In the castle tower of Joseijo Castle.

Li Xiao's gaze retracted from the scenery outside the window and turned away.

At present, among the three floors of the castle tower, except for Li Xiao, there is only one person, Shiota Qiuzhen, who is now looking respectful, prostrating himself in front of Li Xiao.

"But Lord Mamori, I'm here to plead guilty."

Oh? Li Xiao smiled slightly, and asked knowingly, "Lord Chikuzen Shou, where does this start?" ”

Shioya Akizhen lowered his body even more and said, "Hui Tajima Mamoru Lord, before the Saito army came to attack, I was entrusted by Saito Riki to buy my lord's subordinates and ask him to open the city gate as an internal response when the Saito army attacked the city. In addition, Zaito also provided Saito Riki with military information on Kamiokanda Castle. ”

Li Xiao snorted softly, what Shioya Qiuzhen did, Li Xiao also knew not long ago, and his ninjas found out afterwards that if he didn't have a field battle at that time, he would have adopted the strategy of defending the city.

At that time, the Otemon Gate of Kamioka Castle is likely to be breached by the people who were bought by Shioya Akisada and the Saito family, and then Kamioka Castle will be really dangerous.

After the incident, Yokotani also felt that he was derelict in his duties, so he specially asked Li Xiao for failing to investigate the matter in time.

Li Xiao looked at Yanwu Qiuzhen again, he really wanted to say, if it is useful to ask for sin, why do you want to cut your stomach?

At the beginning, Shioya Qiuzhen chose this, from the perspective of the strong person who depended, in fact, it is understandable, the Saito family is strong, Li Xiao's family is weak, both of them are counted as his partners, in the case of only one choice, then his decision is also correct from his own considerations.

But at the moment, this result can only be said that Shioya Qiuzhen's vision is too bad and she is on the wrong team.

Li Xiao thought for a while, and then asked, "Lord Chikuzen Shou, do you think it is useful to ask for sin?" ”

Shioya Akizhen moved his slightly chubby body and said, "That depends on how Tajimamoru understands." ”

Oh? Li Xiao wanted to see how Shioriya Qiuzhen defended herself.

Shioya Qiuzhen said in a deep voice: "It is true that it violates the previous reputation with Lord Tajimamoru in Xia, but it is also a reason in Xia, and most of my Shioya business is in Chengsheng City. If Saito Riki can take it back with a word, he uses it to coerce, and he really can't resist it. ”

"So please understand, if you are an adult, if you still refuse to forgive me, I will apologize for my sins, but please also ask Lord Danma Shou to protect the rights and interests of my salt house in Chengsheng City, so I will be grateful."

Li Xiao snorted coldly, thinking that this salt house Qiuzhen came so fartically, it turned out that he wanted to keep his salt house business in Chengsheng City.

As a merchant, Shioya Akisada is currently selling salt mainly from Toyama-no-cho and then to the castle town of Suwa Castle in the highland of the Eima family.

At present, in this route, the central Chengsheng City, Shengang City, these two important rings are all stuck by Li Xiao. His main business was in vain.

Yes, occupying Chengsheng City, Li Xiao has already choked the key point of Hida Yuezhong Passage.

If Li Xiao is willing, he can impose an embargo on salt, grain and other important substances at any time on his sister Xiaolu family and Neidao's family.

The salt road access is only one of them, for Yanwu Qiuzhen, what is even more terrible is that his biggest business at the moment is to exchange the secret silver money with Li Xiao in the Shengang Silver Mountain, and now he has to look at Li Xiao's eyes.

After learning about the opponent's hole cards, Li Xiao smiled slightly, saying that no matter how he played, Shioriya Qiuzhen was going to die in his own hands.

As long as he grasps the traffic lifeline of Chengsheng City, what if Shioriya Qiuzhen survives, the salt house run by his Shioriya family for several generations is about to collapse.

It's easy to kill him now, but you can't get anything, so in this case, use his surname to make money for yourself.

In addition, there is a benefit to leaving the surname of Shioya Qiuzhen, and now that Saito Liki is dead, the secret of Shengang Yinshan is only known to Li Xiao, Jiangma Huisheng, and Shioya Qiuzhen.

If you suddenly change partners, not to mention the trouble, if the matter is not secret, once the details of Shengang Yinshan are leaked, you will not be able to bear this loss, so the cost will be even greater.

After Li Xiao thought about it clearly, he said: "Lord Zhuzen Shou, Your Excellency's death is useless. Have you ever thought that even if you die, I may not let your salt house go? Even if I let it go, after that, other merchants will come up and give me better conditions to replace your salt house, and then your salt house will not lose everything in Chengsheng City? ”

When Shioya Qiuzhen heard this, her forehead was covered with sweat, her slightly chubby body twisted uneasily, and she asked aloud: "Yes, but what Lord Ma Shou said is right, but how to atone for his sins, please show me." ”

Li Xiao smiled slightly, sat cross-legged in front of Yanwu Qiuzhen, approached the other party, and asked, "Lord Yanwu, I know your businessman's guidelines, and only when there are common interests can there be cooperation." So do you understand what I mean? ”

Shioya Qiuzhen was shocked, couldn't help but reach out to wipe the sweat on his forehead, and put down his glasses, swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, "I understand, please let me go and become your royal merchant Tajima Mamoru you." I, the salt house, would like to provide you with a 1,000-yen participation fund every year. ”

Li Xiao shook his head and said, "Lord Zhuzen Shou, you still don't understand, if I haven't captured Chengsheng City, if you propose to be the royal merchant of my family, I will not hesitate to agree." But now the situation is different, I was not qualified to negotiate with you at that time, but now the situation of you and me has changed. ”

Shioya Qiuzhen took a deep breath and said as if she had made up her mind: "Okay, 1,500 yuan a year, it must not be more, otherwise you won't even be able to earn a penny surplus in the next year." ”

Li Xiao laughed and said: "Lord Chikuzen Shou, his words are not true, it is said that I know that your salt house relies on Shengang Silver Mountain to operate two houses, and there is also a net profit of salt road trafficking for a year, which is nearly 5,000 yuan!" ”

Yanwu Qiuzhen Huo Ran's color changed, and he said, "Lord Li Xiao, you are checking my details. ”

Li Xiao nodded and said, "That's right, but for me, it's absolutely necessary." ”

Yanwu Qiuzhen changed her complexion, thought about it for a while, and finally replied bitterly: "Fifteen hundred, just fifteen hundred, so Lord Ma Shou, you can use my Yanwu as a royal merchant." ”

"Nope." Li Xiao still flatly refused.

This time, Shioya Qiuzhen is really going to cry bitterly.

Li Xiao said unhurriedly: "You haven't understood what I mean, I said that only when there are common interests, the two sides can cooperate, and the conditions set by Your Excellency, I can't see where there are common interests." ”

Shioya Akizhen almost cried now, "Then Lord Danmamoru, what is your idea, please advise." ”

Li Xiao laughed, but he was strong, and he didn't have any sense of accomplishment when he played others.

Li Xiao stretched out three fingers and said, "I want you salt house merchants to make 30% of the profit every year." ”

Shioriya Qiuzhen showed a look of surprise, thirty percent of the profit, according to his current annual profit of nearly five thousand yuan, it is also close to one thousand five hundred yuan.

But in fact, the meaning is really different, the profit sharing, as Li Xiao said, the interests of him and Yanwu are really bound.

In the future, when his salt house business expands, Li Xiao will naturally be able to earn more, and if the business shrinks, Li Xiao will also earn less.

In this way, it is necessary for the two sides to support each other, and Li Xiao will give Yanwu convenience as his lord, and Yanwu can also make more profits because of this, so the possibility of betraying each other is much smaller.

The decadent look on Shioya Qiuzhen's face disappeared, and with a 'oh' sound, he knelt down and said, "In this way, everything will be taken care of by Lord Danma Mamoru." ”

Li Xiao nodded, for Yanwu Qiuzhen, he said that in the future, he would use his status as a shareholder to slowly infiltrate people into the business and secretly monitor his behavior.

This step will take two to three years to do.

If not, he will find an opportunity to assassinate the other party, and finally use the infiltrated person to take over the salt house business for himself.

In this way, Li Xiao can earn more, but if it weren't for Shioya Qiuzhen's bad intentions, he wouldn't do it.

First, Yanwu Qiuzhen has some talent in business, and it is a pity to kill this person, and secondly, Li Xiao is still trustworthy and will not easily break his promise.

However, in Li Xiao's opinion, as long as the interests of both parties are completely tied together in the future, Shioriya Qiuzhen will not do such a stupid thing as long as she has a brain.

And Li Xiaoling leads the domestic economy, has the Great Treasury Chang'an, and Yanwu Qiuzhen takes care of it for himself, so he can also save a lot of worry.

Yanwu's profit sharing is a year-end with Li Xiao, and it is expected that he will get nearly 1,500 yuan in dividends by the end of the year.

With this amount of income, Li Xiao is naturally very comfortable, this is just a subsidy, and Takeda Shingen canceled the previous subsidy of 1,000 yuan a year for himself.

The reason for this family is also very sufficient, Li Xiaodu is already an old man at the level of 20,000 stones, and he can no longer receive a direct salary like the general at the beginning.

However, Li Xiao smashed all his savings into it in order to prepare for the construction of the iron artillery team of the Western Phalanx, and now he is in an economic crisis situation where he is poor and white, and his family has been stripped away.

To fight a war is to fight money and the economy, and this is not wrong at all.

Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen are indeed masterpieces in the world, but if the Takeda Uesugi family does not have the support of Jinshan, it will be quite difficult for the two of them to get out in this troubled world.

Although Li Xiao is now a 20,000-stone-high big-name family elder and his territory has expanded a lot, his strategic position is actually extremely unfavorable.

He now controls the territory, which is a dumbbell, one end in Hida, the other end in Echichu, and in the middle is a difficult mountain road to trek.

Normally, it's fine, but once the winter comes, the mountains are covered with heavy snow and the mountain roads are blocked, so the traffic between Kamioka Castle and Jobu Castle is interrupted, and if something happens to one of the castles and is attacked by other forces, the two castles will not be able to echo each other.

If Li Xiao's five hundred standing forces were evenly distributed between the two cities, this would not work at all, and the garrison force would be even weaker.

With Li Xiao's plan, he prepared to expand the army, and then expand the standing reserve of 500 and garrison them in Chengsheng City and Shengang City respectively.

And recruiting 500 standing reserves, this is undoubtedly a huge amount of money.

To maintain 500 standing allowances, not counting other consumption, according to the annual allowance of each standing ashigaru 7 guan, it is necessary to 3,500 yuan a year, plus support rice for one person and two people.

Just to maintain, it costs more than 4,000 yuan a year.

In addition, iron cannons, ampling, spears, and swords are not counted.

Li Xiao couldn't help but sigh, this separation of soldiers and peasants is really something that only rich people can afford to play.

Therefore, if Li Xiao wants to newly set up these five hundred standing reserves and garrison Chengsheng City, he needs a large amount of funds.

Now Li Xiaoling has three major incomes, Shengang Silver Mountain, castle town commerce, and farmland annual tribute.

Li Xiao supported the greatest confidence of a thousand standing reserves, that is, there is the great killing weapon of Shengang Yinshan, and with the opening of Chang'an, Shengang Yinshan has overfulfilled the task this year, in addition to purchasing eighty iron cannons, it also helped Li Xiao maintain three hundred standing expenses.

Therefore, this year, all the output of the Inner Shengang Silver Mountain has been exhausted.

As for the income of the castle town, it mainly comes from commercial trade, but since it is autumn, in another month, the Echichu Hida road will soon be closed by heavy snow. Therefore, the commercial income of Kamiokanda Castle, Joseijo Castle and Joshita Town, is about to shrink significantly.

So this money can't be counted on either.

Fortunately, Li Xiao still has one last item, the annual income from farmland this year.

The autumn harvest is about to take place, and according to the ratio of three princes and two people, Li Xiao received a total of 12,000 stone annual tribute income from 20,000 stone high territory.

With this income, Li Xiao could temporarily use it to recruit his five hundred standing reserves.

However, part of this 12,000 stone must ensure his 1,000 standing reserves after the expansion of the army and the military food reserves for the next year.

In order to expand the army, Li Xiao can only temporarily sell part of the military rations in exchange for copper coins.

At the end of the year, Li Xiao said that it would be better, and there would be dividends from salt house merchants, as well as the expected output of Shengang Silver Mountain next year, production expansion.

Li Xiao can temporarily survive the economic crisis caused by the expansion of the army, and then use the money to buy it back if the military rations are insufficient.

The purchase and sale of military rations, designated by Li Xiao, was carried out by the royal merchant Shioya Qiuzhen at a unified purchase and sale price.

The advantage of unifying the purchase and sale price of military grain is that the purchase and sale prices of military grain are unified, that is, there will not be a situation in which grain is sold at a low price during the autumn harvest and grain is bought at a high price in the spring.

In this way, the benefits of a royal merchant like Shioya Akizhen were immediately reflected.

The income from buying and selling grain as an annual tribute was based on the difference in the price of the seasons, which was also the basic way to use agriculture as the main income at that time.

The daimyo followers also had to do the work of buying grain when it was cheap and selling it when it was expensive.

Playing Taiko Five, every time the Daimyo is evaluated, as a player playing as a retainer, you can choose this order to buy and sell military rations every time.

However, in fact, Li Xiao's annual income from farmland this year has been blocked.

At the end of September, Echichu Castle and Hida Kamioka Castle were born, and the autumn harvest in both places had ended.

The three thousand stones of Hida Kamioka City were collected in full, but the nine thousand stones of Chengsheng City did not let Li Xiao see a grain of rice.

The people sent by Li Xiao to collect taxes in various villages were either polite, perfunctory, or even expelled.

After Li Xiao heard this, he was furious, saying that since the martial arts family took charge of the world, it was the responsibility of the daimyo to tax the villages in the territory.

At present, the villages actually refuse to pay, and even violently resist the law, how can this be tolerated.

However, Li Xiao sensed a hint of conspiracy from it, when he occupied Chengsheng City, the famous lords of the local villages had already recognized his status as a local lord and agreed to pay him an annual tribute after the autumn harvest.

Why did these famous masters change their minds in less than a month?

There must be a reason for this.

Therefore, after Li Xiao inquired in detail about the people who were sent to various villages before and were driven back, he realized that it was the ghosts of the bald donkeys in Honganji Temple.

(To be continued)