Chapter 121 Salt Lesson
Du DaChong wiped the sweat from his head, looked up at the sun hanging in the sky, took out the water hyacinth from his waist, drank a few sips, and subconsciously touched the new scar on his face that was still pink. He cursed angrily and continued on his way.
Cheng Haer took a few steps to catch up and said, "Brother, it's hot. (In Chongqing dialect, the pronunciation of the word "crotch-picking" is originally intended to describe the indecentness of touching private parts in public, here it is used as a modal particle) , do you want to let the brothers have a rest?"
Du Da Chong shook his head: "Take a break! It's better to move faster. If this vote is intercepted by the Guiziguanjun, it will be all over."
Cheng Haer nodded: "Okay." Then he shouted at the top of his voice, "Brothers, hurry up! Get to the riverside early, and everyone can go play in Dachang City!"
There was a burst of laughter in the team.
Du Da Chong's real name was Du Hu. He was the nephew and right-hand man of Du Duan, a salt lord in Daning (now Wuxi, Chongqing). Because he dared to fight hard and was ruthless, he got such a nickname. He was very satisfied with this nickname. Gradually, not many people remembered his real name.
Cheng Haer is from Nanchong. He has been a beggar since he was a child without a father or a mother. He only knows his surname is Cheng. When he was still a half-grown child, he wandered to Daning in ignorance and followed the poisonous beast. He has been there for seven or eight years now. .
At this moment, the two brothers were leading a team of more than a hundred people walking on the rugged mountain road from Daning to Dachang. Most of the people in the team were carrying burdens, with seven or eight ponies carrying baskets sandwiched in the middle. About twenty strong men were walking unarmed on the side to guard them. Most of them had knives tied to their waists, and a few were carrying guns. of. No need to ask, this is a group of private salt dealers.
Originally, it was most convenient to take the Daning River waterway from Daning to Dachang. However, the officers and soldiers set up a roadblock by the river, so they had to go around that section on a mountain road with people and horses. In recent years, the mountain roads have become more and more difficult to walk. Ever since the old thief Jian Jing became the governor of Yunyang, the inspections have become more and more strict day by day. However, his Fubiao camp is still very good at fighting, and the old thief has gradually figured out the actions of his brothers. Regularly, in the past seven or eight months, more than a hundred brothers have been killed one after another, and Du Da Chong himself was stabbed in the face. If Cheng Haer hadn't fought hard to snatch him out, he might have become another unknown body in the mountains. Corpses.
The 20,000 kilograms of salt are the last piece of this shipment, and Du Da Chong's mission is to deliver it safely to Dachang. Du Yuanwai's business there has taken care of everything. The salt packets delivered in the previous trips have been loaded on ships, and they will set sail as soon as the last one arrives, along the Daning River to Wushan, and then down the Yangtze River. There were people to pick up the goods at Badong, Guizhou (today's Zigui, Hubei) and other stopping points along the way, and some would be unloaded respectively, and finally the delivery of the last batch of goods was completed in Yilingzhou (today's Yichang, Hubei). After this trip, Du Yuanwai would have an income of nearly ten thousand taels, so Du Da Chong had to hurry up and pray in his heart that no accident would happen.
The originator of the salt industry is Susha. Legend has it that one time he set up an earthen pot to boil seawater on the beach, and was going to catch some fish to cook later. Suddenly a wild boar ran past him, so he chased after it. By the time he came back with the wild boar on his shoulders, the seawater had boiled dry, leaving only a layer of white powder at the bottom of the jar. Susha dipped the pork in it and put it in his mouth. From then on, he was revered as the God of Salt - this is called the one-dip seal.
The salt and iron monopoly was first thought up by Guan Zhong of Qi State. Duke Huan of Qi needed money, and Guan Zhong made an account for him: "Ten people in a family of ten eat salt, and a family of one hundred people eat salt. A monthly salary of thirty yuan means thirty million yuan!" However, Guan Zhong only collected taxes. As long as within the territory of Qi State, the people can cook and sell salt by themselves and pay taxes to the government. Guan Zhong was really talented. He controlled the production of salt by stipulating that salt could only be boiled from October to the first month of the following year. He also controlled the salt consumption of Qi people through the rationing system. The excess salt was sold to other countries by the government. No matter how much the people of Qi's diet became duller than before, Duke Huan of Qi soon became the leader of the five hegemons.
How could Great Qin turn a blind eye to such a good thing? Shang Yang's reform established the "Salt and Iron City Officials", who were responsible for cooking, transporting, and selling salt. The people of Sanqin just died for the country, and the Qin government was responsible for collecting salt.
After the death of Qin II, the devastated Western Han Dynasty really couldn't deal with it anymore, but it couldn't bear to let go of its monopoly of big guns, so it resumed Guan Zhong's approach: all production, transportation and sales were handed over to the people, and paying taxes was the most honorable... Until A "talented and strategic" Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appeared. Liu Che was definitely a big spender, and the huge wealth left behind by Wenjing's rule was completely lost in a few years. What to do? Two tricks come to mind. One is "reporting", which means reporting with a reward - the reporter can get half of the property of the person being reported, and anyone who knows and fails to report is equally guilty! Some people say that by setting such a high reward, wouldn’t the country suffer a loss? hehe. The picture is broken, you may be thinking: the whistleblower easily obtained huge wealth overnight, and then what? Some people will be jealous! So yesterday's whistleblower will soon become today's whistleblower! After playing this mutual trap game for a few rounds, all the wealth returned to Emperor Wu, allowing him to continue to display his grand ambitions! Another trick is to learn from Shang Yang. All salt and iron will be nationalized to make them bigger and stronger. Production, transportation, and sales will be run by the government, and private operations are not allowed! Some people say that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's move dealt a blow to the powerful and prevented them from becoming bigger and endangering the stability of the Western Han Dynasty! Well, that does make sense - so to speak... a cold will be more uncomfortable, so hang yourself first and strangle yourself to death, then you won't have to worry about having a fever anymore, right? Don't laugh, that's the truth, because... Soon after, the Western Han Dynasty was over.
The lessons of the Qin and Han Dynasties were too profound, so after the Eastern Han Dynasty, the business model of salt basically did not go out of the circle drawn by Guan Zhong: government-controlled and private. To sum it up in one sentence, "The people give three of their efforts, and the other two go to the officials." The translation is that if you take off your long gown 996, I will take away two-thirds. As a human being, you must know how to be grateful.
The Ming Dynasty implemented the "Yan Yin" system - Yan Yin can be regarded as a salt monopoly license. Production is monopolized by the state. For example, salt farmers are provided with large iron pots for boiling salt, and all the salt is handed over to the government. The whole country is divided into ten "outlines" according to the naming method of "Holy virtue transcends the ages, and the emperor's wind has nine encirclements". Each outline is worth 200,000 jins of salt, and each yin is worth 300 kilograms of salt (small yin is 200 kilograms). ). Businessmen have to apply to the government to purchase salt imports, and use the salt imports to go to salt farms to supply salt, and then traffic it to designated areas for sale, so official salt is also called imported salt. Yanyin is a piece of paper with numbers, which can be torn in two. The half left by the government as a stub is called "Yingen", and the half taken away by merchants as sales vouchers is called "Yinyin" - note that Yanyin is If there is a time limit, it will become invalid upon expiration, and the official salt will become private salt in seconds.
Some people think that salt is highly profitable.
Big mistake.
The profits from salt are not high, but very, very high!
Extremely high!
Each lead is worth six cents and four cents of silver. Three hundred pounds is really not high, right? Haha, don’t forget, there are taxes! Three taels. There is also ministerial silver (freight), which is also three taels. And what about the hard work of each checkpoint along the way... From the salt field to the people's cooking pots, it has increased by more than ten times. That is a conscientious price - "Zaizai Youzhi" has increased by a full thirty or forty times. ! By the way, after the salt production was vigorously rectified during the Daoguang period of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the main course of salt production (all kinds of taxes that must be paid to the letter) was one liang, one penny and seven cents, and the miscellaneous courses ( All kinds of strange local miscellaneous taxes), there must be a little, not much, twelve taels, only ten times. Of course, this does not include the various unaccountable tricks of the little devils and gods along the way.
Even if they have to bear these necessary huge expenses, the salt merchants are still rich: the total national income of the Ming Dynasty averaged about 10 million taels, and the capital of the Lianghuai salt merchants in Yangzhou "in Guangling is no less than 3,000 taels" "Ten thousand taels"! As a side note, Qianlong traveled south to Yangzhou, where salt merchants invested hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build a palace for him and to repair Dahong Garden (today's Slender West Lake) for his enjoyment. So much so that Qianlong exclaimed, "The salt merchants have great financial resources!" Later, this guy soon raided all the salt merchants who received him - even though "all his property was not included in the official list" and the common people did not get a single copper plate, they still cheered from the bottom of their hearts for Lord Qianlong.
As for private salt, there are no such expenses at all. How much profit do you think it will be?
As early as the Han and Tang Dynasties, there were records of salt production in Daning. In ancient times, the Sichuan Basin was a huge salt water lake. With climate change, the lake water evaporated and the low-lying areas were closed, forming a huge underground brine layer. Daning people carry brine from salt wells deep in the mountains and boil it dry to make salt. However, because mining has been going on for so long, it is now often necessary to go down to a depth of dozens of feet to get brine. The salt workers have to carry barrels up and down wooden ladders that have been built for who knows how many hundreds of years, and their hands and feet slip. Whether he made a mistake or broke the rung with one foot, he would be dead if he wasn't careful. Since it is a monopoly business, the government will naturally have to take care of it, but no adult is willing to go into the dark, humid and hot salt well to stare at the group of desperate salt workers. Besides, the risks are high, the profits are huge, and all the members have to be strong... a proper underworld hotbed! Adults would not put their good bodies into danger, so they needed the help of powerful people like Du Duan.
On the surface, Du Duan is a wealthy family in Daning City. Although he has no fame, he actually has many industries, including a silk and satin shop, a rice shop, a pawn shop, and a drug store. In fact, everyone knows that in the palm-sized Daning, these businesses cannot make much money. What Du Yuanwai is really engaged in is the business of selling illicit salt. Even though Mr. Du always smiles when he meets people outside, he has at least a dozen lives under his control. The quality of Daning's well salt is very good, it is what people often call "snowflake salt" - as white as snowflakes in the sky, every grain of it is crystal clear. How good is it? Can be used as money! A small bag of snowflake salt is worth one or two taels of silver. Almost 20% of the output of those salt wells in Daning belongs to Du Yuanwai - the adults turned a blind eye because this was Du Yuanwai's reward for his help.
In addition to his first wife, Du Yuan also had three concubines, but he was childless. Some people said that this was his retribution for doing this business. As a result, the guy disappeared soon after, and no one dared to say this anymore.
Du Hu has been raised by Du Yuan Wai as his own son since he was a child. However, Du Hu's character is not like Du Yuan Wai at all. He is brave and fierce, and he is very public in his life and work. This makes Du Yuan Wai very worried and talks to him more than once. To be honest, if you don't know how to restrain yourself, the family fortune will be ruined in his hands sooner or later. However, it seemed to be of no use. Every time he was scolded, Du Hu would stay honest for at least three to five days. Fortunately, Du Da Chong is very loyal, and all the brothers who depend on the Du family for their livelihood obey him. In recent years, Du Yuanwai has been very worried about Governor Jian's increasingly severe crackdowns - he knows that he is just a local tycoon, and his power is limited to Daning and Dachang. In the eyes of the governor in charge of the eight prefectures, he is crushed to death. It won't take much more effort than squeezing an insect to death.
It is true that Du Yuanwai is rich, but he can only bite the bullet and continue to work. It is impossible to wash his hands and enjoy a happy life - the county magistrate of Dachang, Daning, buys face because he needs to maintain the production order of dozens of salt wells. , once the use value is gone, the princes will definitely fall out faster than flipping through a book. Your own smuggling team will only fight and kill, and asking them to go down the salt well to carry brine is something no one is willing to do. The home of the disabled salt worker who made a mistake has The children must be raised, and the children of the brothers who died at the hands of officers and soldiers must also be raised... Jianghu, how can you just retreat if you just say so?
After Du Hu led the team away, Du Yuanwai's right eyelid had been twitching for the past few days. As the saying goes, wealth is in the left eye and disaster is in the right eye. Du Yuanwai became particularly worried.
It was only a dozen miles away from the docking place where the ship was scheduled to be picked up. After passing this valley bottom, you could see the Daning River by turning around the mountain col in front. The brothers who were scouting the road in front did not send any warning signals. Du Da Chong put down the hanging heart of. At this moment, Du Da Chong heard a gunshot in front of him, and his heart skipped a beat: Immortal Ban Ban! There are dog officers and soldiers guarding here!
Thirty-six Strategies are the best. Although Du Da Chong is brave and fierce, no one is willing to openly oppose the army unless it is absolutely necessary. Du Da Chong had just drawn out his sword and was about to call his brothers to step forward to cover the retreat of the porters, when two gunshots rang out from behind the team!
Mom is finished selling batches and is surrounded!
Seeing the swaying of vegetation on the mountainside less than half a mile behind, Du Da Chong felt extremely cold: at least there were two to three hundred people and cats waiting for the signal from the front to cut off the retreat! There are just a lot more people blocking the front - Jian Laogou has sent out all his troops! More than a hundred commoners versus five hundred armors...
This group of people is dead!
*A fun little fact.
Why do people in coastal areas generally like spicy food less than people in inland provinces? If you ask a Sichuan person, there is a high probability that he will answer, "We are relatively damp here, and eating chili and Sichuan pepper can remove the humidity." In fact, this is a rumor - wasn't Sichuan wet before chili pepper was introduced? ^_^
The answer is because of salt.
It is easier to obtain salt in coastal areas. On the contrary, salt was a monopoly, and people in Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan and Guizhou had to pay very expensive prices to buy salt during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, chili pepper was introduced, and everyone found that this thing is as good as salt...
