Chapter 870 Trade Route
After spring planting in February, the weather gets warmer.
Prime Minister Yu Chen, who had survived the entire winter, fell ill again and did not resume his duties until late that month.
"I actually wanted to go to Jiangdong back then. If my bones go there, I'm afraid I'll get sick every day, and I'll die in a few years." In the prime minister's house, Yu Chen smiled bitterly at the visitor.
The guest came from Xingyang and was Li Ju's nephew Guo Song.
This family who was born in Pingyang has now settled in Xingyang and is a standard Henan native. And they were undoubtedly Prime Minister Yu Chen's people, who had taken refuge with Sima Yue before.
After Sima Yue's death, the uncles and nephews Li Ju and Guo Song faced two choices: continue to get involved with the old people in Yue Mansion, or choose another career.
Obviously, they chose the Yingchuan Yu family.
Guo Song is now the head of Mi County. He has been working for many years, but has no way to get promoted. Every time he goes to the superior for inspection, he finds that various conditions are not met, which makes him very frustrated.
For people with poor backgrounds like them, someone above them must find a way to get the officials to ignore the deductions such as their family background, demeanor, appearance, knowledge, etc., pass the inspection, and be assigned a good position.
If you are a scholar, you will have much less troubles in this regard, and you can pass the normal assessment, because this system is tailor-made for the nobles.
You are not a nobleman. If you have to squeeze into the officialdom, don't you have to be supported by a noble person? This is because conditions are now more relaxed. Twenty years ago, King Liang would have had to arrest Sima Yi to investigate Xiaolian.
"I already know what Guangzhong is asking for." Yu Chen sat behind the mist, looking a little tired, and said: "You want to join the army, but it's a bit difficult. The Heijin Right Camp will be built next month, and the first batch of recruitment will be 3,000 soldiers. . These three thousand people are not something you can enter, even if you are good at martial arts. If you want to force yourself to do it, seizing the army may be a good way. The army has been stationed in Yanmen and may go to Mayi next. Recruiting soldiers and buying horses. But they are not recruiting soldiers. They have to herd cattle, sheep and livestock, and the court will only provide a small subsidy. If you want to go, I can arrange it. If you don't want to go, isn't it better to be a military officer? The commander hasn’t had a chance yet.”
"If you catch a living army, you will catch a living army. Please help me, Prime Minister." Guo Song said sincerely: "I am willing to lead hundreds of troops to join the army."
"Does Shihui (Li Ju) know about this?"
"My uncle also advised me not to act rashly."
Yu Chen smiled and said: "I summoned you this time because of other things."
"Prime Minister, please speak." Guo chanted.
"There's no hurry." Yu Chen called a person from the Prime Minister's Mansion and asked him to invite another person in.
"Uncle." Jin Cao of the General's Mansion, Wu Qiulu, walked in quickly and saluted.
Yu Chen pointed to a single couch in the room, asked him to sit down, and then said: "The king wants to do business with Pingcheng. Zongru, you previously traded cattle and sheep with Chief Kelan. Tell me, what's the difficulty? Where? ”
When Guanqiu Lu heard that it was something in his professional field, he immediately said confidently: "Uncle——"
Yu Chen knocked on the master's table.
Guanqiu Lu immediately changed his mind: "Prime Minister, the difficulty lies in the middle."
"Cattle and sheep need to eat a lot of fodder when they cross the border. If they all take the same road, after the first batch of cattle and sheep cross the border, the grass will not have time to grow, and a second batch of cattle and sheep will come, and there will not be enough to eat. If they don't eat enough, they will lose weight and even die. That’s a loss.”
"Eating while walking is not enough. Even if people travel long distances and eat every meal, they also need to rest after a long time. The same is true for livestock, so there needs to be a fattening ground as a resting place during the journey. The fattening ground needs to prepare a large amount of forage all year round, and hire Someone was assigned to take care of the livestock and raise the lost fat so that they could continue on the road.”
"So, this is not a simple matter. So far, I have only built one road, that is, the road from Xiurong to Hedong. Along the way, I invited tribal nobles to join and share the benefits together, so I can barely make ends meet."
Yu Chen hummed.
It is impossible to do this business without involving many people.
Guan Qiulu was an official of the shogunate, and he probably had the tiger skin of the prime minister when he was abroad. Only then could he solve all kinds of difficulties and successfully establish a road for buying and selling livestock - this road was definitely not allowed to be used by others, because he was worried about other people's lives. The cattle and sheep have eaten up all the grass.
In addition to Guanqiu Lu, according to Yu Chen's knowledge, the guests of Queen Hui Yang's family also established an "animal road" from Taiyuan to Pingyang. Everyone knew that Yang Xianrong was making money for King Liang, so no one dared to stop it, and it started running smoothly.
Others are in a bit more trouble.
Many pastures are owned by owners. Even if they are not owned, locals do not like to see outsiders driving cattle and sheep to eat their grass.
Everything has value, even weeds.
"Leave the line from Xiurong to Hedong to the tribe." Yu Chen said, "Next, you go to Pingcheng."
"Pingcheng?" Guan Qiulu was a little worried.
"Don't worry, Yuandu will go with you." Yu Chen said: "Think of a way to build a livestock trade road from Pingcheng to Bianliang. Henan is actually in short supply of livestock. So far, there are not enough oxen and sheep carts, let alone horse-drawn carriages. During the spring plowing this year, there were even more than a dozen families sharing a plowing cow, and the cow was so tired that it collapsed. The construction of this road can not only alleviate the shortage of livestock in Henan, but also sell Henan's goods to the grassland. ”
Guanqiu Lu thought for a while and said, "It seems a little long."
"It is indeed long, but you can think of ways, such as building a pasture in the middle. There is a lot of wasteland anyway." Yu Chen said: "Going south from Yunzhong County, passing through Mayi, Yanmen, Xinxing, Taiyuan, Shangdang, Hanoi, and Xingyang The eight counties finally arrived at Chenliu." At this point, Yu Chen looked at Guo Song and said, "Guangzhong, that's what I'm calling you for today. Xingyang needs your help."
Guo Song suddenly realized that this was what happened! It made him think that he was favored by the prime minister and was going to be promoted.
Immediately he said: "I obey my command."
Yu Chen looked at Guanqiu Lu again and said, "There is a piece of wasteland in Hanoi, near the entrance of Taihang Pass. I can lend it to you temporarily, but you have to raise your own manpower. Xingxing and Yanmen are vast and sparsely populated, so I can also give it to you." You can find wasteland for pasture, but you still have to figure it out on your own in Shangdang, Taiyuan, Chenliu, Mayi, and Yunzhong.”
Guanqiu Lu thought for a while and said: "We have to recruit Liu Runzhong to join the gang, and we have to find someone else in Taiyuan. As for Mayi and Yunzhong, there are some difficulties. There are really no familiar people."
"So I asked Yuan Du to accompany you on a trip." Yu Chen said: "This is a big matter, and the king is very concerned about it. Especially in the Dai Kingdom, if we can recruit a few more nobles and high-ranking officials to join the team, they can also share the benefits. , this matter will be settled. Don’t focus on money. It doesn’t matter if you give a little more profit, even if it is just enough to protect your capital. The king will reward you with an official title. The important thing is to maintain this trade route.”
Guanqiu Lu understood somewhat, but he was still puzzled: "If someone rebels, he will not be hindered by such a small gain."
"Of course you can't just rely on this trick." Yu Chen said: "The king wants to tie the nobles of the country tightly, and this is just one of the ropes. But don't underestimate the benefits of mutual trade. There are many mediocre people in the world, and they can give it up decisively. The immediate benefits are definitely not for ordinary people. Money is indeed not easy to use against such people, but there are other ways. In short, this matter must be done as soon as possible without any delay."
"Yes." Guanqiu Lu responded.
After talking about this important matter, Yu Chen seemed to be relieved and looked even more tired.
"Uncle." Guan Qiulu looked at Yu Chen's increasingly thin face and hesitated to speak.
"Don't worry about being a Confucian." Yu Chen smiled freely and said: "Everyone will have this day. The Yu family has flourished in my hands, and it is as prosperous as it is today. It is to go to the quiet land under the spring to face the ancestors. Zong, I am not ashamed. What I am worried about now is nothing more than my children.”
Guanqiu Lu was a little moved and a little sad.
"Zongru, you have to help me." Yu Chen said.
"Okay!" Guan Qiulu felt as if something was blocked in his throat, which was extremely uncomfortable.
In February, the angel came to Pingyang again.
Cousin Wenjun has been canonized as a queen, and her status and rituals are the same as those of a queen.
Yuan Gui was the governor of Xuzhou. Although he had no outstanding political achievements, there were no major problems. It may be called mediocre, but for the Yu family, it is worth celebrating if they don't make mistakes, and they don't need Yu Liang to make any great achievements.
The other Yu clan members each have official positions.
With such a powerful family, my uncle felt pressured and even a little pessimistic, which made Guanqiu Lu very uncomfortable.
Guo Song also vaguely noticed something. He didn't dare to speak, he just lowered his head and said nothing. He secretly thought that the powerful prime minister also had many worries, and was even more troubled than little people like them.
"Guangzhong, if you want to join the army, then go and catch the new army." After Yu Chen was silent for a while, he said to Guo Song: "Take care of the affairs of Xingyang Pasture first, and then I will transfer you there. Mayi is not Taiping, if you have time, you can help take care of it.”
"As ordered." Guo Song responded.
After Yu Chen finished speaking, he asked Guo Song to go back and prepare. Guo Song bowed, turned around and left the Prime Minister's Mansion.
When I came to the street, I felt a little emotional.
Once upon a time, he and his uncle Li Ju made their fortune by fighting barbarians, but now they have to cooperate with barbarians.
The trade route established by Guanqiu Lu was actually quite profitable.
According to the Prime Minister's method, the Xingyang Li family and the Guo family should be able to share the benefits, although it may only be a little bit.
But this is a long-term business. The income is limited in one or two years, but what about ten or twenty years? That's a lot of income.
But how to put it, this is actually not what he is pursuing.
He would rather serve in the army, be rewarded for his meritorious service, and be promoted to a higher rank. He would be much better than the Mi County Magistrate who can see his end at the moment - if nothing happens, he will be an official at this level for the rest of his life and will never be able to rise to the top. , it is not impossible to even be dismissed from office in a few years.
There are not many opportunities now. Shengle's rope head is an opportunity, and the Xiongnu in Chang'an is also an opportunity.
As for Jiangdong, he actually didn't want to go. Since the Han Dynasty, the number of soldiers killed by epidemics in the southern expedition was probably no less than those who died on the battlefield.
This kind of acclimatization really makes the people in the north change their colors when they hear it. If there is no other way, who would be willing to cross south?
As the sun set, Guo Song left the city and planned to go back to his hometown to see if he could recruit some people who were skilled in bow and horse to join the army.
(End of chapter)