As the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing has a population of nearly two million, as a city at the foot of the Son of Heaven, one of the favorite hobbies of the old and young masters in Beijing is to make a teahouse, invite a group of neighbors and friends to drink a big bowl of tea every day, and then eat some melon seeds and peanuts, blowing cattle for a long time, this is probably the favorite thing of the old and young masters in Beijing.

Daxiangguo Temple is the most famous temple in Beijing, this temple covering an area of more than 200 acres is also a very famous classic near the capital, many people in the capital and people who come to Beijing like to come here to incense and make vows, there are naturally a lot of people who stop to rest in Fujin every day, and things like teahouses naturally come into being.

At the intersection of less than 200 meters in front of the Great Xiangguo Temple, there is a teahouse called Jinyuan that has been open for more than ten years, and the owner of the teahouse is a festive-looking middle-aged man. No one knows the name of this boss, but everyone knows his surname is Jin, so they have always used to calling him Boss Jin.

Boss Jin has a wife, her appearance can only be said to be ordinary, with a big round face and a flat nose, and her figure is ...... Well, it can only be said that it is very mellow, and Boss Jin is very compatible, the two people are very husband and wife, because the big bowl of tea made by the teahouse opened by the two is cheap, and the taste is not bad, so the business is very good, and people nearby like to come to them to drink tea.

As soon as noon passed today, there were more people in the Jinyuan Teahouse as usual, and the hall of more than 300 square meters was filled one after another, and the three guys in the teahouse were soon very busy.

Just when everyone was drinking tea and chatting, a young man in a coarse cloth shirt suddenly rushed in outside the door, and as soon as he entered the teahouse, he shouted loudly: "Ladies and gentlemen, something is wrong, something is wrong!" There is something big in the Beijing camp outside the Dongzhi Gate. ”

The young man's voice was very loud, and after he shouted this voice, his voice was heard in the whole teahouse. The whole teahouse was slightly quiet, and then everyone laughed. An older middle-aged man couldn't help but laugh and said: "Erdan, haven't you woken up yet, do you want to say that Jiang Ningbo fired all the people in the Beijing camp, and he also quarreled with those martial artists and civil officials in the Fengtian Palace, this is already the old yellow calendar a few days ago." ”

"What an old calendar!" The young man glared at the middle-aged man and said angrily: "What I want to say is what happened just now, and how many times I have said it, don't call my little life, my big name is Qi Dajiang, not Erdan!" ”

"Hahaha......"

Everyone burst into laughter, and an old man scolded while laughing: "Erba, what kind of big deal are you kid and us, the big guy has been a neighbor for decades, and no one knows who." We watched you while you were still peeing and playing with mud, and now that you've grown up, you're still hypocritical. ”

Looking at the appearance of the crowd, the young man's face turned red, but these neighbors either grew up with him or watched him grow up, who still doesn't know who after all these years, and his temper naturally can't be raised.

I couldn't help it, snorted coldly, sat down, took a sea bowl and drank a few big sips, and picked up a few peanuts and ate them.

Seeing Qi Dajiang's angry appearance, Uncle Zhou, who was sitting on the side, smiled and stretched out his hand to rub her head, and scolded with a smile: "Erdan, your kid has a temper, and you dare to shake your face with us, tell us, what's new in Jingying?" ”

Qi Dajiang is also straight, his temper comes and goes quickly, and his anger disappears after drinking a few sips of tea. Seeing Uncle Zhou ask him, he immediately came to his senses, only to see him say in a low voice: "Uncle Zhou, Brother Yun, you still don't know, this morning I followed my father to drive the car to Dongzhimen to take out things, as soon as I got there, I saw a notice posted outside the school field outside Dongzhimen, I went over to take a look in curiosity, good guy, sure enough, something happened, I ......"

"Smack......

A soft sound came, and it turned out that Qi Dajiang's head was patted by Uncle Zhou, only to see Uncle Zhou glaring at him and scolding: "If you have something to say, how can you learn to sell Guanzi, and I will beat you with a big ear scraper if you pant like this." ”

Seeing that the people around him were glaring at him, Qi Dajiang smiled embarrassedly, and didn't dare to sell it, so he hurriedly said: "I went over to look at the notice just now, and I found out that Jingying was going to start recruiting. ”

"Cut ......"

As soon as Qi Dajiang's words fell, there was a burst of boos around, and many people who came over shook their heads when they heard this.

Someone laughed on the side: "What a new thing is this, a few days ago, Jiang Ningbo drove out all the old men in Beijing, so naturally he wants to recruit people to fill the gap in Beijing, and a fool can guess this, and you need to talk about it." ”

Uncle Zhou also shook his head and said: "This old saying is good, a good man is not a soldier, he is not a nail, this decapitated rice is not so delicious, once he becomes a soldier, he can't help his own little life!" ”

"What do you know?" Qi Dajiang defended: "Everyone knows that Jiang Ningbo wants to recruit people, but do you know what price was offered by the Jingying side this time?" ”

"What price, it's not going to be a general, right?" The crowd burst out laughing.

"Hmph...... Speaking out scares you to death. Qi Dajiang, who was laughed at, was not angry, he sneered and stretched out two fingers: "The notice said that those who join the Beijing camp will be given a settlement allowance of five taels of silver, and in addition, the Beijing camp not only includes room and board, weapons and armor, but also has a salary of one or two silver per month, and can be retired after five years, and when retired, the Beijing camp will also give a settlement fee of thirty taels of silver." ”

After Qi Dajiang finished speaking, there was silence in the teahouse.

Qi Dajiang, who had long expected everyone's reaction, said deliberately after a while: "Why don't you speak, the big guys all say something." ”

It took a long time for someone to say incredulously, "How is this possible?" Is Jiang Ningbo so much money that he has nowhere to spend it, how can someone pay such a high price to recruit soldiers? ”

"Isn't it now?"

Seeing that everyone was all surprised, Qi Dajiang only felt that the depressed breath that was blocked in his chest just now was vented a lot, and he said proudly: "This guy doesn't know, I still know an amazing news today." Everyone knows the newly opened Daming Royal Commercial Bank a few days ago, do you know who opened this commercial bank? ”

Suddenly, someone said disdainfully: "Nonsense, who doesn't know that this is Jiang Ningbo's industry." In the past half a year, their mirrors and some delicate gadgets have almost sold out like crazy, Jiang Ningbo relied on these things, and in the first half of last year alone, he paid 1.8 million taels of silver to His Majesty, otherwise I don't know where the military salary in Liaodong last year was? ”

Qi Dajiang smiled mysteriously: "This is indeed Jiang Ningbo's industry, but do you know what this Ming Royal Commercial House is selling today?" ”

"Sell what?"

"This morning, this Daming Royal Trading House began to sell salt!"

"Selling salt?"

Everyone was taken aback, and Uncle Zhou exclaimed, "Yo...... It seems that this Jiang Ningbo is really good, and he has started to sell salt. ”

Since ancient times, the salt and iron business has been the exclusive monopoly of the imperial court, and the fools understand how much profit there is, and the original Ming royal trading house of Yang Feng only sold some mirrors and luxury jewelry from later generations, which attracted the jealousy of a group of powerful people in Nanjing, and even once triggered a military encounter with Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, and now he actually began to sell salt, and now the interests he touched are even greater.

The news at the feet of the Son of Heaven is the most well-informed, and even the ordinary people know that the people who can do salt trading in these years are all people with big backgrounds and great skills, and if ordinary people want to get involved in the salt and iron business, they will probably be caught in the yamen and put in prison in less than two days.

Someone else asked: "Erdan, do you know how much silver is per catty of salt in that royal trading house?" ”

Hearing this, Qi Dajiang slowly raised three fingers,

Seeing this, others couldn't help but shake their heads in disappointment, and pouted: "Three coins of silver, this is still the same price as those salt merchants outside." ”

Qi Dajiang sneered: "It's indeed three coins of silver, but do you know what kind of salt other firms sell?" ”

The others pouted and said, "What kind of salt, is it difficult or is it salt made of gold?" ”

"Hmph...... Saying it scares you to death, the Daming Royal Commercial House sells all refined salt! Qi Dajiang raised his head and said something that shocked everyone.

"Boom ......"

As soon as Qi Dajiang's words fell, the people in the entire teahouse almost couldn't believe their ears.

"What...... Refined salt ......"

Uncle Zhou was the first to grab Qi Dajiang's shirt and shouted: "Second egg, don't fool us, you kid, how can refined salt and silver only be sold for three coins and a pound of silver." ”

"Uncle Zhou, I really don't lie to you, now the few salt shops on the side of Dongzhimen are almost all flooded, and I saw with my own eyes that all they sell are refined salt, and it is also the best snowflake salt!"

Qi Dajiang's words caused another sensation, and in the Ming Dynasty, most people ate sea salt. The salt workers took advantage of the high tide to introduce seawater into the salt pan, used the sun to dry the seawater in the salt pan, and then used the method of steaming to extract the crystals, so that the salt obtained could only be coarse salt.

This is also the salt that ordinary people eat, coarse salt is not only rough and yellowish in color, but also does not taste very good, and it tastes bitter.

Don't underestimate that these coarse salt are not delicious, but the price is not cheap, and the price of each catty of coarse salt in ordinary years is at least three dollars of silver, which is equivalent to more than 50 yuan in later generations. Fifty yuan for a pound of salt, such a price may not have been dreamed of by the common people in later generations, but it was a very normal phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty.

is the so-called seven things to open the door, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, this is the truest portrayal of ordinary people in this era.

After talking about ordinary people, let's talk about the powerful and rich. The salt that these people eat is naturally different from ordinary people, the salt they eat is from the salt lakes or salt wells in Qinghai, Sichuan and other places, these salts are not only small and snow-white, and there is no bitterness like sea salt, the taste is much better, these salts are also called refined salt.

Of course, since it is refined salt, the price is naturally much more expensive than sea salt, generally speaking, each catty of refined salt will never be less than two taels of silver, but now Qi Dajiang actually said that the experience of selling on the street is the same as the price of coarse salt, which is like someone telling them that the Oiran head card on the Bada Hutong and Qinhuai River is suddenly the same as those thirty or forty-year-old kiln sisters on the street, and they can enter it for ten cents, which simply subverts their cognition.

The whole teahouse immediately fell into silence, I don't know how long later, suddenly a loud noise sounded, the people in the teahouse rushed out of the door as if they were being whipped with a whip, a group of people quickly disappeared, and in less than a while, the teahouse that was still bustling became empty.

Well, it's not right to say that there is no one in the teahouse, at least there are a few people in the teahouse, for example, Boss Jin and his wife in the teahouse and the three guys, but Boss Jin's smiling face, which originally looked very festive, has become a little difficult to look at at the moment, he said to himself, "That Yang Feng disbanded the old department of the original Beijing camp and began to recruit new soldiers, it seems that he is going to reorganize the Beijing camp, if he is allowed to put the business in order, this will be too much of a threat to our Qing Dynasty." ”

"And that's not all." I don't know when the proprietress who was originally busy in the back hall also walked next to him, and her fat face became very gloomy: "This Yang Feng has established the Daming Royal Commercial Bank, but he has started selling salt, and now his power is even greater." ”

"No, we have to pass on this news to the emperor immediately, we must find a way to deal with this Yang Feng, and we can't continue to let him sit big!" Boss Jin immediately returned to the back hall after turning around a few times, and after a while he walked out and handed a small bamboo tube to one of the guys.

"Immediately go out of the city as quickly as possible and deliver this letter to the Datong Fan Family Commercial Bank, it must be fast, you know?"

"Don't worry, the villain understands!"

The fellow agreed, took the bamboo tube cautiously, and then immediately went out and disappeared quickly.

Boss Jin stood at the door and watched the guy disappear from sight without looking back, and kept looking in the direction in the distance and was silent until the boss lady walked to him without noticing.

"Master, let's go back first, let's close early and rest today."

Boss Jin sighed lightly, and was about to turn his head to speak, his eyes inadvertently looked at the entrance of the Great Xiangguo Temple not far away, and found a team of sergeants all wearing iron armor coming in front of him, these sergeants were escorting a big carriage and stopped in front of the door of the Great Xiangguo Temple, the side door of the carriage opened, and several women who looked like noblewomen walked down from inside.

Seeing these women, Boss Jin's fat body was suddenly shocked, and his fat face was a little distorted, and he pointed to the front and stammered: "You...... You see, that ...... Those women ...... "to find this site, please search for "6 Mao" or enter the URL:.