Win the Ding 1617

Hundreds of miles away, the Governor's Mansion in Guangzhou was brightly lit. Hundreds of glazed and copper wire lamps from the mansion gate to the back hall illuminated every corner of the mansion like daylight.

Under the flagpole in front of the door, the soldiers of the Guards Battalion still stood there like cast iron, holding weapons tightly in their hands and patrolling around vigilantly, occasionally making eye contact with the patrolling comrades, slightly nodding.

In the back house of the mansion, from the flower hall to the study room, there were crackling sounds in the courtyard several times.This is a voice that is extremely disgusting to countless scholars and literati, but it is a voice that Shou Han listens to very pleasantly.

He gathered the accountants of Longsheng's various firms in Guangzhou, and calculated the income for their big shopkeeper, Li Peiting.

In the flower hall, Li Peilin looked at the dozens of accountants in front of him nervously flicking the abacus with their fingers nimbly in front of the ledger, with a smile on their lips, holding a cup of hot cocoa in their hands.

The sound that resounded several times into the yard was the sound of dozens of gentlemen playing with abacus beads.

Watching the thick stack of ledgers gradually turn into numbers, which were recorded and copied by the clerks on the desk beside him, Shou Han also looked at the scene in front of him very proudly.

Li Peiting hurried south from the capital, in order to report to Shou Han the trade situation in various places in Ming Dynasty and in the north this winter.

Moreover, some accounts are things that only he knows the details inside and cannot be known by a third person.

The reason is simple, a large part of it is a business that cannot be treated by outsiders.

The red head book is to record business dealings with the government, military and civilians within the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty. The number of books is the largest and the most trivial.

Followed by blackhead book.It is used to record business dealings with rebels from all walks of life: a group of rebels in Liaodong, and Shaanxi rebels who fled between the Jianghuai River and the Han Dynasty, have a huge number, many varieties, and much more profit than the official trade with the Ming Dynasty.

The highest profit margin is the business dealings reflected in the green book.

This kind of book records the business dealings with various ministries of Sauron in Heilongjiang.Refined salt, white sugar, cotton cloth, grain, spices, spirits, swords, guns, armor, bows, arrows, iron pots and axes are exchanged for tiger bones, furs, pearls, bear paws, and raw gold.

Profit margins are outrageously high.

The tight vigilance brought about by this kind of thing is obvious.

The soldiers of the Guards Battalion guarding outside are all selected Miao soldiers who are not very literate.Therefore, there is absolutely no problem with loyalty, even to the point of sticking to the execution of orders.

Just now.Yan Meier saw her husband and Li Peiting leading a group of gentlemen trying to settle accounts there.He didn't even care about dinner, and felt a little distressed, so he ordered the small kitchen to make some supper and brought it over, but was stopped at the door by a few soldiers on duty outside the second gate.

A little maid who prides herself on being favored in front of the second wife.He even scolded the soldier on duty a few words.The harsh words offended those Miao men.He gave the servant girl a good lesson with the scabbard wrapped in copper.When Shou Han heard about this, he only commented in one sentence, "Well done. Reward."

Hear the cries and groans that were suppressed by force outside.Li Peiting's eyes were still looking at the distant starry sky, as if he was looking for something from the vast universe.He is very happy to see such things.Ever since his little sister died, he hated Li Muhua just like his elder brother.I have always stubbornly believed that if it weren't for her, my little sister would definitely not have passed away.

After a long while, the crackling sound of the abacus finally gradually quieted down, turning into whispers and the rustling of the pen tip across the paper.

At the second watch, people finally handed over a detailed income list and details to Shou Han.

"My lord, please take a look."

Send dozens of accountants to have dinner and supper.Shou Han and Pei Ting came to the water pavilion in the back garden, surrounded by water on three sides, and a long corridor connecting the land and the water.Several soldiers guarded the corridor, and Shou Han and Pei Ting could speak freely.

"Second brother, I have gained a lot this winter!"

Flipping through the dozen or so sheets of paper in his hand, Shou Han could see clearly through the light.

As many as 43 taels of luxury goods such as glass vanity mirrors were sold in Nanjing, the capital of Liuzhou.If you count those suspenders and other boudoir toys (the aristocratic scholar-bureaucrats in Nanjing gave a very elegant name to the sex toys produced in Nanzhong), the number will be doubled.

This is only a part of legal trade, and it can be said that it is only the tip of the iceberg of the entire South-China-North trade.

"Please look, my lord, this is the trade between Mizhi Li Ji of Shaanxi and our army, Cao Ji of Shaanxi, and Zhang Yuji of Shaanxi."

Li Peiting didn't have any psychological discomfort with trading with the rogues who were running rampant in various places. He was able to trade with the rebels in Liaodong, so what about the rogues in the interior?It's just that, among the many gangsters, why does the lord only look at Li Zicheng's troops who are code-named Mi Zhi Li Ji, Cao Ying Luo Rucai's troops who are code-named Cao Ji, and Zhang Ding, who uses his adopted son and is known as Zhang Yu'er? The details of the three companies under the command of Zhang Xianzhong, the Eighth King of Xiying, whose foreign name is the code name?

"A total of 15 pairs of armor, 1 spear heads, 1 iron tire bows, 20 arrows, and [-] long knives. There are six Dafolang machines, two hundred cannons, and one gunpowder. Thousand barrels. Seven thousand bolts of cotton cloth, sixty thousand catties of refined salt, one thousand altars of shochu, ten thousand porcelain jars for meat, ten thousand porcelain jars for fish, and two hundred thousand catties of all kinds of bacon."

These are the details of the three purchases of various materials and weapons collected from various places before winter.However, since entering Chongzhen for 11 years, the Peasant Army has been unlucky.

First, on the fourth day of the first lunar month, Li Zicheng and other ministries gathered in northern Sichuan when they heard that Hong Chengchou had led his troops into Sichuan.Hong Chengchou called on all Taoist soldiers in Sichuan to guard the vital points.The peasant army guarded the north of Sichuan dangerously, and was short of food for a long time. Chengchou lured them with the Sichuan division, and personally led the Shaanxi soldiers to set up an ambush in Zitong.On the [-]th, Zicheng was trapped in Zitong, and he lost the battle with Chengchou, so he led the rest of his troops back to Shaanxi.

Zhang Xianzhong's peasant army was defeated by Zuo Liangyu, Chen Hongfan and other troops in Yunxiang area.Zuo Liangyu's department shoots Luo Dai's arrow at the denomination of loyalty, and Liangyu catches up.The knife brushes and presents the loyal face.The Xianzhong army was defeated and suffered heavy losses, so they moved to Gucheng.At that time, Xiong Wencan was the prime minister in command of the Ming army, determined to take charge, and published a call for surrender.

In March, after Li Zicheng led his troops into Shaanxi from Sichuan, they left Taozhou from Fandi. Governor Hong Chengchou ordered Cao Bianjiao and He Renlong to pursue and destroy them.Zicheng led his army to fight Cao Jun hard for days, and fought thousands of miles away.The people in Fandi were scarce and food was scarce, and the peasant army had no food to eat.Powerless.Many died in battle and starved to death.Since the defeat of Chengtao Prefecture, he led his army back into the plug, and went to Minzhou and the mountains of Xihe and Lixian.Cao Bianjiao pursued and suppressed him, while Li Zicheng and others lurked in the mountains.

"When I went south from the capital, I went to Xue Xiangguo's mansion to say goodbye. According to the words of his servants, there were guests from Gucheng who came to pay a visit with a lot of gold and treasures. There were rumors in Beijing at that time. Zhang Xianzhong bribed Xiong Wencan and the general Chen Hongfan with a lot of treasures, Seek to recruit."

"Where is that Cao Cao?"

"Him? This man deserves to be nicknamed Cao Cao! He spent some money and bribed the admiral and eunuch of Wudang Mountain. He steadily led his Fangjun Ninth Battalion to station in Fangxian County and Junxian County, resting troops to raise horses. "

"You can tell me later that although these people seem to accept the summons, or ask to surrender and hide in the mountains, they are not people who can keep their own way. I arrange ships to transport all kinds of military supplies to the mouth of the Yangtze River. You can dispatch them effectively. The personnel contacted this generation, and exchanged all the gold and silver goods, antique calligraphy and paintings, etc. that they looted from their hands to us!"

"Okay! These people have gold and silver in their hands, but what they lack are high-quality weapons and armor."

"In addition to selling to the rogues, the weapons of the officers and soldiers everywhere must also be sold. We cannot let the rogues overwhelm the officers and soldiers all at once."

For Shou Han's approach, Li Peiting has already gained three tastes.The longer the battle was fought and the harder it was fought, the more buyers there would be for the military, food, cotton cloth, gunpowder and other products produced by Nanzhong.

For rogues and officers and soldiers, in addition to gold and silver, books, calligraphy and paintings that are too hard to wipe their buttocks can also be exchanged for armor, knives and guns.

Speaking of rare books and antique calligraphy and paintings, Li Peiting suddenly remembered one thing.

"In February, the "Huang Ming Jing Shi Wen Bian" compiled by Chen Zilong and others was completed. This book has 61 volumes and 420 volumes of addenda. It is divided into four categories: politics, culture and education, military equipment, and royal family. Subheading [-] There are [-] manuscripts written by Xiang and Ji from the beginning of the state to the present, which are very impressive. Do you want to get a set and send it to the school for the students to read?"

For this book, Shou Han has some impressions in a trance. The book contains a large amount of political and economic materials of the Ming Dynasty, and it is an important document for studying the history of the Ming Dynasty.What is particularly important is that the book also collects a considerable amount of relationship between the ancestors of the Qing rulers and the Ming Dynasty, and records the historical facts that the slaves were most reluctant to let people know. Therefore, the book is also an important document for studying the history of the early Qing Dynasty.

"It's not to get a set back. I plan to do this. Later, I will write an inscription to the court in the name of the Governor-General's Liangguang Suppression Matters and the Governor-General's Nanzhong Army Ma Qianliang, saying that I want to promote the saint's education in Nanzhong and Guangdong. Give me the engraving of this book. I will print a large number of this book in Guangdong and Nanzhong, so that the soldiers and civilians will know the difficult government affairs of the imperial court."

"You can also let the people compare the difference between being ruled by the lord and being ruled by the court!"

When Li Peiting heard that Shouhan planned to print this book in large quantities, he couldn't help clapping his hands and laughing.

After joking a few words, the two continued to look through the lists.

"Master Lu of the Xuanda Army is very trustworthy. You bought him those iron farm tools and armor weapons on credit, and you paid the full price in February. In the past few years, he has reclaimed a large number of wasteland in the three towns of Xuanda to comfort the refugees. Now the Tianxiong army directly under the headquarters has reached a scale of more than 40 people, with [-] shi of grain stored in the treasury. He sent someone to ask me to thank the lord."

As for the assistance to Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou and others, half is out of public interest and half is out of self-interest.But for these two court officials who could fight the most in the late Ming Dynasty, Shou Han was quite relieved.

"Hong Hengjiu defeated Li Chuang this time, and to be honest, half of it was due to our strong armor and sharp soldiers. Those military leaders heard that the weapons that can be captured belong to themselves, and even the old and weak, women and children can exchange for something. Then calculate the credit based on the number of beheads, but start calculating based on the number of captures."

"Second brother, what do you think is the outcome of Hong Hengjiu's direct lineage against Liaodong Jiannu?"

Speaking of this question, Li Peiting put down the ledger in his hand, put his hand on his chin and began to think carefully.

"If the troops directly under Hong Hengjiu encounter the Eight Banners Mongolia, it can be said that they are sure. But if they encounter the Eight Banners Manchuria, or those heavy armored soldiers, the white armor soldiers in the Eight Banners Manchuria, I am afraid that the outcome will only be in the number of five or five. And When the officers and soldiers faced the Eight Banners, they were a bit timid in terms of momentum."

If you don't have strong armor and sharp soldiers, you don't have the heart to fight life and death. Even the best weapons and armor are just spoils for others.Shou Han sighed inwardly.

"This is the number of various weapons purchased by the officers and soldiers in Datong Town, Shanxi Town, Ji Town, Yutian Town, Shanhai Town, Ningyuan, Jinzhou, etc. Please take a look, my lord."

"Forty Dafo Langji, 20 spears, [-] steel knives, [-] helmets, [-] barrels of gunpowder, [-] collars, [-] shi of rice, [-] shi of salt, and [-] catties of oil. [-] porcelain pots for meat, [-] porcelain pots for fish, [-] pieces of cotton cloth of various colors, [-] stones of spices of various colors, and [-] altars of shochu."

This number is not insignificant, so large that even Shou Han was a little surprised.

If all these materials are used in the above-mentioned military town.I'm afraid that all the servants of the lieutenant generals and officers of the military towns have become Nanzhong equipped to the teeth.However, according to the consistent practice of the officers and soldiers, stealing and selling military weapons, food and horse supplies is nothing new.What's more, these so-called sophisticated weapons?

"Have those cannons, armor, knives and guns been stolen and sold by the officers and soldiers?"

"Food, armor, knives and guns are resold most likely. Moreover, the flow is nothing more than two places, one is slavery, and the other is rogue bandits. However, those cannons, the officers and generals everywhere, in order to protect themselves, Deep ditches and high fortresses are not enough, who is willing to resell this sharp weapon? Let others use it to attack their own city?"

"This time I went south, and I brought a total of [-] various artillery contracts, which were purchased from various military towns. Those military armors are still out of it."

"Two hundred cannons? That's at least 160 million silver!?"

"Yes, it has been paid into the warehouse."

"Why are there so many cannon contracts? Isn't there a cannon bureau in the capital? Can't you forge it yourself?"

"My lord, you mean that Tang Ruowang, that red-haired barbarian?"

Li Peiting mentioned Tang Ruowang with contempt on his face.

In the third year of Chongzhen, under the recommendation of Xu Guangqi, Tang Ruowang served as the Qin Tianjian. In the seventh year of Chongzhen, he compiled the Chongzhen Almanac. The principles and techniques of performance, gunpowder preparation, shell manufacturing, etc. were compiled by Jiao Xu into the second volume of "Fire Attacking Essentials" and the first volume "Fire Attacking Secret Essentials", which were authoritative works introducing Western gun technology at that time.

After the Qing demon retreated in the ninth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian ordered Tang Ruowang to set up a cannon foundry in Beijing. By the 11th year of Chongzhen, a total of 20 cannons had been cast.

However, entrusted by Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng and others to imitate the Dafo Langji presented to them by the Shouhan, they were repeatedly puzzled.It was finally manufactured, and it was too heavy, not to mention inconvenient to move. The cost alone disappointed the military leaders everywhere.

Tang Ruowang’s cost of casting a large Frang machine cost more than 9000 taels of silver, while buying one from Xiangnan Zhong only cost 20 silver dollars, and it also came with five shot guns, 20 barrels of gunpowder and [-] guns.There is also a [-]% discount rebate for the handling personnel.

"It seems that several factories have to work overtime?"

The two smiled at each other.

"My lord, there is another matter."

Pei Ting suddenly became serious.

"On my way to the south, I saw a lot of ships from the Zheng family's navy, and they were going north in an endless stream. Judging from the draft of the ships, it is very likely that they are transporting food. This time Fujian has imposed a sea ban, I am worried that the pirates will If you don't change your nature, if you do something out of greed for money, it will ruin the important affairs of the lord!"

Due to the continuous use of troops and the lack of financial resources, on the 11th day of the first lunar month in the 1638th year of Chongzhen ([-]), the Ming court asked Fu Yuanchu from the engineering department to open the Fujian sea ban and trade and pay.This gave Zheng Zhilong a legal reason to send sea ships south and north, and carry out maritime trade wantonly.If Shou Han hadn't acted early and took advantage of the Shimabara Rebellion and the Kyushu Unrest to turn the trade with Japan into a dog chain tied around Japan's neck in his hands, I am afraid that this trade route would become Zheng Zhilong's cornucopia.

"worry about what?"

Shou Han wants to understand how his relatives view Zheng Zhilong Group.

"My lord, the size of the Zheng family's ships is tens of thousands. They have traveled as far as Tianzhu in the west, Boni Kingdom and Luzon in the south, and Japan in the east. Moreover, Zheng Zhilong and the Japanese daimyo have uncle Lang's close relatives. Now, the above-mentioned directions are all in the same direction. Falling into the control of the lord. The subordinates think that if they judge others by themselves, if Zheng Zhilong is the subordinate, for the livelihood of the tens of thousands of people under his command, he must either fight the lord to regain the above-mentioned trade routes, or It can only go north. However, if you go north, what business routes can you find?"

Against the dark background, Li Peiting's eyes were shining brightly.

"Besides selling all kinds of materials, food, weapons, and artillery purchased from our Nanzhong to the mainland and the rebels in Liaodong, what business opportunities can we look for?"

"Besides, if he sells weapons and materials to the mainland officers and soldiers, the price will naturally be much higher than mine. He can only accept real money. Items such as antique calligraphy, painting and books are useless things, let alone those old and weak women and children. The generation. Those officers and generals are not fools, why should they trade with him?"

"In this way, there is only one way for him to go, and that is to go north to Lushunkou, sell food, artillery, and weapons, and make slaves!"

Hearing this, Shou Han couldn't help being a little surprised.No matter how greedy Zheng Zhilong was, he wouldn't risk the world to trade grain with Liaodong Jiannu?

"My lord, you have a kind heart!"

Li Peiting sneered.

"I say this with a basis!" (To be continued...)