As more ships carrying prisoners of war arrived in Xuzhou, the local business owners became more agitated. The first batch of ships brought 2,000 Shanxi soldiers, then 2,000 auxiliaries, and the third wave of more than 2,000 Shanxi people disembarked in Xuzhou, the excited Ye Tianming and others looked at the sturdy man in front of them, standing on the dock in Xuzhou, and couldn't help shouting: "Long live the Admiral!" Long live the victory! ”

The arrival of more than 10,000 Shanxi people made Xuzhou feel like a carnival. But as the war over labor was in full swing, the carnival atmosphere turned to sabre-rattling. Eventually, violent clashes broke out, and Yuan heard about three large-scale brawls in one day, and countless smaller ones.

In order to quell the conflict, the prefect of Yuan had to send troops to invite all the bosses to the prefect's yamen, and Qin Xiucai, the director of the tax bureau, who happened to come to Xuzhou on business, also attended. Many people came with blue noses and swollen faces, and they were still glaring at each other in the yamen lobby. To make matters worse, there was no impartiality in the prefect's yamen, because Yuan Xiang was not only a referee, but also a player in the game, believing that agriculture was very important, and that without grain there would be no guarantee of industry and commerce.

Suddenly, the lobby of the Yamen of the Xuzhou prefect became a cockfighting arena, and the bosses quarreled with the prefect into a pot of porridge. The salt merchants claimed that the manpower required for the salt industry must be guaranteed, which was the driving force for the sustainable development of Xuzhou, and it was also a key project that Governor Deng personally inquired about many times -- Yuan Xiang was not the only one who knew how to sacrifice the magic weapon of Deng Ming's quotations -- and the grain could be purchased in Chengdu, and if Liu Jinge did not cooperate, it would be transported from Huguang. The salt merchants patted their chests and promised that as long as the Yuan prefect vigorously supported the salt industry, there would be as much grain as there were.

Yuan Xiang was a young man in his early twenties, and he had no backbone when he was quarreled with by the salt merchants. Seeing that the prefect was actually persuaded by the salt merchants, the ship owners were anxious and hurriedly retorted: If we didn't build ships, we wouldn't want to transport salt to Huguang, not to mention that Admiral Deng already had the latest instructions, that is, not only to sell salt, but also to sell ships. As for the matter of transporting grain from Huguang, the ship owners refuted it even more, pointing out that this is simply a loss-making deal, don't look at the salt merchants who have promised well now, they will definitely regret it afterwards, and Governor Yuan must not be fooled.

The other timber trading houses and blacksmith shops were not willing to be lonely, and said that without their help, the shipowner would not have been able to build a ship, even if he had men. The same is true for salt merchants, who now need wooden trays if they want to save manpower and use the salt drying method, and in the future, if they want to restore the salt (natural gas) from the fire well, they will also need the products of the wood and iron shops. These people stressed that Deng Ming's concern for the production of timber and iron tools in Sichuan was not inferior to that of the salt and shipbuilding industries, and he cordially expressed his condolences to various trading houses on more occasions, instructing them to come up with more inventions and apply for more patents as soon as possible.

Everyone shouted and shouted in the prefect's yamen for a long time, brandishing Deng Ming's various instructions with all their might, as if wielding a sword, and stabbed at the competitors (including Yuan Zhifu), and finally Yuan Xiang had to admit that the scene was completely out of control, and no agreement could be reached - except for one exception.

The exception to this is Yuan Xiang's decision to shorten the inspection time of Xuzhou Tongxiucai. As long as the people of Shanxi are willing to stay and work in Xuzhou instead of going to Chengdu, they can be guaranteed by the proprietor, pay some taxes in advance, and obtain the status of Tongxiucai within half a year, so that they can enjoy all the privileges of fame -- this is undoubtedly an open violation of the policy and an unauthorized amendment. However, a group of business bank bosses who shouted Deng Ming's instructions and shouted hoarse voices just now expressed their unconditional approval of Yuan Xiang's wise decision, and some people said that the inspection period should be shortened to three months, and if the owner is willing to pay more bail, it can even be further shortened. In short, any policy that can persuade the Shanxi people to stay in Xuzhou is a good policy, even if it is a policy that openly confronts Deng Ming's instructions.

Fortunately, Yuan Xiang still remembered that his official position was given by Deng Ming, and he could not let the governor of the Yangtze River not come to power, so he withstood the pressure and still insisted that the inspection period should not be shorter than half a year.

There was no result in the morning, and everyone continued to quarrel at noon. After a short period of correction, the prefect of Yuan suddenly realized that his majesty had been challenged by the talented people of Tongxiu, and he once again stood firm, saying that he would ensure agricultural production no matter what. In the end, seeing that he could not convince people with reason, Yuan Xiang said that since all the bosses had a military career in the Sichuan army, they should simply use the honor of the warrior to resolve the dispute - in short, it is a heads-up.

Liu Zhifu enjoys the reputation of being invincible all over Chengdu, and the bosses all know that Liu Jinge can always rely on this trick to achieve his goal, although Yuan Zhifu in front of him has not moved, but everyone has heard that he is a disciple of the general, and he was a member of Deng Ming's guards, not to mention heads-up, the bosses of these auxiliary firms have no chance of winning in two fights; Well-informed people even knew that Yuan Xiang had once performed martial arts with Zhou Kaihuang in front of Deng Ming, and it was said that Major Zhou, who had the courage of ten thousand people, could only have a draw with Yuan Zhifu, and the bosses were obviously given for nothing.

To fight alone is to be beaten for nothing, and then let others slaughter in policy, and the bosses of commercial banks resolutely refuse to be fooled. Admiral Deng also had a backup plan, which was to appeal to the Yamen. However, everyone knows that the criminal officers are all the old departments of the Yuan Governor's Mansion, and in the morning, the Yuan Governor patted his chest and promised that if he revised the policy of the Tongxiucai observation period, he would definitely be able to get the approval of the Xuzhou Punishment Yamen. Since the criminal officer even dared to change Deng Ming's policy under the instructions of Yuan Governor's Mansion, the fate of the lawsuit with Yuan Governor himself can be imagined.

So the bosses advocated replacing the individual competition with a team competition, and some people originally wanted to propose a group of five people to fight in groups, but considering the strong personal strength of Yuan Zhifu, this plan must be self-inflicted; The ten-person group still doesn't seem to be sure, and the hundred-person group martial arts fight seems to be fairer, but this is estimated to be able to kill people.

Yuan Xiang, on the other hand, resolutely opposed the multi-person competition, and with a swing of his head, he made a big show of official authority, either as he said, or as he came up to fight - then he still did what he said.

What rescued the bosses from their predicament was an order sent by Deng Mingxin. The letter said that because the battle situation was completely unexpected, it was necessary to urgently mobilize in Syria and recruit more soldiers and civilians to help the front line.

Yuan Xiang pinched this order and muttered for a while, eased his tone, and discussed with the bosses present: "The Admiral wants more reinforcements, and the requirements for our Xuzhou are not high, because our people in Xuzhou can't be compared with the capital, so the Admiral only needs our Xuzhou to try to mobilize one or two thousand people, and the capital government needs to send twenty or thirty thousand people." If this is the case, the prisoners who come later will inevitably be taken to Chengdu, and if we intercept the flow again, the capital will definitely protest, and the admiral will not care. ”

"How many more captives will there be?" A boss asked.

"Maybe there will be seventy or eighty thousand." Yuan Xiang gave a brief introduction to the military situation.

"Seventy, eighty thousand!"

The bosses' eyes suddenly turned red. Syria now has a population of less than 30,000, and even if the previous batch of more than 10,000 prisoners of war were retained, that is, a third of the labor force would be added.

It is unrealistic for so many prisoners of war to belong to Xuzhou, even if Yuan Xiang and the bosses of the trading houses are willing to take risks, Deng Ming will never agree that the prisoner of war population has an absolute advantage in Xuzhou, and Xuzhou can only hope to keep another 20,000 prisoners of war. If you want to achieve this goal, then Xuzhou must assume the corresponding responsibility. It didn't take long for all the participants, including the salt merchants, to unanimously agree to a large-scale reduction in production, and Xuzhou fully mobilized to support the imperial court to suppress bandits, dispatching 15,000 soldiers and people to support the front line.

It was agreed that the spoils of war should be distributed in proportion to the mobilization, and that if the salt industry could provide 5,000 soldiers and men, then a third of the prisoners of war should be allocated to the salt industry afterwards. Yuan Xiang, on the other hand, demanded the adoption of a tax system to meet agricultural needs, saying that he would take 50 percent of the tax in any industry, which meant that if the salt industry received 5,500 captives, then 2,500 would have to become yeoman farmers in the cantonment.

This tax rate triggered a new round of crazy quarrels, and Yuan Xiang found that at this moment he could not threaten the bosses alone, because without the cooperation of the bosses, he could not complete such a high-intensity mobilization. If the tax rate is forcibly passed by force, the disgruntled bosses will certainly not cooperate with the mobilization; Although the bosses were unwilling to pay taxes, they also knew that without the help of the prefect's yamen, then in the end, no one would want to get benefits - they not only needed the prefect Yuan's policy of tampering with Deng's name, but also needed the prefect's yamen to come forward to win over the captive leaders, and they also needed the prefect's yamen to come forward to resist the pressure of Chengdu.

The tax rate was eventually set at 30 per cent, which applied to the 12,000 prisoners of war who had already arrived in Syria. It was nearly dusk when the agreement was reached, and the prefect and the bosses were all exhausted. Although they were physically and mentally exhausted, the bosses said that they did not need to rest, and immediately arranged for all the treasurers to engage in war mobilization, and they must send troops to the front line as soon as possible. Admiral Deng has always had clear rewards and punishments, and it is impossible for Xuzhou to refuse Xuzhou's demand for spoils of war if he works so hard.

The only thing to worry about now is the protest in Chengdu, and the bosses are worried that Yuan Xiang will not be able to withstand the pressure of his iron buddies and make everyone work hard in vain.

Yuan Xiang had to say in public: "If Governor Liu wants us to return the prisoners of war, this official will fight him!" ”

"Ahh Although Yuan Xiang's statement is very reassuring, Liu Jinge's reputation as an invincible opponent in Chengdu still makes everyone a little worried.

Faced with this kind of doubt, Yuan Zhifu smiled proudly, exuding a strong confidence all over his body: "That's because this official has never made a move." ”

After a whole day of quarrels and bargaining, Qin Xiucai always watched coldly. Ding Kou pays taxes in Xuzhou or Chengdu, and Director Qin feels that it doesn't seem to be much different to him. When they returned to the post station after the meeting, the staff began to talk about it, and they all felt that the relationship between Yuan Xiang and Liu Jinge was so good that it seemed unlikely that they would tear their faces for the boss of the trading house.

"It's about tens of thousands of laborers, even if you don't tear your face and fight alone, it is estimated that a big quarrel is inevitable, this is all tax sources and military sources." Qin Xiucai said with a smile.

"Governor Liu and Governor Yuan are friends with each other." One of the staff couldn't help but say.

"Hehe, Chen Yu and Zhang Er are also friends." Qin Xiucai smiled slightly.