Not only Hangzhou, Suzhou, Changshu, Songjiang, a series of core areas in the south of the Yangtze River, but also posted big notices in the bustling city. The small citizens leaned over with curiosity, but then their faces turned pale and kept sucking in the cold air and exclaiming.

"What? Have to increase taxes?"

"Isn't it? I'll pay a 100-yuan market tax a day if I set up a stall, and can I let people live?"

"Brother, just have fun secretly! Didn't you see that we who opened a store have half a tael of silver?"

"You are like you can't survive anymore. We spinners! We work from morning to midnight, earning those two hard-earned money, and we have to starve every now and then. Now, we can't afford the tax and lamp oil. How can we live?"

Amid the resentment, the government didn't care about you so much, but just next to the notice. The servants in the mansion walked out with a cold face and hugged a box. In an instant, the little citizens who were watching the fun scattered directly.

Unfortunately, monks can't run away from the temple. As these "harvesters" buzzed, the doors of the bustling street market were smashed open one after another, and a ingot of silver coins was thrown into the wooden box and clattered. These servants were particularly dissatisfied, and they were whipping and shouting fiercely.

"Hurry up! Pay me quickly! Isn't this money still protecting you by the imperial court? If the Northern Barbarians come over, they will kill your whole family!"

The compensation is 10 million taels! The great men in the court, the Donglin people worked hard for the country and worked hard, so they naturally could not pay the money! However, the farmers at the bottom were really no tax to add, and the land in the south of the Yangtze River was concentrated in the hands of aristocratic families. In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, when Yang Sichang opposed the tax increase, it had reached the point where there was no tax to add, so the eyes of these Donglin masters naturally focused on the little business owners.

And it's more than 10 million taels. The emperor wants to build the palace and take a few concubines, but does he need silver? Several great scholars want to compile books and write a biography of the civil servants who have recently been overturned by them. They also need silver? More realistically, the three towns in Jiangbei were almost completely wiped out by Mao Jue. The huge Yangtze River defense line was only 20,000 to 30,000 Nanjing Imperial Guards, and no one can sleep well. Is there another 100,000 troops to pay back the silver?

After adding this, including officials at all levels, they were also not clean at their hands. The 50 million taels of silver were also transported to Yingtian by boxes of shiny tax silver. As the national treasury was abundant, the faces of the Southern Ming Dukes gradually showed smiles.

But they did not notice that while the locals were losing money, the social structure was also rapidly disintegrating at a speed. The shops in Suzhou City were nine out of ten times a day. The weaver workers who could not survive were also fled from the town and spread to the countryside like fishes going upstream.

But even if the land in Jiangnan is fertile, it has been saturated in the past two hundred decades, so where can there be new land to resettle them?

Just like the refugee team like Gao Yingxiang’s old eighth team, they began to slowly gather in the rich places in the south of the Yangtze River.

Refugees have always been the death knell of the dynasty!

However, in this, Mao Jue also played a disgraceful role. After all, he was the main messenger who emptied the Jiangnan plan. From May 22, the compensation that caused Jiangnan to be angry and resentful was also transported to Jiangbei one by one.

Shi Ke is just like a rule of law army, but the construction of this barracks is quite good. There is a spacious barracks located on the north side of Yangzhou City. At this time, it was already crowded. Faced with the blazing sun, groups of dark-faced soldiers were stepping forward step by step amid the neat sound of horns.

After only a little more than half a year, the Shandong Military Region was cancelled. The former Shandong Legion retired and some soldiers who were unwilling to station in other places were cleared out. The remaining ones were directly converted into Xuzhou Legion, and along the north of the Yangtze River, they stared at Nanjing, the heart of the Southern Ming Dynasty.

After all, when facing a dynasty, Mao Jue also strengthened the configuration of this army, increasing from the original ten corps to twenty, and the source of troops was selected from the 270,000 infantrymen captured in the three towns of Jiangbei. Anyway, it is no longer the era when it was shrinking in Liaodong, guarding the vast land and sparsely populated people and tens of thousands of people reluctant to recruit them. Moreover, in terms of finance, the tributes exploited from the Southern Ming Dynasty were more than enough to support the four Xuzhou corps, let alone only one.

But this time, the veterans who had just experienced three months of devil training were very happy. They could finally put on the air of veterans, deliberately erecting their waists straight and in a row, and they could always hear the officers scolding in anger: "The same nose has two holes, look at others, and then look at yourself, who is in a water-crotched and pissed, no wonder they surrendered as soon as they went to the battlefield."

After scolding, the officer had to wave his hand and order: "You guys, these new recruits!"

Then you can see several new recruits with sad faces being pulled aside in a military posture, and then several veterans were yelling there with their arms and legs beating.

"Hare straight!"

"Closing your belly!"

"Who fucking makes your legs tremble!"

But just as the military training was bustling, a cry suddenly sounded from the side of the military camp. Even the soldiers who were concentrating on training couldn't help but turn their heads and look towards the side of the playground. But they saw a large group of women strung into grasshoppers by ropes. More than a dozen soldiers pulled the ropes and drove them away like animals.

While walking, these women were crying and screaming.

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

"My child! Child! Please be kind and let me go back!"

Even if the crying sounded, even if a group of rough men and soldiers could not help but soften their hearts. A man from Xuzhou who had just joined the army was angry and shouted loudly at his commander: "Didn't it mean that the Liao Town Army is not allowed to steal the civilian women? What's going on? Do you think you're farting when you speak?"

"shit?"

Although the tone of joining the army was not sluggish, surprisingly, the officer who had always been strict was not angry. After cursing, he sighed.

"These are all poor women who were arrested by the officials in the south to pay the debts from our Regent! They were all full of energy and had thousands of hectares of land, but they were reluctant to take out the money. They would rather catch the daughters-in-law of poor families to pay the debts. If the Regent didn't accept it, they might be sold to some brothels. If that's the case, it would be better to accept it."

"I heard that these young women are prepared to reward the soldiers. This time, this training will last for three months. No matter how new recruits and veterans or those who perform well, the number of women will be rewarded as wives. Those who have wives at home will be regarded as concubines. So work hard! Marrying you is better than selling them into a brothel!"

Later generations remember that the teacher taught me not to fall in love early, and when the organization grows up, the organization will naturally assign a partner! Mao Jue did this! As soon as he finished speaking, the officer who spoke felt that he had fallen into a wolf's den. His eyes were red as if he was a rabbit. He said that a good man would not be a soldier. Most of the civilians who were forced to be recruited into the three towns in Jiangbei were mostly bachelors. The organization could not even think about it before.

This time, no matter whether to grab a snatch a woman or not, the Xuzhou-style big-headed soldier stood at attention: "Don't worry, head! The young one must do his best to train!"

"That's good!"

He couldn't help but sigh that the woman was so charming. Then the officer picked up the whistle again, looked up, and shouted heavily: "Next time, training begins, stand at attention! Walk in unison!"

In the neat whistle, under the scorching sun, a group of soldiers emitting male animal hormones raised their legs high and made decomposition movements, allowing their burning face to be dark and even fall off. Although the starting point is bounty and women, the army is still getting closer to the feudal army and moving closer to the modern army with steel-like military discipline.

...........

The changes brought by Mao Jue were not only the army, but even the salt merchants who had been decaying for two or three hundred years had changed drastically.

The days of sitting at home waiting for the money to go away will never recur. Mao Jue introduced free trade in the salt market, but it did make the originally orderly Huai Yan merchants mess up.

First of all, the largest source of profit for salt merchants is actually lost in the area south of the Yangtze River. After all, now it has become the Northern and Southern Dynasties across the river. Many Hui salt merchants have escaped back before. It is estimated that this big cake will be taken over by them.

All the salt merchants were unable to rest assured. In June, they all carried their burdens to open up the market. Henan was originally Huai Yan and Hedong Salt, which was the Huamachi Salt obtained by Yuan Conghuan, but now that they have lost a large area of ​​the market in Jiangnan, Huai Yan could only take advantage of the fact that Hedong Salt was also seriously damaged at this time to see if they could grab the Henan market. If they could invade Shanxi and Hebei, that would be great!

However, just when a group of salt merchants were carrying a burden to conquer the world, the previous Yangzhou general merchants were also Feng Xuewen, one of the few Hui merchants who had not fled back to Jiangnan, who was the big shopkeeper of Jinche.

In June, the sea water in the north was still cold, but the seaside in the two Huaihe Rivers had already become warm. In the sky, seagulls with more than one meter of wings were slid comfortably along the sea surface with warm wind, looking for fresh fish to fill their stomachs. On the beach, people carrying the blame were also busy in a hurry.

The salt production method of the Ming Dynasty was not actually developed from the Han Dynasty thousands of years ago. Only a small part of the salt used in salt fields was used to dry salt. Most of them were the salt cooked from the stoves controlled by the government, and the stoves were special household registrations that made salt in the era under the control of the government.

Therefore, although the salt merchants in Lianghuai sell salt, they actually have no right to interfere with salt production.

But now, since the salt inlet and the business house have been cancelled, these stove owners have naturally become free people and can be hired by others. While others are still targeting the sales volume of the salt market, Feng Xuewen has already targeted the source of salt.

Open a salt factory yourself, no matter how many markets you have to build, will you have to spend money on salt here in the end?

It was such a big deal. In the past, most of the stoves in Lianghuai Salt Farm were hired by him. The simple wooden fence surrounded the villages near the beach. On the gate of the village in the middle, a huge sign was hung with four big words written on it. The gold salt farm, a bunch of firecrackers were crackling, and a large group of colleagues carrying gifts were smiling and holding fists, congratulating, and their chubby faces were smiling like picturesque scrolls, while Feng Xuewen also gave a smile.

"Oh, congratulations to the general manager for his prosperous business!"

"Don't dare to take it, don't dare to take it!"

After greeting, another four-wheeled carriage was parked on the edge of the beach. Looking at the sign of the carriage, Feng Xuewen's eyes lit up. He smiled proudly and walked up to greet him with a fist and said, "Oh, Manager Kang is here, and he is so glorious that he can't bear it!"

With his greetings, a man wearing a vest who had a dry face and a dry face was a bit like an old radish. Kang Wanli, the shopkeeper of the Shanxi Business Company and one of the general salt merchants in Yangzhou, followed by the gift. He also hugged his fists with a smile and congratulated him: "Boss Feng, wealth is abundant, and his voice is prosperous!"

"How can I compare to Brother Kang? I heard that the Regent recently gave all the salt rights in Taiyuan to Brother Kang. In the future, my salt farm will need Brother Kang to take care of him!"

When Feng Xuewen said this, he was smiling and blinking his eyes, saying that he was modest, but in fact he was showing off his mind. He was the best to start first. If you attack later, there would be no room for profit.

Who knew that Kang Wanli shook his head in embarrassment: "Brother Feng, I'm like to continue working with you. But, my family's salt marketing has already been available again. A while ago, the Regent wanted to set up a factory and let us invest? Brother, I invested the money there. We are in the business and business. After investing in my brother, you can get 50% off salt, so you can't take care of your salt farm."

The main salt production areas in Lianghuai are here. This really surprised Feng Xuewen and asked incrediblely: "After all, the salt farm of the Regent is invented. Our Huai salt sells hundreds of thousands or millions of stones every year. Is it enough to produce with the Regent's salt farm?"

"Of course enough! Not to mention the brother's family, many of the huge Huaiyan family are enough!"

"Really or not?"

Feng Xuewen's heart skipped a beat. He spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build this salt farm, and he was a scarce source of goods. If Mao Jue's Lianghuai Salt Farm included all the needs of the entire Huai Salt Farm, would he still sell a hammer?

Although he still felt it was impossible, Feng Xuewen was still not in the mood to continue opening up. He asked several shopkeepers to be busy there. He couldn't help but hug his fists sadly at this former competitor.

"Brother Kang, I just opened, and there are still many omissions. I want to go to the Regent's salt field with Brother Kang to see it. I wonder if Brother Kang can recommend it?"

"Of course, I just happened to visit Brother Feng, and Brother Wei wanted to go to the salt field. Since that's the case, let's go with you together!"

It will be Kang Wanli's turn to show off proudly.

He was nervous. Feng Xuewen got on Kang Wanli's carriage. While chatting, he was also looking around casually. Looking at the scenery outside the window, Feng Xuewen suddenly asked in surprise: "No, Brother Kang, this road is north, it seems to be going to the small islands of the distant mountains. How many desert islands can the Regent's salt farm be built on?"

But when she mentioned this, Kang Wanli also kept her aside and said with a smile: "Brother Feng is patient and you will know when you go!"

His appetite was even more raised. Looking at the scenery outside the car window, Feng Xuewen became impatient for a moment.

It is worthy of Mao Jue's work. A large wall made of blue bricks is like a city wall. There are security guards at the city gate, but they are much better than his broken wooden village. At the door, Kang Wanli showed his shareholder ID with pride. The guard at the door immediately opened the door respectfully. With a hint of luck, Feng Xuewen's country bumpkin took the lead in as hurry. The next second, the old salt merchant who had been digging the salt pile for most of his life couldn't help but shout.

"This..., is this salt?"
Chapter completed!