Zhou Yu didn't expect that the girl's persistence was so amazing.
After leaving the noodle stall, I originally planned to go shopping, take a look at the people's livelihood under Liu Biao's rule, and buy some new seasonal goods, so that I could honor my uncle when I returned to Xiapi, but unexpectedly, wherever he went next, the girl would follow him.
Every time he walked into a shop and saw something that caught his eye, as soon as he asked the shopkeeper to take it out for a closer look, the girl immediately rushed over and opened her mouth with the same line, "I want this, please pay more for it!"
Before they walked half a street, they looked at the girl's unlucky entourage. Their shoulders and arms were covered with things, including several feet of fine silk, five fine robes, a sandalwood incense burner, and two hangings of pickled sea fish, which belonged to the land queen.
There are half-length wooden sculptures and even baskets of chickens, which are chirping non-stop.
Heaven can tell, Zhou Yu just glanced at the brood of chickens casually, without even stopping, and was intercepted by the girl.
For a wealthy family like this, it is impossible to carry more than a dozen five-baht pendants when going out. It is heavy and ugly. If you buy them along the way, the money will be gone after a while, so you can only use gold and silver. The girl is also a person who does not know how to work hard.
He opened his mouth and said, "As long as you don't sell to him anymore, I will reward you with more."
Zhou Yu, who encountered such a thing for the first time in his life, was a little dumbfounded.
In fact, Zhou Yu didn't pay much attention to the extravagance shown by the girl. Despite his usually low profile, if you really talk about it, it would not be a problem to buy the entire South Street in Xiangyang.
Although the Lujiang Zhou family has become a little lonely in recent years, their foundation is still there, and Zhou Yi has been a wealthy man like Luoyang order for many years. How much less can he leave to his son?
We must know that in the original history, no matter in the era of Sun Ce or Sun Quan, Zhou Yu's internal status in the Jiangdong Group was not a simple subordinate, but an alliance of princes similar to Han Xin, Yingbo and others.
The reason why he has such a transcendent status is that, on the one hand, when Sun Ce traveled east to Liyang, Zhou Yu generously loaned troops and food and gave him strong support; on the other hand, from the beginning to the end, Zhou Yu was stationed alone in an important town.
Takes over military and political power, including recruiting and training troops.
You can think about it, when the Soochow power was first established, it was naturally impossible to rely entirely on Sun Ce’s support for these things, so many times it was actually Zhou Yu who paid for them out of his own pocket.
This shows that Zhou Yu or the Zhou family in Lujiang has strong financial resources.
But just because you have money, it doesn't mean you can make money randomly.
Thinking of this, Zhou Yu looked around. At this time, no matter whether it was a big shop or a small shop, countless shopkeepers were guarding the door, raising their necks like old roosters crowing, looking at them eagerly, and couldn't help but secretly laugh:
It seems that these people burn a lot of incense on weekdays, and they just attracted this good-wealth virgin today.
The girl didn't realize that she was being taken advantage of. She just cried out in a coquettish voice: "Hey, little thief, are you convinced?"
Zhou Yu smiled bitterly when he heard this and sighed heavily. Just when the girl thought she had the upper hand and turned her nose up in pride, Zhou Yu suddenly said: "I am really worried about the girl's future husband."
"If you use money like this, even if you have gold and silver, you will lose it sooner or later."
The guard on the side nodded repeatedly, "Young Master is absolutely right. Although this woman is pretty, it will be a misfortune for the family to marry such a prodigal!"
He said this, but there was a bit of envy in his voice.
"you"
Seeing the two masters and servants singing and arranging their own songs, the girl immediately raised her eyebrows and widened her eyes. She seemed to feel it was indecent again, so she quickly restrained herself and turned away angrily.
While she was turning her head, Zhou Yu glanced at the alley aside and winked at the guard. The two of them immediately quickened their pace and took the opportunity to turn in, hoping to get rid of each other's entanglement.
When he entered the alley, he saw that the girl and her group were not following, and the guard just breathed a sigh of relief, "If you keep fighting like this, you will get into trouble sooner or later, so it's better to stay away."
As soon as the words came out, he was afraid that Zhou Yu would misunderstand his timidity, so he quickly added, "If I were alone, I wouldn't be afraid, but the young master is a noble person, so we must not cause any harm."
"That's not true." Zhou Yu smiled when he heard this. He knew what the guard was talking about.
In general, if the gentry and squires in a local area have a conflict with someone, the initial exchange of words may develop into a violent fight, with their servants and soldiers swarming forward, turning the civil fight into a physical fight.
It seemed that this guard came from an ordinary family. He thought he might have seen or even experienced such things before joining the army, so he was worried about it.
However, Zhou Yu did not think so. He discovered from the beginning that the several burly men following the girl were not only powerful, but also well-organized in their defense. They were not ordinary bodyguards, but more like soldiers in the army.
General's personal bodyguard.
If these elite soldiers show off their strength and fight fiercely, they will naturally be more domineering than ordinary slave soldiers, but they rarely make their own decisions, and will not act rashly without being ordered by their masters.
And the one who can really give orders to them is obviously not the girl. They follow the girl mainly to perform their guard duties cautiously and carefully, so they will not cause any trouble.
While talking, the two of them turned left and right for a while and came to another street dominated by rice shops.
Food is the most important thing for the people. In every dynasty and in every generation, the rice industry is the most prosperous. There is a constant flow of people coming in and out. Zhou Yu randomly picked a house and walked in slowly. Grains and other grains were stored separately in rice baskets and dustpans.
There was quite a lot of stuff, so he put his hand into the rice, took out a handful and twisted it.
"Hey, take a look at this young master."
The waiter at the rice shop nodded and said: "This millet is so soft and glutinous, and it only costs 40 yuan a bushel."
"Where's this wheat?"
"This is cheap, twenty-five yuan per bucket."
After listening to the clerk's introduction, Zhou Yu secretly calculated in his mind that the main purpose of the Lu Su delegation coming to Xiangyang was to buy grain, and the second was to borrow grain. Shouchun had naturally made an estimate, but it was based on the local rice price.
Look, the price of rice in Jingzhou is slightly higher than that in Yangzhou.
Ten liters per dou, ten dou per hu, or 10,000 hu of dendrobium will cost millions of dollars. Even if it is replaced by cheaper wheat rice, it will be almost the same. After all, the total amount has gone up.
And a few million dollars is almost like a thousand pieces of gold.
Although a thousand pieces of gold is heavy, it may not be worth mentioning in the eyes of Wang Zheng, who covers nine counties, but the problem is that the current gap in Yangzhou requires not tens of thousands of rice, but millions!
At the beginning of time travel, when Wang Zheng was under the command of Cao Cao, his salary for the Qingzhou army was five husks of dendrobium for the best soldiers and three husks of dendrobium for the rest. This number was not randomly determined. It was in a situation so that the people of Qingzhou would not starve to death.
But there is always a limit to having enough to eat.
Based on the daily consumption of an adult man, he usually consumes about eighteen bushels of rice a year, which is about one and a half bushels per month. It is naturally higher for a soldier, at least two bushels, and logically three bushels are enough.
Okay, why do you say you are not full?
Because you can’t just eat, right?
In the last years of the dynasty, food was a hard currency. This was why a lot of military pay among the princes was called food pay. The excess food could be used to exchange for meat, vegetables, even cloth and other daily expenses. In this way, three dendrobiums per month were worth one soldier.
The words are very reluctant, not to mention that many Qingzhou soldiers also have families to support them?
In terms of food and salary, Wang Zheng is naturally more generous than Cao Cao. Even the new soldiers who have just joined the army have one month and five dendrobiums. As for the heavenly army, cavalry and other elite troops, not to mention, this time Yangzhou will at least get support from Jingzhou for about two seasons.
of food.
So a rough calculation means that the minimum target for Lu Su's mission is four million dendrobium!
Ten thousand dendrobium is equivalent to a thousand gold, and four million dendrobium is equivalent to four hundred thousand gold!
The key is that money alone is not enough. Such a large-scale grain export is no longer a simple transaction. Without the approval of Liu Biao and even the local powerful, even if the merchants are willing to sell, the grain may not be able to leave Jingzhou.
Even if Liu Biao is taken care of, I don’t know if Wang Zheng can come up with the money.
After calculating this number, Zhou Yu instinctively took a breath of air, but even if Xuan reacted, how could it not be enough?
He didn't know how much money Wang Zheng had, but the other party must be very rich. Not only Zhou Yu knew this, but all knowledgeable people in the world could see this.
Because Wang Zheng has the unique advantage of the Yellow Turban Bandits, he can do business without capital!
What kind of business can destroy a family as quickly as it can?
The other princes were all from aristocratic families and had to pay attention to their appearance, but the Yellow Turban bandits had no such worries. When Wang Zheng was in Qingzhou, he almost conquered a city and wiped out hundreds of tribes. Although he restrained himself after coming to Xuzhou, he was actually much more brutal than the other princes.
.
Zhou Yu, who was born in an aristocratic family, knew only too well how much wealth and wealth a family of those noble families who started out a century ago had.
So why do other Yellow Turban thieves always have such a hard life?
Because although Wang Zheng chose the side of aggression like fire and locusts passing through the border, he gave up the rebel army's inherent method of coercing and gathering people.
The more money the other Yellow Turban thieves rob, the more mouths they have to feed their subordinates. Moreover, after getting money, most of the leaders of these peasant uprisings are like their predecessors Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, who prefer extravagance and luxury.
As a result, a cycle of "getting richer three times and getting poorer five times" will naturally form.
Wang Zheng was different. Not only did he take the lead in advocating a simple style of work, but the key was that he did not choose to bully the crowd from the beginning of the uprising. It was not until he occupied Xuzhou in the second year that he began the first large-scale expansion of troops.
Expansion is fast, killing is abundant, consumption is small, how can there be no surplus wealth?
How could the remaining wealth be so small?
Of course, everyone praised Wang Zheng for his foresight and wisdom, but this was not the main reason why they looked at him differently.
There are dragons and snakes in the grass, and there are many smart people among the leaders of the peasant uprising army. In fact, like Wang Zheng, they also understand the principle of "the best soldiers are more valuable than the more numerous ones."
So why is Wang Zheng the only one who has accomplished such a thing so far?
Why don’t others choose this way?
Because before you want to "noble the essence", you have to "cost more" first, don't coerce, don't gather people, once the officers and soldiers attack, you may not even see the sun tomorrow!
This is also the most incredible thing for everyone. Wang Zheng was able to achieve something without coercing the crowd because he had a force of several thousand men when he attacked Linzi.
But where this elite group came from, everyone wants to know, but no one knows.
How talented and evil?
Is it destiny?
Zhou Yu shook his head, put aside his complicated thoughts, and asked some more questions, then turned around and went out. As soon as he crossed the threshold, his footsteps paused, but he saw that the group of people who had just escaped were following him again.
As soon as she saw him, the girl's eyes lit up, and she ran up with small steps. She looked at the rice in the room. She was startled for a moment, hesitated, and then shouted: "How much is a handful? No matter, let's go first."
Give me a hundred dendrobiums for this young lady. Seeing the little thief come out empty-handed, it seems that I can’t afford it. I’m so greedy for him!”
"Miss, what's the point of buying this rice?" the maid urged in anguish, "Besides, it's so heavy, I can't even lift it."
"Hire some manpower, buy a car, and it's done."
Before the girl finished speaking, she wanted to run away again when she saw Zhou Yu, but she immediately rushed after him.
Zhou Yu entered the city in the afternoon and wandered around until dusk. As the sun set in the west, he occasionally turned around and glanced behind him. There were already a large group of people following him, including those carrying goods and hauling rice, walking through the streets and alleys.
Feeling funny.
The girl seemed tired from walking, so she sat on the rice cart and let the maid rub her ankles. Seeing Zhou Yu turn his head, she immediately looked at the sky proudly, and after a while, she glanced over again.
"Sir, I have seen what wealth means today." The guard glanced at the pursuing figure behind him and sighed.
"hehe."
Zhou Yu smiled and said nothing, this is called nonsense, what kind of wealth is it? Don't look at the girl tossing around for a long time, she probably spent more than ten gold at most.
As for Wang Zheng, the deal he wants to make right now starts with a few hundred thousand gold.
"The Qin family's state pastoralists are the real wealth."
He was very meaningful. After thinking about it carefully, after taking away Shouchun, he collected all of Yuan Shu's inheritance. In addition to the previous harvest, in terms of wealth at this time, I am afraid that even Yuan Shao of Jizhou may not be as good as Wang Zheng, right?
It's so scary to be so rich and yet so secretive and simple in style!
"We estimate that we have to live in Xiangyang for a while. It is not difficult to reveal our identity as an envoy and meet Liu Jingsheng, but this trip is much more difficult." Zhou Yu said: "Let's go back to the inn first."
He turned around and joked: "I hope the inn Zi Jing chooses is not too bad, so that this girl won't frown and say "I bought this" again."
"Ha ha."
The guard laughed heartily. The more he got along with Zhou Yu, the more he felt that this young master was really an interesting person, completely different from the nerds he had met before.
Lu Su was on an envoy representing Wang Zheng, so the place he stayed in was not bad. It was a very grand and time-honored inn with carved railings and painted buildings.
Zhou Yu and the two were just about to enter the door when they saw the girl still chasing after her, and rushed over with a scent of fragrant wind. She spread her hands, straightened her waist, and stood in front of her with her small breasts.
Zhou Yu was startled at first, then laughed: "What? You want to buy this too?" This kind of inn in the center is not only valuable, but also has connections behind it. Just spending a lot of money is not enough.
"You don't have to spend money." The girl pointed to the eaves with a smile, her face filled with pride, "This is my uncle's house!"
Zhou Yu raised his head and looked over with his fingertips. On the signboard flag fluttering in the wind, there was exactly the word "yellow" painted on it.
"awesome."
Zhou Yu was convinced and said to the guards: "We won't go in. Let's go to another place. You can go and inform your brother." Hundreds of people in the mission have now moved into the inn. We can't let them move in with Zhou Yu.
It's better to find a place to live alone and avoid this girl.
Immediately, he slightly cupped his hands to the girl and was about to leave when he heard someone calling, "Your Majesty, please stay."
Zhou Yu turned around and saw that it was the heroic man he had seen on the building boat before. He was walking out of the hall quickly. He first glanced at the piles of messy goods outside the door, frowned slightly, glanced at the girl, and scolded the girl.
He said: "You are acting like this, even if I don't care, Qiao Wan will definitely settle accounts with you in the future."
When he turned to Zhou Yu, his expression immediately softened, "There is no reason for merchants to chase away guests, not to mention that I and my little sister are also guests here. Don't care about it. Even if you stay, I will be responsible for the room and accommodation fees. I have the right to do so."
apologize."
The other party's temperament was quite similar to that of Sun Ce, and Zhou Yu had a good impression of him. He smiled slightly when he heard the words, and immediately flicked his sleeves and responded gracefully: "I'm serious, I'm from Lujiang, Zhou Yu, haven't you asked me for advice?"
When he heard Zhou Yu's name, the man was immediately moved: "It turns out he is Zhou Lang of Jiang Zuo. No wonder he has such a charming personality."