Just when Xiao Lengzi brazenly ordered the robbery of the Ming merchant grain team, Deng Shu and Dai Shulun had just entered Qingzhou County with more than ten guards.

In the whole territory of Qingzhou, it is almost a scene of poor livelihood for the people, very dilapidated, almost all of the people who work in the fields are old and weak, women and children, young and strong men, almost all of whom have been forcibly conscripted into the army by Lu Ping. But entering the county town, it was a different scene, and the first image to Deng Shu was an incomparably prosperous victory.

In the crowd rubbing shoulders, most of them are soldiers wearing khaki clothes, looking at their complexion and faces, it is obvious that the treatment is still good, which makes Deng Shu more satisfied, in her future plan, what she needs is not a group of people who can't even eat enough and have yellow faces and thin muscles.

Of course, in addition to the military, there are also vagabonds, beggars. Deng Shu is no stranger to this situation, and in Yongdu, it is almost the same, once the people in other places can't sustain their lives, they will drag their children and daughters to the city. Because there, there will be more opportunities for some work, and there will also be some good people who will build porridge sheds and give soup and food after the arrival of the wanderers.

The Tang clan used to do such things often, of course, doing these things is not only a good deed, but more importantly, to give these wanderers a hope to live, in order to maintain the most basic order in the local area. When a person is hungry, he can do things that he can't usually think of. And as long as there is a bowl of gruel to save their lives, it is enough for them to dispel the idea of taking risks.

Just outside the city, Deng Shu saw a lot of porridge sheds, and there was a long queue of people preparing to drink porridge outside. However, the banners raised on these porridge sheds made Deng Shu a little surprised, there were no official porridge sheds in Qingzhou County, but one after another were the porridge sheds of some merchants.

"Uncle Dai, a businessman in Qingzhou County, is not only rich, but also seems to be very kind!" Deng Shu said to Dai Shulun with great interest.

Dai Shulun, who knew the inside story, smiled bitterly: "Miss, those porridge sheds were not built by local businessmen in Qingzhou, and the porridge was not given by rich local businessmen in Qingzhou, but businessmen from the Ming Kingdom, and even some people with ill intentions. ”

Deng Shu suddenly stopped, staring at Dai Shulun with a pair of wonderful eyes, "Are they all Mingren?" ”

Dai Shulun nodded: "Where are there any local merchants in Qingzhou now, even if there is, it is a partnership with the Ming people!" Lu must not be able to take out food to feed these hungry people, these Ming merchants jumped out, and now their reputation in Qingzhou is so good, when it comes to Ming people, which one of the people doesn't give a thumbs up. ”

Deng Shu was silent for a moment, "Anyway, they give porridge and feed our people. By the way, what do you mean by someone with malicious intentions? ”

Dai Shulun lowered his voice and said, "Miss, there are people in these porridge shacks who are constantly abducting my Great Qin population to the Ming Kingdom by giving them porridge and rice, and selling them as goods to make money. I sent someone to inquire that a craftsman with a skill can sell it for a dozen taels of silver over there, and even for old and weak women and children, it can be sold for one to five taels of silver. ”

Deng Shu's face immediately changed: "Why don't you stop such a heart-wrenching move?" ”

Dai Shulun smiled bitterly: "Miss, how can you stop it?" Here, they did not openly buy and sell, but deceived those refugees with words, and talked about the Ming Kingdom in a fanciful way, promising that as long as they were willing to go there, they would immediately have houses, land, and livestock, and those people would follow them voluntarily. They just didn't know that these merchants of the Ming Kingdom had brought them to the land, and they had actually collected the money. ”

"Lu must not care?" Deng Shu gritted her teeth.

"At first, I also managed it, and the Ming people didn't deny it, and even allowed Lu to send people to the Ming Kingdom to get those people back." Dai Shulun's face became a little blank, "But no one came back with the officials in Qingzhou." ”

"Akito is getting in the way?" Deng Shu asked.

Dai Shulun shook his head: "No, it's those Qin people who have been abducted and trafficked in the past, and they don't admit that they are Qin people at all." He paused and said, "Those merchants who sold them in the past are not lying, that is, they have passed and really have houses, livestock, and fields. ”

Deng Shu's face became a little pale: "How can this be?" ”

"I sent someone to see it, the buyer is not someone else, it is simply the local government, for example, Changyang County, where they have also gone through many years of war, there are few people, and the business there is now gradually developed, and a large number of people are needed, and like the Ming people recovered last year back to the Yiyang Wuling Taoyuan land, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as ten miles of uninhabited, a large number of fields are abandoned, and the Ming people are trying every means to immigrate to those places. As long as you are willing to go, the local government will prepare a house and livestock for you. Dai Shulun sighed: "Moreover, the agricultural tax of the Ming people is outrageously low. The taxes paid by a common person for a year's income, plus the per capita tax, are only two to three percent of the total income, where did the Qin people go, knowing these circumstances, and willing to come back? ”

"These are expensive and not effective in a short period of time. It's all some long-term measures, for the future, the Ming people have been fighting for years since they were established, where do they have the money to do these things? Deng Shu asked with some difficulty. The Deng family has always been the top family in the Qin State, and Deng Shu is no stranger to governing the country.

"I don't know." Dai Shulun sighed: "But I have heard that the Ming State has no silver from the treasury to the treasury of the local government, and they all owe money, and the higher they go, the more they owe, like the treasury of the Ming Kingdom, they are even more in debt." ”

"A court that owes countless amounts of money hasn't collapsed yet?"

"Here's where things get weird. It seems that the more money the Ming court owes, the richer his people become, and the stronger his support for the court becomes. Dai Shulun said: "Anyway, Qin Feng's rule of governance, I don't understand it at all, just like the paper money they issue, a light and fluttering paper, their people, but they believe it, now in the Ming Kingdom, there is no longer a transaction of cash silver and copper coins in the market." ”

"Banknotes?" Deng Shu looked surprised, "Is it like the silver ticket of the money bank?" ”

"No, it's not at all." Dai Shulun shook his head and said: "Miss, it's time for dinner, why don't we find a shop to rest down first, eat something to cushion our stomach, Lu must go out of the city to perform the army, I'm afraid I won't be able to come back until night." ”

"It's okay, after eating, go out for a walk and take a look, the situation in Qingzhou is a little unexpected to me." Deng Shu looked at the rows of shops on the bustling streets, most of the goods in them were something she had never seen before.

"These goods are all from the Ming Kingdom." Dai Shulun said: "Even their paper money has now become a common coin in Qingzhou County, and there are very few coins made of money or silver in Daqin." ”

Deng Shu stopped, his face looked even more ugly, money and interest have always been one of the most important benefits of a country, and the penetration of the Ming people has reached such a point.

"Except for Qingzhou County, what about other places?"

"Miss, after our last defeat, there was a clause that allowed the Ming people's money bank, which is what they called a bank, to operate in the Qin State, in fact, not only in Qingzhou County, but now in Daqin, Ming money is not a rare thing. As the merchants of the Ming Kingdom walked all over our Great Qin, their paper money also circulated to all parts of our Great Qin. Ming merchants, they are only willing to settle with Ming currency. And if the Qin people wanted to do business with them, they could only go to the banks of the Ming people, and when the silver was exchanged for Ming coins, and the Qin made copper coins, the Ming merchants did not recognize them. ”

"No wonder Daqin's economy is declining day by day!" Deng Shu sighed: "This is an invisible knife, quietly cutting Daqin's flesh one by one." ”

"Who's to say it isn't! But our court seems to be turning a blind eye to this! Dai Shulun sneered.

Deng Shu was silent for a while: "We don't need to worry about this, this clay pot will eventually be broken, instead of letting the Ming people take this jar back, it is better for us to make a move and beat him to a mess, no one can think of it." ”

On the first floor of Qingzhou, the name is extremely domineering, Dai Shulun took Deng Shu and his party, and chose this inn that looks tall at first glance, and asked for a few upper rooms.

"Dai Ye, you're back again!" The shopkeeper on the first floor seemed to be extremely familiar with Dai Shulun, and when he saw him, he smiled and greeted him loudly.

"Although the four seas are home, Qingzhou is my home after all, I have been drifting outside for a long time, and I have to come back to smell the smell of my hometown." Dai Shulun also laughed and joked with the shopkeeper.

"In the past, I was alone, but this time I have a lot of companions!" The shopkeeper's eyes swept over Deng Shu and his party, and he smiled authentically.

"They are all friends, and I want to come to Qingzhou to have a look." Dai Shulun said: "Okay, Lao Tian, I'm tired too, I won't have anything to do with you, the food will be delivered to the room, and you will get the best and best things." ”

"No problem." The shopkeeper surnamed Tian responded repeatedly: "Then you go and rest first, and the food will be delivered in a while." Do you want wine? Oh, you still have female guests here, we have the fruit wine just shipped from Changyang County of the Ming Kingdom here, which is the most suitable for female guests. ”

"Then ask for a pot!"

Entering the room, Deng Shu took off the veil, "This person knows your identity?" ”

Dai Shulun shook his head: "I know that my surname is Dai, and I also know that I eat this bowl of rice, but I don't know that I am Dai Shulun, Miss, the owner of the first floor of Qingzhou is surnamed Tian, and the person behind it is the Shayang Tian family of the Ming Kingdom." ”

"This restaurant is an intelligence base of the Ming Kingdom!" Deng Shu blurted out, "How did we get here?" ”

"It's public." Dai Shulun said: "This is now the place where the intelligence brokers of Qingzhou County trade information, and whatever news you want, you can get it from here as soon as possible, as long as you can afford it." Miss, staying here is the safest. No one cares about your identity, only whether the goods in your hands are worth it and whether it will be useful to them? ”

"There is still such a place?" Deng Shu sighed: "It seems that I still know too little about the outside world. ”

"Miss will know more and more in the future." Uncle Dai said.