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"Lord Xu, can this tea still be in your mouth?" Liu Ru asked with a smile when he saw Xu Hecheng put down the teacup.

Xu Hecheng said with a smile: "Xu is a rough man, he runs around on weekdays, and the tea is thirst-quenching, where can he distinguish between good tea and bad tea." Mr. Liu can take it out to entertain guests, it must be good! ”

The more Chen Zilong looked at it, the more he felt that Xu Hecheng did not look like he was born in the field in terms of speech and temperament, but this person was a member of the Ministry of War before he became a member of the Ministry of War. Isn't it by the shade of the home? Thinking of this, Chen Zilong pretended not to care and asked, "Lord Xu, dare to ask, what year are you the name of the department?" ”

Xu Hecheng glanced at Chen Zilong, but did not answer, but asked, "Dare to ask, who are you?" ”

Before Liu Ru was introduced, Cheng Er on the side smiled and said, "Lord Xu, this is yours." In addition to Chen Shilang's son, who else can win Mr. Liu's favor, who else is in Huating Chen Mao? ”

"It turned out to be Chen Gongzi, fortunately!" Xu Hecheng saw that Liu Ru and Chen Zilong did not deny it, knowing that Cheng Er had guessed well, he arched his hand: "I have never entered the science field in Xia, and I have no fame." ”

"Then you are a shadow official?" As soon as Chen Zilong spoke, he regretted that he had said the wrong thing. Like today's academic circle, the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty also had a chain of contempt for birth, Jinshi and the first born and then when Shu Jishi went all the way into the cabinet to achieve the highest end of the contempt chain, followed by the Jinshi origin, the same Jinshi origin, and the worse one is to lift people, and the shade of the official is not Qiu Ba Master, otherwise it is very close to the end of the contempt chain, and it is stronger than the miscellaneous officials. Even if they are reincarnated in Xungui's family, as long as they read a little bit of books, the children who are a little ambitious will also study hard and strive to make a name for themselves in the scientific field. As the saying goes, don't slap people in the face, if Xu Hecheng is really a shady official, as soon as Chen Zilong's words come out, he is afraid that he will offend people, and he will change color, and it is not impossible to turn around and leave.

"Not either!" Xu Hecheng's face was as usual: "I am an official because of merit!" ”

"Fame and fame can only be taken immediately, what a hero is a husband!" Liu Ru was afraid that Chen Zilong would annoy Xu Hecheng, so he hurriedly took over the conversation: "If you talk about articles and poems, who can match Cen Jiazhou (Cen Shen)?" But even he is a hero who immediately takes fame and fame, and Lord Xu has never entered the field, so why can't he be said to be a hero? ”

Chen Zilong couldn't hear that Liu Ru was playing a round for his gaffe, and hurriedly smiled: "Yes, Lord Xu defeated the thieves and protected the safety of the gentry of the people of Yangzhou, so he naturally deserves the word hero!" ”

"Mr. Liu, Mr. Chen!" Xu Hecheng smiled to himself: "In fact, if you say that the biggest credit for this thief is not Xu, but this Mr. Cheng Er." ”

"Really?" Liu Ru couldn't help but be taken aback, in fact, her impression of this person was very ordinary, since she had just entered the building, this Xiuning Cheng Er had stared at herself with her very familiar gaze, if it weren't for the fact that she wanted to curry favor with this Lord Xu, Liu Ru would have found an excuse to drive this uninvited guest out.

"Nature is true!" Xu Hecheng said: "In fact, although there are many thieves, among them, there are only a few people who know the art of war and know how to advance and retreat, and the others are just a few rabble, without any military moderation." When the thieves enter the country, as long as they order the township to clear the walls and fields, force them to divide their troops to collect food, and then they can be broken by elite soldiers and punish their leaders, so they can naturally win more with less. Although there are only more than 2,000 men and horses under my command, the generals are all in a hundred battles, and the cavalry, archers, spears, and artillery teams are all complete, and there is a fleet to transport grain and baggage, and the difficulty of breaking thieves is not here. ”

Chen Zilong asked, "Where is that?" ”

"Money and food!" Xu Hecheng spit out two words: "The two of you should also see that most of the soldiers under my command are not the Ming clan, but the elite of the Quartet, and the monthly salary and rations are preferential, and there will be additional rewards for beheading and breaking the formation." Although there are only more than 2,000 people, the salary alone in a month costs six or seven thousand taels of silver, and the grain and cloth have to be counted separately. Where is the little silver in the imperial court? If it weren't for Mr. Cheng Er's help, even if Sun Wu was reincarnated, I am afraid he would be helpless! ”

Liu Ru and Chen Zilong cast a surprised look at Mr. Cheng Er, although the Huating Chen family is also a famous family in the south of the Yangtze River, and the family has six or seven thousand acres of land alone, but most of them are real estate, and most of them belong to a clan, not owned by him alone, and the cash flow is actually very limited, if you want to take out a few thousand taels of silver at once, I am afraid that you will have to sell your property. If Xu Hecheng hadn't lied, this Xiuning Cheng Er would have been able to take out six or seven thousand taels of silver every month to raise the army, and the legendary Shen Wansan would have been nothing more than that.

Mr. Cheng Er saw Liu Ru looking at himself like this, and couldn't help but be secretly happy in his heart, he boasted of having "three good" on weekdays: good food, good beauty, good hero, Liu Ru is a famous beauty in the south of the Yangtze River, if it is in normal times, even if he has thousands of family wealth, I am afraid that he will not even be able to enter the door of this south building. He pretended to be reserved: "Lord Xu praised it falsely, I'm just an assistant to the grain station to help raise some military salaries, what is the merit?" ”

"Mr. Cheng Er is too modest!" Liu Ru said solemnly: "If there is no gentleman's talent, hundreds of thousands of people in Yangzhou, no, millions of living beings in Jiangnan will be poisoned by thieves." If you use tea instead of wine, first toast Mr. a glass! With that, she drank the tea from her cup.

"Don't dare!" Cheng Er hurriedly drank the residual tea in the cup, although the entrance was only half a cup of herbal tea, but the chest was so happy that he almost jumped up and screamed a few times. Chen Zilong, who was on the side, was quite attentive to the study of Binggu, so he asked in a deep voice: "Mr. Cheng Er, I dare to guess a word, presumably Mr. is not using his own property to pay his salary, right?" ”

"Hahaha!" Cheng Er listened to Chen Zilong's question and laughed: "Chen Gongzi said that he was laughing, not to mention that Chen Mou could not take out so much cash, even if I could take out so much silver, I would not dare to pay Wang Shi?" Isn't this self-defeating? ”

Chen Zilong nodded, Cheng Er's words are very honest, as the saying goes, eating food and being a soldier have been linked together since ancient times, whose food you eat naturally obeys whose orders, you a businessman took out a lot of silver to pay the soldiers of the Son of Heaven, don't you want to rebel? However, Chen Zilong didn't expect that Cheng Er really had the ability to pay salaries, and after conquering Dayuan, Du Gu and Silva took down all the Fujian landowners in Dayuan Port on the grounds of secretly colluding with foreign enemies, killing them, closing them, and dealing with them completely, and their grange, houses, property, and slaves naturally became the pockets of the shareholders, and Cheng Er alone was given more than 5,000 acres of land, nearly 100 houses, and more than 400 tenant slaves. In addition, each of these shareholders was given a power of 20,000 mu to 100,000 mu, by virtue of which they had the right to reclaim and occupy the land on the island of Taiwan and to own themselves. In addition, the profitable businesses such as sulfur, sand gold, deerskin, and timber are all divided among the shareholders, and even without considering the trade between Japan and Southeast Asia and the lucrative sugar planting business that can be used here as a base, the more than ten people who invested in this risky business on the West Lake cruise ship have all made a lot of money, and Cheng Er, who has invested the most in personal investment, has quietly become one of the top wealthy people in Jiangnan.

"Then dare to ask, how did the gentleman raise the military salary?" Like most of the ambitious scholars of the late Ming Dynasty, Chen Zilong was still very interested in the study of Binggu, and hurriedly asked for advice. But Cheng Er snorted and turned his eyes to the side, obviously not wanting to say anything. Liu Ru on the side smiled slightly, took the teapot from the maid's hand, stepped forward to fill Cheng Er's teacup, and said with a smile: "Mr. Cheng Er, if you are also interested in these, I don't know if Mr. can explain one or two!" ”

"What's so hard about that?" Cheng Er said with a smile: "This method is worthless if it is put bluntly, in fact, it is only two words - rice and silk!" ”

"Rice, silk!" Liu Ru frowned and asked, "Please also ask Mr. to give me advice!" ”

"Let's put it this way, the salary given by the imperial court is only about one-third, and the rest of the gap should have been filled by the local gentry and people in Yangzhou. After all, this is where their field and mausoleum are located, and who are they not to pay for the salaries of the thieves? However, this group of old money is always good money, when Lord Xu first arrived in Yangzhou with his soldiers, everyone said that there was no money in their pockets, and the prefect even said that the treasury was poor, and it was not until the autumn grain was collected that there was no silver money to make up for it. But before he could collect the autumn grain, the thieves came over, and now the prefect and the gentry were frightened, and they all ran to Lord Xu, as long as Lord Xu can destroy the thieves, he will definitely make up the money! ”

"So that's what happened!" Chen Zilong nodded, but he was slightly unhappy in his heart, secretly thinking that Cheng Er's rhetoric and behavior were quite a bit of a thief's self-respect, could it be that the gentlemen didn't give money, and Xu Hecheng watched the thieves poison the people? Liu Ru is much more astute than Chen Zilong, and heard a lot of extraneous meanings from Cheng Er's words, and said with a smile: "Presumably they still didn't take the silver out this time?" ”

"Shine!" Cheng Er patted his thigh: "Talking to such a girl is effortless, at that time, the prefect and the Yangzhou gentry still didn't come out with cash, but they drew out one cake after another, but they didn't see a little silver star, and the prefect also said that there was only some old rice and old cloth in the treasury, and only when the autumn grain was harvested could there be cash." ”

"And how did the gentleman solve the problem?"

"I first filled in with my own silver, with a monthly interest of one and a half cents, and then agreed to collect the silk at the official price when the silk came down next year. Also, Yangzhou is not allowed to bring rice from Huguang tomorrow spring, and must use my family's rice, but I guarantee that the price of rice will not exceed one stone and one or two or seven coins of silver during the spring famine next year. ”

Chen Zilong listened to it on the side, his brows couldn't help frowning, he was not the kind of rotten Confucian who only knew about the imperial examination, he was a young man in the scientific field, but later because of his participation in the Restoration Society, he suffered a secret loss in the entrance examination, which allowed him to use his extra time and energy to understand the world affairs related to the national economy and people's livelihood. The one-and-a-half-cent interest that Cheng Erfang just said was not too much according to the market at that time, but it was usually used for short-term turnover, and next year's silk would be at least in March and April, and he would start to calculate it in the autumn of this year, at least six months, and the interest alone would be doubled. Moreover, raw silk is an extremely profitable business, and it is also one of the few livelihoods that the farmers of Nanzhili can obtain cash income and be able to maintain the status quo. As for the last item, the invasion of the thieves this time, the harvest in Yangzhou this autumn was not good, and because a large amount of land in southern Jiangsu is used to grow cash crops with better economic benefits - such as tea, mulberry trees, etc., its own grain needs to be earned from the two lakes, Jiangxi and other places, where is the surplus grain sold to Yangzhou in the north of the Yangtze River? If rice is not allowed to be imported from Huguang, will the price of grain not rise to the sky? This Mr. Cheng Er said that he could control the price of grain below one stone and one hundred or twenty-seven yuan, not to mention that the price of rice in one stone and one hundred and twenty-seven yuan was heavenly, where did he get so much rice to fill the vacancy of Huguang rice at that time? It is really stupid for the gentry and prefect of Yangzhou to agree to this infinitely harmful condition for the sake of a little immediate benefit.

"Mr. Cheng Er, I think the prefect of Yangzhou and the local gentry may not let you do it next year, right?" Chen Zilong sneered: "Silk and rice are the flesh of Xiaomin's body, you want to take meat from Xiaomin's body to make up for sores!" ”

"Huh!" Cheng Er sneered: "So it's mine to raise money for Lord Xu and protect Yangzhou Township?" ”

"It is naturally good to raise money and protect Yangzhou Township, but it is not the same as taking the opportunity to make a profit!" Chen Zilong was originally an extremely stubborn character, and was stimulated by Cheng Eryi, so he simply said: "Businessmen learn from profit, and they can't forget the righteousness of the country!" ”

"Where is the righteousness of the country? Chen Gongzi said it well! Cheng Er slapped his palms twice: "When I was young, my family was in the middle of the road, and I didn't read any sage books, so I naturally didn't understand what the country's righteousness was." However, Yangzhou is the famous capital of Jiangzuo, where the essence of Huaiyang is, the country has been peaceful for two hundred years, and there is a salt government. Among the famous gardens, on the Slender West Lake, there are many people who spend a lot of money, but why can't they get the salary of 2,000 soldiers for less than 100,000 taels of silver a year? Is it my turn to be a businessman from out of town? I Cheng Eryi didn't eat the court's Yulu, second, I didn't have the country's fame, third, my hometown is in Xiuning, hundreds of miles away from the Yangtze River, what do I have to do with the thieves in Yangzhou? Chen Gongzi, you said that I dug the flesh on Xiaomin's body to mend the sores, but it was really a strange coincidence! (To be continued.) Mobile phone users, please browse and read, a better reading experience.