Cen Chunlin, the largest grain merchant in Huaiyuan County and even the entire northern part of Liuzhou, is said to be from the Tusi family, but that was more than a hundred years ago.
But even so, it still has a very close relationship with many chieftain families in Guangxi, and is even related to the Tianzhou Cen family where Mrs. Wa Shi lives. Why, because one word can explain: Youjiang Cen family!
This surname has produced many chieftains. Otherwise, if you look at the list of chieftains in Guangxi during the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, you will find that almost all of them are Cen.
Of course, they are not the same family, and their hereditary territories are also different.
Moreover, these chieftain families are not actually permanently hereditary. Like many traditional feudal dynasties, they will continue to be replaced. There will also be wars, annexations, splits, etc. between chieftains.
The Huaiyuan Cen family is such a chieftain family that has lost its hereditary territory. Well, that's what they call themselves. As for whether their ancestors are really a chieftain family, they probably don't even know.
But these are not important. What is important is that the Huaiyuan Cen family is the largest grain merchant in northern Liuzhou, and even in the entire northern Guangxi, it can be regarded as a big grain merchant with a name!
So when this man sent a direct descendant of his family to find Mei Pingdong, the magistrate of Huaiyuan County, and said that he was willing to provide a large amount of military rations to the Tang Dynasty King's Division, even Mei Pingdong, who had been swollen in recent days, put away his past
Treat the arrogance of local gentry and businessmen.
Instead, he spoke kindly and even showed great goodwill to discuss with him!
Of course, this kind of negotiation involving large amounts of military rations and even broader cooperation is naturally beyond the power of Mei Pingdong, a small county magistrate.
He reported the relevant situation as quickly as possible to Ma Wei, the prefect of Liuzhou Prefecture in Rong County!
At this time, Ma Wei had just personally led a group of soldiers from the bandit camp to completely confiscate and exterminate a chieftain family in Rong County.
Why?
Because someone from this chieftain family participated in framing him!
When Ma Wei went to Li Xuan, he had the firm goal of returning to Liuzhou for revenge one day, even if he rebelled. Li Xuan also promised him that when the Tang Dynasty King entered Liuzhou,
When he takes revenge.
Now, Li Xuan has fulfilled his promise and appointed Ma Wei as the prefect of Liuzhou!
After becoming the prefect of Liuzhou in the Tang Dynasty, Ma Wei already had enough power to take revenge!
This act of revenge has already begun since he entered Huaiyuan County. Ma Wei has already confiscated the homes of three big families and exterminated them, all of which belonged to the families of the people who had framed him back then.
When he takes revenge, he doesn't just take revenge on one person. His revenge is to uproot that person's family, leaving no chickens or dogs behind, and it's very bloody.
After killing another enemy family, Ma Wei, who was in a good mood, had just returned to Rong County when he received news from Mei Pingdong, the magistrate of Huaiyuan County.
Grain merchants? They want to supply military rations to the army, and they do not collect grain supplies from Liuzhou Prefecture, but transport grains from outside. This is a good thing, a great thing!
Nowadays, there is a shortage of everything in the area under the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty, and naturally there is a shortage of food, and the gap is not small.
None of the areas currently controlled by the Tang Dynasty is an important grain-producing area. Although there is grain output, it is only self-sufficient and cannot have a large amount of excess grain exported like Jiangnan and other regions.
And this kind of self-sufficiency can only barely make ends meet!
However, the food of the Tang Dynasty royal master was much higher than that of ordinary people, so the same number of people needed to consume more food.
Today, in the Tang Dynasty, there are more than 10,000 regular troops and more than 20,000 garrison troops. Among them, the regular army's food supply is a standard supply, which means that you have three meals a day, as long as you can eat it and eat it a few days apart.
Only with meat to eat can the nutrients provided by such a food supply be able to support their high-intensity physical training and form corresponding combat effectiveness.
However, with three meals a day, the regular army of only more than 10,000 people consumed more food than the garrison of more than 20,000 people, not to mention meat!
Even the garrison consumes more rations than ordinary people. Although the daily rations are mainly coarse grains, they can barely fill them up, and they are still three meals a day. However, ordinary people actually only eat two meals a day.
, many people even only have one meal of dry rice, and the other meal is just porridge.
People in ancient times actually lived a very hard life!
Even if modern people were to travel to a family like a small landowner, they would probably starve to death, let alone a poor family!
Otherwise, why the average ancient people were only in their twenties and thirties? The low level of medical care was one aspect, but the lack of food was the more important reason.
Because more than 99% of ancient people lived in a state of malnutrition for a long time!
So, don’t envy the ancients. Even if you are just a super hard-working loser in modern times, if you are willing to work, even if you just go to the street to pick up garbage and sell it, it will be enough for you to eat, and it will be white rice.
bread!
Of course, there is nothing you can do if you lie down all day and refuse to move and starve to death. That is not death from poverty, but death from laziness!
In ancient times, no material was more important than food!
The Tang Dynasty was founded in the barren land of the southwest and has always attached great importance to food. During the Huangzhushan period, in order to expand food sources and preserve food production areas, the eternal sage Li Xuan led the army and the people to fight in many battles!
Countless battles have been fought to overthrow the country, such as the Battle of Shuilongzhai and the two Battles of Fengjiazhuang. These were all battles fought for survival and were of great strategic significance to the Tang Dynasty!
Even now, the Tang Dynasty is still concerned about survival. It is located in the remote eastern part of Guizhou. What should we do if we can't support so many armies? What should we do if we can't support so many people?
Expand externally!
Fight to feed war!
The three detachments of the Tang Dynasty's royal division that went north, west, and south did not bring much food with them. Their sources of military food basically came from the enemy. This was not only difficult because of the distance, but also because of the distance.
It was because the Tang Dynasty simply did not have so much food to supply the frontline troops.
So we can only rely on the frontline troops to find a way!
Ma Wei, who was well aware of the importance of food supply to the Tang Dynasty, especially to the army going south on the front line, learned the news and immediately sent an envoy to Huaiyuan with his handwritten letter to make preliminary contacts with the Cen family in Huaiyuan County.
At the same time, they also borrowed the military's military report transmission channel to carry out expedited reports. Two waves of messengers traveling south and north reported the relevant situation to Li Xuan and Li Xuan who were still far away in Xingquan Mansion at a speed of 500 miles a day.
Hao Bainian commanded the army in Xiangzhou, south of Liuzhou!
Hao Bainian on the front line immediately ordered one of the main persons in charge of the baggage supply of the southward detachment, the deputy commander of the second baggage regiment, to go north to Huaiyuan County in person to represent the southward troops in relevant negotiations.
He also put forward the request for the troops to go south, two words: fast and more!
That is, the more food, the better, and the sooner it can be delivered, the better!
As for how to transport it, how to trade it, and what the price is, that is not a matter for the troops going south, that is a matter for the Ministry of Taxation and the Ordnance Department of the Privy Council.
Of these two agencies, one is responsible for negotiating prices, or the sponsor, and the other is the specific procurement department. For all military supplies used by the military, the Ordnance Department is responsible for making purchase lists.
The military supply in the Tang Dynasty was relatively responsible. To put it simply, the troops themselves did not have the power to purchase. They could only make requests and say what equipment or supplies they still lacked, and then the Ordnance Department above would make decisions based on the various situations of the troops.
, approve or reject the troops' request. Of course, sometimes the Ordnance Department will also take the initiative to provide certain equipment to the troops.
According to the needs of each army, the Ordnance Department will make a long list and then start purchasing from outside.
This kind of procurement is mainly internal procurement, and in a few cases, it will also be purchased from outside.
Internal purchasing, in fact, should be said to be internal supply, because the military does not give money. The various weapons and military supplies from the Ministry of Industry are directly supplied to the troops for free. At most, they are just recorded in the accounts.
The Commerce Department of the Ministry of Taxation, which specializes in external procurement and sales, also provides various military supplies to the army free of charge.
As for external procurement, this situation is relatively rare. It is mainly used to purchase meat and other daily necessities for troops fighting abroad or stationed there.
But no matter how it works here, it can't bypass the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Taxation, because in the end the money has to come from the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Taxation.
The Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Taxation has always been responsible for large-scale transactions with external businessmen, including transactions with Old Man Sun.
This time, the Huaiyuan Cen family came to ask for cooperation in the supply of military rations, and the first thing they said was a figure that moved Hao Bainian. Such a large-scale transaction was not something that could be decided by just the troops going south or even the Privy Council itself. It had to be
The Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Taxation should take the lead in organizing this.
Because of such a large-scale food supply, the money involved is also a huge number!
Moreover, the Cen family in Huaiyuan did not run a charity. Who was selling this grain to? Why did they take such a big risk to sell it to the Tang Dynasty, and even said that they would take the initiative to help transport it to Liuzhou?
It’s not just the profits from the grain trade itself.
Mei Pingdong also tried to ask them what they wanted when discussing with them, but they were hesitant and just said that they had other purposes, but they could only talk to people who could make the decision.
And this is why Mei Pingdong and even Ma Wei cannot make decisions on their own and must report it to Li Xuan of Xingquan Mansion.
Letters delivered by the military's fast horses arrived at Xingquan Mansion faster than ordinary official documents. Just three days later, Li Xuan received the report from Liuzhou!