Aspirations for Nation and Beauty: Chapter 63: The 3rd cave of the cunning rabbit

The painting boat fell into silence, only the sound of the lake wind passing by and rolling up the curtain floated in the cabin. After a long time, the sound of the lid clinking the bowl broke the silence. When everyone was watching, the fat man sitting in the middle facing south and facing north took a sip slowly, "Good tea! , Wuyi Dahongpao is really wonderful, Boss Xie, you are also giving me a few taels sometime, how about it?"

"Master Liao, what's going on now, are you still interested in talking about the tea ceremony? When we get over this difficulty, let alone a few taels, I'll wrap up all the tea trees on the cliff and give them to you." How about it?" At this time, the fat man was still interested in talking about the tea ceremony, and the middle-aged gentleman beside him couldn't help laughing, but he couldn't help but answer, so he only agreed with a wry smile, "I'm afraid it's just like Qian Lao said, where will our family go?" How many will be left?"

Shaking his head faintly, the fat man put down the teacup, smacked his lips and said, "Don't be so pessimistic, don't you come here now to discuss a solution? Zong, this piece of land in the south of the Yangtze River still needs someone to carry the banner, and if there is no war, there will be no food or clothing, right?"

"Master Liao, how do you know our difficulties. Take my Xie family as an example. Our Xie family started with river transportation. Quanzhou Prefecture is the base of our Xie family. Now the river-sea combined transport is the foundation of my Xie family. But now that the East China Sea is in chaos, Jinling, the most important pier, has fallen into the hands of His Highness, and the taxes of Yanyun and Donghai counties in the north have doubled, and due to the tense situation, the security situation is becoming increasingly severe. I was robbed twice in a row, and the amount of compensation for my family has exceeded 500,000 gold coins; in the south, the fleet of the Milanese is escorted and patrolled by the fleet of the Royal Milanese. Greatly affected; the five lakes in the west are also unstable, the empire and the Maqihans control Wenning alternately, and the control of Anqing and Yueyang is changed between the sixth and third princes, the transit tariff is astonishingly high, and Jiujiang falls. In the hands of a remnant of peace, the situation is better than that of the other houses, the Xie family is struggling to support it now, not to mention that His Royal Highness is still asking for donations wantonly, even if he doesn't, I don't think this business can last long." Zhong After the young gentleman finished speaking, he shook his head and sighed.

"Yes, Mr. Liao, the situation of our Zhou family is similar to what Brother Xie said. Everyone knows that I, Zhou Chuannan, only do one business, and that is salt. Where does the salt come from? Isn't it by the seaside salt farm? Now the salt field in Donghai County has been detained by His Royal Highness. I sent people to negotiate, but there was no response. The five lakes are in chaos, the Heshuo road is blocked, and the price of salt transported from the Kansai side has increased by 80%; The inventory has been exhausted. I urgently dispatched a batch of goods from Jinhua, but on the way, I was stopped by the newly established tax inspection department of the Chu Palace. If there is any business, why would you want to extract lijin? This is a strange story through the ages, but everyone listens to you. If you draw it, you will draw it. Before you reach Weiyang, you have received a notice from the newly established Monopoly Commodity Management Office of the Chu Palace , all monopoly products will be under the control of the Monopoly Office of the Prince of Chu’s Mansion. The original monopoly licenses issued by the prefect’s mansion will be abolished and need to be re-applied. The price of the monopoly rights has tripled compared to the original purchase price at the Sheriff’s Mansion, do you still need someone to do business?” A man surnamed Zhou with a white scarf covering his head and plain clothes said sadly, “My Zhou family has been passed down from my great-grandfather. After four generations, is it going to be defeated by me, Zhou Jianan?!"

"Who says it's not?" Seeing everyone speaking angrily, the short and thin man surnamed Murong was unwilling to be lonely, with a look of righteous indignation: "Although the main business of our Murong family is slave business, it is also allowed by the imperial law. , but in the eyes of others, we always seem to be inferior. The first stop of the tax department is our house, and the first one of the audit department is also our Murong's house. We have tripled! You said that the business is good, so let’s not talk about anything else. But look at the business. Now that food prices have skyrocketed, who would want to add more people? No business is doing well, and it’s not going well. , who will come to buy your goods? I finally saw that the Japanese defeated the Doton people. I thought I could make a fortune by taking this opportunity, but I never thought that the navy would not allow the Japanese ships to enter the port. All the slaves were sold to Milan and Nanyang, isn’t this intentionally forcing people to die?”

Everyone chattered and chattered, and there was a lot of noise and noise. It seemed that they had accumulated grievances for a long time, and they finally found an opportunity to vent.

"Okay, everyone, now is not the time to complain. This is the case. We still have to face the reality and think about how to overcome the difficulties in front of us. The current situation is chaotic, and we are short-sighted, and it is difficult to see the current situation clearly. The general situation is developing, Mr. Liao has lived in the court for a long time, and he has seen a lot, so he must have something to teach us, why not ask Mr. Liao to clear the clouds for us, and have a glimpse of the road." The middle-aged gentleman with white and green beard who had been sitting at the head finally spoke Yes, with his voice, the cabin suddenly fell silent.

As the helm of the Wen family, the head of the seven great families in the south of the Yangtze River, *'s knowledge and vision are far from comparable to those of the other businessmen who only know how to do business all day long. The forces on the other side have maintained necessary contacts, but Jiangnan has been in peace for a long time, and it is an important financial and taxation area for the empire. Whoever is in charge of the empire will not easily shake the foundation of Jiangnan. This is the unanimous consensus of both the ruling and opposition parties. As merchants of the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, while constantly expanding their own business, they are more or less connected with various forces in the imperial court. The Zhongxun nobles came too close, especially in the later period of Situ Mingyue's administration, frequent adjustments of power and integration of officials made businessmen at a loss, often spending countless money and manpower to climb the line, and they may become prisoners within a few days. It may even be a disaster, so the merchants in the later period became more cautious. Apart from Liao Qichang who was firmly seated, they even united and made good friends with the local garrison and the middle and upper officials of the navy. It's because there is much less contact with the high officials in the imperial capital far away, and of course there is still a lot of filial piety in terms of money.

Long before the change in the throne of the empire, Liao Qichang, the sheriff of Jiangnan County, was keenly aware that the storm the empire was about to face was far from being as simple as the ups and downs it had experienced in the past. He once reminded the people of the seven Jiangnan families The three caves of the cunning rabbit should disperse the various assets and investments concentrated in the three counties in the east of the empire. Don't put eggs in one basket, and point out that the relatively barren and backward northwest and northern Luzon may be a good choice.

Although this proposal once caused a wave of funds from Jiangnan to the Northwest and North Luzon, the calm situation in the three counties in the southeast has made major businessmen reluctant to transfer their investment in the three counties. The head of the literary family* attached great importance to Liao Qichang's views, and began to gradually shift the focus of investment from the East China Sea and Five Lakes to the Northwest and Northern Luzon, and began to diversify investment directions. From the financial industry to the plantation to the mining industry, Wen's investment in Northwest and Northern Luzon has more than doubled that of the other six companies combined. In particular, the acquisition of the Northwest Datong Bank, originally controlled by the commercial forces of the imperial capital, was renamed the Jiangnan Bank Northwest Branch, which accelerated the transfer of funds and assets of the Wen family. Song's permission to open banks and banks went even before Jinling Bank and Wanfeng Bank entered the northwest with the Wen family, and now he is trying his best to obtain permission to enter the financial market in the countries of the Western Regions and the Kansai region.

After seeing that Tiannan was included in Li Wufeng's control~IndoMTL.com~he was the first to send a representative to congratulate Li Wufeng, and proposed to acquire the Southern Bank originally controlled by the pro-Lang family (because of the collapse of the Lang family. The run was on the verge of bankruptcy and liquidation), and won high praise from Wufeng for stabilizing the hearts of the people. His active performance not only won the friendship of Xiaotang, James and Yang Zhengbin, senior Northwest officials, but also provided a strong guarantee for his financial security. So in this matter, he has always been very grateful to Liao Qichang, and thanked the other party for pointing out the direction and threading the needle for him, which made him feel much more relaxed than the other companies at this time.

Early after Liao Qichang's proposal to invite Wufengdong to go to Wuhu and Jiangnan was rejected, Liao Qichang already used his keen sense of political career for many years to feel that the three southeastern counties were likely to encounter an unprecedented crisis in hundreds of years. Of course, he didn't know that the drought would be a powerful catalyst for this war, but the strong rise of Situ Biao behind Qiankun Dao, Situ Tai's ambitious ambitions for a county in the East China Sea and even Jiangnan, came from the crazy expansion of Japanese people on the sea, behind Situ Yuan The greedy appetite of the people of Milan, the two talented politicians of Ma Qihan, and the scattered forces of the empire, all of these are likely to bring the entire three southeastern counties into ruin, but his early predictions and guidance can only be counted by * On the surface, I listened to it outright, but the Wen family's too large assets cannot be completely transferred in just one or two years, and those in the Wen family who take chances are also explicitly or secretly delaying the transfer of assets. schedule.

Until the Japanese soldiers were sent out and Situ Tai's army went south, the early prophecy became a reality step by step, and the financial situation suddenly became tight due to frequent wars. They really came to their senses, but isn't it too late now?