Chapter 135

Wu Sheng went down and quickly brought Fan Yongdou to the front hall.

When Cheng Shijie came to the front hall, he saw a middle-aged man with long sleeves and fluttering in the living room leisurely drinking tea.

Hearing Cheng Shijie's footsteps, he hurriedly got up and bowed to Cheng Shijie: "Fan Yongdou, a grass man, meets Master Cheng Jingluocheng!" ”

"Shopkeeper Fan doesn't have to be polite, please take a seat!"

"In front of Master Cheng, how can there be a seat for grass people!"

"If you want to sit, you can sit, less nonsense!"

Fan Yongdou hurriedly thanked him and sat on the sofa, when he sat on the sofa for the first time, he felt the beauty of the sofa, although he lowered his head and did not look at Cheng Shijie, but he looked at Cheng Shijie with the rest of his eyes.

Cheng Shijie's age is not a secret, he is Chinese New Year's Eve six years old, but in fact, Cheng Shijie looks extremely young, looking only twenty-seven or eighteen years old.

Although the Ming Dynasty people all had beards, including Fan Wencheng himself. But the problem is that before Cheng Shijie came to the Ming Dynasty, he didn't grow a beard and often shaved, so his beard appeared relatively hard, like steel needles.

What's more critical is that Cheng Shijie's skin does not look like a martial artist, and it is even more delicate than the skin of most Wenchen.

Fan Yongdou said with a smile: "Lord Cheng pacified Kong Youde's rebellion in one battle, begged Shandong Li Shu to be in fire and water, the lone army recovered Jinzhou, fought three battles in Haizhou, and beheaded more than 4,000 slaves, so that the slave chief Hongtai was broken, and General Cheng Da had outstanding military achievements and fame, and the grass people admired him very much!" With such an achievement, for thousands of years, I am afraid that only Huo Quzhi can compare with Master Cheng! ”

"You are very good at talking, although you know that you are patting on the back, but Ben Shuai is still very happy to listen!"

Cheng Shijie stared at Fan Yongdou and said, "Say, what's the matter with finding Ben Shuai?" ”

Fan Yongdou arched his hand and said: "The grass people have admired Lord Cheng for a long time, and I have to see the adult today, which is really comforting to my life, a little meaning, talk about respect, and hope that General Cheng should not be disgusted!" ”

As he spoke, Fan Yongdou took out a gift slip and handed it over.

Cheng Shijie took it and took a look.

Good fellow, 100 war horses, 100 ploughing cattle, 600 camels, 600 cowhides, these miscellaneous things add up, to say the least, there are 20,000 or 30,000 taels of silver, but the most valuable is the current deposit of 100,000 taels of silver from the Liaodong Bank.

For other people to give such a big gift, Cheng Shijie will definitely not accept it, such a generous gift, there must be something to ask for.

But for Fan Wencheng's sugar-coated cannonballs, Cheng Shijie's principle is to sugar-coat them and hit them back.

Cheng Shijie accepted it unceremoniously, and said in his mouth: "Such a heavy gift is really shocking...... Say, is there anything you need Ben Shuai to help with? ”

Fan Yongdou is the first time to meet an official like Cheng Shijie, if other officials see such a gift list, they will definitely scold him, no matter how good he is, the other party will accept this gift half-pushed, and then, he will ask the other party to do something......

This routine, in fact, Cheng Shijie also understands it, and it is also a door.

Cheng Shijie will not follow Fan Wencheng's routine.

Fan Yongdou faintly felt that something was wrong, but he had a lot of business experience, and he knew a truth, everyone has their own reserve price, and once the bid is higher than the other party's reserve price, the business will be easy to negotiate.

Fan Yongdou pondered and said: "General Cheng, the Fan family business name of the grass people started by grinding tofu, and now the business name is all over Beizhili. Shanxi, Jizhou, Tianjin, now the drought in Beizhili, the lack of grain is a foregone conclusion, only Lord Cheng's military field is not bad, so I want to ask Lord Cheng's permission to sell the surplus grain to the grass people, and the grass people will definitely give Cheng a fair price. ”

Cheng Shijie was a little puzzled.

Shouldn't Fan Yongdou purchase the standard equipment of the Ning Navy from Cheng Shijie? How did you change sex?

In fact, Cheng Shijie is not a real businessman, so he does not understand the temperament of a businessman.

Fan Yongdou is not a fool, he did not dare to expose his heart easily before he figured out Cheng Shijie's intentions.

It's just that what Fan Yongdou didn't know was that he was at the bottom, and Cheng Shijie already knew.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, many people didn't understand the Jin merchants, who in later generations didn't know that the Jin merchants and Jiannu wore the same pants?

Who doesn't know that the rise of the Jin merchants is to rely on collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country? The armor and swords in Jiannu's hands that were even better than those of the Ming army were all made of iron smuggled by these bastards.

The copper materials and craftsmen who built the cannon were also brought over by these bastards.

When there was a great drought in Liaodong and the crops were not harvested, it was these bastards who secretly smuggled a large amount of grain to Jiannu, so that Jiannu survived the famine!

After the first battle of Da Linghe, God slapped Huang Taiji twice, and these bastards couldn't wait to jump out to share their worries for their master!

He knew that Cheng Shijie lacked ploughing cattle, war horses, and population.

Fan Wencheng said: "Lord Cheng, forgive me, there is no ready-made silver in the hands of the grass people, but there are 6,000 ploughing cattle, of which more than 600 are cows with cubs, because a while ago Mongolia owed the grass people grain on credit, they used 6,000 war horses to settle the account, of which more than 2,000 are good iron horses. Therefore, there are only 6,000 cattle and 6,000 war horses in the hands of the grass people, and these war horses are all two-year-old good horses, and they will definitely not be shoddy. ”

It can be said that Fan Yongdou almost pinched Cheng Shijie's pulse. If Fan Yongdou traded with Cheng Shijie with silver, Cheng Shijie would rather not make this money than cut Fan Yongdou.

Fan Yongdou took 6,000 cattle and 6,000 war horses, these things were not materials that could be easily bought with silver. What's more, Cheng Shijie scraped together to get 4,000 war horses, although there are as many as 4,000 war horses, which seems to be a lot, in fact, more than half of them are inferior horses used to fill the number, these horses are neither as tall as Jiannu's horses, nor as fast as Jiannu's horses. In the cavalry battle, suffered a big loss.

Now, Cheng Shijie feels in a dilemma.

Cheng Shijie pondered: "Now Ben Shuai is not sure how much surplus grain can be sold, you need to wait until after the autumn harvest, if you want, you can drive these cattle and horses to southern Liaoning, we will pay the money with one hand, and deliver the goods with the other, as for the price...... Go talk to the management committee! ”

"The grass people understand."

I have to admit that many times the choice is really important.

If it weren't for Fan Yongdou being stimulated by Bao Chengxian and temporarily changing his plan, otherwise. According to the original plan, he traded with Cheng Shijie with silver, and at this moment, his head was about to hit the ground.

Cheng Shijie was a little unsure, whether to trade with Fan Yongdou or not, and trading with Fan Yongdou was actually trading with Jiannu......

If it is a normal transaction, Cheng Shijie will definitely be unwilling, but if it is a trap and pit Fan Yongdou, Cheng Shijie is very willing.

If the cattle and horses are driven to southern Liaoning, the goods will die on the ground, and then Fan Yongdou will no longer be able to fight.

Cheng Shijie pretended to be embarrassed and said: "Shopkeeper Fan, you also know that the identity of Ben Shuai, these business affairs, it is inconvenient to interfere, Ben Shuai appoints a person to hand over to you, and you will talk about specific affairs yourself, you have to remember that you have nothing to do with Ben Shuai, Ben Shuai has not seen you, and I don't know what Jiexiu Fan's is!" ”

Cheng Shijie's attitude, Fan Yongdou was secretly happy in his heart.

Almost all the officials of the Ming Dynasty are a urine sex, and their words are high-sounding, and they are as dirty as they are.

"Come on, go and call Xie Jinglin over!"

When Fan Yongdou heard this name, he suddenly realized.

Xie Jinglin is a recently rising businessman in southern Liaoning, who has a lot of good things in his hands, but the selling price is very expensive, however, originally Xie Jinglin was just a small fight, and he couldn't get into Fan Yongdou's eyes. It's just that because the goods he purchased were mainly cattle, sheep, and horses, Fan Yongdou had doubts about Xie Jinglin......

Now it can be proved that Xie Jinglin is Cheng Shijie's person.

After a short time, Xie Jinglin came in and bowed to Cheng Shijie: "Meet the handsome under the door!" ”

"Excuse me!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Xie Jinglin and said with a smile: "Jinglin, this is the shopkeeper of the Fan family in Jiexiu, Shanxi, you know each other!" ”

"Shopkeeper Fan!"

"Thank you, shopkeeper!"

"Luck, luck!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Xie Jinglin and said: "Jinglin, the shopkeeper Fan has come to Liaonan, you are responsible for entertaining, this business, you talk slowly, don't worry!" ”

"Save it!"

Fan Yongdou is also a human spirit, and he knows that in this case, Cheng Shijie will definitely deal with Jinglin's important things, so he proposed to leave.

After Fan Yongdou left, Cheng Shijie confessed to Xie Jinglin: "This time, the initiative is on our side, you sharpen the knife quickly and slaughter them fiercely!" ”

Xie Jinglin didn't seem to understand what Cheng Shijie meant: "Dashuai, what should the subordinates do?" ”

Cheng Shijie said: "In another month and a half, the corn should be harvested, and when the time comes, you take Fan Yongdou to see our corn, according to Ben Shuai's estimate, you should collect about five or six stones per mu, or even more!" ”

This is, of course, Cheng Shijie's conservative estimate, in the case of sufficient chemical fertilizer in later generations, corn can produce about 1,000 to 1,200 catties, if the fertility can not keep up, then it is possible to yield a few hundred catties per mu.

There is no chemical fertilizer in the land of southern Liaoning, only a small amount of organic fertilizer, how much does the yield be, Cheng Shijie has no bottom, of course, no matter how bad it is, there should still be six or seven hundred catties.

Sell the corn to Fan Yongdou as a good seed, and increase the price by more than ten times, Fan Yongdou will definitely agree to buy it, after all, this new crop has a high yield, and the corn stalk contains a lot of sugar, which is an ideal raw material for green storage feed, and Jiannu will definitely be willing to pay a lot of money to buy it.

But the seed company of later generations has made a genetic lock for this corn seed, and according to Fan Yongdou's cleverness, he will definitely try to plant it in the first year, and then resell it to Jiannu after a bumper harvest.

At this time, the gene lock of the corn seed came into play, and in later generations, farmers would hardly keep the seed for themselves, because of the existence of this gene lock.

However, this gene lock is not the second generation of genetic mutations, but the third generation of genetic mutations, if Fan Yongdou directly buys the seeds, and sells them to Jiannu, Jiannu will indeed benefit for one year, and the seeds will germinate the next year, but they no longer have the ability to transgene high yield, drought resistance, disease and pest resistance.

In addition to corn, there are also potatoes and sweet potatoes, the yield of these crops is very high, and the wet weight is greater, with a yield of tens of thousands of catties per mu, even if Fan Yongdou is shrewd, he will choose to plant.

It's just that whether it is potatoes or sweet potatoes, once they are frozen, they will not germinate again, in other words, the seeds that Fan Yongdou bought at dozens of times the price are seeds that cannot grow normally.

Even if Cheng Shijie trades with Fan Yongdou normally, he will not provide transportation tools or transportation services, which requires Fan Yongdou to transport it himself, and within the control of leaving southern Liaoning, Cheng Shijie will order Hu Erqi, a Jiannu under his command, to lead Jiannu to intercept Fan Yongdou's transport team.

Anyway, the black pot Jiannu carried it, and let Fan Yongdou and Jiannu go to the skin.

……

Yang Chen received a summons from Cheng Shijie again, and this time it was not only Yang Chen who was summoned by Cheng Shijie, but also Gu Shizhang and others from Huishang, as well as Fan Yongdou.

The place of the summons was in the No. 1 Salt Factory in Southern Liaoning, and the No. 1 Salt Factory in Southern Liaoning was in the refining workshop.

In the refining workshop, a young and strong salt worker first puts barrels of salt in the drying room to dry the water, and then pours the dried salt into the mill for grinding.

The donkey pulled the mill in circles, and the salt grains creaked and shattered, turning into snow-white salt powder. The ground salt powder is sent to the packaging area in buckets.

Cheng Shijie took more than a dozen representatives of Huizhou businessmen, as well as Fan Yongdou and others to watch hundreds of women, who used mulberry paper bags that had been used for moisture-proof treatment, quickly packed the salt powder into it, weighed it on a scale, two catties per bag, and then sealed it.

"Everyone, taste the tribute salt here!"

"Tribute salt?"

Cheng Shijie originally planned to smash the field of salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he would definitely not end up in person, anyway, he and Gao Qiqian are in a relationship of mutual use, Cheng Shijie has fed Gao Qiqian for so long, and it is time for him to contribute.

When Cheng Shijie sent this beautifully packaged salt to Gao Qiqian's hands, there was no need for Cheng Shijie to ask, Gao Qiqian sent Cheng Shijie a handwritten imperial letter from Emperor Chongzhen: "Royal tribute salt!" "Four big characters and four outlines of salt citations.

This is the official salt certificate, each outline is 200,000 salt citations, and each salt quotation is 300 catties of salt. Now Cheng Shijie has 800,000 legal salt in his hands, which is equivalent to 120,000 tons of salt.

Salt was introduced in the Ming Dynasty, in fact, it was a substitute for silver, and it was also hard currency. Each introduction of salt is equivalent to six coins and four cents of salt, that is, the nest. The 800,000 taels of salt are equivalent to 512,000 taels of silver.

Although Gao Qiqian did not come to southern Liaoning, he sent his henchmen over, with the intention of wanting benefits.

Can Cheng Shijie not know the Tao here?

If Cheng Shijie doesn't give it, he will immediately turn his face, considering that he also needs someone to carry the black pot, and set up a target for salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

When Cheng Shijie convened this meeting, he asked the eunuch named Wang Muzhi to change into a little girl in Tsing Yi and follow him over to participate in this meeting.

Gu Shizhang didn't dare to step forward, but asked an old man to step forward, the old man of Hui Shang picked up a bag of salt, dipped a little of his finger into his mouth, tasted it for a long time, and said: "There is no astringency, even better than the taste of Zigongjing salt!" ”

Another Hui merchant nodded and said, "The royal tribute salt is indeed worthy of its reputation. Good salt, good salt! ”

Cheng Shijie explained: "This is called iodized salt, and a little ...... is added to it Trade secrets, you just need to know, people want to lack iodine, will get sick, you have also seen the big neck disease, is a typical iodine deficiency symptoms, eat this salt, not only has no bitter taste, but also can ensure less sickness! ”

"I wonder how much such a bag of salt will cost?"

Cheng Shijie said: "Two catties per bag, because I added ...... So, it's a bit more expensive than ordinary salt, 30 wen per pack! ”

"What?"

"It's only thirty?"

"Now even the sea salt that is so bitter that it is hard to swallow is sold for more than a dozen dollars a pound! Master Cheng, you sell it so cheaply, aren't you afraid of losing money? ”

The imperial court made a salt quotation with a price of six dollars and four cents of silver, that is, the official price, and the salt was only two cents per catty. This is actually not expensive, but the problem is that because salt is monopolized, salt merchants increase the price by five or six times, or even ten times.

This money is naturally from ordinary people, which has also caused the wealth of salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "How can Ben Shuai do a loss-making business? ”

The salt thing is to make small profits but quick turnover, so the cost of a package of salt is about two yuan, and selling it for 30 yuan makes a net profit of 28 yuan, which is the windfall profit of salt. The salt tariff that Gao Qi obtained was worth 512,000 silver, and in Cheng Shijie's hands, it became 3.6 million taels of silver.

Although it is said that the iodized salt mentioned by Cheng Shijie is actually dried in the seaweed, ground into powder, and mixed in brine and stirred.

Of course, these thirty wen are only the wholesale price for the Hui merchants, as for how the Hui merchants will compete with the salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang after they get the salt, this is not something Cheng Shijie is worried about.

Goodbye only to the quality of Cheng Shijie's refined salt, these Hui merchants have made up their minds, signed a contract, and in just one day, 800,000 salt citations were sold for 600,000 taels of silver.

According to the agreement, they can't sell salt in the Liaodong region controlled by Cheng Shijie, even if they want to sell it, it's useless, and the salt that Cheng Shijie sold to the soldiers of the Ning Navy and their families is discounted by half, that is, fifteen wen per bag, which is equivalent to seven and a half wen and one catty.

In this case, they can't sell salt in southern Liaoning, who buys it? Ordinary military dependents and dependents will sell them a small amount of salt to make a small profit.

……

"Mr. Bao, look at how much this tribute salt costs?"

Fan Yongdou also signed an agreement with Cheng Shijie, but he only bought salt for 6,000 taels of silver, because he wanted to engage in a salt merchant who monopolized Jiannu, and Shanxi actually produced salt, but it was well salt, and some were lake salt.

Bao Chengxian took his finger and put it in his mouth.

His eyes lit up suddenly: "Good salt, good salt!" ”

Fan Yongdou said: "This is the tribute salt I got from the special means in the capital, which is produced in Sichuan!" ”

"Zigong's well salt?"

"That's right, there are also good things added to it, and you won't get sick if you eat it!"

"That'...... In this case, a pack! ”

Bao Cheng weighed the weight first: "Why do you need three or four coins of silver?" ”

Fan Yongdou thought that his heart was black, but he didn't expect Bao Chengxian to be even darker, and directly increased the price by more than ten times, which was equivalent to two hundred Wen per catty of salt.

"This ......"

Fan Yongdou didn't dare to cheat Huang Taiji too much, because Huang Taiji had a knife in his hands, and if he provoked Huang Taiji, his life would not be safe.

Bao Chengxian said: "Shopkeeper Fan, you can't be too greedy, eight hundred Wen, you can't have more, if you have more, it will be difficult to explain!" ”

"Okay, there's you in here!"

"Is it only 30%?"

"Then ...... Thirty and a half! ”

"Five-five!"

In Cheng Shijie's general army, the recruitment work of the Ning Navy is nearing the end, and Cheng Shijie is ready to recruit 8,000 horses, but with the arrival of Fan Yongdou, he has 6,000 good horses in his hands, so it is imperative to expand the cavalry.

Cheng Shijie looked at the general of the Ning Navy and said, "You all know that this marshal recruited troops a while ago, and more than 12,000 recruits were recruited. ”

Zhou Yandong said: "Isn't it too much, according to the current standard, counting the military salary, food and clothing, and weapon consumption, it costs at least thirty taels of silver to raise a soldier a year, which is not counting the training cost of cavalry, and cavalry is even more expensive, our current military expenditure is as much as more than 100,000 taels of silver per month!" ”

Shen Mingyu said: "How does the marshal expand the army? ”

Shen Mingyu didn't think about how to raise soldiers, anyway, this problem was not his concern, what he needed to worry about was to train the soldiers well, and he could be pulled out to fight anytime and anywhere.

Cheng Shijie muttered: "The best expansion of the army is the cavalry unit, we are about to get 6,000 war horses, we can't let these war horses keep cubs, the left and right divisions, each additional cavalry bureau, each division of the strength to increase to more than 7,600 people." ”

Zhang Yu and Shen Ming were overjoyed.

Cheng Shijie continued: "When the newly purchased war horses are in place, the cavalry unit will be expanded to the cavalry division, and the cavalry division will have jurisdiction over the first to the fifth general, with a total of more than 6,000 people!" ”

Zhao Wencai also showed joy: "It's good to expand the cavalry, but I'm afraid that people will not be able to recruit!" ”

"This is easy to do, a large number of Henan refugees have come to our southern Liaoning!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Zhao Wencai and said: "Henan is a big province of horse administration in the Ming Dynasty, and the people who can ride horses are not less than those in Datong, Yulin and other border areas, the cavalry is brought by you, and the commander gives you 4,000 war horses, how many soldiers you can recruit depends on your ability!" ”

"Xie Dashuai!"

"Don't thank me!"

Cheng Shijie looked at the generals and said: "The principle of this commander is how much ability and how big things to do, now that we occupy the four states of southern Liaoning, Jiannu will definitely not sit idly by and watch us develop southern Liaoning, the big war is coming, everyone must tighten the strings in their hearts!" ”

"It's handsome!"

"On the basis of the left and right divisions of our Ning Navy, the Ning Navy Guards Division will be established as the commander's Chinese army."

Although the current Ning Navy has more than 3,000 troops, the problem is that it is not a long-term solution to keep the Supervision and Military Highway Administration in charge of his safety work.

"Handsome ......"

Cheng Shijie looked at the generals and said: "The expansion of the army is like this for the time being, don't be too greedy, there is so much money in the hands of this commander, and you can't afford to raise so many soldiers!" ”

Zhou Yandong said: "If the treatment is reduced, it is still possible to expand the two capital divisions......

"Hmph, cut the treatment! Then what kind of combat effectiveness do the soldiers recruited in this way still have! ”

"It's just a little bit ......"

Cheng Shijie said solemnly: "Not at all!" Instead of suffering from poverty and suffering from inequality, Ben Shuai doesn't want to be wiped out by a group of psychologically unbalanced soldiers on the battlefield! ”

(End of chapter)