Liu Jun received the full support of the cabinet with his promise of 20 million yuan in salt tax per year. Soon a memorial on salt reform was handed over to the cabinet, and the cabinet proposed a ticket and submitted it to the Prime Minister by the Chief Secretary for Lecture.

The three ministers of the Prime Minister's Office were originally members of the cabinet, so they naturally passed all the memorandums approved by the cabinet. They were handed over to the Ministry of Rites and Supervisors for approval and then sent back to the cabinet and forwarded to the six departments.

For such a cabinet, the Chief Secretary for Literature, the General Office and the Six Ministry, it was also a memorial from Liu Jun, the Minister of Responsible for Administration. No one rejected the six departments and was finally unanimously approved and handed over to the Secretariat to issue the imperial edict to the Ming Dynasty.

"The scholars from the Six Cases are so obedient this time?" Fu Shan, who had just entered Beijing from Liaodong, said to Liu Jun in surprise.

"It's not like that." Liu Jun smiled. The sixth department is considered a specialty of the Ming Dynasty. These people are more difficult to deal with than the censors of the Censorate. Each of the sixth department has a handprint, and one person is given to each of the sixth department. There are also forty people in the sixth department. This group of people is not simple. Although they are given to the seventh rank official, the seventh rank official is considered to be the bottom of the official rank.

But almost all of these people were from Jinshi, and they were all served as young Jinshi officials who had entered the officialdom.

In the Ming Dynasty, with the revival of Neo-Confucianism, civil officials of the Ming Dynasty regarded Neo-Confucianism as gods, regarded reputation as more important than life, and compared themselves with Taoist priests. In addition to the Four Books and Five Classics, they despise all knowledge, and except for officials from imperial examinations, they also despise all officials from other fields.

It was under this influence that the Ming Dynasty's trend of criticism became increasingly fierce. The censors were not afraid of being punished. They never resigned, but they had to fight to the death to defend the truth in their minds. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, this trend of honoring reputation gradually evolved into treating reputation as a kind of political capital, and the original simple motivation for criticism became complicated.

Many people just want to gain fame and reputation, and their words are afraid of not exaggerating. They always rely on the storm of the wind and shadows. The rumors are extremely sensational and exaggerated.

They are no longer the same as the predecessors in the early Ming Dynasty, and do not care whether the argument is true. They only care about whether they can attract attention with sharp and mean words, which will make people famous in one fell swoop. Punishing them will make them famous, and they will also gain a bad reputation for silence and make the emperor lose his power.

Since the Apocalypse period, the censors of the Kedao were often used by villains, and their speech theory was just a tool for the struggle between the monarch and the ministers and the party.

Just like this time, even with the unanimous support of Gu Ming, the cabinet and the Silijian, there was still a scholar who wanted to do the opposite, intending to attract attention, oppose it for the sake of opposition, and seek fame. However, Liu Jun had already received the news that Liu Qiao sent the Jinyiwei to visit the scholars and secretly visited the staff.

A large stack of evidence of greed and abuse of power in the affairs of the business was placed in front of them, and these people immediately became soft. The next day, one of them dared to reject Liu Jun's salt reform plan, and all of them were unanimously approved.

When Fu Shan heard such a complicated process inside, he couldn't help laughing.

Although he was also a scholar, he never looked down on those censors in his heart. There were really few censors in the Ming Dynasty who were not famous and famous. They all rely on catching the wind and exaggerating words to attract attention and gain fame.

"These people are actually easy to deal with. Everyone is righteous on the surface, but in fact they are all thieves and prostitutes in their stomachs, greedy and abused the law. Thinking about the past, the censors of the Ming Dynasty were unfairly quarreled. Although it was a bit annoying, they were still very ethical. While asking others, they could also restrain themselves. But now these censors in the sect are indeed worse than those in the generation. However, as long as the Jinyiwei posts a post, these people are very honest."

It is indeed simple to deal with such people. With the Jinyiwei taking action, they can clearly touch all the handles. They either cooperate with Liu Jun and become his dog, and bite whoever he asks him to bite. Or they will be ruined.

These fake guards like to seek fame the most, and the biggest fatal point of these people is their name.

Liu Jun didn't have much burden for driving these people. Anyway, over the years, most of the censors of the Kedao have become tools for factional disputes and depend on all parties to survive. Although there are not many of them, such as Liu Zongdao, there are too few.

With Liu Jun's current status, these censors are actually quite willing to be dogs for Liu Jun. The most powerful thing about these guys is to observe their words and expressions and change their minds. Now Liu Jun's status changes every day in the court, especially when Zhou Yanru died, Liu Jun joined the Grand Secretary to the cabinet and became a Taibao. Liu Jun was no longer accessible in the court.

"In a few days, all the family members will be in Beijing. Choose a day and get engaged. After a few months, they will get married." Liu Jun smiled and said to Fu Shan, "That guy Zhang Shan has sent letters several times, just waiting for you to get married."

Zhang Shan has also been registered with Liu Jun’s fifth sister, and now he is waiting for Fu Shan and Liu Jun’s fourth sister to get married first.

"If he is anxious, you can drink his wedding wine first." Fu Shan also smiled.

"How to plant late rice without cutting it, my father still hopes to come in order."

The Chu army has now truly formed a close circle, including Fu Shan and Liu Jun's fourth sister, Zhang Shan and Liu Jun's fifth sister, and many other senior Chu army generals are either Liu Jun's sworn brothers or his disciples. With their marriages, it can be said that a real Chu party has been formed. This is no better than the Chu party as mentioned earlier than outsiders. This Chu party is based on the Chu army.

Basically, they are all generals of the Chu army, including the Liu Qiao family, and Mei Li, who are also from Hubei, have long worked closely with Liu Jun. This is the real Chu party.

"You can accept being transferred to Beijing to be the chief of staff, right?" Liu Jun asked him. After all, a general of Liaodong, a general of the general of the garrison, was not necessarily better than before.

Fu Shan had no objection to entering Beijing, but he was a little confused about the significance of this Privy Council.

"This is all step by step, just a small step in a big game. From now on, the Privy Council will be the center of the army. Although you are just the Chief of Staff and have a Privy Council on your head, you will be the center of the Privy Council in the future. In the future, we will use this Privy Council to control the army of all towns in the world. You can help me control the commanders of the Five Armies, and through them, control the nine military regions in the world."

After several rounds of adjustments, the Ming army has now completed the initial integration goal.

Now nine military regions have been established across the country, namely Zhili, outside the pass, Central Plains, Shaanxi and Gansu, Sanjiang, Sichuan and Lake, Fujian and Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou, plus the imperial guards and navy, more than 20 troops were stationed.

Liu Jun is now under the name of the court, openly expanding the direct Chu army, and gradually reducing and severing other towns.

"Can you feel at ease after handing it over to Lao Zhu in Lushun Town?" Liu Jun asked.

Fu Shan entered Beijing and served as Chief of Staff of the Privy Council, and Liu Jun's old brother Zhu Yuancheng took over as the position of general officer of Lushun Town.

"Old Zhu has good abilities. You can rest assured to leave it to him."

After several rounds of adjustments, ten towns of troops were successively abolished, but the Chu army did not reduce any troops. On the contrary, they took the opportunity to grow and expand their territory.

Before Liu Jun entered Beijing, the territory controlled by the Chu army was only Liaodong and Huguang. But now, Liaodong and Huguang, Sichuan are in control, Jingzuo, Shandong, and western Liaoning are infiltrated and have great control.

"Prince, how do you plan to rectify the salt affairs?" Fu Shan asked with concern. "This salt is not easy to interfere with. It involves too many aspects and involves the interests of too many people. Moreover, anyone who can make a profit in salt is all the relatives and nobles of the royal family. This requires rectification of salt affairs, but it is necessary to stab a hornet's nest."

"Punt when it's time to poke. As long as you're well prepared, don't worry." Liu Jun was determined to make salt changes. There were indeed too many people involved, but there were indeed many benefits. After the salt business was done, the annual salt tax was at least 20 million silver dollars, which was not a problem to charge 20 million more than now.

With so much money, how could Liu Jun let it go and be taken away by others?

When he was in Macheng, he had only one inspector, and he had to make a splash in Taiping Township one acre of three-point land because there were too many benefits. Now he has become the governor of Zhili, the minister of the reign of life, and the grand clerk of the cabinet. How could he let the salt profit be taken by others?

"In fact, salt reform is also very simple." Liu Jun is not a native of this era. He is a time traveler and his eyes are not limited to this era.

The salt administration of the Ming Dynasty implemented the official sales law, the opening of the Chinese law, the salt system, etc. However, they all made salt merchants poor, deceived the people of the court, and even the stove owners had never gained any benefits.

"If we want to reform the salt administration and get this generous salt tax, we will destroy the original salt system. From top to bottom, we will destroy the old system without breaking it. I plan to establish an institution in the court. The Salt Services Office is responsible for the salt service."

Liu Jun's salt affairs reform center was to establish a Salt Services Agency at the upper level, which was released separately and took charge of the national salt affairs. Then, the national salt affairs were divided into four major parts: salt production, salt storage, salt transportation, and salt sales.

To put it bluntly, it is the official who supervises the business and sells it.

The original dealer-style monopoly sales model was abolished and several major steps of salt trading were separated. The salt business nationwide was uniformly allocated, and a salt manufacturing department was responsible for managing major salt farms across the country and responsible for the production of salt.

There is another special salt storage department that sets up several large salt warehouses in important water and land wharfs across the country, responsible for storing the salt produced by major salt fields.

Next is a Salt Transportation Department. This Salt Transportation Bureau is responsible for the transportation of salt. They are responsible for transporting salt from the salt yard to various large salt warehouses and salt warehouses in various provinces. They are responsible for the transportation of salt.

Finally, a large salt bin was established in the capitals of the twenty-one provinces. After transporting the salt from several large transfer salt bins, they were responsible for wholesale and distribution of salt to salt merchants.

The most important step in this reform is here. The salt offices across the country are sold according to the province's boundaries, but there is no longer a resident order and no longer a monopoly. All businessmen are qualified to buy salt from the salt warehouses of the provincial capitals and then sell in the province.

All salt is 100 kilograms per tumble and 50 kilograms per tumble. If you want to buy salt, you don’t need to take a single salt intake. You can issue an invoice first in the salt warehouse, pay after issuing the invoice and then get the salt. The salt payment already includes the salt price and salt tax. In this way, salt tax is already levied before the salt is released.

After the salt is released from the warehouse, it is sold in this province and no salt tax will be imposed.

Even the salt price and tax rate Liu Jun has set. No matter where the salt is produced or where the province is sold, all the salt will be sold nationwide, and the unified warehouse price and tax will be unified nationwide.

Once every 100 kilograms, one kilogram is calculated as sixteen kilograms.

One tumble of salt is one yuan for salt, three yuan for salt tax. Salt merchants issue invoices to purchase salt, and the warehouse price is four yuan for each tumble. It includes the salt price and salt tax. There will be no additional tax after the warehouse is released.

The salt price and salt tax are far lower than the current salt price and salt tax. Now the salt tax in the court is 300 kilograms, six taels, six cents, and four cents per 300 kilograms, which is equivalent to four and a half yuan per titanium. Unfortunately, although the salt tax in the court is high, it cannot be collected at all and is completely lost.

According to the records of the court at this time, the annual official salt output of the court was about 2 million ounces. One ounce was 300 kilograms, which was equivalent to 6 million pounds of salt. If one pound was 4 silver dollars, then a year would be 24 million ounces of salt, of which the salt tax reached 18 million ounces.

Moreover, Liu Jun predicted that when the court controlled the production, transportation and distribution of salt, although the cost may be quite high, the sales of salt will be tighter, and even the private salt will be greatly reduced, and the sales of salt will be greatly increased.

It is not a problem that the salt tax exceeds 20 million yuan a year.

The key point of this salt administration is to separate the various links of salt production, transportation, sales, and sales, and be responsible for different people. Liu Jun prepared to build a new complete salt industry system, and even establish a special salt inspection department, establish a salt police force, inspect salt administration, and crack down on private salt.

Moreover, taxes are first imposed when the salt is sold, which can ensure that the salt tax will not be lost.

"The prince's plan is good, but to be honest, now that officials are corruption, they are afraid that it will be difficult to implement the results. No matter how good the scriptures are, they will be difficult to recite them well by handing them to a group of crooked monks." Fu Shan said.

"I naturally thought of this, so I plan to do something even more ruthless." Liu Jun smiled, "I am going to pay taxes to the court. The 20 million salt tax is handed over to the court every year, and the court will completely hand over the salt to me. All aspects from production to sales are considered private industries. Just like our military system, we will follow that set of things. We recruit everyone ourselves and use our own rules. Who dares to do whatever we want?"

The tax-inclusive system was a major feature of the Ming Dynasty's tax system, and it was the same as the contracted state-owned enterprises in later generations.

"Twenty million? Then the imperial court officials still smiled and said something wrong? If we are responsible for the production, transportation and sales, they will agree immediately if there is a 10 million a year."

"Even if you pay 20 million, there will still be a lot of money. But if you give 15 million, they will definitely be happy." Liu Jun has not released this trick, but he believes that they will support him when he tells the cabinet this plan.

Although 15 million is less than 20 million, they don’t have to be responsible for this troublesome situation. They will definitely be willing to earn 15 million if they are responsible for drought and flood.

For Liu Jun, salt tax is also beneficial. First, it can manage salt affairs more quickly and effectively. Second, Liu Jun also intends to use the salt affairs system to recruit and train a group of staff to make plans for the future. When this group of salt affairs managers grow up, they can completely replace the corrupt officials now.

After hearing Liu Jun’s plan, Fu Shan could only smile and admire him, “The prince really planned to go far, take three steps at one step!"

"But even though the plan is that, it will not be simple to establish a new and effective salt service system from scratch. Besides, it is just to grab meat from other people's jobs."

Fu Shan said heroically, "Who has ever robbed us of the meat? If you don't accept it, you will beat him until he is convinced!"

"Hahaha, the Qingzhu has also learned bad things!" Liu Jun laughed. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!