1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 374 Su Song
In the middle of May in the 13th year of Chongzhen (1640), Wujiang, Gui'an and other places in Su, Song, Hu and other prefectures poured heavy rain day and night.But the price of rice is soaring, and a bucket of rice is worth three or four dollars in silver. Many rich families close their houses, and the people eat grass and trees.Domineering gangsters ate in groups, clamoring for food, neighbors went on strike, and villages closed their doors to make people angry.

On June 1640, 6, Zhou Tugui, the shopkeeper of Hanzhou’s resident warehouse in Guangzhou, arrived in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture by sea by boat.The bustling and bustling market in the past is now desolate. The stores on the street are closed and there are signs of being washed by the flood everywhere. The homeless who lost their homes are lying under the porches of the shops to cover drizzle.

The government servants of Shanghai County and the soldiers of Jinshan Guards, with long knives across their waists and water and fire sticks in their hands, vigilantly patrolled the streets to prevent the hungry people from rioting.

"I don't know, how many weavers can find here?" Tuesday Gui has long been indifferent to the hungry people who can be seen everywhere in Daming, but he is thinking in his heart, how to search for more people before the arrival of the Hanzhou immigrant fleet. There are many weavers and craftsmen, and what is urgently needed - Daming women.

"There's no food left, so how can anyone buy cloth and weaving clothes! Those weaving factories are probably closed and out of business." Zhao Chengshun said: "As long as we bring out food, some people will follow us."

Tuegui smiled slightly, deeply convinced that when they came from Guangzhou, they deliberately brought a boatload of grain over, just to take advantage of the flood in Susong to recruit weavers, craftsmen, and young women wantonly.Looking at the situation in Qingpu County, it is estimated that the task of population collection for their trip should not be difficult to complete.

Since he voted for Hanzhou two years ago, Tuesday Guishen was secretly proud of his original decision.At that time, I was just a big buddy of Zhou Yingping, following Cao Xiong and the others all the way to Hanzhou.Later, it was borrowed by Hanzhou. First, it handled the purchase of various materials and goods in Batavia, and then followed Cao Xiong to Guangzhou to open a Hanzhou warehouse as a permanent base of Hanzhou in Daming.

And Zhou Yingping, his old boss, was intercepted by Zheng Zhilong's patrol boat when Hanzhou immigrated from Daming. In a panic, he even told the truth about Hanzhou to Zheng Zhilong's navy general. To Nanyang and Hanzhou.

As a result, in the territory of Ming Dynasty, he seemed to be the only agent of Hanzhou, in charge of tens of millions of money, his horizons expanded accordingly, and his contacts were all rich and powerful.Such a situation was really something I had never imagined.Moreover, relying on the good relationship between Hanzhou and Zheng Zhilong, there are still some quarrels in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other regions.

However, this time he came to the Susong area, but he had not set foot in the area in the past two years, and some official relations were blank.However, he didn't care.Collect immigrants, after several years of implementation, Hanzhou has summed up a set of effective methods.It is nothing more than to arrange the official face first, and then communicate with the powerful people on the street, open a few porridge sheds, and spread around for free to attract people to Nanyang for food.

With such an action, countless hungry people who could not survive will surely flock here, and with a piece of pancake, they will be able to leave with the Hanzhou immigrant ship.

On Tuesday, you came to the border of the south of the Yangtze River. Apart from collecting people, you also wanted to sell some industrial products from Hanzhou, such as sugar, honey wine (sugar cane wine), precious wood, and metal tools.

However, Tuesday Gui thinks that some clumsy industrial products in Hanzhou may not be very popular, because Jiangnan is rich and abundant in products, whether it is sugar, wine, food, or metal products, they are completely incomparable with similar products in Daming.However, the rich and noble families in the south of the Yangtze River like to be extravagant, and most of them would like the nanmu and sandalwood shipped from Weiyuan Island and Timor Island in Hanzhou, and would be willing to spend a lot of money to buy them back for their own use.

The gold and silver obtained after selling the various products brought by the Hanzhou immigrant fleet are generally not brought back to Hanzhou, but all are exchanged for various materials urgently needed by Hanzhou, and along with the many immigrants, they are transported back to Hanzhou. The mainland of Hanzhou.

"Why didn't the government of Shanghai County come out to provide disaster relief?" Zhao Chengshun walked around the county town with Tuesday Gui. Apart from the sluggish market, there were countless disaster victims whose homes had been destroyed gathered in small groups. Looking expectantly at the passers-by.

"Most likely there is no surplus food in the government." Tuesday Gui said after thinking for a while.Cotton spinning is the main activity in the Susong area. The surrounding prefectures and counties all adopted the agricultural method of destroying grain and growing cotton decades ago. Most of the food eaten by the people is transported from Jiangxi and Huguang. The disaster-stricken prefectures and counties have no surplus food for disaster relief.

"There is no surplus food in the south of the Yangtze River for disaster relief, so the north is full of starvation!" Zhao Chengshun came from Hebei and lived in Shandong. He was picked up by Hanzhou people on a ship two years ago, but fell ill on the way and stayed in Guangzhou.After recovering from the illness, Tue Gui stayed at the Hanzhou Warehouse to help with some daily affairs because he was more clever.Therefore, there is a natural sympathy and regret for the hungry people.

"So, this great Ming Dynasty is going to perish!" Zhou Zhougui sighed and said, "The people are struggling to live, and the government is doing nothing. This world will be overthrown by these countless hungry people sooner or later!"

"Where are the bold lunatics here to slander the imperial court and curse me that the Ming Dynasty will perish!" A voice suddenly shouted from the side of the two of them: "Come on, take them down for me!"

As soon as the words fell, several government servants rushed up, kicked Zhou and Zhao to the ground, and were about to lock them up.

The Hanzhou guards behind you on Tuesday were a little unprepared for the sudden change. Seeing Zhou and Zhao being pushed up by a few yamen servants, they were slightly taken aback, and then they drew their knives and were about to resist.But when he saw more than ten sergeants from the guard station slowly surrounding him, he hesitated for a while.

"Go back to the boat." Tuegui was pinned to the ground by the yamen servant, he twisted his head and shouted, "Go to Quanzhou quickly, and find the governor of Fujian to rescue us."

A few Hanzhou guards looked at the dozen or so guard sergeants who had surrounded them with hatred, gritted their teeth, turned around and ran towards the pier.

"The governor of Fujian?" A thin, white-faced man in his thirties looked at the guards in the distance, and then turned his head to look at the two businessmen who were knocked to the ground, and smiled contemptuously: " What if Zheng Zhilong, the pirate himself, is here? Under the rule of Ming Dynasty, how can you and other rebellious people be allowed to clamor! Since this generation has some connection with Zheng Zhilong, he must be an accomplice of some pirates somewhere."

"Honorable County, Zheng Zhilong has surrendered to the imperial court ten years ago. Now, he is the commander-in-chief of Fujian, with the title of governor and governor. He has tens of thousands of people under his command and more than a thousand ships. He controls the vast seas of the Ming Dynasty." A man with the appearance of an aide He reminded with a worried face: "If these people have contact with Zheng Zhilong, why not give them a reprimand at the county government and let them go away."

"Zheng Zhilong, a pirate too!" Tang Zijun said disapprovingly: "It should be a great blessing for the court to recruit this son. But these years, the Zheng family has used force to control the sea and act recklessly. Put the imperial court in your eyes. These two thieves are secretly slandering the imperial court and speaking wild and rebellious words. If they are not severely punished, how will we maintain the dignity of the Ming court."

After hearing this, the staff member sighed slightly and said no more.Although the county lord spoke grandly, his hatred of Zheng Zhilong was true. It wasn't that the Zheng family disrespected the imperial court, but that he "controlled the sea" and monopolized trade routes, which made the local merchants of Susong deeply hate him.He was trying to make use of the topic, and when Zheng Zhilong came to ask for someone, he would definitely give him a warning.
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"Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture took the people from Hanzhou?" Zheng Zhilong heard Zheng Zhibao mention that the shopkeeper of Hanzhou Warehouse was arrested and imprisoned by Shanghai County on Tuesday. sank.

"Brother, do you want to stand up for Hanzhou?" Zheng Zhibao asked: "It's under the jurisdiction of Nanzhili, and it's under the rule of Nanjing. It's not easy for us to intervene."

"When you were arrested by Shanghai County on Tuesday, my name would definitely be mentioned." Zheng Zhilong said gloomily, "So, the county magistrate still ordered him to be imprisoned. This is probably aimed at me, the governor of Fujian. ah!"

"Brother thinks that someone is causing trouble, deliberately targeting Hanzhou people who are related to us, and targeting us?" Zheng Zhibao said angrily, "Could it be that people from Nanjing want to deal with us?"

"In my opinion, it may not be the adults in the officialdom in Nanjing. Maybe it's the maritime merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, and those cotton merchants who are instigating behind their backs." Zheng Zhilong smiled, "A group of virtuous villains, what they said Moral articles, behind the scenes, which one is not secretly connected to overseas countries and the West. We seized Taiwan, blocked the sea route of the Dutch, so that they could not directly trade with the East India Company, and also lost the purchase of the Spanish, so that they lost a lot of money financial resources."

"Then we will completely seal off those goddamn Jiangnan merchants in the future, so that none of their goods can go out to sea!" Zheng Zhibao said viciously: "Let them know that in Daming, if we mess with our Zheng family, they will never have a good life. !"

"With them blocked, where do we go to find the source of goods?" Zheng Zhilong said with a smile: "Also, who do we sell the things we got back from Japan and North Korea?"

"Without Jiangnan, there are still Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Lianghu, Jiangxi, and the northern provinces of Ming Dynasty." Zheng Zhibao said disapprovingly: "If I don't teach them a lesson this time, I think my Zheng family can be bullied."

"Third brother, even though that's the case, we really can't seal off the passage to the sea in Jiangnan." Zheng Zhilong shook his head and said, "Jiangnan is prosperous, with many officials and complicated connections. Drowning with saliva. Since we want to do business, we must pay attention to a harmonious and prosperous way, and a long flow of water."

Zheng Zhibao was stunned when he heard this.Could it be that his eldest brother bowed his head to Jiangnan and let him slap him in the face.

"Let Cheng Xueen take a fleet of navy ships to Shanghai County, and bring back the big shopkeeper of the Hanzhou warehouse." Zheng Zhilong ordered lightly: "In addition, any Jiangnan sea merchants and cotton merchants who go out to sea for cargo ships, buy me Zheng Zhilong. The cost of Jiahaiwangqi will be increased by 20%. [-] taels of silver will be withdrawn from the public and delivered to the Nanjing Household Department to pay for the imperial court's military training."

"Ask the dignitaries in Shanghai County, what if they don't give it?"

"Didn't Cheng Xueen bring a team of sailors there?"

When Zheng Zhibao heard this, he was stunned for a moment, then nodded, and retreated with his arms folded.

In the 13th year of Chongzhen, on the fifth day of July, hundreds of officers and soldiers of the Quanzhou navy landed in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, entered the government office with a knife, and forced officials to indulge the number of thieves. The county was shocked and reported to Nanjing. Ministry of War.However, they were reprimanded. How could the navy soldiers land arbitrarily?

(End of this chapter)