The Rich and the Idlers of the Red Chamber

Tianjin has now become a brand-new economic center. Not only has Tianjin weaving been established there, but the wool fabrics and other related products sold every year have always been in short supply, because the south is not very good. In cold places, ordinary people are willing to buy a few catties of wool to go home, knit a few sweaters to wear, and wear them inside in autumn and winter. There is no need for a jacket outside, and it is not too cold to wear a single coat.

Now, there is another salt drying field in Tianjin. It used to be a tidal flat saline-alkali land, and the reeds couldn’t grow up. Now it’s reclaimed and turned into a salt field. It didn’t take long for an unknown amount of white salt to come out. Everyone is dumbfounded.

The sage issued an edict again, starting from ten stones on the side of the salt field, as long as there is no criminal record, all merchants can come here to bring it back for sale in wholesale.

Of course, the imperial court also formulated a table of suggested retail prices. Different regions set retail prices according to the distance from the saltworks.In the future, the responsibility of the salt administration in various places will be that if the local salt price exceeds the retail price, it will be regarded as private salt regardless of whether it is official salt or what.

After such a toss, Lin Ruhai was completely relieved.

On the Jiangnan side, those salt merchants were in bad luck.It makes sense that the price of official salt is expensive these days. After all, the method of boiling salt is used these days, and iron pots are distributed to stove households, and even charcoal is available.

Boiling salt in an iron pot will naturally cause rust. An iron pot can only be used a few times. The question is, how much salt can be boiled out by boiling a pot of sea water?In this way, the price of salt is not expensive, which is called intolerable. Ordinary people, how can they dare to eat a lot of salt in a year? Put a little bit of meaning in it to ensure that there will be no problems due to lack of salt intake, so forget it.

Because of the cost of boiling salt, salt merchants continue to oppress stove households, but you can’t let them lose their money. Therefore, the cost price of this boiled salt is not low. Now, through the method of drying salt, drying The retail price of the salt that comes out is slightly higher than the cost of boiled salt, and those salt merchants have to set up a warehouse to store it, and they need manpower. Therefore, the more salt they have in hand, the more they will lose in the end. reason.

These gangs have colluded with the Zhen family. Over the years, they have wantonly raised the price of official salt, and the salt merchants who have been selling private salt in private are extremely unlucky this time. The salt in their hands immediately became waste paper. They If you go to the place where the salt is boiled to get salt according to the amount of salt, you will have to die, and the hoarded salt can't be sold even if you want to sell it.In order to make more money, they mixed sand in the private salt they sold, wishing that half of a catty of salt was sand, but because the official salt was too expensive, the common people had to hold their noses to buy it, but now let’s not talk about this kind of salt. Salt mixed with sand, even if it is salt that is not mixed with sand, people will not buy it.

These days, everyone lives in a group of clans. Within a clan, there are naturally business people. Knowing that salt is sold cheaply in the salt field and can be sold from ten stones, some big clans simply call each family Collect money and let the clansmen go to the salt farm to buy salt. The salt will not deteriorate anyway, and the extra, even if it is used to marinate bacon or make salted eggs, will never be wasted.

Therefore, those salt merchants who were collaborating with the Zhen family are almost completely bankrupt now, and each of them ran to the Zhen family to find a countermeasure.

The Zhen family hadn't figured out what was going on. The matter of the sage's excavation of the salt farm had never been approved by the cabinet. The news was not announced in the court until the salt from the salt farm was mass-produced.As the way of communication these days is the same, it is nothing more than speeding up the whip and has a bit of technical content, then raise some kind of pigeons, or birds such as hawks and falcons to convey messages.The problem is, these birds can't teleport, they can open a space door out of thin air, and they don't have the ability to travel thousands of miles. They have to look for food when they are hungry, and rest when they are tired. for several days.

A few days passed, and before those who heard the news could react, the imperial court reformed the salt policy, replaced boiled salt with sun-dried salt, and the news that the salt price would be the highest in the future had already spread through the imperial court's mansion newspaper.

The palace newspapers of the imperial court have always been transmitted to all directions through the post station, and the Jiangnan side has always had a strong literary style, and there are many scholars, who are just traffickers and pawns, and they may not even know a few words. Therefore, after getting the news, everyone Go back and say, After a group of people discussed it, they immediately decided that even if they don't eat salt for the time being, they should wait until the cheap salt from the imperial court comes out.

Therefore, even if those salt merchants are in a hurry to clear their positions and stop losses, no one is willing to take over. No one is a fool, and this batch of salt is completely in their hands.There was nothing the Zhen family could do, even the Zhen family themselves were unwilling to take over the salt. In the end, everyone could only be relatively silent and weep endlessly.

On the contrary, a few salt merchants who invested in Lin Ruhai early got some vague information and released most of the salt in their hands. Even those with a relatively wide path obtained the management right to sell refined salt early.

The imperial court reformed the salt administration, and the salt tax was collected directly at the time of wholesale.Anyway, nowadays, small merchants can also sell salt. If there are only a few of them, they can unite and control the price. However, when there are too many people, it will not be easy to unite.

What's more, merchants these days are divided into regions. Even those salt merchants are divided into Shanxi merchants or Huizhou merchants. Most of them are still in competition with each other. There are only so many people in the world. If you sell more, I will sell less.Therefore, at that time, everyone will definitely not really sell according to the suggested maximum retail price, because as long as others are a penny or two lower than you, your salt may be thrown into your hands, so in the end, the price of salt will not be changed at all. Where to go high.In the future, this kind of salt trading will become nothing more than a matter of small profits but quick turnover.As soon as salt is cheap, the people are naturally willing to eat it. In the past one or two months, the whole family ate a catty, but now they have to buy it once every two weeks. This is a virtuous circle.

The Zhen family can't take care of Lin Ruhai now, and Lin Ruhai has now retired, but he remembers clearly the enmity with the Zhen family.Ten years is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge. He has a lot of crimes against the Zhen family in his hands, and if he handed them over later, half the court would be shaken.

However, Lin Ruhai is not a fool. At the beginning, he had no other choice, so he accepted the terrible job of inspecting the salt censor. In the past few years, he has lived trembling like walking on thin ice. He has also encountered several dangers. But it looks like he is over half a century old. He still wants to die well. His son is still young and his daughter is even younger. He will have to live a few more years until he paves the way for his children. Therefore, although he has a lot of good things in his hands, Lin Ruhai is not willing to be the rafter who stands out.

Handing over all the work in hand to the next Xunyan Yushi, the newcomer had an obviously reluctant expression on his face.In the past, although the patrolling salt censor was dangerous, he had a high position and authority, and everyone had to curry favor with you. But now, the salt farm has been moved to Tianjin, and it will probably be in the north in the future. After all, the temperature in the south is high and the sun is good. It is often rainy, and there are often typhoons in Fujian and Zhejiang. Such a climate is not suitable for drying salt at all. That is to say, the center of salt administration will move northward in the future.

Nowadays, the duties of the patrolling salt censors in Yangzhou are nothing more than tossing those salt merchants and checking the local salt price. As for the rank of official positions, there are only seven ranks left, and they are only responsible for the affairs of the salt administration.

As for Lin Ruhai, this patrolling salt censor is a fourth-rank official. He has worked hard in his tenure all these years. Under the suppression of the Zhen family, he can still pay a million taels or more in salt tax every year, which is already a remarkable ability. As an official, he is registered with the sage. It is said that when Lin Ruhai enters Beijing, he has to be promoted to another level. This is why the newcomer is not envious and jealous. He really didn't catch up with the good times!

On the contrary, Lin Ruhai was very envious of his successor. Although his rank was a little lower, his superiors were directly responsible to the saint. The local officials did not have much restraint on Xunyan Yushi. There are fewer things that need to be mixed in. You don't need to directly control those kitchen households or anything. You only need to check the private salt and supervise the illegal salt merchants, which is safe and worry-free.

After Lin Ruhai handed over the affairs of the yamen, it was as if a big rock had been dropped on his body, and then he followed the canal to Beijing, but the servants of the Lin family still had to pack up the things, and then escorted them for delivery. The furniture and things that come to Beijing go to Beijing.

There have been hints from above that Lin Ruhai will stay in the capital from now on.Before that, Jia Min brought a pair of children to Beijing and lived in the old house of the Lin family. Lin Ruhai is now passing by, just in time for a family reunion.

At the beginning, Jia Min went to Beijing to avoid misfortune. The Rong Mansion did not know what kind of nerve they had committed, thinking that Lin Ruhai was completely screwed this time, and Jia Min and his mother and son would be orphaned and widowed in the future, so naturally they let them decide.Xiao Wang's fight with Shi's family and Jia Zheng's because of Yuanchun's incident earlier annoyed the two of them. Jia Zheng wanted to divorce his wife, but he didn't get the support of the clan. Specially fighting against Xiao Wang, and Shi's side is also extremely dissatisfied with Xiao Wang, pointing at Sang Huai all day long, tossing Xiao Wang to serve in the past, Xiao Wang really wants to give up, but the problem is, Jia Zhu and Yuan Chun's marriage couldn't get around Shi Shi and Jia Zheng, so he had to hold his nose and admit it.

When Jia Min brought his children back to Beijing, he naturally had to visit her mother's house. In addition, Jia Min also knew that her family was closely related to the Zhen family, so she wanted to find out the news, so she could at least ask her mother's family to help relieve her husband's pressure.As a result, when Shi saw Jia Min and his mother and son, he cried in his arms, and then put on a loving face. After asking about their situation, he began to insinuate about the Lin family's property.

Jia Min is such a person, after she came to Beijing, she asked someone to inquire about the recent situation of Rongfu, and asked her dowry companion to go to Rongfu to talk to relatives about the old days, and she almost knew about Rongfu. I couldn't help but feel cold in my heart.

Over the years in Rongfu, no one has established a family, even if there is a title, it has been reduced to a third-rate family in the capital.These days, without enough power, many things can't be done. If it is placed in Jinling, Rongfu still has some face, but if it is brought to the capital, some small people may not be willing to sell Rongfu's face.

Shi's blind extravagance, Jia Zheng is an uncommon businessman who only knows how to spend money, Xiao Wang's means are limited, and the annual income is so much, but one spends more than the other, even if Xiao Wang holds With a cash cow, it is not enough for the whole family to spend.

The Rong Mansion has been living for a long time, but Shi didn't say anything, but he knew in his heart that Shi's own private house was not as much as it used to be. After Jia Daishan found out about Shi, he took Shi's Jia Daishan discovered the extra property in Shi's private house, and dealt with it directly. Except for what was on Shi's dowry list, everything else was returned to the public.Shi's family sold the sacrifice land for money, and Jia Daishan simply took Shi's property to make up for it.

The Shi family still has some things that the old Duke’s wife had agreed to give to Jia Amnesty. Later, when the family was separated, Jia Daishan directly gave it to Jia Amnesty. The property in the Duke’s family, apart from what Jia Amnesty wanted to leave to the patriarch to inherit The ancestral property was divided into half.Later, when Jia Min got married, Jia Daishan prepared a very rich dowry, and transferred some of the property in the business to Jia Min's name.Jia Daishan has a long-term vision. Jia Zheng doesn't seem like a man who knows how to run a business. It's okay for Xiao Wang to keep his success, and don't think about other things.Jia Min's dowry is generous, and Jia Min can't stand by and watch what her natal family has in the future.

Later, Shi was convalescent and was under house arrest in the backyard, unable to intervene in family affairs. It was not until Jia Daishan died and Jia Zheng's family returned to the south to observe their filial piety that Shi resumed housekeeping.

It's just that, at that time, even if Shi Shi wanted to harm public welfare and personal interests, he had to have enough things for her.When Jia Zheng returned to the south, he directly withdrew a large amount of money from the public account, and when the little Wang was the housekeeper, he also put some things into his private treasury. Shi Shi couldn't be too blatant, Although, as before, he has enriched his private treasury with only the original dowry left, but after all, it is not as good as when Jia Daishan was still there.

Later, for the matter of Yuanchun, the Shi family contacted the Zhen family, and took out a few good things from his private treasury.

Shi’s money is not as good as it used to be, and Gongzhong is struggling to make ends meet. Shi hinted at Xiao Wang’s subsidy, but Xiao Wang is not willing to suffer. Her dowry was very thin, and Wang’s dowry was sealed up back then. In order to leave it to Jia Zhu, Jia Daishan checked Wang's dowry and took away everything that was not on her dowry list.Xiao Wang has raised Jia Zhu for so many years, and she treats Jia Zhu with all her heart, as if she were her own.Judging by Jia Zheng's appearance, sooner or later Rong Mansion will be wiped out. The money in hand of Xiao Wang will be divided into three parts in the future. Jia Zhu, Jia Min and Jia Pu will each get a share.

As for the children of concubines, Xiao Wang is not willing to pay an extra penny!Even in the palace, Xiao Wang managed to get a lot of money out, but her private house was only a small amount in total, and she would share it with the three children in the future. Shi Shi hoped that Xiao Wang would use the money left to the children to be a housekeeper. That was purely the wrong idea.

So Xiao Wang has been pretending to be stupid, and ran out of money in the account, so she went to Shi's to cry poorly. It was clearly written in her account book that Shi and Jia Zheng were the main expenses in the mansion, especially Jia Zheng. Mrs. Wang has already been broken and broken, for the sake of children and money, she has no face. She is not ambiguous about serving Mrs. Shi, but she is also very active when it comes to money.

No matter what Shi said, Xiao Wang had no money anyway, and then kept talking about her own difficulties. Anyway, even Jia Zhu knew that she was just a house filler, and then she cried and complained that her dowry was too thin, and the master spent money Extravagant, Jia Zhu is going to marry a wife, Yuan Chun is going to get married, Jia Zheng is still working on a lot of aunts and concubines, it is impossible to say that there will be more children in the future, in short, no money!

Xiao Wang doesn't want to lose face, but Shi can't stand Xiao Wang's nagging. She always claims to be from everyone, so she has to endure the pain in her heart and take out things from her private treasury to Xiao Wang. Mrs. Wang took it as a pawn, and took part of it by herself, and handed over the rest to the palace as expenses.

It’s fine once or twice. If there are too many times, Shi can’t handle it. Jia Zheng is useless, and he is useless except to spend money. The furniture in Shi’s hands is the guarantee for his own retirement. The things she really likes, she will also bring into the coffin, and continue to use after going down, if they are hollowed out by Xiao Wang, Shi Shi is very suspicious, when Xiao Wang finds that she can no longer squeeze out oil and water , just put himself aside, Shi Shi could not trust Jia Zheng, a guy who talked about filial piety but never acted reliably.

Since he has no money in his own hands, Shi is concerned about others.On Jia Amnesty's side, Shi Shi wanted to think about it, but she had heard that Jia Amnesty had many lucrative deals in his hands, and Shi Shi once wanted to insinuate and ask him to support Jia Zheng on the grounds that he was born in the Rong Mansion. According to Jia She, Jia Zheng is an idiot who doesn't know how to deal with common affairs. If he messes around in it, no matter how good the business is, he will mess it up.

Shi Shi really wanted to say that Rong Mansion also has some big shopkeepers who are in charge of things. Jia Amnesty's half-smiling eyes at that time almost didn't make Shi Shi die of anger. No one else knows the virtues of those managerial shopkeepers in Rong Mansion. Shi Shi Could it be that they didn't know that many of them were indulged by Shi Shi. Seeing that he couldn't impress Jia She's hard-hearted heart, Shi Shi could only curse secretly in his heart, but in the end he was helpless.

At this moment, Shi Shi heard from the Zhen family that Lin Ruhai was completely hated by the Zhen family, and she immediately thought of taking advantage of the fire. She wondered, how could Jia Min and the others, orphans and widowed mothers, guard the Lin family like that? For the family business, it is better to make it cheaper than to make it cheaper for the Lin family members who have already left the fifth service.

Therefore, Shi Shi seemed to be concerned about Jia Min's life in the Lin family, but he was thinking about how big the Lin family's property was, wishing that Lin Ruhai would die sooner, so that he could go and take over the Lin family's property as soon as possible.

When Shi heard that Lin Ruhai had offended the Zhen family, he felt very sorry there. He didn't share the same hatred for his daughter who was killed by the Zhen family and lost a child. The face of the relatives is really ruthless and ungrateful, and they complained about Jia Daishan, repeating the same old tune, saying that if Jia Daishan hadn't insisted on going his own way, Jia Min would have made him a concubine, why marry a petty official and suffer outside.

Jia Min's hearing was harsh. She was already disappointed in Rongfu. When she needed support, both Shi Shi and Jia Zheng were always holding back. Now hearing Shi Shi's tone, it was like saying that Lin Ruhai was going to die. In general, this is called Jia Min, who can't wait to get angry.

Jia Min and Lin Ruhai have a very good relationship. Although Lin Ruhai also has concubines, there are only two or three, and each of them has nothing to do. After Jia Min lost the child, because there was one of the concubines here. Shadow, Lin Ruhai directly disposed of all those concubines, so the house was very quiet.

Jia Min naturally has a deep affection for Lin Ruhai. They have a son and a daughter between them. Jia Min understands that if Lin Ruhai has any misfortune, Jia Min wants to raise a pair of children to become adults. It is not an easy task. Lin Ruhai is their The pillar of the family, Jia Min couldn't imagine what she should do if something happened to Lin Ruhai.

As a result, Shi's words of comforting and cursing secretly made Jia Min extremely unhappy, so he got up and said, "Mother is getting old, and she just needs to take good care of herself in the future, what the hell! My daughter just returned to Beijing." , There are still a lot of things that need to be cleaned up in the old house, so I will leave, mother, take care!"

Jia Min turned around and left with a pair of children, and then refused to go to the gate of the Rong Mansion at all, and told Shi Shi to tell Jia Min at home that Jia Min was cruel and unfilial, anyway, no one would hear this except Xiao Wang.Xiao Wang just sneered secretly at this, you old godmother, you only want to sell your daughter for money in exchange for a future, you don’t have the slightest heart to love your son, if Jia Min is still in her natal family, it’s fine, everyone is married , it has long been the Lin Jia family, and there are children by her side. What they are thinking about is the interests of the Lin family. After all, those will belong to her children in the future. Why would she move her own things for your hypocrisy? Come to your mother's house, isn't this a joke?

As for Jia Zheng, he was still in a state of drunkenness. He was not as well informed as Xiao Wang about the outside affairs. Anyway, Xiao Wang was on Shi's side, and Shi had quite a network outside, and he often heard some news, but Jia Zheng didn't. He had a bad reputation outside and couldn't bear the ridicule of others, but in Rongfu, he was the lord who was sought after by many Qing guests, the sky of many concubines and concubines.

Jia Min came over with his children. Jia Zheng was still drinking with a group of clean people and talking about poetry and painting. Therefore, he didn't see this sister at all, and he didn't react until the people left. However, In other words, Shi Shi is really ashamed of being a mother, and he doesn't even look towards her with his own daughter.

While Shi Shi was waiting for the Lin family to be unlucky, Lin Ruhai had already entered Beijing safely.