Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 749 Alas! All heroes, your concern for the Ming Dynasty is profound! Your concern for the Ming Dynasty is profound! We bow in gratitude!
Contrary to stereotypes, the financial industry was actually quite developed not only in commerce but also in the territory of the King of Wu.

The results show that the poorer the region, the greater the need for improved organizational capacity and technology, and the greater the need for external material and financial assistance. The residents of these areas also have the highest dependence on the government. Since the early territories were almost entirely these impoverished areas, the Wu king's team was actually very familiar with how to allocate resources—including various methods of borrowing money.

The relationship between the Wu King's Palace and the Hanseatic merchants began in this way. At that time, Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and others, through their connections with the Purple Horde Khanate, negotiated with the merchants of the Hanseatic League, using the grain produced in the next few years as collateral to borrow money from them in the name of the government, and then lent it to the farmers.

There were no major problems with borrowing money. Wu Fan indeed had products that could convince merchants, and his credit was also good, so he easily persuaded many merchants to invest, and the whole process went very smoothly.

In fact, even in the first few years, when they were at their lowest point, they successfully persuaded a group of businessmen to invest.

The name of the Ming Dynasty, the guarantee of the Purple Horde, and even the French background, which they were unwilling to acknowledge but which was always intertwined with, gave King Wu a lot of confidence and plenty of "topics".

Due to the dire situation at the time, only King Wu and Qi and Huang remained in the team. Even King Wu himself had to personally go to places like taverns in town and churches at the village entrance to give speeches and persuade everyone to support the Ming Dynasty and participate in the cause of its revival.

However, this kind of place always attracts a constant stream of people who come to boast, chat, or even professionally swindle money. To increase his persuasiveness, the King of Wu even had to personally set up an iron pot and cook a couple of dishes for everyone, using a method that the locals had never seen before to prove the truthfulness of his words.

Judging from the results, King Wu's publicity campaign was quite successful. Later, after gaining some attention in the countryside, he even went to larger cities to conduct similar activities. Even in big cities, where all sorts of people mingled and talented individuals abounded, he successfully attracted the attention of many and persuaded them to support him. From then on, they became very familiar with the methods of attracting investment.

As for how to use the money to support their own villages, they were very familiar with the process, because in Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng's hometown, lending money to farmers was a common business among rural gentry.

Agricultural inputs and outputs follow a fixed cycle. Within this cycle, there are always periods when even farmers with some savings will run out of capital due to continuous input and consumption. At this time, lending money to farmers can not only generate profits but also help them weather the crisis, making it a great act of kindness.

Therefore, scholar-officials with some wealth were all eager to participate. They were also very familiar with when to invest and how to accurately estimate input and output. Even in Europe, they could apply these essential skills.

Moreover, because of the large amount of money involved and the complex procedures, it was easy for those carrying out the schemes to profit. For example, the money they borrowed wasn't directly given to the farmers—silver coins couldn't be used directly; they had to be exchanged for the most urgently needed agricultural tools and temporary rations. Therefore, they needed to use the money to make purchases and orders. Some of the more technically demanding items even had to be imported from the Purple Horde.

This constant transportation and reselling generated a significant profit margin. Therefore, they were very willing to do this work, even when manpower was insufficient and they had to personally go to the grassroots level to negotiate with merchants, craftsmen, and farmers, without feeling it was beneath them or too tiring. Their enthusiasm for promoting agriculture remained consistently high.

In most of the places they visited, the local farmers and serfs had never seen anything like this before. Even if they wanted to borrow money to improve it, it wasn't feasible.

Aside from a few monasteries that engaged in breeding work, most lords didn't concern themselves with such trivial matters. They wanted to improve things but didn't know how; moreover, apart from a small number of wealthy landowners, the vast majority of farmers didn't even have the right to borrow money or incur debt. Many didn't even possess legal independence and needed to be dependent on their lord. Such people couldn't be considered complete human beings, and merchants wouldn't lend them money.

Moreover, the lending industry in this area had previously been monopolized by Jews. Although the loans handled by Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng came with many conditions, they were still much better than those of the Jews. Therefore, even some wealthy independent farmers and small lords were happy to participate in their cooperative organization in order to obtain cheap tools, improved seeds, and production guidance, and their enthusiasm was equally high.

Everyone was highly motivated, and the methods were correct, so the results were generally satisfactory. Seeing the output, the businessmen were happy to expand their investments. Because the industry here was very stable, some businessmen even agreed to lower interest rates in order to gain a larger share, as stable industries were quite scarce in Europe at that time.

Of course, King Wu sometimes sensed something was amiss. He hadn't fully grasped these intricacies before, but during his impoverished period, he had to work in the fields himself, alongside the villagers of Dongreimi, so he gained some understanding. The income and expenditure records, in terms of scale and timing, seemed somewhat off.

He found this very strange and even wrote to Zhu Wenkui, saying, "I don't know where my money has gone." However, this problem didn't last long before it was exposed by someone.

The group of Jews were the ones who escalated the problem.

Originally, the lending business in this area was monopolized by Jews. After Wu Wang's gang came here, they developed a new business. However, their profit margins weren't very high, and they mainly dealt with low-end businesses. Their biggest investment targets were some quiet monasteries and impoverished lords, which was both time-consuming and didn't yield much profit. The wealthy Jewish merchants in the city either looked down on them or simply didn't know they existed.

However, as the business grew, the Jewish merchants were surprised to discover that this line of work could be done in this way. After evaluation, they concluded that the "Beggar King's" idea was reasonable. If they continued, the profits would be substantial.

However, they didn't know how to intervene. During this period of activity, Wu Wang and his group had already established a stable organization and gained a firm foothold. These people didn't have much cash on hand and were quite fierce, so directly competing with them for business was clearly inappropriate.

With proper investment, profits could indeed be made. But the inability to reap all the rewards is frustrating. The Jewish Chamber of Commerce discussed this at length and finally decided to consider it paying for their previous misjudgment, accepting the loss, and making a large investment to negotiate with the King of Wu in exchange for him contracting out a portion of the business to the Chamber of Commerce.

King Wu himself didn't understand these matters and remained noncommittal. However, officials like Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng vehemently opposed this, insisting on driving the Jews back. It's unclear what caused such a deep-seated grudge. The Jews, enraged, quickly began their revenge. They gathered evidence of Qi and Huang's schemes to amass wealth under the guise of agricultural promotion. Although the officials disguised their actions and didn't openly take money, the Jews were skilled accountants. Such methods were clearly those of their peers; who could hide it from whom?
They initially reported this to the King of Wu. The King was somewhat surprised but didn't quite believe it, and felt that since nothing serious had happened yet, and these two men had done a great service, it was best not to make a big fuss now, especially since they needed capable men. Therefore, he didn't want to investigate further.

The Jews, seeing this, became even more anxious, eventually even traveling to Dadu (Beijing) to report to Zhu Wen-kui that these civil officials were all embezzling. Zhu Wen-kui was completely baffled; he had no idea that the Prince of Wu's court was corrupt, so why were they in such a hurry…

The Imperial Guards operating in the capital city were quite interested in this and even asked Zhu Wenkui if he wanted them to help verify it, since it was part of their expertise. However, Zhu Wenkui ultimately didn't make a decision.

Perhaps intimidated by the combined offensive of the Jews and the Imperial Guards, Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng later voluntarily returned a sum of money, claiming it was a discrepancy caused by a previous work error that they had only recently discovered. They apologized to the King of Wu and requested demotion and a pay cut. Afterwards, their annual income also increased significantly. They explained that this was due to correcting a previous calculation error. In short, it was definitely not intentional.

After that, the Wu King's Palace often spent money first and then received a return. Sometimes, the annual investment exceeded the annual revenue, yet it still managed to operate healthily. This experience was quite novel and rare even in the Central Plains. Therefore, the Wu King's Palace's finances appeared empty, but in reality, it was quite wealthy.

However, the "beggar" meme is probably going to stick for a long time.

Although it started with others insulting them, over time, even the King of Wu and others began to call them that. Some illiterate soldiers, to save trouble, simply drew a broken bowl on their flags and used it as their military banner. This style became quite popular, and more than one unit used this banner.

Furthermore, the militias who responded to the King of Wu and fought against the lords in various places also liked to directly call themselves the "Beggar Army": those who fought against the noble army in the mountains called themselves "Mountain Beggars"; those who operated in the forests called themselves "Forest Beggars"—in their context, this was not considered a derogatory term. To those familiar with folk tales and allusions, it sounded quite inspiring.

The story behind this title became widely known, so much so that from impoverished poets in the city to priests active in the countryside, everyone was telling the story of the "Restorer of the World," making it a popular topic in the Alemanni region.

Faced with such achievements, the so-called noble lineage and divinely bestowed status became a joke. And their mockery of others became widely used anecdotes to ridicule the stupidity and ignorance of the nobility.

Master Daoyan's plan this time was also determined sequentially.

He received news that the Qin Dynasty had made war preparations and was currently gathering troops to cross the sea and advance westward, planning to take this opportunity to capture Naples and even restore the old capital Rome.

As with previous instances of intervention in Italy, this action drew significant attention from neighboring countries. Moreover, because they were acting under Rome's banner, this vigilance was even more intense.

After the Purple Horde began declaring that Naples should no longer exist as an independent state and that its chieftainship should be replaced by a centrally appointed ruler, a large number of nobles and priests became active, busily lobbying and pleading for unity against this evil heresy. They argued that otherwise, all the states would be defeated one by one.

However, France's attitude towards the Purple Horde is currently ambiguous, and it is embroiled in internal court struggles, while the Holy Roman Empire is overwhelmed by peasant armies. Since neither of these two most powerful nations is likely to intervene, the only option to stop them is to rely on other countries.

At the urging of Sigismund and a group of high-ranking clergy, Poland was the first to step forward, declaring itself the protector of the Catholic world and guaranteeing that Rome would not be enslaved by the Mongols. Aragon followed suit, declaring that the Italian peninsula would continue to be under his protection. Each side then mobilized its troops, deciding to wage war against the Purple Horde.

Meanwhile, the Purple Horde responded by declaring war on almost every kingdom in Europe. Their Queen Mother told the ambassadors that for centuries, incessant barbarians had infested Roman territory, refusing to be civilized and repulsive like snakes, rats, and insects. The Senate and the Roman people had shown enough patience; now, they were finally fed up.

Now is the time to clean house, establish a new order across Europe, and reassess who is qualified to continue governing the territories as governor and who should be removed immediately. Hopefully, those who are wise enough will recognize the situation soon enough and seize this last opportunity.

However, diplomats speculate that the Purple Horde's forces are already extremely dispersed, making it unlikely they have surplus soldiers to operate on more fronts. The Empress Dowager's actions are likely a form of deterrence, or an attempt to achieve her goals directly through warnings and intimidation.

Instead of immediately assembling a large army to return to Poland to deal with the Polish forces, they turned to supporting these Hussite followers and sympathizers within Poland's borders, thus disrupting Poland's rear. And these Hussite troops, as expected, have indeed made their efforts and are now marching eastward to attack Poland.

The Teutonic Knights of the north had long been at odds with Poland, and had cooperated extensively with the Purple Horde as a result. Seeing Poland's rear vulnerable, they hadn't said anything directly, but had been secretly watching closely. They were also steadily amassing troops, clearly preparing for war at any moment to disrupt the stalemate.

Brandenburg was not far from them, making it easy to reach. The Ming army could provide them with provisions for the journey as an advance payment. Furthermore, Daoyan mentioned that they had previously manufactured a batch of siege equipment that hadn't yet been used. It was inconvenient to transport, and it would be a pity to lose it, so he decided to give it to them as well. He also suggested that they take a chance on Brandenburg along the way—if all went well, there shouldn't be many defenders there. Although the fortress itself had some defensive capabilities, if they were lucky enough to capture it, they would make a fortune.

Everyone agreed, so the next day they set off with the "gift" given to them by the old monk.

(End of this chapter)