"What plans does the old shopkeeper have in the future?" Xu Zhanbiao asked.
"Plan? Hey... I borrowed money and went out to do business with my nephew. I heard that the roads in southern Xinjiang are blocked, but a large amount of Xinjiang jade is hoarded here in northern Xinjiang..."
"Buy some tea bricks from the Central Plains and exchange them for Hotan jade materials here in Hami...not just a hundredfold profit, that's a thousandfold profit!"
"I'm greedy... I'm really greedy. I thought I could win this bet, but when I got to Xingxingxia, I was robbed by the rebels..."
Xu Zhanbiao sneered, "Of course making war fortune is a huge profit, but old shopkeeper, haven't you thought about the danger?"
"I have thought about it! I really have thought about it, but I didn't expect it to be so serious... In fact, I have already calculated the money required for all the bribes along the way in this business!"
"Profitable business cannot be done without using money to clear the way... Basically all the checkpoints along the Hexi Corridor are bought with money!"
"General, don't blame us... don't blame us... We have been held hostage by the rebels for two years. The general's army has not arrived two years ago. It is all money collected by the rebels and the local garrison. It has nothing to do with the general's tigers." …”
"Actually, for us businessmen, using bribes to ensure smooth business is not a big deal. We tend to include bribes in our cost accounts!"
"The jade was purchased for 10,000 taels of silver, and the cost of eating and chewing it along the way was 1,000 taels, and then there was another 5,000 taels for the management expenses along the way...Then the cost of this batch of jade should be sixteen thousand taels. two!"
"In the future, accounts must be calculated based on this cost!"
"We merchants spend money, and there are escort masters and sentinel soldiers along the way to protect safety. This is actually a business! It has been done like this for thousands of years, and it is actually quite smooth..."
"But I've calculated a lot and failed to realize that the people here in Agubai are not following a routine at all!"
"Other local officials and soldiers use people's money to help others eliminate disasters. As long as you give them money, they are actually very polite... because they are still looking forward to you doing business again next year, and then they can still bribe you. take!"
"But these rebels are just a bunch of ungrateful people who don't understand human language... They don't want any bribes, no amount of money... They just want to steal all your wealth, and then capture you and make them slaves!"
"Cough cough cough... cough cough cough..." The angry old shopkeeper coughed violently. He pointed at a young nephew and said, "Shuai Cao... tell me, you can help me answer the general's question..."
The young nephew named Cao Shuai seemed to have read a book. After bowing and saluting, he said in an orderly manner, "General... Commander Zuo will win this battle, and he will definitely win wildly!"
"Agubai seems to be powerful, but he has long since become the last of his strength!"
Xu Zhanbiao looked at the thin young man's shining eyes with interest, "Oh! Tell me about it..."
"Yes, sir! In this battle, Agubah lost because of his perverse behavior... When I was a kid in my hometown, I read "The Journey to the West" written by the head of state, and I also know a little about the things of the Europeans..."
"The thugs like Agub use terror to rule by terror... Their purpose is to turn everyone in the ruled area into slaves!"
"Yes, they are slaves... This is the regression of civilization! My uncle also said just now that even if we, the Central Plains people, are corrupt officials, we are reasonable. At least he is reasonable!"
"If I accept your bribe, I will do something for you! Especially for a businessman, receiving a steady stream of bribes is much more important than killing the goose that lays the eggs!"
"We know that big rivers and small rivers will not dry up if they have water! We did not say that we will kill the businessmen to death! Corrupt officials have to calculate how much money these businessmen can earn..."
"Let other businessmen keep their basic profits, and then think of ways to become more corrupt!"
"This is a way of doing business that emphasizes continuous and long-term development... Corrupt officials receive money but they can still do things, businessmen give bribes but their business can indeed continue..."
"Is everyone happy? Isn't the economy improving?"
"But what about the Western Regions? These rebels have no such consciousness at all... Their thoughts are actually very simple, just... restore slavery!"
"When the caravan came, I snatched the goods and captured the people as slaves... It's as simple as that. They just don't understand that the value created by these people moving bricks and building walls is different from the value created by traveling with the caravan. !”
"Retrograde behavior... is the regression of civilization... The people of Xinjiang have long understood this in recent years, because real life has changed and it has become more and more difficult to survive..."
"As long as we come in now and give them hope...to restore the past civilization, we can win!"
"Look at the general's rations. A batch of beef can buy Xingxingxia. It shows how hungry they are..."
Talent! Xu Zhanbiao suddenly became interested in talents and said, "Well... Not bad, you are a good boy!"
"Since you have analyzed everything, how dare you do it if I give you a task?"
"If you don't dare, you've already come through the gates of hell, so there's nothing you don't dare to do!"
"Okay! You will join my staff and follow the army to calculate supplies...and then I will give you an important task, which is to follow the army to do business for me!"
"How do we sell our trophies to the Central Plains where they have the highest value? What kind of goods can be imported into Xinjiang that can steal people's hearts and make money... You do this job for me!"
"Let me see what you are capable of... Later, I will contact you with the nephew of Mr. Fan Lian, the Chinese God of Wealth. You can discuss business with them!"
"The more you earn, the higher I will praise you! Getting rich is a small thing, but if your contribution is great, I can still recommend you to be an official... If you don't want to be an official, I still have a way to send you to Ryukyu to study at university!"
"What's wrong? Is this a promising future? Do you dare to give it a try..."
Cao Jiuling's face turned red with excitement. He kicked Cao Shuai in the knee socket. The young man immediately knelt down and said, "Hurry up and thank me!"
Cao Shuai raised his head and said loudly, "Thank you so much, general. As long as you can make my trade route pass smoothly in the Hexi Corridor... I can help the general earn a million taels from just the jade business..."
"I don't ask for anything else. I want to make money for the general. I want a letter from the general recommending me to go to Ryukyu to study..."
"Okay... let's do it like this. From today on, you will join me. After a few days of getting familiar with it, you can make money for me!"
The young man Cao Shuai really encountered a turning point in his destiny. He then spent three years helping Xu Zhanbiao's Shu army earn more than 5 million military supplies.
His caravan became the Northern Jade King Family of the Qing Dynasty by relying on the cheap Hotan jade materials sold during the war, and basically monopolized the jade business in North China.
In the end, Cao Shuai did not inherit such a big business but went to Ryukyu to study and study. He majored in geology and the history of the Western Regions. In the end, he became King Shangtai's right-hand man and became a master of Western Regions research in the future.
What's even more bizarre is that the paper he wrote on this war when he was in school actually caught the attention of the head of state and gave him important instructions.
"The Xinjiang Agubai rebellion was doomed to failure from the very beginning..." Xiao Letian wrote on the title page of the paper.
"Because this rebellion is a regression of civilization from beginning to end...Aqubah doesn't even know how to build a real country!"
