His slender body was straight and erect, exuding a noble aura, without anger or authority.
This was a high-ranking official of the frontier generation. However, Tang Wen was a man of two generations and had seen many movies in his previous life, so I didn't think he was that scary.
"Xiao Senguo, the governor of Linghai, has met the earl." Unexpectedly, Xiao Senguo was actually very polite and moved his hand slightly towards Tang Wen first.
"Well, Mr. Xiao, you're welcome." Tang Wen returned the favor.
"Sit!" Xiao Senguo lifted his robe and asked Tang Wen to sit at the head of the guest seat, with Wan Hansong and Jiang Xuan accompanying him below.
"Sir, your lordship is here to ask for silver. Last time, Lord Jiang bought a thousand tents on our behalf, and he gave half of the silver taels, leaving a gap of one million taels." Wan Hansong said.
"Well, this matter is indeed difficult to handle. The war in the northwest has been going on for almost a year, and the war has not subsided, but has become more and more intense.
We, Linghai, have had a lot of food, grass, horses, and money requisitioned, and we are already stretched thin.
Unexpectedly, the thieves from the Kingdom of the Sun took advantage of the situation and directly pushed our Linghai to the forefront of the battlefield.
The thieves have captured several islands in Linghai, burning, killing, looting, and committing all kinds of evil, which is heartbreaking." Xiao Senguo stroked his beard and said with a sad look on his face.
"Who says it's not the case? The Chief Secretary's Yamen was also short of money, so he used all his money to buy arms and food.
If this continues, the soldiers will all be hungry.
And when winter comes, they don't even have winter clothes." Wan Hansong followed up and said miserably.
"The court has no money, and it's the same in every province." Xiao Senguo said.
"Some time ago, all the donations from the squires from all over the country were spent. The general military office came to ask for money every day. I wanted to hide when I saw them." Wan Hansong sighed and frowned.
"I said, you two adults, they complain whenever they meet. It's not easy for us to do a small business.
The Western side is pressing hard, and if they don't give me any money, this business will be ruined from now on.
Our Tang family relies entirely on Western business to survive. Once this road is cut off, what will the thousands of people in our Tang family eat? It will only add thousands of dead bones." Tang Wen said.
"Hehehe, Sir, you seem to be crying worse than us?" Wan Hansong actually smiled.
"Master Wan, that's one million taels. Thousands of slaves in the Tang family are all counting on the money to buy clothes and food for the New Year." Tang Wen said.
"I heard that you have thousands of personal guards?" Xiao Senguo suddenly asked.
"That's not true. I don't have the authority to raise so many personal guards. There are only four hundred personal guards, and the rest are the guards." Tang Wen shook his head.
"Haha, that's not it. It is said that your army also has thousands of high-quality muskets and dozens of cannons, and has wiped out nearly a thousand pirates twice. I heard Mr. Qin tell you about this." Xiao Senguo said with a smile.
"They came to grab food. We had no choice but to stand up and resist. We risked our lives. Otherwise, how could we stretch our necks and let them chop them down?" Tang Wen asked.
"What a good deputy envoy of Jiangzhou regiment training. You have trained a group of excellent soldiers for the imperial court." Xiao Senguo said.
I'll go, it won't be a trick...
"It can't be said to be sophisticated. They are just ordinary people. They usually train and use them to resist pirates." Tang Wen quickly shook his head.
"Let me tell you this, I definitely won't have any money if I ask for it. However, it is only natural that you come to ask for money. However, we do have no money." Xiao Senguo said.
"You two, one is worse than the other." Tang Wen almost turned black with anger.
"Hehehe, but there is no way." Xiao Senguo said, "There is a large piece of land opposite your island that belongs to us, but there is also a town on that piece of land called 'Qingniu Town' .
There are thousands of people in the town. When the time comes, you recruit all the young and middle-aged people in the town into the camp, and there will be very few people left in the town.
By then, even if there is some remaining land, it will have to be sold to you, right?
If someone doesn't want to join the army, just use land as compensation.
In this way, the entire town will be your Tang family's property."
"Is it difficult to recruit people from this town?" Tang Wen asked.
"When the country is in trouble, everyone is a target of conscription by the court. If anyone disobeys, you show the Yamen's decree and chop off their heads." Xiao Senguo snorted.
"Yiwu, have you heard of Qingniu Town?" Tang Wen asked.
"It seems to be not far from Liujia Village. It is said that the county seat was built in Qingniu Town before and was later moved. So, that town is very big." Luo Yiwu thought for a while.
Gucha
"Look, I'm right," Xiao Senguo said.
"Haha, it's just a ruined town, and I've lost one million taels?" Tang Wen asked.
"The land in that town is not small. Including the land belonging to our Yamen, it is several thousand hectares, which is equivalent to half a small county." Wan Hansong said.
"There is a war now. What's the use of land? It can't be turned into food and clothing. Only money can save lives." Tang Wen shook his head.
"You have to take a long-term view. In the future, when the war subsides and you grow food, how much money can you make just by collecting rent in a year?" Xiao Senguo said.
"No! I want money." Tang Wen shook his head firmly.
In fact, I have already fallen in love with it, but I just want to extract more benefits.
"There is something more important that you may not know." Wan Hansong said.
"Oh?" Tang Wen glanced at him sideways.
"Qingniu Town has a population of several thousand, and half of the population are official slaves. So, as official slaves, as soon as we open our mouths, we can't help but do whatever you want?" Wan Hansong said.
"Official slaves? Why are there so many official slaves stationed in Qingniu Town?" Tang Wen was stunned and asked.
"This matter is complicated to say, as all the officials and family members who have committed crimes in the province have been put there.
Some people lived a hundred years ago, and those are just their descendants.
However, once you become an official slave, you will remain an official slave forever." Xiao Senguo said.
"Does this official slave count as part of my Tang family?" Tang Wen became interested.
"Haha, the official slave belongs to the official family, how come you are from the Tang family?" Xiao Senguo said with a smile.
"Sir, we are short of money right now. How about selling these official slaves?" Wan Hansong said.
"These official slaves are much better than ordinary people, because some of them come from official families.
Therefore, most of them have read books, and some of them are even pretty good at it.
Also, there are many young ladies among them, all descendants of prisoners.
She is proficient in all kinds of music, chess, and calligraphy. Taking her as a girl is definitely much better than buying one from the common people.
It's just that someone in their family committed a crime and it only affected Chiyu." Xiao Senguo said.
"That's true, but it's much more expensive than ordinary people." Wan Hansong nodded.
"How much money will it cost?" Tang Wen asked deliberately. These two guys cooperated well and were obviously playing a double act.
"Master Luo, bring me the roster." Xiao Senguo said to a thin middle-aged man next to him.
The man nodded and walked into the back hall. Soon, he brought out a yellowed roster.
"Sir, I just read that the total number of official slaves in Qingniu Town is 3,281.
Women...including 830 young and middle-aged men aged 15 to 25.
Five hundred and twenty-five women..." Master Luo responded while flipping through the pages.
"There are many young women, and there are also many young adults." Xiao Senguo touched his chin and said.
"There are just over a thousand people, and the rest are all old, weak, sick and disabled, right?" Tang Wen sneered.
"Of course not. There are hundreds of middle-aged men and women here, and the elderly and children account for less than 30%." Master Luo shook his head.
"In previous years, these official slaves farmed, and the Yamen received a large amount of grain every year." Xiao Senguo said.
"How much money does one person have?" Tang Wen asked.
"We can't sell them one by one this time, we'll deal with them all together." Wan Hansong shook his head.