Chapter 223 People have no foresight, but they must have near-term worries

Compared with the erosion of the army in the late Ming Dynasty, today's Ming army can be regarded as a strong army in the world. In addition to the border soldiers guarding the important frontier towns, the rest are the heavy troops in southern Beijing, although the number of guards in various places is quite large, but they belong to the military households, and the tuntian is cultivated during the war, and this combat power is naturally inferior. There are a total of 547 guards in the world, and if they are calculated according to 5,000 people per guard, the army of the Ming Dynasty can reach nearly 3 million, and the real elite soldiers among these 3 million are also considerable.

Take Shandong as an example, there are twenty or thirty guards under the command of the capital, but there are only two guards in Qingzhou Prefecture, and the center of gravity is in Dengzhou Laizhou, precisely to guard against the Japanese. Nowadays, although the Ming Dynasty is strong, but the coastal Japanese still often enter the Kou to make trouble, in addition to Zhejiang and Fujian, Shandong's several guards near the sea can be regarded as elite, as for the other military households are also fully armed, and they go into battle in Tuntian during the war on weekdays. However, in the event of a big war, there is still a chance to accumulate merit and be promoted.

It's just that Zhang Xuan, who has been in the capital for a long time and rarely goes out, still can't look down on the soldiers sent to him by the Shandong Dusi. He was ordered by Qin this time, but he was not Qincha, so naturally he couldn't take hundreds of Jingwei elites through the market like Zhang Qian did last time. Although he understands that the Han King Tiance Wei is not easy to deal with, he is sure of this trip - with the current Son of Heaven right away, the King of Han does not dare to have any rebellion no matter how bold he is, besides, this cutting guard is not cutting the king, and it may not be possible to cut it tomorrow today.

With the former friendship between his brother Zhang Fu and King Han, he didn't have a little trick to catch?

Even if there is no land reclamation, spring is originally the season for farmers to work hard. Although the wheat is growing perfectly in more than half of the field today, there are many other crops in the remaining fields. From February, peas, spring garlic, etc., and in March, cotton sorghum is sown, and even those small plots of land that are not more than acres are planted with vegetables and fruits, and some people are planted with castor beans. Therefore, the fight departed from Qingzhou. Along the way, there are farmers facing the loess with their backs to the sky.

Because he started late and sold a few granges cheaply, now Zhang Xun's three granges near Beijing are still given to him by his eldest brother Zhang Fuyun, and this is not enough to eat, drink and chew on weekdays, so he found that there are a lot of ripe fields in this Qingzhou Mansion, and there are large areas of wasteland that are uncultivated, so he is a little concerned, and he has to ask Gao Ming, the commander who escorted him, about the price of land.

"Lord Zhang, if you want to buy land. The land in this Qingzhou Mansion is not easy to buy. Gao Ming is seven feet long, and he is the commander of his father's business, and he can be regarded as a native of Shandong, "We are here with a vast land and sparsely populated people, and no one wants the wasteland that has just been reclaimed, and as for those large tracts of wasteland, they can be given to you for nothing!" Take this Tuntian as an example, the number of people recruited is extremely limited. I heard that the political secretary and the capital secretary yamen are discussing the report to the imperial court, and if they can recruit 100 people, they will give 100 households, and 1,000 people will be 1,000 households. ”

Tens of thousands of families in Beijing have migrated back and forth. Therefore, now there is only enough land to worry about not worrying too much, so Zhang Xuan did not expect Shandong to be in this situation at all. Now that the hope of buying real estate to cover the expenses has failed, he is a little unhappy - he now hangs on the title of the second grade, but in fact he only has the fourth grade. After the rice is converted into silver every month, it is only twenty-four taels of silver. Fortunately, when the eldest brother split the family, he gave him a lot of points, and he was able to secretly put some money, and there were a few houses in the family to run some industries, otherwise if he lived on these fortunes, then he would really have to drink the northwest wind as a family.

"Lord Zhang, it seems that the one on the edge of the field over there is Xiao Zhang?"

Zhang Xuan heard this. Suddenly, the horse's belly stopped. When I looked closely, the young man wearing a green robe on the ridge over there and talking to a few peasants was not Zhang Yue? Seeing what he was talking to a few peasants gesturing, and thinking that he had actually collided with himself in front of him that day, he suddenly felt angry in his heart, and snorted coldly and left.

"A fellow acquaintance is actually in the company of these mud legs, and the Zhang family's face has been lost to him!"

Zhang Yue, who was questioning an old farmer, heard the sound of horses' hooves on the official road, and immediately turned his head to take a look. But I only saw more than 100 people roaring to the ground. Dust was kicked up. He didn't see Zhang Xuan, but thought about it. At this time, taking so many people through this official road to the direction of Le'an County is the biggest possibility. Frowning slightly, he smiled and said a few words to the old farmer, because he walked forward along the ridge again.

"My lord, although this reclamation of the barren tuntian is said to be a good governance promoted by the Chief Minister, why do you have to come down in person again and again?"

Hearing this voice behind him, Zhang Yue said without looking back: "Fang Qing, there are hundreds of people in your Fang family, some are older than you, and some are higher than you, since you are elected as the patriarch, it must not be because you are a talent, but because I believe that you have real talent and can bring the family out of the predicament." If you are like that, so am I. When I was young, others were not convinced, so instead of handling official business in the yamen and making others uncomfortable, why not come down and personally deploy these others may not be willing to work on the ground? Although this political achievement is said by the officials, the official reputation is the people's decision, and there are Ling Zhifu among the yamen, as well as other officials, no more than me, no less. ”

Fang Qing, who was in his early thirties, was only one head higher than Zhang Gao, wearing a green silk shirt at this time, and the white black cloth shoes under his feet had been ruined by the mud of the ridge, and he walked with the same foot as Zhang Yue. Quite embarrassed, he couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard Zhang Yue say this, thinking that this young noble son was sober-minded. Although he has a deep background, if he blindly competes for power and profit with the prefect and other subordinate officials, it is impossible to say who will suffer at that time.

"The student heard that the adult's previous salt strip Chen caused an uproar in Beijing, and after ordering someone to inquire, he learned that the adult is actually such a big deal, not limited to a temporary place, but a long-term vision."

"That was the idea of me and Governor Ling, and it wasn't a big deal." Zhang Yue sighed in his heart, thinking that the salt and iron industry has always been a state monopoly, and it is almost inevitable in later generations, his knowledge on this is actually limited, fortunately he has a teacher who is not afraid of students grabbing credit, "Now there are few people who should open the law in China, because of the construction of Beijing City and several expeditions to the north and south to beg for huge grain consumption, the salt field stove households are unprofitable and have fled and the yield is low." If you lose the strength of one or the other, there will naturally be no salt to support. ”

"That's why adults have a few good ideas." Fang Qing naturally would not let go of this best opportunity for flattery, because he gushed endlessly, "First, after the merchant collects grain and takes the warehouse money in the border town, if he can't pay the salt that year, he can hand it over to the imperial court to exchange the silver money, or transfer it and sell it to other merchants; Second, the imperial court still gave the stove households ten stones a year for the work of the stove as usual, and no longer used money to fold it; Third, the surplus salt of the stove household was purchased at a price for the storage of the warehouse. Fourth......"

"Okay, okay, I don't remember what I wrote myself?"

Zhang Yue smiled and waved his hand, thinking that the first and second were the most critical. If the imperial court had collected the banknotes, there would not have been too many merchants guarding the branches, and it would not have been so much that after thirty or fifty years, the salt would have to be sold to the merchants at a low price, but the merchants would not be happy. Stove households have a 10-stone rice worker capital a year, and there is always a hope at the end of the year, so they will not flee if they can survive, and their output will rise. When merchants open the grain to pay for grain, a certain amount of rice grain will be included in the salt farm, and this cost will be guaranteed. As for the rest, it is only time to take it slowly.

"There are a lot of businessmen in the world, and my suggestions may be beneficial in the future, but you are the only ones who can help at the moment. As soon as the Holy Decree was issued, Le'an and Shouguang Salt Farms both transferred salt to the capital and transported nearly 200,000 catties of salt, although it was only five hundred catties down, but at least it could temporarily alleviate your depression, otherwise you wouldn't be able to take out so many ploughing cattle this time. ”

Hearing Zhang Yue say this, Fang Qing hurriedly humbled himself. The Fang family has a big business, even if it is said that it will be a disaster of decline before, it can actually last for a few years, but it has to be considered for the future. This time, he ate the sweetness and was knocked hard again, but he was happy in his heart. From the tone in which Zhang Yue was talking to those people in the field, he vaguely felt that this young acquaintance seemed to be on guard against something, so he spared no effort to promote the reclamation of Tuntian. It's just that he can't get the gist of it, but he doesn't want to ask too much.

Zhang Yue was also thinking about something in his heart at this time. It is said that Jinyiwei is famous and omnipotent, but he doesn't want Jinyiwei to have people who can't be found. Although the group of White Lotus Sect disciples under the guise of the Buddha's mother were targeted by the Jinyi Guards early and arrested a few people, they were all small characters, and they also startled the snake because of this. Even if the woman he met in Wangjiazhuang that time was probably Tang Sai'er, there is no place to find now, only that she once practiced medicine in the name of a layman in Anqiu Fuqing Temple. It's a pity that when he visited Fuqing Temple, she was long gone.

After checking around for a morning, he had a simple lunch at a family's house, and in the afternoon, a new batch of ploughing cattle and seeds also arrived, and Zhang Yue had to stay for a while. He and Fang Qing finalized a few more important things, saying that he would let the Fang family's embroidery village consign a few embroidery jobs, he suddenly remembered another way, and asked if there were maritime merchants in the Denglai area of Shandong, and what was the situation of going to sea.

"My lord, although the imperial court has repeatedly sent lieutenants to the West, the sea ban has always been there." Although the Fang family has someone to take care of the industry and do business, but mainly the local big landlords, if it weren't for Fang Qing's extreme sensitivity to accumulating wealth, this question about maritime merchants really can't be answered, "Because there are often Japanese robbers in Fujian, Zhejiang and other places, so the coast has always been stationed with heavy troops, and Denglai is the same, although a few people use sea boats to quietly go to sea, but being caught by the government is a dead word." In addition to Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang, the three cities of shipping companies can exchange markets with overseas countries, and the other maritime merchants are just petty and sneaky. ”

"I see."

Zhang Yue also thought that since Zheng He went to the Western Ocean in the world of Yongle, the maritime trade must be extremely prosperous, but unexpectedly it was the official who went to the official, and the people forbade the people, thinking that it was no wonder that after Renxuan, it was completely forbidden by the sea, and even Zheng He's nautical charts were sealed tightly, and the Ming treasure ship then became history, but the smuggling at sea was extremely rampant, and it seemed that now he just wanted to send a ship to sea It is also a dream.

Although people have no long-term concerns, they must have near-term worries, but the meal has to be eaten in one bite, Ruth has to walk step by step, and she can't eat hot tofu in a hurry.