Chapter 702: Don’t do anything wrong, don’t be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door
Experienced tea farmers can fry tea by themselves. They are both farmers and craftsmen. They live a very comfortable life in Zhejiang, so why go thousands of miles away? , a place full of smog, where mosquito bites may cause malaria at any time?
Unless there is a major temptation or huge oppression, tea farmers who have relocated can leave their homeland.
Zhu Yijun did not want Shen Shixing to come up with the latter plan. Such huge oppression would be a disaster if he was sent to Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou. If he joined forces with the local chieftains, I am afraid that the Ming Dynasty would never have peace.
The scholar-officials of the Ming Dynasty were unwilling to go to the border. Zhu Yijun offered extremely generous terms, but few responded. After bargaining, a group of barely sufficient scholars were dispatched to Suiyuan. .
"Your Majesty, I have a memorial." Shen Shixing took out a memorial and presented it to His Majesty. Since Shen Shixing advocated it, of course he was the one to advance it and he was responsible.
Zhu Yijun opened the memorial and read it for a long time before he raised his head and kept looking at Shen Shixing.
“Come forward.”
“Ah? I obey the order.”
“Come in more.”
Zhu Yijun looked at Shen Shixing, who was within three steps, and after looking at it for a long time, he said: "I underestimated you. You work hard. Once this is done, you will join the cabinet when you return to Beijing."
Da Ming The emperor glanced at Yan Shixuan with lingering fear and said, "Governor Shen can rest assured, a fifth-rank scholar can join the cabinet. A bachelor himself is a fifth-rank scholar."
With Yan Shixuan's passive presence, Zhu Yijun didn't know about Shen Shixing. When can I resume my official position? Fortunately, a bachelor is also a fifth-rank official. Shen Shixing is only a fifth-rank official and can also join the cabinet. Of course, people will laugh at him because he is a fifth-rank official.
The core of Shen Shixing's memorial revolves around one thing, the official body.
Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou have been reforming their native lands and returning them to their hometowns. The main contradiction in this place is Wanghua, which is completely different from the contradictions in the hinterland. The degree of Wanghua in the local area is low, and hereditary chieftains are everywhere, even like the Yang family and Meng family in Bozhou. The Lidao family and others were all hereditary chieftains during the Han and Tang Dynasties, and were older than the Ming Dynasty.
The progress of the Ming Dynasty in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou was slow. A large part of the reason was that no one was willing to go, not even to become an official.
Now the tea farmers who go to Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou to open tea gardens can obtain an official status and go as Baoqi agricultural officer. This official status is a serious official status, the ninth rank, except that they do not receive a salary. In addition, there is no difference from the normal ninth-grade officials. They have all the privileges such as being assigned to a post, being exempted from labor, not kneeling when meeting officials, and so on.
Official status is rare. In the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, especially in a culturally prosperous place like Zhejiang, it is not a matter of recommending people to become officials. No matter how good at studying and how capable they are, they are officials, officials. If you want to be an official, even if you have Zhang Juzheng's permission, it will be as difficult as climbing to the sky if you have good officials.
There are tens of thousands of officials, but only a dozen or so people have crossed this hurdle.
As for the professional skills of tea farmers, their tea skills must also be reviewed in depth to ensure that they are talents before they can go there. The official status is only given when a tea garden is opened in the place. The official status of the tea garden is There are certain requirements for scale and output.
"Isn't it too long to wait for five years for the tea garden to have stable production before it can obtain a formal official status?" Zhu Yijun frowned and said: "In this land of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou, it is still three years. Five years is too long. "
In five years, too many things can happen. In a smog-filled place where people are killed at every turn, even the places where these tea farmers go have already been cleared. This place can be regarded as a place with a relatively high degree of royal culture in Guizhou.
"This official official status is given for three years and is hereditary." Zhu Yijun made another change. The official status given by Shen Shixing was very stingy, that is, if the tea garden opened by Zhejiang tea farmers dies, the tea garden will By taking it into public ownership, Zhu Yijun reversed the course of history. This official position was hereditary, which meant that the tea plantation was also hereditary.
Shen Shixing immediately said: "Your Majesty, it is not appropriate for this agricultural officer to be hereditary and replace him."
"Governor Shen does not farm, so naturally he does not know." Zhu Yijun said: "Shen Governor, do you know how long it takes for a tea plantation to go from being barren to sustaining stable output and supporting the local people?”
"Five years?" Shen Shixing gave a time based on his specific work experience. It would take about five years for a piece of wasteland to be reclaimed and become Changtian.
Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "It takes at least sixty years and four generations to create a tea garden from scratch."
"So long?" Shen Shixing frowned, he understood Why should the emperor give a hereditary official status?
If the tea plantation business was that simple, the Ming Emperor would have desperately promoted it in the hinterland. Can he wait until now?
Zhu Yijun took a deep breath and said: "It will take several years from the design and construction of the stone filling, drainage, roads, cattle pens and livestock pens to the comprehensive and spectacular construction. While building it, we are growing tea. Is it enough to pick tea for the first time about five years after planting it? Of course not. After picking tea, you need to make tea. When the tea is ripe, the tea dealer will arrive and the tea number will be opened. , when the people around you see it, they will recognize the planting of tea, and the number of tea trees will increase. ”
"The surrounding people slowly planted tea trees on the hillsides and took good care of them. However, these foreign tea trees must be bred locally, so that they will not become oranges if they grow in Huainan, or tangerines if they grow in Huaibei. ”
“It would take sixty years to have tea houses and teahouses all under the mountains, regular merchants coming to transport goods every year, tea trees all over the mountains and plains, tea being fried in every household before and after Grain Rain, and tea trees and tea seeds suitable for the local climate. "
"It takes sixty years and four generations of hard work. If this official position is not hereditary, I am afraid no one will go. The hereditary official position cannot be promoted. If you want to be promoted, just I have to take the exam to get the honor.”
“I don’t think about it.” Shen Shixing obeyed the leader’s orders again, and he found that he might have dug a sinkhole for himself! The criteria for success are different. According to Shen Shixing's criteria for success, if you plant tea trees and harvest tea, you will be able to pick tea within five years, which is considered a success, so his idea is to give him an official status and encourage him to go there.
But His Majesty’s standard is to form a stable industry. Each of these tea gardens is clearly the cornerstone of ruling the place. Doesn’t this take sixty years?
Your Majesty always takes a longer-term view when doing things. Every tea garden formed is like the original bathing garden of the Duke of Guizhou, which greatly enhances the existence of centripetal force.
Shen Shixing has to admit that His Majesty has a keen eye.
In Zhu Yijun's view, this difference is actually the difference between farming and not farming. Zhu Yijun pays special attention to farming and mulberry farming. He knows that it can be done.
There is a tea garden in Fanjing Mountain, Tongren Prefecture, Guizhou, called Donghaitang Tea Garden. Its ancestors fled to Guizhou in the middle and late Tang Dynasty to escape the war. Their ancestors opened tea gardens for generations. It took four generations and sixty years to complete the tea garden. It began to take shape, and after more than forty generations, it has been passed down to this day and has become one of the few Han ethnic groups in Tongren Prefecture.
Donghai Hall was originally supposed to be a branch of a certain Xu family, but time passed by and the Donghai Xu family did not even remember where they moved from. They only said that they were Donghai Xu.
"Applying for governor, even if the court does not grant it, the official position is hereditary there. For example, the Donghai Xu family is a frequent candidate for Tongren Township Examination. Since the third year of Zhengtong, the Xu family has produced more than thirty candidates. Even if they are not their own family members, they are still related disciples." Zhu Yijun added the reason for his official status.
If the court does not give it, it is also hereditary and neglectful, because of education.
Tongren, Donghaitang Xu family produced more than 30 candidates and two Jinshis in one hundred and thirty years after the Zhengtong era. Xu family, who mastered the means of production, had great educational advantages With an overwhelming advantage, it can be said that the entire imperial examination in Tongren is not only a disciple of the Xu family, but also a disciple from the Xu family.
The imperial court was very aware of this and encouraged this behavior because the power of the chieftains in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou was still too strong. The expansion of the Han ethnic group was beneficial to the Ming Dynasty's local rule. Yes, they all say that killing the donkey is the end of the road. The goal of reforming the country and returning to the current world has not yet been finished, so there is no reason to kill the donkey.
“Your idea is very good, but you can be more bold when executing it.” Zhu Yijun gave this memorial a final designation and it can be implemented, but the conditions given are still not generous enough. This is not just a reward. , this is equivalent to a major event of opening a single genealogy, and there is also a hereditary official status, although he is only a ninth-grade agricultural official.
For the officialdom, the ninth rank is not even a sesame official, but for the common people, the ninth rank is an official or an official, which is a class jump.
In Shen Shixing’s plan, Zhejiang tea farmers went to the border to open tea gardens, and the tax rate was exempted and halved. Originally, the tea gardens were taxed at 60% according to the Ming Dynasty tax rate, and were collected by merchants, but when Guizhou and other places opened up, tax exemption for the first ten years, then it will be halved, and the value will be drawn three times; in addition to the tax exemption, tea farmers can use the official roads of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi for tea trafficking; Guizhou local labor dispatch, every year Allocate one hundred laborers to cooperate with the development of tea gardens.
In addition to these, it is about salt. If you work as an agricultural officer in Baoqi Division of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou, you can get ten salt quotations every year. Each salt quotation is one hundred and fifty kilograms, a total of one thousand and fifty. Of course, the right to distribute a hundred pounds of salt needs to be exchanged for tea. This is actually tea-salt convection, exchanging tea from Guizhou, Guangxi for salt from Guangdong.
This method was actually Yin Zhengmao's only way to manage salt in Guangdong and Guangxi, and it was now learned by Shen Shixing.
These plans encourage tea farmers to go, but the design of the entire policy still revolves around the official body.
After Zhu Yijun communicated with Shen Shixing in detail, he revised the incentive policy, and then the memorial was sent to Beiya. After being discussed by Beiya, it was transferred to the four cabinet ministers Zhang Juzheng, Wang Chonggu, Wang Guoguang, Wan Shihe and others. In the hands, after the cabinet ministers’ discussions, the system design will be improved and promoted.
“The land of smog requires generations of people to carry it forward.” Zhu Yijun closed the memorial.
"Your Majesty, can we be so encouraged to open tea gardens in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou? Can we also be encouraged to open tea gardens overseas?" Shen Shixing asked in a low voice with his eyes flashing.
Zhu Yijun raised his head, looked at Shen Shixing, and said with a helpless smile: "Governor Shen, is your map of Yan State so long? The map is so long, this is yours Go ahead!”
“I just made a temporary decision.” Shen Shixing quickly bowed his head and said, “Mainly Java and Ceylon are actually very suitable for growing tea. If we grow tea on this mountain, it will be ours. .”
The best and most stable method of becoming a king is farming. Only when it is cultivated can it truly belong to the Ming Dynasty. With land, there will be output, and with people, there will be culture, politics, economy and military. strong affiliation.
Without land, there is nothing.
Shen Shixing was really not out of ideas. When he was discussing policies with His Majesty, he suddenly thought of opening up the sea. He felt that this policy could also be used to open up the sea, all in order to accelerate the transformation of the king.
"It's all right, so let's apply it all." Zhu Yijun only found it interesting. Shen Shixing looked at the hinterland and the ocean at the same time. This was both sea and land. His eyes were not limited to the hinterland. Also looked towards the ocean, which was a wonderful change.
The East India Company of the Netherlands and England began to colonize the world with tea. To be more precise, it was the three bulk commodities of pepper, tea, and cotton that supported the huge power of the East India Company of the Netherlands and England. scale.
In the 32nd year of Wanli, Peters Zorn, the captain of the Dutch East India Company, obtained tea seeds from Macau for the first time, which are the seeds of the tea tree, and then began to plant them in Java, Sri Lanka, the Cape of Good Hope, Yafangbeinan and other places.
In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli, the East India Company’s board of directors decided to begin importing tea seeds from the Ming Dynasty in batches and recruit enough Ming workers to make tea in various places. In the forty-fifth year of Wanli, the East India Company obtained tea seeds from Macau. More than 300,000 tea seeds and various tea-making equipment were taken away, as well as 12 tea farmers and tea workers. In the 47th year of Wanli, Java green tea appeared. By the Shunzhi period, Ceylon black tea began to be sold around the world.
Since then, the Central Plains’ absolute commodity advantage over tea has been lost in the long river of history along with the Taqing’s harsh sea ban. Because of the sea ban, Central Plains tea cannot be sold. Across the world, until the Opium War, the world's total tea production, except for the Taqing, was still only one-tenth of the Taqing's tea production.
This business can be done by Westerners and they can make money. Of course people from Ming Dynasty can also do it and make money!
"Your Majesty has the Yao family in Hangzhou, who is known as the richest man in Zhejiang. Recently, a lot of powerful people in Zhejiang have been arrested. The Yao family took the opportunity to continue to expand. Your Majesty, are you going to restrict one or two?" Shen Shixing said about Qiantang Yao. When he came, he introduced Yao's situation in detail.
Different from other powerful people who annexed money after making money, the Yao family in Qiantang did not own an acre of land, because Yao was not a powerful person. Yao Liyan was originally the shopkeeper of a paper mill, and later became his own He came out and built a paper mill. With his extremely unique business experience, he became the richest man in Zhejiang from a comprador broker in just a few years.
Shen Shixing said with emotion: "Yao Liyan wanted to buy land, but no one in Zhejiang sold it to him. They all thought he was a nouveau riche and wouldn't associate with his family. This is a wealthy family in Jiangnan. They all feel that the Yao family is very rich, but the money they earned is just from breaking the rules. It is just a family of merchants. If it is not passed down by poems and books, it may fall down one day. "< br>
“Yao Liyan has always wanted to integrate into the scholarly community and bought a lot of poems and songs. However, because he did not understand the rhythm of poems, he was ridiculed by the scholars every time he showed off his new poems. "
"This time more than 100 hectares of Jin gentry's homes were confiscated, but the Yao family escaped because they were squeezed out."
Otherwise, fate has a way with people. Because of his characteristics as a nouveau riche, Yao Liyan was ostracized. He couldn't even buy a hundred hectares of land, and he didn't even take his family to play in poetry gatherings. All Yao Liyan did was in the workshop business. On the contrary, he was safe and sound during this major earthquake.
Yao Liyan wants to expand, but Shen Shixing is not sure whether to impose restrictions. After all, if the stall is big, it will inevitably become a dragon.
"How did this person do it? In just seven years, he became the richest man in Zhejiang from being a broker and comprador?" Zhu Yijun was very confused as to what unique business experience could make him so profitable.
"This man is a bit strange, Rong Chen said in detail." Shen Shixing thought about it carefully and briefly introduced it to His Majesty.
"If it's true what I told you, I'm afraid it's not because Yao Liyan is a nouveau riche, so no one has contact with their family. Yao Liyan did this, and Jiangnan's powerful right didn't kill him. It’s the gentlemen who have good intentions. Cutting off people’s wealth is equivalent to killing their parents. This kind of general exclusion is a struggle for interests.”
"I have ordered the Yao family to pay me a visit in person tomorrow to see if the workshops run by their family are really what he said." Zhu Yijun listened to Shen Shixing's ramble and was a little unconvinced. , intending to go and see it in person.
Since it is a survey, you still need to see it in person to be sure.
Because according to Shen Shixing, this Yao Liyan’s business experience solves an impossible triangle, large-scale employment, fair labor remuneration and generous profits. It is impossible to get two things but not get the third. The triangle was actually broken by Yao Liyan. This was really the sun rising in the west. He had to see it in person to believe it.
Yao Liyan’s business experience is open to the public, not a secret. His business experience revolves around the means of production. It’s just that the owner does not hold the means of production. Yao Liyan only shares the profits. If the industry is stabilized, everyone will The boss wanted to set up another business, but Yao Liyan didn't stop him and left after being given money.
It is very easy to fool the emperor. The emperor doesn't understand it anyway. All he needs to do is to make the scene lively and energetic, which is enough to fool him.
Zhu Yijun's solution to being deceived is actually very simple. Be fully prepared before going, instead of diving in blindly and without any purpose.
His method was also very simple. He looked at Zhao Mengyou and said: "Zhao Tishuai, thank you and Luo Tishuai for checking their family's accounts to see if there are any problems."
He There are many ways to prevent yourself from being deceived, and checking accounts is a very good way. The six-book, one-account method is widely used, and the receipts and payments are clear at a glance. And many times, it is not just you who have done your own accounts well, your boss If downstream companies can't keep up with their accounts, then the court can't be blamed.
Tax auditing has always been a matter of cost, not a problem that cannot be found. The cost of tax auditing is not only manpower and material resources, but also the cost of political resources, such as the Huitong Pavilion. Yi's acceptance exchange has mastered the running ledger of large-value transactions, but to get it, someone needs to facilitate it; for example, the Shipping Department has records of import and export cases, but to get it, someone needs to facilitate it.
Tiqi is directly subordinate to the emperor. The cost of political resources is low, but the cost of labor is extremely high. Each Tiqi has been inspecting the piers and sea defenses for several years, and has been responsible for the tax collection of every government office. Every court must have an accounting eunuch who came from the inner school, and a huge amount of money was spent training these emperors.
Zhu Yijun did not wait too long. Zhao Mengyou came to the West Lake Villa early the next morning. After His Majesty had breakfast, he bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong with the accounts. I found a sum that needs to be paid." The tax amounted to about twelve taels, but the payment was delayed due to the blockade. Afterwards, the money was too short and was forgotten.” Silver, this is already a cannon to kill mosquitoes.
"Let's place a reminder." Zhu Yijun raised his brows and said with a smile. Since he still needs to pay for the small amount of money found, this is a matter of rules. It's not that Zhu Yijun likes money.
The Ming Taxation Institute is a local government with almost unlimited power. Zhu Yijun will personally review almost every case in order to prevent the Taxation Institute from getting out of control.
Zhu Yijun once personally told Zhang Juzheng and others about the terrible scene after the Tax Institute lost control, and the various methods of generating income were shocking.
After reading more, Zhu Yijun discovered the rules of taxation. Whenever the person under investigation resists the investigation when retrieving the accounts, he can basically be 100% sure that there is a problem with this company, and it is a big problem. Retrieve the accounts. It's very smooth, 80% of the time there won't be any problems, and even if there are, they'll be minor problems.
If you have done nothing wrong, you are not afraid of ghosts knocking on your door.
The Yao family in Qiantang did not resist the investigation. When Tiqi went there, the Yao family knelt in a large area. For fear of a disagreement, Tiqi pulled out a knife and started killing people and setting fires. He gave him whatever he wanted. The investigation went very smoothly, and the workshops and shops affiliated with the Yao family all cooperated with Tiqi's tax audit.
In the end, it was proved that the Yao family had no problem.
"Are the Qiantang Yao family and the Wuzhong Yao family, that is, Yao Guangqi's Yao family, the same family?" Before leaving, Zhu Yijun asked about the relationship between the Shanghai magistrate Yao Guangqi and the Qiantang Yao family.
Feng Bao hurriedly said: "We were one family about five hundred years ago."
"It's okay, let's go." Zhu Yijun asked Tiqi to clear the way, laid out his majestic guard of honor, and rushed to the Yao family , in Beiya and Nanya, Zhu Yijun dared to walk around in regular clothes, but in Hangzhou, he could only spread out his guard of honor and look majestic.
"Caomin Yao Liyan, together with three of his sons and eight grandchildren, pays homage to His Majesty. Long live His Majesty, Long live His Majesty."
Before Zhu Yijun got out of the car, there was a mountain cry from under the car. The sound of the sea drinking.
Yao Liyan was only in his forties and looked quite capable. He was wearing silk and satin. It was not clear whether it was the hot weather or nervousness, but Yao Liyan was already sweating profusely.
Zhu Yijun waved his hand, indicating that everyone would be exempt from courtesy. He looked at the courtyard door of the Yao family mansion and almost laughed out loud.
"Boss Yao, right? Pull out these two door drums in front of this door and destroy them." Zhu Yijun asked Yao Liyan to move forward and asked Yao Liyan to throw away the door drums to avoid causing trouble.
"Your Majesty, is there anything wrong with this door drum?" Yao Liyan immediately started sweating profusely. He was already nervous when he picked up the driver, and he didn't know what the emperor was doing. But here he was before he even entered the door. The problem is, this foot has already entered the gate of hell.
Zhu Yijun was not in a hurry to enter. He was waiting for Tiqi to remove the threshold. The emperor walked on flat ground wherever he went, and the threshold had to be removed.
The emperor pointed to a pair of door drums and said: "Your house is very new. I heard it was built a few years ago. I saw it today. These two door drums are used by the emperor's relatives. The white marble and the lion are standing on the drum. You have transgressed. If your opponent sees these two door drums, he will go to the Yamen and accuse you of transgressing, which is enough for your whole family to be exiled. "
"The common people deserve to die for their crime, they deserve to die for their crime!" Yao Liyan was dumbfounded. In the flash of lightning, he thought of all the powerful and powerful houses he had been to, and there was no such thing as a door drum like his!
After he became strong, he guarded him day and night. Unexpectedly, there were two things that could kill him at the door. These things were placed in front of the door, in full view of everyone. It was really easy to kill him!
Yesterday, Tiqi actually saw these two trespassing door drums. They just put a blue lion on them, but there was a drum sitting under the green lion, which was trespassing.
"It's ruined, no courtesy." Zhu Yijun said with a smile. If he really pursues it, he will not come over to investigate. If something like this is overstepped, it will be hard to stop. Zhu Yijun has no intention of doing so. As mentioned above, that is a trivial matter.
Is Yao Liyan really overstepping his bounds? The emperor came to the door in person and placed these two things at the door. Was he trying to bet that the emperor was kind-hearted? Or are you betting that the emperor doesn’t understand? The emperor doesn't understand, but the Minister of Rites must understand.
Someone wants to harm him.
The nouveau riche have insufficient background and will fall for some pitfalls if they don’t understand them.
"Boss Yao, let's go in and sit down for a while, and then go to your workshop. I'm here today to ask you for business advice. You don't have to be nervous." Zhu Yijun said with a smile on his face: "Don't be nervous. , there is no need for tea, I don’t need water or food outside the palace.”
“Boss Yao, the Sun family of Songjiang dedicated themselves to the imperial court, and Dongfeng opened the sea, so he won the boss’s family business. If the boss can earn so much money, I hope Boss Yao will not hesitate to teach me." Zhu Yijun sat up straight and said very solemnly.
Yao Liyan was stunned for a moment before he fully understood the emperor's intention. He didn't know how to say it gracefully for a while, so he had to bow his head and said: "I don't dare to take it, I don't dare to take it, Your Majesty, in fact, ordinary people don't have any business experience. It's like a brothel. This respectable brothel usually doesn't raise girls by itself. It takes time and effort to pay back the dirty work. When the brothel opens, the nuns take the girls to the building to do business. They pay 50-50. The common people learn from the brothels. ”
"There are some big guys who have craftsmen and unique skills, but they don't have this way. They don't have the way to purchase and ship goods. They don't have the money to open a workshop. If they do, they will lose money. The common people happen to be good at business, so they provide factories and raw materials. The common people take care of the accounts, and they can produce with peace of mind.”
“In general, only when everyone holds shares can they make their own business a home. Naturally, everyone is interested in their own business, and they become one, and everyone will be involved. "I'm so worried."
"What is the shareholding method for everyone to hold shares?" Zhu Yijun stepped forward and asked curiously.
Yao Liyan made it clear about the shareholding. Yao Liyan contributed money and effort to build workshops, find sales, and bear risks, but he only took 50% of the profits, and the big ones took 20%. The remaining craftsmen are divided into 30%, and everyone has a share, so they are not afraid of expansion. The new people who come in also share the accounts in this way.
Yao Liyan's words were ridiculous, saying that his business method was the same as that of a brothel, which was completely useless. But Zhu Yijun understood the key point, which was that everyone held shares.
Therefore, he made a lot of money, and their family's business was very extensive.
(End of this chapter)