After listening to the narration of the big shopkeeper, Lu Chenyin's first reaction was to be furious: "Boss Ye is a salt merchant under the Admiral, how can he be so unbearable?" If you see boiled chicken, you can't die? ”

But not long after the words came out, Lu Chenyin remembered that he had mistakenly thought that Ye Tianming was a military man, and the more he recalled Ye Tianming's behavior, Lu Chenyin was absolutely not sure of his judgment just now.

There were several other gentlemen's subordinate shopkeepers who came to Lu Mansion with the big shopkeeper, and they also wanted Lu Chenyin to prove that what the big shopkeeper said was true, so Lu Chenyin couldn't help muttering in his heart: "Can it really be so unbearable?" ”

But no matter whether Lu Chenyin believes it or not, and no matter what the truth is, as long as Ye Tianming dies in Wuchang City, Lu Jinshen knows that his errand will be a mess. In desperation, the old gentleman had no choice but to send the housekeeper to follow the shopkeepers to visit Ye Tianming, and the worried Lu Jinshen was completely sleepy, sitting at home and waiting for the news.

"Dead?" Lu Jinshen had to prepare for the worst, and he thought hard about how to explain to Deng Ming: "Don't say that Admiral Deng won't believe it, even the Governor and the Prefect won't believe it, right?" I'm afraid their first thought was to tie me up and send it to Deng Ming to make amends, right? Although it won't be the case in the end, I will definitely be asked to hand over a few housekeepers and shopkeepers. ”

An hour later, the housekeeper came back with the big shopkeeper and reported that the old gentleman Ye Tianming had not driven the crane to the west for the time being, and there were not only brave men but also brave men under the heavy rewards.

"Lang Zhong of several consultations said that in the past, there would always be beggars who had this kind of thing during the New Year's holidays, thanks to the timely response of several shopkeepers, if it dragged on for an hour or two, it would be difficult for the gods to save it." The housekeeper of the Lu Mansion reported one by one: "Thanks to Boss Ye's strong body, the Lang Zhong also praised Boss Ye as an iron-clad man. ”

"Is Boss Ye's life okay?" Hearing this, Lu Jinshen's heart that had always been hanging high finally let go of a little.

"It's hard to say, after all, it hurts the spleen and stomach, and the Lang Zhong people all say that if they can survive these two days, it will be fine, but it is better to eat lightly these two days."

"Well, this is not a long time, the people said that Boss Ye didn't want to see anything but Baishui in the past two days." Lu Jinshen said immediately, the expression on his face showed that he obviously did not make this decision simply because of the doctor's orders.

After waving his hand to let the housekeeper retreat, Lu Jinshen scolded the big shopkeeper again: "Don't you know that Yu Dongbing is poor?" He may not be able to eat meat twice a year, and he dares to let him see chickens! ”

In the next two days, Lu Jinshen sent someone to take care of Ye Tianming, relying on his youth and good health, Ye Tianming finally picked up a life.

Deng Ming, who was outside Wuchang City, only knew about the danger encountered by Ye Tianming very late, and two days later Deng Ming sent someone to inquire because Ye Tianming had not returned for a long time, at this time Ye Tianming had already passed the dangerous period, and the Qing envoy told Deng Ming what happened two days ago.

Deng Ming's reaction was much calmer than the Qing army expected, although Deng Ming was a little excited at first, but after learning that Ye Tianming had survived, he quickly calmed down: "It's okay, then let Boss Ye recuperate in Wuchang for a few more days." ”

Although the salt trade has not yet officially begun, formal negotiations have already begun between Zhou Peigong and Deng Ming.

"We promise not to attack the ground strongholds of your army in Wuchang and Hanyang, not to sneak attack or disturb Hunan, and if Hu Shuai or General He take the above actions, our side will also remain neutral." Deng Ming officially confirmed to Zhou Peigong that he had fulfilled the above terms: "But our army maintains the action of your army's naval divisions, shipyards, and naval training camps. If your army launches an attack on Hu Shuai and other eastern armies, as long as it does not exceed the line of Yiling and Zhongxiang, our army will still remain neutral; If your army crosses this line and we decide to break our neutrality and intervene in the conflict, we will notify Wuchang before officially entering the war and guarantee that there will be no surprise attack. ”

"We promise not to expand the number of naval divisions, not to build forts along the river, and if there is any similar action, we will let the admiral take any necessary action." The terms described by Zhou Peigong have been approved by Zhang Changgeng, and it is impossible for him to train a Huguang water division that is enough to fight against the Ming Yangtze River water division in the short term, so he simply admits defeat and gives up in exchange for Deng Ming's guarantee that he will not continue to use force - now there are no hawks in Wuchang, and everyone says that Deng Mingren is unparalleled and has a promise: "As long as the Admiral does not go ashore and camp deeply, then we will not interfere with the water surface near Wuchang or other Yangtze River waters controlled by us, in order to meet the needs of food and vegetables, The Admiral could send no more than a hundred men away from the river bank for procurement.

In addition to the military understanding, there is also the tax compensation that the former hawkish group in Huguang is most concerned about, and last time Deng Ming was careful not to mention the amount of Zhou Peigong's net worth in front of Zhang Changgeng's servants. Zhou Peigong admitted that he owed Deng Ming a favor because of this, and he also felt Deng Ming's kindness to him.

Today, after dealing with the principle of military understanding that Zhang Changgeng was most concerned about, Zhou Peigong and Deng Ming also reached an agreement on the issue of compensation, and among the goods shipped to Huguang - there is only salt at present, and if there are other goods in the future, or including them, IOUs have the highest purchase priority, and as long as someone has an IOU in his hand and Deng Ming has goods in his hand, then Deng Ming cannot refuse the IOU and insist on receiving gold, silver or other kinds of compensation.

This principle of compensation was the highest goal that Zhou Peigong and the Huguang hawks wanted to achieve in advance, including their leader, Zhou Governor, and the hawks thought that Deng Ming was unlikely to accept this condition. However, Zhou Peigong does not expect to be able to achieve the highest goal, the so-called sky-high asking price, landing to repay the money, he can accept the mixed use of IOUs and gold and silver, and the bottom line is that owning the IOU itself does not have the value of return, but the owner has the right of purchase priority equal to the number of IOUs.

However, the expected hard bargaining tug-of-war did not appear, and as soon as Zhou Peigong came up with this condition, Deng Ming happily agreed, and said that he also had this intention.

"There must be deception in it!" After Deng Ming agreed without saying a word, Zhou Peigong not only did not have the slightest sense of excitement, but had a feeling like falling into an ice cellar.

When Zhou Peigong was struggling to find a loophole in his own strategy, Deng Ming seemed happy and said happily: "It seems that I will transport more goods to Wuchang in the future, if I don't even redeem your IOUs, it will be too much to say." ”

Zhou Peigong keenly grasped the deep meaning of this sentence: "It turns out that Admiral Deng really intends to fulfill all the compensation promises, and his words are implying to me that this is a benefit to the Wuchang gentry, if he wants to be willing to honor the compensation forever, then he must get the benefits." ”

After figuring this out, Zhou Peigong's heart was relieved and he was no longer suspicious.

"The Admiral's method is to imitate the previous law, right?" The big thing has been negotiated, Zhou Peigong leaned back easily, comfortably leaned on the back of the chair and chatted with Deng Ming.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the food needed by the border army all relied on the military tun, and just a few decades later, the frontier military tun began to be abandoned, and then the border guards of the Ming Dynasty generally had the problem of food shortage. The Ming court was also helpless in this regard, because the cost of relying on zhōngyāngzhèngfǔ to transport military rations to the frontier was extremely high, and the loss on the way was even more intolerable.

Fortunately, there is not only a government-run road in the world, although it is difficult to control the loss of goods by the government, but the merchants can, and they can use the efficiency that the government cannot achieve to transport grain to the frontier. As long as the merchant transports a grain to the frontier, he can rely on the voucher of the border army to collect grain in exchange for a salt introduction - anyway, no matter who takes the salt to buy salt, the salt price of the government is the same, the salt tax has not been reduced, and the border army has obtained enough food.

"Does the Admiral know why?" Zhou Peigong was not familiar with the army at first, and he also made a lot of jokes in Zhong Xiang's first battle, but when he realized that he would definitely participate in military affairs for a long time in the future, he began to read a lot of relevant materials and books.

Shut down

"Officials protect each other, if the government transports grain, and the geese of each yamen pluck their feathers, the officials will not get along with their own pockets and colleagues, and it would be strange if this wear and tear could be reduced; And what is the point of the merchants who are profit-seeking, and they themselves embezzle their own grain? Moreover, they will choose routes and improve transportation to reduce losses. Deng Ming replied without thinking.

"What the Admiral said is very true." Zhou Peigong laughed and said, when he saw this, he pondered for a long time, and came to the same conclusion as Deng Ming: "Does the Admiral know how the merchant later reduced the wear and tear to the minimum?" ”

"More cars, big boats?" Deng Ming guessed a few, but Zhou Peigong always smiled and shook his head.

"Governor Zhou, don't sell Guanzi." Deng Ming couldn't find the right answer, so he gave up admitting defeat.

"Merchants farmed near the border gates, hired people to plant the land, and when they produced grain, they handed it over to the army in exchange for salt." Zhou Peigong was slightly surprised when he saw that Deng Ming didn't know: "In this way, there is no need to transport grain from the mainland for thousands of miles, and the loss of merchants is naturally minimized." ”

Deng Ming stroked his palms and smiled: "It's really wonderful." ”

"The Admiral really didn't know, I thought the Admiral wanted to emulate this method." Zhou Peigong said with a smile, he thought that Deng Ming just wanted these Wuchang gentry to provide military rations for the Huguang Ming army like the Shangtun at the border back then, and then Deng Ming would compensate them with salt.

"I can't think of such a good way." Deng Ming shook his head again and again, and after a little silence, Deng Ming asked again: "Where did these merchants come from?" If there were such fields, why didn't the border army, which was short of military rations, organize military cantonments? ”

Zhou Peigong's eyes flashed with smugness: "The Admiral might as well guess again." ”

"Hmm," Deng Ming thought for a moment and asked: "The border pass is a good field, although it is barren, but the land is still there, could it be that these lands are the original military tuns, and the merchants rented them from the border army to cultivate, not only did they not lose their capital like the military tun, but they were still able to provide a large amount of military rations in exchange for salt after paying the rent?" ”

"Admiral!" Zhou Peigong let out another exclamation in surprise, this time his admiration was much stronger than the last time, although he asked Deng Ming to guess, but he never expected Deng Ming to guess.

"Governor Zhou's praise is false." Deng Ming said modestly, but he smiled bitterly in his heart: "Since ancient times, no matter in the East and the West, there are a large number of people in China and abroad who think that this mode of production has the highest efficiency, and think that others can't do it because others are too stupid. But for the Chinese in the 21st century, there is the pain of 'natural disasters', plus the counterexample of 'reform', do you still need to guess the truth here? ”

"Shangtun has lasted for decades, and the border passes are sufficient, and the soldiers are strong. In the Longqing Dynasty, the Ming cabinet no longer remembered the pain of no food at the border back then, and felt that since Shangtun was enough to support itself, why waste salt in vain? It was changed to a law, and from then on, the salt was no longer exchanged for military rations, but paid silver to the Ming court in exchange. When Deng Ming spoke, Zhou Peigong's words were very restrained, and he did not explicitly call the Ming Dynasty the previous dynasty, but he always regarded himself as a Qing minister, and he found that Deng Ming did not have the slightest displeasure about this - a true gentleman has his own elegance - Zhou Peigong's evaluation of Deng Ming has one more item.

"Shangtun must be deserted." Deng Ming sighed softly, since the military rations could not be exchanged for salt, the merchants would definitely not stay at the border and work on the land anymore.

It was precisely that within a few years, the merchants all moved back to the interior, and the land returned to the border army was once again unable to make ends meet in less than ten years, and was once again abandoned by the border army or rented or sold to others. In the early years of Wanli, the military rations stored on the nine sides were exhausted, and the Wanli monarchs and ministers tried their best to supply, but unfortunately the land transportation was worn out and the sea was drifted; In the middle of Wanli, the border army was forced to make a living, and there were those who begged along the streets, and those who sold their wives and daughters; To the Chongzhen Dynasty, the nine-sided disasters continued, and the military tun was even more thin, and the Chongzhen monarchs and ministers levied 20 million per year to lose the border pass, which was still not enough. ”

Deng Ming heard that there was a sense of persuasion in Zhou Peigong's words, if the Huguang Ming Army did not extensively requisition land and open up military camps, the gentry of Wuchang would certainly be able to make profits and keep the industry without losing. However, the rhetoric used by Zhou Peigong to persuade was not made up by him, but a true fact, and he was not afraid of Deng Ming to check whether it was true.

"The military camp is not beneficial to the country and harmful to the people, but it is only beneficial to the officers, which is not in line with my win-win thinking." Deng Ming said to Zhou Peigong: "Although there are many places where I am indeed beyond the reach of the whip, I will try my best to persuade the generals to give up this idea." ”

Zhou Peigong tapped the table lightly with his fingers, and sighed sincerely: "Martial artists must be restrained, if both sides of this war are controlled by people like the Admiral and me, no matter what the final victory or defeat is, the damage will be much smaller, and the harm to the people will be much lighter." ”

Deng Ming also praised Zhou Peigong: "Zhou Zhifu has learned only a lot, and he knows the subtleties, and the future is limitless." ”

"Hehe, the Admiral is sarcastic about me, if I praise me in front of others, I may dare to accept it, but where do I dare to be rampant in front of the Admiral? As for the current prefect, it is also the emperor's grace...... "Although there was only Deng Ming among those present except Zhou Peigong, Zhou Peigong still arched his hand to the north when he spoke, but his attitude was more casual; Then Zhou Peigong stood up and solemnly bowed twice in the direction of Wuchang in the east: "The cultivation ...... of Lord Governor" Finally, Zhou Peigong solemnly bowed to Deng Ming, and the specifications were only slightly inferior to those given to Zhang Changgeng: "There is also the care of the Admiral." ”

These Zhou Peigong knew very well in his heart, he felt that even if he and Deng Ming were friends or enemies, they had to have clear grievances.

……

After a few days, Ye Tianming returned to Deng Ming's camp after recuperating his body, and Deng Ming did not have any words of reproach after seeing him.

Ye Tianming, who was full of shame, felt that he had embarrassed Deng Ming, and when he treated the few Lang Zhong who gave him an emergency, he hung Ye Tianming upside down and used a bamboo stick to stimulate his throat to force vomiting...... All kinds of means were displayed, which can be regarded as opening the eyes of those onlookers again.

But Deng Ming doesn't see it that way, he thinks that even if he loses face, it is Ye Tianming's own face, but Ye Tianming was still a hard-working auxiliary soldier not long ago, so what can't be said about this?

"The chicken belongs to other people, and the belly is their own." Deng Ming simply said this, and never mentioned this matter again: "How much was the final salt price set?" ”

"A pound and two cents of silver." After Ye Tianming returned from the Ghost Gate, he dragged his sick body to negotiate with the shopkeepers in Wuchang, and finally set the price of salt according to Deng Ming's construction.

"This is your business, anyway, the salt shop in the capital is your property, not mine. Two million catties of salt out of three million catties can be exchanged for silver, and one catty and two cents of silver is forty thousand taels of silver, and you can sell the silver to me, or use it to buy things in Wuchang, all according to your salt wishes. But we said it in advance, and by the end of the year, I would have to take half of the tax in the profiteering industry of the salt industry. Deng Ming was in charge of the development strategy, sales, transportation, and pricing of the salt store this time, and he didn't plan to worry about Ye Tianming's next move, he felt that he couldn't always support these business houses, and he had to let them try to walk by themselves when appropriate.

"Wuchang doesn't want to buy and sell just once, they want to buy our Sichuan salt for a long time." However, without Deng Ming's question, Ye Tianming took the initiative to report the price of salt in Wuchang, and told Deng Ming that although the quality of Huai salt is not as good as Sichuan salt, the price of wholesale to the head snake is still twice as high as Sichuan salt.

"Then why didn't you raise the price?" Deng Ming asked curiously.

"I thought about it, but as soon as I showed my mouth, several bosses in Wuchang showed embarrassment, in my opinion, although they made little money from buying and selling Huai salt, they should rest assured, and we bought and sold in addition to giving the admiral face, but also felt that the benefits were very great, if the price of Sichuan salt and Huai salt was the same, they would rather earn the peace of mind money of Huai Yan."

"Very well analyzed." Deng Ming nodded: "You set the price for two cents, so there is still business behind." ”

"In the past, when the river was unblocked, there were about 50,000 catties of Huai salt transported to Wuchang per rì, but now the quantity has been greatly reduced, so the price has risen. But when the new ships are built in Nanjing, the supply of Huai salt will be restored, and if we still sell two cents of silver, the shopkeeper of Wuchang may not be willing, and if we reduce the price of salt, the money will be much less......"

Ye Tianming's speed of speech was not fast, but there was no pause or pause in the middle, Deng Ming felt that he should have thought about these things for a long time.

"And Huaiyan can sell 50,000 catties a day, 50,000 catties a day!" After talking about this number, Ye Tianming was also a little excited: "When Huaiyan comes back, how much can we get from Sichuan salt?" ”

"And what are you going to do?" Deng Ming looked at Ye Tianming quietly, just a few days ago, this guy could still eat chickens and survive half to death, and all the silver he had seen in the past twenty years probably didn't add up to ten taels. But when Deng Ming heard him talk about the figure of 50,000 catties of salt, his eyes clearly showed anger and hatred for his competitors, as if he would never be able to sleep soundly at night if he did not expel his opponents and monopolize the business of at least 1,000 taels per rì.