Xinshun 1730

Chapter 969 Old Resentment

After the second memorial was sent away, Liu Yu patrolled the embankment of the Yellow River for seven or eight days.

Standing on a high embankment, picking up binoculars, and looking at the opposite side that is only separated by a river, the river patrol corvettes in Funing County fear the coming rainy season as if they were dealing with an enemy invasion.

Several Huaihe officials who had met in Qingkou before were also on the opposite embankment.

Liu Yu looked back at the second embankment of the Yellow River, which was like a hill. The fields scattered between the second embankment and the first embankment were full of various crops, but they didn't know if they could be harvested this year.

Hundreds of years of scouring and silting since the Song Dynasty to the present have made the Yellow River much higher than the flat land.No one knows, maybe one day the Yellow River will break its mouth and flow northward, and the good Jinan may be renamed Henan.

If the water transportation is not abolished, the Yellow River will break through in the future and go north from Lankao. Perhaps the imperial court can still choose the Yellow River to return to its hometown.

Now that the water transportation is abolished, the Yellow River is really about to burst, and if it is really going to take the North Road to take the Daqing River into the sea, I am afraid that the imperial court will calculate it and think it will be like this.

In addition, if the salt reform in Huainan and Huaibei is successful, the land reform in Huainan and northern Jiangsu can be successful, which will make the court's decision-making balance even more tilted.

Thinking of this catastrophe, in which millions of people died and tens of millions of people were affected, it may be this year, ten years later, or decades later, it is like a hand that will fall at any time, but it is impossible to know when it will fall. Sharp sword, Liu Yu could only murmur to Huang He.

"Mother River, Mother River... hey."

Shi Shiyong has been acquainted with Liu Yu for many years. In the past, when facing such a behemoth that seemed to have surpassed the millennium, Liu Yu always talked and joked, but now he sighs so long when facing the Taotao River, looking at his back with an indescribable sense of powerlessness and loneliness.

"There is no need for the Duke to sigh. Now that the sea transport is booming and the water transport is abolished, the imperial court can save three to five million taels of money to dredge the canal every year. This also means that an extra three to five million taels can be spent on the construction of the Yellow River. No one can win My God, but Duke Guo is doing his best.”

Liu Yu just smiled, shook his head with a wry smile, and thought to himself, which one of these things he did did not indirectly determine the fate of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people?

It is said that a gentleman is far away from the kitchen, but I am afraid that in the future the Yellow River will burst, and the imperial court will finally decide not to follow the old path and go southwestern to northward. The hundreds of thousands of drowned and starved souls along the way are at least [-]% of the responsibility. , in the navy, in a series of reforms in southern Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu.

"The reform still needs to continue. The court should improve the fiscal and taxation system and ensure sufficient food reserves to deal with disasters that may arise at any time. The further the reform is, the more money the court saves, and one less disaster victim may die. Otherwise One hundred thousand deaths this year and eighty thousand next year, these deaths that have become a habit, add up to tens of millions, right?"

For a long time, facing the water of the Yellow River, Liu Yu seemed to comfort himself, cheering up his weak-minded self who was emotionally touched for a while.

Shi Shiyong also sighed, thinking that the Duke also had moments of vulnerability.There have been people in the court for a long time, and they have made great efforts to explain the suffering and hardships of going to Nanyang.

This kind of dispute between great benevolence, small benevolence, great righteousness and small righteousness is really heartbreaking.The roots of many reforms also lie here: if there are no reforms, people who die every year will all die "normally".But if the law is to be reformed, I am afraid that those problems will all be on the body of the reformers.

Just as he was about to say something more, there was a sound of horseshoes in the distance. Shi Shiyong turned around and saw that the men sent to the capital had returned, followed by several guards from the forbidden palace.

There was no case to burn incense, and the person who delivered the decree was not in compliance with the rules, and he did not read it out, but handed a secret decree to Liu Yu.

The rest of the people retreated to a distance, Liu Yu opened the secret decree by himself, and the emperor wrote a six-character title at the beginning.

Ai Qing's loyalty can be learned from.

The latter is the idea that Liu Yu, who agrees, wants to play with the salt merchants, and makes Liu Yu firm in his heart for reform.Originally, I planned to go to Huaibei first, then Huainan, step by step.Since Liu Yu is going to uproot him, let Liu Yu do it.

He also said that he was worried that Liu Yu's interest capital would not be enough, so he sent another 50 banknotes.

Liu Yu looked at the words "loyalty can be learned" at the beginning of the secret decree, and he just wanted to laugh.From the emperor's point of view, there is no way to learn from his infidelity. Giving out such a big handle and accepting bribes is tantamount to giving the emperor a handle that can be used at any time, but it cannot be clearly explained at all.

It's just that I have given enough handles. I thought clearly and laid a good foundation. Once the emperor's health showed signs of failing, he would run away immediately.

It's not bad for this one, it's a scapegoat for the emperor, and the emperor will continue to dare to use it during his lifetime.

Closing the secret decree, Liu Yu turned his head and bowed to the Yellow River, thinking that since he had reached this point, he could no longer retreat.

Now it’s time to retreat if you don’t advance. I hope that the water transportation will be abolished, the Huaihe River will be repaired, and the salt tax reform in southern Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu will be completed.

I just hope that the Mother River will take pity on the millions of people, and don’t break the bank within three to five years. Wait until the court’s Kuyin recovers from repairing the Huaihe River, changing water transportation, and relocating water workers.

Otherwise, if there is no money for disaster relief, I don't know how many people will die.And maybe you have to give the emperor a "warning from heaven" and yourself a big hat of "warning of the thieves of the kingdom of heaven".

The crowd didn't know what the emperor's secret decree was written in. They only saw Liu Yu worshiping the Yellow River there after completing the procedure of receiving the decree, and they couldn't understand its meaning for a while.

After a long time, after Liu Yu finished worshiping the Yellow River, walked to the side of the crowd, and pulled the reins, he suddenly breathed out forcefully, as if he had made up his mind.

Turning on the horse, he deliberately used a high-pitched tone, as if trying to wash away the depression just now, and shouted: "Boys, come back to Haizhou with me!"

After all, without waiting for the guards around him and the accompanying boy army, he rushed out at the head of the horse.

Shi Shiyong and others mounted their horses and chased after them.

The smoke and dust along the way rarely stopped, and arrived in Haizhou in a few days.

When they entered Haizhou again, the salt merchants had their own eyes and ears, they only said that Duke Xingguo didn't stay in the salt field for a long time, instead he stayed on the bank of the Yellow River for a few days, he really didn't know what his plan was.

The salt merchants became more and more confused, and couldn't understand why. They said that such a big matter could be understood in Haizhou, Yangzhou, or the salt field.

But what are you doing on the embankment of the Yellow River?
I also heard that the boy army who came with Xing Guogong has dispersed in the past few days, and some people are inquiring about private salt dealers.

What the hell does this mean?
Could it be that the emperor finished building the Huaihe River and wanted to build the embankment of the Yellow River. He felt that the last time he asked for less money in Yangzhou, but he had already asked for it once, and this time it was not easy to ask for money. up?

If you think so, it seems that the explanation makes sense. Otherwise, how could the Boyer Army come to investigate the private salt dealers, but not the official salt corruption?

Zheng Yuji, the general contractor of the salt industry in Haizhou, has not been idle for the past few days, and hastily sent the situation here to Yangzhou.

Huainan and Huaibei, at least in terms of salt, are all prosperous and all waste, no difference between orange and trifoliate.

…………

After receiving the news, Yangzhou was also in chaos a few days later.

Several big general contractors in Huainan put aside their usual infighting and sat together, discussing the intention of the imperial court sending Liu Yu to Huaibei this time.

Just judging from the list of the secret meeting of salt merchants this time, one would feel that this meeting of salt merchants is too magical.

The He family in Tianbao Mansion, the Yan family in Tianbo Mansion, the Zhang family in Xijing, the Ma family in Datong, the Han family in Puzhou, the Wang family, Zou family, Zheng family, and Jiang family in Anhui...

On weekdays, their relationship is not good, quite bad kind of bad.

The struggle between Qin and Jin merchants and Huizhou merchants began in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the merchants on both sides basically did not get married.

Being able to bring Qin, Jin and Hui merchants together to discuss matters shows how serious this matter has become for salt merchants.

Historically, the "dispute over imperial examinations for business registration" in the Ming Dynasty was just a manifestation of the fierce struggle between the two sides, not the beginning of the struggle between the two sides.

Historically, Huizhou merchants won in the end.

But in this era, the two sides are evenly divided, and the winner has not yet been completely determined.

This has nothing to do with Dashun's honorable royal family being from Shaanxi, at least not much.

The main reason is that the starting positions of Manchu and Dashun are different.

In history, the Manchu Qing itself started in Liaodong, conquered Mongolia, and then went south to steal artifacts.

Today's Dashun was pushed to Jingxiang, fought back in Jingxiang, and pushed back to Liaodong step by step.

This makes the difference.

Sweeping caves in Liting in Liaodong and fighting against Mongolia in Northwest China require businessmen to assist in logistics.The opening of China and France in the Ming Dynasty was the pinnacle of the rise of these Qin and Jin merchants and their penetration into the Lianghuai salt industry.

In history, the Manchu Qing fought south, and the north was their old den.

Dashun is going north and needs to go deep into Liaodong and Mongolia.

Historically, the Qing Dynasty did not need the help of salt merchants from the Qin and Jin Dynasties to handle logistics...at least in the first few decades of its founding, it was not very useful, even if it was not on such a large scale.

As for Dashun, if it goes north, it needs the help of the Qin and Jin salt merchants to handle the logistics...at least in the stage of plowing the court and sweeping holes at the beginning of its founding, it is very necessary.

So the butterfly's wings lead to the difference between this time and history.

In history, Huizhou merchants relied on geographical advantages and clan connections. Because the Qin and Jin merchants did not need the logistics of going north in the early Qing Dynasty, the Qin and Jin salt merchants declined.

Now, Huizhou merchants still rely on geographical advantages, clans, connections, and the accumulation of ancestors for more than a hundred years, but they only have a slight advantage over those merchants in Shaanxi and Shanxi, and they cannot be almost "uniform" in history.

The Ming Dynasty needed to guard against the north, especially after the Tumubao. Therefore, in the special "business registration", Qin and Jin merchants produced a total of 14 Jinshi and 37 Juren from the 82th year of Zhengtong to the last year of Chongzhen; From the 14th year of Zhengtong to the last year of Chongzhen, there were 12 Jinshi and 35 Juren.

However, the Manchu and Qing dynasties did not have that much urgency to defend the north, so the number of Jinshi and Juren of Qin and Jin merchants in the Yangzhou area was severely reduced; as a comparison, in Huizhou alone, there were 41 Jinshi and 94 Juren.As for those in other places, if the merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang are counted, then the people from the Qin and Jin merchants will be thrown out.

Similarly, this change in the military environment is very interesting in Dashun: 50 years before the founding of the country, there were many merchants in the Qin and Jin Dynasties who took the imperial examination; but after 50 years after the founding of the country, it gradually decreased; After the complete conquest of Mobei Mongolia in the future, they no longer relied on salt merchants but on leather goods, tea, lending, and soda noodle merchants from Shanxi and Shanxi, and the number was even smaller.

The habits of Huizhou merchants are different from those of Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants. In other words, it is difficult for Shaanxi and Shanxi merchants to adapt to the customs of Jiangnan.

Therefore, it is satirized as: high-soled naan shoes step on the mud, and flat-headed robes are heel-heeled.It is Lao Xi who is full of green onion and pepper gas.

Huizhou merchants like to make friends with literati, known as "Left Confucians and Right Merchants", so they are like ducks in water in the south of the Yangtze River.

If it continues to develop, in fact, after solving the problems of the Western Regions and Rakshasa, Huizhou merchants will sooner or later completely drive away Shanxi and Shanxi merchants.

At this juncture, it seems that the situation is almost evenly matched, but in fact it is Huijin retreating from Shaanxi - don't forget that in the first few decades of Dashun's founding, the northern war continued, and the system of salt merchants assisting logistics has always been useful.So in fact, the merchants in Shanxi and Shanxi have been squeezed to the current evenly matched situation under the great advantage of 50 years.

In fact, this is a defeat.

In fact, many Shaanxi businessmen have already fled to Sichuan: Can't afford to mess with me?If you don't keep me in Lianghuai, I will sell Sichuan salt!

Therefore, the problem of "salt from Sichuan into Chu" in the problem of salt smuggling can also be regarded as the "curve struggle" of Shaanxi businessmen who could not win the frontal battle in Lianghuai and Sichuan.

After sorting out the relationship and contradictions among salt merchants in Yangzhou, and the regional elements of the chamber of commerce in the old era.

It can be intuitively understood that this time the salt merchants in Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Anhui can sit together, what a magical scene.This is an era of old chambers of commerce in Nagasaki, Japan, where the Ningbo, Fuzhou, and Zhangzhou gangs could fight each other to the death because of their regions.

Today, a specter, the specter of the reform of the salt administration, hovers over the Lianghuai River.In order to deal with this ghost, the He family in Tianbao Mansion, the Yan family in Tianbo Mansion, the Zhang family in Xijing, the Ma family in Datong, the Han family in Puzhou, the Wang family, Zou family, Zheng family and Jiang family in Anhui gave up all their lives. The 14-year grievances that began in the 300th year of Ming Dynasty orthodoxy have united.

(End of this chapter)