In the early stage, the people Wu Shigong sent to Runing Prefecture to attack the front station came back and reported to Wu Shigong: Wu Shigong's garrison yamen has been arranged in Runing Prefecture.
However, because Runing Mansion did not have any garrison in the past, the garrison yamen was built by requisitioning some properties in the city. Of course, the court would not spend much money on this yamen, so it was simply built
He built a facade, opened up a few walls, and gave the Yamen a rough appearance. Therefore, if Wu Shigong wanted to move into the garrison Yamen, he would have to spend his own money to decorate it.
Anyway, it was stipulated that he would take office before the end of the year. Wu Shigong was not in a hurry, so he arranged for people to go to Runing Mansion with money to renovate the yamen, especially the inner house behind the yamen, because this time, Wu Shigong's family
Everyone, young and old, will have to move there.
It was not until after the autumn harvest that Wu Shigong's grain was collected in the warehouse of Qianhusuo Fortress that Wu Shigong decided to leave and take up his post in Runing Mansion.
At this time, Tang Liu had also transported all Wu Shigong's grain to Wu Shigong. However, when it was delivered, Tang Liu complained to Wu Shigong: Because of the severe drought in Henan, the local grain in Henan has increased to one tael per stone.
From eight qian to about two taels of silver.
Although Tang Liu was in Huguang, a grain-producing area, the price for purchasing grain was still four or five cents per stone, but the tax customs along the way knew that the grain merchants wanted to transport the grain to Henan for sale, so they paid taxes and customs
It has increased a lot. Even if Tang Liu is familiar with these customs officials, the food delivered to Wu Shigong this time has reached about eight coins per stone. According to the agreement with Wu Shigong, Tang Liu's business this time can be
There is basically no profit left.
Tang Liu didn't want to raise the price to Wu Shigong. Although the businessmen at that time also had the nature of profit-seeking, they were basically very trustworthy for the business they had promised. Unless the status of the two parties doing the business was very unequal.
, just like Wang Mi of the Qi family views Wu Shigong's identity. In that case, those with low status will inevitably be cheated. Of course, this kind of situation is also very rare. That's why Wu Shigong treats the Qi family's
It's such an angry way to do it.
The main purpose of Tang Liu telling Wu Shigong was to make Wu Shigong understand that if Wu Shigong buys grain through Tang Liu again in the future, he should increase the price of grain appropriately.
Tang Liu's behavior made Wu Shigong feel a little sorry. Taking advantage while Tang Liu suffered a loss was not the way to treat friends. Therefore, Wu Shigong wanted to give Tang Liu some money from the beginning, but of course Tang Liu declined. So Wu Shigong
He simply took out 20,000 taels of silver and asked Tang Liu to buy grain for him at the price of nine qian per stone.
However, this time the food does not need to be sent to Qianhusuo Fortress. The food will be sent directly to Runing Mansion. For Wu Shigong, there is actually not much difference between having food and money in hand. And in this country where disasters occur frequently
In that era, the value of food might have been higher.
For Tang Liu, the waterway distance from Huguang to Runing Prefecture is actually much shorter, and the taxes and customs along the way are also much smaller. Tang Liu can make a small profit from this business.
Seeing this, we may have a question in our mind. The price of grain in Henan and Huguang, two neighboring regions, is more than doubled. Why are there no businessmen trafficking large amounts of grain to Henan to earn high profits?
How about making profits and suppressing the price of this food?
This is mainly due to three reasons:
The first reason is that because the transportation in the Ming Dynasty was very underdeveloped, the price of commodities between the two regions was very different. And the difference was often much more than double, so the price of food was very different.
Times, is not the biggest disparity. Moreover, as grain is a heavy and heavy item, it is inconvenient to transport, so businessmen are not very interested in the grain business.
Let’s take salt products as an example. The cost price of the salt products produced by Yangzhou salt merchants’ salt farms is just over two qian per stone. Some larger salt farms can even lower the cost price of salt products to as low as per stone.
It's less than two taels of silver. But as long as these Yangzhou salt merchants transport salt to Henan, even the lowest wholesale price is one tael of silver per stone, and the profit will be more than five times.
The second reason is that during the transportation of food, knowing that the food can be profitable, the victims and bandits want to rob it, and the government can also find some reasons to confiscate it. The risk of transportation is very high. Only Cao Gang like Tang Liu, they are in
There is also a certain amount of force on the water, and only the fleets that have many connections with the government dare to transport food.
The final reason is that although the price of food in Henan is very high, there is actually no shortage of food in Henan. The food is in the hands of big landowners and big grain merchants. And the people who need food most do not have much purchasing power. So if
If there are merchants from other places transporting grain to Henan, those merchants will not even be able to sell the grain if they do not cooperate with local grain merchants in Henan.
After putting the grains transported by Tang Liu into the warehouse, Wu Shigong felt more confident. Because with the severe drought in Henan, the food stamp system was stopped for a period and started to be implemented again. And vaguely, these
Food stamps have become valuable tickets, converted into silver coins, and have become semi-circulated among nearby people and shops.
Before leaving Guide Mansion, Wu Shigong told He Fei, who had been promoted to general, to bring some military attachés to Yu Ji to help train. Of course, Wu Shigong also trained Yu Ji's military households, and Zhao Ming, the Guide Mansion,
The military attaché of Wei greeted me and gave me a generous gift.
Wu Shigong originally thought that Zhao Ming would be dissatisfied with his poaching behavior and would cause some obstacles. But he didn't expect that after Zhao Ming received the gift, he immediately agreed with a smile on his face.
In the view of Zhao Ming, the military attachés who returned to the German Guard, there are benefits to be gained from helping them train military households, and those well-trained military households are nominally under their command, so what's the point of such a good thing?
Why not?
Of course, military attachés like Zhao Ming are not fools. They also know that after those military households take Wu Shigong’s military pay, they will definitely only obey Wu Shigong’s orders in the future. However, military attachés like Zhao Ming are hereditary, and no one can deprive them of them.
Of course, they have little chance of promotion and have no ambition at all.
And military attachés like Zhao Ming have also enjoyed a peaceful and wealthy life for a long time. Their only purpose is to provide for themselves in old age, and if they have time, marry a concubine a year. As long as Wu Shigong does not rebel, and as long as the income of military attaches like Zhao Ming does not decrease, even if Wu Shigong
If they dig out all the military households under their command, so what?
In mid-October, Wu Shigong took his family and all the servants in the inner house, escorted by 800 soldiers, to Runing Mansion to take office. The other people Wu Shigong recruited in Beizhili and their families
; Yang Goudan's blacksmith workshop, as well as Wu Shigong's staff and other soldiers, will gradually be moved to Runing Mansion after Wu Shigong determines the location of the main camp of Runing Camp.
Among the people in Qianhusuo Fortress, Wu Shigong only brought Deng Qifan, Zhi Zhi, Zhang Xuebin and his apprentice Tao Xin. Regarding Zhi Zhi, Wu Shigong had a detailed discussion with him after he came back and asked Zhi Zhi to bring more soldiers and let them learn some battlefield skills.
Of course, as for Zhi’s request, Wu Shigong also agreed to take a dozen apprentices with him to learn Buddhism and medicine. As a result, there are now more than a dozen more disciples around Zhi.
Little bald head.
And Deng Qifan has now become Wu Shigong's chief staff, so of course Wu Shigong has to take it with him. However, Deng Qifan has also written a letter to his family and will move his family to Runing Mansion.
Zhang Xuebin's role was, of course, to let Zhang Xuebin handle some official affairs after Wu Shigong took office. As for his apprentice Tao Xin, although Tao Xin and Wu Shigong had a very close relationship, Tao Xin was underage after all, and Tao Xin left Qian after Wu Shigong left.
After the Husuo Fortress, in name it should be the Qianhu of this Qianhusuo.
Wu Shigong was afraid that Tao Xin would fall into the hands of someone with ulterior motives and use Tao Xin's identity to seize his Qianhusuo Fortress. Although the possibility of this happening was relatively small, Wu Shigong still had to be on guard.
In addition, Wu Shigong also hired Foreman Jiang from the county town with a high salary. Wu Shigong and Foreman Jiang cooperated very happily when building Qianhusuo Fortress. Therefore, to build the main camp of Runing Camp this time, Wu Shigong also needed Foreman Jiang.
Experience and ability.
Under the guidance of several old bandits sent by Thunder Eagle, Wu Shigong's men successfully passed through Li Yaozi's activity area, left the mountainous area in the north of Runing Prefecture, and entered the hinterland of Runing Prefecture.
But as the team walked, the atmosphere became dull. The farmland on both sides of the road was dry and cracked. It seemed that there was no harvest this year. People who were fleeing in twos and threes kept appearing in front of Wu Shigong and the others.
When these refugees saw Wu Shigong and others, they were not afraid because Wu Shigong and others were soldiers. These refugees followed Wu Shigong and others from a distance, hoping that Wu Shigong and others would give them something to eat.
Seeing this situation, Wu Shigong also gave away food several times, but his approach caused the refugees to gather more and more. In desperation, Wu Shigong had no choice but to let it go and let the soldiers disperse those refugees who dared to approach Wu Shigong's motorcade.
Seeing that Wu Shigong could no longer get any benefits, as time passed, the refugees gradually dispersed.
When they arrived at Runing Fucheng, the refugees outside the city had already gathered. Even the gates of Runing Fucheng were half-open and half-closed out of fear of the large influx of refugees.
After learning that Wu Shigong was a new guard in Runing Mansion, a group of soldiers rushed out from the city gate of Runing Mansion, dispersed the refugees near the city gate, and let Wu Shigong and his party in.
Wu Shigong left most of the guards outside the city and camped on the spot. The rest of the guards protected himself and his family members and went directly to the prepared garrison gate of Runing Mansion.
