This time, Min Yuanqi was also overjoyed.

The materials transported by the delivery are not civilian goods such as food, but strategic materials for the military, or at least items related to the army. There are many delivery stations along both sides of the canal, such as the Caoyun Water Customs or the Inspection Division, the duties of the delivery station are important, and the mules, horses, vehicles or ships are also quite sufficient, from south to north, the military supplies urgently needed by the imperial court are transported north along the delivery stations one by one.

Such as armor, weapons, bows, arrows, lacquer, glue, paint, cloth, ready-made fat jackets, hats, coconut scoops, lunch boxes, as well as combat boots, military trousers, etc.

There are also a lot of raw materials for armor and weapons such as tung oil, yellow and white jute, pig iron, wrought iron, iron wire, leather, and feathers.

The number of armor weapons made should not be much, but for a small hundred households, the military supplies of a delivery station are quite sufficient, and even the transportation is not exhaustive.

In addition, there are a lot of materials for making firearms such as gunpowder, saltpeter, sulfur, lead, iron, etc., which are not produced in many places in the north, and sufficient production in the south, which is also transported north along the canal.

Min Yuanqi bowed his hand deeply, got up and said with a smile: "I don't know anyone at the delivery office, of course the silver is mine, but to open up the joints and buy the officials, these things need Brother Zhu's help." ”

The cooperation between the two has been quite pleasant so far, both sides appreciate each other, deepening the space for further cooperation, and even the title is changed from Zhu Shaodong to a brother, hearing Min Yuanqi's words, Zhu Wanchun of course has nothing else to say, and agreed with a smile.

After the salt cargo is transported, Sugang, wrought iron, grain, cloth, and a little medicinal materials, because the value is not high or much, just Zhu Wanchun simply did not report it, and then put the live pigs, chickens, sheep, and catch up with the boats, although they are not full of salt goods when they come, when they return, the ships are still full of things that make people happy, and all the flag troops are smiling!

Everyone said goodbye to each other on the dock, and after the boat was far away, Zhu Renzhong immediately said to Zhu Wanhe: "Xiao Er, you go to the north, Taiyuan, Datong, Xuanfu are not stable, you go to Guide, please send people to Guanzhong, and then ask the people in Guanzhong to go north to Yanghe, Datong, and then connect with our clansmen over there, the general war horse is six taels to ten taels of silver, and the best horse is ten or twenty taels of silver, and the price of the top BMW horse is not easy to say, from one hundred taels to one thousand taels can be priced, we don't want it." You tell them that we will give 50% more to all the war horses according to the market price, on the condition that they help transport them to Tianjin, and our people send ships to Tianjin Port to wait to pick up the horses, even if the Shun army occupies Tianjin, this discussion is the same as counting, if the checkpoint is difficult to travel at that time, and the freight increases, everything is counted on our heads. ”

Zhu Wanhe said with some worry: "The price of the war horse bought in this way is too high, will Min Yuanqi be unhappy, if he doesn't want it, we will smash it in our own hands." ”

"You, learn from your eldest brother, be a person and do things first, and act generously, don't be too petty." Zhu Renzhong smiled slightly, he couldn't remember that he was still dissatisfied with Zhu Wanchun not long ago, and only said to Zhu Wanhe at the moment: "At most, there are dozens or hundreds of horses at a time, and the number is too large to hide people's eyes, and the price of expensive horses is at most more than 1,000 taels of silver, what is this bit of silver?" Min Yuanqi's training has gradually become effective, and now he should think of expanding the troop and building armor weapons, which is enough to make the armor strong and the soldiers strong. Then down is to train an elite and strong cavalry, my Ming cavalry is almost all in the north, the southern cavalry is few and weak, the war horse allocation is small, and the training tactics are not as good as the north. On the strength of the cavalry, it was Liaozhen back then, and it is still Liaozhen now! In my opinion, Yuan Qi should not be too ambitious, and if he can train about two or three hundred cavalry, he is enough to be a general or even a deputy general, and it is enough to ensure the safety of one party. It's not that I said, if the Shun army really goes south, Huaixu and the army will be together to avoid the city in small chaos and the countryside in chaos, then our Zhu family may be able to take a boat down the river and go to Yunti Pass to protect the safety of the family, and there is no way to know. ”

Zhu Wanhe nodded and said: "As soon as my father said this, I understood, Min Baihu bought a large amount of wrought iron and Suzhou Iron and Steel this time, and he plans to continue to buy armor and weapons, and then buy war horses, with his ability, it is not difficult to train a strong army." In this case, the son will pack up tomorrow and go to Guide Mansion immediately. ”

"Let's go down the river first, and then ride a horse after passing Xuzhou," Zhu Renzhong said with some anxiety: "The dozen or so family members will bring them to you." ”

"It's not the first time." Zhu Wanhe grinned and said: "When the Shun army surrounded Kaifeng, our Zhu family also bought food for the officers and soldiers, and I watched the hundreds of thousands of Shun troops from a distance on the embankment of the Yellow River, which can be regarded as an eye-opener. In fact, the Liukou only managed the main battlefield when he fought, and the rest of the places were not very good at sending troops, when Li Zicheng captured Luoyang, he only left a few hundred soldiers to garrison, and it was easy to capture and easily lose, so why did he come? ”

Zhu Renzhong snorted coldly and said: "One is that he is used to wandering, and it is more comfortable to grab food, and the other is that Li Chuang can rest assured about the soldiers and horses under his command." In addition to those who belong directly to him, some of his subordinates are their own partners, some are Gao Yingxiang's old subordinates, and later Yuan Shizhong, Luo Rucai ran over to partner with the head of the camp like this. Li Chuang divided his elite to defend the territory, and his Chinese army was empty, and it was easy to be taken advantage of. If you send other people to defend the territory you have conquered, and you are worried that the other people's business will be stable, and you will give away the territory to others in vain, is this not wrong? This kind of careful thinking looks shrewd, but it is not atmospheric. You look at the national history record, what did Emperor Gao, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, do back then? I heard people say that Li Zicheng will look at the general knowledge of governance when he is free, just look at the history books compiled by the literati, and if he wants to learn the way to govern the country and win the world here, isn't it a fate to seek fish? ”

Zhu Wanchun also said: "Most of the Shaanxi Zhukou are thieves, border soldiers, and bandits, and in the early years, the group of Zijin Liang broke into the sky or something, just burning, killing, prostituting and plundering, trying to be happy for a while." Gao Yingxiang has grown a lot, and Li Zicheng is stronger than Gao Yingxiang, but Li Zicheng has limited personal knowledge, and the generals around him only have the courage of a horseman, and there are no real generals. As for the strategists, what real insight can a Jianghu scheming like Song Shorty have in the rivers and lakes? Niu Jinxing raised the identity of the person, I have a lot of people to do great things, just like Sun Gebu, when he was still a person, he traveled to the Beijing Division, went to the border town to see the training, Tuntian, garrison all things, and later in the Jinshi, the superintendent was handy through Jiliao. This dynasty is famous for knowing the soldiers, whether it is a scholar or a person, most of them have served as a feudal territory, know the army, know the people's feelings, know the general trend, Li Chuang since Henan, is the benefit of the emperor's inappropriate measures, advance and retreat and rejection, and there is the cooperation of the East Prisoner, when the East is weak, the East Capture has just left, and the Rebellion is a resurgence, so back and forth, and finally to the present uncontrollable situation, this is my Ming Dynasty internal and external difficulties, I have the root of the disease in the body, not how powerful Li Zicheng is. If you want me to say, it is likely to be the Shun Army, the Eastern Prisoner, my Ming officers and soldiers are seesawing in many ways, even if the Beijing division is not guaranteed, it is not easy for Li Chuang to win the world, the praying mantis catches cicadas, and the yellow finch is behind. ”

If Min Yuanqi is here, I am afraid that he will applaud Zhu Wanchun, the young proprietor of this salt store is really extraordinary, and it is no wonder that he was able to invest in Min Yuanqi in the first place, this person's insight and decision are indeed far above ordinary people.

You must know that even Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying and others made a wrong judgment after the Qing army entered the customs, thinking that the Qing army would enter the customs again as it had done the previous times, and would automatically withdraw after plundering the wealth of Dingkou, until the Qing army continued to attack the Dashun army and sent Duoduo south, these people woke up like a dream, and only then did they know that the Tartars were the enemies of life and death.

Zhu Renzhong and Zhu Wanhe both shook their heads slightly, they were also like ordinary doctors of the Great Mingshi, and they did not have enough understanding of the danger of Dongyu...... It's no wonder that they, from the Houjin to the Qing Dynasty, from the Khan to the emperor, Nuerhachi and Huang Taiji, Dolgon father and son have been tossing outside the customs for decades, from the forty-seventh year of Wanli to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, more than 20 years have passed, the old slave has not entered the customs for half a step, and the Huang Taiji has withdrawn after entering the customs five times, in the eyes of Zhu Renzhong and Zhu Wanhe, it is still a foreign barbarian who is not enough to trouble, and it is not a big trouble.

"No matter what." Zhu Wanchun looked at the boat in the distance, and said sincerely: "It's a good thing that Dahewei can produce such a character and guard his hometown." Although my Zhu family was originally a Jin merchant, and now there are still clansmen doing business in Datongyang and the area, but we have been here in Huai'an for a hundred years, and there have been several generations of ancestors buried here, saying that it is a Jin merchant, in fact, it is also a Huai'an person......"

Zhu Ren nodded and said, "This is good. ”

Zhu Wanhe said thoughtfully: "If this person is really successful in training, I am afraid that there will be more official gentry and salt merchants in the local area." ”

"That's for later." Zhu Wanchun said: "At least when he started, my Zhu family supported the most. ”

……

The boat went down the river, although the wind direction was not right, but the hull was also much lighter, more than 3,000 catties of wrought iron and hundreds of catties of Sugang steel, more than 1,000 pieces of cloth were placed on ten cao boats, and there was almost no difference between the empty ships, only 2,000 stone grain, and more than 200 stones per ship was also quite light.

But those pigs, chickens, sheep, put in the cabin of the ship quite restless, from time to time some situation, so that the flag army who have to operate the ship for a while, even so, everyone's face is filled with a smile that can not be hidden, these grains, cloth, and pigs and sheep are meat prepared for them, many people last time they ate meat was in the Chinese New Year, cut half a catty of meat, spend dozens of dollars to eat a flat food for the whole family, this is the custom of near Shandong and the north, if it is the south, it may not be to eat flat food.

The whole family of five or six people eats dumplings with half a catty of meat, which is already a rare improvement of food once a year.

If it is a first-class poor family, even if there is no meat to eat during the New Year, at most the next meal of white flour soup cakes will mostly fall into the stomachs of children, and most adults still eat multigrain vegetable cakes, even during the New Year.

Now under his feet is more than 2,000 stone and more than 200,000 catties of fine grain, plus the hundreds of stone fine grain and more than 2,000 stone of coarse grain hidden in the warehouse of the 100 official halls, if according to the previous way of eating, these grains are enough to eat until the end of the year, even according to the current standard of four liters per day, more than 1,000 people are enough to consume more than 100 days.

What's more, after the hundred households said in advance, after this batch of grain was collected and stored in the official hall, the trained flag army first changed to six liters a day, and all of them were refined grain, and the participation in the production of salt fields was also changed to six liters, but the thickness was half each.

This treatment has been more than everyone who carries a flat burden to work everywhere, and it is never in arrears every day, during this period of time, Min Yuanqi's prestige has risen like a rocket, and no one doubts his commitment at all.