Tianjin Wei is the gateway of the Grand Canal before entering the capital, and it is also the place where the Haihe River passes. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info the Ming Dynasty Tianjin Sanwei, to the Qing Shunzhi period, Tianjin Sanwei merged into Tianjin Wei, here is a military town and Cao operation center. Although the city of Tianjin was still very small at this time, there were a large number of wealthy merchants living in Tianjin.

With the cutting off of the canal transportation line and the interruption of canal transportation, the hundreds of thousands of boatmen who originally made a living on the canal, as well as people from various other industries who served the canal, added up to millions of people, and lost their source of livelihood.

There are also a large number of salt households, salt dings and salt shipwrights in Lianghuai.

Zhang Asi is the original salt household. I don't know from which generation of his ancestors made a living by boiling salt for generations. He and his family go to the beach every day to fetch seawater, pour it into a pot, and raise a firewood to boil salt. The boiled salt is sold to the salt cloves sent by the salt merchant to collect the salt. Although he earns very little money every day, he can still barely support his family.

Even though the Qing court enforced the strictest ban on the sea, it was still relatively lenient on the salt households, allowing those salt farmers who had lived on the coast of northern Jiangsu for generations to live by the sea, but they were not allowed to sail to the sea, and the management was strengthened, and there were green battalion soldiers and salt soldiers to watch over these salt households, so as not to sell their grain to the sea bandits.

But today, Zhang Asi can't survive.

If the grain ships were due to the interruption of the canal, then these people who made a living from the salt industry were affected by the refined salt of the South Seas.

Lianghuai's self-produced salt, one pound costs fifteen copper plates, which is still the worst coarse salt. If it is a little better, a pound is about three to five cents of silver. If it is the kind of well salt from Shaanxi, it will be even more expensive, a pound of salt can be sold for a high price of three or four dollars of silver, or even more expensive, a pound of refined salt, you can exchange it for fifty catties of rice, and even for a hundred catties of rice! Rich people use those fine salts to brush their teeth.

Of course, no matter how expensive the price of refined salt is, it has nothing to do with salt households like Zhang Asi, those refined salt are all well salt from Shaanxi and other places, not from salt farmers who produce sea salt.

However, since the advent of Nanyang refined salt, salt farmers in various places have been seriously impacted.

The refined salt from the South Seas, the salt grains are delicate and snow-white, and the quality of the salt is simply equivalent to the high-grade well salt from Shaanxi, or even better. But the price of salt is very cheap, a pound of such high-grade refined salt, the price is only five copper plates!

The quality of the high-grade refined salt is equivalent to the quality of high-grade well salt in Shaanxi, and the refined salt in Shaanxi is sold for silver, and it is sold in exchange for white flowers. However, Nanyang refined salt is so cheap that it only costs five copper plates, and the price is cheaper than the coarse salt produced by Lianghuai, only one-third of the price!

Which one will people choose for the coarse salt of the fifteen wen copper plate or the refined salt of the five wen copper plate? Needless to say, I also know that I must go to buy the refined salt of Wuwen.

The salt farmers couldn't live anymore because no one bought the coarse salt they had worked so hard to cook, and the salt merchants didn't come to collect their salt.

In fact, the Lianghuai salt merchants were also greatly impacted, the price of salt fell, and at first they could buy Nanyang refined salt privately, and then sell it at a high price. But where is the turn of the salt merchants to do such a good thing? In the Eight Banners of various places, the Green Battalion soldiers discovered this way to make money, and they also began to sell salt, buy refined salt from Nanyang, and then sell it at a high price.

Anyway, which refined salt can be obtained without salt introduction, and the quality is much better than the private salt in various places, those soldiers and ruffians who smoke in order to earn money and smoke special offerings of the Eight Banners have thrown themselves into the ranks of salt sellers, which has greatly impacted the salt merchants, making the salt merchants are trying to find another way.

More than 100,000 people from various industries related to the transportation of water have gathered in Tianjin, and if they really cannot survive, they plan to rob the grain merchants and salt merchants of grain.

Zhang Asi looked at the palatial Sui Xian Tang in front of him, and his eyes were about to erupt with fire. Zhang Lin, the owner of Suixiantang, is one of the famous wealthy businessmen in Tianjin. Although the salt industry was hit, the man had a nimble mind and soon thought of something else. Now that the price of grain in the capital is soaring, these profiteers are smuggling grain from the south to hoard it and then sell it at a high price.

"The officers and soldiers are coming!" At this time, someone suddenly shouted.

Groups of Eight Banner soldiers and Green Battalion soldiers poured into the inside and outside of Tianjin, surrounding the small Tianjin city like an iron bucket. The Qing army set up a cordon, staring at the shipwrights and salt farmers who might be making trouble.

It was also when the people were likely to make trouble in Tianjin and grab the grain of large households, in the Forbidden City of Beijing, Bumu Butai was meeting the Fan family, the head of the eight imperial merchants.

At this time, Fan Yongdou was dead, Fan Yongdou's son Fan Sanpao was very old, and it was Fan Yongdou's grandson who really controlled the Fan family. Originally, Fan Sanpao's third son Fan Yubin was in charge, and this grandson was Fan Yongdou's smartest grandson, so in the competition, he defeated the eldest brother Fan Yuxin, the second brother Fan Yufu and the two younger brothers, and stood out from the Fan family. But a year and a half ago, because of a mistake when delivering food to the Horqin tribe, Fan Yubin was ousted from the position of the head of the Fan family, and was replaced by the eldest brother Fan Yuxin, who had coveted the position of the head of the family for a long time.

"Yuxin, what do you think of today's situation?" Bumu Butai asked.

Fan Yuxin replied: "Back to Lafayette, the slave thinks that it will be difficult for that thief to become a big climate after all!" I also have the elite Eight Banners outside the Qing Dynasty! If you are transferred to the customs and trained into a new army, you will be able to break the thief! ”

"But the dispatch of troops and the training of new troops all cost silver, and what the court lacks now is silver! Now the water transportation has been interrupted, and the price of grain is soaring. The salt tax has been hit again, and the salt tax cannot be collected at all. Bumu Butai didn't hide it from Fan Yuxin either.

Anyway, Bumu Butai is not afraid of Fan Yuxin's fame, because the Eight Great Imperial Merchants have long been on the Ming Army's must-kill list, and Wang Xinyu has opened a title of Duke of Guo, and wants to buy all the heads of the Eight Imperial Merchants who are in charge. If the Fan family is killed, a knighthood will be given. He also promised that if anyone killed the Eight Great Emperor Merchants, all the property of the Eight Great Emperor Merchants would belong to that person. The Fan family has no way out, so they can only be tied up with the Qing court.

Fan Yuxin said: "Aren't many troops smuggling grain and salt? Instead of suppressing, it is better to let it go and allow them to buy grain, salt and other items from the south, collect taxes from them, and then there will be taxes! ”

Bumu Butai nodded: "This is only one aspect! Now the imperial court needs to open up trade routes with the Rakshasas, and then open the Silk Road, and sell the goods through the Rakshasa people to the Taixi countries, which is a good way to make money! This way, let it be handed over to you eight emperor merchants! ”