After listening to Zheng Sen's offer, Zuo Mengeng silently calculated in his heart, and then asked: "What is the standard for the so-called literacy?" What is the criterion for being able to do arithmetic? ”

"The standard of literacy, we take an article of a few hundred words and give it to him, whether they understand it or not, they can read it. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info As for being able to count, it is nothing more than the simplest addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Zheng Sen replied.

"It is not easy to find someone who can really read an article of a few hundred words, who can add, subtract, multiply and divide. Those who can really read an article of a few hundred words are most likely to be a child even if they are not Xiucai. Such a person, Zheng Gongzi, you only have ten taels of silver more, which is too cheap. ”

"Brother Zuo, there are quite a few. Nowadays, everything on the market is valuable, but people are not valuable. Such a person, that is, our family is still willing to pay this price. Look for us and see who will pay ten taels of silver for a man who is not even a child? Nowadays, not to mention a child, he is a showman, and in this troubled world, he may not be able to sell it for ten taels of silver. In fact, we can leave this price or something to the people below to discuss, and Brother Zuo only needs to have a big idea of whether this deal can be done. ”

Zheng Sen's words are not an exaggeration in Hubei, although in the south of the Yangtze River, the social status of Xiucai is still very high, and life is still good, but in Hubei, which is already a little norther, because of the impact of war, it is not uncommon for Xiucai to be starved to death.

"Whether this business can be done or not, I can't count all of it, and my father has to make the decision. I am writing to my father now, if Zheng Gongzi can stay in Wuchang for a few more days, he should be able to hear back from my father. Zuo Mengeng said.

Zheng Sen smiled and said: "The ancient city of Wuchang has many famous attractions, and it is going to be held for a few more days. ”

"That's very good." Zuo Mengeng said, "I don't know where Zheng Gongzi is staying now." ”

Zheng Sen said where he lived. Zuo Mengeng listened and said: "That kind of place is where Zheng Gongzi should live." I have a courtyard outside the city, and if Zheng Gongzi doesn't give up, he can move there. ”

Zheng Sen heard this, and hurriedly excused himself: "Brother Zuo's kindness Zheng Sen understands it, but he doesn't dare to disturb it more. And the inn is not far from Baotong Temple and Changchun Temple, but it is not bad. ”

Zuo Mengeng listened, but he didn't persuade much, but just asked about some things about sea trade, and the two talked for a while, and Zheng Sen got up to say goodbye. Zuo Mengeng got up and sent Zheng Sen out of the door, and only turned around and went in after seeing Zheng Sen get into the car.

"Wang He, you arrange for a few people to keep an eye on this Zheng Gongzi and see what he does. Just stare and don't do anything else, you know? "Zuo Mengeng to Wang Hedao.

"Little obedience, son, you ......" Wang Hedao.

"What do you think of this deal proposed by the Zheng family?" Zuo Mengeng asked.

"How can the little one know such a thing." Wang He said with a smile.

"Actually, this deal can be done, I want to repair a book, you arrange for someone to send it to the master overnight......"

……

Zuo Liangyu was very interested in human trafficking, and he even rushed back to Wuchang to deal with this matter personally.

"Meng Geng, you did a good job!" As soon as he returned to his home and saw his son, Zuo Liangyu patted his son on the shoulder and said this. Because this deal really solved Zuo Liangyu's urgent need. Since the military salary of the imperial court was cut off, the life of Zuo Liangyu's department has become more and more difficult. The army will not be paid, but it will cause chaos. Maybe there will be a mutiny. For the mutiny, Zuo Liangyu has personal pain. Although he relied on indulging in the plundering of the army, for the time being, there was no danger that the whole army would mutiny because of the troubles. However, people have no foresight, but they must have near-term worries. Now the surrounding four miles and eight towns, easy to be ruined, has been Zuo Liangyu's soldiers have been ruined once or twice, now go out to loot, although as long as you go farther, you can still grab things, but compared to before, the effect of robbery is not so good. Although Zuo Liangyu doesn't know how to make a graph and analyze it, and he can't draw a yield curve, he still keenly feels that the yield of robbery is declining. Because the people are so poor, they can't grab anything. In the past, when I went out to grab a day, the income was enough for the army to eat for a month, but now, when I go out and grab a day of exhaustion, the things I grab are not enough for the army to eat for three days. In this development, there will soon be a situation where you will go out to grab a day, and the things you get will not be enough to eat for a day.

Not only is the revenue per robbery decreasing, but the cost per robbery is also rising rapidly. In the past, you could grab things by walking three or four miles, but now you have to walk dozens of miles to grab things, and this extra road is the cost. And the increase in costs is not only manifested in this aspect, but more importantly, the target of the robbery has begun to resist, and the risk of robbery has greatly increased.

After the sharp decline in the control of the Ming court, a power vacuum appeared. Under such changes, keeping pace with the times has become everyone's choice, just like Zuo Liangyu's rapid warlordization and even banditry, landlords and gentry everywhere are also rapidly strengthening. They began to build a dock fort, relying on the strength of their own clan, organizing group training, and defending themselves according to the fort. Although it was impossible for any landlord's dock fort to really withstand the attack of Zuo Liangyu's army. However, the Dock Fort is not something that can be defeated casually. There were fewer people going, and there was no way to take those dock forts; When there are more people going, the cost will be greater, and the dock fort is so big that even if it is opened, there will not be too many things in it. If you don't do it well, when you build a dock fort, you will invest more manpower and material resources than you can grab after you build a dock fort. In a sense, the Dock Fort and the like are troublesome not for anything else, but because it makes almost any attack on it a loss-making deal. The poor ghosts who are easy to be strong have nothing to grab, and those who have things to grab have all hid in the dock fort, and the gains outweigh the losses.

Obviously, looting or something, while a temporary solution, is not a sustainable solution. Now that he suddenly heard that those homeless people can also be exchanged for money, Zuo Liangyu is of course very happy. Although exchanging money from displaced people does not seem to be a truly sustainable solution, but the number of displaced people or something, at least for a short time, there is no need to worry about running out of stock. Moreover, these homeless people also lack the ability to protect themselves, they do not have dock forts and regimental training, no matter how you look at them, it is much easier to catch the homeless people than to grab the dock forts.

"If you count 2,000 people a month, according to the fact that they are all men and women in the prime of life, one person is one or two or five pieces of silver, a month is three thousand taels of silver, and a year is thirty-six thousand taels of silver. It's not too much, but it's not without a small supplement. Moreover, Daddy, it is impossible for the Zheng family's ship to pick up people empty, and they also have to transport things to be considered compatible. They have food in their hands and armies in their hands. And these things that are shipped will be sold to us first. We can pay the bills directly with people. We can use these things ourselves, and we can also sell them to He Renlong. If you include these, the money you can get is far more than 36,000 taels of silver. Moreover, Zheng Sen also said that in the future, the scale of this human trafficking can continue to expand, and it is not impossible to have 10,000 people a month. With this money, what else does Daddy have to worry about? Zuo Mengeng also said in a meritorious manner.

"You have a point." Zuo Liangyu nodded and said, "It's just that I heard that Fujian is a poor place, how can their Zheng family be so rich?" ”

For this question, Zuo Mengeng naturally couldn't answer it.

"Well, Meng Geng, you arrange a time to invite this Zheng Gongzi over for a meal. And then we're going to finalize it. Zuo Liangyu said.

……

Now Zheng Sen is following his agreement and inviting sailors to drink on the Yellow Crane Tower. Today's building has only three floors, and even without considering the height of the foundation, it is almost half shorter than the one in later generations. However, Wuchang is known as the thoroughfare of nine provinces, and although the situation is not good now, it is not as good as the peaceful years, but the Yellow Crane Tower is still very lively.

Since there is the story of Lu Dongbin's ascension in the Yellow Crane Tower, those good people who believe in the Tao and seek immortals often come here to do things, and then they also want to drink a meal on the Yellow Crane Tower, so that they can get touched by Lu Zu's immortal spirit, and when they go back, they can also brag to people and say, I drank wine in the place where Lu Zu drank back then. On the other hand, since Li Tang, the emigrants often climbed the Yellow Crane Tower and wrote poems, leaving a lot of popular masterpieces, so it has become a place where the literati of Chu often gather elegantly. As a result, it is not easy to book a place in the Yellow Crane Tower. But it's not a big deal, at least not for the Zheng family. Based on the principle of "as long as the problem can be solved with silver, it is not a problem", after discussing with the Taoist master in the Taoist temple, Zheng Fu still succeeded in booking a place on the Yellow Crane Tower.

Zheng Sen didn't have many people, plus the oarsmen at the bottom, there were only about twenty people, and these people occupied two tables upstairs, one of which was on the third floor near the river, and the other was on the first floor, also leaning against the window of the river.

The other tables on the first floor were mostly filled with merchants. These people saw that many of Zheng Sen's subordinates had thick hands and feet, fierce eyes, and swords hanging from their waists, so they estimated that they must be military men or Jianghu figures. Now it is a troubled time, and these military men or characters in the rivers and lakes are not ordinary people who are willing to provoke, so they are as far away from them as possible, which is quite a bit of respecting ghosts and gods and staying away. Zheng Sen's location is not here but on the third floor, in fact, Zheng Fu is not unable to get two positions on the third floor, nor is Zheng Sen unwilling to have fun with the people, but the sailors feel that drinking with the major general, especially on the third floor, is a little unavoidable.

Soon, the wine and food came up, Zheng Sen personally took the wine, invited everyone to have a drink, and then left Zheng Fu to accompany everyone, and went up to the third floor.