Li Rusong felt very sad when he heard that Zhang Juzheng asked him to offer the Liaodong shops that were making a fortune every day. These shops and business relationships were either controlled by relatives of the Li family, or he had screened out those who could share the wealth with the Li family.
Merchants share it with them.
The main business of Li Chengliang's family is to engage in the ginseng and fur business through mutual trading in Fushun and smuggling. Li Chengliang used the military power of the Jurchen tribes to give priority to the Jurchen and Tartars in exchange for cotton, tea, salt and other common products in the Central Plains.
The high-quality old ginseng and skins in Tao's hands made huge profits.
Northeastern wild ginseng is a life-saving medicinal material in traditional Chinese medicine. The demand for ginseng in the Central Plains is endless, and the trading profits are astonishing. Why did Li Chengliang win the favor of the Manchu officials? He was raised with the profits from ginseng trading!
Now that the imperial court has given the earl a great honor to his ancestors, this salary is nothing compared to the ginseng and fur trade. These shops are a golden rice bowl for future generations. Zhang Juzheng asked him to hand it over. Li Chengliang was a little puzzled for a moment, sincerely
Some of them can't accept it.
Although Li Chengliang accounted for the majority of the ginseng and fur trade, others were also involved. As long as civil servants were closely related to Ji Liao, generals such as Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang also set up shops in Fushun to engage in such transactions, but there was no Li family.
It's just a big deal. Li Chengliang said, should I hand it over, or should all these people hand it over? How much should I hand over? To what extent should I be exposed?
In addition to ginseng and fur, there is another treasure in the Northeast. The channel is temporarily owned by the Li family, and Li Chengliang has kept it secret. This treasure is the "Dongzhu" that the Jurchens call "Tana".
During the Han Dynasty, Chinese natural pearls were divided into two categories. One category was seawater pearls produced in Hepu, Guangxi, which were called southern pearls; the other category was freshwater pearls from Mudanjiang, Huntongjiang, Jingbo Lake and other places, which were historically known as northern pearls.
, also known as Dongzhu.
The collection of Dongzhu is very difficult. You have to go into the biting cold water to fish for clams and select pearls in March and April. You may not be able to find a jewel-grade one among a thousand river clams. Emperor Qianlong of the original time and space once lamented: "It's hard to find one in a hundred."
It is called a rare treasure."
Because the East Pearl is large, full, round and crystal-clear, and can emit colorful luster, it has been the top rare treasure in jewelry throughout the ages, and its price is far higher than that of the South Pearl.
During the Jin, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, the desire for Dongzhu among dignitaries grew day by day, and there are endless records of Jurchens fishing for pearls throughout history.
At the end of the Jin Dynasty, in order to negotiate peace with Mongolia, the Emperor of the Jin Kingdom presented the Eastern Pearl in the palace to Genghis Khan. The "Tian Khan" was dazzled for a while;
, donated a large number of Dongzhu, and won the Wanli Emperor Mao reward.
Why did the Haixi Jurchen King's Platform live a better life than Wang Gao? Their people were extravagant. Compared with the Jianzhou Department, the combat effectiveness of the Haixi Jurchen was like fighting against the fifth scum, but why did Wang Gao not dare to attack the King's Platform for many years and only dared to
Unify all the ministries of Jianzhou?
Because Wangtai's general backstage was Li Chengliang, Wangtai's Hada Department used the materials Li Chengliang transported to carry out large-scale trading of Dongzhu and sables. Therefore, he sat firmly on Diaoyutai in Liaodong and watched the situation with a smile, and no one dared to take his ideas.
Wangtai used this agent status to even implicitly become the middleman between the Jurchens and the imperial court.
The year before last, in the sixth year of Longqing's reign, Jia Ruyi, the governor of Fushun, changed the rules of the horse market trading without authorization, which aroused Wang Gao's dissatisfaction and was later interrogated by the court. Wang Tai presided over a cattle-killing ceremony to establish an alliance, and the three parties reiterated the horse market trading regulations.
At that time, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and others endured this, and it was true that Emperor Longqing was seriously ill and did not dare to raise troops. In the final analysis, Wangtai's face was given to him by Li Chengliang behind his back.
...
Zhu Yijun, who was well aware that the affairs in Liaodong were extremely big, had long regarded Li Chengliang as the top priority of Jinyiwei's monitoring. Jinyiwei had already formed a thick special report on the truth about the Li family's control over the ginseng, fur and Dongzhu transactions.
One time when he and Zhang Juzheng were discussing the military situation in Liaodong, he took out a big Eastern pearl and said to Zhang Juzheng: "This is the Eastern pearl that Mrs. Dingguo gave to the Queen Mother for viewing. It is said that this pearl is worth a hundred taels. - Mr.
Do you know who is standing behind the shop selling dongzhu in the capital?"
At that time, Zhang Juzheng thought that it was Tan Lun, the Minister of War, or Liu Yingjie who was to blame, and he was frightened. Zhu Yijun did not let him guess, and said directly: "The Jin Yiwei checked a lot, and found out that this was the transaction of General Li of Liaodong.
——It is a big taboo for the border generals to have financial resources. Liaodong affairs must be considered carefully and comprehensively. Not only must we deal with the Donglu, but we must also consider these things together."
...
Although the relationship between Zhang Juzheng and Li Chengliang is not as close as that between Qi Jiguang and Li Chengliang, it is not bad due to Li Chengliang's deliberate flattery. It is known that the emperor had an opinion about Li Chengliang out of his love for Li Chengliang's talents and their usual relationship.
This conversation today.
At this moment, seeing Li Chengliang frowning and getting into a long examination, Zhang Juzheng said in his heart: "It's true that people die for money and birds die for food. He can't look away from such a simple thing." He felt a little funny and a little alarmed.
Feeling a little sad again.
With a slight cough, Zhang Juzheng said: "Uncle Ning Yuan hasn't settled the accounts yet? The emperor hopes that every minister should be a pure minister. If he can't do it, at least the generals should be pure ministers. Mr. Li will never feel that the court knows about you.
Now that we have financial resources in Liaodong, I will let you continue to command the army."
Li Chengliang subconsciously retorted: "What the prime minister said is true, but the few shops in our house are just to supplement the family income and maintain some dignity. Who can use this money to support the army? Wouldn't that be a big mistake? Haha."
He laughed dryly twice. Seeing that there was no smile on Zhang Juzheng's face, he quickly stopped laughing. He said to Zhang Juzheng: "Since the prime minister has told me, Cheng Liang will do it. Without the body of the general soldier, there will be no one."
No matter how good the deal is, you can't keep your title. Cheng Liang understands this."
When Zhang Juzheng saw what he said, he snorted coldly and said: "Uncle Ning Yuan! I may be talking too much today! Do you think someone is deceiving you?"
Li Chengliang thought to himself: My two sons have come to the capital as hostages. Why should the emperor be worried? How could the emperor be interested in my business? I don’t know which big boss in the capital is interested in it and forces you to come out to cheat.
Mine.
What kind of person is Zhang Juzheng? Seeing Li Chengliang's expression with helplessness and some understanding of himself, he thought to himself that only today did he realize that this person was so greedy. I didn't want to care about him and let him fend for himself, but then he thought of the emperor.
The Liaodong economic strategy plan really needs Li Chengliang's close cooperation.
Zhang Juzheng thought in his mind and immediately made a decision. He pretended to be furious, slapped the table and sneered: "General Li, you use Haixi, Hezhe and other departments to collect Dongzhu for you and sell it, and you will make no less than 300,000 taels of profit every year.
——Do you think the Emperor and Bu Gu don’t know about this? Since you are avoiding the important and taking the easy, you are still thinking about marrying a wife and celebrating the New Year. That’s it for today. I won’t send you the truth, so please do as you please!”
This sentence was like a thunderbolt, which struck Li Chengliang as crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Shocked, he knelt down again and stammered: "Master... Prime Minister... don't be upset, Chengliang knows
wrong!"
Zhang Juzheng finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his guard was broken, and secretly wiped his sweat. He thought to himself: The emperor's strategic plans are wonderful, but they have to be implemented by me, and we can clear the obstacles for him - don't do it.
When he became prime minister, he died of exhaustion.