Chapter 422: In Jining

Jiang Feng left the capital in February of the nineteenth year of Jiajing, and his search for talents had no results at all, but there was news from Huazhou, after Wu Guang arrived at the craftsman's workshop in Dengzhou, he was ecstatic as if he had entered Baoshan, and he was busy every day without sleeping or eating.

For the military and civilian craftsmen in Huazhou, whether it is the craftsmen from Daming or the craftsmen in the Netherlands, these people have hands-on ability, but they have no innovative ideas. After all, everyone can't be required to be an inventor, so although Jiang Jiajun's ship guns are excellent, those slight leads are Jiang Feng's ideas.

It can be said that what is most lacking at present is a person with brains and innovations like Wu Guang, and if Wu Guang's ideas are feasible, they can be quickly produced through efficient workshops in Huazhou.

Moreover, the scholars and craftsmen of this era were not as clear as they are in modern times, everyone was quite dabbled, and Wu Guang still knew a little about many other aspects.

However, in the letterhead of Huazhou Zhao Xiucai to Jiang Feng, it was not a word of praise, Zhao Xiucai was complaining, after Wu Guang came to Huazhou, he did not make much achievements, only improved the firing device of the arquebus, but the silver taels spent seemed to be flowing water, which really made him feel distressed.

However, when Jiang Feng sent Wu Guang to Huazhou, he gave an order saying that if Wu Guang was studying any expenses, he would pay all of them, and Zhao Xiucai came to this letter to mean that he could not restrain Wu Guang's expenses, Jiang Feng smiled after reading the letter, and replied very simply:

"I can't bear to let the child fight the wolf, what is the silver!"

After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Jiang Feng led his men all the way south and arrived at Jining Mansion by land.

There is one of the most important ports in the north of Shandong, Linjia Port, and many goods are unloaded in Jining, using this place as a base for transit and storage, and then going to Linjia Island to go to sea.

Jiang Feng felt more and more that this trip was of little significance to him, he had heard about the places where various literati in Beijing had gathered, and he had also used the name of Sanjiang Commercial Bank to fund scholars to gather scholars together, and he was observing next door or on the side.

In other words, these people can't see the situation in the world clearly, or they have no intention of observing the world.

Moreover, Jiang Feng is limited in number after all, relying on what he has seen and heard, it is impossible to contact more and better literati, and it is impossible for Huazhou to recruit on the list, he has no reputation, and it is impossible for scholars to come to take refuge.

At the beginning, he was indeed a little depressed, but later Jiang Feng also wanted to open it, since he couldn't recruit people, it was better to observe the Ming Dynasty carefully, he was a general of the Ming Dynasty in the past, and he was in the bureau, and now he is an outsider of the Ming Dynasty, and he can look at this behemoth more neutrally and objectively.

Jining's prosperity is different from Beijing's division, which is the center of the world, and has a solemn atmosphere in it, which is purely because of the prosperity of transportation and commerce, and the whole city is full of vitality, as well as that extravagant and prosperous atmosphere.

Shandong Salt Administration, at this time, is known as the most orderly in the world, the annual entry and exit accounts, up and down write-off, transportation loss, are the most outstanding in all provinces.

The whole household is praised by each other, but few people know that Shandong's private salt trade is also the largest and most profitable in the world. Huazhou also has a lot of income here every year. Because when Jiang Feng and Huang Ping were here, they straightened out the order of private salt here through huge amounts of money and force.

This effective order did not collapse because of Jiang Feng's departure, but continued to run, the Lin family still has six or seven hundred people on Linjia Island, and among the largest horse bandit cottages in Shandong, most of them are controlled by the Jiang family's army, after all, the Liu family still has its own influence in Shandong.

The yamen at all levels in Shandong are extremely satisfied with the order of this kind of private salt, and they can steadily receive their share of the silver in it, no matter what it is, as long as it is done in a regular manner and is stable, there will be many stakeholders who will take the initiative to defend him.

At the beginning of each year, after several salt merchants led by the salt merchants obtained the salt introduction, according to the number of salt introductions, multiplied by a number of multiples, it is converted into the total amount of illegal salt trafficking in the year, and the share of the year will be distributed layer by layer according to the scale and capital contribution of the salt dealers in the Shandong Salt Merchants' Guild, whether it is the 18 salt farms registered with the government or the private salt production workshops, they will produce according to this share.

Because of several sorties, those unruly salt merchants and salt dealers in South Zhili and Henan, and North Zhili are always hit, and they can only obediently join this system, so now the salt production and sales controlled by the Shandong Salt Merchants Association can almost occupy 30% of the total amount of business in the Ming Dynasty.

At the distribution meeting at the beginning of each year, according to the quantity, the large and small salt merchants and private salt dealers will roughly judge the salt price this year, and this salt price can almost be set for the price of Daming salt except for a few remote provinces.

Therefore, in March every year, salt merchants and big salt lords either go here in person or send their cronies here, and everyone's salt quotations and various figures are to be put together, and they also have to fight for the most favorable conditions and prices for themselves here.

Of course, the set may not be strictly observed, and when the price is high, there will always be more than the rated amount of private salt official salt gushing out, even if the power controlled by the salt lords is slashing everywhere, it cannot be stopped. But after all, this system is good for everyone, so everyone still abides by it.

For this system, between Jining, Yangzhou, Kaifeng, Taiyuan, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, there are even fast horses established by the salt merchants themselves, and dozens of institutions called chariots and horses are actually private post stations, and the cost required is really small compared to the fluctuation of salt prices.

This annual gathering is held in Jining, the arrival of these people can make Jining's market more prosperous, the original prosperity of Jining, because this is the hub of Caoyun, there are many warehouses of local commercial houses in Shandong here, but now many salt merchants have other industries here, Shandong, Beizhili and Henan salt merchants, simply have long-term shops here, all industries in the world, salt merchants are the most luxurious group of people.

The whole Jining restaurant, green building, all kinds of southern goods shops have emerged, and the grade is extremely high, Shandong Liufu and Henan prefectures and counties, are proud of spending money here.

These businesses of Huazhou in Shandong were not carried out in the name of Jiang Jiajun and Huazhou, because this was just a place to make money, and the person who operated the salt industry here was called Lin Yutang, who was still the clan uncle of Lin Zhi, the commander of the Yizhou fleet, and also a clansman of the Lin family's close branch.

Lin Yutang just knew that he was doing the salt business for his family, and he transported a lot of silver taels through Linjia Island every year, and sometimes bought and sold some other goods on his behalf, but he didn't know that it was a business for Huazhou, and he thought it was a back road left by his family in Daming.

Jiang Feng came this time, Jining was one of the purposes, and his entourage carried a handwritten letterhead written by the head of the Lin family, and it specifically stated that this was the guest of honor of the Lin family, and he must be treated carefully, which is related to the future wealth of the Lin family.

With such a heavy words, Lin Yutang was naturally respectful, especially when he saw Jiang Feng and his party of more than a dozen people, horses and vehicles could only be equipped by wealthy families, and everyone had their own atmosphere of being a superior person, so they didn't dare to slack off, and carefully introduced them into their own house.

Seeing Lin Yutang's house, even if Jiang Feng had seen the scene like this, he was amazed, before he crossed over in various media and books, as long as he mentioned the salt merchants, it meant that the salt merchants were extravagant and extremely wealthy, and it was just a superficial concept, but Huang Ping, who came into contact with him later, also knew the convergence edge.

Seeing such a manor today, I roughly understand that the current situation should be a common phenomenon of salt merchants, in Jining City, it is actually a hard to create a Jiangnan garden, what kind of handwriting and cost this must be, it is really staggering.

The maids and servants who came and went in the courtyard, although their appearance was not stunning, but in their eyes, pleasing to the eye was the most basic, Jiang Feng looked at Lin Yutang on the side, and thought that this was really enjoyable.

Looking at this Lin Yutang's appearance, he was about forty years old, he looked dignified, he looked extremely energetic, he was really in good health, thinking of this, Jiang Feng couldn't help but chuckle.

Lin Yutang, who was following behind, had observed Jiang Feng's reaction since he entered this garden, and ordinary people were either extremely envious, or pretended to be clear and high-eyed, but he did not have such a natural attitude as Jiang Feng, seeing Jiang Feng laughing, he hurriedly asked politely:

"Is there anything happy about Jiang Yuanwai?"

Jiang Feng stopped and said lightly:

"It's good to be rich."

Lin Yutang was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly lowered his head and followed......