New Shun 1730

After saying this, I really have no other requirements.

After the businessman came out, he didn't say much immediately.

Instead, he waited for Liu Yu to call in the businessmen at the front one by one according to the list. In the evening, Liu Yu only said that he was busy. These businessmen gathered together and talked about the people who were interviewed today. thing.

After just a few tentative words, the Shaanxi businessmen discovered that the contents of the interviews were not exactly the same, but the general direction was consistent.

"What do you think?"

The first person to be interviewed, a businessman surnamed Li, whose family started out as a military logistics contractor during the Hongwu period, asked everyone.

The others said nothing and looked at him.

It took a long time for someone to say: "Brother Li, everyone here respects you. You are also the initiator of our Western Qin Guild Hall. The Duke also asked you to talk to me first, so it is your turn to tell this matter."

The businessman surnamed Li hummed and said: "You have also seen it. What the Duke said this time is the truth. It is easy for the Duke to support Wang Ermazi and Zhao Sangouzi."

"Not to mention anything else, if the steam engine of the Academy of Sciences is used to extract brine, it means that people in the officialdom are not biased. Can we who use oxen really beat others?"

"To find wells, we still have to rely on Sichuan people. The imperial court just doesn't know how to find wells and dig wells, but it knows how to do everything else. But we don't know how either."

"The Duke's conditions... I think they are just fine."

"Three to five hundred thousand taels is enough to build the Three Gorges waterway and towpath. As for the children leaving their hometown, it is not necessarily a bad thing. It is always good to follow the experience."

"A person can ascend to heaven with a chicken or a dog. How many of the newcomers in Songjiang Mansion in recent years followed Duke Xingguo step by step in the early years?"

"What do you think? Anyway, this is a stock raising matter. If you don't want to do it, don't force it."

The other businessmen heard the words and laughed and said: "Brother Li, although we are a little stupid, we also know the benefits of this. It goes without saying. I just want to talk about how to divide the money we invested in? How much will each share? This is for everyone to discuss. "

"As for whether to do it or not, that goes without saying. Can you give up the fat on your lips to others?"

"Based on the protective price given by the Duke, even if the imperial court purchases it at the lowest price, it will still be profitable based on our current cost. Moreover, in the future, we will use the iron ox that eats coal, and the coal mine will We have to change things, and we will definitely make money.”

Many businessmen have no doubt that they can make money in the future.

Although the imperial court had never used similar methods before, I thought that times had changed after all. In the past, Sichuan Salt had to provide military support, and Yunnan and Guizhou were regarded as border areas. They had to exchange horses and food to supplement military supplies and logistics.

Nowadays, with the increase of mining industry in various parts of Yunnan and Guizhou, coupled with the movement of returning land to rural areas, things are very different now.

It seems that the imperial court did have a reason for such a change. The original military role was replaced by official transportation and commercial sales, so as to solve the problem of salt consumption in Guizhou and strengthen its control over Guizhou through salt.

The means to promote officialdom and commercial sales here obviously blocked the way of survival for those who wanted to lure the big salt merchants. A large number of small retail traders will soon crowd the market, which can be regarded as blocking their future development path of "production, transportation and sales".

Then all that’s really left is production.

Of course, the initial investment is also quite large, but Liu Yu said that the specific investment amount is being calculated over there and will be given out in a while.

In fact, the amount of shares purchased in the future will be reflected in how much it will contribute to dredging the Three Gorges channel this time.

Some people have cash in hand, and some people do not. At this time, it depends on whether the most prestigious businessman can come up with a plan that everyone is convinced of.

Everyone is convinced that in the future, they will definitely imitate the directors in the Songjiang Prefecture system and have decision-making power in their hands.

If everyone is not convinced, they will definitely not be able to suppress it in the future. It is very possible that the court will take the opportunity to do something, mix it with sand or bury nails.

They have never thought about the purpose of dredging the Three Gorges. After all, no matter how courageous they are, they imagine that the imperial court wants to hand over the Xiangchu Salt Area to them, then it has nothing to do with dredging the Three Gorges, because it is not unnavigable now. The attrition rate still makes Sichuan Salt highly competitive in Xiangchu.

The businessman surnamed Li also understood what these people meant. Many people who didn't have much cash in their hands at this time wanted him to speak; while those who had a lot of cash in their hands didn't want to offend anyone at this time.

With their own thoughts, the businessman surnamed Li had an opportunity to increase his prestige. As long as he handles it properly this time and convinces everyone, many things in the future will be easier to handle.

After discussing for most of the night, they finally came up with a satisfactory result that basically involved compromise by all parties. They reported to Liu Yuna the next day, saying that the silver would be shipped to Kuizhou Prefecture soon.

Liu Yu only asked them to wait here for a few more days, waiting for news from the court.

…………

A few days later, in the court hall, there were all the provincial envoys who had returned to Beijing in one year, two years or three years. This was the great court meeting in the twelfth lunar month of Dashun.

Liu Yu was silent as usual, as if he was asleep.

He said nothing because it was not appropriate for him to say anything.

So, someone said.

The Sichuan Jiedushi who returned to Beijing took on this task. Naturally, he made the matter clear after visiting and contacting him a few days ago.

This is not Liu Yu's business. Liu Yu represents the emperor's wishes. This is obvious. Otherwise, how could he reach out to Sichuan with nothing to do?

Fortunately, this was not Lianghuai Salt and did not involve too much. The Sichuan Jiedushi naturally knew what to do.

The key point of his memorial was entirely based on his own ability.

The key point was that as Sichuan has been recuperating over the years, the population has gradually increased, more than doubled. Now we should develop industry and commerce to give people jobs.

After entering Sichuan, Shaanxi merchants took the initiative to donate 400,000 taels of silver and asked to repair the waterway out of Sichuan.

He also said that there are various drawbacks in the current Sichuan salt sales, so he asked to implement the "official transportation, merchant sales" method in Sichuan. So that Sichuan salt can enter Guizhou and reduce the salt price in Guizhou.

It is beneficial to the national treasury.

It is beneficial to the people.

The emperor just needs someone to bring it up, and it was discussed at the court, but no one fired a cannon to oppose this. Sichuan belongs to the marginal area. Now the focus of the court is still Lianghuai. Sichuan's affairs are not too eye-catching, and it is not good to stand on the side at this time, so as not to offend people.

Moreover, the relationship with everyone is not very big. The supporters of Lianghuai salt merchants are all from Jiangnan.

No matter how powerful Lianghuai salt is, it is not able to sell it to Guizhou.

Moreover, it sounds like this kind of official transportation and commercial sales method is also beneficial to the Lianghuai salt industry. If the court strengthens the control of Sichuan salt, then there will be less salt smuggled from Sichuan to Hunan and Chu, which is also good for Lianghuai salt.

After the grand court meeting was over, according to convention, the palace gave a banquet to strengthen the connection between the local and central governments.

After the banquet, the emperor summoned several people again.

The two leaders were very young.

One was to serve as the prefect of Xuzhou.

The other was to serve as the defense envoy of Xuma.

Both of them were promoted out of turn. One had made military achievements in suppressing the rebellion in western Sichuan. This was not recommended by Liu Yu, as Liu Yu did not recommend military personnel.

The other one who was to be appointed as the prefect of Xuzhou by the emperor was recommended by Liu Yu, which was an out of turn promotion.

At the age of only 30, it is rare to be the prefect at such a young age.

Such recommendations are all related. If something goes wrong in the future, the recommender will also be responsible.

There are a lot of people who are now in Dashun and other places, and recommending them is an offensive thing, and many people are watching.

On the one hand, it is because Dashun has his own old brothers and good families.

On the other hand, there is no age limit for the "college entrance examination" in this period. Year after year, there are a lot of people in their forties and fifties. At this time, they have to give them a chance, or pay donations or something, at least give them a chance to enter the system and have a candidate for an official.

There are more and more people, more and more candidates, and there is no age limit for the imperial examination. They are also afraid that if they hold it back for a long time, a group of people who have never passed the exam will appear in their lifetime, so they wrote two poems to laugh at Huang Chao's cowardice.

Therefore, it is really not easy to wait for an official vacancy in this period.

The emperor certainly has the right to be direct, but he will not move unless it is a very special case. Some people may not wait for a vacancy in their entire lives, so at least they have to give them some hope.

And those who can be promoted to prefectural governors at the age of 30 will be stared at by so many eyes if it is spread out.

Both of them are in their early thirties, and in the eyes of the emperor, they already belong to the next generation.

Liu Yu is special. His background and the fact that he rose to prominence due to two wars in the north are not normal.

Normally, those who are already defense envoys and prefects in their early thirties can be regarded as key talents of Dashun.

After all, the emperor is not young anymore. If he really has some ability, he should be in a high position after the crown prince succeeds to the throne.

The defense envoy is on the emperor's side.

The prefect was recommended by Liu Yu. He is not from Liu Yu's line, but he did a good job in southern Jiangsu before.

Needless to say, the defense envoy can be used.

And this Xuzhou prefect was obviously used for the future.

Going to requisition land and solving the salt well rent problem quickly and decisively, this will be recorded in history books, and his reputation will be similar to that of the "mining supervisor" of the previous dynasty.

It will definitely not have a good reputation.

As long as the emperor shows his intentions, he will be besieged by countless people.

The Xuma defense envoy that the emperor wants is surnamed Ma, named Haochuan, and has a very good resume.

Born in Wude Palace, he joined the army and gained experience in the reform of the land system in the southwest. He performed very well in the suppression of the rebellion in western Sichuan. After being ambushed, he was not afraid of danger and reacted quickly. Relying on muskets and formations, he fought a central battle. Later, he led troops to attack lightly and made many military achievements.

The reason why the emperor appointed Ma Haochuan as the Xu Ma Defense Envoy was also related to the situation here.

Xuzhou Prefecture is very important. It is the gateway for Dashun to connect Guizhou and Yunnan.

The counties in the north are of course the salt well area with a large number of Han people.

But in the south, there are Yi areas such as Daliangshan and Mahu. Now it is still in slavery, and it often goes down the mountain to capture slaves.

Dashun inherited the legacy of the Ming Dynasty, and it will eventually complete the complete naturalization of Yunnan and Guizhou. In addition, with the Yunnan copper, Guizhou lead, and the future trade of Sichuan salt into Guizhou, Xuzhou Prefecture needs a capable person to be the Xu Ma Defense Envoy.

The appointment of Ma Haochuan as the defense envoy was actually a manifestation of Dashun's preparation to change its past border policy and adopt a more offensive and proactive strategy.

If the emperor was still prepared to continue to adopt that defensive strategy, he would not have chosen this man who was good at field battles, but would have selected a few from the engineering corps to go there and rebuild the fortress area of ​​the previous dynasty.

Since Ma Haochuan was chosen as the defense envoy here, it was actually to turn the passive into the active, and it was also tacitly approved of "provoking border provocations", otherwise he should have thrown a steady veteran in his fifties.

Being a defense envoy at the age of 30 has a bright future, but it is different from being 50. You must find a way to make some noise to gain military merit. If you don't gain military merit, your future as a defense envoy at the age of 30 will be in vain. How could the emperor not even consider this?

It's okay elsewhere. In the southwest, the emperor really doesn't want to build bunkers all day long and station thousands of soldiers to carry out mobile defense between bunkers to protect the trade of Yunnan copper, Guizhou lead, Sichuan salt, etc.

Other places need to be stable, and don't start a war without authorization to gain military merit and affect the overall situation.

In the southwest, some "alone Han will perish with strength" methods must be used. Try it first. If the effect is good, send more young people who have the opportunity to gain military merit and complete the key leap of official rank in the future.