Besides, Jia Ke has been too busy during this period of time. Since the emperor had taken the initiative, Jia Ke also counterattacked, and the generals on the nine sides had begun to collect taxes. Jia Ke killed two birds with one stone, that is, letting the soldiers at the border pass
With food and wages, he could use the power of merchant gangs to put pressure on the emperor.
And now business gangs in various places are also moving according to what Jia Ke wants.
On this day, the leading figures of the three major business gangs had already arrived at the most famous restaurant in Beijing - Youyifen.
Among them, the Shanxi merchants were headed by George Yong of the Qiao family, the Hui merchants were headed by Bao Shufang, and the salt merchants were headed by Wang Yinggeng.
These three are the leading figures among the three major business gangs, and can even be said to be the leaders of the three major business gangs. The decisions made by the three of them can influence the direction of the three major business gangs.
These three people met today for no other reason than because the army has been disobeying orders these days and has set up traffic jams at important traffic intersections to collect taxes, which has seriously affected business transactions. It can be said that these people are in a difficult situation.
Every step he takes will face difficulties from the army.
After the three bosses arrived at the private room, they each took their seats at the table. After that, various delicacies were served like water. Finally, the three men waved their servants to retreat.
Seeing that there were only three of them left in the private room, George Yong said, "What do you two think of the trends in various places during this period?"
Wang Yinggeng is the leader of the salt merchants. In terms of wealth, salt merchants now claim to control 1/4 of the world's wealth. Therefore, Wang Yinggeng speaks with confidence.
"These Qiu Ba people don't understand the rules so much. We should mobilize our manpower to make them walk around without food."
Bao Shufang was the oldest, so he considered things the most carefully. At this time, he said, "Nephew Wang, please be patient. We haven't reached that point yet. Once we start acting like this, everything will be dead. How can you still control the whole world?"
Have all the military commanders and military governors be replaced?"
After hearing this, George Yong nodded, "Mr. Bao is right, it's just that something is not good now. We'd better not act rashly."
Wang Yinggeng was the youngest and had the least experience. He was somewhat disapproving of what they said, "What are you worried about? As long as it comes from the imperial court, do these people dare to disobey it?"
After Bao Shufang heard this, he shook his head with disdain and stopped talking.
As the leader of these business gangs, George Yong needs to give him a few words of advice now, otherwise if something happens, all three of them will suffer losses.
"Brother Wang, the situation is not good now. I think it's time for the court to re-elect people."
After Wang Yinggeng heard this, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded. You must know that every change of dynasty is a big reshuffle of wealth. When the Taizu of this dynasty rebelled, it was the salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River who gave their full support. This is why they have had endless wealth for so many years since the founding of the country.
, surpassed Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants and became number one in the world. If turmoil breaks out this time, the final result is hard to say.
Bao Shufang had already noticed the instability of the court. He nodded after listening to George Yong's words, and then said: "Nephew Qiao is right, let's not do too much this time. It's better to wait and see what happens, just lose some money."
, once there are changes in the court in the future, we won’t be the ones who stand out.”
On the surface, George Yong nodded in agreement, but in fact he was a little wary of these two people. This time, they were Shanxi merchants, but they had already made a big deal. Perhaps because of their close proximity, Shanxi merchants now had contacts with the Jiedushi of Xuanfu Town.
, and funded a lot of money and military supplies overtly and covertly. It can be said that the treasure has been placed on Jia Ke.
But Qiao Zhiyong doesn't want to share his secret with the two of them, because if this thing goes wrong, the clan will be exterminated. But if Jia Ke succeeds, they Shanxi merchants will continue to become the leaders of the world's business gangs, and even be able to share the profits of salt merchants.
You must know that Shanxi merchants have long coveted the wealth of salt merchants.
After all, Wang Yinggeng was the leader of the merchant gang. After thinking about it, he calmed down and said, "In that case, we won't argue with these Qiu Ba people this time. Let's ask someone to give us a discount and ask the emperor to make up for the arrears of food and wages.
These Qiu Ba people have nothing to say, so in the end we will clear up the relationship and let these people go back to the camp."
After hearing this, Bao Shufang stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Nephew Wang is right this time. We'd better just wait and see what happens. When they're done fighting, isn't it safe for us to make a bet?"
On the surface, Wang Yinggeng kept nodding, but in his heart, he was thinking that the Salt Gang and the imperial court would prosper together, and both would suffer. If the imperial court was in trouble, it would not be impossible for them to donate millions of taels of silver to help the imperial court tide over the difficulties.
So these three people had three ideas, but they didn't know what the final outcome would be.
Within a few days, the news of the gathering of the three of them was sent to Xia Shouzhong. After receiving the news, Xia Shouzhong did not dare to neglect. He also summarized some of the news about Jia Ke in the past two days, and then took them together and went straight to Yangxin Hall to report to Jia Ke.
The emperor went to report.
Xia Shouzhong carefully entered Dongnuan Pavilion with several documents. The emperor's temper has been very bad these days. Is it all because Jia Ke strongly suppressed courtiers and suppressed comments that were unfavorable to him during this time?
Jia Ke was so strong that many ministers in the court began to wait and see. This was already the first time. Every time the emperor just gained a little advantage, Jia Ke immediately counterattacked, causing the courtiers who had originally leaned towards the emperor to swing back and forth again.
indefinite.
It was the same this time. The emperor had just reduced the military pay of Jia Ke's direct troops, and the courtiers below had just started to make trouble. Jia Ke suppressed all these reactions with forceful means. Even several of the emperor's loyal ministers were
Brother Jia was sent to go fishing in the South China Sea.
During this period of time, the emperor had no choice but to let him deal with Jia Ke.
Xia Shouzhong took the document and quietly came to the emperor's case, and then said softly: "Long live Lord, this is the intelligence of the Lords in the past few days, as well as the news of the gathering of three business gang leaders, and the last one is Jia
Ke’s movements these days.”
The emperor looked at Xia Shouzhong expressionlessly. Xia Shouzhong was far worse than Dai Quan. It turned out that when the Supreme Emperor asked Dai Quan to take charge of the secret guard, there had never been any errors in various intelligence, and the intelligence compared to Jia Ke was also very accurate.
Now he has obtained the Supreme Emperor's last trump card - the secret guard, but this Xia Shou Zhongzhong is useless. Since he took over as the secret guard, the efficiency of the secret guard has dropped greatly. For Jia Ke, he is completely in a blind spot.
The emperor took the documents expressionlessly and looked at them carefully. The most important one was about Jia Ke. But this time Xia Shouzhong didn't give him any surprises. It was still trivial matters. Although the information about Jia Ke was
A lot, but they are all insignificant things.
So the emperor threw Jia Ke's information aside and continued to read other things. For other ministers, this information was very detailed.
There are three major business gangs among them, and there is news that each of them sent representatives to hold a meeting in the capital. Although the content is not exhaustive, we can roughly guess the intentions of the three major business gangs. The emperor once offended three dozen business gangs.
These three major merchant gangs have lasted for several dynasties. No matter how the dynasties changed, these merchant gangs have never wavered. Mainly because the imperial court still needs them for north-south transportation and exchange of supplies.
One is that the power controlled by the three major business gangs is very powerful. Emperor Taizu relied on the power of the Jianghuai Salt Gang to stand out in the world competition.
Therefore, the emperor did not dare to take the reaction of these three major business gangs lightly, but the emperor's control over the border is indeed somewhat weakened now. Due to the rise of Jia Ke, the generals at the border saw their own promotion ladder. Many people now overtly and covertly
Jia Ke acted as his spokesperson in the court.
Because of this, the emperor did not dare to act rashly. The emperor believed that the control of the three major battalions in the capital was not under Jia Ke. After all, these three major battalions had been in the capital for nearly a hundred years, and none of the generals among them had anything to do with the royal family.
wisps of contact.
But just because they were unsure about the attitude of military generals in various places, they kept Jia Ke alone and did not dare to take action. This time, the severe deduction of military pay for Jia Ke's direct troops was also intended to give the border generals some color. Let them know what to do if
Without the imperial court's reduced support, they would not be able to feed even one soldier.
Unexpectedly, Jia Ke's direct descendants actually started to collect taxes at the border. Now their annual income could completely make up for the lack of money and food given to them by the imperial court.
In addition to Jia Ke, other border generals also began to follow suit and collect taxes at various places at the border. Moreover, this trend has spread to the inland, and local armies have also begun to set up checkpoints at various stations to collect taxes. All the past
All the merchants had to pay them a sum of money, which made the emperor even more worried, and he even felt a sense of fear.
The way the court controls these generals is to control their money and food. If these generals have money and food, will they still be loyal to the court?
And now these three major business gangs have begun to make trouble in the court again. It seems that they can't stand these generals anymore. They want to use the power of the court to make up for the money and food, so that these Qiu Ba can return to their camps as soon as possible.
, don’t come out to cause trouble again.
The emperor read the information, thought about it, and asked Xia Shouzhong next to him, "Do you think I should stop the army from various places from collecting tolls indiscriminately?"
To be honest, when it comes to trust, the person the emperor trusts the most is Xia Shouzhong next to him. Even those in the court who thought they were the emperor's confidants were only seen as pawns and tools by the emperor.
When Xia Shouzhong heard the emperor's question, he was immediately startled. You must know that Emperor Taizu once issued an imperial edict: concubines in the harem and eunuchs who interfere with politics should be executed immediately.
Xia Shouzhong immediately knelt on the ground and said to the emperor with his whole body trembling: "Long live my lord, this slave is just the emperor's dog. How can I have any say in these important court affairs?"
"You are different from others. Just say it when I ask you to say it. I am a little undecided now?" The emperor's meaning is very clear. Now the emperor is a little undecided. He doesn't know whether he should issue an imperial edict to stop the various armies.
Acting randomly.
Emperor Xia Shouzhong was indeed in a bit of a dilemma. As a eunuch who had raised the emperor since childhood, he actually regarded the emperor as his junior even though he had no descendants.
Now seeing the emperor's sincere inquiry, he plucked up the courage to say: "I think the emperor is in trouble, mainly because he is afraid that the generals from various places will not listen to the court's orders after they have money and food, and eventually become warlords."
Xia Shouzhong's words touched the emperor's heart. The emperor now looked at Xia Shouzhong with admiration. Xia Shouzhong was indeed not good at handling intelligence, but he was very scheming in dealing with the intrigues in the court.
Seeing the emperor nodding his head, Xia Shouzhong felt relieved, so he let go and said boldly: "Now, Long Live Lord, we are in a dilemma. We have to make a choice. Should we worry about the warlords separatist power, or worry about Jia Ke's conspiracy to usurp the throne? It's the worst of the two.
It's not serious. Another problem is slowly being solved. This is a long-term solution."