As the saying goes: "Money can make ghosts grind", in ancient times, having money not only made your life extremely comfortable, but also made you a superior person; but this law did not apply to all eras, especially in the early Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was a typical rich-hater. However, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was a figure of great wealth, who was not only the richest man in Jiangnan, but also one of the best chaebols in the world at that time; this person was shen Wansan, the famous richest man in Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty.
So when it comes to Shen Wansan, we have to talk about what he has experienced in this life? What happened between him and Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang? The root of all these puzzles actually comes from the change in Shen Wansan's mentality, if Shen Wansan remains low-key after becoming rich, then the butcher knife will not fall on his head.
Shen Wansan was born into a family of rich peasants
Shen Wansan's original name is actually called Shen Fu, Wansan is actually a title, indicating the three shows among the ten thousand households, which is also a recognition of Shen Wansan's wealth achievements in society, in order to facilitate reading, we still use Shen Wansan's title to introduce it. Shen Wansan's life is also extremely inspiring, his family environment is actually similar to Zhu Yuanzhang's family environment, but the land cultivated by Shen Wansan's family has a better harvest, not only can pay taxes, but also can ensure food and clothing.
Shen's father thought of letting his son learn the skill of farming in peace and security, marry a good daughter-in-law in the future, and live a plain life is the greatest happiness; but Shen Wansan did not think so, he was very restless since he was a child, unwilling to work honestly in the field, but liked to hang out everywhere.
At that time, the Shen family had four sons, the eldest son and the second son died prematurely, and the fourth son was still young, so the third son Shen Wansan, who had high hopes, ran away from home on a certain occasion and left for several days. At that time, Shen Wansan sadly thought that Shen Wansan estimated that the murder was more than ji, but a few days later, Shen Wansan ran home again, and when Shen Father angrily asked where did you go? Shen Wansan replied that he had gone to Suzhou to play.
Shen Wansan has had a talent for business since childhood
He felt that there was a lot of trade in goods in Suzhou, and if he did business there, he would be able to make money. Father Shen was very angry when he heard this, so he picked up the stick and beat him up, saying while hitting:
Farmers, industrialists, and merchants are the lowest professions
Isn't it good to be a cropper? You have to do business, and you can become a monster by doing business in a chaotic manner." So Shen's father forced Shen Wansan to follow him to the field to cultivate the land to learn the craft.
Shen Wansan reluctantly followed his father and brother to the fields; but the fields in their place could only produce reeds and thatch, which were sold at a very cheap price in the market. Shen Wansan wandered around in addition to cultivating the land to survey the terrain here. In the next few days, Shen Wansan tried to plant other crops and mulberry trees, and Shen Father saw it and didn't say anything more, at least it was much better than him doing nothing outside.
Shen Wansan used a long time to confirm his conjecture, this land in his hometown can not only grow reeds and thatch, but also grow grain and rapeseed, and the warm climate is an excellent planting base for mulberry trees; so Shen Wansan told his father about this idea, and Shen Wansan smiled and said to him after listening to it:
If you want everyone in the village to grow the crops you say, then the premise is to buy seeds, their families are in difficulty, and no one will pay for crops that do not know the results. ”
Shen Wansan replied, "I'll do the seeds." So Shen Wansan took some thatch and reeds to Suzhou to sell, Shen Wansan's business experience is to buy two get one free, you buy two bundles of reeds or straw, you will send you a bundle for free; this method makes Shen Wansan's goods quickly sold out, but also let him have some capital.
So he bought mulberry trees, grain, and rapeseed seeds and went back to plant them; but Shen Wansan's father was not happy that he planted the seeds in his own land, so he pointed to a potholed wasteland on the hillside; Shen Wansan, who did not accept the loss, used this land to start sowing seeds and planting. In the days that followed, Shen Wansan got up earlier than the chickens every day, slept later than the cows, and went out early and returned late to observe the growth of his fields and weed weeds.
Later, after some days, the mulberry trees in Shen Wansan's field grew better and better, and the growth of rapeseed also rose, but the grain growth was sparse; Shen's father saw that his son had been busy on the land for such a long time, he was curious to come and see, and when he came to Shen Wansan's land, he was shocked, this uncultivated wasteland has now become a scene of green trees and canola flowers, but the growth of grain on the other side is not satisfactory.
Shen Wansan earned the first pot of gold in his life
Shen Wansan's father completely believed Shen Wansan's words, he brought the villagers to see his son's land, and the people in the village also began to believe that their land could be planted with other crops, so they let Shen Wansan take them to get rich; Shen Wansan said that the seeds could be provided on his own side, and he also provided technical guidance, if he encountered a bumper harvest year, then he needed to pay 10% of the crops to himself. If there is no bumper harvest, excluding human factors, I will subsidize 20% of the harvest money.
Under this kind of transaction, Shen Wansan began to start his first business in his life, and in the second year, the local harvest ushered in a bumper harvest, and Shen Wansan also got the first bucket of gold in his life; but for the problem of grain growth, Shen Wansan invited a local famous farmland master, and under his guidance, the crops in the farmland grew better.
Shen Wansan led the villagers to get rich together
As the grain harvest increased, Shen Wansan began to build granaries to hoard grain in case the farmers improperly stored them and caused a tide, but the granaries needed to be charged, and a certain amount of money needed to be paid every year, but for the farmers after the harvest, these small amounts of money were nothing.
Many strong laborers in the village because of military service or other reasons, resulting in labor shortage, many land cultivation has great problems, some land only women in the cultivation, in order to solve the problem, Shen Wansan hired some farmers to cultivate for them, the harvest is divided according to 4:4:2, women do not need to cultivate can get 40% of the harvest, zhuang people can get 40% of the cultivation harvest, and they get 20% of the harvest.
With the expansion of scale, Shen Wansan also successfully made a fortune; when he was idle, Shen Wansan organized women to raise silkworms and collect silk for sale. Shen Wansan personally sold the goods in the village through various channels, the price was much lower than the usual market price, and the crops on their farm were not only of high quality, but also extremely large in quantity every year.
Shen Wansan received financial assistance from Lu Deyuan and became the richest man in Jiangnan
Coupled with Shen Wansan's sale of silk also allowed him to quickly accumulate wealth, so Shen Wansan gradually became famous in the local area, and Shen Wansan was an honest businessman, he and others decided on good goods, even if they were out of stock, Shen Wansan would rather pay for it and deliver it to others. Gradually, Shen Wansan's deeds attracted the attention of the local rich man Lu Deyuan, who was already old and had a particularly large family wealth, and if it was not passed on to others, these wealth would become a scourge.
So Lu Deyuan gave Shen Wansan all his wealth to help him, and he went to become a Taoist monk himself; Shen Wansan began to expand his business scope after getting this wealth; he expanded his cultivation land in the local area while conducting maritime trade, he sold silk, porcelain, handicrafts and other goods from the mainland to other countries by ship, and at the same time brought jewelry, medicinal materials, and spices from other countries to China, and frequent overseas trade activities made Shen Wansan quickly become the richest man in Jiangnan; and Shen Wansan was just middle-aged at that time.
Shen Wansan first funded Zhang Shicheng
Later, the civil anti-Yuan rebellion became more and more intense, and Shen Wansan saw this as an opportunity, if he used money to fund a leader who could unify the world, then this was his greatest opportunity. Initially, Shen Wansan's funding object was Zhang Shicheng, because in the early days of the Anti-Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng's team was not only disciplined and properly governed; but also a series of policies won the hearts of the local people.
Shen Wansan ran to fund him money and grain, but Zhang Shicheng's attitude towards this big gold lord was very arrogant, he thought that this money should have been given to him long ago, and he had to wait until he had a certain amount of power before Shen Wansan attached himself, Shen Wansan soon understood that this Zhang Shicheng in front of him was not a person who had achieved great things, but in order to protect himself, Shen Wansan also donated a great deal of money and grain to avoid disasters.
Shen Wansan funded Zhu Yuanzhang, but in exchange for the killing opportunity
Later, after Zhang Shicheng was defeated, Shen Wansan defected to Zhu Yuanzhang and also funded Zhu Yuanzhang to build the city of Nanjing; at that time, one-third of the construction cost of the capital Nanjing City was funded by Shen Wansan. So Zhu Yuanzhang gave his two sons the title of official, but the matter of funding the construction of the city made Zhu Yuanzhang very unhappy, he built the capital himself, but you gave so much money, then your wealth must have been accumulated by exploiting the peasants, Zhu Yuanzhang began to have a murderous heart for Shen Wansan.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang's empress has been advising him: "People have money earned by their own efforts, and they do not steal or rob." Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to investigate Shen Wansan, and the feedback information was also that Shen Wansan's wealth was made by his farmland economy and overseas trade.
Shen Wansan treated the army for Zhu Yuanzhang and almost died
However, Zhu Yuanzhang was still a little unhappy in his heart, because when his family was destroyed, there was the factor of landlord and businessman, but because he could not find any handle, he did not pursue Shen Wansan; later, Shen Wansan did the biggest stupid thing in his life, that is, to treat the army for Jun.
At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to treat the Ming army, but the treasury had no money, so he worried every day; and after Shen Wansan knew about this, he came to Zhu Yuanzhang and told him that he hoped to share the worries of the Lord and pay for the army; as soon as he said this, Zhu Yuanzhang's heart was very angry, why did his army let you treat me, do you want to plot against my army.
Later, Shen Wansan was directly thrown into prison and prepared to execute him; Shen Wansan's wife and son found Empress Ma, hoping that she could save Shen Wansan, and even Shen Wansan's wife wanted to exchange all her wealth for her husband's safety. Empress Ma quickly found Zhu Yuanzhang and said, ".
I have heard that the law is used to kill the outlaw, not to kill the ominous, the common people are rich and enemies of the country, it is the unknown people themselves, the unknown people, the heavens will punish him, why should His Majesty kill him
。 ”
Empress Ma's persuasion relieved Zhu Yuanzhang, and although he spared him, he took Shen Wansan's family wealth and exiled him to Yunnan; Shen Wansan, who was later exiled in Yunnan, died of sorrow all the time.
end
The miracle of Shen Wansan's wealth has also been circulating in the Jiangnan region, and the wealth created by Shen Wansan at that time can be said to be rich and invincible, and even able to buy the entire Jiangnan region, but Shen Wansan is also a person after all, and after having absolute wealth, he naturally becomes proud and arrogant, and the tragic fate of his later years is also related to his conceit.
Shen Wansan has a very high business talent, he should have been like Fan Li and Lü Buwei, he had a vigorous deed, but he was born in the wrong era, and more importantly, his flamboyant personality met Zhu Yuanzhang, who hated the rich, so Shen Wansan's fate was similar to Hu Xueyan.