Chapter 36 It’s the next one
Chapter 36 It’s the next one
Pei Yuan actually had some private thoughts in mind.
Before coming here, he went to ask his creditors if there was any way to make money in Nanzhi.
When the creditors saw that Pei Yuan was going to take the initiative to get money, they were all overjoyed.
And what other methods can the Jinyiwei use to make money?
It may be that my colleagues will have to suffer.
As for the shameful and dirty things in the industry, we understand them.
So, when several creditors who had connections in Nanzhi sent Pei Yuan out, they smiled with their back teeth showing.
However, this is Pei Yuan’s most valuable source of wealth, and it is not time to reap the rewards yet.
Cheng Leixiang's no-cost business is very tempting.
Pei Yuan immediately made up his mind, "Let's try to get one vote first!"
Cheng Leixiang was afraid that Pei Yuan would not give up pretending to be an envoy, so he patted his chest and promised, "Don't worry, sir. Those who dare to pretend to be gods in Yingtian Prefecture are all from the White Lotus Sect, Maitreya Sect, etc. They are all old enemies, and they are most afraid of us. If we really go to those small places, they may be confused when we say we are the Thousand Households of Suppressing Evils."
After the three of them made up their minds, they found a house to stay in, and the unfamiliar Chen Toutie went out to keep an eye on the guard of the Zhenfu Division.
Sure enough, after only half a day, Chen Toutie came back excitedly to report that he had found a family seeking help from the Pacification Office. He followed them all the way to a shop and asked around, and found out that the owner of the house was a senior official in the Nanjing Ministry of Industry.
It was said that there were constant cries of grief coming from that shop every night. The owner did not believe it and led a dozen strong men to break in at night.
As a result, they searched from the small buildings along the street to the backyard all night, but found nothing, and several of the strong men they brought with them were inexplicably missing.
Later, the families of those able-bodied men started to make a fuss, and the person in charge had to pay a lot of silver as compensation.
Now there is a two-story shop and a take-out backyard warehouse sitting there unused.
Cheng Leixiang asked, "What kind of business does that shop do?"
Chen Tou Tie said, "Look at the sign. They sell fur goods from the Northwest."
Pei Yuan's eyes lit up, "Oh, it's still a fat sheep."
The two northwestern ports refer to Zhangjiakou and Gubeikou, where the Ming Dynasty traded tea and horses. Transporting furs from the two ports to Yingtianfu could earn several times the profit.
Cheng Leixiang looked like an expert, "If there was no big profit to be made, no one would target you."
Pei Yuan thought about the fact that the gangsters were setting up this matter in the front and the Qianhu Office was waiting to take the private job in the back, so he couldn't help but say, "Let's go earlier. If we are late, we will be blocked by Tan Tai Fangtu's people, and it will be difficult to talk."
Cheng Leixiang used to be a big shot in his own territory, but now he has to go to other people's territory to grab the meat, and he is a little nervous.
Hearing Pei Yuan say this, I also thought about a quick victory.
The three of them hit it off immediately. Cheng Leixiang and Pei Yuan took out their Jinyiwei official uniforms and put them on, while Chen Toutie still wore the dusty outfit he wore when he was on the road.
Chen Toutie led the way in front, and the other two followed quietly behind.
They lived on Pingshi Street, which was already a prosperous place, but as they went along the way they saw more shops and more unique scenery.
Pei Yuan even had the illusion that he was visiting a temple fair in later times.
In addition to the usual wine signs that can be seen everywhere, there are also tea houses, pawn shops, money houses, cake shops, bookstores, etc. In the middle, there are also stage, temple, dyeing workshop, pig and cattle market, etc.
The sounds of hawking and bargaining are not noisy in this bustling crowd. Instead, they give people an inexplicable feeling of abundance and satisfaction.
In addition, there were not only street performers walking on stilts and beating gongs to make a living on the road, but Pei Yuan also saw an archery and gambling shooting range.
Pei Yuan stared for a while and felt as if he saw himself in the future playing with balloons at a temple fair.
The shops along the street also have a wide range of goods, including Sichuan and Guangdong groceries, Northwest furs, Fujian and Guangdong seafood, and Beijing-style shoes and hats. There is even a shop with a sign that reads "East and West, all goods available."
Pei Yuan remembered that it was still far from the opening of the city during the Longqing reign. So, with foreign goods being sold along the streets and archery ranges being built in Nanjing, what kind of monster had the business grown into?
Another thing that surprised Pei Yuan the most was that the most common shops he saw along the way were bathhouses.
From time to time, ordinary people would come out leisurely after taking a bath.
When Pei Yuan followed the East Factory to Nanzhili to investigate a case, his feelings were not so strong. At that time, he also had many speculations about the reasons why the court could not collect taxes.
It was not until this time, when he traveled south along the canal and saw the northern provinces paralyzed by the attacks of the Bazhou rebels, that Pei Yuan realized how abnormal this kind of solitary beauty was.
For a moment, Pei Yuan thought that if these riches could be transformed into combat power, how many soldiers could be supported and what would happen to the entire world.
The next moment, Pei Yuan woke up from his dream.
The system is rotten, what else can we do?
Everyone is shouting that "the Ming army is invincible if it is not fully paid, and it will be invincible if it is fully paid", but the problem is that now it is no longer a problem that can be solved simply by money.
The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty’s garrisons were all from military households.
The idea of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was a good one. By relying on military farming to support the army, the court could maintain an army of two million without spending taxes.
However, the imperial court exploited the soldiers in military settlements severely, and the rampant corruption among the military officers turned a large amount of military settlement land into their own property.
By the time the subsequent military officers took over, the land that could be divided among the military households had already been divided up by the previous generations of military officers. What would the newcomers do?
Then the only option left is to let the military households die.
By the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing army was almost approaching the capital. Lu Xiangsheng, the Minister of War who was ordered to lead the army and holding the imperial sword, was completely numb when he counted the troops under his command.
Of the two million troops of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, only less than 20,000 mobile troops remain today.
So, has no one taken care of this problem for all these years?
some.
During the Zhengtong period, the emperor was quite capable. He discovered these problems and began a comprehensive military survey.
First, they checked the military rations, and then burned whatever they found. In four years, seven warehouses were burned.
Later the emperor was furious.
I thought to myself, let me check the person. He can’t be set on fire, right?
At that time, there were a total of 660,000 soldiers registered in the Ministry of War. The censors spent three years counting them, but after all the effort they only managed to count 60,000 people.
Of course, the emperor discovered the trick at a glance.
So he took a clever approach.
If I give each soldier one or two taels of silver and ask my trusted confidants to count each person's hair, then I can count how much money I have spent and know exactly how many troops I have, right?
So the border troops laughed.
This kid is quite smart...
There is no need to say more about what happened later.
All you need to remember is that this emperor was later called Emperor Yingzong of Ming.
The military rations can’t be checked, the military households can’t be checked, so is there no one going to check the military settlements?
There are also.
That person was the one who sorted out the political arena, saved the finances, and earned the reputation of "a capable minister in a peaceful era, a hero in a chaotic era"...
Liu Jin: It’s me!
Thanks to book friend Ci Ke Le and book friend 20230815082640508 for their rewards. Thank you for your support.
(End of this chapter)