Who can make more money than Zhao Yan?

After the Qing Dynasty, he will justifiably control the entire salt market in the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time he can crack down on the Zheng Group, and he can raid homes everywhere.

Why?

Because Zhao Yan can file a lawsuit against any criminal, just raid the house before the lawsuit, search for the incriminating evidence, and report it directly to the Jingshi and wait for the results.

Zhao Yan is already a little impatient, those Lianghuai Salt Merchants, Jin Merchants and Zheng Group are all rich people, if they copy all these guys, how much silver will they get?

But this matter is still not in a hurry, so I will clean it up one by one.

On the ninth day of October, Zhao Yan's Shandong army withdrew from the capital one after another, and the streets were lined with onlookers. Before Zhao Yan withdrew, he did not greet those Beijing officials and Chongzhen.

He only gave a date, did not give a specific time, and did not invite them to come to see them off, but early on, a large group of officials gathered outside the Forbidden City, under the leadership of Chongzhen, watching the Shandong army evacuated in the distance.

When Zhao Yan rode away, he saw Chongzhen and his party, he just stood on the horse, hugged Chongzhen and his party from a distance, and then rode his horse.

Gone, finally gone.

It came quickly, it went decisively, everything was so fast.

However, although Zhao Yan is gone, there is still an infantry battalion of Shandong troops in the Beijing Division, which will obey the orders of the cabinet and be responsible for the security of the Beijing Division in peacetime.

This infantry battalion was Wang Zheng's second infantry battalion of the Liaodong Army.

Jinyiwei, Dongchang and other institutions still exist, but these institutions can no longer swagger on the street to arrest people, if they really go to the street to arrest people, then they will be arrested.

Zhao Yan's army withdrew from the Beijing Division, and it was impossible to leave some soldiers and horses down. If the cabinet does not have soldiers and horses to protect, Chongzhen has many ways to stumble on His Excellency.

The soldiers and horses of this battalion are in the capital, which can protect the normal operation of the cabinet, and secondly, it will also allow Chongzhen to be more secure in the next few years.

But these Chongzhen didn't understand, and thought that Zhao Yan was going to withdraw all the soldiers and horses from the capital.

As a result, in the evening, Wang Zheng also took the second infantry battalion to maintain law and order in the Beijing division.

As a result, the answer he got made Chongzhen almost vomit blood.

Wang Zheng replied with a puzzled look at the time, the general's announcement of the withdrawal of the army, did not say that the army was completely withdrawn? Who said that the troops should be withdrawn completely?

After Chongzhen listened, he directly dropped a few precious porcelain, and summoned Yang Sichang and Sun Chuanting into the palace overnight to discuss countermeasures.

These days, Yang Sichang eats prison meals every day, and he is depressed, how can his complexion not be bad?

However, Zhao Yan suddenly let him go, or did Yang Sichang not react for an afternoon at that time, was it for the 500,000 taels?

In Yang Sichang's opinion, Zhao Yan is definitely not as simple as 500,000 taels of silver, and there will definitely be a deep intention involved, but Yang Sichang has thought about it now, but he still hasn't figured out what this intention is.

"This thief, he keeps saying that he wants to withdraw the army, but he keeps more than 7,000 people stationed in Beijing, two Aiqing, how is it good now?" Chongzhen was at a loss as always, and after losing his temper, he began to ask his courtiers about decision-making.

"Your Majesty, there is no need to worry about the 7,000 soldiers and horses, this is just what Zhao Yan left to protect the cabinet, as long as there is no offense with the cabinet, then the two can be at peace." Sun Chuanting replied.

As an important member of the royalist party, Sun Chuanting had already learned from Lu Xiangsheng's mouth about Wang Zheng's intention to garrison the second battalion of the Liaodong Army in Beijing.

"Your Majesty, the current situation is unfavorable to the royal family, you should be more forbearing, and train hundreds of thousands of strong soldiers in forbearance, and then you can wipe out the Zhao thief in one fell swoop." Yang Sichang said at this time: "These 7,000 Shandong soldiers and horses, you can let him stay in the Beijing Division, first, these Shandong soldiers and horses are strictly disciplined and will not cause trouble in the Beijing Division, and secondly, they will not block our entry and exit, whether they stay or not, it is the same." ”

Sun Chuanting listened to Yang Sichang's bold words, and couldn't help but squint sideways for a while.

Hundreds of thousands of strong soldiers?

Can the imperial court really practice it? Sun Chuanting was deeply suspicious in his heart, but he didn't say anything, just stood aside silently, Chongzhen touched his chin and walked back and forth a few times, shook his hand and said, "What Yang Aiqing said is good. ”

Chongzhen thought for a while, and then said: "However, there is a lot of money and food needed to train elite soldiers, and if you don't have enough money and food, you can train it, I don't know if the two Aiqing have a good strategy?" ”

"Your Majesty, the minister of money and food can try his best to get some military spending in the cabinet." Sun Chuanting said, "However, half of the cabinet is Zhao Yan's minions, and Your Majesty probably can't expect too much." ”

Chongzhen and Yang Sichang both nodded after hearing this, it is almost impossible to get the cabinet to allocate more military spending. So I had to do it myself.

"Your Majesty, the previous minister has contacted several major businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, all of whom are trustworthy people, just re-contact them, and soon be able to establish an imperial businessman." Yang Sichang said at this time: "Now we also have Shandong's textile tools, so we will start with textiles, and then continue to expand the scale of the imperial merchants......"

Yang Sichang became an investment expert for a while, and constantly gave advice to Chongzhen, Chongzhen listened and nodded constantly, and finally determined three development directions.

First, to set up an industry, starting with textiles, and at the same time to draw skilled craftsmen to encourage their innovative technology, and then continue to spread to other industries.

Second, enter the sales industry, use the abundant capital of the imperial merchants, and concentrate on the market price, so as to seek profits.

Third, carry out large-scale land enclosure, encircle the barren land in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, and then vigorously develop the reclamation.

The first two points put forward by Yang Sichang were all thought out after reading Zhao Yan's "Theory of Industrial and Commercial Regulations", and Zhao Yan had a detailed exposition of industry and commerce in the theory of industrial and commercial regulations, which can be said to be an industrial discourse work that surpasses all the works of his predecessors.

After studying the "Theory of Industrial and Commercial Regulations" in detail, Yang Sichang has a lot of awareness, just like the words "technology" and "capital".

The sales industry is the traditional business model of the Ming Dynasty, such a business model operation, can be described as extremely skillful, Yang Sichang contacted several large businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and quickly thought of a good way to make a fortune.

That's the Indulgence Market!

As soon as the signboard of the imperial merchants came out, those big merchants naturally flocked to it, as long as these abundant capital were aggregated, they could generate huge energy and indulge prices.

Chongzhen nodded continuously after hearing this, Sun Chuanting was shocked when he heard it, if he was like Yang Sichang, wouldn't he compete with the people for profit? And not by ordinary means.

What is competing with the people, Chongzhen can't control so much now.

He just needs enough military spending.

Anyway, the administrative power is no longer in his hands, he just needs to manage the soldiers and horses in his hands well, and with the soldiers and horses, he can regain the administrative power.

…… Zhao Yan retreated directly by land, and the merchant ships of Shandong had been evacuated from Dagukou, and all of them were transferred to Yueben to transport goods, and in late October, Zhao Yan returned to Shandong.

Shandong has completed the autumn harvest, this year's autumn harvest is not bad, Shandong has not suffered any disasters.

Shandong's disaster was mainly due to the drought in spring, but the river water and groundwater were abundant in this era, and there were no problems in spring under various water conservancy measures.

The autumn harvest is mainly harvested sweet potatoes, soybeans, corn, while Liaodong harvests potatoes, corn, soybeans and other crops, Handan and Shandong are in general, and Yingzhou is rice and sweet potatoes.

During this year's summer harvest, the average yield of wheat per mu exceeded one stone, and under a slightly extensive planting, such a yield could be achieved, which was definitely a bumper harvest.

The production of sweet potatoes during the autumn harvest was even greater, and the frequent use of troops this year, coupled with the continuous recruitment of civilians to Shandong, led to a large increase in the demand for grain, so the planting area of sweet potatoes was also expanded.

At this time, all parts of Shandong are processing dried sweet potato flour, and many people have already eaten this stuff. But it still needs to be processed in large quantities, and at present, the grain is only afraid of less, not afraid of more!

This year, it is expected to reserve about 10 million stones of dried sweet potato flour in various places, and this 10 million stones of dried sweet potato flour will be used as a reserve, not for market circulation, but only for emergency use.

Qingzhou has no grain output, and the grain produced is only enough for Qingzhou to be self-sufficient, but in the entire Qingzhou, there are already 300,000 service mules and horses being raised.

At the same time, there are 80,000 military mares raised in Qingzhou, which can produce 80,000 military horses every year, and mares account for about half, which can increase 40,000 war horses. At the same time, the number of mares increases, and the number of warhorses produced will also increase year by year.

There are only about 10,000 war horses that can be slaughtered this year, which means that the number of Zhao Yan's cavalry can be increased to about 30,000.

Genetics has been used in the cultivation of military horses, and through the continuous research of Denglai Science and Technology Institute and Denglai University of Science and Technology, a perfect horse mating system has been gradually formed.

At the same time, the horse farm is improving the quality of the war horses with the European stallions brought back by the American fleet, and the first hybrids have come out, but there are no results yet, and we have to wait until those hybrids grow up to observe.

Zhao Yan withdrew his troops back to Shandong, and whenever he arrived, there were always many gentry and merchants who greeted him.

At this time, the cotton has entered the final picking, and many cotton farmers are busy picking cotton in the field and then selling it to Zhao Yan's textile factory.

Zhao Yan called an employee of a textile mill who bought cotton in Dongchang Province and asked about this year's cotton production in Shandong.

The textile factory employee reported that 7 million quintals of cotton had been harvested in Xisanfu this year, and that when the last cotton was picked, it was expected to reach 8 million quintals.

The cotton production of Xisanfu can be said to have soared, and the landlords and businessmen of Xisanfu are frantically developing the land in Xisanfu, and Zhao Yan began to repair water conservancy in Xisanfu, so that a lot of land can be planted with cotton.

In addition, after the improvement of the method of stripping cottonseeds, the biggest problem that has been restricting the cotton planting area has also been solved, and the cotton output has soared.

From the initial four million stones, it soared to eight million stones.

At the same time, the cotton-producing areas in eastern Henan have also received 5 million asbestos this year. Now the textile industry of Daming is squeezed by Zhao Yan's textile factory to make the living space smaller and smaller, and this year in the acquisition of commercial cotton, there are almost no people competing with Zhao Yan's textile factory.

The commercial cotton production area of the whole Ming Dynasty is probably concentrated in the 'Golden Delta' zone in the western part of Shandong and the eastern part of Henan, and the commercial cotton produced here accounts for more than seven layers of the Ming Dynasty.

Although cotton production in the south is also good, much of it is grown on a small scale, mainly in family workshops.

This year's cotton production is very high, so Zhao Yan's textile mill no longer buys cotton in the south, and the commercial cotton in the central Ming Dynasty is enough.

Although this year, the capital of the textile mill has rolled to a terrifying scale of 20 million taels, it is still unable to cope with such a large-scale cotton purchase.

Zhao Yan's textile mill is different from normal textile mills in cotton acquisition, and other textile mills purchase cotton that has been stripped of cotton seeds, so in this way, it is not that there is cotton purchase after cotton output, but cotton purchase throughout the year, so it is easier to circulate funds.

At present, the cottonseed stripping technology is only mastered by Shandong, and it has not been spread to other provinces for a while, so the advantages in this regard have also been used by Zhao Yan in cotton rush purchases.

In order to crack down on the textile industry in the south, Zhao Yan has always let the cotton in the textile mill be harvested directly after it is mature, which leads to the need for a large amount of money to be paid at one time, and then slowly turned around.

Therefore, this year's textile mills are still short of funds, 13 million quintals of cotton, each purchase price of 22.5 million taels of silver, 32.5 million taels of silver, plus other expenses, need about 35 million taels, the textile mill has already borrowed 5 million taels from the bank, but it is still not enough.

So the mill again borrowed 10 million taels from the bank.

Zhao Yan's Denglai Bank grew even more rapidly, at least in eastern Henan and western Shandong, where the big landowners who planted cotton kept their profits in the bank.

Now the deposit of Denglai Bank has exceeded 30 million taels, and there are enough funds to lend to the textile factory.

In general, because there is no pressure of competition, and Zhao Yan's textile factory has contracted the process of stripping cottonseeds, the price of cotton is low, and the price of cotton is only two or five yuan per quintal, which is much lower than before, but the textile mill and the growers have obtained higher profits than before.

It was the original cotton yarn and textile workshops that died.

Zhao Yanlu thought about it for a long time and decided to change the current acquisition method next year.

Cottonseed stripping technology is not a secret, this simple machine is everywhere in the homes of the people of Denglai, and now it has spread to other provinces, but other provinces have not yet spread on a large scale.

By next year, it will definitely spread on a large scale. Coupled with the fact that the less efficient textile machinery has been handed over to the emperor, there will definitely be competition next year.

In its current form, it will definitely not work, so changes must be made. At the same time, after changing the current form of acquisition, the capital utilization rate and the speed of rotation will be greatly improved, so that funds can be withdrawn for military spending next year, and so on.

Change does not mean that the textile mill loses its competitive advantage, Denglai's new steam engine has entered the end of development, once the steam engine is launched, the textile mill can enter the state of operation throughout the year, and the efficiency will be greatly improved, coupled with the continuous improvement of textile machinery, there is still an overwhelming advantage.

Due to the loss of the market, most of this year's cotton cloth will be sold in Daming.

Zhao Yan returned all the way back to Zhaojiabao, and the people who greeted Zhao Yan could be described as a sea of people, and a large banner of 'Long live the constitution' was unfurled, and people cheered to welcome their leader.

Zhao Quan led a group of officials to welcome Zhao Yan into Zhaojiabao, Zhang took Zhao Yan's hand and said somehow, this son is getting bolder and bigger, just returned to Zhaojiabao in front, and immediately raised troops on the side of Qingjun.

Fortunately, it won.

In addition to worry, there is also relief.

Yuan'er beside Zhang's side was silent as always, but there was a strong attachment in her eyes when she looked at Zhao Yan, and Yan Yuyao also followed aside, looking at Zhao Yan's figure all the time, with a girl's admiration in her eyes.

Which girl doesn't think about spring, and what girl doesn't like heroes.

What's more, Zhao Yan looks very elegant and handsome, although his body is very strong, he is not a muscular man who looks very scary, and he is naturally the type that fascinates a large number of people.

Shalena was a lot more peaceful, and did not rush up to hug Zhao Yan's arm, the Zhang family was very helpless about the little concubine that Zhao Yan snatched from overseas, and she didn't understand the etiquette rules at all, so she educated Shalena, and Shalena was reserved in public.

Although Salena was forcibly taken to Zhaojiapu, she is currently living happily, Zhaojiabao is naturally more colorful than the island of Finland, and it greatly exceeds France.

When she first came, Shalena begged Zhao Yan to take her back to Europe in the future, but now she doesn't talk about it, she learns piano, chess, calligraphy and painting with Yuan'er and Yan Yuyao every day, or goes out on an outing on horseback or something, and sometimes visits the Academy of Science and Technology, and lives a carefree life.

But the strange thing is that Shalena doesn't seem to miss her parents at all, which often makes Yuan'er and Yan Yuyao a little puzzled.

Zhao Yan returned home and immediately began to listen to Zhao Quan's report. During his expedition, Shandong was calm, but the inspection team captured a group of key members of the Wenxiang Sect in Zibo, but the leader of the Wenxiang Sect still did not capture it.

When Zhao Yan heard the appearance of the Smelling Fragrance Sect, he couldn't help but be vigilant.

The Wenxiang Sect is a cult that relies on preaching the end of the world to develop its followers, and there are many followers in Shandong, and in the last years of Wanli, there was a riot of the Wenxiang Sect.

The so-called end of the world has existed in the Ming Dynasty, and even higher. But until the 21st century, the end of the world still did not appear.

Most of the rumors of the end of the world are from cults, and these cults create a sense of fear by preaching the end of the world, and then tell the believers that if they do anything, they can go to heaven after death.

In such a mode, it is often necessary for those believers to act in extreme ways.

"Immediately let the Propaganda Department make systematic propaganda materials, and then vigorously expose the harm of the Wenxiang Sect throughout Shandong. In addition, it was ordered to stop the religious propagation of Taoism and Buddhism in Shandong, and to arrest anyone who disseminated religions other than Taoism and Buddhism. ”

(To be continued)