Space at hand: Pick up a prince to farm

Chapter 689 Self-sufficiency
Cang Xiuxuan's own men alone need hundreds of thousands of taels of silver for a month's military pay.

At first, Song Chen thought that the several hundred thousand taels of silver he had in his space was already quite a lot, but now that he thought about it, the money was really not enough.

It is true that the higher the position, the heavier the responsibility.

Just imagine that an ordinary family has so much money. It has been enough for generations to spend, but what about putting it in their house?
That is enough to cover expenses for two or three months.

She deeply felt that the money was not enough.

Thinking that Cang Xiuxuan seemed to be worried about something before, Song Chen felt that he should be worried about money.

"I'm not short of money, so why should I be angry?"

Song Chen couldn't see how cautious he was in front of her. Her husband was a high-spirited man who was strategizing at all times and shouldn't be held back by money.

"Have we had any wars in recent years?"

Song Chen had a plan in mind.

Cang Xiuxuan didn't know why she asked this, but he still answered her question very objectively.

"For now, everything is peaceful, except for the grassland, but the previous severe drought did not only affect us Dajong. The losses over the grassland were even more severe. They will not dare to do so within five years. If they act rashly, even if they want to play with fire, we can easily resist them.”

This is what Cang Xiuxuan is most proud of. The 20 elite soldiers under his command are not just decorations. The entire northern border is under his control.

"How many troops do you have over there now?"

"About seventy thousand."

“Where are the remaining 10,000+ distributed?”

"There are about [-] scattered throughout Shangjing, [-] in the new city, and tens of thousands more deployed in some fortresses."

Originally these were quite confidential things, but Cang Xiuxuan didn't hide a single word when he answered Song Chen.

Song Chen also quickly formed a more complete idea in his head based on what he said.

"Do you think it's possible for us to make these soldiers self-sufficient?" Song Chen felt that it was really not an option for so many people to be supported by him alone.

It's fine for a year or two, but it's going to be too much in the long run.

Especially if there is a war or something, fighting is like burning money, and it will also take a lot of money to comfort the families of the soldiers who died in the war.

She had never thought about cutting military spending, but it would be best if they could make some money back.

"Let them be self-sufficient?" Cang Xiuxuan really never thought about this issue, but according to his understanding of Song Chen, she must have had an idea since she said this.

"Chen'er, what do you think?"

Seeing that he had no objection, Song Chen began to express his thoughts, "We still follow the original rules for the soldiers on the border, but the soldiers in Shangjing and other fortresses can completely remove their armor and work as farmers, but this time It’s not disarmament in the full sense.”

"As you said before, there will be no war in the next few years. So they are actually in a state of idleness. At best, they are just practicing every day. Why can't we change the way? Let them be stationed in their respective places. It is entirely possible to meet military needs through local farming.”

With such 10,000+ people joining the production force, the prospects are bound to be promising.

"You don't have to worry about combat effectiveness. We can still do this according to their current mechanism, which can be based on battalions or teams. Training is still essential. We can even allow senior soldiers to get married and establish Setting up a military circle is another economic transfer, isn't it?"

People in ancient times paid great attention to carrying on the family line. Even if they were on the battlefield, people with parents at home would still ask their sons to get married. However, in that case, the bride would almost always stay alone in the empty house after the marriage and could not see each other once a year.

We are going to get married anyway, and it is better to see them more often than rarely.

This is undoubtedly a way to win over people's hearts. Although Cang Xiuxuan's current soldiers are very loyal, in the end they still rely on their admiration for Cang Xiuxuan and their loyalty to military pay.

"The military families are all under our wings, are we still afraid that they have second thoughts?"

Song Chen said with great joy, and Cang Xiuxuan's eyes suddenly flashed with light.

Why hasn't he thought of this method?
In fact, those who serve in the military only eat the food of their youth. When they get older, they will inevitably retire and need fresh blood to supplement it. Those who retire often can only get some pensions and return to their hometowns, but after many years of Life in the military camp has made them incompatible with life in their hometown.

This is also the veteran issue he has been worried about.

But the idea that Song Chen put forward now made these situations no longer exist.

Of course, Song Chen just proposed some possibilities, and the remaining specific matters still need to be completed by Cang Xiuxuan himself. However, this idea alone is already very shocking to Cang Xiuxuan, and he must complete it in the shortest possible time. These.

The housekeeper over there has also arrived, and Song Chen began to hand over and sort out all the properties with the housekeeper. The things Cang Xiuxuan gave her were not just in Shangjing, but almost all over the country. Song Chen handed them over according to the region. Go down.

"Let's find a general person in charge for each region, so that when the accounts are filed every year, there is no need for the shopkeepers of each business to come."

These businesses are also very complex, and most of the profitable businesses are involved. In some places, several shops are doing the same business, so the shopkeepers have to go to Beijing every time it is time to pay the bills.

It would be troublesome for them to go there, and Song Chen also felt that it would be troublesome to see so many people.

The housekeeper took a book and wrote down Song Chen's requests one by one. "Take care of all the Zhuangzi on the outskirts of Beijing. I have other uses."

The manor plan can't be let go. It will also be a good way for Song Chen to make money in the future.

"All the profits from the shops in Shangjing City are placed in the accounting office of the house. After all, it is a prince's palace. It makes no sense that the accounting office only has 2000 taels of silver. If you tell me, others will laugh at you."

Song Chen was really worried about the 2000 taels that Sun Fa mentioned earlier. Naturally, the housekeeper knew about this situation. Song Chen felt ashamed when he said this.

"It's the old slave's fault. I didn't remind the prince about this before."

Their prince didn't care about these things at all. The 3 taels of silver were all sent by Cang Liu.

"He doesn't have time to take care of these things, and there is no need to bother him with these things in the future. I know that Zhuangzi's profits are actually the majority, and the business of the shop is not very good now, so don't worry."

As he spoke, Song Chen had already taken out twenty thousand taels of silver notes, "Here are twenty thousand taels of silver. Take it and give it to Sun Fa."

"Princess, you can't do it."

How dare the housekeeper take Song Chen's money? Yesterday someone else got married, and today he has to touch someone else's dowry. This is not a human thing.

"Although we don't have any ancestors to support our family, both the prince's own property and the property left by the prince's grandfather are enough. We must not touch the princess's dowry."

Song Chen insisted on putting the banknote on the table, "I know it well. Now that you are married, you should also call me Princess, and I am the one who makes the decision in the house. There is nothing wrong with it. Come here today and wait for me when you go back." Letter."

The housekeeper had no choice but to hold a thick stack of banknotes and walk out of the study.

Song Chen continued to worry about Cang Xiuxuan's properties. In fact, it was not true that these things were really profitable. It was just that there were many properties, and the real money they could earn was not as good as hers.

Some shops and shops can only earn one to two thousand taels of silver a year. Song Chen decided to find time to find out what the reason was.

Until dinner time, the two of them had not yet withdrawn from their respective affairs.

Outside the study, Qiu An was waiting very anxiously. Even Nanny Qin had come over to urge her twice.

"What's wrong? You haven't come out yet?"

Qiu An shook her head with a grimace, "The housekeeper has been away for more than an hour, and the prince and princess are still inside."

For some reason, when Nanny Qin heard this, her face suddenly turned red, "This is really..."

She really wanted to say it was nonsense, but then she thought about her identity and swallowed the words hard, "We still can't let them go, we have to push them."

"You come, I don't dare."

Qiu An took a step back, something she would not dare to do under any circumstances.

Nanny Qin doesn’t dare either.

It also happened that Song Chen reached for the teacup next to him and accidentally pushed the teacup down, making a crisp sound when it fell to the ground.

Song Chen suddenly came back to his senses, and Cang Xiuxuan also raised his head to look this way with his pen in hand.

It was getting a little dark outside. The two looked at each other and smiled, and both shook their heads helplessly.

"Go and eat first."

Cang Xiuxuan was the first to put down his pen, put what he had written on several large pages into a secret compartment, got up and walked towards Song Chen.

Pulling Song Chen out from the other side, "Do you want to collect these things?"

Most of Song Chen's things have been sorted out and basically put into the boxes according to their classification. The only things left on the table are some account books.

"I asked Qiu An to take it back."

"I'll just come and you tell me how to collect it."

Song Chen pointed to the box on the side, "You can just hold this. Qiu An knows how to do the rest. Let's go, I'm hungry." As if to verify that Song Chen was not lying, her stomach just finished speaking. Just cooed.

Cang Xiuxuan smiled, holding the box in one hand and holding Song Chen in the other.

"Let's go have a meal quickly."

Song Chen had nothing to be embarrassed about. This was a normal physiological phenomenon and she couldn't control it.

After the two of them walked out of the study, Qiu An followed Song Chen's instructions to sort out the account books, and also cleaned up the previously broken teacups. Nanny Qin followed the two of them to the main courtyard at the back.

Today's dinner will be served in the dining hall of the main courtyard.

When he returned to the backyard, Song Chen and Cang Xiuxuan put the box away. In fact, putting it away meant putting the box into the space where others could not see it, and then finding an identical box as a deception.

(End of this chapter)