Red House Shoufu

Chapter 28 Salt Merchant
The Cheng family mentioned by Geng Xiangnankou is the first of the three major salt merchants in Yangzhou.

The head of the family, Cheng Chengyi, is now sixty years old.During the three years of Zhide, the Cheng family exchanged a huge amount of 600,000 taels of salt in exchange for Yanyin Yushifu in Yangzhou.

When Lin Shu was sorting out the account books for Lin Ruhai, he saw the records of the salt tax collected by the Yangzhou Salt Censor Mansion in the third year of Zhide. In just one year, the salt merchants in Yangzhou earned more than 1500 million taels of silver and paid more than 600 million taels of salt tax. It accounts for about [-]% of the national salt class.

The Cheng family, as the largest salt merchant in Yangzhou, committed tax evasion and tax evasion, and the income from the three years of governance has definitely exceeded 2 million taels of silver.

This is only one year's income. It has been nearly a hundred years since Taizu founded the country.The Cheng family moved from Huaixi to Yangzhou in the Taizong Dynasty, in exchange for transporting salt. Over the past few decades, the accumulated wealth was no less than ten million taels.

No wonder people in the world say that Yangzhou salt merchants are the most extravagant merchants in the world, and those with less than one million are called small merchants.

"The Cheng family has great power in Yangzhou. If Geng Qian wants to investigate their family, I'm afraid it will not be that simple."

Lin Shu reminded Geng Xiangnan: "According to the students' knowledge, the three largest salt merchants in Yangzhou, the Cheng family is in charge of Huai, the Liu family is in charge of Gan, and the Su family is in charge of E. In addition to these three, there are nearly a hundred small merchants, large and small, all relying on these three. Born to sell salt. Gengqian, it is estimated that once your people enter Yangzhou, their identities and purposes will be clearly checked by these salt merchants."

Although Jia Lian knew that these salt merchants had great influence, it was the first time he heard that a mere merchant could control a city.

"Cousin, how can a mere salt merchant have such great ability?"

Geng Xiangnan explained: "Jia Town's government doesn't know anything. Salt merchants are different from other merchants. After a hundred years, most of them have their own members in the court. For example, in this Cheng family, Cheng Wenying, the eldest grandson of Cheng Chengyi, was admitted to the government 13 years ago. , and now he has been promoted to the left servant of the Ministry of Punishment."

"It turned out to be him!"

Jia Lian looked at Lin Shu: "This person and my uncle were very dirty when they were in the Imperial Academy. In the first year of Zhide, I wrote a letter to impeach my uncle for changing the salt law for tampering with the ancestral system. Fortunately, your majesty has a bright eye and stays here. In the second year of Zhide, Yangzhou's salt tax was put into the treasury, which was more than 200 million taels of silver compared with previous years."

Geng Xiangnan also interjected: "I also know about this matter. Duke Zhongzheng was rewarded by His Majesty in the second year of Zhide, and the imperial decree was clearly issued. This is also the reason why Duke Zhongzheng's saltworks system can continue."

Geng Xiangnan is a close friend of the emperor's hidden residence. He was sent to Yangzhou in the first year of Zhide to serve as an embroidered clothing guard for thousands of households. It can be said that he was sent by the emperor to monitor Lin Ruhai, the confidant of the Supreme Emperor.

After learning about Lin Ruhai's character from Geng Xiangnan, the emperor had plans to make Lin Ruhai his own.It's a pity that people's calculations are not as good as the sky's calculations, and Lin Ruhai was finally plotted against by his "own people".

Geng Xiangnan continued to tell Jia Lian: "Not only the Cheng family, but also Liu Feng, the second son of the head of the Liu family, is now serving as the magistrate of Jinling Mansion in Jinling. Su Te, the eldest son of Su, is serving as a counselor in the Governor's Mansion of Water Transport. The relatives and children of other big and small salt merchants , From the third-rank to the ninth-rank civil and military officials, there are always no less than a hundred people."

Jia Lian's scalp became numb when he heard this, and he murmured to himself, "No wonder Your Majesty asked me to go around more and stay in the capital. I've never heard of a businessman with such great influence!"

Is the Xue family rich enough?The Royal Merchant Xue’s family had a good year with heavy snow, pearls like earth and gold like iron.

But the highest official position in their family is only a loose official of Ziwei Sheren, and the Cheng family, the eldest grandson has already been appointed as the left servant of the third-rank punishment department.

These officials, big and small, who were from salt merchants, can be said to have woven a huge and practical protection net for their families in the court.

No matter if there is any trouble in the court, they can notify the family in time and prepare for it.

Murdering third-rank officials of the imperial court, robbing official ships, and conspiring with Japanese pirates, these are serious crimes that implicate the nine clans in any family, but they are not afraid at all.

"Jia Town Mansion, these salt merchants not only have official support, but they hook up with Japanese pirates and rob sea ships. Our Dachu inherited the Ming system. Except for Quanzhou and Guangzhou, the major smugglers in the south of the Yangtze River are basically Their people. Think about it, how much money will be put into their pockets every year?"

Geng Xiangnan stretched out his hand to make a five, of course Jia Lian would not think that he said 5 million.

"50 million two?"

"That's right, half of the imperial court's revenue, or even more."

The Embroidered Clothes Guard's combat strength is average, but in terms of intelligence, it is definitely the top existence among the major military guards.

Based on years of collection, Geng Xiangnan has already mastered all kinds of information about the major salt merchants, wealthy merchants, and noble families in the south of the Yangtze River.

He said leisurely: "Not to mention the treasury of the Ministry of Households, even the treasury of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Your Majesty, they are no match for these people's family property. To say that they are rich and powerful is to despise them. Those Japanese pirates are all those people Captive dog."

Jia Lian opened his mouth in shock, he really couldn't believe this, the treasury of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was so poor that even a mouse wouldn't want to enter it, and the emperor's clothes were all half new and not old.

As for the treasury of the household department, in addition to the standing two or three million silver, sometimes disaster relief has to find ways to raise money everywhere.

Oh, by the way, their family is luxurious enough, isn't it because they owe the Ministry of Households some 100,000 taels of silver?Compared with this group of salt merchants, their feelings are nothing.

Geng Xiangnan popularized to Jia Lian the luxury and power of the big salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, and then roughly talked about the information he had collected.

He turned his head to Lin Shu: "Lin Jieyuan, when I come back this time, Jiangnan may be in chaos for a while. The embroidery guards in Jiangnan are short of manpower. If there is nothing wrong, you'd better go to Beijing as soon as possible. Those people jumped the wall in a hurry, afraid It will be against you."

Where can we wait for a while, people have already started.

Lin Shu told Geng Xiangnan about the assassination on Mid-autumn night, and Geng Xiangnan said with embarrassment: "I already know about this, and I am also responsible for this. During the Mid-autumn festival, because of the investigation of Cheng's family, I took care of you to protect you." The number of manpower was reduced a few, which allowed them to take advantage of the loophole."

Lin Shu shook his head and replied: "It was my own carelessness. I was only focused on playing that day and lost my vigilance."

Jia Lian didn't know about this, and watched the conversation between the two suspiciously.Cousin Lin is just a juren, even though he is favored by the emperor, how could there be an embroidered guard by his side to protect him.

Seeing Jia Lian's puzzled expression, Geng Xiangnan explained.

"Lin Jieyuan presented the method of sun-drying salt. The Jiazhen government should know about this, right? Because the Qiongzhou government keeps secrets very strictly, some of those people want to catch Lin Jieyuan to obtain the secret method. The other part is because the method of drying salt is very important to them. Shocked, turned into anger from embarrassment, and wanted to vent his anger on Lin Jieyuan's life."

That's it!

Jia Lian nodded in relief. It seems that Cousin Lin has become a thorn in the side of these scumbags.That being the case, it is better to persuade cousin Lin to follow him to Beijing as soon as possible.At least, as the envoy of the Dragon Guard Township, he can still protect him and his cousin in the capital.

(End of this chapter)