Hundreds of miles away, in the governor's palace in the city of Guangzhou, the lights are bright, from the palace gate to the back hall hundreds of glazed copper wire lamps illuminate all corners of the mansion as if it were day.

Under the flagpole in front of the door, the soldiers of the Guards Battalion still stood there like steel cast iron, holding weapons in their hands and patrolling around vigilantly, occasionally making eye contact with their comrades who came on patrol, and nodding slightly.

In the back house of the house, from the flower hall to the study, there was a crackling sound in the courtyard several times. This is a voice that is extremely disgusting to countless scholars and scholars, but it is a very pleasant voice that Shouhan hears.

He gathered together the bookkeepers of the various firms that were prevalent in Guangzhou, and calculated the income for their chief treasurer, Li Peiting.

In the flower hall, Li Peilin looked at the dozens of bookkeepers in front of him, nervously fiddling with the abacus flexibly with his fingers on the ledger, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, and a cup of hot cocoa in his hand.

The sound that resounded in the courtyard was the sound of dozens of gentlemen playing with the beads of the abacus.

Watching the thick stack of ledgers gradually turn into numbers, which were recorded and copied by the secretaries on the table next to him, Shouhan also looked at the scene in front of him with great pride.

Li Peiting hurried south from the capital in order to inform Shouhan of the trade situation between the Ming Dynasty and the north this winter.

Moreover, there are some accounts that only he knows the details of, and cannot be known to a third person.

The reason is simple, a large part of it is not a business that can be used by outsiders.

The red-headed book is a record of the business transactions with the government, the military and the people in the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, and the number of account books is the largest and the most trivial.

This is followed by blackheads. It is used to record business dealings with various anti-thieves: a group of traitors in Liaodong, Shaanxi anti-thieves who wandered between the Jianghuai River and the Han Dynasty, the number and variety of thieves were huge, and the profits far exceeded the official trade with the Ming Dynasty.

The highest profit margins are those reflected in the green book.

This kind of book records the business dealings with the various departments of Soren in Heilongjiang. Refined salt, white sugar, cotton cloth, grain, spices, spirits, knives, guns, armor, bows, arrows, iron pots, axes, etc., in exchange for tiger bones, furs, eastern pearls, bear paws, raw gold, and other things.

Profit margins are outrageous.

The tightness of the guard that comes with such a thing is obvious.

The soldiers of the guards battalion who were guarding outside were all selected Miao soldiers who did not have a lot of literacy, and most of them were the children of the Red Miao who had been attached, and they had always been very envious of the treatment of the first batch of Miao compatriots who were attached to Wang Bao back then. Therefore, loyalty is absolutely no problem, even to the point of carrying out orders.

Just now. Yan Mei'er saw her husband and Li Peiting with a group of gentlemen there desperately settling accounts. I couldn't even take care of dinner, and I felt a little distressed, so I ordered the small kitchen to make some supper and send it, but was stopped at the door by a few soldiers on duty outside the second gate.

A little maid is proud to be favored in front of the second lady. He even scolded the soldier on duty a few words. The harsh language provoked those Miao men. He taught the maid a good lesson with a copper-skinned scabbard. When Shouhan heard this, it was just a one-sentence comment, "Well done." Reward. ”

I heard the cries and moans that were forcibly suppressed outside. Li Peiting's eyes were still looking at the distant starry sky, as if he was looking for something from the vast universe. He is very happy to see such things. Since the death of his little sister, he, like his brother, has hated Li Muhua. has always stubbornly believed that if it weren't for her, the little sister would definitely not die.

After a long while, the crackling sound of the abacus finally fell silent, and became a burst of whispers and the rustle of the tip of a pen scratching the paper.

At the second watch, people finally handed a detailed list of benefits and details to Shouhan.

"My lord, please see."

Send dozens of bookkeepers away for dinner and supper. Shouhan and Pei Ting came to the water pavilion in the back garden, which is surrounded by water on three sides, and a long corridor connects the land and the water. A few pro-soldiers held the corridor, and Shouhan and Pei Ting could speak freely.

"Second brother, I have gained a lot this winter!"

Flipping through the more than ten pieces of paper in his hand, Shouhan saw very clearly by the light.

In Nanjing, the capital alone, there were as many as 436,700 taels of luxury goods such as glass vanity mirrors sold in the capital of Liu. If you count the soys and other boudoir toys (a very elegant name given by the nobles and scholars of Nanjing, who gave them a very elegant name for the sex toys produced in Nanzhong), this number is doubled.

This is only a part of the legitimate trade, and it can be said that it is only the tip of the iceberg of the entire South-China trade with the North.

"My lord, please see, this is the trade between Shaanxi Mizhi Li Ji and our army, Shaanxi Cao Ji's, and this one is Shaanxi Zhang Yuji."

Li Peiting did not have any psychological discomfort with the rogue trade with the rogue bandits who were rampant in various places, and he was able to trade with the thieves in Liaodong, so what was the rogue with the hinterland? It's just that among the many rogue bandits, why does the lord only look at the details of the transactions between the Chuang Ying Li Zicheng Department with Mizhi Li Ji as the code name, the Cao Ying Luo Rucai Department with Cao Ji as the code name, and the Zhang Xianzhong Department of the Eight Kings of Xiying with the adopted son and Zhang Yuer's foreign name as the code name?

"Count 2,700 pairs of armor, 5,000 spearheads, 2,000 iron-tired bows, 150,000 arrows, and 3,000 long knives. There were six large Buddha machines, 200 cannons, and 1,000 barrels of gunpowder. 7,000 pieces of cotton cloth, 60,000 catties of refined salt, 1,000 jars of soju, 10,000 meat porcelain jars, and 10,000 fish porcelain jars. 200,000 catties of all kinds of salted meat. ”

These are the details of the various supplies and weapons purchased by the three companies from various places before the onset of winter. However, since entering Chongzhen for eleven years, the peasant army has been unfavorable.

First of all, on the fourth day of the first lunar month, Li Zicheng and other troops heard that Hong Chengchou led the army into Sichuan and gathered in northern Sichuan. Hong Chengchou's troops in the middle of the river strictly guarded the key points. The peasant army guarded the north of Sichuan according to the danger, and there was a shortage of food for a long time, so Chengchou lured it with the Sichuan division, and personally led the Shaanxi soldiers to ambush in Zitong. On the 13th, Zicheng was trapped in Zitong, and the battle with Chengchou was unfavorable, and he led the rest of his troops back to Shaanxi.

Zhang Xianzhong's peasant army was defeated by Zuo Liangyu, Chen Hongfan and other troops in the Yunxiang area. Zuo Liangyu shot Luo Dai's arrow to the denomination of loyalty, and Liangyu chased after him. The knife whisks the face of loyalty. The loyal army was defeated, suffered heavy losses, and was transferred to Gucheng. When Xiong Wencan was the prime minister, he commanded the Ming army, decided to take charge of the plan, and published a surrender.

In March, after Li Zicheng led his troops from Sichuan to Shaanxi, he went out from Taozhou, and the governor Hong Chengchou ordered Cao Bianjiao and He Renlong to chase and annihilate. Zicheng led the army to fight hard with Cao's army for days and days, and fought for thousands of miles. Fandi is sparsely populated and lacks food, and the peasant army has no food. Exhausted. Many died in battle and starved to death. After the defeat of Chengtaozhou, he led the army to re-enter the fortress and went to Minzhou and the mountains of Xihe and Lixian. Cao Bianjiao pursued him, and Li Zicheng and others lurked in the mountains and did not come out.

"When I went south from the capital. Go to Xue Xiangguo's mansion to resign. According to the people in his house. There are precious treasures from the guests of Gucheng to visit. At that time, there were already rumors in Kyochu. Zhang Xianzhong's guy bribed Xiong Wencan and the general soldier Chen Hongfan with heavy treasures to seek peace. ”

"What about Cao Cao?"

"He? This person is worthy of the nickname Cao Cao! spent some silver and bribed the admiral eunuch of Wudang Mountain. Steadily led his Fang Junjiu Battalion to camp in Fang County and Jun County, resting troops and raising horses. ”

"When you go back and tell me, although these people are either accepting the offer of peace or asking for surrender and hiding in the mountains, they are not people who can keep their own peace. I will arrange ships to transport all kinds of weapons and materials to the mouth of the Yangtze River, and you will send capable personnel to contact this generation and exchange all the gold and silver goods, antiques, calligraphy and paintings they have looted in their hands to us! ”

"Good! What these people have in their hands is gold and silver, and what they lack is good weapons and armor. ”

"In addition to selling weapons to rogues, weapons from all over the country must also be sold. We can't let the rogues overwhelm the officers and soldiers all at once. ”

For this approach of guarding the Han, Li Peiting has already won three of them. The longer and more ruthlessly the war is fought, the more buyers will be for the weapons, food, cotton, gunpowder, and other products produced in South China.

For the rogues and the official army, in addition to gold and silver, those books, calligraphy and paintings that are too hard to wipe their butts can also be exchanged for armor, knives and guns, which is undoubtedly a great bargain, and these are often used to burn fires for warmth.

Speaking of rare books and antique calligraphy and paintings, Li Peiting suddenly remembered one thing.

In February, Chen Zilong and others organized the compilation of the "Emperor Ming Jing Shiwen Compilation" completed, this book is 504 volumes, 4 volumes of addenda, a total of politics, culture and education, military equipment, royal four categories, 61 subheads, the beginning of the Jiguo Dynasty to the present 427 people of the collection of manuscripts, the inside is considerable. Do you want to get a set and send it to the school for the students to read? ”

For this book, Shouhan had some impressions in a trance, and the book preserves a large number of political and economic materials of the Ming Dynasty, which is an important document for the study of the history of the Ming Dynasty. In particular, the book also collects a considerable number of Qing rulers' ancestors and the relationship between the Ming Dynasty, and records the historical facts that the Jiannu were most reluctant to let people know about the Tao, so the book is also an important document for the study of the early history of the Qing Dynasty.

"It's not about getting a set back. I plan to do this, and when I go back, I will give the imperial court an inscription in the name of the Governor Liangguang and the Governor Nanzhong's military horses, money, and grain, saying that I want to promote the enlightenment of the saints in Nanzhong and Liangguang, and ask the imperial court to give me the engraving of this book. I will print this book in large quantities in Guangdong and Nanzhong, so that the military and the people can know the difficulties of the government affairs of the Daoist Imperial Court. ”

"You can also let the people compare the difference between under the rule of the lord and under the rule of the imperial court!"

When Li Peiting heard that Shouhan planned to print this book in large quantities, he couldn't help but smile.

After a few jokes, the two continued to flip through the lists.

"Lord Lu of the Xuan army is very trustworthy. You bought him the iron farm tools and armor on credit, and the price was paid in full in February. In the past few years, he has reclaimed a large number of wasteland in the three towns of Xuanda to raise the displaced people, and now the soldiers and horses of the Tianxiong army directly under the headquarters have reached the scale of more than 5,000 people, and the treasury has stored 400,000 stones of grain. He sent for me to give thanks to the Lord a lot. ”

As for the assistance to Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou and others, half of it was out of public intentions and half out of selfish interests. But for these two court officials who were the most capable of fighting at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Shouhan was quite gratified.

"Hong Hengjiu's defeat of Li Chuang this time, to be honest, half of it also relied on our strong armor. Those military leaders, when they heard that the weapons that could be captured belonged to them, that even the old and weak, women and children could also be exchanged for something, and they no longer counted the merit by the number of beheadings, but began to calculate the number of captures. ”

"Second brother, do you think that if Hong Heng's nine subordinates are against Liaodong Jiannu, the victory or defeat will be geometric?"

Speaking of this question, Li Peiting put down the account book in his hand, held his chin and thought carefully.

"If Hong Hengjiu's direct troops encounter the Eight Banners Mongolia, it can be said that they are nine out of ten. But if you encounter the Eight Banners of Manchuria, or those heavily armored dead soldiers, the white-armored soldiers in the Eight Banners of Manchuria, I am afraid that the victory or defeat is only five or five. Moreover, the officials and soldiers faced the Eight Banners, and they were a little cowardly in terms of momentum. ”

There are strong armor and sharp soldiers, there is no heart to fight for life and death, and no matter how good the weapons and armor are, they are just trophies prepared for others. Shouhan sighed in his heart.

"This is the number of weapons purchased by officials and soldiers in Datong Town, Shanxi Town, Jizhen Town, Yutian Town, Shanhai Town, Ningyuan, Jinzhou and other places.

"Forty big Buddha machines, 30,000 spears, and 10,000 steel knives. 20,000 helmets. 5,000 barrels of gunpowder, 10,000 collars of armor. 200,000 stone of rice, 5,000 stone of salt, and 100,000 jin of oil. 50,000 porcelain jars for meat. 30,000 fish porcelain jars. 100,000 pieces of cotton cloth of various colors. 2,000 stones of spices and 10,000 jars of soju. ”

This number is not huge, and the big one makes Shouhan a little surprised.

If all these supplies are used in the above-mentioned military towns. I'm afraid that the families of the lieutenant generals and leading officers in the various military towns have all become Nanzhong and are equipped to the teeth. However, according to the consistent practice of the officers and soldiers, the theft and sale of weapons, military rations, and horse materials is nothing new. What's more, these well-known weapons?

"Were those cannons, armor, swords and guns stolen and sold by the officers and soldiers?"

"Food, armor, knives and guns, nine times out of ten, they have been resold. Moreover, the flow is nothing more than two places, one is to build slaves, and the other is to rogue couges. However, those cannons, in order to protect their own wealth, the deep ditches and high bases are not enough, and who is willing to sell this sharp weapon? Let others use it to conquer their own cities? ”

"This time I went south, and I brought a total of 200 artillery pieces of various types, all of which were purchased from various military towns. The armor was still there. ”

"Two hundred guns? That's at least 1.6 million silver!? ”

"Yes, it's already been paid into the warehouse."

"Why are there so many artillery contracts? Isn't there an artillery bureau in the capital? Can't you cast it yourself? ”

"Lord, do you mean that Tang Ruowang and that Hongmaoyi?"

Li Peiting mentioned Tang Ruowang with a look of disdain.

In the third year of Chongzhen, under the recommendation of Xu Guangqi, Tang Ruowang served as the Qintianjian Supervisor, and Chongzhen compiled the Chongzhen Almanac in seven years, and was ordered by the Ming court to supervise the construction of war cannons in the West, and dictated the principles and techniques of cannon smelting, manufacturing, storage, transportation, performance, gunpowder preparation, and shell manufacturing.

After the Qing demon retreated in the ninth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youzhen ordered Tang Ruowang to set up a cannon factory in Beijing, and a total of 20 cannons were cast in the eleventh year of Chongzhen.

However, entrusted by Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng and others, they imitated the big Buddha Lang machine given to them by Shouhan, but they were repeatedly puzzled. It was finally manufactured, but the weight was too large, not to mention the inconvenience of movement, and the cost alone disappointed the military leaders everywhere.

The cost of casting a large franc machine for John Tang was more than 9,000 taels of silver, while it was enough to buy one for 8,000 silver dollars in Xiangnanzhong, and it also came with five rounds of guns, 20 barrels of gunpowder and 20 cannons. The handling personnel also have a 95% off rebate to get.

"Looks like you're going to have to make a few workshops work overtime?"

The two looked at each other and smiled.

"My lord, there is another matter."

Pei Ting's face suddenly became solemn.

"On my way south, I saw a lot of ships of the Zheng family's sailors, which were constantly heading north. Judging by the draught of the ships, it is very likely that it is grain that is being transported. This time, Fujian has opened a sea ban, and I am worried that if the nature of this pirate does not change, he will do something greedy for money, which will ruin the lord's big business! ”

Due to the continuous use of troops and the lack of financial resources, on the 14th day of the first month of the 11th year of Chongzhen (1638), the Ming court was invited by Fu Yuanchu from the engineering department to open the Fujian sea ban and trade and salary. This gave Zheng Zhilong a legitimate reason to send the sea ships south and north to engage in maritime trade. If it weren't for the early start of Shouhan, he took advantage of the Shimabara Rebellion and the Kyushu Trend to turn trade with Japan into a dog chain tied around Japan's neck in his hands, and I was afraid that this trade route would become Zheng Zhilong's cornucopia.

"Worried about what?"

Shouhan wants to understand his relatives' views on Zheng Zhilong Group.

"The lord, the ships under the Zheng family, the size of the tens of thousands, traces as far west as Tianzhu, south to the Boni country, Luzon, east to Japan, and Zheng Zhilong and the Japanese daimyo have Lang uncle close relatives, and now, all the above directions are under the control of the lord. The subordinates thought that if they were Zheng Zhilong, for the livelihood of tens of thousands of people and thousands of ships, they would either have a big fight with the lord and recapture the above-mentioned trade routes, or they could only go north. However, if you go north, what trade routes can you find? ”

Against the dark background, Li Peiting's two eyes shone brightly.

"In addition to selling all kinds of materials, food, weapons, and artillery purchased from our southern and central parts to the mainland and Liaodong to fight against thieves, what business opportunities can be found?"

"And if he sells military weapons and materials to the mainland officials and soldiers, the price will naturally be much higher than mine, and he can only accept real money, such as antique calligraphy, paintings, books, etc., which are useless things, not to mention those old and weak women and children. Those officers and generals are not fools, so why should they trade with him? ”

"In this way, he has only one way to go, that is, to go north to Lushunkou and sell food, artillery, and weapons to Jiannu!"

Hearing this, Shouhan couldn't help but be a little surprised. No matter how greedy Zheng Zhilong is, he will not risk the world's great inaction to trade grain with Liaodong Jiannu?

"Lord, you have a good heart!"

Li Peiting sneered.

"I say this for a reason!" (To be continued......)