Chapter 2 Southwest Hall

What does Zhao Zongshou think of himself?

What can he think about, these companions behind him are all muscular and sharp-eyed, and they are the masters who have killed people.

These people were sent by the people behind them. Zhao Zongshou is just a card for him.

And Zhao Zongshou is also willing to take risks, the reason is very simple, Zhao Zongshou is unwilling to remain incognito, he is a toast, and he hopes to make a comeback.

He tried to find a way to enter Sichuan from Guizhou, from Sichuan to Longxi, from Gansu to the grassland, and found a way to Dongsheng. When he came to the Beijing jurisdiction, he immediately felt the difference.

That is, the status of merchants has improved a lot, and commerce is also developed.

Even when he was in Gansu, he had already met the merchants in Beijing, and some people were willing to do it without him, making money, although after the war between the north and the south, Nanjing had announced that it would cut off all material exchanges with Beijing, and once it was discovered, it would be punished as a thief. On the Hebei front, along the Shanxi line, this was strictly observed.

After all, the density of troops on the Hebei front is too high, and such a thing cannot be hidden.

There are several checkpoints along the Shanxi line, which are easy to control.

The Northwest is different. The northwest border is deserted, and the northwest border wall has not been built in these years. There are not many troops on both sides, and it is easy to dot the dots, so although the trade on the surface does not exist. But private trade can't be stopped.

In fact, the private trade in the northwest is the small head. The real big head is maritime trade.

Especially after Fang Chengfeng laid down Penghu, many products went to sea in the name of leading to the South Seas, but not many people tracked down the specific place.

Zhao Zongshou came with the caravan.

Just by following the caravan, he sensed something different.

In his view, Beijing is in a wasteland. It should be that there is a shortage of materials, but after actually contacting these merchants, he found that it was the flow of large quantities of goods from Beijing to Nanjing, not the other way around. Even the merchants in Beijing did not buy much from the northwest, so they could only buy more livestock, cattle and sheep, but they sold ironware, cloth, and so on.

There are some things that he may not know, but his intuition tells him that it is not good.

After Zhao Zongshou came to Beijing City, it was even more like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Courtyard.

When he knew that the city of Beijing had been built for less than ten years, and even now in the city of Beijing, there are still some places under construction, which made Zhao Zongshou even more surprised, in his opinion, Beijing has far surpassed Chengdu and Xi'an.

Chengdu Xi'an is already a famous big city in the west of the Ming Dynasty.

They are all thousand-year-old capitals. Now, 10 years in Beijing is better than 1,000 years. It's really unthinkable.

Zhao Zongshou secretly said in his heart, "What kind of power is this? Will the world return to the north?"

Zhao Zongshou's mind kept turning, but after he came to Beijing, the first thing he did was to find a place to stay.

The place Zhao Zongshou was looking for was not somewhere else, it was the Southwest Guild Hall.

Local guild halls were developed only during the Qing Dynasty. However, Beijing's business is highly developed, and He Xi designed a set of commercial laws, in fact, it is not perfect, but it is better to have a law than no law, although in many cases, some commercial conflicts do not want to go to the yamen. But now that the trouble has come to the yamen, someone is finally in charge.

And even if some businessmen have the support of high-ranking officials and nobles behind them, they dare not mess around on the bright side.

Obey the law.

Of course, there are ways for many people not to break the law and let some businessmen go bankrupt. But this minimum, which guarantees that some people can't go too far. It really doesn't work, and some businessmen can also admit defeat and leave. Sell the property and become a rich man.

Normally, no one would dare to kill them all.

After all, the imperial court is watching here.

Even this limited level of security has made many businessmen very satisfied. It's a lot bolder in a lot of things.

This kind of guild came into being

。

After all, the ancients held a group in the officialdom, and they naturally held a group in the business field. Everyone builds a guild hall, which can be regarded as a place to connect with feelings and settle down in Beijing. This is also quite normal.

However, with the start of the Civil War, the business of these guilds also plummeted.

After all, many places in the Ming Dynasty are no longer connected to Beijing.

The prosperity of the guild hall is gone. Fortunately, business in Beijing is easy to do, business is prosperous, and many businessmen who support the guild hall can afford to lose. It's just that the front door is sparsely populated.

After Zhao Zongshou stayed in the name of a businessman, he inquired about some of the owners behind the Southwest Guild Hall.

The surname of the boss behind the Southwest Hall is Bai, and he is from the Mu family.

Sent to Beijing to preside over business.

After the war between the north and the south, he stayed here.

After all, the southwest is a remote place, and there is little business with Beijing. And it is normal for the Mu family's influence to cover the southwest. It's just Guangxi, and it's hard to say it's southwest. However, there is no separate guild hall in Guangxi. Unless he is willing to go to the Guangdong Association, and the Guangdong Association is willing to accept this Guangxi person.

It's just that Zhao Zongshou felt a little uneasy in his heart, he never thought that he would come to Beijing to be received by the Mu family.

He could only pretend to admire him for a long time, and asked the housekeeper of the guild hall, "I don't know Mr. Bai, but now that I am free, can I meet him?"

This steward was not surprised by Zhao Zongshou's question at all, and said, "Unfortunately, you don't know, and now there is a major event in the imperial court, and my master has been invited to the Liaodong Hall to discuss a major matter."

Zhao Zongshou secretly said in his heart: "This family is obviously backed by the Mu family, but it calls Beijing the imperial court, which shows that the Beijing imperial court is still very popular with the people under its rule." Immediately asked curiously, "I don't know what's the big deal?"

The steward said, "If you ask someone, they may not know yet, but what kind of family our family is, and this thing happens to know. It's nothing else, it's a matter of fundraising for the imperial court. I won the battle before, and I spent a lot of money. The court ran out of money, and everyone else proposed to raise taxes, but He Shou Fuli ignored the public opinion, saying that even if the taxes were raised, they would have to find a way to communicate with the people below. That's why the rich people in the city were summoned to bargain for the council. In short, it's a matter of paying for it."

"Isn't this an apportionment?" Zhao Zongshou said

"It's not the same as apportionment." The steward said, "The court said that it would be voluntary, and if you don't want to take the money, you can't give it. However, I estimate that there are a lot of people who are willing to take money, and it is said that one MP has already fired this number."

The steward held out a finger.

Zhao Zongshou was not surprised by this, he just felt that he was selling his official position. After all, since ancient times, the means used by the imperial court to collect wealth are just that. said, "One thousand taels?"

The steward smiled but shook his head.

Zhao Zongshou was taken aback and said tentatively, "Ten thousand taels?"

The steward said, "No, it's a hundred thousand taels."

Zhao Zongshou said, "How is it possible?"

It must be known that the tax payment in Guizhou Province is estimated to be less than 100,000 taels, but now there is 100,000 taels for one councillor here?

The steward said, "I don't know. If you don't come to Beijing, you don't know how much money Beijing has. Now is the right time to come to Beijing to do business. And today, Beijing will be able to make a lot of money."

Zhao Zongshou sent the steward away. The whole person fell into deep thought.

One councillor is 100,000 taels, not much, as long as there are dozens of councillors, it is not tens of millions of taels. With such a large sum of money, smashing it can smash Nanjing to death. Isn't this battle already in Beijing's hands?

It's just that he still doesn't believe that Beijing businessmen have such powerful financial resources?

In fact, Zhao Zongshou still underestimated the cost of the current war, the battle between the rivers, which cost more than 10 million yuan before and after. How can these tens of millions of yuan be able to conquer the world. Moreover, Beijing is the best place for the popularization of banknotes, although everyone is used to calling two, in fact, they say two, which is the yuan of paper money.

Moreover, there is a point that is also mistransmitted.

That is, the legislators did not come up with $100,000, but had to buy $100,000 in treasury bonds.

The imperial court did not take money for free, it borrowed money, or there were

Interest.

Although He Xi has already tried treasury bonds before. Worked well all the time. Many people also made a little money on the national debt, but they still did not believe in the credit of the Ming court, and they preferred to treat the national debt as an apportionment.