I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 136

Chapter 135

Wu Sheng went down and quickly brought Fan Yongdou to the front hall.

When Cheng Shijie came to the front hall, he saw a middle-aged man with fluttering long sleeves drinking tea leisurely in the living room.

Hearing Cheng Shijie's footsteps, he got up hurriedly, bowed to Cheng Shijie and saluted: "Crassman Fan Yongdou pays homage to Mr. Cheng Jinglue Cheng!"

"Shopkeeper Fan, you're welcome, please sit down!"

"In front of Mr. Cheng, there is no place for grassroots!"

"If I tell you to sit, you can sit, stop talking nonsense!"

Fan Yongdou hurriedly thanked him, and sat on the sofa. When he sat on the sofa for the first time, he felt the beauty of the sofa. Although he lowered his head and did not meet Cheng Shijie's eyes, he looked at Cheng Shijie from the corner of his eyes. .

Cheng Shijie's age is no secret, he is 36 years old now, but in fact, Cheng Shijie looks extremely young, he looks only 27 or [-] years old.

Although all adult men in the Ming Dynasty had beards, including Fan Wencheng himself.But the problem is, before Cheng Shijie came to the Ming Dynasty, he didn't grow a beard and often shaved, so the beard looked relatively hard, like steel needles.

More importantly, Cheng Shijie's skin is not like that of a martial artist, and even more delicate than that of most civil servants.

Fan Yongdou said with a smile: "Master Cheng put down Kong Youde's rebellion in the first battle, begged the people of Shandong to be saved from fire and water, and conquered Jinzhou alone, fought Haizhou in three battles, beheaded more than [-] slaves, and made the slave chief Hong Tai's liver and gallbladder shattered. General Cheng The military exploits are outstanding, the prestige is far-reaching, and the grassroots admire it! Such an achievement, through the ages, I am afraid that only Huo Qubing can stand shoulder to shoulder with Lord Cheng!"

"You are very good at talking. Even though you know that you are flattering me, I still enjoy listening to you handsomely!"

Cheng Shijie stared at Fan Yongdou and said, "Tell me, what can you do with me?"

Fan Yongdou cupped his hands and said: "Caomin has admired Lord Cheng for a long time, and seeing him today is a real comfort for the rest of my life. It's a small thing, just to show my respect. I hope General Cheng will not dislike you!"

As he spoke, Fan Yongdou took out a gift list and handed it over.

Cheng Shijie took it over and took a look.

Good guy, one hundred war horses, one hundred cattle, sixty camels, six hundred cowhide, all these miscellaneous things add up to at least two to thirty thousand taels of silver, and the most valuable thing is the demand deposit of Liaodong Bank 3 taels of silver.

For other people to give such a big gift, Cheng Shijie would definitely not accept it. Such a generous gift must have something to ask for.

But for Fan Wencheng's sugar-coated cannonballs, Cheng Shijie's principle is to eat the sugar-coated cannonballs and hit them back.

Cheng Shijie accepted it unceremoniously, and said in his mouth: "Such an important gift is really frightening... Tell me, is there anything I can help you with?"

This is the first time Fan Yongdou has met an official like Cheng Shijie. If other officials saw such a list of gifts, they would definitely scold him. Open your mouth and ask the other party to do something...

In fact, Cheng Shijie also understands this routine, and he is also well-versed.

Cheng Shijie would not follow Fan Wencheng's routine.

Fan Yongdou faintly felt something was wrong, but he had very rich experience in business, and he knew a truth that everyone had their own reserve price, and once the bid was higher than the other party's reserve price, the business would be easy to negotiate.

Fan Yongdou thought about it: "General Cheng, Caomin's Fan's business started with grinding tofu, and now the business is all over Beizhili. Shanxi, Jizhou, and Tianjin are now in severe drought in Beizhili, and the food shortage is a foregone conclusion. Only Cheng My lord's military fields are growing well, so I would like to ask Mr. Cheng for permission to sell the surplus grain to the grass-roots, and the grass-roots will definitely give Mr. Cheng a fair price."

Cheng Shijie was a little puzzled.

Shouldn't Fan Yongdou purchase Ning Navy's standard equipment from Cheng Shijie?How did you switch sex?

In fact, Cheng Shijie is not a real businessman, so he doesn't understand the nature of a businessman.

Fan Yongdou was not a fool either, before he found out Cheng Shijie's intentions, he didn't dare to reveal his feelings easily.

However, what Fan Yongdou didn't know was that Cheng Shijie already knew that he was at the bottom.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, many people didn’t know much about Jin merchants. In later generations, who didn’t know that Jin merchants and Jiannu wore the same pair of trousers?

Who doesn't know that the rise of Shanxi merchants relies on collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country?Those armors and swords in Jiannu's hands that are more sophisticated than those of the Ming army are all made of iron materials smuggled by these bastards.

These bastards also brought the copper materials and craftsmen that Jiannu used to make cannons.

When there was a severe drought in Liaodong and the crops were not harvested, it was these bastards who secretly smuggled a large amount of grain to Jiannu, so that Jiannu survived the famine!
After the Dalinghe battle, God slapped Huang Taiji twice across the face, and these bastards couldn't wait to jump out to share their master's worries!

He knew that Cheng Shijie lacked cattle, war horses, and people.

Fan Wencheng said: "Forgive me, Mr. Cheng. The grass people don't have any ready-made money, but they have [-] cattle, of which more than [-] are cows with calves, because Mongolia owed grass people grain on credit a while ago." They used [-] war horses to pay the bill, of which more than [-] were high-quality iron-shoe horses. Therefore, the grass people only had [-] cows and [-] war horses in their hands. These war horses were all two-year-old good horses. Not shoddy."

It can be said that Fan Yongdou almost pinpointed Cheng Shijie's pulse.If Fan Yongdou traded money with Cheng Shijie, Cheng Shijie would rather not earn the money than kill Fan Yongdou.

Fan Yongdou took [-] cows and [-] war horses. These things are not materials that can be easily bought with money.What's more, Cheng Shijie pieced things together to get [-] war horses. Although there are as many as [-] war horses, it looks like a lot, but in fact, more than half of them are inferior horses used to fill up the number. Jiannu's horses are tall and not as fast as Jiannu's horses.In the cavalry battle, he suffered a big loss.

Now, Cheng Shijie felt in a dilemma.

Cheng Shijie thought about it: "Now the commander-in-chief is not sure how much surplus grain can be sold. You need to wait until after the autumn harvest. If you want, you can drive these cattle and horses to southern Liaoning. We will pay for it and deliver the goods. As for the price... you can go." Talk to the board!"

"The grass people understand."

I have to admit that many times the choice is really important.

If Fan Yongdou hadn't been stimulated by Bao Chengxian and temporarily changed his plan, otherwise.According to the original plan, he traded with Cheng Shijie with silver. At this moment, his head was about to fall to the ground.

Cheng Shijie was a little unsure whether he wanted to trade with Fan Yongdou, or to trade with Fan Yongdou, in fact, he was trading with Jian Nu...

If it was a normal transaction, Cheng Shijie would definitely not be willing, but if it was a trap, Cheng Shijie would be very happy to trap Fan Yongdou.

Driving cattle and horses to southern Liaoning means that the goods will die on the ground, and Fan Yongdou will no longer be able to help.

Cheng Shijie pretended to be embarrassed and said: "Treasurer Fan, you also know that this commander-in-chief's identity and these business matters are inconvenient to meddle in. The commander-in-chief appoints a person to hand over to you. You should discuss the specific affairs by yourself. You have to remember, you It has nothing to do with me, I have never met you, and I don't know about Jiexiu Fan!"

Fan Yongdou was secretly delighted with Cheng Shijie's attitude.

Almost all the officials in Ming Dynasty are pissy. They speak high-sounding words and do things as dirty as they want.

"Come on, go and call Xie Jinglin over!"

When Fan Yongdou heard this name, he suddenly realized.

Xie Jinglin is a recently rising businessman from southern Liaoning, he has a lot of good things in his hands, but the selling price is very expensive.However, because the goods he purchased were mainly cattle, sheep, and horses, Fan Yongdou had doubts about Xie Jinglin...

Now it can be proved that Xie Jinglin is Cheng Shijie's person.

After a short time, Xie Jinglin came in, bowed to Cheng Shijie and said, "I greet you, Commander!"

"Free gift!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Xie Jinglin and said with a smile, "Jinglin, this is Fan Da, the shopkeeper of Shanxi Jiexiu Fan's Company, let's get acquainted!"

"Treasurer Fan!"

"Thank you shopkeeper!"

"Nice to meet you!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Xie Jinglin and said: "Jinglin, shopkeeper Fan Da came to Liaonan, you are in charge of entertaining, this business, you can talk slowly, don't worry!"

"Save at the door!"

Fan Yongdou is also a good person. He knew that under this situation, Cheng Shijie would definitely tell Xie Jinglin important things, so he offered to leave.

After Fan Yongdou left, Cheng Shijie confessed to Xie Jinglin: "This time, the initiative is on our side. You sharpen your knife quickly and kill them hard!"

Xie Jinglin didn't seem to understand Cheng Shijie's meaning: "Commander, what should I do?"

Cheng Shijie said: "In about one and a half months, the corn should be harvested. At that time, you can take Fan Yongdou to see our corn. According to my estimate, we should harvest about five or six stones per mu, maybe even more!"

This is of course Cheng Shijie's conservative estimate. In the case of sufficient chemical fertilizers in later generations, corn can produce about 1000 to [-] kilograms. If the fertility cannot keep up, it is also possible to produce several hundred kilograms per mu.

The land in southern Liaoning has no chemical fertilizers, only a small amount of organic fertilizers, and Cheng Shijie has no idea how much the output will be.

Sell ​​the corn to Fan Yongdou as a good seed, raise the asking price more than ten times, and Fan Yongdou will definitely agree to buy it. After all, this new crop has a high yield, and corn stalks contain a lot of sugar, which is ideal for silage. For raw materials, Jian Nu would definitely be willing to pay a lot of money to buy them.

However, the seed companies of later generations have genetically locked this kind of corn. According to Fan Yongdou's cleverness, he will definitely try planting it in the first year, and resell it to Jiannu after a good harvest.

At this time, the genetic lock of the corn seed came into play, and farmers in later generations would hardly save their own seeds, because of the existence of this genetic lock.

However, this kind of gene lock is not the gene mutation that will be found in the second generation, but the gene mutation in the third generation. If Fan Yongdou directly buys the seeds and sells them to Jiannu, Jiannu will indeed benefit for one year. It will also germinate, but it no longer has the ability of genetically modified high yield, drought resistance, and resistance to diseases and insect pests.

In addition to corn, there are also potatoes and sweet potatoes. The yield of these crops is very high, and the wet weight is greater, with a yield of tens of thousands of catties per mu. No matter how smart Fan Yongdou is, he will choose to plant them.

However, whether it is potatoes or sweet potatoes, once they are frozen, they will not germinate again. In other words, the seeds that Fan Yongdou bought at dozens of times the price are all seeds that cannot grow normally.

Even if Cheng Shijie normally trades with Fan Yongdou, he will not provide transportation means or provide transportation services, which requires Fan Yongdou to transport it himself, and Cheng Shijie will order his slave Hu Erqi , led Jiannu to intercept the transport team under Fan Yongdou.

Anyway, Jiannu was the one to blame, let Fan Yongdou and Jiannu argue.

……

Yang Chen was summoned by Cheng Shijie again, and this time it was not only Yang Chen who accepted Cheng Shijie's summons, but also Gu Shizhang and others from Huizhou merchants, as well as Fan Yongdou.

The location of the summoning was in the No. [-] Salt Factory in southern Liaoning, the refining workshop of the No. [-] Salt Factory in Southern Liaoning.

In the refining workshop, a young and strong salt worker first puts the barrels of salt in the drying room to dry the water, and then pours the dried salt into the mill for grinding.

The donkey pulled the mill round and round, and the salt grains creaked and shattered, turning into snow-white salt powder.The ground salt powder is sent to the packaging area in buckets.

Cheng Shijie led more than a dozen representatives of Huizhou merchants, and Fan Yongdou and others watched hundreds of women. They quickly filled the salt powder into the moisture-proof mulberry paper bags and weighed them on the scale. Two catties, and then sealed.

"Everyone, try the tribute salt here!"

"Saline?"

Cheng Shijie originally planned to smash the salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but he would definitely not end in person. Anyway, he and Gao Qiqian are using each other. Cheng Shijie has fed Gao Qiqian for so long, so it's time for him to contribute.

When Cheng Shijie sent this beautifully packaged salt to Gao Qiqian, without Cheng Shijie asking, Gao Qiqian sent Cheng Shijie the imperial letter written by Emperor Chongzhen himself: "Royal Tribute Salt!" Shiobiki.

This is the government-run salt certificate. Each outline is worth 20 salt, and each salt is worth 80 catties of salt.Now Cheng Shijie owns 12 legal salts, which is equivalent to [-] tons of salt.

In the Ming Dynasty, Yanyin was actually a substitute for silver and a hard currency.Each introduction of salt is equivalent to six cents and four per cent of salt, which is the nest book.The 80 salt quotations are equivalent to 51 taels of silver.

Although Gao Qiqian didn't come to Liaonan, he sent his confidant over here, the intention is to get benefits.

How could Cheng Shijie not know the truth here?
High potential needs benefits. If Cheng Shijie doesn't give it, he will turn his face immediately. Considering that he also needs someone to take the blame, he will set up a target for salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

When Cheng Shijie convened the meeting, he asked the eunuch named Wang Muzhi to change into a young servant in green clothes and follow him to attend the meeting.

Gu Shizhang did not dare to go forward, but asked an old man to come forward. The old Huizhou merchant picked up a bag of salt, dipped a little bit with his fingers and put it into his mouth. Well salt tastes good!"

Another Hui merchant nodded and said, "Royal tribute salt really deserves its reputation. Good salt, good salt!"

Cheng Shijie explained: "This is called iodized salt, and a little... commercial secrets are added to it. All you need to know is that people will get sick if they are deficient in iodine. The big neck disease you have seen is a typical symptom of iodine deficiency. Eating this kind of salt not only has no bitter taste, but also guarantees less illness!"

"I don't know how much such a bag of salt costs?"

Cheng Shijie said: "Two catties per pack, because of the addition of... so, it is more expensive than ordinary salt, thirty yuan per pack!"

"what?"

"Only thirty pennies?"

"Even sea salt, which is too bitter to swallow, can be sold for more than ten yuan a catty now! Mr. Cheng, you sell it so cheaply, are you not afraid of losing money?"

The imperial court set a price of six cents and four cents for salt, that is, the official price, and the salt was only two cents per catty.This is actually not expensive, but the problem is that because salt is monopolized, the salt merchants increase the price by five or six times, or even ten times.

The money was naturally paid by ordinary people, which made the salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang rich.

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "How can I do business at a loss?"

Salt is a thing that requires small profits but quick turnover. The cost of such a bag of salt is about two yuan, and the net profit of selling thirty yuan is 28 yuan. This is the huge profit of salt.The Yanyin obtained by Gao Qiqian was worth 51 taels of silver, but in Cheng Shijie's hands, it became 360 million taels of silver.

Although it is said that the iodized salt that Cheng Shijie mentioned is actually dried kelp, ground into powder, and mixed with salt water.

Of course, these thirty renminbi are only the wholesale price for Huizhou merchants. As for how Huizhou merchants will compete with Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants after they get the salt, this is not Cheng Shijie's concern.

Goodbye to the quality of Cheng Shijie's refined salt, these Huizhou merchants made up their minds and signed contracts. In just one day, 80 salts were sold for 60 taels of silver.

According to the agreement, these people cannot sell salt in the Liaodong area controlled by Cheng Shijie. Even if they wanted to sell it, it would be useless. Seven and a half a catty.

Under such circumstances, they can't sell salt in southern Liaoning. Who will buy it?Ordinary military and household households would sell them a small amount of salt to make a little money.

……

"Mr. Bao, how much does this tribute salt cost?"

Fan Yongdou also signed an agreement with Cheng Shijie, but he only bought 6000 taels of salt because he wanted to be a salt merchant who monopolizes slavery. Shanxi actually produces salt, but it is well salt, and some are lake salt.

Bao Cheng first dipped his finger in it and put it in his mouth.

His eyes suddenly lit up: "Good salt, good salt!"

Fan Yongdou said: "This is the tribute salt I obtained from the capital by special means, and it is produced in Sichuan!"

"The well salt from Zigong?"

"That's right, there are good things in it, you won't get sick if you eat it!"

"Then... in this case, a pack!"

Bao Cheng weighed the weight first: "Why do you need three or four silver coins?"

Fan Yongdou thought he was black-hearted, but he didn't expect Bao Chengxian to be even darker, so he directly increased the price by more than ten times, and each catty of salt was equivalent to two hundred Wen.

"This one……"

Fan Yongdou didn't dare to bully Huang Taiji too much, because Huang Taiji had a knife in his hand, and if Huang Taiji was provoked, his life would be in danger.

Bao Chengxian said: "Treasurer Fan, you can't be too greedy. Eight hundred wen, no more. If there are more, it will be difficult to explain!"

"Well, you have [-]% of it!"

"Is it only [-]%?"

"Then... thirty and a half percent!"

"Five or five points!"

In Cheng Shijie's General Army Mansion, Ning Haijun's recruitment work is coming to an end. Cheng Shijie plans to recruit 8000 horses, but with the arrival of Fan Yongdou, he has [-] good horses in his hands, so it is imperative to expand the cavalry.

Cheng Shijie looked at the generals of Ning Haijun and said: "You all know that the commander recruited troops a while ago, and recruited more than 1 recruits."

Zhou Yandong said: "Is it too much? According to the current standard, including military pay, clothing, food, and weapon consumption, it costs at least 30 taels of silver to raise a soldier a year. This is not counting the training cost of cavalry. The cavalry is even more expensive, and our current military expenditure is as high as more than one hundred thousand taels of silver every month!"

Shen Mingyu said: "How does the commander-in-chief expand his army?"

Shen Mingyu hadn't thought about how to raise soldiers. Anyway, this problem was not his concern. What he needed to worry about was to train his soldiers well so that they could be drawn out to fight anytime and anywhere.

Cheng Shijie pondered: "The best troop to expand is the cavalry troop. We are going to get [-] horses soon. We can't let these horses keep their cubs. The left and right commanders will each add a cavalry bureau, and the strength of each commander will increase to More than [-] people and horses."

Zhang Yu and Shen Ming were overjoyed.

Cheng Shijie continued: "When the newly bought horses are in place, the cavalry unit will be expanded to the cavalry capital. The cavalry capital will govern the first to fifth commanders, with a total of more than [-] troops!"

Zhao Wencai also showed joy: "It is good to expand the cavalry, but I am afraid that it will be difficult to recruit people!"

"This is easy to handle. A large number of refugees from Henan have come to our southern Liaoning!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Zhao Wencai and said: "Henan is a major horse and government province in Ming Dynasty. There are no fewer people who can ride horses than Datong, Yulin and other border areas. You brought the cavalry. I will give you four thousand horses. How many soldiers can you recruit?" It depends on your ability!"

"Thank you, Master!"

"no need to thank me!"

Cheng Shijie looked at the generals and said: "The commander-in-chief's principle is to do as much as you can, and now we occupy the four states in southern Liaoning. Jiannu will definitely not sit by and watch us develop southern Liaoning. The war is coming. Everyone must The strings in my heart are tense!"

"It's handsome!"

"On the basis of our Ning Navy's left and right capital divisions, we will establish the Ning Navy's guard capital division as the commander's central army."

Although the current Ning Navy Commander has more than [-] troops, the problem is that it is not a long-term solution to let the Supervising Army Road Department be responsible for his security work.

"Master..."

Cheng Shijie looked at the generals and said: "This is the case for the expansion of the army for the time being, don't be too greedy, I only have so much money in my hands, I can't afford to support so many soldiers!"

Zhou Yandong said: "If the salary is reduced, the two capitals can still be expanded..."

"Hmph, cut the salary! Then what kind of fighting power do the soldiers recruited in this way have?"

"Just cut it a little bit..."

Cheng Shijie solemnly said: "Not at all! We don't suffer from poverty but from inequality. This commander doesn't want to be annihilated by a group of psychologically unbalanced soldiers on the battlefield!"

(End of this chapter)