Zhang Bin's words made Zhang Jun fall into deep thought, in fact, he had already had the idea of opening a shop in Jinling, but it was unfortunate that he couldn't open it.

Now, Zhang Bin mentioned the matter of opening a shop again, and he couldn't help sighing: "Alas, fifth brother, I originally wanted to open a shop in Jinling, but my father didn't agree." ”

Zhang Bin couldn't help but wonder: "I don't agree, why?" ”

Zhang Jun hesitated for a moment, and then said frankly: "Alas, originally, my father didn't let us mention the matter of doing business in front of you, since you asked, it doesn't hurt for me to tell you, you don't know yet, my father is ready to withdraw from Dongsheng Hall." ”

Zhang Bin really didn't hear his family mention the matter of Dongshengtang in front of him, and he didn't ask, because if he wanted to come to Dongshengtang, he would use the warship of the Dajin Institute to smuggle something out to sea, take a risk, and make some silver, it was not a big deal.

This is smuggling, as a court official, he just doesn't know, if he asks, everyone will be embarrassed.

However, it's different now, he plans to raise private soldiers, and he is far from the thousands of people in Dajin, it costs a lot of silver, and he still wants to slowly develop and grow Dongshengtang, quit, so how can he do it? Where did the money come from to support private soldiers!

He hurriedly asked, "Why did my father quit?" ”

Zhang Jun glanced at him quite embarrassed, and then explained: "Because you are an official, with the support of the British public, your official will definitely become bigger and bigger, and when the time comes, we will take all the money in our hands to buy land, and there is a lot of money just to collect rent a year, which can completely support our family, so that our Zhang family will become an official family." ”

Zhang Bin was stunned when he heard this, indeed, cooperating with pirates and engaging in smuggling, it is prohibited, let people know, the old Zhang family will be finished, and it will be different to buy land and collect rent, and now the officials of the Ming Dynasty are not so profitable, this is called following the trend.

If the current Ming Dynasty is peaceful and prosperous, this is indeed the best choice, lying at home to collect money, there is no risk at all, and it can also train future generations to take the imperial examination, and slowly develop the family.

But the problem is that the world is about to be in chaos, and at this time, changing careers to become a squire and tyrant is purely looking for death, and the peasant army is cleaning up the squire and tyrant!

Thinking of this, he shook his head resolutely and said, "No, you can't exit Dongsheng Hall." ”

Zhang Jun was puzzled: "Why? ”

Zhang Bin couldn't help but sigh and said: "Alas, fourth brother, didn't I tell you, the troubled times are coming, and we have to train in order to protect ourselves." ”

Zhang Jun was even more puzzled: "What does it matter if you withdraw from Dongsheng Hall, we can practice hard with the thousands of guards of the Dajin Institute, anyway, everyone has land, we just need to pay some military salaries." ”

Zhang Bin immediately shook his head and said: "There are not enough thousands of people, at least tens of thousands." ”

Zhang Jun was surprised: "Tens of thousands! ”

After that, he fell into deep thought again, as if he was calculating in his heart how much 10,000 horses would be consumed.

Zhang Bin said that he was a little thirsty after saying it for so long, he couldn't help but pick up the teacup, while drinking tea, while calculating in his heart, how much is the consumption of tens of thousands of horses, if the whole training is the same as the Qi family's army, is it enough to protect himself?

The two brothers were pondering, and the lobby was instantly silent, except for the sound of tea.

After a while, Zhang Jun spoke: "10,000 horses, according to the monthly salary of two stones of grain, one tael, a year is 240,000 stone of grain, 120,000 taels of silver." If the purchased land is rented to tenant farmers, one acre of land can probably collect one stone of rent, so that it will cost almost 400,000 mu to raise 10,000 horses, and according to 25 taels per mu of land, it is 10 million taels! Fifth brother, is 5,000 men enough? Daikin originally had more than 100,000 acres of land, and my father has bought some in recent years, and now there are almost 200,000 acres. ”

"Poof", Zhang Bin heard this, a sip of tea squirted out, can you make up a million taels? How big is this business of Toshengtang!

He asked in disbelief, "Fourth brother, how much silver can Dongshengtang earn in a year?" ”

Zhang Jun estimated and said: "In previous years, it was two or three hundred thousand taels a year, but this year is different, because the power of that Uncle Zheng on the sea is getting bigger and bigger, and our Dongshengtang's business is getting bigger and bigger, last year, our Dongshengtang's gross profit was almost 500,000 taels, and this year, looking at this momentum, there should be one million taels." ”

One year, one million taels!

Zhang Bin puffed out his eyes and looked at Zhang Jun like a monster, and then asked, "How much of our family?" ”

Zhang Jun said with a few treasures: "Our Zhang family, Huang family and Zheng family are all thirty percent, and the other one percent is distributed to your uncles. ”

Zhang Bin was really taken aback by the scale of Dongshengtang, he originally thought that Dongshengtang was a small shop engaged in smuggling, but it turned out to be a big business that could earn millions of taels a year after half a day.

No wonder there is no record of Zhang Chengde's family in history, it turned out that they quit halfway.

However, Zheng Cai and they left their names, it seems that they should have chosen to take refuge in Zheng Zhilong, Zhang Bin couldn't help but ask: "What do the Huang family and a few uncles mean?" ”

Zhang Jun sighed: "The Huang family wants to quit with us, after all, that Uncle Zheng is already determined to be a pirate at this time, and if he has something to do with him, there will definitely be no good fruit to eat at that time." It's just that a few uncles are a little hesitant, like the second uncle and the third uncle, they want to follow Uncle Zheng to make a lot of money. ”

Sure enough, the Huang family also withdrew, and Zheng Cai and them became the eighteen Zhizhi under Zheng Zhilong.

At this time, it is absolutely impossible to withdraw, not only can it not be withdrawn, but it is also necessary to firmly control Dongshengtang in his hands, and even Zheng Zhilong's forces must find a way to completely control it.

You know, in the Chongzhen Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong is not a cow, he has nearly 700 warships, more than 100,000 pirates, and the entire southeast coast and the South Seas are controlled by him.

However, Zheng Zhilong ended up playing a good hand of cards.

At the beginning, he accepted Xiong Wencan's recruitment, and used the name of the imperial court to clean up all kinds of pirates, so as to dominate the entire southeast coast and the South Seas region, which can be said to be quite shrewd.

However, I don't know what's going on, he actually ran to surrender to the Qing court, and as a result, except for Zheng Chenggong, the whole family was cut down!

This guy is really inexplicable, letting him dominate the entire southeast coast and the South China Sea region is simply a waste of resources, Zhang Bin decided, or come by himself.

He said resolutely: "At this time, you must not quit Dongsheng Hall, it seems that it is not possible to send Zhang to send them back, I have to talk to the little sixth uncle and let him go back to persuade his father." ”