My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 69: Jizhou Zhen Clan (First update, thanks to Weini Fat Bear for the 100-point reward.)
After seeing off Huang Huan who had fled in panic, Lu Yi brought Lu Bu and others back to the Lu family's old house.

On the way, Lu Yi did not waste any time.

While hurrying on the road, he focused his attention and carefully calculated the assets in his hands.

He brought back a total of 2200 horses from the Hunye tribe.

Of these, 1800 belonged exclusively to him.

They are 800 mares prepared to be used to build a cavalry camp.

And the remaining 1000 castrated male horses are ready for sale.

Before returning to Jiuyuan, Lu Yi had already sold 100 of them and earned 200 million yuan.

Of this money, one million has been used to bribe officials in Jiuyuan County.

The remaining one million was used to pay the caravan servants’ monthly wages and bonuses for the first two months, as well as the resettlement allowances for the one hundred new servants recruited in Jiuyuanli, leaving very little.

In other words, Lu Yi now has 900 strong male horses left that can be sold, which can be exchanged for about 1800 million yuan.

This amount of money seems to be a lot, but Lu Yi now has more projects that need to be launched.

Whether it was building Luwu, recruiting cavalry, or purchasing land and fields, they were all bottomless pits that required huge investments.

Not to mention, the caravan will need to prepare food and goods when it goes out of the border next month.

He himself will also complete his life's most important event and marry Zhang Wan'er at the end of this month.

Now he is not only the number one hero in Bingzhou, but also a newly emerged wealthy businessman in Wuyuan County.

Therefore, whether for his own reputation or to show his respect for Zhang, the cost of this wedding must be considerable.

If you calculate carefully, not only is 1800 million not a lot, it is not even enough to spend!
The investment required to build Luwu is as high as 600 million coins, but Zhang Jia said it would take six months to build. Lu Yi could negotiate with Zhang and pay it in installments over six months, one million coins per month.

To recruit new men, the basic expenses of settling in, uniform clothing, and equipping them with weapons and bows and arrows would cost 5 coins per person. In addition, they would have to receive 600 shi of food per person and one horse per month, and at least coins per month, plus possible bonuses, pensions, and funeral expenses.

The minimum annual cost of maintaining a cavalryman is more than 20,000 coins.

Historically, Cao Cao's ace troops, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, had a salary so high that even the most ordinary cavalry would cost more than 30,000 yuan a year.

According to this calculation, Lu Yi's standard for maintaining cavalry is not very high.

The money Lu Yi has is not enough to replenish 800 cavalry!
The 52 hectares of land purchased from Huang Huan for construction would cost 1000 million coins, assuming 520 coins per acre.
Lu Yi also planned to buy another 500 hectares of land from him, which would require an additional million coins.

Moreover, once you buy land, you naturally cannot leave it idle. You need to recruit refugees or hire tenants or even buy slaves to reclaim the farmland.

According to the standard that one man and one ox can cultivate 50 acres of land, at least one hundred people are needed to cultivate 50 hectares of farmland.

This is another huge expense.

The construction of the caravan is of utmost importance and needs to be given priority.

光是100名车夫、20名账房和200名伙计，以及三百匹马的口粮来算，最少需要准备1100石粮食，这就是接近250万钱。车夫、账房的月钱也接近10万。

In addition to the 300 million in stock and spare materials such as wagon parts, medicines for humans and animals, etc.

A caravan needs to prepare nearly 600 million coins for each trading trip.

Lu Yi is the major shareholder who owns 70% of the caravan's shares, and he himself has to invest at least four million yuan.

And he needs at least one million dollars to get married.

Therefore, although 1800 million may seem like a lot, it is not enough for him to spend.

“Money is hard to earn, shit is hard to eat, the ancients were right!”

As Lu Yi calculated, he couldn't help but sigh.

"It seems that we have to sell some of the 800 mares we brought back with great difficulty. Fortunately, the price of mares is much higher than that of castrated stallions, and they are also easier to sell. Even if we sell them at a low price in a hurry, we can still get more than 20,000 yuan."

Since there was insufficient funds, Lu Yi had no choice but to reluctantly cut part of the budget, the first to be cut was the gold-devouring behemoth cavalry battalion that he had envisioned.

Fortunately, the construction of the army is not something that can be done overnight, and it is necessary to have the old bring up the new. It is impossible for him to recruit enough people in the first month, so he can only purchase more from the Hunye tribe later.

But what Lu Yi didn't expect was that he received an unexpected good news as soon as he returned to the Lu family's old house.

All of his stallions had been sold. Not only that, Zhang Shang's son Zhang Xun personally led a team to bring all the money from the sale of his horses to Jiuyuan.

Zhang Jia once told him that even if he used his Zhang family's connections, it would take about a month to sell all these horses.

It has been less than ten days since Lu Yi returned to Jiuyuan, and Zhang's efficiency is ridiculously high.

Looking at the big money boxes filled with money neatly stacked in his own hall, Lu Yi had no time to entertain Zhang Xun, so he pulled him aside to ask about the details.

It turned out that Zhen from Zhongshan happened to come to Yanmen County to buy horses and ran into Zhang who was selling Lu Yi's horses on behalf of her.

When Zhen's housekeeper saw that Lu Yi's horses were of high quality and very cheap, he bought them all in one gulp, and that's why they sold so quickly.

Zhang Xun had time to quickly drink a large cup of tea before telling the whole story.

"Hehe, my father saw that Zhen seemed to be in a hurry to buy horses, so he waited for a higher price and quoted an extra 180 coins per horse for the horse that my brother-in-law entrusted to Zhang to sell. He made an extra million in one go! Moreover, Zhen seemed to be quite satisfied with this and even said that as long as the quality was guaranteed, he would buy all the horses at this price in the future, and there was no need to go around trying to sell them."

At the end, he even boasted about Zhang Shang's business skills with great complacency.

"Hmph! This Zhen is really doing a good business. If my eldest brother's healthy horse was not in a hurry to sell it off, how could he sell it at just 22,000 coins? It should be at least 30,000 per horse!" Upon hearing this, Lu Bu snorted coldly and was quite dissatisfied with Zhen.

"Alas, what Fengxian said is true. How much money did our two families make by smuggling horses across the border at great risk? I heard that the Zhen family's connections are even connected to the imperial court. They are selling horses this time to the imperial court in Luoyang. It's just a matter of changing hands. A horse can make tens of thousands of dollars in profit, which is much more comfortable than what we make by smuggling horses with so much difficulty!" Gao Shun was also quite indignant when he heard this.

“Haha, there’s nothing I can do about being envious. Who asked that the Zhen family was extremely prominent during the Western Han Dynasty? Not only was they related to Confucius by marriage, but their ancestor Zhen Han was even the Grand Tutor and held military power over the world. Now, although two hundred years have passed and their influence is not as great as before, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. The Zhen family is still the largest merchant in Jizhou and is extremely wealthy! Most people can’t find a place to present horses to the court, so it’s normal for the Zhen family to have such a channel.” Zhang Xun slapped his hands together when he heard this, with a sour tone in his voice.

(End of this chapter)