The current manufacturing cost of hand grenades at Lantian Arsenal is a little over three taels per grenade. This is done with the support of a lathe. However, this lathe still has room for improvement. The arsenal's plan for Li Chaosheng said that the level

After the second batch of lathe production is completed, the hand grenade production process of Lantian Arsenal will become more sophisticated. At that time, the cost can be further reduced. Within two years, grenades can be made for 2 taels of silver each.

Within five years, the cost can even be reduced to one or two or eight dollars. Of course, the prerequisite for this is that prices in Lantian cannot skyrocket.

So when brothers Lu Xiangsheng and Lu Xianglin asked about the price of the grenade, Li Chaosheng gave a fairly reasonable price: "Six taels of silver."

The reason why they are so expensive is that the power of grenades is too great and must be controlled. Economic control is the best and non-emotional method. After all, you are poor and cannot afford too much. Who are you looking for?

Lu Xiangsheng frowned when he heard the price and said, "This is too expensive for you."

Li Chaosheng looked at Lu Xiangsheng and said: "I don't need to introduce the power of this grenade. The two in front of the battle yesterday should have seen it clearly. Moreover, it is very troublesome to make, and the structure inside is also very complicated. It is not easy to make one.

Even if our Lantian Army is not open to use, each soldier can only be equipped with one or two, and now I am willing to sell it to Mr. Lu, Mr. Lu should understand my good intentions."

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng looked at Lu Xianglin. Lu Xianglin's face was pale at this time, but there was a strange blush in the paleness. This was because he was excited to see so many weapons.

"We are certainly aware of Mr. Li's kindness, but our brothers are really short of money and cannot afford so much money."

After hearing this, Li Chaosheng looked at Lu Xianglin and said: "Mr. Lu, I admire the two of you as human beings, but you can't bully Li with this. We do business under one code. I am willing to give Lantian County the most advanced

The weapons are being sold to you two. You two should already know my good intentions. If I continue to negotiate the price, it won't make sense. Do you believe it or not, if I am willing to sell it to the Tatars, they will be willing to buy it even if the price is doubled."

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng and Lu Xianglin both looked unhappy. They looked at Li Chaosheng and said, "Does Mr. Li really want to sell it to the Tatars?"

Li Chaosheng laughed when he heard this and said: "Just kidding, I, Lantian, and the Tatars are incompatible with each other, how can I sell weapons to them?"

After saying this, Li Chaosheng said: "But both of you are people that Li admires, so I will give you some discounts. You buy one of these muskets, and I will distribute three rounds of bullets and gunpowder. One artillery, I will distribute five."

Artillery shells, as for these grenades, how about you buy ten and I’ll give you one for free?”

Li Chaosheng looked at the two of them. After hearing this, they frowned and said nothing. After a long time, Lu Xiangsheng said: "Third brother, you go home in a few days and help me sell my house and my 100 acres of thin farmland."

, see how much money you can get for it, send it over, and let’s study how many firearms we can buy.”

After hearing this, Lu Xianglin said: "There is also mine. I will sell mine too. Let's get together. I think we can get two or three thousand taels no matter what."

After listening to Lu Xianglin's words, Li Chaosheng felt a little bit bitter. These two frontier officials had only been worth two or three thousand taels after working for so many years. They were extremely shabby.

Not to mention them, a third-grade Grand Superintendent Xuan, a fourth-grade commander, even a seventh-grade county magistrate can be worth seven or eight thousand taels after working for a few years. The magistrate of Lantian County that Li Chaosheng killed back then was

With a net worth of tens of thousands, compared with Lu Xiangsheng, he is simply incorruptible. Is this the legendary Qingliu?

Not to mention them, even Hong Chengchou, a guy with a similar status to Lu Xiangsheng, definitely had a family fortune of hundreds of thousands taels. Not to mention the dividends given to him by Yuxian Tower over the years were as huge as 20,000 taels.

Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, and Lu Xiangsheng, these three people can be regarded as three people with similar historical status in the late Ming Dynasty, but their economic situations are very different. The richest is Hong Chengchou. This eldest brother can only be regarded as a capable minister. He has some abilities, but

There is no need to hold him accountable for his small personal virtues. He did all the things that civil servants in the Ming Dynasty did, such as cheating on others and cheating on merchants.

If you evaluate him, he should be one of the more capable among the maggots of the Ming Dynasty civil servants. And although he is greedy for money, he has been loyal to the country of Ming Dynasty so far. You can call him a corrupt official, but you can never call him a traitor.

Of course, we will talk about the future later. After all, this man was the one who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in history, and was incomparable to the iron-clad Lu Xiangsheng.

Secondly, Sun Chuanting's family conditions are also good. Lao Sun is considered an upright official and has never been involved in collusion between officials and businessmen. However, his family is rich and is a legendary aristocratic family. Because the family is rich, Lao Sun also

There was no shortage of money, and Lao Sun was not bad either. He died in Tongguan in the end.

In fact, the one with the worst family conditions is Lu Xiangsheng. Lu Xiangsheng's family is a well-off family. He even suffered from poverty when he was a child. There are many children in the family, so he has no financial resources. He can only raise two or three thousand taels by selling off his property. This shows his financial embarrassment.

, of course, this kind of embarrassment is compared with scholar-bureaucrats and ordinary people. He is still considered to be a rich man.

But in the Ming Dynasty, if you still want to compare officials with the people, you are really thinking wrong. The only officials in the history of the Ming Dynasty who were really poor and even inferior to the people were probably Hai Rui and Hai Gangfeng.

Seeing these two high-ranking officials, a town supervisor was here to study how much taels of silver he could get from selling his land. Li Chaosheng felt helpless. How poor must these two people be? According to their calculations, they could just sell their land.

Three to four hundred grenades, this is really poor and scumbag.

Li Chaosheng watched Lu Xiangsheng discuss with Lu Xianglin. When selling the land to Lu Yuanwai, he should not sell it to Zhao Yuanwai. Zhao Yuanwai had a good reputation, and Lu Yuanwai had some relatives in their family.

After watching for a long time, Li Chaosheng couldn't bear it any longer. He looked at the two of them and said, "You two Mr. Lu, you don't want just this little money, do you?"

Lu Xiangsheng and Lu Xianglin were said to be a little embarrassed. Lu Xiangsheng was good at nourishing qi, but his face was as dark as water. Lu Xianglin said with a blushing face: "That's ridiculous."

Lu Xiangsheng, however, was very dignified and said: "Lu is an honest official and has no wealth. This house and Susukada were gifts from His Majesty back then."

That year was the first time the Tatars entered the pass and Yuan Chonghuan was killed. It was the second year of Chongzhen in 1629. The Tatar leader Huang Taiji led his army to bypass the Ningjin defense line guarded by Yuan Chonghuan and broke into Xifengkou.

In the Central Plains, Lu Xiang was promoted to the magistrate of a famous country. After hearing this, he personally recruited more than ten thousand soldiers and horses to join the king in Beijing.

Because of his excellent performance in that battle, he was deeply appreciated by Chongzhen, so Chongzhen gave Lu Xiangsheng a mansion and 500 acres of fertile land. Lu Xiangsheng's family was poor, so he divided the land, leaving only 100 acres for himself and handed it over to his hometown.

Others took care of him, and he was promoted to the right political counselor and deputy envoy. He went out to rectify the military armaments of the three prefectures of Daiming, Guangping and Shunde, and was known as the Tianxiong Army.

This is the origin of Tianxiong Army, and Lu Xiangsheng’s little family fortune was accumulated bit by bit through military merit. It can be said that every penny is filled with Lu Xiangsheng’s blood.

Lu Xiangsheng said very forcefully, but Li Chaosheng smiled and said: "Mr. Lu admires his integrity, but I'm afraid you can't buy many weapons and equipment with this little money."

Lu Xiangsheng's face suddenly fell. He frowned and looked at Li Chaosheng and said, "Can I pay on credit?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Mr. Lu. It's a small business and we don't owe you credit." Li Chaosheng immediately stopped Lu Xiangsheng's unrealistic idea. He wanted to have sex for nothing. What was he thinking?

Lu Xiangsheng suddenly lost his energy. When Li Chaosheng saw this, he smiled and said: "Mr. Lu, I have a way to make a fortune. I wonder if Mr. Lu wants it?"

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng looked at Li Chaosheng and said, "Lu cannot do anything involving corruption and perversion of the law."

Li Chaosheng said with a smile: "Don't worry, Mr. Lu will never be allowed to do such corrupt things and bend the law, and he will never violate one of Mr. Lu's principles of doing things."

"Oh, is there such a good thing?"

Lu Xiangsheng looked at Li Chaosheng, and Li Chaosheng said: "Of course, Mr. Lu was too upright before and did not bother to use this method to make a profit, but today is different from the past. If Mr. Lu uses this method, he will definitely make a lot of profits, and even

Gain the support of the people."

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng said: "What method?"

Li Chaosheng smiled and said: "Suppress the bandits!"

"Um!"

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng's eyes narrowed, and Li Chaosheng said: "There are a group of bandits looking around on the mountain near Xuanda Second Mansion, and there are horse thieves running rampant on the grassland outside the pass. These guys are harmful to nature, and they have people's lives on their hands. And these years

The accumulated wealth is quite abundant, why doesn’t Mr. Lu take it and use it?”

After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng frowned slightly. It's not that Lu Xiangsheng didn't know about suppressing bandits, but Lu Xiangsheng has been unwilling to do it. The reason is very simple. The Tianxiong Army is here to guard the border, not to work for Lu Xiangsheng. You just want a little money.

Lu Xiangsheng was very conflicted when he led soldiers to suppress bandits. The soldiers did not die in the hands of Tatars, but died in the hands of bandits.

He felt that this was a private use of public power. If he really did this, it would be detrimental to his moral standards. Suppressing bandits was a matter for local officials and had little to do with him, so he did not do so.

Do.

But when Li Chaosheng brought it up today, he was a little moved, but not for the money, but for the firearms that the money could exchange for. With these firearms, his Tianxiong Army could become stronger and he could kill the Tatars.

More relaxed.

This is not considered a public weapon for private use. This is in line with Lu Xiangsheng's own core values. On this point, it must be said that Lu Xiangsheng is very pedantic, or that the education he received is completely different from that of Li Chaosheng. Li Chaosheng believes that as long as the starting point is

It's good, the result is good, it doesn't matter if there are some minor problems in the middle.

However, Lu Xiangsheng believes that he must strictly regulate himself and never do anything that violates the rules. It must be said that this is the charm of Lu Xiangsheng's personality, and it is also his personality flaw. It is precisely because of this shortcoming that he was promoted to Qianqian. Yang Si

Chang and his ilk were very tight-lipped. As long as Lu Xiangsheng followed Hong Chengchou's example of being tactful, rising high and diving low, Yang Sichang would not have been able to cause such great harm to Lu Xiangsheng, who was in the ascendant of the Holy Family at that time, and even force Lu Xiangsheng to death.

After Li Chaosheng made his suggestions, seeing that Lu Xiangsheng was still a little hesitant, Li Chaosheng did not rush him and let Lu Xiangsheng make his own decision.

In fact, Li Chaosheng's move is a way to kill two birds with one stone. First, Li Chaosheng really wants to strengthen Lu Xiangsheng. As long as Lu Xiangsheng is strengthened, he can block the Tatars from the Xuanda Gate and prevent them from entering from the Xuanda Land.

The Central Plains will harm the land of Shaanxi and Shanxi, and at the same time it can also protect Guihua City.

This step has extremely high strategic value, which is the main reason why Li Chaosheng is willing to share his weapons with Lu Xiangsheng.

As long as there is no chaos in Shaanxi and Shanxi for three to five years, Li Chaosheng in Lantian County can take over the land of Guanzhong and complete his initial separatist rule. And with Guanzhong, Li Chaosheng will have the foundation of an emperor. You must know that Li Yuan was Li Shimin back then.

When my father established the Tang regime, he also established his banner after occupying Guanzhong.

Li Chaosheng's current Lantian basically accounts for one-third of the Guanzhong land. As long as he is given time in the next few years, he can gradually encroach. The current obstacles are, first, the thieves like Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang who are entrenched in northern Shaanxi.

But they can't stay long, they will soon go to Shanxi and Henan to cause trouble.

As soon as they leave, this cleared piece of high-quality land in northern Shaanxi will belong to him, Li Chaosheng. By then, Li Chaosheng will really become a leader. At that time, even if Emperor Chongzhen wants to touch him, he will still have to think about him.

OK?

Therefore, it is very important for Lu Xiangsheng to gain a foothold in Xuanda. He must be replenished with weapons, but the money must not be less, so suppressing bandits is a profitable business.

The person who died during the suppression of bandits belonged to Lu Xiangsheng, but the money was given to Li Chaosheng. Li Chaosheng originally wanted to give him the weapons. This is very smooth. And if suppressing bandits consumes guns and ammunition, Li Chaosheng can also take the opportunity to sell more guns and ammunition.

Give it to Lu Xiangsheng and make more money.

In addition, the bandit forces near Xuanda were a bit shameless. Li Chaosheng heard merchants from Lantian complain that there were many bandits on this road and it was not easy to come here. Li Chaosheng asked these merchants to give these bandits a message: "

The merchants who come to my Lantian to buy goods should not rob me, but just give me Li Chaosheng some face."

As a result, these bastards actually said: You, Li Chaosheng, also got his fortune from a bandit, and we are bandits too, so why should we give face to you?

Li Chaosheng was so angry that he wanted to send people to suppress the bandits, but it was difficult to mobilize troops across the border when they were too far away. This made Li Chaosheng feel that he was beyond his reach. Therefore, these bastards were like fish bones stuck in his throat, which made Lan Tian feel very uncomfortable.

.

Originally, Li Chaosheng planned to send an armed caravan to kill the bandits along the way after solving Guihua City. But now that Lu Xiangsheng was short of money, why not just follow the trend and give this good thing to Lu Xiangsheng?

So for Li Chaosheng, this matter is killing two birds with one stone. He can not only earn money to supplement Lantian's military expenses, but also support Lu Xiangsheng with a batch of weapons, allowing him to guard the north gate of Lantian, and finally, he can also control the business.

Connecting the roads will make Lantian's business more developed and bring more benefits to the people of Lantian. This is simply a rare step.
To be continued...