Chapter 22                                                             �

Yin Zhengmao recorded Zhou Mengchen's request one by one.

Zhou Mengchen thought for a moment and said, "What other proton, let Xin Ai enter the capital to pay tribute, and wait for other terms, as you wish. If the Tatars want to take Qiao, we should also scare him. Don't worry about the collapse of the talk. Now, Xin Ai is worried about the collapse of the talk, not us."

Yin Zhengmao said: "Abide by the order."

Zhou Mengchen said: "If you have any more, you can come to me directly."

Yin Zhengmao immediately understood and stood up and left.

Zhou Mengchen turned his head and said to Yang Jisheng: "The Tonggong matter is probably a bit twists and turns, and there should be no problem. However, if you want to make a profit from Tonggong, you need other preparations."

Yang Jisheng said: "What other preparations are needed?"

Zhou Mengchen said: "You have been in contact with Shanxi merchants before. What do you think of their leading figures?"

Yang Jisheng pondered for a moment and said, "I actually didn't deal with them much. I just borrowed the title of Yang Bo, the governor of Jizhou. When the Shanxi merchants rose, they were all salt merchants. They started their own business by losing to the border and mostly lived in Puzhou. Asked by Yang Bo, as the head of the famous family of Puzhou, they were both the founder of the Yang family of Hongnong and the head of the current Puzhou ministers. They had a very influential attitude towards the Shanxi merchants. However, looking at the Zhang, Wang, and Yang family, the people of the Yang family have a strong financial resources and dismantling hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, it was really easy and freehand. It's really---"

Yang Jisheng had no money to the country, so he caused the local government to argue with the central government for a few hundred thousand taels of silver. In order to use military force against the Tartars, he and Zhou Mengchen wanted to spend one tael of silver in half. Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were enough for Zhou Mengchen and the Tartars to fight another battle between the Rabbit and the Tartars.

But it seems that there are drizzling among several big merchants.

Yang Jisheng didn't know how to evaluate this. Yang Jisheng was essentially a peasant, and his thoughts and feelings mostly accounted for the ordinary people. He could not understand such a wealthy businessman who was beyond Yang Jisheng's imagination. He felt that this situation should not exist. But on the other hand, as the imperial court official, he could not find out what the big mistakes were about these businessmen. It was impossible to deal with them regardless of the laws.

This made Yang Jisheng very confused.

Zhou Mengchen knew that this would be a common phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty in the future. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, three taxes were added, and the total tax of less than 10 million taels a year was only a year, which made the world a rush. However, medium-sized cloth merchants had to prepare at least hundreds of thousands of taels of cash in a transaction at the end of the Ming Dynasty. As for how luxurious the top merchants were, it is hard to say.

This actually fully demonstrates that there were great problems with the tax system and financial system of the Ming Dynasty.

Shanxi merchants are actually beneficiaries of the opening of China and France.

At the beginning of the country, the Ming Dynasty had to transport grain for the border, which consumed a lot of money, so it followed the Song Dynasty's Kaizhong Law, which means transporting a certain amount of grain to the border, which could lead salt and then go to the salt-producing area to sell salt. Overall, the heavy profits from salt were used to make up for the consumption in transportation.

However, the opening of China and France gradually failed. There are many reasons, and the emperor's excessive salt supply was one of the important reasons.

During the Hongzhi period, the Chinese and French were abolished, which led to the increasing shortage of food at borders. It was a pleasure to allocate silver directly to the borders. However, the borders did not produce much grain, and there was no silver or no food, so it was useless.

This is also why Zhou Mengchen gave food to his subordinates but did not. First, his money was small. Second, the price of grain at the border fluctuated quite a lot. Even a large amount of foreign food suppressed the profits of local grain production. At the same time, once foreign food was cut off, the price of grain could fly to the sky again.

Always make all kinds of things happen.

This is the monthly food, not the money.

When it comes to salt-producing areas, people can directly think of Lianghuai. But in fact, the oldest salt-producing area in China is not Lianghuai, but Yuncheng, Shanxi, that is, Puzhou. The Salt Lake is also a very ancient salt-producing area. Shanxi merchants started selling salt, but later they were not satisfied with the salt of the salt lake and competed with Hui merchants for the initiative in Yangzhou salt. This is a later story.

Today, Shanxi merchants have developed in an all-round way and rely on their fellow villagers to form a large trade network. They are also the leader of the north and the south with Hui merchants in the south.

By the Jiajing era, it had reached the point where the non-family property was hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it was hard to call it a luxury businessman. Although hundreds of thousands of taels of silver was a big number for them, it was not paid by one. A few or more companies could get it together.

He is more careful in budgeting than Hui merchants. Shanxi merchants are closer to the government.

To a certain extent, salt merchants all eat the food of the court. Maintaining the relationship between the court is their primary productive force. Why is this? As soon as Beijing spoke, Shanxi merchants were very proud to pay hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to pay the soldiers a salary.

This is certainly because the Shanxi merchants have money, but it also shows that they have a close relationship with the imperial court. They cannot refuse at all.

Zhou Mengchen said, "Let me introduce you to me."

Yang Jisheng said: "This is very easy to deal with. Why do you need to introduce it? Just let the wind sound, and there are countless people rushing to the door. But Brother Zhou, you have to think about it. Don't make a mistake for eternal regret."

After hearing this, Zhou Mengchen couldn't help but smile and said, "Don't worry. Although I, Zhou, cannot compare to these wealthy merchants in this matter, the person who can bribe me has not yet appeared."

Yang Jisheng’s judgment was correct. The wealth of Shanxi merchants is related to many people on the official side. They also maintain a better official relationship and attach great importance to it.

The news of Zhou Mengchen spread, which immediately attracted Shanxi merchants from all over the world to come from all over the country and gathered in Datong City.

On one side of the most prosperous street in Datong, there is a large courtyard. It was originally a villa of a certain prince. However, Zhou Mengchen was devoted to making money and had no interest in these real estate. If someone sold it, he would naturally buy it. Even these things could not be reached in the case of Zhou Mengchen, and the magistrate of Datong had dealt with it.

This is bought by Shanxi merchants as Puzhou club.

At this moment, dozens of people were discussing it inside.

The leader of a big businessman pinched his white beard and said, "Son-in-law, what is the reason for the Lord of You who makes a fuss to see us this week? We are not reading the books of sages. Some of the obstacles are not clear. You will be in Beijing today and you are a rising star whom Lord Yang personally praised. Tell me about it."

This person is named Wang En. In his family, there is a high-ranking official named Wang Guoguang. He was a Jinshi in the 23rd year of Jiajing and is still in charge of the six ministries. Wang Guoguang seemed to be doing business at home and was very sensitive to numbers. He also made great contributions. During the Wanli period, as Zhang Juzheng's right-hand assistant to the Ministry of Revenue, he completed many reforms on money and grain, as well as the famous "Wanli Accounting Record", which was his work.

However, with Zhang Juzheng's death, he was overthrown and finally died of depression.

Another big businessman said, "Zi Wei. Since your father-in-law teaches you, just talk."

This person is no one else. It is Zhang Yunling. He is also a famous businessman in Puzhou. His footprints are spread all over the world. Although the Zhang family's fathers are doing business, the development of the industry is so big now, but we have to start with him and his brothers. However, his most important achievement is not business.

Now I found that as a businessman in the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to have a future. If you want to have a future, you have to become a businessman and become a bureaucrat. So he made great efforts to teach his children and even sponsor many poor scholars. And his son is the most proud product under his thoughts.

Not only did he study hard, he also got married to the officials. In addition, his sister-in-law, Wang Chonggu, who is still the prefect of Hangzhou, has already stepped into the threshold of the officials' family. As long as his son can pass the imperial examination this year, the Zhang family will not be a merchant family, but a scholar.

And his son he values ​​most is nothing else. It is Zhang Siwei.

Although Zhang Siwei has not yet won the Jinshi, he has outstanding vision and has been valued by many people. Yang Bo has promoted his juniors in his hometown. He all thinks it is a Phoenix. He will definitely be able to be popular. The reason why Zhang Siwei came to Datong was because he wanted to go to Beijing to participate in next year's imperial examination. However, Zhou Mengchen sent a message to meet the leading figure of the Shanxi merchants. Zhang Siwei was very curious. Moreover, Zhang Siwei was confident that he would win this year. It was just that the ranking was not easy to say.

In this way, he has the heart to pay attention to other things.
Chapter completed!