Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

The old friend left the Yellow Crane Tower in the west, and the fireworks descended from Yangzhou in March.

The shadow of the lone sail in the distance is gone in the blue sky, and only the Yangtze River can be seen flowing in the sky.

…

Wuchang City, the provincial capital of Huguang, is home to cultural monuments such as the Yellow Crane Tower written by Shi Xian. It is a national water and land transportation hub and enjoys the reputation of "the thoroughfare of nine provinces".

In the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Dexing, the Marquis of Jiangxia, built Wuchang Fucheng due to the old city. The city was surrounded by 3,980 feet. The southeast wall of the city wall was one foot high, two feet five feet high, and the northwest wall was three feet high, nine feet high and nine feet wide. The other walls were two to six feet high. The walls are made of pottery bricks, ranging from three feet to three feet, with ninety-three pavilions and thirteen towers. A moat is dug around the city with a water depth of more than one foot.

There are nine gates in the new city, Dadong Gate in the east, New South Gate in the southeast, Baoan Gate and Wangze Gate in the south, Zhuhu Gate in the southwest, Pinghu Gate in the west, Hanyang Gate in the northwest, Caobu Gate in the north, and Caobu Gate in the northeast. There is a small east gate.

Precisely because Wuchang has developed water transportation, from the Han River to the Yangtze River, it can directly lead to Yangzhou, Songjiang, Suzhou and other prosperous places, so it has always been the most prosperous place in central Chu.

It is late October, and the autumn atmosphere in Wuchang is strong.

Ten miles of bluestone paved roads are lined with shops on both sides. The five-story Shixian Restaurant is located in the golden area. It is said that the Shixian Li Bai drank here.

Shixian Restaurant is a big IP according to current economics.

After this restaurant changed hands several times, the new owner spent a lot of money to rebuild the building, making this restaurant the well-deserved No. 1 restaurant in Wuchang City today.

"Three hundred taels!"

"Five hundred taels!"

"Six hundred taels!"

…

In the lobby on the first floor, a group of people wearing silk and satin were facing the high platform and kept bidding. Two of them even kept raising their prices as if they were cross-eyed.

If there are any good people here, you must be curious about what they are fighting for?

At this moment, Zhu Youtang, who was processing the memorial in the Palace of Qianqing, would not have thought that in the land he was in charge of, a large group of officials or squires were bidding for the population.

Yes, it is not an object that is being bullied now, but a delicate dancer.

The woman in the center of the stage is graceful and dancing like a colorful butterfly.

Although the Ming Dynasty prohibited the sale of human beings, the law has always prohibited the people but not the people. The people who dared to buy human beings were not ordinary people, but the powerful and wealthy officials and gentry.

Especially women in this era have no human rights at all.

Where there are interests, there will naturally be rivers and lakes. When the interests of the rivers and lakes reach a certain level, a group of people will naturally appear and take desperate risks.

With the prosperity of brothels in Yangzhou and other places, the redemption fees for some famous prostitutes and courtesans often exceeded 10,000 taels, and the salt merchants in Yangzhou even spent huge sums of money for beauties.

Because there is such a huge demand market, the price of beautiful young women has naturally increased.

Some human traffickers have seen the business opportunities in this. They only need to spend a few taels of silver to select young girls with exquisite facial features from poor families, buy them and train them. When they become adults, they can sell these girls to wealthy businessmen and brothels to get huge returns.

Although money and energy need to be invested in the training process, and they may not be able to be sold at a good price when they reach adulthood, it is undoubtedly a very cost-effective investment.

In fact, the most successful one was a certain guarding eunuch who bought a young girl from a family named Shao. After training, she was now the dowager of the current dynasty, and later the Queen Mother Xiaohui Shao.

Huguang can be said to be a place where the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, so this illegal gray industry happened to be formed by chance, and Shixian Tower became a large platform for selling beautiful girls.

Boom...

A piano sound sounded from the second floor, immediately attracting everyone's attention.

But behind the bead curtain, a slim woman in white was sitting there quietly, her jade hands like mutton-fat gently plucked the strings, and beautiful notes came down from above.

The guests who were noisy just now all looked at him with attention. At first they were just curious, but then they slowly opened their mouths, and the whole hall could hear the drop of a pin.

At this moment, time seemed to have stopped.

After the song was played, the bead curtain above was lifted up, and a slim girl walked out holding the piano.

"The little girl Qilan has shown herself ugly!"

With a gentle and melodious voice, the girl held the piano and bowed to the guests.

The girl's face was blocked by a gauze scarf, but it was impossible to see the woman's appearance clearly, but her figure and piano skills were enough to make people want to move.

"I...I have eight hundred, no, I would like to give you one thousand taels!"

"Two thousand taels, I actually bought it for two thousand taels!"

"Although I am as honest as water, I am still willing to pay three thousand taels for Qilan!"

…

After seeing the performance of this girl named Qilan, even though they couldn't see her face clearly, the old perverts below immediately made honest bids.

When a local member of the Communist Party of China saw the reaction of those people, he sneered and said: "You guys from out of town, don't make fun of us here! Qilan is the most beautiful woman in Jingchu, let alone only three thousand taels, even thirty thousand You may not be able to buy both, it is said that the King of Chu will welcome Miss Qilan into the King of Chu’s palace soon!”

The most beautiful woman in Jingchu?

The wealthy businessmen who had just called out the price couldn't help but gasped when they heard that Qilan had such a resounding name, and then looked at each other in shock.

This Jingchu has always produced peerless beauties, and now that she dares to bear such a name, she must have good looks. With this master-level piano skill, if someone is sent to Yangzhou, he will definitely be an oiran-level figure.

The shopkeeper here is naturally not stupid. Regardless of whether he has been booked by King Chu, he must seek a high price before selling it. Naturally, it is impossible to take someone away with just a few thousand taels.

While we were talking here, Qilan, the most beautiful woman in Jingchu, had disappeared on the second floor, but her whereabouts were nowhere to be seen.

"Don't be stupid, business is important!" Wang Yu saw his companion Hu Jun still staring in the direction where Qilan disappeared, and immediately slapped Hu Jun on the back of the head.

Hu Jun felt pain and hurriedly turned to look at the table not far away. Only then did he realize that the person he had been staring at had already stood up and left.

"This sound can only be heard in heaven, and is rarely heard in the human world!" A middle-aged man wearing a sixth-grade official uniform left Shixian Restaurant. He seemed to be having endless aftertaste. It was Wen Zou Zou who was shaking his head and saying: .

Wang Yu and Hu Jun followed the middle-aged man in the sixth-grade official uniform. This middle-aged man was resolutely an idle official and was walking slowly towards the dock.

Wang Yu has been following the other party for several days, so he has already figured out the other party's habit, which is to follow him from a distance.

The dock outside the city seemed very lively, and a large group of dock workers were loading and unloading goods.

When Wang Yu watched the middle-aged official turn around and walk back, he thought that his work was in vain again, but he found that there was a fat foreign official next to him.

The fat officer looked like he had just gotten off the boat. He kept talking to the middle-aged official, and in the end he handed a ledger to the middle-aged official.

"Let's work separately!" Wang Yu immediately separated from Hu Jun when he saw that the big fish he had been waiting for finally arrived.

Hu Jun knew that success or failure depended on this, so he nodded solemnly, and quietly followed the middle-aged man wearing a sixth-grade official uniform with one person.

It was already approaching dusk, and the entire city of Wuchang was bathed in golden sunlight.

Aju!

Ye Fugui suddenly sneezed loudly and looked behind him warily. However, he had already arrived in front of the Huguang Patrol Office and immediately walked inside with two of his men.

"Except Mr. Ye, we are not outsiders, why should we be so polite!" Jiang Hong said with a smile on his face when he saw Ye Fugui coming.

Ye Fugui naturally knew that these were actually polite words, and immediately said with a smile: "These are some worthless local specialties, please accept them with pleasure! I am selling salt in Huguang, and I have to rely on your care. If your Excellency refuses to accept this small gift, then I will have to write a letter and ask my uncle to help me intercede!"

"How can I bother Minister Ye with such a trivial matter? It's better to obey orders than to be respectful!" Naturally, Jiang Hong would not refuse intentionally, and he would just go along with the flow and accept it with a smile.

Ye Fugui naturally had a plan for giving the gift, so he smiled slightly and said: "The salt boat will arrive at the dock around noon tomorrow, please protect me!"

"Definitely!" Jiang Hong already knew the meaning of this. Now that he was doing it conveniently, he would get some silver into his account. Naturally, he knew how to do it, so he immediately agreed.

Although he has been promoted to Huguang Patrol Agent, he is far from the glory he appears to be.

Not to mention that his future promotion will cost money, but he has to send warnings of ice and charcoal to his teachers every year. Even his family cannot be supported by the salary from the court.

That's why, even if he wants to be as honest as water, he has to climb to the top to be qualified.

When Ye Fugui saw that the matter had been taken care of, he stood up and left.

Since Wu Yao, the governor of Huguang, met Ding You and returned home to observe filial piety, and the new governor of Huguang, Liang Jing, had not arrived, everything was basically in order to deal with Jiang Hong.

As for Li Qing, the chief envoy to the left in Huguang, he is actually an old acquaintance, and this chief envoy does not have much power left at all. Giving him some benefits is actually giving him money.

After coming out of the patrol yamen, Ye Fugui was too lazy to go from yamen to yamen, so he just asked his subordinates to deliver the gifts.

Ye Fugui had a house in Wuchang City, and he also bought a beautiful girl from Shixian Tower to keep in the house, and he walked in the lane humming a tune.

Although the October wind was chilly, his heart was warm at the moment.

As long as he thought about the arrival of the salt boat tomorrow, he would be able to make a large sum of money steadily, and he immediately felt that he was a business genius.

Although life is going smoothly now, he still feels that he is still making a small amount of money.

Originally, with his background, it was easy to get through all the official connections, but he still had too few salt guides under his control. What he hated most were the border merchants.

Even though his uncle was the dignified left minister of the household department, the current salt law of the imperial court was the Kaizhong method, and grain had to be transported from the southeast to the side warehouse in exchange for salt.

Not to mention that he was not familiar with the transportation routes and the cost of transportation was too high. Even if the grain was transported to the side warehouse, the salt in exchange would not be very cost-effective.

After all, if you want to mention salt in the salt field now, you have to spend an extra amount of money.

On the other hand, those border merchants who are familiar with the road have already established rules for transporting grain. They have even opened commercial villages in the border areas. They can directly send the grain produced by the merchant villages to the border warehouses to get the salt. As a result, they have to pay the cost of the salt. On the contrary, it is getting lower and lower.

That's why, under this damn open-Chinese legal system, I can only think of other ways to make a little money, and the real big money is still in the hands of those border merchants.

From the current point of view, the best thing to do now is to abolish this cheating method. Only in this way can you have the opportunity to become a real big salt merchant.

Just when Ye Fugui hated the businessmen who blocked his financial path, he suddenly bumped into someone.

Standing in the middle of the alleyway was a burly young man, looking indifferent to Ye Fugui who fell to the ground.

"Who are you to dare to block my way?" Ye Fugui asked angrily when he saw the person in front of him.

Lu Song looked condescendingly at this middle-aged fat man weighing 200 pounds, and then announced his family status: "Lu Song, who belongs to a wealthy family!"

"Jinyiwei? What are you doing to find me? Get out of my way!" Ye Fugui was a person with background after all. He stood up and slapped his butt and said sternly.

Lu Song did not get out of the way, but said calmly: "Your Majesty the Imperial Envoy invites you!"

"Your Majesty the Imperial Envoy? Which Imperial Envoy?" Ye Fugui frowned and suddenly said in confusion.

The corners of Lu Song's mouth raised slightly, and he said slyly: "Of course it's Wang Yue, the new left deputy censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Could it be that you haven't heard about the deaths in Anlu Prefecture?"

"He...didn't he already bypass Wuchang and go to Yangzhou?" Ye Fugui asked in horror as if he had been poured cold water on him.

The smile on Lu Song's face became even stronger, and he simply announced the answer: "If this were not the case, how could you have exposed your flaws? This is called a war that never tires of deceit!"

In fact, a few days ago, Wang Yue did deliberately set off a smoke screen and chose to enter the Yangtze River from other waterways.

Just when everyone in Wuchang City thought that Wang Yue was taking a detour to Yangzhou to rectify the salt policy, it turned out that Wang Yue came to Wuchang City from the Yangtze River and saw the most real side of Wuchang City.

Although the price of salt here is far less outrageous than that in Anluzhou, the water system here is developed and the cost of traveling from Yangzhou is not too high, so the salt profit here is also very considerable.

As for the reason why he was waiting for Ye Fugui here, he was actually waiting for a big case.

Ye Fugui was taken to a house and saw Wang Yue in civilian clothes. When he saw the rumored big devil, he was so frightened that he wet his pants.

"Ye Fugui, I have been waiting for you for a few days. Do you want to recruit or not?" Wang Yue knew that the person in front of him was the key breakthrough, so he asked with a stern face.

After all, Ye Fugui was someone who had seen big scenes, but he warned with some confidence: "Your Majesty, the Imperial Envoy, this matter is closely related. Don't you think that I, a businessman, can do this?"

"Isn't the matter already obvious? The one who is really in charge of all this is naturally the King of Chu!" Wang Yue seemed to have known all this for a long time, and his words were shockingly authentic.

Opening this map is a bit nerve-wracking, sorry for the late update!