Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 9 Private Salt
Yanziji Wharf

"Guohui, you've lost weight and become darker." Fourth uncle Zheng Shouye said with a sigh.

Zheng Guohui smiled indifferently. These few months were the most rewarding period for him since his rebirth.

The Jiangnan Governor's Office fully delegated power to him, allowing him to initially take control of the situation in Jiangning Prefecture. The strength of his subordinates expanded rapidly, and he also did several things that he thought were meaningful.

After the social order was restored, a large number of people flocked to Jiangning Prefecture. Seeing it prospering day by day, he felt a great sense of accomplishment.

"When serving as an official, one's duty is to benefit the people. Guohui does not consider himself a man of extraordinary talent, so he can only work diligently."

"My nephew is still young and has a long life ahead of him." Fourth uncle Zheng Shouye gave a word of advice, but knowing it was useless, he changed the subject and said, "The clan should discuss and support my nephew with all their strength. Everyone should contribute their manpower and their strength."

Speaking of here
Zheng Shouye turned around and pointed at the four Confucian scholars in blue robes who had come with him and said:
"These four are all accomplished disciples of the clan. My elder brother asked me to bring them along on this trip to serve under you. They are capable of handling tasks such as writing and scribbling.

Come on, come forward and greet the General."

The four scholars in blue robes came forward to greet him, saying, "Greetings, General."

"No need to be so polite. You will be my staff from now on and can do as you see fit." Zheng Guohui extended his hand to support him. He really needed these clerical talents to coordinate internal and external affairs.

Fourth uncle Zheng Shouye pointed to a tall and thin scholar and said;

"My dear nephew Guohui, this man's name is Dong Huanzhang. He was a third-class Jinshi in the ninth year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign. He was born into a family of scholars in Jinsha Town, Tongzhou, and is a man of profound learning.

At the beginning of August, my eldest brother had promised your sister Zheng Peiyun to him. They are talented and beautiful, a match made in heaven.

You two should get closer, you are a family now."

Zheng Guohui showed a look of surprise and looked at Dong Huanzhang again. He saw that this man was calm and composed, neither humble nor arrogant. It was obvious that he was a man of great knowledge and ability.

Dong Huanzhang bowed graciously, and Zheng Guohui smiled in return, saying, "Since that's the case, I'll have to ask Huanzhang to serve as my staff for the time being. I'll be able to rely on you in the future."

"The general has given orders, and Huanzhang will certainly obey them."

Fourth uncle Zhen Shouye then introduced the remaining three people, all of whom were Juren and were members of the Zheng family.

A man named Zheng Guotai, who was a distant cousin of Zheng Guohui, was a juren in the third year of Xianfeng and was thirty-four years old. He was well-versed in social affairs and had worked as a legal advisor. He was good at socializing.

A man named Zheng Jialiang was a newly minted juren in the eleventh year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign. He was twenty-seven years old. He was loyal, filial, rigorous, and methodical.

A man named Zheng Xin was a juren in the sixth year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign. He was from Yongxing Town, Tongzhou, and was a illegitimate son of a family. He had been wandering outside for many years before returning to his hometown.

These three people were recruited by the Zheng family to serve in the army. Zheng Xin, in particular, had led troops before, which aroused Zheng Guohui's keen interest.

The dock was not a place to talk, so Zheng Guohui suppressed his urge to get close to them and handed these Confucian scholars over to his personal soldiers, waiting for them to return to the city with the mule and horse carts.

At this time, goods were being moved at the dock.

This fleet consisted of more than 30 large ships. In addition to transporting more than 800 dan of grain and two ships of vegetables, the rest were loaded with large bags of contraband salt, totaling about 3600 dan.

There were about 2600 people to be taken back on the return trip, including more than 370 women, as well as dozens of boxes of jade and bronze artifacts, and some precious medicinal materials such as tiger bones, deer antlers, ginseng and amomum villosum, as well as several ships of red and white sugar, tea, brick tea and other items, all of which were transported to their hometown in Tongzhou.

Some of these goods were gifts from officials and merchants, and some were unclaimed goods looted from warehouses, which would be better placed if sent back to their hometowns.

Needless to say, the grain transported from Tongzhou was contraband, and these 3,600 dan of contraband salt were contraband.

Jinling City is so big that the daily salt consumption is quite considerable. The salt industry was in decline due to the war, which gave Zheng Guohui the opportunity to take advantage of it.

It just so happened that he was now serving as the garrison commander of Jinling City. With the support of the Governor's Office, he could transport the illegal salt from Tongzhou directly to Jinling City for sale and make huge profits.

Jiangning Prefecture has always used Lianghuai salt. During the Qing Dynasty, the salt tax quota in the Lianghuai region was the highest, twice or even several times that of other salt sales areas.

The tax on Huai salt is ten times higher than that on Sichuan salt, which means that the sale of one unit of Huai salt can almost offset ten times the tax on Sichuan salt.

So it is not wrong to say that Jiangnan Province is the center of salt tax.

In Jiangnan Province, a pound of salt was sold for 60 to 65 wen. During the years of war and chaos, the price of salt soared, often reaching a hundred wen or even more.

Actually

The cost of drying salt is very low. The cost of drying sea salt in Tongzhou plus the labor and transportation costs is only two to three cents per catty, and the excess is all huge profits.

The private salt was transported from Tongzhou to Nanjing for sale. At the price of 60 wen per catty, the net profit per catty was five taels of silver. catties could bring in a huge profit of taels of silver, and all could be sold out in just two weeks.

"My dear nephew, is it okay to do this?" Fourth uncle Zheng Shouye asked privately with some concern.

Zheng Guohui shook his head slightly and said, "This money is not mine alone. I need to share it with the Governor's Office and Jiangning Prefecture. If everyone gets a piece of the pie, then everything will be fine."

"Then I'm relieved. I was just worried that it would affect my nephew's career, which would be bad."

"I'll take care of this matter myself. Do you have enough manpower at the salt works by the sea? Should we send some more over?"

"No need. We can now dry out more than 3,000 dan every week, and we still have some in stock. I'll come and load more next time. It's enough anyway."

"Okay then, what's the situation on Chongming Island?"

"Don't worry, nephew. Your fifth uncle is personally in charge there, and there are over 800 Tongzhou militias to suppress the rebellion. We haven't treated those remaining Taiping rebels harshly. Instead, we have given them seed bulls to help them cultivate the land. Everything is fine now."

After thinking for a while, Zheng Shouye continued;
"Including the people sent over this time, there are more than 14000 people on Chongming Island, scattered across about 20 villages.

This year's summer rice harvest was very good. According to my nephew's instructions, I left 50% for them, so that they can have enough food and clothing and still have a little surplus.

After the summer harvest, the land was planted with autumn wheat. Now that it is the slack season, people are being organized to continue reclaiming wasteland. There is no need to say more about this.

The harvested grain was stored in the granary in Tuwei, and the amount was as much as 14,000 dan, which was more than enough.

A granary in the earthen wall is still under construction to store more grain in the future.

There are not many women on Chongming Island, and the remnants of the Taiping Rebellion would become aggressive and violent when they have nothing to do, and many of them accidentally hurt people.

Sending these hundreds of women to the island should alleviate the situation considerably."

Zheng Guohui nodded and said, "You guys can make the arrangements. These are women without food or clothing. They won't starve to death if they're sent to the island. But if they get pregnant, they must be taken care of and not continue to work in menial jobs."

"Don't worry, my elder brother has already made it clear that everything will be done according to my instructions." Fourth uncle Zheng Shouye answered without any hesitation.

Zheng Guohui asked again, "What about the ships? Is there any news on the purchase of Western ships?"

"We've already sent people to Shanghai, and another group is heading south to Hong Kong. I heard there are a lot of Western ships there. There's no news yet, so it'll take some time."

"Establishing a Western sailing fleet is crucial to our future plans, so we must not neglect it. Using the money I sent back, I should be able to purchase four or five large sailing vessels."

"Don't worry, nephew. There are people in the clan who will take care of this matter."

"Well, many people can see that the Qing Dynasty is almost over. Will there be another Taiping Rebellion or Nian Rebellion? It's hard to say. If you don't plan for the future, you'll have immediate worries!"

"My elder brother has often mentioned this matter. What my nephew has done is extraordinary. It goes without saying that the Zheng clan fully supports it."

"That's great. We'll buy both river and sea vessels, and we'll continue to expand our business. The foreigners' cloth is cheap and good quality, so we can make it our main commodity and gradually expand it."

"Illegal salt and cloth, I understand."

The two men had a secret discussion in private. After the goods and people were loaded and unloaded, Zheng Shouye set sail with the fleet, and soon it became a small black dot on the vast river.

Needless to say, Zheng Guohui returned to the city with more than a thousand officers and soldiers escorting more than 500 mule and horse carts.

(End of this chapter)