"That's good!" Hearing Liu Cheng's words, Min Min laughed, she looked at no one on the left and right, grabbed Liu Cheng's right hand, and whispered: "I knew you always had a way!" ”

Feeling the slightly rough little hand in his hand, Liu Cheng couldn't help but move in his heart, held it with his backhand, and said in a low voice: "I don't have a way to do everything." ”

"For example?"

"Like you!"

The banquet dispersed, Ma Ziyi and Lu Boqi were drinking tea in the study to relieve their hangovers, and it was not difficult to see that there was something hidden under the calm surface of these two gentlemen.

"Master, master!" Qi Jiu ran in from outside and said in a low voice, "I have already invited Lord Liu." ”

"Good, good!" Ma Ziyi stood up, tidied up her clothes a little, and was about to go out to greet her, but she stopped again, stretched out her hand and asked, "Lord Lu, please go first!" ”

Lu Boqi was not humble, lifted the front of the official robe and walked out of the door quickly, and when he arrived at the gate of the courtyard, he happened to meet Liu Cheng, and bowed down and said: "Lord Liu is gracious and rebuilt, Birch is grateful!" “

"Lord Lu is so polite!" Liu Cheng stretched out his hand to help Lu Boqi up, and said with a smile: "I didn't know Lord Lu on the first day, what kind of person I, Liu Cheng, Lord Lu, don't you know?" In the future, there will be many places to rely on Lord Lu, so why bother? “

"Yes!" Ma Ziyi said on the side: "You don't know what Lord Liu is doing, it's a long time coming." Come, guys, let's go in and talk! “

The three of them entered the house, Ma Ziyi asked the servants and maids to retreat, and only the three of them were left in the house, and the atmosphere suddenly became cold. After a long while, Lu Boqi asked, "Lord Liu, what are your plans next?" “

It would be very strange if someone else in the room heard Lu Boqi say this. Lu Boqi, who is a soldier in the same state, actually asked the plan of a general under his jurisdiction, isn't this reversed? But in the eyes of the three people in the house, this is a matter of course, because a series of previous events have proved that Liu Cheng is more far-sighted and powerful than the other two. And none of this can be brought about by an official position.

"Intended?" Liu Cheng laughed: "Naturally, it's like in Dunzhou, turning the bottom upside down!" “

"Bottom up?" Lu and Ma glanced at each other, and saw that there was worry in each other's eyes, but more excitement, after all, the two of them made a fortune in Dunzhou, if they could do it again in the same state, wouldn't it be wonderful?

"I want to hear about it!" Lu Boqi laughed.

"In addition to the more than 2,000 soldiers in my hands, I already have 3,000 strong men, and counting the thieves captured this time, there are five or six thousand people alone. The soldiers and the court will pay them, but the people will not, so many people want food and clothing, I have to work for them! Liu Cheng said while holding his fingers to settle accounts for the two: "The canal in Dunzhou will be completed this year, and the Pitang Bureau will be able to support a thousand people, and the workshops and military tuns in Dunzhou can still raise five or six hundred, and I plan to bring the rest to Tongzhou, and the workshops, pontoon bridges, docks, and water conservancy will all be built." I have the head here, but I am short of money! “

"How much is missing?" This time it was Ma Ziyi who spoke, compared to Lu Boqi, he was much more shrewd, and he had a much deeper understanding of Liu Cheng's career. He knew very well that what Liu Cheng said was that these were profitable transactions, but he had to invest a large amount of money in advance, and he had already made up his mind to take the lead no matter what, so as to give the Ma family the first opportunity.

"The exact number is not yet available. Why do you want a 400,000 taels of silver as a base! Liu Chengshi opened his mouth widely, and easily spit out an astronomical number, almost smashing Lu Boqi next to him. This is already more than the military salary paid by the Northwest Frontier Army in a year.

"So much?" Lu Boqi's eyes widened: "This, I'm afraid the old man can't do anything about this." “

"Naturally, you don't need two people to come out of this money, you only need to take out a few hundred taels and make a gesture!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "I plan to raise some of the money from the Jinzhou gentry, and besides, the money is not invested all at once, such as the pontoon bridge, as long as it is repaired, you can collect money, even if it is a hundred miles to draw one, how can there be twenty or thirty thousand taels of silver in a year, as well as the city tax of the wharf, the rent of the house, etc., these are all rewarded." “

"Then the official will give three thousand taels!" Lu Boqi gritted his teeth and decided to make some blood, after all, his official and life were all saved by Liu Cheng, and these two alone were far more than three thousand taels of silver, and no matter how little, it would be impossible to say.

Ma Ziyi said with a smile: "The old man is the same as Lord Lu, I still have a son who works under Lord Liu, so I will give another three thousand taels, which is converted into a total of six thousand taels, how about it?" ”

"Thank you both then!" Liu Cheng was very satisfied with the attitude of Ma and Liu. As a matter of fact, the purpose of raising funds from the Jinzhou gentry by issuing shares was not only to solve the difficulty of insufficient funds, but also to draw them into his own group and expand the social base of his military and political group. Up to now, although the small clique headed by Liu Cheng has considerable military and economic strength, it has almost zero social foundation. To use a popular analogy, Liu Cheng's clique is a castle in the air without any social foundation, and it is not even as good as Xu Hecheng, but there is still a cult organization at the foot of Xu Hecheng. His men worked under him either because of his official position or for his monthly salary, and if he fell off his horse one morning and broke his neck, the group would fall apart. Although these gentlemen did not use force, they had economic strength and controlled the grassroots society at that time, and if Liu Cheng wanted to take root in the society of the Ming Dynasty, then it was necessary to pull some of them into his group and share the benefits with them.

Now that the main thing has been said, the atmosphere in the room has become relaxed. Ma Ziyi even personally made tea for Liu and Lu, and the three of them said some idle words, seeing that it was getting late, Lu Boqi couldn't bear the question in his heart anymore, and asked in a low voice: "Lord Liu, this time the thief in Yanzhou is obviously your own work, why don't you take all the credit and blame me?" “

Liu Cheng smiled slightly, but didn't speak, just glanced at Ma Ziyi. Ma Ziyi stood up knowingly and said with a smile: "Why hasn't the supper been delivered yet, I'll urge you!" Then he went out and closed the door with his hand.

"Master Lu, since you ask, I will be blunt!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "This dynasty has been since the Battle of Civil Engineering. The commanders of the army all use civil servants, and the warriors are only for the running generation, even if they are the general soldiers. I'm a martial artist, if I want to make a career, I must have a scribe to help each other, Lord Lu, you understand why I did this, right? “

"Then why me? You should know that I'm just a man. Speaking of his sore spots, Lu Boqi couldn't help but lower his head.

"So what?" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "Lord Lu, although you are not from a Jinshi background, you have a benefit, knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing." Things you don't understand don't come in. When marching and fighting, the most feared thing is that the generals are not in harmony, and the top and bottom are not the same. If I change to a Jinshi master, maybe one day I will borrow my head to stand up! ”

Hearing Liu Cheng say this, Lu Boqi couldn't help laughing, it is true that Liu Cheng has always been bold and reckless, if he hadn't met Yang He's good character at the beginning, I am afraid that he would have suffered a lot. He is quite self-aware of himself, and he knows that being the prefect of a state is already at the limit. Therefore, as soon as he learned that he became a soldier, he was ready to rely on Liu Cheng, so he was not annoyed that Liu Cheng said this.

"Then Lord Liu, you can rest assured, I will never hinder your actions after becoming a soldier!"

"Master Lu, don't worry. As long as you and I cooperate well, it is not impossible for political envoys, governors, governors, and even cabinets to enter the cabinet! ”

At this time, Ma Ziyi came in from outside, and Lu Boqi glanced at him. Suddenly asked: "Ma Gong, which dynasty is the closest thing to enter the cabinet to worship the prime minister as a person in this dynasty?" “

Ma Ziyi shook her head and said with a smile: "I'm old. Where do I remember such things, but if I'm not mistaken, I'm afraid it's at least during the Hongxi period, right? It's also a small 200 years. “

"Lord Liu, I know you have the ability!" Lu Boqi said with a smile: "But this dynasty has its own system, which cannot be changed by manpower, Lu Mou has some ability, and he knows how much he knows, it is already too much to be able to do this military preparation, and he has never thought about any political envoys and governors, as long as there is nothing wrong with his duties, Lu will be satisfied!" ”

Liu Cheng smiled slightly, and didn't say much, he knew that there was no evidence, like Lu and Ma, old fritters who had been rolling in the red dust for decades, just a few empty checks, they didn't want to let them return to their hearts, but their words tonight had already planted two seeds in the hearts of the two, as long as the environment was suitable, they would sprout and grow into towering trees.

"Master Liu, the old man has a sentence that I don't know if to ask?" Ma Ziyi stroked the beard under her chin and asked suddenly.

"Mr. Ma, if there is anything between you and me that should be asked, as long as you open your mouth, Liu will naturally know everything!" Liu Cheng replied with a smile.

"Good!" Ma Ziyi nodded: "If you succeed this time, then you will have 400,000 taels of silver in your hand, which is a lot of money, and the taxes received by the imperial court from Shaanxi in a year are not so much, dare to ask what you plan to do with such a large sum of silver?" ”

"Old fox, you finally can't bear it anymore!" Hearing Ma Ziyi finally speak, Liu Cheng was secretly happy in his heart, he knew very well that compared to Lu Boqi, Ma Ziyi's city government was much deeper, although he had already become a minister, but his father's potential influence as a cabinet elder was far greater than that of Lu Boqi, who became a soldier in the same state. Although this person was the first to cooperate with Liu Cheng among the gentry in Jinzhou, the degree of cooperation was also the shallower. Compared with Zhao Youcai, who sold himself to take refuge, Lu Boqi, who relied on Liu Cheng to lie about his exploits, and Liu Juren, who was so faceless and skinless that he called Liu an uncle, Ma Ziyi just paid a son who was not so useful, but he got the biggest piece of cake. Of course, Liu Cheng was unwilling to let this big fish easily eat the bait but unhooked, although the Shaanxi gentry at the end of the Ming Dynasty were far less powerful than Nanzhili, so that they could control the court situation, but they were still the most powerful local power group in Shaanxi. From a ******** point of view, Shaanxi is the center of gravity in the northwest, and the four military towns of Yansui Town, Ningxia Town, Guyuan Town, and Gansu Town, which are important towns in the nine border areas, are either within the scope of Shaanxi, or their supply and logistics must rely on Shaanxi, that is to say, if Liu Cheng controls Shaanxi, nearly half of the troops in the border army will have to choose between starvation and surrender. With such a strong force, as long as a temporary compromise is reached with the Mongolian tribes outside the Saiwai and borrowing troops from them, whether it is out of Tongguan to control Henan, or out of Wuguan to control the Nanyang Basin, break the three passes to control Hubei, and then go down the Yangtze River to take Jiangnan, sweeping the world is just a matter of referring to Gu. From the perspective of military geography, Shaanxi was more suitable as the starting point for the conquest of China than the Later Jin regime, which was based on Liaodong. This is because marching from the northeast to the south must cross several major geographical obstacles, such as the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the Yangtze River, while marching eastward from Shaanxi is along the Yellow River, the Han River, the Yangtze River, and other major rivers, and the degree of difficulty is naturally much easier. But there must be a premise for all this - that is, to have the support of the Shaanxi gentry.

"I'm going to do three things!" Liu Cheng stretched out three fingers.

"I want to hear about it!"

"First of all, we must buy land!" Liu Cheng stretched out his index finger: "A thousand acres of land will be encircled on the edge of Pujin Ferry, and workshops, docks, yards, and markets will be built, and then it will be troublesome to Lord Lu." ”

"It doesn't hurt if it's just a thousand acres!" Lu Boqi said with a smile: "As the saying goes, thirty years in the east of the river and thirty years in the west of the river, the land on the edge of the Yellow River is probably not worth a few pennies." "It turns out that the section of the Yellow River from Longkou Waterfall to Fengling Ferry, the river is turbulent, the river course is changeable, and although the land on both sides of the river is convenient for irrigation, few people cultivate it, which Lu Boqi knows very well.

"That's good!" Liu Cheng nodded: "The second is to build a bridge, I plan to build a pontoon bridge first, communicate with Shaanxi and Shanxi, so that the business travelers between the two places will inevitably pass through this bridge, I can collect gold to raise soldiers, and secondly, the water and land transportation here is convenient, and the woolen wool, ironware, leather and other goods produced in my workshop can also be marketed to Henan, Shanxi, and the north and south of Zhili, and the profits are more abundant." “

"Hmmm! This is a great thing for the benefit of the country and the people! Ma Ziyi nodded: "My Shaanxi gentry have an unshirkable responsibility, and I will go to Xi'an tomorrow to raise money for Lord Liu." ”

"Then thank you, Mr. Ma!" Liu Cheng was secretly happy when he heard this, what he cared about most was not how much money Ma Ziyi could get, but how many people he could bring, after all, as long as he paid for it, he would become his potential supporter.

"What about the third?" (To be continued.) )

PS: Webb drank too much yesterday and uploaded late, make up for it, forgive me!