In a blink of an eye, it was January of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, and there were still nine months left before the Qing army went south

On the ninth day of the first lunar month, Gu Yushan came to Hai Duong again. When he came this time, Gu Yushan was no longer the small boss of Buzhuang, he and his hometown Wenzhou brought more than ten fellow villagers to form a Wenzhou business gang, and he served as the shopkeeper. Today's Guyushan is rich and rich, and as soon as he opens his mouth, he will underwrite 80,000 stone of grain. As soon as he saw Song Youliang, Gu Yushan sent a generous gift, congratulating Song Youliang on sitting in a thousand households, and then in order to repay Song Youliang for digging the first pot of gold, Gu Yushan put forward a proposal to Song Youliang to help agriculture with business and promote business with agriculture.

Song Youliang is not very good at business, and it is naturally best for someone to give advice for himself. "I don't know what the ancient brother thinks?"

Gu Yushan touched the jade ring on his finger and said with a smile: "The so-called backing on the mountain to eat the mountain and rely on the water to draft ~~"

"Mountain? Water? Song Youliang pondered for a moment and replied: "Brother Gu doesn't mean to let me get mountain goods and sea fish in addition to food?" ”

Gu Yushan smiled slightly and replied, "Not all, these are just small profits." Did Song Qianhu ever think about what else there is in the mountains besides mountain goods, and what else is there in the sea besides sea fish? ”

"Could it be that the ancient brother means ~~~" Song Youliang suddenly realized, "There are mines in the mountains and salt in the sea~"

"Lord Qianhu is really a smart person~" Gu Yushan said with a smile: "I have already sent someone to investigate~~" Gu Yushan took out a map from his sleeve, "The place between Rushanzhai and Haiyang and Dashan is developed in silk reeling, salt making, and brewing, and Rushankou Port is an important commercial port. In addition, there are gold, silver, copper, iron and marble and stone in the mountains here, which are all treasures, and the profits are great and the grain wheat~~" Gu Yushan said in a low voice: "As for the profit of salt, I guess Gu Mou is not allowed to say more, right?" ”

In the Shang and Zhou dynasties, agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery in the Rushan area were already very prosperous. In the Han Dynasty, the people had used the cocoon for silk reeling. During the Sui period, gold mining arose. During the Tang Dynasty, Rushankou has become an important port for material exchanges with other cities. In the Ming Dynasty, handicraft industries such as silk reeling, salt making, brewing, and food were already relatively developed. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xia Village, Rushankou and other places have become large-scale commercial places.

"It's okay to open a mine, but it requires a large amount of silver, and these places are not all under the jurisdiction of thousands of households~" Song Youliang said with some embarrassment: "As for selling illicit salt~ That's a big crime~"

Gu Yushan smiled slyly, "Aren't you relatives of Zhao Patrol of the Rushanzhai Inspection Division and Xia Qianhu of the Dashan Qianhu Office?" He said again: "I wait for the grass people to sell it to be called private salt~ But the Lord of Qianhu, you are an official, such as a fake exchange of the five products." ”

"What do you mean?" Song Youliang put away his smiling face

"As far as I know, the coastal area of Shandong has always been a gathering place for smuggler salt dealers, and these smuggler salt dealers have a wide range of activities, a large number of people, and they all carry weapons, and they are either dozens, or two or three hundred, or even five or six hundred people in groups to sell in groups. At worst, it can be fatal. The salt barons along the coast of Guangdong each brought large ships, carried equipment, loaded with illegal salt, and sold them to and fro, and so on, and so on. ”

"Brother Gu means to ask this thousand households to take advantage of their positions to sell illicit salt?" Song Youliang said coldly

Gu Yushan hurriedly shook his head, "No, no~ Gu Mou has the opportunity to turn over the salted fish today, and he relies on the adult's bucket of living water, how could Gu instigate and instigate the adult to do things that violate the law and discipline?" Gu Yushan said in a low voice: "It's just that the adults have the power of the army, and they should be severely cracked down on traitors like local smuggler salt dealers~~"

"Oh~~" Song Youliang let out a long sigh and said with a smile: "Brother Gu means to ask Ben Qianhu to go to the private salt village, and then those seized salt~~"

"Hehe~" Gu Yushan nodded, smiling without saying a word

"Brother Gu, do you know where there is such a salt village?" Song Youliang also felt that it was necessary to open up a few more financial routes for himself

"I know, I know, but this village is not within the jurisdiction of a thousand households~~" Gu Yushan's finger crossed the map he took out, "It is under the jurisdiction of the Rushan Inspection Division~"

The salt law of the Ming Dynasty is like this: the coastal salt producers are called "stove households", and the salt produced by the stove households is divided into two parts, one part is the salt class task that must be completed, called positive salt, and the government gives rice and one stone as the cost for each 400 catties. The rest of the over-completed part is called surplus salt, and must also be handed over, but the purchase price of the government is about twice as high as the positive amount of salt, at this time the imperial court is the owner and operator of all the salt goods, and later the imperial court changed the distribution of the capital rice for the cost of the banknote, and with the continuous decline of the value of the banknote, the actual income of the stove households is also declining, it is difficult to maintain a normal livelihood by handing over the positive amount of salt to the government at a low price, and they can only maintain their income by increasing the output of surplus salt. At the same time, due to the continuous deterioration of its own economic situation, the imperial court has been unable to collect the increasing surplus salt of the stove households, so the wealthy and powerful merchants began to buy the surplus salt directly from the stove households to make a profit, and in the early years of Hongzhi, the private behavior of the salt merchants was recognized by the Ming court, as a measure to solve the problem of guarding the branch, the history is called "buying surplus salt". In this way, the act of selling salt without permission by stove households, which was originally prohibited by the salt law, has become a legal act. There are legal sales channels for surplus salt, which in turn stimulates the production of surplus salt, and the output of surplus salt is increasing. According to relevant records, in the Changlu Salt Transportation Division, some stove households can organize 100,000 surplus salt at a time, and their economic strength is strong, and the number of surplus salt in stove households can be seen from this.

Merchants with great wealth can go to the stove households to buy salt directly, and some people who have no capital but want to get rich will take risks and arm themselves to make and sell illicit salt. Originally, there were 30 stove households under the jurisdiction of the Rushan Inspection Division, which could produce 240,000 catties of salt every year, and the official salt was sold at 0.01 taels of silver per catty, and when the price rose or to 0.06 taels, Zhao Lianli could get as little as 2,400 taels and as much as 10,000 taels of silver every year, although only a small part of this money could fall into Zhao Lianli's pocket, and it was always a considerable income. However, the price of private salt has been maintained at 0.0015 taels per catty for a long time, and the price of 1 catty of official salt can buy 40 catties of illicit salt. The government collects salt from the stove households at a low price and sells it at a high price. The stove households made a small profit, so they simply dragged the positive amount of salt and did not pay it, and drove at full speed to produce surplus salt. After Zhao Lianli severely punished him several times, the stove households simply fled en masse and joined the salt lord group that sold illicit salt. At this time, Zhao Lianli was not only scolded by Song Guozheng because of the escape of the stove household, but also lost the opportunity to be promoted because he had no money to honor Song Guozheng. Therefore, when it comes to private salt, Zhao Lianli hates it so much that the roots of his teeth itch

"But~~Youliang~" Zhao Lianli said with a sad face: "Those salt lords are all outlaws, and they don't want to die when they fight, I have also led troops to encircle and suppress them, but ~~"

"Uncle, how many of them are there?" Song Youliang asked

"More than 400 people, entrenched on a beach called Maozuikou outside Rushan Pass~" Zhao Lianli replied

"My nephew has trained a battalion of soldiers and horses, they have passed through the Xieshan Liang to suppress bandits, equipped with sophisticated firearms, and they have been trained by the facial features of the soldiers for several months, they should be able to fight~~" Song Youliang is very confident in his new army

Zhao Lianli heard about the deeds of Song Youliang leading a group of military households to exterminate horse thieves, and thought to himself that no matter how fierce this salt lord is, he can't be as fierce as a horse thief, right? Since he can win the horse thief, the salt lord should also be able to succeed, so Zhao Lianli made a decision at the moment, brought his fifty family members and four hundred sturdy military households, and exterminated the salt lord with Song Youliang