Not only Hangzhou, Suzhou, Changshu, Songjiang, a series of core places in the south of the Yangtze River, in the bustling market, but also posted a big poster, a small citizen is full of curiosity leaning over, but then all of them are faces turned pale, and they can't help but breathe in exclaim.

"What? And a tax increase? ”

"Isn't it, I set up a stall to pay a hundred Wen a day in the city tax, and I don't let people live?"

"Brother, you can steal the fun! Didn't you see that those of us who opened a store at the bottom got half a tael of silver? ”

"You can't live, we spinners! Working from morning to midnight all day, earning those two hard-earned money, and having to starve every three or five times, now it's good, this tax can't even afford lamp oil, how can we live? ”

In a resentful discussion, the government didn't care so much about you, just next to the poster, the official in the house went out with a cold face and a box.

It's a pity that the monks can't run the temple, as these "harvesters" buzz up, the doors of the bustling street market have been smashed open, and a silver ingot is thrown into the wooden box and clangs.

"Hurry up! Hurry up for Lao Tzu! Isn't this money being collected by the imperial court to protect you? If you let the Northern Barbarians come, you will slaughter your whole family! ”

10 million taels of indemnity! The princes in the court, the adults of Donglin work hard for the country, and they work hard, so naturally they can't pay for this silver! However, the peasants at the bottom really have no taxes to add, and the land in the south of the Yangtze River is concentrated in the hands of the family gatekeepers, and in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, when Yang Sichang opposed the tax increase, it had reached the point where there was no tax to add, so the eyes of these Donglin gods naturally fell on the small business owners.

And it's more than 10 million taels, the emperor wants to repair the palace and take a few concubines, do you need silver? A few scholars want to revise the book and cast a cup for the ministers who have recently been turned over by them, and they also get silver, right? To be more realistic, the three towns in Jiangbei were almost wiped out by Mao Jue, and there were only 20,000 or 30,000 Nanjing forbidden troops left in the huge Yangtze River defense line.

So much added and added, and counting the unclean hands of officials at all levels, 50 million taels of silver were also them, and boxes of shiny tax silver were transported into Yingtian, and with the abundance of the treasury, the faces of the princes of Nanming gradually showed a smile.

But they didn't notice that while the social structure was falling apart at a rapid rate, the shops in Suzhou were closing nine out of ten in a day, and the weavers who couldn't survive at all fled the towns and spread out into the countryside like fish swimming upstream.

But even if the land south of the Yangtze River is fertile, it has been saturated for more than 200 years, and there is no new land to settle them.

Just like the team of displaced people like Gao Yingxiang's old eighth team, they began to slowly gather in the rich land of Jiangnan.

Exiles have always been the death knell of dynasties!

However, in this, Mao Jue also played a disgraceful role, after all, he hollowed out the Jiangnan plan, he was the main messenger, and from May 22, the compensation that made Jiangnan angry and resentful was also transported to Jiangbei one by one.

Shi Kezhi army in general, but the construction of this barracks is not bad, relying on the north of Yangzhou City, there are ready-made spacious barracks, at this time, this place is already overcrowded, under the scorching sun, groups of dark-faced soldiers in the sound of neat trumpets, step by step forward.

After only a little more than half a year, the Shandong Military Region was canceled, the original Shandong Army Corps retired some injuries, and cleared some soldiers who were unwilling to be stationed in other places, and the rest were directly converted into the Xuzhou Army on the spot, along the north of the Yangtze River, directly staring at Nanjing, the heart of the Southern Ming Dynasty.

After all, in the face of a dynasty, Mao Jue also strengthened the configuration of this army, from the original ten corps to twenty, and the source of troops was selected from the captured 270,000 infantry in the three towns of Jiangbei, anyway, it is no longer the era when it was shrunk in Liaodong, guarding the vast land and sparsely populated tens of thousands of people were reluctant to be recruited, and financially, the tribute exploited from the Southern Ming Dynasty was more than enough to feed the four Xuzhou Corps, let alone one.

But this time, the veterans who have just gone through three months of devil training are happy, they can finally put up the old seniority shelf, deliberately straighten their waists one by one, and in a horizontal row, they can always hear the officers angrily and angrily scolding: "The same nose and two holes, you look at others, and then look at yourself, the crotch diaper, no wonder you surrendered as soon as you go to the battlefield." ”

After scolding, the officer had to wave his hand heavily and order: "You guys, these recruits!" ”

Then you can see a few recruits with their faces weeping and being pulled aside to stand in a military posture, and then a few veterans are beating their arms and legs and yelling like dogs.

"Straight-chested!"

"Tummy tuck!"

"Who the fuck made your legs shiver!"

But when the military training was lively, suddenly a howling cry sounded from the side of the barracks, even the soldiers who concentrated on training couldn't help but turn their heads and look at the edge of the playground, but saw a large group of women strung with ropes like grasshoppers, more than a dozen soldiers pulled the ropes, driving them like cattle.

As they walked, the women were still crying and screaming bitterly.

"Woo woo woo, mother!"

"My child! Child! Please, be merciful and let me go! ”

The cry, even if you hear a group of rough soldiers, they can't help but soften their hearts, and a Xuzhou man who has just enlisted in the army is angry and shouts at his queue commander: "Didn't you say that the Liaozhen army is not allowed to rob people's women?" What's going on here? What catch-spec talk as a fart? ”

"?"

Although the tone of this soldier was not inferior enough, but surprisingly, the officer who was always stern was not angry, and after scolding, he sighed again.

"These are the poor women who were caught by those officials in the south and paid off their debts to our regent! They are full of brains and intestines, sitting on thousands of acres of land, but they don't even want to take out this bit of silver, they would rather go to catch the daughter-in-law and daughter of a poor family to pay off the debt, if the regent doesn't accept it, they may be sold to some kind of prostitution house, since this is the case, it is better to accept it. ”

"I heard that these young women are prepared to reward soldiers, this three-month training camp, regardless of recruits and veterans, excellent performers, how many of these women are there, how many people will be rewarded as wives, and those who have wives in the family will be concubines, so work hard! It's better to marry you than to sell into a hook! ”

Later generations remembered that the teacher taught that don't fall in love, and when the time comes, the organization will naturally give the distribution object! Mao Jue did this! As soon as the words fell, the officer who spoke almost felt that he had fallen into a wolf's den, and his eyes were red like rabbits looking at him, and they all said that good men should not be soldiers, and most of the people who were forcibly recruited into the three towns of Jiangbei were singles, and the organization gave them to the distribution objects, which I couldn't even think of before.

This time, it doesn't matter if you rob the people's girls or not, the big-headed soldier with the Xuzhou accent is the hardest working one: "Don't worry, head!" The little ones must be training with all their heart! ”

"That's good!"

I couldn't help but sigh that the charm of the woman was so great, and then the officer picked up the whistle again, his face was straight, and he shouted heavily: "Next time, the training begins, stand upright!" March! ”

In the neat whistle, under the blazing sun, a group of soldiers exuding male animal hormones raised their legs high to make decomposition movements, allowing their faces to be scorched by the scorching heat, and even the pieces of skin fell off, and they did not move. Although the starting point was bounties and women, this army was still more and more detached from the feudal army, and moved closer to the modern army with a steel military discipline.

........

The changes brought by Mao Jue are not only the army, even the salt merchants who have been decaying for two or three hundred years have also changed dramatically.

Sitting at home and waiting for the silver to come and go, Mao Jue introduced the free trade of the salt market, but it did make the originally orderly Huai salt merchants chaotic.

First of all, the biggest source of profit for the salt merchants, the area south of the Yangtze River, is actually lost, after all, now across the river has become the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and many Hui salt merchants have fled back before, and it is estimated that this piece of big cake has been monopolized by them.

A group of salt merchants are all comfortable, into this June, is to carry the burden to open up the market, Henan was originally Huai salt and Hedong salt, that is, Yuan Conghuan got the Huamachi salt equally, but now lost a large area of the market in the south of the Yangtze River, Huai Yan can only take advantage of the Hedong salt at this time is also a big injury, to see if the Henan market can be snatched over, if you can invade Shanxi and Hebei by the way, it is great!

However, just when a group of salt merchants were carrying the burden to fight the world, the former Yangzhou general merchant was also one of the few Hui merchants who did not flee back to Jiangnan, Feng Xuewen, the big shopkeeper of the gold goods.

In June, the sea in the north is still cold to the cold, but in these two places, the sea has been warmed, in the sky, the seagulls with wings more than one meter long are comfortably gliding along the sea surface with a warm breeze, looking for fresh fish to satisfy their stomachs, on the beach, a crowd with a big black pot on their backs is also busy in a hurry.

The salt production method of the Ming Dynasty has not reached the Han Dynasty thousands of years ago, only a small part of the salt pans used to dry salt, and the vast majority of them are still the salt cooked by the stove households controlled by the government, and the stove households belong to the special household registration of the government under the control of the era of salt.

Therefore, although the two Huai salt merchants sell salt, they actually have no right to interfere with salt production.

But now, since the salt introduction and the business nest have been canceled, these stove households have naturally become free people and can be hired by others, and when others are still aiming at the sales of the salt market, this Feng Xuewen has already aimed at the source of salt.

Open your own salt factory, no matter how many markets you have worked hard to build, in the end, don't you have to spend money on salt from the old man?

It's really a big deal, in the past, more than half of the stove households in the two Huai salt farms were hired by him, and the simple wooden fence surrounded the villages of several stove households near the seaside, and on the gate of the village in the middle, there was a rather huge signboard, with four big characters on it, the gold goods salt field, a string of firecrackers crackled, and a large group of peers carrying gifts were smiling and holding their fists to congratulate, the chubby face was smiling like a picture scroll, and Feng Xuewen was also smiling in return.

"Oh, congratulations on the prosperity of the general business!"

"Don't dare to be, don't dare to be!"

After greeting kung fu, another four-wheeled carriage swayed and stopped on the edge of the beach, looking at the carriage signboard, it was obvious that Feng Xuewen's eyes lit up, and he stepped forward with a smug smile and hugged his fists to greet him: "Oh, the shopkeeper Kang is here, and the cold house is full of brilliance!" ”

With his greetings, the stopped carriage also jumped down a man wearing a vest and a dry old face a bit like an old dried radish, Kang Wanli, the shopkeeper of Xingjin Commercial Bank and one of the general merchants of Yangzhou Salt Merchants, followed by the gift, he also hugged his fist with a smile and congratulated: "Boss Feng, the wealth is widespread, and the voice is prosperous!" ”

"Where can you compare to Brother Kang? I heard that the regent recently handed over the right to make salt in Taiyuan to Brother Kang, and in the future, the younger brother will need Brother Kang to take care of this salt farm! ”

When Feng Xuewen said this, his eyes blinked when he smiled, saying that he was modest, but in fact he was showing off his mind, he was the first to strike, and if you started later, there would be no room for interest.

Who knew that Kang Wanli shook his head in embarrassment when he heard these words: "Brother Feng, brother, I also seem to continue to cooperate with you, but what, the salt for my family's marketing is already available again, didn't the regent want to set up a factory a while ago and let us invest?" Brother, I put the money there, we are in business, and we can get a 50% discount on salt after investing in my brother, so brother, you can't take care of this salt farm. ”

The main salt producing areas of the two Huai are here, which really surprised Feng Xuewen, and asked incredibly: "After all, the salt farm of the regent is grass-created, and our Huai salt sells hundreds of thousands of millions of stones every year, with the salt field of the regent, is the production enough?" ”

"Of course that's enough! Not to mention the brother's family, there are enough of the huge Huaiyan families! ”

"Really?"

Feng Xuewen's heart chuckled, he spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build this salt farm, and he grabbed a scarce supply of goods, if Mao Jue's two Huai salt farms included the entire Huai salt needs, and he would still sell a hammer?

Although he still felt that it was impossible in his heart, Feng Xuewen was still not in the mood to continue to open, and he called a few shopkeepers to be busy there, and he couldn't help but clench his fists sadly at this former competitor.

"Brother Kang, the younger brother has just opened, and there are still many omissions, I want to go to the regent's salt field with Brother Kang to see a thing or two, I don't know if Brother Kang can recommend it?"

"Of course you can, just after visiting Brother Feng, I want to go to the salt field for my brother, since that's the case, let's go together!"

It will be Kang Wanli's turn to show off triumphantly.

Worried, Feng Xuewen got into Kang Wanli's carriage, the two chatted, he was still casually looking left and right, looking at the scenery outside the window, suddenly Feng Xuewen was surprised and asked: "No, Brother Kang, this road to the north, it seems to go to the small islands in the distant mountains, and the regent's salt farm can be built on several desert islands?" ”

But when it came to this, Kang Wanli also sold Guanzi, and said with a smile: "Brother Feng is patient, you will know when you go!" ”

His appetite was raised, and looking at the scenery outside the car window, Feng Xuewen became impatient for a while.

It is worthy of Mao Jue's handwriting, a circle of blue bricks stacked on the wall is like a city wall, and there are security guards at the city gate, which is much stronger than his broken wood village, at the door, Kang Wanli showed his shareholder certificate with great spirits, and the guard at the gate also immediately opened the door respectfully, and with a trace of luck, this Feng Xuewen hillbilly took the lead in probing in, and the next second, the old salt merchant who had been planing in the salt pile for most of his life couldn't help but shout.

"This..., this is salt?"

In front of you, the sea salt of white flowers is stacked on the beach like a huge hill!

(End of chapter)