The crowd in front of me is male and female, most of the men and women are in the prime of life, the work of frying salt is quite hard, and they can't stop at the beginning, at least for a whole day, but the weak ones can't stand it.

Most of the men wear shabby fat jackets, and some people wear iron mesh boots that are about to rot, and the color of the robes and boots is at least 20 years old. The women wore blue or blue skirts, dyed in a faded color, revealing the original color of the homespun cloth, and the robes were patched on top of each other, which was no different from the men, let alone the color and style.

There are more than 100 people in the crowd, but not all the strong men of Min Yuanqi's 100 households, there are at least 70 or 80 people in Min Yuanqi's memory who followed the general banner Han Sen to Huai'an to serve, and there are more than 100 old and weak left, the total number of households in the entire 100 households is indeed more than 110 households, but counting Yu Ding and women and children, the total population should be about 770 people, and the number of regular troops and Yu Ding in each small banner is quite large.

This is quite conflicting with Min Yuanqi's memory of the Ming Dynasty military household fleeing, and it also makes him feel a little confused.

Min Yuanqi really didn't know that Dahewei and Huai'anwei, as well as Nanjing's guards along the canal, rarely fled.

These guards rely on water to draft, they can do business along the river, they can watch and manage the boats, and these guards also contribute to the northward transportation of ships, and the imperial court pays the freight.

These two guards along the canal also have their own shipyards, and life is still difficult compared to the households, but it is still much better than the guards in the north. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Zhuwei lost its military function and completely turned into a boat carrier, because it was originally inherited by the Wei and had a strong organization, and gradually formed a secret organization, which was the early Qing Gang.

Seeing Min Yuanqi coming over, a thin man hurriedly trotted over, opened the pestle in his hand in front of Min Yuanqi, and carefully dusted it - and then Fang grinned and smiled: "Sit, sit." ”

Min Yuanjin laughed and scolded on the side: "Liang Shifa, you thief is crooked!" You are the most flattering, and it is difficult for you to prepare for this pestle early! ”

Liang Shifa said: "I really feel happy to see the adults, and it is really because the family is running out of food...... I forget it, the mother-in-law and the doll really can't stand it. ”

Min Yuanqi nodded slightly, this Liang Shifa is very clever and good at flattery, but he is also an honest person of the Gu family.

Seeing Min Yuanqi coming, several men also greeted him one after another, and each of them stood under Min Yuanqi and bowed to him.

Min Yuanqi looked at the past one by one, and the inner memory and the portrait in front of him gradually overlapped and became one.

After the blur gradually became clear, the original sense of fluctuation was far away, originally I seemed to be in a picture, there was an ethereal sense of illusion, these people in front of me greeted me one by one, listening to these people's words, but did not feel strange, but there was a sense of familiarity, like a stone thrown into a pond, when the ripples rippled, the still picture also became lively and vivid.

The people in front of him are the small flag officer Min Yuanzhong, the small flag officer Yang Zhijin, the small flag officer Gao Cuncheng, the small flag officer Liang Shifa, and Min Yuanjin, all of whom are small flag military attachés.

According to the system of the Daming Guard, there are 120 banners per 100 households, two general flags, ten small flags, 100 households are six products, 100 households are from six products, the total flag is seven products, and the small flag officials are from seven products.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the military nobles were cheap, and the military attache had an important position when the army was prosperous, and the real power was in hand and had the opportunity to be knighted, becoming a noble, and the civil officials were only supplying logistics to govern the place, and were suppressed by the warriors.

After Yongle, especially after the civil and engineering changes, civil officials gradually overrode the military position, and these small flag officials in front of them were all from the seventh grade, but they were full of fireworks, and their clothes were tattered, and it was even rare to have food and clothing.

"You've worked hard." Min Yuanqi nodded with a serious expression and said, "How much salt do you get?" ”

Several small flag officials have a peculiar feeling in their hearts, the Min family has a relatively high status in the Yunti Pass Guarding Palace, not only the 300th household of Min Yuanqi, but also the Min clan in the remaining 100 households. Because of the strength of the family, Min Yuanqi is only in his early twenties, and he usually acts a little slippery and uncertain, and he is quite a bit sloppy. The person in front of him seems to be a different person, simple and heavy, and people can't help but feel a sense of awe.

In front of these small flag officials, Min Yuanjin listens to orders under Min Yuanqimen every day, Min Yuanzhong is mainly responsible for daily farming, Liang Shifa is responsible for the storage of pipe utensils, and Gao Cuncheng and Yang Zhijin are mainly responsible for frying salt on the seaside.

When the salt goods came out, it was Liang Shifa who was in charge of the shot, so this person was the most anxious.

After all, it is impossible to support the family by farming, Dahewei is responsible for transporting hundreds of thousands of stone grains to Beijing every year, and the labor is hard, and it takes several months to go out at a time, and the income from the boat is also limited.

Min Yuanqi felt a little guilty in his heart, he accidentally fell to the bottom in his previous life, his soul wore to this point, he had not been able to adapt before, he hid at home and did not see anyone and did not do anything, he was trying a hundred households, and no one could interfere with the affairs under his rule, and now he knows how many things have been delayed, he will hide for a few more days, I am afraid that these people in front of him will be hungry.

Liang Shifa hugged his fists and said: "Lord Hui, this month, a total of more than 12,000 catties of salt are boiled, according to the current market, each stone of salt is five dollars of silver, if the copper coin is five hundred and fifty yuan a load, all of them are sold, you can get fifty taels of silver, and the exchange of money is more than 50,000 yuan, or some discrepancies, but it is not big." ”

Min Yuanqi nodded lightly, this Liang Shifa is no wonder that he can manage the storage of utensils, it turns out that he can settle accounts.

The price of salt is also good, the price of salt in the Ming Dynasty is unusually cheap, the price of salt is the most expensive ten wen a catty, the people at that time scolded very fiercely, Huaiyang salt production land, wholesale is more than 500 wen 100 catties, 5 wen a catty, to the hands of the people is seven or eight wen to about ten wen, the price is quite cheap compared to the former Song Dynasty.

In this era, there are four or five literate people in a hundred, but even fewer can settle accounts, Liang Shifa used to be a partner in a business house when he was a teenager, and he could have been a big man step by step until he was the shopkeeper, but unfortunately the business house went bankrupt, and he could only return to the guard to inherit the official position of a small flag officer. It's funny to say, from the small flag official of the seventh grade to become a business bank.

Liang Shifa said again: "According to the rule, adults can get 20%, which is 10 taels of silver, which is what we get in the past two months after the year, which is a lot more than usual." ”

Min Yuanqi said: "What is the price of grain now?" ”

Liang Shifa said with some caution: "Shanyang, Huai'an Mansion, Yancheng, and Andong, the price varies, or there are many grain merchants in Huai'an Fucheng, and the price may be cheaper, brown rice and coarse noodles, four coins and one stone, and polished rice and white noodles are about the same if they are not doubled." ”

"What are you thinking about dogs?" Min Yuanjin said with a smile: "Do we still dare to think about eating polished rice and white noodles in our daily lives?" You can eat a meal of white flour dumplings during the Chinese New Year, and a bowl of thin white noodles for the birthday of the little baby, so be content. ”

Min Yuanqi sighed, knowing why these people in front of him were all dish-faced.

Fifty taels of silver is enough to buy more than 100 stone of coarse grain, but there are hundreds of people who eat grain, and Min Yuanzhong takes fifteen taels, and the small banners also share more, and ordinary military households take even less.

In the past two months, less than a stone of coarse grain has been distributed, and the average daily per person is only a few taels of staple food.

By the time of the summer harvest, the families were having a better time, but not much better.

Fifty percent of the grain income is harvested by the big leaders such as the commander of the guard, two percent of the national tax is paid, two percent is divided by small and medium-sized military attaches such as the general banners of hundreds of households, and the remaining one percent is divided by the remaining members of the banner army who really farm the land.

That is to say, even if you eat brown rice and grains, if you don't boil salt to make up for it, these guards in front of you are afraid that they can only starve to death.

In later generations, there are many people, and even many people take the initiative to eat coarse grain brown rice, but the calories of a bag of snacks in later generations are worth a few catties of staple food. Middle-aged men have to do a lot of heavy work, at least three or four catties of staple food a day to avoid damage to the body, but in fact, these people are in chronic malnutrition, they are overdrawing their lives.

It is not uncommon for scholars and doctors to live to sixty or seventy, but the average life expectancy of ordinary people, regardless of civilian and military households, is less than forty.

"Let's go to Huai'an Mansion, Liang Shifa and Min Yuanjin will take people with them." Min Yuanqi waved his hand and said, "Thirty-five taels are all bought into grain...... My fifteen taels also buy brown rice! ”

Dahewei Yunti is more than 200 miles away from Huai'an Mansion, nearly 200 miles away from Shanyang, Yancheng is also more than 200 miles, Andong is the closest, less than 100 miles, and Baoying is the farthest, more than 300 miles. It is the closest to go north to Haizhou for more than 100 miles, but most of the Yunti Guanshou Imperial Palace is to Shanyang County or Huai'an Mansion. Dongyang is too far, there is no official road to Haizhou and Yancheng, the road is difficult, only to Huai'an and Shanyang is along Huai'an all the way to the water, although the distance is far, but five or six days can play a round trip.

Min Yuanzhong handled the raid, received the official robe and printed the letter, and also went to the Yamen of the Dahewei Command Department of Huai'an Mansion to handle it.

Unexpectedly, Min Yuanjin and the others looked a little strange, Min Yuanqi glanced at it, and said to Min Yuanjin: "Did I say something wrong?" ”

"Brother Yuan Qi may have just recovered ......from his illness," Min Yuanjin said: "The silver taels we get from selling salt have to give Yang Ti two percent, that is, ten taels of silver." ”

"Yang Tiju? Yang Shidana salt merchant? ”

Min Yuanqi frowned, and then suddenly remembered.

The harvest of boiling salt, the rest of the military attachés of the guard will not ask for it, they will also drive the banner army under their command to boil salt, and high-ranking officials such as the commander of the guard will take three sections and two respects to divide it, after all, their hands can't stretch out that long, and the boiling salt is not like a fixed amount of acres of land, which cannot be verified.

However, on the way to transport, along the Huai River and the official road, there will be people from the salt department to inspect, if it is dealt with according to the law of the country, selling illegal salt is a felony that can be punished with capital punishment, but no one has taken it seriously in the Chongzhen period, and there is a flood of illegal salt everywhere, and the income from the imperial salt department has been quite limited.

Most of these so-called inspectors are powerful local salt merchants, who donate silver and buy miscellaneous positions from the deputy of Qipin, and then lead a group of green-skinned loafers to extort money everywhere in the name of prohibiting illegal salt.

With Yancheng as the core, a large number of people of this kind exist in places where salt can be boiled within a radius of hundreds of miles.

Min Yuanqi thought that he only had about twenty taels of silver in his house, and this time he would give ten taels for nothing, so he was angry, and immediately waved his hand and said: "I have worked hard for nearly two months, and the income is only fifty taels, and if they don't do anything, they will take ten taels?" From this time on, we will not give our money. ”

Liang Shifa looked uneasy, rubbed his hands and said, "My lord, this is an old example. ”

"Old examples?" Min Yuanqi became more and more angry, looking at these soldiers in front of him, he felt that his image and temperament were really very obscene, and he was quite unwilling to lead this group of people. He also intended to find a breakthrough, and said coldly at the moment: "This old rule is broken in my hands, whoever wants to take the silver needs to ask me about the knife in my hand!" ”

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