Tea Merchants of the Song Dynasty

"Since the opening of the tea-horse trade, we have been cooperating with the imperial court's tea monopoly and selling 80% of Mengshan tea to the imperial court. But they are going too far and want us to sell all Mengshan tea to the government and ban private transactions."

Hu Quan paused when his eyes fell on Jiang Yin, then looked away as if nothing had happened.

He continued, "Everyone here is a big tea producer. We also have many long-term tea merchants. If this order is fully implemented, the consequences can be imagined."

Jiang Yin lowered his eyes and listened calmly.

The five peaks of Mount Meng in Yazhou belong to four families, and the Jiang family owns two peaks, Shangqing Peak and Lingjiao Peak.

Shangqing Peak, with Lingjiao Peak and Lingquan Peak on its left, and Ganlu Peak and Yunu Peak on its right.

The person who just spoke was Hu Quan, the head of the Hu family who occupied Lingquan Peak.

In the previous life, there was a problem with the tea mountains of the two peaks of the Jiang family, and my parents rushed from Chengdu Prefecture to Yazhou overnight to deal with it.

Later, on her way back to attend her coming-of-age ceremony, she was assassinated and killed.

The murderer escaped, and a heavy rain washed away all clues.

In her previous life, she was immersed in sorrow and panic. Even her parents' funeral was handled by her second uncle Zhang Yuanzhi.

It was precisely because of this that she, who was naive about the world, completely trusted Zhang Yuanzhi.

Not only did she listen to Zhang Yuanzhi's instigation, she also drove away her aunt, Mrs. Feng, the manager of the Fucheng Tea Farm, on the seventh day after her parents' death. She also asked her second uncle to represent the Jiang Tea Farm alone to attend the Chamber of Commerce the next day, which was today.

Now that she has been reborn, it is naturally impossible for her to let her second uncle come alone.

Jiang Yin took her mother's surname, and to be exact, her father was a son-in-law. The tea plantation was the Jiang family's ancestral business.

However, her Jiang family had very few descendants, with only one daughter in three generations. And her mother's branch only had her as the heir.

On weekdays, she and her parents live in the provincial capital. In addition to managing the affairs of the provincial capital, her parents also run their own tea shop, mainly selling Mengshan tea and scented tea.

Mengshan was managed by Jiang's collateral clansmen. During the tea picking season, her parents would take her to Yazhou for a short stay until the tea frying was finished.

In the past, Jiang Yin learned the most about frying tea, making tea and brewing tea. Originally, after she came of age a few days ago, her parents would have started to teach her how to manage the tea farm business.

However, things did not go as planned. His parents died tragically, his family fell into decline and even the entire family was executed.

Recalling this, Jiang Yin felt a pain in his heart and quickly retracted his thoughts to cover up the previous abnormality.

Fortunately, Chen Meng, the head of the Chen family on Yunv Peak, spoke up, and everyone's attention was on him, so they didn't notice her momentary abnormality.

Chen Meng did not express his own opinion, but only agreed: "Yes, we must unite and resist the new order."

Jiang Yin had an impression of this man. In the previous life, the Chen family was only sentenced to exile and escaped death. The other two families were the same as the Jiang family, with the entire family being executed.

Shen Gan, the head of the Shen family in Ganlu Peak, took a sip of tea and said slowly, "Two days ago, a tea merchant from Guanzhong was willing to pay twice the price to order the remaining 20% ​​of my Mengshan tea. Not only that, he can also eat up the remaining 20% ​​of you. If this decree is implemented, it will be a loss of double profit in vain."

"Oh? Is this true?" Uncle Zhang Yuanzhi asked in surprise, "Brother Shen kept it a secret, I didn't even know about it."

Shen Gan laughed and said, "Please forgive me, Brother Zhang. I just got the news and I have to verify its authenticity."

"What is the result? Is it reliable?" Hu Quan asked hurriedly, "Brother Shen can't keep such a good thing to himself. The four families of Mengshan are one body, sharing honor and disgrace."

Ha~ Jiang Yin sneered in his heart, birds of a feather!

Shen Gan cupped his hands and replied: "Of course, of course, as long as we resist the new policy together, the tea merchants..."

He didn't finish his words, but the meaning was self-evident.

Zhang Yuanzhi immediately bowed and said, "Brother Shen is a man of honor. Can you introduce me to some of the Jiang Tea Farm?"

Chen Meng followed closely behind: "And my Chen Tea Farm."

It's profitable, so of course everyone wants to get involved.

A few of them were talking to each other and were ready to finalize the matter, without asking about Jiang Yin at all.

At this point, Jiang Yin finally knew what was discussed at the meeting in her previous life that she did not attend.

If I'm not mistaken, it was this meeting that led to the final tragedy of the Jiang family.

Now that she has the chance to do it again, she will never make the same mistake again.

Jiang Yin took a sip of tea and put the cup down.

She glanced at the tea lid still in her hand, then let it go, allowing it to fall freely and return to its place with a "bang".

The hall was instantly quiet, and the good old man Hu Quan quickly laughed and said, "Niece, do you have anything to say?"

Several people had different expressions. Zhang Yuanzhi quickly came out to smooth things over: "Please don't blame me. My niece just lost her parents and is distracted."

Jiang Yin looked up and glanced at him, then curled his lips and said nonchalantly: "My Jiang family has inherited the tea planting spirit of the tea ancestor from generation to generation, guarding the Imperial Tea Garden, and vowing to make Mengshan tea famous throughout the world."

"But this does not mean that the Jiang family will go against the imperial decree." She glanced at the people with different expressions and said, "Every man has his share of responsibility for the fate of his country. The Song Dynasty is promoting the tea-horse trade, and soldiers need good horses to protect their country. In this situation, it is an honor for the Jiang family to be able to contribute a little, so why should we oppose it?"

The previous war between the imperial court and Western Xia caused a "horse road obstruction incident" in Shaanxi, cutting off the horse source road in the north.

Therefore, the Song Dynasty had to change the location of the tea-horse trade from the northwestern states of Qin, Feng, Xi, and Tao to the southwest in order to open up new sources of horses.

Therefore, Yazhou became one of the important markets for the "Tea-Horse Trade" and one of the starting points of the Ancient Tea-Horse Road.

After the tea-horse trade, the imperial court set up the Tea and Horse Office in Yazhou, and the county magistrate served as the seventh-rank tea inspector to manage the tea-horse trade.

The Tea and Horse Agency was a good place to make money. In the first year of its establishment, the Yazhou Tea and Horse Agency paid 400,000 strings of tea tax.

To this end, the imperial court ordered other departments not to interfere in the affairs of the Tea and Horse Bureau, and local officials must assist the work of the Tea and Horse Bureau.

Perhaps having tasted the sweetness of success, the tea inspector became a full-time official, and "tea plantations" were set up in Mingshan and Baizhang to "monopolize" the entire county's tea. Mengshan tea became a military supply.

Recently, the Tea and Horse Administration ordered that all tea from the people of Sichuan and Shaanxi be sold to the government, private transactions were strictly prohibited, and all Sichuan tea was subject to monopoly.

All Mengshan tea was purchased by the government, which aroused opposition from major tea growers and tea merchants, leading to today's meeting.

……

Jiang Yin's resolute decision made the meeting end in a bad way and also made Zhang Yuanzhi lose face.

Zhang Yuanzhi, who had been holding back his anger all the way back to Jiang's residence, finally let out his full anger.

He pointed at Jiang Yin and angrily said, "What do you mean? Who asked me to go yesterday? If it weren't for your father, do you think I would care about your Jiang's mess?"

Jiang Yin stared at Zhang Yuanzhi, whose face was filled with anger. He didn't know why he was blind in his previous life and didn't see his true face.

She raised her lips slightly and said sarcastically, "May I ask, Uncle, what did I say wrong? Uncle's surname is Zhang, and the tea farm is named Jiang. When did the Jiang Tea Farm change its surname and let Uncle decide?"