In October of the first year of the reign of King Ming of the Ming Dynasty.
With the arrival of Yang Xiuqing, Marquis of Zhangwu, appointed by the Ming Dynasty as the governor of Jiangbei and salt transport ambassador to the Huaihe River, and the promulgation of a series of new salt affairs policies, the market in the Dongguan area of Yangzhou finally became bustling again.
Yangzhou Dongguan is close to the Grand Canal, and it is also the channel through which salt produced from various places along the coast of northern Jiangsu enters Yangzhou through the Salt Canal and the Grand Canal. Therefore, since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, this area has become a gathering place for the most wealthy Yangzhou salt merchants.
However, although this salt merchant was rich, in the eyes of Kang Mazi, the Little Holy Lord of the Qing Dynasty, he was just a bunch of fat pigs raised in captivity... he just caught a few and slaughtered them when he needed money. Since the Guangdong and Yunnan Rebellion, the military expenditures of the Qing Dynasty have been completely out of control. The court's little tax revenue can't help spending, so the time has come for the "fat pigs" of Yangzhou to be slaughtered. In the past three or four years, successively The reward was no less than 20 million taels of silver.
Of course, Kangxi is the Holy Lord! I won't take the money from these salt merchants in vain. So when Huaidong was about to be attacked by the Ming army, he ordered Shi Lang and Fu Honglie to arrest people according to the list of Yangzhou salt merchants who had given money... No, to protect them!
Shi and Fu protected the whole family of a prominent salt merchant in Dongguan, Yangzhou, including their maids and servants, and sent them to Beijing. All men were treated as slaves, while women were judged on age and appearance. Those who were decent were given to the Eight Banners brothers who lost their wives during the Beijing Incident as wives. Kangxi himself also set an example and was assigned ten Yangzhou thin horses to commemorate the Ma Jia family who died in the Beijing Rebellion...
But Shi Lang still left a trail behind when he ran away... He didn't massacre the city, he just arrested the salt merchants who sent money to the Qing Dynasty for military expenses, and also took the high-end brothels and slimming houses all over Yangzhou. The horse was looted by traffickers. .
Therefore, what was recovered by the Ming army was a Yangzhou city that still had some vitality.
Of course, this Yangzhou city cannot be compared with the prosperity of Yangzhou before the Ten Days Disaster in the late Ming Dynasty, but in the new Ming Dynasty, which had a population of only more than 20 million, it was still a good place.
Moreover, the beach salt fields in the three state capitals of Yangzhou, Tongzhou, and Huai'an still exist. These are the foundation of Yangzhou's prosperity!
With the implementation of the Yangzhou Salt Affairs New Deal, businessmen and capital who coveted the huge profits of the salt industry began to gather from all over the Ming Dynasty to Yangzhou Dongguan. Among them, there are also some clerks from large salt merchants who "escaped" from the north, and they have all started their old business of selling salt.
In a small alley near Dongguan Street in Yangzhou, a house that has been vacant for several months and was recently rented out is home to a group of "small salt merchants" who are said to have returned from the north and are now preparing to start a joint venture. .
The two leaders were none other than Zhou Peigong and Li Guangdi!
One of these two people is from Hubei, and the other is from Fujian. They have wrong accents and are too easy to reveal their secrets, so they don’t go out much after arriving in Yangzhou. They have been staying in the yard to study anti-papers... At the same time, Zhang Ying from Tongcheng was assigned to lead Following a group of "salt generation" who had never been "invited" to work as slaves in Beijing, they went out to promote the business of salt.
They chose to "engage in salt" not only to cover up, but also to facilitate the transfer of "rebellion funds" - this is the conclusion they came to after studying the "anti-book" written by Jin Yiwei of the Ming Dynasty!
It turns out that the cause of rebellion is very expensive!
Therefore, according to the records of Jinyiwei's anti-book, the White Lotus believers in the Ming Dynasty were busy making money most of the time... Zhou Peigong and Li Guangdi did not need to study how to make money, Kangxi would provide them with funds.
But how to transfer these funds, how to gather the rebel White Lotus believers, how to transport the weapons for rebellion, how to carry out the propaganda and agitation work of the rebellion, how to set up the command organization of the rebellion, how to issue the order of the rebellion, how to organize the rebel group How to control the middle and lower classes... A lot of issues such as this are all recorded in great detail in the Jin Yiwei's "anti-book" found by Zhou Peigong.
This book...is simply a guide to rebellion!
After Zhou Peigong obtained this wonderful book, he was of course as if he had found a treasure. Not only did he immediately copy the entire book and take it back for careful study, he also tempted Li Guangdi, Zhang Ying, Zhao Shenqiao and Gao Shiqi who went south with him to read it together.
And these few people were still able to control themselves when they were in the Qing Dynasty, without even taking a glance. But when the sand boat they took arrived from Haizhou to Guazhou Port Customs in Yangzhou Prefecture, they immediately changed their minds... Since they have embarked on the path of rebellion, they should read the rebellion guide carefully!
What if there really is something inside?
Just when Zhou Peigong and Li Guangdi were reading the anti-book with great interest, with profound and incomprehensible smiles on their faces, the sound of footsteps came from outside the study room where they were sitting.
Zhou Peigong and Li Guangdi, who were studying the counter-bill, suddenly panicked. Li Guangdi put down the counter-bill, picked up a flintlock gun, and pointed it at the door tremblingly. Zhou Peigong took a deep breath and said, "Who is outside, is it Zhang Wu?"
Zhang Ying's voice came from outside: "It's me, Li Liu."
Li Guangdi breathed a sigh of relief, looked down at the flintlock pistol in his hand, and found that there was no ammunition at all...
At this time, the door creaked and was pushed open, and then Zhang Ying, dressed in military uniform and with a hood on his head, walked in quickly.
"How?" Zhou Peigong asked.
"It's done!" Zhang Ying sighed with a look on his face, "What a new dynasty... He can do things quickly, and there is no need to pay a bribe of one tael of silver. The salt guide worth 50,000 taels has already been Got it!
And their salt laws are really clever... There is no proof of privilege (certificate of salt trafficking privileges), anyone can set up a business and sell salt. You only need to deposit a margin in the name of the company in the guarantee account established by Dongchang Official Bank, and you can purchase the corresponding amount of salt.
As for where the salt is sold and what price it is sold for, Lianghuai Salt Transportation Yamen does not ask. As long as you pay the customs tax of 5% of the salt price in accordance with the law, and pay some vehicle and ship tax, you can sell it all over the world!
And there won’t be any private salt... First of all, the salt is not expensive; secondly, without the salt import ticket from the Salt Transportation Yamen, Yangzhou Customs cannot pass, and tax customs in various places cannot pass either. Without salt invoices and customs duties, merchants that distribute salt elsewhere would not dare to purchase salt.
What's even more brilliant is that although the salt field and salt source are not expensive... the money that the Yanyun Yamen and Yangzhou Customs can get is quite a lot. "
Zhou Peigong worked as Tu Hai's master and knew that there were many tricks in the salt business. Now he felt a little incredible after hearing Zhang Ying's words, so he asked: "It's not expensive, so how do they make money?"
Zhang Yingdao: "I asked people about it. This salt business is a business transaction. They have to pay a salt farm rent and a commercial tax at the end of the year.
And since we are transporters, we have to spend money to buy salt and deposit an interest-free deposit... We are interest-free, but the Dongchang Official Bank will transfer the interest payable to the salt transport. Yamen, after we get the salt, we have to add 5% customs duty.
Finally, we transporters have to register with Yangzhou Prefecture and rent or purchase business premises. We also have to pay a commercial tax every year, which can be a fixed amount or an additional tax based on the amount of salt trafficked.
All combined, they got a lot of tax money! These taxes are linked one by one. If one link is missing, the business below will be impossible. Moreover, the Yanyun Yamen, Yangzhou Pass, and Yangzhou Prefecture Tax Department, which are responsible for collecting cash, only handle the accounts and not the money. The money does not pass through them at all. If they want to be corrupt, they have to be corrupt in the accounts. The accounts and official bank numbers of these three yamen The accounts have to be reconciled at the end of the year, and there is no way to start... This method is really good. There is no way to escape the salt tax. How much more money will be collected in a year?
Why don't we give the emperor a secret message and let Changlu Yanzheng of the Qing Dynasty also use this method? "
