Sanyuan Gongsheng, the wealthy businessman Sun Zhensheng took his son Sun Zhiwei, a scholar, with the name of the enlightened gentry personally issued by the commander's mansion, and crossed Xianyang Ferry and entered the city of Xi'an.
The journey was smooth and smooth.
The word is not a compliment at this time.
When the border soldiers from the Marshal's Mansion entered Xi'an Mansion, they saw prosperity everywhere.
For Sun Zhensheng, who has lived in Sanyuan for a long time, he sees scenes of decline everywhere.
Where is Xianyang?
The premier water and land wharf in the northwest, from Xianyang to Xi'an, is the shop of floating merchants. Food, wood boards, skins, official tea, and general merchandise are carried here from various counties and transported to Shanxi and Henan by water.
In the past years, if I wanted to enter and leave Xi'an, how could I ever hear that it was smooth?
The sound of horse hooves behind him interrupted his reverie. He didn't have time to take a closer look, so he quickly pulled his son to the side of the road.
Across the long street is the former Miyang County Prince's Mansion. The dusty red door is ajar, and you can see the courtyard covered with decaying grass and the magnificent front gatehouse with three bays and five bays.
Only then did Sun Zhensheng notice that a group of more than ten elite soldiers from the Shuai Mansion were patrolling the city on horseback.
The half-armored Hexi horse is decorated with iron face armor, and the horse's bells jingle with the kicking, creating a sense of oppression.
The cavalry on horseback all wore red cloth uniforms and iron arms. They still wore wild goose feather swords in front of the horses, large bows on the back of the horses, and more than ten three-foot-long arrows.
Just insert an exotic-style flintlock handgun in each.
However, the cloth-covered armor is a bit larger, and you can see from the seams that it has a fur lining, and the collar of the armor, the helmet gun, and the collar, cuffs, and hem of the armor are all plush.
It looks very warm.
Sun Zhiwei, the son of a scholar, was only fifteen years old. When the patrolling cavalry passed by, he looked at the back of the cavalry and snorted: "Arrogant!"
"My dear, don't talk too much. Everything my family can do has been done."
Sun Zhensheng didn't look afraid or unconvinced. He just shook his head and said, "Everything in the world is unpredictable. Now that you've come to Xi'an, don't think about it anymore."
Things are really unpredictable.
Sun Zhensheng studied since he was a child, but failed to obtain any honors. He and his family brothers became extremely wealthy by selling Huai salt. They set up many industries in Yangzhou and donated a small official to consult the doctor. He is already fifty-five years old this year.
He has eight children, five of whom are in Yangzhou and doing business with their uncles. The year before last, because his eighth son Sun Zhiwei had to take the boy examination, he took his son back to his hometown to take the examination.
I was very happy at first. My son was a little prodigy. He was only fifteen years old. He passed the entrance examination and became an attached student of the county school. He became a scholar and was named Cao Miyuan!
This is more money than making money in Yangzhou, and it will give my old father face!
Unexpectedly, during Liu Chengzong's Eastern Expedition, Chang'an was in chaos and Tongguan Road was blocked, and the father and son were unable to return.
Sun Zhensheng faced the national crisis and did not stand by. He sold all his remaining wealth in Sanyuan and donated money to support the regiment training and dispatch troops. Even Sun Zhiwei was drawn into the regiment training because he was a scholar and had many friends.
As a result, this army was dispatched the day before and was beaten to a pulp the next afternoon.
Fortunately, Sun Zhiwei was not injured. He did not persist until the landlord's armed forces met the Mongolian cavalry. Marching in the dark the first night, he fell into a ditch and was blinded.
Even Mo and Kyobe Tatsumoto of the Marshal's Mansion found him on horseback the next morning and brought him to the camp. When they found out that he was a scholar from Mihara, they sent two people to take him home.
Mo Yujing didn't know at the time that Sanyuan organized a group training and sent him home in the morning. In the afternoon, the Mongolian cavalry ran into the landlord's armed forces.
The war was a mess, but it didn't matter to Sun Zhensheng. He just wanted to do his part and spend all his wealth. He didn't have much property in his hometown in Miyuan.
However, it is inevitable to feel discouraged.
In fact, after the armed gentry was defeated and the city of Xi'an was opened, Sun Zhensheng had always planned to pack up his things and leave the customs, move to Yangzhou and never come back.
Even when the pseudo-official Ye Ding of the Marshal's Mansion in Sanyuan County announced that he would invite enlightened gentry to the Xi'an Mansion to discuss important matters, he did not think about it himself.
In Miyuan, where the literary style was at its peak, officials gathered together, and powerful merchants worked together, Sun Zhensheng was not the best in terms of business, nor was he ranked highly in terms of fame, and even in terms of property, he had lost all his wealth.
He didn't even think that this matter had anything to do with him. He just thought that if the Marshal's Mansion really came to ask for property, his family would have no money left and he would have no choice but to die.
So I am quite hopeful that Wang Zheng, Jiao Yuanpu and others can withstand the pressure in the front.
As it turned out, the young Ye's parents didn't know what they thought, but they were the first ones they found.
And he was very talkative. Firstly, he didn't want his money, and secondly, he didn't want his life. He only said that he was a well-known and wealthy businessman, and he hoped to recommend him to the center of the Shuai Mansion to understand the business environment of Shaanxi and provide suggestions for the Shuai Mansion's business.
It just seems... quite formal.
Sun Zhensheng didn't dare to refuse when he came.
Secondly, he is a businessman.
No businessman in the world can refuse the business environment of the Marshal's Mansion.
The Marshal's Office can turn any private industry into a government-run franchise. Sun Zhensheng, who was born as a salt merchant, certainly understands what this means - huge profits without competitors.
It was this huge profit that lured him into Xi'an Fucheng.
Sun and his son submitted the name card to the Xi'an government office, and were then placed in the Yongshou County Prince's Mansion opposite the government office to rest and wait for the summons.
The Yongshou County Prince's Mansion looks like the Liyang County Prince's Mansion, and has become a decaying place with no one taking care of it. This place is even worse than the Liyang County Prince's Mansion, even the plaque has been removed.
But after all, it was a palace, and the Sun family and his son did not dare to wander around at all. After being placed in the wing room, they did not even dare to leave the door.
It wasn't until the afternoon when Mr. Yu Lin shouted in the courtyard that he followed him all the way into Prince Qin's Mansion.
It was only then, when Sun Zhensheng heard from Yu Linlang that the Generalissimo summoned him, that Sun Zhensheng knew that Ye Ding's so-called recommendation to the commander-in-chief was actually recommending him directly to Liu Chengzong.
As the group passed by the Temple of Heaven and Earth outside the palace, they saw hundreds of soldiers transporting stones, apparently preparing for the heaven-sacrifice ceremony.
Seeing this situation, the father and son both felt complicated and did not dare to say anything. They just kept their heads down and hurried on.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The Yu Linqi who led the way warned: "The commander-in-chief is meeting with the military students from two counties. Once you meet the commander-in-chief, you don't have to kowtow, just say hello, so as not to waste time."
The handsome one will also help you."
This is half true and half false. It is true that there is no need to kowtow, but Liu Chengzong cannot help others when they kowtow. He can only say a word to ask him to get up.
Sun and his son entered the side hall to wait. Not long after, they heard several people walking quickly from the wind and rain corridor.
Someone said: "Chang'an Feng Chaoyu, Zhao Deshou, Chen Minshi are good in martial arts, and Xianning Zhang Yong is weak, but he is also very handsome in riding and shooting."
"These people, check to see if their wealth is clean, and if there is no problem, recruit them into the Yulin Camp."
As he was talking, footsteps were heard outside the door, and a warrior pushed open the door of the palace. A brave young man with a short beard at the side of his mouth, surrounded by his attendants, entered the palace in the air-conditioned atmosphere of the outer courtyard.
This person handed the lynx fur robe to the servant. He was wearing a fur coat with dark patterns and carried a wild goose feather knife at his waist. He glanced at the father and son, then walked to them and stretched out his hands to warm themselves by the stove.
.
At this time, he said: "I am Liu Chengzong, and you are Uncle Zhensheng and Balang from Sanyuan?"
This familiar way of greeting made Sun Zhensheng stunned on the spot. He regained his composure in an instant, but he completely forgot about Yu Linqi's instructions. He immediately took a step back and was about to prostrate himself: "That's right, the common people are here..."
Before he could finish speaking, Liu Chengzong reached out to support him: "There is no need to pay such a big courtesy. Since we are here, let's get down to business."
"I heard from Ye Ding that the Sun family is a salt merchant in Yangzhou. How much impact will the current closure of the customs have on business?"
Sun Zhensheng was stunned again when he heard this. He didn't know how to describe to Liu Chengzong that Yangzhou's family business was managed by his own Yangzhou family, and Miyuan's family business... was also given away by his support team.
He shook his head and said: "Back to Marshal, my family doesn't do much business in Sanyuan, so it won't have any impact."
The Shaanxi Salt Merchants were a huge group that played an important role in the Imperial Salt Industry in the early years, but they did not sell salt.
The part they were responsible for was to provide military rations in the five towns on the three sides in exchange for salt and sell the salt to salt merchants through the opening of the Central Law.
This is also the reason why there are more salt merchants in Shaanxi than in the Guanzhong Plain. Their first identity is big landowners.
However, as the Kaizhong Law was once abolished, a large number of royal nobles invested in the salt industry. They relied on their status to put pressure on the salt officials, used a salt quota to obtain salt repeatedly, and also had priority in paying official salt based on their status.
This blurred the boundaries between official salt and private salt.
In fact, in order to cope with the financial crisis, the imperial court packaged and sold the salt industry to the royal family and relatives, and used credit as an overdraft.
Unable to compete with their privileged counterparts, ordinary businessmen withdrew one after another. Some stopped engaging in salt trading, while others started selling private salt.
This kind of aristocratic monopoly soon collapsed, and the imperial court was forced to restore the Kaizhong method, and included the private salt purchased by merchants from Zao households, called residual salt, which was mixed and bundled with official salt for sale.
After all this trouble, the payment items required by the salt merchants changed from one type to three types: the money to be paid, the cost of buying surplus salt, and the tax on the surplus salt that must be paid to the prefect after buying the surplus salt.
This income can provide the Ming Dynasty with 1.5 million taels of silver every year, and can also solve some of the food source problems for border towns, but the border merchants and salt merchants are much weaker.
In this process, Shaanxi merchants once again became collaborators of the salt industry, exchanging grain for lead and lead for money.
This was the situation before Wanli.
Half of the salt in the Ming Dynasty was managed by the Salt Transport Department of the Huaihe and Huaidu capitals. This department had a total of 60 officials and 100 subordinate staff. Compared with its huge responsibilities, it was very difficult to operate.
In the Wanli Dynasty, a large number of officials were lacking and the Salt Envoy Department could not stay out of the matter. The collapse of the salt industry was naturally just around the corner.
What's more, Wanli once again issued a large amount of salt to the emperor's relatives. Due to the huge overdraft, the salt industry collapsed again, causing starvation of the frontier troops during the Chongzhen period of Tianqi.
At the same time, the value of the salt in Bian Town was no longer valuable. A piece of salt fell to a few cents of silver, only one-tenth of the official price, and no one came to buy it.
Under this background, Shaanxi merchants had a large amount of salt and had nowhere to sell it, so they had no choice but to move south to Yangzhou and start their own salt merchants.
It was at that time that Sun Zhensheng rushed to Yangzhou with salt in hand and saved his family business.
Liu Shizi was noncommittal about his statement that it had "no influence". Did he know that Sun Zhensheng had sold 14 houses and 50 acres of land in order to support the landlord's league training?
This is not to say that Sun Zhensheng has no money, but that by pawning his land to fund team training, he has more reputation to talk about.
In his understanding, this was not forced by the situation, but Sun Zhensheng was building momentum for his son who had just passed the scholar examination.
However, at this moment, Liu Chengzong did not need to talk about the matter. He just asked: "What are your thoughts on the current Shaanxi salt industry?"
Sun Zhensheng shook his head quickly.
He really has no idea at all. Salt is nothing else. It has always been an official business.
In the Ming Dynasty, it was even more special. In the early years, the opening of China to France helped stabilize the price of food on the border, which stabilized it at four or five yuan per stone of grain.
Later, because the court was not sincere and regarded it as a tool to make money, it continued to overdraw its credit and broke the salt law, which also led to the collapse of the border grain market, which was extremely powerful.
At present, the Marshal's Office does not even have a salt law in Shaanxi. Sun Zhensheng dares to have any ideas. He only said: "The common people have no understanding of the salt industry in Shaanxi, but they know about tea, leather, coal, paper, wood, lacquer, fungi, ear
, all pharmaceutical industries have ideas, if the Generalissimo wants to attract investment and build a factory..."
Before he could finish speaking, Liu Chengzong shook his head and said, "Mr. Sun, what I want is not businessmen, but officials who are proficient in business."
After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, he turned to look at Sun Zhensheng and asked, "What is the ear karma you are talking about?"
"Oh, it's the fungus. It's similar to fungi. It's a specialty of the Qinba Mountains. The locals in Shangnan and Hanzhong set up factories and used rosewood and greengang felled wood to make ear racks. The ears will grow the next year, which can be profitable for three years.
After that, the newly grown wood can be used for harvesting. In previous years, merchants came to buy it and made a lot of profits."
As Sun Zhensheng said this, he was thinking quickly about what Liu Chengzong said about the need for officials who are proficient in business, and he couldn't help but be moved.
He couldn't help but say to Liu Chengzong: "The generalissimo is rich in green salt. If the salt is used in the journey, the trade routes will be connected, and the salt ponds and border towns will become more and more prosperous..."
The more Sun Zhensheng spoke, the softer his voice became, and his heart felt cold.
The Shaanxi Salt Kaizhong he was familiar with was based on the fact that there were many troops stationed in five towns on three sides and the local grain output was insufficient.
The destroyer of this large environment is right in front of us. He has pulled out all the border soldiers. Why is there still a need for salt?
By saying this, doesn't it appear that he has no idea of the situation, which is particularly funny?
Unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong did not make fun of him, but listened very seriously. Seeing him pause, he urged him in a calm tone: "Go on."
Sun Zhensheng didn't dare to say anything anymore, but just shook his head and said: "The Generalissimo's border town garrison does not seem to need to pay for food."
"Three sides and five towns are not needed, but Monan and Mobei are. Even if there is no need to open the center, the salt introduction system is still feasible."
Liu Chengzong nodded and said: "The trade routes you mentioned are self-connected and prosperous day by day, which is very useful to the Marshal's Mansion."
Sun Zhensheng, however, looked troubled and said: "Since the border soldiers started fighting over pay, private salt in Shaanxi has taken root everywhere. I'm afraid it won't be easy to rebuild the official salt industry."
"Smuggling? Ha, ha."
Liu Chengzong couldn't help being happy, and waved his hand and said: "It doesn't matter, nothing is easy these days. Since you have an idea, I will appoint you as the Salt Inspector. The government office will be in the Tea Inspectorate next to Yongshou Palace, and we will allocate more people.
First, we should investigate the salt industry clearly, such as the amount of salt used in each road, the number of kitchen households, and the appropriate price of salt."
He estimated that if the salt quotation system was implemented in Shaanxi, the profit would definitely not be as high as the government's distribution of green salt in Hehuang in the past. After all, this was selling salt quotation, not salt.
But the smooth trade routes bring great benefits.
What's more, the site is now much larger than Hehuang. Even if the unit price is cheap, the government can probably earn an income of 200,000 taels from selling salt.
If the crackdown on illegal salt trading is more efficient, this income can be increased even further.
"After some time, show me the specific regulations."