Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 645: Playing Trouble Again

The first day of the Lunar New Year, Wushen Year.

The first year of the Hongzhi reign of the Ming Dynasty officially arrived.

The first thing the Hongzhi court did after it came to power was to implement the new Salt Law, officially changing the Kaizhong Law to the Zhese Law. In this way, the Ming court directly took back the authority to issue salt permits back to the central government.

That day was the day when all the ministers entered the palace to celebrate the New Year.

Surprisingly, the ministers did not react strongly to the implementation of the new salt law. After hearing about this, it seemed that everyone did not care, and it did not even trigger a heated discussion among the ministers.

After the lunch banquet, the ministers left the palace one after another.

Because Huai En did not attend the banquet, he did not know how the ministers reacted. After he sent Li Rong to investigate the situation and came back to report, he learned that the ministers seemed to have no objection to it.

"Eh? Those civil officials who strictly abide by the rules of their ancestors can really remain calm and indifferent to this?"

Huai En seemed very surprised.

In his opinion, when faced with such subversive reforms, those ministers would not be like good children, not crying or making a fuss and doing nothing.

Li Rong immediately introduced what he had learned: "As far as I know, the civil and military officials in the court had heard about the salt law reform a long time ago."

"Ah."

Huai En nodded and said knowingly, "Your Majesty has already put the details of the salt law reform in the Ministry of Revenue for discussion. The news cannot be suppressed forever. Officials outside who want to know should have already known about it."

Li Rong said: "It is said that the nobles in Beijing and the feudal lords in various places, especially those of the Grand Princess and the Princess' House, who have a large amount of salt permits, are not in a hurry. After all, this salt law reform did not say that the old salt permits would be abolished, but only changed the future distribution mode of salt permits."

Huai En was finally relieved and said with a smile: "I understand... It turns out that almost everyone thinks that as long as they have the priority of guarding the salt field, even if the salt law is reformed, it will not cause much hindrance to their existing interests..."

"I think that's the reality."

Li Rong said frankly, "The number of old salt permits is really too large. This salt law reform seems to be very large, but there is not much new in it, at least in the eyes of the princes in Beijing. I heard that they have ordered the merchants under their auspices not to use silver to purchase salt permits, so as to ensure that the number of salt permits on the market is controlled within a certain range to protect their interests."

Huai En pondered it carefully and raised his doubts: "Will not all merchants in Beijing obey orders? It is said that Zhang Guozhang has very close contacts with merchants in Huizhou. Some people are obedient and do not use silver to buy salt permits, but it does not mean that all merchants are not tempted."

Li Rong smiled and shook his head: "Eunuch Huai, think about it, now the salt field is no longer under the control of Zhang Guozhang, and the Hui merchants can only defend it step by step. In this case, even if they use silver to exchange for salt, if they can't exchange for salt, it's just like waste paper. Who would waste their own money on water?"

Huai En looked quite cautious, stroking his smooth chin and said, "In this case, what is the meaning of the court's salt policy reform? Your Majesty has spent so much effort on reform, but has not gained any actual benefits. Isn't this disappointing to Your Majesty?"

Even Li Rong, who had always admired Huai En, felt that he was too hypocritical after hearing this.

You were trying every means to trip up Zhang Laizhan and cause trouble for him earlier, but didn't you consider these issues?
But on second thought, it seems that from beginning to end Huai En never directly stood on the front line against Zhang Luan and set up obstacles for the new salt law. He just intentionally guided the cabinet and relevant civil officials to stand up and oppose it when communicating with them, but the result was not satisfactory. In this way, Huai En maintained a relatively neutral and good image.

It doesn't seem too abrupt for Huai'en to show that he always considers the emperor's interests and is wholeheartedly thinking about the emperor.

"Then...Eunuch Huai, what do we need to do?"

Li Rong asked eagerly.

If you feel sorry for the emperor and think that he was used by Zhang Luan, then why don't you come up with a solution and let us do something practical for the emperor and make up for the implementation of the new salt law?

Huai En did not give any specific countermeasures, but said with a dark face: "It seems that the implementation of the new salt law will neither bring a large amount of silver to the court nor ensure that the northwest border reserves are abundant. It is basically a bad policy."

Li Rong asked, "I don't know how to resolve this?"

"Let's take one step at a time."

Huai En seemed to have thought of something, but deliberately didn't say it, which made Li Rong anxious.

Then Huai En sent Li Rong to take care of his own business, and he went out, as if he was in a hurry to do something.

……

...Huai En did not leave the palace, but went directly to find Tan Ji.

Qin Ji was originally handling East Factory affairs in the factory duty room. He was shocked to see Huai En suddenly barging in.

After all, at the moment, Tan Ji is only an acting eunuch in charge of the Eastern Depot, and Huai En is so powerful that Tan Ji would unconsciously feel three points shorter in front of Huai En and appear to be very insecure.

"Eunuch Huai, what do you want me to do?"

Qin Ji quickly stood up and asked for instructions.

Huai En came in front of Qin Ji and motioned for him to sit down. Then he told Qin Ji the results of Li Rong's previous investigation truthfully.

Tan Ji nodded and said, "These are actually things that can be expected."

Huai En said, "Has the East Factory ever asked how many salt merchants went to exchange for new salt permits today, the first day of the new law? How much tax silver did the court get from this?"

"This one……"

Qin Ji frowned and explained, "Eunuch Huai, today is the beginning of the new year. On the first day of the new year, even ordinary people put down all their work and enjoy the rare holiday, not to mention the merchants who have spare money and are more focused on enjoying themselves. Is it really necessary to investigate today? Perhaps many merchants from other places don't know about this matter..."

"Don't look for so many objective reasons. Do you mean there is no reason for the time being?"

Wynn asked.

Tan Ji nodded helplessly, then smiled bitterly and said, "It's the first day of the salt administration reform, and there really isn't much going on. But the imperial decree was only issued a few hours ago, so we don't need to be too anxious."

Huai En asked with a fake smile: "Have you ever thought about this, Hou Fang? If the merchants are not active in exchanging the new salt permits, which results in the court's actual profit being very bleak, how will we report to His Majesty? How can we make His Majesty continue to trust Zhang Guozhang?"

As soon as Qin Ji heard this, he felt that Huai En had bad intentions.

But as a good man, he knew some things clearly, but he would not take the initiative to point them out. He immediately asked calmly: "Eunuch Huai, I wonder what you mean...?"

Huai En said: "My suggestion is that as the eunuch in charge of the East Factory, you should always consider His Majesty. You need to immediately visit the many meritorious officials in Beijing on the pretext of paying New Year's greetings, especially the residences of Duke Ying, Duke Baoguo, and other prominent officials in Beijing, and ask them to come forward and use silver to exchange for new salt permits."

"what?"

Qin Ji was shocked when he heard this. He was a little confused about Huai En's position.

Is this helping Zhang Luan?
Or is he planning some evil plan to frame Zhang Luan?
Huai En sighed and said, "When a new law is implemented, no matter if it is good or bad, most people will wait and see at first. No one is willing to sacrifice a lot. After all, once the salt tax reform has little effect, the court will definitely make another reform. Those who try it first may not even make a splash with the money they throw in."

Qin Ji asked, "So what you mean is... to ask me to help Zhang Guozhang and ask those who are closely related to the salt administration, such as the meritorious officials who hold a large number of salt permits, to buy more?"

"It's a trade-in, not a purchase."

Huai En corrected him, "If the implementation is really not going smoothly, we can even give them some benefits."

"Why?"

Tan Ji asked.

Huai En said: "In fact, those who hold a large number of salt permits should understand that this salt policy reform is mostly aimed at them. At this time, not only are they waiting and watching, but they are more likely to want to add insult to injury... If you don't give them any benefits at all, will they be willing to take out the silver and shoot themselves in the foot?"

"what?"

Qin Ji instantly felt that Huai En was both helping the emperor and trapping Zhang Luan.

This meant that the court would sell salt permits at a discount to those meritorious officials so that they would come to "show their support" and ensure that the emperor's new salt policy had a good start.

However, this would lead to the problem of the same salt permits having different prices, further damaging the interests of those merchants in the market, and causing the cost price of official salt to be completely different from the moment it was produced.

(End of this chapter)