"Grain must be earned?" Miss Zhang doesn't understand business at all, and her eyes are black.

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "Miss, think about it, this year, the Baishui River has been cut off, and most of the grain fields in ten miles and eight townships will have no harvest...... In the autumn, when the grain cannot be harvested and the people's stock of grain is exhausted, the price of grain in the market will begin to rise like a skyrocket. ”

"Oh, I see, that's right!" Miss Zhang responded: "Then how are we going to make money?" ”

"It's easy!" Zhu Yuanzhang spread his hands and said: "Spend all the money in the family, use it to buy food, and then sit and watch the price of food skyrocket...... When the price of grain rises to the highest point, we can make a lot of money by moving the grain out and selling it. ”

"Oh! It turns out that doing business is like this! "Miss Zhang was a little excited.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Miss, our eldest young master is the one who runs the rice shop, he must be doing the same thing now, you might as well write a letter to ask him if this is feasible." If you use this matter to make a lot of money, you will be proud in the Ma family, and the second young master, who only knows how to spend money and doesn't know how to make money, will naturally be compared with you. ”

When Miss Zhang heard this, she had no doubts, and hurriedly instructed her personal maid: "Quickly prepare the four treasures of the study for me, I want to write a letter to the uncle and ask his opinion......

After a while, Miss Zhang wrote a letter to the family in beautiful and clever small characters, which was addressed to the eldest young master Ma Zhixiong, in which she first reported safety, saying that everything was fine in the Ma family's old house, and then asked him if it was feasible to make money by storing grain.

A few days later, the eldest young master's reply arrived, and along with the reply, there were actually his fifteen swordsmen, who were protecting a cart carrying silver. As soon as the eldest young master, who had been running a rice village for many years, heard that his younger brother and daughter-in-law wanted to make money by storing grain, he immediately raised his hands and feet in favor. This year's drought is not a big drought in Baishui, the whole of Shaanxi is now so dry that you can't see a few drops of water, and the eldest young master's rice village is also frantically buying grain, sitting back and watching grain prices soar.

But he can't buy a lot of grain in Xi'an Mansion alone, because Xi'an Mansion is not only a rice village of the Ma family, but also many powerful businessmen, and everyone is grabbing grain to the point of breaking blood. At this critical time, a letter from Miss Zhang's family arrived, asking for grain to make money.

Ma Zhixiong thought about it: That's right! Our Ma family still has a foundation in Baishui, so wouldn't it be twice the result with half the effort to let the younger brother and daughter-in-law who stayed in Baishui help to store grain!

Ma Zhixiong has always been bold and generous, he used to reward Zhu Yuanzhang for a hundred taels of silver, once he decided to let his brother and daughter-in-law help store grain, he did not hesitate to allocate 5,000 taels of silver, put it in a big carriage, and let fifteen knife men escort it back to the old courtyard of the Ma family, handed it over to Miss Zhang's family, and told her to boldly collect grain, regardless of the price, just eat it desperately.

After fifteen swordsmen delivered the silver and the reply letter from the eldest young master, they returned to Xi'an, leaving Miss Zhang and looking at a large cart of silver.

A creature like a woman, especially a woman with little experience, even if she makes up her mind to do something, she is often confused and doesn't know how to start, in this case, her first thought is to ask the man around her for help.

As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang was invited to his small building by Miss Zhang's family: "Steward Zhu...... That thing you said the other day...... I wrote to my uncle about making money by stockpiling grain, and he really strongly agreed, and sent someone to send 5,000 taels of silver, telling me not to worry about the price, as long as there is grain, I will buy ......"

Miss Zhang blinked her eyes wide, and said distressedly: "I really want to buy it, but now that I look at so much silver, I am dumbfounded again, how to buy this grain?" Where to buy? ”

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled secretly in his heart: I originally wanted to use the money robbed from the shirt family to buy food in the name of the Ma family, but I didn't expect Ma Zhixiong to be so bold that he actually took the initiative to send money to buy food for me...... All the food I bought was in Ma's house, and when I revolted in the autumn, I took it into my pocket and smiled.

He said seriously to Miss Zhang's family: "Miss, your distress is the distress of us who are subordinates, and you can just leave it to me to do it...... I'll get you covered. ”

Miss Zhang was overjoyed: "Then please...... By the way, you must keep your accounts, and I will give them to my uncle in the future, lest they suspect me of embezzling the family's money. ”

"And rightfully so!" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and retired.

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The grain stockpiling operation was soon launched vigorously, and Zhu Yuanzhang now has a lot of money in his hand. Ma Zhixiong sent five thousand taels of silver, which was enough to buy a lot of grain, and Wang Er still had a few bags of gold and silver that he had snatched from the shirt family, and if all of them were converted into silver, there would be five or six thousand taels.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was enough to buy military rations that could feed a soldier, only about five taels of silver a year, and if you wanted to make some robes and weapons for them, it would take almost ten taels of silver a year. If you want the soldiers to eat better, dress warmer, marry a daughter-in-law or something, and live a happier life, twenty taels of silver is more than enough.

Now Zhu Yuanzhang is holding close to 10,000 taels of silver in his hand, and if he uses the standard of 10 taels of silver, he can provide 2,000 people for half a year. Although such a number is slightly insufficient for the development of an army, it is basically enough, and if you grab some points from the county warehouse during the uprising, you can supply more people and live a longer life.

Under Zhu Yuanzhang's secret indulging, Wang Er and 35 henchmen frequently appeared in various markets, buying all the grain they could buy in the name of the Ma family.

During the day, Zhu Yuanzhang kept accounts in the study, and the grain bought with the Ma family's silver taels was recorded in an account book alone, and Qiu Ye would come to help him polish ink and auxiliary paper every day. In the evening, when everything was silent, Zhu Yuanzhang kept another account book in the secret room, which was to record the grain bought by Wang Er's money, and the accounts of the two sums of money must be recorded separately. The account book of the Ma family should be used to give an explanation to Miss Zhang, and the account book of Wang Er's account should be used to give an explanation to his subordinates.

In some travel novels, it is written that the leader takes the money and spends it at will, as long as he gives a small favor to his subordinates...... In fact, it is written like this, which does not understand people's hearts at all. Brother who rebelled with you, if you only give him small favors and spend money lavishly, do you really think that you can retain people's hearts in this way?

No! You're sure to be abandoned by your men!

A true chieftain, at the beginning of the uprising, should have understood that all the money was in public possession, so that every subordinate could see the selflessness of the chief, and let them sincerely admire such a leader.

Want to embezzle? OK! Want to spend lavishly? You can too! Want to ride on the head of a brother who used to be a brother and a hard-working brother? You can too! But you can't just start out, but you have to wait until you have a strong enough army, a strong enough strength, to be able to stand above others.

Zhu Yuanzhang deeply understands this side of the surname, so he will never make a foolish account, he wants all his subordinates to understand the flow of every copper plate, to show that he has not embezzled a penny from it, to show: "We are equal, we are brothers who fight the world together!" ”

Those young people who rebelled with him will follow in his footsteps without regrets.

After keeping the accounts in the secret room, he will store the account books in the secret room as well. This secret room is still very safe, and no one usually comes in, although Akiba comes to his house every day to clean it, but under his strict orders, the docile and obedient Akiba will never enter this house.

At the same time that Zhu Yuanzhang and his group were actively stockpiling grain, the situation in Baishui was getting worse day by day. The effects of the drought are spreading horribly...... Let's take a look at a historical record to understand the consequences of the drought at that time.

Ma Maocai, Jinshi in the fifth year of the Apocalypse (1625). He has successively served as the deputy soldier of Huchang, Langzhong of the Ministry of Rites, and the senator of Xishu. Dare to speak up and ask for the people's lives. In the first year of Chongzhen, he was ordered to go to Shaanxi to investigate, and what he saw and heard along the way was written as "Bei Chen Great Hunger", which is excerpted as follows:

"There has been no rain for a year since last year, and the grass and trees are scorched. In August and September, the people compete to pick the fluffy grass in the mountains and eat, its grains of bran skin, its taste is bitter and astringent, and the food can only be extended to immortality. After October, when the canopy is exhausted, the bark is stripped and eaten. The elm tree is not good, and it can be mixed with other bark for food, and it can also delay its death a little. At the end of the year and the bark of the trees is gone, they dig up the rocks in the mountains and eat. Its stone name is green leaves, the taste is fishy and greasy, less food is full, and it is not counted to die of bloating. The people were not willing to eat stones and start to gather with the dead as thieves, and the people who had a little accumulation in the first and second were robbed, and there was nothing left to rob. There is no prohibition of treatment. Occasionally, those who have won are also fearless, and say: 'Die of hunger and die of thieves, instead of sitting and starving, how can you die for thieves, you have to be full of ghosts.' ”

"The most pitiful of all, such as a dung field on the west side of the city of Anse, shall abandon two or three babies in it every morning, and there will be those who weep, and those who cry, and those who call out to their parents, and those who eat their dung. By the next morning, the son who had been forsaken had no life, and some of them had forsaken him. ”

"What's even more strange is that when the children and the lone wanderer go out of the city, there is no trace. Later, I saw that the people outside the door cooked human bones for wages, and cooked human flesh for food, and I knew that the people before me were all eaten by them. And the cannibals are not counted, their faces are swollen, and they die of heat and dryness. So, the dead pillowed, and the stench was in the sky. Several pits were dug outside the county, each of which could accommodate hundreds of people, to cover their remains. When the minister came, there were more than three pits, and those who could not hide it several miles away did not know how many of them. This is true for small counties, and it can be known for large counties; If this is true in one place, it will be known in other places......"

"Ranchen still has something to say. At the beginning of the country, every ten households were classified as a mile, and the top ten households were classified as a mile. Today, there are few Jiajia, and the account is depressed, and it is no longer the same as it was at the beginning. Moreover, when the nine deaths are in life, even if there is no reduction in the burden, the people also have those who call for it but do not respond. The lawsuit was bound by the strictness of the merit order, and it had to be strictly urged. If there are only one or two people in a household, these one or two people will inevitably lose the money and food of one household; If there are only one or two households in the first grade, it will inevitably make these one or two households lose the money and grain of the first grade. And so on, every mile and every county are all the same. Then see that the people in the country have a grudge and flee, drifting in a different place, inhabiting and helpless, the constant property is dead, the capital is easy to exhaust, the dream of breaking the road to the hometown, the soul disappears the filling of the ravine, and the thief is not at the same rate! Flee here to the other, flee here again, and turn to flee to become a thief. The reason why this thief is all over Qinzhong is also. ”