Chapter 206: Doubling Income and Hidden Worries

Although Jiang Feng had money in his hands, he couldn't withstand such a big expense, Jiang Feng felt that sweat began to flow from his forehead, and he couldn't help telling himself in his heart that with the cannon, the money was worth spent, but it was best not to hold back the distress, and asked:

"How can it cost so much silver!?"

Zhao Xiucai now has far less opportunities to meet Jiang Feng than when he was in Beijing, although his life is now quite a bit of fine clothes and food, but Zhao Xiucai feels that he has not been in person with Jiang Feng before, this time when he heard Jiang Feng ask this, he just said a few more words:

"Owner, we don't have coal in Dengzhou, no copper and iron, all the things used have to be transported in from the outside, these things will be double the price on the market, and the owner you said let these craftsmen make it regardless of the cost, they made molds, it is not suitable to be destroyed again, and after the cannon is cast, it is fired again and again, to determine whether it is easy to use, and if there is a problem, it has to be destroyed and redone, so how much labor is spent on such a turnover, how much material is wasted......"

Hearing the calculations, Jiang Feng couldn't stop smiling bitterly there, because the salt works in Shandong were all sea salt, and when the salt works were blocked, the trade at sea was already delayed, so that his own sea ships and the Xia family's sea ships were blocked around the salt works.

It can be said that there was nearly nothing in the past few months, but the maintenance costs of the 2,000 soldiers and horses under his command, the blockade of the salt roads in various parts of Shandong, and the killing of salt barons, all of which require money, and the 80,000 taels of silver copied from the Zhou family have already cost more than half. Jiang Feng also hesitated a little.

Although Dengzhou is close to the sea, grain, coal and iron are basically imported from outside, and the profits of sea trade are good, but there are indeed some inconvenient places. However, the cannon is the absolute advantage in Jiang Feng's hands, something that Jiang Feng can create.

Even if the government-run workshop can be built, the semi-slavery system cannot be compared with Jiang Feng's work efficiency similar to the employment relationship, and Jiang Feng is absolutely confident that he can build weapons that are much better than the official ones, since this is the case, it shows that as long as he makes his own cannons, he will form a huge advantage.

Thinking of this, Jiang Feng gritted his teeth and said to Zhao Xiucai:

"Build, if the silver is not enough, we will melt those silver bricks, anyway, in three months, we can loosen our hands and build! We will fish back tenfold and hundredfold! ”

A month later, Liu Shunhua, the political history of Shandong, was transferred to Zhejiang, this appointment surprised the Ming officialdom, according to common sense, Hanlin was born to sit in politics, and then quickly did the politics, and then I am afraid that it should be back to Beijing to enter the cabinet, or the position of the six books.

And those who really understand the inside story still know that Liu Shunhua's backstage is Lord Lu Binglu, the commander of the most powerful Jinyi Guard of the Holy Family, and he is also married to the Yu family of the official eunuch, such a background will just go up step by step, how can it be smooth.

If you are not promoted in the next position, it means that there may be a problem, maybe it is a precursor to decline or bad luck.

But the surprising problem is not these, but the barren Shandong was transferred to the rich Zhejiang as a political envoy, this is a promotion or a fall, if it is a good place, Zhejiang has almost turned the world upside down in recent years, officials at all levels have been replaced one by one, if it is a bad place, what is richer in the world than Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Since you can't understand the style, then don't act rashly, and as a result, there was a rather strange scene, when a provincial official left his post, it was deserted, and the officials up and down just came to say goodbye in a formulaic way, and there was no lively scene at all. When the well-informed people saw it, they were still quite surprised, and followed their companions and said:

"Lord Liu is a good official, why was he demoted?"

Such speeches that make people laugh and cry are not only said among the people, but also among relatively low-ranking officials.

Unlike the whole Shandong officialdom, the prefect of Dengzhou sent a thick Cheng Yi, and the prefect Wang ate on Jiangfeng's territory, this kind of etiquette is naturally sloppy, and there is a rather exception is the new Shandong Jinyi Wei Qianhu, when bidding farewell to Liu Shunhua, he was quite courteous before and after running, which surprised others, and some people speculated that it may be for the sake of the face of the Yu family in Beijing.

This is not the case, but this Jinyi Wei Qianhu is a close confidant of Lu Bing, so he knows some insiders. It is naturally impossible to hide such a big thing as Shandong Changping's vacancy from Jinyiwei's eyes, Lu Bing is already ready to give up Liu Shunhua, so he is ready to clear himself up when things are big.

So Jinyiwei also relaxed in Shandong, no one thought that the next salt merchants, salt farms, and private salt all kinds of things suddenly swarmed, which was unexpected, and Jinyiwei's strength was at most at the level of Fucheng, and the illegal salt trafficking in the mountains, forests and wilderness did not know what was going on.

It's just that Zhou Yu of the Fushan Salt Farm was rushed into the county seat by bandits and killed, and this matter became a big case. And Jiang Feng's Dengzhou Left Guard's suspicion of being in it is indeed inseparable. However, when Jinyiwei's people from all walks of life hurried to Fushan County to prepare for the investigation, Yanshi in Shandong was suddenly controlled by Jiang Feng and Huang Ping.

Tongtian Grain Bank inexplicably began to transport grain to Chang Ping, Jining is an important place for Cao Yun, and naturally it is also an important place for grain storage in Shandong, and Huangping Grain Bank directly walked a few steps to transport the grain over. Although Jin Yiwei knew that there was something strange inside, no one dared to investigate.

Behind Huang Ping is the most popular internal official in the world, the chief eunuch Huang Jin.

All kinds of unfavorable remarks about Liu Shunhua in the imperial court disappeared after Huang Ping appeared in everyone's field of vision, and the cabinet and officials were ready to evaluate Liu Shunhua unfavorably, and they were ready to be idle or demoted. Now there is a chilling discussion about where to go.

At this time, Lu Bingcai came out to play a round, and now Zhejiang's political envoy had to resign and return to his hometown because of the Japanese rebellion. It happened to be arranged for Liu Shunhua to be there, Zhejiang was one of the richest places in the world, and Liu Shunhua was not a demotion when he was a political envoy in the past, and Huang Jin couldn't say anything. Then the Japanese over there were making a lot of noise, and officials at all levels rotated like a marquee, and the position over there was not a good position, so it could also be said that the forces that had been watching Liu Shunhua unpleasantly had no place to speak.

In July of the eighth year of Jiajing, Jiang Feng's sea trade income became normal, and after adding the income from private salt, Jiang Feng's monthly income has more than doubled, and the original Shandong private salt market is completely disorderly, and salt merchants and salt lords compete with each other for the market and lower prices for each other. Private fights between each other happen almost every day, and this is not only not beneficial. On the contrary, it was taken away by the salt merchants of Tianjin and Lianghuai.

The current situation is that each family gets salt from Huang Ping according to the amount of silver, and then goes to the salt factory controlled by Jiang Feng to get salt, and then sells it in various places at about the same price.

Although everyone has fewer opportunities to cheat, and perhaps less profiteering, the private salt entrained by the salt field under Jiang Feng's control has changed from the original one to three, to one and five, and the extra private salt still makes more money than before.

More importantly, this profit is guaranteed, in the past, when selling salt, be careful of the government, be careful of the green forest robbers, and be careful of your peers. Those big salt merchants are just that, and the small ones are worried every day that they will be blacked and eaten by others.

However, on the ground of Shandong today, as long as you are qualified to sell salt recognized by Huang Ping and Jiang Feng, you can walk boldly in Shandong with confidence, and no one will get along with you or want to eat black. Of course, it was not easy to establish this rule, and after the soldiers under Jiang Feng washed away the few stockades that did not believe in this evil spirit, everyone obeyed the order.

It turned out that nearly one-third of Shandong's salt came from Lianghuai, and the salt merchants there were inextricably linked with the military nobles of Fengyang, the central capital, or related to the various forces in Nanjing, and even some were related to the maritime merchants who crisscrossed the sea.

But now there is one of the biggest bandits in Lunan, specifically targeting these salt merchants from Nanzhili and Anhui, and there are more than 100 salt guards who are already on a large scale, but the bandits who attacked them are already more than a few hundred people, and they are not inferior in terms of fierceness and death. After a dozen times, nearly a thousand people have been lost, and the salt merchants of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver can no longer bear the strength and completely withdraw from this territory, so that the salt merchants in Shandong are selling more smoothly, and the market that has been embezzled more and more has returned to their own hands step by step, and the money is naturally more profitable, that is, they are more aware of the benefits of Jiang Feng and Huang Ping.

It's just that at this time, Shandong's private salt seems to be official salt, and there are digital regulations for entering and exiting, and there are regulations on where to sell and how much to sell.

The impact of the drought has not passed, and the people who can't become homeless and don't want to starve to death have fallen into the grass, and the bandits who specialize in attacking the two Huai's private salt have unknowingly changed from a few hundred to a few thousand, and the ordinary robbers are different, these bandits have quite sophisticated weapons in their hands, naturally, their leader is Chen Deaf.

Dengzhou Metropolitan Mansion, Jiang Feng sat sullenly in the middle, since Liu Shunhua left Shandong, Liu Fangrui's mood has been bad, she will cry at a little thing, Jiang Feng is not easy to lose his temper, he can only comfort him gently, fortunately, Su Guanyue can also help persuade him.

I didn't expect to come to the front to discuss the matter, or such trouble, Jiang Feng's temper also came up, and he said loudly there:

"With the cannon, we still have to have a ship, today we spent money to let the Xia family block the salt farm, they are obedient, if someone else asks them to block us, what will we do!?"