Chapter 1542
The Small Abacus of the Rich
Chapter 1542 The Small Abacus of the Rich
Yang Yun had business in mind, so he didn't let go of drinking at the wine table.The rich men also noticed that Yang Yun had some reservations, so they wisely stopped persuading them to drink. They didn't even finish the first jar of rice wine they had prepared.However, the intention of this meal was not to get drunk, and everyone knew that the business was important. Seeing that the meal was almost done, Gu Qufei gave a wink, and a servant went to the counter to pay the bill in advance.
The group of people left the county again after eating, and stopped for about two miles towards the sea.Gu Qufei went to ask Yang Yun to get out of the carriage, and then explained to him: "Master Yang, the road we are on at this time is the official road from Xiangshan County to the seaside port, and the depression in the west is where we plan to go. The place where the elements took it down to do business with your country."
Yang Yun looked in the direction he pointed, and saw a gentle slope from the roadbed to the west, and then a large flat land. The terrain was about three meters lower than the official road and the area to the east, and it was currently in a barren state.
Yang Yun asked, "Why isn't the farmland reclaimed here? It's better to just grow some food than to live in the wild!"
There is little flat land in Xiangshan County, so it is reasonable to say that it should be the fragrant bun in the eyes of the landlord, but it seems that this is not the case when the land is deserted. Is there any other problem.
Gu Qufei didn't expect Yang Yun to notice it so quickly, and replied with a smirk, "My lord, because this place is too close to the sea, the ground has a lot of salinity and there is no food to grow, so it is deserted."
So it turned out that Yang Yun immediately understood what the other party was up to.Saline-alkali land is indeed worthless to the agricultural level of this era, and the land price is naturally much cheaper than farmland.The [-] mu of land claimed by these wealthy families should not cost much money at all, and it is more likely that the other party used this as an excuse to ask Haihan to send someone over to negotiate terms.
Yang Yun didn't have time to go around slowly with these wealthy countrymen, so he simply asked directly: "Then the saline-alkali land here should be more than a hundred mu?"
"There are also thousands of acres." Gu Qufei didn't dare to hide any more, and replied honestly: "From here to the west, the wasteland for several miles by the sea is saline-alkali land. If your country wants to build some workshops here, I will come forward to take down these lands later, which can be regarded as a joint venture with your country."
Yang Yun said with a smile: "But the biggest industry in the area is fishery. You can't do much with such a big place on the shore. Could it be used to dry fishing nets?"
Gu Qufei smiled and said: "Your Excellency, you are joking. We all know that your country is the best at doing business, so I specially asked someone to contact Zhoushan. I hope that your country can send someone like Your Excellency to come to Xiangshan to give advice."
Yang Yun frowned and said: "According to what I know about Xiangshan Mountain, although there are some mineral deposits here, most of them are in the mountains. Not to mention the inconvenient transportation, the reserves seem to be small, and mining is very troublesome. Besides, there seems to be no other mines in the local area. Land industries. With the agricultural technology that our country has mastered, some crops can be grown in this saline-alkali land, but it is not easy to cultivate, and it is difficult to make any profit."
Gu Qufei couldn't help showing a look of disappointment on his face: "My lord, is there no other use for this wasteland besides growing food?"
Yang Yun thought that if it was in Sanya, where every inch of land was expensive, it would naturally have various uses, at least it would be under the auspices of the Ministry of Construction to build a residential area, and the national treasury could also generate a large amount of income.But in the territory of Ming Dynasty, if such a piece of wasteland is to be turned into a profitable industry, it still needs to be summed up carefully.
Yang Yun really understands the situation in Xiangshan County. There are no other large-scale industries here except fishery. It can be said that there is a serious lack of industry foundation for Haihan to engage in manufacturing.If you want to engage in processing industries according to local conditions, such as wood or stone processing, you must have someone who can provide raw materials, otherwise Haihan will have to build lumberyards and quarries by yourself, and there seems to be no industry of a corresponding scale in Xiangshan. Provide Haihan with a stable source of raw materials.
Yang Yun was about to explain the situation to Gu Qufei, when a message flashed through his mind, he swallowed the words, and asked Gu Qufei, "Do you remember that there is a salt field on Xiangshan?"
Gu Qufei nodded and said: "Yes, the local area has already used seawater to boil salt in the Tang Dynasty, and the Yuquan Salt Farm was established in the Northern Song Dynasty, but a few years ago, there were too many private salts from Fujian, and the local Saltworks are going bankrupt."
Of course, Yang Yun knew where Fujian's private salt came from. After all, he was an official in Penghu before, and the production and sale of sea salt was also one of the trades he was in charge of.At least [-]% of the sea salt produced in Penghu is shipped to Zhejiang for sale every year. With its low price and excellent quality, it abruptly grabs most of the official salt sales in the coastal prefecture.Under such circumstances, it is naturally difficult for the local official salt farms in Zhejiang to survive, so just like the salt farms in Fuzhou and Guangzhou, some small-scale salt farms closed down one after another. The salt farms in Xiangshan obviously Also one of them.
Since Daming had set up a salt field in the past, it meant that the salinity of the sea water here was suitable for salt production, and this place was so close to the sea, and there was a large open space, wouldn't it be a good place to set up a salt field?
The more Yang Yun thought about it, the more he felt it was reasonable, so he said to Gu Qufei: "Then have you ever thought about opening a salt farm here?"
Gu Qufei and the others looked at each other and shook their heads fearfully.Yang Yun suddenly came to his senses, this private salt farm is a big taboo in Daming, if it is found out, it must be a felony, these rich people dare to operate such a project that may lose their heads.
Yang Yundao: "Opening a salt farm is a lucrative business, don't you plan to give it a try?"
Gu Qufei said with a bitter face: "My lord, stop joking. We are all law-abiding good people, so how dare we make and sell private salt at will? If the government finds out about this, we will have no chance!"
Yang Yun said seriously: "Don't be afraid of this. If I really want to open a salt farm, I will naturally run everything properly and won't let you take risks. Tell me first, can this wasteland really be taken down?"
Gu Qufei said: "It's very easy to buy these lands. It is estimated that the price of two or three taels of silver per mu can be taken. But how to operate this matter, please tell me."
Yang Yundao: "I will first go to find out about the operation of the official salt farm in the past, and then talk to the county magistrate to see if the title of the official salt farm can be taken over. Since private salt is an illegal business in Daming, we want to There is no way to turn him into an official salt."
Gu Qufei and the others were dumbfounded when they heard this. They had never thought that there would be such an operation method. It is not surprising to produce and sell private salt, but it is really unheard of for them to directly purchase the title of an official salt farm.Ming people would only be concerned about the crime of producing and selling smuggled salt, and probably only Hai Han, who is not bound by the laws of Ming Dynasty, would have such wild ideas.But to go to the magistrate to negotiate, is this way really workable?
Gu Qufei said: "My lord, the local magistrate of Wang County is an old-fashioned person, not so easy to deal with."
"It's okay, let's meet up first and see his attitude before we talk." Yang Yun had an idea in mind, and he would not change it easily. He immediately asked his subordinates to check the terrain and landforms in the vicinity, and went to the beach to sample the sea water, and waited for the return trip Take it back to Zhoushan for inspection to see if the salt concentration is suitable for the construction of a salt farm.
After arranging these things, Yang Yun asked Gu Qufei to lead the way to visit the magistrate of Xiangshan County.Although Gu Qufei felt that the chance of success in this matter was very small, but since Yang Yun insisted, he didn't want to offend the God of Wealth who had been brought back with great difficulty.And he really wanted to see if Yang Yun could carry this matter forward as he said, if he really took the title of the official salt farm, wouldn't he step into the ranks of salt merchants in one step from now on? , when the time comes, every day will make a lot of money, and life will definitely be happy.
Since it was going to the county government office, it would be too ostentatious for Gu Qufei to go with a group of people, so the others first went to a teahouse in the city to wait for news, and Gu Qufei accompanied Yang Yun to the county government office alone.
Later, Yang Yun met the county magistrate named Wang Huan in the county government office. He was about fifty years old and was said to be from Shaoxing. He had been in office for five years.Regarding the arrival of the Haihan people, Wang Huan did not show much enthusiasm, but was a little wary, but he still treated each other with courtesy, let the two into the study, and served hot tea.
Of course, Yang Yun also understood where Wang Huan's vigilance came from. When Haihan first arrived in Zhejiang, he started from the Shipu Qianhu Office under the jurisdiction of Xiangshan County.Although a group of officers from the local guard, including Chang Guowei Commander Yan Guowei, fell under Hai Han's offensive, the county magistrate never bowed to Hai Han.The gifts sent from Zhoushan to the Xiangshan County Government during the holidays were always returned intact.The envoys sent to lobby Wang Huan also failed every time and left.
It can be said that in the territory of Ningbo Prefecture, Wang Huan is one of the few officials who can make Haihan unable to attack.However, he was self-aware and did not try to stop Haihan from doing all kinds of things in Xiangshan County, and even acquiesced to Haihan's controlling position in Shipu Port.And Haihan didn't mean to force the county magistrate to submit, so the two sides maintained a strange tacit understanding for a long time, treating each other as transparent.
From Wang Huan's point of view, Yang Yun's arrival is actually no different from the Haihan people who have visited in the past few years. Benefit.Although Wang Huan thought he was not a loyal minister, he was unwilling to give in to this group of outsiders. Therefore, he had already prepared an answer to what Yang Yun might say, so that the other party would leave early after hitting a snag. .As for Gu Qufei who was introduced in the middle, Wang Huan would not blame him for colluding with the Haihan people. He knew that Gu Qufei was engaged in fishery business, and now the coast of Zhejiang is dominated by the Haihan people. I'm afraid Gu Qufei's business will be difficult to continue.
However, when Yang Yun opened his mouth, Wang Huan was taken aback. He never expected that the other party would directly attack the closed official salt farm.The Haihan people actually wanted to spend money to buy the name of the official salt farm, and then use it to privately own another salt farm.Wang Huan naturally understood the trickiness of this. The other party was going to sell private salt in the name of official salt, and his courage really made him amazed.
But Wang Huan would definitely not easily agree to such an unreasonable request. He didn't even intend to listen to the other party's quotation at all, so he shook his head and rejected Yang Yun's proposal: "This action is not in line with Ming's legal principles. Officials can't manage the affairs of the saltworks either, this is the job of transferring the Salt Envoy, the Salt Education Commissioner, and the Salt Censor, and the little Qipin County magistrate can't take on this important task."
The transfer envoys of the capital transfer salt envoys are from the third rank, and the promotion of the salt education division is from the fifth rank. As for the patrolling salt censor, it is directly the salt affairs imperial envoy representing the imperial court to inspect the place, and the authority is not limited by the official rank .In this way, Wang Huan has indeed pushed his own responsibility completely.
However, this set of tricks is not effective for Haihan officials like Yang Yun who are well versed in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. He shook his head with a smile and said: "There is a saying in our country that it is not as good as the county magistrate. Mr. Wang is both a magistrate and a magistrate." Now, if I don’t ask you, who are you looking for? Which one of those yamen is located in Ningbo? The mountains are high in this place and the emperor is far away. How can they manage it? If you make a profit, are you afraid that you won’t be able to stop their mouths with money?”
Wang Huan said: "Although this is the case, the salt field is beyond my control."
Yang Yundao: "Your Majesty Wang, don't be modest. I came to the county government to ask for an interview. I just want you to give me a letter of approval. As long as you agree to this matter, starting from next month, I will give you a thousand taels of silver every month. As long as you are a magistrate Come on, you can take it as long as the salt field is open."
Gu Qufei, who listened to the negotiation between the two with ears pricked up beside him, not only secretly admired this, Haihan is indeed a man who is not short of money. Earn it back!
However, Wang Huan was really not that easy to deal with, and he didn't even change his expression when he heard the words, but continued to refuse: "I am not interested in these external things, and besides, this matter is not in line with Da Ming's legal principles, Your Excellency, please don't bother. "
Yang Yundao: "Da Ming's legal principles ceded Zhoushan Islands and Shipu Port to our country. What's wrong with that? No matter how much Mr. Wang insists, Daming will lose face a long time ago."
"Presumptuous!" Wang Huan couldn't help but slapped the table when he heard this provocative sentence: "Bold madman, how dare you humiliate me, Daming, in front of this official!"
"It's not me who insulted Daming, but those high officials in your court." Yang Yun was not affected by Wang Huan's anger at all, and said unhurriedly: "My lord Wang is not protecting Daming's face now, but It's just for your own sake."
(End of this chapter)
Yang Yun had business in mind, so he didn't let go of drinking at the wine table.The rich men also noticed that Yang Yun had some reservations, so they wisely stopped persuading them to drink. They didn't even finish the first jar of rice wine they had prepared.However, the intention of this meal was not to get drunk, and everyone knew that the business was important. Seeing that the meal was almost done, Gu Qufei gave a wink, and a servant went to the counter to pay the bill in advance.
The group of people left the county again after eating, and stopped for about two miles towards the sea.Gu Qufei went to ask Yang Yun to get out of the carriage, and then explained to him: "Master Yang, the road we are on at this time is the official road from Xiangshan County to the seaside port, and the depression in the west is where we plan to go. The place where the elements took it down to do business with your country."
Yang Yun looked in the direction he pointed, and saw a gentle slope from the roadbed to the west, and then a large flat land. The terrain was about three meters lower than the official road and the area to the east, and it was currently in a barren state.
Yang Yun asked, "Why isn't the farmland reclaimed here? It's better to just grow some food than to live in the wild!"
There is little flat land in Xiangshan County, so it is reasonable to say that it should be the fragrant bun in the eyes of the landlord, but it seems that this is not the case when the land is deserted. Is there any other problem.
Gu Qufei didn't expect Yang Yun to notice it so quickly, and replied with a smirk, "My lord, because this place is too close to the sea, the ground has a lot of salinity and there is no food to grow, so it is deserted."
So it turned out that Yang Yun immediately understood what the other party was up to.Saline-alkali land is indeed worthless to the agricultural level of this era, and the land price is naturally much cheaper than farmland.The [-] mu of land claimed by these wealthy families should not cost much money at all, and it is more likely that the other party used this as an excuse to ask Haihan to send someone over to negotiate terms.
Yang Yun didn't have time to go around slowly with these wealthy countrymen, so he simply asked directly: "Then the saline-alkali land here should be more than a hundred mu?"
"There are also thousands of acres." Gu Qufei didn't dare to hide any more, and replied honestly: "From here to the west, the wasteland for several miles by the sea is saline-alkali land. If your country wants to build some workshops here, I will come forward to take down these lands later, which can be regarded as a joint venture with your country."
Yang Yun said with a smile: "But the biggest industry in the area is fishery. You can't do much with such a big place on the shore. Could it be used to dry fishing nets?"
Gu Qufei smiled and said: "Your Excellency, you are joking. We all know that your country is the best at doing business, so I specially asked someone to contact Zhoushan. I hope that your country can send someone like Your Excellency to come to Xiangshan to give advice."
Yang Yun frowned and said: "According to what I know about Xiangshan Mountain, although there are some mineral deposits here, most of them are in the mountains. Not to mention the inconvenient transportation, the reserves seem to be small, and mining is very troublesome. Besides, there seems to be no other mines in the local area. Land industries. With the agricultural technology that our country has mastered, some crops can be grown in this saline-alkali land, but it is not easy to cultivate, and it is difficult to make any profit."
Gu Qufei couldn't help showing a look of disappointment on his face: "My lord, is there no other use for this wasteland besides growing food?"
Yang Yun thought that if it was in Sanya, where every inch of land was expensive, it would naturally have various uses, at least it would be under the auspices of the Ministry of Construction to build a residential area, and the national treasury could also generate a large amount of income.But in the territory of Ming Dynasty, if such a piece of wasteland is to be turned into a profitable industry, it still needs to be summed up carefully.
Yang Yun really understands the situation in Xiangshan County. There are no other large-scale industries here except fishery. It can be said that there is a serious lack of industry foundation for Haihan to engage in manufacturing.If you want to engage in processing industries according to local conditions, such as wood or stone processing, you must have someone who can provide raw materials, otherwise Haihan will have to build lumberyards and quarries by yourself, and there seems to be no industry of a corresponding scale in Xiangshan. Provide Haihan with a stable source of raw materials.
Yang Yun was about to explain the situation to Gu Qufei, when a message flashed through his mind, he swallowed the words, and asked Gu Qufei, "Do you remember that there is a salt field on Xiangshan?"
Gu Qufei nodded and said: "Yes, the local area has already used seawater to boil salt in the Tang Dynasty, and the Yuquan Salt Farm was established in the Northern Song Dynasty, but a few years ago, there were too many private salts from Fujian, and the local Saltworks are going bankrupt."
Of course, Yang Yun knew where Fujian's private salt came from. After all, he was an official in Penghu before, and the production and sale of sea salt was also one of the trades he was in charge of.At least [-]% of the sea salt produced in Penghu is shipped to Zhejiang for sale every year. With its low price and excellent quality, it abruptly grabs most of the official salt sales in the coastal prefecture.Under such circumstances, it is naturally difficult for the local official salt farms in Zhejiang to survive, so just like the salt farms in Fuzhou and Guangzhou, some small-scale salt farms closed down one after another. The salt farms in Xiangshan obviously Also one of them.
Since Daming had set up a salt field in the past, it meant that the salinity of the sea water here was suitable for salt production, and this place was so close to the sea, and there was a large open space, wouldn't it be a good place to set up a salt field?
The more Yang Yun thought about it, the more he felt it was reasonable, so he said to Gu Qufei: "Then have you ever thought about opening a salt farm here?"
Gu Qufei and the others looked at each other and shook their heads fearfully.Yang Yun suddenly came to his senses, this private salt farm is a big taboo in Daming, if it is found out, it must be a felony, these rich people dare to operate such a project that may lose their heads.
Yang Yundao: "Opening a salt farm is a lucrative business, don't you plan to give it a try?"
Gu Qufei said with a bitter face: "My lord, stop joking. We are all law-abiding good people, so how dare we make and sell private salt at will? If the government finds out about this, we will have no chance!"
Yang Yun said seriously: "Don't be afraid of this. If I really want to open a salt farm, I will naturally run everything properly and won't let you take risks. Tell me first, can this wasteland really be taken down?"
Gu Qufei said: "It's very easy to buy these lands. It is estimated that the price of two or three taels of silver per mu can be taken. But how to operate this matter, please tell me."
Yang Yundao: "I will first go to find out about the operation of the official salt farm in the past, and then talk to the county magistrate to see if the title of the official salt farm can be taken over. Since private salt is an illegal business in Daming, we want to There is no way to turn him into an official salt."
Gu Qufei and the others were dumbfounded when they heard this. They had never thought that there would be such an operation method. It is not surprising to produce and sell private salt, but it is really unheard of for them to directly purchase the title of an official salt farm.Ming people would only be concerned about the crime of producing and selling smuggled salt, and probably only Hai Han, who is not bound by the laws of Ming Dynasty, would have such wild ideas.But to go to the magistrate to negotiate, is this way really workable?
Gu Qufei said: "My lord, the local magistrate of Wang County is an old-fashioned person, not so easy to deal with."
"It's okay, let's meet up first and see his attitude before we talk." Yang Yun had an idea in mind, and he would not change it easily. He immediately asked his subordinates to check the terrain and landforms in the vicinity, and went to the beach to sample the sea water, and waited for the return trip Take it back to Zhoushan for inspection to see if the salt concentration is suitable for the construction of a salt farm.
After arranging these things, Yang Yun asked Gu Qufei to lead the way to visit the magistrate of Xiangshan County.Although Gu Qufei felt that the chance of success in this matter was very small, but since Yang Yun insisted, he didn't want to offend the God of Wealth who had been brought back with great difficulty.And he really wanted to see if Yang Yun could carry this matter forward as he said, if he really took the title of the official salt farm, wouldn't he step into the ranks of salt merchants in one step from now on? , when the time comes, every day will make a lot of money, and life will definitely be happy.
Since it was going to the county government office, it would be too ostentatious for Gu Qufei to go with a group of people, so the others first went to a teahouse in the city to wait for news, and Gu Qufei accompanied Yang Yun to the county government office alone.
Later, Yang Yun met the county magistrate named Wang Huan in the county government office. He was about fifty years old and was said to be from Shaoxing. He had been in office for five years.Regarding the arrival of the Haihan people, Wang Huan did not show much enthusiasm, but was a little wary, but he still treated each other with courtesy, let the two into the study, and served hot tea.
Of course, Yang Yun also understood where Wang Huan's vigilance came from. When Haihan first arrived in Zhejiang, he started from the Shipu Qianhu Office under the jurisdiction of Xiangshan County.Although a group of officers from the local guard, including Chang Guowei Commander Yan Guowei, fell under Hai Han's offensive, the county magistrate never bowed to Hai Han.The gifts sent from Zhoushan to the Xiangshan County Government during the holidays were always returned intact.The envoys sent to lobby Wang Huan also failed every time and left.
It can be said that in the territory of Ningbo Prefecture, Wang Huan is one of the few officials who can make Haihan unable to attack.However, he was self-aware and did not try to stop Haihan from doing all kinds of things in Xiangshan County, and even acquiesced to Haihan's controlling position in Shipu Port.And Haihan didn't mean to force the county magistrate to submit, so the two sides maintained a strange tacit understanding for a long time, treating each other as transparent.
From Wang Huan's point of view, Yang Yun's arrival is actually no different from the Haihan people who have visited in the past few years. Benefit.Although Wang Huan thought he was not a loyal minister, he was unwilling to give in to this group of outsiders. Therefore, he had already prepared an answer to what Yang Yun might say, so that the other party would leave early after hitting a snag. .As for Gu Qufei who was introduced in the middle, Wang Huan would not blame him for colluding with the Haihan people. He knew that Gu Qufei was engaged in fishery business, and now the coast of Zhejiang is dominated by the Haihan people. I'm afraid Gu Qufei's business will be difficult to continue.
However, when Yang Yun opened his mouth, Wang Huan was taken aback. He never expected that the other party would directly attack the closed official salt farm.The Haihan people actually wanted to spend money to buy the name of the official salt farm, and then use it to privately own another salt farm.Wang Huan naturally understood the trickiness of this. The other party was going to sell private salt in the name of official salt, and his courage really made him amazed.
But Wang Huan would definitely not easily agree to such an unreasonable request. He didn't even intend to listen to the other party's quotation at all, so he shook his head and rejected Yang Yun's proposal: "This action is not in line with Ming's legal principles. Officials can't manage the affairs of the saltworks either, this is the job of transferring the Salt Envoy, the Salt Education Commissioner, and the Salt Censor, and the little Qipin County magistrate can't take on this important task."
The transfer envoys of the capital transfer salt envoys are from the third rank, and the promotion of the salt education division is from the fifth rank. As for the patrolling salt censor, it is directly the salt affairs imperial envoy representing the imperial court to inspect the place, and the authority is not limited by the official rank .In this way, Wang Huan has indeed pushed his own responsibility completely.
However, this set of tricks is not effective for Haihan officials like Yang Yun who are well versed in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. He shook his head with a smile and said: "There is a saying in our country that it is not as good as the county magistrate. Mr. Wang is both a magistrate and a magistrate." Now, if I don’t ask you, who are you looking for? Which one of those yamen is located in Ningbo? The mountains are high in this place and the emperor is far away. How can they manage it? If you make a profit, are you afraid that you won’t be able to stop their mouths with money?”
Wang Huan said: "Although this is the case, the salt field is beyond my control."
Yang Yundao: "Your Majesty Wang, don't be modest. I came to the county government to ask for an interview. I just want you to give me a letter of approval. As long as you agree to this matter, starting from next month, I will give you a thousand taels of silver every month. As long as you are a magistrate Come on, you can take it as long as the salt field is open."
Gu Qufei, who listened to the negotiation between the two with ears pricked up beside him, not only secretly admired this, Haihan is indeed a man who is not short of money. Earn it back!
However, Wang Huan was really not that easy to deal with, and he didn't even change his expression when he heard the words, but continued to refuse: "I am not interested in these external things, and besides, this matter is not in line with Da Ming's legal principles, Your Excellency, please don't bother. "
Yang Yundao: "Da Ming's legal principles ceded Zhoushan Islands and Shipu Port to our country. What's wrong with that? No matter how much Mr. Wang insists, Daming will lose face a long time ago."
"Presumptuous!" Wang Huan couldn't help but slapped the table when he heard this provocative sentence: "Bold madman, how dare you humiliate me, Daming, in front of this official!"
"It's not me who insulted Daming, but those high officials in your court." Yang Yun was not affected by Wang Huan's anger at all, and said unhurriedly: "My lord Wang is not protecting Daming's face now, but It's just for your own sake."
(End of this chapter)