Chapter 331: Everything is worse than money. Take someone

Between Jinan and Jining, a capital hub of Shandong, a hub for Shandong's canal transportation, the richest city and economic center. In order to facilitate connection, Jiaozhou Camp spent a lot of money to establish a 30-mile post station system between the two cities.

The so-called hundreds of miles of expedited is this system, which allows messages to be transmitted between two cities at the fastest speed of this era. Carrier pigeons are also a means, but they are too unreliable and require very professional people to raise them.

Fang Yingren, the second son of the Fang family, apologized in Jinan City, had not passed the news immediately after the day of the day and arrived in Jining City the next night.

In addition to the magistrate's yamen, there are also yamen for salt transportation and canal transportation. In addition, large merchants from the north and south have set up branches here. In order to maintain such a prosperous window in Shandong, similar to a free trade city, Jiaozhou Camp has a strong force in the city, except for the Shandong Salt Gang and Lingshan Trading Company, neither the army nor the armed salt dings were stationed. The so-called special zone is also.

After receiving the news, the head of the Shandong Salt Gang in Jining branch was extremely embarrassed. Under his nose, people from other provinces were swaying to sell private salt. In any case, they were their own poor detectives.

The day after the expedited news came, the permanent subordinates on the dock came to report it, saying that after the investigation, the canal transport ship suspected of being incorporated with private salt should have arrived at the dock tomorrow. The time was urgent, and the head of Jining Prefecture was not vague.

He directly led the entire Shandong Salt Gang to the Jining City, and borrowed some people from the Jining Branch of Lingshan Trading Company, and went to the dock in a mighty manner.

These people have almost one hundred people in total. With the idea of ​​this in charge, it should be enough to deal with private salt dealers.

The grain ships transported by the canal are not the size of more than a dozen or twenty ships, but a large fleet of hundreds of canal ships. After coming to Jiningzhou, they always have to dock and rest, because they walk towards North Zhili here, and only when they arrive in Tongzhou can they officially stop at the wharf.

Although the Shandong Salt Gang is semi-public everywhere, the person in charge also borrowed a seal from Yan Ding in advance, which is the inspection department's seal of private salt. It is legitimate to search for whether there is any private salt entrainment.

Unexpectedly, the ship was docked and led people up to reveal their identity. Just as they were about to board the ship for search, the ship workers and the escorts on the canal ship all started to attack.

They gathered around the dock and shouted loudly, not allowing them to go down to check. The management of the camp in Jiningzhou is a little relaxed than other places. In addition, because of the peace and stability in Shandong, Jining City has become increasingly prosperous over the years. The people of Jiningzhou often feel better than Shandong and do things.

Moreover, literati and ordinary people complained and complained much more than others. People often say that without General Li’s strict control, Jining City might be ten times more prosperous than it is now.

I don’t know when these nonsense words came out, but they were recognized by most people. They made Jining Prefecture’s magistrate tremble all day long, fearing that these remarks in Jining Prefecture would bring him some harm.

Therefore, when people from Shandong Salt Gang and Lingshan Trading Company quarreled with the boatmen who were carrying the canal boats at the dock, if the people elsewhere in Shandong saw this situation, they were afraid that they would avoid it, but the idle people in Jiningzhou and others were siegeing more and more.

There are many strange words in the world, such as "The prosperity of Jining City depends on everyone doing business freely. If you investigate this way, isn't it going to smash our Jining sign?" and "This world is a good thing, it's all about you, inspectors who don't have an official position, harming the people, and there will be so many chaos." There are all kinds of words.

There were also the coolies loading and unloading on the dock, watching their cargo owners being blocked there. They had no money to make money. They were also anxious and clamoring and scolding each other. The situation became even more unbearable.

The head of the Shandong Salt Gang in Jining never expected that this matter would be so chaotic. Everyone who followed him was ridiculed by the surrounding areas, making him impatient, while the boatmen on the canal boats were even more powerful and pressed step by step.

Fortunately, a Lingshan Trading Company was a nimble man. He took advantage of the chaos and ran to the canal boat parked by the dock. He took a knife and cut the sack piled outside. There were rice inside. He changed direction, moved the sack away, and cut it in it. He was lucky, and this pack was salt.

This also shows that the group of people who are trafficking in private salt are getting more and more courageous. Perhaps they are not afraid of investigations and other matters. They simply put a layer of grain bags outside. Such simple concealment is just entrained, and they are not afraid of investigations of private salt.

Since it was the salt that was found, the courage of these people in the Shandong Salt Gang suddenly became stronger. Some of the other party pushed and scolded the boatmen, and some of them showed a confused look on their faces, but some of them suddenly became nervous. The idle people outside who watched the fun were quiet for a while.

No matter how much Li Meng relaxed in Jining City, these people knew that the salt law in Shandong was harsh, and they also knew that the salt price in Jining City was much higher now, and the crime of trafficking in private salt was really amazing.

However, before the Shandong Salt Gang could catch it, the first attack was the private salt dealers. The group of people were hiding short weapons on their bodies. They suddenly burst out. The Shandong Salt Gang was caught off guard and was actually rushed out by the other party, and several others were chopped over.

When they saw the blood, the idle people outside who were watching the fun realized that they were scared. But so many people gathered around to watch jokes for so long, and it was not so easy to run away. Seeing these private salt dealers rushing out with sharp swords with fierce swords, they suddenly became in chaos.

Not to mention those who were killed in blocking the road of these private salt dealers, nor to mention those who were crowded and trampled on each other and injured. However, the chaos of these people led to a problem. The private salt dealers rushed out, but the team of people from the Shandong Salt Gang were blocked and could not move forward or retreat.

This situation is really embarrassing. If you can't catch the salt owl, you will be killed by the salt owls and killed more than a dozen. In the end, you will be run away by the private salt dealers.

Think about the time when Jiaozhouying started, it was just relying on blocking other people's salt roads and selling their own private salt to start. This is a special skill. Who would have thought that someone else did the same thing today, it really made people lose their faces.

Now that things have come to this point, it is embarrassing, but they have to do it step by step. Shandong Yan Help these people used their relationship in the city. The Jining branch of Lingshan Trading Company directly informed Yan Ding and the army outside the city through people, and someone came to the door with a post to find the various yamen in Jining Prefecture.

However, the actions of those private salt dealers were once again beyond their expectations. These private salt dealers actually had a stronghold outside Jining City. After arriving at that stronghold, they immediately ran out on horseback.

Things are getting bigger and bigger. This group of salt dealers are powerful and organized. And there are also supporters within Shandong.

Judging from the current situation of Jiaozhou Camp, it really makes people feel something is wrong with this strange team of salt owls. On the one hand, they conduct strict investigations and on the other hand, they report to the depressing result as soon as possible.

This time, there was nothing unexpected happening. After Li Meng received the news, he was furious. The head of the Shandong Salt Gang in Jining Prefecture was immediately dismissed. The deputy and the leader of the group were ordered to make meritorious service. Huang Ping, the big leader of the Shandong Salt Gang, personally presided over the investigation of private salt.

The situation was indeed a bit strange. Although Jiaozhou Camp was relatively relaxed in order to maintain the economic hub status of Jiningzhou, there was no clue that could not be noticed. However, after Huang Ping arrived in Jiningzhou, he found that this matter was really so strange. When those salt dealers were at the stronghold outside the city, some people said that they had seen it, and then it seemed that they had completely disappeared and could never find anywhere again.

The people will definitely not really disappear, but hide somewhere, but they can't find them. However, when interrogating the ship workers and friends who were with the private salt dealers in Jining, they knew the truth. The canal fleet headed north to transport grain. They usually traveled together.

Hundreds of boats were walking together, and they didn't care about each other. There were also many conveniences. Those were not the private salt dealers who set out north in Huizhou, but those private salt dealers met with them in Xuzhou, saying that there was something wrong with the fleet and repairing the ships in Xuzhou, which was delayed some time, so they made an appointment to go together.

This is also a very normal thing. No one has encountered any accidents when they are sailing outside, heading south and north. Naturally, the canal ships in Huizhou are not suspicious. However, the canal ships that stay in Xuzhou Prefecture seem to have no problems. It is very normal. With the protection of the yamen, they will gather together.

All the way, they were all just accused, and no one was suspicious. Who would have thought that when they arrived in Jining, the people from the Shandong Salt Gang suddenly came to check the ship, saying that it was a smuggling.

The crime of "entrapment" is used on the canal ship, and the land is indeed ridiculous. The profit from transporting the canal grain is not as profitable as the grain sold by the Liu family in Songjiang Prefecture to Shandong. If the canal ship cannot be lost, it will be a little profit. If the canal ship can be driven on the river, who will not have any problems?

The reason why many people take over the canal ships and many people are willing to come in to do it is that they actually play the role of logistics in the north and south central areas. The profit of the canal ships is to carry goods during the process of going south and going north, and the south goods are sold to the north. The profit is much more expensive than local sales. Similarly, the transport of specialties from the north to the south is also a great benefit.

What's more, many foreign goods are now coming in through the ports of Jiangnan and then sold to the north. The matter of entrained goods is already semi-legal, and the official also agrees, otherwise who would be willing to undertake the work of the canal transportation?

Moreover, the canal workers have a semi-official status. As soon as the ship was intercepted by the Shandong Salt Gang, the group of private salt dealers encouraged them to say that this was a rascal from Jining and wanted to blackmail us our money. As long as everyone tried their best, those who investigated would definitely not dare to offend the public.

This is what caused trouble and made these people from Shandong Yan Gang look dirty.

After the interrogation, I still don’t know where the private salt dealers were going, but I know a few information. Those salt dealers got the guarantee documents from the government. It is generally difficult for private salt dealers to have any interaction with the government, let alone get the guarantee documents, and it is not so easy to get the canal ships.

Moreover, Shandong's salt law is so harsh that ordinary people in the wild and gangsters dare not take such risks? In addition to Fang Yingzhong, the boss of the Fang family should also have the participation of the government. They searched the warranty documents. However, it was the guarantee documents in Xuzhou Prefecture. It was unexpected that a civil servant had such courage.

What made Huang Ping and the others make progress was Kong Sande, the big shopkeeper of Wenru Trading Company. On the fourth day of the incident on the dock, a young man dressed in a businessman came to Lingshan Trading Company and said that he had a letter to hand it over to Mr. Meng, but neither Lingshan Trading Company was in Jiningzhou, nor the general number in Jinan or Jiaozhou.

This was an agreed code, and the letter was immediately handed over to Huang Ping, who is currently in charge of intelligence work in Jining Prefecture. The letter was written by Kong Sande, and the contents of it happened to be complete with the things that Fang Yingren did not say and the Shandong Salt Gang were confused.

At the beginning of the letter, it was not about private salt land, but Kong Sande said. He is now an idle person. The position of the chief shopkeeper of Wenru Trading Company was deprived of the position of Yan Shenggong two days ago and handed over to Yan Shenggong's second son to take charge.

This is an extraordinary event for Jiaozhouying. Wenru Trading Company is in the areas of southern Shandong and southern Zhili. It can be said to be a wealthy merchant. Of course, there are also contributions from Jiaozhouying and Lingshan Trading Company. Many things are not convenient to do by themselves, and are often left to Kong Sande and Wenru Trading Company.

Moreover, the establishment of military farms and the retention and relief of refugees was also a big problem in the early stage. The farms in Jiaozhouying could meet the cost of land transportation, but the cost of transportation required and the time it took was too high. In the two places of Shandong and Guide Prefecture, the method used was to buy them directly from Kong Sande. Kong Mansion is the top three major landlords in Shandong. It imitated Li Meng to run the farms and also stored a large amount of grain and grass. Kong Sande directly sold these grains and grass, which gave Jiaozhouying a lot of convenience.

On the one hand, because of him, Li Meng's system is quite friendly to the Kong Mansion. On the other hand, Kong Sande has made a lot of money and made a lot of contributions in this position.

The reason for being dismissed this time is related to the private salt. Although the Kong Mansion has gained many benefits in the Li Meng system, the salt price has risen, and a large family like the Kong Mansion, which has a huge population, immediately complained, especially knowing that the adjacent Jinan Prefecture and Qingzhou Prefecture are both stable in salt prices, and only after the price increases on their own side, the resentment is even stronger.

From ancient times to the present, the Confucius Mansion has been the darling of all dynasties. In order to prove that its regime is the most popular, especially supported by the scholars of those who have the right to speak, the imperial court is generous and generous, with official positions and land given to a large amount of land, and the children of the Confucius Mansion are becoming increasingly forgetful.

Even the emperor has to treat our family with preferential treatment. Why should a Shandong general use these methods to be so mean to our Confucius Mansion? I can't bear it anymore.

Private salt dealers in Xuzhou did not have contact with the Kong Mansion after the salt prices rose. Before that, several middle-aged and senior house children who were jealous of the business began to take advantage of their own farm industry's close proximity to the canal and colluded with the salt owls in Xuzhou to sell privately.

After the salt price rose, they started to buy bulk purchases. It might not be necessary to say that it was for the Kong family to use it themselves, because Wenru Trading Company could purchase affordable salt through the channels allowed by Jiaozhou Camp. The Kong Mansion was relatively less affected. Moreover, Kong Sande could understand that Li Meng had mastered Qilu and gave his family so many benefits. He was too uneasy to take the other party for nothing. He might as well give back to other aspects, such as buying some high-priced salt.

Kong Sande thought so, but his cousins ​​might not think so. The salt goods they bought were obviously not for the purpose of using it for the Kong family, but to take advantage of the opportunity of high salt prices to make a fortune.

It is forgiven to buy salt for your own use. Buying salt for sale is a big violation of the taboo of Jiaozhou Camp. Kong Sande knew the other party's strength and immediately went to argue with his cousins.

Who would have thought that when they went like this, those cousins ​​did not dare to argue with him, and the person instructed behind him stood up. Yan Shenggong's second son would also be inherited by titles and official positions in the future. He was also an extraordinary figure in the Confucius Mansion. Kong Sande's status was naturally far inferior to him.

But how many people sold Huai salt in Yanzhou and died because of this, Kong Sande had more understanding than his brothers from aristocratic families who were looking for fun every day, and he still had to argue with reason.

Several argued in front of Yan Shenggong. Kong Sande's reason was true. General Li Meng, the Zhendong General, had nearly 100,000 troops, and controlled Shandong. He had such a great victory recently. The armed salt gentry investigated and investigated the embarrassment and suffering of the gentry. It was not that everyone had seen that why should our Confucius Mansion touch this bad luck? He has made a lot of money in farms and business banks over the years. Why should we fight for these small money?

The second son of Yan Shenggong cursed in his heart, "You are in charge of the business and don't know how much gold and silver in the greedy clan are, so naturally they don't like these silver." However, he argued:

"Our Confucius Mansion is the decent one of the scholars of the world. At this time, Li Meng was thinking of a way to humiliate the gentry in Shandong. Confucius Mansion should be more like this."

Things like decent are just false statements. If you say decent, you don’t have to make money to this extent and become a landlord. However, Yan Shenggong’s second son continued:

"The salt price is rising now, and there are other wealthy families in Luwangdiwangzhuang who want to buy salt. As long as we do it with Xuzhou, it is not difficult to make 100,000 taels of silver a year..."

When he heard this "100,000 taels of silver" and Kong Sande, who had been observing carefully, noticed that Yan Shenggong's eyes flashed, and he suddenly felt a secret cry in his heart.

As one of them, he certainly knew what kind of family this Kong Mansion looks like. His benevolence, righteousness and morality are all about being a scattered person. He is more fierce and greedy than ordinary landlords and gentry. Otherwise, how could he have the status of the top three major landlords in Shandong, and why did the Wenru Trading Company be established?

The head of the family, Yan Shenggong, was probably already moved when he heard the "100,000 taels" of silver. He pondered for a while, cleared his throat and said loudly:

"In the land of Qilu, my Kong family has been here for thousands of years. There is also His Highness of the King of Lu in Ziyang City, and the general Li Meng of Zhendong. He is just a vulgar martial artist. He is so arrogant and domineering. He is so arrogant and he is too arrogant... Side, do it carefully, the gentry in Yanzhou is also suffering from salt, and you do this with virtue."

It is really ridiculous to have such a sacrificial reason to sell private salt in Yanzhou to make money. But Kong Sande was anxious when he heard this. Regardless of his respect and respect, he hurriedly stepped forward and argued:

"Mr. Even though this is the case, looking at the chaos in the world, we must always think about the future!"

I understand this very clearly. Who would have thought that the next words would make people vomit blood? The second prince said loudly:

"So what if the dynasty changes? The Kong family is always prosperous. Could anyone else want to be enemies with scholars in the world and saints?"

But this private salt business was completed once and was broken the second time. The salt dealers in Xuzhou were quite well-organized. They usually unload goods at the wharf and then used a big truck to pull it to the manor of Kong Mansion to make this cart shop that specializes in the Confucius Mansion outside the city.

However, they used this car shop as a way out, and they specially brought dozens of riding horses to prepare for unexpected preparations.

The car shop is the property of the Confucius Mansion, so it is necessary to raise more horses. As a result, as soon as they were investigated on the dock, these people rushed out while the chaos was in the chaos and ran directly to the car shop, changed horses, and ran away from Jining City.

The Shandong Salt Gang had no necessary preparations at all. The Xuzhou Salt Owls were riding horses, so naturally the stones could not catch up with them.

However, in Shandong, there are armed salt dicks and troops everywhere. There are also many local gentry standing on Li Meng's side. These salt owls from Xuzhou seem to know this, and they did not run far away, but ran directly into the manor of the second prince of Yan Shenggong.

Sometimes people are really confused. The second son of Yan Shenggong was completely blinded by selling private salt and land, and he actually thought that this time he was just accidentally to save these people and to do business in the future.

The land is indeed safe in the manor of the Kong Mansion. The soldiers and armed salt ding from the Jiaozhou camp would not enter these places, but there is a ridiculous idea that many people would not think that descendants of saints like the Kong Mansion would go to deal with private salt. The Shandong Salt Gang never put the object of suspicion on the Kong Mansion.

Kong Sande has been doing business for so many years and is also a well-off character in the clan. Yan Xiao hid in the second prince's manor, and he was the first to get the news.

This time he went to Yansheng to file a complaint. Who would have thought that someone would look for it earlier than him? When he said this, Yansheng was furious and said that you were grateful to the family, but why did you always think about outsiders? Since there are business dealings, my Kong family is not an ungrateful person, and you always have to help you when you have difficulties.

But you have to hand over the people. Where do you put the saint's teachings? Do you still remember? I looked at Wenru Business Company if it was in your hands, something would happen sooner or later. Kong Sande, you have worked hard for so many years. It would be better to go home and rest for a while and let the second brother take care of it.

Kong Sande was so depressed that he had been considering the survival of the Confucius family, but was treated like this. But then again, since the Confucius family did not know what a dangerous disaster was and abandoned himself, if the disaster came, Kong Sande was unwilling to share the hardships together.

At least he had to pick himself out first. He naturally knew about the people from Jiaozhou Camp looking for this group of Xuzhou Yanxiao everywhere. He originally wanted to tell Jiaozhou Camp about this matter as a favor, but now the sooner he said the better, so as not to be implicated.

After Lingshan Trading Company learned about this news, in addition to immediately notifying Huang Ping and his group in Jining Prefecture, he also sent people to send horses to Li Meng in Jinan City. After all, this matter involves the Confucius Mansion, and you must be cautious about such a family.

There were stations along the way, and the horses were changed in a hurry. The speed was indeed very fast, and the news was quickly transmitted back to Jiningzhou. The order was very clear. Those salt owls from Xuzhou must die, but the people from the Kong Mansion could not move.

The second prince of the Confucius Mansion sheltered the salt vendors in Xuzhou. All the civil and military officials in Jiaozhou who knew about this were extremely angry. Even Ning Gangui and Zhou Yang, who were scholars and juren, felt that the Kong family was really ignorant of life and death, and it was necessary to teach a lesson.
To be continued...