Chapter 217: Rebels, Run! (Please Subscribe)

"Replying to His Highness," Ji Kun had no choice but to count on his fingers as he laid out the accounts for Zhu Cilang. "Half of the empire's salt industry lies in Huai'an and Yangzhou. The two prefectures together have thirty salt works, over 12,600 pan-and-stove units, more than 5,800 brine pools, nearly seventy thousand salt-boiling households, an annual quota of 705,000-odd salt certificates, and three million certificates of surplus salt, totaling 740 million catties. Beyond that there is also some private salt not counted in the certificates; add it in and it comes to about one billion catties.

And the price of salt in markets across the Ming varies greatly, from one fen five li to three fen of silver per catty, averaging about two fen. One billion catties of salt on the market is therefore worth twenty million taels of silver."

"Yet in the years when salt-tax revenue was highest, during the Wanli reign, the annual remittance from the Huai salt administration was only a little over 680,000 taels," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "Out of twenty million taels, only 680,000 belongs to the court — oh, in the Chongzhen—"

"Your Highness!" Ji Kun was startled by Zhu Cilang's words. "This absolutely must not be done!"

"Must not?" Zhu Cilang gave a mirthless smile. "Where can We not find three hundred thousand taels or so? Senior Brother, what do you say?"

Senior Brother Zheng Sen took the hint and quickly picked up the thread: "This subject's family can offer Your Highness a yearly tribute of one million taels!"

"Good, good, good!" Zhu Cilang said. "Tomorrow We shall issue an edict abolishing the Huai Salt Distribution and Transport Commission!"

What? For real? How many people's livelihoods would this one stroke smash? Are you truly that formidable, or just too foolish to know how formidable this is?

Zhu Cilang continued: "Juren Ji, We accept your memorial reporting the treasonous crimes of Yangzhou Guard Commander Xu Yongji and the Canal Superintendent, Marquis of Funing, Zhu Guobi. We shall also send Eastern Palace guards to protect you. Return home for now; when We dispatch men to investigate them thoroughly, We shall summon you."

Send guards to protect him, then send him back — His Highness really doesn't mind the trouble!

Ji Kun, that shyster, was sharp enough to grasp at once what the Crown Prince meant. He was to carry word to the four head merchants of the Anhui salt merchants' guild, telling them to quickly figure out how much they ought to pay the court so that the salt administration and salt laws could continue.

"Does Junior Brother, His Highness, truly mean to abolish the salt laws and salt administration?"

After Ji Kun left, Senior Brother Zheng Sen immediately came over to ask about the salt laws and salt administration.

Zhu Cilang nodded with a smile. "Yes. Tomorrow at the midday court We shall raise the matter. The edict should be issued very quickly."

Zheng Sen shook his head. "But this matter involves far too much. Not only do the nobles of the two capitals have a share; our teacher also seems to have many dealings with the Huai-Yang salt merchants."

Later generations would tell tales of merchants and the Donglin being thick as thieves, but in truth not all merchants poured silver into the Donglin Faction as their protective umbrella. Zheng Zhilong, for instance, did pay tribute to Qian Qianyi, but old Zheng did not much depend on the Donglin Faction. Old Zheng's wealth and rank were won with his navy! On the seas of East Asia today, apart from the Westerners, no one dared claim they could match old Zheng in a contest of strength.

But those Huai-Yang salt merchants had no real power, and their trade was not particularly difficult either. They were not even the equal of the silk merchants of Jiangnan or the porcelain merchants of Jingdezhen! Those men, after all, could make the Westerners and the Japanese send over boatload after boatload of silver. And silk and porcelain were neither monopolies nor necessities, so competition was still quite fierce.

Salt, however, was different. Salt was a necessity run as a monopoly! Moreover, processing costs were very low, and the salt merchants were not the salt-boiling households — they did not process the salt themselves. They were, in essence, a group of tax-farming merchants. And when tax-farming merchants could not deliver enough tax revenue to the court that had farmed out the collection, what use did Zhu Cilang have for them?

"So what?" Zhu Cilang sneered. "The waters of Slender West Lake are cold enough — our dear teacher would not dare jump in!"

Cold water? Why does Junior Brother keep saying the water is cold? Zheng Sen thought to himself: it's still fine, it's only the seventh month, not very cold at all.

Yangzhou Guard Commander Xu Yongji was a descendant of Xu Da — not of the main line of the two ducal houses, but of a cadet branch of the Duke of Wei's house. So he could not become a Duke, but he had still landed the post of Guard Commander, and a lucrative one at that: Guard Commander of the Yangzhou Guard.

Yangzhou was a key salt town. The Huai Salt Transport Commission was headquartered in Yangzhou, and the eight great salt merchants also resided there permanently. So Yangzhou Guard Commander Xu Yongji could hardly avoid sticking his hand into the salt business. On the one hand, he was the Duke of Wei's house's agent in Yangzhou — collecting protection money from the eight great salt merchants of Yangzhou on the Duke of Wei's behalf — and he also took part in the business of the four old Shanxi salt merchants, in which the Duke of Wei's house held secret shares!

Besides Xu Yongji, virtually every noble of any standing in the Southern Capital had a foot in the Yangzhou Guard, Huai'an Guard, Gaoyou Guard, and the other Huai-Yang guards under the jurisdiction of the Yizhen Garrison Command, so that they could meddle in the Huai salt industry.

These guard stations all had the authority to investigate and seize private salt. Controlling these guard stations was tantamount to seizing the Yangzhou salt merchants by the throat!

Besides the Yizhen Garrison system, there was also the Nanjing River-Drilling Fleet, which likewise had authority to investigate and seize private salt. That fleet was likewise a tool by which the Nanjing nobles meddled in salt affairs.

The Ming emperors probably knew there was far too much crookedness in the salt business, so they tried to fight corruption through multi-party oversight. Thus the Nanjing nobles could meddle through the guard stations under the Yizhen Garrison and through the River-Drilling Fleet, while the civil officials could meddle in salt affairs through the Huai Salt Transport Commission, the salt-inspection censors, the river-inspection censors, the Yangzhou prefect, and so on.

And from the inner court, the Nanjing garrison eunuch and the Huai'an garrison eunuch could likewise meddle in Yangzhou salt affairs.

So every noble, official, and eunuch who meddled in salt affairs had to take a cut. Too many people were splitting the money, and too many people were shielding the private salt trade, so the salt tax that could be delivered to the court became pitifully small.

And the scheming and jostling among these three parties — the nobles, the civil officials, and the eunuchs — in Yangzhou revolved chiefly around the profits of salt.

The eight great salt merchants who ostensibly controlled the Huai-Yang salt industry thus gradually became the white gloves of these three forces.

Although Juren Ji Kun was registered under military household status, he moved in circles close to the Donglin and the Restoration Society, and often, on behalf of the Anhui salt merchants sheltered by the Donglin Faction, made trouble for the old Shanxi salt merchants sheltered by the Nanjing nobles. So he was rather widely disliked.

But before the fall of Beijing, Xu Yongji had not dared do anything to him. The man's juren status was plain for all to see, and old Xu did not want to become the public enemy of the scholarly world.

After the fall of Beijing, however, things were different! At least in Xu Yongji's view, his own backbone had stiffened considerably — especially after Zhu Guobi, passing through Yangzhou on his way south, told Xu Yongji about joining forces with Shi Kefa to rally to the throne. Xu Yongji felt that the Duke of Wei's house was about to be formidable again, that the court would have to depend on the Duke of Wei's house. So he wanted to expand his interests in the Yangzhou salt business, and therefore picked Ji Kun as his target.

But he never expected that halfway through the crackdown, Shi Kefa and Gao Hongtu would both go off to defend Confucius, while Zhu Cilang arrived in Yangzhou with a large army — and with him came rumors that Shi Kefa had sold out the Duke of Wei's house!

At that point Xu Yongji was thrown into a flurry, and just as he was reporting the news to Nanjing, that fellow Ji Kun, in a moment of carelessness, went and reported him!

When the news reached Xu Yongji's residence, the old fellow at once felt as though disaster were bearing down on him.

He could not stay in Yangzhou — he had to run!

"Father," said one of his sons, a young man named Xu Hujue, who had already changed into commoners' cloth and carried a waist saber, hurrying to Xu Yongji's side as the old man sat in the rear garden staring blankly at the pond and the rockery. "There are Embroidered Uniform Guard horsemen outside the gate!"

"What? So fast..." Xu Yongji drew a sharp breath. "How many?"

"A dozen or so. They've already blocked our front gate!" Xu Hujue said urgently. "Father, let us leave by the back gate at once..."

How clever!

The Embroidered Uniform Guard horsemen are here, and you can still escape by the back gate! So the Embroidered Uniform Guard only watches the front and not the back?

"Good!" Xu Yongji gritted his teeth. "Let's go. We'll head to Nanjing and find His Grace the Duke!"

The old man was worthy of being Xu Da's descendant: decisive in action, he made up his mind on the spot to flee in disguise. He casually gathered a little valuables, then slipped out the back gate of the family residence with his son.

And they actually got away...

The Embroidered Uniform Guard men sent to arrest him were slow enough in their response; only after the father and son had left the city of Yangzhou did they saunter into the residence to make the arrest.

Of course they caught no one, but they did find a good deal of incriminating evidence — not evidence of Xu Yongji's rebellion, but evidence that the four old Shanxi salt merchants of Yangzhou had paid tribute to Xu Yongji and the Duke of Wei's house.

Since Xu Yongji was suspected of rebellion, the four salt merchants naturally became suspected accomplices.

(End of Chapter)