To facilitate management, three years ago, the imperial court stipulated that transport teams must exist as formal trading companies and pay taxes according to proper procedures.
To compensate for the insufficient transportation capacity of local governments, the imperial court also introduced various policies to support private transport teams.
Wang Quan was one of the wealthy merchants from Jiangling Prefecture who made his fortune by taking advantage of this opportunity.
Wang Quan was a typical figure under the Jingkang New Deal. If a historian were to delve into the various aspects of the Jingkang New Deal and write a grand epic, a vivid and compelling account, he would be inseparable from a typical figure of the era like Wang Quan.
He was originally the head of a gang called Renyi Society in Jinan Town, Jiangling Prefecture.
During the Song Dynasty, there were many folk societies.
In later Japan, many names were borrowed from the Song Dynasty, such as "XX Society".
This Renyi Society is just a typical example of a small place.
In the third year of the Jingkang era, Han Shizhong and Qin Hui's suppression of bandits in Hebei Province alarmed mountain bandits throughout the country, and the imperial court took advantage of this to launch a campaign to suppress bandits in various places.
That year, many organizations like the Renyi Society changed their ways and began to cooperate with the local government.
Because of its strategic location north of the Yangtze River and the former capital of the Chu Kingdom, Jinan Town has a large population and cheap labor.
Wang Quan's transport team was quickly established, and he made a fortune by taking advantage of the new policies of the imperial court. Moreover, his business grew bigger and bigger, and he soon took over the business of crossing the river. He became a prominent figure in Jiangling Prefecture.
Because of his hard work, Wang Quan was even received once by He Yuanshan, the transport commissioner of Jiangling Prefecture.
After that, even if Zhu Qing's grain had to pass through Jiangling Prefecture, it had to be transported by Wang Quan's hauling team.
The things Wang Quan had done over the past few years had been written down and were now placed in front of the emperor's desk.
Another person's name was written on another piece of paper.
This man was named Zhou Qi. He was just an ordinary man from Zhoujia Village. He had been carrying goods at the ferry for two years and had saved up some money. He had just gotten married after the New Year this year, but he was hacked to death on the ferry.
I heard that the person was hacked to pieces, with hardly any part of their body intact.
I also heard that he was attacked on his way home at night, by people from the gambling den who came to collect money, but he had no money to pay.
Of course, these are all just rumors circulating among the people.
However, Zhao Huan presented a different version of events: Wang Quan killed him to silence him.
It's difficult to manage such a large area. After the floods in the north, drought struck the south.
No matter how many people are killed, there will still be those who take advantage of the national crisis to make a fortune.
But the killing must continue.
In recent years, Zhao Huan has turned a blind eye to some minor issues; otherwise, with heads rolling every day, the new policies would have been impossible to implement.
For example, the court tacitly approved of people like Wang Quan who went from being criminal to legitimate, and even allowed them to earn some illicit income without any consequences.
But profiting from national disasters is a different story.
People in Jiangling Prefecture were starving to death every day, and some people were even embezzling grain during the transportation process.
This was done very discreetly; it wouldn't be discovered without a dedicated investigation.
Such people, who have made their fortunes and benefited from the government's policies, then begin to exploit the people, causing unrest, which the government then has to bear the consequences of.
Zhao Huan sighed: What an ungrateful wretch!
Of course, a mere Wang Quan was not worth the emperor's excessive attention, so he was punished according to the law.
However, it's obvious that Wang Quan has connections in high places, and his influence is considerable.
The other document concerns He Yuanshan, the transport commissioner.
A high-ranking transport commissioner, a fourth-rank official in the local government!
Moreover, this fourth-rank official had superiors, and the relationships began to become increasingly complex.
At this moment, Wang Quan was having tea with Lei Fangzhou, the town supervisor of Jinan Town, in a room in Duguo. He was unaware that his name had appeared before the emperor and had already attracted the emperor's attention.
Lei Fangzhou held Wang Quan in utter contempt, a sentiment born of the pride of Song Dynasty literati.
In any case, Lei Fangzhou was a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations), and Jinshi were not people who could be admitted to the highest level of the imperial examinations.
On average, the Song Dynasty held the imperial examinations every three years. Although the number of successful candidates in each examination was much higher than in previous dynasties, there were still only a little over a hundred.
In other words, Lei Fangzhou was one of the more than one hundred chosen ones in the country when he took the imperial examination.
This kind of academic genius is even more outstanding than the top students at Tsinghua University in the 21st century.
However, he was a pathetic scholar who failed the imperial examination because he was hot-blooded and impetuous when he was young. He offended his superiors and was demoted.
At the time, he held a sinecure in Tokyo. Because of his scholarly temperament, he always wanted to change something, but in the end, nothing changed, and he changed his own fate.
Since he came to Jinan Town to serve as the town supervisor, he has completely changed, becoming the kind of person who is worldly and shrewd.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be sitting here drinking tea with Wang Quan.
Although Wang Quan was just a businessman, the power behind him was something that the town supervisor couldn't afford to offend or provoke.
He not only had to drink tea with Wang Quan, but also had to curry favor with her, because Wang Quan might be one of the key people in his promotion.
“Master Wang, this tea is top-grade Longjing tea picked from Hangzhou Prefecture. Prince Kang drinks this tea regularly.”
Wang Quan was a roughneck, but incredibly wealthy. Perhaps because of his background, he always tried to associate himself with the nobility. When he heard that it was the tea that Prince Kang liked, he smiled so much that his eyes narrowed, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth and a pungent, sour smell.
Seeing Wang Quan happy, Lei Fangzhou was also happy. There was a large box of newly issued paper money outside, worth about 50,000 strings of cash, which was enough to satisfy Wang Quan's appetite.
Of course, there was another person, two women.
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