When Fan came to the second hall, he had already learned the general situation of the matter from Xue Wu's mouth. Since the Jiangning slave change, the gentry of the big families in the city have basically reached a consensus that professional bodyguards rely more on their own homeguards than their own nursing homes. Even from the perspective of loyalty, the domestic slave may not really be as good as the dart master, as long as the payment is made according to the agreement, the dart master is more trustworthy. In addition, this time Zhang Juzheng went to Beijing and asked for four dart masters from the Mingfeng Dart Bureau, so everyone knew that this should be done, and the merchants of the entire Jiangning would go out to do business, even if there was no risk, they would hire a few Mingfeng's dart masters as honor guards, and this caravan that found problems was no exception.

Although the location of the incident is not yet the boundary of Shangyuan County, dozens of lives in the entire Nanzhili must be counted as a major case, and the survivors of such a vicious incident have become extraordinary. In fact, according to the habits of ordinary businessmen, they don't cause trouble, and they are as far away as they can when they encounter this kind of thing, but the dart masters of the Ming Feng Dart Bureau are all disciples of Feng Mingqi, and they obey the master's words, knowing that the master must fully cooperate with Fan Jin's work, and they will take the initiative to step forward when they encounter this kind of thing. The workshops of these dart masters protect the safety of the caravan, and the merchants have no right to interfere with other actions as long as they do not interfere with this. They advocated the rescue of the telegrapher, and no matter how much trouble the caravan leader feared, he could only send the man back.

Hu Er was guarding the door of the second hall, and when he saw Fan Jin, he immediately stepped forward and saluted, "Brother-in-law." The person was inside, so I found him a cotton robe and a bowl of ginger soup for him to drink, so that he would not freeze. But the man was dumbfounded, not knowing if he could talk to his brother-in-law. ”

"How many times have I said it, call me lord in the yamen, don't call me brother-in-law!" Fan Jin glared at him, Hu Er trembled, and hurriedly hid to the side.

Before Pan Qiong's fleet left, Hu Er was released. Although he did not suffer any major crimes during the whole detention, he was almost frightened crazy by being locked up in a dark cabin all day. After he came out, when he saw Fan Jin again, it was always like seeing a monster, not to mention how deferential he was, and he no longer dared to put on his brother-in-law's pretense to ask for this or that. Limited to his own ability, he is very unqualified to be a servant, but he can always barely support himself by doing some rough benzene work such as running errands. Fan Jin doesn't have a good impression of him, and now he is too lazy to be perfunctory, and after the New Year, he is ready to be sent to Beijing to guard the door at home, so as not to let him get in the way in front of him, and he is not very compromising with his attitude.

When I pushed the door in, I saw a man wrapped in an old cotton robe sitting in the corner of the second hall. The clothes were found by Hu Er from the catcher, they were very shabby and did not fit well, but the man still sat with his waist straight, as if he was reading in the study. When he heard the door knock, he turned around and looked at it, and then immediately got up and bowed.

Fan Jin looked at him: "You are Shen San?" Yizheng people? Sit down and talk. The misfortune you have encountered is also very heartbroken, although the incident is not in the territory of Shangyuan, but the people of the Ming Dynasty, in their own land to suffer this tragedy, we officials are ashamed. Don't worry, I won't let those people die in vain, and this official swears that he will definitely find out about this matter and give you justice! No one can hurt you a single hair here, you can truthfully treat your wrongs to me in the future, and this official will call the shots for you. ”

"Yes, the grass people are none other than Shen San, who is from Yizheng." The voice sounded a little hoarse, which was not surprising, and more than a dozen people were killed in one breath, including his closest relatives. Whether frightened or sad, it is impossible for the sound to remain normal. In fact, it is not easy for him to answer Fan Jin's question normally now. Fan Jin's attitude in this is obviously also of great help to scholars. When he sat down, Fan Jin realized that this person should be relatively thin, and the torn cotton robe almost wrapped him. I don't know where Hu Er found the clothes, there is still some distance from Fan Jin, and a sour smell has already come to my nose.

Fan Jin frowned, "The people below don't know how to do things, don't be surprised, the official will arrange someone to find you a new dress in a while." During this time, you will live in the yamen, and if you need anything, just say it, and someone will arrange it for you. ”

"Thank you, old parents. The grass people just want to bury the corpses of the villagers, and there are ...... among them My dad ......"

When the scholar said this, he choked up a little. Fan Jin also knew that it was useless to say anything comforting now, so he only nodded and agreed, and did not comment. After a while, the scholar said again: "The people who came to Shangyuan with us this time are all the villagers in our Zhuangzi, those uncles and brothers were killed, and some aunts and sisters were taken captive by the strongman. If you can, give them a job so that they can have a way to live. ”

"I did my best. Where are you going? ”

"The grass people and others are coming to Shangyuan."

"Why?"

"To survive!" Shen San knelt down again, took out a stack of manuscripts from his arms and held it high above his head, "Master Fan, here is the petition jointly filed by the people of Shenzhuang and the three hundred stove households in Huaishang, looking at the south of the Yangtze River, no yamen dares to accept it, and no official dares to ask, so we can only ask Master Fan to preside over justice for us." I, Shen Zhuang, have hundreds of lives, and I also died on this paper. Ask the lord to be clear! ”

Fan Jin took the manuscript, and the first thing that entered his eyes was not words, but shocking blood-colored fingerprints and palm prints. Underneath each piece of paper, names were written, and on each name were these blood-colored marks, and for the people of those days, this signature and fingerprint was the highest proof that every word they said was true and unfalse. Most of these names have disappeared from this season, disappearing in this innocent world, under the Taiping River. Rao is Fan Jin's cultivation of the Yi Jin Sutra has been successful, and the weight of this stack of paper also weighed on his wrists, and even his shoulders felt extraordinarily heavy.

His authority can't control the ritual signs, even if the current ritual signs lead the beasts to eat people, it has nothing to do with him. The Shangyuan County Order can only manage Shangyuan, and cannot inquire about the situation in other counties. Of course, he could write to the emperor or transfer these papers to Zhu Lian. But someone sent the paper to himself at the cost of his life, and Fan Jin couldn't do it to hand over the paper to others so calmly, and then he was at ease. After all, he is now well-dressed, and he always has to consider whether he is worthy of the yarn hat and mending clothes.

"Song Guofu?"

Looking down, the top piece of paper is Song Guofu, a salt merchant in Yangzhou. Fan Jin is naturally no stranger to this name, after all, when he passed by Yangzhou last time, he already knew from Zhang Shunqing that this giant known as the God of Wealth of the Ming Dynasty existed.

Salt, as a rigid commodity, has always been a profiteering industry in the feudal dynasty. The difference is that this profit is either directly controlled by the imperial court, or in the hands of salt merchants, and is taxed by the imperial court. The salt trade of the Ming Dynasty was between the two, and the opening of the Chinese law implemented from the beginning of the dynasty was an exchange of interests. Although on the surface, the Kaizhong Law allowed salt merchants to sell salt by themselves, and the imperial court did not directly control it, in practice, from the salt merchants' salt to the salt merchants' salt, all of them were within the control of the imperial court, and there were very few places that they could control.

On the one hand, the merchants had to bear the burden of transporting rice and grain to the border gates, and on the other hand, they might not be able to make any money by exchanging the salt back. With salt introduction, you only have the qualification to buy salt, and whether you can buy salt is another matter. The Ming Dynasty has been distributing salt as a welfare to the nobles in the court, the prince's clan or the favored eunuchs in the palace. Although those princes themselves could not leave the domain, they could send their subordinates to take the salt and lead it to the salt sellers, and the salt they obtained was often an unplanned additional introduction, which was not within the scope of the annual plan, but they enjoyed the priority of the right to withdraw the salt, and they were not equal competition with other merchants at all.

Taking Fan Jin's good friend Xu Weizhi as an example, the Wei State Mansion would receive Huaibei salt from the Jiangning Household Department every year as its own welfare. In the past, Huaibei salt was the best quality salt in the Ming Dynasty, and the price was also the highest. Now, although under the influence of Fan Jin, Yueyan can have a tie with Huaibei Salt, but because of habit, most Jiangnan businessmen still recognize Huaibei Salt.

Huaibei salt production is limited, everyone is waiting, whether it is before the opening of the law or after the Zhengde Dynasty strikes the opening of the middle, the normal salt process is to line up in the salt transportation yamen in the order of transporting grain and grass, according to the first to come to the salt. However, the nobles and princes and even the eunuchs are not subject to this restriction at all, and they can follow the branch as they go, and they will over-introduce the salt. Withdrawals that exceed the amount of quotation by more than one time can be regarded as a model of cowardice as a mouse, such as the grandfather of the emperor like Li Wei, Marquis of Wuqing, who did not quote the same salt, and did not need to consider what the salt quotation number was.

In addition, ordinary merchants must abide by their own diversion of salt, that is, the salt area, and these related households can sell wherever they want, and no one can control it. Therefore, normal businessmen can only compete against such abnormal businessmen, and the result of competition can only be a complete defeat. During the implementation of the Kaizhong Law, there were even grandparents who sent grain to the border gates, but grandchildren did not receive salt.

During the Zhengde period, the abolition of the Kaizhong Law was actually the bankruptcy of the imperial court's credit, and everyone was no longer willing to send grain to the border in exchange, and the abolition of the Kaizhong Law could only be regarded as a last resort. By the time of the Wanli Dynasty, the salt merchants who could survive did not have fuel-efficient lamps. Bad money drives out good money, and the rest is either that they have a strong backer in the court, or they have a wide range of contacts and eyes to the sky, so that they can survive in the competition with all related households.

For example, Song Guofu, his strategy is to buy at a high price, and eat all the unplanned salt in the hands of Xungui and others at a high price. Anyway, it is impossible for these nobles to suffer and suffer salt by themselves, and they only want to make profits in gold and silver. He gave them the money first, and these people were willing to sell it to him. In addition, another way is to borrow, including Zhang Juzheng's dead father, who is his creditor. As for whether this god of wealth really needs to borrow, no one knows, but these creditors can receive an interest every year from their families, which is absolutely false.

Relying on these means, Song Guofu ranked first among the salt merchants in Yangzhou, and it was inevitable that there were some violations of law and discipline and even rampant and domineering places in his actions, which Fan Jin could imagine, and it was not incomprehensible. After all, the market environment of the Ming Dynasty was like this, good people couldn't stay, and there was no white lotus who could survive.

However, if the problems reflected in these statements are true, Song Guofu will inevitably escape the result of killing his head and stealing his family. As Song Guofu's wealth grew, his family's actions became more and more in the direction of the noble family's wealthy and evil servants. The large and small yamen of Yangzhou City were more inclined to protect the salt merchants, and the garrison of Yangzhou was also the stove brave of the salt merchants' money. Song Guofu is almost the emperor of the soil in Yangzhou, and there is nothing he dare not do or cannot do.

When Zhang Shunqing entered Beijing, he was attacked by water bandits, and relying on Fan Jin's protection, there was no danger. However, the prime minister's daughter is not trivial, even if she is just frightened, it is intolerable. Although this matter could not be said on the surface, but after the incident, Zhang Juzheng only wrote a letter, and the Yangzhou place was already shaken, and the officers and soldiers of the entire Yangzhou were all dispatched to sweep away the water bandits. The salt merchant also took the opportunity to offer a reward, which of course would not have been counted like that. Zhang Juzheng

For salt merchants, the biggest enemy is the smuggler of salt, and the brave camp and inspection of Yangzhou are also based on the arrest of smuggler salt dealers. In the vicinity of Yangzhou, there are many salt lords and water bandits entrenched, and the imperial court sweeps these people, which is also a good thing for the people.

But any good policy can be implemented to harm the people, especially in the context of the lack of effective supervision and interest considerations. The officers and soldiers did not attack the water bandits and salt lords, but regarded the villagers living nearby as a source of war achievements.

Compared with the fierce and brave salt lords, the common people who have no defense against the officers and soldiers are obviously easier to deal with. In the report on Zhang Juzheng's desk, most of the exploits came from ordinary residents and stove households. And under the investigation of Shen San's father, there are deeper factors behind the matter.

Song Guofu relied on soft and hard means in Yangzhou to control a large number of stove households on the salt flats, which was equivalent to controlling the output of the salt flats. If he is allowed to control the entire group of stove households, the two Huai salt products will be controlled in his hands. The stove households that were killed this time were all unwilling to obey Song Guofu's orders and refused to act according to his commands. There are a lot of them in it, and they are the leaders of the stove households who are known for their courage and have a large number of stove households following. These people are killed, and if they are killed, it will also give other stove households who refuse to obey a disadvantage.

As for the villagers who were killed, all the men died, and the female relatives of their families also disappeared in the chaos. Two of them are small eunuchs, and the women in the family are known as beauties in Yangzhou, and it is impossible for the daughters of such decent families to make Song Guofu small, and only with the help of this unconventional means can the beauties be included in their arms.

Shen San's father Shen Fengnian is a showman, he is very famous in the local area, and under his teaching, there are also a few showmen in the village, although there are no people to support the scene, but a few showmen in a village should not be underestimated, it is because in the early days of the banditry, Shen Zhuang was not implicated. But this time Shen Fengnian got the news from a friend that Song Guofu was ready to attack Shen Zhuang and crack down on bandits again at the end of the year. It was because the people of Shenzhuang had no choice but to flee from their homes to complain, not wanting that if they didn't get to the place, they would be wiped out first, but the people who did it changed from officers and soldiers to robbers.

Fan Jin stopped Shen San's statement, put the paper aside, looked at Shen San and said, "Shen San, you want to avenge your fellow villagers, and I can understand your hatred for your father." But if I want the official to come forward, I have to listen to the truth. Your words are not true, how can you let this official stand up for you! You are Yizheng people, why did you think of coming to Shangyuan to complain. Your father is a showman, why does he want to visit the grievances of these stove households, and what means do you have to get these bloody complaints? It's not really recruited! ”