Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 374
The ten years of Chongzhen passed away in such a safe way, and the ship problem was solved, but at the end of the year, another big problem was thrown for Song Qingshu.

In later modern times, when foreigners came to the Qing Dynasty, they were amazed at the unspoken rules of the extremely corrupt officialdom of the Qing Dynasty. Eating and drinking with public funds was not available in modern times. There are bird's nest barbecues, and shark's fin, sea cucumber and deer tail for medium-sized banquets. They are all big banquets for high-end banquets, at least once a month, and small entertainments must be held every day. up.

There is also the rule of giving money. During the holidays, subordinates have to give money to their superiors. It is called a birthday gift. Not to mention giving to leaders, those who watch the gate have to have money in the door, and even the price is clearly marked. General Xi’an 800 taels, The door bag is 40 taels, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi is 2000 taels, and the door bag is 100 taels.

There are also entertaining officials in transit, new officials take office, but this is not only the case in the Qing Dynasty, and now the Ming Dynasty is also similar. China is known as a country of etiquette, but those scholar-bureaucrats put all their etiquette on making money. In the beginning, every year, Song Qingshu's case was filled with various bills.

Fortunately, a dozen or so female secretaries came this year, and more than 20 abacus were fiddled together, and the thick bills were facing each other, so that the balance of gift giving was settled.

"1 taels for the Shoufu University scholar, 6000 taels for the three books, 5000 taels in total, 1000 taels for the Nanjing military department, 5000 taels for the remaining five departments, 20 taels for the Jiangnan Dao Xunyan Yushi..., and [-] taels for door money."

This end reported the account, and the other end recorded it. Finally, when the figure was in Song Qingshu's hands, he was also taken aback. In this year's gifts alone, the Jiaduobao Company spent as much as 200 million taels of silver. The total income of the firm for the whole year is only more than 1000 million taels, which is almost 2000 million taels.

With these 200 million taels, according to Song Qingshu’s high standard requirements, it is still possible to raise 400 to [-] troops. The actual silver tax received by the Ming Dynasty in a year is only [-] million taels, and it is not only the Jiaduobao company that has offset the money. family, salt merchants in Yangzhou, merchants in Sichuan, and petty officials at all levels to transfer money to the officials. If all the embezzled money goes to the treasury, the Ming Dynasty will not only recover one Liaodong, but the five Jurchens will be beaten to the ground together.

However, this is called hard to return. Looking at this bill, Song Qingshu, who used to hope that the Ming Dynasty would last for a few more years, also hoped for the first time that the capital would soon fall in the hands of Li Zicheng. The greatest shackles of development.

And this year's expenditure is more than that. At the end of the year, Lu Xiangsheng, who was promoted to the governor of Xuanda, sent a memorial to the emperor and cried poor, but he was not called poor. Xuanda was so rich that only Wang Pu and Jiang Xiang were the soldiers of the army. The soldiers under him were really suffering. Extremely, at the end of the year, Li Zicheng's troops surrounded Chengdu for more than 20 days. Zhang Xianzhong, who was separated by a mountain, captured Xunyang and Xiangcheng successively. It is estimated that the most severe attack will come next year. The 11th year of Chongzhen will be the biggest year for the decisive battle between the imperial court and the peasant army. The emperor didn't dare to watch Xuan Da's border soldiers starving for the new year.

But Chongzhen has no money, so he left the matter to Yang Sichang, Minister of the Ministry of War. Yang Sichang is rich, not to mention that he has received a record, and Song Qingshu alone must have 30 million taels to confess to him. However, it is a major national event. , how can you take your own money?Yang Sichang left the matter to Ma Shiying, governor of Lufeng.

Ma Shiying was still an honest official, and he was even more money-less, so he reached out to Song Qingshu in disguise. Fortunately, this time it was not too much, and he gave away 10 taels and [-] dan of sweet potatoes.

This matter is not the most troublesome thing for Song Qingshu, the most troublesome thing is the Donglin Party. In order to rescue Qian Qianyi, Song Qingshu also did his best, and his efforts became the key. 5 taels were given to Cao Huachun, Cao Huachun helped to talk to Emperor Chongzhen. Just like in history, Wen Tiren ordered his subordinates to fight with Cao Huachun in a fit of rage. In a rage, the most trusted eunuch of the emperor asked to personally investigate Qian Qianyi's case, and the master Zhang Hanru who reported it Wen Tiren was ordered to die in shackles by the emperor, and Wen Tiren was dismissed immediately.

Not to mention the historical trend that Song Qingshu knew, at that time in the officialdom it was already considered selling teammates to Dong Lin, but those bastards didn't appreciate it, Qian Qianyi was released, and he didn't wait to return to Jiangnan. It was Zhang Pu who was playing tricks behind the scenes again. This Song Qingshu had just built a silk factory on the Zhenjiang side, and the main machine owners of the Susong Changsan Mansion almost boycotted Jiaduobao Company and refused to provide silk to the weaving factory.

The end of the year is the time to purchase and ship goods. This guy lost no less than 200 million taels of silver. Song Qingshu still has a headache on how to persuade those big workshop owners to continue to ship goods to himself next year.

With his left hand holding the money bill for offering flowers, and his right hand showing the loss list of the silk business, Song Qingshu felt as if he had been killed by more than a dozen huskies, trembling as he looked at the snow-falling Zijin Mountain behind the villa.

"Marshal, our old Ruan said a long time ago that Donglin is a white-eyed wolf who is not familiar with feeding, so we shouldn't care about them!" Behind Song Qingshu, Ruan Dacheng was also jumping and shouting, and Song Qingshu turned his head and waved his hands sadly.

"Forget it, there is no turning back when we open the bow. This time we admit defeat, and it will not be so easy next time. When Wen Tiren returns to Zhejiang, let's treat him well. After all, he has many former students, so try to get him into the firm. The successor must be Xue Guoguan, this time Yang Sichang can also make up for the cabinet, so we still made a profit."

"You can't make any mistakes about Yang Sichang's entry into the cabinet. You can transfer the Jingshi firm's 10 taels as you like, and I will leave this matter to you, Mr. Ruan!"

Don't look at Ruan Dacheng as a treacherous minister, but Song Qingshu has so many people under his command, and he really doesn't have the same background. Anyway, this guy's interests are also tied to the beggar army. Song Qingshu entrusted him with great power with confidence, but he just agreed. Ruan Dacheng still sighed and sighed: "Donglin is now in Yingtian, and it will not be easy to bring Qian Qianyi down!"

Hearing this, Song Qingshu felt even more uncomfortable. As soon as Ruan Dacheng left, he rang the bell to call Shi Lang, and yelled while gnashing his teeth.

"Immediately inform the hospital that Su Song's patients who often come again will not be accepted as long as they are not members of our company!"

In fact, he was quite petty as a handsome man. Seeing Song Qingshu's angry look, Shi Lang, who was acquainted with him, couldn't help but smiled in his heart, but on his face he held his fists in a serious manner and said.

"Marshal, Madam Xiong came back from Anqing today, didn't you say you were going to greet her?"

"That's right! I was almost confused by those bastards!"

As soon as the account book information was thrown away, Song Qingshu put his coat on with his hands, and immediately waved the back of his hand impatiently at Shi Lang.

"Hurry up and prepare the car!"

…………

A four-wheeled carriage, held by 24 cavalry one after another, has become the iconic image of the Jianghuai General Army. These days, if the military general is not domineering, others will treat you as a bully. With the posture of going retrograde on Chang'an Street, Song Qingshu's carriage Go straight to the riverside ferry.

This Ming Dynasty has really changed a lot because of the arrival of Song Qingshu. The Longtan Ferry in the upper reaches of Yanziji now has a post-modern bell tower-like building. With a shipyard in hand, Song Qingshu naturally cannot let it go. So, when the technical problem of ship type was not solved, Longjiang Shipyard built twelve medium-sized passenger ships. With these ships, the company opened the ferry to and from Anqing, and the building like the clock tower was the passenger terminal hall.

Not to mention, this place really reminds people of the appearance of future generations. When the Spring Festival arrives, there is a long queue in the ticket hall. In order to buy tickets to the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, some people actually waited in line for more than two days. The canned food supplied by the station is almost sold out, and scalpers can be seen here from time to time, but these guys are really hard to catch. After catching a batch, a new batch will come. Song Qingshu does not have the ID card authentication technology of later generations , I had no choice but to let it go.

Mrs. Xiong is Caiwei. As the chairman's wife, she doesn't have to queue up. By the time Song Qingshu arrives, she has already disembarked from the passenger ship and is waiting for the carriage in the VIP room on the second floor.

He vaguely recalled the scene when he was still a poor student queuing up to buy train tickets, but he looked nostalgicly at the crowd in the waiting hall on the first floor, and Song Qingshu just went up to the second floor.

"Master!"

Just showing her head, Caiwei ran over excitedly in three steps and two steps, but Song Qingshu couldn't help showing a sense of disappointment, he wrote to ask Hongniang Xing to come with her, it seems that she still didn't come after all .

However, the disappointment was quickly covered up by Song Qingshu, and he suddenly hugged Caiwei who was rushing over. Under the surprised eyes of other wealthy passengers, Song Qingshu hugged her and turned around twice, and then put the little girl who was flushed with shame Nizi put it down, smiled and scratched her nose.

"Such an adult, but still so reckless, not stable at all!"

"Sanggong, it's because you are not stable at all, okay, I'm ashamed to face people, it's all your fault!"

Caiwei knew many passengers who were also waiting for the boat. Taking a sneak peek at their teasing eyes, Caiwei punched Song Qingshu with two small fists angrily.

It's really called Xiao Biesheng newlyweds, coming out of the passenger station, sitting in the carriage, Caiwei's small mouth was talking about what happened in the past six months of parting days, talking endlessly, seeing her happy appearance, Song Qingshu listened to it with a smile.

Back at Zijin Mountain Villa, Caiwei brought gifts to Xiaojiao and Li Baoer, the three heartless chicks left Song Qingshu behind, and went to the side to start chattering again, Song Qingshu couldn't help reading it Shaking his head with a wry smile, he turned around and went back to his study, but after sitting down, the smile on his face disappeared.

Immediately, he placed a square box on the desk, rummaged through a lot of messy odds and ends to find the key, and stuffed it into the two eyes of the Pisces lock, which symbolized the top secret. The box flicked open, but looking at Sun Chuanting's secret letter inside, Song Qingshu didn't bother to read it immediately, and his mind returned to Anqing.

This is the second year, Xing Hongniang is not here to meet the sky!

(End of this chapter)