As Chen Di expected, Emperor Jiajing approved Wu Ping's resignation, and ordered Chen Di to act as the political envoy of Zhejiang. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

With the full recommendation of Governor Zhao Wenhua and Tang Xiaojiang, the envoy of the Inspectorate, the full recommendation of Wu Ping, the outgoing political envoy, and the full recommendation of Yan Song, the second assistant, and Lu Fang, the eunuch who holds the seal of the celebrant supervisor, Chen Di will be a ghost if he can't be the political envoy of Zhejiang.

However, Emperor Jiajing's decree wrote "acting" rather than "taking over". To put it bluntly, an acting agent is an agent. The reason why Emperor Jiajing did this was because he also wanted Chen Di to enter Beijing after the anti-Japanese affairs were completed and be his son-in-law of Chenglong!

The expansion of the Flying Tiger Army is imperative. Inoue Shishiro originally told Chen Di that he would gather 100,000 Japanese to attack Zhejiang in about half a year. Chen Di plans to triple the size of the Flying Tigers.

At the beginning, Tang Shunzhi said to Chen Di that with the standard of generous salary and military support set by Chen Di, it would cost 800,000 taels of silver to raise a 2,000-person Flying Tiger Army a year. Now the Flying Tiger Army is 3,000 people, and the expansion is three times that of 9,000 people, and nearly 2 million taels of silver are needed a year.

The silver snatched from the hands of the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Kuo Guys was only three million taels. There is no need to suspect people, and there is no doubt about employing people, Chen Di directly handed over the silver ticket of two million taels to Tang Shunzhi, Qi Jiguang, and Yu Dayou.

Chen Di's original words were: "The money is handed over to you, how to recruit and train soldiers is your own business, and I don't care about it." I only need to see a tiger and wolf army of 9,000 people in half a year! ”

After sending Tang Shunzhi and them the salary for the expansion of the army, plus Yan Song and Lu Fang, and spending 150,000 taels to "buy" the position of political envoy with Wu Ping, Chen Di felt more and more that the silver was not enough to spend.

Exploiting the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to make money, Chen Di naturally couldn't do it. Squeeze those rich businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang? Chen Di had just used sixty boats of porcelain to repair relations with those wealthy businessmen. That's not worth it.

What to do? The best way to make money is, of course, to do business!

Chen Di wanted to sleep, but someone came to bring him a pillow.

Ma Ruyun, a businessman from Hangzhou, found Chen Di.

Ma Ruyun said to Chen Di: "A good official like Lord Chen has been promoted to the political envoy of Zhejiang, which is a blessing for us and other grass people. ”

Chen Di smiled: "Old Ma, you will put a high hat on me!" You businessmen have never been profitable! When you come to me, you will naturally go to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing! Say, what's the matter with coming to me? ”

Ma Ruyun replied, "Lord Chen is really a smart person. I'm here to talk to you about a big thing. ”

Chen Di asked Ma Ruyun: "If there is something, it doesn't hurt to talk about it." I've been short of money lately, and it's better to have something to do with money. ”

Ma Ruyun smiled: "It's really about money!" Do you remember what you told me about wanting to sell Zhejiang's goods to the West? ”

Chen Di said: "Naturally, I remember. However, now that the sea is not quiet, the imperial court has not yet been able to form a strong sailor to escort merchant ships to the Western Ocean. For the time being, trade with the West can only be empty talk. ”

Ma Ruyun said: "Since the waterway can't be passed, why not take the land route?" ”

Chen Di suddenly brightened. Since the Han Dynasty, there has been a Silk Road through the Western Regions. If you can't go by water, of course you can go by land!

Ma Ruyun said: "A group of Persian merchants have recently come to Hangzhou. These Persian merchants had some money! They wanted to import a large amount of silk from Hangzhou to Persia, and then transport it from Persia to the West by water! ”

Chen Di said: "This is a good thing! But I'm a quick talker. What does the Persian merchant have to do with me buying silk in Hangzhou? Can I make money? ”

Ma Ruyun said: "Master Chen, listen to me carefully. A fine silk can be sold for twenty taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty, but it can be sold for more than forty taels in Persia. The Persian merchants had a great appetite, and directly said that they wanted a million horses of silk a year. In other words, if our merchants in Zhejiang can come up with one million horses of silk every year, they can make a profit of more than 20 million taels a year! ”

Chen Di nodded: "Well, the key is whether you Zhejiang merchants can get this million pieces of silk and sell them to the Persians." ”

Ma Ruyun said: "Lord Chen Shengming! To be honest, with the current production of silk in Zhejiang, only 400,000 pieces of silk can be produced. If you want to increase the amount of silk produced, you need to increase the number of looms. There are 60 silk workshops and 8,000 looms in Zhejiang. It is not difficult to increase the number of looms, but it is rare whether the supply of silk can keep up. ”

Chen Di asked: "Then the key to the matter has become, how to produce more silk." ”

Ma Ruyun said: "Exactly, exactly." If half of Zhejiang's existing farmland is converted into mulberry fields, it can produce 2 million catties of silk a year, which is just 600,000 more silk! If you produce 600,000 more horses, you can sell 600,000 more horses, and you can earn 12 million taels of silver more from a mile and a mile away. ”

Chen Di interjected: "It depends on whether the people are willing or not. ”

Ma Ruyun said: "The people are naturally willing!" Because the income per mu of mulberry field is 50% higher than that per mu of farmland. ”

Chen Di smiled: "Then your old horse will go to the people, why bother to come to me?" ”

Ma Ruyun said anxiously: "Our Ming Dynasty is based on agriculture and changes half of Zhejiang's farmland into mulberry fields, which is to shake the country's foundation in the eyes of the imperial historians!" We have approached the former political envoy Wu Ping many times for this matter, but Wu Ping did not dare to do it for us. ”

Chen Di smiled: "What Wu Ping didn't dare to do, I dared to do?" ”

Ma Ruyun said: "My lord, our Zhejiang businessmen are rich and powerful in the world, and we naturally have some ears and eyes in the court. Now no one knows that the emperor intends to let you be his old man's concubine. What you, the future master of the horse, said, how could the emperor not approve it? And in charge of the production of silk in Zhejiang, it is the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau. The Jiangnan Weaving Bureau was sent down by the palace, and Yu Shiyan and Yu Gonggong were in charge. Yu Gonggong is the apprentice grandson of Gonggong Lu, the master of ceremonies. You have a great relationship with Grandpa Lu。。。。。。 You have to do this! ”

Chen Di said: "I have a temperament with you Zhejiang businessmen - no profit can not be early. Tell me, how much do I get out of it? ”

Ma Ruyun replied: "If you weave 600,000 more pieces of fine silk, you can earn an extra 12 million taels a year." Of these 12 million taels, half of them are kept by our businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The remaining six million taels, four million taels to the imperial court, and we will give the adults two million taels of dark bonus! With an annual income of two million, do adults still think it's okay? ”

Two million taels of silver a year? Chen Di was moved. This is a year's salary for the Flying Tigers New Army! If this thing can really be done, the expansion of the Flying Tiger Army will be a matter of course!

Chen Di said to Ma Ruyun: "Two million taels, are you sure?" ”

Ma Ruyun replied: "As long as the adults ask for the excerpts, and the emperor will approve Zhejiang's will to change the rice fields to mulberry fields, we can give you this year's two million taels of silver first!" ”