Chapter 115 Additional Investment
While Liu Feng was having fun with his soldiers, Chen Deng was visiting his two younger brothers at home.
Chen Guisheng had four sons. Chen Deng was the eldest son and the most talented child.
After Chen Gui's two cousins, Chen Yu and Chen Cong, were defeated by Yuan Shu and lost their official positions and returned home, the family's focus and voice gradually began to shift from Chen Qiu's lineage to Chen Gui's lineage. pulse.
In particular, Chen Gui and Chen Deng's plan to support Liu Bei's move into Xuzhou was a great success. Now Liu Bei has not only firmly secured the position of Xuzhou's governor, but has also begun to prepare to expand the authority of the governor. With this momentum, Even Chen Deng, who was most optimistic about Liu Bei at the beginning, was unexpected.
At the same time, Liu Bei also successfully suppressed and dismantled the Danyang sect, conquered Cao Bao, and won over Xu Dan. Finally, he pulled out Cao Hong, the most notorious of the Danyang sect and the most hated by the locals in Xuzhou, and accused Cao Cao of treason in public. The execution won great favor among Xuzhou people.
Even the locals in Xuzhou who initially opposed Liu Bei taking over Xuzhou began to reflect on whether they had misjudged Liu Bei.
What makes the Chen family even more delighted is that Liu Bei has begun to promote Chen Deng to a high-ranking official at the level of prefect. This secret is only known to the highest level of the family, but it has greatly encouraged the Chen family. confidence.
Of course, because Chen Deng did not reveal Liu Bei's upcoming Langya strategy before, but only informed the family that he was expected to be the governor, this made the Chen family mistakenly believe that Chen Deng might get the position of Guangling governor. After all, Xuzhou is currently Only Guangling County does not have a prefect.
This also intensified the ecstasy and expectations within the Chen family.
Although Chen Deng's previous state meritorious position was high and powerful, he had jurisdiction over the assessment and promotion of officials in a state.
But in the end, the power lies in the hands of the state pastor. The state meritorious officer is just acting on behalf of the state pastor. To a certain extent, it is like a fox pretending to be a tiger.
Whether this position can have real power depends entirely on whether Dezhou Mu is favored. The position itself is just a petty official with four hundred stones.
But the prefect of a county is different. In the past peaceful times, a powerful prefect of a county could even compete with the governor.
The first time Taishi Ci became famous was when he destroyed the Qingzhou governor's memorial for the prefect of the county, which showed that the prefect won the political battle.
Moreover, the prefect of a county has a rank of two thousand stones. He has the power of life and death in a county. He can promote and train a large number of cronies, and can even control the troops and horses of the county. He is really a miniature version of the princes.
Liu Bei was able to promote Chen Deng to be the governor of the county, not only because he believed in Chen Deng's talent, but also in Chen Deng's loyalty.
After tasting the sweetness, the Chen family has undergone tremendous changes.
Even Chen Qiu, who did not support Liu Bei before, began to change his tune, strongly supported in-depth cooperation with Liu Bei, and wanted to increase investment in Liu Bei.
No way, Chen Deng has already taken the original shares, and now Liu Bei is gaining momentum. If you want to buy shares again, you will naturally have to give a higher price.
The relationship between Chen Deng and Liu Bei was Chen Deng's personal relationship. If the family wanted to use it, he would have to be compensated.
No, Chen Deng's brother Chen Ying, and Chen Yu's eldest son, Chen Deng's cousin Chen Wan, were both sent to Tancheng from Xiapi by their families, wanting to serve Liu Bei.
At the same time, they also brought a large amount of goods, including grain, cattle, farm tools and other precious materials that are currently in short supply in the state capital.
“Brother!”
Seeing Chen Deng come in, Chen Ying and Chen Wan knelt down to greet him.
Chen Deng is now the core figure of the family, and he is the face and leader promoted by the Xiapi Chen family. He has completely replaced Chen Wan's father Chen Yu and uncle Chen Cong.
Therefore, the direct branch also transferred, from Chen Wan to Chen Deng.
In the future, Chen Deng was the main branch of the Chen family in Xiapi.
What shocked Chen Ying and Chen Wan even more was that as soon as they entered the city, they learned that Liu Bei had appointed Chen Deng as the prefect of Dongguan County and the military commander of Dongguan, Juxian and Langya counties.
Chen Wan used to respect Chen Deng more, and now he respects him very much.
"Get up, there is no need to be polite here."
Chen Deng was in a good mood. After Cao Hong died, Liu Bei received praise from a large number of scholars. The scholars and people in Tancheng County were even more happy and smiling. This shows the depth of Cao Hong's evil deeds.
After that, he led his troops to the Northern Expedition, defeated Zang Ba in ten days, harvested Langya in half a month, and returned in triumph, bringing back six to seven million yuan, four hundred thousand stones of grain, and countless other cloth and ordnance.
Liu Bei has now completely gotten rid of the threat of whether he can gain a foothold in Xuzhou, but how he will continue to expand his power in Xuzhou.
As Liu Bei's number one right-hand man, confidant, daring writer, and lifelong confidant, Chen Deng has naturally grown stronger. In the eyes of outsiders, he already has signs of being the second largest tycoon in Xuzhou.
This is also the reason why Chen Deng was so humble in giving up the credit after returning this time.
He Chen Deng wanted to show his ambition, assist the wise king, wipe out the unruly ministers in the world, and show his talents.
A little bit of fame is insignificant.
"What do you want to do when the family invites you to come?"
Chen Deng is naturally very clear about Chen Ying and Chen Wan's intentions.
But he didn't know how big the family's appetite was.
Hearing his elder brother's question, Chen Ying fell silent. He was just a concubine, his talent was average, and he was not reused by the family. If Chen Deng didn't have a biological brother, it wouldn't be his turn to come here.
Besides, Chen Deng has been smart since he was a child and is several years older than Chen Ying. It can be said that Chen Ying grew up in the shadow of Chen Deng in his childhood. He is very close to this brother who single-handedly raised him. And be afraid.
Chen Wan is completely different. His father, Chen Yu, has successively served as a high-ranking official with two thousand stones, and his grandfather even became the third official of the Chen family in Xiapi.
He later died in the action of killing eunuchs, which can be said to be the top political correctness of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Chen Wan has always been the direct descendant of the Chen family in Xiapi and the hope for the future.
Therefore, although Chen Wan was a little afraid of Chen Deng, who had been smart since he was young, he was not too afraid of him.
But now the situation has changed, and Chen Deng is about to become a direct descendant, Chen Wan still feels a little sour in his heart.
Before coming to Tancheng, I was worried that he would have some bad ideas and affect the family plan.
His father Chen Yu even had a special talk with him, worried that he would not be able to position himself correctly and offend Chen Deng.
Chen Yu told Chen Wan very clearly that when he came this time, he must unconditionally obey Chen Deng's orders, otherwise the family would not forgive him, and Chen Yu himself would not forgive him.
Chen Wan knew very well that now even his father Chen Yu wanted something from Chen Deng.
After all, if Chen Yu wants to make a comeback, the easiest way is to let Liu Bei come forward to show him off, but this requires Liu Bei to have new territory and be willing to hand it over to him.
What are you waiting for? Increase your investment.
As Liu Bei’s territory grows bigger, won’t the Chen family become more prosperous?
"What the family means is that if my brother is promoted, I wonder if Liu Shijun has made arrangements for the vacant meritorious service?"
It was Chen Wan who spoke, but these words were the thoughts of the powerful people in the family, that is, Chen Deng's father Chen Gui, and the brothers Chen Yu and Chen Cong.
"Haha."
Chen Deng laughed, patted his thigh and said: "The family's appetite is not small, so I am thinking about the meritorious service. Do you want to inherit this position? ?"
Chen Wan opened his mouth to explain, but was interrupted by Chen Deng: "No need to say more, this matter is definitely not feasible."
"The emperor is going to govern Xuzhou, how to hire people. Can it be nepotism? ”
Chen Deng glanced at Chen Wan and Chen Ying with disdain: "What contribution have you two made to the state and county? How can you rashly ascend to the position of meritorious officials? If it is really as you wish, how will the world look at Duke Ming?"< br>
Chen Wan was still a little unwilling to give up. He glanced at Chen Ying and wanted him to help him speak.
But Chen Ying had already lowered his head, wishing he could get into his collar.
My brother has already spoken, what can he do? Can he still talk back?
Helping, Chen Wan could only take a step back and probed: "Brother, in your opinion, where can we ask for a position?"
A trace of satisfaction flashed in Chen Deng's eyes, and then he glared at his younger brother who lowered his head like a large quail.
It must be said that Chen Wan's talent is indeed superior to Chen Ying's.
"You can take charge of the bookkeeping and county affairs first. Xuzhou has just suffered a military disaster, and countless counties have been overthrown."
Chen Deng looked directly at Chen Wan, his eyes sharp, which brought him A lot of pressure: "Zijing is responsible for farming and restoring the economy and people's livelihood. If you are determined to contribute to the state and county, there is a shortage of manpower here."
"I believe that with my face, a bookkeeper, planner The position can still be found for both of you.”
"This..."
Both Chen Wan and Chen Ying hesitated.
This is different from what I thought when I came here.
The position of meritorious cao has little weight and is famous for being an important and noble position.
But the chief bookkeeper and the planner are different. This is an affairs officer, especially at the county level, so he has to stay below to handle affairs. Although he has great power and is a beautiful official who can make meritorious deeds, the hard work is really hard work.
Seeing the look of fear on Chen Wan's face, Chen Deng was immediately furious: "How can you achieve great things if you are so indolent and indolent? Why don't you let Liu Shijun give up the position of state pastor to you two?" "
When Chen Wan and Chen Ying heard this, sweat suddenly broke out on their foreheads, and they hurriedly fell to the ground to beg for mercy.
Chen Dengyou said angrily: "What do you two know? The young master of the Jun family of Liu Shi is training troops in Xiangben at the moment. He was also involved in the farming affairs before. The young master is only ten years old, but he is already able to Leading the way, you are all over 20 years old, but you are still so idle and indolent, arrogantly acting as a descendant of my Chen family."
Chen Wan and Chen Ying had no choice but to continue to apologize and beg Chen Deng to calm down.
Chen Deng calmed down his anger a little and said decisively: "In that case, it's settled. Chen Wan will go to Xiangben as the chief clerk, and Chen Ying will go to Lanling County as the chief clerk. If you don't want to do it, now You can go back.”
After hearing Chen Deng’s arrangement, Chen Wan and Chen Wan could only nod in agreement.
Besides, Chen Deng’s final arrangement was to send the more capable Chen Wan to Xiangbi, while his younger brother Chen Ying was sent to Lanling.
Mi Fang, who was in Qu County, received a letter from his brother again, and his brows frowned again.
He read a letter over and over six or seven times and couldn't bear to put it down.
Can he, Mi Zifang, be a county guard?
Is Mi Zifang also going to be the county guard?
Mi Fang felt a strong emotion pooling in her chest and wanted to shout.
He is the son of a merchant and is about to become a county guard.
Although he only has jurisdiction over four counties for the time being, his rank is truly higher than that of the two thousand stone county governor.
If this was the only thing in Mi Zhu's letter, then Mi Fang would definitely laugh out loud at this time.
But the content behind it made him unable to laugh.
Not only did Mi Zhu want to discuss with her family to package up all the pig iron industry and blacksmith industry in Qu County and give it to Liu Bei, she also directly suggested a marriage with Liu Bei and betrothed her younger sister to Liu Bei's eldest son Liu Feng as a concubine.
This was unacceptable to Mi Fang.
Mi Fang is a very emotional person. He is very respectful and obedient to his father. He is friendly and respectful to his elder brother. He also loves his little sister very much.
He hopes that his little sister can be happy, not as a tool for marriage.
After all, in Mi Fang's view, her family is already rich enough, so maybe her sister doesn't need to make any more sacrifices. At most, she can just give her some more money.
But it was obvious that Mi Zhu's considerations were different from his, and Mi Fang had a hunch that no matter how much his father loved his sister, he would definitely side with his brother on this point.
There is no way, I have to listen to my elder brother's words, Mi Fang can only take the silk book to the Fulou where Mi Zeng is.
Mi Zeng was still having fun in the Fulou. Seeing Mi Fang appear with a sad face, Mi Zeng snorted coldly: "You go out to make friends and play, and you are happy every day, but only when you are in front of me, you feel miserable. With such a face, could it be that I have treated you badly?”
Mi Fang quickly put on a smile and stepped forward to salute.
"Okay, okay, your smiling face looks worse than coptis, so let's just accept it."
Mi Zeng waved his hand angrily, and then took the silk book.
Mi Fang looked around and didn't find Mi Yue, so she asked curiously: "Father, is my sister not here?"
"Well, she went on an outing and was always bored. It’s not fun to stay with an old man at home, so I should go out and relax occasionally.”
Mi Zeng was reading the letters home from his eldest son and answering questions from his second son.
The letter is not long and Mi Zeng read it quickly.
But he started reading it again, and only put down the silk book after finishing it again.
Seeing her father close his eyes again, Mi Fang suddenly felt anxious.
After hesitating for a while, he couldn't help but say: "Father, look at what my brother said in the letter, how should I deal with it?"
Who doesn't know that the Mi family's industry has two pillars, namely salt and iron. If the iron-making industry is really given away, the Mi family will only have one leg left.
"How to deal with it?"
Mi Zeng sneered, without even raising his eyelids: "It's just a pig iron industry. I only spent 20 million yuan to buy it. After all these years, even twenty times the profit has been earned, what else is there to be dissatisfied about?”
“Since Liu Shijun wants it and your brother supports it, then just hand it over?” "
Mi Fang responded submissively. Her father seemed to have answered her, but the thing he wanted to know most was not mentioned.
There was no other way. Mi Fang, who loved her sister so much, could only continue to ask: "Father, what about my sister..."
Mi Zeng did not answer directly, but answered the question differently: "When the late emperor was here, a The price of the county governor is 20 million yuan, and you have to be a member of the noble family to buy it. With a family like ours, you can only go to the eunuch route, and the price will probably be doubled. You, I’m really dissatisfied.”
Mi Fang’s face suddenly turned red. After all, he was the one who finally got the position of county guard.
"That sister..."
"What an idiot."
Mi Zeng opened his eyes and looked at Mi Fang with a sigh: "Even if our family is willing to do this, it depends on whether Liu Shijun is willing. Besides, what time is it now? Liu Shijun is good at fighting and can govern the place. , It is our Mi family's good fortune to have such an uncle. You don't have to look at what Xuzhou was like when the predecessor, Jun Taogong, was here."
Mi Fang thought about it, and it was indeed like her own. As my father said, when Tao Qian was here, he imposed excessive taxes, exploited the local area, and employed nepotism.
A great sage like Zhao Yu was tricked to death by Tao Qian. It was really annoying to compare people to each other.
"Hurry up and get ready, go to Tancheng."
Mi Zeng ordered: "Remember, after you go, you must listen to your brother. When you go somewhere, don't get involved. Don’t worry about those bad things. Anyone who dares to mess around under your nose will have their head chopped off. Do you understand?”
Mi Fang respectfully responded.
Mi Zeng then said: "If your sister's matter comes to pass, then our family will be the imperial concubine's relatives from now on. I know that you always value feelings and cannot maintain friendship. In the past, it was a personal relationship. Our family has a big business. Big, it doesn’t matter if you suffer a little loss. But from now on, you will be the in-law of the emperor. I don’t know how many people want to drag you into trouble. If you don’t chop off these people’s heads, they will use your head as a cover. Do you understand?”
Mi Fang lowered her head in shame. He was not an ignorant person. He could still understand the worry and love in his father's teachings.
"Father, don't worry, the child will definitely change his ways."
"Okay, okay."
Mi Zeng nodded. Although he didn't believe that Mi Fang could definitely change, he still encouraged him with a few words.
"After you go to Tancheng this time, you don't have to interfere with Yue'er's affairs. Just let your brother have full control. Tell your brother that this is my arrangement."
Mi Fang was a little frustrated, but she still didn't dare to question her father. She could only nod and said: "Yes, father."
Mi Zeng suddenly remembered something and asked Mi Fang: "By the way, what I ordered before , how is it going?"
Mi Fang was somewhat aware, but she was not sure and asked: "Did father talk about the armor?"
"Well, yes."
Mi Zeng nodded: "That's it, how are you doing now?"
Mi Fang thought for a moment before replying: "Already Arrangements have been made. There was some stock of armor blades before, so the speed is not bad. More than seventy pieces of armor have been completed. However, the armor blades have been used up, and the future will be much slower. According to Master Luo, if it can be done. If we add three more people, we can produce up to 120 sets of iron armor every month."
After a pause, Mi Fang continued: "But in this case, the pig iron may not be enough. , we need to find ways to increase pig iron production."
"Well, I understand."
Mi Zeng nodded and ordered: "Go over this time and take these armors with you. Remember to bring more guards."
"Yes, father."
Mi Fang felt warm in her heart. Yangyang knew that his father still cared about and loved him.
"Let's set off as soon as possible. Your brother is waiting for you in Tancheng, and Liu Shijun is also waiting for you."
Mi Zeng closed his eyes tiredly and said with a hum: "Tell me Your brother is on the right track.”
Mi Fang didn't quite understand the meaning of this sentence, but she still responded respectfully.
(End of this chapter)