Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 679 Trading
late may.

Zhang Ji, the new Shanxi chief envoy, disguised himself as a caravan accountant, and followed a horse team out of Jingxing, Taihang, and arrived in front of Zhending City on the north bank of the Hutuo River.

Standing in front of the city gate and waiting in line for inspection to enter the city, Zhang Ji looked at the city.

Some of the walls of this city are said to have a long history as far back as the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and those stones have a very long history, with a history of more than 1000 years.In the Tang Dynasty, the Hutuo River overflowed to irrigate the city, and the city was expanded after the water receded.During the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, a major expansion was carried out. After the expansion, the circumference was 24 miles, the height was three feet two, and the upper width was two feet.

During the Longqing period, the expanded earthen city was changed to a brick city, which cost more than [-] treasury silver and recruited countless real civilians. It took five years to complete the project.

The built four gates all have the moon city and the urn city.

The new city played an important role in flood prevention and military defense.

However, after the Qing army entered the pass, Hebei was almost determined by the rumors. After the Qing army occupied it, Zhending City was changed to Zhengding City.But at this time, on the Zhenyuan Gate of Xichengmen, the Great Sun and Moon Flag was flying again, and the Ming army in red uniforms guarded the city gate with armor and spears.

There are also special tax collectors at the gate of the city, collecting lijin, industrial and commercial taxes, etc.

When goods enter the city, they must be inspected.

The team entering the city is divided into two rows. The first row is the people who don’t bring anything. They go to the left, and they can quickly enter the city after a simple inspection. Check carefully, and even charge taxes and bills for commodity pricing.

Because the process is slow, the queue is long.

Zhang Ji was not in a hurry, and looked around patiently.

Zhending City is both a prefectural government and a county government, and it happens to be at the entrance of Jingxing, one of the Eight Great Xings, which is connected to Shanxi, especially adjacent to the important town of Taiyuan, so this place is relatively prosperous.

After the Ming army occupied the city, not only did it not become depressed, but it became more prosperous and lively.

The queue is very long, and there are shrewd vendors who come to set up stalls, some set up tea sheds on the side of the road to sell tea, and some sell steamed buns and steamed cakes. There is even a storyteller there to tell stories, whether it is the Three Kingdoms or not Others are actually things that have been decided in recent years.

"It is said that in March of the 17th year of Chongzhen, the intruder Li Zicheng led the intruder army all the way into Beijing City, and the other intruder army was led by the intruder general Liu Fangliang. Hui, Zhangde, and then north to Zhending.

Let's say that Liu Fangliang was also a mighty general under Li Zicheng's command. He went east from Guguan to the city of Zhending, and sent envoys to the governor of Zhending, Xu Biao, to send a letter of persuasion.

But Governor Xu tore up the letter of persuasion and beheaded Thief Liu with his sword.

At that time, Governor Xu was determined to stick to Zhending City with the determination to die, but Qiu Maohua, the prefect of Zhending, was greedy for life and afraid of death, and wanted to run away. camp found.

Xu Futai ordered him to be captured and put in death row. After repelling the bandit army, he was escorted to the capital.

But in the middle of the night, the Zhending defenders mutinied. They tied up the governor, opened the prison, and invited Qiu Maohua out.As soon as Qiu Maohua was released from prison, he immediately announced the surrender of the prefectures and counties to which he belonged.Chen Fangliang still couldn't believe it. He only rode into the city to inspect it, and took over the place of residence. It was a pity that he won this place in Jifu, Sanguanxiong Town, three hundred miles away from the capital, without any effort.

Liu Fangliang began to lead the army into the city and asked Xu Futai to come out to persuade him with good words, but Xu Futai scolded the thieves loudly, and was eventually killed unyielding.Chen Sanjie, a guerrilla in the Zhendinghuo attack camp, saw that the general situation was over, but he was still afraid of surrendering to the bandits. He left a poem of death, and hanged himself to death.

This poem is written like this, God knows the ambition in my life, but now things are not the same, I will die to reward the army through the ages, the world will not laugh at me as an idiot! "

"But the world is impermanent. The intruder Li Zicheng entered Beijing, but he was defeated in Shanhaiguan in a short time. The traitor Wu Sangui became angry and became a beauty. He attracted the regent of the Tartars, Dorgon, and took Beijing in one fell swoop. Li Zicheng was in a state of panic. The bereaved dog went south in panic.

Li Zicheng encountered a fierce battle with the Qing army in Dingzhou and was defeated and retreated south. He fought again in Zhending and was also defeated.

He was also wounded by an arrow in the battle of Zhending, so he had to leave Guguan via Jingxing to withdraw from Zhili, enter Shanxi, and return to Xi'an.

Wu Sangui was the vanguard, leading the Qing general Tan Tai and Li Yutian, the Liao governor, to join forces in pursuit. "

Some people applauded loudly, and some even bought tea and sent cakes. The gentleman smiled and handed over, and many people directly offered money.

A boy next to the storyteller came up to him with a gong and begged for a reward.

Zhang Ji smiled, took out a dragon silver and put it on the plate.

"That's right. I don't know what your husband's name is. How did you say this paragraph so clearly?"

"My husband's surname is Bian. He used to be the master of Bian Dashou, the magistrate of Mizhi County. Because in the 15th year of Chongzhen, the Governor of Shaanxi Wang Qiaonian ordered Bian Dashou to dig up Li Zicheng's ancestral tomb. Bian Dashou resigned and returned to Hebei in fear of revenge. In Renqiu's hometown, the intruders later attacked Beijing, and he was captured, along with my husband. He was forced to follow the intruders all the way from Beijing to Shanxi via Zhending, and then fled to Shaanxi. .

My husband also came back from Guanzhong with great difficulty, and he didn’t have any pockets on him, so he collected some pocketbooks along the way. Everyone likes to hear stories about burglars, so the husband used his previous experience to talk about it. "

Bian Dashou was in Dangzhi County, Li Zicheng’s hometown. He was ordered to dig up the graves of Li Zicheng’s grandfather and father, and burned them down. Afraid of retaliation afterwards, he resigned and ran back to his hometown of Hebei. Who knew that Li Zicheng would soon be beaten to Beijing, and Bian was also broken into. The army searched and captured him, but Li Zicheng was quickly defeated.

He was forced to follow all the way to the west. Along the way, he witnessed how the Chuang army was disorganized and disorganized. Overtook and defeated the Chuang army, and Bian Dashou was rescued.

Because he used to be the magistrate of the Ming Dynasty and dug Li Zicheng's ancestral grave, Wu Sangui, who pretended to avenge Chongzhen, was very polite to him and recommended him to the Qing court.

After experiencing the military chaos, Bian also sang praises to the Tartars, so he was awarded the magistrate of Xiuwu County in Henan Province, and was promoted to the magistrate of Taiyuan not long ago.

When Bian Dashou was an official, he also used his spare time to write a book about his experience of escaping from the army, which was published and sold. Years of experience, especially how to escape later, is still very popular.

Zhang Ji used to be Shanxi Liangdao, and now he is the chief envoy. Of course, he recognizes Bian Dashou, the prefect of Taiyuan. He is also a greedy, timid and flattering person. It's even considered a good relationship.

He could guess at a glance that the storyteller in front of him must not be the master of Bian Dashou's tribe, otherwise, even if he didn't escape with him at the beginning, but he escaped from Shaanxi and passed by Taiyuan, so it would be good to go directly to Bian Dashou .

Undoubtedly, this is a rivers and lakes storyteller in the name of Bian Dashou's family, and what he tells is actually the content of Bian Dashou's "Story of Survival in a Tiger's Mouth".

The eloquence is good, so everyone is very happy to hear it.

Zhang Ji felt that although this guy might be a charlatan, he was quite satisfied with his eloquence, so he actually rewarded him with one silver dollar and called him over, asking him if he would like to work with him, and offered him a monthly salary of ten silver dollars. The man immediately took over the stall happily and called him his boss.

After queuing up to enter the city, Zhang Ji was not in a hurry to meet Tu Guobao and the others, but wandered around, looking here and there, looking at the Ming army guarding the city, watching the patrolling soldiers, and looking at the goods, prices, and even the people in the shops in the city. look.

After wandering around for a long time, I went to visit the yamen.

At the door, the newly-accepted teacher directly asked the new master to bring eight-color snacks, etc., and gave a 20 yuan silver dollar door bag.

Seeing that he was on the road like this, the gatekeeper was also full of smiles and was very enthusiastic.

When Zhang Ji took out a name sticker, he immediately went in to report and jumped in line for him.

Money can turn ghosts around. Zhang Ji is very clear about how to give gifts.

When Tu Guobao and Ma Guozhu saw Zhang Ji, they were a little surprised.

"Zhang Daotai is abandoning the darkness and turning to the light, so he returned anyway?" Tu Guobao joked.

Zhang Ji was dressed in businessman's clothes, but he was very calm. He smiled and said, "To tell you the truth, I just got the order from Beijing and was promoted to be the chief envoy of Shanxi. No, the first thing I did when I took office was to pay a special visit. Two old friends." As he spoke, he took out the formal gift he had prepared.

The gift priced at 8000 taels of silver included gold and emerald.

Seeing this, even Tu Guobao was a little stunned.

"Congratulations then, I thought something happened to brother Zhang, and he ran away to vote for brother."

Zhang Ji gave a gift and also explained his identity, and then the three of them pushed away others, and the three of them sat together and chatted secretly for a whole half a day.

We talked a lot.

Zhang Ji took the initiative to come to the secret meeting and gave another 8000 taels of silver as a gift. Of course he didn't come to pay protection fees, he came to discuss business.

He has now been promoted to be the chief envoy of Shanxi, Shi Tingzhu is the governor, the ancestral brothers are the commander-in-chief, and the two sons of Jierhalang are in charge of Shanxi. Hurry up and seek more benefits for yourself, and get more money.

Zhang Ji took the initiative to propose that he hoped that Tu Guobao could send troops to take down Guguan and Niangziguan, and control this important smuggling line. He was worried that Jierhalang's two young sons would come and destroy their painstakingly managed project. This smuggling channel.

It's better to let Tu Guobao and the others control it first, so that future transactions will be safer.

Zhang Ji also proposed to expand the amount of smuggling. They need salt and grain, and they need a large amount. Zhang Ji has successfully established a grain smuggling line directly to Beijing before, secretly importing a large amount of grain into Beijing's underground grain market, and the profits are extremely high. .

"What to trade for?"

"As usual, we use livestock, cattle, horses and camels on the grassland, and even medicinal materials such as ginseng and fur tendons."

"not enough."

Zhang Ji said directly, "We have gold and silver to make up for what is not enough. Now the Eight Banners in Beijing and Gyeonggi are not short of gold or silver, but they are short of salt and grain."

Tu Guobao pondered for a moment.

"Yes, but the previous price is not good. It has to be re-set. The price of grain and salt has to be raised, while the price of livestock and fur has to be lowered."

Zhang Ji was not dissatisfied with the plundering of Tu Guobao, but he just smiled and said, "The price is easy to talk about. Now the important thing is the quantity. The quantity must be increased, which must be several times the previous one. As long as the quantity is up, the price is easy to talk about. "

Beijing now has more than ten taels of grain, and the same is true for salt.

So as long as you can get salt and food, the benefits will be too great. Before the Tartars move their capital, hurry up and make a few more votes. If it is too late, you will lose this opportunity.

Of course, in addition to cooperation in smuggling, Zhang Ji also has a request. He can help the Ming army get the two major passes of Jingxing and Niangziguan, but I hope that the Tuguo Bao Guozhu will also agree to him. Don't send soldiers across the border into Shanxi again.

His reason is that if the Ming army does not enter Shanxi in a large scale, everyone's business can continue to do well, and once they threaten Taiyuan, or even attempt to seek Shanxi, they may attract the attention of the Qing army and even Fight back, and the deal will be very dangerous at that time.

Tu Guobao thought for a while and nodded in agreement.

At this time, Ma Guozhu, the governor of Zhili, put forward an additional condition.

"Continuing private trade is okay, but there is one more thing to add. In the future, we will control Jingxingu Pass and Niangzi Pass. When goods from Shanxi pass in and out of the pass, you have to follow my celestial system, pay customs duties and travel allowances, and buy from us. For salt and grain, you have to pay extra salt tax, grain also has to pay special tax, and other tobacco, wine, tea, sugar, etc. also have to pay tax. The livestock you sell have to pay livestock tax, and the fur has to pay fur tax. The tax rates are all set by the court. Collect and pay."

Zhang Ji froze there with his mouth open, unable to speak for a long time.

Everyone is cooperating in private, and what they are doing is smuggling.

Pay taxes now?

Repay tariffs, line rates, special taxes or even special taxes?
Did you make a mistake!
But Ma Guozhu picked up the teapot and poured him a cup of tea, and then said unhurriedly, "We also know that Mr. Zhang is just a representative from the other side of the mountain. Don't worry, we won't make things difficult for you. The taxes are all paid according to the regulations." , there will be no surcharges, etc. In addition, we will give [-]% of these taxes to thank Mr. Zhang."

Zhang Ji not only has a deep research on gift giving, but also has a deep research on how to make money, but today he has to admit that this Ma Guozhu is worthy of being a senior. He was able to be the governor of Shanxi when the Qing army entered the customs. Governor Xuanda, who later worshiped the governors of the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, his brains are really not comparable to his own.

Smuggling has to be taxed, he is a talent.

But facing the [-]% kickback, Zhang Ji remained silent.

It's all about making money.

The money earned from the smuggling business did not belong to him alone, it belonged to the group of people in Shanxi, but the [-]% rebate of the smuggling tax was undoubtedly his own.

Seeing that Zhang Ji finally agreed to pay the tax, Ma Guozhu looked as if he had expected it a long time ago.

At this time, Tu Guobao refilled him with tea, "Recently, His Majesty has transferred many troops from Henan and Shandong, and put them under the command of our brothers. We will be the vanguard to attack Beijing. Now all the soldiers and horses are gathered in Hebei, and we are deploying along the Hutuo River." , Over [-] soldiers and horses.

However, many of the brother troops are native villages or rebels in the Central Plains, and their equipment is poor, especially those lacking armor and bows and arrows. Can Master Zhang help us get some armor, bows and arrows?You set the price, as long as it is not too much, we want as much as we want, and we can exchange it with salt and grain.

Of course, we are willing to give Mr. Zhang another [-]% rebate after the matter is completed. "

"Except for armor, bows and arrows, as long as it is military ordnance, whether it is swords, guns, swords, shields, shotguns, artillery, lead, gunpowder, etc., there is no limit to all of them. No matter how much you want, no matter how much you trade, you will be given a [-]% rebate according to the price. This rebate is gold. It’s fine, silver is also fine, and it’s fine to replace it with grain and salt.”

Zhang Ji couldn't help swallowing, the temptation was too great.

Although he also knew that smuggling involving weapons, war horses, etc. was not easy, and the [-]% kickback would be more than half at that time, but it was undoubtedly another source of income.

"I'll go back and try it out, the two of you are waiting for my reply."

(End of this chapter)