Chen Si and Ximen agreed to return to Zhiguan together with Guan Wei. By then it was dusk and the doors were closed. The guard opened and closed the door and welcomed the two people into the guard house. Zhe Cheng has been waiting for a long time. After some bargaining, the two parties reached an agreement to recruit immigrants. Interestingly, the issue that Zhe Cheng was always most concerned about was not allowing Qin people to enter the customs, rather than allowing immigrants to leave the customs. Chen Si, on the other hand, hopes to recruit as many immigrants as possible. Due to the different concerns of both parties, an agreement is actually very easy to reach. The so-called bargaining is nothing more than a negotiation technique that conceals the truth from others.
After reaching an agreement, Chen Si returned to the camp overnight, while Zhe Cheng stayed in Zhiguan and returned to Zhicheng with Chen Si and others tomorrow. After Chen Si returned, he made arrangements for tomorrow's work. The ten people returned to Yuancheng and asked Yuan Wei to transport food here. It was initially determined that ten carts of food would be transported every day, about 200 shi. This is definitely not enough to rely on Yuancheng alone, and Yuancheng must ask the county for support. Ten people followed Chen Si and Ximen into Zhi City. This was an understanding reached after several quarrels. The remaining eighty men remained in place to defend the town, led by Bu Geng, who was sent from Anyi. When the convoy transporting grain comes and the immigrants from Zhi City arrive, they can transport the immigrants back to Yuancheng, while the soldiers who brought the grain will guard it. Such a series of rotations ensures that everyone's business trip time can be maintained within a controllable range.
After spending a tense night, Chen Si and Ximen set out for Zhiguan with ten soldiers. After having breakfast at Zhiguan, we followed Zhicheng back to Zhicheng. Zhe Cheng asked Chen Si to ride in the same car with him, but Chen Si refused, saying that as an official, he was not qualified to ride in the car. Zhi Cheng was too embarrassed to take the bus, so he had to get down and follow Chen Si on foot.
There were fifty soldiers coming from Zicheng, and they sandwiched ten Qin soldiers in the middle. Chen Si didn't care and chatted with Zhi Cheng along the way. The driver was too embarrassed to drive, so he led the horse under the car and moved forward slowly. When Chen Si tried to trick Zhe Cheng, Zhe Cheng was very alert; when Zhe Cheng tried to trick Chen Si, Chen Si also avoided it. Both of them felt that the other was extraordinary and admired each other.
It took me two rests on the fifty-mile journey to get there. After entering Zhi City, Zhi Cheng arranged for the Qin soldiers to enter the post to rest, but according to the agreement, food and accommodation were at their own expense. Chen Si sent soldiers around to buy grain, vegetables, fruits, salted plums, fermented sauce and other items, and asked them to observe the pedestrians and shops on the street, as well as the abundance and price of the goods in the market. After he came back, the Qin people told him that the price of food had risen to seventy-two yuan per stone. Although the shops were open, they were empty and everyone on the street was in a hurry.
When the soldiers went to the street to purchase, Chen Si went in and out of the posthouse to observe the situation in front of the door. What he saw was the same as what the soldiers said.
Everyone took the ingredients to the kitchen to start a fire, but found that there was not much firewood. Since firewood was included in the rent, the lack of firewood surprised Chen Si. He called the postman and asked: "The post is charging sixty cents a day to accommodate ten of my people. The value is not low, but the firewood and grass are not prepared. Why?"
The post official said: "Don't be surprised, doctor. Every day in Zhi City, firewood comes in from outside, and the price is twice as much as before. We don't have much money in our post, so we don't dare to take more, but we only get the amount we get."
Chen Sidao: "If Wei Yi needs all the officials, what will he do with the money?"
The post official said: "I don't know, doctor. The money and food for Wei Post are given on a monthly basis, and there is a fixed amount. Nowadays, the price of food has soared, and the food supply has been difficult for itself, and the salary is not enough. Usually there are few people in the post, maybe three or five a day. If you can use the promised salary to meet your needs, there are more than ten doctors, but the salary is not enough! Please forgive me, doctor!"
Chen Si pretended to be helpless and said: "There is not enough firewood, where can I get it?"
The post official said: "But please ask the doctor to go out of the city to search."
Chen Sidao: "I'm afraid the city gate will be closed."
The post official took out a festival talisman and handed it to Chen Sida: "Master, take some festivals and you can enter the city."
Chen Si read the section, which read the words "驿 Cut the salary". He was very happy in his heart, but he put on a very unhappy look and said: "Sincerity is unheard of!" He asked the post official to help look after the house, and he took all the soldiers out of the city to collect firewood.
The Qin army wearing black Qin uniforms appeared outside the city collecting firewood, attracting everyone's attention. While collecting firewood, the soldiers of the Qin army felt hot, so they took off their coats and tied them around their waists. They only wore their underwear and stared at the people inside and outside Zhi City. Finally, when everyone carried a large bundle of firewood and entered the city, the city gate was closed, and Chen Si called the city gate with the festival talisman of the post house. Twelve strong soldiers, wearing only underwear and coats tied around their waists, carrying firewood on their backs, became a sight in the empty streets.
When the post officials saw that the Qin army actually went out to collect firewood from the city and brought back more than ten bundles of firewood, they were very surprised and admired them, and they thanked them repeatedly. When Qin Jun was cooking, he took the initiative to help, carrying water, lifting the cauldron, and blowing fire to help the wind. He was very attentive. Chen Si also took the opportunity to open his chatterbox and heard a lot of news from his mouth.
The next day, Zhi Cheng invited Chen Si to the county government to meet with Zhi Shou. Zhishou welcomed Chen Si's arrival and promised to fully support the Qin people's work. Chen Si said that Hedong and Nanyang were neighbors, and now they are allies again, and they should have friendly exchanges. Zhi Shou chirped repeatedly. Later, Zhi Cheng showed Zhi Shou's order. Chen Si read it and agreed.
After breakfast, two officials led a drum cart to Guanyi and asked Chen Si to get on the cart. The rest of the Qin soldiers followed him on foot. An official was playing a drum, and another official loudly announced the decree of Zhen Shou. Although Anyi is the foundation of the Wei Dynasty, although it belongs to the Qin Dynasty, he is willing to recruit Wei people to implement it: "...Anyone who is willing to go to Anyi will be given food for one day by the official." , and sent it to outside the pass, and the people of Qin gave grain for ten days and sent it to Anyi." There were notices posted on all the gates of Zhi City, and on that day more than ten people were willing to immigrate. Those who have parents, brothers, and sisters have a hard time making a living, mainly because the government can provide them with food. Chen Si eliminated those who were obviously sneaky and cunning, and agreed with the remaining people to gather at the west gate of the city early tomorrow morning, collect food, and go outside the customs together.
The next day, this group of people gathered in the square inside the west gate. There were about forty or fifty people, men, women, old and young, and twelve Qin soldiers were guarding them. The immigrants received a day's ration according to the quota. After the city gate was opened, they left the city together with the Qin soldiers. So there was talk in the city: those who went to Anyi would be given food! Two days later, some good people in Zhi City announced that after leaving the customs, some Qin people gave the grain people a stone, and they were all transported to Anyi by car!
Chen Si led another group of Qin soldiers into the city three days later. This time, there were already more than ten people waiting. Seeing Chen Si and others coming over, the county government summoned people. After Chen Si selected them, they left the customs again the next day. After a few days of this, Chen Si asked Zhe Cheng to send his chariot out of the city to recruit in the four villages. As a result, more people joined the ranks of immigrants, including many with families and all kinds of luggage. By the time the Qin New Year came, approximately tens of thousands of households had immigrated to Zuoyi.
Zhi County is a commercial city, and many people living in the city are free and unrestrained, especially unemployed vagrants. After entering Zuoyi, they were quickly controlled by Qin law. The residents of Zuoyi originally came from the surrounding cities. They were not from Qin, and they had just learned Qin law. Depending on the order of immigration, they had learned Qin law to varying degrees. But when the people from Zicheng arrived, they quickly became legal experts and never tired of ruling people by law. Within a few months, more than a thousand of the Zhe people who entered Zuoyi were sentenced to imprisonment. This frightened the Zhe people who had immigrated, and many people fled back to Zhe. There were legends about the horror of Qin and the harshness of Qin's laws.
However, grain was still transported to Anyi via Zhidao. Chen Si saw the continuous grain transport fleet on Zhi Road, thinking that he had to transport grain from Yuancheng to this side, and came up with a plan. After discussing with Zhang Lu, they negotiated with Zhi Shou and reached an agreement: to set up a salt station at Zhiguan, so that grain trucks transporting from Zhidao to Anyi could trade at Zhiguan without having to enter Zhidao. Customs duties on salt and grain to and from Zhiguan were still collected, but the grain and salt returned to Qin. Salt and grain are stored in warehouses at Zhiguan, and Zhi County can collect tithes. Zhishou was naturally overjoyed when he heard this, it was like a piece of cake! He specially changed the gatekeeper for this purpose and used his own confidants as the gatekeepers. When salt and grain were really traded in Zhiguan and huge sums of money were delivered to the county government every day, Zhi Shou simply thought that the people of Qin were the God of Wealth! He desperately asked his men to move the homeless people to Anyi. Chen Si asked to renovate the Zhi Road, but Zhi Shou agreed without thinking! It’s not that there is no risk to worry about, but in the face of huge benefits, isn’t this risk worth taking?
Prince Qin, who was in Daliang, studied business knowledge assiduously for several months and gained great insights. He understood Hedong's strategy more and more deeply, and he became more and more frightened. He never thought that the merchant's hands contained such powerful power, enough to destroy any prince. He had a better understanding of Shang Jun's policy of suppressing business: if business was allowed to develop, Qin's already weak agriculture would definitely suffer a serious blow and even be unable to recover. Wei is a well-known powerful country, and food is one of its strengths, but it cannot withstand the attack of commerce! The price of food in Daliang is rising day by day, and people living in Daliang are feeling panic every day.
Dr. Xu Jia has come to Prince Qin many times, asking him to coordinate with Anyi to change the policy of exchanging grain for salt and allow merchants to trade freely. The prince of Qin always asked him to go to Xianyang to report to the king of Qin. Finally, Dr. Xu Jia lost his patience and said to the Prince of Qin: "The people of Liang complain a lot about the Qin government, how can the Prince remain unknown? My king defended him again and again, but nothing happened. However, the price of grain in Liang will not last long. The Prince is like a sleeve. Hands, I'm afraid that Daliang will become the prince's enemy."
The prince of Qin said seriously: "I regard the alliance between Qin and Wei as a pledge to Wei, and I understand that Qin will not betray Wei. If our city offends a big country, I will please give you an ax and ax!"
Xu Jia said: "No one but Wei dares to betray the alliance. He who feeds the people is the god of the people. If you cut off the people's food, you will be the enemy of the people. Now that Anyi has deprived the world of food, it will be the enemy of the world. - I'm afraid The resentment will be concentrated on the prince!"
Prince Qin said: "The change of food in Anyi is neither a thief nor a thief. Selling cheaply and buying dearly will actually benefit the world. The doctor said that he wants to deplete the world's food. Is it true?"
