Chastity Layman

  Chapter 107 Money making technique

   Juyongguan, the northwest gateway of Youzhou, also known as Junduguan, Jimen.

  In the evening, the sun has set, the door is closed and upstairs, the evening breeze blows away the heat of the day and brings a little bit of coolness.

  Ah Huang carried the charcoal box, Liu Jiuti brought the grill pan, Lin San carried the whole lamb chops from the fat sheep that had just been slaughtered, Qin Yong was even more fierce, and directly carried a leg of dozens of catties of beef up.

  Wei Zheng is holding a wine gourd in his left hand and a handful of willow branches in his right hand.

   "Sanlang, everything is ready, let's bake!"

   These guys have been thinking about it since they had a barbecue on the top of the city gate last night. As soon as the sun went down today, they split up and got ready.

   "What time is it, you all only want to eat." Qin Lang laughed.

   "Sanlang, you have already thought of a good plan, so we don't need to bother with that." Liu Jiu was straightforward.

  Closing the door, the upstairs is really a good place for barbecue. It is tall and cool, and there are no mosquitoes.

Lin San drew his knife, and quickly cut the whole fan of fresh lamb chops into pieces, and then cut them into pieces. Qin Yong began to cut the lamb, Wei Zheng took a sip of wine, and then picked up the willow branch to start skewering the meat... ···

   A group of people has a clear division of labor.

  Qin Lang is in charge of preparing barbecue ingredients, including cumin, pepper, some tea, fine salt, and various seasonings such as dogwood powder.

   Some meat needs to be marinated with cooking wine in advance.

  Of course, it’s not enough to just eat barbecue, but also some vegetarian skewers.

Yanzhou Inspector Li Jinxing, Shunzhou Inspector, Shenzhou Inspector and several Huren chiefs who came up smelled the aroma, and seeing the hot scene here, they couldn't help swallowing their throats, since they ate Qin Lang's Guanmenlou yesterday. After grilling the skewers, they all felt that what was the barbecue that they had eaten for decades before.

  Especially Li Sishun, the Khitan governor of Shenzhou, shed tears.

   Li Xuandao came up with a stack of official documents between him. Seeing this scene, his face turned livid.

   "Captain, are you still in the mood to drink and barbecue here?"

   "Li Changshi, things have to be done, but we have to eat. Besides, I'm also trying to find a way about money, food and equipment."

   Li Xuandao wished he could kick Qin Lang's oven over. He stood in front of Qin Lang, staring at the young governor skillfully flipping the skewers over the charcoal fire.

"Captain, my subordinates have been thinking about it recently and tried everything, but the shortage of money and food is still too large. The only way I can think of so far is to temporarily take over the righteous warehouses in the Hebei states and withhold the food from the righteous warehouses. The six states of Youzhou The righteous warehouse grain was directly requisitioned by civilians and transported to the Seventh Army, Four Shouzhuo and other towns, and the righteous warehouse grain in other states was sold on the spot and replaced with light goods, and then purchased iron and other materials and transported back to Youzhou to make ordnance. For military use..."

   As a result, Qin Lang just waved his hands after hearing this.

"Li Changshi, this grain warehouse is the food that the common people put together little by little after the harvest every year. It is used for self-help in times of famine. When the righteous warehouse was first established, the court made an agreement with the people that the grain of the righteous warehouse would be provided by the people. The people in the counties pay their own grain, and the grain is stored in the warehouse, which is managed by the people in the county. In addition, in times of disaster, the grain in the warehouse is only used to help the victims of the disaster in the county, or to help the orphans and widows in the county. Now you have to forcibly take over the righteous warehouse Have you ever thought about the common people’s willingness to transport grain from the warehouse to the border for military use, and even to sell it for gold, silver, and silk to buy iron materials?”

   "Captain, at this moment, there is nothing the people can do if they don't want to, we have to..."

"Don't use big talk to pressure the common people. This righteous storehouse of grain cannot be moved. It is the last life-saving food for the common people. You usually save a bucket of grain and two liters of grain, but now you forcefully expropriate it. The behavior of the imperial government is not the same as that of robbers. What's the difference? I, Qin Lang, made the head start, and after that, my spine will be broken?"

  Li Xuandao said unconvinced, "The governor doesn't need to conquer the Yicang grain, does he expect to make war donations and ask the big businessmen for money?"

   "I, Qin Lang, will neither rob the common people of food for charity, nor make war donations to those landlords and wealthy households. Don't worry."

   Li Xuandao didn't believe it, he had already heard that Qin Lang sent people to send a message to the gentry tyrants in the Hebei states, asking them to come to Youzhou to discuss important matters.

  This so-called joint discussion on major issues is not forcing war donations, what else can it be?

  At such a young age, Qin Lang can really conjure money and food?

   Tens of thousands of people are stationed on the border, and now there are more than 10,000 new united soldiers. There are already 50,000 auxiliary soldiers in Youzhou, and there are a lot of people eating and chewing.

  Qin Lang handed a freshly grilled mutton skewer to Li Xuandao, "Li Changshi has a taste of my roast meat, sprinkled with secret seasoning, it tastes good."

  Li Xuandao didn't want to eat Qin Lang's grilled skewers, but the taste was so tempting that it went straight into his nose, so he took it involuntarily in the end.

  Put it to your mouth and took a bite, and found that it was very fresh and tender, golden on the outside and slightly burnt, but tender and juicy on the inside, without any fishy smell. It was obviously mutton, but it didn't taste like mutton.

  Take another bite and savor it carefully. He can taste pepper, fennel and other flavors. Pepper is a very precious spice from the Western Regions, and its price is more than gold. Qin Lang will enjoy it.

   "How is it, does it taste good?"

  Li Xuandao nodded.

   "Eat a few skewers if it tastes good. You don't have to worry about Li Changshi. I have already figured out a good way to raise money and food, and I promise that it will not be forcibly apportioned. It will not make the common people resentful and angry. They must be willing."

   "How to do it?" Li Xuandao didn't believe it at all.

   "This matter is actually a matter of a layer of window paper. If you don't poke it, you won't see it through. Once you poke it, you will see it all."

  A few days later, representatives of many rich families and merchants from all over Hebei rushed to Youzhou. When they heard that Qin Lang was visiting Junduguan, they rushed to Junduguan to pay a visit.

   Among them, many families from Hedong also received the invitation, but because they were not under Qin Lang's rule, only some of them sold their face and sent someone over.

  The representatives of the various families who came from all over the place felt that Qin Lang was going to apportion donations to them, so when they came, they all took the initiative to bring a small sum of money.

  The surprise was that Viscount Huang, who was in charge of registering the names, refused to accept and return them all, but only registered their names and the family or business they represented.

   Don't give money, many people feel flustered now.

   "Could it be that Duke Yi has such a big appetite?"

   "Think too little?"

   "Don't dare to mess around, we are not so easy to pinch, who has nothing to do with the court?"

  Everyone was talking.

At this time, Qin Lang was still inspecting Beiyan Prefecture outside the Military Capital Pass, and returned to Huairong County, where the North Yan Prefecture was stationed, where the Qingyi Army, one of the Seven Armies of Youzhou, was stationed. place.

   "Northern Yanzhou is a good place. It's important to guard. It's not only outside the Great Wall Army Pass, but also inside the Outer Great Wall. It's between the inner and outer Great Walls. Yanshan Mountain is on one side and Taihang City is on the other. It's a battleground for military strategists."

There are two Great Walls in the east of the river. The line of Piantouzhai, Loufanguan and Yanmenguan is the inner Great Wall. In the north, across Shuozhou and north of Yunzhou, there is an outer Great Wall. Winding in the northeast, it enters the north of Yanzhou, Hebei, passes through the later Zhangjiakou and continues to the northeast until the watershed of the Dama Mountains at the source of the Lu River.

  The Zhangjiakou of the later generations prospered because of the trade in border markets connecting the Great Wall, Hebei, and Shanxi during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The previous smuggling trade mainly passed through here.

   After carefully inspecting North Yanzhou, Qin Lang couldn't help but admire that this place is not only an important route for military strategists, but also a golden commercial port for border trade.

This is not only an important passage from Hebei to the outside of the Great Wall, but also an important passage from the Hedong region to the outside of the Great Wall. , generation basin, can reach Taiyuan directly. If you go westward along the Outer Great Wall, you can enter the Datong Basin, reach Yunzhou and Shuozhou, and even go westward into the Hetao Plain.

  Although this road leads to Taiyuan, it is not convenient to go directly eastward from Taiyuan, cross Jingxing and enter Dingzhou, but the road of outbound trade is the real golden channel.

  Qin Lang took a fancy to the huge profits of smuggling, but he did not intend to smuggle like Wang Junkuo.

  He now has more than 37,000 troops deployed on the front line of the Great Wall, and more than 10,000 mobile soldiers and horses inside, so as long as Qin Lang is willing, he can completely block the smuggling channels.

  But what Qin Lang needs now is money and food to fight the war, not for personal gain.

  So after much deliberation, he decided to let go of the border and re-open the border market. The location of the border market is located at the foot of the Great Wall of North Yanzhou, which extends in all directions.

  He invited those powerful families from East Hebei to a meeting, because he knew that the caravans controlled by these people were the ones who smuggled in the past.

  Qin Lang does not engage in smuggling, he wants to engage in border markets.

  But his border market is different from the previous ones. First of all, Qin Lang’s border market needs to collect taxes, market entry tax, transaction tax, and even plans to control the monopoly tax on salt, tea and iron.

  Anyway, the ultimate goal is to make money, a lot of money.

  Small money is despised and useless, it must be big money.

  Snatching food from the common people, you won’t get much food, and you will be scolded, and you will be scolded for directly donating to rich households, so open border markets to collect taxes.

  Since trading with Hu people is so profitable, then Qin Lang will provide you with a place to trade in my place, and then I will collect taxes, so you don't need to smuggle secretly.

   In this way, it will be more convenient for you to continue to make money, and Qin Lang will also share some of the money. This kind of cooperation to make money, Qin Lang thinks, is easier to accept than directly grabbing money from other people's pockets, and it can also earn more.

   "But are they willing to part our money?"

   "No distinction? No distinction, then don't try to smuggle it from me, and then they don't even try to earn a penny. They should understand better than me."

"Besides, we are not robbing money. We provide them with side market land and even security protection. In my place, there is no need to worry about being forced to buy and sell, or even being robbed and stolen. Of course the service should also be valuable."

  (end of this chapter)