Daming: The most ruthless tyrant in history

Chapter 1047: Emergency in the Southeast (6)

The southeastern provinces are now in such a complicated situation. Under the general environment of strengthening maritime trade, there are regional trials of policies such as salt reform, grain transport regulation, and official administration rectification. In addition, there is competition and game among various groups, especially the struggle between the old and new groups, which is destined to make the southeastern provinces unstable.

This is particularly evident in two places.

That is, Songjiang and Xin'an.

As a special existence of a directly-administered central government, with the Zhili Tianjin Prefecture as the pioneer, the jurisdictions of Songjiang and Xin'an have increased significantly in the past.

Affected by the previous turmoil in the southeast, a large number of bankrupt and disaster-stricken groups were consciously transferred to Songjiang and Xin'an to develop around intensive handicraft manufacturing. This made the actual situation in the above two places different from many places in the Ming Dynasty.

Especially Songjiang Prefecture in Zhili.

Influenced by the Thirteen Hongs in Tianjin's monopoly on the sale of silk, tea, porcelain and other goods, groups of sea merchants went north to Tianjin to purchase the goods they needed. On this long maritime trade line, Songjiang's superior geographical location led to a large number of sea merchants stopping along the way.

Gradually, this also made Songjiang's maritime trade increasingly prosperous.

And all this was planned by Zhu Youxiao.

After all, if you want to build a number of highly representative maritime ports from scratch, you must take some means and measures.

The monopoly rights of silk, tea, porcelain and other products were granted to the Thirteen Hongs, who had to pay corresponding amounts of money each year and receive corresponding dividends. The Thirteen Hongs were then established in Tianjin.

Could it be that Zhu Youxiao couldn't see how troublesome this was?
Can't you see that this will lead some people to take risks and engage in maritime smuggling?

However, in order to stimulate the development of maritime trade in the north, to accelerate the development of Songjiang, Xin'an and other places, to stimulate the continued expansion of the navy and coast guard system, and to build a unified customs system in the north and the south, Zhu Youxiao could only choose to turn a blind eye and intervene and influence with the established policies.

"My Lord, the public security in Songjiang City has not improved recently, despite the intervention of the police station and patrol camp."

Songjiang Prefecture Government Office, Zhili Province.

The Songjiang Tongzhi, who was in charge of public security, explained the situation with a serious expression, "Even in the area near the junction of Suzhou and Hangzhou, the number of bandits has begun to increase. According to my thorough investigation, some people are deliberately fanning the flames in secret."

"This matter cannot be underestimated."

“This is because some people can’t sit still.”

After hearing this, Yan Yingyuan frowned and said, "It seems that it is just as your majesty said. The company to be established in Songjiang will stimulate some people by selling stocks to the outside world."

"I thought earlier that only the Western Yi sea merchants were affected, but now it seems that things are not that simple. I am afraid that some groups have participated in this in the past."

"Master, what should we do next?"

After hearing this, the man stepped forward and asked, "Do you want the Songjiang Garrison to intervene in this matter?"

"It is not the time yet."

Yan Yingyuan waved his hand and said, "Since some people can't sit still, I have to take a closer look to see who is involved."

"Let's not make this public for now and continue to investigate secretly." "Since the Nanyang has calmed down, the number of Western merchants traveling to Songjiang has been increasing, and there are even many missionaries among them."

"These Western barbarians are so enthusiastic about our dynasty, it must be more than just maritime trade. Now I am worried that some people in the southeast region are planning something."

Yan Yingyuan's words made the man's expression serious.

As time went by, the main area of ​​Songjiang Prefecture in Zhili was constructed, which caused the land prices in Songjiang Prefecture to increase exponentially.

Although the public has criticized the new site of Songjiang Prefecture more than once for not building city walls to enhance city defense security, the increase in land prices in Songjiang speaks for itself.

Especially last year, several iron bridges were officially completed, strengthening the connection between various places under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture in Zhili, and this trend became more and more obvious.

Even after that, the fame of Songjiang Prefecture in Zhili was about to overshadow that of Tianjin Prefecture in Zhili, which also caused a lot of public opinion.

For example, the Thirteen Factories in Tianjin were moved to Songjiang.

For example, silk, tea, porcelain and other items were arbitrarily moved to Songjiang.

such as……

In short, the Zhili Songjiang Prefecture has turned from being criticized and condemned when it was first established to being praised and pursued.

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Yan Yingyuan, as the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture in Zhili, did not lose himself because of this. On the contrary, he became deeply worried because he keenly realized that there seemed to be many invisible hands in Songjiang Prefecture who wanted to push something.

"The bandit forces in the southeastern provinces are becoming increasingly severe, and there are slave rebellions from time to time. If we don't find a way to solve this, there will be big problems in the future."

After the man left, Yan Yingyuan looked at the internal reference in front of him, and his expression became serious. "Affected by these, the grain prices in Nanzhili, Songjiang, and Zhejiang, which had been suppressed in the past, have begun to rise. This is not a good phenomenon."

The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.

As the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture in Zhili Province appointed by Zhu Youxiao, Yan Yingyuan shouldered heavy responsibilities and burdens. Over the past two years, with the development of Songjiang Prefecture in Zhili Province, its influence on surrounding areas has continued to increase.

For example, food prices.

Due to the completion of Songjiang Port and the preparation for the construction of Songjiang Customs, a large number of people heading north can trade part of the grain they transport in Songjiang in exchange for tax reduction certificates issued by Songjiang Customs and priority purchase of the certificates. Perhaps this means that they cannot make any profit on grain and may even have to lose part of it.

However, they were able to purchase other goods, such as cotton cloth, wood, etc. and transport them to Tianjin. With the several certificates obtained in exchange, they could reduce the customs duties paid and could also purchase silk, tea, porcelain and other items first, which enabled the sea merchants to earn a lot of gold and silver.

But in this context, grain prices in areas headed by Songjiang Prefecture not only no longer remained low, but on the contrary showed a slight upward trend. It was hard not to make Yan Yingyuan alert.

The opportunity that triggered all this was the arrest of a group led by Qian Qianyi, which led to a fundamental change in the political structure at the core level of the Ming Dynasty.

Having been in this position for a long time, Yan Yingyuan knew more or less some secrets, so he knew clearly that some vested interest groups were dissatisfied with the occurrence of some changes that caused their interests to be damaged, so they launched such a counterattack.

However, in Yan Yingyuan's opinion, this is simply unreasonable. It is not easy for Southeast China to maintain its current stability, but now someone wants to shake it up! !

(End of this chapter)