xymnovel Chapter 1 Taicang
Chapter 1 Taicang
Taicang is both the name of a granary and a place name.
Since the King of Wu built granaries here during the Spring and Autumn Period, Lord Chunshen of Chu, Liu Bi, King of Wu during the Han Dynasty, Sun Quan of Eastern Wu, and Qian Liu of Wuyue, among others, have all established granaries here to store grain, a tradition passed down from generation to generation.
There was a reason why everyone had their eyes on this place.
Taicang is located on the eastern coast of the sea, with wide and deep harbors near the shore capable of accommodating large ships. The area is crisscrossed by waterways such as the Loujiang and Yantietang rivers, providing convenient access to the hinterland of southern China.
After the rise of maritime trade, Taicang was known as the "Wharf of Six Countries," but in reality, it was a trading hub for far more than just merchants from six countries.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the maritime transport of grain reached its peak with more than 1,600 ships setting sail from Taicang in a single day, accounting for one-third of the country's maritime transport capacity, making it a true maritime hub.
For this reason, in the first year of the Yanyou reign of Emperor Renzong (Ayurbarwada) (1314), the seat of Kunshan Prefecture was moved here, and Taicang became even more prosperous.
Too big.
At that time, the largest granary in Taicang was the "Haiyun Granary" in Zhangjing, south of the city, which could store more than one million shi of grain and was still under continuous expansion, with an even more considerable scale in the future.
Located on the north bank of the Loujiang River and east of the Yantietang, the Haiyuncang suddenly became extremely busy in the third year of the Zhizheng era (1343). Thousands of seafarers and boatmen from the Huai River swarmed in and out of the granary like ants, loading bags of grain into the ship's hold for shipment. Shao Shuyi was one of them.
He had been working in a daze all morning and was starting to feel the strain, but he dared not slack off because he needed money and food.
As a modern person born in the 21st century, I inexplicably came to this time and space and became a family of boatmen who have been sailing for generations. My social status and economic situation are very poor. If I don't go out to work and earn some money, I really can't survive.
"Be careful." Just as he staggered and almost fell to the ground, a pair of large hands reached out from the side and supported him.
"Understood," Shao Shuyi replied, and continued forward.
He recognized the man who helped him. He was Zheng Song, a cousin of Zheng Guozhen, the chief clerk of the Maritime Transport Office. Zheng Song was a top-notch steward, a cautious and taciturn man who never showed his emotions and was completely unfathomable.
Of course, as an ordinary seafarer, he wasn't qualified to deal with Zheng Song, so it was normal that he didn't know him.
Zheng Song glanced at Shao Shuyi up and down, then quickly looked away and left.
At the height of the sun, the clear sound of a gong finally rang out from afar.
Shao Shuyi felt as if he had been granted a pardon, and slumped down on the riverbank, panting heavily.
Physical exhaustion left him with no energy to care about anything else; the whole world seemed to have turned gray, and he couldn't even be bothered to distinguish between arguments that were right in front of him.
"I gave you countless instructions before you left, but you wouldn't listen. What's the reason for that?"
"Brother, is this all they gave us?"
"The amount is not wrong, four cents for water and water, but it's all shoddy money, how can we spend it?" The speaker became more and more angry, and then a crisp slap was heard, along with curses mixed with slang and dialect.
The victim wept bitterly, perhaps out of guilt, and tried to throw himself into the river, but was stopped by onlookers.
The commotion was so great that even Shao Shuyi was taken aback and turned to look.
After being stopped, the man who was about to jump into the river had no intention of dying; he just knelt on the deck of the boat, crying and sobbing.
A group of people surrounded him, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back. Among them, the most eye-catching was a middle-aged man with disheveled hair.
This man was not tall, but extremely stocky and robust, with broad shoulders and a thick back, resembling a solid wall of flesh. His head was also very large, and his neck was short and thick, almost merging into his shoulders.
The most striking feature was the hair, which resembled seaweed tossed about by the sea breeze—greasy, matted, and growing wildly, as if the owner never cared for it and was proud of it.
His exposed skin, weathered by the sea breeze and scorching sun, had turned a deep purplish-brown, so rough it seemed capable of scratching silk—wait, he was actually wearing silk; he must be no ordinary person.
"Stop looking! That's Cai Luantou, a notorious thug on the sea. Let's go!" A low shout came from beside him, and then a strong force pulled Shao Shuyi up, causing him to stumble and walk away into the distance.
As he disappeared into the distance, the faint echoes of his angry curses could be heard over the river: "I, Cai Luantou, have always been the one to embezzle other people's wealth; no one has ever dared to shortchange me! You corrupt official! You thieving official! Don't force me to rebel!"
As they were talking, there was another loud crash as Cai Luantou smashed a porcelain bottle on the deck, furious.
Shao Shuyi gently freed himself from the arm, and after walking several dozen steps, he stopped and looked at the person who had pulled him, saying, "You bastard, why is Cai the Rascal so angry?"
"Baijia Nu" was his nickname. Like Shao Shuyi, he was a seafarer, of similar age, and a neighbor, so their relationship was quite special.
In fact, he had a formal name: Kong Tie. Because his family was poor after his birth and relied heavily on the help of neighbors, he was nicknamed "Baijia Nu" (meaning "slave of a hundred families").
Hearing Shao Shuyi's question, he first glanced back at the commotion on the Loujiang River before saying, "I only heard it from someone else, so it's not reliable. The imperial court conscripted boatmen from Wenzhou and Taizhou to transport grain to Liujiagang. Because they came with empty boats, it was considered easier, so the payment for the journey was already low. After they arrived, they were given only worthless bills, so it's understandable that Cai was furious."
Shao Shuyi understood.
"Dull banknotes" are banknotes that are severely worn and often lose much of their value in actual use, or are even completely unusable.
Shao Shuyi was not surprised by the so-called requisitioning of boatmen from Wenzhou and Taizhou to transport grain to Liujiagang.
Although the Maritime Transport Office had seven local thousand-household offices in Songjiang Jiading, Kunshan Chongming, Changshu Jiangyin, Hangzhou Jiaxing, Wenzhou Taizhou, Qingshao and Xiangsha Nuomi, as well as one grain transport thousand-household office (formerly the garrison office), with tens of thousands of seafarers and thousands of ships of various sizes, those in the know only know their own situation. These things only existed on the roster, and it was really hard to say how many people and ships there were.
Therefore, starting more than ten years ago, the task of transporting grain in the spring and summer—sometimes starting in autumn and also known as the "autumn transport"—was jointly undertaken by the Wanhu government and the "wealthy people" along the coast. The imperial court tacitly approved of this and even directly paid the water transport fees to the civilian boatmen who were not on the official payroll.
Cai Luantou is a "wealthy local" in Wenzhou and Taizhou. The fact that he could bring dozens of ships to obey orders shows his influence.
"Let's go eat." After saying this, Kong Tie shut his mouth and walked straight ahead.
Shao Shuyi had no interest in inquiring about Cai Luantou's affair and quickly followed.
The two, one after the other, quickly arrived at the temporary camp located on the east bank of the Salt and Iron Pond.
They were employed by the Zheng family, so their meals were naturally provided by their employer. Sure enough, the Zheng family's servants drove over in several donkey carts from afar, unloaded buckets of steamed rice from the carts, and distributed them one by one.
Because they had to do physical labor, the group rarely got to eat three meals a day, and even those were dry. They ate them with pickled vegetables and were incredibly happy.
Shao Shuyi ate his meal while carefully observing the situation.
To cope with the Spring Festival travel rush, Zheng Guozhen, who was in charge of the Wanhufu Zhaomo (a type of official in charge of grain transport), mobilized all the servants and laborers in his household to transport grain from the sea warehouse to the ships.
That wasn't all. Zheng also provided extra grain and money to hire unemployed seafarers to help transport grain for his family.
Rumors circulate that the Zheng family might have to provide some people and boats to share part of the canal transport task. After all, Zheng Guozhen's father, Zheng Yonghe, was the deputy commander of the Wanhu Prefecture, and he had an inescapable responsibility. If the canal transport task was not completed, the court would punish all the officials of the Wanhu Prefecture, big and small. If the task was completed, the court would not care what they did below.
This was the reality of the Yuan Dynasty: government affairs were outsourced!
Zheng Guozhen also arrived at the scene and was talking quietly with Zheng Song from a distance.
Shao Shuyi had seen Zheng Guozhen from afar several times.
This man studied from a young age and served as a clerk in the Wanhu government, but his behavior was unlike that of an ordinary scholar; rather, he had a bit of a江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry) air about him.
He usually wears casual clothes with dark-patterned brocade, often engages in martial arts, horseback riding, and archery with others. He speaks in a booming voice and has extremely sharp eyes, giving people a feeling that he is not easy to get along with.
Of course, he would sometimes wear a formal hat and belt and socialize with gentry, after all, he came from a scholarly family.
Most importantly, according to rumors from the grain transport office, Zheng Guozhen twice went to sea as an attendant of the supervising officer, traveling between Liujiagang and Zhigu. According to regulations, the Wanhu Office had to send someone to accompany the ship every time grain was transported. This person was called the "supervising officer." Sometimes it was the Wanhu himself who went, and sometimes it was the deputy Wanhu or the Qianhu. At the very least, it had to be a deputy Qianhu of the fifth rank.
Having been to sea, and more than once, is no small feat...
After quickly finishing his meal, Shao Shuyi rested for a while before Zheng Song waved his hand, signaling several guards and martial arts instructors to urge everyone to get to work.
Zheng Guozhen stood still, looking up at the sky and sighing repeatedly, as if he had some difficult questions.
Shao Shuyi sighed inwardly, struggled to his feet, and headed towards Haiyuncang.
This money isn't easy to earn!