Late Tang

Who is Lord Shang, and Li Jing would have such a big reaction when he heard this name?

Li Jing asked Cang Cao Shenjun Han Zhongwu: "Do you know who this Lord Shang is?" Unexpectedly, Han Zhongwu did not hesitate at all, and immediately replied: "This man is a salt merchant in Puzhou. , is a big businessman."

Li Jing was just asking casually, but Han Zhongwu had never thought that Han Zhongwu had actually heard of Mr. Shang, and even said that he was a bold salt merchant.This surprised Li Jing, which was different from his understanding of Mr. Shang.Shang Junchang was very famous in the history of the late Tang Dynasty and left a very important mark.But that is definitely not because he is a bold salt merchant, but because he is the second person under Wang Xianzhi, the great rebel at the end of Tang Dynasty, and one of the ten handsome men.

According to historical records, at the end of Xiantong, he was still hungry, and the bandits prospered in Henan.In the first year of Qianfu, Wang Xianzhi, a thief named Puming, messed up Changyuan.

The first year of Qianfu, that is, the 15th year of Xiantong, is exactly this year.Right now, the year name is still Yizong's year name, and it will not be changed to Yuan Qianfu until October.Therefore, this year is not only the 15th year of Xiantong, but also the first year of Qianfu.Puming thief Wang Xianzhi messed up Changyuan, and he was talking about the fact that Wang Xianzhi gathered a crowd to rebel this year.

Who is Wang Xianzhi?Here it is said that he is a famous thief in Pu, Pu is Puzhou, and a famous thief is a famous big thief.Based on the memory in Li Jing's mind, he knew that Wang Xianzhi was indeed a man of influence, and that Puzhou was between Qingzhou and Luoyang, that is, not far from Wagang, where the turmoil arose at the end of the Sui Dynasty.Like the Wagang Uprising, Wang Xianzhi's rebellion was not hasty. They had already prepared, or they had the capital to rebel.

In the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Shan Xinyi, one of Wagang's Five Tigers, joined Wagang before he was a well-known mafia brother in Henan, Erxian Zhuang Chifa Lingguan Shan's second brother, known as the leader of the Nine Provinces and Five Roads Green Forest Heroes, and the chief scooper Lin Piao's handle.There are also villages and mountains below, all of which are under his jurisdiction.

More than 200 years have passed, and now there is another famous gangster in this land, and that is Wang Xianzhi.Even more coincidentally, the tenth generation descendants of Shan Xiongxin are Shan Xing, Shan Wang, Shan Mao, and Shan Sheng.The four later also participated in the Huangchao Uprising, and were known as the "Four Heroes of the Yellow Army" because of their bravery in combat.Like Shan Xiongxin, Wang Xianzhi also appears to be a wealthy man.The Wang family sold salt for generations, and when Wang Xianzhi arrived, they were already a family of salt sellers in Puzhou, and another family of salt sellers in Caozhou, the Huang family, could be regarded as friends of the underworld.On the surface, Wang Xianzhi sells official salt and is a salt merchant, but in fact, he is engaged in private salt business.Take risks in desperation, and seek wealth in danger.

As the Tang Dynasty's central financial resources became more and more difficult, the court increasingly used salted tea as a means of earning money.Tea and salt monopoly, the tax is extremely heavy.A bucket of salt costs more than a hundred dollars, and the common people cannot afford salt.The higher the price of salt, the greater the profit from selling private salt.Salt is just boiled sea into salt, and the cost of salt is only a few pennies, but it is sold for more than a hundred pennies, dozens of times or even a hundred times the profit. This kind of profit is enough to make those daring people take risks.

Many salt merchants who originally sold official salt began to join the ranks of smuggling salt. Due to the severe investigation and punishment of illegal salt by the imperial court, those who sold more than one stone of illegal salt would be executed.Therefore, in order to avoid disposal, these private salt dealers often began to arm themselves and carry out armed trafficking.In the end, whole organized trafficking groups were created.Wang Xianzhi is the largest private salt dealer in Puzhou. He has ten armed salt gangs under him. These ten leaders are all Wang Xianzhi's brothers.

Piao Shuai is the ruthless leader, and he can also be called Wang Xianzhi, the leader and incense master of the armed salt trafficking gang.In the late Tang Dynasty, the crime of smuggling salt was much greater than that in the late Sui Dynasty.At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Cheng Yaojin, who sold smuggled salt, went directly to the gate of the government office to sell it, shouting to sell smuggled salt, but in the end he was beaten and sent to prison for food.But it was different in the late Tang Dynasty. Those who caught smuggling salt for less than one stone were directly exiled for thousands of miles, and those who were more than one stone were directly executed.With this penalty scale, smuggling salt in the late Tang Dynasty was completely equivalent to the armed drug smuggling of Colombian drug lords, and it was a life-threatening business.

Who is Mr. Shang?That was Wang Xianzhi's first head of the Piaoshuai, the first hall master of Zhongxiang Hall.Right-hand man, confidant.After Wang Xianzhi's uprising, Shang Junchang has always been the second person under Wang Xianzhi's subordinates, the second master.He also has a younger brother named Shang Rang, who is also a incense master. After Wang Xianzhi's defeat, he took refuge in Huang Chao, the current leader of the Caozhou Salt Gang, and became Huang Chao's second in charge.

It can be said that Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao were the most influential figures in the late Tang Dynasty, while Brother Shangjun was the second in charge of these two influential figures. It is conceivable that they are not ordinary people.Immediately, Lord Shang was about to rebel with Wang Xianzhi, but at this time, he suddenly came to Shamen Town and asked to see Li Jing, which surprised Li Jing.

On the contrary, Han Zhongwu saw that Li Jing was a little confused, and said directly: "Mr. Shang is a well-known big salt merchant in Puzhou. He must know that the new salt produced on Nantuo Island is white in color, large in size and dry. I guess, he He wanted to come to us to buy salt."

Li Jing was surprised and said: "We are the official army, and he is a salt merchant. Now he comes to buy salt from us instead of from the salt transport envoy. Then this is buying private salt. Isn't he afraid that we will take him down and send him to the government?" ?”

Han Zhongwu smiled: "To be honest, we are actually violating the imperial government's control over salt. We privately dry the salt and neither transport the salt to the salt nor pay taxes. In fact, it is not the same as those who There is no difference between salt merchants and private salt. Since Shang Jun came here, he must have thought the same way." This Jinshi from a merchant family is now Li Jing's brother-in-law, and he doesn't have so many scruples when he speaks, " I think we can meet this Lord Shang. They are the biggest salt sellers in Henan. Our salt is so good, no matter how much we have, they can still eat it. If we sell the salt, it will be a big deal. A lot of money. Otherwise, although there are many soldiers and civilians on our island, the salt can’t be eaten as food, so we can’t really take it all and offer it to the emperor.”

Li Jing had planned to sell the salt in the sun.However, if he wanted to sell it to Mr. Shang, Li Jing did not make up his mind. This Mr. Shang is the leader of the rebels who is about to rebel.Doing business with them now, will it implicate me by then.

"How many people did Mr. Shang bring?" Li Jing asked.

"He brought a dozen or so people with him, all of them looked tough, and they were probably thugs from the Salt Gang."

Li Jing hesitated in his heart, he really wanted to take Shang Junchang down now, but in what name did he call him a private salt dealer?Then this reason is too far-fetched, and Shamen Town is not a salt transportation envoy, so how can it manage these things.But do you want him to say that Mr. Shang is about to rebel, and he will be the number two of the rebels?Who will believe this?

After pondering for a long time, Li Jing finally decided to give up this business and do business with rebels, or private salt business, which is too dangerous.But this person is willing to see him first, "Bring him here."

Soon Mr. Shang was brought in. Although Mr. Shang was dressed in silk and satin, as soon as he met him, his tall and burly body revealed a reckless and aggressive air.Less than forty years old, seven feet tall, thick-backed, with a big face and a big beard.As soon as he saw Li Jing, he bent down very politely and bowed his hands, and when he opened his mouth, he said loudly like a lion's roar: "Master Shang Jun, a salt merchant in Lower Puzhou, has seen Ya Nei!"

Li Jing looked at this man who was like a tiger and a wolf, and it was hard to imagine that such a person would dare to raise the banner of rebellion with Wang Xianzhi in a short time.Isn't it very profitable to be a salt merchant, or they already feel that they have accumulated enough strength to take a gamble?

Li Jing recalled last year, Puzhou and Caozhou under the Taiping Festival to the west of Ziqing Town were the places where the famine was the worst, and even caused dozens of refugees, large and small, to gather and loot, losing their villages things.Liu Shouqian's home was robbed by homeless people. According to Liu Shouqian, although most of those thugs were hungry people, it was bandits and salt dealers who guided and organized them.Although it was settled by the government in the end, these matters were suppressed and did not attract enough attention.

Perhaps, behind the turmoil last year, there was already the possibility of manipulation and temptation by Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junrang and others.

"What has Wang Xianzhi been up to lately?" Li Jing asked suddenly.

Shang Jun surprised Wei Wei, who didn't expect him to ask Wang Xianzhi suddenly, and was speechless at the moment.

Li Jing asked again: "I have heard that Wang Xianzhi and you and the generals are building weapons day and night, recruiting soldiers and buying horses, recruiting refugees, and have the intention of gathering people to rebel, is it true?"

These words were full of prestige, and Shang Jun asked Wen Ting to change his face, and his right hand immediately took out the weapon habitually.But after touching it a few times, it was all empty, and then he remembered that under the stone carved blue wolf outside the hall, the long knife he was carrying was seized by the guard.

Sitting in the hall, Li Jing watched coldly as Mr. Shang was swayed by his words, and couldn't help but be certain in his heart that it seemed that Wang Xianzhi was indeed as he expected, and had already turned against him.According to Shi Zai, Wang Xianzhi did not formally start his army until the end of the year, but he had cheated just now, and Wang Xianzhi had already made preparations in secret.Otherwise, how could he have joined forces with thousands of people.

This Shangjun can't stay for a long time, let alone do business with them.

"Come on, detain this traitor and send him to the Governor's Mansion of Dengzhou immediately." Li Jing didn't have real evidence of Wang Xianzhi's rebellion, but he still felt it was necessary to remind Song Wei. The festival was close to the Pinglu army, and Wang Xianzhi of Puzhou rebelled, and the first to bear the brunt was Ziqing Town, which was next to them.Send people there, as to whether they believe it or not is their business.

Li Jing originally wanted to kill Shang Junrang, but after thinking about it, it is better to save a living one for Song Wei, so that he can interrogate himself.

Seeing Mr. Shang being tied up and escorted to the boat to Dengzhou, Li Jing couldn't help but sigh in his heart. With this departure, perhaps there will be one less influential figure in the history of the late Tang Dynasty.Now that he is dead, he is just a nameless private salt dealer. Compared with Wang Xianzhi, who stirred up the world's rebellion, he is the number one general under Wang Xianzhi, but he is far behind.

He even couldn't help thinking, if he asked Li Wei to lead a team to sneak into Puzhou and Caozhou, and kill Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao, how would history go?Will the 30-year chaos that is about to start in the late Tang Dynasty disappear?

He was a little lost in silence, and Li Jing was awakened by the footsteps of patrolling soldiers. He shook his head and sighed to himself what was wrong?Even if he killed Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao, how effective would it be?Although history is full of contingencies, it is also full of inevitability.Given the current situation in the Tang Dynasty, as long as the natural disasters continue, the famine continues, the common people have no food to eat, and one or two ambitious people provoke it, this great turmoil will still be unavoidable.

Now that this turmoil is inevitable, Shamen Town must speed up its preparations.In the past, Li Jing always felt that everything in the world is peaceful now, and there is always a sense of prosperity.But when he saw Mr. Shang with his own eyes, he suddenly realized that Dengzhou, where he is now, was a truly prosperous place in the late Tang Dynasty, and other places did not have such a good life.Moreover, the disaster continues, and a new wave of refugees is about to begin. Together with Wang Xianzhi, the era of the end of Tang Dynasty, when one person cannibalizes people, is about to begin.

Back in the town general's mansion, Li Jing immediately summoned the soldiers from the town general's mansion, Zhang Hong, Cang Cao, Han Zhongwu, Li Chun, Cao Zuo, Cui Zhiyuan, Cao Zuo, Feng Guoyong, and the supervisor. Army Zhang Chengye and other five staff chiefs and supervisors in the town general's mansion.In addition, the soldiers and officials from the two towns and forts below also came to attend the meeting. More than a dozen staff and civil servants gathered together. This was the first time that no other generals participated in the meeting.

"Han Cangcao, how much grain do we have?"

In troubled times, food is lifeblood.Li Jing has been increasing the food reserves all the time, but there will never be more food.

"At present, we have stored a total of 37 shi of grain, including rice, wheat, millet, sorghum, soybeans and other grains. A large part of these grains were obtained from the previous suppression of bandits and thieves, and a large part It is our continuous purchase, and there is another batch that is half of the payment for our current liquor workshop with the income from grain transactions."

37 shi of grain, based on the standard of three shi of grain per person per year, is enough for 12 people a year.If women, children, and the elderly are taken into consideration, and the standard is lowered to an average of two stones per person, or even one and a half stones, then it can barely meet the two-year rations of the people on the island.

"It's not enough." Li Jing frowned tightly, "Food must continue to be purchased, and more efforts must be made. How much money do we have now? More than half of the money should be used to buy food. In addition, all future liquor will be used in exchange for food."

(To be continued)