Late at night on April 16, I set up a card in the canal to inspect the entrainment premises, four miles to the south.

This is the confluence of the Haihe River and the canal, in the past few years in Shandong Denglai Bingbei Road played about the convenience of shipping grain, there are many boats on this side into the canal, but the policy was implemented for less than a year before it was abandoned, recently there are only some military ships and ships between Tianjin Wei and Weihaiwei.

Tianjin here has a small number of ships to Liaozhen Jinzhouwei, also take this road to the sea, after the sea ban in the Jiajing period, the harbor ships here are gradually abandoned, the sea opened during the Longqing period, and this is gradually restored.

However, the north-south transportation of the Ming Dynasty is dependent on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and the foreign trade is mainly concentrated in Zhejiang and Fujian, Guangdong, and the military significance of Tianjin is greater than the economy, so it has been quite deserted.

When Wang Tong was in Beijing, he heard people talk about this Cao Yun like this, and after coming to Tianjin, he also thought the same way after seeing the prosperity of Cao Yun outside the city.

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes tonight, Wang Tong would never have imagined that there would be such prosperity on the Haihe River.

Although it was late at night, the lights were bright, and there were more boats docked on the Haihe River than on the Baiyue Canal, and many large ships of thousands of materials were moored in it.

At the wharf and berthhead, a large number of people can be seen moving, and these people seem to be carrying the goods loaded on the sea boat to the river boat.

"It's dark under the lamp, if it weren't for Gu Zibin telling the official, how would the official know that there is such a lively scene here." Wang Tong looked at all this in surprise on the horse, and couldn't help but sigh and said, Tan Jiang and the others who followed on the side had surprised looks on their faces, and some of them were already stunned.

Locals may think that this is a commonplace thing, Wang Tong and others first came here, and no one would take the initiative to tell them, and they couldn't think of it.

Combining various factors, these things here have become Wang Tong's blind spots, not that he has not noticed it, but he has not thought of it at all.

The Wang family warehouse of Gu Zibin spent an extra hundred taels of silver to redeem the store, but once the accounts were checked, even if no one made it difficult to deduct it, the profits were extremely thin, and it was no longer a problem of one in ten hundreds, but it would definitely lose money if it was counted in labor and miscellaneous expenses.

This ancient shopkeeper is also an old businessman in Beijing, and he is proficient in business, so he naturally won't notice such a trivial matter, but it is no wonder that he is disheartened and wants to redeem the store.

To plant a nail on the other party's territory, but you can't lose money so strangely to do it, the reason is very simple, the same kind of porcelain, silk and other goods from the south on the market are almost cheaper than those of the Wang family's warehouse.

Everyone is doing the same business, why is there such a big difference in the price of the same goods, I thought the reason was very complicated, but I didn't expect to come up with it as soon as I asked.

"The three big warehouses and the merchants who have something to do with the bow incense are all goods from the sea, and the small ones are all taken on the river, so the prices are naturally different."

The Ming Dynasty is a huge empire, the collection of commercial taxes is extremely backward, but the tax and tariff card on this canal is quite complete, if you set off from Hangzhou to Beijing, the big tax card has to go through seven, not to mention the local layers of deductions, one hundred taels of goods, to Beijing, this tax alone has to pay nearly fifty taels.

However, it is entrainment, and it is bribing tax officials and officials along the way, and the cost of a hundred taels of goods is almost ten taels, and the sum of these various expenses has also led to the high price of goods in the south in the north, and of course the profits are also huge.

How to reduce the cost along the way, how to transport it to Beijing at a cheaper cost, this is what every businessman is pondering.

Almost since the beginning of the Xuande period, there have been more and more entrainments, and the government has repeatedly banned them.

But as long as it is transported on the canal, a fixed fee is inevitable, each ship carries a certain amount of goods, some places must use slender cows and horses, there must be the usual silver for passing the checkpoint, the ship must give some extra money, and the boatman and sailor eat, which are all fixed expenses.

That is to say, no matter how it is compressed, to a certain extent, it cannot be reduced, and businessmen are all pursuing greater profits.

"Lord Wang, I'm afraid you have to take the sea route slowly, wouldn't it be a delay in time and a loss of money by doing so!"

Tan is thorough and experienced in other things, but in this economic aspect, he has to ask Wang Tong, Wang Tong wants to get closer and take a look, no matter how he observes, he can't see any sentinel guards or anything.

The goods coming from the sea entered the Haihe River and began to be loaded, unloaded and transported, which seemed to be a very upright thing, and there was no need to be guarded against.

However, Wang Tong is still careful and careful, this black light is blinding, and he only has a few people coming to watch, in case something goes wrong, he can't run away.

Wang Tong knew in his heart that he was not a popular character on the ground of Tianjin, and if he appeared like this, if he violated the other party's taboo, it was not impossible for him to attack him in groups.

Hearing General Tan's inquiry beside him, Wang Tong pondered for a while and then said:

"The largest boat is only 800 stones, but the official went to Guangdong from Beijing, but he knew that it was common for a big ship to ship thousands of stones, but the sailor and boatman were about the same, which saved labor, not to mention how much money was spent on this canal, how much money was on the sea, this came and went, how much silver to save, no wonder it was so much cheaper than the Wang family's warehouse, and people of any era could not be underestimated!"

Wang Tong's last sentence, Tan Jiang didn't understand, but hearing Wang Tong say this, he shook his head and said:

"Walking on the sea, how many pirates on the sea, the extermination on land was almost the same, and I don't know how many there are on the sea, and walking on the sea with a full ship of goods is not very risky."

Wang Tong sneered, picked up the horsewhip and pointed to the front and said:

"What risks are they afraid of, do you think that in addition to the pirates, who else can send goods from Jiangnan here, how long has the Ming Dynasty not built sea ships, so many civilian ships, do you think they are officially built?"

Before and after the sea ban, in addition to the warships, the Ming Dynasty did not allow civilian ships to go to sea, and it was strictly forbidden to even manufacture civilian ships, but shipbuilding and selling ships, and even maritime trade, were all profitable and even profiteering, and there was money to be made, what was the royal law, so the big ships on the sea were all privately made, and the government could not ban them.

However, there is some irony that privately built sea ships are not legal, but the Ming court and the government also have a lot of borrowing, and the officials are often on civilian sea ships from north to south.

Ma Sanbiao looked at it with his head sullen for a while, and said with interest:

"To tell you, my lord, it's much more convenient to take this sea than to take Caoyun, and the people in Beijing and the north can also use cheap things, which is a good thing!"

Wang Tong turned the horse around with interest, and replied coldly:

"It's really a good thing for the citizens who can buy these things, but it's a very bad thing for the Ming Dynasty and the people who farm and eat grain in the middle of the world.

Everyone who said what was said was stunned, not stunned, but did not understand at all, Wang Tong rode a few steps, sighed on the horse and said to himself:

"Da Ming is not my Da Ming, what are you doing with this heart!"

Everyone didn't hear this, the moonlight was bright, and they could see clearly on the road, and Tan Jian, who came out, reined in his horse and whispered to General Tan:

"Big brother, our old man is not yet sixteen years old, how can this talk and act the same as Lao Shangshu."

Tan Jiang smiled and whispered:

"Why don't you do our master, this is the ability to do it!"

Every year, the amount of grain transported on the canal is about 8 million stones, and the silver transported by the canal costs more than 30 million yuan, and most of the maintenance costs are field taxes and taxes collected by tax cards.

The greater the amount of sea transportation, the more private individuals earn, the more proportion of silver spent on transportation will be from the tax per acre, and the oppression of the peasants will become heavier and heavier, which is a cycle of evil surnames.

Wang Tong's glory and wealth and life prospects are all related to this Wanli Emperor, and in a sense, it is also related to the Ming Empire.

The speed of the horses is not too fast, at this time the city gate is closed, it is too late to return to the city, can only live in the Xingcai Inn outside the city, everyone is silent running on the way, Wang Tong suddenly said on the horse:

"Let Qiao Da come to me tomorrow, I have something important to tell him!"

The people on the side hurriedly agreed to come down, and the people hurriedly agreed, and continued to move forward.

"It's just that two ribs were broken, a splint was made, and these pairs of medicines were fried and eaten, it's really unlucky, how can you do this errand. ”

Zou Yi, who was lying on the bed, looked at the roof with a blank face, and the imperial doctor who treated him impatiently gave a few words of advice, and then slammed the door and left.

Father-in-law Zou, who was originally flattered by everyone, has now become a "little Zou" who is not loved by his father and mother, and his place of residence has also changed from the courtyard near the emperor's bedroom to the side of the warehouse where heavy items are stored at the north gate of the imperial city, and the house is filled with strange smells.

was going to send him to the Huanyi Bureau, but for some reason he was stopped and let him stay in this room to recuperate without any errands.

People are warm and cold, the world is hot and cold, Zou Yi suddenly felt a lot.

"Grandpa Zou, I brought you white porridge and pancakes from the delicious restaurant, as well as a few side dishes."

The wooden door was opened, and Zhao Jinliang walked in with a food box.

Zou Yi suddenly felt that his nose was sour, and he quickly covered his eyes with his hands

(To be continued)