Zhu Youzhen asked Huang Liji a few words, and then he roughly understood the origin of Qi Shijiao. A native of Laiwu, Shandong, a Jinshi in the 26th year of Wanli, he is also the leader of the Qi Party known as the Donglin Party.

In the 43rd year of Wanli, there was a great drought in Shandong, and it was under his strong advocacy that the imperial court provided timely relief to the victims, and the situation did not deteriorate. When he was governor of Henan, he also had a lot of political achievements in governing the river.

Generally speaking, although he was deeply involved in party disputes, so he was incompatible with the Donglin Party, but he still had quite a lot of achievements in local governance.

Zhu Youzhen lowered his head and thought about it, then said to Huang Liji: "Pan Ruzhen, the governor of Zhejiang, acted absurdly and nonsense, except for the establishment of the first ancestral hall, he was relatively incompetent in local governance.

This year, Zhejiang Haiyi, as the governor of Zhejiang, has not proposed any other relief plan except for asking the imperial court for money and grain. It was only under the urging of the imperial court that the proposal of cash-for-work was proposed.

I think that although the disaster situation in Zhejiang has basically been alleviated, should the position of the governor of Zhejiang also be replaced? ”

Huang Liji asked tentatively: "Then who does Your Majesty want to go to Zhejiang?" ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and said: "Guangxi Governor Wang Zunde is quite prestigious, I think it would be better for him to go to Zhejiang to appease the people and restore the people's livelihood in Zhejiang as soon as possible?" ”

Although Huang Liji doesn't have a good impression of Pan Ruzhen, he also doesn't have a good impression of Wang Zunde, who is biased towards the Donglin Party. Zhejiang is a rich land in the south of the Yangtze River, and he always feels that it is inappropriate to let Wang Zunde serve as the governor of Zhejiang.

"Your Majesty, the simultaneous transfer of the governor of Liangguang and the governor of Guangxi will make the officials of Liangguang panic? And Guangxi is originally a region where people live together and have strong folk customs.

During Wang Zunde's governor of Guangxi, the local peace was maintained because of his noble character. Now that he is transferred to Zhejiang, who are we going to choose to take his place for a while? If you choose an unsuitable candidate, won't you be asking for trouble? Huang Liji wanted to persuade Chongzhen to dispel this idea.

However, it was obvious that Chongzhen was not afraid of the problem set by Huang Liji, he turned his head and asked Wang Chengen to take out a piece of paper, and then handed it to Huang Liji and said: "Mr. Huang, I thought that I could let this Wen Anzhi serve as the governor of Guangxi..."

On the east bank of the Bohai Sea, at the mouth of the Liao River, an emerging port city has developed quite well. The city was unlike anything else seen, with no defensive walls built on the edge of the city, only a rudimentary ditch for drainage.

The mouth of the Liaohe River is a place where the sea retreats, which means that hundreds of years ago it was still an ocean. But as the sea receded, and the sediment carried by the Liao River, it finally became a landmass.

However, there are still a number of tidal ditches left at the mouth of the Liaohe River, which record the geological changes here. At high tide, the river floods the tidal ditch into the water, creating an ocean, which turns into a swamp at low tide.

Before the Ming Dynasty and Houjin did not reach a peace agreement, this place called Liangfangkou was originally inhabited by many fishermen and hundreds of salt dings. These fishermen and saltmen built shacks and thatched huts along the north and south banks of the Liao River on the high ground by the tidal ditch.

In 1621, after the Houjin occupied the Yingkou area, they took Yaozhou as the center to garrison and manage the town. Because the Ming army sailors mastered the sea route, the fishermen and salt here could only produce intermittently.

At the beginning of the year, after the Ming Dynasty sent an envoy to negotiate peace with the Houjin, the Great Beyler Daishan and the Second Beyler Amin listened to the persuasion of the Ming envoy to build a wharf at Liangfangkou and build a city named Yingkou on the edge of the wharf.

This Yingkou city was mainly used as a place for the Ming and Later Jin to trade goods, and the trees and mountain goods from the interior of Liaodong were transported to Yingkou through the Liao River, while the Ming people transported silk, cotton, porcelain, tea, glassware and even salt from the sea.

Daishan asked his fifth son, Barama, and Amin's eldest son, Elli, to build a small city on this wasteland by the sea, with 1,500 slaves, as well as the original fishermen and salt diners of the locals.

In order to prevent Hwang Tae-gi and the other Baylors from saying that they were plotting against each other, Daishan and Amin did not build the walls of the city. They also openly declared in the Later Jin Dynasty that this was a place to build a few stacks of goods and houses for people, and it was not a city, so they called it Yingkou.

Although it has only taken half a year since the construction of the wharf. However, the wharf area, as well as the warehouse area and residential area built on the wharf, have already taken shape.

Not far from the wharf, there is even a two-story wooden building, which is also a commercial hall built by Sihai Commercial Bank in Yingkou.

Below the small building that used to be full of people, dozens of Jurchen family members stood quietly around the entrance, preventing the entry and exit of idle people. Looking at the arrogant appearance of these Jurchen family members, it is obvious that there are several Jurchen nobles in the merchant hall of the Four Seas Commercial House.

On the second floor of the small building, in a warm and comfortable room, Barama and Airley were listening to Wang Zuobai, the shopkeeper of the merchant house of the Four Seas Commercial Bank in Yingkou, report his accounts.

“… The current situation is that there are already scattered thin ice on the sea near the pier in the morning, which means that according to the experience of previous years, the port will freeze in a maximum of 20 days, and the port will not open until around mid-March next year.

Then in another seven or eight days, our deal for the year will be over. According to your words, we can count it as a winter break. Then I will report the accounts to the two Beizi here, so that they can bring the accounts back to the Big Baylor and the Second Baylor for review..."

The young Barama didn't have much patience to listen to this Ming businessman settle accounts for himself, and he said impatiently after listening to two sentences: "Don't report this trivial account, the master is impatient to listen." You just tell the master, how much money you should give to the master, and how you plan to give it. Listening to your idle talk here, you might as well go and see if there is any prey nearby to hunt..."

Erli patted Balama's arm and signaled him to calm down, before he said to Wang Zuobai with a smile: "Although the fifth brother is young, what he said is very reasonable. The detailed account has its own account room to check, the king shopkeeper, you just need to say, we have been busy here for more than half a year, how much we have earned.

The two of us have been exposed to the wind and sun for half a year, and we have to be bitten by mosquitoes in the summer, and it took a small 10,000 taels of silver to build this place, if we don't make much, let alone Amma, first of all, we can't agree. ”

Regarding the threat of the two Jurchen relatives and nobles, Wang Zuobai just smiled slightly, turned the account to the last page, and said after scanning a few numbers: "In the past half a year, the Four Seas Commercial Bank has purchased 16,583 trees of various kinds, worth nearly 50,000 taels of silver.

45,430 pieces of various skins, worth more than 73,000 taels of silver. 800 catties of ginseng, worth 4,800 taels. Honey and various mountain goods, worth more than 22,000 taels. The total value of the above goods is about 150,000 taels, and this part of the price has been paid in full.

Finally, with regard to the soybean trade that we are still in progress, we have agreed that the purchase price of each stone of soybeans is six yuan, the amount is 500,000 stones, and the total value is about 300,000 taels of silver. We have already paid 180,000 taels one after another, and we should pay another 120,000 taels for the two shellfishers. Is there anything wrong with this account? ”

Hearing the figures reported by Wang Zuobai, a smile suddenly appeared on Erli's face. Although only one-third of these businesses were owned by themselves, what the Ming people used to pay for was not useless silver, but all kinds of daily necessities urgently needed by Houjin.

The value of 450,000 taels of silver, which the Ming used to offset the equivalent value, could be increased from 3 times to nearly 10 times in the hands of Shenyang, Horqin, Haixi Jurchens, and even the savage tribes further north.

In other words, this year's profit from trade alone is at least 1.5 million taels, and its own profit is 500,000 taels. With this money, the days of the blue flag will be better this year.

In the first year of Tiancong's crusade against North Korea, the blue flag suffered heavy losses, and the gains were only more than 100,000 taels of gold and silver. And after reaching an agreement with the Ming people this year, he gained more than 3 times the benefits without any loss. As long as you can recuperate peacefully for 3-5 years, then the blue flag can slowly recover.

Of course, for Amin and Dai Shan, what they value more is that after the peace agreement was reached, the blue flag and the two red flags directly crossed the previous cordon and cleared the land west of the river as a buffer zone. 300,000 acres of dry land and 50,000 acres of irrigated land were opened, and 600,000 stones of soybeans and 100,000 stones of rice were harvested.

Whether it was at the beginning of this year or in mid-October, Huang Taiji twice sent troops to the tribes left behind in Liaodong by Chahar, and they were all victories. In addition to a large number of Mongols who were captured by the Two Yellow Banners, there were many Mongols scattered in the grasslands of eastern Liaodong. Therefore, in the current Liaodong, as long as there is food, you can recruit people, because there are wandering Mongols on the steppe now.

Therefore, these fertile fields that they have opened up are the real foundation in their hands. Before the war, the Hexi region had opened up millions of acres of arable land, and now they have recovered less than a third.

Barrama didn't think as much as Alli, and he suddenly asked a little impatiently: "So before this year's freezing, can this goods worth 120,000 taels be delivered to Yingkou?" ”

Wang Zuobai took his eyes off the ledger, looked up at the two of them, and said unhurriedly: "It depends on the two Beizi, when will the remaining 150,000 stone soybeans be delivered, and the ships of our Four Seas Commercial Bank have been waiting for two days." ”

Elley and Barama glanced at each other, realizing that the other was also confused. Balama suddenly turned his head and shouted a few words outside the door, and a Han man dressed as a Jurchen suddenly walked in in a hurry.

This Han man in the Daishan Mansion is the shopkeeper who is in charge of trading with the four seas merchants. Under Barama's questioning, he quickly replied a few words, but confirmed that what Wang Zuobai said was indeed good, and that there were still 150,000 stone soybeans that had not been delivered to the Four Seas Commercial Bank.

Elley seemed to have thought of something, and he grabbed Barama and stopped him from questioning. Then he turned his head to Wang Zuobai and said gently: "It seems that the problem of not reaching a settlement is due to us." But you can rest assured, our Jurchen men speak and count, and we will not swallow up the silver taels of your trading house. Wait for me for three days, and I'll give you an explanation in three days, and that's all I see for today. ”

Wang Zuobai smiled at Erli and said: "For the credit of Da Baylor and Erbeile, we are naturally trusting the Four Seas Commercial Bank, after all, we will not finish this year's business, and we will not do it next year..."