Qing Yao

Chapter 8: Salt Merchants in Depression

To find a job, one needs to rent a house, and Zhao An is no exception. However, he has no money in his pocket, so he can only live with his cousin Wang Defa for a while, and then rent a house outside when he has enough money. He didn't expect that Ganquan County Taxation Bureau, as a profitable unit of Ganquan County, actually has housing benefits for its "employees"!

It was a small surprise.

The house assigned to Zhao An is located in Renfengli Lane, Xiaguan. The owner is Jiang Chun, the former general merchant of the Lianghuai Salt Industry. At his peak, he was known as the "richest man in the world". As a result, he was targeted by Emperor Qianlong who was short of money. Before his death last year, Jiang Chun was selling his property to raise funds to repay the high-interest loan he borrowed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the 50th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign.

Jiang Chun did not borrow this high-interest loan willingly, but was forced to do so by the emperor.

The business of usury was also the largest and most profitable business in the Qing Dynasty, and the emperor himself was the biggest lender.

Qianlong lent money to such an extent that even his guards and eunuchs had to borrow money from him.

The Imperial Guard had the Enfeng Dang, the eunuchs had the Enji Dang, the Qianqing Gate Guards had the Enlu Dang, and the Internal Affairs Department officials had the Fenghe Dang and Wancheng Dang.
Not only that, Qianlong also lent money to officials and set up a special official housing rental warehouse in the Imperial Household Department, which was managed by the Construction Department and a minister of the Imperial Household Department was specially appointed to be in charge.

If an official who borrowed money repaid the debt on time, Emperor Qianlong would be pleased to give him a promotion.

Still can’t pay it back?
Confiscating property is a blessing!

As a result, pawnshops were everywhere in the Qing Dynasty. Not only was the officialdom in a mess, but the private economy was almost destroyed by usury.

The money borrowed from the emperor must be repaid, but the interest rate is so high that even Jiang Chun, the chief salt merchant of Lianghuai, cannot afford it.

After Jiang Chun's death, Emperor Qianlong, who felt that he had suffered a loss, issued an edict ordering Yangzhou to confiscate all the Jiang family's property, including real estate. The Taxation Department, as one of the grassroots "investigation units", took advantage of the opportunity to "pick up the bargain" and took possession of the Jiang family's property located in Renfengli Lane.

In addition to Renfengli Lane, the Taxation Bureau also has several properties in the city that belong to the "unit", all of which have been distributed as internal employee benefits.

Otherwise there is no way to deal with it, and I can't sell it. I can't just leave it there to gather dust.

The courtyard of Zhao An's cousin Wang Defa located in Luosijiding Lane was actually also a property under the name of the Taxation Bureau. It was just that too many people died in that lane in the early years and no one was willing to live there, so it became a good deal for Wang Defa, who was only in his early thirties at the time. As a result, he lived there for more than twenty years.

Living here together has developed feelings for each other.

But they only have the right to live there, not the property rights, and it is even more impossible to pass this courtyard on to future generations, unless there is any change in the "policy" and insiders can buy internal houses at a low price.

A few years ago, Wang Defa's son got married, and his daughter-in-law didn't want to live in this ghost alley, so the old couple had no choice but to buy a house for their son and daughter-in-law in Dongguan, which resulted in a lot of wasteland.

Fortunately, Wang Defa worked in the Taxation Department and was a well-known figure. In recent years, he had relied on private income to pay off his debts.

The son was also filial and asked the old couple to move to the new house in Dongguan several times, but Wang Defa refused to go and said that he would rather die in Luosi Jiding Lane.

In addition to not wanting to cause trouble for his son and daughter-in-law, he probably also wanted to take full advantage of the "unit". If the government wants to dispose of this property one day, maybe it can really be transferred to his name.

It has nothing to do with greed, it's simply human nature.

Zhao An was a newcomer to the company, so his treatment was definitely not comparable to that of the old employees. The company also had no chance of allocating him a separate house, so he lived with other people in the company.

It’s true that you share a house, but you don’t have to pay rent.

There were nineteen people living in eleven rooms.

Half of them are patrolmen of the department, that is, the errand boys who are responsible for collecting commercial taxes for the department.

Because the nature of these people's work is not fixed, they have a high degree of "mobility". It is possible that Zhang San or Li Si lives here today, and it may be replaced by Wang Ermaizi tomorrow.

The others are custodians of the warehouse. These people have higher status than the patrolmen, and their relationship with Ambassador Ding Zhenglong is closer than that of ordinary people. The reason is that they are all from Ding Zhenglong's hometown.

It's similar to the fact that a county magistrate must bring some trusted relatives or fellow townspeople with him when he takes office.

The level of the Taxation Department is not high, but it has a lot of benefits. Without someone who knows the ins and outs of the department to watch over it, who can we turn to if the tax revenue is short?
Apart from patrolling the fence and keeping the house safe, the people living in the yard are Zhao An and his roommate and "master" Liu Xiaolou.

Liu Xiaolou is also a house accountant. He is one year younger than Zhao An. His hometown is Baoying County, Yangzhou. He is a regular student and was introduced to the Taxation Department by his uncle who worked in the government office. Because he joined the department half a year earlier than Zhao An, he was arranged to "supervise" Zhao An.

"Daidai" means to teach, from the rules of the government office to the specific business operations.

Since he is teaching, he is the master, there is nothing much to say.

The rules that have been in place for so many years cannot be changed by Zhao An.

Zhao An was also calm about this. He called Liu Xiaolou, who was one year younger than him, "Master" all the time. He felt very comfortable calling Liu Xiaolou. After receiving instructions from the manager Zhang Quan, he excitedly took his apprentice to the "dormitory" to settle down.

When two people live in a room, they don't sleep in one bed, but each has his or her own bed.

The bed was similar to the iron bed in Zhao An’s student dormitory in his previous life, the difference being that it was not a bunk bed. It was a little small, but it was definitely no problem sleeping.

Perhaps knowing the relationship between Zhao An and Wang Defa in the study, Liu Xiaolou ran around to help Zhao An. First, he got the bed and bedding for Zhao An, and then took Zhao An to greet other people.

When Liu Xiaolou found out that Zhao An didn't even have anything to wash himself with, he generously bought him a towel, a toothbrush made of willow branches and a box of green salt.

The towel is used to wipe the face, and the toothbrush and green salt are naturally used to rinse the mouth.

Looking at the toothbrush which was similar in shape to the one in his previous life and was also made of pig hair, Zhao An was not surprised, because he knew that Chinese people had the habit of using toothbrushes for a long time, but it seemed that it was Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty who actually established the shape of the toothbrush.

Although the money was not much, Zhao An was still very grateful to his young master Liu Xiaolou, and deliberately got closer to him. This way, he didn't have to bother to find out what was going on in the unit. He would know who was good friends with whom, who was at odds with whom, who liked what, and who hated what. The young master would definitely be able to "gossip" it out.

This is treating Liu Xiaolou as the aunt from your previous life's unit.

Today is the first day at work, so there is definitely no need to do anything. Liu Xiaolou is a young man, so it is a rare opportunity for him to slack off, so he takes Zhao An, who is adapting to the living environment, out to play.

Zhao An wanted to refuse, but then he thought that there was no point in disappointing the young master, so he followed him with a smile.

Originally, they wanted to visit the famous tourist attraction in Yangzhou, the Slender West Lake, but Liu Xiaolou had no interest in that place at all and dragged Zhao An straight to Dongguan Street.

Dongguan Street and Xiaguan Wharf are the most prosperous places in Yangzhou City. There are many businesses and all kinds of trades. The streets are crowded with people and all kinds of vehicles and horses are coming and going.

Zhao An made a rough estimate that there were nearly a hundred shops from the beginning to the end of the street, selling all kinds of things. The visual experience was similar to the old city centers of some cities he visited in his previous life, and much more real than the man-made ancient towns.

Liu Xiaolou didn't buy anything, he was just strolling around. When he was tired, he pulled Zhao An to stop in front of a lotus root starch ball stall, then pulled Zhao An to sit down and asked the stall owner to serve two bowls of lotus root starch balls, a specialty of his hometown.

"This dumpling is delicious. It has stuffing inside. I guarantee you'll want to eat more." Liu Xiaolou enthusiastically recommended his hometown delicacy to Zhao An. Zhao An had never eaten this before. He scooped one with a spoon and put it in his mouth. He chewed it gently and found it was sweet and refreshing, with a strong osmanthus flavor. He couldn't help but nod in praise.

Liu Xiaolou smiled happily: "If it tastes good, eat more. If one bowl is not enough, I will order another one for you."

"One bowl is enough. I can't eat two bowls."

Zhao An continued to eat the lotus root starch dumplings with a smile. While he was eating, Liu Xiaolou gently poked Zhao An under his left shoulder, indicating him to look across.

Zhao An, confused, looked up and saw two women talking to a clerk in a jade shop across the street. Judging from their clothes, the two women should be over 30, or even 40 years old, so he didn't see anything wrong.

Unexpectedly, Liu Xiaolou couldn't move his eyes away, staring at the two girls with a lewd look on his face, which made Zhao An laugh. He thought to himself, you kid is only nineteen years old, your taste is a bit too strong.

After finishing a bowl of lotus root starch dumplings, Liu Xiaolou was still staring at the woman. Zhao An coughed lightly and whispered, "Master, she is much older than you. Maybe her son is even older than you."

"You do not understand,"

Liu Xiaolou shook his head, scooped a lotus root starch dumpling into his mouth, his eyes still fixed.

Maybe the temperature was a bit high today, and one of the women felt hot, so she loosened her collar a little. It didn't matter that she loosened her collar a little, but she actually exposed some of her shoulders, which made Liu Xiaolou stare at her in amazement.

Zhao An didn't react at all. He had seen more exposed shoulders, let alone this little bit of shoulder. He could only attribute Liu Xiaolou's expression to being inexperienced. If he really let this kid see something, he might fart on the spot.

As he put down his soup bowl and prepared to stand up, the two women just came out of the shop. At such close range, Liu Xiaolou actually swallowed. Zhao An was so amused by what he saw that he couldn't help but blurt out an idiom: "Yes, cunning and sly."

"."

Liu Xiaolou didn't understand what the cunning old man had to do with the two women. It was not until he arrived at Xiaguan Wharf that he couldn't help but ask Zhao An what the cunning old man meant.

Zhao An chuckled, unable to explain.

how to explain?

Do you, a young kid, know what it means to have old shoulders and huge slippers?

In view is the Grand Canal that runs through the north and south, which was also the main artery of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and an important blood transfusion belt that maintained the economy of the two dynasties.

The countless ships docked at the pier were probably the grain ships transporting grain to the north. However, Liu Xiaolou said that these ships were not grain ships, but salt ships.

"With so many ships carrying salt, no wonder the salt merchants are so rich."

Zhao An was filled with emotion. The city of Yangzhou had relied on salt for thousands of years. Without salt, there would be no such saying as "a man with ten thousand taels of gold in his pocket could ride a crane to Yangzhou."

Liu Xiaolou had a different opinion. He said, "Salt merchants are rich, but I heard from Manager Zhang that life is not easy for our salt merchants in Yangzhou these days. I heard that many salt merchants have quit their jobs, and as a result, the number of salt fields on the coast has also decreased a lot."

"what?"

This was the first time Zhao An heard this, and he couldn't help but wonder, what's the difference between having a hard time selling salt and having a hard time selling oil?
If you say that the smaller the population, the less salt sold, that's understandable, but the population is growing, and people need to eat salt. The more people there are, the more salt they eat. And the salt sellers have a monopoly, so how can they not have an easy time?

Liu Xiaolou had no idea what was going on because he had also heard about it.

If you really want to understand the connection between them, with this level of knowledge, why would you still be working in the Taxation Department?

Seeing that the time was almost up and they had finished their shopping, he took Zhao An back to Renfengli Lane to rest so that they could officially start working in the accounting office tomorrow.

In fact, what Liu Xiaolou said was indeed the truth. The salt merchants in Yangzhou are having a very hard time now.

The reason was the sensational "Lianghuai Salt Permit Case" more than 20 years ago. This case resulted in the former Lianghuai Salt Administrator Gao Heng, Pu Fu, and Salt Transport Commissioner Lu Jianzeng being sentenced to death in prison. Even Qianlong's most trusted Hanlin scholar Ji Xiaolan was exiled to the Western Regions for his involvement in the case.

As the officials acted in this way, the salt traders, transporters, market traders and general merchants were also hit hard, and many salt merchants lost their families and lives.

The Lianghuai salt industry never recovered from this setback. The number of Lianghuai salt fields has been reduced from 20 at its peak to 12. The bustling scene of unloading and loading salt that Zhao An saw at the dock is the last "afterglow" of the Lianghuai salt industry.

In addition to Qianlong's extravagance, all this was caused by the Qing court's military operations in Jinchuan, which resulted in a deficit of tens of millions of taels in the national treasury.

The imperial court has no money but you salt merchants do. How are you going to get through the New Year without slaughtering pigs?

Here, Zhao An and Liu Xiaolou returned to their residence, tidied up a bit and went to bed. The patrolmen and custodians who had just finished their shift were either going out for a drink or chatting and laughing in the yard. The noise was a bit loud, making it difficult for Zhao An to fall asleep, but he did not go out to stop them, because he knew that good relationships with colleagues were the first step to determining whether he could gain a foothold in the "unit".

And gaining a foothold is the key to whether he can go further.

It's just that I don't have much money on me, otherwise I would have bought some pork head and brought a few jugs of wine to invite my colleagues to get together.

The next day, before dawn, I followed Liu Xiaolou to the Taxation Department to officially start work. I had breakfast in the "internal canteen" behind the Taxation Department. It was not very rich, with just porridge, pancakes, pickles, fried dough sticks and so on.

It is impossible to eat well even if you can eat enough.

Who made the canteen contractor the third uncle of Ambassador Ding's family?

It’s not free food. Everyone has to pay for food every month, which is deducted directly from the monthly allowance.

It’s not a lot, but it’s not a small amount either. There are more than a hundred regular employees and temporary workers in the Taxation Department, which are enough to keep the third uncle fat and white.

Only people like Wang Defa who have high status in the company can eat out, everyone else has to pay.

Before Zhang Quan, the accounting manager, and his colleagues arrived, Liu Xiaolou took Zhao An to introduce each "department" and who was in charge of each department. Zhao An listened carefully and took notes.

After the introduction, Liu Xiaolou brought Zhao An to the accounting room. The door was already open. Several accountants inside were greeting each other. When they saw Liu and Zhao come in, they nodded.

"Zhao An, this is..."

Liu Xiaolou was about to introduce Zhao An to his colleagues when Zhao An ran to the charcoal stove that had been sealed last night. He bent down to unseal the stove and put new charcoal in it. Then he carried a warm kettle to the nearest calculator's table and asked, "Where's your teapot, sir?"

Due to the delay of the signing editor, the signing contract will not be completed until Monday. After the status is changed, I will update three times a day.

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(End of this chapter)