Time flies, and I don't realize that it has reached the beginning of May of the eighth year of Chongzhen. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The strongholds such as Chifeng City and Iron Dragon City under Li Xiao's rule have become increasingly prosperous and vigorous with the development of time.

In particular, the steel industry in the Iron Dragon City, due to Li Xiao's full support and key care, has now become the most vigorous and energetic pillar industry in Li Xiaojun. In the forging field of nearly 10,000 people in Iron Dragon City, in addition to the armor and weapons needed by Li Xiaojun in large quantities, there are also a large number of iron living utensils that have been brought into life.

Looking at the iron utensils full of more than fifty four-wheeled carriages, being carried out of the iron warehouse by a large number of laborers like ants transporting goods, and loading the items into the cars and transporting them away, Wu Liang, the director of Iron Dragon City, had a bright smile on his face.

An official of the Commercial Department of Tielong City reported the number loudly in high spirits: "Mr. Yu, the shipment amount this time is 30,000 iron spoons, 28,000 kitchen knives, 5,000 fine iron wine pots, 10,000 iron basins, 8,000 iron hoes, 6,000 iron shovels, 7,000 shovels, 5,000 shovels, 8,000 iron buckets, 15,500 small iron pots, 8,200 large large pots, 6,500 iron pots for cooking soup, 4,800 large iron pots with thick bottoms, 5,000 iron tongs, 3,000 iron fire chopsticks, 20,000 iron horseshoes, and 50,000 iron stove nails. 120,000 iron needles, 10,000 iron axes, 7,000 iron chains......"

"Okay, good, I didn't expect that my Iron Dragon City shipped for the first time, and so many goods were sent, if Lord Li in Chifeng City saw this large number of iron goods in the future, I don't know how happy I would be." After listening to the official's report, Wu Liang smiled happily.

A staff officer next to him was also full of smiles, but he lowered his voice and said to Wu Liang: "This batch of iron goods was originally going to be sent directly to Jintang City, Xuanfu Town, why did Master Li suddenly ask us to send it to Chifengwei instead?" ”

"Ahem, you don't know. It is said that Lord Li has now received a big business in Chifengwei, and this big customer may want all of this large number of goods. Wu Liang glanced at the official and whispered.

"Oh, I see." The official looked thoughtful.

Wu Liang was right, it was precisely because of this big business that Li Xiao urgently ordered that this large batch of iron goods that was supposed to be transported to Jintangcheng on Xuanfu North Road was ordered to be transferred to Chifeng City as soon as possible.

This big customer was Li Xiao, who wanted to sneak attack Li Xiao who fled south to Shandong at sea that day, but was later subdued by Li Xiao and sold a large number of firearms to Shen Zhixiang, the deputy chief soldier of Dongjiang Town.

In the past year or so, Shen Zhixiang, who was originally a deputy general, obtained a large amount of money by reselling goods to Mongolia, Houjin, North Korea and other places, and then he used this large amount of money to bribe his uncle, that is, Shen Shikui, the chief soldier of Dongjiang Town, and finally succeeded in occupying the position of deputy chief soldier of Dongjiang Town.

In Li Xiao's impression, although this Shen Zhixiang has a rough appearance, he is a person with a very fine heart and a very sensitive sense of smell, such a person may not be able to become a qualified general, but he will definitely be a successful businessman.

After learning the news that Li Xiao was making a large number of steel and iron in Shanxian County, Shen Zhixiang knew that his own business opportunities had come.

Shen Zhixiang relied on the intuition of a businessman, and immediately thought of Li Xiao's biggest difficulty now, which should be the poor capital turnover.

Because it is obvious that it will cost a lot of money for Li Xiao to build Tielong City, Chifeng City, and Jintang City, as well as to purchase a large number of production equipment and resettle a large number of displaced people. And Li Xiaojun has no products that can be used for profit, so with such a huge investment, Li Xiao's funds will quickly run out.

Shen Zhixiang was not wrong at all, because by now, Li Xiao's reserve funds had actually been basically exhausted.

Although Li Xiao ordered the officials of the Money and Grain Department to keep secrets, he was very anxious in his heart.

After all, in the case that the goods are not sold, the current state of pure input, the amount of silver spent every day is an astonishing amount.

According to Li Xiao's original idea, at the beginning of this May, a considerable amount of iron products in Iron Dragon City should have been produced, and they needed to be transported to Jintang City as soon as possible and sold to the Mongolian tribes, so as to exchange as much silver as possible to meet the huge expenses.

It's just that when he received a letter from Shen Zhixiang, Li Xiao changed his mind.

This first batch of goods will be sold to Shen Zhixiang, who called him a brother and sister in the letter.

Because Li Xiao understands that even if everything goes well to the Mongolian ministries, it will take a while to repay the money, and there is no faster way to return the funds than to directly hand over the money and sell it to Shen Zhixiang with the other hand.

So, Li Xiao quickly wrote two letters, one was to Wu Liang, the director of Iron Dragon City, asking him to transfer this batch of goods to Chifengwei, and the other was to Shen Zhixiang, warmly inviting him to come to Chifengwei in mid-May to buy goods.

In the letter, Li Xiao clearly said to Shen Zhixiang that because the firearms sold by Shen Zhixiang last time were of great benefit to Li Xiaojun, this time he came to buy iron weapons, and Li Xiao would definitely give him considerable discounts in reward for his efforts in selling firearms last time.

Shen Zhixiang received Li Xiao's letter, he was in a very happy mood, and when the time was about to come, he personally took several big ships, and his cronies Wang Tingrui, the deputy general, and Yuan Anbang, the staff general, went south to Chifengwei.

For more than a year, with Shen Zhixiang's step-by-step ascension, his two personal generals, Wang Tingrui and Yuan Anbang, were also promoted from general to deputy general, and guerrilla was promoted to general.

In early summer in May, the warm sun melts, and on the blue and boundless Bohai Sea, seagulls chase and chirp in all directions, and the waves are calm and soft, leaving white and delicate foam on the side of the ship heading south. And Shen Zhixiang and the others, who were standing on the bow of the boat, saw this peaceful scene, and their hearts became more and more happy.

"Li Xiao, this guy is really a fucking talent." Shen Zhixiang held a big wine jug, poured a big sip to himself, and said with emotion: "This guy is just a hunter in the countryside of Jinzhou, in just over a year, he has now become a hereditary commander, and he has married the county lord of the Lu Wangfu as his wife, which is very enviable." “

"But no, I heard that this Li Xiao started from scratch, and has now built three big cities of Chifeng, Tielong, and Jintang, and he has tens of thousands of male soldiers, and he has the ability!" Deputy General Wang Tingrui also looked emotional.

"Mr. Shen, this Li Xiao is such a capable person, but we have to make friends with each other. Li Xiao is close to Shandong, very close to my Dongjiang Town, but it is convenient to supply and purchase, if he has a stable source of goods, then we don't have to worry about our future financial future. General Yuan Anbang wiped the rat whiskers from the corners of his mouth and said with a loud smile to Shen Zhixiang.

Shen Zhixiang laughed a few times, and after pouring a sip of wine hard, he smacked his lips and smiled: "This is nature!" Last time, if it weren't for the large amount of silk that Li Xiao sold to the official at a low price, the official Ande would have sold it to the Jin Dynasty to earn a lot of money. If there is no such money, how can this official have the money to help his uncle and his superiors and others to get the position of deputy chief soldier. Li Xiao is really my god of wealth for me Shen. ”

A few days later, Shen Zhixiang and others came to Chifengwei and parked the ship at the newly built Longkou Bay port, and Li Xiao personally went out of the north gate of Chifeng City to warmly welcome the arrival of Shen Zhixiang and his party.

Seeing the Chifeng City in front of him, which is majestic and extraordinary, with a circumference of 12 miles and all kinds of protective measures, looking at the top of the city gate, on the bluestone slab carved with side flowers, the huge Yangwen Lizi "Dingbei Gate" carved with the side flowers, Shen Zhixiang was full of emotion.

Such a majestic city, not to mention in Liaodong and Shandong, is in the entire Ming Dynasty, I am afraid it is also a huge city among the best. This Li Xiao was built quickly with his own strength, and this person's talent is really powerful!

When Shen Zhixiang saw Li Xiao, who was wearing the costume of a military attache of the third rank and was smiling at him at the city gate, he felt unreal in a trance.

This person really can't be compared.

"Brother Shen, I have worked hard from afar, and after many years of farewell to my brother, Li misses Your Excellency very much." Li Xiao clenched his fists and arched his hands, groaning with a smile on his face.

"Ahem, our brothers, that's not a fight, you don't know each other." Shen Zhixiang grinned, then stepped forward quickly, patted Li Xiao on the shoulder affectionately, and laughed loudly: "Brother Li is really a talent, in just over a year, he became a hereditary commander and married the county lord as his wife. ”

"Ahem, my little brother has a shallow career, it's not worth mentioning." Li Xiao smiled faintly, and casually made a gesture of invitation: "It's rare for Brother Shen to come south to my Chifengwei, quickly follow Li into the city, go to the living room to sit for a while, the younger brother has already set up a banquet to entertain you, and it will be ready in a short time." ”

Li Xiao warmly invited, but Shen Zhixiang shook his head and said, "Brother Xian, don't be in a hurry to eat and drink, and it's important to go and see the goods first." ”

Seeing Shen Zhixiang so eager, Li Xiao couldn't help but laugh: "Okay, since Brother Zun is so eager, and Junior Brother An dares to stop a little, then Brother Zun will go with Li to see the goods first." ”

When Li Xiao asked people to open the iron warehouse in the northwest area of Chifeng City, Shen Zhixiang and the others were all thrilled by the dazzling array of iron tools inside.

After a short time, Shen Zhixiang's entourage finished ordering.

"Lord Shen, there are always 30,000 iron spoons, 28,000 kitchen knives, 5,000 fine iron wine pots, 10,000 iron basins, 8,000 iron hoes, 6,000 iron shovels, 7,000 shovels, 5,000 shovels, 8,000 iron buckets, 15,500 small iron pots, 8,200 large large pots, 6,500 iron pots for soup, 4,800 large iron pots with thick bottoms, 5,000 iron tongs, 3,000 iron fire chopsticks, 20,000 iron horseshoes, 50,000 iron furnace nails, 120,000 iron needles, 10,000 iron axes, and 7,000 iron rope chains......"

"It fits the bill perfectly." General Yuan Anbang nodded, looked at the slip given by Li Xiao in his hand, and said to the counter: "Have you ever checked the quality?" ”

"General Yuan, the villain has seen it, all the ironware is the same fine iron casting, the craftsmanship is quite attentive, the quality is excellent, the villain has inspected it before and after, and has not found a defective product."

Shen Zhixiang on the side showed a look of disbelief on his face when he heard this, while Li Xiao, who was standing next to him, had a faint smile on his face.

In fact, these ironware are basically all made of middle and lower grade wrought iron, because the middle and upper grade wrought iron has been used to make armor and weapons, but Rao is using the middle and lower grade wrought iron of Tielong City, because of Li Xiao's advanced smelting technology, and the use of the craftsman responsibility system in the production process, as well as the inspection system of strict control at the first level, the quality of the iron produced is much better than all kinds of iron on the market.

Doing business, naturally, has to take a long time, with such high-quality ironware, Li Xiao dared to predict that after Shen Zhixiang tasted the sweetness, he would not go to other places to buy goods.

"Brush!"

With a soft sound, Shen Zhixiang took out a kitchen knife from the shelves of his warehouse and came to inspect it in person.

He was pleasantly surprised to see that this kitchen knife felt heavy and quite rich, the back of the knife was heavy and gray, but the edge was bright and sharp, and in front of the wooden handle, a small round "Li" character was engraved with an iron seal.

Shen Zhixiang flicked the back of the knife with his hand again, and then listened carefully, and could clearly hear the crisp and pleasant slight buzzing sound of the kitchen knife.

This is the sound of the best iron on the blade, and it is the most obvious feature of the fine iron that is clean and has no hidden bubbles.

"A good Li character kitchen knife, the real material is of high quality, the workmanship is good, and the iron tools produced in the Xiandi workshop are much better than those on the market." Shen Zhixiang put back the kitchen knife with a very emotional expression.

Wang Tingrui and Yuan Anbang also have the same emotion.

With a look of appreciation and reluctance, they looked at every piece of iron on display in the warehouse, exuding a soft luster after precision casting and polishing, and their hearts became more and more satisfied.

The ironware made by Li Xiao's workshop is obviously several grades higher than those crude pig iron tools on the market. This time I came to Chifengwei, it was really worth the trip.

Shen Zhixiang felt his heart beating hard.

Based on the businessman's intuition, he could predict that if Li Xiao's batch of goods were resold to Houjin or North Korea, they would be sold out quickly.

If it weren't for Shen Zhixiang's boasting, an iron needle in the iron warehouse in Chifeng City, even if it was sold in various places in western Liaoning, could be sold at a very high price.

According to the exchange rate of Daming silver and copper coins, now one or two silver, about 500 Chongzhen gold back copper coins, one money fifty Wen, one cent ten Wen, such a finely made iron needle, selling a five Wen gold back copper money, absolutely not a problem!

Shen Zhixiang turned his face, and there was already a bright smile on his face.

"Brother Xian, you have to ask for all the iron goods in the warehouse." Shen Zhixiang patted Li Xiao's shoulder with a bold face and said loudly.

Li Xiao smiled and said: "Brother Zun wants goods, but junior brother dares to disobey." This warehouse iron goods, the younger brother will not discuss with the respected brother in detail, even if it is a preferential total price for you. ”

Shen Zhixiang hurriedly said: "But I don't know what the price of the virtuous brother is?" ”

"Three hundred thousand taels of silver." Li Xiao smiled and stretched out three fingers.

"Ah, Commander Li made this bid, but it was a little higher." Wang Tingrui, who was next to him, interjected in a surprised tone.

"That's right, Commander Li, let's cooperate initially, don't ask for such a high price." Yuan Anbang hurriedly posted.

Li Xiao chuckled, sighed and said: "Everyone, Li has always been honest in his life, even if it is the way of a businessman, he will never do that deceptive and deceptive thing. To put it mildly, if this batch of iron goods is sold over there, your profits will be more than doubled. ”

Wang Tingrui and Yuan Anbang glanced at each other awkwardly, but they were silent.

Shen Zhixiang laughed dryly, wiped his thick beard and said, "Brother Xian, your iron material is good, is it fair at such a price." It's just that Brother Fool and Brother Xian are doing business initially, please give more discounts, after all, Brother Fool came this time, and the silver brought is not too much, and everyone still has to cooperate for a long time. ”

Shen Zhixiang said this because he knew that Li Xiao had just started doing business now, and there were not many business channels at hand, and he was anxious to return the funds.

Li Xiao said with a smile: "Brother Shen, you are a person who makes a lot of money, and Encore is so tight on the younger brother." Why don't you give me a lucky boat worth 50,000 taels of silver? ”

Li Xiao's joke made Shen Zhixiang's head shake like a drum: "No, no, now there is a shortage of ships in Dongjiang Town, and the imperial court has not sent new ships to my town since last year, and now every boat is a valuable property of my Dongjiang Town." If Brother Fool sells this lucky ship to you, and returns to Phi Dao, my uncle is afraid that he will punish me severely. ”

Hearing Shen Zhixiang's words, Li Xiao also sighed in his heart.

The current Dongjiang Town is almost at the end of its accommodation.

In history, in April of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Dongjiang Town's heavy land island was captured by the Qing army, and the general Shen Shikui was captured by the Qing army's general Ma Futa, and then beheaded, and Shen Zhixiang also led the remnants of Dongjiang Town to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and was named the Duke of Xu Shun by Huang Taiji.

After fifteen years, Dongjiang Town finally perished.

The originally cheerful atmosphere of the meeting became quite awkward for a moment because of the stalemate on price.

Shen Zhixiang muttered in his heart, 50,000 taels of silver is not a small amount, although Li Xiao's price is fair, but if he can talk about it in a mere language, he can have a lot less silver, of course Shen Zhixiang is not stingy to spend a little more energy and time.

At this time, Shen Zhixiang, who was thinking repeatedly in his heart about how to fight wits and courage with Li Xiao next, suddenly heard Li Xiao say: "Brother Shen, junior brother has another suggestion, if Brother Venerable can accept it, this iron goods can also be discounted by 50,000 taels of silver for you." ”

"Oh, what advice?" Shen Zhixiang became interested.

"That is, to exchange talents for silver, and iron tools for talents." Li Xiao said to Shen Zhixiang word by word.

(Thank you for the monthly pass of the two brothers of the wise man Wuwei and the white cosmic wind 17, thank you for your support). (To be continued.) )