With the full support of Fang Kongzhi, after returning to Wuchang, Shen Shuren's constraints on continuing to promote civil farming were basically cleared.

His team of henchmen and civil officials are not vegetarians, and those members of the Shen family who are good at managing money and engaging in engineering are also doing their best, and they have been placed by Shen Shuren in various positions with real power but no level. In winter, seeds are loaned, water conservancy is built, polders are built, and fish ponds are dug deeply...... It's all moving forward in an orderly manner.

There are tens of thousands of money and grain in hand every day, but under the governance of the Shen family, the signs of greedy ink and oil are much better than when the local government in Wuchang and other places was autonomous. After all, a family from a wealthy businessman has a talent for accounting and auditing.

If everything goes well, even if there are some more floods and droughts next year, Wuchang and Hanyang will be able to carry it relatively well, and the increase in grain output brought by the new polders is estimated to reach more than 10% of the total grain output.

In addition, the subsidy for teaching the people to raise tilapia and Qingjiang fish, and the increase in corn and potatoes equivalent to three or four percent of the original total grain output (the area of corn planted in the south is small, so the absolute growth of the total amount will not be too high).

It should not be a big problem for the two prefectures to ensure that the people have enough food and clothing, and then to reorganize the displaced migrants into soldiers and serve as conscripts, and they can even save some more food to be used as military rations for future wars.

The area around Wuchang Mansion at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth years of Chongzhen was already an area with a large number of displaced people from the north to the south. In history, Zuo Liangyu later claimed to have an army of 800,000, mainly because of the geographical location of Wuchang, the thoroughfare of nine provinces, and the water transportation hub where the Yangtze River and the Han River meet.

The northerners can't survive and have to go south, and when they get here, they will reunite and find a way out. If you can find a way to live in Wuchang, you will generally not deliberately continue to go far.

In power here, as long as there is enough food, an army can be raised. After that, the situation deteriorated further, and there were more and more displaced people, and even if they were not paid military salaries, as long as they were given food, there were a large number of people who were willing to serve.

……

After arranging the work of agriculture and food, in the last two months of this winter, Shen Shuren was finally free to deal with industry, military industry, and diplomatic strategy.

After the whole territory of Wuchang is settled down and properly received, it is necessary to develop Daye Iron Mountain, comprehensively improve military production capacity, and supplement the supply of steel and coal in the upstream of the industrial chain. And the priority is also on building new muskets and artillery.

With an industrial base, with better and more abundant steel, there will be better guns. Otherwise, simply using small and clever optimization design in the mechanical structure will be just a source of water and a tree without roots after all.

What's more, Shen Shuren still has time, if you haven't changed, there are still two years and five months before Chongzhen's death. This winter and next year, we will pay attention to metallurgical development, and we can be regarded as sharpening knives and cutting wood.

However, before doing all this farming planning, Shen Shuren still has one external matter that must be dealt with first - this matter actually doesn't take much time for him personally, so he doesn't have to keep an eye on it personally, but he has to arrange it first and let his subordinates continue to follow up.

So, on the ninth day of November, a few days after returning to Wuchang, a subordinate who was urgently summoned by Shen Shuren rushed to Wuchang and came to meet him.

It was Zheng Chenggong, who had been left by him at the junction of Huangzhou and Jiangxi and intercepted the river to collect taxes. Zheng Chenggong has been an official for more than half a year, and now he is still a seventh grade, this time Shen Shuren just took the opportunity to give him activities and find a way to promote some more.

Zheng Chenggong still respects Shen Shuren very much, after all, it was Shen Shuren who took him to Nanjing to enter the Guozijian at the beginning, and later took care of him all the way, and now he is the top boss, and he still takes care of his future.

Therefore, if Shen Shuren wants to do something, it is basically a matter of one sentence, which can help the Zheng family progress in the officialdom, and the conditions are easy to say.

Shen Shuren was not polite to him, and set up a meal of wine in the Daotai Yamen, and sat down to drink together as soon as they met.

After three rounds of drinking, he got straight to the point:

"In the past six months, we have done a good job in collecting centigold and thoroughly investigating the river defense. I've also read all the accounts, you really don't want to be an official for money, I like to deal with the rich family in this regard, worry-free, no need to fly and dog.

In the past two months, I have also reviewed the records of the illegal merchant fleet that you have discovered, and I have done a good job, and this aspect must continue to be strengthened. Until the beginning of next year, the interception of illegal merchant ships will be more important than tax inspection. ”

"Don't worry, I'll do whatever you say, big brother." Zheng Chenggong was not ambiguous, he directly agreed first, and then asked the reason, "However, can you ask why?" If it's inconvenient to say, I won't ask. ”

Of course, Shen Shuren didn't need to hide it, so he put his heart in his heart and revealed:

"According to my investigation in the past two years, since Liu Xiyao and Lin Yangcheng were entrenched in the Yinghuo Mountains, their soldiers and horses have not been able to rely on the output of the mountains to be self-sufficient. The Yinghuo Mountains are barren, and there are many materials that cannot be produced in the mountains.

Therefore, every winter, the 5th Battalion of the Revolutionary Left needed to rely on the rivers in Jiangbei that originated in the Yinghuo Mountains and flowed into the Yangtze River, sent small boats to disguise themselves as legitimate business travelers, and used the gold and silver property obtained from the previous looting to go to Jiangxi to purchase necessary survival materials.

In the future, when you collect money, you will mainly focus on these fleets that do not bring goods when they go to Jiangxi, mainly carry precious money such as gold, silver and brocade, and can be loaded with cheap necessities on the return trip.

Moreover, the ships of this kind of fleet are often very small, not long-distance river boats, but because the small rivers flowing out of Yingshan are generally shallow and turbulent, and large ships cannot pass. Therefore, if you meet these characteristics, you will stop them all, first stop them for three months, and raise Lin to starve to death before I can make a forced landing. After the deed is completed, you will inevitably be able to be promoted to the same prefecture, and in the future, you will be able to make some contributions, and even be promoted to the prefect.

I won't hide it from you, I am ready to use this credit, eat more fish, and share the profit so that Zhang Tongzhi on the Huangzhou side will be promoted to the prefect, and Fang Tongzhi on the Anqing side will also be promoted to the prefect. They will have the merit of encircling and pursuing by land, and finally persuading them to surrender and absorb.

However, Lin Chengcheng is not a big fish after all, and this credit is a bit insufficient to produce two prefects, one with the same prefect, or even three prefects.

Fortunately, Yang Ge Lao is now grateful to me, and Chen Xinjia and Chen Shangshu in the capital are also Yang Ge Lao's protégés and former officials, and they also accept my affection. If this matter is extrajudicial and a little more silver, it is still possible......"

Shen Shuren has also been short of money recently, and he has been doing construction in the local area with money, and he will also engage in industry and military industry in the future, and the silver is indeed a little short.

The family wrote to me that there had been a large amount of new business in the past few months, but the initial investment was also relatively large, and it was always after the Chinese New Year that a large amount of real money could be seen.

Therefore, for some gray expenditures with unclear accounts, Shen Shuren still hopes to borrow a little more external resources.

To put it bluntly, it is to send money to other courtiers to entrust the relationship, and it is best to use other people's money to do other people's affairs and bring a little private goods yourself.

Although Zheng Chenggong is young and has not been polluted by society, the Zheng family has sent a large amount of silver to the capital every year since the second year of Chongzhen and was appeased by Xiong Wencan, and Zheng Chenggong is not surprised.

At the moment, he was also very good, and he actually said with a familiar car: "I heard that the petty officials of the eight grades are going to start from 5,000 taels, and the real power of the county is tens of thousands of taels, and the prefect is afraid that it will start with more than 100,000 taels, and there must be a reason."

Let's be promoted this time, Brother Zhang is counted as 100,000, Brother Fang is also counted as 100,000, I will give these two sums of money, 200,000 taels, can you do everything? ”

Shen Shuren breathed a sigh of relief, his face looked a lot better, and the expression and tone of his expression when he spoke to Zheng Chenggong were as enthusiastic as his own brother:

"Enough is enough, you are still too young, this time I can only give you the operation of Tongzhi first. If there is a chance, push you to the prefect as well, then add another 100,000 taels.

In the future, if I become a governor or even a governor, I will inevitably help you run a military garrison. We are friends in distress and poverty, and we have a future as brothers, so naturally you are indispensable. ”

Zheng Chenggong was not ambiguous, and had already begun to ask directly about the operation method: "Do you want to send the silver to Wuchang?" ”

Shen Shuren was stunned, he didn't expect the other party to come directly to this one, it was worthy of being the richest family in the Ming Dynasty with an annual income of more than 10 million taels, and he didn't blink his eyes when he threw out 200,000 taels.

"No, send 50,000 taels to Nanjing, and those who are around Shi Kefa and the Nanjing Military Department should also take care of it. In addition, after hearing that Yang Ge Lao was seriously ill, His Majesty had ordered Zhou Yanru to be summoned, and it was estimated that he would enter Beijing at the end of the year. Let's take advantage of the fact that when he goes north from Nanjing, let's also take care of it first.

The majority of the remaining 150,000 taels will be put in the capital, and it will be given directly to Chen Shangshu - although the promotion is managed by the officials, we are also promoted because of military merits, and we need the military department to verify the merits first, so let Chen Xinjia help us operate it together. ”

Shen Shuren is also very well informed about the personnel changes of the top bosses in the DPRK, so he knows very well which docks to worship.

Historically, Yang Sichang died in March of the 14th year of Chongzhen, and Zhou Yanru was reinstated by Chongzhen's edict in April, and he did not enter Beijing until September.

Now Yang Sichang's side only had an accident in June, so the emperor's summoning of Zhou Yanru to recover has also been delayed for three months, and it is estimated that it will not arrive in Beijing until the first month of next year.

Zhou Yanru is also a legend of the Chongzhen Dynasty, he served as the first assistant twice, and was attacked by Wen Tiren for six years, and finally he could come back after Wen Tiren died.

Because Zhou is a native of Yixing County, the capital of Changzhou, he has been idle for several years, and he has returned to his hometown in Changzhou or Nanjing to live, and now he is called to go north from Nanjing.

Shen Shuren also thought that if he wanted to go back to Nanjing for activities during the Chinese New Year, he could pay a visit to the dock and make more friends with the forces in Beijing.

Now he has two major foreign aids, Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department, and Jiang Dejing, the secretary of the household department, if he has a good relationship with Zhou Yanru, who is about to become the first assistant and the secretary of the ministry, Chongzhen will be able to earn more court resources in the last two years.

As soon as Zheng Chenggong heard that Brother Shen had the ability to entertain Zhou Yanru in Nanjing, he was even more willing to spend money, and directly said that no matter whether his prefect could come down or not, he would add another 100,000 taels.

“…… Then this matter is decided, no matter what year the younger brother can be promoted, anyway, the silver is given first, you spend the 300,000 taels first, and I will prepare 150,000 taels for each of the north and south capitals.

Let's not talk about the outside world, it's really not very glorious to spend money on things. But in these troubled times, my eldest brother and I are both people who do the right thing, and only when we have a position of power can we contribute to the country, and this is also for the world. ”