Daming Yinghua

Chapter 107 Let’s start an insurance company together, Mr. Qi
Qi Jin squinted his eyes and looked at himself, his adopted son.

Wu Bangde is twenty-three this year, in fact, in terms of age, it is more than enough to be Qi Jin's grandson.

But the old Wu family only has this bloodline left. When Qi Jin was in Jizhou, he was killed by Wu Weizhong from the Mongolian Tartars. The two have been bloody side by side for many years. Now that Old Wu is going to heaven to enjoy blessings, Qi Jin has to take care of him. The only kindling of the Wu family, regarded as the youngest adopted son, is brought with him.

Qi Jin wants Wu Bangde to take the imperial examination route. After all, in this world, civil servants can gain power, and warriors are oppressed.

On the surface, Wu Bangde seems to be elegant and refined, but in his bones, he probably still has the blood of his ancestors who are brave and martial. He still likes to hang out with Qi Jin's personal guards on weekdays, and he often asks his adoptive father Qi Jin for advice on military affairs.

At this moment, Qi Jin said to Wu Bangde: "You are right, I also guessed that if Liaodong was in chaos, the imperial court would still have to come to find our Qi family army."

The old general sighed again, stood up, and said to Zheng Haizhu: "Miss Zheng, the old man and Bond, I will take you to see the drill first, and then talk about other things."

An old man and a young man went out from the back door of the General Military Mansion, and when they walked around a section of the city wall, Zheng Haizhu pointed to the dilapidated wall and asked, "Is this the iron urn city wall from the time of Sun Quan in the Eastern Wu Dynasty?"

Qi Jin patted the wall tiles: "It was at that time, don't look at the damage, the remaining half of the wall is still so strong, not to mention the trebuchet from thousands of years ago, even now, it can stop the cannon.

Zheng Haizhu raised his head and looked up at Iron Urn City: "The Thai and Western countries on the side of the foreigners are all castles of small lords, with empty structures. The artillery of the Thai and Westerners was originally just a substitute for trebuchets to smash down those hollow walls. But we Han people have been The state capital city has a thick body like terraced fields and embankments, and the method of attacking the city is still mainly based on the attacker suppressing the defenders, destroying the firepower on the city, and waiting for an opportunity to climb the city."

Qi Jin and Wu Bangde, who were about to continue walking, suddenly stopped and stared back at Zheng Haizhu.

They knew for the first time that in this world, there are young civilian women who can talk about weapons and siege tactics with relish, and are more meticulous than pondering about jewelry and embroidery.

Zheng Haizhu said again: "Of course artillery is necessary. For example, if an enemy attacks the city, no matter whether he is a Tartar cavalry or a Japanese infantry, if he directly bombards his mother from the top of the city, are they still copper-headed and iron-armed?" No way? But blindly defending the city will eventually lead to passiveness. In the current situation, the Jurchens, like the Northern Yuan Tartars, are proficient in bows and horses, and are good at field battles. Our Ming Dynasty still needs to find out how to fight against the Jurchens, so in terms of military equipment, we must have A large number of lightly loaded firearms can be carried by both cavalry and infantry, and don’t always like to explode the guns, so they have to be used as iron rods in the end.”

When Qi Jin heard the last sentence, he no longer concealed the surprise in his eyes, while the young Wu Bangde laughed outright.

As a descendant of the Qi family army, Wu Bangde could of course hear that Zheng Haizhu's last sentence was funny.

That is the stalk of the three-eyed gun.

Qi Jiguang's soldiers back then were mainly equipped with bird blunderbuss, supplemented by three-eyed blunderbuss.Qi Jiguang clearly looked down on the three-eyed blunderbuss. Like Xu Guangqi's judgment, he believed that the three-eyed blunderbuss had a short bore, poor aim, and would easily explode and self-destruct.

Qi Jin nodded to Zheng Haizhu: "Girl, your mouth is a bit poisonous, but it seems that you know how to use firearms."

Zheng Haizhu smiled frankly: "Mr. Qi, I have experienced naval battles in Penghu, and I have personally seen the firearms used by Brother Yan and the Frankies. In addition to the breech guns used to bombard the ship, there are also light fast guns. Hurry up! The barrel of the gun is longer than that of common birdcracks, and the gunpowder takes more time to work in the barrel, and the speed of shooting is faster, so it can naturally shoot farther, and its armor-piercing ability is also stronger."

Qi Jin couldn't understand modern physical terms like "doing work", but that wasn't important, what was important was that he could understand what Zheng Haizhu meant.

He curled his lips: "Girl's three words can't be separated from your God-like fellow from Fujian. Hehe, pirates, if you have money, why can't you get something new?"

Wu Bangde murmured in a mosquito voice: "When the first assistant was here, he was not short of insurance for his elderly, and he was not short of money."

"Presumptuous!" Qi Jin heard him mention the dead Zhang Juzheng again, and berated him in a low voice, "Speaking nonsense, you don't want your head?"

With a sullen face, the old general led the two young men, who dared not speak out, across the messy grass that smelled like mud in summer.

He boarded a high slope, and then said again: "Girl, this old man is a rough person, but he still understands the basic etiquette. I invite you to come to the school grounds to thank you in person."

Qi Jin first pointed to the various infantry in the east and formed a small formation: "Those are our Zhejiang soldiers. They are paid by the imperial court. The monthly ration is one or two or five dollars. If they go out to fight, the rations will be paid every month." Count another two or two."

Zheng Haizhu looked intently, and could see that there were about a dozen people in each small formation, and the soldiers carried different weapons. The forks that looked like strings of candied haws on the outside were very eye-catching, and they were probably wolf queens.

The battalion soldiers led by Qi Jin were indeed very energetic and energetic, completely different from the guard soldiers of many old dogs in Daming.

"Is this Qi Shaobao's mandarin duck formation?" Zheng Haizhu asked.

Before coming to Zhenjiang to meet Qi Jin, she had asked Lu Xiangsheng to be her teacher, and learned the mandarin duck formation that Qi Jiguang inherited from Tang Shunzhi, and used it to get close to Qi Jin.

Qi Jin nodded: "It's a mandarin duck formation, but when my foster father was still alive, I emphasized that this formation is suitable for the hills and ravines from Nanzhili to Fujian, or it can be used in street fighting. If the desert is in Liaodong, the land is vast, and the Tartars All the cavalry came over and galloped like the wind, this kind of formation is useless."

Qi Jin turned to the large gravel field full of haystacks and horses to the west again, and said solemnly: "Miss Zheng, that team of five or sixty people is the cavalry that General Sui Ma helped to train for a while last year. Their grandparents and fathers, In fact, they are also from Yiwu, Zhejiang. Because they followed us to the north, these children were born in Jizhou. They have been on horseback since they were young, and they are good cavalry. It is a pity that although they inherited military households, they have been in the past few years. Not receiving military pay, some even had to work as coolies like grooms and trackers, many died of exhaustion and freezing to death..."

When Qi Jin said this, his words froze, he blinked his eyes quickly, and suddenly raised his hand to pat his temple, cursing "Huang Meitian's mosquitoes are so fucking fierce", and then gestured to wipe his cheek.

Zheng Haizhu was always observing and listening intently, how could he not see it, Qi Jin was talking about the descendants of the old subordinates, and he was bitter at first, trying to hide his choking.

Wu Bangde hurriedly answered: "Miss Zheng, my adoptive father sold some of the land in Zhejiang, collected seven or eight taels of silver for each person to settle down, and first recruited the first batch of dozens of young adults and their families to Zhenjiang. In the stables raised by the officials of the Min Dynasty nearby, we bought [-] horses that were not wanted by the imperial court, and everyone took turns riding them for training to form this cavalry.”

Zheng Haizhu rolled his eyes to settle accounts: "The horses are trained like this. They can't just eat grass, they have to add bean cakes and salt. The horses in our Songjiang government office have to eat a stone of beans and nearly 30 bundles of hay every month. They get 600 yuan a year. It costs two taels of silver to raise. Buying horses is cheap, but raising horses is expensive. Only these twenty horses cost 500 taels of silver a year. The annual salary of fifty cavalry is nearly a thousand taels. A small army of cavalry spends at least [-] taels of silver every year. Can Zongbing Qi report their positions to the Ministry of War for them?"

Qi Jin sneered: "I went to the Ministry of War to find people early in the morning, and transferred them from Jizhou to Nanzhili. The Ministry of War originally said that the Supervisor of Rites and the cabinet were about to approve it, but suddenly said that there was no money. No matter how much you can’t beat it, give 10 taels to Long Live Lord.”

Zheng Haizhu was silent, and did not ask for details.

The old Zhu's family is too capable of giving birth, and a large number of moth offspring who eat and take the court for nothing are indeed a heavy burden for the empire.

Not to mention the jewel in the palm of Wanli and his favorite concubine like King Fu, ah no, a fat jewel in the palm, and getting married at public expense, will naturally take away a lot of people's favor.

But even so, the imperial government’s annual income from the salt class is 200 million taels, is it true that they can’t even approve the military salary of 2000 taels of silver?
What's more, these young cavalrymen originally inherited the military status of Ye Laozi, so they should have been paid monthly.

Qi Jin saw what Zheng Haizhu was guessing, and said bluntly: "After further inquiry, there is a censor in the court. I have read several books of the old man, and said that I want to use public funds to raise domestic slaves. Zhang Shilang of the Ministry of War asked someone to intercede. It is said that they are all the nephews of Jizhou heros in the past, and the old Qi took them in without any malice, so the matter was settled. Zhang Shilang is really a good man, and he turned around and asked the Ministry to transfer General Ma to train troops, which is tantamount to telling the truth Chaotang, this old man's cavalry is justified, and there is nothing wrong with appearing in Zhenjiang."

That's what happened!
Today, Zheng Haizhu finally understands why, on the boat back to Songjiang from Yuegang, Fujian, Eunuch Liu often mentioned to Ma Xianglin that your father-in-law is a rare civil servant in scarlet robe who is willing to be a general.

Zhang Quan, the servant of the Ministry of War, like his father, must have his daughter. The young phoenix is ​​as clear as the old phoenix, and Zhang Fengyi, the daughter of General Ma and Zhang Quan, will definitely sing together to solve the national crisis as recorded in the official history.

The Zhang family is worthy of Qin Liangyu's son.From the bottom of his heart, Zheng Haizhu was happy that Ma Xianglin had such a marriage.

The desolate look on Qi Jin's face a moment ago also gradually dissipated.

The old man suddenly turned around and made a bow to Zheng Haizhu: "Girl, I must thank you here today. The 1000 taels of silver you sent have solved my urgent need and can support the cavalry for half a year. .”

Zheng Haizhu hurriedly bowed to return the gift, and said with three parts of self-ashamedness and seven parts of sincerity: "Qi Zongbing, Zhang Shilang contributes, General Ma sends people, I can contribute money, Qi Zongbing accepts the honor, I really don't know how much Yes. I only hate that I have just started to make deals, and I have paid too little."

Qi Jin looked at the training ground where he practiced hard work and the trumpet sounded loudly, and sighed: "Girl, I believe that you are a kind person who is rarely rewarded by God in this world. They are Japanese pirates. But please be considerate and considerate, the last bit of face of my Qi family. Our Qi family army, these Zhejiang soldiers I lead, if they have the opportunity to fight side by side with Yan Tou-ling in the future, they will definitely go all out and cooperate sincerely. But right now , I don’t want to make friends with people from the sea, let alone take money from the sea.”

When Zheng Haizhu heard this, she was about to cry.

It's not that I feel frustrated because I failed to help Yan Siqi to expand the circle of friends.

It is precisely the feeling and lamentation of the stubborn self-esteem of this old general of the Ming Dynasty.

How many civil servants who came from a Jinshi background and are full of benevolence and morality, are there still few examples of "today the Li family worships the godmother, and tomorrow the godfather will be surnamed Zhang"?

However, these military generals, whom scholars look down upon, often stick to the bottom line of their beliefs and offer two words: no retreat.

Zheng Haizhu didn't think at all that Qi Jin's repulsive attitude towards Yan Siqi, a sea hero, was an expression of pedantry and arrogance.

The more principled people are, the more reliable partners they can be.

Zheng Haizhu then said solemnly: "Mr. Qi, this junior understands. This junior won't mention the matter of bringing me, Brother Yan, to visit, but I have another idea, and I want to talk to the old man and Mr. Wu."

"You said girl."

"Why don't you start a new business yourself? Zhenjiang goes north to Linqing and goes south to Songjiang. Water transportation is busy and waterways are prosperous. It's a pity not to do shipping insurance."

……

In the general's mansion, Zheng Haizhu spread out a piece of paper and wrote a few words: cargo owner, carrier, insurance company, insurance premium, accident, claim settlement, and accountability.

"Just the three of us, let me give you an example," Zheng Haizhu put down his brush and said, "Qi Zongbing is the owner of the goods, and he asked Mr. Wu, the boss of the ship, to drive a shipment of goods, such as tea, from Zhenjiang to Songjiang. Unexpectedly, Before arriving in Songjiang, bang, the ship sank, and the 500 taels of tea leaves were all gone. Fortunately, before Zongbing Qi delivered the goods, he bought a copy of the goods at Zheng Haizhu’s insurance company for a premium of 500 taels of silver. Insurance. Now that the goods are in danger, I, Zheng Haizhu, will pay Zongbing Qi [-] taels of silver."

Qi Jin stroked his gray beard, listened with his eyes wide open, and wondered: "This... I gave you five taels, and you paid me 500 taels, and you lost 490 five taels, why?"

The young Wu Bangde had a bright mind, and he had already vaguely touched some doorways, so he was excited, and hurriedly replied: "Father, on the canal, on the Yangtze River, you are not the only boat, how can every boat go by reciting, knowing The ship capsized. Therefore, if there are many, many ships, they will ask Ms. Zheng to buy insurance for five taels of silver. As long as the quantity is large enough, Ms. Zheng will still make money even if a few of them sink. What the owner thinks is that the insurance premium is only a few dollars anyway. Two taels of silver, but if the ship sinks, a few hundred taels won’t go to waste.”

Zheng Haizhu clasped his hands together and said: "That's the reason. What Mr. Wu said is the law of large numbers and the principle of luck in the insurance business. To put it simply, it means that many, many people share a risk. This risk may happen to you , Maybe it happened to me, I don’t know, it depends on who is lucky and who is unlucky. But if you buy insurance in advance, the unlucky one can recover the loss.”

Qi Jin slapped his thigh and said with a smile: "Young lady said that, so I know. When I train soldiers, what I said is that in a battle, if you charge forward, you may not die, but if you retreat, the military commander will definitely let you die." Die. Even if you die during the battle, I will give you a pension for your old mother, daughter-in-law, and baby, so rush forward with confidence, someone will support you."

Zheng Haizhu nodded and said with a smile: "The old man is transparent, this shipping insurance is for the cargo owners."

(End of this chapter)