"They play tricks, at most, they just send some hooligans and ruffians, and send more guards. Let the mercenary battalion recruit another 3,000 people, ten people in the small county, twenty people in the middle county, thirty people in the upper county, and fifty people in those flourishing state towns. The caravan carried goods and sent from twenty to two hundred men to guard them. Zhao Yan didn't believe in that evil, and sent some soldiers and horses to protect it.

"What if they bribe the government and the army? They don't know you, Childe! Zhao Quan said.

But Zhao Yan asked for a while, thought about it, and suddenly said coldly: "It's okay, just do it!" They don't know that I, Zhao Yan, will make a name for them at the beginning of spring next year. ”

"Childe wants to use a sword?" Zhao Quanleng said.

"There will be war in the Central Plains next year." Zhao Yan said, pointing to the map and said: "Anhui, Henan, Huguang, if you want to transport grain on a large scale, how to go?" ”

According to the historical trend, the first month of next year will be the Xingyang Conference, and then Zhu Youzhen's ancestral grave will be dug, and Zhao Yan does not remember the details too clearly.

Zhao Quan looked at the map and thought for a while and said, "First transport it to Qingzhou by land, and then go south to Yishui along the official road to enter the Yellow River, and transport grain along the Yellow River." ”

The mouth of the Yellow River is in the Huai River, not in Shandong, and it is indeed a bit troublesome to transport grain. Naturally, the cost of transporting grain by water is low, and there will be some loss by land.

However, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the loss of transportation had been reduced a lot. First of all, the development of roads and water transportation, which has become relatively convenient.

……

Time unconsciously arrived in the winter of the seventh year, after the people of Tundi harvested spring wheat, and then planted winter wheat, and the green wheat seedlings were preparing to meet the test of winter.

The sweet potatoes in the field were also harvested, and the expected yield was not much different, but it was a little higher, and most of them were stored, leaving about 70,000 tons of sweet potatoes ready to be shipped out.

The displaced people in the plains have also sown winter wheat and are carefully caring for it, while the other half are waiting for next year's sweet potatoes.

The commercial bank was undoubtedly the busiest, harvesting more than 500,000 stone of grain in Jiangnan this autumn, and at the same time collecting 700,000 quintals of cotton in the eastern three prefectures and south of Shandong.

Originally, he only planned to take out 600,000 taels to develop the textile industry, but the sales of glass mirrors in these months were gratifying, and about 800,000 taels of silver were recorded every month, and Zhao Yan's backlog of silver reached 3 million taels, so he invested 2 million taels in the purchase of cotton.

Under the strong acquisition of Jimin Commercial Bank, the cotton in the south was raised to 4 taels, and the price of cotton in the north also rose to 2 taels. The cotton price in the three eastern provinces of Shandong is also more than 3 taels. The price of cotton in the three western provinces has risen to two taels, and those self-sufficient people are already planning to plant cotton in the coming year.

Zhao Yan divided the textile market into two parts, the north in Laizhou Shahe for weaving, and the south in Songjiang Province to open a textile factory for weaving.

If such a large amount of cotton were to be transported to Shahe, Laizhou, it would take a lot of effort. It is better to open the textile mill to the south.

Opening the textile factory to the south can be said to be out of Zhao Yan's sphere of influence, but it can be guarded by troops. The guards of Guanjin in various places were lax, so the soldiers took off their armor and went to Songjiang Mansion, where they transported the armor and weapons.

Songjiang Mansion was later known as Shanghai, which was the most developed area of the textile industry in the Ming Dynasty, and cotton cloth was sold all over the world. The geographical environment is superior, you can walk along the Yangtze River, you can also walk from the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and there are many waterways to the south.

The more Zhao Yan looked, the more he found that Denglai was not suitable for transportation, because the inland river was very inconvenient. It's more convenient to go by sea, but there are no boats yet.

At present, people have been sent to Fujian to buy a boat, and I don't know if I can buy it, after all, it is Zheng Zhilong's territory.

If you have a ship, you can use it as a dumping ground for cotton cloth.

……

On December 15 of the seventh year, Zhao Yan was enjoying a rare leisure in Zhaojiabao, and the soldiers went home early for the New Year.

A little ambiguity is naturally indispensable, but Zhao Yan should still be in the period of filial piety at the moment, and he has not kept it much, but this level can still be controlled.

A fast horse galloped in.

"Report ......" I heard a shout from a distance, Yuan'er hurriedly tidied up Zhao Yan's clothes, and then Zhao Yan pushed open the study and rushed out.

I saw a dusty scout half-kneeling on the ground and said, "Tell your lordship, the army of thieves has descended to Xingyang." ”

"So fast? You read that right? Zhao Yan wondered, didn't the Xingyang Conference start in the first month? How did it become December?

"Xingyang has indeed been defeated. There are thousands of thieves riding foot, thieves trampled by people and animals, the road is five or six miles wide, I don't know the geometry of their numbers. ”

"Go down and rest!" Zhao Yan nodded, he made a mistake in the secret way, and he didn't know which stupid fork made up the Xingyang Conference, and what was even more stupid was that he actually believed it.

Originally, I thought that there was enough time, and I was ready to start the first month.

But now that the soldiers have gone home from vacation, this has to be gathered, and with some trivial preparations, I am afraid that it will be necessary to live for several days.

"Zhu Youzhen's ancestral grave was dug up and my bird matter, let's talk about it after the New Year!" Zhao Yan thought about it, he wasn't in such a hurry, the ancestral grave digging didn't have anything to do with him. He said to the soldiers: "Go and call the battalion commanders, political commissars, and chiefs of staff to a meeting." ”

"Yes, sir." The soldier hurriedly ran to inform.

After receiving the notice, the high-ranking officials of Zhao Jiajun hurriedly rushed to the conference hall, and twenty minutes later, the battalion commanders, as well as Zhao Quan, Zhang Buyun, and Liu Heng, all arrived.

"Childe, the boat was bought, and I bought three Daifuku." Zhao Quan came relatively late, and said to Zhao Yan as soon as he came.

"Got it? Did you drive it back? Zhao Yan asked.

"I drove it back, and the Fujian maritime business couldn't continue, so I sold the ship, a 100,000 taels of silver." Zhao Quan said.

The corners of Zhao Yan's mouth couldn't help twitching, 100,000 taels! It's sky-high. However, it is only a matter of minutes to earn back this bit of silver, and there is a lot of silver overseas.

"We'll talk about that later." Zhao Yan nodded, then raised his head and said to everyone, "I just received news that the army of thieves has returned to Henan, and it has now gone down to Xingyang, so we called everyone to come to discuss it." ”

Everyone spread out the map, Liu Heng pointed to Henan and said: "The Central Plains is a place of four wars, there is no danger to defend, and it will be difficult for thieves to enter the Central Plains." ”

"Your Excellency wants to send troops to suppress the thieves?" Wang Wenyue asked very expectantly, since the establishment of the second battalion, it has not fought a hard battle, but it has a good spirit, fought a group of grass rebels, and fought with Wu Anbang, and the second battalion just saw some blood when suppressing bandits.

"As ministers, we should serve the country. However, the main purpose of this crackdown on thieves is to train the troops. Zhao Yan said, training this is his main purpose, according to the original plan, the first stop is Fengyang, first to keep Zhu Youzhen's ancestral grave, but the situation seems to have changed a little, and the Xingyang Conference did not happen.

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