I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 267 The End
"Father, why do you have to belittle yourself? Father's mind is full of wisdom, far surpassing that of the King of Jing." Yang Shen said indignantly.

"That's enough! That's enough!" Yang Tinghe smiled and waved his hand. "I am a family member who knows my own business. I have been in the cabinet for many years and I know the problems of this country better than you do. I am good at maintaining the status quo, but not at exploring new things."

Yang Shen wanted to say something with a dissatisfied look on his face, but was interrupted by Yang Tinghe, "Shen'er, do you know what the crux of the current state affairs is?"

"Where?" Yang Shen asked in confusion.

"The crux of the problem lies in the word 'money'. The court's daily expenses are increasing, but the annual revenue is insufficient, and it has become unable to make ends meet. Without money, nothing can be done. As a father, I can only practice cost-saving to save various expenses of the court. However, the King of Jing is practicing the method of increasing revenue and the way of industry and commerce. In fact, it is a move to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and there is still energy left to benefit the people. I am far inferior to him." Yang Tinghe said with a lonely face.

"I've also heard about what the King of Jing did. All his money was borrowed, and then he spent it all to create the current prosperous situation. Who doesn't know how to borrow and spend money? What's so difficult about it?" Yang Shen said quickly.

"Hahaha!" Yang Tinghe burst into laughter at Yang Shen's words.

"Shen'er, you have been reading the books of sages for more than 20 years. After entering the government, you have been working as a Hanlin official. You are extremely noble and have never been exposed to practical work. That's why you say such ridiculous things."

"Borrowing money is difficult, and spending money is even more difficult! Why would others lend you money? How can you spend every penny in the right place? There is a lot of knowledge involved." Yang Tinghe gradually stopped laughing.

Yang Shen was a smart man, so he quickly understood the hidden meaning of his father's words.
"What should we do now regarding the King of Jing's matter?" Yang Shen skipped the previous topic and said.

"The best way is to decide on a crown prince as soon as possible. As long as the title is decided early, no matter if the King of Jing wants to get involved in the throne or not, he will have no chance. After all, he does not command the army or govern the people. Without a righteous title, he can only be slaughtered by others."

“But there is no need to be too anxious about this matter. His Majesty is still angry and won’t listen to this at all. Besides, many people in the court have become wary. Let them test His Majesty’s attitude first and allow the Royal Group to develop for a while longer,” Yang Tinghe said meaningfully.

Ever since Zhu Houzhao lost his temper at the court meeting that day, the news in the capital had become tense. The news that the New Army had fired artillery at the Jinshi Archway also spread to the four northern provinces. Although it caused a lot of controversy, it also frightened many local gentry. Everyone understood that the decline of the salt merchants was an inevitable trend.

The imperial guards were also everywhere in the capital, arresting merchants and officials from the salt merchant group, and even many local gentry who attacked the royal group were arrested.

However, there were still too many people involved. Arresting them all would cause instability in the court and the local areas, so only the main people were arrested.

The members of the Shen and Li families in Shunde Prefecture were also taken to the capital for trial. The main figures of the two families were sentenced to death, and the censor Shen Hao was also arrested and sentenced to death in the imperial prison. Other members of the Shen and Li families were considered to have committed evil and were either exiled or sent to military service, while their female relatives were sent to the Jiaofangsi.

The Royal Group achieved a complete victory in this Salt War.

This was also the result that Zhu Houxuan had anticipated long ago. Several newly built salt fields of various sizes around the Bohai Bay produced a total of 8 million kilograms of salt. It should be noted that the official annual salt production of the Ming Dynasty was only 6 million kilograms, and the unofficial private salt could not be counted.

With so many salt reserves, Zhu Houxuan had no idea how he could lose.

The annual salt consumption in the four northern provinces is only about 2 million kilograms.

The salt merchants first used salt permits to withdraw nearly 2 million kilograms of salt from the Changlu Salt Field.
Zhu Houxuan then used information to lure local gentry to buy 3 million catties of salt at wen per catty, and finally put the remaining million catties of salt on the market at wen per catty. The entire year's output of the Changlu Salt Field was sold out.

During the entire process, Zhu Houxuan, the salt merchants and local gentry were in a state of information asymmetry. The salt merchants and local gentry had no idea how many cards Zhu Houxuan had, so Zhu Houxuan had always been in control of the situation, so he was able to maximize the benefits of the matter. However, the attack on the railway was beyond his expectations.

After this battle, the Royal Group also made huge profits. Due to the low cost of salt production, high efficiency of salt production and low transportation cost, even if the price of salt was reduced to ten cents, it would still be profitable, and not a small amount.

In the end, the final sales of salt from the Changlu Salt Field that year was nearly 600 million taels of silver, and the profit was nearly million taels of silver, of which the contribution from the gentry accounted for the majority.

However, by next year, without the generosity of the gentry, the profits will definitely drop significantly.

Although the salt war that lasted for more than two months finally came to an end, the villagers from all over the country continued to go to the capital.
The four northern provinces were located in different places, some far away and some near, so many village elders did not catch up with the first wave of audience. So after more than 200 village elders from various places gathered, Zhu Houzhao took the initiative to summon the village elders who came to Beijing.
At the same time, the results of the salt war in the four northern provinces were spread throughout the Ming Dynasty through various channels at the fastest speed.

The people in the other nine provinces of the Ming Dynasty had also suffered from the high salt prices for a long time. After hearing about the situation in the north, they also spontaneously organized a team to go to the capital to ask for orders.
Some people may wonder why the emperor could meet with the people so casually, and do so in the Fengtian Hall.

In fact, there are rules to follow, which can be traced back to the period of Zhu Yuanzhang.

At that time, the peasant representatives (grain chiefs) could go to court to meet the emperor, and officials could not stop them.

Zhu Yuanzhang relied on communicating with the grain chiefs to gain control of grassroots information from all over the country, and some of them were even promoted to high-ranking officials in the imperial court.

The noble families of grain managers in the early Ming Dynasty disdained to take the imperial examinations because they were the most glorious representatives of the grassroots.

It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang's later years, when he had insufficient energy, that such summons became rare.

As for the emperors of later generations, they were not as diligent as Zhu Yuanzhang, so they would not summon peasant representatives, but this system did exist.

The village elders can be considered as representatives of the peasants in a sense, so Zhu Houzhao's act of summoning the village elders is beyond reproach and can even be regarded as an act of diligence.

Zhu Houxuan has now begun to prepare to take over the various salt fields along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, preparing to completely monopolize the entire Ming Dynasty's salt market.

He planned to build new salt fields in suitable locations along the southern coast, promote salt-making technology, and establish a new sales network to reduce the price of salt throughout the Ming Dynasty to less than ten cents.

He estimated that by then the Ming Dynasty Salt Industry would bring more than 10 million taels of profit to the Royal Group every year.

But this requires three or four years of hard work and investment.
(End of this chapter)