Thank you for the tips of the little bookworm who loves to read, Dong Jianguo, and Lonely Yunlang! Take a bow~!

…………

Extremely daring!

It's bold.

These businessmen were horrified that this Zhao Yan, as a guerrilla general in Denglai, actually sold smuggled salt and weapons, and also trained and armed the salt merchants.

But thinking about it, Zhao Yan has always been so bold, he directly led a group of township soldiers to cripple Wu Anbang's soldiers and horses before, and then he was appeased, and it seems that his surname has not changed.

But what does that have to do with them?

As long as there is money to earn, if something happens, he Zhao Yan will bear it, and the disaster will not be able to provoke them.

Some merchants who were worried about the lack of manpower could not help but rejoice, they did not really have manpower, but they did not have the manpower to protect them.

After all, doing business in Daming is mostly waterways, and there are inns and warm shops everywhere to rest, and generally nothing will go wrong as long as you act carefully.

But this salt seller is different, it has to be escorted by people and horses, otherwise those salt people who bully the soft and fear the hard will stop people, and then slaughter them with a knife, and then swallow the salt goods.

It is also very common for black to eat black, after all, even if those salt lords die, they will not go to the government. This is an unsightly thing, the government can't find the family, so naturally it won't check carefully, and the process will be over.

Therefore, if there are not enough people to escort the trafficking of illicit salt, eighty percent of them will have accidents.

"If the general can help train the men and horses, and can have enough weapons to sell to us, this salt sale is nine times out of ten." During the banquet, there was a salt lord who was also moved to see that Zhao Yan's soldiers were so elite.

"Lord Zhao, what if there is really no manpower?" Another merchant said with a bitter face.

"In that case, you can hire guards from my Zhao family, and collect 10% of the profit from each salt sale, and if you grab the salt goods, you will share half of each." Zhao Yan pondered for a moment, thought in his heart and then said. It's still good to develop mercenaries, and during the escort period, you can just eat black and black, and you can also work part-time to suppress bandits.

"If you want to do this business, we'll talk about the details later." Zhao Yan said. Everyone smiled and agreed, each with a calculation in their hearts.

……

After the dismissal, only a few businessmen did not intend to do this business and left early. Most of the businessmen stayed, and Zhao Yan and Zhao Quan gave them a detailed explanation of the details of the cooperation.

Eventually, a Shandong Salt Society was formed, and the members who joined it had to abide by the rules set by the Salt Society.

Forty-one merchants joined, and these forty-one merchants became the first and perhaps the last members of the Salt Society.

After all, the salt market is so big, and the more people there are, the less profits there are.

"At present, our main opponent is Huai salt, everyone should pay attention to collecting information about those Huai salt when selling salt, if they encounter it on the way to trafficking, they will eat it if they can eat it, and if they can't eat it, they will report it to the official, and the official will send people to eat it.

The main competitor of the Shandong Salt Association is naturally Huai Salt, which produces the most salt, and Huai Salt now occupies most of the country, and Huai Salt can be seen everywhere.

The salt farms in other regions are very badly run because the government is too rigid.

There must be competition in terms of cost, but cost is not the main way of competition. The only way to compete is to eliminate the other side from trafficking and prevent the other party's salt from being sold in the place where it is sold.

In terms of principle, it is to compete fairly internally, and to eat black externally, if you can eat it, you can eat it, and if you can't eat it, Zhao Yan sent someone to eat it.

In terms of fine rules.

Each load of sea salt is sold to members, and the Denglai Erfu market is owned by Zhao Yan.

The Zhao family helped them train their men and horses for free, and in terms of weapons, fifteen taels of muskets, ten taels of waist knives, and five taels of spears; Thirty taels of plate armor and ten taels of leather armor.

Some businessmen complained that it was too expensive, and with their merchants' eyes, they could not see the profits. Zhao Yan just laughed twice and said that it was cheap and not good.

Weapons are not allowed to be made privately, although the management is very extensive, and the phenomenon of privately manufacturing weapons is very common, but it cannot make the quality of those weapons in Zhao Yan's hands.

Those officers and soldiers sometimes steal and sell military funds, but many of the things of the officers and soldiers are shoddy.

Those knives and spears may be of similar quality, but the plates and muskets are not better.

Hire people and horses to escort from the Zhao family, and the commission is three taels a month per person, and then one percent of the profit. If the black arrives at the salt goods, Zhao Yan and the members will be divided in half.

At the same time, members should pay attention to collecting market information from various places, especially the activity routes and rules of salt merchants in other provinces, and then report to Zhao Yan.

Zhao Yan used force to help them seize the market and protect the safety of members when they were trafficked. Members only need to concentrate on selling salt and entering the market.

This is a division of labor, that is, to give convenience to members, but also to reduce Zhao Yan's management on the top, and make full use of the manpower and material resources of these businessmen.

The next day, Zhao Yan took them to visit the Laizhou Bay Salt Works, and the merchants couldn't help but feel relieved when they looked at the salt workers who were constantly transforming the tidal flats and the sea salt they produced.

……

The merchants returned to prepare men and silver, and Zhao Yan ordered conscription in Shandong. The two battalions under Zhao Yan are not yet fully established!

At present, there are only two spear squadrons, and the standard should be three, and the establishment of musketeers is complete.

This conscription pre-recruited 8,000 people, including an infantry battalion, a cavalry battalion, an artillery battalion, and a mercenary battalion. The infantry battalion was expanded to 2,600 soldiers per battalion. 750 pikemen, 600 musketeers, 500 longbowmen, 50 rocketeers, 300 artillerymen, 400 baggage soldiers and miscellaneous soldiers.

The artillery battalion has 1,000 people, and the artillery has not yet been determined, but it can be trained first.

The cavalry battalion of 1,000 people is specially used to eat black and black, as well as mobile bandits.

The mercenary battalion of 2,000 people was trained to escort smuggled salt.

These sources of soldiers will be selected from all over Shandong, and Zhao Yan is now a Denglai guerrilla, so it is naturally justifiable to recruit some soldiers, who will care how many he recruits.

According to people's habitual thinking, the soldiers and horses under the generals are all short, and there are very few who can meet the quota, and those who exceed the quota are not at all.

It's just recruiting soldiers and horses, who will pay attention to this.

If you want to touch the emperor's money bag, you have to have enough strength!

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The second update!

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