Lu Ming

Page 228

Located in the nature reserve in the remaining veins of Nankun Mountain, it has beautiful scenery, hot springs and numerous mountain streams. Among them, the waterfall group has a drop of more than 400 meters. It is the largest mountain waterfall in mainland China. It really flies down three thousand ruler.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, this tourist resource was nothing... The entire Ming Dynasty was primitive, with ancient streets everywhere, and strange and precipitous natural landscapes everywhere. Places like this belong to remote areas In a dangerous place where bandits infested, no Ming people would get angry and come to buy tickets and spend money to see the scenery.

On February 1631, 2, the tenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, in the afternoon, a team of porters and a few donkeys and mules were staggering on the mountain path, and the waterfall in the distance became the background wall of the team.

The destination of this group of porters is a place called Hejiabazi.

Bazi is the abbreviation of Mountain Basin.Generally speaking, this kind of terrain surrounded by mountains has a mild climate and fertile soil, which is a good place for developing agriculture.In later generations, there are more than a thousand dams in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, which are natural village settlements.

In the mountains north of Zengcheng, there are many large and small dams.Hejiazhai, also known as Hejiabazi, is located in the depression adjacent to Fogang County in the north.

Theoretically speaking, Zengcheng County has no shortage of transport waterways. There are as many as six large rivers over 100 square kilometers in the territory, including Guangdong River, Zeng River, and Xifu River, not counting various small streams.

However, there are mountainous areas to the north of Zengcheng. Thanks to the harsh natural environment in ancient times, there are always some places without waterways and need to use manpower to transport materials. Hejiazhai belongs to this category.

From the branch of Zengjiang in the lower reaches of Zengcheng to the mountains, the boats will unload at Paitan Town, a waterfall scenic spot in later generations, which is close to the forest park.The reason why it is called Paitan Town is because the mountains are high and the water is steep, and there is a deep pool in the side river. The ancients put bamboo rafts here, so it was named Paitan, and later it was called Paitan as a homonym.

After arriving at Paitan Town, to go to Hejiabazi, porters and mules and horses are needed.Fortunately, the road is not far away, and the mountain road only takes a detour of more than 20 miles, and it takes a whole morning to get there.In the end, when the caravan bypassed a narrow mountain pass and passed through the checkpoint guarded by Zhuang Ding, it suddenly became clear to the visitors that a paradise with a radius of six to seven kilometers was presented to the visitors.

"It's the end of the land, everyone, work harder, unload the cargo and have a meal of soju!"

Accompanied by Shopkeeper Wu's shout, the porters, who had dark skin, strong muscles and bones, carried long poles on their shoulders, and were bent over by the weight of the goods, suddenly regained their spirits, and their steps became much lighter.

Shopkeeper Wu's real name is Wu Qianshan, he is the one who escaped from the bandit den with He Biandan before, the deputy general manager in charge of external affairs of Baiji grocery chain company.

After escaping from the bandit's nest, shopkeeper Wu and Biandan were rescued by the investigation team and went to Huangpu Military Port.After that, shopkeeper Wu and He Biandan separated: the young man stayed in the military port, and shopkeeper Wu returned to the county safely.

Afterwards, with the pioneering army's large-scale suppression of bandits within Zengcheng, shopkeeper Wu also resumed his daily business operations and began to purchase and sell goods all over the world.Probably because he survived the catastrophe, shopkeeper Wu was full of energy after that, and he continued to do so during the New Year. No, he started to make arrangements soon after the year, and brought a caravan to Hejiabazi to sell goods.

The structure of Hejiabazi is no different from other villages in this era.In a small basin between mountains, there are farmlands everywhere, and sparse farmhouses are scattered on it.In the middle of the basin is the core farm surrounded by soil.

Along a not-so-spacious dirt road, accompanied by the gurgling sound of the brook beside the road, the caravan soon came to the gate of Hejiazhuangzi.

I don't know if it's the New Year's Eve or other reasons, but today's Hejiazhuangzi, the gates and suspension bridges are all open, which is different from the situation in the past when only the side gates were opened.And after seeing the caravan approaching on the wall, soon, a group of people came out from the village.The one in the lead, a square-faced leather robe, was in the same grade as shopkeeper Wu, and he clasped his fists from afar and laughed loudly, "Brother Qianshan, I really miss my brother, hahaha!"

Shopkeeper Wu also showed an excited expression when he saw this person at the first glance. He hurried forward, stretched out his hands to hold the person's arms, and said with emotion: "Brother He, don't you come here without any problems, you have always been good!?"

This old brother He, named He Renzhong, is the chief steward of the He family village.

He Renzhong and Wu Qianshan have been good friends for many years - 20 years ago, shopkeeper Wu was a boy in the Baiji grocery store, and manager He was a trotter in the Hejiashan cargo team. The two moved together during the day. Goods, squeezed in the Datong shop at night, it is really a poor and humble friend who loves brothers.

Later, as the two parties got older and each had a social status, there were fewer opportunities to meet each other.However, the relationship between the old brothers is still there, and has not changed color due to the passage of time.

"Okay, okay." He Renzhong nodded again and again: "What wind brought you here, brother?"

"Hehe, I've wanted to visit my elder brother for a long time... the road is not safe!" Shopkeeper Wu said with a smile on his face, "No, I saw the heads of several heads of the Fotou Village at the south gate of the county seat a few days ago, so I rushed here without stopping! "

"Haha!" He Renzhong nodded after hearing the words: "Yes, yes, once the Fotou village is leveled, the road to the county town under Beishan will be open."

When He Renzhong said this, his face was also full of excitement. He stretched out his hand to pinch shopkeeper Wu's shoulder, and kept looking up and down: "Oh my brother, you have lost weight, and your beard and hair have also turned white, but your spirit is still looking healthy!"

In other words, in this era, once a man reaches the age of 40, he can call himself old.In fact, according to the experience of later generations, the shopkeeper Wu is not in a very old age. This year he is only 43. However, the hard life all year round has already made his face wrinkled and his beard gray. He does not look like a grade in his 40s.

Shopkeeper Wu shook his head and smiled after hearing the words: "We haven't seen each other for three or four years, so you are getting old. Old brother, don't blame me, your beard is also white!"

Guanshi He sighed: "I'm old, I'm old."

After the two old men stood at the gate of the village and sighed for a long time, they entered the Hejia village with their arms together.

Compared with previous years, this year's Hejiazhai is obviously a little more festive: it is already the tenth day of the first lunar month, and in the village that has been deserted in previous years, there are still red confetti left on the ground after the fireworks have been blown up, and there is a rough on the stage in the village. The black-faced fanciers with loud voices were singing the local Cantonese opera loudly, and many people were sitting in the audience laughing and watching the opera.

After that, the two sides first inspected the goods brought by the caravan.

Chapter 523 The Daily Life of Shopkeeper Wu ([-])

The goods brought by the caravan were all urgently needed things in Hejiazhai, among which the most numerous were crude goods such as salt and agricultural tools.

Let me talk about salt first.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with the increasing corruption of the ruling group, the royal family, eunuchs, nobles, and bureaucrats saw that it was profitable to hold salt coins, so they went to the emperor to ask for salt coins and resell them for profit. Occupy the nest".This kind of behavior, in a simple summary, is a kind of rent-seeking of rights, and it is an act of blatantly encroaching on the country's salt tax.

As a result, the Ming Dynasty court's earlier effective salt "opening the Chinese law" could not be played at all.

Later, the salt law was corrupted, and smuggling groups composed of wealthy businessmen, famous families, military guards and local tyrants began to openly sell salt with arms, resulting in a large loss of national tax revenue.

Now, on this plane, things have changed.

Since a certain force established its presence outside Guangzhou, salt, a product that has been made worse and worse by the government, has suddenly become more active.

Before this, the monopoly model of the government + salt merchants resulted in higher and higher salt prices, worse salt quality, less and less salt tax revenue, tax evasion private salt lords everywhere, and then the people did not Salt to eat, especially people in remote areas.

When the crossover started to wholesale salt in Guangzhou New District, the previous pattern was broken.

Guangdong is not like Fujian. Guangdong also produced salt in the past, and there is a complete system of salt merchants + official salt.Now that the old system has been manipulated by the cross-travelers, it can't stand it immediately, and the salt merchants and the salt transport envoy immediately exploded.

However, times have changed, and now the time-traversing crowd has full wings and exposed fangs, and they are no longer the group of dicks who cautiously went to Fujian to talk about recruiting.Now even if the cross-travelers openly sell private salt on the pier in the new area, the salt merchants and salt transportation department can't do anything about it.Even if the salt merchants are backed by big figures with backgrounds, even if the notes of the Salt Transport Department can be heard by Datian.

There is no way, there is really no way, no matter whether everyone comes to the text or to the military, Cao Zongbing is not afraid of them all.

Those who came to Wuwu, now, as soon as they leave the gate of Guangzhou, they can see warships full of cannons and the Cao family's elite army that wiped out all the pirates in the outer sea.

The source of the article...is still the same sentence, as long as someone surnamed Cao doesn't raise a flag to rebel in Guangdong, and as long as the Tartars in the north don't die for a day, Chongzhen will never support the political forces behind the Guangdong-Guangzhou Salt Transport Department and the dry salt merchants .

Having said that, since the salt government is becoming increasingly corrupt in the hands of salt merchants and corrupt salt transporters, and the imperial court also cannot collect taxes, what is the difference between Cao Chuan's smuggling of salt for profit and a dry salt merchant's sale of salt to Chongzhen?It's just a turtle when it's gone.

The most disgusting thing for the gentlemen is that the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, who was supposed to be everyone's backer in this matter, was actually Xiong Wencan, an old thief who came to take office on the Cao's big ship...

Light and dark tried both hands, and after finding out that what they were facing was really a super tiger that had penetrated into the system, Guangdong's salt administration system felt hopeless.

Then there was a period of chaos: anyone with money could go to the wharf in the new area to wholesale salt, regardless of good or bad.

During this period, some salt merchants also tried to give it a go, swallowing all the salt goods in Cao Zongbing’s hands and hoarding them for a surprise, and then the hard-headed people were bankrupted by the endless fine salt shipped from Yizhou-Taiwan Seven The stock salt farm has already achieved medium-scale production, and the wharf in the new area has more than 500 tons of salt in stock for sale at any time.

Through this method, Travelers was able to use "salt dumping" in the shortest possible time to destroy the original official and private sales channels for salt, and the old pattern was completely disrupted.

At this time, Shi Shiran, the time-traveling crowd, came out to clean up the mess.The method is very simple: sell by slicing, and set up agents in various places, just like other goods.

And the salt merchants who had experienced the secret arm wrestling with Cao Zongbing finally knew how powerful they were, no one dared to pierce them anymore, and each of them honestly pulled the silver cart and went to the new district wharf to bid for the salt agency rights in various places.

After declaring to take refuge in the new owner and bid for the agency rights of the salt industry in various places, a Guangdong-Guangzhou salt industry wholesale agent group composed of some salt merchants and emerging businessmen was formed.

The salt merchants soon discovered that they had participated in an efficient and clean new commercial wholesale network.After feeling the charm of the new model, many far-sighted people were ecstatic—as long as Cao Zongbing does not fall, then everyone will only earn more money in the future.

What was really damaged in this matter was actually the Yanzheng Yamen in Guangdong.Cao Zongbing used a large amount of refined salt as a weapon, overturned the table, and mastered the de facto salt administration in Guangdong, eroding the inherent government rights.

In the end, the time-travelers won a complete victory and were able to replicate Fujian's salt industry structure in Guangdong, forming a new salt industry group tied to the interests of the time-traveling regime.

After that, a kind of contract requirement that is familiar to future generations, but which is a shocking thunder in this plane, really subverted the cognition of Guangdong and Guangxi merchants: Guangdong and Guangxi Salt Industry Corporation set a minimum sales volume for all agents, and agents If the business sells less in the coming year, there will be penalties, but if it sells more, the head office will get rebates.

The merchants were really shocked: from ancient times to the present, they only heard that the goods were not enough, but they had never heard of such regulations that forced everyone to sell more goods.

In fact, the time-travelers are also quite helpless in this matter.For more than three years, they have opened industrial zones in Taiwan and engaged in industrial construction frantically. However, today, it is the raw material salt that can really subvert the traditional seller’s market in terms of quantity, achieve dumping, and embody the advantages of industrialization. Table salt is also produced in an industrialized mode, but it is not as fulfilling as something that comes out of the assembly line.

The result of wanton dumping of salt was the immediate elimination of private salt lords.Now in Fujian and Guangdong, the big salt lords have become the distributors of the time travel, and the little salt lords are really extinct.Because dealers from all over the country are selling goods desperately in accordance with the contract in the territory, the valleys and valleys that have not been visited before have been developed by dealers, and cheap private salt is everywhere, and the profit margin of private salt lords is gone. just disappeared.

After clarifying the cause and effect, the real background of shopkeeper Wu coming to Hejiabazi this time is ready to be revealed: Baiji Chain Grocery Company, as the salt agent in Zengcheng County, now needs to develop the local market that was previously neglected, so Shopkeeper Wu brought the caravan to the remote Hejiazhai shortly after the year. His fundamental purpose was to contact old customers to maintain channels and find sales for more products in the future.

In fact, Mingren is not stupid at all.After realizing that the supply of salt is so abundant that it is necessary to sign a contract to complete the specified sales volume, Baiji Grocery, reacting to it, quickly adjusted its business model, changing from waiting for customers to come to the door to take the initiative. The old brother, who had not seen him for many years, took the initiative to come to the door this time I went to see my brother.

Chapter 524 The Daily Life of Shopkeeper Wu ([-])

Travelers first used dumping to destroy the old structure of the salt industry, and then used their own huge force as a guarantee to forcibly establish a new market mechanism.

With regard to the new rules, the one with the strongest enforcement is naturally passing through the city of Guangzhou under the eyes of everyone.As for the counties, due to the short time and traffic information blockage, many places are still in a chaotic state of alternating old and new.

But Zengcheng County is an exception.With the help of a wave of bandit suppression, the local forces capable of interfering with Mr. Cao have been wiped out, and the rest of the people are silent. The county has become peaceful and happy overnight. Therefore, the new business order including the salt industry is very fast. It was successfully executed.

Business needs + safe roads, these two reasons are also the prerequisites for shopkeeper Wu to personally lead the team to Hejiabazi this time.

……

After the two sides weighed the salt goods in the drying yard in the stockade, Manager He threw down a handful of fine salt in his hand, then stroked his beard with satisfaction, nodded in praise and said, "It's all high-quality goods, and the price is also right. My brother, take care." what!"

"Hehe, this is considered an annual gift, so naturally we have to restrain ourselves a bit." Shopkeeper Wu immediately hit the snake with a stick.

Due to the remote location of Hejiazhaizi, no matter what the news is, it usually lags behind, so the people here must not be very clear about the commercial situation in the county.The experienced shopkeeper Wu will definitely not tell the other party that the price of salt has actually dropped and the supply of goods is sufficient. Now is the era when channels are king.

After inspecting the salt goods, the next step is farm tools.

Before that, due to the reluctance of the Transit regime to destroy the existing traditional handicraft industry with industrial products, the agricultural tools produced in the kiln area were basically used in the island and rarely exported.

However, this situation has been loosened with the new construction of the Guangzhou Special Economic Zone.

Considering that a steel factory will be built locally and a series of metal processing enterprises will be opened soon, Transit is now trying to sell some metal products in Guangzhou, especially farm tools.

The purpose of this is very clear: to build the reputation of Yizhou metal products among the farmers, and by the way, create pressure on the traditional manual metal processing industry, and prepare for the next step to recruit these people.

So, with the arrival of shopkeeper Wu, the farmers in Hejiazhai saw steel farm tools for the first time in their lives.

The hoes forged and pressed from high-carbon steel have a gray metallic luster, sharp edges, the same size and thickness, and are quite different from traditional handmade ones in appearance.

In addition, there are a group of high-end agricultural tools such as a steel shovel that is shining with blue light, looks thin, but is extremely tough, and an axe.

After learning that these agricultural tools were Yizhou products made of fine steel, the village immediately conducted an on-site experiment. Needless to say, the effect is that the traditional wrought iron agricultural tools are no match at all.

He Renzhong smiled and nodded again, expressing his willingness to pay for the money, even though the price of this batch of agricultural tools is more expensive than ordinary goods.

After the acceptance of the two most important strategic goods, the rest are some daily necessities.These daily necessities do not need to be purchased uniformly in the stockade, but are released and purchased by each family.

By the time of 1631, the people who traveled through the plane had penetrated deeper and deeper into this plane, and the most representative ones were these unique goods produced in the kiln area.

Just like the foreign fire, foreign smoke and foreign iron that were sold all over the Qing Dynasty, the special products such as thermos bottles, oil lamps, lamp oil, and sewing needles produced by the cross-country crowd have been sold by merchants all over the world, even in a remote area of ​​Ming Dynasty. In the stockade in the corner, people are no strangers to these unique and beautiful things.

At this time, the members of the He family who came from the stockade had already filled up the drying area. Every household was picking out the goods from the caravan, and smiles appeared on the rough faces of men and women.

But generally speaking, the consumption power of farmers is still very low.For these farmers, the most popular items are undoubtedly affordable items such as sewing needles, denim and candles.

Needless to say, sewing needles are a commodity that best demonstrates the achievements of industrialization.In addition, denim and khakis spun from cotton in the south of the Yangtze River and India are also one of the favorite goods of farmers.

Due to the craftsmanship, the ancient earthen cloth, including the so-called Songjiang cloth sold all over the world, has a characteristic: bare board.The ancients could not weave the kind of towels with small loops or fluffy linen, underwear and socks that later generations are familiar with.

For the same reason, durable and comfortable denim and khakis were immediately welcomed by Ming people.

However, even for ordinary fabrics, the price is not cheap for the bottom farmers.Therefore, after hesitating for a long time, men and women can only buy enough clothes for the head of the family at most, and can't buy a lot.

The money in the pocket is always limited, even if the life of this year is inexplicably better a little bit, but the farmers still can't consume much. After buying some fabrics and a tube of sewing needles, it's almost the same.

As for oil lamps, thermos bottles and other low-end high-end goods, the ultimate consumers are the high-level Hejiazhai representatives represented by the landlord's family.

Today the owner is not here. As a trusted member of the family, He Renzhong certainly knows the needs of the owner's family, so the owner bought oil lamps, most of the high-quality Yizhou smokeless white wax, a lighter, two thermos bottles, and kerosene.

Seeing that the goods he brought just happened to be consumed by Hejiazhai, the shopkeeper Wu was also very contented: This shows that he has an accurate prediction of the consumption level of Hejiazhai. Such suitable goods cannot be matched.

After selling the goods, the farmers picked out the loads of grain and mountain products from the warehouse.After the caravan received a part according to the transportation limit, the remaining payment was converted into silver, and the settlement was settled by Manager He and shopkeeper Wu.

After completing this set of procedures, the entire afternoon has been spent, and the next step is a relaxed and happy dinner time.

The guys in the caravan got shochu and some meat, while shopkeeper Wu and Guanshi He, the old brothers, went to Guanshi He's home, and Mrs. He's wife prepared a few dishes, and then Guanshi He took out a few dishes from the back room. A small altar of wine.

Not thinking about the next moment, shopkeeper Wu took out two wooden jars of the same size from the bag with a smile on his face: "Brother, try the Yizhou light bar I brought today. , I have a good mouth, but I can’t drink it.”

"Light wine? I've never heard of it, but even if it's from Yizhou, it must be good. Then I'll bother my brother today, hehe."

Chapter 525 The Daily Life of Shopkeeper Wu ([-])

With the delicious dishes only available during the New Year’s Eve, drinking light beer with a unique taste but very suitable for the stomachs of middle-aged and elderly people, the two old brothers who have been busy all day will finally have time to sit down and talk in detail.

Shopkeeper Wu was probably because everything went well today, and seeing his old friend relax a lot, after two sips of beer, he first poured out some bitter water.

Baiji Groceries was actually going from bad to worse before.The general environment is not good, there are bandits all over the place, the people live in poverty, the government imposes heavy taxes and increases taxes, as the grocery business closest to the bottom, life is naturally difficult, sales are declining, the roads are not stable, and the source of customers is shrinking. I dare not come to Hejiabazi to do business for several years. miniature.

Grocery companies are having a difficult life, but how can a farmer like Hejiazhai have another day of ease?

After listening to his brother's complaints, He Renzhong also let out a long sigh: Every family has scriptures that are difficult to recite.In the past few years, the climate has been weird, God doesn't show face, all kinds of ghosts and snakes have become more and more complicated, the government has become more and more oppressive, and the ordinary farmers in the village have not seen a trace of meat all year round, they are all suffering!

However, after telling each other about their farewell, the two middle-level cadres of their respective companies suddenly discovered that although they had not met each other, their experiences in the past few years were very similar. Get better.

In the second half of last year, Baiji Grocery paid a huge sum of money to bid in Guangzhou, and won the agency rights of 7 kinds of Yizhou groceries.Since then, Baiji has entered a watershed, as if a sudden change of luck, the four sides open up the source of disasters, Chengxiang, abruptly started the business again, and returned to the previous heyday.

The same goes for Hejiazhai.After the bandits were suppressed this time, all kinds of bright and dark expenditures in the village dropped sharply. After a long time, the clansmen finally had a so-called "fat year".

You must know that before every new year, not to mention the various "filial piety routines" of the government, the money and food extorted by local bandits from all walks of life is also a considerable burden.Now all these extortions are saved, and after the road is cleared, the shopkeeper Wu will deliver the cheap goods to the door. This is a hidden income in the stockade.

In addition, after the traffic is smooth, the mountain products such as grain and medicinal materials in the stockade can be sold at a lower cost and a higher price. This is a long-term benefit that can be seen by the eyes.

In short, the old brothers made such a calculation, and finally traced back to the source, only to find that the root cause of their life changes all happened after that Cao Zongbing came to Guangzhou.

"Hey, although he is recruiting pirates, but he is diligent in governing and loving the people, eliminating bandits, which is much better than those official officials."

At this time, He Renzhong's face turned slightly red, and he raised his glass half with emotion, half with anger: "Come on, brother, let's also drink to Mr. Zongbing, and wish him a prosperous career in office!"

"Hehe, speaking of the chief soldier, brother, I have dealt with him ruthlessly."