Chen Mu didn't know that the blueprint he sent to Majiagang would be magically altered by Zhao Yongxian.

He was complacent because of this decision, describing the grand blueprint for the future to Zhao Shizhen, and his eyebrows were so happy when he spoke that Zhao Shizhen dozed off when he heard it.

In fact, there is nothing special, Secretary Zhao, who has followed Chen Mu for many years, has no better understanding of his own handsome, and the means of mobilizing Ming resources to make profits by using his official position and influence.

It's not unusual at all, basically any seasoned businessman can do these things well in Chen Mu's position, and maybe he can be more profitable than him.

But the problem is that there is no such person, Chen Mu is the only one in the entire Ming Dynasty, who integrates a variety of identities such as important ministers of the court who are far away from the political whirlpool, victorious generals who point where to fight, feared pirate leaders, and profiteers who opportunize and seek huge profits.

You never know what he's doing, and you never know what he's thinking.

Any normal person, such as Zhao Fatzi from Majiagang, saw Chen Mu's order to dress the thousands of flag troops stationed in Majiagang in cashmere military uniforms, goose down vests and wool coats, and their first thought was that it was too expensive.

After this idea was generated, every loyal official would consider how to reduce costs under the condition of keeping the flag army warm and ensuring quality, so Zhao Yongxian thought of letting Zhangzhou and Quanzhou weavers, who were proficient in weaving, make cashmere fabrics for them, right, Majiagang did not have to recruit and train a large number of weavers, and the cost was reduced.

Although it is still very expensive after reduction, it does not seem so unbearable compared to the high income of tens of thousands of ethnic people in Majiagang who produce a large amount of forestry, animal husbandry and fishing every year.

As for Zhao Shizhen, after he learned about this incident, his idea was to knock on the bamboo from the Spaniards and find a way to lower the purchase price of cashmere and wool.

The idea came all too naturally.

Naturally, it was terrifying at the beginning, and the first moment had already made Zhao Shizhen feel ashamed, and in the following seconds, he stared at Jing Haibo with resentful eyes, and fell into deep thought.

'What is it that makes the unworldly student become a mechanical unit that now bullies his neighbors in spite of the general good, huh? What exactly? Where did such a disparity come from? ’

Was it Chen Mu who temporarily promoted each officer of a hundred households to one level, and then expanded these one hundred and twelve people into a thousand households to assign them to work on business, and let them train the Three Guards Banner Army, and exchanged a large number of pearls from the King of Sulu at the cost of sending them to Nanjing and Yangzhou, saying that it was extremely precious to count two overseas, and was affected when he started hunger marketing to make huge profits for the Nanyang Military Government?

Yes.

Was it the exchange of three ships of goods from the Portuguese to the garrison power of Malacca and the Lion Country, and everyone applauded it, and when they were excited and happy that the Nanyang Military Government could go to the other side of Malacca for free trade in the future, they heard from Chen Mu's mouth that his true intention was when he set up a tax card in Malacca?

Yes.

It was only after serving as a staff member that I learned that except for Chen Muyan's department, the capital divisions in other places had to use several times or even more than ten times the raw materials to change their armaments in order to exchange for brand-new ordnance, and all the officers were still happy to think that they had earned it?

Yes...... That's right, it's because of Chen Mu.

Listen to what he's saying!

When Zhao Shizhen heard that Chen Mu planned to popularize high-quality, warm and strong woolen military uniforms for the soldiers of the Nine Sides from Jizhen in the future, Xu Wei proposed that such a cost was unacceptable to the imperial court, and they actually saw the stunned on Chen Mu's face.

Then the four words that the Beiyang minister said seemed to be a slap in the face: "What cost?" ”

The indifferent expression, not as if he was faking surprise, as if he was talking not about the new winter uniforms that were six times more expensive than the cotton clothes of each banner soldier, but about a white cotton cloth of three coins of silver.

He said: "The wool comes from the sheep, I want the wool from Spain, and of course the cost should come from the Spaniards." ”

Zhao Shizhen raised his hand at a very fast speed to interrupt Chen Mu's words, blinked and said, "I don't understand, don't you want to buy wool?" ”

"Of course you have to buy it, I have calculated, if our merchant ships sail to Spain to buy their wool, the price will be about twenty catties and three taels of silver; If you buy it at the border, it may take five taels for twenty catties, so I plan to let them transport the wool to the border. ”

Zhao Shizhen didn't even have to think about it in his heart, and blurted out: "It's too expensive, it's better to buy wool spinning and weaving in China than this, and you can buy twenty catties of wool in the north for only two taels of silver." ”

"What's more, it's cheaper to buy in Spain, why bother sending them to the border, it's more expensive."

Chen Mu counted the small accounts very seriously, raised his hand and scratched his cheeks, gestured on the table with his hand and said: "Because first of all, the purpose of trade is not to let others make money, to buy wool in Spain, we have to pay taxes to Fei Lao Er and pay taxes to the Pope, but I don't want to pay taxes to them." ”

"Secondly, when you buy things in Spain, you spend real money, and you have to give them silver."

Hey, that's what I said.

Zhao Shizhen said: "Could it be that money is not money at the border?" ”

"It's also money, but it's a printed Tongbao, and it doesn't have to be printed, they always have to bring the goods back when they come, regardless of whether it's silk or porcelain or guns and armor in the future, it's all barter, for example, I buy eighty catties of wool for twenty taels, I get eighty catties of wool, and he gets twenty taels of silver."

"He can't go back empty, the most profitable goods here are silk and porcelain, he wants to, he has to exchange silver for Tongbao, one or two silver for eight hundred Tongbao, he got 16,000 Tongbao, the best Lu silk can not afford to buy, can only buy a cotton silk or a box of porcelain with Chen's ink treasure - now, what do I have? What does he have? ”

Chen Mu pointed to the tea with his fingers and drew on the table, and said as he painted: "I have returned twenty taels of silver, and I have also returned sixteen thousand Tongbao, and I have obtained eighty catties of wool and lost a piece of cotton silk or a box of coarse porcelain." ”

"When he got this, he had to transport the goods from here to the seashore to load them, and he had to buy food and water from the Gulf of Mexico, and stay in between for a few more days, and the rest, such as the salaries of the sailors, was not counted, and who earned the expenses in the middle of transporting the goods? The natives who ruled New Spain earned, and many of them worked here as laborers, which contributed to the prosperity of New Spain. ”

"And the cotton silk and porcelain I lost, the price in Daming is eight dollars of silver, porcelain plates, porcelain bowls, porcelain bottles of two cents of silver, a set of only one penny of silver, a kiln fired out of a shipload of goods, this set of our military government tax for 3,200 Tongbao, merchants leave Hong Kong for 1228 yuan of silver, back to Tianjin to dock to the customs 225 dollars and 8 cents, net profit more than ten times."

In the end, Chen Mu came to the conclusion: "The merchant made a net profit, the court tariff made a net profit, the military government tariff made a net profit, Chen got the wool and made some money, and gave the weaver a monthly payment, and the wool became wool and then spun into cloth, where is the cost?" ”