Zhu Yuanzhang finally understood why Xiao He worked so hard and spent a lot of money to get a train ticket.
The real purpose is for this.
That is to say, this guy is still a white man and can't get the second carriage dedicated to officials. Otherwise, this guy might be able to establish relationships with the officials under him.
Lao Zhu knew very well the virtues of these officials.
Many times, they may be easier to deal with than ordinary people.
After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Xiao He drank a little too much and became a bit verbose.
However, Lao Zhu feels that this guy is usually really drunk, and the other half is just pretending to be drunk.
"Brother..." Xiao He held the wine glass and opened the wine glass before he spoke.
"Actually, I have never understood whether the court or the officials want it. Why do they look down on us businessmen?"
"We can make money only by our own ability."
"Just like this time, I went to Datong to traffic grain."
"Others look at us and see that we can earn six or seven times just by sending food to Datong, so they think it is easy for us to make money. Some people even say with righteousness that it is difficult for us people to make money for the country."
Zhu Yuanzhang had a lot of wine, so this amount of wine was nothing to him.
Drinking each cup with Xiao He, he said: "Why, isn't what they said wrong?"
"Businessmen are not engaged in production but they can make a lot of money by using these goods. This is not what they should be."
Xiao He spit out a big mouthful of alcohol and said with a big tongue, "Brother, what you said...can't...can't be said to be unreasonable."
"But our merchants' money is not earned in vain."
"In order to transport the grain to Datong smoothly, I need to first purchase grain from places where grain prices are relatively low. If I purchase a larger amount, the merchants and people selling grain in those places will all make profits, right?"
"I'm going to transport the grain to Datong later, right? I'm going to hire a team of horses along the way, and I'll be able to find work for a lot of people."
"In addition, there are various checkpoints along the way. The reason I took the train this time is actually to go to Yanjing as soon as possible to prepare warehouses and other things."
"To ensure that these grains have a place to store them after they arrive in Yanjing to prevent them from rotting and deteriorating. This will cost a lot of money in Yanjing."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Xiao He with a half-smile, his eyes seemed to say, don't think I don't know what the purpose of your train ride is.
At this time, if it is really just a simple pursuit of speed.
In fact, riding a horse is much faster than taking a train.
Sensing Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, Xiao He blushed slightly, pretending that he didn't understand what Dean Zhu meant.
"Anyway, I have always worked hard along the way. Moreover, many people have benefited. But why do we businessmen still get scolded in the end?"
Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to be convinced, and offered Xiao He a glass of wine with some sympathy: "In this case, we are too superficial, so let me offer you a drink, brother, don't take it to heart."
"Thank you for your understanding, brother. We businessmen have been misunderstood too much." Xiao He raised his glass and touched it lightly with Zhu Yuanzhang.
However, what Xiao He didn't know was that Zhu Yuanzhang didn't believe a word of his explanation.
Zhu Han had long told him that businessmen were indeed very important to the country.
The Ming court could also vigorously encourage people to do business.
But at any time, the court must be wary of merchants as a group.
Because if merchants are not restricted, the entire economic lifeline of the daimyo will be controlled by merchants.
By that time...
This world, although in name it still belongs to their old Zhu family.
But those who really control this country may become these businessmen.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not dare to discount Zhu Han's words at all, and had always been wary of these businessmen.
The most important thing is that after a brief chat with Xiao He, Zhu Yuanzhang discovered.
Although this guy has never passed the imperial examination, his ability to do things is no worse than the officials of the six ministries of the imperial court.
Zhu Yuanzhang even felt that he was much stronger than those officials.
During the drought in Datong, the imperial court only discussed how to provide disaster relief, how much money should be allocated for disaster relief, where food should be collected and how it should be transported, etc.
We talked about these matters alone for three days. After deciding how to provide disaster relief, we began to recruit people to transport food and grass to Datong.
Six days have passed, and the food and grass sent to Datong for disaster relief have just been sent out.
And this Xiao He...
From the time he got the news, he has purchased grain and grass and organized a convoy to transport grain to Datong.
It only took two days in total.
Although Xiao He's small amount of food was just a drop in the bucket for the entire Datong Mansion, it was just enough for him to earn some money for himself.
But what Zhu Yuanzhang really cares about is not this, but why Xiao He reacted so quickly?
He is just an ordinary businessman. He does not have so many officials in the imperial court, and he cannot enjoy the many conveniences that only the imperial court can enjoy.
But the speed at which he did things was much faster than those of the court officials.
If only when the drought broke out in Datong, the imperial court could respond so quickly and immediately carry out disaster relief work.
Zhu Han wouldn't risk the world's public opinion and set the price of food in Datong Prefecture to such a high level.
Zhu Han always said in the past that the mobility of businessmen is the fastest in the world.
At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was quite dissatisfied.
No matter what, they are just a group of opportunistic businessmen.
But after this incident, Lao Zhu really realized deeply what kind of power the businessman contained.
If there were half as many ministers in the imperial court as Xiao He, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that he would definitely have a lot less work to do.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The current train cannot reach Yanjing yet.
But even so, the journey would take two full days.
In the past two days, Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma had not even paid for a single meal, and they had all been entertained by Xiao He.
Lao Zhu didn't care at all about this. He would eat and drink whenever he had food and wine, without the slightest mental burden of taking advantage of others' shortcomings.
Xiao He has traveled extensively over the years and is also a knowledgeable guy.
Although limited by his status, many things he knew were basically hearsay.
But Lao Zhu knows that there are some things that he really can't stand, so he can't help but give a few words of advice.
Whenever this time comes, Xiao He looks extremely shocked: "Is this really what happened? Thank you for your advice, otherwise I would still be kept in the dark."
In this way, Xiao He went to Zhu Yuanzhang after getting off the train.
His time is very precious.
When you're on a train, it's because the train is so fast, and there's nothing you can do in a hurry.
Unable to take the train now, Xiao He immediately put on a fast horse and prepared to go straight to Yanjing.
The formation of Zhu Yuanzhang and others was not so urgent, so naturally they could not go together.
"Brother, I have benefited a lot from this journey and I am very grateful. We will meet again in the future if we are destined to meet again. I will definitely treat my brother to a drink again."
Until Xiao He left, Empress Ma couldn't help but burst into laughter.
This smile made Zhu Yuanzhang laugh inexplicably.
I don't understand why my queen is acting like this suddenly.
After laughing for a while, Empress Ma gradually stopped smiling: "Chongba, you are being fooled this time."
Lao Zhu was confused. When had he been tricked? Why didn't he know?
Just as she was confused, she heard Queen Ma say: "This Xiao He is also very powerful. He was very calm all the way and got a lot of tricks out of you."
Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly woke up.
He is also a fan of the authorities and has not thought about it at all.
Of course, the most important reason is also because he was led astray by Xiao He from the very beginning.
Xiao He has always said that he took the initiative to approach him just so that if there was a chance in the future, he could ask Lao Zhu, whose pseudonym was Chang, to facilitate him.
This is also in line with Lao Zhu's view of these businessmen.
These people are all people who can't afford to be early without any benefit.
Since there is a purpose, it will be easy to handle. Lao Zhu feels that with his identity, he will definitely not have too many interactions with people like Xiao He in the future.
As a result, he overlooked one thing.
For an ordinary businessman like Xiao He, not only real money and silver interests can be called interests.
In the past few days, when he was drinking with Zhu Yuanzhang, he would tell some wrong news from time to time.
Lao Zhu only thought that Xiao He didn't know the truth just because of his status, so he couldn't help but make a few corrections.
But Lao Zhu had forgotten that a lot of information that was commonplace to him was, to the people below, secrets that they could only dream of.
In the past few days, Xiao He used this method to get a lot of words out of Lao Zhu.
In other words, the information leaked by Zhu Yuanzhang was actually Xiao He's real purpose.
As for the other purpose speculated by Zhu Yuanzhang, it cannot be said that Xiao He didn't care at all.
However, Xiao He himself may not feel that this goal can be achieved.
In this era of strict hierarchy, Zhu Yuanzhang's fake identity may not be as attractive to him as a businessman.
"Good boy, I was actually deceived by him." Zhu Yuanzhang smiled instead of getting angry.
From the time he started his army until now, he has never been plotted against like this.
But I never expected that I would be taught a lesson by an ordinary businessman today.
"Since you know this, why don't you remind me?" Zhu Yuanzhang blushed and complained angrily.
Queen Ma glanced at him: "Anyway, what you said is not important news. Even if someone hears it, it won't mean anything."
"Just think of it as paying for people's meals these days."
Zhu Yuanzhang himself laughed: "I have been hunting geese all day long, but today I was pecked in the eye by a goose. Are we laughing at the heroes of the world?"
After riding the train for two consecutive days, Zhu Yuanzhang's body and bones could no longer bear it.
After all, he is no better than he was before.
When he led the rebel army to resist the tyranny of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, what hardships did Lao Zhu not suffer?
During the war, it was much harder than it is now.
But at that time, Lao Zhu really had never felt what hard work meant.
Now, after just two days of riding the train, I already feel as if all the bones in my body are falling apart.
After moving his hands and feet, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but sigh: "Lao La, if it were before this, we wouldn't feel tired at all."
Queen Ma also nodded: "Since Your Majesty is also feeling tired, let's find a place to rest."
Lao Zhu originally planned to get off the train and go straight to Yanjing.
But now he realized that his body and bones could no longer support him traveling so recklessly.
There was no choice but for the group of them to stay at an inn.
As a result, as soon as he came to an inn and asked about the price, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately shouted excitedly: "One tael of silver a night, is this a hotel or a bandit's den?"
You know, many ordinary people in Yingtian Mansion now cannot earn so much money in a month.
Even if Zhu Yuanzhang is the emperor and is rich all over the world, the whole world belongs to him.
However, he still feels that the price of this inn is really too expensive, right?
Although this inn is the best that the Jin Yiwei who follows him can find.
However, compared with those big inns in Yingtian Mansion, they are simply in the sky and on the ground.
If it were that kind of inn, Zhu Yuanzhang could still accept it for one tael of silver.
But why is the price of staying in this small shabby inn so high?
The shopkeeper didn't have the kindness of ordinary businessmen at all. Hearing that Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was expensive, he curled his lips disdainfully and said, "If you think it's expensive, why don't you find another place? You can't afford to live here, so you come here to ask about the price?"
"Let me tell you, if you don't live there, there will be people staying there. Our inn is the best inn within thirty miles."
"If you don't live here with us, you can go live with those hard-working people in a big car shop."
The owner of the shop actually treated the customers like this, and Zhu Yuanzhang's temper was completely raised: "In a shabby shop like yours, a guest room is worth one or two silver?"
"Do you know how much an ordinary room costs per day at Youfu Inn in Beijing?"
The innkeeper's lips almost turned up to his ears: "Hotels in the capital are cheap. If you can, why don't you stay in a hotel in the capital? Why are you here with us?"
"You poor guy who has no money, get out of here and don't stop me from doing business."
This is Zhu Yuanzhang's side, followed by several tall and powerful guards.
Otherwise, just looking at the appearance of the shopkeeper, he might just ask the waiter to kick them out.
How had Zhu Yuanzhang ever been so angry? If he hadn't paid a private visit incognito now, he would have given this shopkeeper a little look.
Even if the emperor's identity is not revealed, Zhu Yuanzhang is still strong enough with the strength of these guards.
If Empress Ma hadn't held him back, Zhu Yuanzhang might have actually taken action.
At this moment, someone outside the door suddenly shouted loudly: "Shopkeeper, are you still running out of rooms? I want two rooms."
When the shopkeeper heard this, he immediately changed his face and said, "Boss Zhou, you haven't been here for a while. We have a guest room, and I've reserved it just for you."