GBP Chapter 66 Old Zhu is really desperate for money.
Chapter 66 Old Zhu is really desperate for money.
Just as Emperor Zhu Chongba was patiently instructing his son on how to employ people, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng was slacking off in Ningyang County.
Anyway, the drought has come, the locusts have appeared, and I have done everything I can. Daming Lake has been filled with water, and the second artificial lake is still being dug. The people are catching locusts and weeding, the young widows are busy steaming buns and making egg soup every day, and the wounded soldiers have taken on the duties of yamen runners. So, I, the county magistrate, am quite idle.
Then, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng had someone bring tables and reclining chairs and set up the table at the artificial lake in the east of the city.
As the saying goes, "A single thought can open up a whole new world."
Once Yang Shaofeng adjusted his mindset, he immediately noticed that the little girl pouring water and fanning him was quite pretty, and he found the crops in the field to be very endearing. Even the way the ducks waddled around catching locusts was quite charming.
The sight of those teenagers catching locusts with nets reminded Yang Shaofeng, the county magistrate, of his own childhood days of fishing in the river and catching dragonflies and grasshoppers in the fields.
Unfortunately, just as Magistrate Yang Shaofeng was reminiscing about his junior high school years, Lame Wu rushed over, and upon seeing Yang Shaofeng, he said with a worried look, "Your Excellency, the steamed bun shop is out of salt."
Yang Shaofeng waved his hand dismissively and said, "It's alright. I still have more than a pound of salt that Chang Pingzhang gave me. You can take it and use it first."
After saying that, Yang Shaofeng closed his eyes again, intending to continue reminiscing about the wonderful times in junior high school.
It's just a little salt. Take it and use it first. Later, we can collect a bunch of locusts and sell them to Xu Da and Chang Heitan. We can buy more when we have the money.
By the way, what was the name of that class beauty who wrote me a love letter back then?
Unfortunately, I was too foolish back then and didn't even keep that love letter.
However, I can't entirely blame myself. It's mainly because what she wrote was too bold and explicit. I was so innocent back then...
Just as he was lost in thought, he heard Limpy Wu say in a low voice, "Your Excellency, it's not just the steamed bun shops that are out of salt; every household in our entire Ningyang County is almost out of salt!"
Hearing Limpy Wu's words, all those memories of his junior high school class beauties and school beauties, all those love letters, vanished in an instant. Yang Shaofeng jolted awake, flipping himself up from the recliner and staring at Limpy Wu, asking, "What the hell? It's almost out of salt?"
Damn it, if only the steamed bun shop is short of salt, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng still has more than a pound of refined salt that Chang Yuchun gave him when he forcibly conscripted men. He could easily share some of it with the steamed bun shop first.
But if all the households in Ningyang County were short of salt, it wouldn't just be a matter of a little bit of salt—Ningyang County itself doesn't produce salt, so if you want to buy salt, you have to go to Yanzhou Prefecture! It's even possible that you can't buy salt in Yanzhou Prefecture or even Yidu, and you'll have to go to Jiangnan to buy it.
After pacing back and forth a few times with a frown, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng finally sighed helplessly and said, "Here's what we'll do. I'll give you the one hundred taels of silver that His Highness the Crown Prince gave you first, and then I'll write you an official document. You take people to Yanzhou to buy salt. If Yanzhou doesn't have any, then go straight to Yidu to check."
"Once we've bought the salt, we'll sell it to the people at a price one coin higher per pound. I'll return the one hundred taels of silver I owe, and the rest can be considered as payment for the brothers' hard work on this trip."
But after a moment's thought, Yang Shaofeng changed his mind: "I have about two hundred taels of silver at my disposal, plus the twenty bolts of silk bestowed by His Highness the Crown Prince. Take it all and use it to buy salt."
Limpy Wu stared blankly at Yang Shaofeng: "Your Excellency, this salt... it can't be bought with money alone. You need to exchange eight bushels of unthreshed wheat for three catties of salt, and each household is limited to three catties."
Yang Shaofeng was slightly taken aback, then cursed himself for being foolish.
Damn it, I forgot that the situation in the Ming Dynasty was different from that in later generations.
In later generations, buying salt was very easy; you could just go to any supermarket or convenience store and buy it. But it was different during the Ming Dynasty. Salt was strictly controlled and state-run by the imperial court. The only way to buy salt was to exchange it with salt grains, and there was a limit to how much you could exchange.
What's worse, the salt during the Ming Dynasty was not refined salt, and it was even inferior to the coarse salt of later generations. It might have contained sand and various impurities. If it were filtered according to the standards of later generations, it might not be possible to filter out even one pound of refined salt from three pounds of salt.
According to Li Wu, eight bushels of unthreshed wheat could be exchanged for three catties of salt, which is roughly equivalent to exchanging one hundred catties of wheat for three catties of coarse salt. After filtration, it would be equivalent to exchanging one hundred catties of wheat for one catty of refined salt.
Yang Shaofeng clicked his tongue and cursed inwardly that Old Zhu was really desperate for money, daring to set such a high price for salt, and wasn't he afraid that the people would give him another eye injury?
Seeing the constantly changing expression on Yang Shaofeng's face, Lame Wu asked in a low voice, "County Magistrate? County Magistrate?"
Yang Shaofeng came to his senses, pondered for a moment, then shook his head slightly and said, "Where in Ningyang County can we still find grain to exchange for salt? There are more than 500 households inside and outside Ningyang County, and the total amount of wheat they have harvested is less than 10,000 catties. Before the imperial court's relief grain arrives, this wheat is the lifeblood of more than 2,000 people in Ningyang County."
Things suddenly became complicated.
If you can't buy salt with money, you can't ask Xu Da and Chang Yuchun for help. After all, salt is a state-controlled commodity, and reselling salt is a capital offense. Even if Xu Da has the title of Right Chancellor, it's still not an option.
As for smuggled salt... anyone in Ningyang County could find a way to buy smuggled salt, but Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate, absolutely could not have such an idea. After all, Magistrate Yang was only a minor official of the seventh rank, and there was no need for him to tarnish his own reputation. He had no reason to actively hand over any evidence to the censor.
Moreover, smuggled salt is not something you can just buy whenever you want, and it's unlikely that any smuggler would come all the way to Ningyang County, which is suffering from severe drought, to smuggle salt.
After secretly considering his options, Yang Shaofeng simply took the lame man back to the county government office, then plunged into his study to begin writing official documents for the Yanzhou Prefecture and the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission.
The main point is this: Ningyang County is suffering from a severe drought, and the people are short of food. They don't have any extra food to exchange for salt, but the people cannot do without salt. I am now at my wit's end, and I beg the higher-ups to come up with a solution.
Then, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng wrote another memorial to Emperor Zhu Chongba. Every page of the memorial described how the people of Ningyang County loved Emperor Zhu Chongba and how grateful they were for the kindness of Zhu Biao, the Executive Vice Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. However, upon closer inspection, one could see between the lines that the entire memorial contained the words "salt shortage".
After finishing writing, Yang Shaofeng handed the official documents and memorial to Limpy Five: "I'll trouble you, Brother Limpy Five, to send one of these official documents to Yanzhou Prefecture and the other to Yidu Province. This memorial, have someone send it by fast horse to the Ministry of Justice in the capital."
After Limpy Wu hurriedly left, Yang Shaofeng sat back down in his chair and began to close his eyes and ponder.
The salt problem can definitely be solved. If we can't solve it ourselves, there's the Yanzhou Prefectural Government, and further up there's the Shandong Province. In the capital, there's Emperor Zhu Chongba. In the first year of Hongwu, when stability was paramount, Emperor Zhu Chongba and the Ming Dynasty would rather let the Jiangnan region lack salt than let newly recovered areas like Shandong and Henan lack salt. After submitting my memorial pleading poverty and asking for salt, I'll most likely be able to get a large quantity of salt.
Then, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng pondered how to make use of this batch of salt, preferably by using it to generate income.