Qing Yao

Chapter 146 This official wants to start a salt company
Zhao An didn't know Quan De's background or how deeply Quan De was connected with He Shen, but he knew that Akdang'a's relationship with He Shen was definitely closer than Quan De's.

Because Akdang'a was a third-rank official in the Lianghuai Salt Administration, while Quande was only a fourth-rank official in the Imperial Household Department.

These two official titles can indicate who is closer to He Zhongtang.

Since Lord A is closer to Grand Secretary He, Zhao An has no reason to go to such lengths to act as a mouthpiece for Quan De. Moreover, this Lord Quan seems to be a bit arrogant and doesn't take him, the committee member who is favored by the old master, seriously. He has a completely condescending attitude.

Although Committee Member Zhao didn't say anything, he must have had some thoughts about it.

He can kneel before his superiors and give red envelopes to everyone he meets, but that doesn't mean that Committee Member Zhao doesn't have a lighter in his heart that can burn and devour everything.

Furthermore, the decision to appoint Guan Ming as the top scholar in the preliminary examination in Yangzhou was a reflection of the collective will of the Yangzhou officialdom. Although this will was primarily driven by the will of Prefect Fang, it also fully demonstrated the attitude of the Yangzhou officials.

If Zhao An disregards this collective will and obeys Quan De's orders to forcibly remove Guan Ming's "Little Three Scholars" title in his capacity as the supervisor of education, he will undoubtedly offend the entire Yangzhou officialdom.

The relationship that had just been eased with the prefect will be severely damaged, and the current salt commissioner of Lianghuai will be thoroughly offended.

The principle of "misfortune should not extend to family members" applies.

Even if you, Committee Member Zhao, have grievances against me, you shouldn't retaliate by using your child's future, right?

If you've done that, then don't blame this salt administration for a retaliatory response.

If a wealthy, high-ranking official of the third rank were to harden his heart and deal with a seventh-rank committee member, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The current situation is quite complicated.

Although Zhao An personally created this huge cake of educational industrialization, it has now attracted the attention of the old master and the Grand Secretary, as well as other important figures in the court. As a result, no matter how big, exquisite, or delicious this cake is, Zhao An will probably only get a tiny bit of the cream on the surface.

Big Head and he are not meant to be.

The current focus of the debate should be whether the majority of the funds should go to the national treasury or the internal treasury.

The representatives of the two factions were undoubtedly Agui and Heshen.

The only advantage Zhao An has is that this piece of cake will become a very prominent achievement on his resume, which will be of great benefit to his future promotion.

Whether it was the old master or the Grand Secretary, they were never stingy with money from officials who could make money for them.

However, this benefit cannot be obtained immediately; it must take a period of time to mature and ferment before it can be transformed into a real official position.

The old man can continue to fleece people, but given Zhao An's current status, even if he creates a small group that uses loans to pay off other loans, he can only engage in small-scale lending and cannot achieve large-scale financial fundraising.

Banks have formulas for calculating the value of loans to officials.

Asset certificates can be forged, but if a large number of asset certificates suddenly appear at the same time and place, unless Zhao An's gang has also bribed the head office, they will definitely be suspected.

So for now, we can only take small-scale measures.

But Zhao An also needed money, because no matter what year it was or what he did, even if it was a rebellion, he needed money to support it!

Without funding, you can't even recruit volunteers.

This forced Zhao An to quickly put the salt trade on the agenda and to expand and strengthen it, making it a stable and continuous source of income.

Why would someone who wants to sell salt offend the current salt commissioner?
Not only can't they help Quan De cheat his old colleague's son, but they also have to squeeze out the remaining value of Quan Daren.

This surplus value is the opposite of what all adults embody.

After much deliberation, Zhao An decided to report the matter to the salt administration, as this was the best way to extract the juice. He would sell Quan De, bones and all, directly to Akdang'a.

Akdang Aneng became the Salt Commissioner of Lianghuai, so he must have some skills. If he hadn't known his political enemies' tactics beforehand, he might have fallen into their trap. But now that he knows how his opponents are going to make their moves, if he can't counter them and defeat them, he wouldn't deserve the title of "God of Wealth."

In short, Zhao An chose to side with Lord A.

The saying goes, "A local official is more powerful than a distant one."

Lord A was certainly more informed about the movements of the Imperial Household Department and the court than Zhao An was. Therefore, as soon as Zhao An finished reporting the secret, Lord A realized that it was Quan De, or rather, the person behind Quan De, who wanted to take down him, the God of Wealth.

Guan Ming's three top honors may seem like a happy occasion, but in reality, it's a trivial matter. However, how could Lord A not understand the principle that a thousand-mile dike can be destroyed by an ant hole?
On the surface, it seemed that Quan De and his group did not want Xiao Sanyuan to gain too much attention, which would allow A Daren, the father, to also benefit from the old master's favor. In reality, it was a test.

This was a political test, and also a test of the officialdom in the Huai River region.

If Guan Ming's "small three-point" strategy is successfully thwarted, it will inevitably cause a great deal of discussion in the officialdom of Lianghuai, thus sending a strong signal—that Akdang Amo is no longer viable?

Otherwise, how could they not even protect their son's minor academic achievements?

Even if the old master of the capital, Tonghe Zhongtang, has no intention of replacing him, he cannot withstand the tide of public opinion. If another heavyweight figure comes forward and launches an attack on some pretext, Akdang'a's Lianghuai Salt Administration may really be lost.

Therefore, Akdana must now do everything in his power to ensure that his son's three major achievements are not lost.

But he was a salt official and could not interfere in the affairs of the education officials.

But isn't this seventh-rank official who took the initiative to "inform" the most powerful academic official in Jiangsu right now?

It has a low rank but high actual weight.

Why did the other party reveal this to me?
Lord A, who spends five hundred taels on a single meal, naturally thought of something, tapped the table a few times, and said: "As the Salt Commissioner of Lianghuai, I have always attached great importance to local education. I recently heard from Lord Fang that the Prefectural School intends to requisition surrounding land to build public housing. This is a good thing. I can donate eight thousand taels to the Prefectural School to build public housing. I wonder what Commissioner Zhao thinks?"

Eight thousand taels was roughly equivalent to the annual operating expenses of the Yangzhou Prefectural School in the past.

As expected of the God of Wealth, he's incredibly generous.

Unexpectedly, the young committee member shook his head and said, "I have already raised the necessary funds for the construction of public housing in the prefectural school, so there is no need for the salt administration to donate."

"Oh?"

Master A looked at Zhao An again thoughtfully, somewhat puzzled as to why the supervisor in front of him didn't want money.

Is she just trying to curry favor with him?
Education and salt administration are two separate matters.

After a moment, Lord A made up his mind and nodded to Zhao An with a smile: "There is no one else here. If Commissioner Zhao has any ideas, please speak frankly. I will do my best to help as long as it is within my power."

Zhao An had been waiting for these words, so he went straight to the point and said, "Since you have said so, sir, then I humbly request that you do me this favor."

"What convenience?"

Master A looked puzzled.

There's nothing particularly convenient about it. It's just that Zhao An has a relative who wants to get involved in the salt industry, but he doesn't have the connections. So he wants to ask Lord A to grant a certain number of salt permits outside of the original quota for this year's salt industry.

A salt license is a permit for the sale of edible salt.

With a salt sales license, it's no longer considered smuggling salt, but rather operating a salt company openly and legally.

(End of this chapter)