Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 172 Responses along the march (4)

"It turns out that the adults are here."

At this time, Qu Yuanrui, accompanied by several family members of merchants, came to Huang Laifu.

Huang Laifu noticed a big merchant next to Qu Yuanrui, dressed in a luxurious silk robe, short and fat, round like a meat ball, when he saw Huang Laifu, he quickly took a step forward and kowtowed: "Little He Wei, have you met Huang? grown ups."

Huang Laifu raised his hand and said, "No."

Looking at Qu Yuanrui, he said, "Zhi Xin, who is this?"

Qu Yuanrui said with a smile: "Let me introduce, this is the largest grain merchant in Yansui Town, the shopkeeper of He Jiahe. He has provided food, rice and fodder for the officers and soldiers of Yansui Town for many years, and his business is very large This time I contacted him, and the shopkeeper He is also an enthusiastic person. Hearing that the lord has crossed the border to suppress the rebellion, he is willing to donate three thousand stones of grain and grass, thinking that the lord will use it."

Huang Laifu said with a smile: "That's a good thing, I don't know how much the shopkeeper He Da is willing to spend to sell grain and grass to Huang?"

Those merchants, Huang Laifu, didn’t care, including the auxiliary soldiers, Huang Laifu’s more than 3000 soldiers ate a lot of food every day. According to one soldier per day, one liter of food, that is, two catties of rice, more than 3000 people would consume 30 yuan a day. There are more than 3000 horses in stone grain, and because they are marching outside, they are eight times the grain and horse feed that soldiers eat.

At the end of the day, it will cost Huang Laifu several hundred stone grains.Food consumption can be said to be very huge.There will be several months of fighting in the future, and the food and grass needed will be countless.Therefore, every time he passed a food supply point, Huang Laifu had to buy as much food as possible.

He Wei's face blossomed into a smile, and his face was even more radiant. He smiled and said, "Your Excellency traveled thousands of miles to Ningxia to suppress the bandits. His loyalty is really touching. Although He is a merchant, he also knows the truth of being loyal to the emperor and serving the country. We absolutely dare not sell more grain at this price, and only sell it to Mr. Huang at a price of one tael per stone of grain, and are willing to transport it with the army."

Since last year, He Wei has paid attention to the food source of Wuzhai Fort, and has successively purchased goods from Wuzhai Fort, and the various products of Wuzhai Fort are also the objects of his strong attention.However, he is a shrewd businessman. He knows that in order to do a good job in Wuzhai Fort's business, he must first make friends with Huang Laifu, the helmsman of Wuzhai Fort. Today, he finally met Huang Laifu. How could he not take the opportunity to curry favor?Therefore, he would rather make less money or lose money than sell the grain to Huang Laifu at a fair price.In order to let Huang Laifu take care of himself, so that he can cooperate in the future.

Hearing what He Wei said, Huang Laifu was really happy, he said: "One tael of silver for each stone grain? Then the shopkeeper He will lose money?"

Of course, Huang Laifu knew the market price. Currently, grain was sold for at least one tael or four in border towns, and in many places, it was even sold for one tael to one tael.This man surnamed He only sold it to himself at a price of one tael of silver per stone of grain, and even shipped it with the army, which was indeed a loss.

He Wei said righteously: "This is also learning from the adults, for the country and the people, as it should be."

Huang Laifu was very satisfied, and said: "Okay, Mr. Huang will keep such a good businessman like shopkeeper He in mind."

He Wei was even more delighted, he took the opportunity to say: "My lord has worked hard all the way here, and the younger one is also preparing a banquet at the house, thinking that the older one will clean up the dust. I wonder if the younger one has this blessing for the adult to appreciate?"

Huang Laifu heard what he said respectfully, and immediately said: "Alright, Huang also wants to see the style of Yansui town."

He Wei was overjoyed, he hurriedly led the way, and then whispered a few words to his family members, one of the family members hurriedly mounted their horses and went to the town.

Yansui Town, also known as Yulin City, has undergone three large-scale repairs and expansions in the history of the Ming Dynasty, from the Chenghua Year of the Ming Dynasty to the Wanli Year of the Ming Dynasty. Packed with blue bricks.There are a total of 14 towers built on the entire city wall. There are urns at the east gate and south gate, and Qianjin gates are set up to form a complete defense system with the city wall.

There are many gates on the east, west and south sides of the town, but only the north wall has no gates.Huang Laifu and others entered the city through the Zhenyuan Gate in Nancheng, and entered the town. The guards at the gate nodded and bowed to He Wei. Seeing that Huang Laifu and others were accompanied by He Wei, they did not come forward to question.This made Huang Laifu shake his head secretly, if it was his sergeant, when they entered Wuzhai Fort and Old Camp Fort, no matter who they were, they would have to check the road guides and goods.

Entering the town, it was already nightfall, and lights were lit everywhere in the town.Huang Laifu watched curiously, and saw many shops and temples in the city, and most of the houses were courtyard houses.The streets are paved with stones, the courtyards of gray brick houses, and the exquisite copper rings on wooden doors and windows are very flavorful.On the streets, merchants and residents come and go, bustling with people of all kinds. It is worthy of being the military town with the strongest commercial atmosphere in the Nine Sides.

However, it can also be seen that the general problem in the border town is that the military households in the city are generally dressed in rags, and even the battalion soldiers are also in tatters.As for those merchants, they were all well-dressed, even those fellows looked better than soldiers, Huang Laifu sighed secretly.

He Wei's mansion is in Beicheng, and the mansion is very luxurious. When Huang Laifu entered the mansion, a sumptuous banquet had already been prepared in the hall. Not only the people in He's mansion, but also many local merchants in the town were all invited. List.

That night, Huang Laifu drank happily.

Of course, after the banquet, Huang Laifu rejected He Wei's idea of ​​letting him stay overnight in He's mansion. His army was camping outside the city, so there was no reason why the general was not in the camp. After the banquet, Huang Laifu still took Jiang Dazhong and others back to his camp.

After leaving the city, the sky was dark and the sky was full of stars. At this time, the pollution was not as serious as that of later generations, and the stars were very bright.Only the Wuzhaibao army camp in the distance was brightly lit.

When he came to the gate of the camp, he heard footsteps, and the manager Bai who was guarding the gate had already shouted: "Yehao."

Huang Laifu said: "Stop the thief!"

The boss shouted: "Take out the waist card and let me see."

Huang Laifu, Jiang Dazhong and other family members took out their badges, asked Jiang Dazhong to collect them all, and handed them to the Baizong, who looked at it and said: "My lord, please wait a moment, the end is over." Please show the commanding flag of the commander-in-chief before you can open the door."

Huang Laifu nodded, and after he left the camp, he appointed General Manager Xu You as the chief general. Without the command flag of the chief general, no one was allowed to enter the camp, including Huang Laifu.

Not long after, I heard the sound of small sticks coming from inside the gate of the camp, and then heard the responses from the gatekeepers. After answering, the hundred chief said loudly: "There is an order to open the gate."

The wooden door creaked and opened, and every sergeant, including the gate guard Bai Zong, held his own weapon and stood ready for battle.

Entering the camp, Mr. Bai and others greeted Huang Laifu and closed the camp gate again.Huang Laifu scanned his eyes and found that apart from the clear whistle at the camp gate, the hidden whistle at the camp wall had not been moved, so he couldn't help but be satisfied.

At this time, most of the soldiers in the camp were resting, only some patrolling soldiers were still patrolling, and when they saw Huang Laifu and others coming, they shouted, "Why are you here?"

Huang Laifu replied: "Someone is here."

It was not charged that night.

Huang Laifu, Jiang Dazhong and others also went back to the Chinese army barracks to rest.

Silent all night.

The next morning, the logistics department of the auxiliary army in charge of He Ruzhen was purchasing in Yansui Town, and the merchants accompanying the army also seized the opportunity to trade with local merchants.The various Wuzhai Fort products brought in by these Wuzhai Fort merchants are bestsellers in Yansui Town.

The Wuzhaibao sergeants got up early in the morning to practice outside the barracks.The sound of killing was so loud that it attracted many local civilians, military households and merchants to watch, and some local soldiers from Yansui Town also watched from the sidelines.

The officers and soldiers of Yansui Town naturally lamented the excellence and hard training of the Wuzhaibao army, no wonder they were able to defeat the invading Mongols.And the local people in Yansui Town also had a good impression of the Wuzhaibao army.Although these soldiers looked vicious and like tigers and wolves, they were kind and did not commit any crimes.

Yesterday afternoon, when they arrived in Yansui Town, they lived in the barracks all the time and did not go into the city to harass them. Girls and daughter-in-laws are also very fair and kind when buying and selling, which makes people uncomfortable.Although the Wuzhaibao army only stayed in Yansui Town for a short time, it has already won the title of the Division of Benevolence and Righteousness and has become a talking point in the local area.

And after hearing about the treatment of the Wuzhaibao army, many young and strong locals started thinking of joining the army. This is a new thing in Yansui Town.In Yansui Town, we only saw constant deserters, and rarely saw men from good families who volunteered to join the army. However, just like in Kelan Prefecture, these people’s requests to join the army were rejected, which was beyond the expectations of the locals. outside.

This kind of abnormal thing made the local military and civilian merchants in Yansui Town talk about it for a long time.

In the afternoon, Huang Laifu ordered to close the camp and set off. Before setting off, Huang Laifu ordered to bury and incinerate the garbage produced by people and animals last night, and sprinkled limestone for disinfection, and then ordered to leave.

When the Wuzhai Fort army set out, there were many more local merchants from Yansui Town in the caravan following the army, which made the Wuzhai Fort caravan even bigger.

(End of this chapter)