Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 411
The old Confucius said it well, pockmarks are not pockmarks, are they deceiving people!Right now, the begging army is sharpening their knives and going north to participate in the Great Patriotic War. When they need to stock up on military rations, this hand comes. It feels like a goddess who was finally drunk and the hotel was opened. It's just as maddening to be without a condom when you're on the horse with a gun.

Going out to inspect around, there are few families willing to sell grain to him in the huge suburbs of Yingtianfu, full of anger, Song Qingshu returned to the command center of Longjiang Shipyard aggrieved.

In the next ten days or so, bad news came one after another.

"Suzhou has lost [-]% of its grain, and Changzhou has lost [-]% of its grain. Songjiang didn't produce grain at first, and almost half of it was snapped up here, and there were only [-] dan. Huai'an, Yangzhou, and Chuzhou were originally the bases of Yangzhou salt merchants. Dan has not received any grain, and the remaining Luzhou, Hezhou, Taiping Prefecture, and Ningguo Prefecture have lost nearly six floors of early rice."

"This year, we originally planned to stockpile 300 million dans of grain and 100 million tans of early rice. Now 80 of them have been snapped up by Yangzhou salt merchants. The rest depends on whether Huguang can squeeze out more shares."

Intelligence Secretary Li Xiangjun's small red mouth with white teeth and silver teeth has a unique style in the drinking room. It's a pity that several people in the board of directors who heard the clear voice are all downcast, especially Cao Sanxi, the old guy can't help it He knocked on the table hard: "Fucking gangsters, it wasn't the high price that our company gave that year, so they turned their faces if they said they turned their faces?"

"Cao Dong's family can't blame the farmers. After all, almost all the land in Nanzhili is controlled by the landlord family. This time they are also victims. The salt merchants don't have our transportation capacity, and they don't care about water transportation. They only sell it from the landlords. The government forced to pay the tax, and now the Lianghuai land is full of ruined households, and the admiral of the nine gates just stopped a wave of refugees yesterday."

Li Xiangjun's father was an officer in the guard, and these days the guard is almost a farmer, so Li Xiangjun's background is also close to a farmer's family. Hearing Cao Sanxi's complaints, he couldn't help but open his mouth to argue.

"Okay, this matter is ultimately due to the restoration of the society. Even if they can't compete with us in terms of influence among the citizens, we can't keep up with the impact on these big local households. The most urgent thing is not who to settle accounts with, but how to solve the dilemma. Mr. Boya, there is still Fengyang in Yinghuo Mountain this year, how is the reclamation in Anqing?"

Reluctantly interrupting Li Xiangjun, Song Qingshu turned his head worriedly again, and Sun Chuanting's poker face when he asked this question also stretched into a bitter face.

"Commander, there is a severe drought this year. Fengyang Mansion is already barren. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and rice add up to only about 500 million tons. Almost all the population of Yinghuo Mountain has to allocate food from it, and the commander of Yingtian Mansion recruited successively. There are as many as 50 workers, and they also need to distribute food. These, even if they are tight, can only last until the next autumn harvest, and there is no surplus."

"Marshal, it's really impossible to stop the food for the workers and return to the original monthly salary? If this is the case, at least 200 million dans of food can be squeezed out!"

A large group of shareholders who listened to Sun Chuanting's suggestion were all excited. Even if 20 tans of military rations were subtracted, 180 million tans of miscellaneous grains would be enough for them to sell in the north for a while. Without grain, their grain stores would have to close, and this time the Lianghuai grain merchants with sufficient supply could take the opportunity to regain the market.

"No, no!"

Without even thinking about it, Song Qingshu vetoed it, and looking at the red eyes of the shareholders, he stood up, bowed heavily, and said solemnly.

"Everyone, these two Huaihe Rivers are the territory of salt merchants. Why do we Beiren get a foothold? It is because these workers support us. If the workers are not fed enough again, will they support us like last time? The annual profit is only four or five million taels, and the amount of wealth created by these workers every year is at least 500 to 2000 million taels. Even if the grain market is lost, we can’t waste food because of choking!”

A large group of shareholders who said this were speechless, but when they thought about it carefully, they were so frightened that they lost their voice for a while.

"Marshal, according to your opinion, is the northern grain market given up this year?"

"No, let's increase the price to Huguang. This time, let's increase the purchase price to one tael! I don't believe it, but we can't grab those grain mice?" Song Qingshu slammed the table, gnashing his teeth.

…………

Accompanied by the autumn harvest, a fierce food war broke out in the fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River. Indeed, there are no eternal allies, only eternal interests. Yuan Wai, the landlord who sold it to a grain merchant in Yangzhou, repented and allowed the firm to regain a slight victory.

However, this time the Yangzhou salt merchants were determined to oppose Song Qingshu. Within a few days, they also raised the purchase price, and mentioned one or two dollars, and they actually hooked up with Xiong Wencan, taking advantage of the opportunity to occupy Huguang In the grain market, Song Qingshu gritted his teeth and raised the price to one or two yuan for the third time.

However, not only Jiaduobao is advancing, but the enemy is also advancing. The newly established Tairi Tianpiao in Yangzhou has played a vital role in raising funds for Huizhou merchants several times more than in previous years. Raise the purchase price to one or two or five dollars per stone.

Jiaduobao's shop spread out too big, even the bank has a huge amount of funds, but it didn't work so hard. In the end, in this business war, from Song Qingshu to the Shanxi merchants under his hand, they were all beaten up. According to the relationship between scholars and their families, as well as the strong funds of salt merchants, until September, most of the grain in the main grain-producing areas in the south of the Yangtze River was purchased by Yangzhou salt merchants, and the begging army bought them successively. The amount of grain available is only 100 million dan.

It's just that in this food war, the one that suffered the most was neither Song Qingshu's Beishang Group, nor the alliance between Huizhou merchants and Donglin Party, but the Ming Dynasty.

Wool comes from sheep, and the food purchased at a high price will naturally not be cheap to sell. Originally, the Suzhou grain store was approaching the autumn harvest, and the rice had fallen to one or two halves. The rising trend, in Jiangnan where the general income is only one tael or even less than one tael, the consequence of this is a new round of big bankruptcy.

It’s really like asking for trouble. Many poor scholars who followed behind suddenly found that they couldn’t afford to live anymore. Unexpectedly, there was a wave of returning home, and the large families who were unable to support the overpopulation exiled countless servants. The rich and prosperous Jiangnan actually began to starve to death!
"Master, please, give me something to eat!"

"Master, let's buy a maid! I, I don't want money, as long as it can make my mother and I have something to eat! I'm very good!"

"Please, I haven't had enough food for days!"

The carriage walked along Donghua Avenue to the outside of the city. It was like a war. Both sides of the road were full of yellow and emaciated victims. Compared with the last flood in the Huaihe River, there were a few more people. The soldiers and horses of Jiucheng were already weak. Intercepting so many refugees, Song Qingshu walked all the way, Donghua Avenue, which was originally full of hawkers, only trembled and stretched out this time, those pair of powerless hands.

The porridge sheds set up by several big temples in the city were robbed almost instantly, and the corpses of starved to death on the streets were piled up in one layer, and even the officials who moved the corpses had no time to deal with them.

What's even more frightening is that swarms of flies, mosquitoes, pests, and mice are lying around the dead bodies. Some of those mice eat the dead human flesh and even roll away, with bloodshot eyes. All of these are signs of a plague!
Even though he was used to starving to death in the north, Song Qingshu's heart trembled when he still looked at this look.

"Our factory must be prepared for epidemic prevention. All workers' food and drinking water must be boiled and cooked. Lime has been sprinkled around the factory! The bathroom is open all day. Don't save me coal. Every worker must give me a bath after get off work! There is also Yingtian Hospital, which is not open to the public these days, and is on full alert to stare at our own property!"

Frightened and trembling, Song Qingshu entered the Longjiang Shipyard, and immediately annoyed Song Qingshu began to arrange it. All the secretaries and shopkeepers he yelled at did not dare to breathe. They were as busy as ants, and finally arranged everything they could think of. Going down, Song Qingshu turned sadly and went to his office window.

Looking down from the third floor, most of the Longjiang Shipyard came into view. Seeing the workers busy building new ships, he couldn't help feeling aggrieved.

Before the British Industrial Revolution, there was a land enclosure movement where sheep cannibalize people, driving farmers from the land to become workers, and strengthening the power of the bourgeoisie. Now in the Ming Dynasty, there is enough surplus labor, but why can't he burst out? What about the bourgeois revolution?Now the domestic market can be satisfied with the two production bases of Dai County and Yingtian. What is the next step?

Is it necessary to go through the catastrophe of the Qing army entering the customs, wipe out 90.00% of the population, and have a complete reshuffle of social forces, is the way out?
But just when Song Qingshu was getting irritable, Li Xiangjun ran in quickly with a pale face, holding a thick stack of documents and saluted in a panic.

"Master, it's not good, someone is making trouble at the door again!"

Song Qingshu's industrial area is basically built along the Yangtze River. Although there is a danger of floods sometimes, it is next to the waterway and the transportation is convenient, and some factories can use the water conservancy of the Yangtze River. However, from the beginning of construction, there have been many disasters here. How difficult it is, wave after wave of assholes keep hitting the door, forcing Song Qingshu to follow the example of Foxconn in the later generations to implement a fully enclosed management. A long wall surrounds from the westernmost yarn weaving length to the easternmost Longjiang The tail of the shipyard, including the residential area, internal business area, factory area, and bathrooms, is like a small city.

But this time, the situation has caught up with the siege. Countless refugees and bankrupts are like zombies in Resident Evil. The three-meter-high wall was knocked down, and the soldiers of Ge Zuo's third division who climbed up the wall from the ladder behind were all terrified.

When he arrived at the scene, Song Qingshu himself covered his head sadly.

"What's going on here?"

(End of this chapter)