Now, the Nanyue Army wants to hand over the franchise of a large number of grain, oil, salt and other things to the Jiangnan Group to protect the people's livelihood in Nanzhili and Zhejiang.

Nanzhong produces grain, which is no secret in the Jiangnan family, but due to the long distance and insufficient transportation capacity, those grain and rice piled up in the mountains and reclaimed the sea cannot be transported to Jiangnan for a while. Now, the Nanyue Army has taken the initiative to sell grain to all the families in the south of the Yangtze River, and the huge temptation of profits is really hard to resist.

It was to collect grain and rice from the Nanyue Army at the price of the Wanli period, and when he turned around, he could sell it at the price of two taels of silver and one stone! The benefits obtained are more than 10 million?!

With such a huge bargaining chip in hand, the waist of Chen Da's shopkeeper in the negotiations was as hard as a diamond, and he stubbornly bit the condition that the tariff rate should not be lower than 10%. If you want to break through this bottom line, then the conditions that value-added tax, income tax and other taxes proposed by Jiangnan Group are not allowed to be implemented in Jiangnan area, "My father-in-law is also difficult to obey!" When I was about to go north from Guangzhou, it was reported that the people of the shogunate had prepared a recital for the current son on behalf of my lord, and prepared to invite the Son of Heaven to implement the integration of the officials and gentry to pay grain and return fire consumption to the public, and to implement commercial tax, income tax, value-added tax, customs duties and other taxes in all parts of our Ming Dynasty, especially in the southeast financial area. Change the emptiness of the treasury and the withering of the people's livelihood in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and the decline that the state intends to suppress thieves and give relief is suffering from lack of money and food! ”

"This time, I am afraid of Suzhou! Jiangnan is Suzhou everywhere! ”

Qian Qianyi was not to be outdone, facing the aggressiveness of Chen Da's shopkeeper. angrily listed the cases of violent tax resistance in Suzhou to ridicule him.

"It doesn't matter! My father-in-law has already thought of it for Tanduke. If there are local traitors who want to test the law and take advantage of the fire, they must use swords and fires to teach them a sentence that Emperor Taizu Gao taught his subordinates! ”

"I don't know if the marshal plans to use that sentence on the edict to teach the people of Jiangnan?"

"In the past, Taizu asked the ministers, who is the happiest in the world? Wei Ru Taisu replied the most worthy of Taizu's heart, 'Those who fear the law are the happiest! ’”

After saying this, the shopkeeper Chen changed his face again, "I really don't hide it from the playman, among the generals of my Nanyue Army, there are quite a few people who are bent on making meritorious service and glorifying the lintel." A few days ago, when King Qin was in power, he could not come with a large army due to the limited number of ships, and a few generals complained a little. That's why Xiamen conquered Xiamen and Kinmen in one day of the First World War. Now the generals are writing one after another. He is willing to take the garrison brigades of the department as the forerunner of the Son of Heaven and go to Jiangnan to implement the tax system. ”

Where is this to go to Jiangnan to implement a new tax system for Emperor Chongzhen? If several brigade commanders of the Nanyue Army who are bent on meritorious service and promotion lead tens of thousands of wolf-like barbarian soldiers of the Nanyue Army into Jiangnan, with the fact that Jiangnan has not had a war for more than 100 years, and the officers and soldiers are a little difficult to deal with a bandit and robber, I am afraid that it is possible to kill Jiangnan with a river of blood!

"It's not going to work!"

Joke! If Li Shouhan's question book goes up. Chongzhen, who is short of money and lacks everything, is afraid that his eyes are red? A decree came down. Several garrison brigades of the Nanyue Army marched into the south of the Yangtze River in a grand manner. Forcibly collecting taxes with fire guns and bayonets, coupled with the Cao Gang helping to abuse the people on the side, the Jiangnan family has a good life. And that's the end of it.

However, before that, he Qian Qianyi was only afraid that he would be killed by these clans first, not only would he die and the clan would be destroyed, but he would also be scolded by the pen in the hands of these clans, and his reputation after hundreds of years would be completely criticized.

"Uncle's loyalty to the country, we naturally admire it! However, although Jiangnan has always been known as rich, it is just a virtual appearance on the outside. The pain inside, Chen Da Shopkeeper will understand it after walking around Jiangnan. ”

"That's it! Nowadays, the world is not peaceful, and business is not easy to do everywhere! Many times when you walk on the road, you don't know who will rob you! Sometimes it's a rebel, sometimes it's a rogue, sometimes it's a hungry people, and after a few things, everyone's capital is gone! But the scene outside has to be strong! ”

"The small one is engaged in the brine industry, and this salt shop could have earned some money to support the family. But over the years, the private salt has been rampant, and the salt gang has brought countless private salts to the salt dogs, which has disrupted the salt lead. Illegal salt is flooded everywhere, and the country's salt tax is naturally unable to collect! ”

These people who came with Qian Qianyi poured bitter water for their respective masters.

The sky-high asking price of the two sides ended, and they entered the stage of repaying the money on the spot.

Qian Qianyi is thinking about the interests of the entire Jiangnan Group, (or for his kickbacks?) The tax rate was bitten to the ratio of three points, and the shopkeeper Chen took out the documents of the household department to talk about things. "Back then, Bi Ziyan Shangshu increased taxes according to the standard of one dollar per tael. We haven't levied it at the rate of two or two dollars yet! The tax rate must be implemented according to the standard of 10%! ”

"That's why Bi Ziyan's end is miserable! His younger brother Bi Zisu was caught by Ning Yuan's rebels when he was caught by the chaotic knife! Qian Qianyi sneered in his heart, but he forgot that the Ningyuan mutiny seemed to be inverted from Bi Ziyan's proposal to raise taxes.

"Four points! Can't add more! ”

"Nine points! This is the permission given to me by my father-in-law! ”

"Chen Da shopkeeper, everyone is a businessman, so you must make it convenient!"

"This Caidong, the small merchant goods will also have to pay taxes and silver when they enter and leave Wusongkou in the future!"

The shopkeeper Chen bowed his hand to everyone present with a sad face, "Now it's the spring famine season soon, don't I plan to handle this matter right away, and have a hat to grab when I turn around?" ”

It is now late April, and when the spring famine is approaching, grain merchants everywhere have begun to allocate their positions, preparing to hoard grain, and scrape oil on the civilians in various towns.

"Four and a half minutes!"

"Eight points!"

"Five points! But we will no longer hand over the regular practice of the Admiral Cao Jiang Yamen! Ships of all sizes in the south of the Yangtze River enter and exit Wusongkou and Qiantang River, and the naval division of the Nanyue Army must ensure the safety of the ship, cargo and population! ”

"Five points! Not including the regular money of the Admiral to the Jiang Yamen! In order to investigate the treacherous and cunning, the sailors of the Nanyue Army still have to see the banner of the Caojiang Yamen before they can be released! ”

"At the same time. The big families in the south of the Yangtze River have to let me run newspapers in various towns and cities in the south of the Yangtze River, recruit talents who are not the first, and write articles in the first place. ”

Newspapers are nothing new in the Jiangnan region, where the economy is prosperous and the ideology and culture are extremely active, but most of them stay at the stage of copying and reprinting newspapers.

Such a thing naturally can't be hidden from Qian Qianyi, who is the leader of the Jiangnan literary circle.

The book distribution and printing industry was also a small sign in the early industrialization of Jiangnan, printing fonts. Use of movable copper type. Movable type printing in China. It first appeared in Shen Kuo's book "Mengxi Bi Tan", about 400 years earlier than Westerners. (The stick is not convinced, "Since the year there were dogs, Koreans have had printing!") Since then, there have been styles such as "clay movable type plate", "magnetic plate", "wooden movable type version", "copper movable type version", "lead movable type version", "tin movable type version" and so on.

And copper movable type. During the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty. It is more popular in Wuxi, Suzhou, Changshu, Nanjing and other places in Jiangsu. Many rich and wealthy businessmen. They are all making copper movable type printed books, the most famous of which are the Huajia and Anjia in Wuxi.

However, in the period of Apocalypse and Chongzhen, due to the decline of economic capacity. Add to that the rise in copper prices. Feeling that the cost of copper movable type printing is too great, most of them use wooden movable type, which is a relatively low-cost printing method, and use copper movable type to make private money and copper utensils for profit. Di Bao is distributed to the outside world, and it is also copied by hand, and I don't know how many Beijing newspaper copyers have been fed.

It's just wooden movable type printing, and the printing quality is not good. The font is crooked, the ink color is diffuse, and it gives people a very poor reading feeling, a typical black-hearted pirated book!

(By the way, the father of the famous three Song sisters, Song Jiashu, first made his fortune as a pirated book in the Shanghai Concession.) However, no one would come to him for royalties on what he had printed, because he had pirated the Bible, and it seemed that the property rights belonged to Su Ge. ）

By agreeing to the distribution of a newspaper in various parts of Jiangnan, a huge concession of three cents was obtained, and everyone present readily agreed.

So Jiangnan Times had a birth permit.

This Jiangnan Times, which was born in the Nanzhong Business Daily, is roughly divided into current affairs news, miscellaneous comments, town news, Jiangnan Wonders, Daming News, overseas news and other columns, occasionally filled with a large number of advertisements, commercial information, and the so-called entertainment version that is despised by the righteous man and gentleman, the content of the flower newspaper is mostly the Jinlan sisters of a certain Oiran and a certain red card of a certain place, and the establishment of the "Love Dog Gang", a new prostitute with a double art and so on has recently appeared in the hook column, etc., compared with the Daming Di Newspaper, it can be regarded as a very rich content, It's refreshing.

In addition to printing workers, such as doctors, proofreaders, interviews, editors, etc., most of them employ young people from all over the country, so that this generation can have a living by selling literature. In addition to these personnel, the newspaper also has a range of 20 to dozens of thug guards, most of these strong men have the identity background of the Cao Gang or the Salt Gang, the most well-informed, once something happens, they can really respond to it.

With the endorsement of this secret tax treaty by both sides, it officially marked the halftime whistle blowing for both sides. The nerves that had been tense for a long time were finally relaxed, and a large number of ships swarmed out with the identification flags they had received from the Caojiang Yamen, loaded with all kinds of goods, heading in all directions.

In less than a month, only one banknote in Wusongkou received nearly 400,000 yuan in tax silver! That is to say, nearly 20 million yuan of goods were exported through Guò Wusongkou.

When Wu Song presented the note to Shouhan in Guangzhou, Shouhan was also a little surprised, and he couldn't imagine that the wealth of Jiangnan had reached such a point.

"It's not surprising. Before the export of Jiangnan was stagnant, everyone was afraid of going to sea and there was a loss, and they all flinched, when they heard that the switch was opened, there was bound to be a blowout, and it would be good to stay for a few months. ”

Li Peilin, who came from Hue, is familiar with the laws of economic operation, and he has broken through the sky in one sentence.

"The four hundred thousand silver dollars were divided into four parts. Take out 50,000 yuan, send someone to escort it to the capital and hand it over to the emperor, and tell him that this is the income from our tax collection in Wusongkou. This year, at least 200,000 yuan can be handed over to the inner treasury. Total the silver money we handed over to him before, in the emperor's inner treasury, the internal treasury can almost reach one million yuan! ”

"So, what about the other three?"

"Take out 150,000. It was also transported to the capital, and 50,000 yuan was given to each of the two princes and princesses of the ceremonial supervisor, and they were also told that this was their dividend, and they could have 200,000 yuan this year! The remaining 50,000 will be divided by the celebrants and the inner supervisors! In addition, we took out 100,000 silver dollars to purchase our own things such as japonica rice, cotton cloth, vegetable oil, refined salt, etc., and sent some anointing fire to Xiucai and Tongsheng in various academies and private schools in Jiangnan, and sued them. This is my Nanyue Army's sympathy for the hard work of scholars. Bursaries issued. The rest of the money will be left in Wusong and prepared for the use of the faction! ”

Li Peilin listened, just nodded yes. But. It's time for concrete implementation. But there was a slight deviation.

The allowance for poor scholars in Jiangnan, but Chen Da's shopkeeper was ordered to go to Meixianglou to ask Li Xiangjun's cheap old lady Li Zhenli to come out and do it.

For a time, poor scholars from all over the south of the Yangtze River. Everyone weeps like snow, the scholars are poor, and the beauties give the legacy! Stroking the heavy rice bag and the thick and soft chintz, now, I can finally raise my eyebrows in front of the yellow-faced woman at home!

When Shouhan learned of this and saw the wives and concubines in the inner house, especially Li Muhua's special demeanor, he couldn't laugh or cry when he looked at Li Peilin's expression.

This is a later story, so let's not press the table for the time being.

Looking at the huge fortune boats on the Huangpu River and the Qiantang River, the rich businessmen and tycoons in the south of the Yangtze River laughed so much that their mouths were about to crack to the back of their heads.

Since the second half of last year, a large-scale famine began to brew and spread, and gradually there was a momentum of sweeping all parts of the Ming Dynasty. The people cut the bark of the tree and the sawdust mixed with chaff to eat, or dig the white mud in the mountains for food, and when they look at the village, the bark is stripped and they are starved all over the place.

After the great drought, the locusts that fell from the sky were all gone.

If there is no harvest of grains, it will inevitably lead to a terrifying surge in grain prices, a few taels, a dozen taels of silver and a stone of grain is normal, and there is often no price in the market, no one is willing to sell, and a large amount of silver in hand is in danger of becoming a waste stone.

Disasters do not go alone, there is a great drought in the north, and there is a great flood in the south.

On 13 May, Wujiang and Gui'an in Su, Song, and Hu prefectures poured heavy rain day and night, and the water burst out suddenly, surging in an instant, regardless of the embankment, and houses toppled over. And the price of rice is soaring, fighting rice to three or four dollars of silver, the rich families are closed, the people eat grass and trees, and the dead are thrown to the pillow. Tyrannical gangsters are in groups, clamoring for food, neighbors are boycotting, and people in the countryside are closed.

With the catastrophe, there was another plague, and the people who were lucky enough not to die died again, and there were not a few people who died in the whole village, the whole town, and the whole city.

Therefore, in the eyes of merchants everywhere, those lucky ships with a very deep draft anchored on the river are not carrying rice and oil, but boats of white flowers and silver.

"The three fortune boats headed by us are from our Daxing rice line! Don't rob me! ”

"Good! The last two are our auspicious notes! ”

"The last five boats belong to our Dadexing!"

On the wharf of Xiaguan, looking at the grain convoy that came together and sailed like a cloud, several big grain merchants in Nanjing City competed with each other and shouted for each other, while demarcating the sphere of influence for each other, and at the same time ordered the "students" carrying the silver box to open the silver box, and the silver dollar with white flowers was forcefully broken from the red mulberry paper, and the sound of clanging was pleasant and moving.

"Everyone, everyone is a peer in the city of Nanjing, these grains in front of a family will definitely not be able to eat, we must negotiate a price among our peers, so as not to be taken by the Nanban!"

"It's good! I said that one stone of good japonica rice is seven coins of silver! ”

"Sell it to all towns, two and a half silver dollars and a stone!"

This price is too black according to the current prices in Jiangnan. Su Songtai, Hangjiahu and other places have risen to four dollars of doumi and there is no market, these merchants actually want to buy from the merchants of Nanzhong at the price of seven coins of fine japonica rice on one stone, and then sell it at more than three times the price. Sure enough, it is a profitable deal.

However, those small grain merchants have no way at all, who makes them inferior in strength?

"At the price of one silver dollar per stone of rice, I sold the delivery contract of 100,000 stone of good japonica rice in Nanzhongshang. 500 stones! There is no limit to the number of people! ”

"I'm the same price, 50,000 stones!"

"We have 30,000 stones in our house!"

A series of voices came from the tea shed behind the wharf, and several sons and daughters of the nobles in Nanjing City and several sons and sons of various yamen in Nanjing walked out humbly to each other, and this scene almost made the eyes of the merchants fall out.

When did Xungui and Donglin's children become so close?!

"Rank, but I don't know, the grain and rice on these dozens of ships, a few days ago when the fleet was still outside Wusongkou, Longsheng people signed a delivery contract with us, and sold it to us at the price of seven coins of silver and one stone, and today is here to deliver, if you want to buy, you will come to this son!"

Several sons shook the contract with the vermilion seal in their hands, triumphant.

This kind of business, this is the first time they have done it, the people in each province only need to go around the wharf, sell the contract on the wharf, and then hand over the rest of the money with the merchants in Nanzhong.

The big rice shops on the dock ran the street, and they couldn't afford to provoke these sons and brothers, so they had to put away the silver box stupidly, go to the princes to make careful reparations, and put away all the arrogant anger of Fang Cai.

"Alas! People are under the eaves, how dare they not bow their heads! ”

"It's okay! For the sake of the silver, what should I deserve to say a few good words for my kindness? ”

After all, the temptation of huge profits was there, and after a few words of conversation with this group of accustomed sons, everyone had to accept the price of a silver dollar and a stone, and buy the contract in the hands of all the sons, "Red guy! If Lao Tzu doesn't push the grain from all over the south of the Yangtze River to five taels of silver and one stone, I'm sorry for today's grievance! ”

Several street runners from Dadexing and Daxing Rice Shops held wine bowls of hot rice wine, watching the coolies carry the rice bales on the ship into their warehouses with difficulty, and they couldn't stop swearing and swore indignant about today's encounter.

They were uneven for the nobles and Donglin leaders in Nanjing City to get at least three coins of silver, but they didn't know that these grains and rice of the Nanyue Army were not more than three coins of silver and one stone, even if they were counted in the consumption of ships, and the silver of water feet could not exceed three coins of silver and one stone!

However, soon, an incident came from Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, which calmed their anger a little.

"What?! Nanzhong businessmen want to buy reed beach by the Huangpu River? ”

The magistrate of Shanghai County was anxious about the many victims and the collapsed houses and city walls brought by the floods, when he suddenly heard such a very untrue news.

His first reaction was, if this thing was true, did the Nanzhong businessman have a fever and burn his braincase?

"We are willing to buy some land along the river to build houses, roads, docks, warehouses, etc."

In addition to purchasing nearly 3,000 mu of land at the price of one stone of rice and one acre of riverside wasteland, the Nanzhong businessmen also donated 2,000 stone meters to rebuild the county seat of Shanghai.

The story soon spread throughout the Yangtze River Delta, and people who heard about it learned a new word.

Nanban merchants, foreign plates!

It means that money is a stupid sheep.

However, they did not know that the land purchased by the merchants of Nanzhong was located on the Huangpu River, between Suzhou Creek in the north and Zhoujingbang and Suzhai on the bank of Suzhou Creek in the west.

This is where we are familiar with the location of the British Concession. (To be continued......)