October of the fourth year of Tianshun.

In the past month, people in all parts of Shanxi have been panicking, and the atmosphere in the Shanxi Governor's Office is also tense.

During this period, Liu Juntao was ready to go to the newly established Datong Military Bureau and Taiyuan Military Bureau to inspect, but Guo Muying stopped him on the grounds that "safety cannot be guaranteed", which also made Liu Juntao depressed for a while, and he could only ask his subordinates to check on his behalf.

Taiyuan Fucheng.

There are government offices and deputy generals' offices in Taiyuan Fucheng, the Fucheng sits on the land of Pingchuan, the north and south are mountains and rivers, the east and west are flat and fertile soil, and the traffic town and the main road of the Beijing division have always been the place where the residents reproduce.

There are more than 10 streets in Taiyuan City, all of them have a square table, at this time in the courtyard of a deep house in an alley of Cheng'en Fang, there are many businessmen, these people are authentic Shanxi businessmen.

The mansion is luxurious, the hall is spacious and magnificent, and the merchants in it are all dressed in brocade robes, showing the atmosphere of wealth and wealth.

They sat and laughed slowly, and in a few simple conversations, sometimes a transaction of goods worth tens of thousands of taels, or even hundreds of thousands of taels or hundreds of thousands of taels was reached.

Most of the merchants here are grain merchants and salt merchants, and some of them are also engaged in medicine cloth fur, pawnshops, hotels, money industry, tea industry, warehouse and other affairs, all of them are worth a huge amount of money, and they are full of wealth and nobility when they raise their hands.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court in order to solve the problem of food and salary transportation for the border army. The "Law of Opening China" was implemented to encourage merchants to transport grain to the border gates.

Since then, the grain and salt merchants of the Nine Sides have flourished, but now the "Open China Law" has gradually declined, but the Nine Sides still need a large amount of grain, cotton and cloth, which is also inseparable from these merchants.

It is calculated according to the standard of one stone of monthly ration for border soldiers. The three towns of Xuanda alone need more than 2 million stones of grain, hundreds of thousands of horses of cloth, and hundreds of thousands of catties of cotton a year.

There is also a large amount of forage for horses, and the amount of miscellaneous goods such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea is also astronomical.

Since Liu Juntao led a group of soldiers of the Tiance Army to Shanxi, the amount of these required baggage has increased dramatically.

This fed a huge group of merchants, with 100,000 taels of capital dare not praise, a million taels is considered ordinary, especially to the Jin merchants, Beijing merchants, Hui merchants, etc., and at this time everyone in the house is all the best among the Jin merchants.

Due to the huge profits, although the northern land of the Ming Dynasty often faced the invasion of the Hu people, so that the people were displaced, for many merchants, it did not affect their rich life.

The incense dust carries the road, the jade dust is full of qu, and the boasting and glamour among the merchants are endless, and they are extremely profligate, and the Jin merchants are extremely luxurious.

Looking at the rows of maids and maids standing around, the exquisite Huanghuali tables and chairs beside them, and the Kunqu opera class specially invited from the capital to play and sing next to them, for many poor people, they could never dream of such a luxury.

This is just a corner of Taiyuan City, and if it is on the respective territories of these Jin merchants, it will be even more luxurious.

At this time, the businessmen were talking and laughing lightly, when a housekeeper wearing a blue silk robe came out and said with a smile: "Everyone, Old Man Zhang has arrived." ”

An old man in his fifties came out with the support of a handmaid, he was half black and half white, tall and majestic, and he was obviously a figure who had lived in the center of money and power for a long time.

Seeing him come out, all the businessmen present gave up their hands one after another, and even called "Old Man Zhang, Wan'an." ”

I can't help but be disrespectful to the businessmen, this old man Zhang Yongxiang is the uncle of Taiyuan Deputy General Zhang Gongwei, Zhang Gongwei has been guarding Taiyuan for many years, and his tentacles are pervasive. Fields, grain and oil, cloth, cotton, animal husbandry, mines, etc., all have the presence of the Zhang family.

Zhang Yongxiang is cunning and ruthless, and he never shows mercy to his rivals, unless he agrees to a series of harsh conditions he proposes.

Some of the businessmen present may be foreign strong dragons, but strong dragons do not suppress the head snake, and the Zhang family is the head snake of Taiyuan. If you want to do business in this part of Taiyuan. Who dares not to listen to the Zhang family's orders?

Seeing the businessmen Jia Shili, Zhang Yongxiang smiled, arched his hands in a circle, raised his voice slightly, and said: "Everyone, let the old man come to introduce." ”

He pointed to a middle-aged man beside him who was wearing a silk robe, wearing a Jiang ~ Shan Yi hat, and looked quite shrewd, and said: "This is Fan Yuhe, the eldest son of the Fan family, and the shopkeeper of Fan, you are so close." ”

Fan Yuhe made a circle to everyone, and said with a smile: "Yuhe has seen all the shopkeepers. ”

The merchants below all returned the courtesy, and many people couldn't help but be surprised in their hearts, and turned their heads and ears.

I have long heard the name of Shanxi Jiexiu Fan family (that is, the ancestor of the traitor Jin merchant in the late Ming Dynasty in the later generations, and has made a fortune at this time), he traded in Biansai at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and when it was passed to his father Fan Ancheng, he was already a famous businessman in Zhangjiakou and Jiexiu.

The Fan family was also one of the earliest merchants to trade with the Warat and Tatar tribes, and the history records that they "traded with the left of the various ministries and kept faith for a long time".

It is rumored that the Fan family has millions of dollars, and they all operate grain, cotton, salt, cloth, coal, tea, and medicinal materials, especially grain and cotton.

There are many talents in the clan, Jincheng, Changzhi, Qixian, Taiyuan, Datong, Zhangjiakou and other places all set up shops, and even when the Ministry of Commerce marched into Shanxi, they were also quite afraid of the Fan family.

Moreover, their family is proficient in mathematics, abacus, accounting and other computing skills, as well as a large number of language geniuses, many people in the clan are proficient in the Ming dialect, the Outer Mongolian language, and even after the later generations traded with Russia, a large number of talents proficient in Russian have emerged. Finally, after the trade show arrived in Europe, many people in the tribe were fluent in various Western languages.

This kind of ability is actually generally possessed by merchants from all over Shanxi at this time, which is also one of the reasons why Jin merchants can rise.

Fan Ancheng is getting older, and most of the business in the clan is managed by his son Fan Yuhe.

The name of the eight great merchants on the right side of the mountain, when they really became famous was at the end of the Ming Dynasty in later generations, but at this time, all the merchants in Shanxi were also thunderous, and they were typical of the integration of officials and businessmen, the official was the business, and the clansmen of the merchants were the officials.

Among the businessmen present, there are Shikun families, official families, and many military general families, but everyone is still respectful to Fan Yuhe's arrival.

Fan Yuhe greeted everyone kindly, his arrogance was in his bones, and he didn't put on a stand in front of everyone.

After seeing Fan Yuhe, Zhang Yongxiang smiled again, he and everyone sat down, and Fan Yuhe sat on the guest seat.

After everyone sat down, Zhang Yongxiang's sharp eyes slowly swept over everyone and said, "Today's high meeting, I think you all understand the meaning. Ning Beibo connived at his businessmen to enter Shanxi before, broke the rules of our Shanxi people, and robbed our Shanxi people's business, and now he wants to use the ticket number to cut our leeks and levy commercial taxes on us, and the old man called everyone to come to discuss countermeasures......"

He glanced at Fan Yuhe with a smile and said, "It's an honor for the old man to invite Fan Da Shopkeeper to come, and he will be even more powerful." ”

Hearing Zhang Yongxiang mention his name, Fan Yuhe stood up again and greeted everyone beside him.

In fact, the Fan family did not have many shops in Taiyuan, but after Zhang Yongxiang invited, Fan Ancheng summoned his son to discuss, and Fan Yuhe personally rushed to Taiyuan City

"Today's events are related to your business, and even to the survival of your family, you shopkeepers can talk about how to deal with it."

After finishing speaking, Zhang Yongxiang sat firmly on the seat and drank tea, his eyes seemed to be closed, just peeking on everyone's expressions.

The businessmen below exchanged their heads for a while, Liu Juntao wanted to collect business taxes and ticket numbers, and compete with everyone for business, of course, none of the people present were willing.

Although these Jin merchants are making money every day, they want to take out a tael of silver from their pockets, and none of them are willing to do it.

In fact, their worries about Liu Juntao are not only about the collection of commercial taxes, but also about Liu Juntao's gradual strict inspection of border customs and prohibition of private trade.

To everyone, this is more serious than the imposition of a commercial tax, but it is not good to openly oppose it.

After all, since the fall of Warat and the rise of the Tatar tribe, the imperial court has ordered the closure of mutual markets and strict border trade.

Although the ban is like a dead letter, and smuggling is still very rampant in various towns, Liu Juntao began to strictly rectify Shanxi's border defense under this banner, but on the surface it is difficult for everyone to oppose it.

But this commercial tax was different, and everyone could strongly resist it, whether it was the scholar class or the merchant class, under the banner of competing with the people.

If Liu Juntao can be suppressed in this matter, perhaps Liu Juntao will not only dare not collect taxes, but will also strictly prohibit the border gates.

Moreover, everyone also let out the wind before, saying that someone wanted to assassinate Liu Juntao, in order to create a momentum, make Liu Juntao fearful, and cooperate with everyone's boycott plan.

Now it seems that this move has begun to bear fruit, it is said that Liu Juntao has been hiding in the governor's palace for a month and did not dare to go out, and even the guards on the governor's palace have increased several times, and everyone is a lot more excited.

At this time, after the merchants below exchanged glances with each other, a businessman with a rather elegant appearance stood up, but it was Wu Yue, a clansman of Wu Jian, the prefect of Taiyuan Prefecture.

After the prefect of Wu took office in Taiyuan Fucheng, the chicken and dog immediately ascended to heaven, and the children of the family rushed to buy fields, open shops and shops, and they were also not to be left behind in many money-making "trends".

I saw Wu Yue shaking his head and saying: "Ning Beibo's move is to compete with the people for profit, don't you hear that competing with the people for profit is forbidden by Taizu?" The envoy of the conquest spine, anxious for the spark, and the order of the search is as dense as a cow's hair. The scoundrel is dead, and the winged tiger wolf is attached. I am poor all over Shanxi, and it is not easy for you to do some trading, if Ning Beibo opens a commercial tax and prohibits trade, I am afraid that I will be able to look at Shu, today I will levy ten texts, tomorrow will levy one hundred texts, and the day after tomorrow will levy one hundred taels, and then you will be ruined and killed on the same day, this move must not be. ”