Chapter 182 Butcher Knife

Commercial guilds were common in the late Ming Dynasty.

For example, tooth row, cloth row, rice row, etc.

It is an organization established by most businessmen in a certain industry for purposes such as monopoly pricing and information exchange. For example, Yahang is an organization that monopolizes human trafficking and labor employment. In ancient times, there was a bidding war, where a person had to put a straw in the back of his neck to sell himself. But it's not possible at this time. If you want to sell yourself, you must go through the dental shop. Otherwise, it doesn't matter whether you can sell it. If you put the tag on the street and be seen by the dental dealer, the thugs of the dental shop are not vegetarians. Similarly, for example, those who work as hired workers must register with the dental office and get a job through an intermediary in the dental office.

Business in this era is not as simple as imagined. The commercial guild is very powerful and even maintains a large number of thugs. Anyone who disobeys them will be retaliated against.

Kaifeng is an important city in the Central Plains and one of the most prosperous cities in the world. The business here is extremely developed. Therefore, various business guilds have emerged, monopolizing more than 70% to 80% of the city's major industries.

When Sun Xiucai first became an imperial envoy, he was ordered by Ying Yi to kill fat pigs. The main target was actually related to the commercial guilds.

Not only because most wealthy people are members of business guilds, but also because these guilds have their own armed organizations.

For Ying Yi, there was no need for a Tu emperor under his rule.

The commercial guilds are truly the emperors of the country - they are extremely powerful and have close ties with officials and nobles. When Kaifeng was besieged, Gao Mingheng tried his best to keep Kaifeng, but it had nothing to do with them. The thugs of the commercial guild have never gone to the city wall to defend against the enemy. That's not all. Kaifeng is clearly running out of ammunition and food, and the people can't afford to eat. Instead, these commercial guilds are raising prices. Regardless of the price of food or cloth, the prices of materials related to survival have soared. They have no scruples and are unscrupulous. .

Those who feel at ease when the country is in crisis and have a fortune, have an unparalleled blackness of heart.

But neither Gao Mingheng nor the King of Zhou could do anything to stop them. Because they connected most of the rich and powerful people in Kaifeng, Gao Mingheng couldn't afford to offend them, and neither did the King of Zhou. Even they themselves are implicated.

If you provoke them, it won't be the thieves who will destroy the city, but these people.

"There are more than ten commercial banks of various types in Kaifeng, covering all aspects of clothing, food, housing and transportation, and more than 80% of the rich and powerful are among them."

After several days of investigation, Sun Xiucai came to see Ying Yi with a detailed list.

"Among them, the Yahang and the Chariot and Horse guilds have the most thugs. The Yahang has at least three thousand thugs, and the Chariot and Horse guild has more, more than 5,000. Other commercial guilds have more or less, and there are more than a thousand thugs."

After hearing this, Ying Yi knew what was going on and asked, "What's going on with them these days?"

Sun Xiucai said: "In the past few days, members of trading houses and nobles went to Zhu's Mansion to ask for an audience, but they were all turned away."

Ying Yi nodded slightly.

When it comes to the Tu Emperor, individually speaking, the largest Tu Emperor in Kaifeng is none other than the King of Zhou. Of course, now under Ying Yi's rule, King Zhou is no longer King of Zhou, and even the plaque on his residence has been changed.

It is well known that Ying Yi went to see the King of Zhou. They also sent troops to besiege him, and it was in full view of everyone. But in the end, the King of Zhou seemed to have nothing to do except take off the plaque.

No one else knows what kind of person Ying Yi is, what plans he has for Kaifeng, and what impact he will have on them. King Zhou had met Ying Yi, so naturally these people wanted to ask King Zhou for some information.

Now it seems that King Zhou was quite cautious and did not meet these people. Of course, this is true on the surface, but I don’t know how Ying Yi works secretly.

But Ying Yi didn't care.

He said: "Now that you have found out clearly, let's go ahead and do it. If you don't move, you will move like thunder. You know which ones deserve to be killed and which ones should be killed."

Sun Xiucai stood up and bowed, "Yes, my lord."

Turn around and leave immediately.

This time, it was a bloody storm.

Those damn black-hearted ghosts thought that Ying Yi would be like the officials of the Ming Dynasty and would tolerate them and win over them, but they didn't expect that after a few days of silence, they would be greeted by a butcher's knife.

Although the trading houses each have their own armed forces, how can the rabble of Tujiwagou stop the elite soldiers who have been preparing for a thunderous attack?

Wang Yisheng cooperated with Sun Xiucai to raise the butcher's knife, and eliminated the Yashang and the carriage and horse shops that night, and did not stop the next day, bulldozing the remaining trading houses on the list.

By the time Mancheng reacted, the dust had settled.

In more than ten trading houses, more than 15,000 people were killed, and 78,000 were captured. More than 500 shops and warehouses were seized, and even Ying Yi was amazed by the amount of materials confiscated - the food alone amounted to more than 3.8 million shi!

This number is shocking.

Kaifeng was running out of ammunition and food, and the people could no longer afford to eat, but there was still so much food stored in the warehouses of major trading houses. There are millions of households in Kaifeng. Even if they are divided equally, each household can still get three or four stones!

However, when Ying Yi entered the city, the price of food in Kaifeng City had soared to thirty taels of silver per stone. Visibly vicious!

After sealing up the businesses, shops and warehouses involved, Sun Xiucai ransacked his homes in the following days.

The wealthy and distinguished members of the trading firm are the targets. After 3.8 million shi of grain, in just five or six days, Ying Yi had another bumper harvest - more grain than before, 4.5 million shi!

These grains are all grains that the rich and powerful have buried in their cellars and are unwilling to take them out even if they get moldy.

In this way, a single grain of 8.3 million shi was confiscated by Kaifeng City!

How terrifying? !

And this is just food, such as cloth, iron materials, etc., which is also a huge number. For example, there are two to three million kilograms of iron materials!

Coupled with the silver melons and gold bricks worth 40 million taels, as well as the jewelry, jade, antique calligraphy and paintings worth 10 million taels, the wealth on the surface alone made Ying Yi full in one breath.

If you also include the hundreds of thousands of hectares of land involved in the land deeds obtained after hundreds of shops and homes were raided, the value is immeasurable.

Not to mention gold, silver, land, etc. that cannot be used immediately, basic materials such as grain were immediately used by the State Mu Yamen after being inspected.

Zheng Yunzhi summoned the small group of businessmen and nobles who had remained law-abiding after the massacre. While they were trembling with fear, he announced the handling method, requiring them to open their businesses immediately, and sold all the shops that had been raided to these businessmen.

Requiring merchants to open their businesses, forcefully suppressing prices, and stabilizing order in Kaifeng were the first things the Zhou Mu Yamen had to do while recruiting officials.

And because it dealt with businessmen first, the first department established under the Zhou Mu Yamen was the Commercial Affairs Department. The pricing of basic supplies needed by the private sector is the first policy issued by the Commercial Affairs Department.

With the establishment of the Commercial Division, the Tax Department was established. Completely overturning the tax system of the Ming Dynasty, incorporating commercial tax into it, and stipulating that transactions with profits of more than 10 taels of silver must be taxed, starting from 5% and increasing gradually according to the transaction level, with a maximum of 30% for profits above 10,000 taels of silver. .