Chapter 586 The Snake of the Land

That's right!

Ma Jinbao really deposited most of the grain directly in the nearby stockade, so that he had enough ships to transport firewood and tung oil back to the city on the same day.

However, although his suspicions were confirmed, Gu Yanwu's heart was not relaxed at all.

Because, this Qin Shuban only knows a place where grain is hidden-Wu family in the west of the city, which has 3,000 stones.

As for where the rest was hidden, he didn't know.

Gu Yanwu judged that eighty percent of what this old slippery head said was the truth - now, Yangzhou is back in the hands of the official army, and it will not benefit him at all to conceal the truth for the Tartars, and he can't lie.

In fact, if he had not personally participated in the handling of a small bookstore, he would probably have been unable to know even the slightest bit of truth.

As for the wealthy families in Yangzhou, the ones that usually go closest to the Tartars and win the most benefits, Gu Yanwu has a few points in his heart.

However, Ma Jinbao fell in love with which villages he fell in love with at a critical juncture, and dared to entrust him with materials related to life and death, but he didn't dare to guess in his eagerness.

As a result, Gu Yanwu's search for He Shouxin became more and more urgent.

Only by finding this company commander can we find out the Tartar officer from among the prisoners and snatch the grain back by the most rapid and reliable means......

Fortunately, when they finally rushed back to the rice shop in the city, the notices of the "Military Management Committee" had been posted at all important street intersections, and everyone who remained in the shop knew the address of the "Military Management Committee......

……

At first glance, when they saw this magnificent Mr. Gu, the people present were surprised and delighted.

The one who was surprised was naturally the first to make the journey.

"It turns out that this mysterious Mr. Jiang is the famous Mr. Tinglin......"

Although Wang Luo had revealed it to him, when Gu Yanwu stood in front of him in person, the old man was still shocked and regretful.

What he regretted was that this duke had lived in seclusion in Yangzhou for so long, and he didn't even notice it, only knowing that he was one of the owners of "Jiang Ji Rice Shop".

Alas! What a wasted man!

It seems that this place in Yangzhou is really Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and he still doesn't practice enough, not enough......

The happy one, of course, is Zhang Chenfeng.

Looking at the thunderous Mr. Gu in front of him who was widely admired in later generations, although Zhang Chenfeng tried his best to suppress his excited heart, he still couldn't help but show brilliance and his heart beat faster.

"The rise and fall of the country is the responsibility of the husband...... Ha ha! I've finally found you, Confucian! ”

Be sure to talk to the captain tonight and tell him the good news!

Just took the opportunity to urge him to come to Yangzhou to preside over the overall situation......

"Master Cheng,"

After a little greeting, after listening to Gu Yanwu's hurried introduction to the situation, Zhang Chenfeng was overjoyed, and couldn't help but sneer at Master Cheng, "It seems that you gentry representatives can only represent yourself?" ”

"Uh...... My lord...... Chief, forgiveness is one,"

Master Cheng hurriedly bowed down and explained with a white face, "Small...... Indeed, it can only command the rice and grain industry, as for the most powerful salt merchants...... It's really not the same ...... with the little ones."

"Really? Salt Merchant...... Didn't come? ”

"The shipper has come...... Some of the most powerful general merchants, they ...... Only ...... were sent Representatives of clans. ”

"Oh, Zongshang?"

Zhang Chenfeng frowned and asked, "Tell me, which ones are there?" ”

"Uh...... This, the Jiang family, the Lu family, the Wang family, the Bao family, and the old men of the Wu family...... I didn't come forward......"

In this room, Cheng Huishou looked embarrassed, and Gu Yanwu, who was watching his performance, was secretly laughing.

Because, this old man looked hard and pretended to be pitiful, but in his eyes, there was a clear flash of cunning and murderous intent......

"It seems that when the new order comes, this old guy is unwilling to give up any opportunity to bring down the salt merchants and reshuffle the cards......

Regarding the intricate civil forces in Yangzhou, as well as the relationship between each other and loving and killing each other, Zhang Chenfeng and He Shouxin are both black-eyed, but Gu Yanwu and Wang Luo are very clear.

In fact, the Rice Grain Guild controlled by Master Cheng was far less weak than he himself said.

Although their financial resources are far less than that of the big salt merchants, as the head snakes of the land, they have been playing with the big salt merchants who are almost all outsiders for a long time, and they do not seem to be too far behind......

As the key to the two Huai, the important place of salt transportation, Yangzhou, there are many rich businessmen like carp crossing the river, but in terms of strength, the most powerful one, of course, is none other than the salt merchants.

However, there are also big and small salt merchants, and many small salt merchants are not necessarily better than others, and only a few general merchants are the real big players......

The salt industry system of this era adopted the model of self-employment of stove households, as a branch of artisans, many stove households were the lowest group of people, they had no land to plant, and specialized in undertaking the salt class assigned by the government.

Due to the large number of salt farms, in order to "facilitate management", the government appointed some field merchants as the general leaders above the public stove households.

These traders have the privilege of monopoly, brutally exploiting the stove households, they buy salt from the stove households at a very low price, hoard it, and then transfer it to the transporters at a pre-agreed price to make the first profit.

After the transporters buy salt from the field dealers, they will transport it to Yangzhou, and lead the salt to the designated salt sales area, where they play the role of a bridge between the production area and the sales place in the circulation of salt, earning a second profit.

And the one at the top and the strongest economic strength is the general business.

With their close ties to the government, the general merchants were the giants of the salt merchants, and they made the easiest money, often doing only one thing – reselling the salt to the merchants......

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, salt could still be sold freely, and later, in order to solve the problem of food shortage in the border army, Lao Zhu followed the tea introduction system of the Song Dynasty and set up the "Open China Law" to attract merchants to transport grain from the interior to the border guards, and then issued a quotation ticket as a reward, so that the merchants could return to the salt-producing area to receive salt and resell it for profit.

Later, due to the huge cost of transporting grain over long distances, salt merchants simply hired people to open up wasteland and farm at the borders, and put them into warehouses on the spot in exchange for salt in order to make more profits.

Because this form of tuntian is operated by merchants, it is called "Shangtun" in history.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Shangtun east from Liaodong, west to Gansu, north from Xuanda, south to Jiaozhi, everywhere, according to the needs of the government, in addition to exchanging grain and rice for salt, sometimes can also be exchanged for cloth, silver, horses, etc.

However, since the late Wanli period, the financial deficit of the imperial court has become bigger and bigger, and it has become more and more short of money, so it has implemented the "Gang Salt System" in the Lianghuai region.

According to this "standard salt system," the government divided the annual production of official salt into 10 outlines according to regions, and each program distributed 200,000 yuan of salt and 300 catties of salt for each program, and after simply and rudely extracting heavy taxes, they handed them over to powerful and well-connected merchants, so that they could become "royal merchants" with the monopoly right to use salt.

This group of merchants is the general merchant.

Many people who did not join the program theoretically had no right to operate the salt industry, so they could only buy salt from the general merchants at a high price, which directly created a group of extremely rich families who did not work hard.