that when the emperor sent salt certificates, it would be equivalent to giving away a lot of hard-earned money.

At that time, Ye Qi was the Minister of Revenue, so naturally he only considered his own interests.

Given the Ministry of Revenue's need for substantial revenue increases, discounting silver was a viable method to boost the national treasury.

The "open-market method" was changed to the "conversion method," which involved directly exchanging silver for salt permits to increase the national treasury's revenue.

However, this reform only alleviated the financial pressure in the short term, but it led to the paralysis of the border troops' food supply. Merchants stopped transporting grain to the border, and the problem of food shortage in the border towns became increasingly serious.

In fact, when Ye Qi submitted his memorial on the method of commutation, he never considered how to solve the problem of food and supplies for the border towns, which led to the complete failure of border logistics support.

Even now, the biggest problem facing the Ming Dynasty's salt administration is still the illegal sale of salt.

Smuggled salt is actually surplus salt produced by salt producers who are unwilling to sell it to the saltworks but instead trade it privately with salt smugglers.

Ultimately, it all comes down to self-interest.

In fact, by this time, the salt production of the Ming Dynasty had made great progress and was already able to meet domestic needs. The early Ming Dynasty model of selling salt according to household registration was indeed no longer applicable.

Moreover, the government's involvement in salt procurement is just like the shady dealings involved in collecting taxes every year; officials always manage to profit from the process.

In addition, after salt producers delivered less regular salt, they would only sell a small amount of surplus salt to the government, which also led to a shortage of government salt and a large backlog of salt certificates.

The problem here isn't with the merchants; rather, it's that before the Longqing era, whenever the government faced major expenditures, it often raised funds by selling salt permits to salt merchants.

For example, when Wang Shouren was suppressing a rebellion, the government treasury was insufficient, so he directly raised funds by collecting salt taxes to recruit soldiers.

This was merely one of the Ming Dynasty's methods of exploiting salt merchants, making them bear costs they shouldn't have to bear.

Wei Guangde's idea was for all the major saltworks to completely withdraw from the salt market, so that they would no longer buy or sell salt and would hand the market over to salt merchants.

Salt merchants had to bid for sales locations and be listed in the catalog to participate in the purchase, transportation, and sale of salt.

The government only supervised the amount of salt purchased by salt merchants and the amount transported to the sales locations, punishing illegal salt merchants from a supervisory perspective.

This was actually a very bold idea, and it was a method used from the late Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.

While it may seem that the imperial court has lost control of the salt industry, the supervisory power actually makes salt merchants more cautious and avoids having their illegal means of seeking exorbitant profits detected by the government, which can effectively stabilize salt prices.

Wei Guangde's ideas were completely different from Cao Yikui's ideas on salt administration reform, so it took him a long time to digest Wei Guangde's proposal.

"Grand Secretary Wei, the saltworks don't handle salt purchases, this..."

"A special market was set up, where salt producers brought their salt to the market, and salt merchants could choose and buy it as if they were browsing a market."

The two engaged in a question-and-answer session in the duty room, with Wei Guangde patiently addressing Cao Yikui's concerns.

In fact, Wei Guangde did establish an exchange at the beginning, to conduct spot and futures trading based on the current salt grade classification in the Ming Dynasty. However, the result might be that salt would pile up in large cities with concentrated populations, while sparsely populated areas might be left untouched.

Therefore, the idea of ​​using salt as a financial instrument is not feasible.

Moreover, what the imperial court wanted was stable salt prices in the local areas, not drastic fluctuations that would affect people's livelihoods.

Naturally, although this method is feasible, I dare not even consider it.

After all, he is the prime minister, not a financial oligarch.

"The salt producers can decide to sell their salt based on the price offered by the merchants. They only need to transport enough salt to the market to fulfill their tax obligations to the court. When the merchants purchase salt and transport it out of the market, they collect salt tax."

This also prevents salt merchants from colluding to lower salt prices.

After all, they needed to transport the salt out of the supply areas on time; otherwise, it would be a violation of regulations, and the Salt Transport Bureau could naturally impose penalties.

Wei Guangde continued to explain his ideas for salt administration reform. The Ming Dynasty had six major salt fields: Lianghuai Salt Field, Liangzhe Salt Field, Changlu Salt Field, Hedong Salt Field, Fujian Salt Field, and Shandong Salt Field, which accounted for most of the Ming Dynasty's salt production.

The Lianghuai Saltworks had branch offices in Taizhou, Tongzhou, and Huaian, with a total of more than 30 saltworks.

The Liangzhe Saltworks had branch offices in Jiaxing, Songjiang, Ningbo, and Shaoxing, totaling more than 35 saltworks.

The Changlu Saltworks had branches in Cangzhou and Qingzhou, and the number of saltworks was more than 20.

Shandong Saltworks also has two branch offices, and the number of saltworks is more than 15.

Compared with other salt fields, the Ming Dynasty's northern border salt fields were smaller in scale and fewer in number.

Wei Guangde chose Changlu Saltworks as the pilot project mainly because Changlu Saltworks was responsible for the salt supply to the surrounding areas of Zhili, and if any problems arose, the imperial court could handle them in a timely manner.

As for the salt fields in Shandong and Fujian, their scale is somewhat small. The Changlu Salt Field, which is neither too big nor too small, is a suitable target for reform.

"Go back and think it over carefully, draft a plan. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. If you make a mistake, correct it. If you feel pressured, just push it to me."

When Wei Guangde saw Cao Yikui off from the cabinet, he spoke to him earnestly.

Salt administration reform was Wei Guangde's first reform goal after taking office, and the decisions implemented by Zhang Juzheng were largely unchanged. Although there were minor flaws, they were generally good and could be continued.

In fact, because Wei Guangde participated in the discussion of Zhang Juzheng's reforms, he would point out and correct the mistakes made by Zhang Juzheng in the reforms if he could, and deal with the mistakes according to their severity if they could not be corrected.

Some policies will definitely be abolished next year, but most will remain unchanged.

After seeing Cao Yikui off, Wei Guangde returned to his duty room. Lu Bu was standing at the door with a document in his hand. When he saw Wei Guangde coming over, he handed him the document and said, "Master, this is what the Ministry of War sent earlier. The army is temporarily resting on Jeju Island, while the navy from Busan has already set off for Sado Island."

"No battle reports have been sent?"

Wei Guangde took the document and asked one more question.

"Not yet, we haven't engaged in battle with the Japanese pirates yet."

"I said in a low voice," Lu Bu said.

Because there was no battle report, he didn't immediately go in and disturb his master's conversation with the salt commissioner after the Ministry of War sent the document. Instead, he waited until the person left before taking it out.

"So good."

Wei Guangde nodded and smiled, then took the documents and went into the duty room.

He was truly satisfied that the secrecy surrounding the eastward expedition of tens of thousands of troops could be maintained to this extent.

However, this cheerful mood vanished by the afternoon, as the Japanese Imperial Guards sent back the latest intelligence, indicating that Japan seemed to have become aware of the Ming Dynasty's movements.

"How could this be?"

It was still in his duty room, only now the person was Liu Shouyou.

"From what we can see, the problem seems to have occurred in Busan, and someone leaked the information."

According to the latest intelligence, Japan knows that its naval target in Busan is Sado Island, but it seems they are unaware of anything else.

Liu Shouyou stood below Wei Guangde, head bowed, and answered.

"If they can detect that there are designs on Sado Island, they will naturally think of other things as well."

Wei Guangde asked calmly, "Has the intelligence been sent to Jeju Island?"

Wei Guangde had already told Liu Shouyou that the intelligence from Japan should be made in duplicate, one copy to be sent to the capital and the other directly to the front lines. Regardless of whether it was useful or not, it was good that Qi Jiguang at least knew about it.

It was only then that Qi Jiguang learned that the Embroidered Uniform Guard had been spying on Japan.

"It's already been sent; he should have received the news yesterday."

Liu Shouyou said, bowing his head.

"Send a message to the Ministry of War, explaining the situation. As for Jeju Island, we'll leave it alone."

"A general in the field may disobey orders; let Qi Jiguang decide for himself."

Upon receiving the intelligence, Wei Guangde's first thought was to shorten the army's stay on Jeju Island, land on Honshu Island in Japan as soon as possible, disperse the Japanese forces heading to Sado Island, and at the same time, send a part of the East China Sea Fleet north ahead of time to support Sado Island.

The gold and silver produced there are so tempting; the tens of thousands of taels of gold produced each year alone are quite valuable, and there are also large quantities of silver.

Even if the attack on the Iwami region fails, as long as Sado Island can be controlled, the Ming Dynasty's military investment will be recouped and there will be a profit.

Moreover, by occupying Sado Island, it can later serve as a base for the Hokkaido Navy.

According to the intelligence gathered so far, Sado Island is an ice-free port that does not freeze in winter.

This differs from the situation found by the East China Sea Fleet around the North Sea, where many areas freeze over in winter, making it unsuitable for the fleet to survive the winter.

Wei Guangde vaguely remembered that the area around Nurgan was a place with an ice-free port called Vladivostok, but the East China Sea Fleet's expedition fleet did not find it.

In reality, Wei Guangde was misled by later generations; the Russian Pacific Fleet does not have a truly ice-free port.

Vladivostok, also known as Haishenwai, has a four-month ice-free period each year. However, the ice is relatively thin, and icebreakers can be used to break the ice, allowing fleets to set sail.

But that's many years from now. Right now, all Wei Guangde knows about is that the only ice-free port around Beihai is Sado Island.

When Wei Guangde of the cabinet made the decision to relinquish power, Qi Jiguang also summoned generals such as Liu Ting and Chen Lin to discuss the matter at an official residence in the center of Jeju Island.

After the intelligence from the Embroidered Uniform Guard was delivered to Jeju Island yesterday, he notified the military commanders and asked them to think about it overnight and give an answer today.

"Tomorrow the entire army will set off to attack the Iwami area. Since the Japanese pirates have discovered the navy's covetousness for Sado Island, they will likely strengthen their coastal defenses soon."

Under these circumstances, our only option is to land in Japan as quickly as possible, complete the imperial court's orders, and occupy the Iwami region before they discover us.

Liu Ting spoke.

"We're racing against the Japanese pirates. They're currently focusing their defenses on Sado Island, and their navy might be deployed there as well. This will make our landing on Honshu, Japan, much easier."

As for Sado Island, if the East China Sea Fleet lacks sufficient forces, the South China Sea Fleet can deploy some ships to provide support.

Deng Zilong spoke up, saying that he was in charge of the South China Sea Navy and that it was most appropriate for him to speak at this time.

"No need for that. Last night, Commander Xu Qiaoan came to my camp to discuss things, and in the early hours of the morning, he led a part of the East China Sea Navy to Sado Island to provide support."

The original plan was to use the South China Sea Fleet and the East China Sea Fleet to encircle and annihilate the Japanese navy during the landing, but it seems that the plan has changed and the battlefield may appear near Sado Island.

However, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

At this point, Qi Jiguang stood up.

As he stood up, the generals below also rose, and the sound of armor plates clattering filled the hall.

"Everyone realized that time waits for no one, and we could not rest here for a few days as planned. The attack on the Japanese must be launched as soon as possible, and the Japanese country is strengthening its coastal defenses."

I hereby order the navy to prepare today, and tomorrow morning, the northern and southern armies will board their ships to attack Honshu Island of Japan.

Everything proceeds according to plan. Anyone who delays or shows cowardice will be severely punished by this official.

"The general will obey the order."

As Qi Jiguang issued his military order, all the officers in the hall bowed to receive it.

In fact, everything was planned in advance. The troop transport ships and the warships were allocated separately. The warships escorted the troop transport ships to land and defeat the Japanese navy.

The only change this time was that the number of warships escorting the Northern Army was reduced by more than half, because they were taken to Sado Island by Xu Qiaoan.

According to the intelligence obtained, the decision made at the emergency meeting of the Oda clan was to send the main force of the Kuki navy to support Sado Island, while the remaining part would be stationed on Tsushima Island to monitor Korea, and at the same time, spies would be sent into Korea to gather military intelligence.

However, they did not seem to have a clear understanding of the Ming Dynasty's offensive, so they did not pass the news on to the Mori, Shimazu, and other families. Only the senior retainers of the Oda clan knew the news.

This gave the Ming Dynasty an opportunity. (End of Chapter)