Xu Guangqi received the imperial edict and heard that he wanted to go south with the eunuch party, but he did not resist at all. Although Xu Guangqi was the Donglin party, he was able to become the Minister of Works from the Minister of Rites, and Wei Zhongxian promoted him. Although he always felt at the beginning that the eunuch party had an unspeakable purpose to please him, Xu Guangqi really loved the position of the Minister of Works.

Xu Guangqi, who has been fond of studying matters since childhood, felt that becoming the Minister of Works was really a good opportunity to show his talents. Every time Zhang Yong sent him new machinery and new firearms, Xu Guangqi was interested in researching them and quickly organized craftsmen to copy them.

The imperial edict said that Xu Guangqi went south to control the waters and cooperated with Gao Shixin and others to build a new imperial village. He readily accepted the edict and immediately asked the Ministry of Works to select 300 skilled craftsmen and go south with him to the two Huai Rivers.

There were ten major official ships moored beside the docks of the capital city. The leading ships were all hung with the Jinyiwei flags. In the first and third ships, fifty Jinyiwei masters, Gao Shixin, Zhang Yong and Xu Guangqi were all sailing on the second ship. The remaining seven ships were hung with the flags of the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Works. Among them, the first ship was sailed with several Ministry of Works officials, including Sun Yuanhua, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Works. On the six ships behind, each of them was filled with fifty craftsmen.

Along the way, there were much fewer ships on the river than before. That was because Li Sancai's canal transport empire was eradicated by the Jinyiwei. The Jinyiwei had just taken over Li Sancai's canal transport fleet. The two sides had not completed the running-in period, and the trap mission this year had not yet begun, so there were many fewer ships on the river. Another point was that due to the destruction of Li Sancai, many canal ship merchants deliberately stopped sailing and marketed under the instigation of the Donglin Party, putting pressure on the court.

However, the Jinyiwei and the Jinyiwei's lackey army did not take this trick at all. They rushed into the ship merchants and forced them to sail with a knife. But even so, there were not many ships on the canal.

Caoding and Salt Ding lost a lot in the battle against the Jinyiwei. Gao Shixin developed a batch of new Caoding and Salt Ding Ding from the military households to replace it, and finally maintained the order.

Gao Shixin also planned to gradually reform the salt tax system that had been ill-fated for a long time. Although the salt tax set by the court was high, the silver that entered the imperial treasury every year was only a fraction of the salt tax collected! Most of the salt tax revenue was cheaper than the large and small borers such as salt merchants, salt envoys, salt envoys, salt envoys, salt envoys, salt envoys, and stoves.

Whether it is the legal salt merchants who have obtained salt intake, the salt escort, the salt escort, and the salt escort, they are actually legal private salt dealers! These salt merchants colluded with the officials with a portion of the private salt dealers, and those private salt dealers bribed officials and obtained their support. The officials also helped those private salt dealers who cooperated with them to crack down on those private salt dealers who had no access and did not provide to officials. The seized private salt turned into official salt and was blatantly sold on the market.

Just these big and small salt rats have caused the Ming Dynasty to lose how much salt tax every year!

At this time of the Ming Dynasty, the average price of sea salt was 300 citrus one duct, and the salt tax that ended up falling into the hands of the court was only 2 cents! The salt households at that time boiled sea salt with firewood, and the cost was about 20 to 30 cents. So, in addition to the tax of two cents and the transportation cost was deducted, the price of sea salt should be at a price of 60 cents per duct, so that it could be sold for 300 citrus. Where did the remaining silver go? Of course, it fell into the private bags of these large and small zombies.

A 300-month-per-load salt is naturally the coarse salt used by ordinary people. If it is a slightly better salt, about twenty cents per pound; the best well salt costs four to five cents per pound of salt! Those high-quality salts are used by wealthy families to brush their teeth. In fact, Zhang Yong has the technique of refining coarse salt, which can refine those coarse salt of three cents per pound into one or two pounds of silver. His technique will not be used for the time being, and he will wait until the Royal Salt Farm opens to make expensive snowflake salt.

Calculated according to market prices, the annual salt tax during the Tianqi period should be as high as more than 20 million taels of silver, but the salt tax earned by the imperial court was only 2 million taels! Only one tenth, and the rest of the silver was greedy.

When Gao Shixin heard that the salt tax revenue fell into the hands of those big and small borers, Xu Guangqi said angrily: "I didn't expect that the salt industry in Lianghuai was so dark! Why didn't your Jinyiwei touch them?"

"The interests of the salt industry are related to too many officials from the north and south. Once the salt merchants and the salt department are cracked down, they may offend the entire Ming Dynasty officialdom except the emperor and father-in-law! I am not that stupid yet, and I will use the power of one person to fight against the officials in the whole world." Gao Shixin said.

Once the salt merchants are moved, not only the Donglin Party, but also the civil servants of the eunuch Party will regard the Gao Shixin as their enemy!

Xu Xianchun smiled and said, "Governor Gao, I heard that the salt merchants in Lianghuai can raise Yangzhou thin horses. Do you also go to Yangzhou to see if you smash the door? By the way, buy a few Yangzhou thin horses and come back."

"If you don't want to avoid the thin horse in Yangzhou, I don't want to do this." Gao Shixin shook his head. He doesn't like girls who are too thin. The girls raised by those families in Yangzhou who specialize in raising thin horses in Yangzhou are mostly based on the standard aesthetic views of this era. They are small feet, small and delicate, and thin. Gao Shixin prefers girls with a little fat face and tall face.

While Xu Xianchun and a group of Jinyiwei chiefs were discussing the thin horses in Yangzhou, Zhang Yong and Xu Guangqi began to study the structure of the imperial village.

"The river network is crisscrossing, and on four sides of a piece of land formed by the intersecting of each four rivers, that is, along the river, a double-channel embankment is built. The outer embankment prevents the river from flooding farmland and villages. Between the inner embankment and the outer embankment, it is a reserved flood discharge area. If the outer embankment fails to block the flood, the inner embankment can also protect the farmland and villages." Zhang Yong pointed to the drawing and said.

"But the open space between these two dams was wasted." Xu Guangqi said.

"There will not be wasted. These open spaces are simply removed from the fields into ponds. They can be used to raise fish, shrimps, turtles, etc. They can also raise ducks and geese here, so that these open spaces can be used. Plant mulberry trees on the river embankment, use fish manure and duck geese manure to nourish mulberry trees, and then use silkworm manure to raise fish; plant sweet potatoes on the high ground of the inner embankment, and feed pigs with sweet potato leaves. Pig manure can also grow rice. Xuanhu, you see, we can dig deeper in the low-lying areas that were originally prone to flooding, dig into fish ponds, and then raise the digging soil. The highest place is the river embankment, the inner embankment, and the rice fields are in the inner embankment." Zhang Yong pointed to the drawings and said.

Xu Guangqi stroked his beard and praised, "It's a clever trick! He really uses everything that can be used, and can also prevent floods from invading."

"If the river embankment is repaired, you will not be afraid of floods once a century. Unless the Gaojiayan collapses and the lake water several meters high falls from the sky, no one can stop it." Zhang Yong said with a smile.

Xu Guangqi said: "Gaojiayan is not so easy to fall. Once it falls, the two Huaihe River, including Huai'an City, will become fish and turtles."

Zhang Yong also said: "In fact, the people in the south of the Yangtze River are often affected by water. The plum rain season continues. If they encounter heavy rain in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River again, a large area of ​​fertile fields will be flooded!"

Xu Guangqi nodded. His family was damaged in the 12th year of Wanli, which led to the family's difficulties. In order to find a way out, Xu Guangqi went to take the imperial examination, but failed to pass the imperial examination, so he taught between Guangdong and Guangxi to make a living. After ten years of leaving home, he finally passed the imperial examination and took another seven years to pass the imperial examination.

In fact, the imperial examination system delayed Xu Guangqi. If it weren’t for spending a lot of time on the eight-legged essay, Xu Guangqi could have achieved higher achievements in science.

"Eunuch Zhang, can you also build a farm like the Imperial Village in Jiangnan?" Xu Guangqi asked.
Chapter completed!