History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 435 Salt Industry
Tears wouldn't dry anytime soon, so Yuan Mao turned back, abandoning all pretense of manly courage. He gently wiped Wei Yao's eyelashes with his fingertips, saying aggrievedly, "Tears are salty, but this saltiness is different from the saltiness of regular salt. Do you know why?"

Wei Yao could easily understand her mischievous husband's thoughts, and she smiled before even answering.

Yuan Mao immediately guessed that she knew what he wanted to say, and he nudged her lightly with his shoulder, shamelessly interrupting, "Because salt costs money, so the saltiness cannot be mixed. Tears are different; they are mixed with bitterness, astringency, and the coldness and warmth of human relationships."

He then said, “This time when I went out to supervise the army’s grain supplies, I found that the salt was mixed with a lot of impurities, including mud, inferior salt, and ground rice husks. Ha, the methods of counterfeiting are truly beyond imagination. Yaoyao, do you know how shocked and angry I was when I discovered that the salt transported to the border was inferior to the most ordinary salt in the market?”

"I know, I know," Wei Yao said, squeezing Yuan Mao's hand tightly to comfort him. He didn't mention how he discovered the counterfeit military salt; the process must have been perilous, and a moment's carelessness could have cost him his life!

Yuan Mao: "At first, I really couldn't understand why those who tampered with military salt, if they had used their wisdom for good, wouldn't it have benefited the country and the people? In the end, wouldn't they have benefited themselves as well?"

"Later I realized that the benefits they gained from working for the country and the people were too little and too slow for them. It was the money they obtained through collusion with merchants that allowed them to squander it."

"It wasn't until I came back to watch you handle the case and saw the names of the officials you wrote down that I truly understood that corrupt officials are everywhere, layer upon layer, forming a huge spider web! Before me, it wasn't that no one had discovered that the military salt had been tampered with, but what good did it do? The impeachment memorial I wrote tonight might be on the desk of a corrupt official tomorrow! At most, they'll arrest a few minor officials to appease them, but as long as the spiders that spin the web are there, they'll bribe other minor officials to patch up the gaps in the web."

“Yaoyao,” he leaned on Wei Yao’s lap, pouring out his true thoughts, “There are so many corrupt officials because it’s easy to be corrupt, and so many incompetent officials because pretending to be incompetent can save your life. I haven’t suffered any losses or retaliations yet, so I dare to seek justice and am willing to be a good official. But what if the power to retaliate against me is stronger than me, stronger than my father, or even stronger than you? At that time, I dare not say that I can still maintain my original aspirations as an official, I dare not say that I still dare to speak out and impeach…”

His voice grew softer and softer as he spoke.

Wei Yao gently patted his back, and after a few pats, Yuan Mao fell asleep.

“Salt, taxes and profits,” Wei Yao whispered.

The couple held vastly different positions in the officialdom, leading to significant differences in their perspectives. What angered and frustrated Yuan Mao was a stepping stone for Wei Yao's advancement. She was already the most meritorious Attendant-in-Ordinary in the Secretariat, but she was far from content with her current position. Her next step was to take over the entire Ministry of Personnel after Yuan Xiang fell from power!

To become a prime minister worthy of his name!
This is a big step, so we must offer advice that is highly beneficial to the court.

The opportunity is here.

Salt industry!

Wei Yao now knows the following edicts concerning the salt industry: one was issued in November of the fourth year of Emperor Xianwen's reign (1494), when the court abolished the official in charge of supervising salt industry taxes; the other was issued at the end of Emperor Xiaowen's reign (1496), when the court reinstated the Salt Industry Supervisory Office and adjusted the salt tax according to the price of salt.

Regardless of how the imperial edicts were changed, the court consistently allowed private salt production, leading to collusion between officials and merchants and the seizure of prime salt ponds by local powerful families. Moreover, the price of salt produced by the wealthy and powerful was entirely at their discretion, with no corresponding laws or regulations governing it.

Wei Yao pondered that if she proposed ways to punish the illegal salt merchants, she would probably only be able to arrest a group of scapegoats, which would still not change the root cause of the salt industry's greed. Perhaps...

She also worried that if she spoke on this matter, some officials would object, and those ministers would encourage the court to be lenient with the people and persuade the emperor not to compete with the people for profits in the salt industry, but to allow both the people and the government to produce salt.

Wei Yao understood the emperor. The northern border had suffered from drought for years, and the emperor could not stand the government competing with the people for profit. If a minister also figured this out and seized the opportunity to petition for changes to the salt decree before her, her plans would become even more difficult.

It was late at night. She could put aside her thoughts on the salt tax for now; her immediate priority was figuring out the connection between the three murder cases: Xue Zhixiao, Liu Caidao, and Sun Tu. That afternoon, the clerk sent by Gu Kai had told her that the coroner had confirmed that the body of "Liu Da" was indeed Liu Shun, who had been missing for several days. Liu Shun had been found, and now a woodcutter named Chai Lang had appeared. Based on the clues she had gathered, either Sun Tu was lucky enough that Liu Shun hadn't succeeded in his crime, preventing someone else from taking Sun Tu's place, or there was another reason that allowed the potter to escape the calamity.

In the case of Sun Tu, there are two things to be clarified: First, did Liu Shun really try to kill someone and get killed instead, as Sun Tu claimed? Second, the missing Chai Lang was not listed in the county government's household register. This suggests that the firewood seller's real name was definitely not "Chai Lang." If he didn't drown in the ditch but escaped the jailer's pursuit in this way, it means that "Chai Lang" was very vigilant and might even be skilled in martial arts!

Gu Kai suspected that Chai Lang was the one who was going to replace Sun Tu, and Wei Yao held the same suspicion.

Gu Kai further deduced that Liu Shun wanted to kill Sun Tu so that he could take the blame himself. Although this would damage his reputation, it was better than being arrested by the authorities.

Wei Yao used Gu Kai to handle matters precisely for this purpose; the other party had handled countless cases and his deductions were logical and methodical, saving her time in thinking.

“The Big Dipper.” Wei Yao picked up her pen and wrote a passage from the ancient book “Huanliu” in the book “He Guanzi” on the paper: When the handle of the Big Dipper points east, it is spring all over the world; when the handle of the Big Dipper points south, it is summer all over the world; when the handle of the Big Dipper points west, it is autumn all over the world; when the handle of the Big Dipper points north, it is winter all over the world.

Around the four characters “East, South, West, North”, she wrote the names of four people: “Liu Caidao”, “Xue Laizi”, “Lu Mu”, and “Sun Tu”.

Lu Mu is a coffin maker in Cixiao Lane in the west of the city. He lives alone and his face is disfigured. Gu Kai said he would go to Cixiao Lane first thing tomorrow morning.

Could the mastermind behind the evil scheme of using the Seven Star Urn to nourish the soul have simultaneously used the locations of these four people's residences to correspond with the Big Dipper's theory of determining the four seasons and four times of the year?
What about the theory that the Seven Stars determine "Yin and Yang" and "Five Elements"?
Looking at the names of Liu Caidao and the others, Wei Yao muttered to herself, "Liu Caidao is a butcher who uses a knife to kill livestock year-round. Is the knife made of metal?"

"If the speculation about Lumu is also correct, Lumu is used to make coffins, and coffins are made from wood, which belongs to the wood element."

"Xue Laizi is a fisherman, and his life is inseparable from the river. Could it be that he is a metaphor for water?"

"Sun Tu is a potter, which belongs to the earth element? He fires the kiln, so he can also be associated with fire. Judging from his name, it has many meanings related to the earth element."

"Then who is the fire?"

Wei Yao frowned, then asked in confusion: Yin and Yang?

Since the other party is superstitious about the Seven Stars theory, how could they let go of the theory that the Seven Stars govern Yin and Yang? Therefore, Yin and Yang must exist in this case!

Wei Yao was not skilled in divination, but she knew the entire Book of Changes by heart. On a separate sheet of paper, she wrote down the contents about Yin and Yang: "The alternation of Yin and Yang is called the Way. That which continues it is goodness, and that which completes it is nature."

"The unpredictable nature of Yin and Yang is called the spirit."

“It is vast and matches the heavens and earth, adaptable and matches the four seasons, the meaning of yin and yang matches the sun and moon, and the goodness of simplicity matches the supreme virtue.”

These three sentences all expound on the "Tao," which states that Yin and Yang are not only opposites but can also transform into each other, and can be one still and the other moving.

Suddenly struck by a thought, Wei Yao put down her pen and murmured, "Could it be that there are two people who orchestrated this whole thing?"