A group of beautiful maiko dance in a looming light veil and make all sorts of sultry gestures. The officials and gentry present watched with relish, their eyes unabashedly lingered on the crisp breasts and jade legs of the maiko, and they even applauded when they saw the "subtlety", which showed the atmosphere of Jiangnan officialdom.

After a fragrant song and dance performance, the maiko left the stage, and as they passed by, a bald gentry took the opportunity to pinch the maiko's buttocks, and everyone at the table laughed and laughed.

Shi Haoran, the salt transport envoy, glanced at Xu Jin quietly, and saw that the latter's expression was not abnormal, and he was even more satisfied in his heart, and raised his glass and smiled: "Lord Xu has come from the capital thousands of miles away, come and come, everyone respects Lord Xu with a cup, and washes the dust for the adult." ”

All the officials and gentry present stood up one after another and shook their toasts towards Xu Jinyao. Xu Jin also stood up and said loudly: "Thank you colleagues for your hospitality, Xu Jin was ordered to patrol Zhejiang and preside over the land of Qingzhang, and then rely on the help of your colleagues." ”

As soon as these words came out, the smiles of all the gentry present became a little unnatural. Yangzhou Governor Jiang Ping's eyes flashed, and he said with a smile: "Lord Xu is polite, this is a matter of course, it is incumbent on everyone to clean up the land and benefit the country and the people." ”

Although the officials and gentry were not happy in their hearts, they still laughed and echoed one after another.

After everyone drank a cup and sat down again, Governor Jiang coughed lightly and smiled: "There are still some fresh faces attending the banquet tonight, and the official has to introduce them to Lord Xu." ”

There were six seats at this reception banquet tonight, and there were indeed quite a few people that Xu Jin had never seen, these people were sitting at the three tables, Xu Jin could see that these three tables should belong to different camps, and they rarely communicated with each other.

As soon as Jiang Ping, the prefect of Yangzhou, finished speaking, two people stood up at one of the three tables, walked to the chief with wine glasses, and saluted Xu Jin: "The contemptible Zhang Yunling (Wang Yao) has seen Lord Qincha. ”

Jiang Ping introduced with a smile: "Lord Xu, this Zhang Yuanwai is the head of the Jin Chamber of Commerce, and Wang Yuanwai is the vice president of the Jin Chamber of Commerce, both of whom are wealthy people with huge family assets. ”

Xu Jin's heart moved, and he smiled: "It turned out to be Zhang Huishou and Vice President Wang, disrespectful and disrespectful!" ”

Zhang Wang and the two hurriedly said in fear: "How dare you." ”

Zhang Yunling is about in her early forties, wearing a set of jade-colored shirts, not handsome, but with three long beards under her chin, her temperament is elegant, and she does not have the air of a philistine businessman.

Wang Yao next to him was dressed very plainly, wearing a black Liuhe uniform hat and a gray cloth shirt, and he was not good-looking, but a bit like a small trader walking through the streets and alleys, who would have expected that such a person would be a million-dollar rich man.

"Zhang Yuanwai is a student?" Xu Jin asked a little curiously.

A hint of self-satisfaction flashed in Yunling's eyes, but he said modestly: "The contemptible man was lucky to pass the college exam when he was twenty years old, but he was only shallow in his studies, and then he failed to do it repeatedly, so he could only pull down his face and this cheap business." ”

Xu Jin smiled and said: "Zhang Yuanwai is too modest, as the so-called three hundred and sixty lines, the line is the champion, Zhang Yuanwai can become the head of the Jin Chamber of Commerce, earn millions of assets, and it is definitely very unattainable." ”

A hint of discoloration flashed in Zhang Yunling's eyes, and he glanced at Xu Jin deeply, scholars have always looked down on businessmen, and this Xu Qin is an outlier and said, "Lord Xu praised it falsely." ”

Zhang Wang's two Jin merchant representatives retreated after a few polite words, and then three more people stepped forward with wine glasses and saluted, saying, "I've seen Lord Qincha." ”

Governor Jiang immediately introduced: "Lord Xu, this is Xu Dong, the head of the Hui Chamber of Commerce, Wang Zhi, the deputy head of the Hui Chamber of Commerce, and this is ......."

Governor Jiang's eyes fell on the third person, his eyebrows wrinkled imperceptibly, and the man immediately introduced himself with a smile: "Contemptible Luo Longwen of She County, Huizhou." ”

Xu Jin was stunned for a moment, and suddenly said: "It turned out to be Luo Yuanwai, no wonder it looks a little kind." ”

Luo Longwen suddenly smiled and said, "It turns out that Lord Xu still remembers the contemptible people, and it is an honor." ”

The person in front of him is Luo Longwen, a Huizhou ink merchant that Xu Jin met in Leadshan County, Jiangxi, when Xu Jin fought with that side of Tianyou in the Douzhan Hall, with 100,000 taels of silver as a bet, and the gambling fee was as good as it could be, this Luo Longwen helped and verbally promised to borrow 100,000 taels from Xu Jin.

Governor Jiang and Yan Yun Shi Haoran glanced at each other, and the latter frowned imperceptibly, and said tentatively: "Lord Xu and Luo Yuanwai are old acquaintances?" ”

Xu Jin smiled and said: "Sort of, back then, the official was just a student, but Luo Yuan did a great favor to the official." ”

As soon as Xu Jin said this, Xu Dong and Wang Zhi, the heads and vice-presidents of the Hui Chamber of Commerce, were all happy, but the people at the table of Jin Merchants had a slightly gloomy expression, and the bald gentry who touched the buttocks of the dancing girl just now also changed their complexion.

Luo Longwen was overjoyed at the moment, he just casually helped Xu Jin back then, but he didn't expect Xu Jin to give face like this, and hurriedly smiled: "Lord Xu is polite, it's nothing." ”

Xu Jin smiled slightly, but didn't say anything more, just the sentence just now was enough to pay off the other party's favor back then.

This is also an exaggeration, with Xu Jin's current identity, he publicly expressed that he owed Luo Longwen a favor, which not only made the other party have more face, but also the officials and gentry present would take a look at Luo Longwen, and it would be much easier for him to do business or business in Yangzhou in the future. This is also the reason why those businessmen in later generations like to hang a photo of themselves and a certain leader in the office.

Shi Haoran glanced at Luo Longwen and said with a smile: "Luo's emblem is a good thing." ”

Luo Longwen said happily: "Lord Shi praised it falsely, if the adult likes it, the contemptible person will send the adult two boxes of high-grade ink ingots, which are not worth anything, and talk about it." ”

"Those who see it have a share, and Luo Yuanwai can't favor one over the other!" Governor Jiang quipped.

Luo Longwen hurriedly said: "What the prefect said is very true, and the contemptible people will turn around and send two boxes to everyone here." ”

"Haha, so the government will thank you in advance!" Jiang Ping laughed loudly.

Just like Mr. Lu Xun's Kong Yiji, stealing books cannot be regarded as stealing, can the business of a reader be called stealing? Similarly, Jiang Governor's request for ink ingots from Luo Longwen in public is not considered a bribe, can the matter of a scholar be regarded as a bribe? It is also a romantic affair for a scholar to be a prostitute, and it is naturally an elegant thing to ask for ink ingots!

Therefore, the prefect of Jiang did not think that it was inappropriate to ask for ink ingots, in fact, the value of high-grade ink was no less than that of silver of the same weight. Of course, Luo Longwen must be very willing to send it, if he didn't have this opportunity today, he would have no way to send it.

Xu Dong and Wang Zhi were still happy, but at this time, seeing Luo Longwen in the limelight and overshadowing his two main and deputy capitals, they were suddenly a little unhappy, and the former coughed lightly.

Luo Longwen also closed his mouth very interestingly, and took a step back unintentionally.

Xu Jin glanced at Xu Dong and Wang Zhi, his sword eyebrows wrinkled imperceptibly, the two people in front of him were both in their thirties, although they were dressed very decently, they were born with strong force, their eyes were extremely aggressive, and they naturally exuded a reckless atmosphere.

"What kind of business do Xu Huishou and Wang Huishou run?" Xu Jin asked quietly.

Xu Dong arched his hand and said with a smile: "Lord Hui Qincha, the contemptible people are mainly engaged in salt goods and transportation business, and there are some miscellaneous businesses, which are not worth mentioning." ”

Wang Zhiyi smiled and said: "Contemptible people are mainly engaged in the pawn business, salt goods and Cao Yun are also involved, and there are also some miscellaneous livelihoods. ”

Xu Jin's heart moved, daring to love these two are big salt merchants, and said with a smile: "Wang Yuanwai is modest, if Wang Yuanwai is just barely eating, then our people in Daming will have to ask for food." ”

It is worth mentioning here that the salt business in the south of the Yangtze River was mainly controlled by Jin merchants, Hui merchants and Fujian merchants, among which the Jin merchants from Shanxi were the most powerful, followed by Hui merchants, and finally Fujian merchants.

The rise of the Jin merchants benefited from the implementation of the "open middle law" during the Hongwu period, the so-called "open middle law", simply put, is to exchange grain for salt.

The nine sides of the north of the Ming Dynasty were important military towns, and a large number of troops were stationed, but the north was bitterly cold, and the grain yield was low, and the military cantonment was difficult to be self-sufficient. In order to provide enough food for the border army, the imperial court once tried to transport grain from the interior to Jiubian, but unfortunately the road was long and difficult, and the loss of grain in the process of transportation was large, and the burden on the imperial court was too heavy.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the minister for advice, and finally launched the "Open China Law", taking out the salt that was originally sold by the official transportation officials, as long as the merchants transported grain to the nine sides of the north, they would be distributed according to the route and the amount of grain. Merchants can use salt to depreciate and transport salt for profit.

Salt is a lucrative business, so after the decree of "opening the Chinese law", merchants from all over the country flocked to the border, in order to make it more convenient to provide grain to the border towns and save costs, businessmen simply recruited people to reclaim wasteland at the border to grow grain.

For a time, the problem of food supply for the defenders of the border town was solved, and the merchants also obtained the right to operate the salt business, and Shanxi due to the geographical advantage, the Jin merchants drank the first soup, so they rose rapidly, almost monopolizing more than half of the country's salt business.

However, with the passage of time, the "Kaizhong Law" was seriously damaged, completely lost its original role, and in the Hongzhi period, the "Kaizhong Law" was directly abolished, and merchants no longer had to transport grain to the border, and only needed to pay silver in exchange for salt.

As a result, the Jin merchants lost their geographical advantages, and the Hui merchants and Fujian merchants took advantage of the rise to seize the salt business on the southeast coast, but for the time being, the Jin merchants were still the most powerful merchants, occupying more than thirty percent of the salt business in the two Huai and Zhejiang regions, while the Hui merchants and Fujian added up to less than three percent.

Some people may ask, where did the remaining forty percent go? Naturally, it was divided between the nobles of the court and the local gentry. Every year, before the household department has been introduced, nearly half of the salt introduction share is "greeted" by the privileged class to go, and the rest is the turn of businessmen from all over the country. (https:)

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