My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 58 Farewell
"Six million dollars? That's well within my budget!"

Lu Yi felt relieved when he heard this.

"Just build it on this scale. I don't know how to build it. Can I ask Zhang to build it for me?"

"Haha, the fortress is not a one-time thing. My Zhang family's fortress often needs renovation and maintenance. I know all the facilities there. My dear nephew, you have found the right person to entrust me with!"

"It's just a two-hundred-step fort. There's no need to recruit craftsmen. With just over a thousand members of the Zhang clan, it can be completed successfully within half a year!"

"That's great, but I don't know how much the commission will be?"

Lu Yi nodded. Half a year was not a long time. This time, he would be traveling across the border for two months on his business trip. He could definitely afford to wait.

"Our two families are now related by marriage, so why should you be so polite, my dear nephew?" Zhang Jia waved his hand and said with a smile, "Besides, I have also included the wages of the craftsmen and laborers in the calculation. My clan is not helping for nothing, and the old and weak in the clan will also have some income, so everyone is happy."

"In that case, once I find a suitable location in Jiuyuan, I will ask Zhang to help build it!"

Lu Yi couldn't help but smile when he heard this. Although Zhang was a businessman, he was not greedy and only earned his share of the profits. This made Lu Yi very satisfied.

"When the time comes, my dear nephew can just send someone to tell Zhang!" Zhang Jia was also in a good mood.

By doing this, he is also helping the Zhang family members and his position in the family will be more stable in the future.

"Now that the size of our own caravan has tripled, I wonder how long it will take to prepare a hundred carts of goods and food?"

After finalizing the matter of Luwu, Lu Yi began to inquire about the caravan.

"The caravan's baggage carts have increased to one hundred, so we need to have one hundred more drivers. In addition, we need to add ten more people to the account office. I just wonder how many guards you plan to arrange for us to do business outside the border in the future? Will we still arrange for sixty people as we did this time?" Zhang Jia was careful and did not answer Lu Yi's question immediately. Instead, he asked about other uncertain factors first.

"Well... too few guards will undoubtedly tempt bandits and foreigners to rob the caravan, and too many guards will increase the cost and dilute the interests of the caravan. According to the current size of the caravan, 200 guards is a more reasonable number."

Lu Yi thought for a moment and replied.

"Oh, by the way, these two hundred guards are all on horseback!"

After saying that, Lu Yi added another sentence.

"In that case, two hundred horse guards, one hundred coachmen, and twenty accountants, a total of three hundred and twenty people and three hundred horses. Based on a month's worth of business time, a total of more than 1500 dan of grain will be needed."

"However, we can obtain some supplies along the way and in the Hu tribes, so we only need to reserve 1100 dan of grain. Each cart can carry 66 jin, and we need carts to store grain, so the remaining thirty or so carts can all be loaded with goods."

"There are more than 30 truckloads of goods, which are worth about 3 million coins. If we rely on our Zhang family alone to prepare them, it would be a bit difficult. However, our Zhang family has extensive connections, so we can purchase them from other big families at a slightly lower price. It will still take about a month!"

After a while, Zhang Jia got a rough idea of ​​the result.

"Well, it's just in time to restart the trade route after my wedding!"

Lu Yi nodded and had an idea in mind.

"Just as Uncle Zhang said, we need to replenish the goods and food within a month, and you and I can contribute the money as agreed!"

During his first business trip, Lu Yi made a fortune by getting something for nothing.

But from now on, from the second time onwards, I have to pay for the goods myself.

Otherwise, his eating manner would be too ugly, which would not be good for Lu Yi's reputation in the future.

"This is the responsibility of the Zhang family. You can trust us with your help!" Zhang Jia nodded, looking relaxed. "In addition, in addition to the 800 mares and furs that I will use, please sell the remaining 1,000 healthy horses as soon as possible, the sooner the better! They will be very useful to me!"

"Huh?" Zhang Jia was stunned when he heard this: "Why are you so anxious, nephew? If you are in a hurry to sell at a low price, a thousand healthy horses will cost you 10 million less!"

"Establishing a cavalry guard will cost a lot of money and food. Moreover, it is only the beginning of March and it is not summer yet. There is still more than a month before the final planting deadline for spring millet. I am planning to use this month to buy land and gather people to cultivate a crop before summer."

Lu Yi smiled.

"Oh? It's reasonable for my nephew to recruit some guards to protect his family's wealth and fortress, but the grain price in Bingzhou is relatively stable now. Why should my nephew go to the trouble of growing grain himself? Isn't it more than enough to buy grain with the income from the caravan?"

"You know, if all 4500 million coins were converted into grain, it would be enough to buy shi of grain, enough to feed people for a whole year!"

Zhang Jia was puzzled when he heard this.

"Just preparing for a rainy day." Lu Yi didn't explain to him and just brushed it off.

Naturally, he would not tell Zhang Shang that the world would be in chaos in just four or five years.

By then, there will be endless natural disasters, man-made disasters, and wars!
The prestige of the imperial court would be greatly damaged as a result, and the price of the Wuzhu coin, which relied on the credit of the Han government, would immediately begin to shrink sharply. Prices of goods, especially food prices, would begin to inflate at a rate beyond the imagination of modern people.

Thanks to Dong Zhuo, Guanzhong was the worst hit area, where one dan of grain cost five hundred thousand coins, and one dan of beans and wheat cost two hundred thousand coins. People were eating each other, bones were piled up, and the streets were filled with filth.

Now, 20 million coins can still buy dan of rice, but by then it can only be exchanged for a mere dan of grain.

Therefore, Lu Yi would rather lose some money and establish his own stable grain production area as soon as possible.

Therefore, after solving the two more urgent tasks of forming an armed force and building a base camp, he began to work on the construction of the base.

"In that case, I will think of a way to contact other big families that have business dealings with the Zhang family and see if I can help my nephew as soon as possible!"

"In that case, I'll leave it to Zhang!"

Lu Yi nodded and took Lu Bu out of the warehouse.

……

Half an hour later, Zhang Shang, who had just sobered up, received Lu Yi who came to ask for a meeting.

"My dear son-in-law has been working hard in the frontier for more than two months. He just had a rest yesterday. Why do you have to rush around again today?"

"Why not take advantage of the caravan's opportunity to stock up and have a good rest."

Zhang Jia looked at his son-in-law who came to say goodbye to him and couldn't help but be surprised at his willpower.

"Now that the caravan has expanded in size, we continue to recruit brave warriors to protect us. Six of our brothers have been killed during this business trip, and another four are already disabled. They urgently need my nephew to take care of them."

This time, the merchant Lu Yi recruited 60 chivalrous men, but ten of them were lost in just two months.

The attrition rate was as high as 12 percent.

It is not easy to make a living in any era. Although there are top generals like Lu Bu and Gao Shun by your side, doing business outside the Great Wall is still not an easy journey.

(End of this chapter)