Since the current emperor sent a mine supervisor and tax envoy, Nanzhili has been like a foreign land, and there is no mine supervisor and tax envoy.

There are three eunuch yamen, one is the inner garrison yamen of the southern capital; the second is the Suzhou and Hangzhou weaving yamen that first moved to Suzhou and then Hangzhou; The third is to set up the Jiangnan Town to guard the yamen for more than a month.

However, none of these three yamen are involved in mining taxes, and the copper and iron mines in Nanzhili are basically "private" now. Before the Jiajing Dynasty, the imperial court had five government-run iron mines and two iron smelting offices in Nanzhili.

The Liyang Mine is one of the five government-run mines, and during the Jiajing period alone, the iron output reached more than 3,000 tons a year. The scale of the iron factory located in Wuhu is larger, and there are thousands of craftsmen in the heyday, second only to the Zunhua Iron Smelting Plant located in Beizhili, which smelts more than 180,000 catties of raw plate iron every year, 60,000 catties of raw and crushed iron, and 200,000 catties of cooked hanging iron.

When the mine was prosperous, there were countless diggers, charcoal burners, instigators, furnace patrols, charcoal transporters, ore transporters, and wine sellers, and one furnace was enough to feed hundreds of people. Now in Nanzhili, the popular "Sugang" is smelted by Wuhu Iron Works.

The iron ore field is so prosperous, the annual sales volume is so high, and the taxes brought to the imperial court are hundreds of thousands of taels, but now they have become "private", and the reason is the four words "competing with the people".

With the corruption of the government of the officials, many interest groups were formed in the officials and businessmen of Nanzhili, and these groups often had the participation of the nobles of the Nandu, who were extremely powerful, and "privatized" the government-run iron works through various means, so that the large taxes that should have been paid to the state treasury went into their pockets.

The whole process is the same as that of today's eroded guards, and the iron ore mines in the provinces are no different.

In view of this, Wanli began to send mine supervisors and tax envoys to the world, but there are mine supervisors in other provinces, but there is no one in Dunan Zhili.

There are two reasons: first, the courtiers who have been "greeted" are strongly opposed; The second is the Suzhou civil uprising that occurred on the 29th of Wanli.

The upheaval of this people was extremely great, and the impact was extremely bad, which made the government and the opposition uproar and the crowd was excited.

Wanli, who originally intended to send a mine supervisor to the south, was helpless in the face of this situation, on the one hand, let the weaving eunuch Sun Long move to Hangzhou, and on the other hand, he completely dispelled the idea of sending a mine supervisor to the south.

After all, Nanzhi was an important source of money and grain taxes for the imperial court, and if there were constant civil uprisings in various places due to the mine supervisors, it would be quite unfavorable to the imperial court itself.

That is, in the third year after the Suzhou Rebellion, the Liyang Iron Yard located in Liyang County, Yingtianfu changed hands.

The Liyang Iron Yard, which was under the jurisdiction of the Nanjing Household Department, was sold to a merchant named Xu Yuan for 24,000 taels.

This transaction made many people of insight in Nandu indignant, because although the output of Liyang Iron Yard is not as high as that of Wuhu Iron Yard and its profits, it also earns more than 60,000 taels of sales every year. Now it is sold for 24,000 taels, which is simply a free gift.

However, no one in the southern capital dared to go to the court to expose the matter, and the reason was that behind the businessman named Xu Yuan stood Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei.

Xu Hongji is the king of Zhongshan, after Xu Da, the hereditary prince, and the garrison in the southern capital, leading the Houfu, and the governor of Caojiang, is the head of the civil and military officials of the southern capital.

A dignified prince buys an iron field, who dares to say that it is not?

Moreover, the prince of the country was not forcibly occupied, but bought with real money.

Even if there are a few officials who want to expose this matter, Wei Guogong also has a way to shut them up.

People are nothing more than fame and fortune, and if they are really not moved by fame and fortune, they can be transferred away. If you don't even have this ability, how can Wei Guogong dare to be called the head of civil and military affairs in the southern capital.

Xu Yuanqi was born in the Wei State Mansion and was born in the family.

But don't look at this person who is only from the Guogong Mansion, but he really has some ability.

Since taking over the iron field, Xu Yuan relied on the power of the Wei State Mansion to annex or shut down the remaining more than ten small iron mines in Liyang County, and rectified all the smelting workshops in the county, all of which were under his responsibility, so that the mining volume of Liyang iron ore has increased greatly and the quality has also improved. After that, through the relationship of the Wei State Mansion, he looked for buyers everywhere, collected orders widely, and even gave him more than 20,000 catties of orders every year in the Inner Garrison Department.

As a result, in just one year, the profits of the Liyang Iron Farm surged to 110,000 taels of silver, which made the Wei State laugh publicly, often saying that buying the Liyang Iron Farm was the most proud thing in his life.

It's a pity that Wuhu Iron Yard asked others to start first, and the relationship is directly connected to the capital, and Wei Guogong can't fight, otherwise, I'm afraid that Wuhu Iron Yard has already been surnamed Xu.

With the power of the Duke of Wei and his own ability, in the past ten years, this Liyang Iron Farm has long been run by Xu Yuan, and its prestige is even more afraid of women and children.

You must know that behind his ability, but I don't know how many people have died.

Xu Yuan and Yu Liyang are really heaven-like existences.

Liyang County has changed three magistrates before and after, but each magistrate has to go to the iron field before sitting in the government, otherwise, as Xu Yuan said, "If you leave tomorrow, you won't be able to delay the day after tomorrow." ”

Xu Yuan Danzhao is in the middle of the court trial, and the magistrate must also rush to the county immediately, otherwise, he will be scolded at best, and he will be scolded with a rod at worst, and he will not take the court officials in his eyes at all.

This will make the parents and officials suffer, and the second term is to beg grandpa and grandmother to move the place again before the term of office expires, otherwise, they can only unseal and leave.

In fact, this Xu Yuan is not very old, and now he is only in his early forties, and he is in his prime. On this day, because of the birthday of Guogong's concubine next month, Xu Yuan carefully prepared a congratulatory gift, and when the arrangement was made, an iron yard guard came to report, saying that the people guarding the yamen in Jiangnan Town wanted to see the owner.

Jiangnan Town guards the yamen?

Xu Yuan had a slight impression that when he returned to Nandu last month, he heard Guogong mention that His Majesty had set up a new town guard in Jiangnan, and the town guard was still a young little eunuch, who was very domineering, which made the officialdom of Nandu talk about it.

However, no matter how domineering the town guard was, he didn't dare to be presumptuous in front of Wei Guogong, and Xu Yuan had been nesting in the corner of Liyang for a long time, and the well water of the town guarding the yamen did not violate the river water, so it was quite strange, and I don't know what the Jiangnan town guard sent to him.

Then he changed his clothes and ordered the guards to bring the man who came.

"You're the owner of this iron field?"

Song Sibao has recently been reused by his father-in-law, and he has been entrusted with his attendants, and this time he came to Liyang for his father-in-law to do things, and he was very proud of the spring breeze all the way.

Xu Yuan saw that there was no beard and looked like a eunuch, but he didn't have the slightest courtesy to him, so he couldn't help but be a little unhappy, and said in a sullen voice: "It's right down there, I don't know who this father-in-law is?" ”

Without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, Song Sibao waved his hand, and said impatiently: "Don't ask us who we are, we are here to pass on the message to you for the father-in-law of the town guard, and you can listen." ”

Xu Yuan raised his eyebrows when he heard this, thinking that he had come to Liyang to take over the iron field since he was ordered by the Duke of the Kingdom, but no one in Liyang County dared to speak to him like this, and no one in the southern capital dared to do this to him.

This eunuch is so arrogant!

He snorted slightly and said, "I don't know what the father-in-law of the town guard has to say to me." ”

Song Sibao said "um", and said in a sharp voice: "My father-in-law said that the Liyang Iron Yard has been quite prosperous over the years, which makes people look at it and slander it, but the person in charge still doesn't know how to do it, so the Iron Yard is still not prosperous enough, which is a pity." If not, my father-in-law will give you 20,000 taels of the main work, and you will sell this iron field to my father-in-law. Seven days later, my father-in-law came to the iron field in person, and the whole iron field was no longer surnamed Xu. ”

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