On March 4 of the second year of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing was already in the season of spring flowers, and all the counties under the Tianfu had begun to prepare for spring plowing and production in accordance with the instructions of the imperial court.

At noon on this day, outside the Jubao Gate of Nanjing's North City Gate, a carriage came.

The carriage stopped at Mihang Street outside the Jubao Gate, and a middle-aged scribe got out of the carriage. The man was dressed in a dark blue robe, a square scarf, three short locks of beard, and a folding fan. However, the temperature in Nanjing is not high now, only less than 20 degrees, and it is indeed a bit elegant to take a folding fan.

The man looked at the majestic treasure gate not far away, sighed and said, "The old man is finally back!" ”

If there are familiar people here, they will definitely recognize this guy, it is Tong Tuchang, the political envoy of Fujian Province.

On the first day of the first month of February, Tong Tuchang received an urgent decree from the imperial court for 800 miles, asking him to go to Nanjing to report on his work, but he had only been a political envoy for less than half a year, and he was still far from the triennial Beijing investigation. Along with the holy decree, there was also a letter from his own uncle Tong Yangjia, but Tong Yangjia did not say in the letter why he was suddenly asked to go to Beijing to report on his work, but just asked him to rush to the capital quickly.

Seeing his uncle's handwritten letter, Tong Tuchang knew that something big was happening. Although Fujian has just been pacified, there are still a few bandits in the prefecture, and Tong Tuchang, the political envoy in charge of civil affairs, is really busy to death. But the emperor's decree came, and Tong Tuchang had no choice but to take leave with the governor Yuan Pengnian, and prepared to take a dozen family members to Nanjing.

According to the distance between Fujian and Nanjing, it is more convenient to take the waterway, and the passenger ship from Fuzhou can reach Nanjing in ten days. However, Tong Tuchang was afraid of death, so he did not take a sea ship with a high risk factor, but took the land route.

There is only one land route from Fujian to Nanjing, which is to cross the Xianxia Pass into southern Zhejiang, and then take Hangzhou to Nanjing. The road is safe, but it will take a long time. Tong Tuchang said goodbye to his wife and left Fuzhou on the fifth day of the second month, and walked for a month before rushing to Nanjing.

Jubaomen is the south gate of Nanjing, there is a legend in this place, this city gate was named Jubaomen by the imperial court in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, there is a grudge.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very jealous and afraid of the wealthy businessman Shen Wansan in Nanjing, when Zhu Yuanzhang had just occupied Yingtian, the foundation was still not very stable, and the treasury was empty, Zhu Yuanzhang was afraid that Shen Wansan would suddenly rebel, so he tried his best to find a reason to kill Shen Wansan. When the Ming Dynasty Hongwu built the Jubaomen City Gate Tower, an accident occurred, the city gate tower was built halfway through the foundation suddenly subsided, so that the entire city gate tower collapsed, there was no way, the craftsman repaired from scratch again, but half of the foundation still sinks, the city gate tower still collapses, and the repeated construction is still not built.

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang knew about this, so he ordered the strategist to tell the hexagram, saying that there are monsters on the foundation of the city wall that specialize in eating soil and eating city wall bricks, and it is necessary to bury a cornucopia under the city to suppress it, and when the monster eats the soil, it immediately gives birth to new soil to supplement to ensure that the foundation of the city wall does not sag, so far Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang finally found a reason to kill Shen Wansan, and immediately ordered to levy Shen Wansan's treasure cornucopia. Zhu Yuanzhang also pretended to promise Shen Wansan that "three more borrowing, five more repayment". After the cornucopia was collected, it was buried under the soil layer of the foundation of the city gate.

Then a miracle happened, the foundation of the city wall did not sink again, ensuring that the city wall did not collapse again. Ming Taizu is a cornucopia forcibly expropriated for various reasons, and he never planned to return it. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, who was very suspicious, thought of Zhang Shicheng, the leader of the forces that confronted him in Wu County during the Red Turban Army, and was afraid that Shen Wansan, who was rich and invincible, would really rely on Wanguan's family wealth to rebel, so he successively added several charges to Shen Wansan for various reasons, and sent Shen Wansan to the Yunnan border to replenish the army, removing the armed threat to the east of the Beijing Division. In the end, Shen Wansan was not transported back to Wu County until he died of illness.

Of course, as a high-ranking official, Tong Tuchang's eyes have been opened, and he doesn't believe in this kind of legend, but it is true that Zhu Yuanzhang killed Shen Wansan when he was repairing the city wall.

In fact, the real reason why Zhu Yuanzhang dealt with businessmen was because in the war era, stability was the first priority, but businessmen did not produce and raised prices for their own selfish interests. After Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Nanjing, he was surrounded by enemies, and his internal instability didn't give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of? That's why he ruthlessly cleaned up those merchants in Nanjing.

However, these are the old yellow calendars hundreds of years ago, and the current Shenwu Emperor Zhu Hongsan is good to businessmen, and after occupying Nanjing, Zhu Hongsan abolished the banknote customs in the first step. Zhu Hongsan gave the green light to the circulation of commodities, and when he was in Guangdong, he had already decided to levy only one-tenth of the value-added tax at the time of commodity production, and there were no other harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes.

It is precisely because of the emperor's support that Guangdong's economy can be so prosperous and develop, and it can contribute tens of millions of silver dollars a year to Zhu Hongsan's taxes.

Tong Shun, a family member who came back with Tong Tuchang, was stunned when he saw the old man and asked, "Master, it's noon now, should you enter the city?" ”

After being reminded by his family, Tong Tuchang nodded and said, "Okay, enter the city first!" ”

"Master, shall we go back to the old lady first?"

Tong Tuchang is a local official in Fujian, and his family members are all in Fujian, and he does not have a mansion in Nanjing, but his uncle Tong Yangjia is in Nanjing. It stands to reason that he should go to see his uncle first, but Tong Tuchang thought that as a magistrate, he was still ordered to go to Beijing to report on his work this time, so he should first go to the General Administration Department to report, and then the General Administration Department arranged to live in the post house, but there was no reason to go home by himself.

Tong Tuchang has been a magistrate for several years, and he knows that his Tong family has many enemies in the court, so he still doesn't want to cause trouble for his uncle. Tong Tuchang said to Tong Shun: "No! Report to the General Administration Department first, and then talk about it! ”

Hearing what the master said, Tong Shun didn't dare to refute, he didn't go home even though he had already arrived home, but he wanted to go to the post house to live. Tong Shun has suffered enough along the way, Fujian is a poor place, and the post houses along the road are either cockroaches or mice. I was going to go back to Nanjing to visit my father and mother, but it seemed that there was no hope again.

Tong Tuchang saw the reluctance on Tong Shun's face, knew what he thought, and said in a low voice: "Tong Shun, the old man knows that you want to go home to visit your family, but you know that my uncle has made many enemies in the court, don't give my uncle eye medicine at this time, now go to the General Administration Department to report first, and it's not too late to go back in the afternoon to see the situation!" ”

Tong Shun is the son of Tong Gui, the great housekeeper of Tong Yangjiafu, and is also a native of Huguang. In Wuchang, he followed the uncle and nephew of the Tong family to Guangdong, and he can be regarded as an elder, so Tong Tuchang can speak like this to a servant.

Listening to the master's explanation, Tong Shun had no choice but to take the customs defense of the personnel department to the gate of Jubao to clear customs. Because Tong Tuchang nominally returned to Beijing to report on his work, he was accompanied by the Ministry of Personnel. After Zhu Hongsan was decomposed, the cadres in charge of the organization department were promoted, and the cadres in charge of the personnel department were evaluated and had great power.

Although the small court in Guangdong abolished the banknotes in various places, because Nanjing was not far from the northern front line and was still an important place for the Beijing division, there was still a team of officers and soldiers of the inspection department at the gate of the city to check the merchants coming and going.

Tong Shun doesn't look like a housekeeper servant, but as a native of Huguang, plus his master is a political envoy in Fujian, Tong Shun is also a figure in Fujian.

Tong Shun pushed more than a dozen merchants queuing up on his stomach, came to a small flag guarding the door, raised his head and said, "I said quickly get out of the way and let my family enter the city!" After speaking, he shook the guard in his hand.

That little flag had a flower in front of him, and he didn't see what it was at all, but Tong Shun's Huguang accent was clear. Now there are two kinds of people in Nanjing who cannot be offended, one is the people who copy the Huguang accent, these people are either rich or expensive. There is also a kind of people with Cantonese accents, most of these people are officials, although Chen Zizhuang, the leader of the Cantonese faction, is now dismissed, but the officials of the Cantonese faction in the DPRK and China can all be cleaned up, so these Cantonese people can't afford to offend.

The little flag hurriedly pushed away the other merchants, and said with a smile: "This uncle, the Admiral Yamen has a strict order, in order to guard against the spies of the Manchu Qing Tartars, the merchants must be strictly investigated, please show this uncle the passage documents?" ”

The passage document is a certification document issued by the local tax department after the merchant pays the tax, and as long as it is on Zhu Hongsan's territory, it can be passed unimpeded. However, this is only in circulation, and at the end of the day, you have to pay the local transaction tax when you enter the store to sell, but in this way, it is two-thirds less than the various exorbitant taxes of the previous Ming. That small flag obviously regarded Tong Shun as a Huguang merchant who came and went, so he asked Tong Shun to show his certificate.

Tong Shun doesn't look like just a housekeeper, but he has followed Tong Yangjia's uncle and nephew for more than ten years, and he and the emperor have met a few times when he was in Wuchang, coupled with Tong Yangjia's power, the only one who can make Tong Shun bow his head in Guangdong is Ma Fu, the big housekeeper of the Ma family.

Therefore, Tong Shun is used to being arrogant in Guangdong or Fujian, and when he came to Nanjing to see that his master's customs defense was not good, he couldn't help but get angry in his heart, and the uncles and nephews of the Tong family were not born on the right path of the imperial examination, so the servants of the Tong family were very disgusted by outsiders saying that they were born. Now Tong Shun heard that Xiaoqi saw himself as a businessman, and scolded angrily: "You turtle grandson is blind, look what this is!" After speaking, the personnel department's defense was revealed.

"I see clearly, my lord is a political envoy of Fujian, and my lord's own uncle is the second assistant of the dynasty, Tong Ge, and he won't let the uncle go!"

That Xiaoqi saw it clearly this time, he didn't know how to read but recognized the big seal of the Ministry of Personnel, which couldn't be faked, and Xiaoqi quickly knelt on the ground and kowtowed and begged for mercy.

Tong Tuchang stood in the back for a long time, waiting for a hurry to come to the front to see what was going on. How do you know that when you go to the front, you see that Xiaoqi is kowtowing to Tong Shun.

Tong Tuchang knows what virtues his family members have, and he must be relying on his own power to cause trouble. This place is Nanjing, not Fujian, where he is an official. Tong Yangjia saw that Tong Shun was making too much trouble in the back, and said, "Tong Shun, okay, let's go!" ”

Tong Shun glared at the small flag before returning to his carriage and accompanying Tong Tuchang into the city.