Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 523
It is enough to say that the ideas of scholars in this era are distorted. In the Battle of Xiangcheng, Fu Zonglong, who succeeded Yang Sichang as the governor of the Huguangchuan Shaanxi Army, was defeated by Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai in the Mengjiazhuang near Xiangcheng. He Renlong and Li Guo Oddly enough, Baoding Governor Yang Wenyue, General Soldier Hu Dawei and other officers and soldiers suffered heavy losses one after another. Almost all the main officers and soldiers that Emperor Chongzhen could mobilize were scarred. On such a day of national calamity, Zhang Pu regarded it as a way to isolate Song Qingshu’s food channels. In his eyes, the rise and fall of the country seems to be less important than partisan disputes.

But even if several major grain-producing areas have been hit hard, there are almost 500 to 800 million dans of grain on the market in Jiangnan, plus tens of millions of dans of other miscellaneous grains. Ten taels of silver are enough to buy a house , who would have thought that fried rice would cost the same price as a house?In this game, there is no two or three million taels that cannot be won, and if this is really done, the economies of many places in the south of the Yangtze River will collapse immediately. Even if the Yangzhou salt merchants win, it will be a miserable victory. For the restoration of Donglin Bao Lu and the others were obviously unwilling to gamble with all their wealth.

Seeing the big merchants hesitate, Zhang Pu wished he could take a knife and force them to pay by their necks one by one. At this time, Mr. Renxue was also out of style, and kept roaring in the crowd like a mad dog, but even if he yelled For a long time, dozens of Huizhou businessmen remained silent.

On the contrary, Qian Qianyi had a little more insight. Seeing the silence, he suddenly gave a dry cough and murmured out a few numbers.

"Song Qingshu has a lot of party members, and the six departments of the capital, led by Li Jiantai and Wang Yaozhi, can be estimated to be no less than three hundred. This Nanzhili prefecture, county magistrate 62, Nanjing Six Department Branch Road 79, and sesame officials are countless. If he falls, it is estimated that there will be no less than [-] positions vacated by another eunuch case."

"Confucian businessmen who run their families, there are probably quite a few children waiting for officials to be sent!"

If you want to get financial support, you have to come up with political interests. Qian Qianyi is really cruel, throwing out one of the most precious commodities in this era, official position!But now with Zhou Yanru in power, the Donglin Party has begun to gain power, and it is really opening up.

However, Huizhou merchants and Confucian merchants run their families, and most of them operate salt and tea. Being exploited by officials is very painful. If you can get hundreds of official positions to protect yourself, it will indeed be a fatal temptation for the various clans.

How can I gain most of it, or even all of my net worth?

After pondering for a long time, Wang Mengzhen, the general merchant of Yangzhou, finally spoke. His thin face was shining with divine light, his slender eyes stared at Qian Qianyi thoughtfully like snakes, and he asked sinisterly.

"I heard that Mr. Qian's family has a large collection of books, and they are wealthy. How can these books be worth 10 taels?"

As soon as these words came out, Qian Qianyi's face was distorted.

Regardless of Qian Qianyi's poor character, party struggles brought down the Ming Dynasty, and he was the first to shave his head and surrender to the Qing Dynasty in order to save his life. However, his contribution to and destruction of Chinese civilization is also very great. There is only one reason, Qian Qianyi His greatest hobby, book collection, has reached the point where he is addicted to books. He has successively acquired the Mai Wang Guan of the bibliophile Zhao Qimei, Liu Fengfei's Zai Pavilion, Qian Yunzhi's Xuanxin Room, and the rolling Yangtze River East Passing Water The descendants of the author Yang Zhen, Yang Yi, collected all the books in Qihui Shanfang.

The vast majority of Qian Qianyi’s collection is still the orphaned copies of Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties. There are probably no less than tens of thousands of books in his collection, almost including most of the classics in China for hundreds of years. At the beginning, Song Qingshu obtained the books of the Han Dynasty from the north. Even if the relationship with Song Qingshu was so bad, Qian Qianyi still tried every means to buy it with a lot of money, and even hired a thief to steal it. In the end, Song Qingshu, who was dumbfounded, simply had someone copy a copy for him, so as to save the thief from worrying.

Qian Qianyi and Liu Ru are admirable, and they are also romantic scholar-bureaucrats who have heard of each other, read and continued, and have a strong affection.

But it is also a punishment for Qian Qianyi's bad character. In the seventh year of Shunzhi, his lifeblood, the Jiangyun Building, burned almost all his books. This cultural loss is almost the same as Li Zicheng's when he entered Beijing. The Wenyuan Pavilion fire can be compared.

Asking him to take out all his collection of books to pay back the money to defeat Song Qingshu is simply killing him. In an instant, Qian Qianyi's furious beard stood on end.

However, Wang Zhenmeng's words made all the salt merchants in the room look over. Everyone stared at Qian Qianyi. Since your Donglin Party asked our salt merchants to spend all their wealth, you can't watch the fun from behind. Bar?If you want to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, and pick ready-made fruits, we will not agree!
"Mr. Qian, it's a big deal to eradicate traitors for the country! Besides, we sold the grain afterwards and confiscated the properties of Song thieves, all of which can be taken out!" Zhang Pu urged Qian Qianyi by the sleeve, and immediately He turned his head and said loudly again.

"I, Zhang Pu, are willing to donate my Donglou collection, as well as the property in Songjiang, as long as it can ruin the reputation of the Song thief!"

The voice, the distorted face, was as miserable as a ghost. Even Chen Zilong and other leaders of Fushe felt chills when they heard it. Under his red eyes, Wu Changshi also said tremblingly: "I donate 16 yuan of family property and Tibetan silver." Two, seven thousand volumes!"

"I published five thousand copies from my Yunmengzhai book collection."

"I am out..."

Dozens of leaders of Donglin Fushe revealed what they could donate one after another. Adding one yuan was worth almost four or five million taels. In the end, everyone's eyes also fell on Qian Qianyi.

His face was so pale and bloodless, Qian Qianyi finally nodded heavily.

"I have 9 volumes of books in Jiangyun Building, and [-] properties belonging to the Qian family, with [-] taels of silver. I will give them all and pawn them for silver, just to beat the Song thieves!"

The Donglin Party was so ruthless that it cramped, and finally aroused the fighting spirit of the Yangzhou salt merchants. Looking around, Wang Mengzhen also nodded heavily.

"All of us followed suit, Rulin Company, this year's grain price purchase, 11 taels a load!"

…………

A war without gunpowder is a matter of life and death. In September, people in the south of the Yangtze River discovered again that the two major food companies were simply crazy.

Mijiaduobao bought 11 taels and [-] tael, Rulin Liang bought [-] taels, Mai Song Qingshu [-] taels, Zhang Pu [-] taels, millet was also copied to [-] taels and [-] tael, and even the prices of coarse grains such as beans, sweet potatoes, and yams were lower. It has more than doubled compared to last year.

The countryside is even more insane. The grain has been harvested on one side, but someone has already paid the deposit on the other side.

Even the output of the cannery for three consecutive months has been fixed by these guys. The alliance between Yangzhou merchants and the Donglin Party has pinpointed Song Qingshu's Achilles' heel. He is good at business, but short at land. Ten million, but there is no corresponding food output. Now Song Qingshu can maintain such a strong energy, thanks to such a high food price, he can still support the military and civilian businessmen under him, but once this food is cut off, even if he has hundreds of millions Two silver can't save the collapsed business empire, after all, silver can't be eaten.

This wave of high food prices not only did not lead to selling in the market, but also caused panic and fear. Everyone remembers the disaster caused by the food war in the south of the Yangtze River a few years ago. This time, the flames of war burned more vigorously. Many landlords , the sale of food has also become more cautious, and people all over the country are frantically hoarding everything that can be eaten. A man-made famine seems to be on the verge of approaching again.

Songjiang, the Bund, and the head office of the West India Company of Shili Matheson.

"There are only 7000 dans of grain received from all over the country, and only 40 dans of grain in the Dabie Mountains. If things go on like this, the shortage of food subsidies for employees will reach [-]% this year, and the output of the cannery will also be drained sharply. Commander, if this continues, we It's going to crash!"

Datong Xue Shichang, the executive director in charge of grain management in Song Qingshu's big boss's office, his face turned pale, he held a report and said tremblingly, he knew very well what grain means to the business empire in their hands today. wearing something.

"Boss, we have to increase the purchase price, and I suggest that the board of directors immediately order that all canned food be stopped. We can't starve ourselves to death!"

Looking at the report, Song Qingshu himself frowned. After a long time, he sighed and shook his head in distress.

"Zhang Pu is crazy!"

Even if the later generations knew how crazy Donglin and his group of bastards who talked about harming the country were fighting, Song Qingshu never thought of it. He monopolized all the food in Jiangnan and sold it at a high price. He could indeed choke himself to death, but Jiangnan would probably collapse soon after. You must know that most of the nine sides of the Ming Dynasty's frontier defense system were ruined in the Songjin Battle. Up to now, the emperor has no strength to lick this wound. They are all dead, and the military power in the pass has also suffered heavy losses. At this juncture, if the last lifeline of Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan, is strangled to death, I am afraid that it will not be until the 17th year of Chongzhen, and the country will be destroyed in the 15th year of Chongzhen next year!

But in order to compete with himself for this benefit, this group of sanctimonious bastards even ignored Daming. Daming had raised such a group of selfish grandchildren for 300 years. No wonder Emperor Chongzhen shouted furiously before committing suicide. kill!

However, after suppressing his anger for a moment, Song Qingshu's face became even more gloomy. He threw the report aside casually and said with a sneer, "No price increase! The cannery should sell it as soon as it should be sold. I want to take a gamble. How much money does the grandson have to buy all the food in the world!"

This is also called putting down all his wealth and life. Looking at Song Qingshu's fierce face, Xue Shichang's face almost twitched. After a few minutes of stuttering, he bowed and left the boss's office with fists in his hands, but when he turned his head, Then I went to the office of Cao Sanxi, the major shareholder next door.

The gamble is on the fate of tens of millions of people who eat this bowl of food at Jiaduobao. Now that Shanxi's property is almost thrown away, he has no way out, and he can't afford to gamble. Song Qingshu insists on going his own way, and can only shake this decision through the board of directors .

In the whole of Jiangnan, people are panicking...

(End of this chapter)