warring states careerist

Chapter 732 Selling Grain
The king of Chu's intention to accept the appeasement policy of those tourists is also out of royal considerations.

It would be best if they could join the three-point Song land.

If you can't, you might as well give up the Song land and let the Mohist annex it, so that the Mohist chokes for a while, and you have to face the counterattack of the nobles of the Song Dynasty, and at the same time, it can make the princes of the world full of vigilance against the Mohist.

In the interior, the stable environment and the Mohism attracted Wei Han's attention, so he could continue to reform, strengthen the centralization of power, clean up the feudal monarch before he died, and pave the way for his son.

Outside, if the Song Dynasty returned to Mo, then Qi, Yue, Wei, Han and other countries would panic. Wei had already declined, and Wei and Zhao turned against each other. At that time, Chu would be the leader of all the vassal states and the leader of the anti-Mexico alliance that everyone could recognize.

Time is not on the side of the Mohists, Sishang can carry out land reform, and a large number of self-cultivating farmers can be used as the main force of Sishang volunteers to confuse the people who want land.

But it is not necessarily impossible for all countries, as long as they can clean up the nobles.

The longer the delay, the more beneficial it will be for all countries, and the benefits for Chu State are the greatest: Song State is thrown to the Mohists, and Chu State still has Nanyang.But Wei Han needs to keep stationing troops in the direction of the Central Plains all the time. If Qin State exerts at least a little force, Wei State will be completely finished.

At that time, the anti-Mohism alliance can be checked and balanced. Only the Chu State cannot be the leader, and the King of Chu is estimated to have completed the reform by then, and the resistance of the domestic nobles is basically stable. With its own stature, the Chu State may not necessarily lose to Sishang. .

However, all of this is not what the princes and nobles of Chu State want.

If the Song State does not fight, the conflict between the royal power and the lordship will not be suppressed; if the Song State does not fight, the king will not give the nobles and lords a good face; if the Song State does not fight, there is no way to continue to expand the power of the lord , control more population and land.

Lord Linwu didn't expect Yingdu to be in such a mess, and he didn't expect King Chu to forbear to give up the state of Song in order to clean up the aristocrat Fengjun.

Most of what Wang Ziliang said was not secret news. Behind these high-sounding reasons, Lord Linwu could see the noose that the King of Chu was stretching towards them.

Lord Linwu then asked: "Could it be that the people of Chu have no great talents and can see what will happen more than ten years later?"

At this time, Wang Ziliang also faithfully said what he wanted to say.

"Yangcheng Lord, Luyang Lord, Pingye Lord, E Lord, Diyang Lord, Xiangling Lord, Wuyang Lord, and Xiang Lord, a total of 54 lords, have the intention of admonishing. It is said that the strategy of appeasement will definitely harm the country. If you can’t do it, you should expel those debaters, caress your relatives internally, and resist their humiliation externally.”

Lord Linwu praised: "This is the real loyal and far-sighted minister. The king reuses those scholars. Don't you know that scholars seek profit for fame and fame. If you return to Chu today, you will serve in Chu, and tomorrow you will serve in Wei if you return to Wei. It can’t be compared with nobles who have families and fiefdoms.”

"This matter is for the head of the country. I can't do it alone. I can't help admonishing me. When you return to Yingdu, please bring my letter of advice and present it to the king."

"If you really start a war with the Mohists, you will have no worries in Linwu."

That being said, Lord Linwu also has his own plans.

In his opinion, it is impossible for the Mohists to attack Linwu, because Linwu is really not a rich place, and it is useless to occupy it.

The real battlefield must be around the state of Song. If the state of Chu declares that it wants to intervene to save Song, then Wei Hanqi, who has been suffering for a long time, will definitely join in.

At that time, the Mohists will definitely not have the military power to attack Linwu, one is useless, and the other is that the soldiers in the South China Sea dare not move lightly.

Furthermore, he could see that the Mo family's appetite was not that great. Otherwise, they would have occupied Qi Southwest and would not leave. Anyway, no one could interfere at that time. However, the Mo family gave up the essence of Qi Southwest. Incompetent.

If they really wanted to interfere with the Song State, the Mohists would definitely fight around the Song State. Even if they wanted to defeat each of them, they would have to break through Yue, Qi, Wei, and Han first, and then it would be Chu's turn.

It is even possible that the Mohist hoped to control the war within the state of Song. After all, the princes were sure that Sishang could not be attacked, and Sishang might not be able to withstand the counterattack of the coalition forces of the princes, so they did not dare to go straight in.

In addition, he himself can reach a secret agreement with the Mohists through the caravan, continue to do business, sell deerskins, buy gunpowder and muskets, and expand his strength.

After all, he had also heard about the chaos in the Song Kingdom before, but the caravan of the Mo family still agreed to sell him muskets, and even repeatedly stated that the South China Sea was undecided, hoping that Lord Linwu could also educate the local people so that they could belong to Zhuxia.

Anyway, he didn't need to send troops to fight the Song Dynasty, and those real big families wanted to use this to force the King of Chu, so he always had to make a statement.

The law does not blame the public, if the responsibility is really pursued in the future, most of the princes in the entire Chu Kingdom will be involved, and the King of Chu will have no way to deal with it unless he completely turns his face.

In the future, if the king of Chu dies, and the prince supported by the nobles takes over, if he does not express his position today, then the land of Linwu may not be preserved in the future: at that time, it will not be because of reforms, but because the land will be taken back because of the wrong line, and the rest of the lords will be determined. There will be no collective opposition to the land resumption as it is now.

Xiong Liangfu was also very excited by Linwu Lord's statement, and he repeatedly praised: "Linwu Lord is also the heart of the country, and has no selfish plans. This is the long-term view."

…………

After Lord Linwu returned to the city and bid farewell to Prince Liangfu, those private confidants told about the South China Sea caravan coming to Linwu.

The gunpowder has been inspected and there is no shortage. These chambers of commerce have never been short of business.

In Linwu Lord's own jurisdiction, there are specialized merchants who are all attached to him, relying on power to prohibit the distribution of other merchants, so the caravan has to leave a lot of goods in Linwu.

The monopoly rights and the salt monopoly are the important income of Lord Linwu, so that he can maintain his own power and be qualified to have a place among the many lords of Chu State.

At the beginning, many people were unwilling to come to the frontier, but Lord Linwu had the foresight. In the frontier area, there were many constraints and surveillance, which may not be a bad thing.

At that time, he showed infinite loyalty to King Chu in exchange for his fief. When loyalty can no longer protect his fief, he can naturally discard it.

The doorman who was in charge of liaising with the caravan also said that the chamber of commerce wanted to trade rice. Lord Linwu didn't think too much about it, and said happily, "It's not easy to transport rice, and the profit is low. Those people in the chamber of commerce never accept it. If you can use rice , can save a lot of gold and copper."

Since he has a fief, he naturally has a large amount of labor rent and land rent in kind. Part of the military tax needs the newly conquered villages to pay deerskins and the like, and the rest is mainly food.

The advancement of iron ox farming technology has enabled him to accumulate a lot of grain, which can only be sold along the river to the cities in the lower reaches of the Xiang River in exchange for gold, silver and copper coins, so that he can trade with the Mohists.

However, the price of food has been getting lower and lower in the past few years, and it is really painful to rely on the small gold mines and buckskin herbal medicines in the territory to trade with the Mohists.

The doorman also explained to Lord Linwu: "The people in the caravan said that one is that there was a storm in the South China Sea last year, and the other is that the Lechang Gorge was built and the population gathered. If rice is transferred from Yangyu and other places, it will take hundreds of miles. , The cost is huge. Therefore, I want to buy it from Linwu and transfer it directly to Lechang Gorge to supply the buildings there."

Lord Linwu nodded and said, "Lechang is too far away from Yangyu and other places, and it's going up against the current. It's really too far away. There are tens of thousands of people working there. Even though the Mohists are rich, they still feel heartbroken."

Thinking of what Xiong Liangfu said to him today, he suddenly thought of a good way, so he asked again: "When will the people from the caravan come to see me?"

The doorman said: "I can see you tonight, but I don't know that Wang Ziliang is here, is there something for us to discuss?"

Lord Linwu shook his head, these things cannot be discussed by these diners.

The construction of Lechang Gorge is a major event, which is related to the wealth and trade of Linwu, but it is also equivalent to the opening of the passage from the Pearl River system to the Xiangjiang River system by the Mohists.

At this time, it has just been built, and it is still too early to be completed. It will take at least several years to transfer a large number of troops.

Tens of thousands of people work, and eating and drinking is a big problem.

The local area is poor and remote, with high mountains and dangerous waters in the Nanling Mountains, and there are many unacceptable barbarians. If you want to maintain a project there, you need a lot of food.

Lord Linwu thought about it, and then asked: "How much grain can be stored in the warehouse?"

The doorman was in charge of these matters, and replied: "There is a lot of food in storage, but there are still a lot of loans to the people, which should be repaid this year, but many people may not be able to repay. Moreover, I am afraid that when the new year comes, Some people need to borrow grain, and I am afraid we cannot sell all the stored grain.”

"Caravans buy grain, and the price of grain is high, but it's not as good as lending. Loans doubled in three years, but lending is still more profitable."

The general feudal monarch must be the biggest usurer in the local area. Farmers have paid various taxes and taxes, and in addition to the labor rent, there is actually not much food left.

The more borrowed, the more farmers can be controlled, so that they have no surplus food to buy more tools to reclaim wasteland, or even flee.

The land belongs to Linwu Lord, so it is not necessarily necessary to annex the land, but the population needs to be tied to the land.

What the diners are considering is the way to get the most profit, doubling in three years, the annual rate of return is [-]%, and selling to the caravan, even if the price can be negotiated, it will not sell much more.

Lord Linwu thought more deeply, and said with a smile: "Whether you gain or not, you have to look at it in the long run. I have my own plan, you go and check it out, save the unusable part in advance, and save a part for borrowing. Report the remaining quantity to me."

Lord Linwu feels that since Lechang Gorge is very close to Linwu, and tens of thousands of people are gathered there to build it, this project cannot be stopped easily.

If he can pass the caravan and express that the grain needed for this year on the Lechang construction site will be provided by himself, that would be a good way to prevent the Mohists from attacking Linwu in case.

It must be extremely difficult to transport upwards from Yangyu along the Pearl River system. When we arrive at the place, there may be only one catty of four catties of grain left.

For such an expensive price, I should sell it a little lower, and let the caravans believe that they have enough stock in their treasury, which is enough to support the Lechang Gorge project for one year.

Since they choose to buy grain from here, it proves that the Mohists really have no intention of doing anything in Linwu, not even a symbolic test.

Moreover, I can contain the lifeblood of Lechang Gorge. I sell what I need for a month each time, and the merchants will no longer transport it from Yangyu without profit. Tens of thousands of people in Lechang Gorge have to rely on their own food.

Once Mo Chu really goes to war, he can use these grains to negotiate with the Mohists: You can fight casually in Song State, but don’t fight Linwu, it’s unnecessary, and as long as you make military transfers in the South China Sea, I will run out of grain, Lechang Gorge Tens of thousands of agricultural workers will not be able to eat at that time, but it will be a big mess.

If the north fights the north, the two sides can continue to trade.When the Lechang Gorge is repaired, the war should be over, and there will be more trade in Linwu, which will benefit and expand its strength.

Lord Linwu is Lord Linwu first, then he is a blood noble, and finally he is a vassal of the King of Chu.

(End of this chapter)