Chapter 46 Ending
Kou Shen turned to the kneeling cook, raised his hand and shouted: "My fellow villagers, I know that you are not rioters, but you are just worried about your life and have some misunderstandings, so I will not punish you. You can rest assured!"

"As expected of Kou Qingtian, you are standing up for the people like us!"

"We bow down to thank the Lord of Heaven!"

The desperate and frightened people were suddenly overjoyed and kowtowed to Kou Shen one after another.

Seeing this, Kou Shen felt even more guilty and hated Ma Guoyong and other salt merchants even more.

It was clearly promised at the beginning that they would only use the gathering of stove owners to force Wei Zhongxian to leave Suzhou and put pressure on the court, and would definitely not cause loss of life or incite civil unrest.

Now, looking at the injured people in the crowd and those who collapsed on the ground, not knowing whether they were alive or dead, Kou Shen felt that he had let down the trust that the people of Suzhou had placed in him.

A difficult decision gradually sprouts in my heart.

Kou Shen did not dwell on his guilt for too long. He immediately announced to the people that it was true that the court was going to increase the purchase price of salt.

Kou Shen said it himself, and it is more credible than what more than a hundred people from the East Factory said together.

The kitchen owners no longer questioned, but were instead filled with great surprise and confusion.

Why, when the new emperor first ascended the throne, did he suddenly think of caring for these lowly people and be so generous?

Even Kou Shen couldn't understand this.

However, the cooks could not care less about so many things. At least since Lord Kou said so, it could not be wrong.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty mainly used sea salt and inland well salt, and most of the well salt was of poor quality.

Sea salt is divided into cooked salt and raw salt. Raw salt is the sun-dried salt produced in Fujian and Guangdong, which uses sunlight to evaporate water to obtain coarse salt.

The advantage is large quantity and labor saving, and the disadvantage is low price.

When it was the cheapest, a dou (14 or 15 jin) of salt cost only thirty cents.

The best quality salt is Lianghuai salt, which is white in color and tastes sweet and delicious. When it was the most expensive, it cost more than 100 coins per pound among the common people.

However, even such expensive Lianghuai salt was only sold to salt merchants for three or four coins per small bundle.

Chongzhen directly raised the price to two taels of silver, more than five times the original price!
But one thing that needs to be made clear is that the original "wholesale price" of each quotient offered by the imperial court was six taels, six qian and four li, which means that even if the cost was reduced to two taels, there would still be a gross profit of four taels, six qian and four li.

Instead of squeezing the stove owners, it is better to give them benefits and buy all the salt.

Anyway, if they don't give concessions, the retail price of salt merchants will not be cheap. Instead of letting salt merchants evade taxes, it is better to let the stove owners get a share of the pie.

Moreover, doing so was only Chongzhen's first step, to establish the court's image of loving the people and its status in the hearts of the salt owners, so as to win the support of the salt owners in the subsequent expulsion of salt merchants from the salt profit chain.

For example, now, because the stove owners have the inherent impression that the court's purchase price is low, some people with ulterior motives use the fact that the court will prohibit the free trade of surplus salt to incite the stove owners.

If the court's purchase price is higher than that of the salt merchants, the salt merchants will only sell to the court even if the court does not prohibit it.

Naturally, there is no possibility of being incited.

Of course, Chongzhen also considered that the salt merchants would follow the court's prices, thus frustrating the court's plans.

But it is not important.

At least, the imperial court's interference in this matter really benefited the kitchen owners.

Moreover, Chongzhen believed that even if a price war broke out over the purchase price, the salt merchants would be the first to collapse.

Although the imperial court's financial resources were definitely not enough to defeat these wealthy salt merchants in a price war, would the imperial court obediently follow the rules of business? With Kou Shen's promise, the yamen runners began to persuade the stove owners to go home.

The cooks all stood up and prepared to leave.

Li Yongzhen quickly signaled the officers and soldiers of Taicang Wei to clear the road and let these cooks leave.

So the cooks came and went in a daze.

Only a small number of people were left, crying while hugging the bodies of their injured or even dead relatives.

"Alas... What a sin!" Wei Zhongxian smiled and walked to Kou Shen's side, saying to him, "Today I have finally seen the reputation of Lord Kou among the people of Suzhou. It is truly admirable."

"I just don't know what they would think if they knew that the respected Lord Kou knew that the tragedy would happen, but did not choose to stop it but just stood by and watched."

Kou Shen was silent for a long time, and suddenly said: "I know that I have committed a serious crime. If the factory owner wants to kill me or chop me up, I will not hesitate!"

"Oh, we don't dare!"

Wei Zhongxian said sarcastically: "If anything happens to Lord Kou, they will accuse me, Wei Zhongxian, of harming loyal people."

Kou Shen clasped his fists solemnly and said, "I will ask the emperor to take the blame and identify the real culprit behind this."

Wei Zhongxian chuckled and said, "Lord Kou is indeed a wise man. He knows what the emperor and our family want."

When the cooks returned home, they thought the matter was settled.

The yamen runners of Suzhou government led the Dongchang runners to appear in the villages where cooks lived. These people did nothing else but enter the village and go straight to the homes of some people who were idle and stole things on weekdays and arrest one or two or three or four people.

They would catch people and leave without staying for long, as if they were afraid of causing misunderstandings with the villagers.

The villagers thought that the government was going to settle scores with them, so three or five elders or young men gathered together to discuss whether they should fight to the death. But before they could come to a conclusion, the differences came like a whirlwind and went away like a tide.

The kitchen owners were completely confused, because most of those arrested were rogues from various villages, so they didn't intend to cause trouble.

At the same time, Yangzhou was the base camp of salt merchants from Qin, Jin and Hui.

A large number of Dongchang servants and Nanjing Jinyiwei directly bypassed the Yangzhou government office, abandoned the Yangzhou guards who were nearby, and led the Taicang guards who were hundreds of miles away into the city, rushing towards the mansions in the city like tigers and wolves.

On this day, the Huizhou merchants, whom the Shanxi and Shaanxi Salt Gang dreamed of killing, were arrested one after another.

By the Slender West Lake, willows sway in the wind.

From an exquisite little building came bursts of lascivious music.

Seven or eight men dressed in silk and satin, each with one or two beautiful ladies sitting beside them, sat around a large round table, toasting each other.

A middle-aged man with a fat nose raised the celadon wine glass in his hand and toasted Ma Guoyong from afar, "Come, let's toast to Shopkeeper Ma!"

Everyone responded, and all kinds of flattery came out as if they were free.

"Everyone says that Wei Yan has all the power in the government and is so terrifying. How powerful he is, we see that he is just like that!"

"Brother Li, don't underestimate Wei Yan. He will be played around by our shopkeeper Ma!"

"Wei Zhongxian was already under suspicion from the newly enthroned young emperor, and now he messed up his job and provoked a civil uprising in Suzhou. I'm afraid he can't save his head."

(End of this chapter)