My life skills in Daming Liver

"My lord, my wife said that the meal is ready."

Fang Wanghai's personal old butler reminded him at the door of the study.

Only now did Fang Wanghai realize that he had been talking with his son-in-law for such a long time.

He quickly got up and said, "Let's go!"

Fang Wanghai and Su Ze arrived in the backyard, only to see Mrs. Li talking with her daughter at the table.

Mrs. Li looked at her son-in-law, and Fang Ruolan's ears turned red again. Su Ze knew that the mother and daughter probably said something personal.

Mrs. Li looked at Su Ze as a son-in-law more and more pleasing to the eye. She just heard from her daughter that she was doted on by Su Ze during the period after she married.

"What? Ru Lin just came to Nanjing, you want him to go to Jiangbei?"

Mrs. Li cried out all of a sudden, she glared at Fang Wanghai and said:

"You are an official, and it's fine to send my younger brother every day. When your daughter and son-in-law come to Nanjing, you send your son-in-law?"

Mrs. Li roared from the east of the river, Fang Wanghai's face turned pale, but she couldn't get angry again.

He also felt that he was at a loss. Since the Japanese pirates invaded Jiangbei last year, Jiangbei has been in some turmoil now. Su Ze helped him check the situation of the salt merchants, so it was naturally impossible to bring his daughter there.

When the daughter and son-in-law are newly married, they order the son-in-law to do things. He is really not authentic as an old father-in-law.

But Fang Wanghai had no other choice, the imperial court persecuted him severely, and the issued salt quotations had to be sold within six months, Fang Wanghai could only count on his son-in-law now.

Su Ze quickly said: "Mother-in-law, my son-in-law is also for state affairs, besides, Jiangbei is not far from Nanjing, and I can return in about half a month."

Hearing what Su Ze said, Mrs. Li's complexion improved a bit.

She looked at Su Ze and said: "You men only have national affairs in your eyes, forget it, since you want to go out, then I'll take Lan'er back home for a few days, how about it?"

Su Ze naturally smiled and said: "Of course I listened to my mother-in-law."

When Fang Ruolan heard that Su Ze was going to Jiangbei as soon as he arrived in Nanjing, she felt a little lonely in her eyes, but she was very happy to be able to return to her mother's house for a few days.

This is the case with married daughters, who always want to go out when they are at home, but want to go back to their mother's house after getting married.

At this moment, Fang Ruolan suddenly felt nauseated, she covered her lips with her hand, and let out a nauseous sound.

"Lan'er, what's the matter?"

Mrs. Li asked quickly when she saw her daughter's pale face.

Su Ze walked over and grabbed Fang Ruolan's arm. He caught Fang Ruolan's pulse with his hand, and said with a strange expression after a while:

"Father-in-law, mother-in-law, why don't you invite the doctor to visit the mansion?"

Fang Wanghai also stood up a little excitedly: "Hurry up and call the doctor! What's wrong with Lan'er?"

Su Ze's expression was also a little excited and said: "It seems to be a happy pulse, my son-in-law is a little confused."

Hearing that it was a happy pulse, everyone present showed excited expressions. After a while, a doctor walked into the backyard. After giving Fang Ruolan the pulse, the old man immediately bowed to everyone and said:

"Congratulations! You are so lucky, little lady!"

The corner of Mrs. Li's mouth was full of smiles, and she quickly said to the maid: "Quick reward!"

Fang Ruolan also had an unbelievable smile on her face, but thinking about these days, Fang Ruolan felt it made sense again.

A daughter's pregnancy is naturally a great joy. Mrs. Li simply asked Fang Ruolan to stay in the mansion, and sent someone to buy supplements to support the fetus. The whole mansion was very busy.

Mrs. Li told Su Ze to go back quickly, and then let Su Ze go north.

Su Ze has also been surrounded by great joy in the past few days. Fang Ruolan is pregnant, which makes him feel that he is finally bound to this world, and he finally has a blood inheritance in this world.

This subtle feeling gave Su Ze even more goals to fight for.

There was a happy event in the mansion, and the Weng and his son-in-law in the mansion became more motivated.

The Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing manages the national salt administration. Fang Wanghai first sent people north to Shandong to mobilize the salt stored in Shandong to Dengzhou.

Under Su Ze's reminder, Fang Wanghai dispatched his close aides to handle the affairs carefully, and tried his best to control the rumors.

Fang Wanghai also asked people to find out the account books of the balance of salt quotations in the past from the warehouse of the Nanjing Ministry of Households. Fang Wanghai organized people to check these account books and count the total number of salt quotations that have not been exchanged.

As soon as the news of Fang Wanghai's investigation of Yanyin's account book was released, it immediately aroused the attention of everyone in Nanzhili.

Although the Nanjing household department is not as powerful as the Jingshi household department, the matter in the salt industry is also related to the wealth of many people.

As a result, various forces are inquiring about Fang Wanghai's intentions, which is what Su Ze suggested, "Cultivate the plank road in the open and keep the warehouse in the dark".

Here, Fang Wanghai is vigorously investigating Yanyin, while Su Ze is going to secretly go to Jiangbei.

He did not go to Jiangbei alone, but went to the Shanghai Anti-smuggling Headquarters first, and found Xu Shixing who was supervising the group training affairs.

"Brother Rulin!"

Ever since Su Ze returned to his hometown to get married, the anti-smuggling matter in Shanghai fell on Xu Shixing's head.

Lin Deyang has already reported to Su Ze what happened these days, and Xu Shixing is indeed a person who can do things.

Different from the old man in history who liked to be gentle with each other, Xu Shixing was also brave in doing things when he was young, and he was not afraid of the powerful.

These days, he led the Anti-Smuggling Corps, intercepted several smuggling merchant ships belonging to the Xu family in Huating, and firmly controlled the Yangtze River waterway.

Nowadays, the big households in the south of the Yangtze River can only send their goods to sell by obediently walking through the Marginal Customs to pay taxes.

Xu Shixing's father was the magistrate of Suzhou, and used to be an official in many places in Nanzhili. Su Ze didn't exchange pleasantries with him, and directly told about Yanyin.

After listening, Xu Shixing lowered his head and said:

"The congestion of salt quotations has always been a big problem in my dynasty. In recent years, I heard that ordinary salt merchants no longer buy quotations."

"Nowadays, there are only a few companies that can still do salt business in Jianghuai."

Hearing what Xu Shixing said, Su Ze knew that he had found the right person, and they hurriedly asked:

"How many companies are still in the salt business?"

Xu Shixing thought for a while and said, "The Huaiyang salt merchants have completely withdrawn like the northern frontier merchants. Now in Huai'an, Taizhou, and Yangzhou, there are still a few big families still doing the salt business."

"Among the salt merchants in Huai'an, those who are still selling salt today are mainly Huizhou people."

"Huizhou people?"

Su Ze asked suspiciously.

Xu Shixing nodded and said, "Huizhou people are the best at doing business. Brother Xu is from Huizhou Prefecture. He should know better than me."

Su Ze quickly wrote it down, and Xu Shixing continued: "Huizhou merchants have been gathering in Huai'an for a hundred years, but they still take Huizhou as their leader and return to Huizhou to worship their ancestors regularly. Today, Huizhou merchants in Huai'an are basically centralized. In the Hexia area of ​​Huai'an, they are also known as Hexia Huizhou Merchants."

Su Ze quickly wrote it down, it seems that these businessmen are still very influential in Huai'an.

Since the Ming Dynasty, Huizhou merchants have been active in the commercial arena. Because Huizhou people are good at holding together, Huizhou merchants can survive several turmoil in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

It seems that domestic merchants are in decline, but Huizhou salt merchants still rely on newspaper groups to keep warm, and they can still engage in salt business.

Xu Shixing added: "Besides, there are two other factions that also trade in salt in Nanzhili."

"One is the Xu family in Huating. In addition to the cotton cloth business in Songjiang Prefecture, the Xu family is also engaged in the salt merchant business in Yangzhou."

"The Xu family still does this?"

Xu Shixing nodded and said: "It was only in recent years that the Xu family started to make a big deal. Now nearly half of the salt in Yangzhou is taken by the Xu family. Small salt merchants can only get salt from the Xu family at a high price. to survive."

Su Ze was a little surprised, but felt it was reasonable.

Although the cotton cloth business is also profitable, but Mr. Xu Ge was able to "half the pavilion" in such a short period of time. It is definitely not enough to rely on the steady and steady cotton business.

So what could make money faster than the salt business?

Xu Shixing said: "Actually, the Xu family doesn't sell salt to the people at all. They just get salt from the salt field and sell it to small salt merchants for them to sell."

Su Ze asked: "Isn't this violating the court's salt law?"

According to the requirements of the Kaizhong Law, the merchants who got the salt to extract the salt could only sell it within the specified range. This behavior of the Xu family obviously violated the regulations of the Kaizhong Law.

Xu Shixing said with a smile: "It would be nice if all these small salt merchants worked under the name of the Xu family. Besides, the Xu family can even get the salt, so what is this little thing?"

Su Ze thought about it and felt that it was indeed the case. It seems that Xu Ge's hometown is really good at making money.

"The last one who can get salt is the nobles in Nanjing."

"Among them, the Marquis of Linhuai's Li family has the largest business, especially when the Li family has soldiers in their hands, and once surrounded the salt field with soldiers, forcing the salt field to hand over the salt."

"That's okay?"

Xu Shixing shook his head and said, "The Li family has salt in their hands, so who dares to take care of things like forcibly extracting salt?"

Well, as Su Ze guessed, those who can play the game of power in the salt industry are the children of powerful officials, nobles and wealthy businessmen.

Ordinary small businessmen can only be attached to them and eat leftovers from their mouths.

After getting a general understanding in his heart, Su Ze went to Suzhou City and invited Xu Guo to go with him. The three of them, under the escort of elite soldiers from the Anti-Smuggling Corps, took a boat from Shanghai to the Yangtze River, and arrived in Yangzhou, an important town of water transportation and salt industry, in three days.

In Yangzhou in February, the chill has not subsided, but the willows by the canal have also sprouted new buds.

The last time Su Ze came to Yangzhou, Yangzhou was almost poisoned by Japanese pirates, the granaries outside the city were burned, and the city was in a state of desolation.

At that time, Su Ze only took a detour in Yangzhou and did not enter Yangzhou city, but this time when he came to Yangzhou, the whole city has regained its vitality.

Walking in the Dongguan Street market, looking at the boats on the canal, looking at the shops on both sides of Qingshi Ancient Street, Su Ze seemed to have returned to the commercial street he visited before crossing.

Xu Shixing also praised and said: "I heard that Dongguan Street has been so prosperous since the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Yangzhou was still the hub of Jiangnan maritime shipping, and goods from all countries could be bought on Dongguan Street."

Xu Guo also said: "Du Mu has a poem saying: 'The spring breeze is ten li on Yangzhou Road, it is better to roll up the bead curtain', isn't it talking about Dongguan Street?"

Everyone nodded. Su Ze looked at the long street and once again felt the vitality of the city.

The entire Dongguan Street relies on the Yangzhou East City Wall, the Grand Canal passes through the street, and the wharf for loading and unloading goods is across the street.

The current Dongguan Street is not only a market for ordinary people, but also a commercial hub for the entire Grand Canal. A large number of goods are transferred here, and merchants who buy goods can be seen everywhere.

This time, Su Ze was pretending to be a merchant who was going to sell salt. As expected, Xu Guoli had some connections among the salt merchants. Huizhou merchants for business.

Xu Guo said to Su Ze: "Lu's house is on the edge of Dongguan Street, let's ask someone for directions."

After a while, Fang Aizhu found a clever boy and led them into the ancient alley of Dongguan Street.

Under the rule of seven circles and eight circles, a group of people came to a low-key house.

"This is Mr. Lu's Shouzhi Garden."

The young man took the reward and bowed to everyone happily to say goodbye.

Xu Guo took the invitation card, and a member of the Lu family took the invitation card, and after a while, he saw a young son walking out of the house.

"Young master Xu, my father is out on business, tell me to entertain you well, I am in Lu Dou, welcome you all!"

This Lu Dou should have received his father's explanation, knowing that Xu Guo is the Juren of Huizhou Prefecture, so he was very polite in his attitude.

Xu Guo also introduced Su Ze and Xu Shixing, both his classmates in Nanjing Guozijian, and now Lu Dou was even more enthusiastic.

Those who can enter the Imperial College must be Juren, and this Lu Dou has also studied, but it is true that he is not a material for studying, and he has not even been admitted as a scholar until today.

However, after making money, salt merchants often have some spiritual needs. Merchants in Huizhou Prefecture are also known as Confucian merchants, so they have always loved literary activities.

For example, the Lu family in Yangzhou often organizes cultural activities in the house, and they also sponsor some literati and scholars, so they have a high reputation in the entire Yangzhou city.

Lu Dou invited the three of them into the room, and said: "It's a coincidence that the three of you came today. The mansion is organizing a cultural meeting. I wonder if the three of you are interested?"

Unlike Zhejiang scholars who like to organize various lectures, Jiangnan literati are more tactful.

From Jiangnan to Jiangbei, there are also large-scale academies giving lectures, but more of them are smaller-scale literary associations.

The so-called literary club is actually similar to a "salon", which is to set a theme and invite some scholars to gather together, which is probably similar to the poetry club that Fang Ruolan ran back then.

Hearing that the Lu family was holding a literary conference, both Xu Shixing and Xu Guo looked at Su Ze with expressions of interest on their faces.