Looking at He Lu who was crying with gratitude, Liu Xiu smiled, changed the topic and asked: "Mr. He, who is the largest grain merchant here in Yingchuan?"
He Lu was startled, thought about it carefully, and said seriously: "It should be Lu Yun, he is the disciple of the prefect Lu Lian."
Liu Xiu snorted, nodded, and said with a smile: "As long as shopkeeper He is willing to help our Han army wholeheartedly, he can replace him in the future."
He Lu blinked his eyes in surprise. It took him a long time to react and he was about to kneel down again. Liu Xiu took the lead, supported him and said with a smile: "Shopkeeper He doesn't have to be so polite. Speaking of which, Miss Miaoying helped me."
Me, based on this relationship alone, I won’t treat Shopkeeper He badly!”
"Yes, yes, yes! What General Liu said is absolutely true! From now on, I will do my best to do things for the Han army and General Liu!"
He said "doing things for the Han army" in a normal tone, but "doing things for General Liu" said it in an emphatic tone. The key point of his words is obvious.
Liu Xiu thought secretly and said cheerfully: "It's almost noon, shopkeeper He and Miss Miaoying might as well stay and have a meal together!"
"This...isn't this too disturbing?"
He said this, but He Lu could not close his mouth with joy. His daughter was really his lucky star. With Liu Xiu as his backer, he would be able to achieve great success in the future, and it was just around the corner.
Liu Xiu waved his hand and said: "It's not about nagging or nagging, we are just having a meal together!"
At noon, Liu Xiuren prepared sumptuous food and wine, and ate together with He Lu, He Miaoying and his daughter.
After leaving the county government office and on the way home, He Ludu felt that his body was light and airy, as if he were in the clouds, and it felt unreal.
He Lu saw his daughter frowning and looking at him eagerly. He laughed and said, "Miaoying, I can see that General Liu is very fond of you. In the future, he will come here often to walk around when he has time."
He Miaoying sighed secretly, why didn't she see that Liu Xiu had a good impression of her, but she did see that Liu Xiu had a good impression of her husband.
The patriarch was neither a nobleman nor a highly respected scholar in Xiangcheng. Why did Liu Xiu, one of the dignified leaders of the Han army, favor the patriarch so much?
There is only one explanation for this. Liu Xiu values the grain in his family's hands, but now that the entire Xiangcheng has been controlled by the Han army, Liu Xiu wants to get all the grain out of his family's hands. It is easy and does not require such courtesy at all.
.
As for Liu Xiu's deeper intentions, she could not understand them.
Also incomprehensible are Jia Fu, Ma Wu and others.
After the He family's father and daughter left, Ma Wu asked curiously: "My lord, He Lu is just a grain merchant. We need grain. With just one sentence, he dares not to hand it over obediently. Why should we be so polite to him?"
Could it be that the lord has fallen in love with someone else's daughter? But it doesn't seem like it. During the meal, the lord only had He Lu in his eyes, not He Miaoying at all.
Seeing that everyone was looking at him with big eyes and small eyes, Liu Xiu smiled lightly and said: "Winning over He Lu and supporting He Lu are just making plans for the future."
The eldest brother thought that as long as he firmly grasped the military power, he could kick Liu Xuan from the throne at any time and replace him.
But in his opinion, the eldest brother kept things simple. The longer Liu Xuan sat on the throne, the more stable his position would be, and the harder it would be to shake him in the future.
If the eldest brother really wants to replace him, he might end up going to war.
When that day comes, it's not enough to just have soldiers, you also need to have war resources. These war resources include talents, minerals, money, etc., the most important of which is food and grass.
Before the soldiers and horses move, food and grass go first. If there is no food in the army, how can we fight?
Liu Xiu's win over and support for He Lu was paving the way for the future. He must master a food path of his own, so that he could contribute to his eldest brother's great cause in the future.
He Lu was able to live like a fish in water and make a fortune under the noses of Li Wen and Jia Xuan, which shows that he is smart enough and can do everything well. The fact that he cut off his head to join the gentry class shows that he is ambitious enough.
He is ambitious enough. These factors are all the reasons why Liu Xiu values He Lu.
Of course, how to firmly control He Lu still requires a lot of thought.
But soon, this opportunity came.
That night, the largest granary in Xiangcheng, that is, the large granary in the main store of Yongcang Grain Shop, suddenly caught fire. This fire burned half of the sky in Xiangcheng red, until the sky turned fish belly white, people considered it as a fire.
Put out the fire.
However, the entire grain storage in a large granary was also destroyed by the fire.
He Lu seemed to have aged more than ten years overnight. When the sky got brighter, he went to the county government office. When he saw Liu Xiu, he knelt down on the ground with a bang and burst into tears.
Before He Lu could explain the cause of the fire, the gentry from Xiangcheng came to the county government office. They met Liu Xiu with more than a dozen gentry clan chiefs.
When they saw He Lu kneeling on the ground, crying, no one had any pity for him, and they all gave He Lu a hard look.
An elderly gentry clan leader bowed his hand to Liu Xiu, bowed deeply, and said, "General Liu, we spent a lot of money yesterday to order grain from Yongcang Grain Store, intending to give it to the Han Army brothers to relieve the Han Army brothers.
However, we did not expect that He Lu had ulterior motives. He set fire to his granary and burned all the food we had ordered. He Lu had a vicious intention and wanted to kill General Liu and his brothers in the Han army. He also asked General Liu to immediately
Order to kill this thief!"
When He Lu heard this, he was frightened on the spot. If the granary caught fire, his losses would be even greater. He was so out of his mind that he burned down his own granary? These noble clan leaders wanted to join forces to kill themselves!
"Unjust! General Liu, the villain is wronged!" He Lu knelt down on the ground and crawled two steps forward, crying loudly: "The fire in the granary was definitely not the fault of a villain. General Liu saw clearly, General Liu saw clearly!"
Liu Xiu was not stupid enough to believe the words of these gentry clan leaders, but he also never believed that the fire in the Yongcang grain store was an accident. He squinted his eyes, looked at He Lu deeply, and remained silent for a long time.
At this time, Yao Qi walked in quickly from outside, stepped in to salute Liu Xiu, and said, "My lord!"
Liu Xiu nodded and said to the heads of the clans present: "Everyone, please go back home first!"
"General Liu, it's impossible for the granary to catch fire for no reason. If something strange happens, it must be He Lu!"
"That's right, General Liu, don't let this villain like He Lu go! His house should be ransacked and he should repay us for our losses!" In order to buy grain from Yongcang Grain Shop, each of them had to hand over a lot of money.
money.
"Okay, I understand. Once the investigation is clear, I will give you a satisfactory explanation. Everyone, please go back first!"
"Yes! General Liu, I'm resigning!" When the clan leaders left, they did not forget to give He Lu a hard look. If his eyes could turn into knives, He Lu would have been chopped into pieces by them.
He Lu was shedding not only tears and snot, but also cold sweat.
You must know that in his granary, there is indeed a lot of grain ordered by various noble families, and these grains are prepared to be transferred to the Han army.
To put it bluntly, it was already military rations. The military rations were burned in his own granary. How could he bear such a big responsibility?
He kowtowed forward repeatedly, choked with tears and said: "General Liu, the fire in the granary was really not caused by a villain..."
Before he could finish his words, Liu Xiu interrupted: "Even if you didn't do it, you still have dereliction of duty."
He Lu shivered violently and threw his head to the ground. His body was shivering, but he had no words to explain. What Liu Xiu said was the truth. No matter how much he explained, it could not change the fact that the food was burned.
fact.
"Every time you suffer, you will gain wisdom. I hope this kind of thing will never happen again in the future!" As he spoke, Liu Xiu pulled He Lu and pulled him up from the ground.
He Lu looked at Liu Xiu in surprise, unable to react for a moment.
Liu Xiu asked: "How much grain did each clan leader order from your Yongcang grain store? How much did he pay?"
He Lu looked at Liu Xiu cautiously, lowered his head in a hurry, and whispered: "They... they ordered more than a thousand stones of grain in total, and paid... nearly a million dollars."
In normal times, the price of food is less than two hundred yuan for one stone of grain, and only hundreds of thousands of yuan for one thousand stone of grain. But now, even if Yingchuan County is not short of food, the price of food has increased several times.
However, the income of the people did not increase, but was greatly reduced due to various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes enacted by Wang Mang. This shows how difficult the daily life of ordinary people would be.
During this period, people were rising up everywhere across the country. There were dozens or even hundreds of rebel armies, large and small. It is not difficult to understand.
Whoever makes it difficult for the people to live will naturally make it difficult for the people to live.
Liu Xiu pondered for a moment and said, "Please compensate them in full!"
He Lu grinned secretly and whispered: "Compensation in full will definitely not satisfy the nobles. According to the rules, if you fail to perform the contract, you will... have to pay double the compensation!"
"Then just double the compensation!"
"But... but..." But after he doubled the compensation to the nobles, what else would he use to collect grain from the farmers in the future?
He was embarrassed to say it, but Liu Xiu understood his difficulty. He blinked and asked: "Shopkeeper He, if I lend you two million dollars, how much food can you collect?"
He Lu was startled and looked at Liu Xiu in surprise. It took him a while before he realized what he was doing and said urgently: "Young man... You can collect at least five thousand shi of food."
Two million yuan can bring in five thousand shi of grain. If you charge one million yuan, you can sell more than 1,000 shi of grain. The profit is really huge!
Seeing Liu Xiu looking at him and smiling meaningfully, He Lu shrank his neck and said in a trembling voice: "When they came to buy food, the villain... the villain hadn't adjusted the price yet!"
"Actually, you want to make a big fortune from the nobles!"
Liu Xiu may not like nobles, but he hates others lying in front of him. He said: "I treat Shopkeeper He with sincerity, but Shopkeeper He thinks I am a fool?"
He Lu shuddered, knelt down again with a pop, kowtowed repeatedly, and said urgently: "The villain... The villain wants to earn a sum of money from the nobles, and then... take this money again, and collect more.
Give the food to the general in the hope that it will please the general!"