Although Chang Yu did not go to the Confucius Temple and Prince Lu's Mansion, he stayed in Yanzhou Mansion for two days. He was not sightseeing or visiting friends, but doing polls. During these two days, he was either in the fields or in teahouses and restaurants. The farmers chatted with the people to see if the Kong family and the King of Lu in Qufu had fulfilled their promises. After some research, they found that both the Kong family and the King of Lu had fulfilled their promises, and Chang Yu finally heard some positive voices, such as The people are very proud to say that during the great famine last year, not many people starved to death in our Yanzhou Prefecture. The imperial court waived taxes for three years, and the Kong family and Prince Lu's residence were exempted from rent and rent reduction. This was something they would never have dreamed of in previous years. Today's imperial court That's pretty good.
This made Chang Yu full of emotions. After coming here for more than a year, he finally heard what he wanted to hear. I also suddenly understood why Zhu Yunwen had to cut down the vassal in the first place. In addition to consolidating the political power, it was not a move that benefited the people. If the vassal king is rich, the people in the land will be miserable. Like the current King De of Jinan and King Lu of Yanzhou, if they have tighter pockets, they will benefit. Thousands of people.
The people in Henan, where famine and war were most severe, were not so lucky. All the vassal kings in the territory were wiped out, and no one opened warehouses to provide relief. But they were lucky, because the vassal kings had lost their land and took it as national property. The king's tenants were no longer required to pay rent, but without the vassal king there would be other landowners, so the court could not force them to avoid paying rent.
After staying in Yanzhou Prefecture for two days, Tu Yuan, Zheng Zhilong and his entourage left quickly. Chang Yu finally decided to take the waterway. The reason why he no longer traveled with Zheng Zhilong was to hide their presence separately. Chang Yu was not afraid of Li Xingtian's people showing up to cause trouble. But he was afraid that they would follow him to Xuzhou and find out his secret. As the old saying goes, it would never bring harm to his family. He was worried that the group would not be able to kill him and would instead harm Zhang Biyun.
There is a large river between Qufu and Yanzhou called the Sishui River that leads to the Grand Canal. There is a powerful gang called the Liangchuan Gang, also known as the Cao Gang, who makes a living in the Grand Canal. The Sishui River is also within the sphere of influence of the Liangchuan Gang, and in this There is a port at the dock outside Yanzhou City.
The leader of the Grain Gang Sishui Hall is a dark-skinned young man. Although he is rude and not literary, he is righteous and likes to fight against injustice. Another point is that he has a very hot temper and will attack if he disagrees with him, and he is the most famous person. The thing that Ao is proud of is that he once had a face-to-face confrontation with the chief governor of Dongchang, the God of War at that time, and even almost made a move.
There was a time when Wei Changde would talk to everyone he met on the dock, but most of the listeners thought he was just bragging. Wei Changde would always argue with others and even go so far as to ask Prince Lu if he didn't believe it.
Then some people said shabbily to him, "Hey, you still know Prince Lu. Are you really like this and are you still making a living at the dock?"
These words stimulated Wei Changde, and he suddenly remembered that King Lu had asked him to go to the palace. At that time, he always felt that it was just a show of words. How could he take his dirty talk seriously?
But this time he really gritted his teeth and prepared some gifts and went to Prince Lu's Mansion in Yanzhou City to ask for an audience. Unexpectedly, he actually went in, but after coming out, Wei Changde seemed to be a different person. Although his temper was still hot, he became He was very low-key and never mentioned anything about the Grand Eunuch of Dongchang and Prince Lu's Mansion, but then the number of ferries he was in charge of increased from one to three, and he was also promoted to one of the eight chief stewards by the gang.
The Cao Gang is the largest gang in the world during the Ming Dynasty. It is divided into the main gang and the guest gang, which can also be said to be the North and South Gangs. The main gang is in Wenzhou and Taizhou areas in the south. The guest gang is in the north of Anhui and Jiangbei. The eight chief stewards in the gang are also called the eight elders. , whose status is second only to help, the reason behind Wei Changde being promoted to elder at a young age is thought-provoking.
After Wei Changde visited Queen Lu, she became much more low-key, and became more cautious in her actions. Although she was now in charge of three large ferry terminals, he still lived in the ferry outside Yanzhou City, and visited her every month. They would always visit Prince Lu’s Mansion in the city.
"Master, there is a man from outside who is looking for you. If you ask him what he does, don't tell me. I must see you before I speak." Wei Changde, who had just finished lunch, was dozing on the recliner under the eaves of the corridor with his eyes squinted. One of his men hurriedly walked away. When he came in, Wei Changde didn't even open his eyes: "There are anywhere from 100 to 80 people at Surabaya Pier who want to see me all day long. If I see them all, why do I still have to work? I don't see you."
"Master, this person seems to be traveling around the world with this guy." After hearing this, Wei Changde opened his eyes and smiled coldly: "He's here again to help out the Qiu Feng. Just give him some money to kill him." The subordinate shook his head: "No, no, he said he came from the east of the imperial city."
Wei Changde jumped up from the chair and was kicked over by the subordinate: "You are so breathless that you can't finish your sentence at once." As he spoke, he ran outside, and his subordinate looked confused: "Master , who is the other party?"
"Father!" Wei Changde cursed angrily. He trotted out of the yard and saw a man standing next to the willow tree in front of the door. He was tall and wearing a bamboo hat and his face could not be seen clearly: "Your Excellency."
The man turned over the cards in his hand and said, "Wang Zhengnan is disturbing Hall Master Wei."
Wei Changde was illiterate but knew the brand. He had seen it once and it was deeply engraved in his mind, so his heart suddenly jumped up. He glanced left and right and said quickly: "Strong men, please, please."
After half a cup of tea, the back door of the courtyard opened. Wang Zhengnan poked his head out and looked around, then walked along the corner towards the southeast river, turned around three times in one step, and ran into a small forest to join Jiang Fa. He got off his horse and headed south along the river bank.
Not long after he left, Wei Changde also hurriedly left the yard and went straight to the dock. In a very short period of time, he picked up a large ship and more than ten confidants. He told his subordinates that he was going to Jining and something happened to the waterway there. He needed to go and deal with it, and his men didn't doubt him. They patted their chests and promised to take good care of the dock.
Besides, Wei Changde punted his boat down the river for several miles and saw a few people standing next to a dense forest on the east bank of the river. He ordered his men to approach the shore. His men were curious and asked who they were. Wei Changde looked sternly: "From now on, you are blind, deaf, and mute. What? I haven't seen anything, I haven't heard anything, and I'm not allowed to say a word."
These people were all his cronies. It was obvious that they knew that this trip was supposed to be a secret mission, so they all nodded in agreement.
The boat docked, and five or six people led the horses onto the boat. There were men and women, all wearing bamboo hats and their faces could not be seen clearly. Wei Changde's men lowered their heads and worked knowingly, not looking or talking casually, although they were very confused in their hearts. The Lord looked humble towards these people, and it seemed that he might be a big shot in the gang.
"Brother Wei, it's been more than half a year since we last seen each other. How are you?" In the cabin, Chang Yu took off his bamboo hat and looked like a spring breeze, but Wei Changde didn't dare to look at him, so he bowed his head and said, "Wei Changde has seen... the shopkeeper."
Chang Yu reached out and helped him up: "No need to be polite, how are you doing lately?"
"Okay, thanks to the shopkeeper and Prince Lu, everything is fine for me, and my brothers have food to eat." Wei Changde had a smile on his face, but he was still extremely nervous.
"You don't have to be too polite. Speaking of TOEFL, the court has to thank you for your help in water transportation. The court will remember this." Chang Yu smiled slightly, and Wei Changde also smiled: "I am a rough man who can't speak, so I can’t say anything, everything here is decided by the gang and the officials in charge of water transportation, I’m just an errand follower.”
Chang Yu smiled: "What the water transport official does must be approved by the court, and the court is grateful to you for running errands."
Wei Changde scratched his head in embarrassment: "Let it be whatever the shopkeeper says. Anyway, I think you are different from the previous ones... and different from other high officials. I believe in you and I am grateful to you. If it weren't for you He and Prince Lu took care of him. I don’t know how many brothers died of starvation during the great famine last year. I heard from people in the gang that the imperial court did not need to use water to transport food. There were other ways, and we did not necessarily use our grain boat gang. , so that the brothers in the grain boat gang can have something to eat, so that they will not lose their livelihood, fall into banditry, or starve to death."
Last year during the Great Famine, the imperial court and Chang Yu were trying to get food everywhere to send to the capital, and 90% of it was by water. After all, the cost was lowest by water, and by water you had to deal with grain ship gangs, but was it really necessary?
No.
What is the so-called cost?
Manpower.
But what is the most indispensable thing these days?
Manpower.
There are ordinary people everywhere who have no food to eat. With just a little food or even no wages, you can hire a lot of labor to do anything for you! So the imperial court did not use the grain boat gang at all, and went directly to his partner, Huangshang Octopus. .
Octopus is both an imperial merchant and the largest logistics company in the capital. Of course, it also has its own grain ship, although it is not as large as the grain ship gang.
What's more, when the canal freezes in winter, you still have to go by land. At this time, the transportation capacity of the grain boat gang is far less than that of the Octopus.
But why are 90% of the orders for the imperial court's transportation of grain and grass given to the grain boat gang?
There are many reasons. First of all, unrest is most likely to occur in famine years. The Liangchuan Gang is the largest gang in the Ming Dynasty, with tens of thousands of people making a living from it. Moreover, as mentioned above, the Liangchuan Gang has the shadow of the White Lotus Sect. In fact, it is a religious gang and can be easily deceived. , although they only like to be black and don't like to rebel, but people's ideas will change when they are hungry.
The imperial court didn't want to cause trouble at this juncture, so it wanted to give them a big order to stabilize them.
Secondly, the relief grain at that time was all obtained from the south of the Yangtze River, and it was convenient to travel by waterway. However, the strength of Octopus on the waterway was far less than that of the Grain Ship Gang.
Furthermore, there was an urgent need for food supplies during the famine at that time. If time allowed, at least most of the orders would be for the mainland merchant Octopus.
