The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 152 The Miserable Salt Households
The Lianghuai salt merchants are divided into Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants. As the name suggests, Jin merchants are all from Shanxi.

It grew stronger when the Ming Dynasty implemented the law of opening China. In order to encourage merchants to transport grain to border towns such as Xuanfu in Datong, the imperial court adopted a policy of transporting as much grain as possible in exchange for how much salt.

Although these Shanxi merchants have taken root in Lianghuai for more than 100 years, bought property and land, they still regard themselves as Shanxi merchants and are very united.

The Huizhou merchants are out-and-out natives of Lianghuai, and many of their ancestors belonged to the nobles of Huaixi.

Whether it is Shanxi merchants or Huizhou merchants, in fact, in the early Ming Dynasty, Lao Zhu and his son supported themselves to check and balance the local big families in the south of the Yangtze River.

Because in the early Ming Dynasty, the big families in the south of the Yangtze River, in fact, still turned to the old Yuan in their hearts, and they really disliked Lao Zhu's Ming Dynasty from the bottom of their hearts.

For this reason, when Zhu Di moved his capital to Beijing, he left many nobles in Nanjing.

It is a pity that after more than 200 years, whether it is the Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants who supported them at the beginning, or the nobles who stayed behind, they have become the actual gravediggers of the Ming Dynasty, just like the local big families in Jiangnan. Cannibalize and shake the foundation of Ming Dynasty's rule.

At this moment, in the front yard of the manor, nearly a hundred salt merchants were divided into two factions, one on the left and one on the right, discussing in low voices on small stools.

Everyone's face looked gloomy and gloomy, and their hearts were nervous, worrying about how the imperial court would reform the salt administration.

As for the other businessmen, they could only stay in Yangzhou city and wait for the good news without receiving the invitation from the red lady.

"My lady is here!"

Just when everyone was a little restless and guessing, a high-pitched song rang out, making everyone even more nervous.

"Your Majesty is a thousand years old!"

Everyone hurriedly stood up, knelt down and shouted.

The red lady was also wearing a silver-white armor, a red cloak, and a sword tied around her waist. After she sat down on the grand teacher's chair under the eaves, she said:

"Get up!"

"Thank you madam!"

"sit down!"

Only then did everyone carefully sit back on the small stools.

The red lady glanced around and saw that they were all wearing ordinary cotton coats, so she sneered in her heart, took a sip from the teacup on the table next to her, and said slowly.

"Before talking about the salt administration, I would like to tell you an interesting story. Recently, I heard that children from all over the south of the Yangtze River are singing a song like this. The red lady, the bad lady, eats children the evil lady...

Hehe, it sounds quite catchy, and I don’t know who made it up. You should have heard of it, right? "

At the end of the red lady's speech, although she was smiling, that smile made everyone shudder, and felt like sitting on pins and needles for a while.

I don't even understand, what does Hong Niangzi mean by mentioning this matter at this time?
The red lady didn't speak when she saw them, and she didn't bother to talk nonsense.

Because at this moment her army is already raiding the homes of these people.

"You guys really have the guts. If you are dissatisfied with this palace, you can say it directly, or even scold a few words, but it's shameless to bewitch children and make up concubines in such a sneaky way. There is still a little bit in your eyes. His Majesty and the court?"

The red lady said, and finally stood up, her pretty face was flushed red, and her eyes were full of murderous intent.

"Your Majesty is wronged."

"Niang Niang, I don't know about this matter, it's none of our business!"

"Your Majesty, this matter must have been done by the intruder, wanting to ruin your reputation..."

Seeing that the red lady put the shit bowl on their heads, everyone was so frightened that they all knelt on the ground and yelled that they were wronged.

"Whether you are wronged, you know in your heart, is it really easy to bully me when I am a red lady? You can call me a red lady, but if you want to secretly use these little tricks to arrange me, don't even think about it!"

"As the saying goes, if people don't know, unless they do nothing, do you think that sending some people to pretend to be small merchants and peddlers to deceive those children will be able to hide the truth and avoid the detection of the palace?"

"Ma'am, it's really none of my business."

"Your Majesty's enlightenment!"

The rumor-making matter is indeed inseparable from the salt merchants. In fact, it is inseparable from almost all the gentry, landlords, and large merchants in the south of the Yangtze River.

But the salt merchants knew that this matter must not be admitted, and they believed that the red lady had absolutely no real evidence.

The main planners of this incident are naturally members of the Donglin Party, but the specific executors are salt merchants and cloth merchants.The gentry and literati from all over the country also played a role in fueling the flames.

As for the purpose, it is natural to force the emperor to take her military power, or even give her to death.

Because in the eyes of the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, this red lady is far more threatening to them than the other four generals.

As long as she is there, civil servants will never be able to overshadow the emperor, and it will be difficult to control military power.

The most worrying thing is that this red lady is alone, she is also the emperor's woman, and she can lead troops to fight, so she can't be fooled easily.

Acting without scruples, but also very hostile to the big family, the key is that the emperor trusts and favors her very much.

It can be said that the existence of Hong Niangzi is simply the incarnation of the emperor, making it difficult for literati in the south of the Yangtze River to sleep and eat, and they cannot accept the existence of such a person.

However, those methods of sowing dissension and making great achievements are not feasible for Hong Niangzi. Apart from tarnishing her reputation, the literati in the south of the Yangtze River really have nothing to do.

"I don't bother to talk to you. A group of shameless people who dare to be or not to make up concubines and discredit your majesty is a serious crime. It is not too much to confiscate your family and exterminate your family. However, your majesty is benevolent, and this palace will not follow you." If you care about it, all of them will be dispatched to Qiongzhou."

Originally, everyone thought that Hong Niangzi would use this to pick two salt merchants to kill chickens and monkeys, and then rectify the salt industry.

But what everyone didn't expect was that she was so crazy that she wanted to send them all to Qiongzhou, and she almost fainted from fright.

"Aren't you afraid of provoking criticism from all the people in the world if you want to send me out without any proof? Don't you be afraid of arousing the wrath of the scholars all over the world?"

"Please forgive me, Madam, we will fully support the reform of the salt administration, otherwise the salt industry will be in chaos, and the world will definitely be shaken!"

"Hmph! You think too highly of yourself. Could it be that you boiled all the salt?

Don't worry, after you get rid of this group of profiteers who beat the bone and suck the marrow, the salt will only be sold at a lower price, and the world will never be shaken. "

"Hand them all down for me."

The red lady sneered, and then directly waved her hand.

Immediately, a group of soldiers like wolves and tigers rushed in with sharp knives, and dragged down these salt merchants who were wearing coarse cotton clothes, but all of them were fat, big ears, thin skin and tender meat, like dragging dead pigs.

At this time, the entire city of Yangzhou was in a commotion.

The streets were full of soldiers running back and forth, warehouses on the pier were seized, mansions were surrounded, and the entire city of Yangzhou was blocked.

Not only in Yangzhou, but in the next few days, the entire Huaihe River and Huaihe area will be ransacked.

At first, other businessmen and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River thought that the red lady was just killing chickens and monkeys, but when they learned that all the salt merchants had been taken over by one pot, everyone was frightened.

For a moment, the entire upper class in Jiangnan fell into panic. They never thought that Hong Niangzi was so crazy and so unscrupulous.

What is surprising is that, facing such atrocities by the red lady, other businessmen and gentry chose to remain silent, and no one dared to stand up and take the lead in making trouble.

At this time, Hong Niangzi left Yangzhou, handed over all the house raids to Chen Yuanyuan, and took nearly a thousand people to Yancheng County.

Yancheng County is located at the junction of Huai'an Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture, and is located by the sea.

Since most of the land is saline-alkali land, it is impossible to grow crops. The 10,000+ people in the territory live by boiling salt.

At this time, the news that the imperial court wanted to rectify the salt industry had already reached here, and countless salt farmers who were cooking salt were also talking about it.

"Your Majesty, this is Liujia Village. Hundreds of households in the village cook salt for a living."

The county magistrate of Yancheng County pointed to a small village not far ahead, and introduced it to the lady in a very respectful tone.

"Let's go, let's go to Liujia Village first."

The red lady waved her hand and walked forward.

When they arrived at the entrance of the village, hundreds of people from Liujia Village, men, women, old and young were taken to the open space at the entrance of the village.

When they heard that the imperial concubine was coming, all the people hurriedly knelt down, while the children kept their eyes evasive, obviously the rumors had also spread here.

"Get up, don't be nervous, I just came here this time to see how everyone cooks salt."

"Liu Zhixian, let everyone leave first. There should be salt cooking here, so as not to catch fire, I will check each one."

"It's the lady."

Liu Zhixian hurriedly responded, and then greeted the people, "You guys are all gone, what should you do, don't walk around indiscriminately and make loud noises."

The people then went home and continued to cook salt.

The red lady also came to the nearest one, and as soon as she entered the yard, she saw an earthen stove with a large iron pot on it, steam was bubbling in the pot, and a big fire was burning underneath.

A family of six, all sallow, emaciated, and dirty, stood by the stove, nervous.

The red lady came to the pot, looked at the seawater in the pot, and was also a little curious, and asked, "How much salt can be boiled in this pot?"

"Back to your mother..."

"Shut up, I didn't let you talk."

Liu Zhixian on the side immediately wanted to answer, but was stared at by the red lady.

"Return...return to empress, this pot can cook three or four catties of salt."

An old man next to him stammered and replied that he was obviously the head of the family.

"Three or four catties, so much? How long does it take to cook this pot? How much can you cook in a month?"

The red lady was also taken aback, looking at the simple earthen house, and at the dilapidated appearance of the whole family, she asked in disbelief.

"My lady, this pot will take about a day and a night to cook. If God opens his eyes, a stone of salt can be boiled in a month."

The old man spoke more succinctly this time.

"It takes a day and a night to cook a pot, doesn't that mean you have to take turns guarding it?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Can you show me the salt you cooked?"

"My lady, wait a moment..."

The old man immediately ordered his two sons to go into the house and bring out a bag of salt. The two sons, the older thirty and the younger twenty, seemed very excited.

"This salt is not bad, how much can this stone be sold for?"

The red lady looked at the yellowed salt in the bag, grabbed some and tasted it, although it was a bit bitter, it was much better than the salt eaten by ordinary people in the north.

"Mrs. Hou, the salt in our Liujia Village is collected by the Hou family. They come once a month, and the price is two hundred cash per stone."

"What? It's only two hundred cash for a stone?" Although she had prepared for it, Hong Niangzi was still shocked.

The salt bar in the north can be sold for a hundred cents a catty, and there is a lot of sand, but the salt here is so good that some salt merchants only pay two hundred cents a catty to the salt households.

"These profiteers deserve to be killed!"

"Two hundred Wen a month, can your family of six survive?"

"Returning to your mother, the food in Jiangnan is cheaper. You can buy food for a stone for two hundred renminbi. If the common people catch some fish, they can barely make ends meet." Seeing the old man and his two sons hesitating, Liu Zhixian hurried to help them explained.

"Hmph, the two hundred pennies you mentioned is rice bran, right?"

The red lady snorted coldly, and looked at the old man again.

"Your Majesty, one hundred of these two hundred coins will be used to buy firewood, but you only need to provide a stone of salt to the Hou family every month, and the extra can be sold to other people, and the price will be much higher."

"I understand, the Hou family will force you to boil a stone of salt every month, and you will secretly sell the excess to other private salt dealers, right?"

"Yes, Nianglang." The old man replied honestly.

"Then if you can't come up with a stone of salt every month, what will the Hou family do to you?"

"You don't have to be afraid, just say that the Hou family has been copied by this palace, and will be dispatched to Qiongzhou soon, and I will never bully you again."

"Ma'am..."

The whole family fell to their knees and burst into tears, crying heartbreakingly.

Listening to the old man's description of the Hou family's method of torturing Yanhu, Liu Zhixian was already out of his wits and was dripping with sweat.

(End of this chapter)