Chapter 137 0132 [The blood-stained tea-horse trade] (for the enterprise
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He also took the cornucopia with him and was saying goodbye to his wife and children - the mare had given birth.
When this beast realized that he was about to go down the mountain, he showed no mercy to his wife and children and kept pumping his hooves on the spot in excitement.
"be honest!"
Ju Ming slapped it away and put the luggage on the horse. The Ganoderma lucidum was also packed in a bag and hung with the luggage.
Chen Yuan and his entourage, as well as the beast Cornucopia, will definitely not be able to ride the inn train and ship for free. They will have to pay extra. The inn staff are very happy, they are eager to make more extra money.
The post here is just an abbreviation. In the Song Dynasty, it was divided into two systems: post and delivery.
The post house only provides food and accommodation, which is equivalent to a government-run inn. It recruits civilian servants as post boys, and is usually headed by the county magistrate or county magistrate.
The delivery shop only has vehicles and ships, and is responsible for delivering documents, mailing packages, and transportation. The staff are all soldiers and are supervised by road-level supervisors, prefecture and county magistrates, and patrol envoys.
Post houses are only set up inside and outside the city, but delivery shops are everywhere. It is necessary to ensure smooth delivery of official documents.
Shen Yourong was too pregnant to go down the mountain, so he only sent Ju Ming out of the village gate.
But Mrs. Yan took her grandsons and sent them all the way to the river. Just like ten years ago, when she sent her son to take the exam, she really regarded Ju Ming as her own grandson.
Taking the village boat, we soon arrived at Shangbai Village, where we transferred to the Bai family's passenger boat and continued our journey.
The beast Cornucopia was very obedient and did not mess around on the boat, otherwise it would capsize the village boat.
The Bai family's passenger ship also only went as far as the Golden Gorge, and everyone disembarked by land.
After walking for a while, there was a plank road in front of us, and everyone sat down to rest.
Bai Chongyan mysteriously took out a few oil paper packets: "This is sliced tea, specially for the royal family to drink. Just these few bunches of sliced tea can be sold for hundreds of dollars when shipped to Tokyo."
"Isn't wax tea the most precious? Why is there still sliced tea?" Zhu Ming asked curiously.
The tea produced in the Song Dynasty is not the type of tea produced in Lu'an Guapian.
Bai Chongyan explained: "Strictly speaking, Piancha is also a type of wax tea, but it is more delicately made than wax tea. Even when pressed into tea cakes, a silver mold is needed, otherwise the taste will not be right. This is what my family With several years of inventory, hundreds of acres of tea mountains, and five or six years of stockpiling, I can only make these few balls of top-quality tea."
Zhu Ming was speechless after hearing this.
It can only be pressed with silver molds. It's just random. What's the difference between copper molds and stone molds?
Tea slices are also divided into grades. The best ones are the most expensive, and even in tea-producing areas, the price is more than 1 guan. However, the rate of defective products is also extremely high. The most rubbish piece tea is priced at the same price as the most rubbish loose tea. Even the lowest common people Neither of them likes to drink.
Officially, tea is roughly divided into three grades, but in the end market, it is further subdivided into dozens of grades.
For example, wax tea is divided into 16 grades, sliced tea is divided into 55 grades, and loose tea is divided into 59 grades.
The tea in Bai Chongyan's hands is a top-grade piece of tea. Private sales are prohibited and only the royal family is allowed to drink it. If a private businessman obtains this product, he must sell it to the royal family, otherwise he will be guilty of exceeding the limit if he is caught.
If it exceeds the ghost system, the more forbidden it is by the court, the more people like it, and the higher the price will be.
Ju Ming took it over and smelled it through the oil paper bag. The fragrance was already revealed. He was surprised and asked: "How many spices were used in this?"
"More than twenty kinds," Bai Chongyan said. "If I couldn't bring it to the capital duty-free, my family wouldn't bother making tea. If we sell it locally, we will lose money even if we smuggle it."
The reason for the loss is that the production cost is too high and the defective product rate is also high.
Ju Ming felt that the tea-making process in the Song Dynasty had completely gone astray, just like the glass-making process in the Ming Dynasty.
Xue Daoguang said: "Dalang, show me that Ganoderma lucidum."
Ju Ming took the bag off his horse and threw it over.
Xue Daoguang quickly caught it, opened the bag carefully, and scolded: "This is a century-old Ganoderma lucidum, how can you throw it away carelessly?"
Ju Ming smiled and said: "If Taoist priest likes it, just soak it in water and drink it."
"It's too valuable, so I don't want it." After Xue Daoguang finished speaking, he began to count the "annual rings."
Counting again and again, it has only been more than ten years, and it seems that there is still a long way to go before Lingzhi can be produced for a century.
No longer obsessed with the year, Xue Daoguang concluded that this was Ganoderma lucidum that was a century old. He looked at it repeatedly and tasted it and said: "This is Zizhizhi. It is recorded in "Shen Nong's Materia Medica". Its taste is sweet and warm. It is good for deafness, joints, mental health, and essence."
Qi, strong muscles and bones, good color. If you take it for a long time, it will lighten your body and prevent you from aging. Prolonging your life is definitely fake, but taking it in conjunction with the inner elixir method can also be beneficial to your practice and health."
It is indeed useful. Its effect is remarkable, which is equivalent to injecting several bottles of amino acids, glucose, mannitol... In ancient times, it was a magic medicine, which can greatly enhance the human body's immunity.
Ju Ming asked: "How much can it be sold for in Tokyo?"
"It's worth a hundred guan," Xue Daoguang said. "If a patient is eager to buy it, he can sell it for 500 or 600 guan."
Ju Ming sighed: "It is indeed a good thing."
Taking out the eggs cooked by Mrs. Yan and Shen Yourong, Zhu Ming shared them with everyone, then patted his butt and set off on his way.
After waiting for a few days in Yangzhou, I nailed horseshoes on the cornucopia, and then went to the state government office to receive a parole, and finally waited until the official ship from Dipu set off.
Perhaps it was because the people who took the boat were all members of the county, relatives and friends, and the boatman was too lazy to check carefully. Even Chen Yuan, his three followers, and the beast in the cornucopia all enjoyed the free boat ride.
There were quite a few people who took this kind of smooth sailing, and some even pretended to be relatives of officials, and were found out and kicked off the boat.
Su Shi has a classic story. A fellow villager pretended to be his relative and mailed packages for free through a courier shop. It happened that Su Shi also took that boat, and the courier boy delivered the package directly to him. After the matter was exposed, Su Shi did not pursue the matter.
He also changed his mailing address to his own home, which fully complied with the court regulations.
Such generosity of the government and poaching the country's corners actually became a good talk. Everyone in the world thought that Mr. Su was very generous and took special care of his fellow countrymen.
It can only be said that ancient and modern concepts are different.
Li Hanzhang was also waiting for the ship, and with him was his son who had joined the army to record affairs.
"Dalang, this is the husband of Tu Shenjun's family, Tu Rukui, whose courtesy name is Dufang. Brother Dufang, this is Zhu Ming, a scholar from the Eighth Route Army, whose courtesy name is Chenggong." Li Hanzhang introduced.
Tu Rukui bowed his head and said: "I have heard about the name of Successful Young Disciple for a long time, but now that I have seen him, he is well-deserved."
Zhu Ming bowed in return: "To each other, each other."
Li Hanzhang introduced other people to Tu Rukui.
The scholars were all very enthusiastic, after all, they were sons who joined the army to record affairs, but there was also a hint of disdain.
Li Hanzhang came to Lizhou Road to take the exam, at least one or two years in advance.
But this Mr. Tu, who usually lives in Jiangxi, showed up just before the exam. He didn't even bother to make a basic appearance. He probably was a second-class person who couldn't pass the exam in Jiangxi!
The official ship of Yangzhou Delivery Store stopped when it sailed to Xingyuan Prefecture, and all official documents and packages were transferred to the official ship of Xingyuan Prefecture.
Ju Ming and others also changed boats, and then they had to buy tickets for the cornucopia.
Before changing ships, you can eat and drink for free at Xingyuanfu Inn, which also provides fodder for the horses.
After drinking and eating, Ju Ming took the cornucopia and walked around outside the city. When the official ship was about to set off, the boatmen were urging him, so Ju Ming led the horse aboard.
This beast didn't like riding in the boat and snorted to express his dissatisfaction.
The next section of road is the famous Baoxie Road, which is nearly 500 miles long.
When we reached a section with fast currents, the official boat stopped to look for the trackers.
The trackers who picked up the work were miserable at this job.
Zhu Ming's ride on the official ship was free, and hiring trackers on the official ship was also free. They were only given rations along the way, which were not enough for the physical exertion of the trackers.
Fortunately, the trackers are also divided into sections. After one day of driving, another group of trackers will suffer the consequences, and the same group will be caught and killed.
There is a river bend in the middle, the water flow is relatively gentle, and there are farmers farming on the bank.
There are two delivery shops built there, one is an ordinary shop and the other is a specialized tea delivery shop.
As soon as the official ship docked, they saw two soldiers carrying the body with expressionless faces and throwing it into the water with a bang.
"What's happening?" Zhu Ming asked in surprise.
Bai Chongyan said: "The servant who moved the tea."
Li Hanzhang said: "Tea is produced in all roads in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and there are tea delivery shops on each road. During the Yuanfeng period, soldiers were still used to transport tea. Every time a few hundred rural soldiers were missing, they would all die and escape within a year or two. Later it was changed.
As a messenger, people take turns carrying tea, and the tea truck in Yangzhou is particularly heavy."
Ling Guxu said: "The tea shops along the way are called the 'life-taking place' by the people."
Li Hanzhang added: "Local officials hate this deeply, but there is nothing they can do about it!"
The local officials hate tea servants because they forcefully recruit servants, not only tarnishing their own reputations, but they cannot get half a dime out of them, and all the profits are taken away by the tea horsemen.
There are a few well-intentioned local officials who are unwilling to force civilians to serve as servants and have to pay their own money to hire people to serve as servants.
"You won't lose your life if you move the tea, right?" Zhu Ming asked doubtfully.
Li Hanzhang explained: "To transport tea all the way to the frontier, many places cannot take boats and rely on manpower to carry it. If we can't recruit trackers, the tea messengers have to go ashore to pull the fibers. Moreover, the officials in charge of escorting the tea completely ignore the life and death of the servants and do whatever they want.
Not only were they beaten and scolded, but even their food rations were withheld. Out of ten people who were sent home, only six or seven could go home alive. Even if they could go home alive, many people would be seriously ill."
Damn it, the mortality rate is 30% to 40%!
The local officials couldn't control it, so how could Ju Ming? He could only sigh secretly and go to the delivery shop on the shore to eat.
When passing by the tea delivery shop, four people suddenly ran over, knelt down and shouted: "Du Tou, help me!"
Before Ju Ming could react, an official came up with a whip and shouted angrily: "Rebellion? Come back quickly to bring tea! We only killed one person, and you are not afraid of death?"
"Help me, I'm your soldier!" A tea servant refused to go back and rushed towards Ju Ming.
Ju Ming already understood what was going on. Some of the archers he had led were recruited by the new Chief Zhang, and the rest were all retaliated by subordinate officials. Every year, they were selected from these archers for all kinds of hard work.
"Wait a minute!" Zhu Ming stopped him quickly.
When the officer saw that Zhu Ming was dressed as a scholar, he immediately put on a smile and said, "Hello, Mr. Minister."
Ju Ming took out four pieces of money and stuffed them into the hands of the official: "These four people were once my subordinates. Can you treat them favorably and leniently along the way?"
When the official saw the words on the money clearly and realized that it was money, he immediately laughed even more happily: "Since my young husband has spoken, I will give you preferential treatment and ensure that the four of them come back alive."
"Where are you from?" Zhu Ming asked again.
The official replied: "I am from the Tea and Horse Department of Xingyuan Prefecture."
Ju Ming asked: "Have you ever heard of me, Zhu Chenggong?"
The official was stunned for a moment, and then became more respectful: "I know, it turns out that it was the Eighth Line Scholars in person, and the entire Xingyuan Mansion knew that you had brought immortal grains from overseas."
"Good job taking care of my people." Ju Ming patted him on the shoulder.
"Definitely." The official bowed quickly.
Zhu Ming then said to the four former archers: "If there are any more servants, go to Heifeng Village. When you return home, tell this to the other brothers."
"Thank you all for helping me!" The four people kowtowed frantically.
This is all Ju Ming can do. Unless he rebels immediately, he must not offend Tea Horse.
Offending the Tea Horse Master is more terrifying than offending the magistrate or magistrate!