Qing Yao

Chapter 350 Classic Forms of Arrest

Finance and the real economy must go hand in hand to maximize profits. A business cannot survive for long if it only has finance without the support of the real economy. Zhao An understands this better than anyone else.

To successfully counter debt collection, you need a strong and well-equipped force. To have a strong and well-equipped force, you need to spend real money. For example, just setting up a militia in Anhui would cost a huge sum of money.

If we calculate that a militia unit receives three taels of silver as a subsidy for food, lodging, and equipment during training, then even if we only build 100,000 militia units, it would cost 300,000 taels of silver a year. This does not include the "salary" of the militia command, as well as the venue costs, logistics service costs, and transportation costs required to organize the militia units.

Even at a very low estimate, it would definitely cost at least 500,000 taels a year.

Zhao An plans to launch a large-scale militia campaign throughout the province, aiming to build at least 200,000 militia members, which would cost one million taels of silver.

This expense is simply unaffordable for Anhui's current fiscal situation.

The reason why various regions were previously resistant and passive in promoting the militia, and why some local militias only had one roster with many people who had long since passed away, was that Zhu Gui only provided "policies," but he didn't provide any money!
Without money, which farmer would be willing to join the militia?
Without money, which local official would be willing to do such a thankless and arduous task?

Without money, which gentry would be willing to cooperate?

If you can manage, then manage; if you really can't, then just do a shoddy job.

After all, apart from the recent White Lotus Rebellion, there were no other military incidents in Anhui at the moment, so it was unthinkable for gentry who had no sense of crisis to voluntarily pay out of their own pockets to cover the government's expenses.

The militia was merely a reserve force, a backup source of manpower for Zhao An's "new army." To successfully suppress the White Lotus Rebellion, at least 20,000 new army main forces, whose fighting power was several times greater than that of the Green Standard Army and the Eight Banners, were needed.

The pay of the new army must be at least twice that of the Green Standard Army, or even more, otherwise how could the soldiers of the new army be motivated to fight to the death?

In addition to military equipment, the cost per soldier would be at least thirty taels, and with the subsidies for local militia training, the annual military expenditure would amount to seven or eight million taels.

This doesn't even mention Zhao An's plan to set up an armory to upgrade firearms, which would require an even larger investment!

Without a fixed income of tens of millions of taels of silver to sustain him, Zhao An's rebellion would be nothing but a pipe dream, unless he didn't rebel.

The saying "When the cannons roar, gold flows in" is no joke.

It would have cost Emperor Qianlong 60 to 70 million taels of silver to conquer the Greater and Lesser Jinchuan regions. How much would it have cost Zhao An to conquer Emperor Qianlong?
It's tough. The total tax revenue of the entire Anhui province is less than four million taels of silver. After deducting the amount to be paid to the whole province, only seven or eight hundred thousand taels of silver are left.

This amount of money wouldn't even be enough for "military equipment," let alone maintaining the administrative operations of a province.

Therefore, Zhao An must now do everything he can to get money, otherwise, let alone entering the loyal Forbidden City, even the interest from loan sharks could crush him.

Now, we can only turn our attention back to salt.

Salt was equivalent to oil in later times, generating huge profits.

Anhui has a population of over 20 million. If each person consumes 10 jin (5 kg) of salt per year, that's over 200 million jin (100 million kg) of salt.

The price of salt differs between Huainan and Huaibei. In Huaibei, which is adjacent to the salt-producing area of ​​northern Jiangsu, a pound of salt sells for about 20 wen, while in Huainan it can sell for more than 30 wen, which is equivalent to 30 wen per pound on average.

In neighboring Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, the price even reaches fifty or sixty yuan per kilogram!
The cost price of salt in the Lianghuai salt fields was only a few coins per kilogram, which shows how huge the profits were.

In total, Anhui province could make a gross profit of over six million taels of salt a year. After deducting all costs, it was no problem to make a net profit of five million taels. This is why salt merchants were all extremely wealthy, and why there were also many desperate criminals smuggling salt.

With such enormous profits, Zhao An certainly wouldn't let them go. He asked Akdang'a to get him 100,000 salt samples outside of the plan. If we calculate based on 344 jin per sample in the Lianghuai salt region, that's about 30 million jin of salt, accounting for one-sixth of the total market volume in Anhui.

Conservative estimates put the profit at over 800,000 taels.

This number sounds alarming, but it's not alarming at all to the people in the Salt Administration. Twenty years ago, the value of the over-issued salt permits in the Lianghuai Salt Permit Case reached more than 16 million taels, which is equivalent to the over-issued salt consumption of three Anhui Provinces.

Now, twenty years have passed since the major case of the Lianghuai Salt Permits. Although the case brought some rectification to the Lianghuai salt industry, the unplanned over-issuance of salt permits remains a classic practice of the salt administration, only now it has changed from blatant over-issuance to low-key over-issuance.

Zhao An is now betting that Akdang'a has complete faith in his "brother" status and that Akdang'a will not dare to offend him as his "brother" and will obediently give him the 100,000 salt permits.

As for how to transport the over-issued salt to Anhui and turn it into silver, and what impact the sudden influx of "smuggled salt" into the market would have on salt merchants, Lord A didn't need to worry about any of that; Zhao An took care of it all.

If Zhao An, who holds the title of Acting Governor of Anhui, can't even handle this small matter, he might as well not stay in Anhui.

The county magistrate destroyed the family and the prefect exterminated the family.

With the provincial leader personally taking action, even the salt merchants of Yangzhou might find it difficult to cope.

Once you do it once, you'll do it twice. If Akdang'a can get 100,000 yin this time, he can get 200,000 yin next time. After several transactions, if Zhao An can make some moves on the official front, he can at least monopolize half of the salt sales rights in Anhui. Naturally, he will also establish a long-term, stable and sustainable strategic partnership with Akdang'a, the boss of "China Salt".

As long as there is a continuous supply of salt, there will be a continuous supply of money!

Similarly, as long as Zhao An's position is stable and continues to rise, the more territory he can control, and the more territory he controls, the more people will benefit from his salt.

In addition, by developing industry and commerce and taking advantage of the old man and his son, the money would be there.

Therefore, the five thousand taels given to Wu Desong was really insignificant. If this man could really make this happen, Zhao An wouldn't even bat an eye if he were rewarded with another ten thousand taels.

In the following days, Zhao An did not go out to inspect the work. Apart from a symbolic "inspection" at the governor's office, he worked at the provincial treasurer's office.

There's no way around it; constantly making a big show of going out and parading around really disturbs the residents and also affects the work of those below.

Zhao An wasn't particularly fond of meetings, and for the past few days he had essentially adopted a policy of "laissez-faire."

That day, while he was busy writing a letter to Fu Song, the governor of Jiangsu, to inquire about the joint construction of a financial union by the two provinces and three provinces, the gatekeeper came to report that the provincial judge Zhang Chengji was requesting an audience.

"That old bastard finally arrived."

Zhao An put down his pen and smiled at Old Song, who was tidying up the documents for him, saying, "Judging by the days, this Provincial Governor should be coming to see me soon, otherwise the gift I gave that day would have been for nothing."

"This provincial governor is too proud to admit his mistake. If it were me, I would have come to pay my respects to him the next day. He has already given in. Why is he still stubbornly insisting on this? What difference would it make if it were a few days earlier or later?"

Old Song smiled and waved for the gatekeeper to bring the person over. He was the Provincial Treasurer's Secretary, the "chief secretary" of the provincial governor. Although he was only a sixth-rank official, he was qualified to "attend" the meetings between the Provincial Treasurer and the Provincial Judge.

A moment later, Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Zhang Chengji arrived. Before Zhao An could even stand up, the Commissioner stepped forward, bowed deeply, and said respectfully, "This humble official, Zhang Chengji, pays his respects to the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner!" "Oh, Brother Zhang, you mustn't!"

The ceremony of paying respects in the main hall of the yamen was a grand ceremony performed in the study. Zhang Chengji was a third-rank provincial inspector, one of the "four great chariots" of a province. According to the rules, the ceremony of paying respects in the main hall was not required outside the main hall, but the other party did so. What does that mean?
This shows that the provincial governor knew he couldn't afford to offend Zhao An, so he genuinely didn't argue.

Seeing the other party's sincerity, Zhao An couldn't remain silent. He quickly stepped forward to support him, shaking his head repeatedly, "Brother Zhang, what are you doing? We're colleagues, why be like this? Besides, Brother Zhang has just recovered from his illness."

Old Song quietly stepped forward, closed the door, and brought the provincial governor a bowl of freshly brewed Lushan Yunwu tea.

Zhao Anze pulled the Provincial Judge to sit down, his face full of friendly smiles.

After sitting down, the provincial governor was somewhat embarrassed, but he quickly adjusted his mindset and got into "role". He first praised Zhao An's "industry and commerce revitalize the province" policy, saying how good the decision was, and then talked about what work the provincial governor's office had done to ensure the prosperity of industry and commerce in the province.

It was all official jargon, and listening to it was similar to reading a newspaper or watching TV news.

The difference lies in the different ways of organizing language.

In short, the Provincial Governor had completely understood and made it clear that the Anhui Provincial Surveillance Commission would unconditionally cooperate with the Provincial Governor's office. They would follow the Provincial Governor's orders without the slightest hesitation.

Their attitude was excellent and very proper.

Zhao An listened and nodded repeatedly. Although he couldn't understand how Zhang Chengji had suddenly changed his mind, the fact that the provincial judge, who held judicial power, was on his side was undoubtedly beneficial to the province's economic development and would also play a crucial role in controlling the education and public opinion departments.

Isn't the Provincial Surveillance Commission just a "public security, law enforcement, and procuratorate"?

Without military intervention, whoever controls the Provincial Surveillance Commission is the boss of the province.

The provincial governor had made a clear statement, so the provincial governor naturally had to respond accordingly. However, Zhao An simply pulled a stack of documents from his desk and handed them to the provincial governor, saying in a deep voice, "Brother Zhang, you might want to take a look at this first."

"This is?"

Zhang Chengji took the document with a puzzled look, and his expression immediately changed. It turned out to be a document about Zhao Jiangong, the military commander of Fubiao, killing innocent people and taking credit for them.

The document was thick, with more than a dozen pages, detailing in detail how Zhao Jiangong used disaster victims to impersonate religious bandits to gain merit, and on what day and where he committed those heinous acts.

The authenticity is not in question; it was compiled based on the testimonies of the officers and soldiers of Fubiao.

Of course, it was Zhao An who had Xu Lin and others collect the information privately. Zhao Jiangong was unaware of this because Zhao An was following his own rules. At this time, the generals, including Zhao Jiangong, were foolishly waiting for the court to bestow rewards upon them.

"General Zhao has beheaded thousands of bandits? What a great achievement! But it came at the cost of countless innocent lives. He truly deserves to die!"

Zhao An's face had long since turned gloomy, his sharp eyes fixed on Zhang Chengji. "The Provincial Surveillance Commissioner is in charge of criminal cases and postal services in a province, and also has the responsibility of inspecting military officers. Brother Zhang, what crime do you think this kind of person who kills innocent people and claims credit for them should be punished?"

Zhang Chengji was taken aback for a moment, then hurriedly said, "If this is true, I will immediately order a thorough investigation, but... but..."

However, it seemed that the Provincial Governor had something difficult to say.

Zhao An said calmly, "There are no outsiders here, Brother Zhang, please feel free to speak your mind."

"Yes Yes"

After hesitating for a moment, the provincial governor revealed that Zhao, the military officer, was promoted by the former governor, Zhu Gui. It seemed a bit unreasonable and against the rules of officialdom that Governor Zhu had just returned to Beijing to take up his post and that Anhui was already making a big fuss about the people he had promoted.

Furthermore, Zhu Gui had reported all the merits of these pacifications to the court, so wouldn't overturning them now cause dissatisfaction among the officers and soldiers?

On the surface, he was a lieutenant general, but the number of officers involved was far greater.

Which of those soldiers is a good guy?
If this incites a mutiny in Fubiao, who can bear the responsibility?

Since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, mutinies and rebellions by the Green Standard Army have been commonplace. Ten years ago, the Green Standard Army in Henan Province openly mutinied. When a few soldiers who were gambling were captured by the local authorities, the Green Standard Army collectively rallied and tied up officials such as the prefect and governor. The incident caused a great uproar and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people.

“Brother Zhang’s concerns are understandable. However, as the acting governor appointed by the Emperor, I must be accountable to both the Emperor and the people of Anhui! If I turn a blind eye to the heinous acts committed by the soldiers, how can I face drinking a bowl of water from Anhui or eating a grain of rice from the people of Anhui again!”

As he spoke, Zhao An rose angrily, pointing directly at the Ebilun sword placed respectfully opposite him on the desk. "If we officials cannot stand up for the people, we should all die by this sword! So should I, and so should Brother Zhang!"

Upon hearing this, the provincial judge's heart tightened, and he quickly stood up and said, "Within half a month, the provincial judge's office will give you an explanation!"

The implication was that Zhang Chengji was in charge of the case, and Lord Zhao could rest assured.

Seeing this, Zhao An's expression softened slightly, but he corrected him, saying, "You're wrong. It's not about giving an explanation to me, it's about giving an explanation to the court and to the people! Alas, the people have already suffered greatly from this disaster, and now they've been caught in this man-made calamity. Just thinking about those innocent victims who were killed by the soldiers makes my heart ache, ache, ache!"

It was clearly visible to the naked eye that the provincial governor was clutching his chest and looking distressed, as if he were having a heart attack.

"Yes Yes."

The provincial governor nodded hurriedly, also feeling that the generals of the garrison had gone too far. He had let it go before because he was unaware, but now that he knew, it would be a disservice to his official position if he did nothing.

Moreover, Zhao Youlu's telling him about this matter clearly meant that he hoped the provincial judge could stand up for the dead people. If he turned a blind eye, and Zhao Youlu were to report the matter to the court, the emperor's wrath would not end well for him either.

Although Zhu Gui was the leader of the Qingliu faction, he had no close relationship with Zhu Gui and it was not worth offending the "dragon seed" for this. Besides, if he really handled this case, it would definitely cause a sensation in the court and the public. Would he be able to escape the evaluation of a capable minister?

With this in mind, the Provincial Judge felt reassured.

It must be done, and it must be done in an ironclad case!

Let the people of Anhui know that Anhui doesn't only have one Zhao Qingtian, but also another Zhang Qingtian!
"There's no need to wait half a month. I think we should arrest them tomorrow. However, the officials from the provincial judicial office cannot directly arrest them at the military camp. I will summon them under the pretext of receiving an imperial reward, and Brother Zhang can lead his men to arrest them one by one."

How to capture Zhao An had been carefully planned long ago; what could be safer than holding a meeting to arrest him?

The Provincial Governor certainly agreed.

(End of this chapter)