The welcoming ceremony on the pier outside Changmen was symbolic. After it was over, eunuch Wang Jing continued to walk a few miles south and stayed at Gusu Inn outside Xumen.
There are many post stations around Suzhou City, and Gusu Post is the largest among them. It has the largest number of people, the most complete facilities, and the highest grade. There is no problem in entertaining distinguished guests.
After settling in, Wang Jing sat in the hall and dismissed his entourage, leaving only his godson Wang Chen to talk.
It is said that this Wang Chen was originally from Suzhou and worked as a servant in a wealthy family. However, he was handsome and smart. He learned many talents in playing, playing, singing, chess, harp, calligraphy and painting, and was deeply loved by his master. But he should not*
*Xun Xin had an affair with his master's concubine and was taken advantage of by his master.
However, the master did not want to publicize the scandal, so he locked Wang Chen in the house with the intention of starving him to death. However, a young maid secretly released Wang Chen. After that, Wang Chen was worried about being caught by the master, so he fled to the capital.
In the capital, Wang Chen had a unique opportunity. He met Wang Jing's father-in-law. Because he was good at writing, he was assigned to work as a clerk in Wuying Palace. Later, Wang Chen worshiped Wang Jing as his godfather, and Wang Jing asked the emperor for help.
A favor, the king and his ministers were rewarded with the titles of royal guards and thousands of households.
This time Wang Jing went to Jiangnan to make purchases. Remembering his godson's identity as a Suzhou native, he took Wang Chen with him and sent Wang Chen to the Suzhou Prefecture first. Of course, it was not just to arrange food, clothing, housing and transportation...
After confirming that no one was eavesdropping, Wang Jing asked Wang Chen: "What do you think of Suzhou Mansion? I heard that he was also a person who contradicted Wang Zhi back then. I wonder what he is like?"
The king's minister replied: "I gave him five hundred taels of silver before, but he didn't dare to say a hard word. I exchanged five hundred taels of silver from the treasury. In my opinion, the name of this magistrate does not live up to the reality."
I definitely won’t dare to contradict my godfather, so there’s nothing to worry about!”
Wang Jing asked again: "Have you met the imperial envoy Fang Yingwu? What about this person?"
Wang Chen thought for a while and then replied: "I heard that Fang Qin was out on a sightseeing trip. So I never saw him, but there are many rumors about him.
The local officials and people in Suzhou don't like this person very much, and Fang Qinchen himself doesn't seem to like the local officials and people in Suzhou very much. It can be said that they hate each other. According to my opinion, this imperial envoy still has a youthful mentality and has nothing to do with him when he was in the capital.
His sophistication may be because there is no one to guide him from behind."
"Then don't worry about him, and don't provoke him for the time being." Wang Jing began to talk about his own affairs, "I came to Jiangnan this time. The emperor gave me 10,000 salt coins and 10,000 guan of treasure notes as my capital. At present,
The first thing to do is to convert these capital into silver coins.
Firstly, I can collect some money, and I will feel at ease only if I have it; secondly, I can establish my prestige so that the officials and people in the south of the Yangtze River know how powerful I am; thirdly, I can test the place and see what kind of temper I have."
Wang Chen immediately agreed: "My godfather has far-reaching ideas, and what he said is absolutely true! The ten thousand guan of treasure banknotes must first be exchanged for ten thousand taels of silver. However, it would be a bit difficult to exchange them all with the Suzhou government office.
Therefore, we can send people to nearby Songjiang, Changzhou and other places to exchange money. These places are prosperous places in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is not a big problem to exchange thousands of taels from various yamen."
Wang Jing nodded, "This is a very good idea. I will select people and let them go later."
Wang Chen then suggested: "As for the 10,000 salt citations, we don't need to rely on the government. Suzhou has a dense local business community. The godfather can summon merchants on the spot and distribute the 10,000 salt citations. Just force them to claim and buy it!"
You must spend at least one or two and a half taels of silver to buy each salt yin. With ten thousand salt yin, you can recover at least fifteen thousand taels of silver from the merchant!"
Wang Jing put his hands on his hands and smiled, "My son has thought carefully. It seems that he is really attentive. He will do everything according to your ideas. This is how my father and son's wealth began!"
Of course, this is just the beginning. After redeeming the capital, you can proceed to the next step, which is to conduct a ruthless search of the big players. Therefore, during these times, you have to assign people to inquire about the information and see if there are any rich people.
Household, who has any treasures and antiques?
If there is not enough manpower, then recruit a group of people from the local area. There will always be someone to do the beheading business, so it should not be difficult to find a group of people who are willing to work."
However, Wang Chen took out a directory from his arms and said hesitantly: "I have a list here. It was a list signed by the local gentry when they jointly submitted a letter to the court a while ago. It is just to disturb the local area.
It’s too much, can your godfather be able to bear it?”
Eunuch Wang Jing glanced at the list for a few times, then raised his head and replied nonchalantly: "You only need to understand one question, does your heart look towards me or towards the local tyrants?
The capital given by the emperor is salt and treasure banknotes, which are printed by the imperial court itself. You can print as many as you want! Even if it is not valuable, it is not valuable at all. Doesn’t the emperor understand this?
But we have to turn it into money, and we have to turn it into ten times the money! We are doing this for the emperor, and the emperor knows it very well. Besides, others still dare to chase them to the palace for revenge? So what are we afraid of?
?”
After Wang Jing taught his godson a lesson, he raised the list in his hand and said, "In addition, this list is far from enough. It is impossible for a place like Suzhou Prefecture to only have so many big households. We have to send more people to inquire! The emperor likes strange things the most.
Rare treasures, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, all these must be inquired about!"
"Yes!" Wang Chen bowed and agreed. Seeing that his godfather had a tired look on his face, probably because of the long journey, he took the initiative to say goodbye: "My godfather's instructions just now have been kept in mind. Let's go now.
Handle them one by one."
Wang Jing felt sleepy, yawned, and waved his hand to let his ministers do what they wanted.
Then everything went as planned. Wang Qianhu, the minister, took 7,000 guan of treasure notes and sent them to the Suzhou government office, asking to exchange them for silver. Of these 7,000 guan of treasure notes, only 5,000 guan of treasure notes were given by the emperor.
The other two thousand coins were collected by Wang Qianhu from the market for three taels of silver. Of course, after the silver was exchanged from the government office, it would also belong to Wang Qianhu himself.
When purchasing eunuchs, they needed to convert seven thousand guan of treasure notes into seven thousand taels of silver. Suzhou Magistrate Li still didn't dare to go through with it. But the government office couldn't raise so much cash, so Magistrate Li had to sell off some of the materials in the government warehouse and contact the county.
The government borrowed several sums from wealthy acquaintances, and finally collected seven thousand taels and delivered them to Wang Qianhu.
In addition, five thousand guan of treasure notes were sent to Changzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture respectively, and the cash was also cashed out. The purchase of eunuchs was simply an open-fire robbery of the official treasury. For a time, the Jiangnan Prefecture and County Yamen were complaining, but they couldn't do it.
No way.
At the same time, the purchasing eunuch issued an announcement, calling for merchants to come and claim the salt. However, there were very few responses, or no one responded at all.
Among all kinds of businesses, the salt industry is a highly technical business, and it is impossible for outsiders to get involved in it. Most salt merchants gather in Yangzhou. There are no serious salt merchants in Suzhou Prefecture.
A small retail merchant selling salt.
Even if a layman claims the salt and obtains a monopoly license from the purchasing eunuch, so what?
First of all, you have to take a salt guide to the salt production area in Huaibei to get salt. A layman who doesn’t know how to get it will be damned if he can get it. Even if he queues for several years, he still won’t be able to get the salt! Secondly, even if he can pay for the salt, transport it to the designated sales place.
Selling in different areas is also a problem.
Salt is different from other goods. It must be sold under the supervision of the government. Selling salt ultimately involves retail merchants, the government, dental shops, etc. If you do it if you don’t know how to do it, the return of funds will be extremely slow, and the salt will be lost even if it is delayed.
The merchant collapsed.
Therefore, although there are many merchants in Suzhou Prefecture, no one is interested in Yan Yin at all, and they will not be stupid enough to claim Yan Yin at a high price - needless to think, the purpose of purchasing eunuchs is to make money, and the salt Yin will definitely be sold at a high price.
"The notice has been posted for three days, but there is still no one?" Wang Jing, the eunuch who purchased the order, sat under the shade of the tree, playing with the jade and asking Wang Chen.
Wang Chen said: "There is indeed no one. It seems that we have to force the merchants to claim the salt. You can randomly select one or two hundred companies and force them to share the ten thousand salt. In this way, each family will only spend a few dozen taels of silver.
It's easy to get."
Wang Jing chuckled, "Why choose so many? Just find ten families to claim the salt. You can draw any number you want, but the number of ten families will be fine!"
Wang Chen was stunned and asked hesitantly: "Ten thousand salt quotas are to be claimed by ten families. Each family must pay at least more than a thousand taels of silver. I'm afraid that most of the manpower will not be able to come up with this.
A pen of silver."
Wang Jing snorted angrily, raised his hand and threw the jade stone at Wang Chen, scolding: "What are you doing stupidly? Do you still need me to teach you step by step? Whether others can give money to show filial piety is something you and I should consider.
What?
If any of the merchants who are ordered to come to the house cannot come up with the silver to claim the salt, let him find the silver. If he can't find the silver again, let him lose his house! Let others see the salt given by the emperor.
Yin, is it so easy to get?"
Wang Chen did not dare to hide, and his forehead was hit by a jade stone, but he still had to endure the pain and admit his mistake: "Godfather, please calm down. My son knows he was wrong, so let's do it accordingly!"
Wang Jing's expression softened slightly, and he assumed the posture of an elder and taught earnestly: "When we are doing errands for the Emperor outside, we must practice ruthlessness. Otherwise, it is not enough to show our sincerity! As for the life and death of others, it has nothing to do with us.
What does it have to do with it?"
Later, the purchasing eunuch issued another announcement, announcing ten merchants, and ordered these ten merchants to gather at Gusu Yi in two days to discuss the matter of claiming the salt.
The merchants whose names were called all took a breath. This was simply a disaster coming from the sky! Ten households shared the money, and each household had an average of 1,500 taels of silver. How many people could afford such a huge sum of money?
The merchants whose names were not called did not feel lucky, as they were very insulting. It is not a good idea to purchase eunuchs. Who knows whether they will be called tomorrow?
Immediately, the whole city was in an uproar again. The past two years in Suzhou Prefecture have been really unlucky! Last year there was a flood, and this year we encountered two imperial envoys one after the other!
The imperial envoy in front of him was relatively quiet. Although the move was very threatening, he had not yet seen any actual action. Who knew that there would be a more ruthless one behind him, who would cut the flesh directly without adding anything.
cover up!
Forcing merchants to pay high prices for the salt that the imperial court issued indiscriminately, is this any different from robbery? In comparison, the previous imperial envoy seemed gentler. (To be continued...)
ps: This chapter took longer than expected. I will try to finish the third chapter before 12 o'clock, but it may be a little later, sorry!