Xu Ping knows Beijing well and is also very optimistic about Xuanwumen Street. He listened to Xu Yuanzuo's instructions, and bought two sets of adjacent mansions at any cost, renovated them slightly, and equipped them with furniture to accommodate people.

The original owners of these two houses lived in their own homes, so there were not many houses. Xu Ping opened up the low walls between the houses and prepared to build a small building, which would be convenient for outsiders to stay in the future without affecting the tranquility of the inner house.

When Xu Yuanzuo was fine, he came to see the layout of the house and invited Su Song's allies who came with him to eat and drink tea. Although these small businessmen do not have access to high-ranking officials at the ministerial level, they have no problem directly reaching the principals. There are also some people who are even more bizarre, and they can even contact the scribes of the ministry and the ambassador of the warehouse, which can be said to open up all the ends of the Cao Yun line to ensure that the Cao grain can be properly stored.

On this day, Xu Yuanzuo invited guests to a banquet by the Jishui Lake outside the Desheng Gate, and also invited the singers of the Qinglou to perform, appreciate and analyze, known as the elegant collection. However, the attendees were not in a mood for leisure. Because everyone is still worried about the DPRK and China, for fear that the Jin Party and Gao Gong will have another dispute, which will affect the current good situation of Caoyun and Haihai.

"Brother Wen Jing, as Your Excellency Shicai said, Shanshan Shangjia is unwilling to see the imperial court canonize me, isn't this a self-introduction of troops?" Someone asked.

Tang Mingcheng is among a group of Jiangnan businessmen, and he is already a border town. He smiled calmly and unfolded the folding fan: "This truth is the same as the fact that many families in Jiangnan do not want the imperial court to open the sea ban." ”

Everyone sighed, but they felt that it was not convincing enough.

Jiangnan does not open the sea ban, but it is not taken advantage of by the sea bandits. Now the sea is as quiet as Dianshan Lake, where did you see half a pirate along the way this time? However, the three sides are very different, I have been in the Kou for many years, and once I have entered the Kou, it will be the shock of the Beijing Division. Under such circumstances, they still refuse to open border trade?

"Don't say that there are no New Year's coins, even if you want to give New Year's coins, it is worth trading. You can earn it back anyway. "There are Suzhou merchants.

"How do you earn it back? What are the things in Tartary that can be exchanged for goods in the customs? A less knowledgeable person asked.

"Leather, felt, livestock, these are more Tatars."

"What else?"

"I don't know."

Everyone, you don't know much about the Tatar side. Tang Mingcheng knew a little about the officialdom ecology of the three sides, but he had never really been to Xuanda Border Town, so he didn't dare to act as "Bai Xiaosheng". lest they show cowardice and hinder prestige.

Listening to everyone's chatter, Xu Yuanzuo and Li Teng secretly had a small meeting.

Li Teng had already quit his errand and had nothing to do, so he came along. He bought two pianos for Xu Yuanzuo that Feng Bao personally cut, which were worth thousands of gold, which was already a very high price. Feng Bao really cared about Xu Yuanzuo and expressed his willingness to meet Xu Yuanzuo in person to discuss piano skills.

Xu Yuanzuo is not in a hurry now. It's like playing chess. If the buried shadows are exposed too early, not only will they not be effective, but they will also be counterproductive. If Zhang Juzheng knew that he was still following Feng Bao's path, it would be easy to be regarded as stepping on two boats, thus creating a gap.

"With the current situation, it seems that we don't have to wait until June to get started." Li Teng whispered to Xu Yuanzuo.

"We'll have to wait." Xu Yuanzuo said: "June is the time when the imperial court wants to collect summer taxes, and when the time comes, it will definitely be necessary to transport cotton yarn and silk from the south of the Yangtze River, maybe you can add another yard." ”

Li Teng frowned and said, "You are a little insatiable." How much money can make you satisfied. ”

Xu Yuanzuo rolled his eyes: "Han Xin ordered soldiers, the more the merrier." ”

"Tell me the exact number!"

"I want at least 300,000 stones." Xu Yuanzuo said: "If you can take all the four million stone grains by sea." That's even better. ”

Li Teng patted his forehead lightly: "Do you have to force others to have no food?" ”

"How can there be no food! If you don't have anything to eat, come to my house to eat. Xu Yuanzuo smiled: "I'm afraid that there are not enough people." Then again, do you go down to Jiangnan with the fleet, or go to Liaodong with me first. ”

Li Teng said: "I have never been to Liaodong either, just to expand my knowledge, so let's go with you." ”

Xu Yuanzuo said with a smile: "The trip to Liaodong will definitely be very interesting. You don't know, I hired a guide the other day. The family was originally a native of Liaodong. Doing business in Beijing. After asking, I found out that he was a Jurchen. My grandfather also served as the commander of the Jianzhou Guard. ”

Li Teng nodded: "Where is Jianzhou Wei?" ”

This question is too difficult to answer, and Xu Yuanzuo himself can't tell the specific location of Jianzhou Wei. Anyway, it must be outside the border wall, and it belongs to the fetters of Hu, if you use the administrative divisions of later generations. It should be in Fushun City, Liaoning Province.

"You'll have to go to find out about this." Xu Yuanzuo said.

Taoist priests have a heart to travel all over the world, and Li Teng can't help but start to worry about going to Liaodong at this moment.

Xu Yuanzuo is not in a hurry in Beijing, but Zhang Juzheng is a little anxious.

In the cabinet, Yin Shidan and Gao Gong were at odds with each other, and the smell of gunpowder became more and more intense, and Xu Yuanzuo, a group of Susong merchants, stayed in Beijing to increase the variables in vain. They passed through the door, and they had a large amount of gold and silver in their hands, and if it was just for the sake of transporting them to the sea, wouldn't it be troublesome if they wanted to intervene in other things?

"This year's trial operation, Mo Ruo will ship 300,000 stones first." Zhang Juzheng was in the cabinet room to discuss with Gao Gong.

Gao Gong has been surrounded by Yang Bo, a genius in the world, these days, his brain hurts, and after listening to it, he didn't object, but just asked, "Is there more?" ”

"If the volume is less, it will not be counted by sea." Zhang Juzheng saw Gao Gong's exhaustion: "But if it is 300,000 stones, I am afraid that the Ministry of Industry will have to come up with 37,500 taels of silver, and I am afraid that the Ministry of Household will not be able to allocate it for a while." ”

Gao Gongdao: "Is it a democracy movement?" ”

"It's supposed to be a democracy movement. Even if you want military transportation, it will be too late this year. Zhang Juzheng said.

"Can we offset it with next year's grain?" Gao Gong proposed the old method, commonly known as playing white strips.

Zhang Ju was entangled and said, "This is going to be talked to those owners." In all fairness, every 100 stone of grain costs 125 taels of silver, which is already a lot less. ”

Gao Gong pulled his beard and said, "It is true that the cost is considerable, but it is not easy to settle the army along the river." ”

Zhang Juzheng nodded in agreement, and did not tell Gao Gong about immigration. Since the Qin and Han dynasties emigrated several times, this extraordinary policy has been linked to "brutality". Even the Taizu of the National Dynasty has been stained because of immigration. It is best not to mention the topic of immigration until absolutely necessary.

At most, the people migrated on their own, and the government did not stop them.

Gao Gong said: "Send a principal to talk to them." I heard that there is a son of the Xu family among the merchants of Su Song. It's Xu Ge's grandson, but seriously? This is obviously asking knowingly, Zhang Juzheng also cooperated with him to play, and said: "I have said this, but I also heard that it is a grandnephew of the clan, and there are false rumors outside." ”

Gao Gong pretended to say: "The court is sympathetic to loyal ministers. If Xu Ge is really poor and poor, I will be a sparse saint, please have a Si Cun. ”

When it comes to his teacher, Zhang Juzheng is also inconvenient to express his position. He knew that there were no secrets in the cabinet, even the ears on the walls. If the two of them are on duty in the cabinet now, it will soon spread out by the surrounding Chinese books and officials who have almost no sense of existence.

The intention of the cabinet reached the two ministries of work and households, and the two ministries sent people to meet Xu Yuanzuo together and agreed on the amount.

300,000 stone grains was Xu Yuanzuo's lowest amount earlier, if it was lower than this amount. He prefers to directly bribe coastal guards and smuggle commercial goods. Seeing that Zhang Juzheng stepped on his psychological red line so accurately, Xu Yuanzuo could only feel a little entangled, not knowing whether Zhang Jiangling was blindly guessing Mengzhong, or if there was some unknown intelligence channel.

Xu Yuanzuo pretended to discuss it with his allies, and finally agreed, that is, 300,000 stone grain, and the imperial court shipped 10,000 taels. The remaining 27,500 taels were compensated by the price of autumn grain in the fourth year of Longqing.

The two directors completed the task. Happily returned. The ministerial meeting was quickly sent to the cabinet, and the cabinet vote was to be passed and sent to the inner court. Emperor Longqing didn't care much about this kind of thing, so he summoned Gao Gong to ask a few words, and then ordered the celebrant to use the seal to complete the whole procedure.

Got the final paperwork. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and met for dinner at Xu Yuanzuo's newly purchased "Cloud Hall". Kyoshi Department Store is available, and even authentic Matsue chefs can be invited. Xu Yuanzuo specially chatted with the chef in Songjiang dialect, and it turned out to be a Zhuli accent, which can be regarded as a fellow countryman.

There are authentic chefs. Naturally, it can make authentic flavors. Songjiang and Suzhou merchants gathered to celebrate the victory.

This time, there were four seats in the main seat, with Xu Yuanzuo and Lu Juren in the center. Xu Yuanzuo sat on Lu Juren's left hand side again, obviously superior. Shen Yujun and Tang Mingcheng sat on both sides, which were also eye-catching. Among the four, only Shen Yujun is from Suzhou, or because he is next to Xu Yuanzuo's big tree, his momentum is slightly weaker.

Xu Yuanzuo glanced at the audience, but found that there were eight more. He is extremely sensitive to numbers, when he was on the ship before, there were a total of thirty-three legislatures, but this time there were eight more families, and they definitely didn't come to eat together. This is also because the Cloud Hall is not fully staffed, and there are many idle people who come in and out today, otherwise they would not have found out when they walked to the dining room.

This is not just a faux pas, it can be regarded as an accident.

"There are a few faces." Xu Yuanzuo smiled: "I don't know who the virtuous man is." ”

The new guests hurriedly stepped forward to confess and introduced themselves one by one, and it turned out to be a powerful family in Taicang, Suzhou. Because I was confident before, I went to Beijing for activities. Who knew that before the activity came out with a result, Xu Yuanzuo had already picked the peaches here. In such a situation, what else can you do except come to make up for the smiley face in disgrace? Wouldn't it be possible to go back empty-handed?

Xu Yuanzuo smiled, and after listening to the introduction, he smiled heartily: "Songjiang, Jiangsu, is one!" Why do you need to see outside? Cao Yi must have a share in the audience, please come to the table. ”

These people didn't expect Xu Yuanzuo to be so generous and hearty, and they were in a good mood, and they didn't feel that the gift they sent hurt much.

Xu Yuanzuo glanced at Lu Juren and leaned over: "Please also ask the head of the Lu Association to tell me about the distribution of the amount." ”

This amount of money is the main meal in Beijing this time.

The tariff collected by the Ming Dynasty refers to the inland banknote customs, and there is no customs except for the moon port. In the past, when the sea was banned, one ship at sea was counted as one, and it was all smuggling, and if it was caught, it could be convicted, let alone collect taxes.

After the opening of the Moon Port, only the Moon Port is the legal departure port and the end port, and other ports in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are still prohibited from private ships going to sea. This time, the three ships were able to go north, mainly because the number of ships was small, and they could still mix with silver and official bodies. In the future, if there are more ships, it will definitely not work.

So this requires Caoyun's fire card to be compatible. The ship was planted with a flag issued by the imperial court, which was a boat that transported grain for the country, not a civilian ship. Not only can it sail on the sea openly, but it can also avoid harassment and extortion from coastal guards.

The amount of the distribution is inversely proportional to the order flag.

The more efforts and the greater the contributions, the more banners they can receive. According to the quota of 3,000 stone for one ship, 300,000 stone requires 100 ships. One boat and one flag, after reporting to the imperial court, you can get a hundred order flags and the corresponding fire cards.

Because Xu Yuanzuo was the first to initiate, he contributed a direct way to Gefu, and he made great contributions, so he was divided into thirty sides. And the freight of Cao Liang is 12 taels and 5 yuan per 100 stones, which is a loss of money in Xu Yuanzuo's eyes, so he only needs to bear 3,000 Shi Cao Liang.

In other words, Xu Yuanzuo could take one ship out to transport grain, and the other twenty-nine ships "legally" smuggled goods. Bear one percent of the obligation and enjoy thirty percent of the benefits, where to find such a deal?

Xu Yuanzuo ate the big head, but everyone was convinced. There are those who are not convinced, and when others are convinced, they dare not disagree.

Next is Tang Mingcheng, because he communicated with Huo Ji, the secretary of the Ministry of War, he got ten order flags and paid 10,000 stone grain. That is, to bear 3% of the obligations and enjoy 10% of the rights.

These two people are both big heads, which is equivalent to eating half a pot of meat, and the rest of the bones and soup will be divided by the people below.

In addition to the Xu and Tang families, there are 39 here, divided into 60 order flags. However, it is impossible for everyone to divide it equally, so Lu Juren took three sides, and the other Songjiang people were either two sides or one side, and when they were divided into Suzhou people, there was not enough manpower.

What should I do if the flag is not enough?

It can only be pieced together.

The rated load of a large ship is 4,000 stones, or half of a family, each accounting for 2,000 stones, or 37 kai, or 46 kai. Anyway, for businessmen, it's nothing more than a matter of partnership dividends.

When all the soup is cleaned, there will inevitably be people who are not full.

How can the proprietor make the guests hungry?

Chairman Xu Yuanzuo, Lu Juren and Tang Mingcheng exchanged glances with each other. Lu Juren propped up the table, stood up and said: "It seems that there are still some gentlemen who have more ships and fewer flags, but they suffer from fewer ships and more flags. Willing to give up one side, those who are destined to get it. He was throwing stones to ask for directions, looking at the market price, and exploring the way for Xu Yuanzuo and Tang Mingcheng behind him.

A flag is a ship, and if you don't count the amount, it is a private cargo of 4,000 stones. Subtracting the sailors and the supply of water and rice, there is a pure cargo capacity of 3,000 and several hundred stones. If all the 3,000 stones were transported to silk, of course the profit would have been doubled. But who would put aside the high price in the overseas market and sell it to Beijing?

If all the rice is transported, according to the profit of five coins per stone, it is a profit of 1,500 taels.

Don't sell wood for a hundred miles, don't sell for thousands of miles, everyone in the Han Dynasty knows the truth, of course, no one will sell rice from the south of the Yangtze River stupidly.

Cotton cloth is a specialty of Jiangnan, the amount is large and the profit is low, if it can be transported to a boat, let alone earn 5,000 taels of silver.

"One thousand taels!" Someone desperately shouted out the offer.

That's the starting price.

*

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Ask for a recommended ticket, ask for a monthly pass~~!

Thank you to the alliance leader, thank you, add a new chapter to pay off the debt! Believe in Xiaotang, Xiaotang will definitely not break his word and get fat! Let's have a long affection, take your time~!

*(To be continued.) )