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

Chapter 153

In fact, salt merchants in Lianghuai and Huaihe Rivers have their own salt factories, but these salt factories do not directly produce salt, but collect salt from salt households for secondary processing.

Some dissolve and filter the salt and process it into the refined salt needed by large households, while others mix the salt with sand to increase its weight and sell it to ordinary people.

The more than [-] salt households in Yancheng have already been divided up by hundreds of salt merchants, but it is impossible for the salt merchants to send people to supervise the salt households to cook salt all the time. , Crack down on private salt dealers, and also stipulate how much salt salt households must hand in every month.

If they fail to hand over, at least they will be beaten and tortured, and at worst, the whole family may lose their lives.

Even so, salt households would still choose to take risks in order to have enough food for their families. They would rather be beaten once a month than hide some salt.

Otherwise, according to the price given by the salt merchants, the whole family can only keep from starving to death.

However, compared to the people in the north who are forced to gnaw bark and eat offspring, the people in the south of the Yangtze River will at least not starve to death, but that's all.

If the aloof Chongzhen heard about what happened to the Yanhu people, he would definitely be shocked if he didn’t believe it. Even the people in the south of the Yangtze River lived as hard as cattle, horses and livestock.

After listening to the torture suffered by the salt merchants, he just looked at Liu Zhixian coldly and asked: "Officer dog, as the parent officer of Yancheng, why do you turn a blind eye to the fact that the salt merchants oppressed and killed Yanhus? Your sage books are all Read about dogs?"

"Your Majesty, it's not that I turn a blind eye to it, but that I don't dare to control it. Those salt merchants have hands and eyes, how can a mere magistrate like me beat them..."

Liu Zhixian's heart trembled, his legs gave way and he fell to his knees on the ground.

"Hmph! Even if you can't fight, wouldn't you report it to the imperial court? My palace sees that you are greedy for life and afraid of death, or you have collected money from Yanshan, and joined forces with them to harm the common people!"

"Your Majesty, I've been wronged..."

"A dog official like you, whether it is wronged or not, keeping it is just a waste of food. Today, I will take your head first to appease the resentment in the hearts of 10,000+ Yanhu in Yancheng. Go to the gate of Yancheng County to show the public."

After finishing speaking, the red lady waved her hand.

Liu Zhixian was so frightened that he passed out and passed out.

While the old man's family was scared, they were excited at the same time.

Immediately, Hong Niangzi went to the other houses in the village to check one by one, and the situation was almost the same. Hundreds of houses were all destitute, struggling to survive.

After calling the villagers to the entrance of the village again, the red lady announced in person: "Folks, you have suffered all these years. I have dealt with all the salt merchants who oppressed you. From now on, I will buy the salt you cook every month. Send someone to collect it in person, one tael of silver and one stone, no bully.

But you can’t sell the salt to other people. If someone forces you to sell the salt, you should tell the person who came to collect the salt, and I will make the decision for everyone! "

One tael of silver and one stone was decided after discussion between Hong Niangzi and Zhang Yan, because even if one tael of silver was collected from Yanhu and sold at a price of twenty Wen per catty, the profit could still be doubled.

The salt households heard that the imperial concubine would personally send someone to collect the salt in the future, and would pay one or two taels of silver for every stone of salt. Everyone was shocked and thought they were dreaming.

The private salt dealers they used to sell were only four to five hundred cash a stone, and it would be considered good if they could sell at most a dozen catties a month.

Now not only the price has doubled, but all the salt can be sold to the empress, earning at least one tael of silver every month.

Thinking of this, everyone trembled with excitement, knelt on the ground and kowtowed to thank, while crying loudly.

The red lady comforted them before leaving.

In the next half month, Hong Niangzi not only went to hundreds of salt villages to inspect in person, but also took over all the salt factories of the salt merchants.

The inspection department of the entire Yancheng County was also arrested, and they were going to be dispatched to Qiongzhou together.

Finally, Tietou was transferred over and asked him to lead 2000 troops to garrison in Yanshan County before returning to Yangzhou.

When they returned to Yangzhou, the properties of hundreds of salt merchants had been inspected. The amount of silver inspected alone was more than 6000 million, there were thousands of manor houses, and there were more than 30 shi of salt in warehouses.

This time, Hong Niangzi only arrested hundreds of salt merchants and their immediate family members, but there were still as many as two to three thousand people.

Originally, Hong Niangzi planned to dispatch all these salt merchants to Qiongzhou, but when she went to Yancheng, she saw the miserable conditions of those salt merchants, especially over the years, countless salt merchants were tortured to death, so she couldn't suppress her heart anger.

In the end, a cauldron was erected outside the city of Yangzhou, and hundreds of salt merchants, large and small, were boiled alive, and their families were sent to Qiongzhou.

This move frightened all the big gentry in the south of the Yangtze River into nightmares like they did in the early Ming Dynasty.

But this time, some bloody scholars finally aroused, went to Nanjing and knelt at the gate of the palace to remonstrate to death, denouncing the atrocities of the red lady, they were no different from rebels.

But after all, this is only a very small number of people. More wealthy households and scholars have chosen to remain silent. Obviously, the crazier the red lady is, the more these people choose to protect themselves by being wise.

This time even Zhang Yan was so frightened that she fell ill when she heard that Hong Niangzi cooked hundreds of salt merchants alive.

Fortunately, at this time, Zhu Cihong's imperial decree finally arrived. It not only appeases the merchants in Jiangnan, but also clearly expresses that the imperial court supports Jiangnan's business, and will resolutely safeguard and protect the legitimate income of merchants.

And the happiest thing is that Hong Niangzi will be transferred back to the capital.

After the imperial decree was read, all the civil servants let out a sigh of relief, and even Zhang Yan heaved a sigh of relief.

She was worried that if Hong Niangzi went on like this, she would eventually have to force the entire Jiangnan scholars to rebel.

And as the news spread that the red lady was going to be transferred back to Beijing by the emperor, the whole south of the Yangtze River was full of cheers.

Of course everyone was cheering in their own homes behind closed doors.

However, almost all the literati, gentry, officials and businessmen have returned to the long-lost smiles on their faces when walking on the street.

Hong Niangzi didn't care much about His Majesty's transfer back to Beijing. In fact, she was eager to return to Beijing soon. Now that she wants money and food, she thinks she can deal with the intruders and the Eight Great Kings.

The red lady herself didn't care, but Chen Yuanyuan and other famous prostitutes were all terrified.

"Look at you guys, I'm just returning to the capital, and I'm not dead, so what's there to worry about? Besides, isn't there a queen mother?"

Seeing Chen Yuanyuan's loveless look, Hong Niangzi said angrily.

"The servant girl is just reluctant to part with the empress..."

Chen Yuanyuan still lowered her head, sobbing softly.

"Okay, don't cry, I will tell Xu Lan, if you need anything from now on, go to her directly."

The red lady waved her hand, thought for a while and said: "Well, you have also made great efforts in raiding the salt merchants this time. My palace canonize you as the seventh-rank wife first, and then report to His Majesty for permission."

"Your Majesty, you must not force it. The status of a servant is lowly and lowly. How can you be an imperial lady? If it is spread, the world will laugh at it!"

Chen Yuanyuan waved her hands in fright.

More still touched.

"Just because you ransacked your home this time, facing gold and silver mountains, no one took a penny of silver privately, so you can be called a lady. In my eyes, your character and integrity are much higher than those of the civil servants."

The red lady said with a straight face.

Obviously, in her eyes, these literati in the south of the Yangtze River are not even comparable to Chen Yuanyuan and other prostitutes.

(End of this chapter)