Brocade clothing as the country

Chapter 253 Night Detective
There is no difference between the Haihe River and the canal at night. There are also times when ships need to be unloaded on the canal at night. The ships and berths are connected by pedals. There were people counting on the abacus, and some people went to add some firewood to the fires on both sides after a while.

Those shipowners and merchants are more relaxed. There are also special sheds nearby, where they sit and chat and watch, waiting for the delivery.

After Huang San drove the carriage into this area, many of the people who came and went were familiar with him, everyone greeted with a smile, and some people deliberately opened the food box lightly, which caused a burst of laughter.

Wang Tong and the others walked beside the carriage with their heads bowed, and no one paid attention. Compared with the canal pier, the space here is slightly larger, and the road is wider. Wang Tong subconsciously wanted to see the city in the distance. But it was blocked by the blackness, and he couldn't help but froze.

This is because he seldom comes here, let alone a local aborigine. He didn't react when he saw the blackness. There are no hills and mountains here.

Those blocking the line of sight should be the granary Datun on the south side of the city, and the canal can not always reach the destination. The needs of several prefectures in Zhili are huge, so there are naturally many granaries and the scale is also large.

In various parts of Tianjin Wei, on both sides of the canal, there are granaries and military settlements everywhere. This is also a feature of Tianjin City at present. The wind and rain are favorable, and the amount of grain shipped in is much more than in previous years, so new granaries need to be built.

For Wang Tong, who is not familiar with the surrounding terrain, in his mind, these places have never been connected together, and he finally understood it tonight.

Not long after they arrived at the place where the food and wine were ordered, Huang San nervously called everyone to move the food boxes and wine jars out of the car and sent them to a tea shed.

Although it is a small tea shed, the lantern inside is actually a wooden frame lamp covered with organdy, and it seems that there are sandalwood burning, in order to resist the usual smell of the beach.

The tables, chairs, benches and stools are all well-crafted and well-made furniture, not to mention that the teapots and cups and saucers are all high-quality fine porcelain. Several men of different ages sit around the table, chatting and laughing, sitting in front of and behind the tea shed. There are strong men with weapons guarding the left and right.
The people sitting at the table were all dressed in silk and satin, but the style was short shirts. Their accents were extremely weird, and they didn't sound like northern mandarin.

Putting down the food box and wine jar, someone who looked like a follower came over and gave money. In addition, each person had a reward of one or two taels of silver. This one or two taels of silver was enough to hold a banquet in Tianjin. Generous, but Wang Tong paused before remembering to thank you attentively.

After all, he had a different status, so he would not be grateful for such a reward. Similarly, the group of people led by Wang Tong reacted slower than him.

The guy who led them, Huang San, broke out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, the people in the tea shed didn't care about this little thing. After leaving the tea shed, there were still some food such as wine, meat, noodles, etc. in the car, and they were carried down for the guards outside to eat. use.

Under Wang Tong's low-pitched instructions, Huang San deliberately walked around the road, looking at the situation on the pier as much as possible. There were already people coming and going, and everyone felt that they were doing something upright. But the need to conceal it from the outside world, Wang Tong and the others have seen a lot of things.

Porcelain, silk, cotton, bamboo, and various spices from Southeast Asia are all fixed goods in the North-South trade, and the profits will naturally be high.

After these goods were transported from the big ship, soon there were tank boats that looked like tank boats coming to fill up and leave. Wang Tong probably figured in his mind that sea transport was much cheaper than water transport. Needless to say, using tank boats for marketing would also save the passing taxes and fees. Pay, the imperial court lost at least [-]% to [-]% of the value of the goods in taxes and fees. If the maintenance of the canal and the subsidy of the southern provinces are included in the consumption, once in and out, it is almost as much as they sell, and the imperial court will lose. How much, maybe even more exaggerated.

It was nothing more than tax evasion taking advantage of loopholes in the regulations, lying on Daming's body to suck blood, Wang Tong came to a conclusion in his mind, and felt that there was nothing to see after watching it for a while.

After greeting Huang San, he detoured back from the original road, but when he walked back to a berth he just passed by, Wang Tong felt a little strange.

Because he had already heard the people on the ship and the pier yelling that the cargo had been unloaded, but at this time there were many more people gathering on and off the ship than before, and the people coming and going didn't know what to carry.

Compared with the ones Wang Tong has seen these days, this ship is considered the largest. Even compared with those Galen ships seen in Macau, it is not comparable in height, but it is much fatter and bigger.

"Two thousand shi's grain, it is estimated that I went to twenty shi to eat on the boat, you have to calculate it."

It happened that someone on the boat yelled towards the bottom, which explained the doubt in Wang Tong's mind, and he knew what kind of cargo was being loaded and unloaded here.

There is a ration of grain, and these sea-going ships can transport several times the volume of a water-going ship, so what do the boats on the river do? With the two advantages of exemption from inspection and tax, I am afraid that they will make a fortune in everything they do.

The ancients should not be underestimated, tax evasion, price differences between places, means of transportation, all aspects have been integrated and combined into a means of making a fortune.

It doesn't matter how much financial revenue the Ming Empire lost. The people who dealt with it may have made a lot of money. Looking at the style of the tea shed just now, small tents, tea sets, tables and chairs, lamps, etc., you can guess one or two.

Wang Tong had a rough idea in his mind, but he asked another question when he turned around. He lowered his voice and said:

"General Tan, what kind of ship is this? It's so big!?"

"My lord, it's a lucky boat, and it will cost about [-] materials."

The tone was very low, and Wang Tong was also taken aback. The light on both sides of the carriage was dim, and he couldn't see General Tan's expression, but Wang Tong knew that General Tan was not in a good mood when he was called "Master" instead of "Master". Great, did something happen just now?

But right now this place is not a convenient place to talk, everyone fell silent, and returned with the buddy Huang San. After leaving this port area, Li Hutou was too young to hold his eyelids. Wang Tong drove and fell asleep on the carriage.

On the way back, Huang San didn't dare to sit in the car, and walked ahead with a lantern, leading the old horse. The others were also a little tired. Wang Tong coughed and was about to ask a question, but General Tan said in advance:
"Have you noticed, my lord, the guard of the tea shed we delivered the food to has a long and narrow saber in its hand, similar in style to the Miao Dao, but narrower."

Wang Tong slowed down in a daze. He really didn't notice this detail. He was staring at the men in short silk shirts sitting there. Tan Jiang's voice was very steady as if he had no emotion. Judging from his accumulated experience, Tan Jiang should be very upset at this time.

"I didn't take a closer look."

"Did your lord see that six of the twelve guards in the tea shed have two-foot short knives with sheaths pinned diagonally to their waists?"

"Is there anything important?"

Wang Tong was stunned, but he didn't expect what the other party was going to say, but Tan Jian, who was walking in front, turned around, his voice was a little higher, and he said in a hateful voice:
"The short knife is called rib difference. One is long and the other is short. In Daming, no one wears it like this. Even a short knife and dagger will be placed on the waist, and those people's legs are all looped."

"It's a devil or a Japanese pirate!"

Speaking of this, there is nothing to understand. Only the warriors of the Japanese country wear swords like this, but who said that the Han people cannot learn this way? After Wang Tong yelled this, he felt that the matter was serious. It was not until the last years of Longqing that the Japanese Insurrection basically subsided. During this period, nearly one million soldiers and civilians were killed and injured, countless military expenditures were spent, and countless officers and soldiers were mobilized to suppress it.

The southeast is where the wealth of the world lies, and the chaos in the southeast is equivalent to shaking the foundation of the country. Emperor Jiajing has been in power for decades. The little Mongolian prince in the north and the Japanese pirates in the south have always been a serious problem. The north negotiated peace with the Ministry of Alta, and only then did the world be peaceful after Wanli ascended the throne.

Now there are Japanese pirates appearing here in Tianjin. What kind of big case is this? , is even more remarkable.

"You might be sure!?"

This is a big matter, Wang Tong dare not ignore it, Tan Jiang said in a low voice:

"Many warriors from central Fujian have been to the Japanese country, and it is not uncommon to learn the martial arts and weapons there, but the shipowners sitting there are from Yuegang, Zhangzhou, Fujian. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Wang Tong stopped involuntarily. In fact, he was a little confused when he heard these words. Could it be that the Japanese pirates have something to do with the Zhangzhou accent in Fujian.

"Pirates are called Japanese pirates, but the real Japanese are only two or three out of ten. There are many pirates at sea in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. These Fujianese are good at naval warfare, but they are not as fierce as the Cantonese in land warfare. They often recruit a large number of real Japanese as their subordinates. Foreward at times, guard at ordinary times."

Perhaps because he saw Wang Tong's confusion, Tan Jiang explained aloud, so that is the case, and the meaning is completely different in this case. For some reason, Wang Tong heaved a sigh of relief, walked a few steps and said with a soft smile:

"No wonder some ships dare to unload their cargo openly during the day, but some ships can only come at night. Fujian pirates with pirates dare not come out during the day!"

Tan Lun has served in Nanzhili and Zhejiang for a long time, but as a civil servant, he has been fighting bitterly with the Japanese pirates for a long time. His soldiers will naturally hate the Japanese pirates, and it is inevitable that Tan Jiang will have such emotions.

However, Wang Tong's thoughts quickly turned to the other side. In addition to the escaped taxes, if the trade with Japan is also counted, the wealth coming in and out would be even more astonishing.
(End of this chapter)