Li Xiao saw from a distance that Chen Zilong was riding on a gray horse, with four entourage, and was smiling at himself who was walking towards him. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Xiao stepped forward with a laugh, and after a few words of greeting, he immediately welcomed Chen Zilong into his official office and sat down for tea. Chen Zilong's entourage had relevant reception staff and took him to rest elsewhere.

"Master Li, I heard that you have successively defeated the Tartars in Xuanfu Town, made great achievements, and were promoted to the commander of the Red Fengwei, which is really gratifying!" Chen Zilong held the teacup with an admiring smile.

"Hehe, this must be a small work, not worth boasting about. It's just that as soon as this official position was promoted, I felt that there were many things and heavy responsibilities, but it was far from being as easy as when I was a thousand households. Li Xiao said with a smile.

Chen Zilong smiled slightly on his face and said in a low voice: "Lord Li is worried about money and food? ”

Li Xiao was shocked, this Chen Zilong, this ability to perceive people's hearts, is amazing.

"Mr. Wozi is very thoughtful, and what the official is worried about now is indeed the word money and food." Li Xiao let out a long sigh and laughed.

Then, Li Xiao will build Jintang City, and now there are only 200,000 taels of silver left in Chifeng Castle, and roughly told Chen Zilong about it.

Chen Zilong pondered for a while, and said with emotion: "Master Li, according to the student's opinion, there is a shortage of money and food now, and the root cause is that you are too anxious, and you have spread the stall too big all of a sudden. ”

"I would like to listen to Mr. Wozi's teaching."

"Lord Li, there is a way that you can't have both, if on that day, after the victory of your ministry in Xuanfu, do not stay in the local area, do not build this golden soup city, but take a total of more than 130,000 silver captured and rewarded, and immediately return to Shandong, now the silver on hand is much more alive."

"Alas, Wozi, what you said, this official has not thought about it. It's just that if we don't take this opportunity to take Jinjiazhuang Fort and build Jintang City, this important land that chokes access to the Mongolian tribes, our army is afraid that it will be difficult to get it. What's more, the local area is rich in sulfur, but it is something that our army urgently needs to develop firearms. ”

"Master Li is right, such a good opportunity is no longer missed. If this place can be used to open up a trade route to the Mongol tribes, then it is still worth the trouble of suffering from the shortage of money and food. ”

Chen Zilong was very smart and quickly saw Li Xiao's true intention to build Jintang City.

If you can really rely on this golden soup city to do business with the Mongolian tribes, then even if there are difficulties now, but if you survive it, the future profits will be endlessly rich.

"Wozi, now that the wood is in the boat, we still have to think more about what we can do now, so that we can raise money, food, and salaries as soon as possible, and ensure that our soldiers and people can live and operate normally." Li Xiao said with a worried face.

Seeing that Chen Zilong fell into a deep groan, Li Xiao continued: "The only financial resources used by this official now are commercial taxes, however, the shops outside Iron Dragon City and Chifeng Castle add up to only more than five hundred taels of commercial taxes a month, which is very helpful!" ”

"When will the iron of Iron Dragon City be produced?" Chen Zilong interjected.

"Mr. Wozi, now in the Iron Dragon City, the city wall and the military camp of the official office in the city have just been repaired, and the official estimates that it may take three or four months to wait until the official start of production of all kinds of qualified and usable iron tools, and if you want to wait until these iron products are sold and the money is sold back to the funds, it is estimated that it will take two months, so from now on for half a year, you can't expect the Iron Dragon City to bring any income."

When Li Xiao said this, he sighed in his heart.

At present, Li Xiaojun's development has actually entered a bottleneck period, and how to overcome this difficult situation is still quite a lot of thought.

There was silence in the room.

After a long time, Chen Zilong raised his head and said, "Master Li, the current situation, the students have a general understanding. The students believe that in order to get through the current difficult period, it is nothing more than to open up sources and reduce expenditure. ”

"Please elaborate, sir."

"Let's talk about throttling first, Lord Li, I heard that the standard for your army to eat pork is two catties of rice grain and three taels of pork per person per day, but is it true?"

"Exactly."

"The student had a plan to reduce pork consumption to one tael a day." Chen Zilong smiled.

"Oh, what's the plan?"

"Go out to sea to catch fish and use fish instead of pork. If this law is carried out, it can greatly reduce the amount of money used to buy pork, and it can also reduce the rapid consumption of grain. Chen Zilong replied.

"Is this possible?"

"Of course, the student's hometown is in Songjiang Prefecture, but it is convenient to eat fish. According to the experience of local fishermen in Songjiang, one pound of fish is worth two bowls of rice. If each person is equipped with one pound of fish per day, it is enough to reduce the consumption of pork to one tael per person per day, and the grain can also be reduced to one pound per person per day. And such nutritional conditions are much better than simply eating pork. ”

"That's a good idea!" Li Xiao praised: "Dare to ask sir, do you want to buy the fish and meat that I need from fishermen in other counties and towns?"

Chen Zilong shook his head and said, "Lord Li, I heard that your army has a No. 2 fortune boat, but it has been idle and useless in Longkou Bay, if you can use this boat to fish, it is the most suitable." If you don't have enough catch, it's never too late to buy it elsewhere. ”

"In this case, is it just that the boat used by this sailor can also be used for fishing?"

"Of course, in Songjiang Prefecture, there are special fishing nets for fishermen, and when the students design them, they will be made to order by craftsmen. Moreover, the students learned that from the Cheung Shan Islands to the east of Chi Feng Wei, there are good fishing grounds, and the amount of catch is bound to be very large, and it is not surprising that they can catch tens of thousands of catties at a time. Chen Zilong said confidently.

Listening to Chen Zilong's description, Li Xiao was also very happy in his heart.

According to the calculation of the 20,000 people who need Li Xiao to provide food, if each person needs one catty of rice, one or two pork, and one catty of fish per day, it can be easily calculated that the monthly need for grain is 4,000 stones, 37,500 catties of pork, and 600,000 catties of fish.

If the fish and meat can be self-sufficient, then the grain is now two taels of silver and one stone in Shandong, a total of 8,000 taels, and the price of pork in Shandong is now 3 cents of silver a catty, and the total price is 1,125 taels.

Chen Zilong's suggestion greatly saved the cost of pork, and the consumption of grain also saved a lot, and roughly calculated, the monthly cost was less than tens of thousands of taels of silver.

"Mr. Wozi's suggestion is good! Then Mr. Wozi will take more care about the production of this fishing net, and the officer hopes that our army can eat the captured sea fish as soon as possible. Li Xiao smiled happily.

Chen Zilong also laughed, he paused, and then said, "Master Li, now the students will talk about how to quickly increase the silver taels." I've heard that in the first few battles in Shandong, Lord Li suppressed bandits, fought rogues, and eliminated Zheng Longfang's troops, and captured a large number of weapons and armor, but is it a fact? ”

"Exactly, these weapons such as swords, bows, arrows, short guns, shields, and some replacement armor are all stored in my Chifeng Castle."

"How much?"

"According to preliminary estimates, there are 3,000 knives, 2,500 swords, 2,200 short guns, 1,000 shields, more than 800 bows and arrows, and 500 mandarin duck battle jackets." Li Xiao thought for a moment and replied.

Chen Zilong laughed: "I heard that these weapons are idle and useless because they do not match your army's combat philosophy. The students were thinking, if the adults could sell these swords and weapons, wouldn't it bring a lot of income to your army? ”

"Oh, it's just, who are these weapons going to sell to?"

Chen Zilong laughed, he straightened up and said: "Lord Li, you don't know, now in the land of Denglai, although the military disaster has subsided, but the bandits in various places still exist, however, the officials and troops in various places do not pay attention to the suppression of bandits, and the villages everywhere have to organize their own villagers to defend in order to protect themselves. The students were thinking, Master Li, if you take this little weapon to various towns and villages and sell it, it will definitely be sold out quickly. ”

After Chen Zilong finished speaking, Li Xiao's eyes lit up.

What a great idea.

The purchase price of these weapons in Shandong, swords and the like are basically more than 9 taels of silver, short spears and shields are more than 7 taels a piece, bows and arrows are the most expensive, generally 12 taels and one pair, and these replaced mandarin duck battle jackets, the cheapest price, is more than 10 taels.

Then, even if you sell it at a preferential price, all of it is calculated at 6 taels per piece, which is nearly 50,000 taels of silver. It is equivalent to adding two months of money to Li Xiaojun's money.

"What Mr. Wozi said is very much in line with my heart! This official will send people to the villages in various places of Denglai as soon as possible to sell these weapons and armor, and if they can be sold for 50,000 taels of silver, it can greatly alleviate the problem of the shortage of silver in our army. Li Xiao accepted Chen Zilong's suggestion with a smile on his face.

When Chen Zilong saw his own suggestion, Li Xiao accepted it, and he was very happy in his heart. In a cheerful mood, he continued: "My lord, the problem of throttling has been talked about below, and now the students will talk about the problem of open source. ”

Chen Zilong picked up the teacup, took a big sip, and said in a low voice: "Lord Li, do you know that this place is far away, but it is an important gold-producing land?" ”

Li Xiao immediately understood what Chen Zilong meant.

"Mr. Wozi, but you want this official to explore and dig gold mines in the original Zhaoyuan realm within my Chifeng Guard?"

"That's exactly what it means!" Chen Zilong said with a smile.

In the history of the Ming Dynasty, the gold mines in the Ming Dynasty, almost all of them were private mines, in the early years, such as Zhengde, Jiajing, these Ming Dynasty emperors, were very interested in gold mining, but under the collective resistance and secret operation of the civil official group, the cost of gold mining became higher and higher, and in the end, the cost was much higher than the income, and finally had to give up the imperial court mining, and instead gave it to private individuals, and the imperial court only took a cut of it.

It's just that as soon as the emperor withdrew, this shortage of gold mining was immediately divided between local officials and Haoqiang.

According to the history of the Ming Dynasty, among the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, the Wanli Emperor liked gold the most, and most of the gold in his inner treasury was the best Yunnan tribute gold, of which the horseshoe gold with high purity was the majority. One batch of this gold was given to his favorite son, King Fu, and the other was buried by him in his own tomb.

Most of the gold given to King Fu was squandered by King Fu, and a small part of the gold that was too late to spend was finally cheaper than Li Zicheng. The gold buried in Dingling has attracted Li Zicheng and the Qing army to steal and dig, but because the design of Dingling is solid and secret, Li Zicheng and the Qing army have not found the entrance to the underground palace, so they have to give up.

However, the shameful idea that the Wanli Emperor wanted to enjoy gold and happiness underground was destined to be broken.

To the red. Korean. Leather, red. The guards used explosives to blow up the tomb wall, forcibly opened the passage to the underground palace, and dragged the bones of the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun and the two queens Xiaojing and Xiaoduan out of the underground palace. The crowd has been approved. After the verdict, in a piece of "against the seal. Build, dispel mystery. letter", was doused with gasoline and incinerated. A large number of precious treasures and gold hidden in the underground palace have been missing since then, and only a small part is preserved in the Dingling Museum.

For the finance of the Ming Dynasty, because the imperial court has always adopted the silver standard system, the value of gold is underestimated, the people cannot afford it, and the rich people only use gold to make some jewelry items, these behaviors, resulting in the monetary value of gold is very low, which leads to the Ming Dynasty's gold and silver exchange ratio is also very low. Since the opening of the sea in Longwan, a large amount of gold was exchanged by the Spaniards and the Portuguese and the Dutch for silver to be minted into gold coins in Europe, and after the middle of Wanli, a large amount of gold flowed out, and the gold ratio of the Ming Dynasty gradually increased. However, after all, the Celestial Empire is vast and rich, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there was still a large amount of gold that was successfully exchanged by the Europeans.

"My lord, according to my understanding, in the central and southern parts of Zhaoyuan County, a lot of gold mines have been discovered and mined, and each mine can produce 10,000 taels to 20,000 taels of gold every year! The students heard that these gold miners were very rude to their miners, and they were not good at managing them, and they were probably not good at managing, and their excavation was very arbitrary. ”

Listening to Chen Zilong's words, Li Xiao felt that his strong heart was pounding.

If you can get 20,000 taels of gold a year, according to the current ratio of gold and silver exchange in the imperial court, there is no problem with exchanging 20,000 taels of gold for 260,000 taels of silver, such a profit is enough to make people crazy.

Li Xiao was even glad in his heart, if it weren't for the Denglai Rebellion back then, he was afraid that he would never have had the opportunity to connect with those attractive mines rich in gold.

Wealth is forcing people to come, and Encore doesn't take it!

"Mr. Wozi, your suggestion is excellent, then the official will pay a lot of money to Zhaoyuan County to recruit skilled gold mining craftsmen who know how to prospect and excavate, hoping to explore gold mines in my Chifengwei realm as soon as possible."

"Master Li, as far as the students know, this gold mining land is often accompanied by deposits such as copper and lead ore, and if these minerals can be discovered, they will be extremely beneficial to your army." Chen Zilong said excitedly, his eyes shining.

"Very good, if our army finds gold mines and related minerals, it will be the power of Mr. Wozi!"

After Li Xiao finished speaking, he looked at Chen Zilong's eyes, full of deep meaning.

Chen Zilong made three suggestions to himself: Go to the sea to fish to replenish food, sell idle weapons to supplement finances, and dig gold mines to increase gold and silver income, all of which are necessary measures that need to be urgently implemented in his army.

Li Xiao sighed in his heart, no matter what era it is, talent is really the most critical and scarce resource.

This Chen Zilong, who once worshipped Xu Guangqi as his teacher, has a lot of practical knowledge in his belly, and these practical knowledge that can play a role in real life is what Li Xiao needs most for his current development. This is much more practical than the so-called clear stream discussions.

"Wozi, to be honest, compared to these good suggestions you gave to the officer, the officer appreciates your talent more."

"Master Xie praises absurdly, Zilong is only a shallow learner, how can he afford it."

"I can afford it. The officer also got straight to the point and said, Wozi, the officer hopes that you will stay by my side for a long time, and if a talent like you is put into our army, he will definitely be able to play a greater role. Li Xiao looked at Chen Zilong with blazing eyes.

Chen Zilong's face was moved, he stood up and bowed to Li Xiaochang.

"From now on, that Zilong will officially serve Lord Li."

"Okay, the official appointed Mr. Wozi as a pro-follower of the painting, with a monthly salary of 20 taels." Li Xiao's smile was as bright as sunshine, he patted Chen Zilong on the shoulder and said: "This official will send someone to Jinan to take Zilong your servants and luggage from Jinan, from now on, you will stay by the official's side for a long time, make plans for the official, and praise military affairs!" ”

Chen Zilong bowed again when he heard this: "Students obey the orders of adults!" ”

(Thank you Xi Ao for the monthly pass, Verde V Palace reward, thank you for your support, yesterday's power outage, sorry for the delay.) (To be continued.) )