The cold wind was biting on the top of the city. Unlike in later generations where there were high-rise buildings to block it, you could now see more than ten miles away from the top of the city. The large tracts of small dilapidated bungalows built under the city's foundation did not block the cold wind at all.
Many of the bungalows where the common people lived were destroyed by braids, and it was difficult to rebuild them during the cold winter. Therefore, Ju Min could only temporarily live in a simple house in the central city until spring came back.
Originally, the braided camp outside the city could be seen from the top of the city. Then smallpox broke out and Huang Taiji had to order a retreat of twenty miles. As a result, the two main camps have now become no man's land.
The reason is very simple, that is, too many people have died, and no one of the original residents dares to return. What's more, some people are alarming and say that after spring, if you plow on it, you will plow out blood...
After the news spread, almost all the places where the braids had been set up were now in this situation.
Considering that its location was relatively close to the capital, a certain prince asked Li Shiwen, the Minister of Household Affairs, to replace it with the land area of a distant place.
Those wealthy gentry were naturally happy, and they quickly agreed, even at a 50% discount. Otherwise, they wouldn't even be able to receive a single grain of grain during the autumn harvest.
The Ministry of Household Affairs itself holds a large number of land deeds, and these lands are of no use at all. Under this situation, we cannot expect to resell them.
A certain prince gave the reason for the purchase, and Li Shiwen and Wang Jiayan, the Minister of War, naturally agreed.
Because it is close to the capital and is in a good location, even if it cannot be farmed, it can be turned into a shooting range under the name of the Ministry of War.
If each department organizes a drill or something, you can pull it over and have a good time. The journey is not too far, and it can be used for weight-bearing exercises in the field.
A certain prince is also planning to dig an artificial lake covering an area of no less than one square mile on the nearby land to train marines.
Just because there is no suitable training venue in Beijing, the Marine Corps cannot have to go to Tongzhou or even Tianjin for training.
There are also fish in the lake, and you can reward the army by catching them. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.
The Academy of Sciences also lacks a larger testing ground, so they can't always stir things up in the Taiye Pool.
If the mandarin fish inside is frightened to the point that the fish meat becomes unpalatable, who should bear the responsibility?
As for the rumors that there were so many dead people on the acquired land that it was haunted...
A certain prince replied like this. Growing up, he had heard about smokers, drunkards, hungry men, cowards, and those who couldn't walk when they saw a woman.
Other ghosts?
Sorry, I caught one in Ouchi, and it was dressed up as a rip-off!
Whoever can catch other kinds of ghosts will be rewarded with a silver reward of ten thousand taels!
One is ten thousand taels, the more the merrier!
After catching it, I put it in a pot and stewed it. Let's also taste what this ghost tastes like!
It doesn't matter if you can't catch it, let's open up the battle and fight with real swords and guns!
Let’s see who is more powerful, humans or ghosts!
If you don’t dare to do it openly, then you are a despicable brat who has nothing to fear...
So, under the reward offered by a certain prince, various ministries launched ghost-catching operations, but there was always no harvest.
The thief who was finally caught stealing military supplies was caught!
How dare you even steal military supplies?
After being caught, he was chopped into pieces directly after a brief trial!
It was said to be haunted, but in the end it turned out to be a robber. The soldiers couldn't help but feel discouraged. They were really not interested or afraid of this thing.
A certain prince found it so funny that he could hardly care about living people. How could he still be in the mood to care about ghosts?
Why are you all so loving? ? ?
Seeing that the soldiers on the top of the city were all wearing relatively warm clothes, a certain prince felt relieved.
Sanjiutian doesn't need to wear a helmet at all. Why don't even the enemies wear iron helmets?
The plate armor on his body is still used to block the wind. Other than that, he wears thick cotton coats and cotton hats.
Officers can wear dog skin, cowhide, and sheepskin hats, while generals can enjoy beautiful and warm fur hats.
Each sentry post is equipped with a stove, allowing you to light a fire for heating. There is plenty of coal anyway.
Seeing soldiers warming themselves by the fire at the top of the city can also serve as a deterrent to those with ulterior motives.
The stove does not need to be purchased separately, it is just a used mortar, commonly known as an iron barrel!
There are plenty of these things. Thousands of them were originally made, enough to equip the entire city's garrison.
A certain prince did not go to see the soldiers empty-handed. He had to show something when he was standing guard in the freezing cold weather.
All the sentinels that I saw, regardless of their rank, were given a package of spicy fish, no more than two taels.
Soldiers who serve in the army are naturally grateful to receive gifts from the Crown Prince himself on New Year's Eve.
Although it is very spicy when eaten, it can activate blood circulation and warm the body. No one does not miss the goodness of the prince.
The city wall has not yet been repaired, and during the Chinese New Year period, except for the yamen, army, flower buildings and other places, all other businesses have taken a break.
According to a report from Zhang Guowei, Minister of Industry, it will be roughly after the beginning of spring that the damaged city wall can be almost repaired. If you want to restore it to its original appearance, you will have to wait until summer.
This efficiency is really low, but there is no way, productivity is at this level and cannot be improved at the moment!
The situation outside the city is still like that at the top of the city. There is no time to fill in the siege trenches dug by the pigtails. All the holes can be blocked first, and the trenches can be dealt with later.
There is no doubt that Huang Taiji's braided army is here to cause evil!
It is estimated that after spring, these evil obstacles will still be ready to take action.
After the inspection, it was almost noon, and a certain prince returned to the East Palace because he had to receive Japanese envoys in the afternoon.
After meeting these customers who love to buy toilets, they also want to watch the Spring Festival Gala, and when night falls, there will be a fireworks show.
On the way back, the sound of firecrackers came one after another nearby.
This shows that people can still survive. If they can't even afford firecrackers, they really won't be able to survive.
"I'm here to see His Highness the Crown Prince of Ming Dynasty. I wish His Highness all the best, happiness, longevity and good health!"
"Thank you, envoy! Please take a seat!"
This time, the Japanese delegation was led by Hota Masamori, a veteran of General Tokugawa's second army. It numbered no less than 5,000 people. The team included relatives sent by daimyo from all over Japan.
These daimyo were not allowed to leave their fiefs without permission, so they could only send people to purchase the required goods, because through the last purchase, a bunch of daimyo made a lot of money.
The samurai and ashigaru who followed Abe back to conquer Liaodong, no matter which daimyo they belonged to, became the envy of their companions who stayed behind after they returned.
Many samurai have bought themselves a new set of armor. Since they may have to go abroad to fight, horses are difficult to transport, so many people do not buy mounts, leaving money for their families to improve their lives.
What's more, with the permission of the prince, he bought two iron plates and brought them back to the local blacksmith to integrate them into a pair of Japanese-style armor.
Because the samurai were all experts, they saw the super defensive capabilities of the Ming Dynasty's new armor, so they became interested. However, the Japanese country could not make a whole breastplate, so they could only buy it from the Ming Dynasty.
After actual combat testing, the warriors all believed that the armor of the Ming Dynasty was the real armor. Even within ten steps, armor-piercing arrows could not penetrate its front at all.
After seeing it, the famous people were willing to spend money to purchase it. No matter how expensive all the life-saving props are, they are worth it. If you can't save your life, what's the use of money? Keep it for burial?
In addition, the famous people are particularly keen on buying high-end toilets produced in the Ming Dynasty. It is an unparalleled enjoyment to sit on them and pray.
The only thing that can keep pace with the toilet is the sofa. However, due to the limited quantity, it has always been in a state of price and out of stock in the Japanese market.
New oil lamps were another hot-selling commodity, with orders for tens of thousands of lamps not yet shipped to Japan alone.
After this experience, almost all the famous people have turned into real second-level dealers. As long as they can make money, they will never tire of it.
Especially those daimyo whose fiefdoms were very poor, who were short of money and had to support a large number of samurai and ashigaru under their command, were trying their best to purchase various goods from the Ming Dynasty.
In the past, all merchant ships sailing to the Japanese country could only dock at Shimonoseki Port to unload their cargo, which was something that could be tolerated when everyone was poor.
However, as some people suddenly became rich, those daimyo who were still suffering from poverty could no longer bear it and wrote letters one after another, requesting the establishment of additional ports, especially along the coast of their fiefdoms.
Forced by helplessness, the Tokugawa generals could only establish six new trading ports.
Among them, there are four places on Honshu Island, one place each on Kyushu Island and Shikoku Island.
Otherwise, the Tokugawa shogunate would not be able to control the daimyo from various places who secretly interacted with Ming merchants.
All Ming Dynasty merchant ships sailing to Japan were under the Zheng family. The annual registration fee was 3,000 taels, no less than one tael.
This is the tacit understanding reached by a certain prince and Zheng Zhilong. The prince earns the price difference of the goods, and Zheng Zhilong earns the registration fee.
Calculated from the distance and speed, it can be run at least ten times a year. Excluding registration fees, labor costs, and purchase fees, the average net profit must be at least three hundred taels each time for a businessman to be profitable.
If merchants in the Ming Dynasty want to make back the cost of investment, they must know how to operate, and they can sell to whomever is willing to pay a higher price.
In this way, Zheng Zhilong would no longer be able to control these merchants and would unload cargo at other ports privately. Who would know?
When checking the accounts, just say that there was a storm at sea and part of the goods fell into the sea to feed the fish. Can you go and reconcile with the Dragon King?
As long as he can receive the registration fee, Zheng Zhilong doesn't care about other things, as long as he doesn't get robbed at sea.
Driven by the joint efforts of a certain prince and the Tokugawa general, Ming-Japanese trade was growing at an unprecedented rate.
Every day, there were about seventy or eighty ships sailing from various ports in the Ming Dynasty to Japan, almost three times more than before.
Half of them set off from Tianjin, because they wanted to buy novel goods from the capital and ship them to Japan for sale, so they had to dock here.
Tianjin Port has also become a large port comparable to Quanzhou and Xiamen. Even in the freezing season of the Bohai Sea, there are no less than a hundred ships waiting at the port.
There is no other reason. Shipowners are looking for goods in the capital, and they can only ship the goods after getting the goods. The profit earned by shipping novel goods is more than twice that of ordinary goods, so shipowners are naturally willing to wait.
If you buy it now, it will arrive in Tianjin for shipment in at least two months. At that time, the Bohai Sea will thaw, and you will be able to catch up with the first wave of commodity shortages after the Japanese New Year.
There is another way, which is to transport it by land and go to sea in Denglai, but the journey is longer and more time-consuming. The most important thing is that when the goods are out of stock, you can't go anywhere.
Why is it out of stock?
Because a certain prince had reserved a large amount of goods in advance to show his goodwill to Monan Menggu, and if he wanted to mine the gold mountain, he had to give the local indigenous people a little sweetness.
Then there are the goods reserved for Zheng Zhilong. Zhen Haibo not only collects registration fees, but also does import and export trade himself.
There are no less than a thousand large ocean-going merchant ships, referred to as "foreign ships", belonging to the Zheng family.
Zheng Zhilong was a business partner of a certain prince, especially since he sent troops to defeat the Dutch. Naturally, Zheng could not be treated badly in terms of trade.
The earliest batch of merchants who place orders can get the goods as soon as the end of the new year, that is, on the 16th day of the first lunar month.
Whether they wait for the Bohai Sea to thaw or take the Denglai route is their own business.
A certain prince was already very conscientious and did not take the opportunity to raise prices. All goods were priced at the time of ordering.
There are also many Japanese merchants who live in the capital, and a certain prince treats them equally. Together with the local merchants, they can all wait.
There are a lot of goods in the warehouse, which of course are not reserved for ordinary merchants. The order of the Tokugawa second goods general must be guaranteed.
Then there are the orders from Abe Shigeji, who did a great job last time, and the orders from arms dealer Yokoyama Takuya.
The rest is not very important, there is no friendship, they all have to wait in line!
Although a certain prince has asked his factories to recruit a large number of workers and desperately expand production capacity, orders have been queued up until summer.
Otherwise, Zhou Xin'er, the proprietress of the Beauty Center, would have been extremely happy after receiving a lot of merchandise, and would have thanked a certain prince profusely.
It's because even in the capital, many products are out of stock, and the relationship is not strong, so it's impossible to get the goods immediately.
There is a lot of goods piled up in the warehouse, but they cannot be sold. Those are all commodities with strategic value!
This is by no means an exaggeration. If you don’t provide the benefits of grazing on the grassland, will people be willing to abandon the dark side and turn to the bright side?
If you don’t give enough sweetness to the Tokugawa general, they will continue to braid your hair after spring?
When you ask for help from others, you are extremely arrogant and expect others to help you and listen to you. Isn't this a dream?
Therefore, even if a certain prince heard that a large number of merchants were willing to pay high prices to buy goods, he did not sell the goods in the warehouse.
You may lose hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, but the important thing is to win over the two major partners.
One has gold and the other can fight, both of which can play a decisive role in cleaning up the Emperor Taiji.
"I am very grateful to General Tokugawa for lending a helping hand when the Ming Dynasty was in crisis, and admire the heroic performance of your army. I hope to carry out all-round cooperation with your country in the future!"
"General Tokugawa admires His Highness' talent very much and hopes that the friendly exchanges between Japan and Ming Dynasty can be sustained. I will spare no effort to help your country fight against the enemy."
"I have spoken with General Abe Shigeji before. I hope that your country will send troops again in the spring and summer. I wonder what General Tokugawa's intention is?"
"Your Highness, General Tokugawa has also agreed to send troops. The scale will be around one hundred thousand, and the conditions are the same as before!"
"That's very good. As long as your army comes, I will provide corresponding guarantees so that the military operation can be carried out smoothly and strive to achieve another great victory!"
Last time, the number was set at 50,000, but 70,000 to 80,000 people came.
The scale has doubled this time, so the exact number of people who can come should only be a lot more.
Seeing others going abroad to make money will naturally make some people jealous. This is the purpose of a certain prince.
The more Japanese troops are sent, the better. In this way, the restraint on Huang Taiji will be greater and fewer people will die in the Ming Dynasty.
Regardless of whether it is officially allowed or organized privately, a certain prince is willing to pay as long as he can come to Ming Dynasty.
The troops in the capital could not be mobilized easily, and the Ming Dynasty's field troops were restrained in the south by Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and the Gezuo Fifth Battalion.
Under this unfavorable situation, if you want to relieve the military pressure in western Liaoning, especially the bridgehead Jinzhou, you have to spend a lot of money to hire foreign aid.
Fortunately, the appearance fee for this foreign player is not expensive. Compared with the battle in the capital that cost 20 million taels of silver, this is considered an economical tactic.
"This is my gift to General Tokugawa. I will also give mortars as a gift to your army to enhance the firepower of your army in battle. The number will not be less than a thousand. And give away half a million grenades!”
If you are willing to send troops to make money, I will arm you!
The braids will soon discover that the Japanese army on the opposite side is getting stronger and stronger as they fight!
Don't worry, the show will start soon...
