Chapter 11: Merchants
It is said that the Yongli Emperor of the Celestial Dynasty arrived in Wuzhou, Guangxi, and before he could stabilize his line, he heard that 9,000 Manchurians were approaching Guangzhou, and he was immediately frightened and his whole body spasmed, so he packed up his pots and pans and fled westward. Ladies and gentlemen, this Guangdong is hundreds of miles away from Wuzhou, and the Manchurians have not seen the shadow, and the crotch of Emperor Yongli is soaked.
Besides, the queen of the Yongli Emperor, Wang, originally had a concubine in Guangdong, and when he fled west with Yongli, he also brought the concubine with him, one day, the Wang family had a private meeting with the concubine, and happened to be bumped into by the Yongli Emperor, and the Wang family was in a panic and knelt down to beg for mercy, but who knew that the concubine was very bold, and yelled at Yongli: "I am a Manchurian from Jianzhou, and today I am raising troops to arrest you." ’
Yongli was so frightened that his legs cramped, and as soon as he heard the word Manchurian, he packed up his house and fled to Yunnan......"
In the wine shop of Ava City, the triumphant Lingren tells a variety of modified and processed stories in pure Chinese, Myanmar was once a subject country of the Ming Dynasty, the powerful and wealthy merchants are proud of being proficient in Chinese, Ava is an important coastal city in southern Myanmar, many Nanyang maritime merchants and the locals do not understand the language, most of them use Chinese to communicate, so in some high-end wine shops, the owner will often buy some good-looking Lingren to let them learn Chinese, and then make up some stories in the wine shop, in order to attract merchants.
Zhu Jun sat in the corner of the wine shop by the window and couldn't help but smile, he couldn't imagine that the reputation of Emperor Yongli was even such a remote city, but he didn't care, what kind of virtue Yongli was in the past had nothing to do with himself, not to mention that it stinked the street, at least it could paralyze the enemy, if the king of Burma didn't know that Yongli was a escape, how could he dare to let himself move to Ava with his followers?
Mu Jianming, who was standing on the side, was full of resentment, and glared at the servant on the stage who was making fun of him, and he hated to tear the servant into two pieces.
This time Zhu Jun sneaked out with Mu Jianming, Mu Jianming was worried about Zhu Jun's safety, and specially brought all the hundred soldiers he belonged to.
Zhu Jun was bored after listening to a paragraph, and was afraid that Mu Jianming was young and competitive, and he couldn't help but cause trouble for a while, so he took Mu Jianming to settle the account except for the wine shop.
In front of the wine shop is the avenue leading to the wharf, at this time, it is noon, the sun in the sky is scary, Zhu Jun and Mu Jianming have just shown their shadows in the wine shop, there are one hundred and ten strong men gathered from all directions, carelessly distributed a few meters away to guard each other.
Further on is the wharf of Ava, where all kinds of goods from overseas are piled up, and then ordinary Burmese merchants come here to buy goods to all corners of Myanmar to sell, the noon sun is hot, the shops along the street are wide open, but there is no business, only a few lazy guys hide at the base of the wall to rest.
"My lord, the water surface of Burma was not very peaceful a few days ago, and many passing merchant ships were intercepted by pirates, so now it is very depressed." Mu Jianming had stepped on the plate a few times before, and Zhu Jun saw that he was an idle person, so he let him go to Dawei City after training every time, and walked around the shops a lot, so he was more familiar with the road.
Zhu Jun nodded, wiped the sweat on his forehead with his long sleeves, the changeable climate in South Asia made him a little uncomfortable, he didn't come this time simply to buy goods, just to take a casual walk, look at the market of Dawei City, and by the way, he can also learn some customs. It's a pity that it doesn't seem to be the right time to come, the weather is so hot, except for some shops that open their doors to do business, most people's houses are closed tightly.
The first feeling of the soil tile to Zhu Jun is that it is barren, it is simply a waste of fame that it is known as the largest port in Myanmar, I am afraid that any small wharf in the south of the Yangtze River is more prosperous than it, and other Nanyang cities are probably just like this, no wonder the Ming Dynasty called these subject countries a place outside the country, and it is not groundless.
Zhu Jun stopped in front of a shop along the street, the shop was opened by a Han person, and the guy at the door was also a Han person, and the guy saw that Zhu Jun was dressed decently and followed by an entourage, where would he have no vision at all, and hurriedly manipulated the Chinese accent of Cantonese to talk.
"Guest officer, you are also Han, right? Come on, come and sit in the small shop, today our owner has just taken the goods from Jiangning, and there is a large warehouse of goods. ”
Generally, the front hall of the shop near this kind of dock does not put goods, but only a place to entertain merchants, if the business is negotiated, you can take it to the backyard to see the goods, not selling, only wholesale.
Zhu Jun followed the shopkeeper into the store, and the shopkeeper found a rag to carefully wipe the seat shiny, and then invited Zhu Jun to sit down, while Mu Jianming took a few soldiers to stand aside.
"Let me ask you, are you from Jiangnan?" Zhu Jun picked up the tea cup offered by the shopkeeper, gently blew off the tea foam, took a sip and asked.
"Yes, our owner is from Yangzhou, and every year we will bring in a shipload of goods to sell here, and then bring some Nanyang specialties on the return trip, which is very profitable." The shopkeeper caught a glimpse of Zhu Jun's lack of braids behind him, and had already guessed that Zhu Jun was a remnant outside the city, so he was not afraid that they were competing merchants in Jiangnan.
"Don't blame me, but I heard that the Manchu Qing Dynasty was more severe than the previous Forbidden Sea, how did your owner come out?" Zhu Jun asked tentatively quietly.
"Guest officer, don't you know, these sea bans are just to scare ordinary people, my owner has silver, which yamen has been dotted, those Manchurian people are better than the officials of the previous dynasty, I think they haven't seen much of the world, give a few hundred taels of silver can send them, if it is not for the rampant piracy in the South Seas, it is no problem to go back and forth four or five times a year."
Zhu Jun sighed, in fact, he had already guessed seven or eight points for this answer, the Manchu ruling class corroded very quickly, in just a dozen years, these barbarians who were still in the customs outside the customs immediately became official oils in the officialdom, and they were proficient in eating, drinking, and taking everything.
At this time, there was a cough in the backyard, and the curtain connecting the backyard was gently opened, and a middle-aged businessman with a pigtail and a horse coat and a melon skin hat on his head walked out, he smiled and arched his hand to Zhu Jun and said: "I heard the magpie chirping on the branches early today, it turned out that there was a distinguished guest coming, surnamed Huang Mingxin, Jiangning people's family, is the owner here, may I ask the distinguished guest with a high surname, what do you want to buy?" ”
Zhu Jun got up and saluted: "My surname is Zhu Mingjun, just look at it casually, and I nag that the owner came out to welcome the guests in person, which is really embarrassing." ”
Huang Xin smiled, he saw that Zhu Jun was dignified, behaved calmly, and the clothes all over his body were cut and fitted, so he knew that Zhu Jun had a background, where would he let go of the opportunity to stutter, and hurriedly said: "Where, where." ”
After the two sides sat down, Zhu Jun asked, "I don't know what kind of business the Huang Dongjia does?" I want to buy some goods, but if you have them here, I don't have to buy them elsewhere. ”
Huang Xin said: "It's okay, please go down to the backyard with you to have a look." ”
Zhu Jun nodded, the business matter was put down for the time being, but I wanted to hear about the situation in Jiangnan, Zhu Jun wanted to produce silk in Nanyang, and Jiangnan is also an important production area of silk, if you don't understand the market clearly, plus as the title of the former emperor imposed on his head, it is also necessary to understand the situation of the occupied area, so he said: "I have been away from home for a long time, I have been far away in southern Myanmar, but I don't know what the situation of my hometown is, every time I want to go back to see, I have no choice but to be riddled with trivial things, I always can't find time to come, if Huang Dongjia can see it, I can't thank you enough. ”
Huang Xin sighed and said: "The situation is like this, Yangzhou ten days, Jiajing three days, years of military disasters, Manchuria Eight Banners everywhere enclosure, causing many wives to be separated, and issued an order to ask the Han people to shave off the hair around the head, leaving only one as big as a copper coin, braided and drooping. More than a penny to be put to death! Not only do those who do not shave their hair be beheaded, but those who do not shave their hair as well as the style should also be beheaded. Now in the whole Jiangning City, there are many orphans and displaced people, most of them do not get relief and starve to death on the streets, Brother Zhu is also at ease in southern Myanmar, or don't go back, although it is better to avoid a foreign country than to go back and be angry. It is also a big family in the next place, and it can't be separated, otherwise it would have moved into Nanyang long ago. ”
Zhu Jun felt a little blocked in his heart, he originally saw on TV that Shunzhi was an amorous and kind emperor, developing the people's livelihood and raising the people in peace, who knew that he was such a good person.
---------------------------------
Shaving: In the early Qing Dynasty, it was not only necessary to keep the head without hair, keep the hair without leaving people, and even if you had a braid, it was stipulated that the hair left could only be the size of a copper coin, and the head would be killed if it exceeded this rule.
Eight Banners Enclosure: An order issued by the Qing Dynasty to plunder land after entering the customs. Issued in the first year of Shunzhi (1644), after the Qing Dynasty entered Beijing, in order to solve the livelihood of the officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners, it was decided to forcibly occupy the land near Beijing, and then issued an order to enclose the land. In December of the first year of Shunzhi, it was stipulated that the ownerless wasteland of the Han people in the prefectures and counties near Beijing and the land left behind by the emperors, horses, dukes, marquis, uncles, and eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were all enclosed and divided to the kings and soldiers of the east, except for the surviving masters. In the past four years, due to the "very large amount of thin land" in the original enclosure, the number of officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners in the east has increased, and there is no land for cultivation. According to the above order, the banner people carried ropes and rode horses, and large-scale enclosures occupied the land of the Han people. Many peasants had their fields occupied, were displaced, and were starving and cold, and some Han landlords even brought land to fill their land in order to obtain political asylum. After the land was encircled, the nobles, officials, and soldiers of the Eight Banners were given different amounts of land according to their respective status and the number of strong men they belonged to. The enclosure is mainly carried out in Shuntian, Baoding, Chengde, Yongping, Hejian and other prefectures within 3,500 miles of Beijing, and the total number of enclosures is more than 160,000 hectares. The Eight Banners stationed in other places also carried out enclosures in Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Ningxia and other places, and the enclosures brought great suffering to the Han people. This decree was not repealed until the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi.