Chapter 202: Salt Rises and Grain Returns

On November 15 of the seventh year of Jiajing, the bandits entered Fushan County, Dengzhou at night, besieged Zhou Yu in the salt department, although the Dengzhou battalion horse team rescued in time, but the precautions were careless, and Zhou Yu was shot to death by the bandits. The horse team Qianzong Yang Stone rescue is not effective, fined for March, the salt field is heavy, can not be vacant for a day, now there is Dengzhou supervisor Zhao, respectful and pure, can be engaged in the salt class, in charge of the Fushan salt field.

In the year of the famine, there is a way for the imperial court to raise grain and grass, that is, to donate a certain amount of grain and grass, you can get the title of prisoner, and there is also a certain amount of grain and grass, and the court can build a memorial arch for you. Although this kind of prisoner is an honorary fame, after all, he has the right to be an official.

Jiang Feng sent three hundred taels of silver to the prefect of Dengzhou, and then dotted it up, and got the title of this prisoner for Zhao Xiucai, at that time, everyone thought that Jiang Feng was happy for a while, but he didn't expect to use it at this time.

The matter is not over yet, the salt workers who dry salt and fry salt in the Fushan salt factory began to 'spontaneously' go to the yamen to beat the drum and voice their grievances, and after the Fushan magistrate received the silver from someone and the note handled impartially, the person suddenly became diligent and carefully picketed the case in the lobby.

Zhou Yu's guards were all besieged by bandits, and some people reported that they were colluding inside and outside, and they were all temporarily detained pending trial, and they were also arraigned this time. Most of those guards themselves are outlaws, and all kinds of documents and cases are kept in the yamen. A number of major cases and repeat offenders were uncovered during the investigation.

The salt workers over there sued, Zhou Yu what trafficked illicit salt, greedy for ink, disregarded human life, colluded with Haikou Kou, all kinds of charges were brought out, plus a large number of outlaws, this crime really has the meaning of the Qingzhou Hengwang Shizi case some time ago, the political envoy and the prosecutor were all frowning, thinking that such a thing should be held down as soon as possible, so as not to involve too much, and it will cause trouble.

Therefore, when the Zhou family encountered bandits on the way home, and the entire family was killed, they were relieved, thinking that even if this matter was over, it would be considered a blessing, and there would be a lot less trouble.

"I am engaged in a small salt class, and I actually have a net worth of nearly 100,000 taels, which is really black."

In the council hall of Dengzhou Mansion, only Jiang Feng, Zhang Liang and Liu Twelve sat there, Jiang Feng was smiling there, and Zhang Liang on the side also looked greedy for money. Liu Twelve, who was on the side, looked at the two of them looking greedy for money, but he didn't dare to have a little contempt in his heart.

The two young men in front of him, who were not much older than him, were ruthless in their minds and superb in their means, which were not inferior to his self-contained resourcefulness. Zhang Liang asked with a smile there:

"According to the master's instructions, six thousand taels were given to Chen Deaf, and he had six or seven hundred horses in his hands, all of them were like straw bales, master, I don't need to lead the horse team out, and now I can catch up, and I promise to eat these things back."

Hearing this, Jiang Feng raised his foot and kicked it over, and scolded with a smile:

"Don't talk nonsense here, tomorrow you go to the Thousand Households Institute once, select a batch of weapons and send them to Chen Deaf, check not to carry the mark, don't be sloppy."

Zhang Liang and Jiang Feng's master and apprentice have been in love for several years, naturally they understand what to joke about, what to say seriously, and bow down there and agree, Jiang Feng groaned for a while, looking at the eighty thousand taels of silver tickets on the table, Liu Twelve seemed to know what Jiang Feng was thinking on the side, and said with a smile:

"My lord, if you buy 80,000 taels of grain, it will be 70,000 stones at most, and there is still a big gap compared to the usual closing position, since this salt farm has been taken down, it is better to replace these 80,000 taels with salt, and when the time comes, it will be mixed with private salt to go out, which is naturally cost-effective."

Although the sale of illicit salt is a sword and sword shadow when escorting, but other transactions are quite delicate, but it is not something that a person like Jiang Feng can operate, Jiang Feng sometimes ponders, Liu Twelve's legs and feet are also inconvenient, and he actually travels all over the world to study.

Not to mention this, and what he has learned has nothing to do with Confucianism, most of them are obscure power tricks, I really don't know what Liu Twelve thinks in his heart, Jiang Feng vaguely feels that the other party may probably know what he is thinking, and is also willing to help Jiang Feng grow and grow in this aspect.

However, such a thing is tacitly acquiesced by each other.

Since the Han Dynasty in China, it is a monopoly on salt and iron, the Ming Dynasty followed the usual practice of the Mengyuan Dynasty, issued a salt introduction, but the salt introduction is limited, the method of selling private salt is to pay a pound of salt to introduce salt, but in fact it carries three pounds of private salt, and some bold people carry five catties and six catties, which is already a huge profit.

In this way, the salt transportation makes the yamen set the salt according to the output of each salt farm, which often has no authoritative role, and the salt farms in various places have taken one as ten, and the salt merchants have delivered grain to the border gate. The obtained salt leads thousands of catties, and thousands of catties of salt can often be exchanged for 20,000 catties of private salt, which is simple and convenient to make money.

However, it was troublesome for the inland to send grain to the border passes, and over time there was a way to deal with it, and the merchants of the border provinces collected the silver from the salt merchants at the place of handover, and exchanged it directly for the salt guide, and they used the silver to buy grain, so that the salt merchants and grain merchants saved the formalities.

The salt merchants have great powers, and everyone can buy salt, which is quite a hand-eyed role in the black and white of the official rivers and lakes, of course, if you don't have this ability, I'm afraid you will even have to pay for your pants.

Zhou Yu of Yantai Fushan Salt Farm was killed, and when people from all walks of life were about to push their families up, a Zhao supervisor quietly came out and took the position of the salt class, and checked the background, good guy, it turned out to be the relationship between the political envoy Liu, and he was vaguely close to Jiang Feng's commander of Dengzhou Zuowei.

For a while, people from all walks of life who had some ideas died down, and there were other salt farms in Shandong, and everyone didn't buy salt in your Fushan now, guarding Jinshan and starving you to death.

However, after November of the seventh year of Jiajing, the market environment for selling illicit salt in Shandong and Henan suddenly deteriorated. In the past, salt barons escorted illicit salt, and they were often followed by one or two hundred bodyguards.

Even if the cottage green forest can eat these two hundred people, it has to think of the revenge of the powerful salt merchants who came later, and even if it eats the salt cart, how to make a move, this thing will only make a profit after it is in batches. Therefore, the salt merchants also give some money to the strong people to buy roads every time, and everyone is happy.

But suddenly came out of this group of strongmen have no territorial concept, they have always attacked the big caravans, although the guards escorting the illicit salt are strong, but under the sharp blade of the opponent's cavalry, there is no room for resistance.

Every time the strongmen robbed the salt cart, they always found a place to destroy the salt and dump it in a remote and filthy place, and even if they found it, the salt would not be edible at all.

The smugglers in the vicinity of Dengzhou and Laizhou encountered a team of 100 strongmen on horseback, coming and going like the wind, a little south, while near Jinan and Yanzhou were encountered a large gang of five or six hundred people, although the combat effectiveness was average, but it was also fierce, and there was an advantage in numbers.

Although it is said that the transportation of illegal salt needs to be secret, but it is only those roads that are followed, and some are even official roads, so the chickens and dogs are jumping and stirring, and those bandits are very strange and very familiar with the roads of illegal salt transportation, and the salt transported to the outside has dropped to one percent of the usual.

Since there is a problem on land, then take the sea route, and the salt merchants and maritime merchants also have inextricable exercises, but what is even more incomprehensible is that the 'Japanese Kou', which rarely appeared in the coastal waters of Shandong in the past, actually appeared, or called themselves 'Japanese Kou'

because many people heard pirates speak Min language.

There are also salt merchants who send their subordinates to contact friends on the Green Forest Road, preparing to encircle and suppress these lawless bandits. However, when the family figured out the whereabouts of the unruly colleagues, and was ambushed and ready to start. The leader of the cottage recognized the hundred ringing horses in front of him, or found some traces.

A few days later, the green forest cottages were silent, and the salt merchants were also aware of something, and they wanted to react but "just right" caught up with the picket of private salt and strictly ran the salt barons, and the political envoy Liu Shunhua was righteous and strict, and the thousands of households in Shandong and the officials from all walks of life were actively cooperating, although it was said that it was a face-saving job, some things were turned a blind eye, but it was also chaotic.

The price of salt began to rise slowly, Shanxi and Henan, which were originally the supply scope of Shandong salt merchants, began to have salt merchants from other places, and all the salt merchants finally understood that if this continued, what was waiting for them would be bankrupt, and in another ten days, even if there were no bandits, they would lose their lives.

When there were still 12 days before the two-month period Liu Shunhua said, Liu Fu, the political envoy of Shandong Province in Jinan Prefecture, was having a small banquet in the side hall, only Liu Shunhua and a big-bellied businessman, the Ming Dynasty Shinong Industry and Commerce, the most humble businessman, but this businessman calmly and calmly and Liu Shunhua, the big man in charge of Shandong's civil affairs, pushed the cup and changed the lamp.

After a few rounds of drinking, the merchant took out a piece of paper from his bosom with a smile and said slowly:

"Lord Liu, Chang Ping's 250,000 stone grain entrusted me to send the grain to all parts of Shandong to help the victims, because the grain from the imperial court came, so it should also be returned to the official warehouse, but the allocation of various places is also troublesome, the grass people have already written documents here, and within one month, all the official grain must be returned to the warehouse."