The princes had their own opinions for their own interests, but one thing was certain, no matter which way of sending troops, the Son of Heaven would send troops.

Because this time with the help of Zhou Tianzi's righteousness, even if there are five or six thousand soldiers, it is the Son of Heaven who comes forward to meet the princes, and he can also gather some people's hearts and have righteousness in hand.

But Zhou Tianzi is now facing an extremely embarrassing situation.

He was afraid of the Mo family's set of remarks, and although the princes did not accept him, they did not say that they dared to abolish him.

The Mo family wants to choose the Son of Heaven, which does not recognize the legitimacy of Zhou Tianzi at all.

Of course, Zhou Tianzi wanted to send troops.

But...... No money.

The treasury is empty, the princes are not courteous, the fiefs are few, and the soldiers now need muskets and gunpowder, so where is the money?

Zhou Tianzi has been very poor all these years, otherwise there would not be a legend that Jiuding melted into money, and there were more embarrassing rumors in history that the Son of Heaven had "stolen iron".

Iron refers to weapons such as axes and axes that symbolize the power of the king, for the venerable, in fact, this means that Zhou Tianzi is too poor, and he also knows that his son of heaven is a puppet, so he took out the things that symbolize the authority of the king and exchanged them for money, anyway, it is useless to keep them.

…………

In Luoyi, several big businessmen gathered together to discuss the matter of the Son of Heaven borrowing money.

Of course, borrowing money cannot be borrowed in vain, the Son of Heaven borrowed usury, and if he won the war, he would repay it with booty, slaves, land, etc.

However, none of the big merchants in Luoyi wanted to borrow it.

A businessman who made his fortune on wheat flour in the early years and is now in the business of smuggling weapons and iron weapons looked at his peers and took the lead in saying: "I will not borrow money." The Mohists made it clear that if the borrowed money is not stamped on the Si Shang, once it wins the world in the future, this kind of debt will not be recognized. ”

"Sooner or later, the Son of Heaven will be finished, once the Mo family wins the world, who will I ask with this money? Besides, now they all buy the treasury bonds of Sishang, and the businessmen say that they are profitable, who will buy the treasury bonds of the Son of Heaven in these years? ”

A colleague next to him also said, "I won't borrow it either." If you can't win this battle, even if you win, what will the Son of Heaven pay? The whole world is not the king's land...... Hahaha, who can believe this now? If I lend him a debt, he can make me a marquis, and I may be able to consider it. But the knight has to have land, does he have land to give me? ”

Merchants have no respect for the Son of Heaven, and this trend is not brought out by the Mo family, but the princes have no respect for the Son of Heaven.

Merchants are not within the patriarchal system, and they lack respect. What can the Son of Heaven do?

Just when everyone said that they would not borrow money, a speculative businessman who was quite famous in Luoyi said: "Everyone, everyone, this money is not impossible to borrow, as long as it is profitable." Now there is a tenfold profit, I don't know if you dare to do it? ”

There are very few such things as making ten times the profit.

Speculative princes, it may be possible, but it also has to be a big country.

Zhou Tianzi's situation is complicated, and he really can't think of any investment that can make a profit of ten times.

The speculative businessman whispered: "Since the Mo family said that they would inherit Dayu's aspirations, you can know that there is something in this Luoyi that is extremely closely related to Dayu. ”

He just mentioned this, and the rest of the people immediately understood, and said one after another: "You mean...... Jiuding? ”

Among Luoyi, the one most closely related to Dayu is the Jiuding cast by the gold of the world.

The speculator laughed, "That's right. It is Jiuding. It is rumored that Yuzhou Ding is in Sanglin, and the Son of Heaven only has eight tripods, but these eight tripods can also make more than ten times the profit. ”

"In these days, the richest buyer is the Sishang Mo family. You and I make food and clothing profits from Sishang, overseas trade equity, the benefits of Xuanlin ceramics, gunpowder and firearms sales, if you ask who in the world has the money to buy Jiuding, I am afraid that the Mo family in Sishang can't. ”

"There have long been rumors, saying that the Son of Heaven is short of money to melt the Ding to cast money, although I don't know whether it is true or false, but since there is this rumor, I think this Jiuding may not be able to buy."

The hearts of the people were hot, thinking that this was indeed a way to make ten times the profit.

Even if one tripod is 500 catties, then eight tripods still have four or five thousand catties.

According to the market experts, it was also the price of six or seven field bronze cannons, although expensive, but these merchants could also afford it.

Speaking of barter, what Zhou Tianzi lacks now is military supplies such as arms, cotton cloth, and leather armor.

The strength of 6,000 men is nearly a division, and according to the mixed and matched armament of the second-line army in Sishang, 3,000 muskets, more than 2,000 spears, 10 bronze cannons, 3,000 thick leather armor, and 10,000 cotton cloth and cotton clothes are needed......

According to this standard, the merchants can't make it up, but if you reduce it, don't use expensive copper cannons, and mainly old arquebuses that have been eliminated in Sishang, these merchants can make it up.

Zhou Tianzi has to come up with something to mortgage, there is no evidence. Besides, there are some contracts on the Sishang side that are not recognized, such as the fief, which the Sishang side does not recognize, thinking that this thing should belong to the people, and the fief is invalid because the noble emperor snatched it from the people.

It is even more unrealistic to expect Zhou Tianzi to win and get the spoils of war, in the eyes of businessmen, it is obvious that he cannot win, then this is a loss-making business.

So the best mortgage is Jiuding.

If he wins, then the loan shark recovers and does not lose money.

If you lose, Jiuding will be sold to Sishang, and you will be able to make a profit.

However, it is difficult to say whether Zhou Tianzi can mortgage it.

It is said that it is extremely difficult, but everyone thinks about it, and it is just such an object worthy of collateral, if you don't agree, then you don't borrow money.

A few days later, the messenger of the Son of Heaven came again, and this time the merchants also gave the Son of Heaven enough face, and set up a banquet to entertain the angels.

In the middle of the staggering, the topic was led to the mortgage of Jiuding borrowing usury.

Although the messenger of the Son of Heaven was poured some wine, when he heard about this shocking thing, he suddenly came to his senses and shouted angrily: "Ridiculous! How can the weight of the tripod be measured by money? ”

"Yu collects the gold of Jiumu and casts Jiuding. All taste the gods and ghosts. It was sage, and Ding moved to Xia Shang. Yin Shang has no virtue, Ding is from Zhou, this vessel of the Son of Heaven, the sacrifice of God, ghosts and gods, how can it be defiled? ”

When the merchants heard this, they said that this was impossible, and they all said, "If this is the case, it may be difficult to borrow." ”

The messenger of the Son of Heaven said angrily: "It is said that businessmen know profit but do not know righteousness, and this is indeed the case. This time is the righteousness of the world. It is really a gentleman's words and a villain's words. The disaster of the Mo family, there is no virtue to this point. ”

The businessman who proposed to mortgage Jiuding snorted coldly: "What is righteousness? Scholars and nobles, farmers and businessmen are all cheap righteousness, why should we be righteous from this? ”

"We lent money to the Son of Heaven in order for us to continue to be cheap and inferior? Isn't that ridiculous? How is this like lending a sword to a thief, and having the thief kill himself? ”

"If everyone is equal, only in terms of wealth, if I have money, I can also live in the house of the Son of Heaven and the dance of the eight hundred and eighty...... In this drastic change in the world, what we businessmen have lost is only the shackles, and what we have gained will be the whole world. How can we say that we don't give handouts? ”

"It's just that in our view, righteousness is profit. The righteousness of our merchants is not the righteousness of your gentlemen. ”

These transgressive words, uttered at a banquet, and at a banquet in Luoyi, where the Son of Heaven lived, would have been appalling if decades ago, but now they are just ordinary words.

The messenger of the Son of Heaven sneered: "The Mo family's words are beneficial, and they benefit each other, but they do not follow the righteousness. Merchants seek profit, no wonder you should be low. If the two countries are at war, as long as it is advantageous, I am afraid that you can also invest in the enemy country. ”

Merchants are not afraid, those who can be qualified to be borrowed by Zhou Tianzi are all the kings of Su Feng, although there is no fief, but there is a lot of wealth, it is a big deal to go to Sishang, naturally fearless.

Hearing what the messenger of the Son of Heaven said, the merchant smiled and said: "A gentleman is righteous, and a villain seeks profit." Since we are cheap, please ask the gentleman to raise his own military expenses. ”

"Today, we will make a statement, and now we are the only ones who can lend the Son of Heaven enough to raise the armament needed for a division in Luoyi. But if you want a few of us to borrow, unless you can't use Jiuding as collateral, you don't have to talk about it. ”

"The gentleman is righteous, and he also invites the gentleman of the world to contribute military expenses for the Son of Heaven. We are villains, who only know how to seek profit, and will not do it if there is no profit. ”

The messenger of the Son of Heaven was choked by these words and was speechless, what kind of bullshit righteousness, that is, to suppress these businessmen who have always been lowly in status.

If there is really righteousness in the world, why is the Son of Heaven mixed up to this point? If there is great righteousness, where did the three families come from to divide the Jintian clan into Qi?

If today's expedition is carried out, and even the military expenses cannot be scraped up, how many of those gentlemen will destroy their families and sell their property to join the army of the Son of Heaven?

In the final analysis, you still have to borrow usury from merchants to make up an army, and the Son of Heaven can be regarded as still authoritative.

Otherwise, the Son of Heaven will only be increasingly despised by the princes, and this is the time when the Son of Heaven can use the threat of the Mo family to revive the righteousness, how can he miss it?

The princes refused to borrow money, and they were poor, if they could arm an army of 6,000, they would naturally increase their troops in the princes' country first, so how could they lend money to Zhou Tianzi?

Even if these merchants said so arrogantly, the envoys of the Son of Heaven were helpless, even if they could not borrow money from these merchants, but in the future, the Son of Heaven would arm the army, and he would have to count on these merchants to buy arms, weapons, uniforms, and so on from Sishang.

When the merchants saw that the messenger of the Son of Heaven was deflated, they said: "It's not that we refuse to borrow, but this campaign will definitely be unprofitable." If you win, you may be able to pay back; If so, what will you give us back? Even Bengali, a year is interest, can the Son of Heaven afford it? ”

The messenger of the Son of Heaven is also helpless, Zhou Li is righteous, and has nothing to do with the merchants, on the contrary, it is still a shackle for the merchants, and it is impossible to expect the righteousness to make these merchants pay.

And businessmen are villains, villains can only be used for profit, but the Son of Heaven really has no interests to mortgage.

The businessman asks for Jiuding when he opens his mouth, and he doesn't borrow Jiuding, how can he agree?

Finally, the messenger of the Son of Heaven quirmed and probed: "If you donate money, the Son of Heaven can make you a ......."

When the merchant heard this, he laughed and said, "All the scholars have soil, where is the fief we are waiting for?" Besides, the money we are waiting for is enough to be the king of the plain seal, even if there is no fief, we can still eat the bell, what is the use of this gentleman? ”

Outside of the words, the businessman thought to himself, the Mo family is about to choose the Son of Heaven, the Son of Heaven is going to be finished, and they want to borrow money if they still make us scholars? Let's dream, now this nobleman, who wants to be whom, anyway, we are inappropriate, when the Mo family calls and liquidates us, it is not good.

In the end, the banquet broke up, and the messenger repaid the Son of Heaven.

When Zhou Tianzi heard this, his tears were sour, and he said secretly: "Is there such a son of heaven in the world?" I can't borrow money, and I am willing to borrow a few of them, and the interest rate is high, and I can't afford to pay back the previous interest, so I can't help it! ”