Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 159 The Thin Horse Project ([-])

In the Qing Dynasty, the morning of Yangzhou City started from the tea shops all over the city.During this period, there were dozens of famous tea shops in Yangzhou.Or simple, or carved beams and painted columns, some simply set in the garden.There are also some teahouses built rooms facing the river, with windows overlooking the lake and mountains.The so-called towers, pavilions, flowers, trees, bamboo and stones, cups, plates, spoons and chopsticks are all exquisite.

Because spring water, lake water, and canal water are mostly used for making tea, the tea tastes fragrant and sweet.Each tea shop has its own special snacks, such as all kinds of sesame seed cakes in Shuanghonglou, soup-filled steamed buns in Ermeixuan, Huai dumplings in Wenxingyuan, etc. As for meat dishes and hot dried shredded rice, they are indispensable delicacies. .

In these teahouses, there are meat tea and vegetarian tea.The so-called meat tea is that in addition to tea, it also sells various snacks; as for vegetarian tea, it only sells tea.

In the Ermeixuan Teahouse by the Yuanmen Bridge in the old city, Jia Wang was sitting by the window having morning tea.A big man bought Longjing tea leaves, a drawer of steamed stuffed buns filled with soup, and a small dish of hot dried shredded rice.

As a dental agent, Jia Wang's recent business is not bad.After the summer harvest, droughts and floods occurred in many places in Henan Province one after another; some farmers took their families with them and fled from Weihui, Zhangde, Huaiqing, Kaifeng and other places to northern Jiangsu.In exchange for a morsel of life-saving food, many Henan refugees began to sell their sons and daughters.

Every time like this, it is the best time for business for the Yamans like Jia Wang who are engaged in human trafficking.They would go north to Huai'an, Xuzhou, and even to Kaifeng and other places, select the most beautiful ones from the four- and five-year-old girls who were sold, bring them back to Yangzhou, and then sell them to those who raise lean horses.A girl bought from refugees in Xuzhou cost only one or two taels of money, and brought back to Yangzhou could be sold for eight to ten taels of money;

Jia Wang felt that he was doing good deeds.You must know that in the event of a catastrophe, these girls will often become food in the mouths of refugees.I rescued these children from starvation and brought them back to Yangzhou for training; if they were outstanding in appearance, smart and dexterous, they would be sold to the wealthy family as concubines in the future, and they would naturally be well-clothed and well-clothed.

After Jia Wang was full, he was not in a hurry to leave.He took out a square flat wooden box from his pocket, carefully opened it, and took out a white cigarette; he borrowed a light from the person at the next table, and smoked happily.

"Jia Er, you are well-off! You can even afford cigarettes." A middle-aged man at the next table joked.Now this cigarette is becoming more and more famous in Yangzhou, and many salt merchants and officials are smoking cigarettes.But because the price is too high, ordinary people still smoke dry tobacco.

"It's so-so. Yesterday I brought a master from the Northland to pick out the lean horse. The smoke was given by the master at random."

"Dude! You're rich. You've got that business done?"

"No." Jia Wang shook his head, and continued: "The master's hands are generous, but it's a pity that after reading seven or eight, he is not satisfied."

"Whose house did you take?"

"The Li family from Hedong."

"The Li family doesn't even like it. What does he want? Chang'e in the sky?"

"Who knows what these masters from the north are interested in!"

Since the morning of the day before yesterday, a news began to circulate in the teahouses in Yangzhou City that several wealthy businessmen from the north planned to buy a skinny horse and go back to be concubines.

As soon as the news got out, by the noon of the day before yesterday, several matchmaker agents had already found out the residences of those wealthy businessmen outside Gongchenmen.After inquiring, they found out that this house belonged to Shen Jingdan, a sea merchant, and now there are several rich merchants from Zhili living there.

Jia Wang came to the door yesterday morning.At first, I thought that only one person wanted to buy it, but who would have thought that five or six people would want to buy it, and each of them said that they would buy seven or eight to take home, including concubines, cooks, and account managers.

When Jia Wang was talking to an old man surnamed Zhao, he sounded like a banner man.And during the conversation, Mr. Zhao patted the stack of money notes on the table with an arrogant expression on his face; that meant that he was not short of money.

Here in Yangzhou, the emperor has visited the south six times, and Jia Wang, who is a banner man, has seen a lot. This Mr. Zhao looks like a young boy who came to Yangzhou for the first time. One came out to work.However, there is nothing wrong with what Master Zhao said in official terms, and he even hinted at his background as a bannerman.

When the other party turned around, Jia Wang secretly glanced at the stack of money notes, and found that the top note was a 3000 taels instant payment issued by a local bank. He couldn't help feeling relieved.Besides, when the time comes to choose someone, you don't want to take him away until you pay enough money.

So he patted his chest and assured Mr. Zhao that the girls on his side were all beautiful and first-class, and he would never be satisfied with the master.

Unexpectedly, he took people to the Li's house in Hedong outside the city in the afternoon, and Mr. Zhao was not very satisfied after seeing seven or eight first-class girls in a row; in the end, he actually expressed a little interest in a second-class girl.

Thinking of this, Jia Wang was very disdainful, and secretly slandered: "These banner people are really ignorant. I don't want the first-class girls, but I prefer the second-class ones. What's so good about that Shandong girl? She is tall and big, except she can pick and pull Abacus and beads keep an account, but they don't know anything about piano, chess, calligraphy and painting."

When he was thinking about whose house to go to in the afternoon, he suddenly heard a woman's voice with a loud voice coming from the door of the tea shop. When he turned his head, he saw that it was Mrs. Chen who was with him.

"Who is it?! I have been waiting for a long time, where is the waiter?"

"Come on, come on. Yo, it's from the Chen family, and you're taking it home again today? What would you like?"

"A drawer of soup dumplings, a dish of meat dishes, one serving hot, one serving of boiled shredded rice, and another serving of steamed dumplings."

A few guests who were smoking and drinking tea heard this, and asked with a smile, "Grandma Chen, have you gotten rich?"

"No way, yesterday I took a wealthy businessman from the Northland to look at some skinny horses, and he broke his legs after a day of running. Fortunately, the master saw my hard work and rewarded me with a few more coins."

"No wonder, I said that today I won't eat boiled dried shredded rice, but boiled dried shredded rice in chicken soup instead."

"It's just hard-earned money."

As soon as Jia Wang heard it, he understood that he and Mrs. Chen were both busy with the same thing. It seems that there are many competitors!He hastily sucked the cigarette butt in his hand twice, then threw it on the ground and stamped it out.I got up and called the clerk to settle the account, then turned around and went out through the side door of the teahouse.

"Isn't that Jia Er?" Grandma Chen saw Jia Wang's back while waiting for the delivery.She knew that the other party was also helping those wealthy Northland businessmen buy skinny horses.This kind of thing belongs to the business of "fast feet, slow feet, but nothing".Thinking of this, Mrs. Chen hurriedly shouted to the waiter: "Are you ready? Hurry up!"

In the house outside the Gongchen Gate, Zhao Xin was talking with Shen Jingdan.Boss Shen came to the door early in the morning, he must have something urgent.

"Master Zhao, you have to save me!"

"Boss Shen, what happened? I will do my best to help."

"Ah~!" Shen Jingdan sighed, and told Zhao Xin what happened.

The salt merchant Wang's family came again.This time, Mr. Wang no longer wants Ah Quan, but is eyeing the cigarette business and Shen Jingdan's youngest daughter, Ayu.

The name of this master Wang is Wang Jinglong. Ever since he flattered Heshen's housekeeper Liu Quan, he has honored him with 20 taels of silver.In addition, he also presented a batch of gifts to Heshen for Qianlong's Longevity Festival.

In view of the fact that Master Wang is so sensible, when Liu Quan came to Yangzhou a while ago, he helped the other party to stand on the stage for the sake of face; the inside and outside words showed that Wang Jinglong was from He Zhongtang.This time, Master Wang trembled even more!
A few days ago, he heard that Shen Jingdan was back, and he had been looking for a chance to deal with him.Coincidentally, the day before yesterday Shen Jingdan's youngest daughter, Ayu, took her maid to Fahai Temple to offer incense, and happened to be bumped into by Master Wang, who was astonished.

I can't get the eldest daughter, but I can't let the younger daughter go.The subordinates then forged an IOU of 2 taels, and threatened Shen Jingdan last night; if he disagreed, he would go to the Ganquan county government to sue the officials.

In the Qing Dynasty, Yangzhou City was under the jurisdiction of Jiangdu and Ganquan counties.The western half of the old city and the southern half of the new city belong to Jiangdu County, while the eastern half of the old city and the northern half of the new city belong to Ganquan County.Shen Jingdan's house is located in the Dongguan Street area to the north of Xincheng, and it is under the administration of Ganquan County.

Now that the Wang family has become He Zhongtang's lackeys, Shen Jingdan is hard to deal with even if he is a native, so he came to find Zhao Xin early in the morning.

Zhao Xin was silent for a while after listening.It's not that he doesn't help in this matter, but he is thinking about how to help.It's nothing to deal with a salt merchant, but right now, he's planning to deal with the thin horse, and suddenly there are side effects, and the impact on the subsequent actions is really unpredictable.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xin asked, "Boss Shen, it's not a big deal to start a salt merchant. But what about your family?"

"I have something to do with being in the yamen. It's just that the Wang family is very prosperous now, and the county yamen don't dare to offend him."

Zhao Xin got up and walked around the main hall a few times, then suddenly asked, "Is the Wang family rich?"

Shen Jingdan said: "Although it is not as good as the Jiang family who 'handed over the clothes to the emperor', they are still very rich in the shipping business."

Zhao Xin said: "A merchant?" Seeing that Zhao Xin didn't understand, Shen Jingdan immediately explained.

At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the salt law followed the Ming system, but you had to rely on the roots to get the salt.The so-called "Wogen" means that the merchants need to pay money to the government to obtain a certain range of sales areas assigned by the government, and the vouchers given by the government.Based on this, the merchant has the permanent property right to Yindi.

And "transporter" means that there is no nest root, and one must first rent the nest root from the nest merchant and pay the "nest price" before engaging in the salt sales business.Since the Kangxi Dynasty, the Salt Transport Envoys of the Qing court have selected those with rich families and strong capital as general merchants among the merchants.The Jiang Chun mentioned before is the largest general merchant today; besides this person, the Huang family, Ma family, Cheng family, and Bao family are all general merchants.

Zhao Xin nodded after listening, and continued to ask: "How much money can the Wang family have now?"

Shen Jingdan was taken aback, and replied: "I really don't know, but a few hundred thousand taels is always necessary."

These days, the money of salt merchants in Yangzhou is generally not put at home. Except for the children and grandchildren's bank, most of the funds have to be taken out for lending.What a delicious 30.00% usury income every year!
In the 37th year of Qianlong, when the Qing Dynasty was in its heyday, the household deposits were only more than 8000 million taels of silver, but the total property of the hundreds of salt merchants in Yangzhou exceeded [-] million; even Qianlong would issue "the financial resources of salt merchants". Great!" Sigh!
(Historically, it was precisely because of the Qing government’s intense pressure on the Yangzhou General Merchant and the continuous donations that Jiang Chun, who used to spend as much as 3 taels of silver every year for food alone, finally passed away in poverty in the 54th year of Qianlong .)
Zhao Xin asked again in a low voice: "Boss Shen, where do you think the Wang family will hide the money at home?"

Shen Jingdan looked at Zhao Xin, and asked in a trembling voice: "Ah! Mr. Zhao, Master Zhao, what is your plan?"

"Yes, since you are going to do it, you have to do it all! Otherwise, the government will easily suspect you of paying for murder."

"Master Zhao, what are you going to do?" Shen Jing gritted his teeth and said.

"You stabilize the Wang family first, and then you say you need to discuss it with your wife, and then find an auspicious day. It's only a few days, I will help you with it. Remember, you need to draw a map of the Wang family's house for me. .”

Shen Jingdan thought, this is easy, he doesn't need to find someone, he can draw it by himself.So he nodded in agreement.

Seeing that the troublesome matter can be resolved, Shen Jing's heart sank.He left in a hurry after having breakfast at Zhao Xin's place.And Zhao Xin and others will continue to choose the "skinny horse" tour today.

"I said, can I take a break today? I watched it all day yesterday, and I still have to put on a show. I'm really tired!" Ding Guofeng couldn't bear it after only one day of watching.

"no!"

Liu Zheng also complained: "Mr. Zhao, Zhao Dong's family, why do girls nowadays have to bind their feet? The ones I saw yesterday were all unable to walk by themselves, and they had to be supported by someone when they went out. .Besides, my great-grandmother has small feet, which I saw when I was a child. When I think about it, I get goosebumps all over my body, it's killing me!"

"Hold on!"

Wang Yuanfang asked, "How many more days do we have to watch?"

Zhao Xin asked Lu Shoushan: "How many locations have you memorized in the past two days? Have you checked out the situation around the yard?"

"Five. Three have been investigated, and the remaining two will be investigated by Xu Dayong today.".
After Zhao Xin finished listening, he said to everyone: "Watch it for two more days, and act at night the day after tomorrow."

Liu Zheng lamented: "Ah! I have to watch it for two more days, I must see the eye of a needle!"

"Okay, just look at the toe of the shoe. If you want to see someone's little feet, why don't you show them to me?"

Wu Siyu and Liu Siting on the side whispered to each other, completely ignoring what they said.

"What are you two talking about? Tell everyone to listen." Liu Sheng said with a loud voice.

"Wu Siyu said." Just as Liu Siting was about to say something, Wu Siyu hurriedly winked at her to tell her not to say anything.Liu Siting smiled and said, "What's the matter with embarrassment. He asked me if the little foot can be cured after letting go."

"Can it be cured?" Zhao Xin and the others were also very concerned about this issue.People take it back, and it's troublesome if they can't walk.Do you need to arrange a maid to wait on you?
Liu Siting shook her head and said, "It can be recovered in the early stage. But after a long time, the arch of the foot is broken and there is no cure."

As soon as Zhao Xin heard it, a picture immediately appeared in his mind: a group of girls with small feet leaning on crutches, standing in the classroom teaching the children of Beihai Town
But as soon as this thought came to pass, Zhao Xin immediately reacted.He looked at Wu Siyu with a smile, and asked, "Yo~ Who are you looking for?"

Wu Siyu said embarrassedly: "Miss Chen we met in the boat that day."

I go!It turned out to be Chen Yin'er who sang that day!The hearts of several big men suddenly started to gossip.

Zhao Xindao: "He is not a skinny horse, we can't snatch it this time."

"I know, I want to redeem her."

Zhao Xin leaned over and said in a low voice: "Is she the eldest daughter of Huanghua? Have you asked this clearly?"

Wu Siyu's face suddenly turned a little red, and he said dully: "I asked, she is a showman rather than a body."

"Do you know how much money she wants to redeem her body?"

"I inquired with Lao Huang that day, and I got at least 2000 taels of silver." Wu Siyu's biggest wish was to visit Yangzhou in the [-]th century, and "ask for a child" by the way. Oh no, it was to find a wife.Although Chen Yin'er was not a skinny horse, beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and Wu Siyu became possessed the moment he saw it that night.

Wu Siyu is a good helper, since he wants to start a family and start a business in this time and space, he has to help no matter what.Thinking of this, Zhao Xin said: "Ugly words are the first thing to say, whether it is successful or not. Is it a matter of money? Redemption, I have to let Lao Huang go and ask first. Money is for nothing."

(End of this chapter)