Master Kong Zhongni

Chapter 141

In the early morning of this day, Zaiyu did not go to collect stones with Zigong as usual.

Instead, he chose to walk on the streets of Tuqiu with Zhao Wuxie and Gongshu Pan.

This place is not as prosperous as Qufu, and the scale of the city is not too large.

However, perhaps due to the Lu people's traditional character of respecting etiquette, the planning of the entire city still retains quite typical characteristics of the Zong Zhou state.

Square and square, with clear layers, in the west of Fuya is the gathering place of Tuqiu's workshops.

In the past, most of Tuqiu's workshops could only produce simple hunting bows and some pottery for daily use, and there were less than ten families living here all year round.

Since the arrival of Zaiyu, the types of industries here have increased significantly, including a part of the paper industry that migrated from Qufu, the wood processing industry led by Mr. Zhang, and the recently newly developed coke industry.

The increase in the variety of commodities has further promoted the local commercial development in Tuqiu.

The goods circulating in the local market have rapidly increased from a few categories such as grain, fur, and daily-use pottery to books, coke, and coal tar, and dozens of new commodities.

The increase in the number of commodities directly brought a huge caravan flow to Tuqiu.

Since Zigong informed these caravans that most of the books will be printed in Tuqiu in the future, booksellers from the entire Lu Kingdom began to gather towards Tuqiu.

When they bought goods, they naturally caught a glimpse of these new products in Tuqiu City.

They were not very interested in coal, but to Zaiyu's surprise, these businessmen were extremely interested in coal tar, a by-product of coking.

Although the smell of burning coal tar is not very pleasant, it can replace animal fat as a good lighting source.

On top of that, lighting with coal tar is much cheaper than animal fat.

What surprised the merchants even more was that the price of grain in Tuqiu was ten cents higher than the average grain price in Lu, and the people here also had unexpectedly high demand for other commodities.

Whether you come here to sell daily necessities or food, you can make a lot of money.

So, after the merchants discovered this, sitting on two high-profit commodities, coal tar and books, Tuqiu quickly became a city that Lu merchants must pass through on their business routes in just half a year.

Caravans that often travel to the front line of Luqi usually buy handicrafts and grains in Qufu, then unload them in Tuqiu, refit coal tar and books, and then go north along Shunyang Pass, all the way to Linzi for sale, and then buy from there. Enter Qi Yan and Qi Tie and bring them back to the State of Lu.

Tuqiu's food and daily necessities prices are on the high side, so Jaeyu knows that, or in other words, this is the result of his active adjustments.

In the past six months, he and Zigong have made millions of dollars in the paper industry, so naturally they can't let the money they get go for nothing.

However, it is completely unrealistic to use this money to directly purchase large quantities of copper, iron and grain abroad.

Because commodities such as copper, iron and grain are mostly strategic resources controlled by various countries.

If the amount of buying and selling is not large, everyone will just turn a blind eye and let it go.

But if you eat a large amount at one time, you will inevitably get into trouble.

In order to solve this problem, after discussing with Zigong, Zaiyu decided to follow Guan Zhong's approach and artificially create inflation in Tuqiu.

First, as Dr. Tuqiu, he bought surplus grain from the local people at a price higher than the average grain price, reducing the grain circulating on the market.

Later, it was stipulated that Tu Qiuyi would purchase resources such as Shi Nie and Chai Xin in cash, and continue to increase the amount of money circulating in the market.

Tuqiu is just a small town with a population of [-]. These two policies were implemented together, and soon the prices of various local commodities rose.

And the merchants saw that it was profitable here, so they were naturally happy to sell their products here.

They sold grain, metal, and daily necessities here, and helped solve the sales problems of Tuqiu books and coal tar, and brought a group of merchants to settle in Tuqiu.

The coins in the hands of Zaiyu and Zigong were also exchanged for a full warehouse of grain, cloth, ironware, salt and other resources.

Although the price of goods in Tuqiu has risen, the amount of coins held by the people in Tuqiu has also greatly increased.

In addition, the land tax of Tuqiu can be offset by Shi Nie, and the goods shipped by merchants from all over the country have changed their directions to adjust the price of goods.

So in general, the quality of life of the people has not declined, but has steadily improved.

At the beginning, the attitudes of the Sang family, the Yang family and other big families who were quite critical of Jaeyu have also undergone a 180-degree change in their attitudes towards him.

The old patriarch of the Sang Clan, Sang Zhong, would come to the government office from time to time to greet Zai Yu, express his loyalty to Zai Yu everywhere, and yesterday he even directly patted his chest to promise Zai Yu.

"My lord, leave the hard work of mining stone nirvana to our Sang family in the future, so you don't have to worry about it."

Of course, Jai Yu couldn't have been fooled by this old boy.

Before asking them to quarry, one or two were pushy, but now they see that quarrying brings money faster than farming, and they are not even willing to plant fields.

When Zigong returned to Qufu to do business, he told his master about it. After hearing this, the old man couldn't help laughing and sighing.

"When Zichan ruled the state of Zheng, the people of the state of Zheng were dissatisfied with his administrative measures, so they sang and cursed him in resentment.

Said: Calculate my property and collect property tax, measure my cultivated land and collect field tax.Whoever kills Zichan, I will help him.

But in the third year of Zichan's reign, the state of Zheng was well governed, and the people sang to praise him again.

Said: I have children, children produce teaching.I have Shitian, and I have cultivated sub-products.If Zichan dies, who else can succeed him?

Although Tuqiu is not comparable to Zheng Guo, it only took half a year for Yu to achieve the effect achieved by Zichan in power for three years, which is quite commendable! "

However, Zaiyu did not dare to fully accept Master's compliment.

He is very clear that Tu Qiu can only be called rich now, but it is far from being strong.

But the consequence of being rich but not strong is that everyone is innocent and pregnant with crime.

"We still have to improve our military strength as soon as possible. Speaking of which, when will the boat to Linzi arrive..."

Zai Yu was muttering.

Zhao Wuxie and Gongshu Ban who were walking beside him looked up at him.

Zhao Wuxie was confused and said: "Master, didn't you say that as long as you have benevolence and righteousness in your heart, the world will all belong to you? Why do you want to increase your military equipment?"

Xiaogong Shuban said quite sensiblely: "Master, I have a new idea for the ballista you mentioned earlier, wait until..."

After hearing this, Zai Yu quickly covered Gongshuban's small mouth: "What ballista? I don't remember any ballista."

Gongshuban was covered with his mouth, but he still couldn't help hesitating: "It's the kind that has four wheels, can be pushed around, and an arrow can shoot through the city wall... um..."

Zai Yu took out a piece of maltose from his sleeve, and hastily blocked Gong Shuban's mouth.

Afterwards, he coughed, and then said: "Wu Shi! Tian Rangju of Qi State said: No matter how big a country is, if it is warlike, it will perish. Although the world is peaceful, if you forget to fight, you will be in danger.

Benevolence and righteousness do not mean not fighting, but fighting in the right way.

When using troops, there are several principles, do not attack innocent countries, do not kill innocent people.

Killing other people's fathers and brothers, plundering other people's property, enslaving other people's children, these are the actions of robbers, which should not be recognized by a virtuous man.

On the contrary, if the purpose of war is to protect oneself, quell riots, or stop unjust acts, then it can be carried out.

In the affairs of the world, there is nothing that can be done, and there is nothing that cannot be done, as long as it can be flexibly adjusted according to the actual situation. "

After Zhao Wujiu heard this, he looked at Jaeyu eagerly: "Then according to what you said, as long as certain conditions are met, I can accompany you to the country of Qi?"

"Go to Qi State?"

When Zaiyu heard this, he was taken aback for a moment, and then he called out in his heart: "It's broken!"

Why did you let a child make me general?
Gongshu Pan heard it, and also got out from behind Jae Yu.

"If Wu Shi can go, then I will go too!"

"you……"

Zaiyu was thinking about how to reject them when he suddenly saw Zigong's carriage passing through the crowd and coming from outside the city.

When Zi Gong saw him, he hurriedly stood on the carriage and shouted at him.

"Son! There's a boat coming up Zishui!"

　"Are you hot?"

　　"Just think about the reader in your heart."

　　"Thinking about it, your heart will become cold."

　　——Excerpt from "Zaiyu's Diary"

　　
　
(End of this chapter)