warring states careerist

Chapter 948 Loans
The princes have their own opinions for their own interests, but one thing is certain, no matter which method of sending troops, the emperor will send troops.

Because this time, with the help of the righteousness of the emperor of Zhou, even if five or six thousand soldiers were sent out, it would be the emperor who came forward to meet the princes, and he could gather some people's hearts and have righteousness in hand.

But Zhou Tianzi is now facing an extremely embarrassing situation.

He was afraid of the words of the Mohists. Although the princes refused to accept him, they did not dare to abolish him.

The Mohists want to choose the emperor, and they don't recognize the legitimacy of the emperor of Zhou at all.

Of course Tianzi Zhou wanted to send troops.

But... no money.

The national treasury is empty, the princes are not in court, and the fiefdoms are few, and the soldiers now need weapons such as guns and powder. Where is the money?
Zhou Tianzi has been living very poorly for these years, otherwise there would not have been rumors of melting Jiuding into coins to make money. There were even more embarrassing rumors in history, saying that the emperor had "stolen iron words".

Iron refers to weapons such as ax and axe, which symbolize the power of the king. It is taboo for the venerable. In fact, this means that the emperor of Zhou is too poor, and he knows that he is a puppet, so he put the power of the king The things were taken out to exchange for money, and it was useless to keep them anyway.

…………

In Luoyi, several big businessmen gathered together to discuss the matter of borrowing money from the emperor.

Of course, borrowing money cannot be borrowed in vain. What the emperor borrows is usury. If he wins a battle, he will repay it with spoils of war, slaves, land and so on.

However, none of the big businessmen in Luoyi wanted to borrow it.

A businessman who made his fortune from wheat flour in the early years and is now engaged in the business of smuggling weapons and ironware looked at his peers, and took the lead in expressing his opinion: "I will not borrow money. The Mohists made it clear that if the borrowed money does not go through Sishang Printing, once the world is won in the future, this kind of debt will not be recognized."

"Sooner or later, the Son of Heaven will end. Once the Mohist family wins the world, who will I ask for my money? Besides, they are all buying the treasury bonds on Sishang, and the businessmen talk about profit. Who will buy the treasury bonds of the Son of Heaven these days?"

A colleague next to him also said: "I don't know how to borrow either. If I can't win this battle, even if I win, what will the emperor pay back? Is it possible that the whole world is the king's land... Hahaha, who can believe this now? If I If I lend him a loan, he can make me a Marquis, maybe I can think about it. But you have to have land to be a knight, does he have land to share with me?"

Businessmen have no respect for the emperor. This trend is not brought out by the Mohists, but the princes have no respect for the emperor.

Businessmen are not people within the patriarchal system, and they lack respect.What can the Son of Heaven do?
Just when everyone expressed that they would not borrow money, a well-known speculator in Luoyi said: "Everyone, everyone, it is not impossible to borrow this money, as long as it is profitable. Now there is a person who has made ten times the profit I don't know if you dare to do it or not?"

There are very few such things as making ten times the profit.

It may be possible to speculate on princes and princes, but it must be a big country.

Zhou Tianzi's situation is complicated, and he really can't think of any investment that can make ten times the profit.

The speculator said in a low voice: "Since the Mohists say that they will inherit Dayu's ambition, you all know that there is something in Luoyi that is very closely related to Dayu."

He just mentioned this, and the rest of the people immediately understood, and said one after another: "You mean... Jiuding?"

Among Luoyi, the most closely related to Dayu is the Jiuding, which was cast with all the gold in the world.

The speculator said with a smile: "That's right. It is the Jiuding. It is rumored that the Yuzhou Ding is in the mulberry forest, and the emperor only has the Eight Dings, but the Eight Dings can also make more than ten times the profit."

"Nowadays, the richest buyers are the Sishang Mohist family. You and I get food and clothing from Sishang. Overseas business equity, the profit from Kelin ceramics, and the sale of gunpowder and firearms. If you ask who in the world has the money to If you can afford Jiuding, I'm afraid the Sishang Mohists will not be able to."

"There have been rumors for a long time that the emperor was short of money and melted the tripod to make money. Although I don't know whether it is true or not, but since there are such rumors, I don't think the Jiuding may not be unavailable."

Everyone was enthusiastic, thinking that this is indeed a way to make ten times more profits.

Even if one tripod is five hundred catties, then eight tripods still have four to five thousand catties.

According to market experts, that is the price of six or seven field copper cannons. Although expensive, these merchants can afford it.

Besides, in terms of barter, what Zhou Tianzi lacks now is military supplies such as ammunition, cotton cloth, and leather armor.

The strength of nearly a division of 6000 people, according to the mix and match of hot and cold weapons of the Sishang second-line army, requires [-] muskets, more than [-] spears, [-] bronze cannons, [-] thick leather armors, and [-] cotton coats...

According to this standard, merchants can't make it together, but if it is reduced a bit, instead of expensive copper cannons, and mainly old arquebus guns that have been eliminated, these merchants can make it together.

Zhou Tianzi must come up with something to mortgage, empty talk is nothing.Besides, Sishang does not recognize some contracts, such as fiefs, Sishang does not recognize them, thinking that these things should belong to the people, and the fiefs are invalid because the noble emperor snatched them from the people.

It is even more unrealistic to expect Zhou Tianzi to win and get the spoils. From the perspective of businessmen, it is obvious that they cannot win, and then this is a loss-making business.

So the best mortgage is Jiuding.

If you win, the usury will be recovered, and you will never lose money.

If they lose, Jiuding will be sold to Sishang, which will definitely make a profit.

However, it is hard to say whether Zhou Tianzi can mortgage it.

Ordinarily, it was extremely difficult, but everyone thought about it, and it was only such an object worthy of mortgage. If they didn't agree, then they just didn't want to borrow money.

A few days later, the emperor's envoy came again, and the merchants gave the emperor enough face this time, and set up a banquet to entertain the angel.

While drinking and drinking, the topic was brought to the mortgage of Jiuding to borrow usury.

Although the envoy of the Son of Heaven was given some alcohol, when he heard this shocking thing, he suddenly woke up and shouted angrily, "Absurd! How can the weight of a tripod be measured by money?"

"Yu collected the gold from Jiu Mu and cast the Jiu Ding. All of them tasted the gods and ghosts. They were prospered by the saints, and the tripods were moved to Xia and Shang. Yin and Shang had no virtue, and the tripods were from the Zhou Dynasty. How can it be defiled?"

When the merchants heard this, they thought it was impossible, and they all said: "Since this is the case, I'm afraid it will be difficult to borrow money."

The envoy of the Son of Heaven became angry and said: "It is said that merchants know profit but do not know righteousness, and it is true. The cutting down of ink this time is for the righteousness of the world. It is really a gentleman who speaks righteousness, and a villain who speaks profit. The disaster of the Mohists is so immoral. "

The businessman who proposed to mortgage Jiuding snorted coldly and said: "What is righteousness? The righteousness that scholars and nobles are always noble, and common farmers and businessmen are all cheap. Why should we be righteous?"

"We lend money to the emperor, so that we can continue to be cheap and inferior? Isn't this ridiculous? How is this different from lending a sword to a thief, and let the thief kill himself?"

"If everyone is equal, and we only talk about wealth, if I have money, I can live in the residence of the emperor and dance with the tyrants... During this drastic change in the world, what we businessmen lose is only the shackles, and what we gain is the whole world. What? Can you say that we don't teach morality?"

"It's just that in our opinion, righteousness is profit. The righteousness of us businessmen is not the righteousness of you gentlemen."

These presumptuous words were uttered in a banquet, and they were uttered in a banquet in Luoyi, where the emperor lived. If it was a few decades ago, it would have been shocking, but now it is just an ordinary speech.

The envoy of the Son of Heaven sneered and said: "The Mohists talk about benefits, and they say that they benefit each other, but they don't follow the righteousness. Merchants seek profits, no wonder you should be low. If two countries are at war, as long as it is beneficial, you may also invest in the enemy's country."

Businessmen are not afraid. Those who are eligible to be borrowed by the Emperor of Zhou are all prime ministers. Although they have no fief, they have a lot of wealth. If it is a big deal, they will go to Sishang, so naturally they have no fear.

Hearing what the envoy of the Son of Heaven said, the businessman laughed and said, "A gentleman has righteousness, and a villain seeks profit. We are cheap, so please ask the gentleman to raise military expenses by himself."

"Today we will make a statement. We are the only ones in Luoyi who can lend to the emperor to gather the armaments needed for a division. But if you want us to borrow money, unless you use Jiuding as collateral, you can't talk about it."

"A gentleman is righteous, and I invite the gentlemen of the world to pay military expenses for the emperor. I am a villain, I only know how to seek profit, and I will not do it if there is no profit."

The envoy of the Son of Heaven was choked up speechless by these words, what kind of bullshit righteousness is just to suppress these businessmen who have always been lowly in status.

If there is righteousness in the world, how can the emperor be so mixed up?If there is righteousness, where did the three families divide the Jintian clan to replace Qi?
Now that the emperor is conquering, he can't even pay for the military expenses. How many of those gentlemen destroy their homes and sell their property to join the emperor's army?
In the final analysis, the emperor still has authority if he still has to borrow usury from merchants to raise an army.

Otherwise, the Son of Heaven will only be looked down upon more and more by the feudal lords. This is the time when the Son of Heaven can use the threat of the Mohists to restore righteousness. How can he miss it?

The princes are unwilling to borrow money and are poor. If they can arm an army of [-], they will naturally increase their troops in the princes' country first. How can they lend money to Zhou Tianzi?

Even if these businessmen said such arrogance, the envoys of the Son of Heaven could do nothing about it. Even if they could not borrow money from these businessmen, the Son of Heaven would have to rely on these businessmen to buy arms, weapons, military uniforms, etc. from his body in order to arm the army in the future.

Seeing the emissary of the Son of Heaven deflated, the merchants said seriously: "It's not that we don't want to borrow, it's just that this battle is bound to be useless. If we win, we may be able to pay back the money; if we lose, what are we going to give back to us? One year is the interest, can the emperor afford it?"

The envoys of the Son of Heaven are also helpless, Zhou etiquette and righteousness have nothing to do with the merchants, on the contrary, they are still shackles to the merchants, and it is impossible to expect righteousness to make these merchants pay.

Moreover, businessmen are all villains, and villains can only be used for profit, but the emperor really has no interest to mortgage.

The businessman asked for Jiuding, but he would not borrow it, how could he agree?

Finally, the envoy of the Son of Heaven tried coyly: "If you donate money, the Son of Heaven can make you soldiers..."

When the merchant heard this, he laughed loudly and said, "All scholars have land. Where is our fiefdom? Besides, the money we wait for is enough to be a prime minister. What is the use of this Jazz?"

Outside the words, the businessman thought to himself, the Mo family is about to choose an emperor, and the emperor is about to die, so you want to borrow money because you still make us scholars?Go ahead and dream, now this nobleman, whoever wants to be whoever wants to be, we are wrong anyway, when the Mo family calls and liquidates us, that is not good.

The banquet ended unhappy, and the messenger returned to the emperor.

Hearing the words, Emperor Zhou's eyes were sour, and he said to himself: "Is there such an emperor in the world? I can't borrow money, and the few who are willing to borrow money have high interest. I can't afford the previous interest. What can I do!"

(End of this chapter)