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"Shopkeeper Zhao, have you brought what I want?"
After hearing Zhao Zicheng's inquiry, all the households present showed concern and eager expressions.
Under the attention of everyone, Zhao An smiled and nodded, then turned to Zhang Jie and said, "Zhang Qianhu, please send someone to carry the boxes in the motorcade."
Zhang Jie nodded in agreement, turned around and left immediately, following Zhao An's instructions.
Seeing Zhang Jie being so obedient, Zhao Zicheng couldn't help but be stunned - you must know that Zhang Jie has always been known for his arrogance in Xuanfu Military Town. He seems to be low-key and reserved, but in fact, even Zhao Zicheng cannot control him at will many times. , now Zhang Jie's obedience to Zhao An naturally surprised Zhao Zicheng.
However, in Zhao Zicheng's view, this was just a small matter, and the focus was still on what Zhao An sent, so he did not think deeply about it and his attention quickly shifted.
Not long after, Zhang Jie led a team of sergeants into the room carrying more than twenty large boxes. Judging from the strenuous performance of the sergeants, it was obvious that these boxes were heavy.
After the sergeants retreated, Zhao Zicheng and other households gathered around the box, and then Zhao Zicheng opened a box first.
Then, the dazzling golden and silver light dazzled everyone's eyes!
A whole box full of large ingots of gold and silver of excellent quality!
Seeing this scene, everyone present was breathing heavily and looking greedy!
Then, the remaining boxes were opened by them one after another, and they were all filled with gold and silver!
A rough estimate shows that the total gold and silver in these boxes must be at least one hundred thousand taels!
Such a large amount of gold and silver is placed in front of you, which is so powerful that it will make anyone confused.
And Zhao Zicheng and the thousands of households present are all greedy for money, so it is even more so!
After seeing the change in everyone's expressions, Zhao An's eyes flashed with satisfaction, and then he asked: "General Zhao, here is the final payment of silver. The total is 88,000 taels of silver and 15,000 taels of gold. What do you want?" Don’t you want to take inventory?”
After hearing Zhao An's inquiry, Zhao Zicheng finally came to his senses, then shook his head and smiled: "No need, it's too troublesome! This is not the first time that shopkeeper Zhao has done business with our Xuanfu Military Town, and we will continue to do business in the future. Of course I can trust you in business!"
After saying that, Zhao Zicheng nodded to his own soldier and saw the soldier holding a box. After Zhao Zicheng reached for the box, he handed it to Zhao An and said, "This is the Xuanfu Army. There are a total of 430 land deeds and land deeds in the town's jurisdiction, including 350 acres of upper fields, 1,300 acres of middle fields, and 7,100 acres of lower fields. There is a mountain and more than 80 house deeds. Zhang...the accountant sent by Shopkeeper Zhao is indeed very skillful. After their accounting, these farmhouses have nothing to do with Xuanfu Military Town, and no problems can be found in the accounts!"
After a pause, Zhao Zicheng continued: "In addition, the more than 300 cattle, more than 2,000 pieces of farming tools, and more than 7,000 kilograms of farming equipment distributed by the imperial court to the military town this year have all been prepared. Shopkeeper Zhao can bring them at any time. Walk!"
After hearing Zhao Zicheng's statement, Zhao An also nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "General Zhao is interested!".
Today's military towns in various places in the Ming Dynasty have long been corrupted to the extreme, even the Xuanfu military town is no exception.
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty by Taizu, the Ming Dynasty has always relied on the "hereditary military household system" in view of the financial shortcomings of the "recruitment system" of the Tang and Song dynasties. The self-sufficiency of military towns in various places. According to regulations, each soldier was granted fifty acres of land, and the court provided cattle, farm tools, and seeds. Six stones from the annual harvest were given to the military warehouse, and the rest belonged to the military household.
However, the regulations seem to be good, but in fact it is another matter. Due to the lack of cultivated land, military households can often only be allocated twenty or thirty acres of land. After handing over six stones to the military warehouse every year, the remaining The food was not enough for food and clothing, so morale was naturally low. In addition, the households in the military town were greedy. Not only did they repeatedly seize the military households' property, but they also treated the general households as slaves, making the military households' lives even more miserable. Moreover, the corvées were extremely heavy, and naturally they felt dissatisfied, so a large number of hereditary military households fled.
Faced with the situation of military households fleeing, the thousands or hundreds of households in the military town not only did not take action to prevent them, but instead tried their best to encourage them and tried every means to cover them up, because when the military households were fleeing, the officers could not only collect With a bribe, after the military household fled, they could even obtain the land and real estate in the military household's name. For them, this was a cost-effective transaction.
Today, less than half of the military households in major military towns have been accounted for. However, the thousands and hundreds of households in military towns have received a large amount of fields, cattle, and agricultural crops. All of them are big landowners and big farmers. Rich man.
However, after the military households fled, although these thousands and hundreds of households owned a large amount of land, they always lacked manpower to cultivate it, so the land was abandoned on a large scale and could not create much value. In addition, As officers of the imperial court, these thousands and hundreds of households often had no choice but to do so. Once the imperial court transferred their positions and jurisdictions, the land in their hands would become cheaper for the next generation, so naturally they were unwilling to do so.
Now Zhao An is doing business with the military town by tampering with the military town's account books, turning the various assets of the general town into "ownerless things", and then spending money to buy these fields, houses, and cattle from the officers. , and seeds.
In this way, the "bad assets" in the hands of the officers turned into nothing, and "Jubao Trading Company" obtained a large amount of land, houses, cattle and farm tools, which will serve as Zhao Junchen's next plan to resettle the refugees and save food. The foundation has been laid, and everyone is happy.
Like today's business, Zhao An has handled it dozens of times in the past six months. He has done business eleven times with Xuanfu Military Town alone. This time the business is relatively small.
Now, Xuanfu Military Town has once again provided a total of nearly 9,000 acres of farmland, which means that more than 300 military households in Xuanfu Military Town have "disappeared".
Now, seeing that the Mongolian tribes are about to launch a large-scale invasion, Xuanfu Military Town, as the barrier to the capital and the strongest military town, not only did not consider strengthening its strength and resisting the enemy, but instead worked together and united as one. Inciting military households to flee, just for their own benefit, they would not hesitate to weaken border defenses and waste armaments, just to embezzle the property of military towns and then sell them to make money!
Obviously, they have not considered at all what tragic end they will face once Mongolia breaks through!
How insane is this? !
However, such a crazy and crazy person is also an opportunity for Zhao Junchen. Only with such a crazy and greedy military town can Zhao Junchen successfully bribe him!
Take Xuanfu Military Town as an example. After half a year of transactions, they had sold half of the military town’s land and two-thirds of their cattle farm tools to “Jubao Trading Company” and completely lost their ability to be self-sufficient. If you want to maintain your status, there are only two ways - the first way is to ask the court for money, and the second way is to seek support from the "Jubao Trading Company", but no matter which method is used, Zhao Junchen cannot be circumvented. , so it is only a matter of time before they are gradually controlled by Zhao Junchen!
In fact, because of Zhao An's strong recommendation, in the name of "keeping accounts", the financial power of Xuanfu Military Town has now fallen into the hands of "Jubao Trading Company", and the middle and lower-level officers of Xuanfu Military Town have been taken over by Zhao An. An secretly controlled a lot. Although Zhao Zicheng was the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu Military Town, it would not be too difficult for Zhao Junchen to ignore him in the future.
Secretly thinking about Zhao Junchen's plan, Zhao An felt a little relaxed. At this point, most of the tasks assigned to him by Zhao Junchen had been completed, and the subsequent penetration was just a matter of time and effort.
While Zhao An was thinking secretly, the officers in the room were all staring at the gold and silver in front of them with bright eyes, and they couldn't wait for Zhao Zicheng to distribute it.
However, after Zhao Zicheng hesitated for a moment, he suddenly said: "I have to trouble Shopkeeper Zhao to take back half of this batch of gold and silver!"
After hearing what Zhao Zicheng said, Zhao An couldn't help but be stunned and asked: "Why?"
Zhao Zicheng shook his head and said: "What else can be done? I have found out that this year's fire screening of invaders is unusual, and the Xuanfu military town may also participate in the war at any time. However, the court is partial, and most of the money and food support has been given to Shaanxi and Gansu. , Xuanfu Army Town has not lost any benefits, but the Xuanfu Army's armaments are also somewhat insufficient. If they participate in the war like this, I am afraid there will be no good end. I know that Shopkeeper Zhao has always had great hands and eyes, and has great supernatural powers. If he wants Buy some horses and armor from Shopkeeper Zhao, the court is in short supply of these things, I have asked the court many times, but to no avail, so I have to rely on Shopkeeper Zhao."
After saying that, Zhao Zicheng turned to look at the thousands of households and said: "Everyone, we are now on the path of shopkeeper Zhao. There will be many opportunities to make money in the future, but now that the war is approaching, our servants are the best." Let me expand on this, if you lose your life in the war, no matter how much money you have, it will be useless. On the contrary, after our strength increases, once we make military exploits, the benefits will only be more!"
After hearing what Zhao Zicheng said, all the households were more or less reluctant after hesitation, but they also nodded in agreement.
At the same time, Zhao An looked at Zhao Zicheng with admiration.
Zhao An had contact with many generals. Most of them were afraid of the enemy, but Zhao Zicheng wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to build military exploits. Although Zhao Zicheng only wanted to get promoted and make a fortune, his courage was already stronger than most of the people. .
"It seems that this Zhao Zicheng is not just a man who is greedy for money and forgets his life, but also has some ambitions... However, you'd better be smarter in the future and don't try to get rid of Mr. Zhao's control, otherwise..."
Thinking of this, Zhao An glanced at Zhang Jie beside him.
If Zhao Zicheng disobeys in the future, Zhang Jie will be Zhao Zicheng's replacement!
When his mind changed, Zhao An's expression was as warm as ever, he nodded and smiled: "Since this is General Zhao's intention, I will naturally try my best! General Zhao, just don't worry, I will find a way before mid-August." Raise enough horses and soldiers and send them to Xuanhua Mansion!"
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Last night, the child was so noisy that he stayed up all night, and the bugs also stayed up all night. Today, he really couldn't bear it anymore, his head was always groggy, so there was only one update! Forgive me!
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