The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 234 Ways to Make Money
Although Wanli seemed to be acting in a chaotic manner, his exploration speed was extremely fast.

In the space of two or three months, they had discovered enough coal mines, and the problem of transportation costs was almost solved.

The next step is how to make this business happen.

At around 9:00 PM, everyone returned to the palace.

At this time, Luo Sigong was already standing in the corridor of the Qianqing Palace waiting.

Wanli directly brought everyone to the side hall where maps were placed. He ordered someone to bring out the nine-sided map with the location of the coal mine marked on it and spread it out on the large table in the middle. Then he stared at the map carefully.

They have discovered too many coal mines now. There is a long list in Datong Town, another long list in Pianguan Town, and another long list in Yansui Town. Moreover, both Pianguan Town and Yansui Town have large open-pit coal mines.

If a large number of people are recruited to work hard at mining, it would be no problem to produce not only 10 million catties a day, but 100 million catties or even 1 billion catties a day.

The problem is how to sell such a large quantity.

He stared at the map for a while, then pondered, "Coal burns longer than charcoal, and even longer than firewood. If used for warming the fire, 40 to 50 kilograms a day would be enough, which would be over 1,000 kilograms a month. If used just for cooking, 10 or so kilograms a day would be enough, but still 400 to 500 kilograms a month.

If more people use it, the coal will sell well. The key is to get as many people as possible used to using coal. In other words, we need to promote coal stoves as quickly as possible. "Father-in-law, how many coal stoves can be made in the Summer Resort in a day?"

Uh, you said 10,000 sets a day.

Yongnianbo Wang Wei said carefully: "The current production is still 10,000 sets a day."

Wanli asked again: "How are the sales?"

How about this sales volume?

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei explained in detail: "Your Majesty, our coal stoves are mainly distributed to the soldiers of the Beijing Camp and the border troops. The soldiers of the Beijing Camp are equipped with one set for each five-person tent, which is more than 70,000 sets in total. The Datong Town has more than 50,000 sets, and the soldiers of the Imperial Guard have also been equipped with more than 20,000 sets.

The remaining ones are a bit hard to sell. Only dukes, nobles and officials in the capital buy them. Some soldiers in the Beijing camp will buy one for their family after killing the enemy and making meritorious service. So far, we have sold less than 100,000 sets in total.

So, I stopped after I ordered people to stockpile 100,000 sets. There was no other way. That stuff takes up too much space. 100,000 sets would take up dozens of warehouses."

If you can’t sell it, tell me!

However, this cannot be blamed on him. He led the army to war last summer and only came back when the Chinese New Year was approaching. He was very busy, so it is normal that others did not disturb him with such matters.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then said decisively: "You must quickly organize the craftsmen to continue making 20,000 sets a day, and send one to every household in the Beijing Army, the Jinyiwei, the Secret Guard, and the Border Army."

what?
How many sets is that?
The number of soldiers in the Beijing camp, including the Jinyiwei and the secret guards, is nearly 400,000. If the border troops and garrisons are included, the number is 500,000.

That’s 900,000 sets.

Do you think this thing is free?
Yongnian Earl Wang Wei said cautiously, "Your Majesty, if we give them away like this, we'll need at least 900,000 sets. Our material and labor costs are half a tael of silver per set, which means 450,000 taels."

What's this little money?
Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "Father-in-law, I have already told you that the cost of this stove is nothing. As long as someone uses it, we can make a lot of money selling the coal. Even if it is used for cooking, it will take four or five hundred kilograms of coal a month. The cost of this stove will not be recovered in a month.

If it's used for heating, it would burn at least a thousand pounds a month. Wouldn't that just make back the cost of more than two stoves?"

This one.

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei was surprised and asked, "Your Majesty, do you mean to send only the furnace but not the coal?"

Who said that you can get coal along with the stove?
Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "We won't deliver coal. Now the soldiers in the Beijing camp and the border troops have enough farmland. The income from the farmland alone is at least thirty taels a year. Moreover, they also have food and wages. Even if there is no war, it is not a problem for them to earn forty or fifty taels a year.

If there is a war, the military merit rewards will be even more terrifying. Killing an enemy will earn you fifty taels of silver, which is enough to cover their annual income.

So, they are rich, and their families use firewood instead of coal to cook. Chopping firewood every day actually wastes a lot of time and energy. If they use this time to weave cloth or chop ice, they can easily earn back the money they spend on coal in a month.

Not to mention making a fire to keep warm in winter, if they were to make a charcoal fire, one or two taels of silver a month would definitely not be enough.

We sell it to them at one tael of silver per thousand kilograms. This is not to make money from them, but to make money.

The money we earn is used to pay food and wages and reward military merits. The key is that once they use it, it can inspire many people to use it. Even if one military household can only inspire one civilian household to use it, that will still be 900,000 more households.

If they keep driving this, the profits from selling coal will surely increase. Then we can even consider raising their food and wages. Not to mention too much, just give them an extra ounce of silver per month, and the money they used to buy coal will be recouped. "I really don't understand how to make money this way.

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei bowed repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise."

With the distribution of 900,000 coal stoves, the coal business will surely gradually flourish.

This is no small business. In the capital, it costs at least tens of thousands of taels of silver a month. Moreover, this business relies solely on large quantities to make money. It is also very labor-intensive to run the business. It is definitely not possible to leave it to one person to be responsible for.

Wanli pondered, "Wenbi, once the coal business gets off the ground, the daily output could be hundreds of millions or even billions of catties. Just transporting the coal would require an incalculable number of carriages and ships. If you were to handle it all by yourself, you would definitely be overwhelmed.

I feel that if we want to get this business started as quickly as possible, we still have to rely on the help of the generals of the Nine Frontiers. They are at least earls, and they have a lot of personal guards under their command. Moreover, it is convenient for them to arrange carriages and ships to transport coal, which is just right for them to manage the coal business of the Nine Frontiers.

The coal business in the nine borders was handed over to the generals of the nine borders, and the dividends were also distributed to them, with each general receiving 10% of the dividends of his border town.

What you need to consider is to gradually expand the coal business from the Nine Borders to the south. It just so happens that I am preparing to build ships. When the time comes, I will build you a batch of ships with a capacity of 400 tons and 800 tons, which will facilitate your transportation of coal to the south.

The business in the south is booming, and the profits are terrifying. The 10% dividend is estimated to be at least several hundred thousand taels a year. You can't take all of this 10%. You have to give Bingzhong, Qianji, Zhang Guozhang and others another 10% of this 10% profit each."

I knew that such a big business could not be achieved by me alone. It just so happened that I didn't have to worry about how to develop the business in the early stage, and I could let the general of the nine frontiers take care of it.

Upon hearing this, Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi bowed repeatedly and said, "Your humble servant obeys your command."

Wanli nodded slightly, then said to Shan Sinan: "General Shan, the business of Shuntian Prefecture is now in your hands. You should quickly recruit a thousand personal guards, and let them take turns to supervise the prisoners digging coal at the Wanping Coal Mine.

As for coal cars, they can make at least five trips a day. One car can carry 5,000 kilograms a day, 1,000 cars can carry 5 million kilograms a day, and 3,000 cars can carry 15 million kilograms. It is enough for Shuntian Prefecture to keep 3,000 cars for the time being.

If all the families of the Beijing Camp and the Jinyiwei used coal stoves, the daily coal consumption would be at least four to five million catties. If they brought in another group, and if the princes, nobles and officials themselves bought coal stoves, selling more than ten million catties a day should not be a problem.

Have your personal guards arrange for all the businesses to deliver coal to them on time every month. This way, the Imperial Guards won't have to pay for coal. Send each household a thousand pounds of coal every month, and you'll get 10% of the profits from the coal sales in Shuntian Prefecture."

This percentage is quite a lot, several thousand taels a month, and tens of thousands of taels a year.

He was an earl after all, but his 100,000 acres of fiefdom, captive slaves, cattle, sheep, horses, etc. had not yet been distributed.

Because winter was approaching after they recovered the Beijing Xingdusi last year, they were busy building the Acropolis and greenhouses, and the captives and cattle, sheep and horses of the Three Doyan Guards had to be quickly migrated to the Laoha River Valley to avoid the cold winter. They had not had time to divide the fiefdoms, captive slaves, cattle, sheep and horses.

Therefore, he had no money to recruit personal guards at all.

Now that he finally had money, he could recruit personal guards. In fact, there were still quite a few extra men in the imperial guards. With just a word of his own, not to mention a thousand personal guards, even ten thousand personal guards would not be a problem.

He quickly bowed and said, "Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty."

Wanli nodded slightly, then pondered: "Spring is coming, and it's time to think carefully about the fiefdoms of the newly promoted nobles.

Yuan Jing, the Beijing Camp is ready to attack at any time and cannot be left to defend. I have pondered this for a long time and still believe that the Beiping Commandery should be gradually handed over to the border troops stationed in Jizhou Town and the newly promoted nobles for garrisoning. The Beijing Camp should also be gradually transferred back to the capital, ready to attack at any time.

This one.

Jizhou Town has such a small number of troops, how can it guard the Beixingdusi, which is larger than Beizhili?

Qi Jiguang cautiously reminded him, "Your Majesty, there are only 50,000 border troops stationed in Jizhou Town right now, and they are on rotation. Only 25,000 can actually be deployed to garrison the area. 25,000 troops are probably far from enough to garrison a place as large as the Beijing Xingdusi."

There are indeed not enough people in Jizhou Town.

Alas, we have to recruit more troops, which costs money.

Upon hearing this, Wanli nodded slowly and said, "You are right. The current number of troops in Jizhou Town is simply not enough to defend the Beijing Xingdusi. We must replenish them with 100,000 troops before they can move north to defend the Beijing Xingdusi. I will summon Yiyuan and we can discuss this together."

Jizhou Town also replenished its troops by 100,000 men!

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but be shocked.

With so many troops, they would need more than 100,000 taels of food and wages every month, which means more than one million taels a year!

(End of this chapter)