This trip was really far enough, and I rode a horse for nearly an hour.

When Zhu Mingzhong jumped off his horse after entering the village, he looked at the house in front of him, and it didn't look much different from the ordinary big families in Jiangbei.

The reason why Zhu Mingzhong, who was the envoy of Jianghuai, came to visit in person was not because the owner of this house was a remnant of the previous dynasty, and several people had come out. It is because of the special identity of this family - the Liang family was a maritime merchant, and it was one of the few maritime merchants in Jiangbei who survived under the Qing captive butcher's knife, of course, they survived because of their family's other identity, they were well-known local gentlemen, and they had old friendships with the Qing captives who presided over Huai'an at that time.

For visiting the bereaved people, Zhu Mingzhong didn't think there was anything, even Zheng Chenggong sometimes visited the bereaved people to invite him to come into the curtain and give advice to them, and at the same time with the help of his prestige, clean up the place, when Hong Chengchou first entered Changsha, he also spent a year visiting the local gentry, even if he refused to leave, he never blocked the way to visit. It's just that what Zhu Mingzhong wants to invite now is not an ordinary staff, but to ask him to do business with himself.

At this moment, the closed door of the Liang Mansion opened, and I saw a young man in a dark robe walking out of the door.

"The arrival of the Captain is really to make the Humble House shine, and the grass people have not welcomed it from afar, so please forgive me."

The young scholar's eyes were full of apology.

"It's really because my father hasn't been out of the house for more than ten years, so he hasn't been out of the house to greet him, please forgive me."

The scholar's words made Zhu Mingzhong smile.

"Ling Zun is my Huai'an gentleman, and Zhu is a Jianghuai strategy, so he should come to visit, and he came uninvited today, please forgive me!"

Before coming, Zhu Mingzhong already knew from Shi Lei that the Liang family originally had three sons and one daughter, although the eldest son and the second son both died of "violent disease", but in fact they died in the rebel army, and the four children were only one son and one daughter in front of them.

After a simple politeness, Zhu Mingzhong entered the Liang family's mansion with the young scholar.

After entering the house, Zhu Mingzhong saw that this house was boxy, not like the gardens of wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River, but like the inner courtyard of the deep house with thick walls and high walls in the north, which may be the difference between Jiangbei and Jiangnan.

When he entered the back house from the front house, thinking that the old man Liang had not been out of the house for more than ten years, Zhu Mingzhong's heart moved, and he asked with a smile

"Mr. Liang hasn't been out of the house for more than ten years, isn't it because he hasn't shaved his hair?"

Ryazan hesitated for a moment before he said

"Childe's eyes are like torches, that's exactly what happened.

His answer made Zhu Mingzhong nod slightly. I know I'm afraid I've come to the right place this time. The two sons both joined the anti-Qing rebel army and died on the battlefield, and he himself had not shaved his hair for more than ten years, so such a remnant would naturally not refuse his request.

Entering the back house of the Liang Mansion, Zhu Mingzhong saw an old man wearing a gray cloth robe and a white beard standing outside the study.

"Xiaomin has seen the scripture!"

The etiquette and words that were neither humble nor arrogant came into Zhu Mingzhong's ears, making him salute continuously.

"I've seen the old man."

"Please!"

After inviting Zhu Mingzhong into the study, although he seemed quite polite on the surface, Liang Tianyou was a little distant, almost from after he entered the door, all he talked about was how to treat the people of Jiangbei leniently.

“…… The people of Jiangbei are not better than Jiangnan, Jiangnan has been the land of fish and rice since ancient times, known as a rich land, but Jiangbei has Huanghuai as a harm, the people live in poverty, and for more than 20 years, Jiangbei counties and counties have been stacked with soldiers, the countryside is white and green phosphorus, thorns and thousands of miles, and the strategy wants to take Jiangbei as the base, the Northern Expedition to clear the captives, although it is for the country, but the poor people in Jiangbei are lacking, and they have been squeezed by the Qing captives for more than ten years, and the people's financial resources have long been exhausted, and they need to be cherished by a little care......

Liang Tianyou's words fell into Zhu Mingzhong's ears, making his mind move, and then nodded in agreement,

"What the old gentleman said is extremely true, the Han people who were given to me under the rule of the Qing Dynasty were just blindly squeezed, and the fat was half strong for the jackals, although the official intended the Northern Expedition, but the people of Jiangbei were lacking, and they could not bear the labor, but the military needs were related to the Northern Expedition, and the official was also quite embarrassed!"

After this exclamation, Zhu Mingzhong continued.

"However, the people of Jiangbei are suffering, and the officials can continue to exploit them like the Qing captives, so this military need has to find another way to solve it by other means, at present, Jiangbei has only two Huai salt taxes, but the two Huai salt taxes are not half of the past due to the ban on the Qing Dynasty, and the salt tax alone cannot last ......."

Although he has not been out of the house for more than ten years, Liang Tianyou still pays attention to the changes in current affairs outside, and naturally knows that what Zhu Mingzhong said is not a lie.

On the one hand, there is a shortage of people's resources, and on the other hand, there is a lack of financial resources. In this way, this strategy naturally makes the government office in a dilemma.

"Therefore, if Jingluo intends to go on a northern expedition, it must be open source!"

Seeing that Liang Tianyou was led to this topic, Zhu Mingzhong nodded and said.

"What the old gentleman said is very much, this open source is really the first priority of the official strategy in Jiangbei, and now in order to open the source, I have ordered someone to reopen the Li Guoyi Iron Mine, set up a factory in Li Guoyi to make iron, and open the Xuzhou Coal Mine, so as to seek the benefits of coal and iron."

For the people of this era, they did not see the huge profits stored in coal and iron, but Zhu Mingzhong knew very well that in cities with relatively scarce fuel, as long as the use of coal was promoted, they could obtain unimaginable huge profits.

After Zhu Mingzhong mentioned the "benefits of coal and iron", he has successfully aroused the sex of the Liang family father and son in this study, and even Ryazan, who has always been silent, occasionally interjects, but most of the suggestions of the father and son are limited to the times, except for the occasional open source suggestions, their suggestions are more throttling, Zhu Mingzhong only laughed and did not say anything, of course, they also praised Zhu Mingzhong's use of prisoners to reclaim the tun.

"With tens of thousands of captured enemy reclamation of millions of acres, you can get hundreds of thousands of stones of military food per year, so the grain of reclamation does not cost half a cent of people's strength, after a few moves, it can be said that it is counted in one fell swoop! It can not only prevent the army from being short of food, but also avoid the waste of cooked land, and when the people's strength is restored, they can also hand over the cooked land to the people for cultivation, so as to reassure the people. ”

In the face of their praise for the prisoners, Zhu Mingzhong only smiled slightly, and did not continue to talk about this topic, although the tens of thousands of prisoners can fundamentally solve the problem of military rations, but this is not the purpose of his trip.

"This Central Plains land, reclamation can only alleviate the needs of the moment, if you want to open up financial resources, you have to find another way, the king of Yanping can use the two isolated islands of Jinxia to confront the Qing for several years, and the person who relies on it is to go to the sea to seek business profits!"

With Liang Tianyou's words, Zhu Mingzhong, who introduced the topic of maritime trade, looked at the other party and said directly.

"And the Qingjiang River can enter the sea from the river, if it can open up the sea trade route, it will definitely be able to enrich the military supply!"