At the end of July in the fourth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Henan, Kaifeng Prefecture, Zhengzhou City.
Because the city of Kaifeng was destroyed by Li Zicheng's flood in the 15th year of Chongzhen, Zhengzhou City became a blessing in disguise. It became the seat of the Henan Governor's Yamen, the Admiral's Yamen, and the Kaifeng Magistrate's Yamen in the Qing Dynasty. It was the de facto capital of Henan Province.
Although it has become the capital of a province, Zhengzhou's streets and markets still appear extremely depressed. In the small city, there are only two intersecting commercial streets that are somewhat popular. But that's just the extent of popularity. There are dozens of half-dead shops open, and the more respectable ones belong to the nine imperial merchants, accounting for about one-third of the total shops. They are all well-established grain, salt, tea, wine, cloth, iron, livestock and medicinal materials shops - in today's Qing Dynasty, these eight businesses are considered big business!
The reason for this is of course related to the years of war and the two major policies of land enclosure and land equalization. In other words, most of the early stages of a "restart" dynasty were like this.
Because there are so few people, it is difficult for industry and commerce to develop. However, the failure of industry and commerce to develop also contributed to the popularity of small-scale peasant economy and manor economy. Both the small-scale peasant economy and the manor economy are characterized by self-sufficiency. The small-scale peasant economy emphasizes men farming and women weaving. The aristocratic manor economy is slightly better. However, the overall social environment is like this, so of course we have to follow the path of self-sufficiency. Now that everyone is self-sufficient, it is even more difficult for industry and commerce to prosper.
However, no matter how self-sufficient, there is still some market for the four commodities monopolized by the state and the Nine Banners: salt, iron, wine, and tea. The current Qing Dynasty has not yet achieved "unification" and still maintains the banner owners and the Eight Banners. The situation of divided kings and public governance. Therefore, the owners of the Nine Banners and the Dutongsi have great power. They are like "small Qing countries". Therefore, they also have the right to operate monopoly products, but in principle they can only operate for the purpose of meeting the needs of their own banners.
Outside the Nine Banners, the market for salt, iron, wine, and tea needed by more than 10 million Han people was contracted out to nine imperial merchants.
In addition to these four monopolized commodities, the markets of grain stores, cloth stores, livestock stores, and medicinal materials stores are also not small. Grain, cloth, and livestock are the most important products of the small-scale peasant economy and the manor economy, and they are also necessities, and livestock are necessities for the soldiers of Nine Banners. As for the medicinal materials business... How can people who eat grains be always healthy?
Moreover, the taxes levied by the Qing court from small farmers were not silver or copper coins, but mainly flour (or wheat) and cloth. After the Qing government collected all the flour, wheat and cloth, they would also take part of it and The nine royal merchants traded in exchange for some handmade products or gold, silver and copper coins that they needed.
In addition, the six categories of salt, iron, wine, tea, grain, and livestock were also the main goods traded by the nine imperial merchants and the Mongolian banners on the grasslands. Salt, iron, wine, tea, and grain were exported to Mongolia, while livestock were imported to Han.
Nowadays, Monan Mongolia, Khalkha Mongolia and most of the Han lands in the north belong to the Qing Dynasty, so there is no obstacle to trade between these areas, and the nine imperial merchants can trade with each other.
But generally speaking, the scale of industry and commerce under the Qing Dynasty is not large today. Except for Beijing and Tianjin, which are slightly prosperous, cities elsewhere are extremely depressed and have few urban residents. Zhengzhou is no exception. Even if you are racing on the busiest streets in broad daylight, you may not hit pedestrians.
During this period, because Emperor Amma of the Qing Dynasty was stationed in Zhengzhou, there were often horse teams passing by on the streets delivering messages and wishes, which could be regarded as adding some popularity to the sluggish market.
Another jingle bell rang, and several strong horses flew past the streets of Zhengzhou like the wind, passing by a shop with a wide front and a signboard of "Jiale City". Inside the shop, there stood a man in a long gown, a mandarin jacket, a melon-pipe hat, and a braid trailing behind his head that symbolized the status of a bannerman. He was none other than Jiabusi, one of the nine great imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty.
With his identity, he is of course a braided bannerman. Duduo personally carried the flag for him. At first, he was attached to the Xiangbai Banner Han Army, but now he followed Duduo and transferred to the Zhenglan Banner Han Army, and he also got an alternate county. Ling's official status - of course there will be no real shortage for him, but his status as a bannerman official is.
This time he served in front of the army under the orders of the Zhenglan Banner Dutong Yamen - he was not needed to charge into the battle and make suggestions, but the military supplies required the participation of imperial merchants like them, and the spoils grabbed by the Nine Banners men also had to be Rely on these royal merchants to make money.
In short, with the flames of war, each of them can get a vote!
Therefore, everyone among the imperial merchants who gathered in Zhengzhou was beaming with joy, expecting to make a fortune!
However, when Jabs stayed alone in the "Jiale City" store, his brows were always knitted together, and the worry on his face could not be wiped away.
Because of the amount of military supplies he needed to raise, he already knew that the scale of Dorgon's troop recruitment was quite large!
Now the Nine Banners soldiers in the Qing Dynasty are all soldiers and peasants. The old Eight Banners are better off because they have coated servants to help them with their work. The Zhenglu Banner does not have coated soldiers (one more household coated will mean one less household for the big army). The leeks paid by the Qing Dynasty were taxed), and after the land was allocated orally, it was difficult to recruit farm laborers and tenant farmers in the Qing Dynasty, so the land allocated to them had to be cultivated by themselves. Therefore, large-scale point aggregation has a great impact on farming!
And the news of the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expedition has not yet come...Jabs also doesn't know if the Ming Dynasty will take advantage of Zhang Xianzhong's Eastern Expedition to launch a Northern Expedition?
In this case, Doama wants to use more troops. What does this mean? This shows that Doama is ready to go to war with the Ming Dynasty!
"Huang Ama, General Pingnan is reporting urgently to the camp!" A white-armored soldier with a white flag stood outside a pavilion in Huang Ama's camp, respectfully placing the box containing the memorial that he had just received. Hand it over.
After hearing the announcement, the two people who were playing chess in the pavilion glanced at each other. One of them immediately stood up, walked over to take the box containing the memorial, and then came to the other person's side, "Emperor Ama, this is Dorobelelek Dehun’s memorial.”
The person who spoke was none other than Fan Wencheng, and the person he called Huang Ama was of course Dorgon.
And Luck Dehun, who sent an urgent report to Dorgon, was the grandson of Daishan, the younger brother of the unlucky Adali who openly supported Dorgon as emperor. Adali was killed by his grandfather Daishan, and Luck Dehun was implicated and became a commoner under Haug. However, he was fished out by Dorgon as a commoner and granted the title of Dorobele not long after. After Dorgon became Emperor Ama, he also went one step further and became General Pingnan, stationed in Dongchang Mansion. He was the leader of the Qing Dynasty. The top leader in Shandong.
"Let me guess," Dorgon lowered his head and looked at the chessboard, "is it Zhu Cihong who is going to go on the Northern Expedition?"
After hearing this, Fan Wencheng quickly took out the memorial from the box and opened it. After taking a few glances, his expression changed drastically: "Huang Ama...how do you know?"
Dorgon smiled: "You guessed it! The marriage has been settled, so of course it's time to meet on the battlefield!"
"Huang Ama, he, he said that you massacred Datong City, which was a betrayal of faith. He wants to seek justice for the hundreds of thousands of people in Datong City!"
"Hmph!" Dorgon smiled coldly, "You have become the emperor, and you still have excuses for what is fair or unfair...!"
"Huang Ama..." Fan Wencheng's face became more and more ugly, "Luke Dehun also said that Zhu Cixiang canonized Wu Sanmei as the queen!"
"Oh," Dorgon sneered, "So he and Wu Sangui finally reached an agreement?"
"Huang Ama, if Wu Sangui rebels... there will be no peace in the northwest!"
Dorgon smiled and said, "So what? Can he still march through the Monan Grassland to march?"
"We are not afraid of him when walking on the Monan grassland!" Fan Wencheng had already finished reading the memorial and thought, "But Zhu Cixiang is coming back with great force, I'm afraid it will not be easy to deal with! And Zhang Xianzhong proclaimed himself emperor in Luoyang... .He has occupied Chang'an and Luoyang! Don't underestimate it!"
Dorgon waved his hand, "It doesn't matter...it's just bones!"
