"Sell newspapers and sell newspapers. The imperial court has officially confirmed that it will send 400,000 troops to the north to attack Mongolia in March this year. This is the largest military buildup since the founding of our dynasty!"

"Selling newspapers, Marshal Du Song, commander of the Eastern Route Army during this expedition, received an exclusive interview with this newspaper. The troop allocation and new equipment of the troops will be reported in detail in this newspaper!"

Early morning on February 25, 1620, Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture.

At the east end of the county, there is a large area of ​​contiguous houses with green tiles and white walls. Although from the outside, these houses look simple and unpretentious, you can’t help but cover a large area: the entire eastern part of the county.

A large part of the courtyard is occupied by this courtyard.

In this courtyard, which was originally unified in style, undulating and extremely harmonious as a whole, now, a tower about thirty meters high has suddenly been erected in the courtyard wall: although the tower body has been painted out of wooden

It has a textured feel, but in fact, this is a new type of building made of reinforced concrete and concrete.

In recent years, wealthy people from all over the Ming Dynasty have begun to build similar towers in their gardens: the top of the tower is actually a huge closed pool. Through the principle of lever mechanism, the water below is pumped up, and then passed through

The water pipe is connected to the bedroom, thus realizing running water for washing hands, cooking, using the toilet and even bathing in summer.

At this moment, facing the early morning mist, the owner of this garden, Xu Yuanzuo, is standing on this high tower, overlooking the newly awakened Huating County - this is Xu Yuanzuo's favorite thing to do in recent years.

Listening to the clear shouts of the newsboys on the street under the high tower, Xu Yuanzuo unconsciously pulled out a sneer at the corner of his mouth.

Because he knew: Despite the excitement in the newspapers and magazines, in fact, the Qiu Ba people in the important town of Jiubian were already worse than dead at this moment.

The emperor's order to conquer Mongolia this time was a military action after tearing apart Siam, annexing Korea, and dismembering Japan. In other words, at this time, the emperor's prestige was rising, and no one in the country, civil or military, dared to explode.

Then the emperor said that this Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition were the Ming Dynasty's full-scale war against all Mongolian tribes, so all the soldiers in the nine-border towns must go into battle. Of course, the number of soldiers is not what the generals of each military town say.

, but must be reviewed by officials sent by the imperial court's Ministry of War, Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate before it counts.

What is the review standard? Simple, the infantry lifts a fifty kilogram dumbbell and successfully snatches it back and forth five times. The archer must be able to draw a stone bow three times in a row. The cavalry must mount a horse and gallop twenty miles quickly. If these

If you can't even do it, then you can finish the 5,000-meter run in 18 minutes.

However, Xu Yuanzuo knew that this was the standard. The nine-border town boasted 400,000 soldiers. After the joint assessment of the three departments in recent months, it was estimated that they could not even collect 100,000 to reach the standard. The worst ones were Jingying and Tengxiang.

Siwei: The so-called 100,000-strong Chinese army, but there are not even 10,000 that reach the standard!

Thinking back to the time when he went to Beijing for a meeting, some military generals were disapproving of this - everyone is so bad, my army is pretty good. Xu Yuanzuo couldn't help but smile even more clearly: The emperor started from being a grandson, and

There are so many things to do, which one is a boring thing to do when you are full? Aren’t they all full of profound meaning?

What's the deeper meaning? The first step is to select the soldiers who can fight in the nine-border towns and Beijing, organize them together and drag them out to fight Mongolia. The second step is to integrate these soldiers in the process of fighting Mongolia to make the new army ten

The officers from the town were sent to command them and separate them from the corrupt generals. The third step was to come back from the war in Mongolia and carry out thorough military reforms with the power of victory!

As a descendant of Xu Jie, although the Xu family has lacked high-ranking officials in recent years, the origin of family education lies here: Xu Yuanzuo knew very well that despite the fact that the 400,000 soldiers in the nine-border town were eliminated by 300,000, the battle with the 300,000 soldiers in the south

Compared with the soldiers, they are already rare elites. Once the military reform in the north is completed, the military reform in the south will naturally not be wasted.

In this way, the emperor has complete control of the country's military power, the country has obtained a powerful combat force, and the burden on the household department will be greatly alleviated - these are all good things. And who will be harmed? Isn't it those who are already landlords?

A wealthy military general?

"Chi yo yo ~" He raised his head and took another sip. Xu Yuanzuo felt that the milk in the cup in his hand was not warm enough. Then he straightened his clothes and prepared to get off the tower.

When he just reached the stairs, he saw his grandson Xu Bengu climbing up.

"Meet my grandfather."

"Well, what's the matter?"

"The postman just delivered a letter. It's a letter from brother Bengao from Beijing to his grandson."

"Since it's given to you, just read it yourself."

"Grandpa, my grandson has already opened it and looked at it. Brother Bengao said in the letter that he has helped you register the coal mine you want to buy with the Royal Bank. It's just that the other party requires a deposit to be paid first. This...brother Bengao has it in his hands.

There’s not enough money.”

The so-called Ben Gao is the grandson of Xu Jie's direct grandson Xu Yuanchun, Xu Bengao. At this time, he was serving as a royal guard in Beijing.

There are currently two main branches of the Xu family: Xu Yuanchun's branch is engaged in official career, while Xu Yuanzuo's branch is engaged in business. The two branches of officials and businessmen collude to help each other. This kind of combination is the norm among the wealthy families of the Ming Dynasty.

After listening to Xu Bengu's words, Xu Yuanzuo's brows wrinkled unconsciously: "How much money does the family have now?"

"Before my grandson went to the tower, he went to the accounting office to ask. Currently, all the living money that can be transferred to the family is only 60,000 silver dollars."

"Ah?! Why is there only so much?"

"Grandpa!" Xu Bengu, who has been fully delegated by Xu Yuanzuo in recent years and is responsible for the family's capital turnover, unconsciously raised his voice: "Grandpa, the family's expenses have been really high these years! When the great-grandson was just in charge of the country, he auctioned the salt mine, and my family bought it.

We built two salt fields near the sea at a cost of 1.2 million. As of today, we have not fully repaid the money. Three years ago, the War Foundation was established, and my family invested 300,000 silver dollars to invest in it. After the Siam War ended the year before last, my family also invested in

Saigon and Singapore have each encircled a large farm of more than 300,000 acres, and invested 600,000 yuan in this area. Recently, you have heard that Zheng Hongyuan and others brought rubber back from America, and asked his grandson to send people to Hainan

Three hundred plants were ordered for one thousand silver dollars each...

Well, the salt farm is currently providing a steady stream of 150,000 to 60,000 yuan in profits to my family every year, but for other things, I haven’t seen the harvest yet!”

"Hey." After listening to Xu Bengu's dissatisfied report, Xu Yuanzuo let out a long sigh: "You, you still don't quite understand that today's world has begun to converge."

After saying this, Xu Yuanzuo took another sip of milk, and then said: "Has the steam engine arrived?"

"I arrived last night. Because it was dark, my grandson didn't organize the manpower to unload the goods. I plan to organize workers and technicians to unload the goods this morning after the sky is completely bright."

"Well, you have to take good care of the two technicians from Beijing. Don't be stingy with the food, luxury houses, maids and even Cheng Yi. You know, as long as we use this steam engine as my silk weaving factory

With the power of the power, the price of our products will reach 30% or even 20% of the original price. In this way, we can squeeze all other companies' silk and homespun cloth out of the market! And if we don't have such a machine, and other companies have

, we are the ones who are squeezed out of the market!”

"Yes, grandpa, don't worry. My grandson invited two technicians from Beijing to Piaoxiangyuan last night. But grandpa, the family is really struggling with cash flow, not to mention the coal mine auction, just the new machine.

The installation and the renovation of the factory building are also a bit difficult for my grandson."

"Hmm..." He turned around and looked at the unobstructed view of Huating County below him. He patted the railing at hand for a while. Xu Yuanzuo turned back and stared at Xu Bengu and said: "Let's take a loan. We will use it in Songjiang, Suzhou and Zhejiang."

All the land is mortgaged and loaned to the Royal Bank!"

"Loan?" Xu Bengu almost fell down from the thirty-meter-high water tower when he heard this: "Grandpa, our Xu family has been lending money to others these years. When will we actually start borrowing money from others?

Already?"

"Hehehe... Gu'er, come on, come forward, stand on the edge of this railing, and listen carefully. Have you heard anything?"

"My grandson... heard the whistling wind."

"This is the storm of the times! Young man, why are you not as aware of the changes in the current situation as I am, an old man?"

Xu Yuanzuo stretched out his hands and slapped Xu Bengu hard on the shoulder: "Grandson, you have to work hard! Grandpa is old, and I don't know how long he can support this family. And in this era, because of the emperor's wisdom and martial arts, the emperor is about to

Set off a huge wave. Those who cannot recognize the situation will be eliminated quickly. Only by recognizing the direction of this wave, can our Xu family be invincible! And take advantage of the situation to become the leader of this great era.
Chapter completed!