Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

The time came to June 22.

At the foot of Heiyun Mountain, Heiyun City, which had been under construction for more than a year, was finally completed.

Yang Zhengshan and Pang Tang came to Heiyun City in person to inspect the construction of Heiyun City.

Like Chongshan Pass, Heiyun City is divided into South City and North City. North City is relatively small, about one-third of the entire city, and will be used as the garrison of Heiyun Guards, while South City will be used as the residence of merchants and civilians.

Among them, South City has four gates, and two main streets, east-west and north-south, run through the entire city. The city is further divided into different areas such as residential areas, commercial areas, and market areas.

Heiyun City has a circumference of eight miles and three hundred and twelve steps, and the city can accommodate 30,000 people, excluding the guards in the north city.

Outside the city, more than thirty miles to the west are the military farms of Heiyun Guards, with many thousand-household, hundred-household and garrison.

In the east, a large number of villages and towns will be built around Heiyun Mountain and the official road to be built.

Some villages and towns will also be built in the south, but many farms or horse farms will be built among them as land for large landowners and merchants to buy farmland.

The governor's office has sold many farms and horse farms in the south, and now there are many large landowners and merchants reclaiming wasteland there.

Yang Zhengshan and Pang Tang rode around Heiyun City on horseback, looking at a village that was still under construction.

"How many villages can we build before winter?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

Pang Tang waved to the clerk behind him, and the clerk immediately stepped forward and said, "To reply to the Marquis, according to the previous plan, we will probably build seven towns and 120 villages around Heiyun City!"

Now the north is a large construction site. The governor's office is responsible for the construction around Heiyun Mountain, and the newly established Heiyun Guard is responsible for the construction of the thousand-household, hundred-household and garrison outside the city.

Fuzhou City in the north is responsible for the construction of the official road leading to Heiyun City and the villages and towns along the way.

The Jianning Guard in the middle route is responsible for building the official road from Chongshan Pass to Heiyun City and the villages and towns along the way.

The Songzhou Guard in the east route is responsible for building the official road from Songzhou City to Fuzhou City and the villages and towns along the way.

Yang Zhengshan silently calculated in his mind.

A town can accommodate 300 households, and a village can accommodate 50 households, which is a total of 8,100 households. If the city is included, the area around Heiyun Guard can accommodate about 60,000 to 80,000 people.

Compared with the millions of refugees, this number is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket.

But this is a reasonable plan.

How many people can live in a village depends not on how many houses there are in the village, but on how many fields can be reclaimed around the village.

The fields of farmers in the village cannot be too far away from the village, and you cannot let farmers walk more than ten miles to work in the fields.

It doesn’t matter if Heiyun City accommodates fewer people, because a large number of refugees can be accommodated on the three official roads.

In addition, a large number of refugees can also be accommodated around Fuzhou City, and even Fuzhou City can accommodate more refugees than Heiyun City.

As long as Yang Zhengshan's plan can be completed, there will be no problem in accommodating one million refugees in the north.

"Mr. Pang, we may need your governor's office to help build villages and towns next!" Yang Zhengshan said to Pang Tang.

The construction of Heiyun City has been completed, and there are still many civilians and craftsmen who are good at building houses under the governor's office. They can be put to good use and build villages and towns along the official road.

"Don't worry, I have arranged it. After they finish building the villages and towns around Heiyun City, they will build villages and towns along the official road." Pang Tang smiled.

Yang Zhengshan nodded, and then went back to Chongshan Pass with Pang Tang.

Chongshan Pass is more than 400 miles away from Heiyun City, and the official road between the two cities has not been completed. There is only a trampled road, the road is bumpy, and it takes at least three or four days to go back and forth.

Yang Zhengshan rarely took so much time to go to Heiyun City. Along the way, he also inspected the construction of the official road. When he returned to Chongshan Pass, it was already the end of June.

As soon as he returned home, Ding Qiu came to him.

"My Lord, Ning Dongsheng's affairs have been investigated!" Ding Qiu said.

Yang Zhengshan walked into the study in the front yard and asked, "But is there anything wrong?"

"Yes, we found that Ning Dongsheng is very close to many salt merchants and grain merchants in Pingyuan. Most of these salt merchants and grain merchants are dissatisfied with the Lord." Ding Qiu said.

Yang Zhengshan showed a sneer on his face.

Dissatisfied?

Sure enough, it was almost the same as he guessed.

Ning Dongsheng is not a fool. Although Yang Zhengshan lost his face in Tenglongwei, that was six or seven years ago. Ning Dongsheng can't think of revenge on Yang Zhengshan now.

And for Ning Dongsheng to take such a risk to impeach Yang Zhengshan, there must be some unknown interests behind it.

It is normal for salt merchants to be dissatisfied with Yang Zhengshan.

Because the price of salt in Liaoyuan Province has now dropped to twelve cents per catty, Yang Zhengshan spent a lot of effort to suppress the price of salt.

While putting pressure on the Salt Transport Commissioner's Office, he suppressed the salt merchants in Liaoyuan. With the cooperation of the Luo family and many merchants who had business dealings with Tenglongwei, he finally reduced the price of salt from 30 wen per catty to 12 wen per catty.

He not only lowered the sales price of salt, but also raised the price of salt sold by the stove households, which greatly reduced the profits of the salt merchants.

In the past, the salt industry was undoubtedly the most profitable business in Liaodong, but now the salt industry in Liaoyuan is almost the same as ordinary business, mainly focusing on small profits and quick turnover.

Although Yang Zhengshan's pricing of salt sales only applies to Liaoyuan Province, in fact, the salt industry in Pingyuan Province has also been greatly affected.

Especially in the northern part of Pingyuan, most of the salt comes from Liaoyuan Province, which forced the salt merchants in Pingyuan to lower their prices and reduce the profits of salt.

As the saying goes, cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. Yang Zhengshan did not cut off their financial resources, but he broke their financial resources.

Originally, they could earn hundreds of thousands or millions of taels of silver a year, but now they can only earn tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of taels of hard-earned money a year.

It would be strange if those salt merchants did not resent Yang Zhengshan.

As for the grain merchants, it is also normal that they are dissatisfied with Yang Zhengshan. Although the General's Mansion did not purchase grain in Pingyuan, it purchased grain in Jiangnan, which is equivalent to robbing their supply.

If it were in previous years, Pingyuan's grain merchants might not care, but now the drought in Pingyuan has already appeared. Everyone with a discerning eye knows that the grain price in Liaodong will soar in the next year.

According to Yang Zhengshan's estimate, the period from this winter to next spring will be the period when the grain price in Liaodong is the highest.

It is not a problem for the grain price to rise six or seven times.

Moreover, during this period, the grain merchants in Pingyuan will not have too much grain. After all, the grain in most areas of Pingyuan will be reduced or completely eliminated due to drought, and it is impossible for grain merchants to receive enough grain in Pingyuan.

If they want to purchase grain, they can only go to Jiangnan or the southeast to buy it.

But now Tenglongwei has occupied most of the sea merchants in Liaodong, and Chongshan Town has purchased grain from Jiangnan on a large scale, which is almost equivalent to cutting off their supply and transportation channels.

Without supply and transportation channels, they face the soaring grain prices just like seeing a big piece of fat meat in front of them, but they can only smell it.

In order to receive grain from Jiangnan and other places, and for their next plan to make a fortune, they must stop Chongshan Town from continuing to collect grain.

So causing some trouble for Yang Zhengshan has become their most important thing to do.

It is not impossible for a group of grain merchants and salt merchants to unite and use their huge wealth to knock on the officialdom in Dayong.

Ning Dongsheng is just a cannon fodder pushed out by these grain merchants and salt merchants, and the impeachment is just a test.

Yang Zhengshan knows that these profiteers must have a backhand.

"Have you found out which profiteers are involved?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

Ding Qiu whispered, "It is certain that the merchants who colluded with Ning Dongsheng are the Lu, Yu, and Zhen families of Guang'an Prefecture, the Ning and Zhen families of Dongyang Prefecture, the Yi family of Fuzhou, the Ma family of Shunzhou, and the Luo family of Jizhou!"

Yang Zhengshan narrowed his eyes slightly, "The Zhen family of Guang'an Prefecture and the Zhen family of Dongyang Prefecture! Are you sure?"

The Zhen family is undoubtedly the largest family in Pingyuan Province. It has countless branches in Pingyuan, and almost every prefecture has a branch of the Zhen family.

For example, the Zhen Yang family represents the Yanzhou Zhen family.

The Guang'an Zhen family and the Dongyang Zhen family are the two largest branches of the Zhen family.

Its main branch is the Luozhou Zhen family, but the Luozhou Zhen family has always maintained the tradition of farming and reading. They are not merchants, but officials.

The current Shuntian Prefecture Yin Zhen Shijie is from the Luozhou Zhen family.

The Zhen family is undoubtedly a huge clan, but such a clan has long become a mess. Although they are of the same clan, their blood relationship is weak.

Just like the Yang family, Yang Zhengshan and the people in Yangjia Village can't even find a relative within the fifth degree of mourning.

"It is certain that the Guang'an Zhen family and the Dongyang Zhen family are the largest salt merchants in Pingyuan, and other salt merchants are mainly based on them!" Ding Qiu said.

"The Jizhou Luo family! Do they dare to get involved in this matter?" Yang Zhengshan's face was a little ugly.

"The Jizhou Luo family is not only the largest cloth merchant in Jizhou, but also the largest grain merchant in Jizhou!" Ding Qiu said.

Yang Zhengshan rubbed his eyebrows with a headache.

These wealthy businessmen are really troublesome!

Although they have a low status in the businessmen of Dayong, these wealthy businessmen have a lot of wealth and are inextricably linked to the officialdom. If they unite, they will definitely be a considerable force.

And this Jizhou Luo family is also related to Yang Zhengshan, because Luo Shang is from the Jizhou Luo family.

Over the years, Yang Zhengshan has supported Luo Shang, and Luo Shang has also borrowed a lot of power from the Jizhou Luo family, and the Jizhou Luo family has also gained a lot of benefits from Luo Shang's rise.

But now the Jizhou Luo family has actually offended him!

"Go find Luo Shang!" Yang Zhengshan said coldly.

"Yes!"

"Send someone to Tenglongwei and ask Zhen Yang to come." Yang Zhengshan said again.

Although Zhen Yang represents the Yanzhou Zhen family, most of her business is in Tenglongwei and Chongshan Town, so she has been living in Tenglongwei with her son.

Ding Qiu responded and left the study.

At this moment, Luo Shang was in a panic.

In the hall of the Luo family, Luo Shang looked at the visitor in front of him, his face turned pale.

"You, you are confused!"

Luo Shang was a little exasperated and a little angry.

The visitor in his house at this time was none other than Luo Changsheng, the head of the Jizhou Luo family.

In terms of seniority, Luo Shang is one generation older than Luo Changsheng, and Luo Changsheng should call Luo Shang uncle.

However, Luo Changsheng is the direct descendant of the Jizhou Luo family, while Luo Shang is just a branch of a branch of the Jizhou Luo family.

If Luo Shang had not risen with the support of Yang Zhengshan, the Jizhou Luo family would not have known that they had a member like Luo Shang.

Now Luo Shang is also a wealthy family, but in the eyes of the Jizhou Luo family, no matter how rich Luo Shang is, he is just a branch of them, and just a member of the side branch that they supported.

That's right, they thought that Luo Shang was supported by them. After all, they did help Luo Shang a lot in the beginning, providing Luo Shang with the source of goods, letting the clansmen help Luo Shang manage the business, and taking care of Luo Shang a lot in business.

It's not an exaggeration to say that they supported Luo Shang, but Luo Shang's foundation was the support of Yang Zhengshan, not the Jizhou Luo family.

Luo Shang was not an ungrateful person. He was very grateful for the help of the Jizhou Luo family, so he was very close to the Jizhou Luo family in recent years and took good care of the business of the Jizhou Luo family in all aspects.

But he never expected that the Jizhou Luo family would actually set their sights on Yang Zhengshan.

Damn, this is simply a big lantern in the toilet!

At this time, he really wanted to kill this nephew in front of him. You Jizhou Luo family wanted to die, but don't involve our Luo family!

The Luo family and the Yang family have always been close. If Yang Zhengshan is dissatisfied with him and the Luo family because of this matter, then Luo Shang will really fight with the Jizhou Luo family!

Luo Shang still knows who is the thigh.