On the evening of October 1, 950 A.D., the city of Tanzhou, which had been besieged for five days, became more and more panicked. Soon after the sun set, except for the patrolling soldiers and the nearby people who had taken refuge in the city, there were no more pedestrians on the streets, and the doors of the houses were closed, and there were few lights coming out.

Last year, Ma Xixu led his troops to attack the city of Tanzhou, but he retreated early after the defeat of Fushuzhou. However, the defeat of the Langzhou army, which had very bad military discipline, caused great damage to both sides of the Xiangjiang River, so when the war repeated this year, all the surrounding villages and towns that could enter the city poured into Tanzhou City.

In front of a Guangshen mansion in the northeast corner of Tanzhou, two figures quickly flashed into a small hidden door and went straight to the independent study courtyard.

A thin old gentleman over half a hundred years old sat behind a desk carved from a whole piece of jade, stared at the two figures who pushed the door in surprise, and asked softly, "General Zhou, General Yan, are you back?" ”

These two people were Zhou Qizhi and Yan Ruoli who were secretly sent out by Lin Feng when Yiyang City was broken. They and their six brothers wore Tanzhou military uniforms, marched quickly to catch up with the Tanzhou soldiers who retreated from Yiyang, and mixed into Tanzhou City overnight, and then, they quietly broke away from the troops, took the jade horse handed over to Lin Feng by Situ Zhouzong of the Southern Tang Dynasty before departure, and found the mansion of Huang Zongwang, the richest man in Chu State.

Huang Zongwang saw the jade horse that represented his oath back then, and learned that they were all elite soldiers of the Tang Dynasty led by Lin Feng, and immediately treated the eight brothers of the Zhou family and the Yan family as guests, and warmly entertained them and responded to their requests. Of course, the eight brothers did not have leisure to enjoy their happiness, and they would take turns to go out to investigate the military during the day, and only rush back to Huangfu at night.

Zhou Qizhi shook his head and sighed: "The Tanzhou army is frightened by our surprise attack, and the daily vigilance is very strict, and nothing can be detected. I wonder if there is any progress on Mr. Huang's side? ”

Huang Zongwang stroked his beard proudly and chuckled: "Huang Sheng, the steward of the Huang Mansion, made money, bribed a familiar commander, and learned about the guards and troops of each city gate. ”

Zhou Qizhi nodded and continued to ask: "There is Mr. Lao Huang!" I wonder if Mr. Huang has any contact with other wealthy businessmen in the city today? ”

Since Ma Yin took power, the state of Chu has adopted policies such as "serving the Son of Heaven at the top, appreciating the people at the bottom, appreciating the rebel army at the inside, and strengthening the feudal domain from the outside" because "the land is wide, and the people are nurtured", and the development environment is relatively stable. Economically, Ma Yin adopted such measures as building water conservancy, rewarding agriculture, developing the tea industry, advocating textiles, and trading with the Central Plains, so that the social economy developed rapidly.

In particular, in terms of commerce, Ma Chu took advantage of Hunan's geographical advantage of being the center of political power in the south to vigorously develop commercial trade with the Central Plains and its surrounding areas, exempted tariffs, encouraged import and export trade, and attracted merchants from various countries. "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms? Chu Wumu Wang Family" contains: "At that time, there was no levy in Wangguan City, and the Quartet merchants heard the news. ”

During this period, Ma Yin adopted the suggestion of the minister Gao Yu and minted lead and iron coins for circulation in the territory. Due to the bulky and inconvenient carrying of lead and iron coins, merchants often bought a large number of products in Chu and sold them to various places, so that the products produced in Chu became very rich through the "Yi Tianxia Department Store".

Huang Zongwang replied excitedly: "The old man met with the two major tea merchants of Tanzhou Li and Zheng today, and they are also very worried that if the city of Tanzhou is broken, the family business will be damaged in the chaotic war, and they are willing to pay a lot of money to accept the protection of the Tang army!" ”

Because there is a lot of tea in Chu, in order to promote the production and trade of tea, the Ma Chu regime adopted a relaxed policy of "letting the people make their own tea" and "listening to the people to sell tea to northern customers", allowing the people to make their own tea "for trade and travel". Therefore, Tanzhou has become the largest tea trade center in the south and the largest tea market in the south of the Yangtze River. As a result, the tea tax became the main source of tax revenue for the Chu State at that time, and the Chu government collected "millions" of taxes every year.

Zhou Qizhi nodded with satisfaction, and sat down on a jade stool. Gathering more merchants is the main task of Lin Feng to send Zhou Qizhi and them to infiltrate Tanzhou, and Huang Zongwang alone is not enough for Lin Feng to make such an arrangement, what he wants is the support of the merchant class in Tanzhou City, and even fall to the Tang Dynasty.

Huang Zongwang walked out from behind the jade case, came to Zhou Qizhi, and asked in a low voice: "General Zhou, Li, Zheng and other tea merchants, as well as a few giants I saw a few days ago, and even the old man, they all have some safety and business questions, and I want to ask General Zhou." ”

Zhou Qizhi also hurriedly replied: "Don't dare!" Zhou is just acting on the orders of General Lin, and he doesn't know much about business matters, but Mr. Huang asks questions, and Zhou will definitely find a way to convey it to General Lin! ”

"Then there is General Lao Zhou! We heard that although the Tang Dynasty army entered Chu and the people were all elite, there were not many of them, so I don't know if we can keep our family members safe in the chaos? Zhou Zongwang asked with some concern.

Zhou Qizhi laughed, pointed to the northeast, and said mysteriously: "It is true that General Lin only brought thirty-one brothers with him when he entered Chu, but the 30,000 elite soldiers under Lord Liu Renzhen under the Wuchang Festival of the Tang Dynasty are on standby, and they can enter Chu at any time!" General Lin has a perfect plan for his actions, don't worry! ”

Zhou Zongwang breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked: "Lord Lin has implemented reforms in Datang, I heard that business is highly respected, and Lord Lin himself has also led the construction of a supermarket, and our businessmen are all yearning for it, I wonder if the business of Chu and Datang can be mutually beneficial in the future?" ”

Zhou Qizhi nodded secretly when he heard this, he is a big player in business, and his safety has just been implemented at this time, and he immediately thought of future business cooperation, and he can't accept it.

Zhou Qizhi smiled and said, "Mr. Huang asked too much, and Zhou could only transfer the words to General Lin as they were." However, Zhou has some personal feelings that he wants to talk to Mr. Huang.

Don't hide it from Mr. Huang, our Zhou family and Yan family are shareholders of supermarkets. Lin Daren has always been engaged in business to advertise integrity, fairness, openness and transparency, everyone has a meeting to vote, any shareholder can check the accounts at any time, Jinling City businessmen of all sizes say that to do business, you have to find people like Lin Daren to cooperate! Let's talk about the small clerk in the supermarket, Lord Lin not only gave a high salary, but also promised to let them participate in the future. From this point of view, Lord Lin will definitely not treat every collaborator badly! ”

Huang Zongwang's face was full of surprise, and he nodded thoughtfully.

"I follow Master Lin to train every day, and I have also heard him talk about business in his spare time, he believes that business is the way to enrich the country, so giving full play to the strength of business and improving the status of businessmen will be the direction of his efforts in the future!" Zhou Qizhi said energetically and continued to do free advertising for Lin Feng.

"Then, I wonder if it is possible for the Datang Medal of Honor to be issued to our Chudi merchants?" Huang Zongwang's eyes lit up and asked.

"Absolutely! On the way to Chudi, Lord Lin talked to us about the world's businessmen, as long as they are loyal to the country and sincere to the good, the Honorary Lords are for everyone in the world! Zhou Qizhi said this, thinking that he had made a lot of great contributions since he entered Chu, and one or even more medals of honor had been obtained, his expression was even more excited, and his voice became louder, "Mr. Huang, have you heard of the talent ceremony that our Datang just held?" Lord Lin said that if he hadn't suddenly decided to enter Chu, many of those selected talents from all over the world would have been awarded official positions and honorary lords! ”

Huang Zongwang excitedly spun around a few times, and finally sat down, rubbed his palms together, and muttered: "It seems that it is quite good to be a businessman of the Tang Dynasty!" ”