As the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, Bianliang City is not only splendid and prosperous, but also full of powerful people.

The princes and nobles, and the high gate do not know how many people are there.

Sometimes a stone was thrown from the upper floor of the third floor of the Fan Tower, and I didn't know if it hit the ordinary people or the high-ranking people.

At the feet of the Son of Heaven, there is no shortage of powerful people, especially the generals since the early Song Dynasty.

After the official family rewarded the Cao family, there was no sensation in the court, but the Jiangmen side was quite surprised, and sent people to the Cao Mansion to inquire about the situation.

The Great Song Dynasty has been marginalized, a bit like the Ming Dynasty nobles.

The Jiangmen families have no real power, and their children have no other power except for awarding some honors, and they basically eat and wait for death.

Originally, the Cao family was the same, except for Cao Xiu, who barely served as the imperial envoy with some real power, the rest of the people had little power, and they were often suppressed and restricted by the civilian group.

You must know that the Cao family has also produced a queen, not to mention other generals, so when they heard that the Cao family had been rewarded for the first time, and the official family praised the Cao family, they were all surprised.

Soon, Cao Cong followed Queen Cao's instructions to invite the rest of the Jiangmen family to a banquet in Fanlou, and more than a dozen people who were good friends with the Cao family went to the banquet one after another.

At the banquet, everyone knew that the official family wanted them to deposit the money in Jiaozipu.

Knowing this, some people were hesitant, because no one could touch the Jiaozipu thing, and if it went bankrupt like Chengdu Jiaozipu back then, wouldn't they have to lose all their money.

However, all those who were wise did not hesitate, and after the feast, they went back and brought out a large amount of cash from the family and deposited it in the shop.

Because they know that no matter whether they can get this money back in the future, at least for now, it is to pay the money to keep them safe.

Otherwise, there is a way to deal with the generals who have no military power now.

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On June 29, the entrance of Bianliang Jiaozi Shop was crowded with long queues.

At this moment, on the street of Zhouqiao next to Xiangguo Temple in Nancheng, the street is crowded with people, all kinds of noisy sounds converge, people come and go crowded together, and the whole street becomes impassable.

There were already a lot of street vendors here, but now I don't know how many have come, there are shopping, passing by, and more are coming to see the excitement.

I am afraid that hundreds or thousands of people will be crammed into Zhouqiao Street, and they will gather to look outside the Jiaozi shop.

Even the restaurant opposite was full.

On the railing of the second floor of the Xiangde Building, several graceful and luxurious wealthy businessmen were sitting proudly on it, overlooking the gate of Jiaoziwu below.

They were Zhou Yunsheng, Wang Min and others, representatives of Bianliang tea merchants, and there were several other wealthy businessmen next to them.

Aside from the tea merchants, the most conspicuous of them all was a middle-aged man.

This person is quite thin, with a serious face and a mustache at the corners of his mouth. His name was Kangxi, and he was a well-known salt merchant in Bianliang.

Salt merchants are different from tea merchants, who need to take tea from the imperial court to do business. But the salt merchants did not have salt introductions, only official salt merchants, that is, the government designated to sell the salt to someone, and someone then went to sell it.

Therefore, before the eight-year system of Qingli and the salt solution made Fan Xiang carry out the salt law reform, the salt law in the Song Dynasty belonged to the government monopoly, and at most there would be lower-level agents and dealers, which meant that all salt was sold by the government, and there could be private bosses like tea.

Kangxi is the largest official salt dealer in Bianliang, and he has a very good relationship with the government, and he is also a friend of Zhou Yunsheng and others.

At this moment, he looked down, his face was a little unpleasant, and he said to Zhou Yunsheng: "Brother Zhou, Brother Wang, as the saying goes, the people don't fight with the officials, you are so fanfare and gather people to withdraw money together, are you not afraid of angering the court?" ”

Wang Min smiled bitterly: "If it weren't for the life-and-death situation, who would want to offend the government?" The matter is a little bigger, but also to save his life. ”

Zhou Yunsheng also said: "Yes, the imperial court wants to come to be face-saving, there is nothing irregularity in our payment, the tea merchants in Chengdu come to Bianliang to do business, shouldn't they take money?" ”

"This is the reason, but sometimes, we still have to be accommodating with the court to do business......

Kang Xi persuaded.

But the two obviously didn't listen, they didn't feel that they had done anything wrong, because since the imperial court had opened a Jiaozi shop, it was natural for them to exchange the money after saving, and they were not committing adultery.

So even if the court knew that someone was behind this, it didn't dare to do anything to them.

Otherwise, who would dare to go to Jiaozipu to save money in the future? Then the credibility of the court will be in vain.

It is precisely because of this joint that the merchants are unscrupulous.

After all, when they saw that the money law was opened, they chose to refuse to enter the middle school, and the court had no choice but to take them.

"The door is open, the door is open!"

At this moment, as someone shouted below, the merchants rushed inside.

But he was soon stopped, and the official who handed over the affairs came out of it, and an official in a cyan official uniform stood on the steps and shouted at the bottom: "What are you yelling about, what are you yelling at, early in the morning, don't you know how to line up?" ”

The more than a dozen officials who were responsible for maintaining order around them suddenly raised the sticks in their hands, and they still had knives pinned to their waists, and Jiaozipu had a lot of coins in stock, so the facilities were comparable to official offices, guarded by officials.

Seeing this battle, the merchants hurriedly took a few steps back, and then someone said: "Official, we came to Bianliang to sell, we need to get the capital, come to Bianliang to hand over the money to get the deposited coins." ”

"Yes, official, we deposited money in Chengdu Jiaozipu, and came to Bianliang to withdraw money, this is a law set by the imperial court, is there anything wrong?"

Someone asked again.

"Since you are here to withdraw money, you have no choice, the court has a reputation, and I will not owe you a penny."

The official said: "Come to the door to register, come one by one, don't cut the line, make noise, make a fuss, do you understand?" ”

"Yes, yes, yes."

The merchants nodded their heads again and again.

What they set up was a conspiracy, but they didn't plan to fight hard with the government, so they all behaved.

Soon the merchants entered the Jiaozi shop one after another, the Jiaozi shop is a bit like a yamen, after entering from the outer door is a large courtyard, dozens of tea merchants lined up outside the door, all lined up in the streets.

Kang Xi, who was upstairs in Xiangde outside, looked at the scene below and said: "You need to register in advance to withdraw money, and the government says that you can get the money within ten days at most, and if you do this, they also have ten days to turn around, aren't you afraid that the court will be able to take out the money?" ”

Zhou Yunsheng sneered: "June and July is the time when Bianliang's trade is the closest, and there will be more Chengdu businessmen to Bianliang within ten days. ”

"There's no need for this, what's the difference between a dead fish and a broken net."

Kangxi still persuaded.

Wang Min shook his head and said: "Brother Kang doesn't need to persuade anymore, this is also a matter of no way, you don't know how difficult it is for us to make tea when you sell salt." Now that the court is like this, it has almost cut off our livelihood, and we are helpless. ”

"Okay."

Kang Xi had no choice but to shut up.

There are a lot of long queues below, and in addition to the tea merchants, there are other merchants from Chengdu.

Chengdu businessmen save money in Chengdu, so they don't have to go out with copper coins so much, and they will continue to do business after arriving in Bianliang, and they will definitely take out the money.

Originally, there was no need to rush, but today I saw so many people in Jiaozipu withdrawing money, which caused a certain run of panic, and many Chengdu businessmen who heard the news ran over to line up.

Therefore, at this time, it is extremely difficult to test the coin storage capacity of Bianliang Jiaozipu.

From the opening of Jiaozipu in the early morning to the steady stream of people coming in the morning, the number of registered businessmen has reached more than 100, and the amount of money to be withdrawn has reached more than 400,000 yuan, far exceeding the expectations of Zhou Yunsheng and Wang Min.

When the man they sent to fetch the money came back to report it to them, they both laughed from ear to ear, thinking that it was providence and that God was helping them.

However, when they were going back at noon and waiting for news from the government, the door of Jiaozipu was open to the maximum.

The official in the blue official uniform came out again and said to the people outside: "The court opened Jiaozi Shop to facilitate merchants to trade and trade from south to north. If commerce and trade are prosperous, the people will be prosperous. Therefore, the imperial court prepared sufficient coins for the merchants, and if they were taken today, they would have them today. ”

Clapping his hands as he spoke.

Behind him, there were more than a dozen officials, each carrying two baskets with a flat pole, came out of it and placed them on the street at the door of the shop.

Everyone could see clearly that the basket was full of copper coins tied together.

A bundle is consistent, roughly speaking, each basket has at least ten or twenty bundles, the weight is more than 100 catties, and the number picked out by more than ten officials is about three or four hundred.

It's not much, but it's still visually striking. After all, for ordinary people, three or four hundred guan may not be able to earn in a lifetime.

The official said: "The imperial court is about credibility, since the money is stored in the Jiaozi shop, then it will not let the businessman not be able to withdraw the money, where is the big man?" Cheng Daweng is not there? ”

Cheng Daweng is not a tea merchant, he is an ordinary businessman who came to Bianliang to do business, and he wants to take eight hundred yuan, and when he heard the official's words, he hurriedly stood up and said: "The villain is here." ”

"Did you bring anyone?"

The official asked.

Cheng Daweng immediately said: "The villain thought that he couldn't withdraw the money today, but he just came to report and register, but he didn't have time to hire someone." ”

"Then hurry up, don't delay others to withdraw the money."

The official said.

"Yes, yes, yes."

Cheng Daweng hurriedly got out of the crowd and hired a carriage and porter.

The official added: "If the rest of the people want to hire someone to call someone, they can go quickly, and they can come to pay in the next few days." ”

The surrounding businessmen woke up like a dream and hurriedly went to do it, while the tea merchants looked at each other, no one thought that the Jiaozi shop in the imperial court really had cash.

Upstairs in Xiangde, Zhou Yunsheng and Wang Min and other tea merchants looked extremely ugly, Zhou Yunsheng gritted his teeth and said: "This must be the imperial court's strategy to stabilize the hearts of the people, don't worry, let's continue to watch." ”

And the crowd continued to watch.

Soon the time passed minute by minute, the merchants with a large number of carriages, people crowded into Zhouqiao Street, the originally wide street completely became full of traffic, from the morning to the evening when the Jiaozipu closed, the people who came to pay did not stop.

Preliminary estimates, today alone to pay nearly 100,000 yuan, originally thought that Jiaozipu did not have so much money, but Jiaozipu is like a bottomless pit, all the time there are a large number of officials to carry out the money and deliver it on the spot.

For a time, the reputation of Jiaozipu spread throughout Bianliang, and businessmen from other places were envious of Chengdu businessmen, who could have such a relaxing thing without carrying tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of catties of copper coins out of the house.

By the time it was close to dark, Zhou Yunsheng and the others upstairs in Xiangde had dull faces.

Kang Xi sat with them for a day, and after watching the officials outside the Jiaozi shop below announce that they would be here temporarily today and continue to pay tomorrow, they got up and patted Zhou Yunsheng on the shoulder, leaving a sentence.

"Against the imperial court, there is no good end, so let's go with it."

As he spoke, he walked away with his hands behind his back.

And Zhou Yunsheng, Wang Min and others are already dead.

The tea merchants' action this time was actually quite hasty, from the opening of the Bianliang Jiaozi Office organized by Shengdu in May, to the end of June, they tried to gather many Chengdu tea merchants, but it was only less than two months, resulting in a limited gathering of strength.

But there is no way, as soon as I come to Chengdu Mansion, there are children who have paid for it, so the Chengdu tea merchants save money there, and they step on Bianliang here, and they don't know what the situation is, they are called by the people of the tea shop, and there must not be many people.

Second, because Jiaoziwu did not set up a point in the country, only Chengdu tea merchants saved money in Chengdu, compared to the huge force of tea merchants in the country, Chengdu and Bianliang tea merchants are still not enough, so they can't gather more strength.

The third is the most important problem, they want tea and the value of the goods to be inflated, first of all, they must have grain and grass goods on hand to transport to the border gates.

Without goods, how can you falsely estimate the value of goods? How to take money out of the pockets of the imperial court?

It happened that during the Zhenzong period of the Song Dynasty, Champa rice had been introduced in the southeast, and for nearly 30 years, Champa rice was promoted to the entire south. By the time of the Renzong Dynasty, there had been double-cropping rice in the south, and even three-cropping rice in Lingnan, and through this agricultural revolution, the population began to grow substantially.

Champong rice has a very short growth cycle, basically it is planted in February and can be harvested in May. In addition, wheat in the north also matures in May, so from June to July every year, it is the time when the grain in the market is extremely large.

Generally, the merchants who opened China and France would buy grain in the market at this time, and then hire people and horses, all the way to the northwest and the river, get tea quotations and inflated high coins at the end of the year, return to the south to buy tea, and continue after selling the tea, so that the cycle of arbitrage continues, and constantly sucks the blood of the imperial court.

If they don't resist the money law at this time, then there will be a lot less profit.

Therefore, they must cancel this policy of the imperial court as soon as possible in this short period of time, and then sweep the goods immediately, otherwise it will be a little later, and there will be less food on the market, and they will not have the opportunity to take tea again.

Therefore, based on the above, it is indeed as Zhou Yunsheng and Wang Min said, this is the only opportunity for tea merchants.

But they felt that the reason why they could win was that they knew that the imperial court was using a large amount of money from Jiaozipu to buy grain and grass, and the money from Chengdu Jiaozipu was too late to be sent to Bianliang, and it was very likely that Jiaozipu would go bankrupt directly.

Now that they see Jiaozipu constantly taking out the money, they know that it will be difficult for them, the tea merchants, to suck the blood of the imperial court in the future.