Tea Merchants of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 126 Chaos

Jiang Yin had a guess as to why the guards came to the teahouse in such a hurry, and soon her guess was confirmed.

The owner of the teahouse followed the shopkeeper out. He had just bowed and hadn't said anything when the guard said, "Alright, alright, stop making such a fuss. Take all the tea in your teahouse to the post house.

The government has issued an order that all tea in Huizhou will be confiscated by the government. From now on, it is forbidden to sell private tea without permission. Hurry up, I have to inform the next family. "

After he finished speaking, he turned around and was about to leave, but the boss, a fat middle-aged man, stepped forward and stopped him.

The boss looked in the direction of Jiang Yin and the others. Jiang Yin covered his face with a folding fan and looked up at the sky, indicating that he was not looking at anything.

But she still caught a glimpse of the boss stuffing a silver ingot into the guard's hand, and then flattered him, "Excuse me, sir, do you want some loose tea?"

Compressed tea such as balls and cakes is called flake tea. Steamed green tea and powdered tea that are steamed but not broken, or broken but not beaten, are called loose tea.

Although the production of balls and cakes is fine, the process is complicated, it is also time-consuming to cook and drink, and the price is relatively expensive. The opposite is true for loose tea.

Therefore, although Huizhou tea is mainly flake tea and supplemented by loose tea, loose tea is still sold, and most ordinary families buy loose tea to drink.

The current Huangshan Maofeng belongs to the category of loose tea.

The guard twisted his fingers slightly, narrowed his eyes and said, "No loose tea, keep it for yourself."

He left after saying this, without giving any further instructions.

But just this sentence made the boss very happy.

So what if it’s loose tea? As long as it’s tea, his teahouse can continue to operate.

After the people left, the place was in an uproar, with everyone discussing what had happened and why all the tea had to be taken away.

Some people who have a good relationship with the boss went up to him and asked him what had happened.

Huizhou was going to implement the tea monopoly system, and the teahouse owners naturally knew some of the inside story.

He looked around, not intending to hide it, but shook his head helplessly and said: "It is what you can see. You know the tea monopoly system. All tea must be sold to the court and exchanged for war horses for war.

In the past, we had to sell our Huizhou tea to the imperial court in exchange for war horses, but we were not forced to sell a certain amount.

It’s different now, everything is given to the court. Even the inventory in my teahouse is the same.”

This was the first time he had seen such a situation. The world was about to be in chaos.

"Oh, then we won't have tea to drink in the future?"

"Yeah, yeah, what can we do?"

"What should I do? Didn't the official say that we don't want loose tea? We can still drink loose tea in the future."

"Drinking tea is no big deal. If you ask me, this war should not be fought."

"That's right. We've been fighting for so many years. How many times have we won? Don't let this end up with both the wife and the army lost."

"You are killing yourself, saying this!"

"..."

Hearing the discussion, the boss shook his head and turned away. He still had to prepare to collect the tea leaves and take them to the post house.

Jiang Yin narrowed his eyes slightly, turned around and left the teahouse.

What the man just said is right. What's the point of fighting a war? It makes people's lives miserable and there are not many victories.

Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, it has emphasized culture over military power. Not only could it not defeat the Liao Kingdom, it couldn't even defeat the Western Xia, which cost the people a lot of money and time and made their lives miserable.

All the successive emperors of the Song Dynasty wanted to attack the Liao Kingdom and take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, but they did not examine whether their own military strength was sufficient.

The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are You, Ji, Ying, Mo, Zhuo, Tan, Shun, Gui, Ru, Xin, Wu, Yun, Ying, Shuo, Huan and Weizhou.

This area is a strategic location that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and is a natural defensive position on the northern border of the Central Plains.

It's a pity that it is now in the hands of the Liao Kingdom. The Song Dynasty went to fight, but couldn't win, and had to pay annual taxes in exchange for peace.

Even the title of "official" was appropriated by Emperor Taizu of Song to cover up his own unorthodoxy out of guilt.

Otherwise, the official should be called the emperor.

Even Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty gave up his military power over a cup of wine and emphasized civil power over military power because he was afraid that his subordinates would repeat his mistakes and start a rebellion like him, wearing the yellow robe.

Jiang Yin looked up at the sunset in the sky and sighed heavily. What did all this have to do with a merchant like her? All she had was Mengshan tea.

As for the court's decision, she had no right to comment on it. All she needed to do was to protect the Jiang family's own piece of land in this chaotic world.

She didn't walk too far, but stood at the door of the teahouse for a while, then returned to the private room upstairs.

Not long after, Dr. Tea came in and knocked on the door, saying respectfully, "Sir, what other tea do you need?"

You can drink whatever you want now, but once the tea leaves are gone, everything will be gone.

Jiang Yin pointed at the tea on the table and tilted his head to ask, "Can you sell me some of this tea so I can take it home and make it myself?"

She ordered all the teas in the teahouse. She had to say that the tea brewing skills of this teahouse were better than those of Huiji Teahouse. She quite liked it.

Dr. Tea said with embarrassment: "I can't make the decision on this matter. Please wait a moment, I have to go ask our boss."

Jiang Yin nodded and said sympathetically, "Go ahead. If you can sell it, that's even better. But if you can't, that's fine too."

There was such a big commotion just now, she couldn't pretend she didn't know, and at this critical juncture, she openly went against the court.

"Thank you."

Dr. Tea bowed to her and went out to ask Jiang Yin about tea.

After a while, Dr. Tea came up with a small wooden box.

He opened the wooden box and placed it on the table in front of Jiang Yin, saying with a smile, "The boss said that we can't sell tea to you, but we can give you some as a gift.

This wooden box was made by our boss not long ago. It contains six kinds of tea. Although the quantity is not much, it is still worth a try. I hope you will not dislike it."

Selling tea leaves now would be considered selling smuggled tea. Their teahouse still needs to remain open, so they cannot do such things.

"How can I be so embarrassed?" Jiang Yin stood up and bowed, "No merit, no reward. Let me pay for it."

The wooden box is divided into six small compartments, each containing a type of tea.

The quantity is not much, only a handful in total. It can be seen that this is specially given to people to taste.

But it was rare for her to be given this time, so she didn't take advantage of it. After all, she actually bought some of these teas.

"This." Dr. Tea looked conflicted, wondering what to do.

The boss always keeps his word. If he says it’s a gift, then it’s a gift.

Jiang Yin waved his hand and said, "Well, why don't you go downstairs and ask your boss if he agrees to take money for this thing."

She doesn't have the habit of taking advantage of others in an open and aboveboard way, for fear of being taken advantage of.

Dr. Tea had no choice but to follow Jiang Yin's request and go downstairs to seek advice.

Jiang Yin returned to the window and watched the situation in the inn openly.