stubborn thief

Chapter 227 Toast's Dream

After meeting all the people sent by the chieftain, Liu Chengzong finally confirmed one thing.

The fourteen chieftains in Xining all came to see Cao Huachun, and they brought two carts full of things for Eunuch Cao.

A few of them brought him a small stone or something.

But after seeing the lion camp, the chieftains immediately sent someone to run back and bring him more gifts than Cao Huachun.

Liu Chengzong wanted nothing from the gems hidden in Wusi, the iron knives from the Western Regions, the antlers from Qinghai, and the high-quality hides.

Only the lamb brought by Chen Shiwen was slaughtered.

As the only Han Chinese chieftain in Xining, Chen Shiwen has always felt that he is not very Han Chinese since he was a child for more than ten generations.

When something good happened, the Han officials in Xining did not treat him as a Han, nor did the natives treat him as a native.

When something bad happens, the natives will think of him as a Han, and the Han officials will also think of him as a chieftain.

After suffering from splint gas for a long time, I would suspect that I am not a Han Chinese, right?Otherwise, why would his father name him Chen Shiwen?

But seeing Liu Xiucai's skilful appearance of slaughtering sheep, bloodletting, skinning and grilling, more like a pirate than a pirate, Chen Shiwen was relieved.

He is more Han Chinese than Han Chinese, very authentic.

Liu Chengzong smeared the packed sheep with salt, asked the guards to help clean it up, took off the leather apron and put it aside, washed his hands and wiped the knife, and asked Chen Shiwen to sit with him, saying: "Huangshui is such a good place, I haven't seen such a place for a long time." It’s a green place, how far is it from Xining?”

"General, there are still 120 miles."

Liu Chengzong nodded: "You don't know that I rebelled, I don't think those chieftains know who I am."

"I know a little bit. It was reported in Xiningwei's mansion, but I didn't know that the general had so many soldiers." Chen Shiwen said, "It's too far away. It takes two thousand miles to go along the side wall."

Chen Shiwen asked: "The drought in Shaanxi is so severe, tens of thousands of people followed the general to rebel?"

There is no drought in the Hehuang Valley. Since approaching Lanzhou, the situation here seems to be in a prosperous age, with a mixture of natives and Han people, and the people are happy. It is completely different from the hellish scene in the east.

Northern Shaanxi was not a wealthy place during the Taiping period, and suffered severe drought and military turmoil. They entered the Hehuang Valley from there. This feeling is normal everywhere, which makes people feel a little at a loss.

Liu Chengzong nodded in response, Chen Shiwen couldn't help clicking his tongue, and suddenly realized: "I heard from Lintao's King Qin who came back that there was a drought in Shaanxi, and Yulin soldiers couldn't eat, but... I thought he was lying to me."

"Yes, when I came here, I saw such a good land, and there were pockmarks growing in it." Liu Chengzong was surprised by this for a long time: "Do you have enough food?"

"Basically, wheat, hemp, and wheat beans are planted in rotation. If you don't plant them, you can't sell them. Other things can't be sold. The oil can be exchanged for money to pay the imperial court. There are also Haibei fans. Rapeseed is grown there, and the Hehuang Valley produces a year. Two to three hundred thousand catties of clear oil."

As Chen Shiwen said, he frowned and smiled wryly: "It's the same everywhere. Small people are starved and abandoned, and big households annexed their fields. Xining is nothing but fortunate that the people can't survive and hide in the mountains as a family. It's comfortable to be a family these days."

"How comfortable?"

"Raw and cooked, there is a fixed number of grain for farming and horses for grazing, unlike apportionment that is uncertain; if it doesn't work, you can still vote for the pirate Xiao La Zun, where only [-]% Timba is required."

Liu Chengzong searched his memory, but he didn't know anything about these two words, so he asked: "Little, little Lazun, Timba, what are those things?"

"Xiao Lazun is the son of Huo Luochi who became a monk. The general knows about Huo Luochi, right? Yes, the two children of his family are now the head of the pirates, and Timba is the one who pays money and horses. He only accepts food and money once a year, and only [-]% each time. .”

Liu Chengzong laughed dumbfounded.

Daming should have been the one that collected the least taxes.

But in fact, the payment to the leader of the Fan clan is less than that of Daming, and the payment to the leader of the Pirate Tartars is less than that of the leader of the Fan clan.

The imperial court's local organizational capabilities are no longer sufficient to deal with complex tax collection and apportionment.

Chen Shiwen glanced at Liu Chengzong cautiously: "Isn't the general trying to rob Xining?"

Liu Chengzong and his group looked more like nomads than nomads, and they looked like they were in the robbery business.

"Why should I rob Xining?"

"Then...then why didn't the general accept the gifts from the chieftains?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head, pointed to the mutton being cleaned up and said: "You don't know how many people I have, so you sent this sheep. What they sent later may not be what you want to send. You see, I seem to be missing something. What does it look like? It's you."

Liu Chengzong looked at Chen Shiwen and said, "You are more anxious than others, what do you want from me?"

"I didn't expect to get anything, but I did ask the general. I have two younger brothers. The third brother, Chen Shili, has become a monk. The second brother, Chen Shifo, opened the door at home. I want him to go to sea with the general."

It's okay to go to sea.

Liu Chengzong asked suspiciously: "Open the door? Your second brother, is he going to become a monk since he was born?"

Chen Shiwen nodded and said: "Yes, the second son of the chieftain's family will become a monk. Opening the door means setting up a separate house. For example, Dong Bo's mansion opened thirteen houses."

"Our chieftain of the Chen family has a small business, and we haven't opened the door yet, and I don't want my second brother to open the door. I only have 25 soldiers in total. After dividing the family, there are only [-] soldiers left."

Chen Shiwen bowed and said: "So it is better to let him go to sea with the general and make another contribution."

Liu Chengzong really doesn't understand Tusi, let alone Xining and Qinghai.

But he knows himself and his needs.

"Let me bring your younger brother, no problem." Liu Chengzong nodded first, and then said: "But what can he bring me? Listening to the name, I'm afraid your family didn't train him as a soldier, and one sheep might not be enough. Not enough for him to eat."

Chen Shiwen smiled easily when he heard the words, and said confidently: "I was weak when I was a child, and my parents were afraid that I would die young, so they also regarded him as the heir. Later, I sent him to study in a temple. He knew that there were 220 temples in Xining, and he knew all the local official lamas. I have also been to temples in Haibei and Haixi, and I was not admitted as a scholar, but I can speak native and Mongolian languages."

In the end, this translation ability still made Liu Chengzong very excited, but the previous professional skills are a bit nonsensical.

Liu Chengzong said: "He knows so many temples, what's the use?"

"Ah, I forgot, the general is not from Xining."

Chen Shiwen smiled very easily: "In Xining, every village has a temple. If there is no temple, it must be very close to the temple, because the temple fair is a market, especially in Qinghai."

"Each temple has a different time for the temple fair. Pirates and Fanzi will not fight and rob during the temple fair. That is to say, my brother Master Buddha knows when not to fight."

Very important.

Liu Chengzong was very happy that Chen Shiwen sent his younger brother. He really didn't know this land, but before accepting it, he still had to ask others if they had thought it through. He asked, "Do you know what it means to send a brother to me?"

Chen Shiwen was confident, but when asked by the lion, he also doubted himself: "I know...a part of it?"

Liu Chengzong smiled and asked, "How many people are there in Xining?"

"The general's problem is complicated. Xining is rich in land and manpower, but there are serious cases of missing registration. There are six to seven thousand registered military households and more than 5 civilians."

Liu Chengzong blinked: "I remember Eunuch Cao told me that you, chieftain Li, are in charge of 2 people."

Chen Shiwen quickly waved his hands: "We are natives, and neither the stranger nor the acquaintances are registered. There are 4000 or [-] deserters who are not registered, and [-] to [-] civilians who are not registered?"

Liu Chengzong pondered that Xining has more registered population than Mizhi, but this place does not have a high sense of existence for him: "There are so many people in Xining? How about counting the raw and familiar fans and chieftains?"

"Then it can't be counted as Xining. The fresh and cooked fans and chieftains can be divided everywhere, and the whole Hehuang, Xining, Hezhou, and Guide must be counted."

Liu Chengzong saw that he came all the way, and he had a very good impression of the Hehuang Valley. It is a rich place, so he said: "Then you will calculate it? Can you calculate it?"

"probably."

Chen Shiwen sat there thinking for a long time before he opened his mouth and said: "Xining's soldiers and civilians are more than 8, less than [-]; More than ten thousand."

Nearly half a million?
"Is what you said true?"

Liu Chengzong never dreamed that there would be a population of 50 here, what is the concept of a population of 50.

With such comfortable living conditions as the soldiers in his hands, taking the Hehuang Valley can afford [-] yuan.

He stood up and sat down again, raised his hand and patted his thigh, and then he thought of a very important question: "What about the Han people, 50 people, how many Han people are there?"

"The general said, do you think you are Han Chinese, or are you really Han Chinese?"

Liu Chengzong wondered if this is not nonsense, as long as others think, anyone can be a Han Chinese: "The one behind."

Chen Shiwen stood up and looked around, estimating Liu Chengzong's troops in his heart, and said, "Now there are 11 troops."

Liu Chengzong was silent for a long time.

After a long time, the lamb was put on the grill, and the blood was slowly oozing out.

Only then did he say, "I brought 7000 people, but you told me there were only 11 Han Chinese?"

Unexpectedly, Chen Shiwen was extremely surprised: "One, seventeen thousand? There are too many horses. I thought it was 3, so it is only ninety-seven thousand."

Liu Chengzong understood why there are more than 200 temples in Xining.

And why, Chen Shiwen's younger brother wants to enter the temple.

And why this little Han chieftain ran faster than anyone else in meeting himself.

[-] recruiting hungry people to enter Qinghai is of little significance to others, but it is very important to Xining, the little chieftain of the Han people who is in charge of the natives.

He shook his head and asked, "Why are there so few Han Chinese? It shouldn't be."

Chen Shiwen spread his hands and said: "Let's run away. The court tax and apportionment, and the guards' army, the people can only run. If they go to the mountains in the south, they will be Fanzi, and if they go to the west, they will be Tartars."

Can you still score like this?
"It means that there are Han people in the west, but they follow the Tartars or Fanzi?"

Chen Shiwen nodded: "There are quite a lot, but I don't think the general should stick to whether the Han is the native or the captive is the Fan."

"Look at Duke Bingzhong of Dongqi's chieftain's family. He is a senior official. He served the imperial court on the Liaodong battlefield. He was killed by the Han Sun Degong."

Liu Chengzong smiled and nodded.

What Chen Shiwen said is that on the one hand, there are good people and bad people everywhere, but what makes Liu Chengzong really happy is that the people will run away.

Then why not go to his territory?
Thinking of this, he asked what he wanted to ask the most: "Is it possible to farm in the west of Xining?"

"In Haibei, if you can grow, you can grow, but it is located in a high and cold place, with early spring and cold winter. There are many farmers farming there, but the harvest is not very good. Farming is better in Hehuang, unless there is no..."

In the middle of Chen Shiwen's speech, he suddenly remembered a very important thing: "General, you, the Qinghai Propaganda Envoy, what do you pay the imperial court, food, silver, or horses?"

Liu Chengzong was stunned for a moment, raised his finger to Chen Shiwen, and nodded to him.

After pondering for a moment, he said, "You stopped asking me."

Liu Chengzong didn't know how to tell this little chieftain that he didn't pay anything, and he didn't plan to pay anything in the future.

But Chen Shiwen was quite considerate of Liu Chengzong: "The court hasn't said anything yet. When the general reclaims the land, he will have to talk to the court about the lack of harvest. If he doesn't pay too much, people can live outside."

Liu Chengzong said seriously: "Then I don't think I can cultivate the land anymore."

Chen Shiwen only thought he was joking, smiled and said: "But if the general wants to earn hard money, I have an idea."

"What's the idea?"

"The general can be a bulk shipper, but it is difficult for Xining's team to get out, and the pirate's team can't get in. There is indeed some smuggling through small groups, but it is not big."

Chen Shiwen sounded like he had wanted to do this for a long time, but he was suffering from too little power: "The general can enter and leave the pass freely, if he can gain a firm foothold in the West Sea."

"Qinghai's salt, wool, leather, minerals, and inland goods can all be handled by one hand, especially wool. My younger brother has been to temples outside."

Chen Shiwen said with a distressed face: "He said that if we go deeper, the tartars will either throw the wool away in the wilderness and let it rot, or mix it with sand and dung, and it will be useless."

Liu Chengzong wondered if this was wrong, and the Mongols would not say to throw away all these things: "They don't weave?"

"Weaving, a few of them weaving brown felt, but who is short of wool among the pirates? What's more, they are all hand-woven and of poor quality, and they don't need to buy or sell. It's better to retting or burning dung for warmth."

With excitement on his face, Chen Shiwen raised two fingers and said, "Just think about it, General. The annual output of Qinghai wool is less than 50 catties, and it costs two yuan per catty. This is a big deal of 20 taels."

Liu Chengzong thinks this is a trick, but it's not just wool. He has a group of craftsmen from the mainland. Many of them used to serve the clan in the Han Palace. It is not an exaggeration to say that their craftsmanship is among the best.

They can completely process all the raw materials in the pastoral area before selling them. They can not only sell the Han land, but also sell it back to the herdsmen. More importantly, they can bind some people through interests.

Interest is more reliable than blood.

What's more, with 50 people in Hehuang Valley, it is already a big market.

Liu Chengzong asked: "Since you have this idea, why don't you do it? Even a little bit is fine, such as smuggling."

"I want to too! But I have no share capital."

Chen Shiwen shook his head with a wry smile and patted his thigh: "I only inherited the chieftain from my father, but I didn't inherit the money. Most of the benefactors in our temple donate their property to the temple after death. My father is one of them. He donated it to Chieftain Li's family." in the temple."

"The general doesn't know, chieftain is not easy to do."

"There are only three sources of our land. One is reserved by the previous court, the other is rewarded by the court, and the third is robbed...so my land is almost being robbed."

Just when Liu Chengzong thought that Chen Shiwen came to see him early in order to find investors to do smuggling together, he saw Chen Shiwen swept away his depression and opened his hands for the first time, as if a beautiful life was in front of him.

"So I hope that the general will be able to build a big temple for my family in the future, let my third brother be the temple owner, invite the best Zen master on the snow mountain, and let everyone in Xining donate their property to our family when they die!"

This guy didn't want to get involved in the smuggling business at all, what he thought was a big deal for generations to come.

The lamb had been roasted until it was sizzling. Liu Chengzong stepped forward and grabbed the leg of the lamb and let it go. It was a little hot. He put a clean cloth on it and cut the flesh apart.

"Let your brother come here. I don't want the gold, silver and jewelry that others give me, but if you bring me the lamb, I'll return you a leg of lamb."

As he said that, he untied a leg of lamb and handed it to Chen Shiwen. He stabbed the knife on the tree stump casually, pointed at the little toast and said with a smile, "But you will eat the leg of lamb in the future."
-
Note:
The population of Xining refers to "Research on the Ethnic Population of the Hehuang Area in the Ming and Qing Dynasties"

Tusi part refers to "Research on Li Tusi Family System"

Qinghai's commercial structure and discarded wool refer to "Research on Qinghai's Shop Economy and Market System in Ming and Qing Dynasties"

　Good morning!

　　Today is my wife's birthday, and I will stay at my mother-in-law's house for one night. I will write tomorrow's chapter when I come back. It may not be published until the afternoon or evening. Please bear with me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)