Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 182 Little Fool

Zhang Heling looked at Chen Ce nervously and stressed, "This is really the salt permit from our friend."

Chen Ce hummed.

Zhang Heling said, "If you really want it, we can give it to you for three hundred taels and one thousand taels, how about that?"

Chen Ce thought for a moment and said, "That's all the salt permits I have. I'll pay you one thousand taels. Can you give me all of them?"

The Zhang brothers did some calculations and although it was a bit of a loss, it was enough!
Fearing that Chen Ce might go back on his word, Zhang Heling quickly said, "Okay! Let's do the deal now!"

The salt permits he had would cost at least six thousand taels at the normal market price, but now the price has shrunk six times.

But there is no other way, I’m already blessed to be able to sell it.

Ordinary people simply cannot consume such a large amount of salt permits, and it is unknown how long it will take to sell them if they are divided up.

Now that I have such a fool to buy, I may lose money, at least I can get some money back.

……

cabinet.

Li Dongyang and Xie Qian found Liu Jian and asked him thoughtfully, "Lord, the salt permits of the people have been traded privately in the past two months."

"Several salt fields in Changlu have long reported that they can no longer produce much salt. Now the powerful have sensed the signs and have started selling their salt permits. All of them have been sold to the common people at low prices."

The two men's idea was very simple. The imperial court had to intervene, otherwise the last batch of salt permits would all go to the common people. In the end, they would find that they had bought a bunch of waste paper. What should they do?

But in the current situation, no one dares to be the first to speak out. Whoever speaks out about this will be standing against the big bureaucrats and gentry.

That is why they hope that Liu Jian can take the lead and manage it in the name of the cabinet.

Liu Jian smiled bitterly and said, "I am not the Prime Minister, this matter still needs the attention of Lord Xu!"

Li Dongyang and Xie Qian looked helpless. Everyone knew that Xu Pu was already in semi-hidden state, so why did the cabinet respect you?

Looking at Liu Jian's expression, it was clear that he didn't want to get involved in this matter.

Li Dongyang asked: "What if the common people go to the salt field to exchange salt now?"

Liu Jian said, "Don't worry, I have already notified the salt field. In the next three months, no one is allowed to exchange salt permits on the grounds that the salt field is busy producing salt."

hiss!
Li Dongyang and Xie Qian gasped and stared at Liu Jian blankly.

Isn't this the same as aiding and abetting the evil? Tell those dignitaries clearly that you only have three months to deal with the backlog of salt permits in your hands. After three months, the news that the court can't produce salt will be released to the public, and at that time you won't be able to get rid of the salt permits even if you want to.

"Lord, this will cause trouble!"

"So many salt permits have been passed on to the common people. The truth will eventually come out."

“Who can take on this responsibility at that time?”

Liu Jian looked at Li Dongyang and asked, "What should we do now? Should we just break the window paper? Not only will the people be furious, but the powerful people will also be furious."

"By then, we will be in trouble both inside and outside, and the two forces will not be balanced. All three of us will step down!"

Xie Qian had a worried look on his face. He really didn't expect the situation to suddenly turn out like this.

He always felt that this matter was a little bit unusual, something was wrong!

Xie Qian glanced at Liu Jian with a complicated look. Elder Liu didn't seem to be anxious at all?

Moreover, when such a big thing happened, why didn't he go to meet the emperor? Why didn't he convene a court meeting?

These things are a bit too weird! Unless Liu Ge Lao was planning it, he had already anticipated these situations.

……

In early June, after months of planning, the net finally began to close.

There was a heavy rainstorm today, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, accompanied by constant thunder.

Inside the Qianqing Palace, a message was sent out from the Cabinet that salt fields across the Ming Dynasty were short of salt, there were problems in the court's production process, and salt permits would be difficult to redeem in the next few years.

After this news came out, the entire Ming Dynasty was shocked!

The powerful and wealthy gentry secretly rejoiced that they had basically dealt with all the salt permits they were supposed to deal with in the past few months.

But the common people in every household felt as if the sky had fallen.

Officials from the six ministries were also stunned by the news from the cabinet.

The Censorate is ready to go, all the censors are writing furiously, the censors are holding back their anger, and all kinds of documents are aimed at the cabinet, preparing to impeach the three cabinet elders and ask them to resign!
At today's grand court meeting, all the censors were holding back their anger.

When Emperor Hongzhi arrived at the court, the censors began to impeach the cabinet!
Emperor Hongzhi pressed his hands and signaled the cabinet to come out and explain.

"Lord Liu."

"Does your cabinet have anything to say about this?"

Emperor Hongzhi raised his eyebrows and asked.

He was more excited than anyone else, because at this point, his and Liu Jian's plans had all been declared successful, and every step in the plan had been executed perfectly!
Liu Jian cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, now all the salt permits are piled up in the hands of the common people."

"I suggest that this batch of salt permits be exchanged for them tax-free at the original price."

After Liu Jian said this, the hall suddenly fell into absolute silence.

Everyone in the court turned their eyes to Liu Jian. At this moment they suddenly understood what Liu Jian was doing!
All the salt permits that were piled up in the hands of the powerful were transferred to the hands of the people.

Farmers bought the right to tax-free summer grain at a low price.

This is a trap, a trap targeting all the powerful people in the world who hold salt permits!

But no one can blame Liu Jian for anything.

The wealthy and powerful people were the ones who sold salt permits at low prices, and the people bought salt permits voluntarily. The imperial court did not intervene!

Now Liu Jian has begun to close the net and repurchase salt permits tax-free.

In other words, he was cheating!
Repairing the plank road in the open while marching through Chencang in secret! Great, this game is really great!
In this way, all the accumulated old debts and salt permits piled up among the people were recovered at the lowest cost!
During this process, the imperial court did not pay any money, not even any salt, but simply gave farmers a tax-free policy.

The peasants will have no complaints, and the court will only applaud!

The imperial censors put away their impeachment memorials and changed the subject, all praising Lord Liu as a wise prime minister of the time!

……

boom!
There was a roar of thunder and lightning, and a strong wind blew, blowing out the lights in the small courtyard of Huaihua Hutong.

Chen Ce closed the windows and relit the lights in the house.

Who could have known that the wise prime minister of the time, who was being discussed in the court and the real man behind the solution to the entire salt permit problem, was quietly reading a book in the study in Huaihua Hutong?
From today on, the problem of salt permits overflowing has been mostly solved. As long as the emperor does not grant rewards indiscriminately in the future, there will be no problem of salt permits overflowing for many years to come.

As for the remaining small amount of salt permits that have not been cleared up, I think it is not a big deal for the imperial court. The most important large-scale salt permits have been resolved, and the remaining small amount is not a big deal.

(End of this chapter)