"Isn't it just ten thousand shi of grain? Just give it to them. However, remember to tell them to leave within two days, otherwise these locust-like guys will stay in Peiping forever, and no matter how big the granary is, they will eat it up.
." Wan Lei frowned when he heard that the emperor actually asked the Peiping army to ask for food.
"Give it to them, I'm afraid they won't pay it back in the future." Tie Xuan was still worried about the credibility of the court.
"Forget it if you don't pay it back. Anyway, we don't have enough food in Beiping City. An extra 10,000 shi is not much, and a shortage of 10,000 shi is not much. Just saving is not the solution. We have to find ways to get food from elsewhere.
"
"The surrounding area is in chaos. The Shuntian Mansion area has been looted by the bandits. Where can we get food from?"
"I'll figure this out. You go and invite these locusts away first. If they don't leave for a day, we won't be able to let go."
Seeing what Wan Lei said, Tie Xuan still felt sorry for the ten thousand stones of grain, but he still followed Wan Lei's suggestion and adjusted the grain. In fact, a stone was the ancient unit of measurement for grain. One stone is equal to ten buckets of one hundred liters, which is about
One hundred and twenty kilograms is a person's ration for half a year, and ten thousand stones is the annual salary of a prince in the Ming Dynasty.
Don’t underestimate this ten thousand kilograms of grain. As a necessity of life, grain was very expensive in ancient times. In addition, due to natural disasters, man-made disasters and inconvenient transportation, the price of grain always fluctuates due to time and place. When the grain harvest is poor,
It can be sold for a few taels of silver and a stone, and when the harvest is good, the price of grain will be as low as a few taels of silver and a few stones.
The northern area has just gone through war, and the price of food has naturally skyrocketed. It is normal to sell it for a few taels of silver per shi. Allocating 10,000 shi of grain to labor is like throwing tens of thousands of taels of silver into the sea. Anyone who sees it will feel sick.
Wan Lei knew that although the knife was painful, it could make the locusts go away, and it could be treated as a cut to heal the sores. Otherwise, if the locusts refused to leave, Shuntian Mansion would be brought down sooner or later.
Besides, now that spring plowing is around the corner, it’s time to give peace to the soldiers and civilians so that they can go home quickly to farm and gather food. If you miss the spring plowing, this year’s food rations will be even less secure. So, no matter how painful it is, you have to cut this
With one strike, the locusts could quickly get out of Shuntian Mansion.
After sending Tie Xuan away, Wan Lei still did not leave the city and return to the inn. Instead, he went to the military camp to find some generals to discuss important matters. Of course, this so-called important matter was not rebellion, but a partnership to obtain food. After all, people depended on food.
God, there's no problem bigger than eating.
The reason why Wan Lei found these people was, firstly, because they had money in their hands, that is, the reward for killing the enemy was not much, and the total amount was tens of thousands taels. At the same time, they had soldiers, and the soldiers also had some money, so they only needed to collect them
Together, you can have more than a hundred thousand taels, which is enough to be used as start-up capital for raising food. This can also be regarded as a means of raising funds.
In addition, the war outside is chaotic and the roads are not smooth. Even if the food is purchased, it must be transported back. Someone must escort it along the way, otherwise it is likely to be robbed by bandits. Therefore, Wan Lei has to recruit some brave soldiers to serve as escorts.
people to ensure the absolute safety of food and commodities.
When Wan Lei came to the military camp, he found that all the soldiers were cursing on the playground. It turned out that they were cursing about the military rations. But it’s no wonder that it’s okay not to give rewards in a war, but to snatch food from a tiger’s mouth is too disrespectful for an emperor.
To be honest, when they saw Wan Lei coming, they would inevitably pour out their bitter grief again.
"Everyone, please be quiet." Seeing that everyone was gathered together, Wan Lei stood on the high platform of the playground and said: "I know that everyone is worried about the military rations. In fact, I am also very worried, because the food in the granary
There is not enough food to last until the autumn harvest, so we have to find ways to raise food from other places instead of just skimping on it."
"Mr. Wan, we are just so angry. Seeing that we are almost out of rice, the court still wants us to ask for food. This is too much bullying, and they deliberately want us to starve to death." A captain said.
"That's right, the emperor has made it clear that he wants us to starve to death. Mr. Wan, we can't let them bully us anymore." A group of soldiers were also very unconvinced.
"Whether the imperial court is benevolent or righteous is a matter for the imperial court. It is useless for us to say these angry words. Now we still need to think of ways to tide over the difficulties." Wan Lei pressed his hands to tell all the soldiers not to be angry, and then said: "I think
After that, the only way now is to buy grain from other places."
"However, there are currently less than ten thousand taels of silver in the treasury, and my financial resources are limited, so I would like to ask you if you can temporarily pool the silver taels you have so that you can organize a grain transport team to sell grain in other places. Please rest assured that your money
It is regarded as equity capital. Once the grain is sold, I will return it to you with interest."
"This is a good thing. It's useless to have money with you anyway. Brothers, take out all the money and let Mr. Wan come to the rescue first." A captain took the lead and ran home. Needless to say, he was going to get the money.
The other soldiers also ran back to their own homes with a roar, and naturally they also went home to get the money.
Not to mention, the news that Mr. Wan wanted to raise money quickly spread throughout Beiping City. Many people in the camp expressed their willingness to go to the army to contribute generously, even bringing money. This caught Wan Lei a little off guard. However, since the money
Wan Lei would not refuse it when it was delivered to him, because no matter who he rejected, he would be looking down on him, which would hurt his face too much.
Since there were so many people investing, Wan Lei had to find a few writers and ask them to help record the plan and issue receipts to them. This kind of receipt can also be called a bond, which can be exchanged for silver and interest in the future.
In order to facilitate interest calculation, Wan Lei made a new decision: the monthly interest is two cents, and the principal and interest will be paid off next month.
Wan Lei is busy raising funds here, and Tie Xuan has already asked people to pack and transport the grain and grass out of the city. Ten thousand stones of grain and ten thousand bundles of fodder are enough to feed the hundreds of thousands of troops outside the city for a few days. Therefore, Tie Xuan
As soon as he returned to the city, he sent a notice to Xu Huizu, asking him to ask Emperor Jianwen to return south within two days.
Being chased like a rat, Xu Huizu's face was certainly dull, but he also knew that Tie Xuan was not joking. Now the anger of the Peking Army was once again on the verge of breaking out. Even if there was a little friction,
All may lead to a vigorous rebellion movement.
Besides, Beiping City is really short of food. If the soldiers can't eat, there is still only one way out, and that is rebellion. And the imperial court has basically wiped out all its main forces. It can be said that it is short of soldiers and horses. It is really...
It was too much trouble. Therefore, Xu Huizu privately advised Emperor Jianwen to give priority to the Beiping army to avoid further unrest.
How could Emperor Jianwen listen to such rational suggestions, and Qi and Huang continued to give Emperor Jianwen constant advice, ranging from economic blockade (strictly prohibiting official and private trade between nearby prefectures and Shuntian Prefecture) to political isolation (not allowing
The students of Shuntian Prefecture participated in the imperial examination). In short, it was to turn Shuntian Prefecture into an "underworld" where the people were poor and the army was depleted.
Wan Lei had already expected this. He was afraid that the total blockade would come too soon and he would not be able to get food to tide over the difficulties, so he raised funds extensively and quickly stocked up on food. As long as he could survive these most difficult months,
It will be easy to do it in the future. A few months will be enough to establish a smuggling network. By then, as long as you have good products, you can exchange them for money and you are willing to pay a high price, and you will not have to worry about not being able to exchange for what you want.
In addition, Shuntian Prefecture is adjacent to the Bohai Bay in the east. There is a natural salt drying field. There is no need to smuggle the salt out. You can transport it to the Tatars in the north at a low price and exchange it for cattle, sheep and horses. There are also coal mines and iron in Shuntian Prefecture.
There is no need to refine the ore into special steel. As long as you make iron pots and sabers, you can sell them on the Mongolian plateau, exchange them for leather and wool, and process them into clothing and bedding. This is another economic growth point.
All in all, although Shuntian Mansion is small, it has great potential. As long as it survives in the cracks, it will become the richest place in the country in a few decades.
"Mr. Wan, we have collected all the money. The total is more than 287,000 taels. Here are the detailed accounts." Before noon, a bookman handed over a thick account book.
, dozens of boxes full of silver were piled into piles, with seals on them. One box was worth five thousand taels.
Wan Lei just glanced at it and said: "Can you please make a copy and send it to Mr. Tie together with the money and ask him to send someone to keep it? By the way, post to the twenty people with the most funds. I will be there at noon.
Pengcheng is hosting a banquet for guests, so please come over if you have time."
Pengchengju is the best restaurant in Beiping City. However, things are different from the past. Now it is a problem to eat in Beiping City. Naturally, no one goes to the restaurant. In addition, there is a shortage of ingredients. Even if someone comes, they will not be able to make anything delicious.
Therefore, it has been closed for a long time. It was rare to hear that the popular Wan Ye in Beiping City wanted to treat a guest. The owner of the shop immediately brought out all the best wine and took out the few remaining ingredients to cook.
After doing this, Pengcheng Ju also set up two banquets, but Wan Lei was not here to drink and eat meat, but to talk to everyone about something. What is it? Naturally, it is so that everyone can drink and eat meat for a long time in the future.
It's a big event. No, all the rich people who invested more than a thousand taels are here, even Zhao Hongru arrived early.
After three drinks and five dishes, Wan Lei stood up and thanked everyone first, thanking everyone on behalf of the people of Beiping City for their generous investment. Then he got down to business: "You are all small and wealthy members of the Beiping City.
, whose vision is not as shallow as those rich locals. I take the liberty to invite you all here to discuss the future development plans of Beiping City."
As soon as they heard this, the people present began to whisper to each other. They were not confident, because in their impression, all major plans were the affairs of the government. They were all small rich people, and they only needed to follow the government to make a small fortune. Where?
Dare to hope for any big plan.
"Everyone, Shuntian Prefecture is now a chieftain's house. There will be no measures to suppress business, and there will be no taxation and exploitation. I believe it won't be long before industry and commerce will be extremely developed. If we don't seize this opportunity now, we will regret it too late later. And what we have now is
Our financial resources and connections are far inferior to those of the rich men in the south of the Yangtze River. If they go north to squeeze us out in the future, I'm afraid they won't be able to defeat us."
"Well, what Mr. Wan said is absolutely true. We have little money and no resources, so we can't compete with the rich people in Jiangnan." The small wealthy people present nodded repeatedly. In fact, the money in their family is not a fraction of the rich people in Jiangnan.
The wealth of wealthy people often amounts to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
Being rich is the next best thing. They have ties with government officials and government officials, and they are very bullish. If they invest money to go north, the industry and commerce of Shuntian Prefecture will soon be occupied by them. At that time, they, the small wealth, will only
I can still drink soup, but I can't eat meat.
"So, I want to take the lead in establishing the Yan Chamber of Commerce. Everyone exchanges information and helps each other. If we have money, we will make money together, and if we have difficulties, we will share the burden. As long as we unite, we can slowly develop and grow. Who else in the world can compete with us in the future?
Fight?"
After hearing this, all the small wealthy people suddenly became excited and responded: "Yes, we should unite as one and work together to crush the wealthy people in Jiangnan and monopolize the business world of Ming Dynasty!"