Regarding what Tang Yu said, in fact, Liu Juntao didn't agree too much with it in his heart.

Liu Juntao also knew in his heart that if he wanted to maintain a horse team of a certain size, the money and food needed must be very huge, but after all, the Chen family has a big business, and the accumulated family foundation must be very rich, so it should not be dragged down by a horse team.

So, Liu Juntao said with some suspicion: "With the Chen family's background, it shouldn't be dragged down by the horse team, right?" ”

Tang Yu said: "Mr. Lian, the consumption required to maintain a horse team is very huge, and these costs are not overnight, they need to be maintained for a long time. For example, the forage and bean material needed for war horses are very difficult to buy, and the cost is huge, even if the imperial court maintains a large-scale horse team, it is inadequate, not to mention our Yushanji and Chen family, such as the people? ”

After listening to Tang Yu's words, Liu Juntao instantly understood the meaning, Tang Yu's intention was not in the Chen family, but in Yushanji!

Tang Yu: This is something in the words!

"You mean to say that since the Chen family can't afford the consumption of maintaining a horse team, then it is even more inappropriate for our Yushan Group to expand the horse team?"

Tang Yu couldn't help lowering his head when he heard this, looking a little hesitant, obviously because Liu Juntao had said that he was in his mind.

However, after only a while, Tang Yu mustered up his courage and said in a deep voice: "Mr. Lian, I know that you have always wanted to form a horse team, and after I met the people of the Chen family in Slip Town this time, I thought that the Chen family is likely to carry a heavy burden because of the expansion of the horse team, and even break the family because of this!" ”

"From this, I thought of our Yushan set again, although the affairs of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have improved greatly, and the income of all items is growing, but our Yushan set has a weak foundation after all, and we can't afford to consume the money and food needed to maintain a large-scale horse team!"

Liu Juntao couldn't help frowning when he heard this, and asked, "Let me ask you, how much balance can we have every month in Yushanji now?" ”

"After deducting the necessary expenses of all parties, our Yushan Ji will probably have a balance of 30,000 to 40,000 taels of silver per month."

"Then let me ask you, how much silver does it cost to maintain a horse team of about 500 people per month?"

Tang Yu pondered for a while, thinking in his heart, and then said: "Mr. Lian, what is the most important thing in this horse team?" It's a war horse! If a war horse wants not to lose fat, a day's food needs fifteen catties of hay and three liters of bean material. And the war horse has to hire a special groom to take care of it, which ordinary people can't do! ”

Tang Yu was almost folding his fingers to settle accounts for Liu Juntao, and said: "Mr. Lian, let's not count the cost of recruiting horse team riders, just the silver required to raise five hundred war horses is more than three or four thousand taels per month!" If you add in the monthly cost of the horse team riders, our Yushan Ji will spend at least five or six thousand taels of silver on the horse team every month! ”

Liu Juntao laughed when he heard this: "Speaking of which, our Yushanji can still afford to raise at least five hundred horses?" ”

"Mr. Lian! The horse team's payouts are too big! The monthly surplus of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Civil Affairs has to do a lot of things, and the stalls spread out by our Yushan Market are too big, and if we can't keep it, we will urgently need money, and we can't put such a large sum of money on the horse team! ”

Looking at Tang Yu, who was a little excited, Liu Juntao said in a gentle tone: "Tang Yu, let me ask you, now the Chen family is expanding its troops and is expanding the horse team unscrupulously, if our Yushan Ji is indifferent for the remaining silver, then once the battle starts in the future, what will I use to resist the Chen family's horse team?" Do you want to use the flesh and blood of your brothers to resist the crazy war horses of the Chen family? ”

Tang Yu was silent when he heard this, and he also understood in his heart that what Liu Juntao said was indeed reasonable, but his experience in business affairs warned him that he must not put all the silver in one place! Not to mention a horse team that can only be input, but not output!

Liu Juntao knew that Tang Yu was engaged in a fierce ideological struggle at this time, so he continued: "Now that we are expanding our strength at the same time as the Chen family, although we will be relatively tight on money and food, this is only temporary!" ”

"Tang Yu, think about it, how much did we gain from defeating the Wang family and the Liu family? It can be said that every victory of our Yushan set has harvested gold and silver! Although we have to invest a lot of money and food to build a horse team this time, and we have to spend a lot of money to maintain it, as long as we lay down the Chen family, the maintenance cost of the horse team is not worth mentioning at all! ”

"Whew!"

Tang Yu understood that Liu Juntao had already made up his mind and must build a horse team, and he also understood that as Liu Juntao said, after preparing for the horse team, the only way to alleviate the shortage of money and food in Yushan was to lay down the Chen family at all costs!

"It looks like it's all or nothing!"

So, Tang Yu said in a deep voice: "I understand! Mr. Lian, what do I need to do? ”

Liu Juntao stretched out two fingers and said, "Two things!" First, like the Chen family, buy me horses on a large scale! Second, recruit at least 500 men who are good at riding! ”

Hearing this, Tang Yu was stunned again, he didn't expect Liu Juntao to be really generous, and as soon as he made a move, he really directly planned to build five hundred horses!

"Mr. Lian, five hundred horses? Let's not talk about whether we can buy so many horses around Yushanji, but the silver for buying horses is a lot of money! ”

"How much silver do you need?"

Tang Yu roughly calculated and said, "Mr. Lian, there is no way to buy war horses on the market now, and it is already good to be able to buy a good mount." In the early years of the dynasty, the average high-quality horse was about eight taels of silver, which was the official price! The actual price of the folk is basically about ten taels. ”

"And now?"

"Now here in Yanzhou Mansion, the private price of a horse is about fifteen taels and one horse, and it is basically priceless!"

"That's going to be hard!"

After listening to Tang Yu's words, Liu Juntao made a difficulty.

According to the price given by Tang Yu, it costs fifteen taels of silver to buy a horse, and the five hundred horses cost seven thousand five hundred taels just to buy, not counting the cost of raising horses and recruiting riders in the later stage!

Tang Yu is also thinking about countermeasures, since it has been decided to build a horse team, he can only help Liu Juntao think about a solution to the problem.

Both of them pondered and pondered how they could get enough horses.

The first way that the two thought of was to buy war horses directly from Shanxi and other places through the caravan of the Ministry of Commerce!

But after careful discussion between Liu Juntao and Tang Yu, both of them felt that this method seemed feasible, but in fact it could not succeed at all!

On the one hand, the Shanxi border is not only far away from Shandong, and there are too many uncontrollable situations on the way, but it also has to pass through Henan, which is the Chen family's sphere of influence! It's okay for the caravan of Yushanji to sell some ordinary goods, once it gets involved with the war horse, it is equivalent to taking the initiative to send a "big gift" to the Chen family, and the Chen family will definitely not let go of such a good opportunity to "pick peaches".

Moreover, the war horse was strictly supervised by the imperial court, and the journey from the western border of Shanxi to the Yanzhou Mansion in Shandong was not only thousands of miles? Selling such eye-catching goods as war horses, the government will definitely not let it go along the way, and such a move is almost self-defeating!

However, is there any other way to raise a sufficient number of horses in a short period of time?

Liu Juntao and Tang Yu fell into deep thought.

Suddenly, Tang Yu seemed to remember something, slapped his thigh, and said, "Mr. Lian!" Maybe we can get a lot of horses without spending money, and we can also recruit skilled riders by the way! ”

"What?"

Liu Juntao couldn't believe it when he heard it, if there was such a good thing, then why did the Chen family go to Huakou Town to buy horses?

"What's the solution? Say it! ”

Tang Yu smiled and said four words: "Shandong Ma Zheng!" ”