Originally, Qin Yu also planned to organize troops to suppress the thieves in Woniu Mountain before spring ploughing, but now he had to give up.

After all, he had already learned that the group of thieves in Woniu Mountain was an excuse for their Yingchuan Commander Zhou Hu to expand the county army, and if he exterminated it in a short time, not only would it make Zhou Hu unhappy, but it was estimated that he would offend many people with vested interests.

For example, Wang Qing, the upper lieutenant, his former subordinates, Zhaoling County Lieutenant Legui, and even Jia Shu, Xu Shen, Xu Ma and others may also have opinions about him - who doesn't want his subordinates to have more military power?

After thinking about it, Qin Yu decided to send a letter to Chen Mo, the commander of the department, and Shi Yuan, the lieutenant of Kunyang County, in his personal name, to see if he could fish out his old group of soldiers from the 'Kunyang Liken Army'.

Three days later, Chen Mo and Ishihara received Qin Yu's letter separately, and immediately discussed it privately.

Regarding this matter, in fact, Chen Mo didn't care, because he was the captain of the ministry and belonged to the county army, and his position was also the entire Yingchuan, but Shi Yuan was the lieutenant of Kunyang County, and he needed to consider the interests of Kunyang, so how could he be willing to return thousands of subordinate troops to Qin Yu in vain?

You must know that the 'prisoner peasants' in the reclamation army only need to take care of the food, there is no salary, no pension, and all of them are young and middle-aged, which is much more cost-effective than hiring civilians.

Considering that the 'five-year period' was only in the third year, Ishihara was naturally reluctant to let him go.

However, under Chen Mo's persuasion, Ishihara finally returned Qin Yu's 1,000 old troops, after all, the two sides are no longer enemies, and they will meet in the future, so there is no need to make the relationship tense.

Five days later, the thousand subordinate soldiers, under the escort of Kunyang head catcher Yang Kang, went from Kunyang to Wuyang.

On that day, Qin Yu met with the 1,000 old subordinates, and they were very excited to each other.

Especially the latter.

Although the Liken Army was not actually mistreated in Kunyang County, they were still 'prisoners' and captives at this time, and who of these people did not want to get a legal identity?

Just like the second battalion of the brigade camp now commanded by Cao Wu, the soldiers in the army were also born as righteous teachers at the beginning, but because they were the first to surrender to Kunyang and Zhouhu, they are now subordinate to a branch of the Yingchuan County Army.

"These thousand people will be handed over to the county lieutenant Qin."

"There is Lao Yang catching the head. …… Please convey your thanks to Lieutenant Chen and Lieutenant Shi on my behalf. ”

When handing over the 1,000 subordinate soldiers, Qin Wei expressed his gratitude to Yang Dang.

Although he still had a group of soldiers in Kunyang, he also understood that Chen Mo and Ishihara had already expressed enough goodwill to him, and he couldn't be too demanding.

The rest of the soldiers should wait for the five-year period to get them back, anyway, there are only two and a half years left.

The next day, Qin Yu used his power as the lieutenant of Wuyang County to assign all the 1,000 old troops to the Wuyang County Army.

When he led the army to Wuyang County at the beginning, there were about 300 county soldiers in Wuyang, and this time, it expanded to 1,300 people in one go.

Don't look at the 1,000 prisoners and peasants who have been in Kunyang for two years, these people are all veterans who have killed people on the battlefield, Qin Yu has no doubt that even if he only leads this 1,000 old troops to encircle and suppress the group of thieves in Woniu Mountain, it is enough to beat those rabble.

But unfortunately, at the moment, they need those thieves to live, so that he can justify the expansion of the county army in the southern counties of Yingchuan County.

At the beginning of February, Qin Yu successively recruited 1,000 new soldiers from the civilians and refugees in the county, expanding the size of the county army to 2,300 people, and counting the 2,000 county troops he brought when he was first stationed in Wuyang, the strength of Wuyang County has reached more than 4,000 people.

Unless the group of thieves in Woniu Mountain moves, in terms of numbers, the strength of Wuyang County is almost not inferior to that of the group of thieves in Woniu Mountain, and Qin Yu thinks that he is enough to defend the county.

At the same time, the counties in the southern part of Yingchuan, such as Zhaoling, Yuncheng, Dingling, and Linying, including Yanling and Fugou, the two counties in the eastern part of Yingchuan, were also expanding their county armies, expanding their county armies to between 2,000 and 3,000 people.

This strength, counting the county army, it is no exaggeration to say that these counties have recovered to the strength and strength of the original time when Guan Shuo led the Changsha Yishi to attack Yingchuan County for the first time, and even the county lieutenants or generals who led the troops were far better than those days.

It's a bit overkill to mobilize people to prevent a bandit.

During this time, Zhao Yu met with the businessmen of the Kunye Mutual Benefit Association headed by Huang Fu, and prepared to negotiate cooperation with the latter, and select several counties to build a few livestock farms for raising pigs, as well as chickens, ducks, rabbits, and so on.

After all, although the current Yingchuan County is temporarily abundant in food, the price of meat has skyrocketed, and the poultry and livestock raised by ordinary people can no longer afford the huge consumption.

If Zhao Yu didn't want to be unable to eat even a mouthful of meat in the future, he would have to take the lead in doing something.

"Centralized livestock storage?"

When Zhao Yu proposed his idea to the merchants, the merchants led by Huang Fu, the son of the Huang family, looked at each other.

It's no wonder, after all, before that, poultry and livestock were almost free-range - it can't be said that every family, the average people with good family backgrounds, will raise some chickens and ducks at home, or even raise one or two pigs or something, and wait until these chickens and ducks can't lay eggs, or those one or two pigs grow stronger, or their own families kill and eat meat, or take them to the market to sell.

Where has there ever been a livestock farm that grows thousands of poultry and livestock?

As for Zhao Yu's explanation of 'cost saving' and 'centralized management', these businessmen were even more confused.

Fortunately, these people are in business after all, and their brains are more active than ordinary people, and when Zhao Yu settles an account with them in person, they immediately understand the advantages of 'centralized livestock storage'.

For example, the cost of storage, transportation costs, and the convenience of centralized storage are far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

This made the hearts of the businessmen excited.

Well, now there is a huge piece of fat in front of them, it depends on how to divide it.

After looking at each other a few times, one of the businessmen said tentatively: "Why don't you build a livestock farm under the bottom to be responsible for raising chickens and ducks?" ”

Undoubtedly, there was an immediate objection: on what are you?

For a while, these people argued, this one shouted 'I will raise pigs', and the other shouted 'I will raise chickens and ducks', which made Zhao Yu feel speechless.

He said that it was intensively raised, but these people still dismantled it, did they understand?

Of course, he didn't blame these people, after all, it was true that this way had never happened before.

He coughed and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, the cooperation that Zhou Hu said is not the cooperation that you raise pigs and I raise ducks, but the supporting cooperation. For example, Zhou built a livestock farm and prepared to raise pigs, how much to raise, well, let's just leave it at a thousand, these thousand pigs have to consume a huge amount of bran feed every day, but I don't want to bother to buy bran, what should I do? Coincidentally, Huang Gongzi has a piece of land in his hands, and every year after the autumn harvest, he will leave a considerable amount of chaff, rice stalks, and pods, so that Huang Gongzi and I can just cooperate, and he will transport the chaff, rice stalks, and pods to my livestock farm as feed for my pigs, which is called supporting cooperation. …… Another example, well, take Bai Laojia as an example, Zhou's livestock farm was built in Xuchang, and it happened that Bai Laojia had a slaughterhouse in Kunyang, and we cooperated, and after the livestock in my livestock farm grew strong, they were directly transported to Bai Laojia's slaughterhouse, and after being slaughtered and washed, they were transported to the market in Kunyang, which was also regarded as supporting cooperation. …… In this way, the cooperation between me and Huang Gongzi and Bai Laojia complement each other, there is no competition, and all three of them can get their own share of benefits. ”

"I see."

"I see......"

After Zhao Yu finished speaking, the businessmen present suddenly realized.

They also thought that the cooperation that Zhao Yu said was 'you raise pigs and I raise ducks', but they never considered what Zhao Yu said complementing each other.

They had to admit that the method proposed by this Zhou Duwei was better.

Suddenly, a merchant whispered, "What about ...... Who's in charge of what? ”

“……”

Everyone looked at each other, and finally turned their gaze to Zhao Yu.

After all, they also understand that Zhao Yu is the only person on their side who can make a decision.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu said with a smile: "It seems that you all have a fancy to the interests of building a livestock farm, but Zhou's ugly words are ahead, this matter is not a panacea, poultry, livestock may also be sick, if a centralized storage method is adopted, once one of them is sick, it is likely to immediately infect thousands of heads, in the meantime, Zhou will not allow these sick livestock to flow into the market, endangering the people, will inevitably require you to kill and burn all the sick livestock, so that there may be no return." ”

Hearing this, a businessman immediately nodded and said, "Zhou Duwei is right. …… If the animals are sick and should be burned, how can they enter the market and harm the people? We will never do such a thing that damages yin morality. ”

"Exactly, exactly."

The rest of the businessmen nodded their heads.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu was slightly surprised, but was quickly relieved.

That's right, in this era of 'three feet above the head and gods', even a businessman who is interested in profit also attaches great importance to 'yin virtue', and probably will not do anything that hurts heaven and reason, so as not to harm children and grandchildren.

Therefore, there are still benefits to fearing ghosts and gods, at least some of the morality can be constrained.

After sighing with emotion, Zhao Yu nodded and said: "You can think so, Zhou has thanked the people of the whole county on behalf of him." …… As for the matter of the livestock farm, Zhou does not want to appoint it, you can discuss it yourself, about the same, I will build one in each of the four directions of Yingchuan County, build one in the center, and five livestock farms, which should be able to radiate the entire county. ”

When they heard that five livestock farms could be built, the group of businessmen was immediately relieved.

At this time, someone may ask: "Captain Zhou, can I find someone to cooperate?" After all, according to the Captain, it costs a lot of money to build a livestock farm......

"Absolutely."

Zhao Yu said with a smile: "In fact, Zhou should have invited my businessman from Yingchuan County to come over and cooperate together, but considering the friendship with you, I discussed with you in advance......

Hearing this, the merchants in the house changed slightly.

Only then did they realize that they were not the only merchants in Yingchuan County, although because of the rebels, the merchants in the east and south of Yingchuan County suffered heavy losses, and some of them not only lost their family business, but even lost their lives, but the merchants in Xuchang and Yangzhai were lucky not to be affected.

The businessmen in these two places will undoubtedly become the fierce rivals of their businessmen in the 'three counties of Kunyang'.

Thinking of this, someone immediately exclaimed: "Captain Zhou, you are from our side, can't you ......"

"Shh

Zhao Yu raised a finger and said with a smile: "In business." …… Zhou can only guarantee that you will be able to make a lot of money, but he can't give you all the benefits, otherwise, wouldn't the businessmen in the other counties hate Zhou to death? Thank you for your understanding. ”

Having said that, what else can the businessmen of the Kunye Mutual Benefit Association say?

Seeing this, Zhao Yu smiled and said: "In the past two days, I will discuss this matter with Chen Juncheng, and ask the county guard to approve five permits to build a livestock farm, and you had better discuss it privately, but don't hurt the harmony, next, I Yingchuan still has a lot of things that can be cooperated with you, and you don't have to be in a hurry." …… Okay, that's all for today, I have to work hard for you. ”

"Where, where."

"Zhou Duwei is serious."

Seeing Zhao Yu get up, the businessmen led by Huang Fu also got up and said goodbye.

After these people left, Zhao Yu set off for the county guard mansion and discussed this matter with the county lord Chen Lang.

Chen Langwei Zhao Yu is the first to look forward, and even dares to secretly help Zhao Yu in such a thing as 'Guantian raising the army', how can he veto Zhao Yu's proposal of 'benefiting the county and benefiting the people'?

As the county governor of Yingchuan County, Chen Lang knows very well how exaggerated the price of meat in his counties in Yingchuan County is, ordinary people can't afford to eat meat at all, so they can only go to the market to buy a bag of pork fat on weekdays, go home to squeeze oil, and use these meat oils to fry vegetables, and get a little bit of meat.

Only when it is the New Year's festival is the time of the year, I am willing to spend money to buy a piece of meat and share it with my family.

In this regard, Chen Lang didn't have much to do in the past, but now Zhao Yu's proposal made him see the hope of 'lowering the price of meat' - don't look at him like this, as the county governor of Yingchuan County, he also cares about people's livelihood very much.

However, he also raised his concerns: "Will it affect the people who raise poultry and livestock?" ”

If there is an impact on the people who raise poultry and livestock, it will definitely have an impact, and even if the five livestock farms are on the right track, the people who raise livestock will not be able to sell their livestock.

But what does it matter?

If you can't sell it, you can eat it yourself, and the free-range livestock in these people's homes are, at best, a litter of chickens and ducks, one or two pigs, and the death has doubled, and there is almost no problem of 'unsalable' and 'loss'.

Based on this, Zhao Yu smiled and said: "The impact, there will naturally be, but the problem is not big, after the completion of those livestock farms, a large number of manpower is needed, I will suggest to those businessmen to hire people with experience in raising livestock and livestock, these people have errands in the livestock farm, and earn wages that can support the whole family, so naturally they will no longer care whether their livestock are sold or not." ”

"I see."

Chen Lang suddenly realized, and immediately praised him: "Du Wei's move is high." ”

In addition to complimenting, he cautiously asked, "But I don't know, what kind of position does my government do in it?" ”

Of course, Zhao Yu understood what Chen Lang meant, and said with a smile when he heard this: "To build a livestock ranch, you need a large piece of land, and the county can let each county pick a piece of barren land to rent to those merchants, and charge a certain amount of rent every year." …… Of course, the relevant taxes are calculated separately. ”

Chen Lang nodded slightly, and was about to speak, but heard Zhao Yu say again: "In fact, the merchants of the Kunye Mutual Benefit Association, because of the relationship between the rebels, are generally in a dilemma of lack of money, if the county is interested, you might as well lend them a sum of money in the name of the county......"

"Interest-bearing money?"

"No, it's a cooperative." Zhao Yu said with a smile: "How many can you collect interest?" I suggest that the county participate in it, take a few shares, in addition to the equal sharing of interests, the county does not even need to send someone to take care of it, but it can reap objective profits every year......"

"Shares?" Jun Cheng looked at Zhao Yu puzzled.

Seeing this, Zhao Yu explained briefly, only to hear Jun Cheng gasp.

Good guy, everyone in the world says that businessmen suck people's blood, and this Zhou Duwei, this is to suck the blood of those businessmen!

"Will they say yes?" Chen Lang asked in astonishment.

Zhao Yu smiled and said, "Why not?" The county can participate in it without collecting rent for the land, and those merchants will give them permission if they promise it, and if they don't give it, they will be stuck, and sooner or later they will relent. ”

"I see......"

Chen Lang nodded abruptly, and said with a playful expression: "I thought that the lieutenant had a good relationship with them. ”

Zhao Yu chuckled: "The relationship is good, but as the so-called business is in business, Zhou, as an official in the county, naturally wants to benefit the county." Besides, I think the county needs to tie a rope to the merchants, lest they climb to the county one day......"

Hearing this, Chen Lang was slightly moved, and nodded solemnly: "It's still the captain who is thoughtful." ”

In all fairness, he didn't think that a group of merchants would dare to climb to the top of the government, after all, the status of merchants in the world was the lowest, and they were not even as good as farmers.

But out of prejudice against businessmen, he also believes that it is necessary to put a rope on the heads of those businessmen, which does not involve the relationship between the two parties, but only the difference in positions.

They represent the government.

This point is similar to Zhao Yu's thoughts: no matter how good his relationship with Huang Fu and others is, he has to keep the means to control the latter, lest he can't control those businessmen in the future, which will be too embarrassing.

He smiled and said to Chen Lang: "This matter, I will hand it over to the county guard, five pastures, probably located in Yangzhai, Kunyang County, Yingyang, Changshe, Dingling." Yangzhai's, for Yangzhai people, Kunyang three counties, for Kunye Mutual Benefit, Yingyang, can be given to Xuchang, and the rest of Changshe and Dingling, the county guard can watch and do it himself. ”

"Yes." Chen Lang solemnly arched his hand.

So, in response to the matter of building a livestock ranch, Zhao Yu took the lead and threw it to the county guard.

This made He Shun a little incomprehensible.

On the way back to the Governor's Office, He Shun asked puzzledly: "Great Chief, you promoted this matter, why did you end up losing even the benefits to the county guard?" What about the Governor's Office? ”

Not to mention, this time Zhao Yu took the lead in promoting the cooperation between the government and businessmen from all over the country, whether it was him or the governor's office, he really didn't take any benefits.

But Zhao Yu didn't care, because what he valued was the stability of Yingchuan County.

The price of meat has soared to the point where most people can't afford to eat it, what kind of stability is this?

He explained to He Shun with a smile: "At first glance, we didn't get any benefits this time, but in fact, this matter is closely related to us, not to mention anything else, when the price of meat is reduced, the expenses of the county army and our county army will also be reduced...... In addition, I took half of the official land from the county guard's office, and the income of the county guard will undoubtedly drop sharply, since it is because of me, I naturally have to find a way to make up for him, otherwise, the county guard government will not be able to afford the expenses of the refugees, so it will have to be borne by my governor's office. ”

"I see."

He Shun suddenly realized.

Indeed, although Zhao Yu did not get any benefits this time, it was also of great benefit to him to promote this matter.

For example, he can use his power to give priority to the supply of those livestock farms to the county army and the county army, in this era when most people can't afford to eat meat, the army under his command has enough food and meat, which will undoubtedly greatly enhance the cohesion of the soldiers.

Moreover, the construction of livestock farms was only one part of his series of constructions.

At the beginning, he agreed with his brother Zhao Yin that he would not take revenge on the Jin State until Zhao Yin failed, but he did not promise not to continue to accumulate strength.

Next, Zhao Yu also has to build a smelting field and a forging field, after all, Yingshan Mountain in the west of Kunyang County and Woniu Mountain in the south of Wuyang County are all mines rich in iron ore and various ores, as long as he recruits miners to mine them, and then recruits blacksmiths to forge them into high-quality weapons, the combat ability of the Yingchuan County Army and the subordinate county army under his command will undoubtedly be further improved.

Of course, in order to avoid being suspected by the imperial court, he would do it in the name of Yingchuan County, but in fact it was in his hands.

In a few years, his Yingchuan County will become richer and richer, and the army he holds will become more and more powerful.

Although this move will make him Yingchuan County and even himself more eye-catching, but with Taishi Chen in his presence, Zhao Yu thinks that the imperial court should not do anything to him - after all, he has not done anything wrong.

From mid to late February, Cheng Chen Lang of Yingchuan County recruited merchants from the three counties of Kunyang, Xuchang and Yangzhai to discuss the construction of livestock farms, as well as related slaughtering, transportation and other supporting matters.

Of course, those businessmen are not at a loss, after all, after the government participates, they can use the name of the government, and even ask for the protection of the county army, or even the county army - although there are no other thieves in Yingchuan for the time being, who can guarantee the future? Not to mention that these merchants also hoped to grow their livestock farms and sell them to neighboring counties.

Several neighboring counties in Yingchuan County are not very stable at the moment.

During this period, Zhao Yu used his position as the commander of Yingchuan to recruit experienced blacksmiths in the territory, preparing to put his forging field on the agenda as soon as possible.

Unexpectedly, at this time, he received a letter from Guo Da.

His distant cousin, Zhao Bing, a descendant of the Linzhang Zhao clan who inherited his Luyang Zhao clan's name, returned to Luyang and began his days of being powerful and blessed in Luyang.

『…… It's time to deal with this.'

Looking at the letter in his hand, Zhao Yu thought secretly in his heart.

According to the agreement between him and his brother Zhao Yin, the title and ancestral property of his Luyang Zhao clan are now owned by him.

Now that he has obtained permission from his brother's side, Zhao Yu naturally will no longer allow his family's things to be occupied by an outsider.

Even if this outsider is a distant cousin he has never met.