…

Zichen Palace.

Zhao Xu sat on the mattress and looked at the two prime ministers who walked in.

Behind the screen in one corner of the hall sat Fan Bailu, the master of the living room and the official in charge of the affairs.

This person is now Zhao Xu’s royal record recorder.

Every time Zhao Xu wanted to show off, he would bring him to record it.

Fan Bailu is also very knowledgeable - he always writes the recorded text beautifully, and uses the Spring and Autumn style of writing well and wonderfully.

"Shang Shuzuo Pushe, the servant Chen Jiang..."

"Shang Shu You Pu She, Zhong Shu Shi Lang Chen Gong wrote..."

"I respectfully wish His Majesty the Emperor a long blessing."

The two prime ministers have arrived at the palace and are bowing with their hands in hand.

Zhao Xu sat up slightly and said with a smile: "The two prime ministers are exempt from courtesy..."

"Shi Deyi gave the two prime ministers seats and tea."

"No!" Shi Deyi and his ministers came forward, brought two chairs and served tea.

Then he returned to the royal majesty and stood in front of his majesty.

Han Jiang and Mr. Lu thanked him and sat down.

Zhao Xu pretended to be confused and asked: "You two husbands came to the palace to see me today. Do you have important matters?"

Han Jiang moved her lips, as if she was slandering, and then said: "I am entering the palace with your right minister today because I haven't seen your majesty for a long time, so I went to the palace specially to listen to your majesty's command..."

Lu Gongzhu immediately started to praise: "Yes!"

"Although your Majesty is no more than a young boy, he is smart and kind-hearted, and is known to both the government and the public... Although there are two benevolent sages in the palace to protect and support you, my ministers all think that it is better for your Majesty to take more precautions in state affairs and give more commands in order to bring peace to the world! "

This is indeed the voice of the ruling and opposition parties.

Some people have made public appeals for it a long time ago, especially the Imperial College students and the opposition scholar-bureaucrats.

They don't care about offending the two palaces.

Let me put it directly - since the emperor has the ability to independently handle affairs, judge affairs, and remove officials, why don't you ministers go to the palace every day to ask for orders from the emperor?

Does it have no mouth or no long legs?

This is Confucian political correctness.

The two palaces were in charge of the government, which was only an expedient measure. It was a 'contingency' when the emperor was young and unable to manage the government.

Now, since the emperor is able to handle state affairs, he can no longer appoint officials.

You prime ministers, if you don’t hurry up and show your loyalty to the emperor, return your government to the emperor.

What do you want to do?

They didn't bother to care about the fact that the emperor was young and shouldn't work hard to avoid damaging his body.

Anyway, I just stand and talk without back pain.

After hearing this, Zhao Xu smiled. He knew that these two prime ministers were hinting to him - Officials, just say what you want to do!

Stop playing with us!

After Zhao Xu pretended to ponder for a moment, he began to say: "National affairs will be decided by the two palaces of mercy... I can only obey them respectfully..."

"However, now that the two husbands have entered the palace, I really have some small matters that I would like to discuss with the two husbands..."

Han Jiang and Lu Gongzhu immediately let out a sigh of relief and said in unison: "I will listen respectfully to De's message."

But at the same time, they prayed in their hearts: "I hope it's just a small thing."

Last time, in order to suppress the imperial censor Tai and the imperial students.

They went out and put their old faces on the line and gambled on the reputation they had accumulated over the past few decades.

It was not easy to shut up the crows, and to make the old scholars in the Imperial College half-believe them, and choose to go out to persuade the anxious Imperial College students, telling them that this was a big game of chess that would benefit the country. To benefit the people, everyone can wait a few months to see its effect.

At the same time, tough measures were also used - if anyone arbitrarily discussed state affairs and ruined the overall situation, he would be expelled from the Imperial College and sent back to his place of origin.

Only then did he manage to suppress it.

However, this kind of thing is inevitable.

At least until the last promise is fulfilled, it will be difficult for the crows at Yushitai and the old scholars in Taixue to trust them again.

Zhao Xu looked at the two uneasy prime ministers with a smile.

"Is such that……"

"A few days ago, I received a memorial from Yousi from the Tongjian Division..."

"The Ministry of Household Affairs reported to the Ministry of Finance to beg for 'silkworm salt'..."

As soon as the two prime ministers heard about this, their hearts were in their throats.

Because, this silkworm salt is a big problem!

"After reading the memorial, I didn't quite understand what silkworm salt was, so I ordered people to go to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Capital Hall, and the Chongwen Academy to find discussions and stories about silkworm salt from past dynasties..."

"Now I understand a little bit."

With that said, Zhao Xu stood up.

"How come the virtues of our ancestors have become so corrupted today?" he said to himself.

Regardless of Han Jiang or Lu Gongzhu, after hearing this, they all stood up immediately, took off the futou on their heads, put it on a chair, fell to the ground and apologized: "I await the death penalty!"

"Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"

Zhao Xu listened, waved his hands and said: "I have no intention of pursuing it..."

"The two husbands are not responsible for this matter, so there is no need to apologize..."

"I know that silkworm salt is a long-term evil, it cannot happen overnight..."

Silkworm salt can be traced back to the Later Tang Dynasty. It was a welfare policy launched by the Later Tang court for poor people in non-salt-producing areas.

It played a huge role during the Five Dynasties period.

Because of this policy, the problem of salt consumption by farmers who are not in salt-producing areas has been solved.

The general operation method is - every spring and February, farmers in non-salt-producing areas can apply to the government to buy cheap salt, and then wait until summer to use silk cloth to offset the salt money.

This is the origin of the name silkworm salt.

It uses the government to sell salt to poor farmers in fixed quotas, so that farmers who cannot afford salt can also eat salt.

At the same time, the price of silkworm salt is very close to the people - according to the system, one pound of silkworm salt only requires a hundred yuan worth of silk cloth, which is even lower than the price of private salt!

Best of all - silkworm salt can also provide an emergency financial relief to farmers.

Salt, as we all know, is a hard currency that can be sold for money.

As for the cheap silkworm salt distributed by the government, farmers do not need to pay immediately after applying for it. They can wait until the silk is woven into silk cloth in June and use the silk cloth to offset it.

In this way, farmers can sell part of the salt in exchange for funds to survive the lean years.

When fighting for hegemony in the world, in order to win the hearts and minds of the people.

The silkworm salt system has been vigorously promoted.

After the founding of the Song Dynasty, this welfare policy was also inherited to calm the people's hearts.

However……

Over time, especially as local government finances went bankrupt.

Silkworm salt was inevitably targeted.

First, the method of payment for silkworm salt was changed from silk cloth worth a hundred coins to grain.

At this time, the poor-relief nature of silkworm salt was completely changed.

It has been completely turned into a tool for plunder and exploitation.

Why?

Because silk cloth is the same as copper coins, its value is relatively stable.

But food is different. Because of its price, food fluctuates, so there is room for financial manipulation.

Governments in various places first folded silk cloth into grain, and then converted the grain into grain price (certainly the highest grain price in history), and required farmers to pay according to the converted price - after their operations, the originally cheap silkworm salt price

The price has skyrocketed several times, reaching a super high price of 300 or even 400 yuan per kilogram of silkworm salt!

This directly led to the complete collapse of the silkworm and salt system - poor farmers were just illiterate, but they were not stupid!

After the payment method of silkworm salt was changed, the price of silkworm salt was almost double that of official salt!

Not to mention compared to private salt.
To be continued...