As the saying goes, "the people do not fight with the officials, and the poor do not fight with the rich", so in the previous feudal dynasties, when the emperor who had the highest power and controlled the life and death power of all people collided with a "huge rich", what would happen?
Zhu Yuanzhang and Shen Wansan's affair is the most typical example, as the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang is suspicious, naturally can not accept that someone to make a move to challenge the imperial power, not to mention That Shen Wansan district a merchant Jia is actually richer than he is an emperor, so repeated temptations, although Shen Wansan is ignorant of the avoidance, but it is inevitable that there will be negligence, and finally let Zhu Yuanzhang kill.
In a series of battles of wits and courage, although Shen Wansan saved his life, he was eventually sent to Yunnan.
And the most thrilling move between the two of them was only when Zhu Yuanzhang asked Shen Wansan what the name of the pig's trotter on the table was, but Ping Ping's sentence was full of killing chances, fortunately, the witty Shen Wansan improvised and saved his life by relying on "3 characters".
"Rich and prosperous" to become the richest man
Since ancient times, emperors have been suspicious, their own authority can not get the slightest provocation, sometimes in order to relieve their suspicions about others for no reason, they will also find ways to create disasters in order to extinguish their mouths, especially after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended to the throne, not only beheading meritorious ministers, but also for the powerless merchant Shen Wansan, who cannot tolerate it again and again, and looking for stubble again and again.
So as a businessman who was remembered by Zhu Yuanzhang, what kind of person was Shen Wansan?
We hear the most is Shen Wansan, but in fact, he also has a name called Shen Fu, "rich" means wealth and glory, this name is also full of his father's expectations for him.
In fact, according to his father's expectations, although Shen Wansan was born in a not very peaceful era, he also relied on his own wisdom to go out of his own way and became a well-known rich man.
In fact, at first, the conditions in Shen Wansan's family were also good, although it was not a big rich and noble, but it was also a matter of eating and wearing, and I thought that my life would be so peaceful and stable, but the sky did not go according to people's wishes, and the sudden flood in the Wuxing area caught them off guard.
Faced with the power of nature, the family could only flee in a hurry, and the family moved to Zhouzhuang, during which because of the flood, Shen Wansan's mother unfortunately contracted the plague and died not long after.
On the way to escape the disaster, Shen Wansan's eldest brother and second brother also died one after another, and finally only he and his father, as well as the fourth brother and three people depended on each other, after arriving in Zhouzhuang, several people finally stabilized, Shen Wansan began to think about ways to make money, with his keen observation of market demand, he quickly locked the direction.
During this time in Zhouzhuang, he found that there was still a lot of room for development in farming here, and perhaps it could become a huge "granary" in the future, because Zhouzhuang belonged to the depression, so not only the water source was very abundant, the soil was also very fertile, and it was the best to use it to develop agriculture.
In addition, Shen Wansan considered that at that time, all parts of the country were in a hurry, intending to revolt against the Yuan, so that there would be a continuous war in the future, in this context, grain is also indispensable for marching and fighting, and even can be said to be the key to winning the war, not to mention that "the people take food as the sky", no matter what, there will be no risk in planting grain.
After some thought, Shen Wansan made up his mind and began to reclaim land in a large area of Zhouzhuang, making the greatest use of the land resources in his hands, and later, as he expected, he successfully earned his first bucket of gold, and began to make a fortune, starting his crazy "gold-sucking" road.
After that, Shen Wansan's business was booming, so his reputation became famous, and he attracted the attention of Lu Deyuan, a wealthy merchant in Jiangnan, in the business circle, and he was also a nobleman in Shen Wansan's life.
Lu Deyuan is also a businessman, but he is a person who is both intelligent, has great wisdom and is very talented, and is also a very successful businessman, by chance, he met Shen Wansan and admired Shen Wansan's business ability.
When Lu Deyuan was about to reach the peak of business, he chose to "retreat from the rapids", he believed that in the period of war, too rich would become the target of the public, easy to be remembered by others, for the sake of life safety, he wanted to give the money to others, but he did not want his hard-earned money to be wasted by others.
After some deliberation, Shen Wansan became the lucky one, Lu Deyuan gave him most of his money, so that Shen Wansan "money makes money", and he himself chose to stay away from the world, avoid this turbulent situation, and finally enter the mountain.
In this way, with the help of Lu Deyuan, Shen Wansan's wealth accumulated more and more, and he suddenly became a person on the rich side.
Shen Wansan, from the agricultural industry, also looked at the trade business, he transported silk, porcelain, grain and handicrafts and other specialties overseas, and brought overseas jewelry, ivory, spices, etc. back to China, from which he relied on the difference in price to make huge profits, which made his wealth to a higher level, and his fame gradually spread.
Stand in the wrong line and leave the misfortune behind
When Shen Wansan was mixed up in the business world, but the whole country was in the wave of the Red Turban Army uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Shen Wansan had a long-term vision to avoid affecting his business because of war or the change of dynasty, he saw the opportunity, judged the situation, and decided to first establish a good relationship with the leader of the rebel army.
Under Shen Wansan's deliberate arrangement, after many times of getting along, he became close to the rebel leader Zhang Shicheng, and made a lot of efforts when Zhang Shicheng established the Great Zhou regime, so he was appreciated by Zhang Shicheng.
It is said that Zhang Shicheng also made a meritorious monument for Shen Wansan, when the regime and wealth are linked, they will often achieve the effect of doubling the results with half the effort, Shen Wansan is also an extremely intelligent person, in the turbulent situation, in time to find a good backer, show his position, so Shen Wansan's money is getting thicker and thicker, even to the point that even the emperor is jealous.
Although Shen Wansan was very clever, and his approach was extremely wise in the face of the situation at that time, he was on the wrong side, and he thus formed a bond with Zhu Yuanzhang.
And this, to start from the peasant revolt at the end of the Yuan, Zhu Yuanzhang, formerly known as Zhu Zhongba, was born in a poor peasant family, because of the disaster into the Huangjue Temple to become a monk, and later joined the Red Turban Army to rebel against the Mongolian Yuan regime.
However, at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang's army was only one of the rebels, but after the fall of the Yuan court, the rebels began to annex each other, and this also happened to encounter Shen Wansan who wanted to take sides to gain the admiration of the new emperor, but Shen Wansan chose thousands of choices, selected Zhang Shicheng, and invested a lot of money, but was finally defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Therefore, not only did it not get the benefits, but it also caused trouble for itself, and it also left hidden dangers for the future.
After Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Chen Youyi, Zhang Shicheng and many other opponents, he finally ascended to the throne and established the Ming Dynasty, but the mess left by the Yuan Dynasty still needed him to clean up.
In order to replenish the national treasury and stabilize the regime, Zhu Yuanzhang began to focus on the "rich" people, as a poor born, he has always had no good feelings for mercenary businessmen, and at this time, the famous rich businessman Shen Wansan naturally became the target of his attack, plus Shen Wansan had funded his opponents, then these accounts naturally had to be well liquidated together.
In the face of temptation, skillfully respond
When Zhu Yuanzhang found Shen Wansan, Shen Wansan could only ensure peace through real money and silver to please, in order to show his sincerity, he also spent a huge amount of money to support Zhu Yuanzhang to rebuild the capital Nanjing, although the cost was very high, but in the end it was more important than life.
Shen Wansan had thought that his overtures would make him feel better, but he underestimated Zhu Yuanzhang's suspiciousness and overestimated his temperament, and when Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Shen Wansan's money was far more than he imagined, his heart was even more unhappy.
In order to make Zhu Yuanzhang happy and build a good relationship, Shen Wansan invested a lot of money, invited a lot of skilled craftsmen to build the Great Wall, and personally supervised the progress of the project, but Shen Wansan was kind enough to do bad things this time, because he personally supervised the work, and the progress of the project was very rapid, and it was actually three days earlier than the city wall repair project that Zhu Yuanzhang was responsible for.
This was a heavy blow to Zhu Yuanzhang's face, but a small businessman was even more powerful than the emperor, and there was money in the national treasury. Zhu Yuanzhang is also a belly fire, did not vent, want to dispose of Shen Wansan, but there is no good reason for the moment, always can not directly say that you have too much money, too much to give me face.
Shen Wansan did not know what Zhu Yuanzhang was thinking, and was still showing kindness, and he invited Zhu Yuanzhang to his home as a guest to show his closeness.
At Shen Wansan's family banquet, Zhu Yuanzhang was still angry in his heart and wanted to find Trouble for Shen Wansan.
At this time, he happened to see a pig's trotter on the table and asked what was the name of the dish? Shen Wansan also understood Zhu Yuanzhang's meaning in an instant, and he was immediately frightened into a cold sweat.
Thinking quickly in my head, if you directly say pig's trotter, pig tongzhu, the text needs to avoid the name of the Venerable, especially if the other party has still made a vendetta in front of the Nine-Five-Year-Old, if the word Pig's Trotter blurts out, it is a taboo of the emperor's surname, then the door is also deserved.
So he had a clever move and replied: "Wansan Hoof", just three words, cleverly avoiding all kinds of taboos on the name, and at the same time having the meaning of self-deprecation.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard his answer, he didn't feel a laugh, and he also understood that Shen Wansan knew what he meant, seeing that he was so cautious and afraid of himself, there was no more temptation to embarrass him, and Shen Wansan also saved his own life.
He thought that after this temptation, Shen Wansan would act more cautiously, but he was still confused, did not know what kind of person Zhu Yuanzhang really was, thought that he had completely gained his trust, but he did not expect that this was just the beginning, and his suspicions were not so easy to dispel.
So that next, Shen Wansan once again sent the handle directly to Zhu Yuanzhang's hand.
After the repair of the city wall was completed, Shen Wansan, in order to show favor to Zhu Yuanzhang, actually put forward a proposal to replace Zhu Yuanzhang with his own pocket to reward the three armies, and this undoubtedly touched Zhu Yuanzhang's reverse scales, as a civilian, what qualifications did he have to treat the three armies instead of him? Is this to win the hearts and minds of the military?
Originally Zhu Yuanzhang was very unhappy, Shen Wansan had more money than the national treasury, if Shen Wansan had other ideas, no matter who he supported, he might become his fierce enemy in the future, and now Shen Wansan himself showed off his wealth without saying anything, and even wanted to reward the three armies instead of him.
Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang was trying to find a way to embarrass Shen Wansan everywhere, but Shen Wansan's approach was to directly hand over his life to Zhu Yuanzhang's hands, and Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry, and he wanted to cut Shen Wansan full of doors in order to pull out his own "nail in the eye, thorn in the flesh".
However, Empress Ma felt in her heart that Shen Wansan had not done anything wrong, and because she wanted to help treat the three armies and want the lives of the whole family, she verbally advised Zhu Yuanzhang, for such a person was not worth killing, and God would naturally accept him.
After Zhu Yuanzhang listened, he also felt that it made sense, but he could not swallow this breath in his heart, so he confiscated Shen Wansan's family property and distributed his entire family to Yunnan.
Back in business
Shang Dou was not an official, and in the end Shen Wansan was defeated under the imperial power.
However, a generation of "rich merchants" Shen Wansan did not fall down so easily, after he was sent to Yunnan, although the wealth he had accumulated before had been owned by the state treasury, he did not give up on himself, but chose to start again, he did not have the caution of Zhu Yuanzhang's presence, he began to continue to shine on the commercial road.
Although Shen Wansan did not have money, but his previous accumulated contacts were still there, after learning that he was assigned to Yunnan, many of his former friends have gone to Yunnan to visit him, and they also have business minds, along the way, they also sold a lot of high-quality silk, porcelain, and antiques from Jiangnan to Central Asia.
Shen Wansan eventually ended his life in the southwest frontier.
In fact, speaking of Shen Wansan, if he had Lu Deyuan's transparency and wisdom, in the face of turmoil, he could choose to avoid the world or properly converge on the front, and there might be a different result.
Shen Wansan's life is a legend, he went from an obscure small businessman to a rich side, and finally to the point where he was rich and invincible, and it has to be said that he was talented in the business field.
However, in the context of the original era, even if he had money, he could not fight a holy will in the end, although Shen Wansan was so clever and talented, and he also had his own opinions, but in the face of imperial power, he could only choose to silently obey.
Resources:
History of the Ming Dynasty
Yang Jianfeng, editor-in-chief. Ancient Food Fun Talk about those things you eat[M]. 2016
Fan Minghui. Flavor of China[M]. 2019