On the second day of the first month of the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Guangwu of the Ming Dynasty, it was snowing heavily and cold, but inside the Ming army's Panlong tent in Taoyuan County, Huai'an Prefecture, there was a warm atmosphere.
Zhu Hengjia lit a stove in the tent, set up a banquet, and entertained guests. The guests invited were neither princes, nobles, civil servants or generals, but businessmen and salt merchants. The reason is very simple. The Northern Expedition has been going on now, and the treasury is almost empty.
What could he do without money? He turned to the salt merchant.
Before the Ming Dynasty, the "gang salt system" was implemented. Merchants holding salt quotations were divided into ten categories according to regions. Each group had 200,000 salt quotas, and each quota was worth 300 kilograms of salt, or six cents of silver. This was called "salt system".
Those who are not included in the outline have no right to operate the salt industry. The government will transport salt to designated places in various places and sell it to fixed salt merchants. The price of salt in each place will vary.
It is determined that salt cannot be sold across borders.
Later, Emperor Guangwu listened to Cao Dengbang's words and changed the "exclusive merchants to lead the shore" to "one case of general sales". The exclusive merchant monopoly was no longer implemented, and the government sold it to any merchant who wanted to buy salt at designated places. As long as the reputation was good, the principal
If there is enough, everyone can be registered to participate in the salt trade and sell salt without any geographical restrictions.
The "One Case General Sales" still retains the salt quotation. Merchants must first obtain the salt quotation from the government before they can use the salt quotation to go to designated places to sell salt. In order to prevent some giant merchants from monopolizing the sales of salt by virtue of their financial strength, the Salt Class Licensing Division stipulates that,
Even if their names are in the official register, each household can only buy a maximum of 50,000 yuan or 15 million jins of salt per year.
Now that the Northern Expedition was short of money, Zhu Hengjia turned to these salt merchants. He wanted them to pay for the money, but he couldn't do it without giving them benefits. He issued a message and allowed eight salt merchants to buy 50,000 more imported salt every year, on the condition that each family paid 50,000 yuan.
Ten thousand taels of silver labored the army.
In order to grab these eight places, the salt merchants were struggling. They were not short of money. "History of the Ming Dynasty·Salt Policy Conference" records that the capital of the salt industry in the Ming Dynasty was very concentrated, with 30 million taels in Yangzhou alone.
So many, "In Guangling (Yangzhou) there are no less than 30 million taels, and the annual interest can generate 9 million taels."
The total tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty averaged only 10 million taels per year. The salt merchants in the Ming Dynasty really had no shortage of money.
There were too many wolves but not enough meat, so the Ministry of Household Affairs had no choice but to ask Zhu Hengjia to be the chief judge.
Emperor Guangwu was a very emotional person. He still remembered the friendship between Huizhou merchants who helped him smuggle salt and block the canal. With a stroke of his pen, he gave six of the eight quotas to Huizhou merchant gang; Jiangxi merchant gang and Guangdong merchant gang.
Each got one.
These eight people happily paid the money, and their annual salt payment doubled, and they were happy. Emperor Guangwu effortlessly received four million taels of military expenses, and he was also happy.
"Come, let me offer you a drink." Zhu Hengjia raised the wine bottle.
"The common people thank the Lord for his kindness." The eight major salt merchants thanked and toasted together, and some even shed tears of excitement.
Since Shang Yang's reform, the status of Chinese merchants has been very low. The Qin Dynasty "abolished the anti-travel" and increased taxes on merchants; the Han Dynasty did not allow merchants to wear silk and had to walk everywhere; the Jin Dynasty was even more outrageous, stipulating that merchants could only have one foot
Wear white shoes and a black shoe on one foot; businessmen's children were not allowed to take part in the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty??
His Majesty Emperor Guangwu of the Ming Dynasty actually invited our businessmen to dinner. He is truly a holy king!
The Panlong tent was filled with the aroma of wine and food and the sounds of tears of gratitude.
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Emperor Shunzhi took up the matter of inviting businessmen to dinner earlier than Zhu Hengjia. As soon as the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, he invited Fan Yongdou and other eight giant merchants to dinner, and the legend of the eight imperial merchants also became popular among the people.
Now, the tax and water transportation in the south was cut off, and Emperor Shunzhi was short of money for war, so he thought of the Shanxi-Shaanxi merchant gang.
The emperor opened the mouth of Chrysostom, so the merchants from Shanxi and Shaanxi naturally wanted to give him face. Everyone scraped together and collected two million taels.
Not enough, far from enough!
Emperor Shunzhi's life was even more difficult than that of Emperor Guangwu. Emperor Guangwu occupied the important land in the south of the Yangtze River. Although his expenses were large, his income was also large. If he tightened his grip, the war could still be fought. The north occupied by Emperor Shunzhi was severely affected by the Xiaoglacier River, and his finances were severely affected. The income is not as good as in the south, and there are so many Eight Banners to support who are not engaged in production, so the pressure is really great.
In the Qianqing Palace in Beijing, Emperor Shunzhi was worrying about insufficient military spending, and the Empress Dowager Zhaosheng arrived.
"Huang Eni, why are you here?"
"I heard that the emperor was worried about money, so I organized the harem and some of the emperor's relatives to raise 600,000 silver for the emperor." Empress Dowager Zhaosheng smiled.
Emperor Shunzhi was very moved when he heard that his mother raised money for him. At the critical moment, it was still his mother!
"Emperor Eni, I am unfilial and make you worry."
Empress Dowager Zhaosheng smiled and said: "Emperor, the country is in critical danger now. Why don't you send envoys to cross the Yellow River with the Ming Dynasty to rule it? As long as you can have a chance to breathe, you might as well surrender to the Ming Dynasty."
"Promise yourself to the Ming Dynasty? How can the Qing Dynasty retain its dignity?"
Empress Dowager Zhaosheng said sternly: "Emperor, the face of the Qing Dynasty is won one after another. It is not important whether you are a minister or not. What is important is to win the battle. Now that the main force of the Eight Banners has been defeated, it takes time to reorganize the troops. , to raise food and grass. If becoming a minister can buy the Qing Dynasty a few months, then why not?"
Emperor Shunzhi felt that his mother's words made sense, and sent Fan Wencheng, the minister of political affairs at home, Ma Leji, a bachelor of the Hanlin Hongwen Academy, and Qi Chebai, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, to negotiate with the Ming army.
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After the Qing envoys arrived at the Ming army camp, the camp was in a state of excitement because of one person: Fan Wencheng.
This big traitor is so famous. It was precisely because of the help of him, Ning Wanwo and other early traitors that Nurhachi became a leader.
"Your Majesty, please kill Fan Wencheng to express gratitude to all the Han people in the world." Civil and military officials such as He Wuzou, Zheng Feng, Sun Gui, Yuan Zongdi, etc. were all filled with righteous indignation and knelt down to request that this beast be killed.
"Quickly, gentlemen, please get up! I also hate this guy deeply. However, when the two countries are at war, I will not kill the envoys. If I don't kill them now, I will suppress the three tribes after Beijing is captured."
Although he did not kill, he densely deployed armored soldiers to exert pressure.
Fan Wencheng and others could not help but feel awe-inspiring when they saw the Ming army's bright armor and strong soldiers and horses along the way.
"The slave chief envoys you to see me, are you here to ask for surrender?" As soon as they met, Zhu Hengjia asked the envoy.
Fan Wencheng composed himself and said: "No! His Majesty, Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, sent us here to express our sincerity in peace talks to the Ming Dynasty and our willingness to cross the Yellow River with the Ming Dynasty."
"The Yellow River is the origin of China. How can such great mountains and rivers fall into the hands of Yi, Di, dogs and sheep? I won't allow it."
"If the Ming Dynasty agrees to divide the Yellow River and rule with the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty is willing to profess vassalage to the Ming Dynasty." Fan Wencheng said unhurriedly that based on his experience, the Ming emperor valued face most, and professing vassalage would give enough face, and the peace negotiation might be successful. "Hahaha! I fought against the Qing captives for ten years, and finally beat them into surrender! It's not easy." Zhu Hengjia laughed loudly.
"Hahaha!"
In the big tent, the civil servants and generals of the Ming army all laughed until their stomachs ached.
"How can there be a reason for two families to be sealed in a great country? Go back and tell Shunzhi that if you surrender quickly, you can save your life; if you resist stubbornly in the corner, you will regret it too late. Take these words back to Shunzhi to read." After saying this, Emperor Guangwu
I brushed and brushed and wrote a few words on a piece of paper, which I handed over to Fan Wencheng.
Fan Wencheng took a look and saw that there were only seven words: "If you surrender early, you will become a rich man."
