Chapter 134
Although Cheng Shijie used banks to stimulate economic development in southern Liaoning, the late Ming Dynasty was not a generation after the information explosion. Whether it was for the people in southern Liaoning to build houses, or for businessmen to build factories, build roads and other projects, it all took time.
The refugees are like Populus euphratica in the desert. They have extremely strong vitality and will look for water sources on their own in order to survive. As soon as the special working group of the Immigration Bureau established by the Liaodong Administrative Committee arrived in Dengzhou, Shandong, they discovered that a large number of refugees were already flowing towards Shandong.
"Go to Liaonan, there is a way to survive in Liaonan!"
Last year, there was a drought in Henan, especially when the crops were jointing. There was no rain for more than 40 consecutive days. Except for a few fields that could be irrigated, most fields suffered a serious reduction in production.
This year, it rained one after another, but it never stopped.
Forty miles west of Luoyang is a valley called Tanlong Valley. There is a group of bandits in Tanlong Valley, but the bandit leader is a young woman named Hong Niangzi.
Red Lady is her nickname. Her real surname is Tang. She is the third in the family, so she is called Tang Sanniang.
Originally, she followed her father and brother to perform in the martial arts world. When she came to Luoyang to perform as an entertainer, the red lady was attracted by the leader of the Tanlong Valley bandits, nicknamed Yulangjun. The Yulangjun snatched the red lady back and became his wife.
When Tang Sanniang was caught in Tanlong Valley, under the arrangement of several women, she put on a bright red wedding dress and was forced to go to the church to get married to Yu Langjun.
After the ceremony, Mr. Yulang had a drink with his minions. When Mr. Yulang remembered that he had to enter the bridal chamber, the red lady broke free from her bonds, took a bright red candlestick, and smashed Mr. Yulang's head to pieces.
Tang Sanniang, who looked like no one else, was dressed in red and covered in blood. She was so frightened that everyone shouted: "The boss!"
In this way, Tang Sanniang became the red lady and the head of Tanlong Valley.
The Red Lady, who became the leader of the bandits, was originally kind-hearted. When she saw that Mengjin's crossing of the Yellow River burst its embankments, and countless families were destroyed and their families separated, she used the food stored in the village to help the victims.
This rescue didn't matter, but it caused big trouble. More and more refugees came to her. In a short period of time, the number of people in Red Lady's village surged to three to four thousand.
Tanlong Valley was originally a small valley with limited food reserves. Now Red Lady was nearly bankrupted by the victims. 'The Red Lady wanted to find food, but most of her subordinates were old, weak, sick and disabled. She tried to attack a large landlord, but instead of grabbing food, four to five hundred people were killed.
The Red Lady heard that Cheng Shijie was organizing people to farm in southern Liaoning, so she led these refugees all the way east to join Cheng Shijie.
"Have you heard of Marshal Cheng?"
"No!"
"Shuai Cheng is a good man. He led his people to reclaim wasteland and set up factories in southern Liaoning. When he arrived in southern Liaoning, as long as he worked, he would have food to eat!"
"Master, Marshal Cheng is an officer, and we are bandits. The officers and soldiers catch the bandits. If we go to Liaonan, won't we risk our lives?"
The red lady explained to everyone: "In southern Liaoning, if Marshal Cheng doesn't kill people, the big deal..."
"What's the big deal?"
"No big deal, I'll leave me to him!"
Because the red lady interfered, Cheng Shijie's plan was disrupted.
The Red Lady's team is like the greedy snake in the game. Wherever it passes, the people who can't survive follow their team.
A large number of refugees have heard the news that there is work in southern Liaoning and they can survive. These refugees, dragging their families with them, beg and wander all the way to southern Liaoning.
When walking east from Luoyang, the Red Lady had more than 4,000 people under her command. When she arrived at Kaifeng Mansion, she had tens of thousands of people by her side.
According to the investigation report of the Management Committee, the vanguard of the refugees has passed Jinan Prefecture and is heading towards Dengzhou Prefecture. The refugees will arrive in Dengzhou in up to ten days. In up to half a month, Liaonan will usher in a large number of people. wave of refugees.
The influx of a large number of refugees to southern Liaoning will cause great pressure and burden on the people's livelihood in southern Liaoning. This is an inevitable phenomenon. Although population is strength, the problem is that it requires an upper line. Once the upper line is exceeded, more contradictions will arise.
Looking at Cheng Shijie's attitude, Song Xiance did not persuade him any more. What Cheng Shijie decided must be done. What he needed to do was to do the essential work well to ensure the stability and normal operation of Liaonan and to ensure the autumn harvest. Goes smoothly.
Song Xiance frowned slightly and said: "My lord, my disciples are confused. Our Ning Navy obviously occupies a solid defense line, but Jiannu is not good at attacking fortified cities. If we take the initiative to attack, wouldn't we use our own shortcomings to attack the enemy's strengths? "
"Although you are right, the problem is that when we in the Ming Dynasty face Jiannu, we will be timid in our hearts!"
Cheng Shijie nodded and said: "We take the initiative to defend, but there is no Great Wall in Haizhou. Although we have built more than a dozen castles, can we defend Haizhou watertight?"
Song Xiance shook his head: "I'm afraid not!"
"It's absolutely impossible!"
Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly and said: "We have finally laid a little foundation in Jinzhou. Once Jiannu sends out a small group of elite troops to learn from Deng Ai's old wisdom, go to Yinping, climb over Motian Ridge, and sneak attack Chengdu, it will be all over!"
There is another problem. If Haizhou is used as the location for the decisive battle, I am afraid that Haizhou and Fuzhou will suffer heavy losses. Cheng Shijie is not willing to defend passively, but is willing to fight decisively outside the country.
Song Xiance continued: "My lord, if we take the initiative to attack, our Ninghai navy will have too few troops!"
Cheng Shijie's total force is nearly 50,000, but in fact, among these troops, 12,750 are affiliated with the Ning Navy Garrison Division, responsible for guarding the fifteen towns and forts along Haizhou, as well as Jinzhou, Gaizhou, These troops were unable to move during Fuzhou's defensive work.
During the actual war, Cheng Shijie could only mobilize more than 13,600 people from the left and right divisions, plus 4,000 cavalry, and more than 1,000 artillery, plus the reconnaissance force, the full force was less than 20,000.
When he first attracted more than 26,000 Dongjiang troops, Cheng Shijie did not expand the army. The most fundamental reason was not that Cheng Shijie had no food or money, but that there were too few veterans of Ning Haijun under his command. Ning Haijun's real old base, the soldiers who have been trained for more than three months, are only Ning Haijun's original more than 2,500 horses.
More than 90% of the soldiers were either from the Denglai New Army, the Dongjiang Army, or the Dengzhou Navy. Under such circumstances, Cheng Shijie did not dare to expand the army.
After more than half a year of continuous training and particularly strict ideological education, the Ning Navy has basically unified its thinking. Now the Ninghai Navy no longer distinguishes between the Denglai New Army, the Dengzhou Army, the Dengzhou Navy, and the Dongjiang Army. More importantly, However, Cheng Shijie used the officer literacy class trained by Ma Shilin. Now, more than 800 officers can read more than 1,000 words and can write formal documents, summary reports, reconnaissance reports, and military training reports.
Many veterans can become officers. How long will it take if the army is not expanded?
Cheng Shijie looked at Song Xiance and asked: "If I want to expand the army? How much food and grass can the management committee provide?"
Food supply has always been the lifeblood of the farming nation. Most of the border areas are barren lands, such as Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu, and of course Liaodong.
In fact, the land in these places is quite good. Although the rainfall is slightly less, the advantage is that the land is large enough. As long as it is managed properly, it can completely support the frontier army.
But the problem is that, affected by the disasters of the vassal towns and the Anshi Rebellion in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, countries like the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties all adopted a weak-edge policy.
Liaodong clearly has the most fertile land, but it does not immigrate to the border and does not spend any effort on governance, allowing the border army to always accept the court's supply of food and grass.
Therefore, under deliberate control, the food produced in the border areas was not enough even for the local people, let alone to supply the army. Every grain of rice and every piece of cloth needed by the army had to be transported within the border.
From the inland to the frontier fortress, it is more than a thousand miles away. The manpower required to transport grain thousands of miles is unimaginable, and the consumption on the way is also unimaginable. The state treasury allocates 100,000 shi of grain, and in the end, only 10,000 shi of grain can be transported to the border. Thank God for the stone. Where did the other 90,000 stones go?
Of course I ate it on the road! Coupled with the fact that officials at all levels are greedy for ink, the consumption is even more alarming.
When Sun Chengzong served as the economic envoy to Liaodong, he adopted the policy of establishing farmland to strengthen the border area. In fact, he had already achieved results. He reported to the court that the farmland produced "more than 500,000 shi of grain!"
Although these 500,000 shi of grain are not much, they are enough to feed an army of 50,000 to 60,000 shi. If these 500,000 shi of grain are transported from the mainland, despite the advantage of sea transportation, tens or millions of shi of grain will be lost.
However, Sun Chengzong was ousted just as he made achievements.
Cheng Shijie's biggest advantage was that he emptied Dengzhou's treasury and took advantage of Kong Youde. In short, his entrepreneurial capital was stronger than that of Sun Chengzong, and he cultivated more than five million acres of grain fields in one go.
"Don't worry, my lord, even though we have cultivated more than 5 million acres of land and the autumn harvest is in two months, we have never given up buying grain from the pass!"
Song Xiance smiled proudly and said: "Currently, the Management Committee has established six permanent grain depots in Jinzhou, four in Gaizhou, two in Fuzhou, and two in Haizhou. A total of 14 can store 100,000 dan. Our grain depot currently has more than 160,000 shi of rice, 90,000 shi of wheat, 30,000 shi of flour, and a total of more than 300,000 shi of miscellaneous grains. Even if another 100,000 immigrants arrive, we can still support it until the autumn harvest!"
"With more than 300,000 stones of food, I am confident enough!"
On July 6, the fifth year of Chongzhen, Cheng Shijie issued a recruitment order for the Ninghai Navy. With the issuance of this recruitment order, the entire southern Liaoning region, and even Shandong and Henan regions caused a sensation.
Serving as a soldier in Ning Haijun's army has many benefits. These young men who came to sign up to join the army have already found out clearly that as long as they have passed the recruit training period for three months, they can be allocated fifty acres of military land. This is a benefit for Ning Haijun soldiers. Of course, this army The vocational land is definitely not fertile land and needs to be cultivated by oneself.
Of course, if you are lucky enough and cut off the head of a slave on the battlefield, congratulations, you can get fifty acres of land as a reward. If you are a white-armored soldier, that is even better. You can be promoted and become a reserve officer. , after passing the officer training class, you can become a real officer.
As Ning Haijun's development becomes more and more formal, it is no longer possible to reach the sky in one step. It is even said that it is already difficult to reach the sky from the captain to the hundred commander level.
Not to mention it was difficult to get promoted in Ninghai Navy, it was even difficult to become a soldier. Ning Haijun's recruitment requirements are very strict. The first is age. Young soldiers are not recruited. They must be over 16 years old. Originally, Cheng Shijie wanted to set the age at 18 years old, but the problem is that young men who were 16 years old in the Ming Dynasty, when I don’t know how much dad has left.
Marriage means starting a family and starting a business, so the age limit should be between sixteen and twenty-two. If you have a skill, the age can be relaxed to twenty-five, for example, if you can operate an artillery, a blunderbuss, or archery. Yes, you can ride a horse... If you are literate, the age can be relaxed to under thirty-five.
If you are qualified, you cannot become a Ning Navy soldier. This requires a height assessment. The height requirement must be more than 1.65 meters. Cheng Shijie is very unaccustomed to the measurement units of the Ming Dynasty. For example, a pound of 16 taels, grain and flour. Everything uses "stone" as the unit of measurement.
The units of length are inches, feet, and feet.
Cheng Shijie originally thought about moving the units of measurement from later generations, but then he thought about it. The craftsmen and people of the Ming Dynasty were already accustomed to units such as feet, inches, feet, and steps.
I am also accustomed to weight measurement units such as liters, buckets, and stones. If I have to move the units of later generations, it will be very uncomfortable.
Thinking about the small country of Great Britain, they can spread their feet and inches to the whole world, so why can't Ming Dynasty?
Therefore, Cheng Shijie specially ordered a batch of measuring tapes from a hardware tool store in later generations. The scales on them directly canceled millimeters, centimeters and meters and changed them to the standard units of feet, feet, inches, minutes, centimeters and millimeters.
Ning Haijun's recruits need to be five feet, two inches and eight minutes tall, which is approximately (one hundred and sixty-six centimeters). The second thing is weight. No matter how thin you are, it should not be less than 100 pounds.
After reaching the age, weight, and endurance test, the examiner needs to wear Ning Haijun's standard armor, hold Ning Haijun's standard spear, dog-leg knife, lunch box, and carrying equipment, and run a thousand steps fully armed. time to pass.
The next step is to check the family background. It is best to be from a farmer's family, and border soldiers are also acceptable. Those whose families are doing business, officials, local gangsters, and bandits are waiting. If there are not enough people from the farmer's family, then choose from them. .
But the hope is very slim.
This time, not only soldiers from the Dongjiang Army came to join the army, but even soldiers from the Guan Ning Army ran to join the army.
…
At the same time that Cheng Shijie began to recruit troops in southern Liaoning, a carriage drove into Jinzhou City. The carriage was engraved with a cloud pattern of the word "Fan", and was followed by dozens of tall men in cloth clothes with bare hands, their palms covered with thick Calloused, muscular, and with fierce eyes, he is obviously his bodyguard.
The owner of the carriage was wearing a blue round-neck Confucian shirt. He was about thirty years old. He was fair and fair. There was a smell of books between his eyebrows. The unique copper odor of the businessman left no trace on his body. , which makes people feel good.
This person was Fan Yongdou, the head of the Jiexiu Fan family and a representative figure among Shanxi merchants.
The Fan family was doing business in Shuntian Prefecture (Zhangjiakou). It has been passed down to Fan Yongdou's generation, which is already the seventh generation. It can be said that it is a wealthy family in Shanxi and has deep roots.
Although the Fan family has a lot of wealth, it is still one step away from being a truly wealthy family. When the Ming Dynasty first came into being, Zhu Yuanzhang imposed strict restrictions on businessmen. The biggest restriction was that businessmen and their children and relatives were strictly prohibited from obtaining official titles. In that era when education was the only way to achieve success, no one could achieve anything without success.
Just when Fan Yongdou was in his weak years and had not yet taken over Fan's business, by chance, as the big boss, he led a caravan to trade with Jiannu for the first time, and was received by Nurhaci.
He also rewarded Fan Yongdou with a bucket of the most precious pearls and two beauties. During that time, Fan Yongdou received extremely high courtesy from Nurhachi.
Nurhachi rewarded Fan Yongdou with beautiful women and pearls. The reason, in modern terms, is that the Ming Dynasty imposed strict trade sanctions on Jiannu and prohibited trade with Jiannu. Zhangjiakou, or to be precise, Shanxi merchants doing business in Zhangjiakou, became the only channel for the slaves to obtain supplies.
After building a friendly bridge with Jiannu, Fan Yongdou's trade volume with Jiannu became larger and larger, especially after the forty-seventh year of Wanli. Although Jiannu's life was difficult, one stone of grain cost only four silver coins in Zhangjiakou, so it could be sold But it was eight taels of silver for Jiannu, which was twenty times the profit.
In the first year of Tianqi, the price of food increased tenfold. The greedy Fan Yongdou even sold the food for more than eighty taels of silver per stone. In just a few years, Fan's branch of the company established six branches. There are more than 100 families, with as many as 30,000 to 40,000 clerks and servants serving the Fan family.
Fan's family property also exceeded 15 million taels of silver, surpassing Cao Sanxi, the original richest man.
In December of the fourth year of Chongzhen, a serious snowstorm broke out in Liaodong. Especially in February of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the late spring cold made Jiannu even worse and suffered heavy losses.
In this case, Jiannu had no choice but to use the money they grabbed from the pass to buy valuable materials such as grain, salt, silk, tea, and of course prohibited materials such as steel and gunpowder from their only good friends, Shanxi merchants.
But the problem is that the journey from Datong to Zhangjiakou and then to Shenyang is more than two thousand miles. The consumption of transporting grain for more than two thousand miles was too great. 440,000 shi of grain arrived in Shenyang, but less than 80,000 shi was left. The loss on the road was as high as 80%.
Due to severe drought in the north, low grain output, and many factors such as bandit rebellion, Fan Yongdou spent one, two or three taels of silver per stone on the grain he purchased. The 440,000 dans of grain cost nearly 600,000 taels of silver. , but the income was only less than two hundred thousand taels of silver.
This was a huge profit. In more than a month, 600,000 taels of silver turned into more than 800,000 taels of silver. This is a huge profit in itself. However, human desire and greed are never-ending. , after hearing that Cheng Shijie had stored a large amount of grain in southern Liaoning, he decided to buy grain from Cheng Shijie.
You must know that the direct transportation from southern Liaoning to Shenyang is less than 800 miles, saving nearly two-thirds of the distance on the road. More importantly, this trade route does not need to pass through Mongolian territory, and there is no need to pay fees to Mongolian masters. Protection fee.
Entering Jinzhou City, Fan Yongdou observed this brand-new city through the car window. It was bustling with people coming and going, and there were a lot of goods in the shops on the street.
This greatly increased Fan Yongdou's confidence, as long as Cheng Shijie did not discriminate against businessmen.
Located in the Ning Haijun General Mansion, opposite the current Liaodong Economic and Strategic Envoy's Mansion, there is a bustling teahouse. Fan Yongdou came to the door of a private room on the second floor and saw two fierce and strong men standing in front of the door.
Entering the private room, Bao Chengxian was drinking tea leisurely: "Mr. Fan, you are late!"
"When doing any business, the first thing to do is to understand your opponent..."
Bao Chengxian said with disdain: "The man named Cheng was lucky enough to win a few battles, but he can no longer distinguish between east, west, north and south. Do you really think of him as a person?"
"He was already a big shot!"
Fan Yongdou said: "If you can do his job properly, he can provide you with as much food as you want. He has cultivated more than five million acres of land. Excluding his own consumption, he can sell at least millions of stones of food."
Bao Chengxian sneered sinisterly: "Do you think we need to spend money on these grains?"
"If Mr. Bao thinks so, then Fan will set off now!"
Fan Yongdou stood up and left without any hesitation.
Bao Chengxian stared at Fan Yongdou's back coldly: "How dare you...you are not afraid!"
"It's you who should be worried now. General Cheng has a grudge against Jian Nu for destroying his family and genocide. Guess whether he will send you to the capital, or just stay in southern Liaoning!"
"Since you know that he has a bloody feud with Dajin, you still want to bribe him. How stupid are you?"
"That's because you don't have enough money. As long as you have enough money, if you ask Fan to kill his biological father, that's no problem!"
"Bao wants to see, how do you bribe him?"
"Please wait and see!"
Fan Yongdou is full of confidence. He understands human nature very well, especially when buying other people. What he likes most is to hit people with money.
If you want to give a gift, give a big one.
With Cheng Shijie's current identity and status, he would definitely not look at a few thousand taels of silver, but what about a hundred thousand taels of silver?
Will Cheng Shijie be moved?
…
Fan Yongdou directly asked someone to deposit 100,000 taels of silver in Liaodong Bank. After the 100,000 taels of silver were deposited in the bank, he signed a supplementary agreement with the bank staff, authorizing other people to operate the money and withdraw it on his behalf. .
Taking the bank's special password and seal, take these things directly to the General Military Mansion.
Cheng Shijie received a report from Yang Yuniang while eating. Today, a distinguished guest came to Liaodong Bank. Without blinking, he deposited one hundred thousand taels of silver. Fan Yongdou was the first person to deposit one hundred thousand taels of silver in Liaodong Bank.
"Who is the head of the household?"
"Fan Yongdou of the Jiexiu Fan clan!"
Before Cheng Shijie had time to speak, he received a call from Fan Yongdou.
"I'll go, Fat Pig comes to the door!"
Cheng Shijie knew very well who Fan Yongdou was. He was one of the eight imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty, and Fan Yongdou actually came to his door in person and asked him to take care of him.
"Here comes someone, let him wait in the front hall!"
(End of chapter)
