The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 723 Eight Imperial Merchants
"We are under the command of Chief Ding." A general went up and shouted: "I was ordered to come over to pick up Shouyang and Wei, and please ask Vice General Jiang to open the door."

"This town has not received a warrant." Jiang Xuan said immediately.

Mr. Ba had no choice but to say: "They are all my brothers, Vice General Jiang, don't make things difficult for us."

While the general manager was speaking, the troops behind were already pushing the cart forward.

The carts were drawn to the front by horses, and the people on the city wall immediately saw the cannons behind the carts.

"Ni Niang, what does Ding Yi want to do?" Jiang Xuan couldn't believe it.

But immediately, another hoarder came over and started assembling something.

A large pile of parts were lifted off the cart and quickly assembled. After a while, they saw that it was an old-fashioned trebuchet.

In the war at the end of the Ming Dynasty, who still used trebuchets? Some people wanted to laugh, but they couldn't.

Because the opponent is one of our own, and it seems to be about to attack.

"What should I do?" Someone around Jiang Xuan panicked.

"I don't believe that Ding Yi really dared to attack us, he dared to come up and beat him with cannons." Jiang Xuan said angrily.

They don't have Hongyi cannons, but Yanxiong's people are assembling trebuchets 500 meters away.

Everyone looked at each other, Jiang Xuan didn't open the door, Yan Xiong was pretending.

In less than a quarter of an hour, two trebuchets were installed.

"Ready." Someone has already started to order.

Molotov cocktails are loaded on the trebuchet.

Yan Xiong was riding on the horse, looking at Jiang Xuan.

Jiang Xuan ignored him. Up to now, he still didn't believe that Ding Yi's men dared to attack him.

"These people don't cry until they see the coffin." Yan Xiong came here to beat him, so he has nothing to say to this kind of people.

"beat."

Whoosh, an ignited petrol bomb flew up.

Jiang Xuan and the others looked at this thing flying towards the top of the city, everyone thought it was funny, Ding Yi was fighting, didn't he want to use this?
What the hell is this?

Just when he was about to laugh out loud, bang, the petrol bomb landed on the battlements, and hoo, the fire broke out in an instant.

The Ming army near the crenel moved around to avoid it.

Many people looked at the fire and laughed, what's the use of burning in the crenel, it will be extinguished in a while.

but.

Whoosh, whoosh, Yan Xiong's two trebuchets kept throwing down at a very fast speed.

Bang, bang, bang, only a dozen or so were thrown away, and no one could stand more than 100 meters around the gate of the city, and there were fires everywhere.

Jiang Xuan's expression changed drastically, and he finally realized that the trebuchet was a bit powerful, not only could it be thrown accurately, but it could also be burned.

The cannons on their city walls were all ignited, and the artillerymen were frightened and ran down holding the gunpowder.

"General, they are really here." Jiang Xuan's soldiers were terrified.

The main force, Yan Xiong, has elite soldiers and horses with complete armor, and they also look scared.

At this time, no one could stand on the top of the city, and the Ming army began to push the artillery forward. Looking at it like this, it was obvious that they were going to bombard their city gate.

The city gate was broken, and they definitely couldn't stop Ding Yi's elite troops.

"Quick, quick, open the city gate." Seeing that something was wrong, Jiang Xuan hurriedly opened the city gate.

He finally knew now that there was nothing Ding Yi didn't dare to do.

So on May [-]th, Yan Xiong occupied Yanghewei. This is a big fort, and there are Yanghekou and Huyukou, the important Great Wall entrances nearby.

He captured Jiang Xuan and recruited [-] strong soldiers from Jiang Xuan's [-] soldiers, and the rest were either left to hoard fields or dismissed.

Yan Xiong left 1000 soldiers and horses in Yanghewei, [-] newly recruited elites, [-] hoarded soldiers and their families, and the original [-] multilateral troops hoarded fields together.

In this way, there are 4000 soldiers and horses stationed here, and more than [-] people are hoarding fields.

Although the number of troops is smaller than before, they are more elite, and the ability to store land has increased exponentially.

Then Yan Xiong continued to go to Tianchengwei, also incorporated, leaving another [-] soldiers and horses, plus [-] hoarded soldiers and their families.

Then go west.

It took him half a month to walk from east to west, along the various frontiers of Datong, recruit thousands of strong soldiers, and distribute all [-] soldiers and [-] hoarded troops.

In the first year, he recruited strong men for training. In the second year, when he was formed, four thousand of his five thousand soldiers would be recovered. After that, for defense, there would be one thousand Dongjiang veterans, leading four thousand local frontier troops and military households.

By the end of June, Ding Yi had fully controlled all the forts and guards in Datong Town in the shortest time and with the least casualties.

A total of 3 strong soldiers were recruited before and after, so that Ding Yi had [-] infantry battalions, [-] cavalry, and more than [-] soldiers in Datong Town.

In addition, 52 mu of grain fields were obtained from the Daiwangfu and the Weisuo, all of which were handed over to hoarding soldiers and refugees who followed the refugees.

The hoarding tax is [-]%, the refugee tax is [-]%, and it is guaranteed to be reduced by [-]% after three years. Those who have soldiers in each household will be reduced by another [-]%, so as to encourage them to actively become soldiers in the future.

As for three years later, Ding Yi reckons that he has unified the whole country and can set taxes uniformly.

On the Datong side, there are more sandy land near the border, which is very suitable for growing sweet potatoes.

The output of rice and wheat planted here is relatively low, but the output of planted sweet potatoes may be higher than that of Dengzhou.

Ding Yi began to vigorously promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes, and now he is not afraid of being imitated by the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, because these two companies will not be able to do so for a few years.

The actual grain fields in Datong Prefecture are about 400 million mu. As usual, officials need to be organized first before the next step is to re-measure the fields.

These tasks cannot be completed in a day or two, and are organized by Chen Minglin, a clerk from Lushun.

After the military affairs were settled, Ding Yi started to engage in civil and commercial affairs, step by step and then took control of Datong.

In early June, Ding Yi set up the mining department, taxation department, and business department in Datong.

Prioritize the preparation of coal mines and iron ore.

At this time, there are no large iron mines in Datong, only some small iron mines in Lingqiu and other places. The few large iron mines in Shanxi are not here, and there are rich rock mines, including limestone.

But the Ming Dynasty at this time basically only recognized limestone, and various rocks such as volcanic rock, granite, and basalt that are useful for later generations were hardly cared about in Datong.

Of course, many local pier forts will use some rocks, but even the craftsmen don't know the names.

Ding Yi started by spreading lime, of course limestone will not be let go, and other rocks are not going to be touched for the time being.

Besides limestone, what Ding Yi values ​​most is coal mines.

Datong has the largest coal mine in China, with large reserves and many mineable coal seams, with an average thickness of 30-40 meters.Low ash content, less sulfur and phosphorus impurities, high calorific value, and stable coal seam, easy to mine.

Shanxi has a well-developed iron smelting industry, and the use of coal to refine iron is the standard configuration here. Song Yingxing said in "Tiangong Kaiwu" that at that time, [-]% of iron smelting in the Ming Dynasty was coal and [-]% was charcoal, and steelmaking was the most important. Good is coal.

Therefore, in the Liao, Song, and Yuan dynasties, the local coal mining industry was very developed.

When he arrived in Datong, Ding Yi was like a mouse in the rice tank. The coal mines here are plentiful and easy to mine.

In May, Ding Yi asked Ge Hongshan, the intelligence officer, to investigate, and finally found that the coal mines here (especially the large coal mines) have been contracted by various businessmen, and the annual tax payment is pitiful. The businessmen still bribe officials, and the officials collect less tax. Everyone benefits, and the Ming Dynasty suffers the most.

There are also some small mines that are not contracted by anyone. Just like Shandong in the past, they are all spontaneously organized by ordinary people, or several companies join forces to dig, and then transport them out for sale. You only need to pay some money to the local officials, and no one cares about them at all. .

Ding Yi immediately decided to convene all the coal merchants in Datong Prefecture to discuss the matter. The reason was that a fire broke out in the magistrate’s office last night, many books were burned, and the contracts (deeds) of the coal merchants were gone. Please bring your contracts Re-verify.

On June [-], more than [-] coal merchants gathered in the Yamen of the prefect of Datong.

The coal merchants sat in the hall noisily, asking each other what happened.

Two coal merchants, one named Fan Yongheng and the other named Wang Xiuye, were the leaders among them.

Fan Yongheng's ancestral home is Jiexiu, and he currently lives in Zhangjiakou, that is, on the site of Wang Chengyin, the chief soldier of the Xuanfu. The business of Fan's family includes grain, medicinal materials, tea, coal, etc.

Wang Xiuye's Wang family is also Jiexiu, but their business is mainly in Guangling. The iron mine in Guangling belongs to their family. The Wang family mainly deals in iron materials and coal.

The Fan family and the Wang family were two of the eight imperial merchants who founded the Qing Dynasty.

In disregard of the court's strict foreign trade orders, these two secretly transported various materials such as grain, iron, and medicinal materials to the Manchu Qing Dynasty. One shipped from Zhangjiakou Fort and the other from Xinping Fort.

In the past few years, he has made a lot of money, which has also laid the foundation for his future career as an imperial merchant of the Qing Dynasty.

At this time, Ding Yi hadn't come yet, and there was only a small official in the magistrate's yamen in the hall. Everyone asked him, how is the fire, and what about our contract?The little official asked three questions and didn't know anything, and only said that he would wait for the magistrate Hong to come.

"Treasurer Fan, what do you think, what does Ding Yi mean?" Wang Xiuye ​​said in a low voice at this time: "I received the news, maybe Ding Yi summoned us?"

Fan Yongheng had a strange look on his face.

"Oh, Ding Yi is a commander in chief, why did he call us?" Someone beside him asked strangely.

"You don't know? Ding Yi seized the military power as soon as he came, and Brother Jiang Tuan was imprisoned."

"Wang Quan was killed."

"He robbed a lot of fields and food from Daiwang's mansion."

Wang Xiuye ​​seemed to know everything, with a look of fear on his face.

"So bold? Is it real?" Many people gathered around.

"Didn't you say that Dai Wang supports him in hoarding fields and training soldiers?"

"I heard that Dai Wang took the initiative to give him Tian Heyin?"

Wang Xiuye ​​sneered: "Dai Wang is now trapped in Dai Wang's mansion, and he can't even get out of the gate. Such words can only deceive a group of stupid scholars in the court. Who would believe it?"

"This guy is so greedy?" Someone was dumbfounded, obviously shocked by Ding Yi's deeds.

"Then we have too few here?" Swipe, everyone looked at Fan Yongheng, Fan Yongheng held a greeting card in his hand, which contained gifts from various families.

Before coming, everyone had prepared gifts, which were originally intended to be given to the magistrate, but now they suddenly heard that it might be Ding Yi who called them.

"Old Wang, you didn't say it earlier, it was Ding Yizhao, let's prepare more?" Someone said dissatisfied.

"These generals are more greedy than civilian officials, we have to add more."

"Don't panic, shopkeepers, we can play it by ear, we can add more, add more, as long as he is willing to accept, we can talk about anything."

"I drove into Datong this morning, and the money I received hasn't changed."

Some people feel that after Ding Yi came, the price did not increase.

In the past, every time there was a change of chief soldier, he had to pay a raise once he entered Datong.

Everyone was discussing, and a lot of footsteps were heard outside the door.

Come on, come on, everyone quickly calm down.

(End of this chapter)