872, The Doomsday Four of the Eight Imperial Merchants
Wang Chonggu is a great person. Wang Chonggu was a Jinshi in the 20th year of Jiajing reign (1541). He was appointed as the head of the Ministry of Punishment. Starting from the doctor, he successively served as the prefect of Anqing and the prefect of Runing.
Later, he was transferred to the deputy envoy of military preparation. At that time, Japanese pirates were the main scourge in coastal areas.
When Wang Chonggu was the deputy envoy of military preparation in Changzhen, he defeated the Japanese pirates in Xiagang. When the Japanese pirates escaped, he led his troops to pursue them all the way to Jingjiang and annihilated them.
After that, he and Yu Dayou went to sea many times to attack Japanese pirates, made great achievements in battle, and were promoted to inspector general of Shaanxi and political envoy to the right of Henan.
Yang Fan's understanding of Wang Chonggu mainly came from his intelligence collection on the Ordos Department.
It was found that in the 43rd year of Jiajing (1564), he served as the censor of Youqiandu and governor of Ningxia. During his tenure, he had been taking the initiative to attack the Ordos tribe. He would win every battle. He always prevented the development of the Ordos tribe and weakened it.
Their strength has maintained the stability of the border.
In the winter of the same year, the imperial court promoted Wang Chonggu to the right minister of the Ministry of War and the right censor of Qiandu, governor of Shaanxi, Yanning, and Gansu military affairs. After that, he was transferred to the seven towns in the north. His achievements were recorded in the border areas. In particular, he served as governor of Xuanda for a long time and controlled the north.
Border Army.
Zhang Shize said: "Everyone in the world knows about his military achievements, but not many people know about his family background. Wang Chonggu was not born into a family of generals. His family was an authentic Shanxi merchant. Many of his family members were operating in Hebian Town.
The business related to transporting grain, and he himself once guarded the border town for a long time, was actually launched by his family."
"He is from Puzhou, Shanxi (now Yongji, Shanxi). The salt pond in Yuncheng is not far from them." Zhang Shize emphasized specifically.
"The famous Wang Taibao turned out to be a son of a salt merchant." Yang Fan murmured. Sure enough, these people who can become famous have a huge family behind them.
Zhang Shize said: "The other person is more awesome. Zhang Siwei is the chief assistant of the official, and he is Wang Chonggu's nephew. This kind of ultra-large-scale business is also a hugely profitable industry such as grain and salt. If there are no border officials in the border towns, the center will
, there is no one in the court who can back him up. It is impossible for Shanxi merchants to keep eating this big fat piece of meat."
"Zhang Siwei's family is a member of the Shanxi merchants and is also engaged in the salt industry. His family is very close to the chief minister Gao Gong. They often send money. They have trained a large number of officials themselves, and they have been secretly funded and bribed by them.
, there are also many controlling officials.”
Yang Fan nodded and said: "In the early days, when the imperial government's finances were still functioning, they relied on grain and salt to make money. In the later period, when the imperial court's finances failed, they got involved with the border generals and started the business of smuggling out of the country."
Mongolia was short of iron, gunpowder, and all living supplies. The Ming Dynasty was short of horses. Horses were a luxury item during the Ming Dynasty. In addition to being used by cavalry and officers, there was also great demand among the people.
Zhang Shize said: "Any other business group can only sell the materials to them at low prices, and then they take them to Zhangjiakou to trade with the Mongols. They have made most of the profits. This is a piece of fat, it looks very disappointing.
People are jealous."
Yang Fan said: "As far as I know, they are not just smuggling secretly with the Mongols, they have already reached out to the Jiannu. In recent years, the business with the Eastern Lu is about to catch up with the scale of the trade with the Northern Lu."
Yang Fan already knows that the participants behind the smuggling in Dongjiang Town are the Xungui Group, the relatives group, and the clan group. This is Shanxi businessmen running to grab food from the bowls of Xungui and other forces. Xungui naturally cannot tolerate it.
It’s okay if we can’t make it in Shanxi. All the business in Beilu belongs to you, and we accept that. But now you are still robbing us of Donglu’s business. It’s really unbearable.
And Donglin has now taken control of Guan Ning's army, and they are eager to get a piece of the pie.
However, the pattern of interests in the north was formed over the past two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty and is not easy to change.
So Donglin started the great power shift. He first drove Yang Fan to Hetao to fight against the Mongols, eliminating the threat from the capital. Then he abolished the nine-border border army and pulled out the teeth in the Shanxi merchants' mouths.
The next step is to force the Shanxi merchants to reveal some of their commercial interests in the Northern Territories. The other side begins to plan to replace Mao Wenlong and monopolize the interests of Liaodong.
If their plan succeeds, if this continues, Donglin will not only be powerful in the court, but also a force in the local area that everyone must deal with carefully.
Yang Fan thought about it, Donglin made enemies everywhere, and looked so ugly. In the past, Duke Wei was everyone's common enemy, and he could still tolerate them. Now, in this situation, there is no need to tolerate them anymore. It is estimated that many sects and officials have already started to tolerate them.
They secretly contacted each other and planned the plan to overthrow Donglin.
Now, Donglin's rise again has put great pressure on the Jin Party. Now Donglin has replaced the power of Duke Wei. It has become a situation where other parties have united to fight against the Donglin Party.
"I have heard about these eight businessmen. They are said to be Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, and Huang Yunfa. These eight people." Yang Fan said.
The Shanxi Merchant Group, headed by the Eight Great Imperial Merchants, had always had a strong backing in the imperial court. Otherwise, the merchants had a low social status and the smuggling trade was so profitable, so why should they be given the advantage.
The backstage of these Shanxi merchants were Shanxi-born court officials who served as high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty, such as Yang Bo, Yang Junmin and his son, Han Xu, etc.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the Jin Party supported by the Shanxi Business Group was able to compete with the Donglin Party supported by Jiangnan Capital. Later, after the Qing troops entered the customs, they were able to quickly pacify North China. The main reason was that the members of the Jin Party under the control of the Shanxi Business Group
, collectively defected to the Manchus.
Shanxi merchants had a vicious eye. As early as the Nurhaci period, they secretly issued dragon tickets in Shanxi to raise military supplies for Nurhaci. The so-called dragon tickets meant that Nurhachi borrowed usury loans from wealthy households in Shanxi to accumulate military power and expand
For armament, the dragon ticket is a debt certificate stamped with Nuerha's red dragon seal.
Yang Fan has secretly collected these information before and he knows it well.
They have been secretly collaborating with the enemy for at least a hundred years. From the Northern Lu to the Eastern Lu, the business is getting bigger and bigger.
Why the Qing army's entry into the Pass depended on a message from North China, while the south had to fight for many years before it was settled. It was because the Jin Party and the Jiannu had a long history of contact. And the south was the territory of the Donglin Party, and they had a close relationship with the Manchus.
Qing Ke didn’t have much cooperation.
This is actually a group of northern gentry using the Manchu Qing Dynasty to suppress Donglin in the south. The forces in the south will naturally not bow their heads and admit defeat. This is tantamount to handing over the future national wealth to the Jin Party. This is something the Donglin Party will never tolerate.
