As the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing has a population of nearly two million. As a city at the foot of the emperor, one of the favorite hobbies of the old and young men in Beijing is to shop in teahouses. Every day, a group of neighbors and friends drink a bowl of big bowl of tea, then eat some melon seeds and peanuts, and brag for a long time. This is probably the favorite thing for the old and young men in Beijing.

Daxiangguo Temple is the most famous temple in Beijing. This temple covering an area of ​​more than 200 acres is also a very famous classic near the capital. Many people in the capital and people who come to Beijing like to come here to burn incense and fulfill their wishes. There are naturally many people who stop to rest every day, and things like teahouses naturally emerged.

At the intersection of the street less than 200 meters in front of Daxiangguo Temple, there is a teahouse called Jinyuan that has been open for more than ten years. The owner of the teahouse is a festive middle-aged man. No one knows the name of this boss, and everyone knows that his surname is Jin, so he has always been accustomed to calling him Boss Jin.

Boss Jin has a wife who can only be said to be ordinary in appearance, with a big round face and a flat nose, and a figure... Well, I can only say that she is very round and very compatible with Boss Jin. The two of them are very similar to each other. Because the big bowl of tea made by the tea house they run is cheap and tastes bad, the business is very good, and people around the world like to come to them to have tea.

After noon today, there were more people in Jinyuan Teahouse as usual. The hall of more than 300 square meters was filled with people. The three men in the teahouse were quickly busy.

Just as everyone was having tea and chatting, a young man in a coarse cloth shirt suddenly rushed in outside the door. As soon as he entered the teahouse, he shouted loudly: "Young and young men, something big happened, something big happened! There is something big happened in the Beijing camp outside Dongzhimen."

The young man's voice was very loud. After he shouted, the whole teahouse heard his voice. The whole teahouse became a little quiet, and then everyone laughed. An older middle-aged man couldn't help but laugh and said, "Erdan, are you not awake yet? Do you want to say that Jiang Ningbo has removed all the people from the Beijing camp and has a fight with the martial arts and civil servants in Fengtian Hall. This is already the old calendar a few days ago."

"What old almanac!" The young man glared at the middle-aged man and said angrily: "What I want to say is what happened just now, and how many times I have said it. Don't call me my life. My big name is Qi Dajiang, not Erdan!"

"Hahaha……"

Everyone burst into laughter, and an old man laughed and cursed: "Erdan, you guys are you a big shot with us? Everyone has been neighbors for decades, and no one knows who. When you were still peeing and playing with mud, we watched from the side. Now that you are growing up, you are still pretentious."

Looking at the appearance of the crowd, the young man blushed, but these neighbors either grew up with him or watched him grow up. After so many years, no one knows who he has, so naturally his temper cannot be raised.

There was no way, and he snorted coldly and sat down. He picked up a bowl and drank a few big sips, picked up a few peanuts and started eating.

Seeing Qi Dajiang looking angry, Mr. Zhou, who was sitting beside him, laughed and reached out to rub her head, and cursed, "Edan, you have become angry, and you dare to shy your face with us. Tell us, what's new in the Jingying?"

Qi Dajiang was also straightforward and had a quick temper. After drinking a few sips of tea, he calmed down. He immediately became energetic after seeing Mr. Zhou ask him, and he whispered: "Uncle Zhou, Brother Yun, you don't know yet. This morning, I followed my father to Dongzhimen to takeout food. As soon as I got there, I saw a notice posted outside the school grounds outside Dongzhimen. I was curious and went over and took a look. Good guy, something really happened, I..."

"Bang..."

A light sound came, and it turned out that Qi Dajiang's head was slapped by Uncle Zhou. Uncle Zhou glared at him and scolded: "If you have something to say, how can you keep it from being kept in the way? If you breathe like this, I will beat you with a big ear."

Seeing that everyone around him was glaring at him, Qi Dajiang smiled embarrassedly and did not dare to keep it in hiding, and quickly said, "I just looked at the notice and found out that the Beijing camp was about to start recruiting people."

"cut……"

As soon as Qi Dajiang finished speaking, a boo came from around him. Many people who came over shook their heads when they heard this.

Someone smiled and said, "What's new? A few days ago, Jiang Ningbo drove all the men from the Beijing camp out, so he naturally wanted to recruit people to fill the gap in the Beijing camp. The fool can guess this, and it's up to you to say."

Uncle Zhou also shook his head and said, "This old saying is good. A good man is not a soldier, and he is not a nail. This slaughtered rice is not that delicious. Once he becomes a soldier, he will have no choice but to do so!"

"What do you know?" Qi Dajiang defended: "Everyone knows that Jiang Ningbo is going to recruit people, but do you know what price you have offered in the Jingying this time?"

"What price is it? You can't just recruit people to be generals, right?" Everyone laughed.

"Hmph... I'll scare you to death." Qi Dajiang, who was laughed at, was not angry. He sneered and stretched out two fingers: "The notice said that those who joined the Beijing Camp will pay a settlement fee of five taels of silver. In addition, the Beijing Camp not only includes food and accommodation, weapons and armor, but also has one tael of silver for salary every month. After working for five years, you can retire. When you retire, the Beijing Camp will also pay a settlement fee of thirty taels of silver."

After Qi Dajiang finished speaking, the teahouse was silent.

Qi Dajiang, who had expected everyone to report, had been a while before he deliberately said: "Why don't you stop talking, everyone is talking."

After a long time, someone said in disbelief: "How is this possible? Is Jiang Ningbo so much money that he has no place to spend? How could someone pay such a high price to recruit soldiers?"

"Isn't it there now?"

Seeing everyone's look surprised, Qi Dajiang felt that the depression that had just been blocked in his chest had vented a lot. He said proudly: "I don't know, everyone, I also learned something amazing today. Everyone knows the newly opened Royal Ming Dynasty Trading Company a few days ago. Do you know who opened this Trading Company?"

Someone suddenly said disdainfully: "Nonsense, who doesn't know that this is Jiang Ningbo's industry? In the past six months, their mirrors and some exquisite things have almost been sold out. Jiang Ningbo paid 1.8 million taels of silver to His Majesty in the first half of last year alone. Otherwise, I wouldn't know where the military pay in Liaodong last year?"

Qi Dajiang smiled mysteriously: "This is indeed Jiang Ningbo's industry, but do you know what this Ming Dynasty Royal Trading Company sells today?"

“What to sell?”

"This morning, the Ming Dynasty Royal Trading Company started selling salt!"

“Sell salt?”

Everyone was shocked, and Uncle Zhou even exclaimed: "Oh... It seems that Uncle Jiang Ning is really amazing. He has started selling salt."

Since ancient times, the salt and iron business has been an exclusive monopoly transaction by the court. The fool understands how much profit there is. Originally, Yang Feng's Royal Trading Company only sold some mirrors and luxury jewelry from later generations, which attracted the jealousy of the powerful and wealthy people in Nanjing, and even once triggered a war with the Duke of Wei Xu Hongji. Now he actually started selling salt, and now his interests are even greater.

The news at the emperor's feet is the most informative. Even ordinary people know that all the people who can do salt trading in the past are people with great backgrounds and abilities. If ordinary people want to involve the salt and iron business, they will probably be arrested in less than two days and they will be imprisoned.

Another asked, "Erdan, do you know how much silver per pound of salt from that royal trading house?"

Hearing this, Qi Dajiang slowly raised three fingers.

Seeing this, others couldn't help but shook their heads in disappointment, and curled their lips: "Three cents of silver, this is the same price as the salt merchants outside."

Qi Dajiang sneered: "It's indeed three cents of silver, but do you know what kind of salt is sold by other stores?"

Others curled their lips and said, "What kind of salt, is it still salt made of gold?"

"Hmph... I'll scare you to death when I say it. The royal merchants in the Ming Dynasty sold all the fine salt!" Qi Dajiang raised his head and said something that shocked everyone.

"boom……"

As soon as Qi Dajiang finished speaking, almost everyone in the teahouse could not believe their ears.

"What...serious salt..."

Uncle Zhou was the first to grab Qi Dajiang's clothes and shouted: "Erdan, don't fool us, how could the fine salt silver be sold for only three cents of silver per kilogram?"

"Uncle Zhou, I really don't lie to you. Now the salt shops in Dongzhimen have almost been flooded. I saw with my own eyes that they sold all the fine salt, and they are the best snowflake salt!"

Qi Dajiang's words caused another sensation. In the Ming Dynasty, most people ate sea salt. Due to the salt drying technology at that time, people first had to choose a place with a mild climate, sufficient light, and large flat areas to build a salt field. The salt workers took advantage of the high tide to introduce sea water into the salt field, use the sun to dry the sea water in the salt field, and then use steaming and cooking to extract the crystals. The salt obtained in this way can only be coarse salt.

This is also the salt that ordinary people eat. The coarse salt is not only rough and yellow in color, but also has a very good taste, and it tastes bitter.

Don’t underestimate that these coarse salt are not delicious, but the price is not cheap. Generally speaking, the price of each kilogram of coarse salt is at least three cents of silver, which is equivalent to more than fifty yuan in later generations. A kilogram of salt costs fifty yuan. Such a price is probably something that ordinary people in later generations would never have imagined, but it was a very normal phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty.

As the saying goes, seven things to open the door, including food, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea. This is the most true portrayal of ordinary people in this era.

After talking about ordinary people, let’s talk about the powerful and rich people. The salt these people eat is naturally different from ordinary people. The salt they eat is well salt mined from salt lakes or salt wells in Qinghai, Sichuan and other places. These salts are not only fine and white in color, but also have no bitter taste like sea salt, and the taste is much better. These salts are also called fine salt.

Of course, since it is fine salt, the price is naturally much more expensive than sea salt. Generally speaking, each pound of fine salt will never be less than two taels of silver. But now Qi Dajiang actually said that the experience of selling on the street is the same as coarse salt. This is like someone told them that the top names in the Eight Great Hutongs and the Qinhuai River were suddenly the same as those kiln sisters in their thirties and forties on the street. They could enter for ten cents and enjoy it. This simply subverted their perception.

The entire teahouse immediately fell into silence. After a while, a sudden rustling noise sounded. The people in the teahouse rushed out of the door as if they were whipped by a whip. A group of people soon disappeared. In less than a while, the teahouse, which was originally bustling, became empty.

Well, it’s not right to say that there is no one in the teahouse. At least there are a few people in the teahouse, such as the boss Jin and his wife and the three friends in the teahouse. However, the smile that originally looked very festive at the moment became a little ugly. He said to himself, "Yang Feng disbanded the former headquarters of the Jingying camp and began to recruit new recruits. It seems that he is going to reorganize the Jingying camp. If he is allowed to do business and rectify it well, this will be a great threat to our Qing Dynasty."

"It's not stopping." At some point, the boss lady who was originally busy in the back hall also walked to him, and her fat face became very gloomy: "It's not enough that Yang Feng established the Royal Trading Company of the Ming Dynasty. He actually started selling salt. Now his power is even greater."

"No, we want to pass this news to the emperor immediately. We must find a way to deal with Yang Feng and can't continue to make him bigger!" Boss Jin turned around for a few times and immediately returned to the back hall. After a while, he walked out and handed a small bamboo tube to one of the guys.

"Get out of the city as fast as possible immediately and deliver this letter to the Fan Family Trading Company in Datong. You must be quick, do you know?"

"Don't worry, sir, sir, understand!"

The guy agreed, took the bamboo tube carefully, and then immediately went out and disappeared quickly.

Boss Jin stood at the door and watched the guy disappear from his sight without looking back. He kept looking in the distance and silent, until the boss's wife walked to him without notice.

"Master, let's go back first, we will close early today."

Boss Jin sighed lightly and was about to turn his head to speak, his eyes accidentally looked at the mouth of the Daxiangguo Temple not far away, and found a group of soldiers wearing iron armor walking in front of the Daxiangguo Temple. The side door of the carriage opened and several women who looked like noble ladies walked out of it.
Chapter completed!