Fenghou

Chapter 1069 Shopping
Two days later, the inner guards caught Wang Kuang's second son, Wang Huaiyi, on the river. According to his and Hu Gong's confessions, the evidence of Wang Kuang's participation in the smuggling of salt, the governor of Yuezhou, was convincing. The governor of Yuezhou, together with other criminals, was sent to Jiangling County for detention.

At this time, more than [-] main forces of Zhonghuan returned again, and began to carry out a comprehensive suppression of illegal salt in Jiangling Prefecture, Yuezhou, Lizhou, Dingzhou, Ezhou and other four prefectures, arresting [-] private salt dealers. There were seventy-five shops selling private salt, and the private possessions of Wang Kuang and Hu Gong alone were worth nearly [-] guan, and more than [-] guan were confiscated from other salt dealers and salt shops.

Why is the wealth of private salt seized in the five northern states far inferior to that of Zhang Tai?This is mainly a matter of time and scope. Officials have been involved in salt smuggling for a short period of time, only three years, and the scope is limited to one prefecture and four states.

Prior to this, it was occupied by Zhang Tai's private salt, and it was later squeezed out of the north by Zhang Jun's private salt forces.

Zhang Tai is different. He has been selling private salt for twenty years, occupying the entire Jiangnan West Road market, and later entered Jingnan South Road. Even before Zhang Jun raised his army with salt, the Jingxiang area was also Zhang Tai's territory.

Although he did not make much money, the severe punishment he received was the same. All salt dealers, including Wang Huaiyi, ransacked and killed all the salt shop owners, and the officials who participated in the illegal salt sale were also killed. Hu Gong, they need to be escorted to Jingzhao, but they can't escape death. Although Lu Jing is one of the main culprits, he has made meritorious prosecution and escaped the fate of being ransacked. Lu Jing was killed and his family property was confiscated, but The family survived.

Afterwards, Chen Qing returned the three chief executives and several subordinates to Zhang Jun, but they were publicly executed by Zhang Jun for the crime of selling private salt. Zhang Jun denied that he was selling private salt. If they are found out, they will be punished severely. How could the dignified Huaixi Xuanfu envoy sell illegal salt?
The extermination of private salt was over, and when Zhang Tai’s wealth was transported to Jingzhao, the imperial court made a one-time profit of [-] million guan, and the annual salt tax increased by [-] million guan. The balance of payments was finally balanced.

This time the hero is undoubtedly Chong Huan. Chen Qing specially signed the order of King Yong to promote Chong Huan to the commander, Deng Jinshan to the command envoy, and the rest of the generals above the head of the capital were all promoted to a rank. Horses, reward this army for its meritorious service in inspecting private salt.

Time flies to mid-November, the first heavy snowfall of this year, Jingzhao City has become heavily makeup, every household is covered in heavy snow, on the streets, tens of thousands of troops use shovels to remove snow, tens of thousands of people also walked out of their homes , Cooperate with the army to remove snow.

There should be no snow on the street, otherwise pedestrians and carts will turn into a piece of mud after passing by. Once it freezes, it will be difficult for everyone to move, so the snow must be removed in time.

After entering the winter, the demand for cold protection and warmth has increased sharply. The transactions on the Jingzhao Market are extremely hot. Of course, not only Jingzhao, but also the entire Shaanxi Road, Hedong Road, Sichuan Road, Henan Road, Lingxia Road, Xihe Road, and Jingnan South Road. Tens of millions of people in the road, Hexi area, etc. have the need for cold protection.

It’s just that Jingzhao is a trading center. Merchants from all over the country came to buy goods, and the demand for silver soared. The Finance and Taxation Department of Prince Yong’s Mansion once offered a million taels of silver to the merchants for exchange the year before, but they were all exchanged within three days. All of the silver was collected and not circulated in the market.

Forced the Department of Finance and Taxation to implement bills, which were promoted by Sichuan-Shaanxi No. [-] Cabinet and Baoji Cabinet. This kind of bill is actually very effective, such as saving money in Taiyuan and withdrawing money from Jingzhao, or depositing money in Chengdu and withdrawing money from Jingzhao; The business of depositing and withdrawing money in different places became relatively mature during the Tianbao period of the mid-Tang Dynasty, and it was called Feiqian at that time.

After depositing [-] coins in Taiyuan Sichuan-Shanxi No. [-] Cabinet Shop, merchants can bring a batch of Taiyuan specialties to Jingzhao. Go to Jingzhao.

When the businessman arrives in Jingzhao, he first confirms that he can withdraw money, then sells the goods, buys a batch of warm sheepskin or cashmere, and then withdraws money from Jingzhao's Sichuan-Shaanxi No. [-] cabinet for payment.

This is very convenient, and it can also transport an additional batch of goods and do more business.

As for the banknote meeting, Chen Qing didn't want to implement it for the time being, as it could easily be imitated by Jin Guo or the court.

In the morning, Chen Qing took an ordinary carriage to Dongda Street. Unlike Bianliang in the Northern Song Dynasty, there were many carriages on Jingzhao Street, and they were basically old horses. They were docile, easy to control, and fast. Jingzhao, where the streets are wider, is used, and the rich families basically have a carriage, most of which are drawn by two horses.

There are also many horse-drawn carriages, which are basically rented carriages. They run on the street and stop whenever they are called. The carriages are spacious and much more comfortable than slow-moving ox carts. A large number of old war horses were eliminated, of course, Jingzhao City was given priority to supply, so that Jingzhao City had many horse-drawn carriages.

Chen Qing's carriage stopped in front of a big shop specializing in all kinds of filling and heating materials. This big shop is a government-run shop and belongs to the Commerce and Trade Department under the Left Secretary of Government Affairs.

The name of this store is Junuange, and the brand is still inscribed by Chen Qing. There is a bronze plaque next to it, with the words 'Official Store' written on it, and on the left it says that it specializes in all kinds of fur, cotton and linen.

Chen Qing walked into the lobby and found that there were quite a lot of customers, all of whom were carefully selecting the goods. There were four rows of long tables in the lobby, and the tables were all covered with small baskets. The baskets contained various samples, and the furnishings of large stores were basically like this. The format is mainly based on samples.

The four rows of tables are divided into categories, such as wool, which contains various wool, cashmere, camel hair, etc., with different grades and different prices. There are more than [-] kinds of this item alone.

Then there is poultry down, mainly duck down and goose down. Some poor people use feathers to dry as bedding and pillow fillings, which are very low-end items and will not be sold in this store.

The third row is fur, all kinds of fur, sheepskin, deerskin, rabbit skin, fox fur, among which sheepskin is the most, and there are more than a dozen types of sheepskin alone.

The fourth and fifth rows are plant fillers. There are many types, mainly fine linen, multi-layer fine linen, which is currently the most used by civilians. Common people will buy multi-layer fine linen when making winter clothes at home, and then close them. It is tightly sewn inside the underwear, and four or five pieces of clothes are put on outside, which looks very bloated. Poor people spend the winter like this, and they wear all the clothes they can wear to keep warm.

The best sellers are sheepskin and cashmere, and the long table here is crowded with merchants.

At this time, the shopkeeper quietly came to Chen Qing's side, "Your Highness, please go inside to talk!"

Chen Qing smiled, and followed the shopkeeper to the inner room. When he reached the innermost row of tables, Chen Qing stopped again. He saw the cotton, wood cotton and straw cotton in the basket.

He went forward and twirled grass cotton, which was short-staple cotton and could not be spun into cloth. It was the best stuffing material for bedding and cotton clothes, but he wanted to plant a large amount of long-staple cotton in Lingxia Road and Hexi Corridor. Where does the linter come from?

Chen Qing frowned slightly, and asked the shopkeeper, "Where does this grass cotton come from?"

"It was produced in Liangzhou, and [-] catties were shipped in. It seems that the seeds used for planting are wrong, so this batch will be replaced next year."

Hearing this news, Chen Qing felt annoyed. Needless to say, this was a major liability accident. The wrong seeds were actually used, and they were not reported.

It's not that mistakes are not allowed, the key is to conceal this, which makes Chen Qing very dissatisfied.

(End of this chapter)