Most of the wine shops next to the official road are like this, a wooden house with leaky air, a few tattered tables and chairs, and a dirty shopkeeper and man. Merchants from the south to the north, even if they have a lot of money, still have to use dishes and chopsticks that are almost never brushed when they get here.

The business negotiations between Zhu Youzhen and Li Zicheng were carried out with great difficulty in such a wine shop, with a plate of peanuts, three taels of old white dry, and half a catty of pig's head meat.

"The way of doing business, honesty is the foundation." Li Zicheng said sincerely, "Our Shaanxi merchant gang has been established for more than 200 years since its establishment in the Hongwu period. If you are in arrears or in arrears of principal and interest because of a mere tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, wouldn't you smash your own signboard? ”

Of course, Zhu Youzhen couldn't tell what happened in his previous life, so he had to say to Dali: "The silver I want to put is not just tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of taels, but hundreds of thousands, or even millions of taels. With such a large amount, naturally you can't just say it based on Li Gongzi's red mouth and white teeth. ”

"Moreover," Zhu Youzhen deliberately sold Guan Zi and said, "My share of this silver is only a small part." The identity of the big proprietor is prominent, and it is inconvenient to go out in person, so I was entrusted to handle it. If I can't give him a reliable guarantee, I don't have the right to make my own decisions. ”

In fact, the "big boss" he said was of course referring to the apocalypse, but Li Zicheng thought that he was talking about a high-ranking official with a lot of power, so naturally he didn't want to ask too much.

Hearing Zhu Youzhen say that there were millions of taels of silver that could be used, Li Zicheng refused to let go, and pondered for a moment and said: "What Gongzi You said is also out of cautious considerations, and the villain can understand it completely. The villain had also thought of this section before, so he promised You Gongzi that he could provide a mortgage. But I don't know how many silver taels You Gongzi wants to deposit into our account this time, and what collateral do you want? ”

Zhu Youzhen calculated it, not counting Rui'er's private money, he asked Guan Ning to move into the Wenhua Hall with more than 50,000 taels of silver, plus more than 10,000 taels to win Guan Ning in chess, about 70,000 taels. But there are 10,000 taels of gold, which is equivalent to 90,000 taels of silver according to the current price of 1 to 9.

According to this calculation, the cash that he can use now is about 160,000 taels of silver. As for those treasures and antiques, as well as those pictures of the Spring Palace at home and abroad, it is difficult to estimate the value, and it will not be too little. Anyway, the money is also put away, Zhu Youzhen has long wanted to transfer them out of the palace, and it will be much more convenient when he runs away in the future.

After thinking about it, he said to Li Zicheng: "This is the first time for me, I plan to save 150,000 taels of silver first. But I don't know what Li Gongzi can provide as collateral? How much is the interest? ”

Li Zicheng was overjoyed when he heard this. You must know that the 120,000 taels of silver that Zhu You obtained from the sale of furniture the day before yesterday were divided equally among the four silver numbers. Even so, the 30,000 taels that Li Zicheng just got has been a great help to the turnover of funds. Even the 20,000 taels he paid for Bao Yulian's redemption came from the 30,000 taels of silver. If you can really make 150,000 taels at a time, you can do some large business and make a lot of money all at once.

Thinking of this, Li Zicheng strengthened his determination to negotiate this big business, and said ruthlessly: "The interest can be calculated at two percent per month." As for the mortgage, the villain has 300 hectares of land in Guanzhong, which is worth at least 300,000 taels of silver according to the market price. Mortgage the title deeds of these fields to Childe, what does Childe think? ”

Li Zicheng originally thought that he had offered such generous conditions, and Zhu Youzhen would definitely be able to agree. Unexpectedly, Zhu Youzhen rolled his eyelids and calculated for a long time, and said with a slight smile: "I still owe Li Gongzi a big favor, how can I be embarrassed to ask for such a high interest." Isn't the 120,000 taels of silver in front of you a monthly interest of one and a half cents? This time, let's count it by one percent. But this mortgage doesn't work. ”

Li Zicheng almost didn't believe his ears, he asked tentatively: "You Gongzi took the initiative to cut the interest rate, so generous, the villain is grateful." But the value of this property is already twice as much as your principal, why are you..."

Zhu Youzhen interrupted him with a smile and said, "Li Gongzi misunderstood, it's not that I don't think the value of the collateral is low, but I don't want to accept the land property as collateral." ”

Li Zicheng was surprised: "As the saying goes: the people take food as the sky. The fields harvest grain every year, the financial resources are stable, and they can be passed down for generations, which is an excellent industry. Those of us who are in business, who do not buy land when they have surplus funds. But I don't know why Gongzi is unwilling to accept the mortgage of the land? ”

Zhu Youzhen understood that the reason why land was called real estate in the previous life was because its biggest feature was that it could not be moved. If it is a peaceful and prosperous world, it is okay to invest in real estate. But now is a troubled time, maybe in a few years, the Qing army will enter the customs in a big way, not to mention 300 hectares of fields, the entire Ming Dynasty has to change hands. When the time comes, the Eight Banners will stake the land, and you will still reason with the title deed? It's no wonder if you don't chop it with a knife!

However, these truths cannot be said to Li Zicheng. Zhu Youzhen smiled slightly: "How do you say this?" Since I was a child, I have not been interested in farming, but only interested in business, and thousands of acres of fertile land will be barren sooner or later. But I don't know what profitable shops and businesses your merchants have, especially in Jiangnan and Lingnan? ”

The reason why Zhu Youzhen proposed to ask for industries in the Jiangnan and Lingnan regions was because he felt that after the Qing army entered the customs, it would take some time to unify the whole country from the north to the south, first defeat Li Zicheng, and then destroy the Hongguang regime of the Southern Ming. In particular, the Liangguang region in Lingnan was completely pacified after a few years. With a time buffer, your own Flash plan may have a better chance of success.

Li Zicheng pondered for a moment and said hesitantly: "Although our Shaanxi business gang has a business in the world, its business is mostly in the northwest and southwest regions. The Jiangnan region, which is the territory of Hui merchants, Zhejiang merchants, and Chao merchants, is very competitive. When it comes to profitable trading, we have three foreign firms in Macao, Lingnan, dealing in grain, rice, tea, and porcelain, and they can also make a net profit of 120,000 taels of silver a year. However, the total assets of these three foreign firms are between fifty and sixty thousand taels, which is not worth the 150,000 taels of the son. ”

"Macau?" Zhu Youzhen suddenly perked up and hurriedly asked, "Isn't that the territory of the Portuguese?" ”

Li Zicheng was inexplicable: "Portuguese? Childe may be mistaken, there are only Franc machine people in Macau. ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen remember that "Franc Machine" was the ancient Chinese name for the Portuguese, and hurriedly changed his words: "Yes, yes, yes, it is Franc Machine!" But I don't know how your gang did the business to the Francophone people? ”

Li Zicheng said with a smile: "Franco, his country is not less than thousands of miles away from my Ming Dynasty." During the Jiajing period, a ship of the Franc machine came from the South Seas, was damaged by a storm, anchored in Macao, and settled there to trade with China.

At that time, the sea bandits were rampant, and the imperial court restored the sea ban, and did not want to trade with it. However, the Franco-Rang man was very respectful to the imperial court, and he once sent troops to help the sailors suppress the bandits, and he had a deep contradiction with the red-haired people who were rampant in the South Seas. After several controversies and weighing the pros and cons, the imperial court finally agreed to settle in Macao. ”

"However, the imperial court restricted the Francophile to a corner of Macao, and was not allowed to enter the mainland for half a step. Therefore, if the Franco-Rang people want to trade with the mainland, they must do so through the foreign banks opened by our Koreans. In order to prevent the locals from secretly communicating with the Franc machine, it was also restricted that foreign businesses could only be set up by foreign businessmen. Our Shaanxi merchant gang also ran these three foreign banks through the door of the former governor of Liangguang. This grain, tea and porcelain are all materials that are urgently needed by the people of Franc Ji, so they are sold very well. However, the Franc machine man could not fight the red-haired people in the South Seas, and the shipping route was also greatly affected, and the trade volume was not too large after all. ”

After listening to Li Zicheng's introduction, Zhu Youzhen thought to himself that this Macao was a rare piece of pure land after the Qing army entered the customs. Even Taiwan was taken by Shi Lang during the Kangxi period, but I have never heard of the Qing government's idea of recovering Macao. If you can hide in Macao in the future, foreigners will know money, and with the wealth they have accumulated over the years, they should not be a big problem to be a local tyrant and inferior gentry there, right?

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen immediately said cheerfully: "Li Gongzi, there is no need to say more, just use these three foreign banks as collateral." ”

Li Zicheng was overjoyed when he heard this. Although he didn't understand Zhu Youzhen's logic, he saw that a deal that would make sure he would not lose money, so how could he not do it.

The two immediately initialed the mortgage agreement and agreed on some details such as the handover of money. By the time everything was agreed, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

Lin Youkun waited anxiously, and kept coming in to urge Zhu Youzhen to hurry up. Li Zicheng saw that it was done, and he also gave his hand and said: "The villain will also go south in the near future to arrange the transportation of grain to the north of our gang, and say goodbye to the son." If the prince is useful to the villain, just send someone to the Guanzhong Hall outside the Xuanwu Gate of Jingshi to spread the word. ”

After the two separated, Zhu Youzhen and his entourage also hurried away. Helplessly, the time was already past noon, and the second was that the road was difficult to walk after the snow, so I had walked less than half the distance, the sun had already set, and I couldn't catch up with Jingshi anyway.

Lin Youkun had no choice but to say to Zhu Youjian: "There is a post station not far ahead, you might as well go there to stay tonight." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded in agreement. After a while, I saw that there was indeed a house on the side of the official road in front of me, and a little light was revealed in the dark night. He asked in surprise, "It turns out that the post station is here, why didn't I pay attention when I came?" ”

Mei Jian, Ju Jian, and Zhu Jian in the car remembered that Zhu Youzhen, Bao Yulian and Lan Jian were sleeping sweetly with their heads leaning on their heads at that time, and they could see that they must have had some very vulgar dreams, and they couldn't help but hide their mouths and laugh.

The carriage came to the front of the inn, but saw that the gate was tightly closed. Lin Youkun was surprised: "The post guards at this post station are too lazy, why did they close the door just after night?" He immediately jumped off his horse and stepped forward, slamming the door with all his might.

After smashing for a long time, I could hear a few noisy voices faintly from inside, and after a while, someone shouted through the heavy gate: "The post station is full, please go and stay elsewhere!" ”