My eunuch godfather

Chapter 71 The Salt Merchants of Lianghuai

After drinking black tea, Zhang Kun and his entourage continued south along the Grand Canal.

Passing through Xuzhou City and Suqian County, they arrived at Qingjiangpu in Huai'an Prefecture.

Qingjiangpu was extremely prosperous at the time and was known as the "First City of the Grand Canal".

The major canal towns that Zhang Kun had visited, such as Zhangjiawan, Tianjinwei, and Linqing, could not compare to it.

People at the time even referred to Qingjiangpu, along with Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, as the "Four Great Metropolises of Southeast China"!

The prosperity of Qingjiangpu was not only due to the canal, but also to salt:

The Huaibei branch of the Lianghuai Salt Transport Office was established in Qingjiangpu.

Wangjiang Pavilion.

Zhang Kun and a middle-aged man dressed in plain clothes sat in the best seats upstairs.

This place offers a panoramic view of Hongze Lake and is usually packed, but tonight there's only Zhang Kun at his table.

The reason is simple: Wu Yangchun, who was hosting the dinner, booked the entire Wangjiang Pavilion to entertain Zhang Kun alone.

Wu Yangchun was born in Xinan Village, Shexian County, Huizhou Prefecture, and was one of the leaders of the Huizhou faction of salt merchants in the Huai River region.

His family rose to prominence during the reign of Wu Yangchun's grandfather, starting from the Jiajing era.

In addition to taxes, he donated more than 500,000 taels of silver to support the army and obtained official positions such as Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and Secretary of the Imperial Secretariat.

Speaking of which, the Ming Dynasty had countless household registrations, such as civilians, soldiers, artisans, and stove workers, but it did not have a merchant registration, which was one of the four classes of people: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants.

In earlier dynasties, apart from the Mongol Yuan dynasty which implemented the "main-color household registration" system, the household registration system was even more complicated.

Many dynasties, such as the Han and Tang, had various household registration systems, but they were relatively simple and included merchant registration systems that suppressed merchants.

For example, during the Han Dynasty, those who were registered as merchants, those whose parents were registered as merchants, and those whose grandparents were registered as merchants were included in the list of registered merchants.

Along with officials who had committed crimes, unregistered vagrants, and sons-in-law who had married into wealthy families, they were listed as the "Seven Categories of Exiles" and forcibly conscripted to perform hard labor and heavy corvée labor.

The Ming Dynasty did not establish a merchant register until the thirteenth year of the Wanli reign, but its purpose was not to suppress merchants.

On the contrary, it made it convenient for the children of merchants to study in other places and take the imperial examinations!

"Commander Zhang, try this Clear Water Embroidery Ball. This embroidered ball uses tribute clams from Mingzhou and river shrimp from Qingjiangpu."

Zhang Kun scooped up a small ball of embroidered shrimp from the soup bowl and put it in his mouth. He then mixed chopped shrimp meat with dried scallop shreds, shaped it into a ball, and simmered it in broth.

He nodded to Wu Yangchun and praised, "This dish is very delicious, not bad."

"If Commander Zhang is pleased, that's good."

Wu Yangchun pointed to the embroidered ball in the soup bowl and said meaningfully to Zhang Kun:

"The smaller the river shrimp, the more tender they are, but they are quite difficult to eat."

Sometimes when I'm busy, I'm too lazy to even touch the white shrimp, one of the "Three Whites of Taihu Lake."

In recent years, the Wu family has become one of the leading merchants in the Lianghuai salt industry.

Like Yunhao, which is a merchant of Danbagu Gangji, it can monopolize and divide the Huai salt market and collect salt tax on behalf of others!

However, the salt industry is different from that of tampongolica. It has been developing for more than two hundred years in this dynasty alone, and there are too many small merchants.

The Wu family, along with the Wang family, Jiang family, and other powerful business families, have only held this status for a short time and their strength is limited.

It will be difficult to completely subdue those small-time merchants with powerful backers in a short period of time.

Therefore, their degree of market monopoly is not as high as that of Jin Yun, which was only established a few months ago.

For these merchants, the Nanjing Jinyun is a better investment opportunity.

The tambak from the Americas was introduced until the 44th year of the Jiajing reign (1555), when the Spanish opened up the trans-Pacific trade in large sailing ships.

It only began to spread to China on a large scale, and it took about thirty or forty years from its acceptance to its popularity in the southeast.

The market is large, but there are not many individual merchants, which means that it is not difficult to subdue individual merchants and monopolize the market.

If one could participate in the preparation of the Nanjing Jinyun, one could not only share in the huge profits of the tampoo business.

They could also reinvest the funds back into the Lianghuai salt industry to subdue more small-scale salt merchants.

Zhang Kun also wanted to bring these wealthy salt merchants onto the Nanjing Jinyun ship to achieve his goal as soon as possible.

However, how exactly to cooperate, who will hold the dominant position, and who will take more and who will take less will require a series of negotiations.

If the other party gains control and takes too much, in the end, it will be impossible to explain to the palace.

"I don't like eating small fish and shrimp either; I prefer larger ones."

Zhang Kun smiled at Wu Yangchun and asked, "I wonder what kinds of big fish and shrimp are found in Jiangnan?"

"Actually, catching big fish and shrimp takes a lot of effort. It takes several fishermen to catch one big one."

Wu Yangchun pointed to the second dish and introduced it to Zhang Kun:

"Please also try this braised bamboo shoots with deer tendon. It uses my family's Leigong bamboo shoots and Huangshan deer tendon."

The latter was better, but the bamboo shoots were very easy to spoil and needed to be transported to Qingjiangpu by fast horse, which was no less expensive than tributes such as fresh shad.

The Wu family split into five branches in Wu Yangchun's father's generation, and Wu Yangchun inherited the most.

Besides the salt industry in places like Huai'an, Hangzhou, and Tianjin, there are also 2400 mu of mountain land in Huangshan, where the muntjacs are raised.

"Mmm, cooked until tender and flavorful."

Zhang Kun picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth, praising it as he chewed:

"Master Wu, your Huangshan muntjac is quite nice. Is it domesticated or wild?"

"It's a domesticated animal."

Wu Yangchun smiled and replied to Zhang Kun:

"Some common people, based on hearsay, praise wild game as a superior delicacy even though they have never eaten or seen it before."

They didn't know that wild game often has a strong fishy smell, coarse meat, and is quite unpalatable.

"What Wu Sheren said is true."

Zhang Kun nodded to Wu Yangchun, "It seems that you, Wu Sheren, have taken good care of the Huangshan mountain area?"

Not long ago, the Imperial Inspector of Southern Zhili submitted a memorial to the court, requesting the confiscation of half of the mountain area on the grounds that the Wu family had concealed the official taxes of Huangshan.

Emperor Wanli kept this memorial hidden from the emperor, but it remained a potential threat to Wu Yangchun.

Zhang Kun's words implied that if Wu Yangchun was willing to cooperate, he could help resolve the matter.

"Commander Zhang, please try this Eight Treasure Duck."

Wu Yangchun smiled broadly, pointed to the third dish, and introduced it to Zhang Kun:

"It uses Taihu white duck and contains eight ingredients: lotus seeds, lean meat, ham, dried scallops, glutinous rice, matsutake mushrooms, barley, and shiitake mushrooms."

It symbolizes wealth coming from all directions, and is a favorite food among business people in the Jianghuai region.

.......

After finishing his meal, Zhang Kun returned to the post station and reported to Xu Bengao, the admiral of the Nanjing Jinyun warship:

"Grand Commander, Wu Yangchun wants to acquire a stake in the Huai'an branch of the Huai'an Prefecture, plus a quota for a transport merchant."

Xu Bengao nodded and asked Zhang Kun:

"Nephew, what do you think of Wu Yangchun?"

"I believe this person is unfit for important positions."

Based on what he had seen and heard that evening, Zhang Kun replied to Xu Bengao:

"This man is ambitious but lacks talent. The reason he was able to become the leader of the Huizhou merchants was mainly due to the legacy of his father and grandfather. His abilities were very limited."

I sent people to investigate beforehand. This man and his younger brother, Wu Yangze, have been fighting for so long that they can't even unite their own family.

"In that case, who do you think is more suitable, my dear nephew?"

"Zheng Zhiyan,"

Zhang Kun, who had accepted 50,000 taels of silver from Zheng Zhiyan, recommended Xu Bengao:

"The Zheng family is not as good as the Wu family, but Zheng Zhiyan's abilities far surpass Wu Yangchun's, so he is more suitable to be employed."

Hey Wu, you're only treating me to dinner, why are you playing games with me? What are you pretending for?

A mere bookish official position obtained through donation, does he really think he's an official? No matter how much he donates, he's still just a businessman!

Look at Zheng Zhiyan, he directly sent his eldest son Zheng Yuanxun over overnight to deliver 50,000 taels of silver. That's what you call sincerity!