Chapter 202: Salt rises and grain returns

On November 15, 2018, the seventh year of Jiajing, bandits entered Fushan County, Dengzhou at night and besieged the salt class to engage in Zhou Yu. Although the Dengzhou Camp horse team rescued in time, they were not careful in defense and were shot to death by the remaining bandits. The horse team leader Yang Shitou was not able to rescue him effectively and was fined for three months. The salt field was important and must not be vacant in one day. Now, there is a Dengzhou supervisor Zhao who is respectful and pure. He can work for the salt class and take charge of the Fushan Salt Field.

In the years of famine, the imperial court has a way to raise food and grass, which is to donate a few food and grass to get the title of the supervisor. Another type is that if the food and grass are given a certain amount, the imperial court can build a arch for you. Although this kind of supervisor is a reputation, it has the right to be an official after all.

Jiang Feng gave the Dengzhou Prefecture 300 taels of silver, and then ordered it to the top, and got Zhao Xiucai the title of this prison student. At that time, everyone thought that Jiang Feng was happy for a moment, but unexpectedly they used it at this time.

The matter was not over yet. The salt worker who dried and fried salt in Fushan Salt Field began to "spontaneously" go to the yamen to beat drums and complain about the injustice. After the Fushan magistrate received the money from someone and the notes that were handled impartially, the person suddenly became diligent and carefully inspected the case in the lobby.

Zhou Yu's guards were all siege because of bandits. Some people reported that it was collusion between inside and outside, and were temporarily detained and pending trial. This time they were also arraigned. The guards themselves were mostly outlaws, and all kinds of documentary cases were kept in the yamen. After investigation, several major cases and repeated offenders were found.

The salt workers there reported that Zhou Yu was selling private salt, greedy, taking human life, colluding with pirates, and all kinds of charges were raised, and raising a large number of desperate people. This crime really means the case of Prince Heng of Qingzhou some time ago. The governor and the inspector all frowned, thinking that such a thing should be held down as soon as possible, so as not to involve too much and cause trouble again.

Therefore, when the Zhou family encountered bandits on their way back home, the whole family was killed and they breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that even if the matter was settled like this, it would be a blessing and would have lost a lot of trouble.

"I'm engaged in the salt class and I actually have a net worth of nearly 100,000 taels. I'm so useless."

In the conference hall of Dengzhou Prefecture City, there was only Jiang Feng, Zhang Liang and Liu Shier sitting there. Jiang Feng was smiling there, and Zhang Liang next to him also looked like he was greedy for money. Liu Shier next to him looked at the two of them, but he did not dare to look down on him at all.

The two young men in front of him, who are not much older than him, are ruthless and have superb skills, are not inferior to the wisdom he is proud of. Zhang Liang asked with a smile there:

"According to the master's instructions, he divided 6,000 taels to Chen Shizi. He only had six or seven hundred people in his hand, all of them were like a candle. Master, do I need to lead the horse team out? I can still catch up now, so I can guarantee that I can eat these things back."

Hearing this, Jiang Feng raised his foot and kicked it over, laughing and scolding:

"Don't talk nonsense here. Tomorrow you go to Qianhuyuan once and select a batch of weapons to Chen Shizi to send. Check it out and don't carry any marks, and don't be careless."

Zhang Liang and Jiang Feng’s love for several years naturally understood what was joking and what was serious. He bowed and agreed there. Jiang Feng pondered for a moment, looking at the 80,000 taels of silver notes on the table. Liu Shier seemed to know what Jiang Feng was thinking, and said with a smile:

"Sir, if you buy 80,000 taels of grain, it will be at most 70,000 shi, which is quite a gap than Changping Store. Since the salt farm has been taken down, it is better to replace the 80,000 taels with salt. Then, it is naturally cost-effective to go out with private salt."

Although the sales of private salt were escorted, the other transactions were quite exquisite, which could not be operated by people like Jiang Feng who traveled through time. Sometimes Jiang Feng also thought about it. Liu Shier's legs were not convenient, so he actually traveled all over the world to study.

Not to mention this, and what I learned has nothing to do with Confucianism, most of them are obscure power and conspiracy. I really don’t know what Liu Shier was thinking. Jiang Feng vaguely felt that the other party might know about what he was thinking and was willing to help Jiang Feng grow and grow in this area.

However, it is just for each other to understand such things.

China has been a specialty for salt and iron since the Han Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty followed the common practice of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and issued salt and induced salt. However, the method of selling private salt is to pay one pound of salt and induced salt, but in fact it brings three pounds of private salt. Some of the brave ones carry five pounds and six pounds. This is already a huge profit.

In this case, the salt entries determined by the salt entries determined by the salt entries according to the output of each salt yard often have no authoritative effect. The salt entries in various places are regarded as ten. After the salt merchants transport grain to the border once, the salt entries obtained can often be exchanged for 20,000 to 30,000 kilograms of private salt. This way, it is simple and convenient to make money.

However, it is a problem to transport grain to the border. Over time, there is a solution to the countermeasures. Merchants in border provinces collect silver from salt merchants at the handover place and directly exchange it for salt inlets. They use the silver to buy grain. In this way, salt merchants and grain merchants save procedures.

The salt merchants have great powers, and everyone can buy salt. This is a very hand-eyed character in the official world of black and white. Of course, if you don’t have this ability, you may even have to pay for your pants.

Zhou Yu from the Fushan Salt Field in Yantai was killed. When various people were about to push their family up, Zhao Jiansheng quietly came out and took the position of salt class. After checking the background, he found that he was the relationship between the governor Liu, and he was vaguely close to Commander Jiang Feng of the Left Guard of Dengzhou.

For a moment, people from all aspects of their thoughts were silenced. There are other salt farms in Shandong. Now everyone is not buying salt from Fushan. They are guarding Kingsoft to starve you to death.

However, after November of the seventh year of Jiajing, the market environment for selling private salt in Shandong and Henan suddenly deteriorated. First of all, several major trade routes began to appear with bold loud horses. In the past, the salt owls escorted private salt, and often followed one or two hundred bodyguards.

Even if the mountain green forest can eat these 200 people, we must think of the revenge of the powerful salt merchants that will come later. And even if they eat the salt truck, how can they make a profit after they are batched. Therefore, the salt merchants will give the strong people some fees to buy roads every time, and everyone is happy.

But suddenly, these strong men had no idea that they had no territory. They had always attacked the large caravan. Although the guards who escorted the private salt were strong, there was no room for resistance under the sharp blade of the opponent's cavalry.

Every time the strong people robbed the salt truck, they always find a place to destroy the salt and dump it in remote and dirty places. Even if they are found, the salt will not be eaten at all.

The private salt dealers near Dengzhou and Laizhou met a team of strong men riding horses with one hundred people, coming and going like the wind, slightly south, while the Jinan Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture encountered a large bandit gang of five or six hundred people. Although they were average in combat, they were also fierce and had the advantage of numbers.

Although it is said that private salt transportation needs to be hidden, they only take those roads, and some are even official roads, and the bandits are so strange that they are very familiar with the private salt transportation routes, so the salt transported outward has dropped to 10% of the usual ones.

Since there is a problem on land, then go to the sea. Salt merchants and maritime merchants also have inseparable practices. However, what is even more incomprehensible is that the "Japanese pirates" that rarely appeared near the coast of Shandong in the past also appeared, or they called themselves "Japanese pirates".

pirates, because many people hear pirates speak Fujian language.

Some salt merchants also sent their subordinates to contact their friends on the Green Forest Road to encircle and suppress these lawless bandits. However, when the family found out the deeds of the unruly fellow workers and ambushed them and was about to take action, the bandit leader of the village recognized a hundred horses in front of him, or found some traces.

He immediately returned to the parcel and killed the salt merchants' subordinates and kept them away. A few days later, the Green Forest Villagers were all silent. The salt merchants also noticed something, but they wanted to react but "just happened to" catch up with Shandong's conspiracy to investigate the private salt and deal with the salt owls. The governor Liu Shunhua said righteously, and Shandong's Jinyi Qianjia and various yamen runners actively cooperated. Although it was a face-saving job, some things were turned a blind eye, but they were also in chaos.

The salt price began to rise slowly. Shanxi and Henan, which was originally the supply scope of Shandong salt merchants, began to appear in other places. All the salt merchants finally understood that if this continues, what is waiting for them will go bankrupt. In another ten days, even if there are no bandits, they will lose their lives.

There were twelve days left before the two-month period Liu Shunhua mentioned. Liu Shunhua, the Shandong governor of Jinan Prefecture, had a small banquet in the side hall. There was only Liu Shunhua and a big-bellied businessman, the scholar, farmers, industry and commerce in the Ming Dynasty, and the businessman had the lowest business status, but the businessman calmly exchanged and exchanged views with Liu Shunhua, a senior official in charge of Shandong civil affairs.

After drinking for a few rounds, the businessman took out a document from his arms with a smile and slowly spoke:

"Mr. Liu, I entrusted my 250,000 shi of grain to send to Shandong to provide relief to the victims. Because the food provided by the court has arrived, it is time to return to the official warehouse. However, the allocation of various places is also a little troublesome. Caomin has already written documents here. Within one month, all official grains will definitely be returned to the warehouse."
Chapter completed!