Beiyang new warlord

A few more lucky boats sailed past the front of the Qian family's fleet with hard sails. With a bang, the tap was turned on again. Qian Zeng, who had never seen Mao Jue smoking, had never smoked himself. , exhaled a puff of smoke ring heavily.

The attempted reform of the Southern Ming Dynasty was doomed to end in failure. The East India Company didn’t even bother to use superior force to attack its competitors. Only in terms of commercial operations, it had a complete production and sales network, and the well-organized East India Company easily These stragglers were completely defeated. Almost all the steel tools, daily necessities, and various heavy goods shipped from Wenzhou were unsalable. In the end, these cargo owners gritted their teeth with blood and tears and were bought by the East India Company at the price of cabbage.

However, the East India Company is not invulnerable. In some high-end products, southern merchants are still sharply competitive. After all, the tradition of planting mulberry and sericulture in the south of the Yangtze River has a long history, and it has a warm and suitable climate to operate. After all, the Little Ice Age has not yet passed. Although the north is recovering, it will take nearly 100 years to return to the warm age.

Beiming's emerging silk industry in Lianghuai, Shandong is still not as good as that in Jiangnan.

The same is true for tea, more than half of the top ten famous teas are in Jiangnan.

Porcelain is even more incomparable. The five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty basically declined in this era. In the Ming Dynasty, Jingdezhen's blue and white family was still the only one.

No matter how high-quality products are, they also need a smooth sales channel to promote them.

After the failure of the first batch of products, Nanshang, who had suffered a lot, sent back news, and the second wave of Nanshang frantically shipped these three major items, as well as raw silk and medicinal materials, to Southeast Asia.

In market economics, inflation means oversupply, when a large number of commodities flood the market in an instant, diamonds may also turn heads.

A few people from a store went to sell, and Nanshang launched a vicious competition among themselves. In addition, the East India Company, the overlord in Southeast Asia, under Luo Yu's instigation, slowed down the progress of receiving goods a little. The price of official kiln porcelain and even imperial kiln porcelain has also suffered an avalanche.

The disaster didn't stop there. Exporting and importing at the same time, two-way trade, can achieve the highest profit. For imports, these Nanming maritime merchants from Wenzhou also fell into the problem of being impatient, buying whatever is valuable, without considering the market capacity at all.

In October, the wind direction at sea began to change, and the crazy feast of Nanshang, which lacked navigation skills, finally came to an end.

For Wenzhou this year, it has been unprecedentedly rich. In the newly built warehouse, heaps of hematodes, nanmu, corals of various colors, pearls, jade and gemstones from Myanmar, and pearls the size of glass balls are filled with baskets. There is also Dipterocarpus that is only produced as a tribute, but these priceless treasures are just left there.

Like silk, commodity prices in Southeast Asia have also suffered an avalanche. There are not many local tyrants and evil gentry who can afford these luxuries. It becomes not uncommon to have more things, which reduces their desire to buy, and imports too much Well, even some traders have to consider before hoarding, whether it is appropriate to sell, how long it will take for the market to calm down, and the shelf life of these things.

Exports are unsalable, imports are unsalable, and the blow to the Southern Merchants is simply devastating. Every day at the gate of Wenzhou City, you can see the sightless, desperate business travelers dragging their families with their families, with the few remaining Leave here with everything, and even more with nothing.

But compared to some people, they are lucky!

Wenzhou Yamen, the governor of Xinjin, Zhang Pu, the leader of the Fushe, also had red eyes. On the case in his lobby, instead of official seals and fire signs, life and death cards were placed most, and the most common ones were abacus, with a large stack of thick books.

The opening of the Wenzhou port is a compromise between the old Donglin Party, which represents the big landlord class, and the young faction, which represents the urban industrial and commercial bourgeoisie. Based on his experience, Zhang Pu boasted that this year’s tax income will be at least 300 million taels, 160 million will be provided to the frontline, and 140 million will be used by the royal family and the cabinet to control expenses. But now, the business activities for the whole year this year are almost It was about to end, but his actual tax revenue was only 96 taels, and one-third of the silver taels sold were not recovered.

Although Zhang Pu represents the emerging bourgeoisie, he is a scholar after all, not a businessman. He also has the bluntness and tyranny of the bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty. He turned over the ledger with bloodshot eyes, and suddenly he slammed the table violently.

"Hasn't the money for Hong Lianxing Wang's boat lure been handed in? Taking advantage of personal gain, and now he is openly in arrears with taxes and money! It is tolerable and unbearable. Even if the Grand Scholar King is here, this official will never favoritism! "

"Come here, call the yamen servants, I'm going to seal his red practice!"

Amidst the angry roar of the governor, a group of yamen servants gathered fiercely with water and fire sticks, and a few yamen servants carrying evasive, quiet big signs ran in front, riding a green horse, with a face as cold as Bao Gong and Zhang Pu kicked their horses and followed closely behind. Seeing that the government suddenly made a big move, the already sluggish crowd on the street suddenly disappeared.

Everyone in Jiangzuo, members of the great scholar Wang Qia's family, the status of Honglian is naturally not low, the shop is directly next to the government office, but the Honglian is full of guests on weekdays, this one is empty, it is dead silent, looking at the closed gate, The head catcher shouted at the top of his voice.

"Your Excellency is here! Shopkeeper Wang is here to greet you!"

"Treasurer Wang goes out to welcome the official!"

He yelled three times in a row, but he didn't make a sound inside. Seeing that Zhang Pu's face became more and more ugly, the catcher simply gritted his teeth and kicked hard at the gate. Knife, yelling and cursing, while the head catcher rushed in first, kicked the main hall open again, but the next second, with a sound, the head catcher threw the knife, his feet went limp, and his ass kicked. Collapsed to the ground.

Full of astonishment, he got off the horse and rushed forward two steps quickly, Zhang Pu took a deep breath in the next second.

"This"

Chapter 7 Nineteen. Donglin Restoration Society

It's no wonder that the headhunters are paralyzed by scares. The scene of the Red Refining Workshop at this time is comparable to a horror movie. In the whole shop, more than 30 people from a large family are hung on the beams like sandbags, up to 70 people. An old woman of many years, down to a child of a few years old.

At first, I thought it was to avoid the government's pressure to attract money and stay behind closed doors, but I never thought that the Wang family ended itself in such a tragic way. The tortoiseshell, a large pile of expensive southern goods was just thrown all over the place, in stark contrast to the Wang family who had nowhere to go and was forced to die.

Seeing this scene, Zhang Pu himself was dizzy and dizzy for a few seconds, and the next moment, he suddenly seemed to be crazy, he didn't even want a car, and those who snatched the road would go to the government office. Running wildly over, the yamen servants behind were trembling with fright, shouting that the governor is bewitched!

Is Zhang Pu really bewitched?

That's not true.After all, unlike those high-ranking scholar-bureaucrats who rely on their family background to get to the top, Zhang Pu has been an unsuccessful scholar for most of his life. The experience of forming a Fushe has tempered him. decisive.

After returning to the yamen, he copied the official documents, and he started to write impatiently and frantically with ink and pen flying like flying ink. A few minutes later, before the ink dried up, Zhang Pu picked up a few more yamen servants and ordered them to post the official documents on the There are four gates to Wenzhou City.

These days, a wave of stormy depression has been judged to be in the sky over Wenzhou. Seeing that the government issued a notice, a large number of merchants hurriedly crowded past, and after a while, suddenly a mournful cry burst into the crowd It rang.

"Master Qingtian!!!"

Donkey hair comes from donkeys! Zhang Pu also understands this truth. If the merchants die, what kind of tricks can he, the governor who opened the port, sing?Seeing the tragedy of the Wang family, Zhang Pu hurriedly ordered to cancel all the debts owed by the merchants in Wenzhou City to the government's ship citation money, and after posting the notice, he directly ordered people to burn the account books that had been made with great difficulty these days on the street.

A flame spouted black smoke, and it was blazing at the main street of Cross Street. The status of merchants in this era is indeed at the bottom. With such a small favor, the merchants who rushed over from the four gates rushed to thank you and kowtow. But sitting at the gate of the yamen, listening to the voices of Master Qingtian, Zhang Pu couldn't laugh, instead, streams of cold sweat continued to flow down his forehead.

Wenzhou Mansion can be stabilized for the time being, but on the other side of the sky, it's time to catch fire!

Zhang Pu's rescue strategy was still late, and the effect was quite limited. After burning the account books, the officials of the Yamen searched around the city again, just like the financial crisis in later generations. There are famous Jiangnan giants who committed suicide because of bankruptcy There are more than a dozen of them, and more than a dozen super-big families have disappeared. As for the bankruptcy of the family and the suicide of the shopkeeper, there are hundreds of commercial firms that have left Wenzhou City. As many as one-third were killed.

If things go on like this, the once brilliant germination of capitalism in the south of the Yangtze River will really be completely destroyed.

And the fight that really affects both the old and the new classes has just begun.

On October [-]th, when the people of later generations were still immersed in the post-holiday syndrome of the long holiday, the sound of rushing horseshoes suddenly rang out outside Wenzhou City.

Just like in the reign of Wanli Tianqi, Tiqi wearing a brocade cloak clattered into the Wenzhou admiral's yamen amidst the rattling of iron leaf armor. Zhang Pu, the governor of Wenzhou, and Tian Cheng, the governor of Wenzhou, who were lying on the ground, arrogantly pulled away the golden imperial edict and read it aloud.

"By God, the emperor said! Zhang Pu, the governor of Wenzhou, was ordered by the governor to open maritime affairs. However, his behavior was perverse, self-willed, corrupt, and the maritime affairs were corrupted. The merchants and travelers were living in poverty. Joint trial by the three courts! Here it is!"

"Master Zhang accept the order!"

That's what he said, but before Zhang Pu could say anything, several guards in Jinyi had already grabbed his official uniform collar and dragged him away.

With arrogance and complacency on his face, dragging the imperial decree, Tian Cheng led the guards in brocade clothes and walked out of the yamen in a domineering manner, but as soon as they reached the gate of Wenzhou Mansion, they couldn't help but stop. Pressing it on the knife, the eunuch Tian Cheng couldn't help showing a look of panic on his face, and shouted loudly in horror.

"You rascals are going to fail in rebellion, get out of here quickly, or our family will convict you of treason and kill you nine clans!"

I don't know when, the merchants and travellers in Wenzhou City were surrounded by swarms of scholars and traffickers, blocking the gate of the yamen, and the number of people is still increasing sharply, more and more.

Hearing Tian Cheng's scolding, the Wenzhou businessmen in the front row did show fear, panic, and hesitation. However, whoever saw Zhang Pu who was being carried behind him could no longer suppress his anger. Can't stop, I don't know whose voice trembled, but it was the first to roar out.

"Let Master Zhang go!!!"

One sound was enough to be a fuse, full of anger, and the next moment raindrops of stones, sundries, and messy things smashed over, and while throwing things, the anger of these business travelers who suffered heavy losses burst out one after another. , screaming like a lunatic.

"If it weren't for the agreement signed by those dog officials in the imperial court and Beiming, the commercial tax would be [-]%! How could I lose it!"

"His goods from the East India Company were robbed, and the imperial court in the north immediately sent gunboats to show up. Lao Tzu's goods were seized. Where is our imperial court? Now you still want to arrest Mr. Zhang! Never agree!"

"Kill these bastard lackeys!"

Facing the overwhelming stones and roaring, even the domineering Jin Yiwei was terrified. The one in the front put his head on his head and let go of the knife, while the one in the back screamed and ran back. These crowds who were already out of control suddenly stretched out a hand from the nearest crowd, grabbed the separatist Jin Yiwei and squeezed into the crowd. Immediately afterwards, overwhelming fists slammed down. , The screams and wailing came out like a pig being killed.

The cup is a terrifying beast. The crowd who saw the blood was like a school of sharks. They couldn't control it any longer. The terrified Jin Yiwei finally howled and pulled out his knife, and slashed at the crowd. Blood was spattered, but it didn't frighten the rioters. I don't know how many hands grabbed the knife, hugged the arms and thighs of Jin Yiwei who was wielding the knife, and pushed them down to the ground, holding bricks, stones and even weights. Howling and hitting the face, the blood stained the noble python robe in the sound of puffing.