Because Li Tianjing couldn't ride a horse, he would let Lai Da tie himself to the back of the horse so as not to be jolted.Then he relied on a little shallow riding skills in bull riding, plus some horse skills he had learned now, and controlled the horses with difficulty to go to the capital.With a little moonlight, the horse ran briskly, but Li Tianjing on horseback was miserable.The first time he rode a horse, his riding skills were sparse, and the horse ran quite happily, but Li Tianjing on horseback felt that his stomach was overturned, and he couldn't vomit if he wanted to, so he finally arrived at the city gate.But I saw that the heavy city gate was tightly closed, and at that time there was a night ban in all important towns and big cities, and pedestrians were forbidden to travel when the dusk drum was sounded at three o'clock; After the morning bell rang at three o'clock on the fifth watch, the ban was opened.In other dynasties, this was called a curfew, but in the Ariake generation, it was changed to a night curfew.Now it is the third watch, and naturally it is still in the night ban.The capital is a place where dragons and tigers are located, and it is also a four-sided commercial center, so there are many merchants from the south to the north.Not everyone will be able to enter the city before the night curfew, and there will always be people who will be stranded.Although there are hotels near the suburbs, the prices are quite high.In order to save money, some people simply set up a bunk near the city gate and mix it up all night, waiting for the morning bell to ring, and then they can enter the city.On the tall city wall, although there are lights, but the light is not far away, the dark place under the city, wandering many Popi scoundrels, want to fish in troubled waters, this place can be described as a mixture of dragons and snakes, everyone has it.As soon as Li Tianjingfu appeared, he attracted the attention of these people.This is also to blame Lai Da is too simple, Lai Da is born in the countryside, the people in the countryside know each other well, although everyone is very poor, but the security is still very high, sometimes even at night without closing the house.The capital is different, there are all kinds of messy people.Letting a half-sized doll ride alone on a horse is like letting a pile of silver walk down the street by itself, which naturally attracts many greedy eyes.Li Tianjing was keenly aware that in the darkness, someone was watching him.He trembled with fright, and simply drove his horse directly to the city gate.The tall gates were tightly closed, and although there were officers and soldiers in the city, they were too high to see it really.However, the light of the fire at the city gate still gave him a sense of security.And the ruffians are still a little afraid of the officers and soldiers, and they do not dare to do anything under the noses of the officers and soldiers, even if these officers and soldiers are dozing off at this time!
When Li Tianjing arrived at the gate of the city, he didn't dare to let go of the rope and dismount, those bad guys kept staring at him, if he got off the horse, these bad guys attacked, Li Tianjing had short legs, but he couldn't run away from them.Li Tianjing trembled and took out the yellow book of Lai Da from his coat pocket and thought for a moment.Suddenly, he held the yellow book high and shouted loudly, "My name is Li Tianjing, on the orders of Lord Huangzhuang Lai, I have something important to tell the official of the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division, and please let me in quickly." ”Although Li Tianjing lacked qi, in the middle of the night, his voice traveled very far.On the city wall, the guards who were napping in a daze were suddenly awakened, and one of the leading foxes poked his head out and asked, "Who is under the city?"
On whose orders?
”Li Tianjing repeated his words again.The guards on the city wall are inexplicable, and no one knows who Lord Lai is?
But Huangzhuang sounds lofty, because it has a royal character!
In fact, Li Tianjing also knew that Lai Da was not in the stream, he was just a village head, this kind of position could only be regarded as an ant level in the bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty, not even an official, let alone an official?
It is very inappropriate for Li Tianjing to call him Lord Lai.But Li Tianjing has no way, he must obtain the right to talk to the officers and soldiers guarding the city, well, to put it bluntly, it is to let the family be able to deal with him and scare away the people with ill intentions.In the shadows, danger is always there.If Li Tianjing said anything about the plague directly, I am afraid that the officers and soldiers guarding the city will not believe his words as a child at all, and they will not even poke their heads out to take a look.People are inert, especially in the middle of the night.The night shift is the hardest, and when people stay up late, they will become very lazy, and try not to move if they can.Therefore, if Li Tianjing said it directly, there was a high probability that he would be ignored by the officers and soldiers defending the city.And at this time, it would not be good if the bad guys kidnapped him directly.Li Tianjing was afraid of death, but he was even more afraid that he would not be able to complete the things that Lai Zhuangtou had explained, originally Li Tianjing did not have any feelings for his family and country, he just kept living in his fantasy world.But Lai Zhuangtou touched him very much, such a humble Zhuangtou also has a heart of concern for the country and the people.This reminded Li Tianjing of a poem he had heard: He is humble and dare not forget the country's worries.Sure enough, these city guards couldn't see the yellow book clearly from afar.Although they knew that the other party was only a half-old child, these people did not dare to slack off, so they had to hang Li Tianjing and the horses in a basket and prepare for a detailed examination.Presumably, they often hang people at night, and there are even large sturdy baskets for hanging horses?
I have to say that many policies are actually loopholes, and it only depends on how they are operated.After Li Tianjing was put on the city wall, he first covered his mouth and nose tighter with a cloth, and then hurriedly said, "I have something important to tell the soldiers and horses of the five cities, there is a fierce plague in the Huangzhuang in the North Zhilu, and I am here to deliver the news on the order of the head of the village." ”Then Li Tianjing held up the yellow book and said that he was not lying.Until this time, these officers and soldiers knew that the so-called Lord Lai was just a village head, although he was the head of the Huangzhuang, wasn't he still a humble mud leg, what kind of master is this special mother?
Hey, but looking at this doll's humble face, the head of the Huangzhuang is probably a big man in his eyes.Huh, the plague?
What, there is a fierce plague in the Imperial Village, so will this child also be passed on?
Is it terrible to be a special mother, is there a mere vigil for the night, how can you encounter such a terrible thing?
All the defenders of the city were almost frightened to death, and they retreated one after another, looking at Li Tianjing with a vigilant face, and even the horse that Li Tianjing was riding, in their eyes, was like a plague horse, and they avoided it one after another.If it weren't for the big thing, they really wanted to throw Li Tianjing and the horse into the city.Li Tianjing said intimately, "At this time, it is a matter of safety in the capital, please ask all the officials to inform the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division on my behalf, now you can isolate me first, uh, find a house for me to stay in, and then you also cover your mouth and nose with a cloth." ”The word isolation was naturally learned by Li Tianjing.Before Chongzhen crossed, he knew that there would be a huge plague at the end of the Ming Dynasty.Historically, this plague spread to the capital in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, and in less than two years, it turned this capital of the great emperor into purgatory on earth.The plague can be said to be the last straw that crushed the Ming Dynasty, and there has always been a saying in the historical circles that 'rats died in the Ming Dynasty'.After Li Zicheng easily captured the capital, he also found that this was actually a dead city, the city was full of coffins, sewage, unburied corpses, dull-eyed people, dilapidated and desolate.Although Li Zicheng looted 70 million taels of silver in the capital, there was nothing to rule in the face of a dead city, and the most terrible thing was that Li Zicheng's soldiers were also infected with the plague.The plague spread quietly in the barracks, and although Li Zicheng had many men, he was actually a rabble and had no combat effectiveness at all.In addition, it was infected by the plague, and its combat effectiveness was even more anxious.In order to escape the plague, Li Zicheng hurriedly retreated to the capital 42 days after capturing the capital, that is, the second day after he became emperor.The next history everyone knows, Wu Sangui opened the three customs, the Tatar lord entered the Central Plains, and since then my China has fallen into a real closed country, and I can't wake up in the sweet dream of the Heavenly Empire, until the Western powers bombarded the country.As for why the Tartars were not infected with the plague, Chongzhen remembered that a historian studied that in addition to the spread of the plague by spit, the fleas on the rats were also the main force of transmission.This has also been confirmed in the West, where the Black Death broke out in the 14th century, in fact, it was also the bubonic plague, which swept across Europe and took 25 million lives, but spared the cavalry, I have to say that there are always similarities in history.Although this statement is still controversial in the historical circles, so many years have passed, and the truth of that year has long been submerged in the dust of history, making future generations have different opinions.But Chongzhen still believes in this statement very much, otherwise he would not have introduced a large number of good horses from Bu Lost Rabbit, and now there are many more horses in the Ming Dynasty than in Tartars, and even Qin Liangyu's army has been turned into cavalry by Chongzhen.You must know that although the White Pole Army is good at fighting, they are short and agile, and they are better at field warfare.In the real cavalry battle, the disadvantage of the white pole army is very obvious, but Chongzhen is capricious when he is rich, he just wants to use money to smash this army that has passed the test of history, and even let the 'good horses in the white pole army be troubled' to deal with the plague in Chongzhen's 14th year.In other Ming non-cavalry armies, there are also a lot of horses, even if there are no war horses, there are many pack horses.In addition to horses, in order to deal with this plague, he even let Daming's school popularize many epidemic prevention disease knowledge points, and he is also ready to invite the famous doctor Wu Youxing to the palace and let this guy help prevent and control the plague.It's just that it's still 14 years before Chongzhen, so Chongzhen is not in a hurry.Anyway, there is time, after I have finished the salt industry, sea trade, and those vassal kings, I have accumulated a lot of wealth on hand, and then develop the Chinese herbal medicine planting industry, train a large number of epidemic prevention doctors, and prepare countless masks and isolation gowns.In addition, at that time, under the unremitting education of the various schools in the Ming Dynasty, the common people all knew the knowledge of epidemic prevention, so many prongs, I don't believe that I can't win this plague?
So Chongzhen is not worried about the plague at all now, what he wants to do most now is to make money.Although Daming Qianzhuang, taxes from all over the country, cement, wool, coal mines, and some controllable maritime trade have brought countless real money to the Daming treasury and the inner treasury, but people's hearts are greedy, who would dislike more money?
Chongzhen is ready to officially intervene in the salt industry, before he sent Tian Guifei's father to go undercover as a salt merchant, in fact, it was to find out how rich the Daming salt merchant was, and it turned out that the salt merchant controlled the Daming salt industry, and the wealth was worth a few Daming.This morning, while eating fried dough sticks and soy milk, Chongzhen flipped through the salt tax presented by the account department, uh, in general, more than the salt tax in the original history.In the original history, the Chongzhen Dynasty actually collected less than 600,000 taels of silver, and this miscellaneous tax included the salt tax.These so-called miscellaneous taxes are actually the taxes officially collected by Wei Zhongxian and others on Jiangnan industry and commerce since the beginning of the Apocalypse Dynasty.The first year of the Apocalypse: 116,000 taels.The second year of the Apocalypse: 689,000 taels.Three years of the Apocalypse: 1.01 million taels.In the fourth year of the Apocalypse, Zhongzheng Ying Dynasty: the miscellaneous tax was reduced to 500,000 taels.Five years after the Apocalypse: It has always been more than 1.1 million taels.Later, in the historical Chongzhen Dynasty, it was directly cut in half, less than 600,000 taels.Look, that's why Ming Fan will have eunuch fans, in fact, even Chongzhen was an out-and-out eunuch fan before he crossed over, eunuchs will do things and make money, I don't know how many times better than the so-called Donglin Party.That's why after Chongzhen crossed, after using Wei Zhongxian, he didn't unload the mill and kill the donkey, but gave him a small position, and sent it far away, because Wei Zhongxian really made merit to the Ming Dynasty!
Chongzhen looked at the figures presented by the household department: miscellaneous taxes are 2 million taels, including salt taxes of 500,000 taels.This tax is more than the Apocalypse Dynasty in history, but, compared to the real wealth of the salt merchants, how rich are the salt merchants?
How rich are the merchants in Gangnam?
The world's money and food are gathered in Sanwu!
Among the salt merchants, there is also a wealth list, and the worst on the list are 10 million taels of silver.Some wealthy merchants were so bored that they even threw gold leaf worth 10,000 taels of silver in high-rise buildings in order to watch the funny scene of the crowd snatching the gold leaf.Look at how rich the salt merchants are, and then look at how poor the Ming Dynasty was in history?
The impoverished Ming Dynasty actually won the title of the most extravagant dynasty in the later world; And the Tartar Dynasty, which squeezed the salt merchants one after another, was actually praised for thrift?
Uh, except for Cixi.In the past, Chongzhen looked at various historical offerings, and many elite historians always liked to use the extravagance and debauchery of the Ming Dynasty emperor to compare the diligence and thrift of the Emperor of the Tartar Dynasty, and the diligence and love of the people of the Emperor of the Tartar Dynasty.And draw the highest conclusion: there is no faint king in the Tartar Dynasty!
Chongzhen really wants to take a sip of them, just because the emperor of the Ming Dynasty is poor, and the emperor is not as luxurious as a salt merchant?
Your special mother should compare the salt merchants of the Ming Dynasty with your Tartar lords?
In view of the above unfair incidents, Chongzhen has long wanted to engage in salt merchants after crossing, but the Quartet is not stable, the dynasty has a lot of affairs, and the salt merchants are too powerful, too much silver, and the interest groups involved are too deep, so Chongzhen has not moved the interests of salt merchants.And now, before the plague in Chongzhen's 14th year has not arrived, the Quartet is relatively stable, and I will take your salt merchants first.Let the world's money and food gather in Beijing.