At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou's famous "merchant status dispute" was actually a big outbreak of grievances between Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants.

In Yangzhou, where salt merchants gathered, Shanxi merchants were specially approved by the imperial court to have "merchant status" because they settled in other provinces, and their children could be enrolled in schools in Huaiyang and Yang, and there were 500 places every year that did not need to return to their hometowns to participate in the imperial examination. Huizhou, the hometown of Huizhou merchants, and Huaiyang belong to the same Nanzhili Province, and according to regulations, their children are not allowed to go to school there.

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen saw through the hearts of the people, saw through the pursuit of people, in general, people value their social status the most, even more than money!

Shi Kefa nodded, and immediately frowned again, "Master Inspector, this is not a joke, you won't redeploy your business status, right?" Is this going to force those merchants to their deaths? ”

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen smiled bitterly, "Where did you think of going?" Didn't you kill more than a thousand corrupt officials this time? The hundred officials in the capital you brought, none of them brought their families! Therefore, for the time being, there is no need to enter the official school in Yangzhou, and the next step is to reform Yangzhou's school and political system, which is the same as Beijing's. ”

Shi Kefa nodded, and understood a little, "You mean, let the school status indicators left by those corrupt officials who were executed be given to these businessmen?" Isn't that good? Our Ming merchants are the lowest, and they have been heavy on agriculture and light on business since ancient times, how can we give the indicators of the taxi to the businessmen? ”

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen was a little unhappy, "It's a shame that you joined the imperial party, you didn't fully understand the emperor's meaning!" The emperor wants to reform this society. The emperor wants to be merchant-oriented! Don't you see that? There is no commercial boom. How to talk about the stability of the country. If commerce wants to prosper, it must elevate the status of merchants, these merchants have made such a great contribution to society, and the food and taxes of the imperial court come from merchants, why should they be inferior? Give the 144 firms that participated in the bidding today, 10 names each, and then release the word, all good firms that cooperate with the imperial court. The imperial court will look at it, and when the official school in Yangzhou next year is established, the primary school will be established! All merchants who cooperate with the imperial court can enroll in Yangzhou! Each merchant is issued a business registration! ”

Shi Kefa was excited when he heard what the procurator said, he didn't know why he was suddenly angry, a little scared, and hurriedly explained, "The procurator, I'm not looking down on the merchants, I'm just saying." You have to think about what the scholars think, too? Gangnam is not as good as the north, Gyeonggi is important. On the one hand, the imperial power is strong, and the emperor directly commands, on the other hand, the foundation of students in the north is not as good as in the south, do you know that most of the officials in the Ming court are from Jiangnan? This is also the reason why the Huizhou merchant gang is so powerful, breaking the bones and tendons, and these people are all related. If you issue business licenses on such a large scale, will it attract criticism from these Jiangnan students? ”

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen nodded, "I am very pleased that you can talk to me heart-to-heart, don't be afraid, I have the emperor's holy decree, and I will give it to you when I go back!" The most important thing now is to stabilize the businessmen, let the Huizhou businessmen see, we are not biased, this bidding, if it is not for their own selfishness, in the first round of giving up the bidding, they will not suffer a big loss! It is to improve the social status of businessmen, gather good businessmen, and do business, all pay attention to harmony and wealth, the same is true for the imperial court, don't always think about suppression, when it is critical, the imperial court should join hands with the merchants to develop together, remember! No matter how powerful the imperial court is, most of the wealth is always in the hands of the people. ”

Shi Kefa couldn't help but feel a little strange, and there was a holy decree? But he didn't dare to ask, and said in his heart, why don't you let me know all the holy decrees at once? How many decrees have you brought with you?

In fact, the matter of business registration was thought about by Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen when he was in the capital a long time ago, he was not temporary, and he probably had some premonitions about the obstacles he would encounter when he came to Jiangnan, but if he didn't go through Tian Jianzhang's point! He wouldn't have understood it so deeply!

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu was caused by the temperament of Zhan! He will not compromise, he will not compromise at any time!

The large number of business registrations and fair distribution have made the anger of the Huizhou businessmen go down a lot!

"Mr. Xu, I look at the imperial court, it doesn't look like it's deliberately targeting our Huizhou merchant gang this time?" A heavyweight proprietor in the Huizhou merchant gang said.

Several merchants who got the business registration today are echoed, if they don't get the business registration, their children can not enter the official school, although this time in the bidding, the profit margin of the Huizhou business gang has been compressed a lot, but in the entire Ming business community, the Huizhou business gang still plays a dominant position! Moreover, this time the distribution of business registration is not given according to the salt attraction, but the merchants who participated in the bidding, and everyone has a share! The number of merchants in Huizhou is the largest, which is equal to the number of business registrations they have obtained, and it is also the largest.

Xu Honggen frowned, "I don't know what the imperial court means, let's wait for Yangzhou City to open tomorrow!" However, I tell you, don't blame me for not letting you compete in the first round of bidding yesterday! In fact, no matter what the imperial court does, such a bid will weaken the strength of our Hui merchants! If you think about it, these were all directly allocated to us! It's the Shanshan merchant gang, they want salt, and they have to ask us to buy it, you say, no matter how we compete, we will be weakened? ”

A few big businessmen couldn't stop nodding! "Yes! it! It was all ours! Now I'm going to divide it equally with the Shanshan Merchant Gang, the Jiangxi Merchant Gang, and those scattered gangs! No matter how we bid, we will suffer! It turns out that we get salt directly from the government, no matter how much we give to those who are officials, we still have benefits, but now we are competing with these loose gangs, why should they compete with us? The emperor is from Anhui! Has the sky changed now? ”

Xu Honggen sighed, "It's not that I said something rebellious, just a few of us here, this emperor can't do it!" Think about the beginning, in the hands of the Wanli Emperor, the Weather Emperor, our Jiangnan, and even our entire Ming Dynasty, where is this? This change, that change, to put it bluntly, isn't the emperor robbing us businessmen for money? ”

"That's it! Don't let people live a good life? This breath is such a fucking shit! After listening to Xu Honggen's analysis, everyone suddenly came to their senses, and they were all very excited!

The entire Huizhou Merchant Gang Hall is full of resentment! (To be continued......)