The immortal of the Tang Dynasty, but the game starts at Xuanwu Gate?

"Salt......"

When Li Shimin brought up the matter, most of the officials remained silent.

Salt and iron, salt and iron, their importance has been emphasized too many times.

The interests represented by these two are even more unimaginable.

Iron is manageable, but salt has always been controlled by several powerful families. Now, Chen Huai'an's salt-making method has earned him a huge fortune with a near-monopoly.

This seriously infringed upon the interests of powerful and influential families.

The rumors that refined salt can kill people, the siege and killing of Chen Huai'an in Chang'an, and today's debate in the court about papermaking are all just power struggles among various factions for their own interests.

The powerful families attacked Chen Huai'an first, but Chen Huai'an countered with his papermaking technique.

This is clearly a counterattack.

Only representatives of various interest groups can get involved in these matters; ordinary officials cannot participate.

"Your Majesty!" Wei Zheng said frankly, "The salt industry is related to the livelihood of the people. Now, some people are willing to harm the lives of the people and disrupt the court for their own selfish interests. I beg Your Majesty to issue an order to thoroughly investigate all those involved, and punish them equally, regardless of their background or social status."

Chen Huai'an also bowed and said, "Your Majesty, as the Minister of Works and the Minister of Revenue, I bear an inescapable responsibility for this incident involving refined salt. It is due to my lax supervision."

Li Shimin said expressionlessly, "How can you be blamed for lax supervision? No one expected this to happen, and no one expected that someone would dare to disregard the millions of disaster victims for their own selfish desires."

"That's not what I want to hear!"

Chen Huai'an pondered and said, "Your Majesty, since the production of refined salt, due to the short time frame and a series of problems such as remoteness and transportation difficulties, the expansion of refined salt production has been very slow, and the income has fallen far short of expectations."

"I propose to implement a new salt system, with government production, government approval, and commercial sales. Merchants in various regions should be allowed to apply for government salt permits to transport salt from government salt fields to various places for sale. At the same time, the maximum price of salt in a certain region should be stipulated, and salt taxes should be set."

"In this way, the government only needs to produce salt."

"After all, the government is indeed not good at managing things, and the government should do its job properly. Traveling all over the country and transporting goods to other places should be the job of merchants."

Upon hearing this, many people in the court had their eyes light up, and even Li Shimin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Chen Huai'an hadn't told him this before.

Changsun Wuji thought about Chen Huai'an's words carefully, paused for a moment, then shook his head with a light laugh.

Sure enough, Chen Huai'an is still the same Chen Huai'an.

Li Shimin wanted a solution to the root cause of the rumors about refined salt, but Chen Huai'an's answer seemed completely irrelevant. Instead, he mentioned that refined salt should be subject to official regulation and commercial sale.

In fact, this is the most ingenious method.

Why?

During the Tang Dynasty, salt was divided into three main categories: salt from the Hedong Pond, well salt from Jiannan Circuit, and sea salt from the southeastern coast.

These natural, high-quality salt sources were nominally partly owned by the government, but due to lax management in the early Tang Dynasty, powerful families achieved actual control through contracting, encroachment, and collusion with officials.

This is why Chen Huai'an encountered so many problems as soon as he touched salt.

Chen Huai'an has taken all the enormous profits for himself. Can the powerful families agree to that?

Absolutely impossible.

Now, Chen Huai'an has once again brought up the profits, so the government no longer needs to bother to open up channels and operate, risking being accused of competing with the people for profits. They only need to hire people to produce salt.

The established families could continue to contract the salt industry through their original methods.

This seems to reduce profits, yet there are price regulations and taxes to pay.

However, there is an issue that has been overlooked.

The market of the Tang Dynasty was indeed very large, but was it as large as the Silk Road?

In the Tang Dynasty, how much does a dou (a unit of dry measure) of salt cost? The finest refined salt costs only a few hundred wen (another unit of dry measure).

What if we moved outside of the Tang Dynasty?

Could such refined salt really sell for a mere hundred coins? Even if the new salt laws of the Tang Dynasty were stringent, could they extend beyond the Tang Dynasty itself?

You should know that a bolt of silk in the Tang Dynasty was only worth a few hundred coins, but the further away it was sold, the more expensive it became. As long as you had connections, it was normal for you to sell it for tens of coins.

Correspondingly, while glass was not rare in other places, it could fetch hundreds or even thousands of strings of cash in the Tang Dynasty.

When Chen Huai'an offered up the benefits, wouldn't the former mortal enemies become collaborators?

As for your so-called grudges and grievances?

Stop joking! When it comes to profit, there's nothing that can't be given up!

"..."

"Your Majesty, I second that your method is excellent. The government is not good at business, and it would be best if it didn't try to do it at all. By using government production, government approval, and commercial sales, we can not only promote refined salt throughout the Tang Dynasty as quickly as possible, but also avoid countless troubles. It's a win-win situation and a truly good strategy!"

Cui Xuan was full of praise.

As expected, as soon as Chen Huai'an made his proposal, Cui Xuan, who had previously been at odds with Chen Huai'an, was the first to agree.

His words immediately garnered the approval of many officials.

Feng Deyi then spoke up, saying, "Your Majesty, I also believe this method is feasible."

Chen Huai'an maintained his smile on the surface, but his eyes were cold in his expression.

Offering up benefits is not an admission of weakness, but rather a decision made after careful consideration from multiple perspectives.

There is always a trade-off. If you want to take all the benefits at once, and you also want to promote papermaking technology, it's impossible for you to have all the advantages.

Besides, Chen Huai'an wasn't lying. The rumors about fine salt had already spread in Chang'an. How could you expect to sell it safely in other places?

No matter the era, hoarding food is a dead end!

In addition, the powerful families were not a monolithic entity; the so-called five surnames and seven prominent families did not all control the salt production.

For example, the Li family of Zhao County mainly owned vast estates east of the Taihang Mountains, stored grains, brewed wine, medicinal herbs and mountain products, and passed down their family's classical studies.

The Zheng family of Xingyang relied on vast tracts of fertile land in the Heluo region, private academies, copying and printing of classics, genealogy records, and pawnshops; their core principle was the universally recognized orthodoxy of classical studies, and their main sources of income were land rent and tuition fees for teaching.

The Cui family of Boling, however, was the family that dominated the Bohai Sea and the coastal areas of Cangzhou, controlling large areas of salt flats.

Chen Huai'an suspected that it was the Cui family who were targeting him.

"Does Vice Minister Cui also think my suggestion is good?" Chen Huai'an asked with a smile.

Cui Xuan shook his head: "Duke Anguo, please don't misunderstand. It's perfectly normal for everyone to have their own opinions when debating in court. I thought you were wrong before, and you refuted me. I think you are right, so I naturally support you."

"We are all working for the common people and the nation. If I were to oppose your good policies because of what happened before, how could I have the face to wear this red official robe?"

"Minister Cui is indeed a man of great integrity!" Chen Huai'an sighed inexplicably, seemingly admiring Cui Xuan's magnanimity.

In reality, he couldn't stop sneering to himself.

The aristocratic families were not a unified entity. Not to mention the Five Surnames and Seven Noble Families, even within each family, there were several factions.

The Cui family of Boling controlled the salt industry, and Cui Xuan came from this lineage.

The second and third branches of the Cui family in Boling settled in Dingzhou and Hengshan inland, and their industries were mainly farms, classical studies, and medicinal herbs, with no salt production along the coast.

Cui Dunli, who had spoken out earlier, came from the second branch of the family, and he was more inclined to support Li Shimin.

Therefore, Chen Huai'an never intended to share the profits with Cui Xuan's lineage, but rather with Cui Gan, Cui Dunli, and other prominent families not involved in the salt industry!

This is... suppression, appeasement, and division!

"..."