Laizhou, Haicang Town.
When the Jin Dynasty was founded, the famous general Ta Lan believed that the fertile land of famous vassal towns in Shandong was rich in salt, iron, mulberry and hemp. Therefore, for the next hundred years, famous ministers and generals were in charge of the country.
Among the four great benefits of salt, iron, mulberry and hemp, the one that brings in money the fastest is salt.
Since the 25th year of Dading, the seven salt departments established by the imperial court in Shandong, Cang, Baodi, Ju, Jie, Beijing and Xijing have a combined annual income of no less than 17 million yuan. Among them, Shandong salt tax exceeded 4.3 million yuan, accounting for a quarter of Daikin's salt tax revenue.
Shandong East Road governs two prefectures and eleven prefectures, and two prefectures and seven prefectures all have salt farms. For example, here in Laizhou, Jimo County has Laoshan Salt Field, Buqishan Salt Field, Tianshishan Salt Field, Quli Salt Field, etc., and Laiyang County has Hengcun Salt Field, etc.
Relatively speaking, there are more salt fields on the east coast of Laizhou, while there are fewer on the west side. There are only two places on the west coast that are somewhat sizable, namely Haicangchang and Xiyouchang.
Among them, Haicangchang is close to the inlet of Glue Sea. Although the harbor conditions are not as good as Taiping Bay at the foot of Sanshan Mountain in Xiyouchang, it is still acceptable for a generally shallow seaside. Therefore, it was regarded as an important coastal area, and Haicang Town was specially set up. A Mouke subordinate to Lugu Bila Meng'an of Shandong East Road was stationed here.
There are people who installed Lu Gubi La Meng in the court. This fierce Bo Jilie was King Lu Wanyan Yongde who had survived the coup in Zhongdu and was also a co-contractor of Damu's family affairs.
In the first year of Mingchang, King Lu was awarded the title of "Lugu Bila Mengan", but he was a very wise king. He did not interfere in military affairs whether at the center of the court or in the local area. He only engaged in business to make money.
Since the reign of Emperor Sejong, there has been no war in Shandong East Road for nearly fifty years. The Jurchens entered Kuma and released Nanshan with swords and guns, and they became accustomed to peaceful days. And Bo Jilie did not care about anything, so this Meng'an, like Meng'an everywhere, gradually made a living by farming and farming.
When it comes to farming ability, most Jurchens are not as good as Han people, so their lives are inevitably poor. Many people cannot pay the cow head tax in disaster years, so they have to sell their land to serve as tenants for wealthy people.
The imperial court has been dissatisfied with this situation for many years, but it attributed it to the insufficient amount of land controlled by the Jurchens. Therefore, it launched successive campaigns to seize Han'er's land and redistribute it to the Jurchens.
To be honest, those tens of millions of hectares of sacred land that were taken away from us, the real bosses have their own places to go. The ordinary Jurchen fierce Anmou Kehu can only get some scraps and scraps missed by the big shots.
However, the local Han men were forced to sell their sons and daughters because of the expropriation of their fields. Everyone wept and cried... Who should I turn to to complain about this sorrow?
In the end, this move only intensified the conflicts between the Jurchens and the local Han people again and again, causing constant bloody conflicts in the local area.
During the Mingchang period, the imperial court repeatedly issued edicts to encourage the people of Qi to marry each other, thinking that it would bring long-term peace to the country. Why was this so?
All because in many places, the conflicts between the Han people and the Jurchen farmers have become more and more intense, and it is no longer possible to maintain long-term stability at the grassroots level.
For example, here in Haicang Town, during the Dading period, many Jurchen households living in rural areas mixed with Han children, and some even got married against Emperor Sejong's will. By now, at least 70% to 80% of Jurchen farmers have Han ancestry. Many Jurchen farmers gave themselves Han names, and unless facing the court, they completely followed Han customs and lived their lives.
But over the years, the people on both sides have not said they are no longer getting married, they are even wary of each other and have stopped communicating with each other.
Most of the Han people went to the Haicang Salt Fields, while most of the Jurchens gathered in the camp in the south of Haicang Town.
That Tunbao is not a good place either. It has not been repaired for decades and is very dilapidated. The outer stone walls are full of collapsed gaps, grass grows everywhere, and the two watchtowers have long since collapsed.
However, the Tunbao generally maintains its military shape, with only one door open and narrow windows. Therefore, it is hot and muggy in summer, but becomes humid and cold in autumn.
The clothes of the Jurchen farmers would get moldy every year at this time, and the stored grain would also easily get moldy. If you're not careful, large mushrooms would grow under the straw in the grain field.
The only advantage is probably that there are many empty houses in Tunpu, and the farmers can live wherever they want.
That's because during the Taihe period, when the Song Dynasty was conquered, and after Da'an fought with Mongolia, the imperial court signed many military contracts. After the Shandong Road Tongjun Division's Zhenfangjia Army was demobilized, it was the turn of the Meng'an Mou Kehu and Sheliang Army from various places. , came down again and again, and more than half of the young people in the local area were transferred.
How will the young and the weak survive if they leave without returning them? This Mouke in Haicang Town originally had 129 households during the Dading period, but now there are only 35 households left.
As for the slaves and slaves, if there were really any, they would have been allowed to join the army in their place. At this time, in the huge village of Tunpu, there were only a few tenant farmers in Muke's family, and the other Jurchens were all hard-working farmers.
And Mou Ke also has the troubles of Mou Ke.
"Everyone is about to run out of food." Muke Aluhan sighed.
A few months ago, there was a military report saying that the Mongols had invaded again, so the Army Command in Yidu continued to mobilize men, horses, grain, and supplies. Those people were unreasonable. Not only did they take away the young people, they also wiped out all the grain that had just been harvested in the camp, and they didn't even spare those that were kept for sowing.
As a result, the fighting at the front was unfavorable, and most of the dozen young men signed to the front were killed by the Mongols. But there are thirty-five households in Tunpu, with more than one hundred and twenty mouths, large and small. They have nothing to eat and are about to starve to death.
Aruhan's own family has an old woman, a mother-in-law, and two children.
Half of the children are ignorant when they are old enough to eat. The old woman and the mother-in-law were all sallow and thin, their eyes were dull, and they were staggering when they walked. They were saving food rations for their children, but Aruhan didn't know it.
Isn't it true for Aruhan himself? The belt hanging the long knife around his waist almost reached his hips, and his stomach rumbled from time to time.
He turned to look at his slumped companions, and continued to sigh. The inhalation and sighing themselves seemed to consume too much of his energy, making him even hungrier.
In order to distract himself, Aruhan looked to the west of Haicang Salt Farm.
The Salt Commander is still very confident. Aruhan knew that there were at least three to five hundred stones of grain hidden in the Haicang Salt Farm, but they hid the grain very tightly like mice digging holes. The men in the salt field also didn't have enough to eat. They had a riot yesterday and two of them were killed.
Aruhan was interested in negotiating to borrow some food, but he kept hesitating. The salt envoys all have gold medals in their hands, and even when they see the commander-in-chief and Meng Anbo being extremely fierce, they will not fall behind. When he, a big-ass Muke, went to ask for help, why didn't he kowtow dozens of times?
You are not afraid of kowtowing, but what if you can’t borrow food even if you kowtow? Hey, is it possible that we will have to fight each other?
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly noticed that a bright red color suddenly appeared on the sea level in the distance.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
I have something urgent at home and I have to go out soon, so today is a bit short, sorry.
7017k
