Looking upstairs, Zhang Cheng listened to Liu Quan's words, thought for a moment, and said: "Liu Quan, you have thousands of stones of food stored here and nearly ten thousand taels of silver. You can't just let it go."
When Liu Quan heard this, he was stunned. He thought: This food and money are treasures. If you don't save them, why should you scatter them?
Looking at Liu Quan with a puzzled look on his face, Zhang Cheng smiled calmly. His group of Qiu Ba could barely do it if they were training troops for war, but they couldn't do it if they were engaged in calculations and intrigues.
Zhang Cheng shook his head. He felt that the talents available to him were still scarce!
"Liu Quan, this grain is indeed a good thing, but if you keep it like this, it won't increase, right?"
"Yes, but if we have food, we won't be hungry!"
"Haha, you are just a piece of wood!"
Zhang Cheng smiled and shook his head, and continued patiently: "Although this grain is good, it has no value if it is stored in the warehouse. Now, our Xiaoxiaoyu produces a surplus every year. If you store it in a warehouse, it will become old grain after a long time. What’s the use?
Nowadays, when the winter wheat has not been harvested, the price of grain is rising. Those poor households do not have enough grain in their homes. The poorer ones may even sell their sons and daughters. You can open a grain shop in Baoan Prefecture City or Acropolis to sell grain at a low price. selling grain,
Even those who have no money can still find three or more households to jointly guarantee and lend them some grain on credit. When the winter wheat is harvested, just add 10% as interest. This is a good deed and can make the best use of everything. Isn't it right? Wonderful? "
Liu Quan shook his big head and said: "General, all the grain and grain have been sold. How will we survive the famine?"
"you?……"
Zhang Cheng was a little angry and didn't want to speak for a moment, and even Chen Zhong couldn't help but laugh. At this time, Zhao Liang, who was following Liu Shenchen closely, suddenly said: "Buying and reselling?
What the general means is that when there is a grain shortage, we sell grain to get money and win the hearts of the people. When the grain harvest comes, the price of grain will fall, and we will harvest grain again, and so on.
Silver is exchanged for millet, and millet is exchanged for silver. There is new millet in our warehouse every year, and it is being poured back and forth. The millet and silver will only become more and more abundant, and we can still gain a good reputation! "
Zhang Cheng's eyes lit up when he heard this, while Liu Quan and Ma Huijun looked thoughtful.
"This guy is not bad, what is his name?"
Hearing Zhang Cheng's question, Liu Quan hurriedly replied: "General, this boy is Zhao Liang from Muzhajian. Seeing that he sincerely surrendered to him and was smart, he stayed with him and became an officer of the cavalry."
"Well, just a team officer?"
Zhang Cheng turned around and continued to look at the golden patches outside the valley, lost in thought.
…………
At the beginning of the lanterns, the Xiaoxiao Valley was also very lively. Nearly thirty of Zhang Cheng's personal guards were placed in the barracks and served with good wine and food.
Liu Jinhai, Li Changsheng and other three officers of the Guards were all over there in the barracks. They were accompanied by several officers who were not on duty in Xiaoxiaoyu, as well as the escort sergeants brought by Sun Dashan and Zhao Shihu. They were all gathered in the barracks. Eat and drink together in the hall.
The continuous lights illuminated the meeting hall brightly, and Zhang Cheng clearly felt that Xiaoxiaoyu was much more lively than the last time he came here.
Everyone sat down in the hall. At Zhang Cheng's table sat Chen Zhong, Liu Quan, Sun Dashan, Zhao Shihu, Ma Huijun and others. In addition, there were Liu Chengshan, the head of the village in charge of reclamation in Xiaoxiaoyu, and the craftsman of Tietouyu. The boss, Guo Youjin, is also at this table.
"You have guarded these three outlying villages on my behalf and managed them properly. It is very good. I would like to offer you a bowl of wine. I hope you can do your best to run these three villages better."
Zhang Cheng raised his wine bowl and spoke words of encouragement to everyone at the table. Everyone said humbly: "It's what it should be, it's what it should be. It's the duty of a humble rank to guard the village for the general."
Everyone then started to eat, and they drank hot wine while eating, but Chen Zhong refused to drink. No matter how everyone tried to persuade him, even Zhang Cheng asked him to drink, he insisted not to drink, and everyone ignored him.
During the dinner, Liu Quan and others reported the situation in their respective villages.
The situation in Xiaoyaoyu is almost understood. After Zhang Cheng left last time, not only three granaries were expanded here, but also barracks were built to accommodate a thousand sergeants.
However, the recruitment of soldiers was not so smooth.
The cavalry sentry led by Liu Quan now only has sixty riders. Except for the original twenty knights, the rest are all newly recruited young men. It will take a long time for them to be able to barely ride horses and become knights.
Liu Quan's method was that each old knight would train with two new recruits separately, so the cavalry was divided into two teams, each team had thirty people, and then each team was divided into groups of three.
The Jockey Club Army's sentry now also has a force of 120 people. Their infantry are far easier to train than cavalry, and they are already quite impressive now.
According to Zhang Cheng's instructions, their infantry first practiced forming formations and familiarizing themselves with military orders, and then they practiced the art of thrusting with spears. After they were familiar with these, they selected suitable people from among them, and then practiced fire guns, swords and shields.
Last time, Zhang Cheng left here the old infantrymen who had returned from the Third Class Qinwang. They left ten people in each village to train these newly recruited infantrymen.
In terms of reclamation, Liu Quan followed Zhang Cheng's instructions and occupied two abandoned forts outside Laiaoyu. There were nearly 8,000 acres of fields there, but most of them were abandoned and uncultivated.
It just so happened that manpower was limited in the Xiaoxiao Valley. They only leveled out nearly 6,000 acres of cultivated land and then stopped. However, when the poor military households in the surrounding area saw that the abandoned fort was occupied and large fields were leveled, some bold steps forward. Come and try to defect.
However, after Liu Quan took in dozens of families who had fled from the army and civilians, he turned away the newcomers and did not dare to take them in again for fear of causing disputes with the local state government and the military.
When Zhang Cheng heard this, he put down his chopsticks and said in a deep voice: "States, counties, and military offices do not maintain government affairs and cannot protect the people wholeheartedly, but they all privately occupy civilian and military fields.
Now we have opened many fields here. If no one cultivates them, they will be abandoned again. From now on, when refugees and deserters come to join us, you cannot turn them away. Register them all and compile them into our valley. The soldiers and civilians of the village,
Bao'an Prefecture is not strong enough to protect itself and cannot attack at all. I have interviewed all the security guards. They are all bullies and afraid of the strong. If they come here, you can all deduce that this is where the general is stationing troops. , Tell him to wait and look for me. "
Everyone at the table obeyed the order, especially Zhao Shihu, who was on the top of the wooden hawthorn. He was also shocked. He had thought that Zhang Cheng was loyal, brave and good at fighting. If he defected to him, he would not only clear his identity as a bandit who fled the army, but he might also have the opportunity to be promoted in the future. , can be said to be a glorious ancestor.
However, he gradually felt that Zhang Cheng was not like other generals of the Ming Dynasty. Most of those generals only benefited from themselves and rarely did things that were not thankless for their efforts, especially those that would offend other officials and generals. But there is no obvious benefit.
