The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 147 Food is the main thing, seeing a red lady in the snow

"50 taels!!"

After shouting out the number that Li Xianfeng had repeatedly warned not to say until the end, Ge Wenyou hooked his foot firmly on the threshold of the hall.

"Bring him in."

Liu Sheng's deep voice came from the hall.

Ge Wenyou was forked back by the guards again.

When he saw Liu Sheng again, Ge Wenyou felt that his life was saved, but he was already limp and sweating a lot.

He was afraid that Liu Sheng would still be dissatisfied, so he took the initiative and said: "Chief Liu, Marshal Liu, this is really the most money the court is willing to pay!"

Little did he know that Liu Sheng knew from the beginning that it was impossible for the Ming court to negotiate with him about redeeming King Chong.

He didn't understand others, but Chongzhen was known to be obsessed with saving face.

Therefore, as soon as Ge Wenyou raised this matter, Liu Sheng guessed that it was probably Li Xianfeng who wanted to resolve the matter privately.

As for where Li Xianfeng got the money and food, it was not something he needed to consider.

But he still felt that adding only 50 taels of silver was too little, so he said: "20 shi of grain plus 50 taels of silver."

Ge Wenyou said with a bitter face, "Now that all the northern provinces are suffering from famine, it is really difficult to get so much food. If Leader Liu wants too much, it will only make the court angry and embarrassed, and no longer care about the safety of King Chong."

Liu Sheng still wanted to negotiate this matter, so he said: "The food must be 20 dan, and the silver can be reduced to 30 dan. If you can't agree, you can die first by worshiping the king."

30 million taels of silver?

Isn't this equivalent to exchanging 20 taels of silver for [-] shi of grain?

If it was in the early years of Chongzhen, this exchange would be okay, because at that time, most of the north had only two taels of silver per stone, and in major grain provinces such as Huguang and Sichuan, it was even as low as one tael of silver per stone.

But now in Huguang and Sichuan, the food price has increased to [-] taels per dan. Including the freight and losses of transporting it to Henan, it costs at least [-] taels of silver per dan.

Calculating that the price was higher than 50 shi of grain plus [-] taels of silver, Ge Wenyou did not dare to bargain any further.

All I can say is: "I'll try my best to convince the court to give it a try."

Liu Sheng stopped pretending to be stupid and said with a cold smile: "What do you mean by convincing the court? Just convince Governor Li.

The price must not be any lower, and one hundred thousand shi of grain and 30 taels of silver must be delivered before the New Year.

The other [-] shi of grain can be sent after the new year. When will it be sent to Ruyang? When will I release King Chong's family?Do you understand? "

"I understand."

Ge Wenyou knew that this was probably the best negotiation result he could obtain.

Later, Ge Wenyou was "sent" out of the Generalissimo's Mansion as a gift.

Ma Jinshui came over and said: "Commander, I have sent three groups of people to follow him secretly. I believe we will be able to find out where he lives soon."

Liu Sheng nodded, "Don't alert the enemy, the key is to understand who he contacted during his stay in Ruyang.

I can say with certainty that there must be someone in Ruyang City who has secret connections with the Ming Dynasty officials.Just treat this as a counterintelligence exercise, do you understand? "

"My subordinate understands."

After Ma Jin left, Li Changwen said thoughtfully: "That means the commander-in-chief guessed that the redemption of King Chong came from Li Xianfeng, so he agreed to exchange 20 stones of grain and 30 taels of silver for King Chong's family, right?

If the imperial court really had this intention, the commander-in-chief would definitely ask for more than this amount of money and food. "

"That's right." Liu Sheng nodded, "Anyway, we only plan to postpone it until next spring. If we ask for too much, Li Xianfeng may not be able to get it.

It's better to ask for less and let them deliver it before the New Year, so that we can add another batch of food reserves. "

In the past few days, Liu Sheng has continuously sent troops to Wangzhuang in Ruyang County to seize grain and other supplies.

It turned out that the actual grain stored in each Wangzhuang warehouse was not as much as what was shown in the Wangfu's accounts.

Some Wangzhuang stewards even emptied the warehouse, leaving only a small amount of grain on the surface of the warehouse, while the inside was actually filled with straw and sand.

Liu Sheng was not polite when he learned about this, and directly ordered that all Wangzhuang stewards whose accounts were not up to date had their homes confiscated and the whole family was used as hard labor.

Even so, in the end, the grain confiscated from various Wangzhuangs in Ruyang was only more than 7 shi, which was [-] to [-] shi less than what was shown in the accounts (there are still a small number of Wangzhuang outside Ruyang County and even outside Runing Prefecture).

The warehouses under the Ming government, such as the Treasury, Taicang, and military grain depots, also had less grain in stock than on the books.

The combined warehouses of the prefecture and county only amount to more than [-] dan.

On the contrary, the grain stored in Prince Chong's warehouse is not much less than the book, only a few thousand dan is missing.

Then, the rebels raided five large households that had committed many crimes and fined seven or eight large households in money and food.

In accordance with the standards set in Queshan, all landowners in the city whose fields were recorded in the fish scale register of the Ming Dynasty as more than [-] acres were donated to support the rebels in exchange for "letters of thanks" from the rebels.

A total of 11 shi of grain and 37 taels of silver were obtained (the silver mainly came from confiscated homes and fines).

Even though Ruyang is a prefectural city, because King Chong is a vassal here, there are not many big landowners in the city than in Queshan County, but there are more wealthy businessmen.

Therefore, these large households often used silver instead of food to express their support for the rebels.

In total, the Hua Department obtained more than 47 shi of grain in Ruyang.

As for silver, not counting the nearly 200 million taels in Prince Chong's Mansion, there are more than 70 taels in total.

47 shi of grain was naturally a lot, but considering the situation in the late Ming Dynasty, Liu Sheng naturally hoped to get more.

···
Three more days passed in the blink of an eye, and it was the fifth day of December.

Liu Sheng is finally leaving Ruyang City.

When bidding farewell, Liu Sheng smiled and said to Li Changwen: "Sir, I will entrust you with all my life-long affairs."

"Don't worry, Commander. In just a few days, the political hall here in Ruyang City will be less busy. I will leave for Queshan immediately." Li Changwen also had a smile on his face.

He is so happy.

Because Liu Sheng finally remembered the marriage, he asked him to take time to go to Queshan the day before leaving to propose marriage to the Matchmaker on his behalf.Li Changwen suddenly decided that this would happen, and that night he asked Song Xiance to pick two auspicious days. While preparing to propose marriage, he also set the wedding date for Liu Sheng and the Red Lady.

On the fifth or seventh day of the first lunar month next year, the two people will get married.

Although Liu Sheng has many mysterious auras such as "immortal reincarnation" and "true disciple" and cannot be regarded by ordinary people, after all, not everyone in the Yi tribe knows about it.

Therefore, Liu Sheng still had to get married and have children to make the people of Guibu more stable.

Besides, Li Changwen had another consideration.

If Liu Sheng's descendants can inherit his magical power of sending people through the "immortal gate", Liu Sheng's children can be asked to help share the immigration work in the future.

In this way, it is naturally better for Liu Sheng to have children earlier...

"Snowing."

Just over an hour after Liu Sheng rode his black horse out of the south gate of Ruyang City, snow began to fall in the sky that had been gloomy for several days.

Fortunately, the snow was not too heavy.

He stretched out his hand to catch a piece of snowflake and watched it melt in his palm. Liu Sheng then said: "Send the order and tell the team to speed up!"

"Yes!"

The guards of the Xiaoqi Battalion ran with the order flag, and as the shouts spread and went away, the immigration team obviously accelerated.

This time when escorting the refugees to Tianmu Mountain, they only brought three battalions of personal guards and two battalions of civilian warriors.

Most of these civilian warriors came from the 1000 people originally recruited from the four major camps in North America, just in time for them to go back to celebrate the New Year with their families.

As for the North American immigrants in the standing army, they can only write letters to contact their families and exchange greetings.

When the Wei tribe has a larger territory and a stronger foundation here next year, Liu Sheng will move the generals and their families out and divide their fields in Runing to make it easier for the soldiers to reunite with their families.

There are only more than [-] refugees on this trip - North America is not suitable for reclamation or even logging in the winter. Li Changwen inspected before leaving, and several camps combined can accommodate up to more than [-] people.

Taking into account the cost of food transshipment, there were only more than [-] refugees who followed Liu Sheng to Tianmu Mountain.

On the contrary, thanks to the numerous mules, horses and vehicles, more than [-] shi of grain were transported.

As for the craftsmen in Ruyang City, Liu Sheng did not forcefully recruit or take them away.

For one thing, there are enough craftsmen on Tianmu Mountain for the time being.

Secondly, since the Ebu decided to defend Ruyang and even occupy the entire Runing after next spring, it is undoubtedly necessary to build an arsenal in Ruyang City.

Ruyang can not only be connected to Wuyang, which produces iron ore, through Ru River, but also can be connected to most counties in Runing Prefecture through Ru River and Huaihe River.

As long as the drought is slightly less severe next year and the water levels of various rivers rise, it will be convenient to transport military logistics materials such as grain, grass, soldiers and armor.

As for Tianmu Mountain, as a base, there must be iron yards, iron workshops, arsenals, etc., but the scale does not need to be too large.

Liu Sheng sat on his horse and looked to the south with a telescope. He saw that the immigration team was like a long snake winding into the distance, and the heat rising above the team's head was like a looming cloud dragon.

Refugees generally lack cotton-padded clothes.

In fact, not to mention refugees, it is currently difficult for the rebel soldiers to get one cotton-padded jacket per person, and the gap is even not small.

Fortunately, a lot of cloth was seized from Prince Chong's Mansion and the five big households, and we were able to forcefully purchase cloth and cotton pulp from the big households and cloth merchants in the city.

Therefore, the rebel soldiers who did not have cotton-padded clothes did not wear thin clothes. In addition, the food in the army was good, so they were not afraid of the cold.

As for the more than [-] refugees who accepted the migration, Liu Sheng could only distribute enough cheesecloth to each of them to make one piece of clothing.

Even so, the more than [-] refugees felt grateful and firmly followed the rebels towards Tianmu Mountain.

However, the rebels were able to ensure sufficient food supply, and most of the refugees had received relief outside Ruyang City for several days to recuperate.

Therefore, very few refugees actually died on this migration.

After all, it is winter in Runing, Henan, not in the bitterly cold Liaodong. The main cause of death of people in winter is hunger and cold.If you can eat enough, few will die.

After walking for two days, the team arrived at Liudian, twenty miles east of Queshan County.

Because there are coal mines with good reserves underground and are relatively easy to exploit, and it is located on a plain, only three miles away from the tributary of Zhenshui River, it has convenient water and land transportation. There was a market here as early as the Tang Dynasty.

As a Queshan native, Li Changwen knew there were coal mines here before, but he didn't pay much attention to them.

It wasn't until the North American coal mines built briquettes and coal stoves, and saw that these two things were more useful than Liu Sheng said (because Liu Sheng himself had never actually used coal stoves), that he remembered that Liu Dian had a large coal mine.

Therefore, Li Changwen had been ordered by Liu Sheng to leave North America with the clay balls he left behind, and he brought a few craftsmen who knew how to make coal stoves and briquettes with him.

After discussing with the Red Lady, they sent troops to completely control Liudian and establish a coal yard.

Liu Sheng was very happy when he learned about this. He passed by and naturally wanted to take a look.

"The red lady (Cai Wending) meets the handsome man!"

However, Lady Hong got the news and waited here with Cai Wending, the magistrate, to welcome her.

"You two don't need to be polite." Liu Sheng raised his hand first, then looked at the red lady and said: "It's freezing cold, why are you here?"

It snowed for nearly a day the day before yesterday, and now there was half a foot of snow on the ground. Liu Sheng really didn't expect that the red lady would appear here.

The red lady in red robe standing in the snow is quite stunning.

She smiled brightly when she heard the words, "First of all, of course, I'm here to meet the commander. Secondly, I think the briquettes and coal stoves are really useful, so I want to come to the coal yard to see how to produce faster and more.

In this winter, every more coal stove means one less poor family will suffer from the cold. "

Liu Sheng nodded, "Okay, let's go in and take a look together. It's just that the coal yard is dirty, and this red robe will be stained with a lot of coal dust later."

"What's the matter? I don't care about this."

Cai Wending stood behind, watching Liu Sheng and Lady Hong walking into the coal yard almost side by side, thinking: Am I a little redundant?
　First more.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)