What Weng Shuping wouldn't do, Xu Shiliu didn't care.

He did not allow the gentry to encroach on Yongye Field, nor did he care about the imperial court withholding the food and salary that should have been given.

Because Xu Shiliu has other ways to subsidize the troops.

First of all, the land of Jinghu North Road, since the beginning of Longdao, Xu Shiliu has opened up Jinghu Lake, a total of 1.5 million acres, in addition to occupying 1.5 million acres of cooked land in the original cave, a total of 3 million acres of land, which is enough to feed 60,000 households.

Xu Shiliu opened up Jinghu and the actual distribution of homeless people was only 30,000 households, and in recent years, the population has increased a lot by organizing the Dongman households and recruiting the homeless people north of the Huai River, but the total number is only 40,000 households, not counting the captured Dongman slaves, there are only more than 20 and less than 300,000 people.

Xu Shiliu himself occupied as much as 500,000 mu of the extra land as private property, and gave 300,000 mu to his teacher Wenjia, and some Great Zhou officials who were familiar with him and could bring him benefits in the court shared 200,000 mu.

All these lands were managed by the stewards and heads of the villages, and Xu Shiliu provided them with barbarian slaves to cultivate on a leased or outright basis.

The grain grown went straight down the Yangtze River, to the Liangzhejiang Road, or by canal or sea, and sold to Qi - not because Xu Shiliu always went to his home, but because the price of grain in Jiangnan was not high, and it was better to sell it to Qi at a profit than to sell it to Qi State.

Xu Shiliu's father and brother did not pay him food stamps, but paid the bill with money - iron money.

Qi Province, Hebei Province, and Southern Liaoning are all areas rich in coal and iron resources, and with the support of blast furnaces, Qi Province's steel output has far exceeded Zhou.

There is no doubt that Qi is now the world's largest producer of steel—even if no one knows how much iron is produced in the civilized world outside the East.

A large amount of steel naturally made the price of steel products in Qi fall rapidly, so Qi began to cast iron money from the second half of the second year of Longdao.

These iron coins did not circulate within the Qi State, but were taken to Jiangnan through the Li family in Shuangyu or Xu Shiliu in Jinghu to set shopping materials.

In Jiangnan, because of the large copper shortage, the number of coins minted in the Great Zhou has not been enough to meet the market demand.

Therefore, in the Great Zhou, the market has always been gold, silver, silk, copper, and iron coins circulating in parallel.

Among them, the approximate exchange ratio of the currency that is not too bad is as follows:

1 tael of gold for 5 taels of silver;

1 horse of silk for 1 tael of 5 coins of silver;

1 tael of silver is exchanged for 1.5 copper coins equal to 1125 Wen;

1 copper coin can be exchanged for 2 iron coins, 1500 Wen.

Moreover, there is always a problem with the coinage of the Great Zhou, that is, the material used in the Zhou coin actually exceeds the value of the coin itself - that is, if you melt the Great Zhou coins into copper, the price of the copper will exceed the face value of the copper coins you melt.

This gave Qi a great deal to buy and sell materials in the south of the Yangtze River - Qi privately minted Da Zhou iron money, because the price of Qi iron is low (the labor cost under the assistance of the machine is also much lower than that of Da Zhou), it is a huge profit to exchange the three iron coins for a full weight Zhou copper coin.

Under these circumstances, the state of Qi exchanged 1,800 wen iron coins for the usual copper coins, and poured iron money into Jiangnan on a large scale to purchase various materials, including the currency of the Great Zhou.

In this way, both sides still feel that they have earned it.

Of course, this trade can't be done for too long, because after a large amount of copper coins flow out, the value of copper coins will inevitably rise, and then the iron money exchange rate in Jiangbei will not have an advantage, but that is a matter of the future after all, and the Qi State Household Department believes that this kind of profiteering business can be done for at least ten years - if the Great Zhou still exists at that time.

As the prince of Qi, Xu Shiliu could sell materials to Qi at the exchange rate of 2,000 Wen iron coins to copper coins, and at the same time, he could also withhold all the military salaries issued by the imperial court to the Jinghu Army and replace them with iron coins with 1,800 Wen exchange rates.

This allowed him to quickly accumulate a large amount of private wealth, and at the same time, the sergeants of the Jinghu Army also felt that Master Jinglu was deliberately subsidizing everyone's military salary with his own private wealth - if you really have to calculate it carefully, the soldiers are indeed equivalent to taking 1.2 times the military salary.

There is no doubt that in the history of the Great Zhou Dynasty, this is the first time that there are senior civil officials who take care of the soldiers so much, and the soldiers are naturally willing to serve Xu Shiliu, and the soldiers of the Shunyi Army next to them naturally miss the old commander very much, and a military general like Lu Wenzhao who feels that he has no future will naturally try his best to take refuge in Xu Shiliu.

"Old Lu, I remember, you were the first old man to follow me, right?"

Xu Shiliu suddenly asked a question that was not very related to the topic.

"Yes, it's rare for adults to remember it." Lu Wenzhao said respectfully.

"Then don't call me an adult, I'm a lot younger than you, and I'm an old friend, I'm a little unaccustomed to talking like this, you can call me Shiliu directly in the future." Xu Shiliu pulled the rod fiercely, and a big fish was struggling desperately with the strength of the fishing line.

"What a fish!" Lu Wenzhao wiped his tears, and still praised respectfully: "Good means, adult!" ”

"It's too raw." Xu Shiliu shook his head and smiled.

Lu Wenzhao is almost saying that he will not be so presumptuous in front of Xu Shiliu.

Xu Shiliu didn't insist too much, he continued:

"The old brothers are willing to come to me, I naturally welcome it, after all, I am also just starting out here, and I am very short of people to help me."

"Lao Lu, I remember that your kung fu is good?"

"Your Excellency has won the prize." Lu Wenzhao lowered his head and said, "It's just that no one in the generals of the forbidden army can beat them." ”

"Brave generals, in fact, Da Zhou is very short of brave generals, but all of you, except for my clan brother, look down on martial artists a little."

"Since you have come to join me, I have to give you a chance. In this way, you can find a way to pull the old brothers who are still in the Shunyi Army over, how much can you pull, if you can make up enough for 1,000 households, if you can't make up enough, I will make up for the number of soldiers for you. ”

"Pull the old brothers here?" Lu Wenzhao cautiously asked, "What if Lord Weng doesn't agree?" ”

"You are very brave, and the fierce generals can be reckless."

"It's ......."

Seeing him, Xu Shiliu said compassionately: "Don't be afraid of the dead, as long as Weng Shuping is fine, the other miscellaneous pieces from Jiangnan, no matter who loses their traces, I can settle things for you." ”

"Thank you, sir!" The corners of Lu Wenzhao's mouth were almost to his ears - the purpose of his trip had been achieved, how could he not be happy.

What's more, Xu Shiliu hinted that he could stop by to find those hateful gentry to vent his anger.

"Lao Lu."

Xu Shiliu watched Lu Wenzhao put the fish he had just caught into the fish basket, and said seemingly casually:

"You say, the court oppresses the warriors so much, if something happens in the future, how should you warriors choose?"

Lu Wenzhao looked up at Xu Shiliu's smiling face suddenly, and after a while, he lowered his head under Xu Shiliu's gaze and said categorically:

"I, Lu Wenzhao, only know the adult, what the adult asks Lu Wenzhao to do, Lu Wenzhao will do!"

"Hehe, today's harvest is good, Lao Lu, come to my house to eat, how about tasting the fish on our Jinghu Road."