Li Zhigao and Zhou Yuan entered the city overnight.
The sky was covered with clouds and there was no starlight, as if an iron lid was crushing down tightly.
In the courtyard of Xinchanghou Mansion adjacent to the Wanhong Building, the black-shaded woman, Xinchanghou Lipu, Chai Jian, Li Chong, Yao Xishui, Su Hongyu and even Chun Shisanniang had already gathered together, waiting for Li Zhigao and Zhou Yuan to come.
Several large candles were burning, making a slight beeping sound.
"Han Qian got into so many troubles within just three or four days after returning to Jinling. All his actions were aimed at getting out of control here! His ambitions are really too ambitious!" Zhou Yuan walked into the house and thought to Xinchang
They must have been discussing it for a long time, and they couldn't wait to express his opinions.
Li Pu, Chai Jian, Li Chong, Yao Xishui and others all remained silent. They had gathered over half an hour earlier, and the conclusion they came up with was the same.
They had verified Han Qian's layout in Xuzhou, the layout in Qiuhushan Villa, and the layout in Jinling City in the name of Zuo Si, and they could confirm that Han Qian had not hidden anything from them.
However, precisely because of this, they knew better why Han Qian was eager to directly borrow 30 million yuan in the name of the Linjiang Marquis Mansion.
Because in addition to the expenses of directly managing two hundred elite men, Zuo Si also had to support Yang Qin and his gang, support the reconstruction of Yangtan Water Village in Xuzhou, secretly support Feng Xuan, and redeem the Xi clan, especially since Han Qian decided yesterday to
Nearly three hundred Zuosi disciples directly supported him.
All of this, with the income and expenditure of the craftsmanship, fleet, and warehouses controlled by Zuosi, is far from being able to support it.
What's more, Han Qian also built a dam and a reservoir at the headwaters of the Taoxi River and built a number of hydraulic equipment. Which of these many things did not cost tens of thousands of dollars?
If Han Qian couldn't raise the money right away, Zuo Si might not be able to survive even next month.
Previously, Han Qian agreed that they would deploy manpower into the boat gang led by Yang Qin. An important factor was that Han Qian should know in his heart how much it would cost to maintain a boat gang with elite force. He obviously wanted to build a camp.
The military government is directly responsible for the expenses of the boat gang and rebuilding Yangtan Water Village.
But all of this has probably changed since the moment Han Qian proposed that Zuo Si wanted to borrow 30 million yuan in the name of the Linjiang Marquis Mansion, and that the money would be used directly by Zuo Si.
It is very likely that Han Qian will no longer agree to their involvement in the construction and expansion of the boat gang.
If he really could raise 30 million yuan, how could Han Qian let Zuo Si sustain it for a year or two?
And Han Qian wanted to directly raise nearly 300 Zuosi disciples, and the purpose was also very obvious, which was to reduce their infiltration and control over Zuosi's elite as much as possible and ensure that Zuosi's elite were loyal to him personally.
Otherwise, there is no way to explain why Han Qian spent huge sums of money to support nearly 300 Zuosi disciples.
Does the workshop really lack these 300 young men?
The conclusion is obvious. The key is what should they do and what can they do?
Li Zhigao sat down and moved the saber on his waist behind him. Han Qian's attitude obviously became tougher after he noticed that they were playing tricks on Fan Dahei.
It seems that their attempt to win over Fan Dahei has reached the bottom line of what Han Qian can tolerate.
Li Zhigao didn't know what to say. Could he blame his father and the others for being too accustomed to secretly controlling others?
"How sure are you about building a water mill?" Li Pu, the Marquis of Xinchang, asked Zhou Yuan.
Zhou Yuan was a little confused.
Li Zhigao was also confused. He didn't know what his father and the others had discussed before, and why he suddenly asked about this matter.
"We have calculated that if we really build fifty water mills before the end of the year to grind thousands of stones of rice every day, we can almost add tens of thousands of stones of rice to the military every year..." Xinchang Hou Lipu said.
Li Zhigao understood. His father wanted Cang Cao or Gong Cao to control the loan, and then subsidize Zuo Si with additional money and grain, in order to control Zuo Si and limit Han Qian's growing power.
Obviously, given the current situation, they need Zuo Si's presence.
Especially when the third prince and Shen Yang clearly support Han Qian, they must have a reasonable excuse to prevent Han Qian from directly controlling this huge loan in the name of Zuo Si, causing Zuo Si to camp the army.
Within the government, it became an independent force beyond their control.
Zhou Yuan smiled bitterly and said: "Building fifty water mills can theoretically grind a thousand stone meters per day. However, the water flow of the streams in the mountains is greatly affected by the rain season. It will really take a lot of effort to build it. Two to three thousand stone meters can be added every year."
The income from grain is as good as the sky, not as good as Han Qian said."
Zhou Yuan was able to preside over Gong Cao. Even though he was not a first-rate figure like Yang En, he still knew about Gong Cao.
This matter was a hole dug by Han Qian for him. He still had to jump out of it. Otherwise, would he really want to let go of the Gong Cao matter?
You must know that Han Qian can become a powerful force within the Dragon Bird Army, and the craftsmanship plays a key role.
In order to obtain relatively cheap lime, bricks, charcoal and other materials from the craftsmen's workshops, they allocated thousands of stones of rice and grain to Han Qian every month - this money and grain not only enabled Han Qian to hire thousands of laborers from within the camp, but also
For more than a year, it has also supported the internal construction of Qiuhushan Villa and the expansion of the Zuosi system.
If we really want to hand over the Gongcao matter to Han Qian, we still don’t know how much food will be under Han Qian’s control, and we don’t know how much of it will be misappropriated by Han Qian to support the expansion of the Zuosi system. Then it will be even more difficult.
Control it.
Li Zhigao finally understood that his father and the others really could not squeeze out the money and food to directly support Zuo Si, but the current situation was inseparable from the Zuo Si system that Han Qian had initially established.
"Father, are you sure you want the Dragon Bird Army to join the war before winter?" Li Zhigao asked.
"Well," Li Pu nodded helplessly and said, "Your Majesty summoned me to the palace today. I have already said this. Although Your Majesty did not directly agree, he ordered the young eunuch to go to the Privy Council and present the newly drawn Jing Dynasty to the Privy Council.
Bring me the situation map..."
Li Zhigao secretly sighed. If His Majesty wants the Longque Army to reinforce from the west, and they want to be on guard against any secret moves by An Ning Palace and the Xu family, they will be inseparable from the deployment Zuo Si made some time ago on the Jianghu front line.
Already.
In short, they are unlikely to directly recruit Yang Qin and others to their advantage in a short period of time.
And with Fan Dahei's past experience, Han Qian is even less likely to allow them to interfere in the boat gang's affairs.
And even if five thousand generals are gathered to go on an expedition, the supplies after leaving Jinling will be provided by the Privy Council, but everything such as the armor and cold clothes of the generals before the expedition is a huge expense.
In the final analysis, the forces on their side are too weak and there are too few supporters, which further highlights Han Qian's indispensability.
Zhou Yuan glanced at Yao Xishui and hesitated to speak, but Chai Jian glared at him angrily. Zhou Yuan sneered, but he kept some words in his stomach and did not spit them out.
Li Zhigao sighed inwardly, thinking that if he really wanted to send Xishui over now, would he be sure that Han Qian would accept it?
Yao Xishui's eyelids drooped slightly, and he didn't seem to notice Zhou Yuan and Chai Jian's little moves.
"We remain silent, Zuo Si may not be able to create much momentum!" The woman in black gauze said at this time, "There are still many things, let's wait until after this expedition."
Li Zhigao thought the same thing, and now it was most important to do his best to ensure that this expedition did not go wrong.
Even though Zhao Mingting, the staff director, suffered such a big loss at the hands of Han Daoxun and Han Qian and his son, he rushed to Shouzhou in person at this time to keep an eye on Liang Guo's movements in the north of Guangshou. He did not have time for the time being.
Find Han Qian to settle accounts for the holidays.
…………
…………
After being locked up in the house for several days, Feng Yi was so fed up that when his father came to the Yamen to answer the call, he ran to his grandmother and rolled around, and finally got permission to leave the house for some fresh air, but also promised not to go to Han.
Qian, the third prince's errands have also been postponed for the time being.
With four guards who couldn't get rid of him following him closely, Feng Yi couldn't go to Wanhong Mansion to have a good time, so he ran to Xiaofan Mansion, which was becoming more and more famous recently, but he saw that the new top girls in Xiaofan Mansion were just mediocre.
Feng Yi really couldn't arouse much interest in the nonsense and vulgarity, but they all claimed that the red pill was still there, so he asked for a private room facing the street and called a piano player and a musician.
I was sitting in front of the window, looking at the crowds of people outside the building, listening to a slightly hoarse ditty, and thinking that it would be leisurely to live a quiet life once in a while.
It was only at this time that he was able to drive the four guards to the corridor outside to guard them, giving them some leisure time.
"Your performance of "Qing Shan Yue" is a little unnatural. When did the musicians in Xiaofanlou become so good?" Feng Yi calmed down and heard that the tune played by the musician was a little off, but he also
Not annoyed, instead of driving people out directly like before, he tilted his neck and asked.
"Young Master Feng is such an elegant man. I thought I had already practiced this Qingshan music well enough. It seems that I can't play the role of the violinist in the future. There are too many flaws!" The violinist smiled and turned in front of him.
The guqin pushed away the musicians beside him and played and sang.
Feng Yi opened his mouth and stared at the piano player for a while before he could vaguely tell from his eyebrows that he was indeed Han Qian: "You, how come you have changed?"
"Han Qian, the piano master, has met Young Master Feng,"
Han Qian stood up and bowed pretendingly, walked to the window and walked across from Feng Yi. He poured himself a glass of wine, took a sip, looked at the busy traffic downstairs, and said with emotion,
"If the rest of my life can be as leisurely as Mr. Feng is today, life will be really good."
"I wanted to go find you, but my father sent people to watch too closely, and I couldn't get away at all. Also, my father also said that you are bartering over there, which is a loss for our Feng family for the time being.
"I admit it, but if I go to find you, the Feng family will have no choice but to go to Zhao Mingting and say that the Feng family's goods have been robbed..." Feng Yi explained with a smile, indicating that he was not deliberately hiding these days.
Han Qian is missing.
"If your father really dares to do this, then the Feng family's cargo ship probably won't be able to sail out of Jinling smoothly in the future," Han Qian said with a smile, "Of course, I won't do anything to embarrass you, otherwise,
Why do I need to come to see you like this? I came to see you mainly because His Highness is thinking about you. Let me come and ask you if your thoughts have changed?"
Feng Yixin said that it was better not to worry about it, and said with a smile: "Look at what you said, you still can't understand me? I heard that you are making a lot of noise now, and the Dragon Bird Army is about to go on an expedition. Oh, by the way, you are here
Another money shop opened in Wuli Lane, what’s going on?”
"In addition to coming to greet you on behalf of His Highness, I mainly came to see you for this matter," Han Qian told Feng Yi in detail about raising loans, and said, "Everyone has not lived a peaceful life for a few years.
After all, the Han people don't have much money left in their hands. If you help secretly advocate for this, your contribution will not be considered small. Even if it is temporarily inconvenient for you to come to His Highness to answer questions, I don't think His Highness will feel that your mind has changed."
"Why did I change my mind?" Feng Yi smiled sarcastically, "It's just that my father arranged for someone to follow me. I really can't find anyone to talk about this."
"For all the money collected, the money shop will return four cents of interest every month. Many people think that His Highness is so short of money this time that he thought of this way to drink poison to quench his thirst. Even if you persuade others to put money in the money shop
, it can also be said that you are giving poisonous wine to His Highness. Why are you afraid that your father will criticize you? Furthermore, you only need to let more people know about this matter and discuss it. You do not need to persuade him openly..." Han Qian
smiled.
"You're not going to take the money and food and leave, are you?" Feng Yi stared at Han Qian thiefly and asked.
"That has nothing to do with you," Han Qian said with a smile, "By the way, your family bought a third-class slave named Guo Que'er at the beginning of last year, but he is smart and sensible, and is very popular with your family.
If you like, you can keep Guo Queer by your side. If you need to contact me urgently for anything, you can ask him to do it for you."
"Are you talking about the dark-looking house slave who everyone nicknamed Little Crow?" Feng Yi opened his mouth for a long time. He never thought that Han Qian was planning to establish Zuosi and was the first to place spies in his home.
went?
"Don't be so surprised. I have no choice but to follow orders," Han Qian said. "Have you seen the two maids next to me? Who can I sleep with? His mother can't even touch her buttocks.
No, at least you and Xirong have had a taste of it."
"..." Feng Yi laughed dryly, but in retrospect, the taste of Chun Niang was indeed enough to break the soul. In comparison, the few maids around him and the so-called top names in Wanhonglou and Xiaofanlou were really