I'm really not doing business

Chapter 702: No need to worry about ghosts knocking on your door
Experienced tea farmers can roast their own tea. They are both farmers and craftsmen. They live a very comfortable life in Zhejiang. Why would they travel thousands of miles to a place filled with smoke and miasma where they could be bitten by mosquitoes and get malaria at any time?

Only great temptation or enormous oppression can force the tea farmers who are attached to their land to leave their homeland.

Zhu Yijun did not want Shen Shixing to come up with the latter plan. Such huge oppression would be a disaster if he was sent to Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou. If he joined forces with the local chieftains, the Ming Dynasty would probably never have peace.

The literati of the Ming Dynasty were unwilling to go to the border areas, so Zhu Yijun offered extremely generous conditions, but few responded. After bargaining, he was able to send a group of barely sufficient scholars to Suiyuan.

"Your Majesty, I have a memorial to report." Shen Shixing took out a memorial and presented it to His Majesty. Since it was Shen Shixing who advocated it, of course he was the one who promoted it and was responsible for it.

Zhu Yijun opened the memorial and read it for a long time before he looked up and kept looking at Shen Shixing.

"Come forward."

"Ah? I obey your command."

"Come in a little bit."

Zhu Yijun looked at Shen Shixing, who was within three steps, for a long time before saying, "I underestimated you. You should work hard. Once you have done this, you can join the cabinet when you return to Beijing."

The Ming Emperor looked at Yan Shixuan with some lingering fear and said, "Don't worry, Governor Shen. A fifth-rank official can also join the cabinet. The Grand Secretary himself is a fifth-rank official."

With Yan Shixuan's passiveness in mind, Zhu Yijun didn't know when Shen Shixing would be able to resume his post. Fortunately, the Grand Secretary was also a fifth-rank official, and Shen Shixing was only a fifth-rank official, so he could also join the cabinet. Of course, he would be laughed at as a fifth-rank cabinet minister.

The core of Shen Shixing's memorial revolves around one thing: his official position.

Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou have been carrying out the policy of converting chieftains into officials. The main contradiction in these areas is the monarchy, which is completely different from the contradiction in the hinterland. The local degree of monarchy is low, and hereditary chieftains are everywhere. Even the Yang family of Bozhou, the Mengledao family, etc., are hereditary chieftains from the Han and Tang dynasties, older than the Ming Dynasty.

A big part of the reason why the Ming Dynasty's reform of the native system in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou was slow was that no one was willing to go, not even to be officials.

Now, tea farmers who go to Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou to open tea gardens can obtain official status and go there as Baoqi Agriculture Officer. This official status is a serious official status, the ninth rank. Except that he does not receive a salary, he is no different from a normal ninth rank official. The official has all the privileges such as being given an official post station, being exempt from labor service, and not having to kneel when meeting an official.

It was very difficult to become an official. In the heartland of the Ming Dynasty, especially in places like Zhejiang where literature flourished, only those who had passed the imperial examinations could become officials. If one was not a juren, no matter how well he studied or how capable he was, he could only be a clerk. It would be extremely difficult for a clerk to become an official, even if Zhang Juzheng had opened a way for him to become an official.

Among tens of thousands of officials, only a dozen or so managed to overcome this hurdle.

The tea growers’ professional skills and tea art must also be thoroughly reviewed to determine if they are talented before they can go. And only after they have opened up a tea garden in a certain place will they be given a temporary official title, which has certain requirements for the scale and output of the tea garden.

"Isn't it too long to get a formal official title after the tea garden has been producing steadily for five years?" Zhu Yijun frowned and said, "In this smoke-filled and miasma-ridden place like Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou, three years is better. Five years is too long."

Too many things can happen in five years. It is a place full of smoke and miasma, where people can lose their lives at any time. Even the place where these tea farmers go has long been connected by official roads, and it is considered a place with a relatively high degree of royal rule in Guizhou.

"This official position will be given after three years and will be hereditary." Zhu Yijun made another change. The official position given by Shen Shixing was very stingy. That is, when the tea gardens developed by Zhejiang tea farmers died, the tea gardens would be publicly owned. Zhu Yijun, on the other hand, reversed history. This official position was hereditary, which meant that the tea gardens were also hereditary.

Shen Shixing immediately said, "Your Majesty, it is not appropriate for this agricultural official to be hereditary."

"Governor Shen doesn't farm, so he doesn't know." Zhu Yijun said, "Governor Shen, do you know how long it takes for a tea garden to go from being barren to producing tea in a stable and sustainable manner to support the local people?"

"Five years?" Shen Shixing gave a time limit based on his own experience in handling affairs. It would take about five years to reclaim a piece of wasteland and turn it into permanent farmland.

Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "It takes at least sixty years and four generations to build a tea garden from scratch."

"So long?" Shen Shixing frowned. He understood why the emperor wanted to give the official position to the hereditary system.

If the tea garden business was so simple, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty would have promoted it in the hinterland at all costs long ago. Why would he wait until now?

Zhu Yijun took a deep breath and said, "It took several years to design and build the stone filling, drainage, roads, cattle pens, and livestock pens. The construction was done while the tea was planted. The first tea picking was about five years after the tea planting. Is picking enough? Of course not. After picking the tea, you need to make the tea. When you are familiar with it, tea merchants will come and the tea shops will be opened. At this time, the people around will see it and approve of tea planting, and the number of tea trees will increase."

"The people around here gradually planted tea trees on the hillsides and took good care of them. However, these foreign tea trees must be bred locally to avoid the situation where oranges grown in the south of the Huai River are oranges and oranges grown in the north of the Huai River are bitter oranges."

"If you want to have tea houses and tea shops at the foot of the mountain, regular merchants coming to transport tea every year, tea trees all over the mountain, tea trees and tea seeds suitable for the local climate, it will take 60 years."

"It takes sixty years and four generations of hard work. If even this position is not hereditary, I'm afraid no one will go. Hereditary positions cannot be promoted. If you want to be promoted, you have to pass the imperial examination."

"I haven't thought about it." Shen Shixing bowed his head again and accepted the order. He found that he might have dug a cesspool for himself! The standard of success was different. According to Shen Shixing's standard of success, if he could plant tea trees and harvest tea, he would be considered successful if he could harvest tea in five years. So his idea was to give him an official position and encourage him to go.

But your majesty's standard is to form a stable industry. These tea plantations are clearly the cornerstones of local governance. This will take at least sixty years, right?

Your Majesty always takes a long-term view when doing things. The formation of each tea garden, like the Mu Garden of the Duke of Qian's Mansion, greatly enhances the centripetal force.

Shen Shixing had to admit that His Majesty had a keen eye.

In Zhu Yijun's view, this difference is actually the difference between farming and not farming. Zhu Yijun pays special attention to farming and he knows that this can be done.

There is a tea garden in Fanjing Mountain, Tongren Prefecture, Guizhou Province, called Donghaitang Tea Garden. Its ancestors fled to Guizhou in the middle and late Tang Dynasty to avoid the war. Generation after generation opened up the tea garden, and it took four generations and sixty years for it to take shape. After more than forty generations, it has been passed down to this day and has become one of the few Han ethnic groups in Tongren Prefecture.

Donghai Hall was supposed to be a branch of a certain Xu family, but as time went by, the Donghai Xu family couldn't even remember where they had moved from and only said they were Donghai Xu.

"Governor Shen, even if the court doesn't give it, the official position is hereditary over there. For example, the Xu family of Donghai is a frequent candidate for the Tongren provincial examination. Since the third year of Zhengtong, the Xu family has produced more than 30 successful candidates. Even if they are not family members, they are their disciples who are related to them." Zhu Yijun added on the reason why he gave the official position.

Even if the imperial court does not give it, it will still be hereditary because of education.

In Tongren, after the Zhengtong period, the Xu family of Donghaitang produced more than thirty juren and two jinshi in the 130 years. The Xu family, which controlled the means of production, had an overwhelming advantage in education. It can be said that in the entire Tongren imperial examinations, either the disciples of the Xu family or the students came from the Xu family.

The imperial court was very clear about this and encouraged this behavior, because the power of the chieftains in places like Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou was still too strong. The expansion of the Han aristocratic families was beneficial to the Ming court's rule in the local areas. As the saying goes, when the mill has been used up, the donkey is killed. The flour for the transformation of the chieftains into officials has not been ground yet, so there is no reason to kill the donkey.

"Your idea is very good, but you can be bolder in its implementation." Zhu Yijun gave the memorial a final judgment that it could be implemented, but the conditions given were still not generous enough. This was not just a huge reward, it was equivalent to opening a separate book in the family tree, and it also came with a hereditary official position, although it was only a ninth-rank agricultural official.

For the officialdom, the ninth rank is not even a small official, but for the common people, the ninth rank is an official or a government official, which is a class leap.

In Shen Shixing's plan, Zhejiang tea growers who went to border areas to open tea gardens would be exempted from taxes or have their taxes reduced by half. Originally, the tax rate for tea gardens according to the Ming Dynasty was 6% of the 100 yuan, and was collected from sedentary merchants. However, when they were opened in Guizhou and other places, they were exempt from taxes for the first ten years, and then the tax was reduced by half to 3% of the 100 yuan. In addition to the tax exemption, tea growers could use the official roads and post routes of Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi to transport tea. Guizhou local government dispatched laborers, allocating 100 laborers every year to cooperate with the development of tea gardens.

In addition to these, there is also the matter of salt. If you go to the Baoqisi in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Qianzhou to work as an agricultural official, you can obtain ten salt permits every year. Each salt permit is for 150 kilograms of salt, for a total of 1,500 kilograms of salt distribution rights. Of course, these salt permits need to be exchanged for tea. This is actually the convection of tea and salt, exchanging tea from Guangxi and Guizhou for salt from Guangdong.

This method was actually the only way Yin Zhengmao used to manage salt in Guangdong and Guangxi back then, and now it was learned by Shen Shixing.

These plans are all aimed at encouraging tea growers to go there, but the entire policy is designed around officials.

After Zhu Yijun had detailed communication with Shen Shixing, he revised the incentive policy. Then this memorial would be sent to the Beiya Court. After discussion in the Beiya Court, it would be transferred to the four cabinet ministers Zhang Juzheng, Wang Chonggu, Wang Guoguang, and Wan Shihe. After discussion by the cabinet ministers, the system design would be improved and promoted.

"This place filled with smoke and miasma needs generations to come forward to save it." Zhu Yijun closed the memorial.

"Your Majesty, if we can encourage people to open tea gardens in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou, can we also encourage people to open tea gardens overseas?" Shen Shixing asked in a low voice, his eyes flickering.

Zhu Yijun raised his head, looked at Shen Shixing, and said with a helpless smile: "Governor Shen, is your map of Yan so long? The truth is revealed when the map is drawn. This is your purpose, right?"

"I just had this idea on impulse." Shen Shixing bowed his head and said, "Java and Ceylon are both very suitable for growing tea. If we grow tea on this mountain, it will be ours."

The best and most stable means of ruling the country is still farming. Only when the land is truly reclaimed can it truly belong to the Ming Dynasty. With land, there will be output, and with people, there will be a strong subordinate relationship in culture, politics, economy and military.

Without land, there is nothing.

Shen Shixing really did not reveal his true intentions. When he was discussing policies with His Majesty, he suddenly thought of opening the seas. He felt that this policy could also be used to open the seas, both for the purpose of accelerating the king's rule.

"It's fine, then let's apply it all together." Zhu Yijun just found it interesting. Shen Shixing looked at the hinterland while at the ocean. This was a combination of land and sea. His gaze was not only limited to the hinterland, but also looked at the ocean. This was an excellent change.

The Dutch and English East India Companies began to colonize the world with tea. To be more precise, it was the three major commodities of pepper, tea and cotton that supported the huge scale of the Dutch and English East India Companies.

In the 32nd year of the Wanli reign, Captain Peters Zorn of the Dutch East India Company obtained tea seeds, which are the seeds of the tea tree, from Macau for the first time, and then began to plant them in Java, Sri Lanka, the Cape of Good Hope, Yafang, Puyuma and other places.

In the 30th year of the Wanli reign, the East India Company's board of directors decided to start importing tea seeds from the Ming Dynasty in batches and recruit enough Ming workers to make tea in various places. In the th year of the Wanli reign, the East India Company obtained more than tea seeds and various tea-making utensils from Macau, and took away tea farmers and tea workers. In the th year of the Wanli reign, Java green tea appeared, and by the Shunzhi reign, Ceylon black tea began to be sold around the world.

From then on, the absolute commodity advantage of the Central Plains over tea disappeared in the long river of history along with the harsh maritime ban of the Qing Dynasty. Because of the maritime ban, tea from the Central Plains could not be sold to all parts of the world. Until the Opium War, the total output of tea in the world except the Qing Dynasty was still only one-tenth of that of the Qing Dynasty.

Westerners can make money from this business, and of course people from the Ming Dynasty can also do it and make money!

"Your Majesty, there is a Yao family in Hangzhou Prefecture, which is known as the richest family in Zhejiang. Recently, many powerful and wealthy people in Zhejiang have been arrested. The Yao family took the opportunity to continue expanding. Your Majesty, should we restrict some of them?" Shen Shixing talked about the Yao family in Qiantang, and he gave a detailed introduction to the situation of the Yao family.

Unlike other powerful and wealthy people who would merge lands after making money, the Yao family in Qiantang did not own a single acre of land. This was because the Yao family was not powerful and wealthy. Yao Liyan was originally the owner of a paper mill, and later he built his own paper mill. With his unique business acumen, he went from being a broker to the richest man in Zhejiang in just a few years.

Shen Shixing said with emotion: "Yao Liyan wanted to buy land, but no one in Zhejiang would sell him land. They all thought he was a nouveau riche and didn't want to associate with his family. The wealthy families in Jiangnan all felt that the Yao family was very rich, but they made their money by breaking the rules. They were just a family of merchants. If they didn't pass on poetry and books, they might fall one day."

"Yao Liyan has always wanted to blend in with the scholars, and he has bought a lot of poetry and songs. But because he doesn't understand the rhythm of poetry, every time he shows off his new poems, he is mocked by the scholars."

"This time, all the gentry with more than 100 mu of land were confiscated, but the Yao family escaped because they were excluded."

It was fate that made Yao Liyan, because of his nouveau riche character, suffer from ostracism. He couldn't even buy a hundred hectares of land, and he didn't even take his family to poetry gatherings. Yao Liyan's business was in the workshop, but he was safe and sound in this earthquake.

Yao Liyan wanted to expand, but Shen Shixing was unsure whether to impose restrictions. After all, if the business became too big, it would inevitably become a dragon.

"How did this guy do it? In just seven years, he went from being a broker to the richest man in Zhejiang?" Zhu Yijun was very puzzled. What unique business skills could make so much money?

"This person is a bit strange. Let me explain in detail." Shen Shixing thought about it carefully and gave a brief introduction to His Majesty.

"If it's really like what I told you, it's probably not because Yao Liyan is a nouveau riche that no one associates with his family. Yao Liyan did this, and the powerful and wealthy in Jiangnan didn't kill him. It's all because the masters were kind-hearted. Cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. This kind of general exclusion is a struggle for interests."

"Issue an edict to the Yao family. I will personally visit them tomorrow to see if the workshops they run are really as he said." Zhu Yijun listened to Shen Shixing's long chatter and was a little skeptical. He planned to go and take a look in person.

Since it is a survey, we still need to be down-to-earth and see it in person to be sure.

Because according to Shen Shixing, Yao Liyan's business philosophy solved an impossible triangle: large-scale employment, fair labor remuneration, and generous profits. He got two of the impossible triangle, but couldn't get the third. Yao Liyan actually broke it. This was really like the sun rising from the west. He had to see it with his own eyes to believe it.

Yao Liyan's business philosophy is open, not a secret. His business philosophy revolves around means of production, but the boss does not own the means of production. Yao Liyan only shares the profits. If the industry becomes stable and the boss seeks to set up his own business, Yao Liyan will not stop him and will withdraw if he is paid.

It is very easy to fool the emperor. The emperor does not understand anyway. All you need to do is make the scene lively and look energetic, and that will be enough to fool the emperor.

Zhu Yijun's solution to the problem of being cheated was actually very simple. He should be fully prepared before going there, instead of rushing in blindly and without any purpose.

His method was also very simple. He looked at Zhao Mengyou and said, "Zhao Tishuai, thank you and Luo Tishuai for checking their accounts to see if there are any problems."

He had many ways to prevent himself from cheating, and checking the accounts was a very good way. The six-book-one-account method was widely used, and the receipts and payments were clear at a glance. Moreover, many times, it was not enough to just do a good job of keeping your own accounts. If your upstream and downstream accounts did not match, then you could not blame the court.

Tax inspection has always been a cost issue, not a problem that cannot be checked. The cost of tax inspection is not only manpower and material resources, but also the reward for clues and the cost of political resources. For example, the acceptance and remittance of Huitongguanyi has the running account books of large transactions, but to get them, someone has to give convenience; for example, the Maritime Customs has records of import and export cases, but to get them, someone has to give convenience.

The Tiqi were directly under the emperor's command, with low political resource costs but extremely high labor costs. Each Tiqi had been a Duntai Yuanhou or a coastal defense inspector for several years. Every government office's tax inspection office had an accounting eunuch from the Inner School, and it cost the emperor a huge amount of money to train them.

Zhu Yijun did not have to wait too long. Zhao Mengyou came to the West Lake Villa early the next morning. After His Majesty had breakfast, he bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, there is no problem with the accounts. I found a tax that needs to be collected, about twelve taels of silver, but it was delayed due to the blockade. Afterwards, there was too little silver and I forgot about it."

It was a big fuss and the Ti cavalry worked hard all day, but in the end they demanded the payment of twelve taels of silver, which was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

"Let's urge them to pay the bill." Zhu Yijun raised his eyebrows and said with a smile. Since they had found out that the amount of money was small, they had to urge them to pay. This was a matter of rules, not because Zhu Yijun liked money.

The Ming Dynasty's Tax Inspection Office had almost unlimited power in the local area. Zhu Yijun would personally review almost every case to prevent the Tax Inspection Office from getting out of control.

Zhu Yijun once personally told Zhang Juzheng and others about the terrible scene after the Tax Inspection Office lost control, and the various means of generating revenue were truly shocking.

After seeing a lot, Zhu Yijun discovered the pattern of tax auditing. Whenever the person being investigated resists the investigation when retrieving the accounts, it can be basically 100% certain that there is a problem with this family, and a big problem. If the accounts are retrieved very smoothly, there will be no problem in % probability, and even if there is, it will be a minor problem.

If you have done nothing wrong, you don't have to worry about ghosts knocking on your door.

The Yao family of Qiantang did not resist the investigation. When the imperial guards arrived, the Yao family knelt down in a large crowd, fearing that the imperial guards would draw their knives and kill people or burn people if they disagreed with them. So they gave them whatever they wanted. The investigation went very smoothly. The workshops and shops affiliated with the Yao family all tried their best to cooperate with the imperial guards in tax inspection.

In the end, it was proved that there was no problem with the Yao family.

"Are the Qiantang Yao family and the Wuzhong Yao family, that is, Yao Guangqi's Yao family, one family?" Before leaving, Zhu Yijun inquired about the relationship between Shanghai County Magistrate Yao Guangqi and the Qiantang Yao family.

Feng Bao quickly said, "They were one family about five hundred years ago."

"That's all right, let's go." Zhu Yijun asked the imperial guards to lead the way, deployed his majestic ceremonial guard, and headed for the Yao family. In the North Court and the South Court, Zhu Yijun dared to stroll around in casual clothes, but in Hangzhou, he could only deploy ceremonial guards and look majestic.

"I, Yao Liyan, bring my three sons and eight grandchildren to pay my respects to Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty. Long, long live Your Majesty."

Before Zhu Yijun got off the car, there was a roar of applause from below.

Yao Liyan was only in his forties and looked quite capable. He was wearing silk and satin. Perhaps it was because of the hot weather or because he was nervous, but Yao Liyan was already sweating profusely.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand, signaling everyone to skip the formalities. He looked towards the gate of the Yao family mansion and almost laughed out loud.

"Boss Yao, right? Let's pull out these two door drums in front of the door and destroy them." Zhu Yijun asked Yao Liyan to come forward and told him to throw away the door drums to avoid trouble.

"Your Majesty, is there any problem with this door drum?" Yao Liyan immediately broke out in a sweat. He was already nervous about welcoming the emperor, and he had no idea what the emperor was going to do. Now there was a problem before he even entered the door. He was already on the verge of death.

Zhu Yijun was not in a hurry to enter the house. He was waiting for the imperial guards to remove the threshold. The emperor could walk anywhere as if it were flat ground, so the threshold had to be removed.

The emperor pointed to a pair of door drums and said, "Your house is very new. I heard that it was built a few years ago. I saw it today. These two door drums are used by royal relatives. The white marble and lions stand on the drums. You are usurping the throne. If your enemies see these two door drums and sue you for usurpation at the government office, your whole family will be exiled."

"I am guilty of a thousand crimes, I deserve to die a thousand times!" Yao Liyan was dumbfounded. In a flash, he remembered all the powerful and wealthy families he had visited, and none of them had door drums of the same shape as his!
After he became rich, he was on guard day and night, but he didn't expect that there were two things at the door that wanted to kill him. These things were placed in front of the door, in full view of everyone, so it was really easy to harm him!
Yesterday, the Tiqi actually saw these two usurping door drums. It was fine to put up a green lion, but there was a drum sitting under the green lion, which was an usurpation.

"It's ruined, so don't be polite." Zhu Yijun said with a smile. If he really pursued it, he would not come to investigate. Things like usurpation of power would be weighed down with heavy weight once put on the scale. Zhu Yijun did not intend to get on the scale, so it was just a small matter.

Yao Liyan really didn't know that he was overstepping his authority. The emperor came in person and placed these two things at the door. Was he betting that the emperor was kind? Or was he betting that the emperor didn't understand? If the emperor didn't understand, the Minister of Rites would definitely understand.

Someone is going to kill him.

Nouveau riche lack the foundation and will be deceived by traps they have never stepped into before because they don’t understand them.

"Boss Yao, let's go in and sit for a while, and then we'll go to your workshop. I came here today to ask you for advice on business, so don't be nervous." Zhu Yijun said with a smile on his face, "Don't be nervous, and you don't have to order tea. I don't need water or food outside the palace."

"Boss Yao, the Sun family of Songjiang surrendered to the imperial court, and with the help of the east wind that opened the sea, they were able to seize the boss's family business. Boss Yao was able to earn so much money. I hope Boss Yao would be willing to give me some advice." Zhu Yijun sat up straight and said very solemnly.

Yao Liyan was stunned for a moment before he understood the emperor's intention. He didn't know how to express it elegantly, so he bowed his head and said, "I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it, Your Majesty. In fact, I don't have much business experience. I just know the business of brothels. These well-known brothels usually don't raise girls themselves. It's time-consuming and laborious, and they are also full of dirty things. When brothels open, the maids bring the girls to the building to do business, and the profits are split 50-50. I learned the business of brothels."

"Some big bosses have craftsmen and special skills, but they don't have this way, the way to buy and sell goods, and they don't have the money to open a workshop. If they open it, they will lose money. I happen to be good at making money, so I provide the factory and raw materials, and I will manage the accounts, so they can produce with peace of mind."

"It's basically like this: only when everyone holds shares can they regard the market as their home. Naturally, everyone will pay attention to their own business, and they will be united as one, and everyone will pay attention to it."

"How does everyone hold shares?" Zhu Yijun leaned forward and asked curiously.

Yao Liyan explained the share distribution clearly. Yao Liyan contributed both money and manpower, built the workshop, found sales channels, and took risks, but he only took 50% of the profits. The boss took 20%, and the remaining craftsmen got 30%. Everyone had a share, so there was no need to worry about expansion, and the profit was divided in the same way for newcomers.

What Yao Liyan said was ridiculous, and he compared his business method to a brothel, which was completely useless. However, Zhu Yijun understood the key, which was that everyone held shares.

Therefore, he made a lot of money and his family's business covered a wide range of areas.

(End of this chapter)