Chapter 139 Jiangnan Trial, Commercial Export

Just when Jiangnan was in a prosperous state, Qin Hao, who was far away in Keelung, encountered a difficult situation.

An officer of Shuntian Camp took advantage of the rest day and took a boat back to his hometown without reporting. When the army called the roll, they found such a deserter.

"Bai Suisheng's case is not easy to handle!"

In the main hall of the Keelung General's Mansion, several senior figures of the Keelung Army, with Qin Hao as the chief, sat down in turn, rummaging through the sweet potatoes, potatoes and other crops that had just been transported from the mountains, drinking tea and eating them, while discussing the situation of the deserter Bai Suisheng.

His story is actually simple.

If you don't return to your hometown when you are rich, it's like walking at night with a brocade robe. This is a common problem among Chinese people.

Generally speaking, people who work, study, and fight outside want to go home to show off once they get rich. When they return to their hometown, they always have to act like successful people with a promising appearance, otherwise they will be considered the best example of "things are expensive when they leave their hometown, and people are cheap when they leave their hometown."

Moreover, Bai Suisheng was one of the first to join the army. He was there when Qin Hao was suppressing the mountain bandits.

He was one of the first to enjoy Qin Hao's preferential policies. After several years of hard work, he had dozens of acres of paddy fields and nearly 100 acres of forests in Keelung and Hsinchu. There were hundreds of stones of rice in the warehouse, dozens of jars of vegetable oil, meat oil, and fruit wine, hundreds of kilograms of bacon and dried fish hanging on the beams, cattle tied in the fence, pigs fed, fine cotton cloth on his body, and hundreds of taels of silver in his waist. He had everything he could think of, just like a rich man.

With such a situation, Bai Suisheng had the idea of ​​returning to his hometown to repair the ancestral hall and continue the family tree.

This was understandable, but the key was that this kid did not report it and went home privately, which was the most intolerable thing for the Keelung officials.

In wartime, he would definitely be beheaded; in normal circumstances, he would also be demoted and flogged.

Logically speaking, this is not a difficult problem to solve. The problem is that after Bai Suisheng returned, he actually sued the county magistrate of his hometown to the Keelung government office.

How can the officials of Keelung control the officials of the Ming Dynasty? Qin Hao and others were puzzled for a while.

They wanted to appease him and let it go, but Bai Suisheng's experience spread more and more in the army. Many soldiers demanded that those vicious county magistrates be severely punished. They would also go home to worship their ancestors in the future, and they didn't want such a dirty thing to happen to them.

It's interesting to say that Bai Suisheng had just returned to his hometown in Quanzhou, Fujian, and troubles followed one after another.

As soon as he returned to his hometown, from the local security guard to Quanzhou County, all levels of officials, whether they were considered or not, and whether they were in the mainstream or not, came one after another like hyenas smelling the smell of rotten corpses, and the slogans were exactly the same, that the escapees should be severely punished.

Facing the iron chains and rulers in the hands of the local security guards and yamen runners, Bai Suisheng had no choice but to use the most reluctant but most effective magic weapon, which was to give him money.

The local security guard came to ask for favors and gave him three taels of silver and half a piece of new bamboo cotton cloth.

Several old masters in the yamen each gave twenty taels of money as a reward, begging the old master to write a rebirth.

The two adults, the Dianshi and the county magistrate, each asked the old master to pay a hundred taels of summer ice on their behalf.

The county magistrate gave him two hundred taels of money as a reward, and in return, the old master wrote a plaque for the Bai family ancestral hall with a stroke of his pen.

Bai Suisheng gave him money for everything, whether it was what he should have or not. After calculating all the messy expenses, Bai Suisheng found that his hard work in the past two years and the foundation he had built through life and death could not fill the bloody mouths of these Ming officials.

Just when he was about to flee back to Keelung on the pretext of insufficient money and grain to build the ancestral hall, the local thugs in the countryside also came to help him and vowed to take a bite.

"Little brother of the Bai family, you don't have money to build the ancestral hall? It doesn't matter, we will lend it to you. What do you think of the interest of 80% and 15%? As for the mortgage, for our relationship, we will use your Bai family ancestral hall as collateral!" The thugs said it so fluently.

Bai Suisheng saw that the situation was not good. If he didn't leave, he might even lose his life in his hometown. He endured the humiliation and pain and used the excuse that he had to discuss the borrowing money with the old and young in the family as a delaying tactic to buy himself a few days.

During these few days, he fled his hometown in Fujian overnight with several clan members who wanted to work hard in Keelung.

When he arrived in Keelung and counted the money and grain spent on this trip, the money and grain spent in just a few months was actually around a thousand taels. This is still a number, and those miscellaneous expenses are even more.

After thinking it over, Bai Suisheng felt that he couldn't swallow this bad breath anyway, so he simply plucked up his courage and went to the general's mansion to complain. Anyway, he would be punished, and he would drag those blood-sucking worms down with him even if he died.

His idea was also very simple. I pay taxes on time every year, and I pay all taxes for every business I do. Now I am being bullied and blackmailed, so the general's mansion must come out to make a decision for me.

"The reason why this case is difficult to handle is that there are too many corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty now, and they are rampant in the countryside. It can be said that they are everywhere. Those who go back to visit their relatives will be skinned alive if they don't die. There are many cases like Bai Suisheng.

If it is a matter within our jurisdiction, it will be easy to handle. Send these officials to the law enforcement department and handle it according to the law. However, the Fujian officialdom has nothing to do with us. If I want to investigate it carefully, I am afraid I will burn myself." Zhuge Xuan explained his opinion on this case while sipping tea.

"I think this is an opportunity." Qin Hao took a bite of the roasted potato and sighed, mumbling his opinion.

"Firstly, it can make the soldiers and civilians under our command clearly understand the big gap between the officials of the Ming Dynasty and our officials, thereby enhancing their loyalty and sense of identity. Secondly, it is also an opportunity for us to attack Fujian!"

"Crack!" The blue and white porcelain teacup in Zhuge Xuan's hand fell to the ground.

"Lord, think again. Now that Japan needs troops everywhere, it is really impossible to mobilize additional troops."

"Some things don't necessarily require the use of swords or guns."

Qin Hao happily took a bite of the sweet potato in his hand and sneered.

"Isn't Fujian Zheng Zhilong's territory? Send him a letter and tell him what happened today and let him take care of it."

Since the armistice between the two families, Zheng Zhilong's merchant ships have been traveling between Keelung and Nanyang, carrying pig iron, grain, salt, cotton cloth and various local products. He has made an unknown amount of money in the past six months, and has already made up the original ransom. , now that Qin Hao asked him to handle a small county magistrate, he was naturally not afraid that he would not do it.

"Hello, my lord!" Zhuge Xuan then thought about it and it seemed to be the same thing. Zheng Zhilong had eaten so much of his own food, it was time to respond.

"By the way, not long ago, during the mourning period of Emperor Daxing Tianqi, Zuo Guozhu wrote a letter back from Jiangnan. The letter asked us to prepare rice and pig iron as soon as possible to help his father-in-law continue to stay in Jiangnan. I think it is profitable. , then he agreed, do you think there is anything wrong with this?" Qin Hao asked leisurely as he looked at the people sitting down.

Although he had already decided, the specific details still needed to be discussed with a few people. What he was worried about was that someone with intentions would find out and ruin their financial path in Jiangnan.

Although the Donglin Party is not a monolith, there are quite a few among them who covet the salt road, and they cannot afford to lose control at this juncture.

Compared to Zhuge Xuan's deep contemplation, Li Chun, who was eating sweet potatoes enthusiastically, was the first to speak, "Master, in my opinion, this must be done." As he spoke, he pinched a piece of sweet potato and put it in his mouth to chew. Then he continued, "Well done, Lord!"

Qin Hao immediately rolled his eyes, "Can I not know the benefits? I want you to repeat it here. Li Chun's flattery this time hit Qin Hao's legs."

So Qin Hao turned his attention to the generals on the side, including Han Xian, Zhao Chang, Chen Hu, Li Yi, and Zhang Hu. They all lowered their heads and ate sweet potatoes in silence.

Qin Hao shook his head helplessly. It seemed that he couldn't count on these generals who only knew how to kill and swindle!

"Lord, please give me this." Zhuge Xuan, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke, making Qin Hao wait for a long time.

"How do you want to deal with it?" Qin Hao asked curiously.

This matter is not difficult. The key is how to coordinate and prevent those who are interested from making trouble. This is the most important thing.

"Lord, wasn't there a Fujian bureaucrat in front just now? We can open up the route here. Use Fujian as our dumping place for food and iron, and then transition to Jiangnan. In this way, no one will notice, and it will be difficult for anyone to find something fishy. Even if someone notices it, it started in Fujian and will not be traced to Jiangnan for a short time. "

"Okay!" Hearing this, Qin Hao was overjoyed, "Hit the east and attack the west. Even if it is found out by then, the Jiangnan officialdom has been settled and the deal is done. I want to see if the Donglin Party will risk the consequences of splitting and cause trouble in the Ming Dynasty officialdom. Noisy."

However, such a thing is probably unlikely to happen. Now the Donglin Party has just won Chongzhen's trust. If there are any cases of greed for money, corruption, or attacking colleagues, he will have to go back to his hometown to retire.

"At the same time, we have another advantage by using this strategy. Fujian and Jiangxi provinces are narrow and densely populated, and there are not many grain-producing areas. But in Keelung, we have plenty of fertile farmland, which can attract people with little land. I am cultivating wasteland in Keelung to increase my population and land.”

"Okay! Zhuge Xuan is right about recruiting refugees to reclaim wasteland." Qin Hao couldn't help but praise.

Once a large amount of rice enters these provinces that are short of land and food, it will inevitably cause an uproar. When the time comes and the Keelung policy is promoted behind the scenes, people who go to sea will definitely be in a turmoil.

"I just did some calculations. At present, we have 13 million acres and 526 acres of paddy fields cultivated all year round in Keelung, Hsinchu, Ryukyu, Kobe and other places. Mountain forests, dry fields, and reservoirs are not included here. The registered population There are more than 2 million people. If we include laborers, official slaves, etc. who work in various places, we will add at least 500,000 people.

About eight million tons of rice are harvested every year. According to the principle proposed by the Lord to eat three meals a day, in addition to the surplus grain kept by the farmers themselves, road construction, mining, textiles, the army, docks, etc. Shipyards and other places also consume a lot of food.

After deducting the above items, there are at least nearly 5 million tons of rice accumulated in various official warehouses over the years, which is enough for five million people for one year. Furthermore, the summer grain will be arriving in the warehouse soon. These grains can be dumped in batches in Fujian and secretly sent to Jiangnan. As for the iron materials, this is done according to the law and will not cause trouble. "

The numbers in Zhuge Xuan's mind were endless, and a series of numbers were reported, which immediately made everyone present smile.

"In addition, there is salt! The salt market in Jiangnan is basically open. We can continue to expand outwards and take advantage of the convenience of food." Qin Hao added next to him.

"By the way, we still need to discuss, at what price should we sell rice to Fujian, Jiangxi, Jiangnan and other places?"

In the past, grain sales were carried out in Jiangnan, but it was a kind of financial aid with the meaning of transferring profits. Every stone of rice was only three yuan. Since the amount was small, it was basically free. Excluding the freight, it made no money at all. It was given to the Jinling government. Used to support the scene.

Nowadays, grain is sold in large sums, so it is naturally different.

What is the market for rice in Fujian today? Not to mention, even when Emperor Wanli was alive, the price of rice ranged from seven cents to one liang and one stone. In the past few years, there have been floods, droughts, locusts, hail and winds everywhere. Food production in various places has been reduced, and the price of rice has also skyrocketed. .

"In the past, we sold it for five yuan per stone, but now it costs at least two to three yuan more than that!" Li Chun ate sweet potatoes and said whatever came to his mind. "The year before last, during the sixth year of Tianqi, the price of rice in the capital reached as much as two taels per stone!"

"No! If what we sell is too expensive, which is the same as the local rice price, who will be willing to buy it?" Zhuge Xuan reprimanded in a serious tone.

"In the past, three coins of silver per stone referred to the price of shipment, and the freight was included in it. Now we remove the freight item, and the FOB price of rice per stone in Keelung is five coins of silver and one stone. If you don't have a ship yourself, For transportation, we have to add freight on this basis.”

Several people silently calculated in their minds. If calculated according to this standard, each stone of rice would cost at most one yuan. Compared with the crazy rice prices in the mainland, it still has great advantages and competitiveness.

"In addition, the general's office will discuss and come up with a charter. The low price of grain hurts farmers, and subsidies will be given to farmers who sell grain. For example, with a grain sales certificate and Keelung household registration, you can buy various wrought iron, iron, etc. at low prices. Light steel agricultural tools, pesticides, fertilizers, etc.”

Several people's eyes immediately lit up with joy after hearing this. In this way, the products of Qinhan merchants, steel mills, etc. have found buyers, and farmers everywhere can cultivate more grain fields with pure iron farm tools. Even if it doesn't work to harvest more grain, a unit area of ​​land will require much less labor, and a lot of people can be freed up to be used elsewhere.

If this policy continues to be implemented, it will be another period of rapid development. Zhuge Xuan and others can't help but fall into fantasizing about better prospects in the future.

"Now, in order to achieve this goal, everyone divides the work into one task. Calculate our transportation capacity and the storage capacity of various port terminals and warehouses, and order the Qinhan merchants to organize a planned and step-by-step acquisition of grain storage in various places. The target is mainly rice that is two to three years old. Order the steel factory to quickly manufacture a batch of water mill accessories to turn rice into rice. It is not enough to rely on the original stone water mill!"

"Only by implementing these tasks can we carry out targeted sales activities for rice, oil, salt, ironware, and cloth in Fujian! At the same time, the navy must protect and escort our merchant ships and not let our merchant ships have problems at sea. "

"No!" The civil and military officials all bowed down.

Following Qin Hao's instructions, various departments became busy nervously.

The Jiangjunfu Hufang has come up with incentives for farmers to sell surplus grain, which clearly stipulates that every time a certain amount of surplus grain is sold, farmers will receive incentives to purchase iron farm tools and light steel farm tools at a reward price.

If you don’t want to buy and use farm tools, then you will also have a variety of industrial products for you to choose from: beautifully printed and dyed fabrics, and chemical fertilizers needed for farming are enough to make you excited.

People in the steel mill used wrought iron and light steel to make metal components for water mills used in rice mills. Not only did the rice milling speed increase a lot, the rice milled out was whiter, more refined, and very beautiful.

Secondly, the most developed areas are the salt fields and sugar pressing workshops, which are also under construction in full swing. Batch after batch of snowflake salt and sugar, as white as snow, are loaded into a very tightly closed container according to the standard of one hundred kilograms per barrel. into wooden barrels, loaded into merchant ships, and prepared to be shipped to the Jiangnan area for sale.

In May of the first year of Chongzhen, amid the crisp sounds of celebratory firecrackers and gongs and drums, more than a dozen merchant ships left the dock, loaded with rice, ironware, cotton cloth, sugar, salt and other items, heading for Fujian and Jiangnan.

[If you like this novel, I hope you can share it on Facebook. The author is grateful. 】