"Okay, that's it for today, you go back first." Zhao Gou was a little tired.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Retire! Yang Cunzhong stood up and saluted.

"When it comes to selecting and promoting young generals, you come up with a specific charter, the sooner the better." Zhao Gou suddenly added.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Yang Cunzhong stopped and replied respectfully.

"As for recruiting new soldiers, there is no rush for the time being, and we will discuss it after the generals of each army are replaced." Zhao Gou added.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Go ahead." Zhao Gou waved his hand slightly.

"The minister retired."

After Yang Cunzhong saluted, he strode away from the vertical arch hall.

The ministers left, the hall was empty, and it was suddenly quiet.

Zhao Gou was left with only one attendant who served him.

"Official, let's have another bowl of cold soup." At the end of the discussion, the chamberlain saw fine beads of sweat oozing from Zhao Gou's forehead, and hurriedly reminded him.

"Huang Qi, how many supplies are still not sold?" Zhao Gou ignored it, and instead asked about other things.

This chamberlain is none other than Huang Qi, the deputy envoy of Huiyi.

I only heard him reply: "I can't say how many small ones there are, I asked once last month, and there are still about 22 million yuan worth of goods left in the warehouse, some of which cannot be sold, but must be kept in the palace for use, or used for rewards, it is difficult to distinguish, and it is difficult to estimate." In addition, there are two boatloads of materials that are not valuable, and there are few people who like them, so they cannot be sold. ”

Zhao Gou was thinking about something, but there were no words.

After a while, he said: "Which ones are for sale, and which ones are not for sale, separate as soon as possible, and sell what should be sold." ”

"Yes, the small ones will be arranged in the next few days." Huang Qi replied.

"Also, those worthless things, thousands of miles away, what do you spend so much effort to move back? Who changed those things, whose decision-making, did they receive benefits, and how many benefits did they receive? You are responsible for returning to the fleet, you go to find out, get some worthless things back, you are also responsible, and you will be fined for three months. When it came to money, Zhao Gou was a little annoyed, and spent so much energy that he almost fell out with the ministers, so that the fleet went to sea and returned to trade, and as a result, he also moved back two ships of valuable things.

Huang Qi hurriedly replied: "Yes, the little one will check it immediately!" ”

Zhao Gou took two deep breaths, calmed down his impetuous mood a little, and then said: "Although the inner library has accumulated some money, there are still more places to use the money in the future, and it won't take a few years." Since Ocean Returns can indeed make money, don't interrupt, can you go again this year? ”

Huang Qi's forehead also sweated, raised his hand to wipe it, and then replied: "Official, it depends on the time for the big ship to go to sea, it is best to go to sea in October and November, and it will be late in Layue, and the last time Layue went to sea, I almost made a mistake." The South China Sea and the Western Ocean are vast and boundless, and the wind direction and water flow are different in each season, so if the time is slightly delayed, you have to wait in place for a year, which is time-consuming and laborious. At present, it is the end of June, the procurement and shipment of goods will take at least half a year, the repair of large ships also takes time, and the recruitment of all kinds of personnel with the ship is even more sloppy, there is no one-year preparation time, the fleet can not go to sea, this year is not to go, if you start to prepare for the construction now, next winter can easily go to sea. ”

Hearing this, Zhao Gou frowned slightly and asked, "Aren't the people accompanying the ship and the boat built before still there?" Can it take that long? ”

Huang Qi said: "Official, although the big ships are still there, but they have been soaked in the sea for two or three years, the ship's board is almost soaked, ocean navigation is not as good as a river boat, the sea is windy and rough, and the danger is everywhere, the ship is not strong and can be easily dismantled, and the ship will be destroyed and killed." If you want to go to sea to the South and Western Seas, you must build new ships and big ships, and it takes time to build ships. The personnel who were recruited before the ship, when the fleet came back last year, they were all dismissed, and now they don't know where they have gone, and they have to be re-recruited if they want to go to sea. ”

Zhao Gou could only sigh.

Last year, the fleet came back, full of rare goods, all parties competed, quarreled, the fleet was made by the inner treasury, originally these goods belonged to the inner library, but those imperial historians kept saying that the official family returned to the easy and the people competed for profits, and the twists and turns continued to fly to the palace, in desperation, only a part of it could be allocated to the imperial court, and the imperial court came forward to deal with it.

For this matter, Zhao Gou didn't say it, but he was very annoyed in his heart, when the inner treasury paid to supervise the return of Yi, no one said that it was competing with the people for profit, and when the goods were shipped back, he said that the official family was competing for profit with the people, not the Holy Lord, what could he do? Can you seal the mouth of the imperial historian? You can only toss with them.

But after they tossed it, they dispersed in a hurry when they got the benefits, leaving a mess that no one cared about, and in the end they could only be dismissed.

Huang Qi reported these things to Zhao Gou, and he knew it very well in his heart.

Zhao Gou is also very distressed, when doing things, no one in the Manchu Dynasty has come forward, and when he is competing for profit, he squeezes his head one by one, this is the status quo of the imperial court, he is afraid of being responsible for something, and he will not be left behind.

In all dynasties, this is a problem, Zhao Gou does not dare to compare himself with the Holy Lord, he naturally has nothing to do, he can only get by, just hope that the world is stable.

"If you want to continue to do it, or you go, you are familiar with these things. The money comes out of the inner treasury, you do it yourself, don't let those people in the court interfere, let them do it themselves if they want to. Zhao Gou made up his mind that this time he would never let them mix again.

"Yes, the little one understands." Huang Qi responded, although he didn't want to go to sea again, but the emperor spoke, he couldn't refuse, besides, who else in the palace could go to sea besides him?

But then he asked, "Official, since you still have to make a return, can I get my former helper back?" Before, the superintendent was specifically handled by two martial arts students, although there were some small problems in the middle, but the two of them did things neatly, the small ones were very relieved to them, after going to sea, many things were also solved by them, except for some important decisions, the small ones almost didn't have to worry about it, if there were still them with them this time, there would definitely be greater gains. ”

Zhao Gou said: "Are you talking about Yang Congyi and Tang Xun?" ”

Huang Qi nodded and said, "It's the two of them." If you can, the little one still wants someone, surnamed Jiang Mingkai, I heard that he was nominated for the gold list this year, the first in high school, and he was already a Jinshi. ”

"Yang Congyi can't go to sea, it takes time to go to sea, and he has other arrangements. Tang Xun was released to Qiongzhou, and if he wanted him, he had to coordinate with the officials. As for the new science and technology scholar you mentioned, if you haven't been awarded an official, you can find it yourself, and if you are an official, you have to go to the official department, and you can deal with it privately. Zhao Gou replied neatly.

Huang Qi was slightly disappointed, if these people didn't come, he wouldn't be able to do this ocean return, Yang Congyi and Tang Xun had their own division of labor in the past, and they cooperated closely, whether it was to supervise the return to Yi, or to go to sea after various errands, they could stand alone, handle it very well, and hardly have to worry about it. If it weren't for their help this time, it's really hard to say what the ocean return would have become.

But it's been almost a year since the last time I came back, Yang Congyi has other arrangements, Tang Xun is also far away in Qiongzhou, and the core Tiannan and Haibei who once went to sea have fallen apart, and now they have to get together, I don't know how difficult it is.

But at this point, he had no choice but to reply: "Yes, official." ”

Then he asked: "Last time, the inner treasury paid 3 million yuan, how much is it this time?" ”

Zhao Gou said: "The money is still three million, and the big ship is still a hundred, according to the scale of the last time." ”

When Huang Qi heard this, he hesitated, wanted to say it but didn't say it, but in the end he didn't say it.

Zhao Gou saw it in his eyes and said, "If you have something to say, say it." ”

Huang Qi then said: "Official, this time is different from the past, three years ago for the first time to supervise the return of Yi, the purchased materials are still relatively cheap, take tea as an example, a pound of steamed tea before the purchase price is 80 Wen, and the retail is about 150 Wen a catty." Since the fleet went to sea, the price of steamed tea has doubled, the retail price is 300 wen a catty, and the purchase price will not be less than 200 wen. The same is true for other materials, the price of silk, porcelain, and cloth will not rise, and three million guan is not enough. ”

"Up so much? Can the people still afford it? Zhao Gou exclaimed.

The world is peaceful, the people live in peace, and they hope that everyone can eat enough and dress warmly, and they don't want this price to rise to more than 20 years ago, which makes Zhao Gou not surprised, the key is that no one has ever mentioned this matter to him.

Huang Qi replied: "Tea is not affordable for ordinary people, it makes no difference between 100 or 300 Wen, and rich people will not care about this money, the price increase of tea has little impact on the lives of the people, as for silk and porcelain, this is not something that ordinary people can use, and the price increase will not have a big impact on ordinary people, and the cloth will be more troublesome, no matter how poor the family is, there must be cloth to cover the body, and the price increase of cloth will not have a small impact on the lives of ordinary people." ”

Hearing this question and answer, Zhao Gou's expression was a little relaxed, but then he remembered another important material and asked urgently, "Where is the food?" Is there a price increase? ”

"As far as I know, the price of grain is still relatively stable, slightly lower than in previous years."

"Good, good." Zhao Gou said hello three times in a row, and the clouds on his face dispersed.

Then he said: "Since the price of things has risen, I will give you two million more." I did a good job last time, and I have more experience this time, not to mention that it is better than last time, and I can earn back 50 million yuan in profits. ”

Hearing this amount, Huang Qi was shocked, for the first time he could make a lot of money, that was because for both the Western countries and the Great Song Dynasty, the goods were rare, and they had seen less before, and there were fewer opportunities to buy them, so they could sell them at a high price, and if they went again next year, the situation would be different, and last year, the Western countries all sent people to the Great Song Dynasty, knowing that their products were very valuable in the Great Song Dynasty, and it was difficult to exchange the same goods for so many things before, although he didn't know how to do business, but after two years at sea, he still understood this truth.

But the emperor spoke, can he say that he can't earn it?

So I had to reply: "Yes, the little one is trying to earn back so much money." ”

"Okay, that's it, let's talk about it here, handle the errands that I have explained, and tell me if there is anything difficult to do." Zhao Gou got up after speaking.

"Yes, official." Huang Qi responded.

After speaking, he accompanied Zhao Gou to the apse.