Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 301 Yangzhou Salt Merchant
If you hit a snake, you have to hit seven inches.

The strategy of the Qing army was to go straight to the nest, capture the thieves and capture the king, and disintegrate from the top to destroy the Ming Dynasty's resistance center.And Zhu Yihai's countermeasure is to use the superior force of the navy he has now formed to attack the Qing army's water transportation, corrupt his water transportation and salt transportation, and tear their salt and grain money bags.

Fighting wars requires money and food, and raising soldiers also costs a lot.

The current scale of the Qing army costs at least 1000 million taels of silver a year in military expenditures. If the scale of the war expands, the military expenditures will soar even more. Zhu Yihai has a deep understanding of this.

After the three hundred and eighth banners were cut off in Yangzhou City, Zhu Yihai summoned those salt merchants who had no time to escape in the still dilapidated Yangzhou City, as well as those merchants and shipowners who were in charge of water transportation.

Yangzhou has long been the center of the southeast because of the two valuable things of water transportation and salt.In the early years, Shanxi merchants rose to become the number one merchant gang in the world. It was because of the Ming Dynasty’s opening of the salt law and the convenience of transporting salt from the nine borders, and the near water towers first got the moon. After that, it is directly transported to the frontier army, and then transported from the two Huaihe Rivers, so that more salt can be obtained, and the huge profits of salt sales can be monopolized.

Later, the rise of Huizhou merchants was also inseparable from salt.

The opening of the Chinese law gradually became corrupt, so the imperial court introduced a new law for the salt administration. In the process, the Anhui merchants who were close to the Lianghuai also took advantage of the geographical advantages. They came from behind, defeated the Shanxi merchant group, and became the new leader of the Lianghuai salt industry. As a result, he made a lot of money and became the new No. [-] business gang in the world.

Huizhou merchants mainly operate two businesses, Huaiyan and Caoliang.Even because of the transportation of grain, the Cao Gang was established.

Huguang and Susong, the two big granaries, are land expropriated by the imperial court. Most of the other provinces are land taxed and converted into silver. However, Huguang, Susong and Susong have protected a large amount of grain, which is not only because these two places are grain producing areas, but also Because of the convenience of transportation.

Huguang can lead to the south of the Yangtze River along the three rivers of Jingxiang, Han, and Susong. The area around Taihu Lake in Susong is even more densely covered with water networks. Through the canal northward, the grain in these two places basically passes through Yangzhou, an important transfer station.

The salt from the Huaihe River was transferred to Yangzhou in a concentrated manner.

Regardless of whether it is the transportation of grain to the north or the transshipment of Huaiyan salt, there are actually huge interests involved here. The collusion between government and businessmen is a huge industrial chain, which has created countless millionaires.

Even when the Qing army slaughtered Yangzhou this year, they almost harvested all the salt merchants in Yangzhou, but soon, a new batch of salt merchants appeared.

Ruan Jin and his navy had been running across the Yangtze River before, attacking and encircling salt merchants' salt boats sailing in the Yangtze River, not to mention not allowing half a grain of southern grain to cross the river. Once found, they would capture or destroy them.

Later, Ruan Jin and the others went directly to Yangzhou and went straight to the Yellow River along the canal. They captured countless tank boats on the canal along the way.

The salt merchants in Yangzhou are actually having a hard time during this time.

They established a relationship at the beginning and became the new salt merchants of the Qing court. They bought the salt nest at a high price. This is a follow-up to the old salt law of the Ming Dynasty.In general, it is to divide the salt area and divide the routes of specialized salt merchants. A salt merchant obtains a special salt sales area. The identity of the salt merchant is hereditary, and the salt area is also fixed.

All these have to be paid to the imperial court to obtain the salt. Every year, they must first get the salt, then go to the salt warehouse to get the salt, and then transport it to their own salt area for sale.

There are detailed regulations for each link, which is very complicated, and there is a lot of room for manipulation. For example, high-ranking officials and dignitaries of the imperial court and even the clans often rely on their power to ask the emperor for some salt nests and salts, and then sell them to salt merchants , make a fortune.

Of course, after the salt merchants obtained the monopoly rights, their profits were even more astonishing. They colluded with the government and businessmen, and openly sold private salt by themselves. Salt tax was paid for this amount, but another 1000 million jin of illegal salt was actually sold, which did not pay salt tax.

There are many similar methods.

In short, obtaining the qualification of an official salt merchant to sell salt is a profitable business, and the interests of the court are still damaged in the end. The price of salt in the Ming Dynasty far exceeds that of the Song Dynasty, but the salt tax revenue is far behind.

The Qing court also followed the old practice of the Ming Dynasty, but in order to get more money from the salt merchants, they recruited salt merchants again. If they want to sell salt, they have to re-acquire the qualifications of salt merchants and obtain salt areas. .

The second is that the Qing government sold more salts. There were originally [-] stone salts in the salt warehouse. I bought salt and paid taxes, but if there is too little salt and too much, it means you have to wait in line. Maybe if you get the salt, you won’t get the salt until next year.

Of course, the methods of the Qing court were not limited to these. They also sought donations from salt merchants and donated again and again.

Because of the change of dynasty, and because of the massacre of Yangzhou before, the salt merchants today are not as powerful as before, and they don't dare to fight against the Qing court, so they can only be plucked.

Of course, for salt merchants, these are actually costs. As long as they maintain their qualifications as salt merchants, their profits will still be considerable.

Even because this status is hereditary, even if you lose money this year, you can earn it back next year, which is always a good deal.

After all, if they are not willing to do such a good thing, the Qing court can immediately replace them, and some merchants are willing to become salt merchants.

But now Zhu Yihai first blocked the Yangtze River, then blocked the North-South Canal, and then occupied Yangzhou, Yancheng, etc., which made the salt merchants feel uneasy.

We were robbed of a large amount of salt before, not to mention everyone suffered heavy losses, and now the business cannot continue.

Zhu Yihai summoned them, they dared not not come, who told them to run away if they didn't come.

Fortunately, this time, an old man Cheng Bi met them on behalf of Jian Guo in advance and communicated with them. Cheng Bi was also an Huizhou merchant, and he also sold salt before, and his business was not small. It was just that when the Qing army slaughtered Yangzhou, All the family members were slaughtered, so they devoted themselves to fighting against the Qing Dynasty and donated their family property of tens of 10 taels of silver to fight against the Qing Dynasty.

Now newly promoted by Lu Jianguo to transfer the salt envoy of the two Huaihe Rivers, from the third rank, in charge of the Lianghuai salt administration.

He told the fellow salt merchants in Huizhou that most of the salt in the world comes from the Lianghuai River, and the people cannot live without salt, so the salt transportation and sales must continue.

It's just that some rules of Lianghuai Salt Industry have to be changed.

Salt merchants were very rich. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, many salt merchants were worth millions or even more, but no matter how rich the salt merchants were, they had no political status. They were even just pigs raised by the imperial court and the rich and powerful. You can kill pigs at any time when you have money.

For Lu Jianguo, who is now occupying Yangzhou again, none of these salt merchants, or even the Cao Gang, dares to be disrespectful.

Summoned by Jian Guo, one by one hurriedly lined up, and even quietly discussed in private how much filial piety should be compared. Although some people thought that it was unlikely that the Ming army would occupy Huaiyang for a long time, they did not dare to offend Lu Jian Guo .

The silver that should be paid still has to be paid, and the salt merchants have nothing else to offer except silver.

They have one appeal now, it’s okay to pluck some hair, don’t ransack their homes and cut off their heads, and it’s best to let them continue to collect salt, transport salt and sell salt after collecting their money.

The war caused these new salt merchants to spend a lot of money, but they haven't even started to pay back their capital. If this continues, everyone will go bankrupt.

(End of this chapter)