bookrandom Chapter 1329 Jianzhou Tea Affair
Chapter 1329 Jianzhou Tea Affair
Chapter 1329 Jianzhou Tea Affair
The state was established at the end of the seventh year of Yuanfeng.
Zhang Yue lived in the mountains and led a truly secluded life.
Zhang Yue's mountain residence is built along the Nanpu River. When you open the bamboo door, you can see green mountains and clear waters.
In the early morning, the Nanpu River was covered with mist and waves. Zhang Yue, wearing a half-worn gray robe, stepped out into the dew, paddling his bamboo raft and letting the winding stream carry him slowly.
There happened to be a huge lying stone at the slow part of the stream. The lying stone was surrounded by water on all sides, and could accommodate seven or eight people to sit or lie down. There was a concave place in the middle. For Zhang Yue, this was a natural stove.
Zhang Yue often made tea by the stream and boiled a pot of tea. Sometimes he would bring Li Gang and Huang Haoyi here to drink tea and talk about scriptures, but more often he would drink alone.
Zhang Yue often made tea while fishing by the clear Nanpu River, with his fishing rod casually placed on a rock. Although the bamboo basket was often empty, he still enjoyed it.
After making tea and fishing for half a day, Zhang Yue returned home in his bamboo raft. The bamboo basket was often hanging empty at the stern, but for Zhang Yue, it made him feel more relaxed than when it was full.
After lunch, Zhang Yue took a short rest, then put on a bamboo sun hat and tended the tea garden next to the house.
The village is very simple and is home to more than a dozen tea farmers.
Zhang Yue invited a village teacher to teach Li Gang and other students. Listening to the sound of pounding tea in the stone mortar and the sound of reading books mixed together, Zhang Yue felt very familiar with it, and many past events came to his mind unconsciously.
The next day, Zhang Yue brought the sacrificial offerings and ordered the hermit to lead the way to the familiar village downstream of Nanpu Creek.
But the pine forest and white clouds remain the same.
After not returning for thirty years, Zhang Yue almost shed tears when he saw this scene again.
The eaves of the village school are still hung with bunches of straw, and the sound of children reading is still sweet, but the teacher holding the ruler on the stage is no longer the same teacher as before.
The house where he and Guo Lin studied and learned their lessons had long since changed its owner.
Zhang Yue stroked the wall of the school and sighed in his heart.
"Are you looking for someone?" asked a villager who was busy with farm work.
The villagers had long forgotten him. The young man who had studied here in those days would point the way to him when he heard him asking for directions, and even asked if he was not some kind of relative of Mr. Guo.
Zhang Yue replied calmly: "Disciple."
The villagers all looked in awe and pointed to the area with dense pine and cypress trees at the back of the mountain.
Tea pickers along the way sang folk songs.
"The number one scholar is as fast as a flying horse, with a golden flower slanted on the brim of his hat..."
Zhang Yue went to the back mountain to pay homage to Master Guo and his wife. The new loess was cultivated, and it was likely that the children of Master Guo would come back often to visit him.
As the saying goes, peach and plum trees are silent, yet people come to them.
The mountain wind blew up the ashes of paper money.
In a trance, I could see the scene of the young boy with a topknot reading under the eaves, blowing his hands and reciting books. Mr. Guo was looking at him encouragingly, while Guo Lin was listening with a smile on his face. The mistress was stirring rice porridge in the kitchen and would cast a glance here from time to time.
Zhang Yue paid his respects silently and left with tears in his eyes.
Before leaving the village, Zhang Yue stuffed ten strings of salt notes into the palm of the village elder. The village elder's cloudy eyes suddenly cleared up for a moment: "Are you..."
The village chief thought Zhang Yue looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he was.
Zhang Yue passed by the village school and saw children reading again.
No matter how many years have passed or how many people have changed, the children's eyes full of earnest desire for knowledge will never change.
The village teacher held up the Three Character Classic and said sternly: "When Mr. Zhang was learning here, he refused to stop writing even when his inkstone was frozen in winter! You all come from poor families. If you want to make a name for yourself in life, the only way is to study."
All the children in the room opened their eyes wide and said yes in unison.
……
After returning to his mountain retreat, Zhang Yue resumed his usual life. This afternoon, while he was working in the tea garden, a guest came.
The man in black clothes came running along the slippery tea path. Zhang Zitang's face was revealed under his straw hat.
"I, Yu Zhong, greet you, sir!"
Zhang Yue said: "Who are you? My sister-in-law's nephew!"
"My husband still remembers me."
Zhang Yue smiled and said, "Don't call me husband all the time. There is no husband here, only a tea grower."
Zhang Yue remembered the other person.
Yu's family was a tea merchant in Jianyang. His brother had taken advantage of the old Taishan. Later, when he became an official, Yu's family also wanted to get close to him. However, Zhang Yue was careful about his reputation at the time and said a few words in a tactful way.
After that, Yu restricted her family members from coming to her house again.
Unexpectedly, after he retired as prime minister, the Yu family came to his door.
Zhang Yue knew something was wrong when he saw the other person's expression, so he immediately invited him into his mountain residence.
Seeing that Zhang Yue lived in a simple mountain residence and had few servants, Yu Zhong said worriedly, "Sir, Jianzhou has been in turmoil recently. Your place is quite remote. You'd better move to the city."
Zhang Yue said, "Are you talking about the tea farmers causing trouble? We don't have many tea fields in Pucheng, so it's not that serious."
"Since you are here, please tell me about this year's tea ceremony."
"Yes."
After Yu Zhong sat down, he immediately said, "This has to start with the new Fujian Transport Deputy Envoy Wang Caoshi."
Zhang Yue's face turned grim when he heard this.
Wu Juhou implemented the salt and iron monopolies in Jingdong Road, while Wang Zijing wanted to implement the tea monopoly in Fujian.
The Beiyuan tea of Jianzhou was officially produced during the Southern Tang Dynasty. After the Longtuan tea group was founded during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty, it was improved by Ding Wei and Cai Xiang and became popular all over the world.
The official roasting system of Beiyuan tea was already mature, with officials serving as envoys of all ranks, eunuchs as supervisors, and thousands of tea soldiers guarding the tea gardens. There were also special tea farmers who served as tea servants.
However, by the third year of Xining, the official roasting system had fallen into disrepair, one private tea garden prospered three times as much as the official tea, and another official tea growers fled in large numbers.
Wang Anshi reformed the official tea roasting system in Jiancha. He first divided the 46 official roasting places into imperial roasting places and regular roasting places. The former was handed over to the court, while the latter was purchased at market prices.
At the same time, the tea tax was abolished and replaced by tea tax.
The tea tax for the imperial tea roasters was paid from the treasury currency, and the regular tea roasters paid the tax exemption according to their production. For the best wax tea, the tax was 150 coins per catty. For the medium-quality ground tea, the tax was 100 coins. For the inferior grass tea, the tax was 50 coins.
After Wang Anshi's reforms, the problems in tea law still existed.
In order to compete for private tea, tea merchants armed each other and escorted the tea with weapons, even equipped with sharp weapons such as the Shenbi bow.
As a result, public security deteriorated greatly during the Yuanfeng period alone, with civil riots occurring five or six times a year.
So the government appointed Wang Zijing to the post. After Wang Zijing took office in the seventh year of Yuanfeng, he petitioned to buy all the tea produced in Jianzhou (300 million catties) and Nanjianzhou (20 catties) annually.
Originally, the best quality wax tea was charged two hundred coins per catty, and the lowest quality grass tea was charged eighty coins per catty.
The government agreed to Wang Zijing's suggestion and set up a tea bureau in Fujian Province, which was headed by Wang Zijing, the deputy envoy of transportation. The prefectures and counties were also assigned 126 tea inspectors and 5,000 soldiers.
After Wang Zijing took office, he promulgated strict laws to ban private planting and put an immediate cap on newly reclaimed tea gardens.
Private picking is prohibited, and any non-official roasted bud tea will be punished by fifty lashes for every two taels.
Private manufacturing is prohibited, and anyone who imitates the dragon and phoenix molds will be tattooed and exiled.
Smuggling is prohibited and all tea products leaving Fujian are confiscated.
At the same time, collective responsibility was implemented, and every five tea merchants had to sign a written agreement. If one household violated the rules, the violators would be barred from taking the imperial examinations for three generations.
In addition, there are 800,000 strings of tea and salt notes, and tea permits can be exchanged for salt permits.
In the seventh year of Yuanfeng, tea profits surged to 450,000 strings of cash, but it also aroused great dissatisfaction among the tea farmers in Jianzhou.
After listening to Yu Zhong's narration, Zhang Yue asked, "What is the market price of wax noodles?"
"Five hundred coins." Yu Zhong said, "But Wang Caosi only gave two hundred coins, not even enough for the tea-picking girls to wrap their hair."
Zhang Yue thought for a moment and said, "It's a little low, but it's still acceptable. But the method is a little too hasty."
Yu Zhong said: "I heard that your majesty wants to promote the battle of Yongle City, so he is short of money, so Marshal Wang Cao wants to take credit for it."
Zhang Yue said: "Whether he seeks credit or not, he is always working for the court. The court's original intention was not to run the tea business, but to impose taxes on tea, but too many tea merchants evaded taxes."
Yu Zhong said: "I have no choice but to flee. The imperial court levies too heavy taxes."
Zhang Yue said: "I understand, but I have retired and returned to my hometown now, so there are some things that I cannot take care of. I will consider this matter first."
"Come back here in a few days."
Although the emperor appointed Zhang Yue as the governor of Jianzhou and the governor of Jianzhou, he declined the offer. He is still unemployed.
And this matter is also very tricky.
Because the custom of tea-fighting is very popular among the people, the profits from Jian tea are extremely high.
In order to fight against the imperial court, private tea merchants engaged in smuggling and even developed an organized armed force. In the third year of Xining, Wang Anshi presided over the reform. The imperial court relaxed the official roasting and allowed private roasting of tea. It wanted to use the method of taxation to expose the private smuggling of Jian tea.
However, because the taxation was extremely heavy, in the words of Sima Guang, the tax on tea was seven out of ten.
Private tea merchants still engaged in smuggling on a large scale. Therefore, the tea money received by the court was still negligible. On the contrary, because private tea roasting was allowed, the scale of tea cultivation in Jian was getting larger and larger.
Jianzhou now produces three million kilograms of tea a year.
Unlike Sima Guang and others who opposed the imperial monopoly on tea, Zhang Yue was quite supportive of the imperial monopoly on tea, or at least of imposing a relatively high tax.
Tea is different from salt. Salt is a necessity, while tea, at least Jian tea, is a luxury.
Especially for the Big and Small Dragon Groups, there is no reason why wealthy people shouldn’t pay a little more to drink these ridiculously expensive teas.
But Wang Anshi's previous tax rate of 70% was a bit excessive.
Wang Zijing's method was barely feasible, but it was a bit cruel and a bit harsh. And the armed tea merchants might not be so easy to deal with.
Zhang Yue said to himself, "If Lord Jing saw today's tea policy, I'm afraid he would overturn the tea table in Banshan Garden."
Just at this moment, someone came outside to report that Peng Jingyi had arrived.
Zhang Yue smiled when he saw Peng Jingyi: "What happened on the road that took you so long?"
Zhang Yue and Peng Jingyi were originally going to set out together, but he said he wanted to take his wife and children back to Huaishang to visit his father-in-law who saved his life, so he was delayed.
When Peng Jingyi saw Zhang Yue, he bowed and said, "Please, sir, make the decision!"
Zhang Yue was surprised and asked, "Why is this happening?"
Zhang Yue thought to himself that Peng Jingyi had followed him for all these years and was highly respected by everyone, so no one dared to offend him.
Otherwise, how could the prime minister's disciple be a seventh-rank official?
But Peng Jingyi said, "Sir, I have found out who was the person who almost killed me."
Zhang Yue asked: "Who is it? Isn't he in Huaishang?"
"If it's not in Huaishang, it's in Jianyang."
"here?"
Peng Jingyi said in a hateful voice: "Let me tell you, sir, when I was under Wu Zhizhai, I offended a tea merchant. Later, when I lost my power and went to Bianjing to look for you, he sent people to follow me and take revenge."
"He was afraid that the government would find out, so he deliberately did not take action in Fujian, but arranged for someone to kill me in Huai!"
"Luckily, I am lucky! I was discovered when I returned home this time."
Zhang Yue said: "There is also this matter, who is this person?"
"I'll make the decision for you!"