A shipload of hundreds of people, every day or two, a boatload of Japanese laborers arrives in Haizhou (Lianyungang) or Zhiguzhai (Tianjin), stays at the epidemic prevention station for a few days, and then sends them to the centralized center for vaccination. After that, he was sent to the two most important railway construction sites in the Great Song Dynasty to start labor.

Zhao Qian wanted to continue to pay attention, but the agricultural restructuring brought him back to more troublesome work. According to statistics, 70% of the farm personnel are willing to contract land individually, live a life of 30 acres of land, a cow, and a hot kang head for their wives and children. The remaining 30 per cent are filled with all sorts of people who have lost their labor force, and letting them leave collective labor is almost like asking them to die.

In this very troublesome and meticulous work, Zhao Qian could occasionally see news about the railway, which involved the division of land, and a large number of farmers who had originally worked on the railway construction site returned to their hometowns. Zhao Qian can only hope that the Japanese landowners can perform better and provide 500,000 Japanese laborers as soon as possible. In addition to these, Zhao Qian is busy with agricultural work every day. The most important thing that must be done before the land is divided is to tell the peasants that the land belongs to the state, that the state does not demand rent from the peasants, and that the peasants have no right to buy or sell land. If you are unable to cultivate the land you already have and return it to the state, abandonment is punishable very severely.

The not-so-happy and unfriendly work continued, and the winter wheat finally began to turn yellow.

In distant Eastern Rome, winter wheat was almost ripe at this time. The general of the Ankara Military District personally went to the farm of Suren and met Patrick, the only son of the senator Sula and the Duchess of Balden. To Patrick, the general said a brief hello and then said to Sheila: "Your Excellency, you are sure that Your Excellency Suren will sell us the wheat at that price. ”

"Yes." There was uncontrollable excitement in Sheila's voice. According to current estimates, Sulun's wheat production capacity per mu is more than 200 catties, which meets the best forecast of agricultural companies.

"The purchase price of wheat approved by the Lok Sabha was one and a half times the year before. Can His Excellency Suren really do it? "The general still can't believe it," His Excellency Su Lun didn't show up at this time. ”

Sheila explained: "He's arranging the harvest. A new batch of scythes arrived, and after he received them, he organized people to cut the scythes. ”

Looking at the endless wheat fields again, the general asked, "When can we send someone to receive it?" ”

"When the grain is dry, you can receive it. Your Excellency, do you want wheat or flour? ”

Wheat cannot be eaten raw, it has to be ground into flour before it can be eaten. It's amazing that this guy Suren grows so much wheat, can he still process so much wheat into flour? The general only knew that Su Lun was messing with Sheila before, but he didn't expect that Su Lun was already so rich with Sheila's help. After thinking about it, the general replied: "We want flour." ”

The day after the general's departure, Sheila waited for representatives of the Constantinople bank. The deputies did not ignore Patrick as the generals did, and now Constantinople heard that Patrick was courting Sheila, who was likely to agree to the marriage proposal of the future Duke of Barden. As things stand, Sheila doesn't hate Patrick.

Su Lun, who was so busy that he was dizzy, attended the meeting, and several technicians from the grain company also came. Inside the house were either Eastern Roman nobles or Great Song Dynasty personnel, and the representative of Qian Zhuang took out a thick account book and said to Su Lun: "Congratulations to Your Excellency Su Lun, all kinds of circumstances show that all your arrears can be paid off. ”

Su Lun nodded, silent. Sheila laughed, "Guys, let's give Suren some time to catch his breath. ”

Looking at Su Lun's tired appearance, everyone couldn't help but laugh out loud. This is not a mockery, the young man in front of him is trying to cheer up, but it looks like it has no effect, and it looks very cute. Patrick smiled as everyone could, feeling very empty in his heart. His teachers were all famous scholars invited from Constantinople, and the education of His Excellency Suren in front of him was obviously not as advanced as Patrick's. However, Lord Suren was noticed by Sheila, the Constantinople bank, and the generals of the eastern region of the Legion. Now it's the stars holding the moon around it.

This time, Patrick did not appear as Sheila's lover, but on behalf of many western nobles led by the Barden family, he came here to see each other. The knowledge has indeed increased a lot, and Patrick's concern about Sheila's favor for Suren has increased day by day. It was here that Su Lun opened his mouth and asked, "Can you really pay it back?" After I paid it back, I had to borrow money to buy a horse. ”

The representative of the Constantinople money bank smiled and gave Suren a statement of accounts, and Suren looked at it for a while and continued to talk with the representative. The everyday language was simple enough for Patrick to understand. The proper nouns mixed in with everyday language are the contents that Patrick is completely unaware of, and Patrick understands that each word represents the key to Suren's fortune.

was in a hurry, but saw Sheila pick up the list and handed it over as if she had nothing to do. Patrick was overjoyed and hurriedly took the form and looked at it. After watching it for a while, he fell into a deeper depression. He understood some of the words on the list, more strange Latin words he didn't understand at all, and he couldn't understand what the numbers in the table represented. The article is densely filled with all kinds of things, and there are dozens of items. Patrick panicked and couldn't help but wonder what his teachers were teaching him.

After some discussion, Su Lun warmly stretched out his hand and shook hands vigorously with the representative, and it seemed that they had reached some kind of consensus. Patrick was depressed and went out, and when he was standing in the sun and was overwhelmed, he heard someone behind him: "Your Excellency Balden, what are you thinking?" ”

Turning his head, he saw Sheila's secretary Elena also walking out of the room behind him, and Patrick asked Elena, "Miss Elena, what is written on that statement?" ”

"I don't understand it either." Elena replied cheerfully.

Hearing that he wasn't the only one in the room who couldn't read made Patrick feel a little better. Elena continued: "When I was assigned by my family to be a secretary to Her Excellency Sheila, I didn't know what I was going to study, and my family didn't understand it. Now I know I have a lot to learn. ”

Patrick nodded repeatedly, and when his mother said solemnly, 'You have to learn from Sheila and Suren,' Patrick didn't understand what to learn. In fact, he didn't know what to learn now, but he was sure that his knowledge was no worse than Su Lun's. Neither Patrick nor Elena, who was also a nobleman, could read the words, symbols, and numbers used in the statement, which is enough to prove that something new had been formed among the newly rising men of the Eastern Roman Empire, and that these things had begun to form their own set of gadgets without the help of Eastern Roman traditional culture and knowledge. This brand new thing is probably what Mother wants Patrick to learn.

Suren and the others talked for less than half an hour before they broke up, and Patrick found a moment to ask Sheila, "What the hell is written on that sheet?" ”

Sheila took the folder, pulled the form out of it, spread it on the table, and spoke to Patrick. It turned out that many of those words contained the names of new farming tools, seeds, and livestock. Because the Eastern Romans did not have these things before, they could only use pinyin that quoted Chinese characters. It was then that Patrick realized what those strange Latin words were all about. He tried to say 'pull the horse', 'steel pickaxe', 'pesticide'......

Listening to Patrick recite Chinese in an Eastern Roman accent, Sheila couldn't help but wonder. She took Patrick to pronounce the correct pronunciation of Da Song word by word. After practicing for a while, Patrick became more and more proficient. He himself could recall that these words appeared many times in the conversations between Suren and the representatives of the Constantinople money bank and Sheila. At this time, I can start to say these words, and my previous sense of alienation is much lower.

Seeing that Patrick was improving so quickly, Sheila explained the format of the table to Patrick. This is where Patrick's math comes in handy. Knowing how the types and the following quantities were represented in the table, Patrick understood what the table meant.

The first column is the serial number, the second column is the name of the material, the third column is the quantity of the material, and the last column is the total amount of the individual item. The table is divided into two parts, the upper table is the goods purchased by Suren and the lower table is the goods sold by Suren. There are two totals at the end. Knowing this, what prevented Patrick from reading the whole thing was the words used to count the numbers.

Sheila didn't bother to teach these particularly basic things, she probably talked about it, the goods Su Lun bought cost about 700,000 yuan, and Su Lun sold sepiolite and other ores from last year to this year worth 390,000 yuan.

"This is still 310,000 yuan to pay money from all directions." Patrick said in surprise. Sheila used Greek numbers to represent her, and Patrick immediately figured out the answer. 310,000 yuan is a very large amount of money. Not to mention that the Balden family can't come up with so much money at all, even if they add up the property of the nobles who followed the Balden family, they can't come up with so much money. Su Lun, an ordinary rural nobleman in the east, was worth at least 310,000 square bills, and if you add up the year's trading, he has already endured millions of square bills...... Could Sheila really like Suren? Patrick was nervous.

"Why does Su Lun have 310,000 yuan to pay money from all directions?" Sheila was overjoyed by Patrick's idea.

Seeing Sheila's low evaluation of Suren, Patrick only felt that his mood immediately improved. He asked tentatively, "If he didn't pay 310,000 yuan, why did the Constantinople money bank lend him so much money?" ”

Sheila had to go on to explain, "The Constantinople money bank did not pay him the money, but only provided a loan guarantee. ”

Patrick had shown himself to be smart, and Sheila was in the mood to give it a try, and told Patrick what the loan was all about. Suren has land and has a set of people and systems to operate the land. So Suren provided a certificate of land mortgage to the Constantinople bank, which was reviewed by the bank, and a creditworthiness was assessed. The unit of measurement for this credit is the Eastern Roman food stamp. The Constantinople bank took Suren's mortgage documents, and Suren did not need to pay for the materials purchased from the province of Europa, and the money of the province of Constantinople settled with the bank of the province of Europa.

Similarly, the sale of sepiolite and chrome ore and other materials by Suren to merchants in the province of Europa was not a four-party payment or a food stamp, but a valuable document provided by the province of Europa. Prove how much this document is worth. The final settlement is done in the bank, unless Su Lun insists on paying with the four parties or food stamps, and by default all transactions are done through securities.

This time, the Constantinople money bank visited the land of Suren and thought that if the wheat to be harvested now could be sold, the food stamps that Suren received were worth more than 310,000 yuan. All his debts can be paid in full.

As long as he continues to mortgage with the land ownership certificate in his hand, Su Lun, who has paid off the old debt, can borrow new debts and use the newly borrowed 'money' to buy a horse. This process is the same as before, all buying and selling are done through various channels through securities, and Su Lun still can't touch a four-party banknote and food stamps.

It took Patrick a lot of brainpower to understand this process, and he asked puzzledly, "After selling the wheat, Suren will definitely receive food stamps." He always gets the money. ”

"Selling grain is not about paying for it with one hand and delivering it with the other, but it is up to me, as a notary, to confirm that Suren did indeed hand over a certain quantity of grain to the legion, and the legion will issue a certificate after determining the quantity and quality of the goods. Prove that the Legion has received the shipment and agrees with the quality of the shipment. This document is also a securities. Take this certificate to the Chancellor of the Exchequer within the prescribed time, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer will sign it according to the regulations, and the document can go to the Constantinople Bank or the branches of the Constantinople Bank in various places. According to the agreement signed by Su Lun before, he had to pay off the debt first after obtaining this securities. The Constantinople Money House settled Suren's deposits and debts, and the last part of the money was deposited into Suren's account. Suren must make a withdrawal in order to receive food stamps through the withdrawal process. If he didn't withdraw the money, the food stamps were just numbers in Suren's account. ”

"Why is it so complicated?" Patrick asked in surprise.

"Because it's the most efficient way to do it. Carrying so many food stamps, I'm tired to death. It is also necessary to protect food stamps and to prevent counterfeit banknotes. There is no way to do small transactions, and this method is too wasteful of manpower and material resources for small transactions. As long as it is on scale, it is much easier to do so. Patrick, do you think it's easier to manage the transactions of a hundred people, or it is easier to manage the transactions of ten thousand people. ”

"Of course it's easy to manage a hundred people."

"Su Lun's current transaction can be completed by only using this 100-person transaction system, and it takes 10,000 people's power to take out and deposit that money. Something is going to happen. But that kind of small transaction is not cost-effective with 100 people, and a team of 10,000 people can easily handle 100,000 small transactions. That's why Suren is different from those people. ”

Patrick thought for a while, but he still felt very puzzled, and he continued to ask: "Su Lun has completed the transaction of 1.4 million yuan in banknotes, is he only worth a little surplus in the end?" ”

"It's the grain that is valuable, not Suren himself." Sheila replied.

"I still think it......" Patrick felt confused.

Sheila was a little unhappy, and she responded: "I'll give you an example, for example, α said to β, you see a lump of Xiang on the ground, you eat it, and I will give you 700,000 yuan to pay in all directions." So β ate it, and got 700,000 yuan to pay in the Quartet. Then β said to α, there is a lump of Xiang over there, you eat it, and I will give you 700,000 yuan to pay in all directions. α went to eat. In the end, although this transaction was 1.4 million yuan back and forth, it was actually worthless. ”

Patrick was disgusted by this extreme description, and patted his chest, but he realized something. Even if he can earn 700,000 yuan to pay money, Patrick firmly believes that he will not do it.

"In the end, Su Lun got a more complete and efficient farm, and the court got grain. Suren used a better farm to produce next year's grain, and the imperial court used the grain to pay for the legions, and to ensure the stability of the people of the empire. The purpose of the transaction itself is only the transaction, and neither side will consider the transaction partner as to where the goods obtained from the transaction will be used. ”

Patrick's mind moved, and he remembered what his mother had told about Sheila's philosophy of life, and what he had known about Sheila after coming into contact with her during this time. Sheila has said that she doesn't work with anyone against a third party, and that's exactly what happened. Sheila's purpose of cooperating with Suren is to get her benefits, and after completing the transaction, Sheila doesn't think about Suren at all when she uses what she gets, and Suren doesn't think about Sheila when she uses what he gets. Because the collaboration between the two has ended. The two of them are collaborators in this matter, not all-round allies.

Such an attitude...... Is it proof that there is no personal love between Suren and Sheila. Patrick felt a little more settled.

In less than half a month, Suren's farm had been harvested, and Patrick was ordered by Sheila to participate in the harvest along with Wanda and Elena. After every half day of work, they were massaged by a special masseur to help them stretch their bodies, and the three of them only lasted two days before temporarily quitting their labor due to low back pain. Sheila was better, and she held out for three and a half days.

It took five days to recover, after which they were put into brutal labor. This time, the three of them were much better, and they all persevered until the harvest was completed. Looking at the empty wheat field, Patrick also squeezed out the last of his strength to tell Wangda and Elena a joke, "We have all changed Nubians." ”

Nubians were the name given to blacks in the days of the Roman Republic, and Wangda grinned as a polite gesture. It's just that smiling is uglier than crying. Elena didn't feel funny at all, and when she heard Patrick's joke, she flattened her mouth and began to cry bitterly.