Zhu Youxiao can understand that the attention of bringing a first-tier star when going out is naturally incomparable to the level of attention of bringing a third-tier star.

Ignoring the eyes of these people, Zhu Youxiao walked into the Royal Academy with a smile on his face.

Although the scene in front of him was not what Zhu Youxiao wanted or what he wanted to see, it didn't matter. I have to stay happy when I come here today.

Things will be handled soon.

Although Zhu Youxiao's eyes did not look at these people, these people were all looking at Zhu Youxiao. Some people even began to inquire about what the identity of this person was?

But no one knew Zhu Youxiao, and no one knew what Zhu Youxiao was at the moment.

In this case, the other party is unidentified and looks quite arrogant. At first glance, it is an unusual identity, so naturally no one comes to find trouble.

Zhu Youxiao was also happy and took people to wander around the Royal Academy in Yangzhou.

Speaking of which, the environment of the Royal Academy in Yangzhou is very good, and it must have cost a lot of money when it was built.

But this should be, after all, this was built by salt merchants in Yangzhou. In the Ming Dynasty, who is the richest person?

That is, they are the salt merchants. And this is the place they use to win people's hearts, so they naturally have to be willing to spend money. Although they have returned to the court now, their territory and buildings are still theirs.

While walking forward, Zhu Youxiao looked at Wei Changsheng beside him and asked, "Was there anything wrong with the academy reform here? Are they so willing to hand over it?"

"Go back to Your Majesty, they cooperate very well." Wei Changsheng said quickly.

Although Wei Changsheng didn't know why, he knew what His Majesty meant when he asked this, so he told the result directly.

However, Wei Changsheng really had no say in this matter. At that time, he had just arrived in Yangzhou and he was not clear about many things in Yangzhou.

Not to mention the above, Wei Changsheng has not yet figured out the following matters. The matters at the top are not something he can find out at all. He only knows a little bit of basic situation.

At that time, after the people from the court came, the salt merchants in Yangzhou agreed very happily and presented the academy directly.

In fact, they are very cooperative, and in the process of reform, they will help no matter what difficulties they have; even when there are no difficulties, they will take the initiative to find something to do to make the reform of the academy very smooth.

Wei Changsheng didn't feel anything at that time, after all, he was not in his position at that time and did not do anything.

But it's different now. After so long training and staying in Yangzhou for so long, Wei Changsheng has already smelled the unusual things. There must be something he doesn't know about.

Zhu Youxiao nodded and asked, "Then do you know who is the one who is in charge here?"

Wei Changsheng knew what the emperor was going to ask, but to put it bluntly, he just asked who among these salt merchants had the final say.

Wei Changsheng said: "Go to Your Majesty, there are three largest salt merchants on the ground in Yangzhou. One is the Wang family in Shanxi. Their ancestors were in the salt business."

Zhu Youxiao knew very well about the Wang family in Shanxi. In fact, it was the family of Wang Chonggu, the governor of the Three Borders. There were several brothers in their family, and many officials were also in charge of the market in the entire Three Borders.

You should know that when the Ming Dynasty was founded, the people garrisoned in the local areas had to transport food. The imperial court itself suffered a lot of losses and was inefficient, so it was handed over to the merchants.

At that time, there was a good policy. The merchants sent the food to the defenders and exchanged them for salt entries. The merchants took the salt entries back to the local salt farm to buy salt and then sold them.

During this process, the court received taxes, the soldiers in the border received food, and the salt merchants received salt to make money. This was a situation where three people won. This was a policy formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang at that time.

But people are all greedy. The salt merchants don’t want to do this. It’s too tiring to transport grain. So they thought of a second way, and they built a large area of ​​land in the border and found people to farm there. Every year, they harvested the grain directly and sent it to the soldiers in the border. Then the merchants took the salt to buy salt.

This behavior led to a great increase in the population of the border and the land was developed. This was the Shangtou at that time, and the effect was very good.

But later the salt merchants were still not satisfied. This was a waste of time and the profit was small. So they did another thing, inciting officials and the court, and asked them to buy salt directly with silver.

To put it bluntly, we don’t care about the soldiers in the border, and we don’t give the border food, but we just give the court money.

These salt merchants directly converted the attributes that originally served the court into commercial attributes, while the salt merchants completely lie on the body of the country to suck blood, becoming a group of borers, without any contribution.

At that time, in order to achieve this goal, they bribed the officials of the court, nobles and relatives, asking them to agree to this condition.

The person who came to promise this was the famous Emperor Hongzhi, the father of Emperor Zhengde, the emperor who was called Renjun.

In addition, these salt merchants also encouraged the emperor to use silver to buy salt to increase taxes to the court, but in fact, the money was deducted from the soldiers in the border areas. The salt merchants took the big head and gave the court a small head.

In addition, the honorary and relatives occupied the house seriously, so they took the salt gutter into their own hands and then resold it to the salt merchant. They did nothing and took a lot of money.

The honorary relatives went to encourage the emperor, to cry for poverty, to ask for salt intake, and then turned around and sold it. It was from that time that the border was abandoned, the salt merchants sucked blood wildly, the nobles and honorary relatives exploited them, and the state's finances were even more ineffective.

In the end, when the people in Shaanxi were in chaos, the troops there had no food to eat and directly rebel.

If the original policy still exists and people are asked to send food there, they will transfer food from the south, without ignoring the northwest.

The policies formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang continued to strengthen communication, and could stabilize the food market and borders, and even expand the population at the border. However, all of these were abandoned later.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Youxiao naturally looked down on people like salt merchants.

Originally, Zhu Youxiao had thought about restoring Zhu Yuanzhang's old policy, but now he has no idea. He might as well kill these people, and he should do the money by himself.

The Wang family in Shanxi is the main goal this time.

The Wang family became an official and monopolized the market. Because they monopolized the market, they had money and thus reached the salt production area. That is, Shanxi merchants made a big move into Lianghuai Salt Industry and took root in Yangzhou.

"Who else is there besides the Wang family?" Zhu Youxiao asked again.

"In addition to the Wang family, there is also the Chen family in Shaanxi. The two of them are in charge of the Jin area of ​​merchants, but in Yangzhou, their strength is not the strongest. The strongest one is the Huizhou business gang."

Since the fifth year of Hongzhi, the imperial court allowed the use of silver and money to buy and sell salt, and Huizhou Shangbang has risen.

The Huang, Wang and Wu tribes of Huizhou have many people who have worked in salt and become rich in Yangzhou. They have hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, and are famous throughout the country for their "salt sacrificial wine that is the best in the world".

Although the merchants in Shanxi and Shaanxi also changed border merchants to domestic merchants and rushed to Yangzhou to compete for profit with the Hui people. However, they were far away from their hometowns and were unable to follow their abilities, and their status had to be under the Hui merchants.

In the 45th year of Wanli, the Hui merchants even occupied this profit even more in the forty-five years of Wanli. After so many years, they had already gained a firm foothold in Yangzhou, and no one could shake their position.

Zhu Youxiao nodded, the famous Hui merchant.

Huishang does not refer to merchants in Anhui Province, but to merchants in Huizhou, including the six counties of She, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, Yi and Jixi, namely Xin'an County in ancient times.

Huizhou is located at the "Wu Head and Chu Head" and is a marginal area with high mountains and dense forests, changing terrain and late development.

There was not much population before the Han Dynasty, but there were three waves of immigration in the late Jin Dynasty, late Tang Dynasty, late Song Dynasty and Chinese history, and a large number of people in the north migrated to Huizhou in southern Anhui.

What should I do if there are many people, many mountains and few lands?

Going out to do business is a way out.

Under such circumstances, they chose to go out to do business and achieved great careers with their hard work. If they look at their entrepreneurial history, it would be heroic and bloody. In order to gain a future, they would have worked hard to make a living.

However, the dragon slayer eventually became a dragon, and after they became a capital, their positions were different.

It may be better when struggling, but once it becomes capital, it will suck blood. This is what Hui merchants are now.

Of course, it is definitely much better if you don’t do salt merchants. After all, Hui merchants have many transactions, such as those who sit on Chengxintang paper. They have started in the Tang Dynasty and are not affordable by ordinary people now.

In addition, there are those who make raw lacquer and ink. Huizhou's ink is a unique one.

Zhu Youxiao naturally won’t do anything like this businessman, but he will also encourage him. In the future, these will be luxury brands in the future, and they will make money in Greater Chinese culture.

The paper brand was born since the Tang Dynasty, called Chengxintang. Not to mention the price is comparable to gold, it is almost the same.

Zhu Youxiao walked forward with his hands behind his back, listening to something Wei Changsheng said.

However, Zhu Youxiao quickly understood that it was not very meaningful to understand these things himself. He still had to deal with whom he should deal with. It was just a goal to take a sequence, or to draw up a list.

As he walked, Zhu Youxiao remembered something again.

He turned to look at Wei Changsheng and asked, "Who is the sponsor of this academy? Hui merchants or Shanxi merchants?"

"Your Majesty, it's Hui merchants. They call themselves Confucian merchants and pay more attention to these things than the Shanxi merchants." Wei Changsheng said respectfully, with a cautious tone.

Wei Changsheng knew that His Majesty might have targeted Hui merchants, and this was not a good thing.
Chapter completed!