Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 198

Most of the old revolutionary areas in later generations, the famous Jinchaji border area, are located on the Taihang Mountain at the bottom of your feet!
Although the equally famous Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is located in Shaanxi, in this era, Shaanxi is regarded as an important ruling stronghold of the imperial court, because the country and mountains of the Ming Dynasty were taken back from the Mongolian tribes. Shaanxi has always been a bridgehead for defending Mongolia and the Western Regions. There is a large army guarding the station, and there is also the commander of a famous general such as Hong Chengchou. The ruling power is completely different from that of later generations.

Moreover, the terrain in Shaanxi is relatively flat, and there is not enough space to hide the afterglow. But this Taihang Mountain, even in the era of Song Qingshu in the future, will have such a developed traffic that some places cannot be touched. Don't look at it stuck in Shanxi and Hebei, the heartland of the Ming Empire. However, there are many more loopholes that can be exploited than in Shaanxi, which can be regarded as a relatively cost-effective base.

Moreover, Shanxi Zhao has one more resource that is especially precious to Song Qingshu than Shaanxi, that is, the class that can provide support as mentioned earlier.

Shanxi Merchants!

Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Shanxi has already started prosperous commercial activities. Many scholars believe that the word Jia comes from 盬, which refers to the pool salt in Jiezhou, Hedong. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Jin State, which occupied Shanxi, exported the largest The trade material is salt. Thanks to the salt, the state of Jin got rid of the monopoly of salt and iron by Guan Zhong of the state of Qi.

Not only salt, Jin people also went north to do fur trade with grassland nomads. After entering the Han Dynasty, after the Silk Road was opened, Jin merchants joined this golden road. I have seen the ancient Roman coins exhibited in the Shanxi Lingshi Museum. The conflict between people and land in Shanxi, which has many mountains and little land, forces people to move so flexibly.

However, Shanxi merchants really formed a large merchant group, or in the Ming Dynasty, and they also benefited from the salt. With the successive design of the nine frontiers of the Ming Dynasty, supporting millions of frontier troops became a huge burden for the empire. To deal with such a huge food demand, From the Hongwu period, the opening-China method of encouraging merchants to smuggle grain to the border in exchange for salt imports, and then sell it in the north, was implemented.

The cost of transporting grain from the south of the Yangtze River is too expensive, so Shanxi merchants began to lease land in the border areas and hired local people to cultivate them. At the same time, it also required a huge sales network to sell the pool salt they got to the whole north. It was impossible to do it on their own. Shanxi merchants cooperated with local local merchants in various places, which formed the prototype of the earliest cooperative company.

Reclamation of land on the frontier and cooperation with native merchants from all over the world will inevitably lead to bumps and bumps. The great external pressure forced these merchants from Shanxi to form a group to jointly resist risks. It is such a kind of cash withdrawal, Shanxi merchants who formed gangs, began to form a merchant gang.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with the political corruption, the rich and powerful invaded Yanyin, the army was corrupt, more and more private control cards were established, and the overall retreat of the Ming Dynasty’s frontier defenses basically abolished. One of the important reasons for the collapse. However, in the more than [-] years of operation, Shanxi merchants have not died because of the collapse of the open-center system. Instead, they have become more and more prosperous relying on strong capital accumulation and commercial roads. Tea cakes, silk, ironware from Shaanxi, etc. were transported to the grasslands, and then horses, cattle, sheep, fur and plush goods from the grasslands were trafficked to the south of the Yangtze River. These Shanxi old Xier were almost indispensable in all parts of the country.

Just like the Qu Botao whom Song Qingshu met in Xi’an, he was a big businessman from the Qu family in Qixian County. Although Shi Tianfu is a native of Xi’an, his ancestors were also Shanxi merchants. The business in Xi’an City could not continue, so he also returned to his hometown in Shanxi. I don't know what to do. It is said that his hometown is in Dai County, Shanxi.

Song Qingshu's subordinate is the peasant army, he naturally has the support of the poor peasants, but unfortunately, the peasant class occupying the grass roots and the largest number has always been a disadvantaged group, relying on them will not achieve great things.Moreover, the ruling foundation of the Ming Dynasty is still stable now, unlike the brutal Mongols at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, almost every Han Chinese wanted to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty, ethnic conflicts overwhelmed class conflicts, Zhu Yuanzhang was able to fit in with the landlord class, Song Qingshu Even if you put your face on it, you might still get a cold ass in exchange, but this emerging business class is different!
The golden age of the development of Shanxi merchants was in the early Qing Dynasty. After the Manchus entered the customs, Shanxi did not know how many red-capped merchants came out. On the grassland, it flowed into Liaodong, giving strong support to the backward productivity of the Later Jin regime. Not only goods, Shanxi merchants inadvertently brought out a large amount of military information in the pass, and provided intelligence for the Manchu Qing to rule the Central Plains.

Since these guys don't even want Daming for money, if I can bring them huge profits, then it should be easy for Shanxi merchants to fall to themselves and at least regard themselves as part of it, right?
With this intention in mind, after Song Qingshu and Zhang Xianzhong parted, they crossed the Hutuo River with a large army, along the Wutai Mountain next to the Xinding Basin, and headed northward to Dai County, intending to find Shi Tianfu and continue to cooperate.

Shanxi has many mountains and little land, and is often attacked by the army. It needs to hide in the mountains, and it also needs to go to the plains to collect food and waste time. From Xizhou Mountain to the middle of Wutai Mountain, there are almost [-] mighty farmers. The army team walked for more than half a month, and it was not until the middle of May that they arrived near Daizhou.

Early in the morning, by the east gate of Daixian County, not far from the Hutuo River, more than a dozen strange businessmen appeared, all dressed in homespun and rags, and each of them carried a steaming burden. The aroma of broth attracted the merchants and residents of Dai County on the road to look over frequently.

The dangling pole was trembling on his shoulders, and Song Qingshu, who had never been too heavy, grinned his teeth. Fortunately, the road was in the plain for dozens of miles, and Dai County was not far from the Hutuo River. Go under the city wall and look up Looking at the towering Dai County Jingbian Building, Song Qingshu couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief.

It's fucking here!
The purpose of coming to Dai County is to settle down, but he didn’t dare to cause too many troubles. Before coming, Song Qingshu hid the camp in a secret location in Wutai Mountain. There are too many, the peasant army has not been involved in this place yet, and there are many high-ranking families. In Xinzhou before, the army robbed a lot of sorghum rice and made it into corn buns. It is enough to eat for a month or two. For the time being, it is okay Be honest for a while.

Song Qingshu also left Scarface, Liu Zongmin, and Miao Mei, who didn't look like good people, all in the mountains, and brought a few ramen masters who used to be in Yan'an Mansion, Zhao Sheng, who lit the lamp, and twelve others. The capable personal guards entered the county on a small scale.

"Stop, what are you doing?"

Before Song Qingshu could relax for a long time, a rude roar came over. After all, these people are too strange, which attracted the attention of the gatekeepers. This place is close to the border of Yanmen Pass and belongs to Taiyuan Town. The ones from the county were even tougher, all of them had big beards and fierce looks on their faces, which made them quite scary.

Song Qingshu was followed by Li Dingguo. Although he was a famous general later, he is now a half-grown man. He hadn't been to the city a few times in Shaanxi. He was so frightened by this voice that he thought he had exposed him. He was about to touch the firecracker. Chen Laosi, the noodle master next to him, was a bit more talkative, and hurriedly held him down secretly.

He didn't have the prestige of being a handsome man of the 36th Battalion in Shanxi, Song Qingshu put down his burden and bent down with a smile on his face, clasped his fists and said, "Oh, this official, you are a good citizen! We They are all craftsmen who sell noodles, they come from Shaanxi, and they come to join our former owner, Shi Tianfu Shi Dayuanwai!"

"From Shaanxi?"

Hearing this title, the expressions of several officers and soldiers became tense. There have been too many thieves from Shaanxi recently, and everyone became nervous. With a shout, a dozen soldiers immediately surrounded the group.

Generally speaking, in TV dramas, when dealing with clowns, it’s all done by the subordinates, and the right master usually just pretends to be forceful in the background, just like Song Qingshu’s "Old Nine Gates" broadcast before time travel, the Buddha has always stood behind his back with his hands behind his back. Tie Zui Qi Ba Ye went up and nodded and bowed down to take care of it, but it was about his future and his life, Song Qingshu couldn't let it go, and he held his fists and bowed for a while in a very sad way.

"Hey, Mr. Jun, we are all ordinary craftsmen, and we have never seen someone with a knife or a gun. Don't you scare us?"

"Hmph, craftsman!" The mustache in the lead was especially fierce. The guy who was probably the gang leader curled his lips sullenly, and then waved his callused palm and shouted: "Craftsman, right? Then you will give me the spot!" If you can’t make a bowl of noodles, don’t blame Lao Tzu for being ungrateful with knives!”

It's not unheard of for rogues to pretend to be merchants in the city, but each one of them can't do anything except farming. The words really tickled his itching place, he called his companions to put down their burdens, opened the soup pot at this end, stretched out the panel at this end, Song Qingshu actually went into battle himself, a piece of dough was pulled and pulled in his hand, no After a while, all of them turned into thin noodles less than the thickness of chopsticks. The soup was boiled three times, and some scallion and mutton slices were added. Song Qingshu reluctantly put on a flattering smile and handed over the noodles.

"Officer, you eat!"

Shanxi is a paradise of pasta, and almost every household’s staple food is pasta. Of course, many people can’t afford white noodles, and can only eat Wowotou, the multigrain noodles that Song Qingshu is eating now. However, every family knows how to make noodles. However, such a picky Carrying a burden and pulling noodles on the spot, I have never seen it in this era. The merchants and residents of Dai County who were waiting to enter the city at the gates of the surrounding city were a little stunned.

Before going to the city in the morning, I just ate a cold steamed corn bun, such a bowl of clear soup with red oil, Lanzhou ramen with good color and fragrance was placed in front of me, the soldier was also salivating, and took the chopsticks and bamboo bowl, Xilihulu actually ate up a large bowl in two mouthfuls, drank up all the soup, and finally hiccupped.

This skill is really not something that ordinary peasant soldiers can pretend to do. After eating and drinking enough, the attitude of the soldiers softened. Wiping their mouths can be regarded as waving the soldiers to disperse. They patted their stomachs comfortably and hummed: "It's not bad. , you can enter the city."

"Thank you, sir!"

It can be regarded as a sigh of relief, after packing up his things, Song Qingshu waved his hand and was about to lead the big guy in, but within two steps, the words of the soldier behind him made Song Qingshu's body stiff again.

"The craftsmanship is not bad, but it's a pity that you came to the wrong place. In Dai County, there is no one except Shi Tianfu, and there are no larger merchants, not even a surname Shi!"

(End of this chapter)