In the next few days, Tang Xiaobei took Yuan Caiwei to visit the mountains and rivers.
But in private, the Zhongming Group is working hard to investigate grain merchants in Baling County.
Unfortunately, after several days of investigation, there is still no big result.
The Lianghu Plain in the south of the Yangtze River, also called Yunmeng Plain, Yunmeng Ze, etc., was formed by the impact of sediment brought by the Yangtze River and its tributaries.
The land is fertile, the climate is suitable, there are many rivers and lakes, and irrigation and drainage are very convenient. It is also one of the important granaries in the country.
But precisely because of this, land annexation is very serious in the Lianghu Plain.
The gap between rich and poor is extremely serious.
The prosperity and prosperity of Jiangnan has little to do with ordinary people.
The landlord's family has plenty of fish and meat every day, and there are swarms of slaves.
The poor people can only eat chaffy vegetables to barely satisfy their hunger.
In years when the harvest is bad, even bran wild vegetables cannot be eaten.
There was so much water in the south of the Yangtze River that the people could no longer survive and had no choice but to become water bandits.
In the Dongting Lake area, the number of water bandits is no less than that of mountain bandits in Sichuan and Sichuan.
In fact, when Dakang was founded, many people were allocated land, but over hundreds of years, there would always be several disaster years.
In the feudal era, grain output was not high to begin with. In years of disaster, many people ran out of grain in spring.
The old grain has been eaten and the new grain has not yet matured. This period is called "the green and the yellow".
The common people could only borrow food from the wealthy gentry and wealthy families to survive the difficult times.
However, to borrow grain from the gentry and wealthy families, one needs to agree to a series of conditions.
When borrowing food, use a small bucket to hold it, and when returning food, use a big bucket. These are all basic operations, which are called "big bucket in and small bucket out".
What's even worse is that the interest rate for borrowing food is very high.
So high that modern people cannot imagine it.
In the spring, if you borrow a few rations of life-saving grain from a wealthy family, at harvest time, you may have to return all the food rations for your family to the wealthy family, but you still won't be able to settle the account.
Because I pressed my fingerprints when borrowing food, I couldn't win the lawsuit. I had to sell my son or daughter or use the only land I had to pay off the debt.
This is just one of the most common methods used by wealthy families to annex land. In order to take land away from the people, wealthy families can use any means.
Many wealthy families maintain a large number of domestic slaves and thugs. Their job is to think of how to deceive the people and take action.
Over hundreds of years, land slowly concentrated into the hands of a few people.
The wealthy families became big landowners.
Dakang's industry is backward and there are few job opportunities. The people who have lost their land can only become exploited tenants, helping the landlords to cultivate the land that originally belonged to them.
After working hard for a year, I still have to endure cold and hunger at the end of the year.
It's not that the land doesn't produce food, or that the people are lazy, but that most of the food they grow is taken away by landlords and local officials under various pretexts.
These grain merchants were the white gloves of the wealthy landowners. They were responsible for sending the grain that the landlords and gentry collected from the people to the north, in exchange for money and other resources.
Behind every grain merchant is a local wealthy family.
"These wealthy and distinguished families usually talk about benevolence, righteousness and morality, but in fact each one is more greedy and despicable than the last!"
In the pavilion by the river, Tang Xiaobei put down the information in his hands and asked, "Has the news from the capital been transmitted?"
Although Jiangnan is prosperous, it is not as important as the capital after all.
Not many people in Jiangnan know about high-end goods like water jade.
The reason Tang Xiaobei had to wait a few days was because he was waiting for news about the jade auction in the capital.
In this way, the value of jade can be increased and exchanged for more food.
"Two caravans came back from the capital yesterday. The secret wire heard them discussing water jade in the warehouse. It seemed that they also heard the auction house. However, the distance was far away at the time and the hidden wire could not hear clearly and could not confirm it, so I did not report it to you."
Yuan Caiwei replied.
"Counting on time, it's almost time for the news to come through. Let's let the Zhongming team start taking action."
Tang Xiaobei thought for a moment and said: "Also, the investigation is not over yet. I still feel that people are slandering Mr. There is someone behind it."
"Yes!" Yuan Caiwei agreed, turned and left.
Tang Xiaobei picked up the brochure on the table and continued to read with a frown. She didn't notice at all that on the river dozens of meters away, on a large ship slowly docking, a young man was staring at her, his eyes full.
It's unbelievable.
"Master, the ship has arrived!" the old butler reminded.
The young man looked away and limped off the boat.
If Tang Xiaobei saw him, he would definitely recognize him.
This person was none other than her old acquaintance with Jin Feng—Zhou Wenyuan of the Zhou family.
When Mr. Wenyuan went to Guangyuan to sell soap, he got greedy and kidnapped Tang Xiaobei. He was chased by Jin Feng for hundreds of miles.
Although he escaped later, he was hit by an arrow in his leg and failed to deal with it in time. He became a cripple for the rest of his life.
The Zhou family was also blackmailed severely by political opponents because he killed the soldiers guarding the city, and they paid a heavy price to settle the matter.
In anger, the head of the Zhou family drove Zhou Wenyuan and his family to Jiangnan.
In name, he came to Jiangnan to take charge of the affairs of the Jiangnan states, and was given greater rights.
But anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is a rise and a fall. Without the capital, the center of power, Zhou Wenyuan's family will only decline more and more.
Just like the original Guangyuan Zhou family, it became one of many side branches and was gradually forgotten by the family.
For this reason, the marriage proposal made to him by his family also fell through.
Having the woman break off the engagement is a great shame and humiliation for a well-to-do man.
Before Zhou Wenyuan left the capital, he had already become a laughing stock among the young men in the capital.
I thought I would be able to live a good life in Jiangnan, but who knew that the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce store would also open in Jiangnan.
The Zhou family and the Qing family have already negotiated terms. Zhou Wenyuan did not dare to embarrass the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce in the capital, but when he arrived in Jiangnan, he had no worries.
The Sichuan-Sichuan land suffered a disaster, the master behind the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce was Jin Feng, and the rumors that Jin Feng was going to make a fortune from the disaster were spread by people sent by Zhou Wenyuan.
But he didn't expect that Tang Xiaobei would come to Baling County.
Before Zhou Wenyuan got on the carriage, he looked back at Tang Xiaobei, with a hint of evil in his eyes.
[The author has something to say]
Starting from Chapter 415, the plot about Zuo Feifei has been modified. If you are interested, you can refresh it and take a look. This mistake was due to Beichuan not controlling the rhythm well. I apologize again.