A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 343 Conspiracy
After the Jinghubao discussion, Song Jiaxuan first went to the town for some activities, met her former boss Zhang Guowei, and got satisfactory answers and hints.A few days later, under the introduction of Chen Enchong, the defender of Yanqing Prefecture, he met Guo Shitong, the Tongliang judge of the East Road.

Although Guo Shitong's official position is small, he is a civil servant, and he is in charge of food and payment matters on the East Road.To him in the past, warriors like Song Jiaxuan didn't pay much attention to him.

Chen Enchong expressed his favor to seek refuge earlier, so Guo Shitong reluctantly accepted him.For Chen Enchong's sake, Guo Shitong received Song Jiaxuan, the defender of Jinghu Fort.

Although Song Jiaxuan looks vicious, but in front of Guo Shitong, he is not as "domineering" as Wang Dou. According to the unspoken rules of literary honor and military inferiority, he respectfully kowtows to Guo Shitong.Guo Shitong nodded secretly: "Although this Song Jiaxuan is a vulgar warrior, he also knows the rules, unlike that Wang Dou..."

After kowtowing, Song Jiaxuan got up from her head, trying to force a smile on her face: "I heard that your lord is elegant and loves calligraphy and painting. A few days ago, someone from the government went to Zhencheng and found a box of rare books from Mr. Kaoting. The next official said Martial arts man, such a saint's handwritten scroll falls into his hand, it's a waste of money, it's better to let an adult keep it."

Then he said in a low voice: "In addition, there are some sealwort and white wax, and I will give it to the adults together."

Guo Shitong couldn't help but be overjoyed. The hand-copied copy of Zhu Xi, the great Confucian of the Song Dynasty, is a rare thing, as well as those sealworts, pewter...

In fact, this is a lingo, Huang Jing is gold, and white wax is silver.For the convenience of bribery and bribery, these adages are often changed. They used to be called "yellow rice" and "white rice", but now they are called "Huang Jing" and "white wax".

Guo Shitong looked more gentle and coughed: "You have a heart."

He rewarded Song Jiaxuan with a chair, Song Jiaxuan sat on half of his buttocks respectfully, and Chen Enchong who was opposite did the same.

Looking at the two of them, Guo Shitong stroked his beard and nodded slightly. In the past, he didn't care about these warriors. He controlled the food and pay, and the background was Chen Xinjia, the governor of Xuanda. Officials have to treat him respectfully.

But with the arrival of Wang Dou, this person is domineering, and his handling of things is always lightning fast, which makes people unable to react immediately.

Ma Guoxi, that old fox, seemed to be on the same boat as Wang Dou.There are these two people on the East Road, how can they speak for themselves in the future?Wang Dou was getting more and more smacked at him, how could Guo Shitong bear it?
To plan ahead, I need to win over a group of people.

"My lord, that Wang Dou came very violently. As soon as he arrived on the East Road, he made a series of actions, garrisoning the fields and suppressing bandits. The official came from Yanqing, and the people everywhere only knew that there was General Dingguo, but not the imperial court. Wang Dou invited to buy like this." People's hearts, this mind, hehe..."

Guo Shitong murmured beside him.

Guo Shitong's face became even more ugly, and he snorted: "The east road is the east road of the imperial court, not a certain warrior. With my official here, I will never allow the disaster of Tang Ji's feudal town to reappear."

Song Jiaxuan and Chen Enchong hurriedly stood up: "The lower officials are loyal to the country."

Guo Shitong asked the two to sit down: "You wait to be diligent and diligent. I see it in your eyes. Sit, sit."

The more respectful the two were, the more Guo Shitong thought of Wang Dou's arrogance and rudeness to him, and he was full of jealousy for his easy prestige, and this jealousy became stronger and stronger.It would be great if the people's praise for Wang Dou fell on him.

He slowly said: "The ancestral division of civil and military work, the division of guards and generals is nothing more than repairing local cities, training troops, military preparations and my own officials to manage the farmland and civil affairs, so as to avoid the worries of hunger and cold for the soldiers. What is the intention of Wang Douyue as the cook?" Wang Douzhi acted recklessly, but Bing Xian didn't ask."

Guo Shitong's dissatisfaction with Ma Guoxi, the military commander, could not be concealed in his tone. Song Jiaxuan and Chen Enchong did not dare to talk about this topic.

Chen Enchong complained: "General Dingguo set up a new fort, and the lower officials agreed. However, the original military households in various cities fled one after another because they wanted to benefit from the tax exemption of the new castle. When they entered the new castle, the lower officials did not dare to pursue them. ...but this missed the collection of the summer tax and autumn grain in the castle by the lower officials, this..."

Guo Shitong's face was even more ugly. He was in charge of collecting food and grain taxes for the county guards on the East Road. Because some old military households had fled, the taxes in each city were less, and most of this account was on his head.Daming became more and more strict with civil officials, unable to complete the collection of taxes, and was taken away from officials at every turn.

For this official position, Guo Shitong spent a lot of money and energy. If he was taken away because of this, he would have the heart to eat Wang Dou.

Song Jiaxuan suddenly said from the side: "I heard that General Dingguo intends to collect commercial taxes, regardless of Bao'an Prefecture, or all over the East Road."

Hearing this, Guo Shitong stood up abruptly: "It's ridiculous, this is an act of competing with the people for profit."

He said: "When the emperor appeared, there was a disaster of commercial tax and mine tax. The mine tax was prosperous, and the people were unemployed. The people were fighting for profit. The people had no security, and the world was in chaos. Before the accident of the car, the king Dou never heard of it?"

He spoke harshly: "This official and the military constitution have not yet been discussed. What authority does he have to collect taxes? With the heart of a tiger and wolf, how can you want to control a country within a country?"

"If Wang Dou dares to do what Wanfu pointed out, I will definitely impeach him!"

Seeing his righteous indignation, Song Jiaxuan and Chen Enchong knew what they had in mind. After Guo Shitong served as the grain manager of Donglu, the children of his clan flocked to buy fields and land, open shops, grain and oil stores, cloth, salt, etc. Shops, etc., opened up to a dozen.

If Wang Dou collects taxes, isn't it going to take food from his mouth?How could Guo Shitong endure this?
Song Jiaxuan was in charge of the border castle, and she knew that if the Guo family's children did not participate in the smuggling outside the Great Wall, then there would be ghosts.Wang Dou intends to reorganize the army and prohibit private trade, which has already made Guo Shitong extremely jealous. If there are more taxes...

In fact, whether to levy commercial tax, Wang Dou's general's office has not yet decided. Although Wang Dou has this intention, but because the time has not come, he plans to take it slowly and wait for a year or two.But I don't know why, suddenly this wind came, and it spread quickly in the cities on the East Road.

To Song Jiaxuan and others, this news is like rain after a long drought. Whether it is true or not, Wang Dou will be in a great crisis. He will offend most of the businessmen, scholars, and warriors on the East Road.Against the tide of opposition, it is really hard to say whether he will be able to secure a firm seat on East Road in the future.

In this way, Wang Dou could not care about governing the army and banned private trade, and Song Jiaxuan and others could get rich with peace of mind, eat empty wages, drink the blood of soldiers, etc.

The three of them talked in the room for some time before Song Jiaxuan and Chen Enchong were satisfied. They looked at each other and sneered.

……

Yanqing Prefecture was built in the 11th year of Yongle, covered with bricks in the second year of Jingtai, and expanded in the seventh year of Wanli.Like Baoanzhou, it is located in the two Minzhous in the East Road, and most of the people living in them are civilian households.

In Yanqing Prefecture, there is the state government and garrison office, and there is Guanshan Academy in it, which houses Confucianism.The state city sits on a flat land, with mountains and rivers in the north and south, and flat and fertile land in the east and west. It also communicates with the town and the main roads of the capital. It has always been a place for residents to multiply.

There are several main streets in the city, all of which are equipped with square meters. At this time, many businessmen gathered in the mansion in an alley of Chengenfang.The mansion is luxurious, the hall is spacious and magnificent, and the merchants inside are all dressed in brocade robes, showing their aura of wealth.

They sat and chatted slowly, and in a few simple conversations, sometimes goods transactions worth tens of thousands of taels were concluded.

The merchants present here are mostly grain merchants and salt merchants. Some of them also run medicine cloth fur, pawn shop, hotel, money business, tea business, warehouse and other businesses. .

In the early Ming Dynasty, in order to solve the problem of food and payment transportation for the frontier army, the "Open China Law" was implemented to encourage merchants to transport food to the border.From then on, grain and salt merchants prospered in Jiubian, but "Kaizhongfa" declined. However, with the collapse of the Daming Guard, Jiubian needed a large amount of grain, cotton and cloth, and these merchants were also inseparable.

Based on the standard of one stone of monthly rations for soldiers, the three towns of Xuanda alone need more than two million stones of grain, hundreds of thousands of pieces of cloth, and hundreds of thousands of catties of cotton a year.There is also a large amount of fodder for horses, and the amount required for groceries such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, etc. is also astronomical.

This feeds a huge merchant group. It is not commendable to have a capital of 10 taels, but a million taels is considered normal. Shanxi, Beijing, and Huizhou merchants are especially rich.

Due to the huge profits, although natural disasters and man-made disasters at the end of the Ming Dynasty caused the people to be displaced, for many businessmen, it did not affect their wealthy lives.Fragrance and dust carry the road, jade crumbs are abundant, and merchants boast about their wealth and beauty in an endless stream, and they are extravagant.

Look at the rows of maids and maids standing around, the exquisite huanghuali tables and chairs beside them, and the Bangzi opera troupe specially invited from Taiyuan to play and sing.For many poor people, such a luxury is unimaginable in their dreams.

This is just an ordinary state land on East Road. If you go to other places in Taiyuan, the owner of this house will be a bumpkin again.

All the merchants were whispering and whispering, when a housekeeper in a blue silk gown came out and said with a smile, "Everyone, Mr. Zhang is here."

An old man in his fifties came out with the help of a group of maids. He had half black and half white hair, a tall figure, and a majestic manner in his gestures. He was obviously a figure who had lived in the center of money and power for a long time.Seeing him come out, the merchants present all bowed their hands and called "Mr. Zhang Wan'an."

Can't help being disrespectful from all merchants, this old man Zhang Wanshan is the uncle of Zhang Guowei, the former general of Donglu.Fields, grain and oil, cloth, cotton, animal husbandry, mines, etc., all have the presence of the Zhang family.

Zhang Wanshan is old, treacherous, ruthless, and never shows mercy to his competitors unless he agrees to a series of harsh conditions.Some of the merchants present may be strong dragons from outside, but the strong dragon does not suppress the local snakes, and the Zhang family is the local snakes on the East Road.Who would dare to disobey the orders of the Zhang family if they wanted to do business on the East Road?

It was Zhang Guowei who was transferred to Zhencheng, but the influence of the Zhang family still exists deeply in Donglu.

Seeing all the merchants saluting, Zhang Wanshan chuckled, cupped his hands in a circle, raised his voice slightly and said: "Everyone, let me introduce you."

He pointed to a middle-aged man who was wearing a silk robe and a six-in-one hat beside him, with a shrewd expression: "This is the eldest son of the Fan family, Fan Sanba, the shopkeeper of Fan Da, please be close to him."

(End of this chapter)