The two fleets came towards each other and then stopped.
"Have you brought everything?"
"Yes, it's prepared according to the list."
Under the shade of the trees on the shore, Chen Qianfu, dressed as a businessman, and Yan Wogong, also dressed as a businessman, were meeting secretly. Yan Wogong looked at his men unloading batches of ordnance and armor from the ship, and said to Chen Qianfu helplessly, "Supervise the country."
Your Highness really has a handle on Li Yuchun’s fate.”
Chen Qianfu laughed loudly, "The supervisor has long said that Li Yuchun is greedy for life and afraid of death and loves money, so dealing with him is very simple, just give him money."
"The private sale of weapons is still quite serious after all. If Li Yuchun hadn't been pinched to death by the prison state now, he wouldn't be willing to make this money no matter how easy it is to make."
"There's nothing he doesn't want to make. It's all a business without capital. Let's talk about the two thousand and five hundred sets of purple cloth face armor and helmets you sent this time. I know the cost and various materials very well.
The cost is less than five thousand taels, and the labor and food silver is a little more, six thousand taels is enough, and the total is only about eleven thousand taels. A set of cloth armor and a helmet only cost four taels and four taels of silver, and
The more sophisticated Tartar cotton armor, paired with iron face armor and iron arms and hands, only cost eight taels of silver a pair."
"Now our supervisor has given Li Yuchun ten taels of silver for a pair of purple cloth face armor and a helmet, and twenty taels of silver for a pair of Tatar cotton armor, which has doubled his earnings. What's more, he doesn't have to pay for it.
If you ask for it in the name of damage or loss, or to recruit new recruits, etc., even if you buy it, the price will not be high."
"He can make a lot of money casually by just throwing his hands around, and he's not happy about it?"
"Li Yuchun also took a lot of risks. This time he managed to get a total of 3,000 sets of armor, 2,500 sets of cloth face armor, and 500 pairs of Tatar cotton armor. He almost got all the armor in his hands.
Now, except for five hundred servants, he has no armor left."
Mr. Yan also admired the supervision of the country. He was short of armor and weapons, so he actually thought of buying them from Li Yuchun.
When Li Yuchun heard this request, he was also very confused, but the person who came to deliver the message was his superior, Mr. Yan. They knew what they had done without telling Master Manzhou, and they knew that they were all grasshoppers on the same rope.
Li Yuchun couldn't change anything except jumping up and down in anger, yelling, and even slashing the table with a knife.
He knew very well that if any of his private transactions with the fake admiral Zhu Wu were exposed, he would be dead.
Yan Woggong analyzed it carefully with him, and finally said that there is no turning back after shooting, so just keep doing it, as long as you be careful, there is money to be made after all.
As Chen Qianfu said, Li Yuchun had many channels to obtain these armors and equipment. He could get them from the Tatars, buy them from the Tatars, seize them from the battlefield, or take them from the Ming Dynasty's official armory.
, you can even recruit craftsmen yourself to buy iron and other materials to build it.
Anyway, the current situation is chaotic, and it is more convenient for Li Yuchun to do these things since he has territory and soldiers.
The price offered by Zhu Yihai is quite attractive. Although a set of cloth armor and a helmet only cost ten taels of silver, this is not because of imperial corruption. I think the cost of a set of armor in the Ming Dynasty was only a little more than four taels, so I dared to quote twelve taels directly.
two.
There is no middleman to make profit from the price difference. Even if Zhu Yihai gives ten taels of silver, Li Yuchun can make more than half of it.
Zhu Yihai gave Li Yuchun 25,000 taels of silver for two thousand five hundred sets of cloth face armor with an iron helmet on top, and five hundred sets of gold cotton armor with an iron mask and iron arms and hands.
A total of thirty-five thousand taels of silver.
"Li Yuchun is also in short supply of war horses now. Last time after the war at Zhujiazhuang, he left with only 500 people, almost naked. Now he is also in short supply of horses."
"What's he doing with the war horses when he's stationed in Jiaxing? Wouldn't it be nice to stay in the city and eat and drink?" Chen Qianfu said with a smile.
Yan Woggong said helplessly, "Horses can escape and save their lives after all. This time Li Yuchun got 200 war horses, another 300 riding horses, 500 draft horses and 500 pack horses. He has almost finished it."
After everything has been plundered, there really isn’t any left.”
"How much did he keep for himself?"
"Two hundred war horses, and he has a hundred horsemen and servants at his command."
"Li Yuchun said that war horses are rare, and the price offered before was too low. War horses cost at least fifty taels of silver each, riding horses cost twenty taels of silver, draft horses cost fifteen taels, and pack horses cost ten taels."
Chen Qianfu also knew that since Chongzhen, although the way to get horses from Mongolia had been opened, with the conquest of Mongolia by the Later Jin Dynasty and the constant wars, war horses became increasingly scarce. In the early Ming Dynasty, a horse only cost a few taels of silver.
A horse cost four to five taels of silver, and during the Jingtai period it was only six or seven taels. However, during the Wanli period, a horse in Beijing cost at least twenty taels. Now, it is difficult to buy a war horse even with money.
Horses are scarce, so the classification of horses is more detailed. The top ones are war horses that can go directly to the battlefield. These horses are the best, even trained, and are not afraid of noise. The market price is fifty taels per horse.
A riding horse can actually also serve as a war horse, but it is slightly worse.
As for draft horses and pack horses, they are used to pull chariots, artillery, and carry food and supplies respectively.
"There are only two hundred war horses, which is too few. Our cavalry in Jinwu Town doesn't even have enough horses."
Yan Wogong handed another list to Chen Qianfu.
"Previously, under the orders of the Supervisory State, I pretended to surrender Wu Kai and many other princes, generals with seals, generals in the army, etc. Recently, I also recruited and surrendered many bandits and horse thieves, armed squires and landlords, and obtained many establishments from Hangzhou.
I also hired a batch of food, wages and equipment. Although most of them are old goods that have been eliminated or overstocked in Hangzhou, they are still weapons and equipment after all. I also bought some horses and iron materials, etc."
Mr. Yan got more than 500 war horses and more than 3,000 other horses. He was able to get so many horses in the Jiangnan water town. Yan went through a lot of trouble during this period. In addition, there were various weapons and armors.
I've gotten a lot of them, no matter how good or bad they are, it's still better than nothing.
"Mr. Yan is really loyal to the country. You have worked hard." Chen Qianfu couldn't help but sigh when he looked at the list.
"This is all well planned by His Highness. I'm afraid the Tatars would never have imagined that I would report so many men and horses for recruitment. The food, wages and weapons they provided would all be sent to the Northern Expedition Camp of the Supervisor State."
"Hahaha, who makes the Tatars so arrogant?"
"Mr. Yan, now in Jiaxing and Huzhou, except for the prefectures, the rest of the counties are already under your control. You must seize the money and food for these two prefectures."
"Don't worry about that."
Yan Wogong is now very famous in western Zhejiang. He has recruited a lot of Ming generals and officials, as well as heroes from all walks of life. He has given them officials, established camp names, established battalions, and divided them into garrisons.
In various counties, cities and towns, in fact, these so-called people who accepted the recruitment were basically the township brave militia groups that Zhu Yihai and others had previously formed in Jiaxing and other places.
Under the banner of the Green Camp, under the guise of such-and-such a certain general and so-and-so guerrillas, they are actually all Ming troops.
Yan Wogong has not yet penetrated into Hangzhou, but already has strong control over Hujia and Hujia Prefectures. Under the banner of the Green Camp, in the name of the imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, he sent those fake Green Camps to attack the traitorous officials and gentry who led the way to welcome the captives.
They encouraged donations and raised salaries, apportioned money and food to each family, and forced them to donate money and food. They then used the money to purchase ironware, horses, grain, grass, cloth and other military supplies. Some of it was given to the fake green camps, and most of it was given to the fake green camps.
Then secretly deliver it to Zhu Yihai.
Then the other side borrowed the control of its soldiers and horses and began to fully implement the lijin system in Hujia and Hujia. Since the lijin collected did not belong to the regular taxes currently levied by the Qing Dynasty, it was withheld privately and given to Zhu Yihai.
The real taxes collected by the Qing Dynasty were still those of the Ming Dynasty, but these taxes were basically not collected in the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, Yan Wogong would not collect them seriously and sent some fake officials and traitors to make them
They find ways to collect it themselves, and it is their responsibility if they cannot collect it.
The people in Hangzhou also know that it is difficult to collect taxes now, so they cannot blame Yan Wo Gong. Instead, because he keeps recruiting and surrendering, they feel that he has focused all his efforts here and has achieved great results through his hard work.
"How is Li Yuchun doing lately?"
"It's very good. Although he keeps complaining and feels that the prison state is unreasonable, his life is quite comfortable. In such a short time, he has seven new concubines. Since his old mother, wife and children were asked to be sent to Hangzhou,
He is busy giving birth to a son all day now, for fear that one day the matter will be revealed, and then his mother, wife and children will be killed, and his family will have no descendants."
"This boy, when his concubine gives birth to a son for him, he can be sent to Shaoxing. We will protect him. No matter what, we must leave him a heir." Chen Qianfu said with a smile.
"If Li Yuchun heard this, he would probably vomit blood."
"This is not a joke. It is a method that can be used in the future. It can also be considered as an additional bargaining chip to control Li Yuchun. We have to keep a close eye on people like this. By the way, there is another important thing. The supervisor wants to give Li Yuchun some more
Credit."
"Give me some more credit?"
"It's like this. The supervisor is about to go north to Suzhou and wants Mr. Yan to go to Songjiang..."
After the secret transaction was completed, Chen Qianfu returned with more than 4,000 horses of various colors, more than 3,000 mules and donkeys, more than 5,000 sets of various armors, many swords, guns, bows and arrows, and a large amount of iron, cloth, grain, etc. by land and water.
Yan Wogong took a boat and hurried back to Jiaxing Fucheng with a lot of money.
"Going to Songjiang?" Li Yuchun was surprised.
"Well, there has been a riot in Su Song recently, rebellions are everywhere, and the hypocrites are even planning to besiege Suzhou. General, you are the most capable general around here."
Li Yuchun was a little hesitant. He knew his own affairs, and the so-called shocking achievements were actually exaggerated. The battle at Zhujiazhuang was still a lingering shadow, and the subsequent surrender of Haiyan or the defeat of Jiaxing's tens of thousands of rebels were actually nothing.
It's not a real war.
He is now desperately trying to expand his troops, and has already expanded his troops to 12,000, but in fact there are only a few who can actually fight. Only the 500 troops he brought back from Zhujiazhuang can be used, and he has organized them all into
Servants will be given double pay, one hundred cavalry, four hundred infantry, horses and armor, etc. will be given priority to them.