New Shun 1730

Dashun is a standard feudal dynasty, and the ruling class is certainly not those who mine, cook salt, or engage in industry and commerce.

But Dashun has a very special place. It not only makes Liu Yu complain and insult him all day long, saying that he is a tinker, but also allows Dashun to cultivate a group of new chaebols in some special industries.

That is because the land rent in Dashun is too high and domestic demand is sluggish, so the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the landlord class is not very direct and sharp.

The reason is that Niu Congyun told the emperor that there would be no British-style enclosure movement in Dashun.

Land rent has reached its peak. Unless one acre of land can produce four to five taels of silver, capital can rent the land at a higher rent than tenants and let cotton eat people.

Since this cannot be done, capital has no interest in domestic land for the time being.

With the same money, ten times as many plantations can be built in Nanyang, and labor costs are extremely low, so why do we have to have irreconcilable conflicts with the landlord class at home?

Although this contradiction is not direct or sharp. However, Liu Yu, as the spokesperson of Dashun's emerging class, is still full of malice towards the landlord class, because land rent drives up interest rates, and excessive interest rates and land yields severely curb the flow of capital to industry and commerce.

However, this contradiction is hidden. It is based on the relationship between the gentry class and the industrial and commercial class in Dashun. On the overall level, the contradiction is not very sharp, and there is often a tendency to collude.

The contradiction between the two sides is more reflected in Liu Yu's acquisition of Nanyang rice in Songjiang Prefecture.

A large amount of Nanyang rice has entered, and the industry and commerce are very happy, because the textile industry is calling for a break and a "rice sticker". If the price of rice is too high, capital will pay higher wages, because at least the basic necessities of food, clothing, housing and transportation for workers must be guaranteed. .

Landowners are very unhappy with the large-scale entry of Nanyang rice, because they receive rent in kind. The lower the price of rice, the lower their income, which seriously affects their land rent income.

In addition, the overall conflict between the two parties has not reached the point of irreconcilability.

Only, the salt well is different.

The high land rent in Yanjing made capital very unhappy.

Yanjing can really obtain income that far exceeds the current average interest rate in Dashun, so capital is happy to pour in. The result of the influx is that the contradiction between capital and landlords becomes irreconcilable.

In Dashun, when looking at the class contradiction between landlords and capital, we only look at cultivated land. We need to look at the logic of land rent and interest to see it, which is not intuitive.

The ruling class of the Dashun court was not industrialists and merchants.

But certainly not these landowners with salt well fields.

Dashun does not dare to carry out comprehensive land reform, but it still has the courage to disturb these salt well landowners.

Niu Congyun was not afraid of causing trouble, because the emperor's words had already given him the full details before leaving.

It wouldn't be a big problem if a few people or even dozens of people were killed.

The key is to solve it as soon as possible, meet the demand for salt production as soon as possible, and provide objective tax revenue for the court, then all the accusations will not matter.

Now that Ma Haochuan has come with his army, Niu Congyun doesn't have to worry. Out of anger from these people, some "righteous men" will beat him to death.

So he waited for the army to arrive and after setting up their positions, Niu Congyun said: "Since I want to manage the salt industry in Xuzhou Prefecture, I will make the policy clearer today."

"If you need to dig a well on the land in the salt-producing area in the future, you can dig it directly. The company will compensate you for forty years of land benefits, not in terms of salt, but in terms of rice. Twenty years of it will be paid directly in cash, and the remaining Make stocks at a discount for twenty years and receive annual dividends every year.”

"The court collects the rent from salt wells. If you are willing to pay it, you can pay it. If you don't want to pay it, you can find it from the salt tax."

"Don't kneel here now. It's serious to go back and prepare the land deed."

"It's all said and done, if there are any more troublemakers, arrest them!"

After all, these people are still there.

Ma Haochuan didn't say anything, and just asked the soldiers to hold the butts of their rifles and drive these people away.

For a moment, the sound of crying was loud, like bandits entering the village.

After driving these people away, Ma Haochuan couldn't help but laugh and said: "Brother Niu, if you use such methods, you will definitely join the line of traitors if it is included in the storybook. Our reputation is probably the same as that of the former mine supervisors. Xingguo I have done a lot of things in southern Jiangsu, but my methods are gentle, so I should learn more from him."

Niu Congyun laughed, shook his head and said: "Xingguo Gong is a gentleman's chef. He presided over the development of Nanyang. In just a few years, due to unsuitable climate, hot climate, malaria, etc., no less than 30,000 people have died. His methods were gentle. ? The number of good people of this dynasty who died in his hands is no less than 100,000. How can I just cry?"

"If someone compiles "Wei Xin Treacherous Officials and General Records" in the future, then the King of Tota must be Duke Xingguo. Most of us will also be included in the "Records of Generals", but I'm afraid... just like Xu Xianqing and Wan Yanyang did in the previous dynasty. In the last few.”

"Now you and I are both grasshoppers on the same rope. On my side, I have to rely more on Brother Ma. The logic is useless, and I have to rely on the butt of the gun."

Although they were joking, the two of them also felt a little worried. There is no official in the world who cannot fail. Even if Duke Xing Guo is now in a prosperous life, if the two of him are included in the "Records of Wei Xin Treacherous Officials and Generals" in the future, they may be implicated.

When the time comes, the old and new accounts will be settled together, and I'm afraid Dashun will also be in trouble due to the party dispute between the new party and the old party in the Song Dynasty.

Ma Haochuan sighed and smiled bitterly: "Forget it, since His Majesty has appointed you and me here, we have to do it. You and I are actually the same. If His Majesty asks, if we really don't want to climb up, we will just be conservative and blockheaded. His Majesty will evaluate us as mediocre, isn't that enough?"

"It's just a pity that you and I both want to climb up. After saying so much, we got this job. Now I understand what it means to forget to withdraw when there is enough behind, and want to turn back when there is no way ahead."

"No matter what Brother Niu thinks, I crawled out of the pile of dead bodies in western Sichuan, and now I have finally climbed to the defense envoy. It is impossible for me to stop. I am only thirty years old. If I were the age of knowing my destiny, my mind would be indifferent."

Niu Congyun also laughed and said: "Who is not? Forget, forget, forget! A traitor is a traitor."

The two of them revealed their thoughts to each other, and made up their minds to support each other to the end and fight for a good life.

…………

Two days later, the leaders of the merchants of the Luzhou Gang, the Tea Horse Gang, and the Mianzhou Gang in Sichuan, who had received the news long ago, personally came to the Xiqin Guild Hall to serve tea.

The merchants of the Mianzhou Gang also performed a play of "carrying a thorn to ask for forgiveness", deliberately coming naked with a thorn on their backs.

The reason for this was that not long ago, there were some conflicts between the Mianzhou Gang and the Shaanxi merchants.

The pawnshops in Pingwu County, Sichuan are basically opened by Shaanxi merchants. It can even be said that now about 70% of the pawnshops in the entire Sichuan Province are opened by Shaanxi people.

And opening a pawnshop and lending usury are all very shabby, you can imagine.

The general course of events was very common, nothing more than the Shaanxi pawnshop in Pingwu County lending out usury, and then forcing a local family to sell their wives and daughters to repay the debt.

This was a very normal thing in this era.

Sichuan merchants were originally quite dissatisfied with Shaanxi merchants who brought huge capital into Sichuan.

When the incident in Pingwu County forced a slightly powerful local family to sell their wives to pay off debts, the merchants of the Mianzhou Gang also took the opportunity to fan the flames.

In addition, they did some things that did not lead to the birth of sons, and they forced many people to death by lending money.

Therefore, the local Sichuan merchants, gentry, villagers, etc. in Pingwu County were incited and indignant, asking the Shaanxi people to get out of Pingwu.

Once the Pingwu incident broke out, the villagers in the surrounding Zhaohua, Guangyuan, Zitong, Jianzhou, Shiquan and other places gathered to respond.

The slogan "All Shaanxi guests will be expelled."

In Dashun, this incident was called the "Mianzhou Wife Selling Incident."

After the Mianzhou Gang expelled the Shaanxi people, they monopolized the pawnbroking industry in Mianzhou.

As for whether it was really giving back to the village and not cheating fellow villagers, it is unknown. Maybe the pawnshops opened by Sichuan merchants gave low interest to the villagers? Or maybe Sichuan merchants did not lend high-interest loans to Sichuan people?

But in the end, the Mianzhou gang and the Shaanxi merchants had a deep grudge because of the wife-selling incident.

However, now that the Sichuan salt is going to be handled by a joint venture, the previous hatred is no longer important.

Pawning is not as profitable as selling salt after all, especially after the court spread the word that it would cancel the high land rent, the Mianzhou gang certainly hoped that the two sides would laugh it off.

The head of the Chamber of Commerce of the Xiqin Guild Hall warmly received these Sichuan merchants, and personally untied the thorns for the Sichuan merchants of the Mianzhou gang who came to apologize, and even put on his clothes.

Liucheng, who should leave, still has to leave. After drinking the tea, he indicated that the matter would be written off in the future.

The head of the Shaanxi merchant gang knew it in his heart.

Back in the capital, Liu Yu insisted that they pay for the repair of the Three Gorges waterway and that they must leave more than 30% of the shares to the local Sichuan people, in order to unite all the forces that can be united.

Whether they are close or not, they are divided by class.

Now, to deal with the landlords of Xuzhou Prefecture, these merchants who were preparing to invest in salt wells put aside their previous grudges.

The reason why Shaanxi merchants agreed to pay for the repair of the Three Gorges so easily was that they did not know that the court actually wanted to "import Sichuan salt to Chu, supply salt in Huaibei, and reclaim land in Huainan".

The reason is also related to the wife-selling incident of that year.

If this time, the local wealthy merchants in Sichuan are not widely won over, what will this incident turn into today?

It will turn into Sichuan merchants contributing money and effort, instigating in the middle, and characterizing this incident as "Qin people taking Sichuan people's property", which may be difficult to end.

In the end, it may cause great conflicts between Sichuan people and Shaanxi merchants, and it may be very difficult to gain a foothold.

Shaanxi merchants don't think they have done anything wrong. They are loaning money at high interest rates. If you don't have money to pay off your debts, it's none of my business if you sell your wife? If you are kind-hearted, he will sell his wife tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Will this pawnshop be closed? Will he stop lending money at high interest rates?

Since they felt that they were not at fault, they naturally received these Sichuan merchants with the attitude of a winner and a mentality of not remembering the mistakes of the villains.

No matter what happened internally, in the eyes of Sichuan merchants, Shaanxi merchants were "upright and noble". It was Shaanxi merchants who "took the initiative" to pay for the repair of the Three Gorges waterway and took advantage of the background of Yunnan copper and Guizhou lead water transportation to seize the monopoly of Sichuan salt.

Moreover, Shaanxi merchants "took the initiative" to reserve 30% of the shares for Sichuan merchants. Isn't this convincing?

If you look at it this way, those who said that these Shaanxi merchants were not qualified to build the temple of Guan Erye were completely Deng Ai and Zhong Hui. Now, they are fully qualified to worship the temple of Guan Erye. They are so righteous.