"The No. 1 Grain Merchant of the Ming Dynasty..." Hearing these words, Mr. Zhou was directly shocked.

However, Wang Peng, who was sitting in front of him, did not give him too much reaction time, but continued to ask: "I don't know what kind of person Mr. Zhou thinks our general is..."

"Sir General..." Old Zhou, who reacted from shock, waved his hand and said.

"Mr. Wang, are you here to joke with Xiao Lao Er... Xiao Lao Er is just a businessman, so he dare not judge the third-rank compound of the current dynasty. If the general knows, don't Xiao Lao Er's head."

Wang Peng smiled and replied: "Old Zhou, I promise you that no matter what you say today, I will forget everything except the door of your Zhou family... So, just say whatever you have and don't take it into consideration..."

"This..." Hearing this, Mr. Zhou fell into hesitation.

However, when he thought of what Wang Peng had just mentioned, he still plucked up the courage to say.

"If Mr. Wang insisted on letting Xiao Lao Er say it, Xiao Lao Er said it... In my opinion, our General Manager is a very rare general and loves the people as much as his son... Because everything he did after coming to our Datong Mansion proves this. In addition, from the perspective of Xiao Lao Er, General Manager is still a very "ambitious" person... "

Speaking of this, Mr. Zhou wisely closed his mouth and stopped talking.

Wang Peng nodded thoughtfully and continued to ask: "Since in Old Zhou's eyes, our General Manager is ten good officials... I wonder if Old Zhou wants to serve the General Manager..."

"It's more direct. Mr. Zhou helped the general to do business. He sold and purchased all kinds of urgently needed materials for the general. He became an official and businessman..."

"Official businessmen...official businessmen...official businessmen..." Old Master Zhou once again showed a heartfelt shock expression on his face. His eyes stared at Wang Peng in front of him, hoping that Wang Peng could give him an explanation.

Under the gaze of Mr. Zhou, Wang Peng nodded firmly. Then he affirmed to Mr. Zhou: "Yes, it's the businessman who is an official... As long as Mr. Zhou is willing to serve the Lord, I believe that the General will never be stingy with an official position. Otherwise, I would not have changed from a seventh-rank county magistrate who has resigned from his post and turned into a fifth-rank magistrate who is now a fifth-rank magistrate..."

At this moment, although the shocked expression on Mr. Zhou's face disappeared, it showed an expression of incredible belief. Of course, in Mr. Zhou's eyes, Wang Peng had already seen the desire from the bottom of his heart...

Yes, that is, desire, desire for being an official...

In the Ming Dynasty, since Zhu Yuanzhang founded, the people were classified as protective categories. For example, if the old man Zhou in front of him was a businessman, then his generation could only be a businessman, and there was no possibility of becoming an official.

Of course, this is not the most important thing.

For those of them, although they hold a large sum of silver, they have no political status at all, and they are even inferior to ordinary people. In other words, they hold a bank but cannot enjoy it, and they are also regarded as merchants who are all traitors among scholars, farmers, industry and commerce...

Therefore, although these businessmen are rich, they want to get rid of this industry from the bottom of their hearts and become scholars who are respected and respected in society...

For Mr. Zhou, the reason why he has been doing good deeds is to get rid of the title of "no business without any traitor".

Now, Wang Peng in front of him actually told himself that he had the opportunity to get rid of his identity as a businessman. Not only that, he could also become an official and truly glorious...

Therefore, after only a brief contemplation, Mr. Zhou asked Wang Peng: "Mr. Wang, can this work... As far as I know, this seems to be incompatible with the court's etiquette and law... I am a businessman, how can a businessman become an official..."

Wang Peng waved his hand and replied: "Mr. Zhou, what I want to tell you is that there is nothing impossible in the General Manager where is the General Manager... So, as long as you agree to do things for the General Manager and be loyal to the General Manager, the General Manager will naturally give you an official and gentry that will satisfy you very much... If you, Mr. Zhou, who is so proud of your ancestors, will never be looked down upon again..."

"Okay, I'll do it... Please tell the General, to honor the family, the second brother swears here that from now on, my Zhou family will only follow the general and serve the General..."

After making the decision, both Wang Peng and Mr. Zhou showed a relaxed smile on their faces.

Since I have decided to serve the General, I must be clear about what I should do. So Mr. Zhou, who had just smiled, returned to seriousness again.

Then, he asked Wang Peng: "Mr. Wang, I don't know what our Zhou family business needs to do for the General?"

Wang Peng took out a list directly from his sleeve and handed it to Mr. Zhou and said, "This is the first batch of supplies that our general asked the Zhou family store to buy.... There are a total of 200,000 dans of rice and 100,000 dans of sea salt..."

"So many... What does the General want to do?" After seeing and hearing the numbers on the list, Mr. Zhou exclaimed without thinking.

Wang Peng was also very moved by Wei Zheng's big move. After a smile, he replied: "So much food is for people to eat..."

"You must know that according to our estimates, the number of refugees who eventually poured into Datong Prefecture will exceed 300,000... 300,000 refugees, plus the original 100,000 refugees, how much food should be eaten a day... So, 200,000 dan of grain seems to be a lot, but it can't be eaten for too long."

"According to the General's request, all the first batch of supplies will be advanced by your Zhang family and bought them from Jiangnan. If the Zhou family's money is not enough, the General's Office will replenish it..."

"After all the supplies are transported back to Datong Prefecture, the General Office will avenge the Zhou family at a ratio of 20% of the total price."

"In other words, if the Zhou family bought the first batch of supplies, if they drew 500,000 taels of silver, when the goods were delivered, the General Office would give the Zhou family 600,000 taels of silver... and so on..."

Seeing Mr. Zhou nodding by default, Wang Peng continued: "Of course, Mr. Zhou should not underestimate these 20% of the profit... According to the General Manager, in just one year, the General Manager's Office needs 800,000 dan of grain purchased by the Zhou family. As for sea salt, I don't know what the General Manager's purpose is to ask for so much, but it will definitely exceed 500,000 dan..."

"Of course, this is only the year of this year. After the autumn harvest next year, what Mr. Zhou needs to do is not to purchase grain, but to help the General Office sell grain..."

"Selling grain... Is there any excess grain in the General's Mansion to sell?" Mr. Zhou asked with confusion on his face.

"Of course there is..." Wang Peng said loudly.

"Mr. Zhou, don't forget what I'm doing now..."

"Middle farming..." Old Zhou answered thoughtfully.

"Yes, it's just farming..." Wang Peng said loudly.

"You all know that the General Mansion will carry out military farming, but you don't know how large the General Mansion's military farming scale is... Since Mr. Zhou has decided to be loyal to the General, I will reveal it to Mr. Zhou."

"There are 100,000 military farms I manage now. If nothing unexpected happens, in one month, the scale of the military farms will exceed 400,000 people... 400,000 military farmers, even if each person reclaims ten acres of land, it will still be a total of 4 million mu of fertile land..."

"In addition to the tens of thousands of wells dug by the General in the middle of the four million mu of fertile fields, these four million mu will definitely get a bumper harvest in two days.... The entire four million mu will get a bumper harvest in two days.... Mr. Zhou thought that at that time, there would be much grain in the General's Mansion..."

"At that time, the excess grain will definitely be handed over to your Zhou family for processing... With so much grain in hand, your Zhou family will become the number one grain merchant in the Ming Dynasty. That's not a very simple thing."

At this moment, Mr. Zhou was once again in unprecedented shock because of the news reported by Wang Peng.

In Mr. Zhou's eyes, it is absolutely easy to harvest eight million dan of grain as long as there is water.

By then, even if the food rations for the entire Datong Prefecture are left for the whole year, there will be three to four million dan of grain left...

Three or four million dan of grain, even if one dan of grain earns half a tael of silver, the Zhou family can earn two million taels of silver in a very short time. Of course, making money is second. After having the grain in hand, grain merchants from all over the country will beg to buy grain from themselves. Over time, the Zhou family will naturally become the first grain merchant in the Ming Dynasty...

Of course, this is just one of the reasons why he was shocked. Although Mr. Zhou has never been in politics, his long-term business acumen has definitely made his sense of smell no less than that of ordinary politicians.

When he first learned about Wei Zheng, Mr. Zhou judged that Wei Zheng was definitely a very ambitious person.

Otherwise, how could a general come to Datong Prefecture to provide relief to the victims and spend a lot of money to farm the land? Doing so much has nothing to do with him, but without exception it is a matter of winning people's hearts.

Now, after hearing what Wang Peng said, Mr. Zhou became even more convinced of his guess.

As a businessman who travels all year round, Mr. Zhou is very clear about the importance of food in troubled times.

As the third-rank general of Datong Prefecture, Wei Zheng was the undisputed local emperor of Datong Prefecture. With tens of thousands of iron-blooded elites and tens of millions of refugees, if millions of loads of grain were supported, Mr. Zhou could not imagine what Wei Zheng would do... "

However, even though he was shocked, Mr. Zhou knew that he had no way out...

Since Wang Peng told the General's series of secrets, the Zhou family has been tied to the General's Mansion in a boat.

However, Mr. Zhou also believed in his eyes. If he could be so tolerant, he would first think that the general of the military farm was definitely not a simple general who was easily defeated.

Following Wei Zheng, perhaps the biggest business that the Zhou family has done since they started business and the most profitable business.
Chapter completed!