Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1099 Test
Zhang Pu kept silent, held the teacup noncommittally, and just sipped the tea silently, without even looking at the guest.Zhao Yingong felt uneasy again: Could it be that the other party is refusing his request?Suddenly he woke up, this must be the other party trying to test him-in order to show their "unpredictability" and express a kind of pressure, Chinese superiors often like to play this kind of psychological tactics.

The only countermeasure is total disregard, silence for silence.

After a while, Zhang Pu said again: "I heard that Mr. has a bookstore in Hangzhou?"

"That's right, Wanbi Bookstore is the property of the students." Zhao Yingong thought to himself that "Zuo Gu Yan it" was also one of the traditional discourse techniques, so he replied calmly, without arrogance or impetuosity.

"The students heard that the management of Wanbi Shufang is quite successful, and the master is very skillful."

"The ancestors have been doing business for several generations before earning a family business. Even though students are studying, they dare not forget that their ancestors took on the labor of selling in the market." Zhao Yingong stood up and said respectfully.

This attitude made Zhang Pu nod his head. He had heard Sun Chun, Fang Yizhi and other people in Fushe talk about this Master Zhao and his Wanbi Bookstore. I don’t have much knowledge, except that I know a little about “history” in the classics and history sub-collection, it can be said that I know almost nothing. When talking about the history of the Song Dynasty, it is very clear, and the comments on many characters and events are also very in-depth, which seems to be extremely researched, but Speaking of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" and "Song History", most of the original texts are ignorant.But when it comes to "miscellaneous learning" and "gewu", other people are simply ignorant in front of him.When Fang Yizhi mentioned Zhao Yingong in his letter, he cast his eyes on his miscellaneous studies.

All in all, Master Zhao's knowledge is very peculiar, and the origin of his fame as a scholar is self-evident.

What is even more intriguing is that most of the items sold in Mr. Zhao's Wanbi Bookstore are "Australian products".It just so happens that Liu Shidou, who is now the magistrate of Taicang, is from Nanhai County.He was the same year as Zhang Pu, and he was also a member of Fushe.So Zhang Pu knew a lot about the various actions of the "Australians" in Guangdong.

Zhao Yingong is obviously one of the locals in Guangdong who made his fortune by relying on Australians. Zhang Pu had such a judgment at the beginning, and now he firmly believes it.

The question is, why would a person with a strong Australian background want to save Sun Huodong's future?Although Sun Huodong is obsessed with Western learning, he has never heard of any intersections between him and Australians.

He asked: "Sir, if you want to relieve Huodong's calamity, what are you trying to do?"

Zhao Yingong had been prepared for a long time, and immediately drew a cross on his chest.Zhang Pu nodded and said: "It turns out that Master and Sun Huodong are members of the same teaching class!"

He asked again: "Sir, you have the art of Tao Zhu, and you must be proficient in economics."

Zhao Yingong thought that this divergent thinking was really a bit behind, and didn't know what he meant, so he said: "I know a little bit."

"My place in Taicang was originally a corner of Kunshan, Changshu, and Jiading. The terrain is high and the people grow more flowers and less grass. Every year, I have to buy grain from other places to complete the autumn Fu. Not to mention the water transportation. The suffering along the way of grain entering Beijing is that every year after buying grain and paying taxes, there are often profiteers blocking the grain merchants from transporting grain to sell, hoarding it, and selling it for one, two, three, four for a stone of rice. The people are miserable, and often break their homes because of this. What's the answer to that?"

Zhao Yingong was taken aback for a moment: Is this a test of his own economics?He thought for a while and understood a little bit, Zhang Pu was probably ready to agree to his request, but he wanted to see if he had the ability to deserve the other party's help?

It's not surprising that this level of thinking is broken.The phenomenon of cheap specialty products and expensive food is not uncommon to Zhao Yingong. Most of the places where cash crops are mainly planted have similar problems, and Leizhou also has it.However, the situation in Taicang is different from that in Leizhou and other places. Jiangnan was a heavily taxed area in the Ming Dynasty, and the burden of grain and tax was very heavy, especially the transportation of white grain to the north, which was a heavy burden on the local people.

The so-called transportation of white grain to the north refers to the transportation from 24 counties and 1 prefecture in the five prefectures of Suzhou, Changzhou, Songjiang, Jiaxing, and Huzhou in Southern Zhili to the supply warehouse of the capital, Guanglu Temple, the Wine and Vinegar Noodle Bureau, the Zongren Mansion and Baili The tax and grain of the official salary is more than 21 shi every year.Varieties include white-cooked fine rice, white-cooked japonica rice, white-cooked glutinous rice and other high-quality rice varieties. Because they are supplied to Liugong and Baiguan for consumption, the requirements for rice quality are very high. Therefore, the official conversion at that time was very different from ordinary rice. Great disparity.Not only that, the consumption of white grain is the highest among all kinds of taxes and rice.The government annals of the five prefectures and the annals of each county all declared with one voice that those who were discharged from the army with free food would lose their families.After Wanli, it intensified.Because the cost on the road is huge, the head of grain needs to subsidize the expenses himself, and non-rich households cannot do it.Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, this battle has always been a nightmare for local wealthy landlords.

He thought about the information he had read. Historically, Zhang Pu was very concerned about this matter—after all, it was a matter of his own hometown.At that time, the method he proposed was to allocate the grain rice that should be sent to the capital from Taicang to the military rice of Taicangwei and Zhenhaiwei on the spot.In this way, the huge cost of rice transportation in Licao can be avoided.It is a good way to reduce the burden on the common people, and it has certain operability.Zhao Yingong believed that, judging from the method proposed by Zhang Pu, he was still able to grasp the essence of the problem.

From the perspective of the phenomenon alone, in the process of buying grain in Yihua, some people manipulated the grain channels, resulting in a situation where flowers are cheap and food is expensive, which aggravates the burden on the people. It should be solved from the grain circulation channels.But Zhang Pu saw very clearly that the root cause was not in the price of grain, but in the huge loss in the water transportation process-especially white grain.

The transportation of white grain to the north was carried out in the so-called government-supervised and democratic way. The dispatched grain chief hired ships, prepared materials, and transported the grain from the canal to Beijing.Starting from receiving the subsidy for transporting grain in the township, to passing through customs along the way to ask for gates, and finally to entering the warehouse in the capital, there are endless fees to be paid in every link.

A grain chief transported less than five hundred stones of white grain, but the shipping fee for each stone was about three stones in Xuande, and it had risen to three or four stones in Chenghua; it had risen to four or five stones in Zhengde and Jiajing ; By the time of Wanli, five or six stones were common, and some even soared to 8 stones.By the time of Chongzhen, one Feiyin in Liangjie could reach 1500 taels.

In this way, the regular consumption and "expenditure" are added together, and the shipping cost per stone of white grain is several times or even ten times that of Zhengfu.The common people have to prepare a large amount of rice grains in excess of their quota, and the demand for foreign grains has greatly increased, which has exacerbated the further rise in grain prices in Li.

Only by trying to eliminate this excess "loss" can the burden on the people be truly reduced.Zhao Yingong thought that this was the simplest and most effective method under the existing system in terms of Zhang Pu's era.

But Zhao Yingong knew that this highly operable approach was ultimately opposed by the water transportation and failed. Not only that, but Liu Guangshi, the magistrate of the state, was also demoted and transferred.

At the end of the dynasty, vested interest groups will stubbornly insist on their own interests, and any slight improvement cannot be implemented.Ultimately, it creates a situation that is difficult to return to.Compared with the water transportation organization in the Qing Dynasty—the water transportation in the Qing Dynasty was also corrupt, inefficient, and seriously wasteful, but it was finally changed to Liguan Duiguanyun, which liberated the people in the south of the Yangtze River who suffered from water grain transportation to Beijing under the rule of the Ming Dynasty. Compared with Daming's water transportation, it is much better.

During Zhao Yingong's one-year stay in Hangzhou, in addition to running the bishu workshop, another thing he did was extensively investigate the people's livelihood and economy in the south of the Yangtze River.He especially noticed the well-developed civilian shipping industry in the south of the Yangtze River: not only the shipping industry in the inland rivers has already reached a large scale, but also in the coastal routes of the outer sea, the shipping industry in the south of the Yangtze River is also very developed, especially in Shanghai County and other places. There have been large-scale shipping owners in China.These shippers are sitting on a dozen or even hundreds of sand ships, and they go north to Shandong, Tianjin and even Liaodong to transport goods from north to south.Of course, these shipping owners are still relatively rudimentary: most of them are cargo owners themselves, and they didn’t just use shipping as a career later, but they also acted as freight forwarders while taking into account their own needs.The famous Shachuan gang in Shanghai County in the Qing Dynasty developed on this basis.

In Zhao Yingong's view, the Ming Dynasty could completely change water transport to sea transport, which not only saved a huge amount of water transport costs, directly reduced the burden on the people, but also avoided the huge administrative costs of maintaining water transport.In terms of comprehensive rate of return, it is far more cost-effective than cutting post stations.

He has been planning to set up a shipping company to carry out north-south freight.Dayou’s semicolon in Shanhai Wulu in Shanghai is renting local sandships for North-South cargo trade, which is very profitable. If you set up a shipping company yourself, with the excellent performance of the H800 built by Lingao, the profit is still high. Not rolling in.

If he could carry the water transportation of Daming, Zhao Yingong would laugh out loud in his dreams.This profit!

Of course, it is impossible to do big business in Daming without the support of the gentry.He had been planning for Xu Guangqi's family, but now that Zhang Pu was asking about it, he suddenly felt that the opportunity had come.

If both Zhang Pu and Fushe are aware of the benefits of changing water transportation to sea transportation, then their own plan to undertake water transportation has a great possibility of success.

Zhao Yingong said slowly: "Students think: flowers are cheap and food is expensive is just a minor ailment, but the serious illness is above water transportation!"

For a moment, he saw an expression of appreciation in Zhang Pu's eyes.This is not only because of his unique views, but also because of the appetite of the other party.

Zhao Yingong thought to himself: Ashamed!Open the cheater again!

He immediately straightened out his thoughts and began to talk eloquently, starting with the water transportation issue of Daming, and then talking about the various bad rules and demands of Bailiang. Seeing that Zhang Pu listened carefully, he gradually turned his attention to the water transportation system.

Because he is always ready to "stop water transport to the sea", he has a lot of dry goods about the disadvantages of water transport in his stomach-all black materials-and now he throws them out one by one, and he has blackened Daming's water transport to the point of being useless and misleading the country and the people.

(End of this chapter)