I

  Chapter 264 262 [Merchants' Weapons]

   "嗙嗙嗙!"

   There was a knock on the door.

  The gate of the courtyard was opened, and the house slave saw that there was an official messenger outside, and hurriedly asked, "What's the matter with the messenger?"

   "To your master!"

The official handed out a notice, saying: "In the counties around Guangzhou, every big family must be obedient. The chief town is afraid that the notice will be posted in Luting, and you will not be able to see it if you are blind, so I will send it to the home of the big family in person. Hurry up and pick it up." Stay, I have to go to the next one."

  The domestic slaves accepted the notice, but the official servants did not leave.

  The house slave had no choice but to go back with the notice, and soon a more senior house slave came. The high-ranking servant took out a handful of copper coins and said with a smile: "The poor master took it to tea."

   "Easy to say!"

  The official took the copper coin, put it in his arms with a smile, and left the house immediately.

  Guangdong's expansion is too fast, only in the northern and eastern regions of Guangdong, officials, missionaries and backbones of peasant associations have been stationed. Moreover, the situation in those places is too complicated, and many things have to be done slowly.

  As for the Guangzhou government, Zhao Han has dispatched manpower and is arriving one after another. The officials in Guangzhou are temporarily using locals.

  The high-ranking domestic slave went in holding a notice: "My lord, that Zhao Tianwang has ordered that all the firearms privately hidden by the people be handed over to the yamen. From now on, private firearms are not allowed."

   "He said he would hand it in?"

  Xie Shijun sneered: "There are many big families in the Guangzhou government, so could it be that he is still searching every family?"

   "Master is right." The senior house slave smiled apologetically.

   After a while, the house slave came in and reported: "Master, Master Deng invites you to drink tea."

   "Prepare the sedan chair!"

  In fact, it is in Foshan Town, not far away, but Xie Shijun still went in a sedan chair, and hundreds of people followed him.

  The people sitting together today are all merchants in the iron smelting industry.

  In the past, the largest iron smelting family in Foshan was called "Xixiang Li Family", which is also the family where Li Daiwen, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, belonged.

  The rapid growth of the Li family originated from official orders.

  Because from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial pots of the internal officials, the military pots of the Ministry of War, and the official pots of the Ministry of Industry were all purchased in Foshan Town for a long time. Foshan hot pot is even exported to Mongolia. It is not damaged when bumped on horseback, and is deeply loved by grassland herdsmen.

  Foshan pot first goes northward by water, then goes to Jiangxi along the Meiling Ancient Road, passes through the Ganjiang River, enters the Yangtze River, and is transported to Beijing.

  After Li Daiwen became a senior official, the imperial court only bought pots from the Li family. Other merchants who wanted to sell hot pot had to go through the Li family, and the Li family naturally prospered.

   Now, the Li family has been killed by a team, and the property under his name has been divided up by other merchants.

  Even the wealth of the Guangzhou Shipping Department was divided up by these merchants, because Fei Ruhe was far away in Huizhou at that time.

   "Did everyone see Zhao Tianwang's announcement?" Deng Yunqiu asked.

  Deng Yunzhan, the head of the Guangzhou Shipping Department appointed by Zhao Han, is a member of this Deng Yunqiu's clan. It's just that the two sides should have distanced themselves long ago, and it was also Deng Yunzhan, a member of the Deng clan, who proposed to ban private possession of firearms.

  Huang Zhaoxiu said: "The arm can't twist the thigh, so let's do it."

  Although the arms business comes in quickly, the number of orders is also small. If other businesses are delayed due to privately manufactured arms, the gain outweighs the loss. Many merchants who did not make firearms, or rarely made firearms, were very willing to carry out Zhao Han's orders.

  Businessmen in Foshan can also be differentiated internally.

"No," Xie Shijun immediately objected, "It's not about money, nor about firearms. It's about our hard work in capturing the city, so how can we count it as meritorious service? This Zhao Tianwang, first killed people in front of us, and now He wants to confiscate firearms, but he has not mentioned how to do business in the future. What does he want to do? I think he wants to cross the river and demolish the bridge!"

Feng Yangdong reminded: "I heard from a businessman from Jiangxi that this man has a dark face and likes to talk about rules. Whoever abides by his rules will be easy to talk to. Anyone who does not abide by his rules will be arrested, and most importantly, he will ransack his family and destroy his family." , at least they will be distributed to mines."

   "He sets the rules!"

  Xie Shijun slapped the table fiercely: "In the future, what should we do with the land and sea business, and set the rules as soon as possible. What's the plan if you don't say anything?"

  Feng Yangdong said: "Confiscating firearms and prohibiting private manufacture is to establish rules."

  Deng Yunqiu's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly came to his senses.

  Yes, this is making rules.

   And it depends on who obeys the rules and who doesn't. To severely punish those who do not obey the rules, Zhao Tianwang's real intention is probably to lure snakes out of their holes, and then kill chickens to scare monkeys!

  Deng Yunqiu wanted to understand this point, but he didn't say it.

  Because Zhao Han is definitely going to kill the family, and he can't gain power if he doesn't kill the family. That being the case, let's wait for a fool to hit the knife's edge. A dead fellow Taoist will not die a poor daoist. Anyway, the Deng family can quietly hand in their firearms.

  Xie Shijun asked suddenly: "That General Zhao Er..."

   "My surname is Fei, and it has been changed back to my real name." Deng Yunqiu reminded.

"Yes, that's General Fei," Xie Shijun said. "At the pier a few days ago, this man didn't bow down. How arrogant is his attitude? In my opinion, General Fei and Zhao Tianwang must have a rift, and they don't even have face in front of everyone I did. And I heard that Zhao Tianwang used to be a slave of the Fei family, just like the Lu family was to Liu Bang. Why don’t you make friends with Fei more? Zhao Tianwang will definitely not stay in Guangzhou forever. When he leaves, let’s pay the fee Shi, don’t you have everything?”

   (In the section at the pier, it is said that Fei Ruhe does not kneel, which is disrespectful to Zhao Han, and is purely from the perspective of a merchant. Why do some readers say that the protagonist is hypocritical? Maybe the author did not make it clear.)

  Including Deng Yunqiu, everyone suddenly became enlightened.

  Yes, you can make friends with Fei Shi, and then play how you want.

  Just like what they did before, they superficially surrendered to the imperial court, wooed and bribed local officials, and then acted in a positive manner and violated it, and the wind flourished.

  Why fight?

   Only fools will fight against the government, and their usual practice is to corrupt the government!

  Xie Shijun smiled and said: "Last month, I gave General Fei five hundred taels of silver, and General Fei took it all."

   "I gave three hundred taels."

   "I also sent a hundred taels to General Liu under him."

   "..."

  Everyone reported all the bribe figures, and burst out laughing, feeling confident in an instant.

  So we discussed a countermeasure—

  During this period of time, whatever Zhao Han said, they all fully cooperated. As soon as Zhao Han leaves, he will use the influence of the Fei family to continue to win over corrupt officials. At most, it will take a year or so to bring Guangzhou back to its old ways.

   They are too familiar with the routines. They have countless ways to corrupt officials.

   Zhao Han's weapon is a knife, and their weapon is silver.

  …

   "Have you handed in all the firearms?" Zhao Han asked with a smile.

  Fei Ruhe said: "Very active, never keep it private, they dare not force it."

   To deal with these Foshan merchants, Zhao Han didn't need to use a knife at all. There were two ways to draw fire from the bottom of the pot.

  First, there are no iron mines in Foshan, so the rivers are directly blocked, and iron ore is not allowed to be sold to Foshan.

  Secondly, apart from iron pots, there are many other iron wares in Foshan that need to be transported from Jiangxi to the north for sale. Zhao Han can order that the iron wares are not allowed to go north!

  These two methods can put Foshan merchants to death.

  As for the bribe money, Fei Ruhe handed it over. Not only Fei Ruhe, but also other officers along the way, as well as missionaries in the army, many of them received money.

  After Fei Ruhe received the first sum of money, he called the military judge and missionary officer, and said with a smile, "If someone gives you money, you will accept it. You have to record how much money you receive, and it will be considered as a merchant's donation."

   There must be someone who will be corrupted, but it will definitely not be a high-level person like Fei Ruhe.

  Especially Fei Ruhe, if he can find Zhao Han to do some business, the family will be able to make a lot of money, so why should he be greedy for your few hundred taels?

  Zhao Han sighed and said, "I'm a little worried about their cooperation like this. Especially for the soon-to-be-established Shipbuilding Department, I'm afraid people will send money every day, and I don't know how many officials can resist it."

Deng Yunzhan interrupted suddenly: "This must be strictly investigated. For more than 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, merchants have been using money to buy officials. If they come to buy one another, 90% of the officials will not be able to resist the temptation. The remaining 10% are honest and selfless. Either pretend If you are deaf and dumb, you will be a muddleheaded official, or you will be bought and transferred by them to enforce the law impartially."

   "Call them here."

  The person who was called was the official who had just arrived.

  Fang Shengchang, the prefect of Guangzhou, and his brothers raised an army and took the land of two counties to join Zhao Han.

  Guo Shunyu, the admiral of the Shipping Department of Guangdong City, was a son of a gentry who took refuge in the Three Counties period. Previously served as a Jiangxi transshipment envoy, responsible for the transportation of money and grain throughout Jiangxi.

  The head of the Guangdong Branch of the Department of Integrity, Zou Guangdi, a poor scholar in Anfu County, had been Xiao Huan's deputy before.

  Nanhai County Magistrate Tu Tingying, who was born in Juren, bound the general Yang Jiamo to join Zhao Han.

  Fei Yu, magistrate of Panyu County, is the book boy of Fei Yuanjian.

  Gan Dashou, magistrate of Xiangshan County, was born as a Juren, and tied the general soldier Yang Jiamo to join Zhao Han.

   "Meet the general town!"

  Six people came together to meet.

  Zhao Han said: "You have also been in Guangzhou for three days, have you sorted out the various official documents?"

   "It's a mess." Fang Shengchang replied.

  Xiangshan County governed Zhuhai, Zhongshan, and Macao for later generations. Gan Dashou did not go directly to the post, but together cleaned up the Guangdong archives in Guangzhou.

  Zhao Han asked again: "How about the tariffs of the Guangdong Shipping Department?"

Guo Shunyu replied: "There are four major customs in Guangdong. One is in Nanxiong, with a tax amount of 43,000 taels; the second is in Chaozhou, with a tax amount of 58,000 taels; the third is in Zhaoqing, with a tax amount of 41,000 taels; Shipping department, 40,000 taels per year, and often cannot be collected in full."

  Chaoguan in Nanxiong, the tax collection route is "Guangdong-Jiangxi".

   Zhaoqing's Chaoguan, the tax trade route is "Guangdong-Guangxi".

  Chaoguan in Chaozhou, the tax collection business route is "Guangdong-Fujian".

  These three all belong to the Inland River Bank Customs, and the tariffs levied are all higher than the customs tariffs of the Shibo Division!

   What's even more ridiculous is that the customs tax is so low that it cannot be collected in full every year.

   Zhao Han sneered and said, "Tell them about how merchants in Guangzhou recruited and corrupted officials."

Deng Yunzhan cupped his hands at the six people and said: "Whenever a senior official takes office, the merchants will definitely have a banquet. If the senior official does not attend the banquet, we will inquire about his preferences. Those who like to recite poems and compose Fu, the merchants will pay for local celebrities to hold literary meetings .Those who like sex, moon and beauty, merchants will recruit famous prostitutes, and even send beautiful women as concubines... If the big officials do not enter, the merchants will start from the entourage of the big officials, from the family members of the big officials. Four words , pervasive!"

   "Did you hear that?" Zhao Han asked.

  Zou Guangdi straightened his back: "Secretary of Integrity will never show mercy!"

   "I trust the Secretary of Integrity." Zhao Han said with a smile.

  Integrity officials are promoted very quickly. At this stage, they don't need to go through seniority, and they can accumulate political achievements by catching corrupt people.

  Guo Shunyu reminded: "Beware of local officials."

  Trans-provincial expansion, it is impossible to appoint all the officials from Jiangxi. Otherwise, it would be impossible to carry out work in Guangdong, or even communicate with the locals. Putonghua has not been popularized these days.

   Zhao Han instructed: "Local officials, what happened in the past, don't blame the past. Once corruption and bribery are found out in the future, their old accounts will also be dug out and dealt with!"

   "Yes!" Zou Guangdi clasped his fists.

   "Report!!"

   "The chief town, Fujian Haiphong guerrilla Zheng Zhilong, has led the fleet to Guangzhou!"

  (end of this chapter)