The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 131 The need to rectify the salt merchants is urgent.
Upon hearing Du Ruoheng's words, Tu Chengyu said, "Since Lord Lin says so, then I will make the decision. I can also answer the question you just asked."

"The reason the Lu family was besieged is because I discovered that the Lu family members were actually selling smuggled salt, which violated the laws of the dynasty."

With evidence in hand, Tu Chengyu saw no need to beat around the bush and went straight to the point.

Upon hearing this, Du Ruoheng asked, "Your Highness, is there some misunderstanding?"

Tu Chengyu said, "I have the evidence right here, there is no misunderstanding."

Seeing Tu Chengyu's firm attitude, Du Ruoheng changed the subject, saying:

"Your Highness, before I came here, Chairman Han said that if the Lu family really has any problems, he would like to ask Your Highness to spare the Lu family once, considering that the salt merchants have served the court for so many years."

Tu Chengyu was not about to be foolish enough to let the Lu family off with mere words. He said, "Why should I let the Lu family go?"

Du Ruoheng said, "If Your Highness can spare the Lu family, please feel free to make any requests you may have."

It seems they really did send someone to negotiate. A salt merchant who broke the law sending someone to negotiate with a prince of the court sounds absurd, but it really happened.

Tu Chengyu initially couldn't understand how they dared to negotiate with him.

Upon reflection, I realized that in their eyes, a prince is a prince, and the imperial court is the imperial court; although they are all one family, their interests are different.

Perhaps in their eyes, their efforts to arrest people were not to rid the court of evil, but to extort money from them to satisfy their own selfish desires.

That's why they dared to openly ask Tu Chengyu to set conditions, with the intention of bribing Tu Chengyu or even dragging him into their schemes.

If they had encountered another prince, their goal might have been achieved.

Tu Chengyu, however, would not stoop to the level of these businessmen for such a small gain.

However, Tu Chengyu will not reveal his uncompromising attitude now.

After all, the salt merchants, when united, still wielded considerable power.

To deal with the Lu family and then the salt merchants, he had to plan carefully.

Heed Lin Ruhai's advice: divide and win over the salt merchants, then defeat them one by one; do not rush things.

So when Tu Chengyu heard Du Ruoheng ask him to make a request, he pretended to be very interested and said:
"I am now making a request; can you make that decision?"

When Du Ruoheng heard that Tu Chengyu was going to make a request, he was delighted and said, "This student is naturally unable to make the decision, but this student can convey the prince's request to Chairman Han and others."

Upon hearing this, Tu Chengyu smiled and said, "Since that's the case, I'll state my request. I want to replace the Lu family's position as salt merchants."

Du Ruoheng was dumbfounded when he heard the conditions proposed by Tu Chengyu.

He thought that Prince Su agreed to the demands because he wanted to let the Lu family off the hook, but now it seems that Prince Su still wants to completely eliminate the Lu family.

If that's the case, what's the point of negotiations? Is it just to make it easier for Prince Su to eliminate the Lu family?
Faced with this condition, Du Ruoheng didn't know how to answer, and could only stand there in a daze.

Seeing this, Tu Chengyu asked, "Why don't you speak? Is it because the conditions I proposed are not suitable?"

Du Ruoheng was startled awake by Tu Chengyu and quickly replied, "Your Highness is joking. The conditions Your Highness proposed have naturally been agreed to by the salt merchants. How could I possibly comment?"

Tu Chengyu said, "Since you can't comment, hurry back and find someone who can make the decision."

After saying this, without waiting for Du Ruoheng's reply, he added, "Go back and tell them that once they have discussed it, they should send someone who can make decisions next time. I don't want to waste time with them."

After hearing Tu Chengyu's words, Du Ruoheng didn't hesitate and immediately took his leave, departing from the Lin residence.

After he left, Lin Ruhai and Quan Wenwei went to see him together.

Tu Chengyu thought that Lin Ruhai had gone to besiege the Lu family and wouldn't be back for a while, but he didn't expect him to appear in front of him so quickly.

Now that he was back, and since Tu Chengyu also had some questions for him, he immediately let the two of them in.

After entering and taking their seats, Tu Chengyu said to them, "I have already presented them with the conditions we agreed upon before. Now it's up to them to respond."

Lin Ruhai said, "Your Highness, the saying goes, 'If you ask for an exorbitant price, you can always bargain.' They naturally want Your Highness to lower your demands."

Tu Chengyu: "I don't care about haggling, but I'm quite unhappy right now."

After Tu Chengyu finished speaking, Lin Ruhai and Quan Wenwei looked bewildered. They didn't know why Tu Chengyu had suddenly become unhappy again.

Lin Ruhai said, "Why is Your Highness like this? Are you not satisfied with the conditions you just mentioned?"

Tu Chengyu: "It's not that I'm dissatisfied with the conditions, but rather that I'm dissatisfied that they actually dared to come and negotiate with me."

"They are just merchants who broke the law and were caught by me. Instead of surrendering, they wanted to resolve the matter through negotiation. They are simply lawless."

"When you first said they would come to negotiate, I didn't believe you. I didn't expect them to actually dare to come."

After hearing this, Lin Ruhai understood what was causing Tu Chengyu's anger, but he still tried to persuade him:

"Your Highness, these people are indeed somewhat disrespectful, but their affairs are of great importance, and negotiations are necessary."

Upon hearing this, Tu Chengyu said angrily, "That's the problem. A group of merchants can control the imperial court. It's simply outrageous."

"I believe that dealing with just the Lu family will be of no use. Therefore, I have decided to punish all these salt merchants and prevent them from having even the slightest thought of threatening the court."

He had this idea of ​​dealing with the salt merchants ever since he heard about their actions.

Previously, he thought that salt affairs were important matters for the imperial court and should be handled by the court.

However, he now sees that these salt merchants are all becoming too powerful to be controlled, and if they are not dealt with in time, they may become uncontrollable in the future.

If we wait for the imperial court to send someone to rectify the situation, who knows when it will be resolved? By then, the salt merchants will probably have developed into conglomerates.

Therefore, Tu Chengyu felt that while he was in Yangzhou, he should take the opportunity to thoroughly rectify the salt administration, so as not to leave it for later and make things difficult for the Emperor and the Crown Prince.

Lin Ruhai knew he couldn't stop Tu Chengyu from suddenly wanting to eliminate all the salt merchants; he could only try his best to persuade him.
"Your Highness, you may do whatever you wish, but you must not be too hasty."

Lin Ruhai knew what kind of things the salt merchants were capable of, so he kept advising Tu Chengyu not to rush things.

Tu Chengyu said, "I understand, I won't act recklessly. However, my decision to regulate the salt merchants will not change."

Lin Ruhai: "Since Your Highness has made up your mind, I will naturally do my best to help Your Highness."

Tu Chengyu smiled and said, "With Lord Lin's words, I am relieved. I have a few questions I would like to ask Lord Lin."

Lin Ruhai said, "Please speak, Your Highness."

Tu Chengyu: "I want to know, what gives these salt merchants their confidence?"

Lin Ruhai, an official who had managed salt affairs for many years, thought for a moment and immediately replied:

"Your Highness, the salt merchants' confidence naturally comes from salt."

Tu Chengyu then asked, "Since it's salt, wouldn't it be easier to control them if we separated the salt merchants from the salt?" That's the logic, but it certainly wouldn't be that simple in practice.

Lin Ruhai shook his head and said, "It's as difficult as climbing to the sky to take the salt back from the salt merchants."

Tu Chengyu asked, "Why?"

Lin Ruhai explained, “The salt merchants of Yangzhou are different from those elsewhere. They control both the salt fields and the salt permits. From the production of salt to its sale, there is nothing they don’t get involved in.”

"If they target the salt fields, they can prevent the salt from being sold. If they target the distribution channels, they can organize a strike by the salt workers, leaving you with no salt to sell."

"Unless there are enough available people to replace the salt merchants from top to bottom."

"Otherwise, this method won't work against the salt merchants."

It seems that dealing with salt merchants is indeed not an easy task. The difficulties that Lin Ruhai mentioned are not something that can be resolved in a short time.

However, with Lin Ruhai, who was familiar with salt affairs, Tu Chengyu didn't believe he couldn't come up with a way to deal with them.

He asked Lin Ruhai, "Lord Lin, do you have any good ideas?"

Lin Ruhai said, "Your Highness, according to my suggestion, we should still follow the method we discussed before to deal with the Lu family, starting with the salt fields."

This was a plan they devised before arresting the Lu family.

The goal was to seize control of the salt fields from the Lu family and bring them under his own control by dismantling the Lu family.

Then, using the salt fields as a fulcrum, they gradually infiltrated all aspects of Yangzhou's salt administration, ultimately achieving the goal of rectifying the salt administration.

This method is safe and will not cause major fluctuations.

However, it has two drawbacks.

One issue is that this method requires a gradual approach, and the entire process is quite lengthy. Tu Chengyu didn't have enough time to wait for the plan to be completed.

Secondly, this method does not change the operating rules of the salt industry; it merely replaces the current disobedient salt merchants. This is only a temporary solution; once supervision is relaxed, they will revert to their current behavior.

If Tu Chengyu hadn't made up his mind to reform the salt administration, he could have accepted this method.

But now that he has decided to personally resolve the salt affairs issues, a method that takes a long time and cannot solve the future problems, he cannot accept it.

Therefore, Tu Chengyu asked, "Is there a faster way?"

Lin Ruhai said, "There is a faster way, but with the current manpower, it's difficult to do."

Tu Chengyu said, "Don't worry about the manpower issue for now, tell me your solution first."

Lin Ruhai: "Since Your Highness says so, I will first explain the difficulties involved to Your Highness."

Tu Chengyu said, "Go ahead and say it."

Lin Ruhai continued, "There are two difficulties in quickly rectifying the salt industry. One is that the salt merchants have powerful backers in the court. Once we take action, it will inevitably lead to action against these backers, which will cause many problems to arise."

"The second difficulty is that salt administration is related to the food supply in the border areas. If this problem is not solved, it could cause big trouble."

"Therefore, if you want to deal with the salt merchants, Your Highness must first solve these two problems, and solving these two problems is not something Your Highness can do alone."

In the end, Lin Ruhai still didn't want Tu Chengyu to get involved in this mess alone.

Once Tu Chengyu has made up his mind, he will not back down.

He said, "If I cannot do it myself, I will naturally ask the Emperor and the Crown Prince for help. You only need to tell me how to solve these two difficulties."

Seeing that his explanation of so many difficulties had not dissuaded Tu Chengyu from his idea, Lin Ruhai had no choice but to say:
"If Your Highness can ask the Emperor and the Crown Prince for help, the previous plan will have to be changed."

Tu Chengyu asked, "How can we change it?"

Lin Ruhai said, "We'll deceive everyone and use a two-pronged approach."

Next, Lin Ruhai explained to Tu Chengyu and Quan Wenwei how he would deceive everyone and use a two-pronged approach.

Just as Lin Ruhai finished speaking, the three of them discussed how to improve the plan.

Xiao Xuanzi said from outside the door, "Your Highness, a salt merchant named Han Bocai is requesting an audience."

It turned out that the president of the Salt Merchants Association had come in person, but Tu Chengyu was discussing plans at the moment, and he also wanted to give the president some time to cool off.

So he said to Xiao Xuanzi, "Just tell him that Ben has something to do and that he should wait in the side room."

Xiao Xuanzi responded and went to make the arrangements, while Tu Chengyu and the other two continued to discuss their plans.

After the discussion, Tu Chengyu did not immediately summon Han Bocai.

Instead, he stayed in his study and wrote a letter to both the Emperor and the Crown Prince, reporting on some of the things that had happened on his side.

At the same time, he also told them about his plan to deal with the salt merchants and asked them to help him at a critical moment.

After the letter was written and Xiao Xuanzi arranged for someone to send it out overnight, Tu Chengyu summoned Han Bocai to come and see him.

Han Bocai was a middle-aged, overweight man with a fair complexion, long beard, and a scholarly air.

If Tu Chengyu hadn't known that this man was the president of the Salt Merchants Association, he would never have mistaken him for a businessman at first glance.

This shows that you really can't judge a book by its cover.

At the same time, Han Bocai also thought of this sentence after seeing Tu Chengyu.

He also found it hard to believe that the Prince Su, who had been the subject of much discussion lately, was actually just a child who seemed to know nothing.

It's hard to imagine that such a callow child could kill the former Crown Prince with his own hands.

They even went to Longxing County and, in front of their Tu family ancestors, killed more than twenty Tu clan members in one go.

The stark contrast between the rumors and reality gave Han Bocai a sense of unreality.

However, after he finished paying his respects, Tu Chengyu's words brought him back to the real world.

Tu Chengyu asked, "Why are you alone? Where is the fugitive Lu Yinghui?"

He didn't expect Tu Chengyu to immediately call Lu Yinghui a fugitive and even ask him about Lu Yinghui's whereabouts.

Faced with such a forceful question, Han Bocai carefully replied, "Your Highness, this student does not know where Lu Yinghui is hiding."

Han Bocai thought that Prince Su's question was already quite forceful, but he didn't expect it to be even more forceful next.

"Without bringing Lu Yinghui, what are you talking to me about?"

(End of this chapter)