"Do you mean a hundred taels of silver?" James and Lilian glanced at each other, and the surprise in their eyes did not escape Kong Lin's eyes.

"Yes, you heard it right, a hundred taels of silver."

"Sir, you wait for a while, I'll discuss it with James!"

Lillian on the side quickly pulled Zamus aside, and the two walked to a remote corner together.

"James, one hundred taels of silver, this is equivalent to three hundred and thirty guilders, you don't want to miss this kind of good opportunity, where can you find such a generous and generous boss this year."

Lillian's face was flushed with excitement, and a few cute little freckles on the wings of her nose seemed to be glowing, in her opinion, such generous conditions were simply God's gift to them, with such generous conditions, it only took a year, they would not only be able to raise the cost of the wedding, but also be able to live a comfortable life in Amsterdam, such an opportunity would not even forgive them if they did not seize it quickly.

"This is old Roy is good to me, I was just promoted to first mate two days ago, I'm afraid it's not good to change jobs now!" James hesitated.

"I'll admit that Roy Sr. is good to you, if it was before this damn tulip incident happened, I probably wouldn't have encouraged you to change jobs, but now that the economy is so sluggish, even if you become the first mate, Roy Sr. pays you only fifty guilders a month, and with this meager salary alone, you can only make ends meet, let alone save money to prepare for the wedding."

Lillian's reason was strong, James was silent, he had to admit that his girlfriend's words were very reasonable, it was the damn tulips that made Amsterdam look like this.

The tulip incident that Lillian refers to is actually called the tulip bubble, also known as the tulip effect (an economic term).

Tulip, a perennial herb of the lily family. Tulips are native to Asia Minor and are extremely common in the region. It usually produces only three or four pinkish-white broadly lanceolate leaves, with scaly bulbs at the roots. Every time the early spring is still cold, the tulips are ready to bud, and the flowers are cup-shaped, which is very beautiful.

In the seventeenth century, Dutch society became a breeding ground for speculators, as it made a lot of money from all over the world. Since the 16th century, when the tulip came to the Netherlands, it quickly became a popular flower in Dutch gardens, and it was very expensive. In general, a small number of wealthy dignitaries and dignitaries have tulips in their homes to show off to outsiders as ornamental and luxury goods.

People are born with gambling and speculation**, and the beautiful and rare tulips inevitably become the object of their hunting, and astute speculators begin to hoard tulip bulbs in large quantities waiting for the price to rise. Under the influence of public opinion, people's admiration for tulips became stronger and stronger, and finally showed a morbid admiration and enthusiasm for it, so that the possession and cultivation of this flower gradually became a symbol of high reputation. People began to race to follow suit and rush to buy tulip bulbs like crazy. At first, bulb traders simply hoarded large quantities in the hope of selling them at a higher price, and as speculation developed, a large number of speculators took the opportunity to speculate on tulips. For a time, the tulip quickly swelled into an illusory value symbol, which made millions of people crazy.

People were so crazy that in 1636 (the eighth year of Chongzhen), a tulip that used to seem worthless on the surface reached the point where it was worth as much as a carriage and several horses. Even bulbs, which grow in the ground and are invisible to the naked eye, have changed hands several times.

Many Dutch people got rich overnight with tulips, but all speculative fanaticism has a common pattern, that is, the rise in prices prompts many speculators to intervene, and the prolonged high price prompts many speculators to be cautious. At this point, any movement could lead to the collapse of the entire market.

In October 1938 (the 10th year of Chongzhen), cautious speculators began to reflect on this strange phenomenon, and the result of this reflection was to invariably raise fundamental doubts about the value of tulip bulbs. A very small number of people felt that things were not good and began to sell bulbs at a cheap price, and some sensitive people immediately began to follow suit, and then more and more people were involved in the wave of panic selling, and the storm finally came.

A week later, a tulip was worth nothing, no more than the price of an ordinary onion.

Millions of people wept over it. Overnight, many people became penniless and destitute, rich merchants became beggars, and some big nobles fell into irretrievable bankruptcy. The originators of the Dutch speculative frenzy paid too much for their fanaticism, and the Dutch economic boom was short-lived.

And Kong Lin and they came when it was less than a month after the end of the tulip bubble, at this time Amsterdam was immersed in a pain, the occurrence of the tulip bubble led to the bankruptcy of countless people, and James's salary also shrunk by half from the original one hundred guilders, which is why Lilian had the words.

James is not earning enough salary to spend on his own, and if he wants to use this salary to organize a wedding, he will not be able to do it for a hundred years.

"Well, I promise you!" James sighed, and he said to Lillian, "But I still have to see if these Orientals are sincere." ”

James and the others quickly returned to Kong Lin and sat down, James cleared his throat before saying, "Sir, are you really willing to hire me for a salary of three hundred and thirty guilders, that is, one hundred taels of silver?" ”

Kong Lin nodded after listening to the translated words, "Yes, I can tell you for sure that if you are willing to come and work with me, you will only be paid more, not less." ”

James suppressed his excitement, "Okay, if that's the case, I'll quit my job later, and I'll come to work tomorrow, but where should I go to you?" ”

"State Guest House, you can come to the State Guest House tomorrow to find me, my name is Kong Lin." Kong Lin stood up, raised his hands and arched at James, "Don't worry, I can guarantee that you will never regret your decision today." Come to me early tomorrow, I still have a shipment of goods that I want you to help you find some big buyers. ”

After speaking, Kong Lin walked out with a group of people

As soon as Kong Lin went out, a group of sailors behind James burst into flames.

"Head, you're going to get rich, three hundred and thirty guilders a month, and this salary is higher than that of the captain!"

"No, head, you must help us this time, and ask us if this Oriental merchant wants to hire sailors, and I will also go to work on their ship. Oh God, if only I could work on that huge warship, as long as I could make a round trip from Holland to the East, I guess I would be able to earn back my pension money in this life. ”

Everyone sniffed James with envy on their faces.

James, who was in a much more cheerful mood, said to Lillian: "Okay, okay, don't ask, let's wait until I return to the "Old Man" and resign from Old Roy, Lilian, bring everyone a glass of wine, I'll treat you!" ”

"Thank you James for your generosity, cheers!" The crowd raised their glasses and began to drink

On the sixth day of February in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, De'an Mansion is the nearest state capital in Hubei near Hunan, and it is also the only way for Henan to enter Hubei.

In the lobby of the prefect's yamen of De'an Mansion, Liu Fangliang, the newly appointed general of the left battalion system, was holding a pretty woman and a group of officers drinking wine and eating meat in a big bowl at the moment.

"General, when King Chuang ordered us to guard the De'an Mansion, he repeatedly explained that we should be careful of the officers and soldiers, and Li Gongzi also said that we would not be allowed to drink, isn't it good for us to do this?"

The person who said this was about twenty years old, with a square mouth and a wide nose, and looked very heroic, this person was Li Zicheng's righteous son Zhang Nai, after Li Zicheng captured Hubei, according to Li Yan's suggestion, the troops were divided into five battalions, these five battalions were Zhongji, left spoke (auxiliary), right wing, forward, and stamina; The front camp is black, the rear camp is yellow, the left camp is white, the right camp is red, and the middle camp is blue. Military positions include generals with power, generals, generals with strength, generals with great strength, generals with great might, commanders in charge of brigades, department generals, and sentinel commanders.

The change in the military system also meant that Li Yan planned to gradually transform the army from a rogue to a regular army.

For example, after the military system was changed, the left battalion had Liu Fangliang as the general, Ma Shiyao as the general Zuo Guoyi, Liu Rukui as the right mighty general, and Zhang Nai as the mighty general.

Although these leaders from the rogue are all generals at the moment, the habits of the rogue in their bones have not changed in the slightest, and they are still living a drunken life every day, drinking and playing with women are still their main daily life, especially after the Spring Festival, Liu Zongmin and Li Zicheng led the main force to attack Hunan and Shaanxi respectively, and Liu Fangliang and others, who felt that the emperor was far away, were even more unscrupulous.

For example, the woman in Liu Fangliang's arms now is the concubine of the former prefect of De'an Mansion, and she was also snatched by Liu Fangliang for his silver music at this moment.

Liu Fangliang, who was drinking vigorously at the moment, was a little unhappy when he heard Zhang Nai's words, and he put the wine glass in his hand on the table and shouted: "Zhang Nai, you kid is afraid of the east and the west, what are you afraid of when the king is gone?" Rest assured to eat and drink, King Chuang blames the elder brother, and I will bear it. ”

Zhang Nai smiled bitterly and said: "Master Liu, don't you know, when Li Gongzi left, he once instructed us to restrain military discipline and not be too out of line, but as soon as they left, we were not good after all."

"Phew"

Liu Fangliang spit sticky saliva on the ground before saying disdainfully: "They know a fart, Lao Tzu is in a good mood to give him face before calling him Li Gongzi, if Lao Tzu is in a bad mood one day, he is not a fart, King Chuang is to save their face, so he gave him a Henan battalion military system for him to bring, he really thinks he is a character, I bah!"

You say, now that our righteous army can have such a new atmosphere, it is not because of our old brothers who fight with a knife and a gun, why did he, a new poor scholar, become a battalion general as soon as he came, why? ”

Yes, the few people next to him can be heard that Liu Fangliang is dissatisfied with Li Yan's high position when he first arrives.

Zhang Nai, Ma Shiyao, Liu Rukui and others next to him glanced at each other, opened their mouths to say something, and then shut up again. In fact, since these days, they Li Zicheng is so important to Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and others are also very dissatisfied, but they don't dare to say it because they are afraid of Li Zicheng, and now they see Liu Fangliang taking the lead in mentioning it, and they are secretly happy and stop speaking at the same time.

Seeing that everyone didn't speak, Liu Fangliang became even more proud, raised his wine glass and drank the wine in the bowl with a clatter, and from time to time the wine flowed into his clothes without noticing.

"Hahaha, the brothers have dried up this bowl of wine."

The hall soon resounded with the unbridled laughter of Liu Fangliang and the generals, mixed with some painful moans of women

Just when Liu Fangliang and the others were having fun, a hundred miles away from De'an Mansion, a mighty army of soldiers and horses was heading towards De'an Mansion.

This team was an army of more than 20,000 led by Pang Gang, who set out from Shandong, crossed Kaifeng, Runing Mansion and other places in Henan, and marched all the way to De'an Mansion.

This time, Pang Gang led a total of 25,000 troops with three infantry battalions, one cavalry battalion, one artillery battalion, and two baggage battalions, striving to recover the entire territory of Hubei in the shortest possible time.

"My lord, the last general can finally go out with you again, it's really nice to think about it."

Li Yuan, a guerrilla of the third battalion riding on a horse, looked dazzled and smiled, and saw Pang Gang sigh secretly.

Pang Gang stared at Li Yuanzheng and said: "You, you have become a guerrilla general, and you are also a person who is about to be a father when you become a parent, why are you still so frizzy, a general, a general, a soldier, a people, and a person." Time, geography, people. If you have all three, you will win. If you only know how to be brave and ruthless, then the most you can do in your life will be the end of the general, and you won't have a greater pursuit? ”

"Yes, the last general is taught." Li Yuan lowered his head and was silent, he also knew the shortcomings of his surname, but sometimes he just couldn't control it, he belonged to the lord who would be excited when he heard the sound of swords, guns and cannons, and the brave and ruthless surname did not change with the increase of official position and age, but there was a tendency to intensify, and now that Pang Gang said this, he could only bow his head and accept it obediently.

Pang Gang turned his head to Wang Zhi beside him and said: "Dog leftover, you have time to persuade this kid, we will soon expand the army, the existing military system is no longer suitable for us, I estimate that after this battle, there will be an adjustment, you must have a mental preparation." ”

For Wang Zhi and Li Yuan, the old people who followed him at the earliest, Pang Gang hopes that they can mature as soon as possible, and in the future, there will be more and more soldiers and horses under his command, and they can't let themselves lead the troops in person every time, they will always have to be alone, if they can't meet Pang Gang's requirements, then they can only be eliminated, Pang Gang doesn't want to see anyone in the future who is left behind by his former partners because of his own reasons.

"Yes, the last general must persuade him well." Wang Zhi replied solemnly, although he didn't talk much, he had always been dumb and ate dumplings, and he knew it.

The weather in February is still very cold, especially when the snow begins to melt, it can make people cold to the bone, and the official road is full of muddy mud, if anyone accidentally falls to ensure that he will immediately become a mud monkey.

Although Wang Li and his six companions were riding horses, their clothes were still the same color as the mud on the ground, which was also the price of being the pioneers they had been pioneers for half a month.

Wang Li is a night not collected, in the Qingzhou army under the command of Pang Gang, the treatment of not collecting at night is one of the highest types of soldiers, some people say that as long as you can work in the night not to collect for two years, you can earn the pension money for the rest of your life, but the high risk of not collecting at night is also well known, especially in the battles with the Qing soldiers, there are many losses of not three hundred, but also two hundred, and the battle loss rate is as high as thirty percent, which can be called the most dangerous type of troops.

But even so, there are still countless people who desperately squeeze into the night every year, for no other reason, in addition to the high military salary, most of the seized property can be intercepted, the status of the night is also higher than that of the sergeants of other arms, in the territory of Shandong, the people who do not collect the night walk with a higher head.

Now Wang Li and his companions touched a village outside De'an Mansion, just looking at the village in front of them, Wang Li and his companions couldn't believe their eyes.

The scene in front of them was a great surprise to them, the village was now in ruins, and the square in front of the village was covered with densely packed corpses, with at least two hundred men, women, and children, old and young.

Wang Li could see at a glance that these people had been slaughtered in an organized and premeditated manner, and Wang Li also saw that most of these corpses were men, and even if there were women, most of them were old people and children. But Wang Li also found that there were very few young women in these corpses, and even if there were, they were naked [***] and full of messes, and they knew that they had been defiled before their deaths.

"Who did this, who the did it?"

Wang Li's heart seemed to be pinched violently, such a tragic scene he had only seen in the village where he was slaughtered by the Tartars when he was fighting with the Tartars. Ordinary bandits or Xiangma would not do such a thing, because even Xiangma or bandits will have a bottom line in their hearts, that is, even if they kill people, they will not do such a tragic thing as slaughtering the village, which will cause public outrage.

"I know who did it!"

At this moment, a cold voice sounded beside Wang Li

(To be continued)