Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-fifth The Way of Merchandising
Listening to Han Qian's detailed account of the rise and fall of old and new clan powerful forces in Shu in recent decades, Feng Yi thought of the demise of the Feng family, smiled bitterly, and said with emotion:
"Oh, it was my father who didn't understand it at the beginning, otherwise he wouldn't have caused a big disaster!"
I recall that when the third prince just left the palace, he planned to build the Longque Army, Xinchanghou Mansion and Wanhonglou. He tried his best and could only spend 40,000 to 50,000 yuan in food every year, but he could still maintain the Longque Army.
At that time, the people around the third prince were living in extremely poor conditions, and Han Qian wanted to break a copper in half and spend it.
When he got the opportunity to move to Dengxiang and resist Liang Jun, Han Qian even opened a money shop in the name of Linjiang Marquis Mansion to collect money to subsidize the shortage of military resources. He only raised a total of fifty or sixty thousand yuan.
Who would have imagined that in addition to hundreds of thousands of acres of grain farms, hundreds of warehouses, shops, and a fleet of three to four hundred ships, the Feng family’s secret cash included gold and silver ingots and copper coins.
Including jewelry, property, etc., it amounts to nearly three million yuan, which is enough to equal the annual income of the Great Chu court?
If the Feng family had bet on the third prince at that time and was willing to spend three to five hundred thousand yuan in food, in the future when the third prince ascends the throne, the status of the Feng family will not be lower than that of the Xinchang Marquis Mansion.
Of course, Feng Wenlan didn't bet on the third prince, but that didn't mean that Feng Wenlan was stingy. At that time, few people saw signs that the third prince would soar to the sky!
"Do you still have resentment in your heart?" Han Qian asked.
"Of course there is resentment," there were no outsiders in the room, and Kong Xirong didn't know where Han Qian had sent him to do the work. Feng Yi had no need to hide anything in front of Han Qian, and sighed with emotion, "But now I mention the Feng family
The misfortune I suffered was mostly due to my inner feelings, and I did not imagine the difficulty of accumulating family property and wealth for the newly aristocratic family."
Han Qian laughed and said: "If we don't do food farming, no matter how much land we occupy, it will take time for food to grow from the ground."
"That's right, the prince's clan, the prince who controls one hundred thousand acres of grain fields, can collect one hundred thousand shi of grain a year in rent, and the annual income is calculated, which is only thirty or forty thousand yuan; after deducting
After all the extravagant expenses, how much can be saved every year?" Feng Yi smiled and said, "In the first battle to cut down the vassalage and destroy the Ma family, the third prince used the name of purge to conquer the states of Hengyue, Lang, Shaoheng, and gathered hundreds of people in a short time.
After all, this is a very special case - and there is another key reason. As you just said, the states in Hunan Province have experienced only a handful of wars in the past century, far less than
Jingxiang, Sichuan, Shu and other places. However, when it comes to the way of cargo colonization, truly speaking, what you did in Xuzhou can be regarded as the real method of cargo colonization!"
Seeing that Feng Yi could more or less understand Xuzhou's name, Han Qian secretly felt that he had really changed from before, and said: "I know about Xuzhou in my heart, but there is no need to talk about it outside."
Han Qian would rather the world regard Xuzhou as a remote and barbaric land and not pay any attention to it.
Feng Yi nodded, indicating that if he didn't move forward, he wouldn't be ignorant of the depth and importance.
The fact that the Feng family has become a wealthy man in Jianghuai is all due to the fact that in the late period of the previous dynasty, the ancestor of the Feng family served as the salt and iron transport envoy of Jianghuai. While controlling the wealth of Jianghuai, he controlled the trade routes of Jianghuai Prefecture and County, with a scale of three to four hundred ships.
The fleet is based on hundreds of warehouses. Buying cheap and selling expensive leads to such accumulation.
I think Han Qian took Xuzhou as his foundation and initially tried his best to establish the Xuzhou Shipping Gang, so that bulk cargo from Chenxuzhou could be transported to Jinling, Junzhou and other places. In the end, he was following the same path as the Feng family.
There is no fundamental transcendence.
In the first two years, the Xuzhou Boat Gang's initial scale seemed to be quite large, but its foundation was far from being comparable to that of the Feng family.
Even so, the Jingxuzhou Boat Gang still accumulates three to four thousand yuan every year.
It's just that Han Qian didn't become a miser. Every time he had surplus, he either redeemed the Xi clan members or subsidized the military shortage. At the same time, he continued to expand the scale of Yangtan Water Village and Xinxi Village in Wufeng Mountain, expand the scale of the weaving yard and shipbuilding yard, and build an iron smelting yard.
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If Han Qian were limited to this, it would be extremely difficult to catch up with the Feng family.
After all, even if they monopolize the trade between the Chenxu prefectures, the prefectures and counties in the upper reaches of the Yuanjiang River, and the Central Plains region, the scale is extremely limited.
The annual trade of 20,000 to 30,000 dans of tea medicine, tens of thousands of barrels of tung oil, 40,000 to 50,000 shi of grain, and a small amount of ivory, Hepu pearls, gold, silver, and precious metals that are special to the Southwest, totals no more than 100,000 or 200,000 qian per year.
scale.
What really makes Han Qian different from the Feng family in the many things he has done in Xuzhou is that in the past two years, in addition to the extensive construction of water conservancy, reclamation and planting, and the reform of land taxation, he has also focused on the development of weaving, iron smelting, and mining.
Shipbuilding, poultry raising and other industries have enabled Xuzhou to export bulk goods worth 200,000 to 300,000 yuan in the past two years alone.
At present, the cotton planted in Xuzhou has exceeded 100,000 acres. In the spring of next year, the planting area will double. And because Xuzhou purchases cotton seeds at high prices, Chen Jing is thinking of Shao and other states. The cotton planting area has continued to increase in the past two years.
A substantial increase will promote the Xuzhou weaving industry to develop at a faster rate.
Feng Yi was a dandy before he was 20 years old, but when the Feng family caused trouble, he fled to Xuzhou with Han Qian to avoid the disaster, and his mind gradually opened up, and he was able to understand what Xuzhou had done in the past two years.
We have passed the Feng family's place, but in the eyes of the world, Xuzhou may still be just a corner of the wilderness, right?
Han Qian didn't say anything, but Feng Yi could also see at this time that Han Qian encouraged the local princes to contact Sizhou to manage Banan. The biggest benefit to Xuzhou was to open up the trade route to Qianjiang through Sizhou, and then to Sichuan and Shu.
Located in Sizhou, the trail at the southern foot of Wuling Mountain is extremely dangerous, even more difficult than the Xuefeng Mountain Post Road at that time. Only extremely vicious private salt dealers who want to make huge profits can take the risk.
Compared with the desolation of the road, the fierce and unruly Liao people in Wuchuan (Qianjiang) were the main obstacle to this trade road.
If the Wu Liao people could be expelled from both sides of the Qianjiang River or completely surrendered, this trade route would not be expected to be able to transport such a huge amount of materials as three and a half million stones of grain and grain every year.
It weighs four to five million kilograms. Even if it is carried by manpower or camels, it only takes a few hundred people to carry the cloth from Longya City to the Qianjiang River for loading.
These are Han Qian’s methods of cultivating goods that are far superior to those of his predecessors, right?
Now the Marquis of Qingjiang thought that by controlling the mutual trade between the two countries, they could force Han Qian to submit. However, they did not expect that Han Qian encouraged the Marquis of Xiang to manage Banan and open up the trail at the southern foot of Wuling. After that, the goods from Xuzhou entered Shu. In fact,
It depends on the relationship between Han Qian and Wang Yong, the Marquis of Changxiang.
Of course, if the Han family wants not to make the same mistake as the Feng family, they still have to keep Xuzhou in their hands, right?
Thinking of this, Feng Yi turned around and asked:
"I heard that before you went to Xuzhou to plan the reduction of the vassal state, His Majesty and His Highness both promised you that the Han family would lead Xuzhou. Is this true?"
"It's pointless to think about these things at this time!" Han Qian said calmly. Seeing that Feng Yi was confused, he couldn't explain much at the moment.
In his heart, Han Qian was even more looking forward to the fact that when he set off to escort Princess Qingyang back to Dachu, the situation in Jinling could still be maintained and no earth-shaking changes had occurred.
But, is this possible?
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The tall and majestic Chongwen Hall looks like a giant beast squatting silently in the depths of the imperial city.
From Chongwen Hall, pass through a corridor sandwiched between thick palace walls, with a little moss still growing on the edge after winter. Walk more than two hundred steps north, and walk into a corridor with several large locust trees and some trees in the corners.
The courtyard with the crape myrtle flower stand is the main courtyard of Anning Palace.
Said to be a palace, Anning Palace is taller and more spacious than ordinary houses, but it cannot be compared with the three main halls built on tall pedestals.
After all, the Imperial City was a bit narrower. Most of the area was occupied by the three provinces, six ministries, nine temples, and the Privy Council, Wude Department and other ministries and yamen to handle official duties. The land left for the palace city was even smaller.
In the years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the wars in various places have not stopped. The national treasury has been wasted. If you want to expand the palace, you have no money and food. Secondly, there are houses and mansions that have been built for a long time. If you want to demolish them, there will be a lot of noise.
, will also cause public dissatisfaction.
A compromise solution is to renovate several gardens that were confiscated from Shengzhou Jiedushi outside the imperial city, or even outside Jinling City, and build them into palaces for spring and autumn tours. You can go there and stay for two days every now and then.
Change your mood.
However, in recent years, Empress Xu often felt physically inconvenient and spent most of her time in the palace. She was unwilling to move around. She did not go to the imperial palace to relax, and she rarely even left the Ning Ning Palace.
It was rare for the sun to shine brightly today, and the weather was not that cold. Empress Xu walked out of the yard and went to the plum garden next door. She saw dozens of wintersweet trees spitting out grains of rice that looked like flower bones - the eunuchs of Anning Palace and the female officials were filled with wonder.
I don’t know how my empress could be so happy today.
Zhao Mingting and Niu Gengru came out of the Privy Council and entered the palace through the side door. They saw Xu Anlan, the commander of the Prince's East Palace Guards, and the sick-looking Prince Yang Yuanwo, already standing quietly in the corner of the plum garden, while Empress Xu was stepping into the plum garden to break off a plum branch.
, bring it to your nose and sniff lightly.
Xu Hou's face was covered with thick lead powder, as if she wanted to grab the long-lost youth from the void, but her face looked even more stiff, but her face could vaguely reveal the grand appearance of her youth.
"I have met the empress, Your Highness the Crown Prince." Zhao Mingting and Zhu Gengru stepped forward and saluted.
Yang Yuanwo had a playful nature and was addicted to wine and sex. His body had always been weak. Now his face was sallow and his eyes were dull and lifeless. He could not help but yawn as he stood hunched in the garden. He didn't know which woman he wasted on last night.
He had so much energy that he was so trapped right after he was summoned to the palace.
However, no matter how incompetent Yang Yuanwo was, he was so frightened that the whole city was filled with the voices of abolishing the direct descendants and replacing them with new ones. He insisted on coming to the palace every day to pay his respects, and went to the Privy Council to follow Niu Gengru and Wen Muqiao.
Learn to handle state affairs.
Seeing Zhao Mingting, Niu Gengru came over, and Queen Xu threw away the newly picked plum branches.
Because of her age, Empress Xu's once beautiful eyes like deep springs were inevitably a little hazy, but they revealed an unspeakable sharpness in an instant, which was intimidating: "What's new in Chongwen Hall today?"
Son, I just heard someone say that Jingzhao Yin and Han Daoxun came to the palace early today?"
