"We can't purchase goods from other companies," Yin Feng frowned and asked, "We can come to buy products from other companies."
The Han family member shook his head: "The governor of Suzhou and the heads of the local health offices all open official stores and health stores. All shipments from machine shops must go through their hands, otherwise there will be no business at all. You Even if they are willing to come to buy, these merchants will not dare to give you goods,”
"Why is this? Could it be that Li Shi, the Suzhou weaving eunuch, has controlled the entire city's silk trade?"
The Han family member smiled bitterly and said: "The big boss, the governor of Suzhou and Eunuch Li are in the same group. As long as the merchants and silk shops don't listen to them, the Suzhou government will come to trouble you for various reasons. Moreover, Suzhou The 'beaters' in the city are also hired by Eunuch Li, and any merchants who dare to confront him will be visited by the beaters..."
When Yin Feng heard this, his heart moved: This scene seemed to be very similar to the real history of a certain time and space. The government colluded with the underworld, the bureaucrats and powerful officials used their power for personal gain and monopolized the market, while ordinary people could only swallow their anger.
"What is my company's main business locally?"
The children of the Han family said: "Mainly silk, everything related to silk. Forty percent of the silk goods carried by our company for overseas trade every year are purchased in Suzhou, and another 30% come from Songjiang. This group of government officials and merchants have a monopoly on silk. Many merchants have suffered greatly due to the price, and some have gone bankrupt and hanged themselves. Fortunately, we mainly sell to overseas, and we set the selling price, otherwise..."
Yin Feng sighed and said: "You are right. Fortunately, we mainly engage in maritime trade and monopolize the trade routes for silk to the sea, so we can still make a lot of money."
Xu Hongji also lamented: "When the eunuch Sun Long was in Suzhou, he sealed the city gates and plundered. That was open robbery. Now these officials and eunuchs have joined forces to monopolize the market and collect money without paying taxes. That is secret robbery. ,"
Yin Feng sneered and shook his head, remembering that in the era before time travel, some people on the Internet described this kind of officials as officials and businessmen, and described the bureaucratic power economy as "capitalism". It was simply a fool's dream.
After they left Suzhou, they came to the same conclusion: the Jiangnan area was very wealthy, but the rich were only officials and gentry, and the common people had nothing to do with the phenomenon of prosperity.
Business throughout the Ming Dynasty was indeed prosperous, but this strongly aroused the greed of the emperor and officials at all levels. They regarded business as the easiest to exploit and as inexhaustible wealth. Therefore, they set up checkpoints widely, indiscriminately increased the names and amounts of various taxes, took "buying with goods" and taking things for free as a matter of course, and even relied on special privileges to operate monopolized trade and squeezed private commerce to intercept profits. These abuses of businessmen were even more prominent in the Jiangnan area. At that time, merchants and businesses were constantly being exploited and lacked protection of their identity and legal property. They were looking for business opportunities in the gaps of the ruling network and struggled to obtain them. existence and development.
…
Boats meander along the rivers and bridges in the south of the Yangtze River.
Yin Feng and others took a temporarily hired boat and sometimes passed through some towns. Rows of houses, stone bridges and wooden bridges of different shapes, and women washing clothes, washing vegetables, and washing rice by the river, all made few people think. Chen Zhongji felt fresh when he had the opportunity to travel to the mainland, and Yin Feng couldn't help but think of the famous saying "Little Bridges and Flowing Waters". More often, small rivers flowed through green farmland, and rice and cotton grew very well on both sides of the river. They were just like them a few months ago. A stark contrast to the bare land common in the north.
This reminded Yin Feng of the main mission of this trip to the mainland. He knew that under the current strategy of becoming the king and dominating one side, the big bosses within the company had different ideas: the Han family and his son, Huang Qian and other key members of the company's board of directors thought The idea was to separate Taiwan, Ryukyu, Luzon, and establish a country overseas; while people in the civil service system such as Zeng Qi, Zeng Shan, and Zeng Jingshan wanted to occupy at least one or several provinces on the mainland, and then confront the Ming Dynasty; Zhao Tie, Ye Hua, Yan Siqi, Chen Zhongji and other military radicals believed that they should go straight to Huanglong, attack the capital, and compete with the Ming Dynasty for the world.
Regardless of the plan, the Chinese company will completely fall out with the Ming Dynasty; and with the political rigidity and conservatism of the Ming Dynasty, endless wars between the two sides are inevitable. Once in a state of war, it will be difficult to purchase silk and other goods from Jiangnan. At the same time, the food produced in the prosperous Jiangnan will be able to support the Ming Dynasty court in its wars.
Yin Feng thought distressedly about the deeds of heroes in history who had successfully conquered the world. He couldn't help but smile bitterly when he found that the only one who had conquered the Jiangnan area and started his business and then swept the country was Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of this dynasty.
Chen Zhongji has never seen Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake, but he has seen the inner lake in Manila. In comparison, this Taihu Lake is the largest lake he has ever seen in his life, with its endless blue waves, the green islands reflected in the lake, and the reeds and The undulating distant mountains shaded by willows on the shore, and the white water birds flying up and down in the gorgeous sunset, all made him feel like he was in an intoxicating landscape painting. Around their ship, large and small fishing boats were sailing. Returning, long and graceful singing came from some boats.
Mei Xinlan sat on the bow of the boat, picked up the pipa and played an ancient song. The reflection of the beauty in the lake illuminated by the setting sun was like a dream, and Yin Feng couldn't help but see the magic.
"What a wonderful place, it's so beautiful. No matter whether it's Japan, Ryukyu, Luzon or Nanyang, the beauty here can't be compared to anything else," Chen Zhongji stood up and sighed loudly.
Yin Feng laughed: "Do you like Jiangnan? OK, if we can achieve great things, you will be able to manage Jiangnan affairs."
…
Yin Feng and others arrived in Zhejiang smoothly. Since Yin Feng had been to Hangzhou many times, and many of the Huizhou merchants and Zhejiang merchants were shareholders of Zhonghua Company, Yin Feng and his party did not enter Hangzhou city, but went around. After passing through the city, we crossed the Qiantang River and headed towards Taizhou.
As imperial officials who went all the way to Yazhou to take up their posts, they were allowed to pass through many checkpoints along the way and almost never checked. However, some people found it strange: to go to Qiongya, you should take the road from Anhui, Jiangxi and other places. Why? This group of people is passing through Zhejiang.
Chen Zhongji, who was dressed as a servant leader, told the officers guarding the checkpoint: They were going to Changguo Guard to find Ning Shao Counselor Luo Qing and borrow his warship to go to Yazhou by sea.
Several officers were taken aback: "The sea route is very changeable, and something could happen at any time. This... you must be too courageous,"
Although Zhejiang is very close to the ocean, these officers are so unfamiliar and afraid of the ocean. Yin Feng shook his head helplessly: During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Mingzhou (Ningbo) was one of China's ocean-going shipping ports; The ban on the sea for more than ten years has made people in Zhejiang, a coastal province, no longer recognize the sea.
Those going to Ningbo have to pass through Yuyao, the base camp of the Xie family in Yuyao. The local Xie family started from Xie Xuan of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It has been spread for more than a thousand years. It is luxuriant and deeply rooted. It has great influence in both the government and the public. However, Yin Feng and others
When people went to Ningbo via the East Zhejiang Canal, they inquired along the way: the reputation of the Xie family in the local area is not very bad, and some members of the Xie family are honest officials or good people. Although there are more people in the Xie family serving as officials in the imperial court,
The children of the family have a good reputation as squires in the local area, but some officials are not. At this time, the so-called squires include not only officials who have been dismissed from office, but also officials who stay at home and officials who have donated money and food.
Relying on their status and power, these people are extremely dishonest in the countryside and do bad things, so they are called "gentry". Some ministers who serve as officials in the government appear to be sanctimonious and seem to be gentlemen, but they indulge themselves.
The children and grandchildren of the family colluded with rogues and rogues, and arbitrarily determined the folk songs.
Yin Feng and others waited for a day in a small fishing village on the coast near Xiangshan. They fired off fireworks signals for two consecutive days on the coast. Two days later, the Sea Spirit finally appeared. Captain Huang hurriedly greeted everyone on the shore: "
Get on board quickly, the officers and soldiers along the coast are searching for ships that are prohibited from going to sea. The ship closest to us now is the ship of the Songhai Marine Battalion, and the Xinxing is dealing with them,"
Yin Feng asked curiously: "What's going on? Isn't Shen Yourong transferred to Fujian to be the deputy commander-in-chief? Ning Shao's military commander Luo Qing is one of ours, how come there are still people who can't get along with our ship?"
Captain Huang smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I don't know. I heard that General Songhai Qinyi has been replaced. The new General Songhai is strict in handling affairs and enforces the law strictly. Many scattered private merchant ships have been captured by him."
"General Songhai, who is this person?" Yin Feng asked.
"Yu Zigao, I heard he is the son of Master Yu Dayou,"
Yin Feng and Chen Zhongji shouted in surprise: "It's him." Among the people present, they were the only ones who knew who Yu Zigao was.
Yu Zigao is Chen Dagao. He studied in the Chinese Military Academy for two years and participated in the attack on Ryukyu and the Japanese pirates in the Satsuma Domain. At first, this young staff officer looked down on the Chinese Army. Later, he became the staff officer of Yin Feng’s old camp. In fact,
As soon as Chen Dagao entered school, Lin Xiao sent someone to find out his true identity. Lin Xiao planned to arrest Yu Zigao and drive him out of Taiwan, but Yin Feng stopped him.
After the Satsuma clan was defeated, Yu Zigao boarded a Ryukyu merchant ship on his way back to Taiwan and left the team without permission to return to the mainland. He participated in the martial arts examination and returned to his hometown to serve as a guard in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. Because he worked seriously during his tenure,
He offended the local gentry and officials. In the following years, although he eliminated several banditry in western Fujian, he was never promoted. Unexpectedly, he now came to Zhejiang.
Chen Dagao and Yu Zigao are the same person. Very few people within Zhonghua Company know this.
Chen Zhongji said with a smile: "I didn't expect that Dagao was quite serious about his work. I don't know how he would deal with us if he met us at sea."
Yin Feng whispered to Chen Zhongji: "The question is how long he can persist like this. Nowadays, the discipline of the officers and soldiers is loose, the training is neglected, and the weapons are weak. How long can he persist in this muddy water alone?"