Chapter 330: The Iron Face Man, There is a difference between closeness and alienation

In October of the 14th year of Chongzhen, a strategist with an iron mask appeared in the shogunate of Shandong General Li Meng. General Zhendong called this iron-faced man Mr. Gongsun.

Li Meng's civil and military team was quite curious about the identity of this strategist. Some people went to Zhou Yang and Ning Gangui to inquire, while others went to trap Wang Hai and Tang Er's words, but they didn't get any results. Judging from their appearance, it seemed that they didn't know who the strategist was.

Li Zhendong, Shandong, people outside may not know what kind of person he is, but in the hearts of Shandong civil and military officials, Li Meng is the top figure in the world.

Beside General Li, everyone can be his subordinates, and no one is on par with him. However, this "Mr. Gongsun" has a slight equality in the general army's yamen, and Li Meng's treatment.

Of course, this taste of equality is only compared to other people in the Jiaozhou Camp system, but this is already a shocking moment.

With Li Meng's authority, naturally no one dared to question his decision, but everyone is wondering who can have such talent on par with Li Dashui, counting the world's heroic and handsome men, who have the other surnames Gongsun?

This is a move that Mr. Gongsun is almost synchronized with the Grand Marshal on weekdays. Whether Li Meng appears in military discussions or civil affairs occasions, Mr. Gongsun, wearing an iron mask, goes there together.

Now, everyone below couldn't figure out Mr. Gongsun's identity as a civil and military officer. There were very few big talents in the world who could be civil and military officers. There were a few who seemed to be in the court, and there were no one below the second rank, so these people could not appear in Jiaozhou Camp.

Everyone was curious, but Jiaozhou Camp knew the difference between public and private affairs, and curiosity did not affect everyone's work. Moreover, Mr. Gongsun never said a word in the military and civilian yamen, but was just listening. This had no impact on the structure of Jiaozhou Camp and the distribution of power.

Gradually, everyone was just curious about Mr. Gongsun’s attitude.

However, there are several speculations that are quite interesting, such as Mr. Gongsun is tall and has bright eyes exposed under the mask, and he is half a step behind Li Meng when walking. Perhaps this is the guard invited by the army to Li Dashui. This looks like a character with high martial arts skills.

In late October, there was a small change in Shandong's local salt administration. According to the salt administration of the court, it was generally one province or several provinces as one district, and the official salt prices in this area were the same. Of course, on the ground in Shandong, this regulation was ineffective and no one followed it.

At present, the salt administration situation in Shandong is that private salt is official salt. The salt prices in various places in Shandong are announced in Jinan and Jiaozhou every year, and then armed salt couriers are escorted to various places. The sales of private salt merchants are organized by local merchants. The salt prices are allowed to fluctuate, but because the amount of salt has always been very large, the price is not high. The people do not think this is a burden.

There were originally more than 100 inspection departments in Shandong, which specialized in inspecting and smuggling salt in various places. Since Li Meng's rise, there is only one inspection department now - the Salt Administration is divided into Jiaozhou inspections.

This inspection department is an organization of the armed Salt Ding team, so when introducing Li Meng's official position, it becomes quite ridiculous if it is really a purely official document. "General Zhendong, left governor, Shandong general Li Meng, and inspector of Jiaozhou Inspection Department." There are all first- and second-rank officials in front of them, and a low-ranking official behind them is really hilarious.

However, this position is an official recognition by Li Meng of Shandong's salt administration and cannot be given up easily. It is because of this position that Li Meng reasonably and legally governs Shandong's public and private salt affairs.

In fact, the most ridiculous thing about Shandong salt affairs is not the name that is behind the title of General General, but the regular income of the Salt Transportation Envoy in Jining Prefecture.

The salt transport officer is a third-rank official or a third-rank official. It is a first-class fat shortage. However, the salt transport officer in Shandong is extremely irritating, and the profits of the salt industry in Shandong have nothing to do with him. Of course, there is no such thing as oil and water. There is still some external water in every year. How do you buy this foreign money?

Ning Gangui has been in the salt industry for many years and knows that everyone is making money. After all, the salt transport envoy is a third-rank official, so it is not easy to force it too fast. Therefore, he granted the share of several stones and salt to the salt transport envoy every year, allowing the salt transport envoy to sell them to Yanzhou Prefecture, and the money earned belongs to him.

How much salt does the salt transporter sell is actually asking the inspection department to approve the share, which is also the only wonder seen in the Ming Dynasty.

If a person does not eat salt for a few days, he will be sore and weak all over and suffer from various diseases. The world's major disaster is a major disaster, and the sales of this salt have not yet been hit by any major blow.

Now Li Meng controls all the salt farms in Shandong and almost 20% of the salt farms in Nanzhili, which are important sources of funds for him.

In addition to the local Shandong, the sales of Lu salt have been completely penetrated in Kaifeng, Guide, Zhangde, and Huaiqing in Henan, as well as Shunde, Guangping, Daming and Cangzhou in northern Zhili, have all been completely penetrated, but it is almost the limit of production and sales of Lu salt. After all, the private salt sold to the Zheng family must also be guaranteed.

In fact, the periphery of the territories mentioned above, even Shanxi and Mongolia outside the Great Wall, all need salt. Those places can only be handed over to Huai Yan, or to be more precise, the Fang family will do it, and Jiaozhouying will make money for transit.

However, before Jiaozhouying began to sell salt, the common people in these areas ate official salt with low quality and high price. Because of the low profits, private salt rarely even came to them. After the large-scale trafficking of Jiaozhouying, there was no problem in eating salt in various places, but it was the best of both worlds.

In a sense, Jiaozhouying did something good...

However, after mid-October, salt prices began to rise throughout Yanzhou Prefecture and some prefectures and counties south of Dongchang Prefecture. At the same time, in addition to ensuring that the investigation work cannot be delayed, most of the forces also began to move closer to the scope of demarcating price increases.

The cavalry and cavalry stationed in Jiaozhou Camp were also concentrated and ready to support the actions of the armed salt geniuses at any time. Once the salt prices in southern Shandong and western Shandong rose, there would definitely be people who wanted to sell Huai salt in. Of course, the big salt merchants led by the Fang family did not dare, but they could not resist the people below.

So Yanding and the soldiers were all prepared and strictly prevented.

The decision to raise salt prices in western Shandong and southern Shandong was full of complaints. The officials and civilians in Yanzhou Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture all complained, thinking that Shandong was just a few years of peace. After Li Dashen fought this year, he only had so many things to do when he came back. He was investigating spies and the salt industry raised prices, which seemed to have suddenly changed.

Li Meng's civil and military officials in the Li Meng system thought that this policy was really inappropriate at the beginning. Now General Li Meng, the Zhendong, should be kind to the military and civilians in Shandong and win the hearts of the people. How can he do such a complaint?

But after thinking about this kind of question for a little while, I just thought about it. This is the means to earn the greatest benefit to Jiaozhouying, whether from the economic side or from the hearts of the people.

The slight adjustment of salt prices and land has been made. The policy has a slight change, but it has been obviously not the work of his own boss. It seems that it is just the idea of ​​the iron-faced man, Mr. Gongsun.

"The salt prices in Shandong are almost the same everywhere. The people of Qilu must think that eating this affordable salt is a natural thing. Although Lord Li is willing to show kindness to the people, in this situation where the situation is still stable, everyone can't feel it at all."

After participating in a report from the Salt Administration and Lingshan Trading Company with Li Meng, he returned to Li Meng's residence. Sun Chuanting put forward his own opinions. Now his residence has been transferred to the location close to Li Meng's inner residence, which is convenient for daily action and discussion.

"As far as I know, the Grand Marshal's military farms are located in the south of Dongchang Prefecture and Yanzhou, and they still occupy a few other places. Isn't this wrong?"

Li Meng nodded. Although Sun Chuanting surrendered, there was no change in this title, but this made Li Meng quite happy, and some etiquette details were ignored. He had never thought about what Sun Chuanting said. The people bought salt, and the land earned by Jiaozhouying was just a little bit. Many little bits were gathered together, and naturally they became huge income and profits, with small profits but quick turnover. This is what Jiaozhouying did.

But looking at Sun Chuanting's attitude, he obviously raised objections to this. This should be the first time that Sun Chuanting had put forward his own opinions on a certain policy of Jiaozhou Camp. Li Meng was very interested. When Sun Chuanting saw Li Meng listening attentively, he spoke more seriously.

"The land in Dongchang Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture are in the hands of less than ten wealthy families, and the Kong Mansion and King Lu's Wangzhuang occupy a large part. These two families are inherited by saints and have been granted the title of Yan Shenggong for hundreds of years. On the one hand, they are the blood descendants of the emperor and are also vassal kings who have been passed down for more than ten generations. Will these two families come together with the adults?"

Hearing Sun Chuanting's question, Li Meng shook his head slowly. At present, Kong Sande, the head of Wenru Trading Company, seemed to be very good at doing business in outsiders, and he made a lot of gold and silver in Jiaozhou camp openly or secretly. Shandong soldiers may have accepted the defeat and never cared about it.

But Li Meng knew that Kong Sande had always been quite kind to the Jiaozhou Camp and helped many things that should not be helped. For example, Liu Zeqing, who sneaked into Caozhou, secretly settled the troops of Jiaozhou Camp in the farms of Ningyang and Sishui. This was a favor. Moreover, the private request for the two sides had basically no outsiders knew about the words they had discussed. If there was something wrong with the Kong family, Kong Sande should have stood on his own side.

However, Li Meng also received some news recently, saying that Kong Sande's position of fighting gold this day was coveted by many people in the Yansheng Gong Mansion, and he thought that this transaction could be done so easily. If I were to do it, wouldn't it be the same for me? Although Kong Sande is capable, he is an alien tribe after all.

The eldest son of the Kong family has several peers who have never had the title of success. Every day, they urge the elders in the family to seize the position of the head of the business. Kong Sande handled the matter well, but he could not resist the greed of others. If Kong Sande loses power, many things that are inconvenient to Jiaozhou Camp cannot find a good replacement, which is very troublesome.

If Kong Sande was defeated, then his side might not have a chance to get together with the Kong Mansion. Maybe he should find some way to support him. Sun Chuanting didn't know that Li Meng had so much thought when he was listening. Seeing Li Meng's serious expression, he continued to say:

"These two families are destined to be unwilling to be with the adults, but they occupy the most fertile land in Shandong, and there are a large population, with adults and military and civilians separated. Local taxes have nothing to do with the generals. The salt affairs of Jiaozhou Camp actually collect taxes in disguise with Shandong officials and civilians, but the name of tax has become the money to buy salt."

When Li Meng heard this, he suddenly realized that this was the case. His salt industry was spread all over Shandong. The salt that everyone in Shandong ate was all salt produced in the salt farm. After deducting the cost of the salt sales in Jiaozhou, some of the extra piece was normal profit, and the other part was similar to the tax collected. I really didn't understand this link before, but Sun Chuanting's analysis came to the point.

"Shandong's elite soldiers and powerful generals. The military expenditure is a huge amount. The court does not allocate military pay. The adults themselves create the financial path of private salt, which is self-sufficient. It is really a talented strategy."

Speaking of this, he directly praised Li Meng. Although Sun Chuanting was a hero, he had been in the Ming Dynasty for a long time and still knew how to make the best of his words. Sure enough, the following words began to change the direction.

"Sir, since this salt business is a tax policy, the function is not just silver or money. Tax is a major policy. This dynasty says that the emperor and the literati rule the world together, so the scholars and literati naturally do not have to pay taxes. Those who bear corvee labor, the farmers, industry and commerce, are all subject to heavy taxes. Although the adult's career has not reached that point, it is also divided into closeness and distantness through tax matters, so that the people of Lu will know what the difference between following the adults and not following the adults, and will promote the common people. You talk about righteousness and morality with him. It is useless, and only by working hard on the interests can they understand..."

After analyzing the essence of this salt business and making improvements, Sun Chuanting talked freely, he also took out the written note and handed it to Li Meng.

When he first surrendered, Li Mengben had not expected the other party to play a role so quickly. After all, there was a difference between watching various newspapers and personally dealing with these matters. Who would have thought that Sun Chuanting would get started so quickly and put forward valuable suggestions, which was really surprising.

This Chen was implemented quickly. Although the wealthy families with their own systems, they still had to eat salt even if they had their own land and foundation.

In recent years, the price of salt has remained unchanged and the supply is sufficient. Everyone took it as a matter of buying salt for granted. No one thought about storing it for emergency purposes. When the Jiaozhou Camp order was issued, everyone realized that there was no other company to buy salt if you wanted to buy salt.

The armed salt and Yanzhou army were inspected very closely, and it was impossible to buy it in Huaibei there. Moreover, most of the land in Shandong was in the hands of less than 30 people. These families had great business and with the strict prevention of Jiaozhou camp, the salt brought by the fish that had missed the net was just a drop in the bucket and could not solve the problem at all.

It’s not good to have salt, and it’s already like this, so I can only buy the price-added salt goods with my nose. At the same time, the armed salt stewards implemented the most severe punishment methods.

In the area where Li Meng is firmly controlled by him, the salt price is stable, so there will naturally be those who are greedy for small profits who want to sell cross-border traffic. For such people, there are severe punishments and laws waiting for him. The Ming Dynasty's punishment for trafficking in private salt is qualified to enforce the armed salt.

After pinching these possible loopholes, the news of salt prices gradually spread. People from Dongchang Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture knew what kind of price they would pay if they did not follow the footsteps of Shandong General Li Meng. Those who ate affordable salt also knew to be grateful and understood that this affordable salt product was not something that could be eaten for granted, but had to be loyal.

The adjustment of salt prices sounds so high-sounding, it seems to be an official move. If you pursue it yourself, you will find that this is still the nature of private salt sales.

But no one in Shandong asked any questions about this. Among them, the salt in Jining Prefecture's Salt Transportation Office was the happiest because the salt they were asked to sell every year was sold in Yanzhou Prefecture. The salt price increased, so they had a lot of money to take, which was indeed happy.

But outsiders think it is really ridiculous and sad.

The adjustment of salt prices in some states, coupled with the inventory that began in late September, is equivalent to giving the people in Shandong an attitude. Those who follow Li Dashu will always have all kinds of benefits. If you don’t follow Li Dashu, there are so many things in front of you, you are a vivid role model.

Even the smallest things in your life will be troublesome, such as the salt you eat is a little more expensive than other stores...

After the adjustment of regional salt prices, Jiaozhouying's income increased slightly, but what we gained was not only this increase in local income.

In late November of the 14th year of Chongzhen, the head of the Liu family, a landlord in Liaocheng, Dongchangfucheng, came to the door with three sons. It was said that the army was defending the territory of Shandong, and the Liu family should also do what they should do.

The head of the Liu family said passionately that his three sons also learned stick martial arts at home. If the commander did not dislike him, they would let them serve in the army. Moreover, seeing that the commander had a large army and had such a large expense, he was willing to bear the expenses of several battalions.

The three sons who come to the army to serve are equivalent to hostages from Jiaozhou camps. They pay military salaries for several camps, which is equivalent to paying taxes in disguise.

The head of the Liu family knew his duty very well. After making the request to fund the camp, he repeatedly stated that it would be best to leave the money to the military camp of Dengzhou Prefecture or Laizhou Prefecture to the old camp of Dashen. How to arrange the arrangements will be arranged by Dashen. The Liu family is just doing their best.

Of course, in order not to misunderstand Li Meng, what other intentions are there for this donation?

In addition, the head of the Liu family also agreed that the tenants and vassals whom he belonged were also citizens of the Ming Dynasty. If they were recruiting troops, please treat them equally.

The Liu family is not ranked last among the less than 30 landlords in Shandong, but should be around six or seventh place last. It is known as "Dongchang Hundred Acres and the Liu family thirty", and it is also a big family with a large family. In theory, it also has some say in front of Li Meng.

However, the conditions offered by the Liu family were equivalent to kowtowing to Li Meng and completely surrendering. First, the Liu family was also investigated for spies and the rising prices of salt, which made them very worried. Second, it was to recognize the current affairs, and third, it was to Li Meng's father-in-law once was the prefect of Dongchang, and the two sides were quite friendly. The Liu family knew more about Shandong general Li Meng than others.

Since the Liu family made such a gesture, Li Meng naturally would not let him do it for nothing. The three sons of the Liu family did not join the army, but became one of the armed salt deeds. The salt sold to the Liu family was immediately equal to other parts of Shandong. When the Liu family returned to Dongchang Mansion, the village land and craftsmen came to the Liu family's fields. The survey was to connect the Liu family's fields with the ditches of the village land.

Although the Liu family paid all kinds of prices, the Jiaozhou Camp's rewards were far more than the Liu family's prices, both openly and secretly.

After thousands of years of inheritance, the landlords have regarded land as their lifeblood. Especially in Shandong, the landlords, except for the Confucius Mansion and the Lu Prince Mansion, took advantage of the disaster year and the actions of Shandong General Li Meng in Shandong, they all acquired and annexed large areas of land that their ancestors could not imagine, and the so-called wealthy kings and princes were vaguely meaningful, and these lands do not pay taxes and almost bear any obligations.

In their eyes, these lands are to be passed on from generation to generation and left to their descendants. If they are taxed by officials and their manpower is levied at will, it is like cutting their flesh and putting their blood, and they are not willing to do so.

And now, Li Meng is the general of Shandong, and they are gentry from Shandong. They are in the same system. These big landlords feel that they can still reason with Li Meng and bargain, after all, they are huge enough.

However, this inspection and the adjustment of salt prices made them realize that they were indeed huge, but they were just huge pigs and sheep. In front of tigers and wolves, no matter how big the pigs and sheep were, they were just food. Those who realized this first, such as the Liu family in Dongchang Prefecture, surrendered to them as soon as possible.

Even if you surrender completely and be slaughtered, the treatment you received is very different from that of the past. After all, if you say that a thousand gold horse bones are worth a thousand gold at the beginning, but later on, it is not so valuable.

At the beginning of the twelfth lunar month of the 14th year of Chongzhen, the wealthy families were concerned about not how to organize this Spring Festival, but about thinking about where they should go in the future.

At the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, some generals and veterans of Jiaozhou Camp received valuable holidays and began to return home for vacation. However, like these wealthy families in Shandong, non-Li Meng system, there were also bad things in Jiaozhou Camp.

For example, Huang Ping, the leader of the Shandong Salt Gang, was the intelligence commander of Li Meng in secret. At this time, he was drinking on the side of the official road between Qufu and Yanzhou Prefecture.

Even in southern Shandong, it was quite cold in the twelfth lunar month. Huang Ping and a dozen of his men were wearing torn fur coats and gnawing dried biscuits around a cart. The water inside the gourd was so cold that he grinned his teeth for lunch. He suffered a lot.

In Taiping, Shandong, there are quite a lot of merchants traveling to and from various prefectures and counties. During the New Year, there are really many people who trade in wealthy places in Yanzhou Prefecture. When passing by Huang Ping and the others, they all thought that this was a common thing, and no one paid attention to it.

"That group of guests from Xuzhou hid in the village in front. It was the manor of the second prince of Yanshenggong. It was not easy for the army and Yanding to go in to get people."

A dozen people gathered together, looking like they were sheltering the wind, and they didn't worry about others seeing each other. Huang Ping thought that the whole family had finally reunited in Jinan City this year. The new family had just settled down, but they did something like this, and the others went home to enjoy the joy of family.

But I wanted to take my subordinates here to pretend to be a poor man to monitor. I was so angry that I couldn't help but get angry when I heard from my subordinates' reports. I threw the cake in my hand to the ground and shouted in a low voice:

"Are you Jiningduo's people blind? You actually let the group of salt dealers in Xuzhou be so rampant under your nose. If it weren't for Yangzhou going to Jinan Prefecture to report the news, I wouldn't know how big it would be!"
To be continued...