Dominate the Country

"The oils eaten by people today are mixed with meat and vegetables. Common people use mainly vegetable oils. The legumes include soybeans, green beans, black beans, brown beans, pinto beans, and cottonseeds, peanuts, sesame seeds, and rutabaga. There are many kinds of sprouts, sesame, flax and so on." Wang Huizu counted on his fingers, while Chen Ming and others listened.

"The generals and officers in the army have trained hard and been involved in many wars. King Lu Gong of the Han Dynasty has served his troops well and his food is excellent. Compared with other people in the south of the Yangtze River, I wonder if your highness and all of you here know that our army uses a lot of oil. In the military supply area, the logistics officers of various military camps often fight over a barrel of crude oil with red faces. "

Chen Ming and others nodded in agreement. They had never seen or heard of this situation before, and they didn't think there was anything wrong. Soldiers are used to fight, so meat is required from time to time in their meals. Even if it is just fish, it is usually fried and then stewed in a pot. Among the people, cooking oil is really not something that ordinary people can afford. Every household only pours two or three kilograms of vegetarian oil during the Chinese New Year, but it is mostly used for lighting lamps.

The urgent need for oil does not only lie with the expeditionary force, but also with the soldiers and horses left behind in the base area.

"Now that tens of thousands of troops have entered Hubei, does Hubei have more or less cooking oil than Jiangnan?"

Chen Ming already somewhat understood what Wang Huizu meant. "You mean..."

"Today, the summer rice harvest is coming, and double-cropping rice is widely planted in Hubei. Your Highness, why not personally instruct one or two of your confidants to contact one or two troops, have the soldiers sign documents with the tenants of the village, pay the money and grain needed, and the military merit farm will be transformed To grow rice is to plant soybeans. When the soybeans are harvested in the autumn, the soybean oil is extracted and sold to the army, and the profit will be greater than that of rice."

"With only a little publicity, this matter can be spread far and wide and become known to all the sergeants." This is a real benefit, which is much more convincing than empty talk.

"So many things in the world can be ruined by just one emergency. Although His Highness has great prestige in the army, people's hearts are unpredictable and unpredictable." Everyone has their own little plans when the land is in their hands. At this time, even Chen Ming There will be complaints even if you stand up. "Even if His Highness personally comes forward to promote military cooperatives, it is still inevitable that there will be complaints. And the sticking point of the Qing court has not been eliminated. If they release rumors at the right time to confuse people, using the name of our military to entrust cooperatives is false, and the land harvest is real, it will cause trouble. , then it’s not beautiful.”

In the words of Wang Huizu, what is not available to people is better. If you hold pearls in front of people, some people will only regard pearls as fish eyes. Only by letting them work hard to collect pearls will they cherish pearls more and become more precious. Understand how rare and precious it is.

"Some real benefits are ahead. When His Highness comes forward to organize a military cooperative to benefit everyone, those who join will be like a crucian carp crossing the river."

As soon as Wang Huizu finished speaking, Chen Ming and others nodded. It makes sense, it makes sense, it is indeed the truth.

"Mr. Wang is right. There are a lot of ignorant people in the world. They are just like the stubborn donkey who will retreat if he is not led away."

"Military meritorious deeds are closely related to the military spirit. If there is any negligence, serious trouble will occur..."

Chen Ming wanted to use the military field system to transform grain cultivation into economic product cultivation. He also wanted to slowly gather the military group, guide them, and finally change the cooperative into a joint-stock company and form several large agricultural companies. . Then we will use these as the basis to develop the light textile industry, drive the economy, and increase the competitiveness within the Fuhan Army. But in the eyes of Wang Huizu and others, this is not a temporary "good intention" on his part, but another "means" used by Chen Ming to grasp the morale of the army - if this thing is done, it will be tantamount to holding it. The soldiers' pockets will surely have a firm hold on their morale.

Although Chen Ming was "separated from military and political affairs," he came forward to sell grain, cooking oil, and cloth. Who among the merchants in the business group who would soon be pushed out by the government would dare to turn away? Whose brand should I buy? Once this thing is done, it can even be used as Chen Ming's other arm. It plays an extremely important role in people's livelihood and economy.

No one here raised any objections. Chen Ming had no idea that just when he lowered his head to think, the eyes of several people around him had already been inadvertently locked. They were thinking deeper than Chen Ming thought. '.

The focus of the Fuhan Army is still on fighting. As the backbone of the Fuhan Army, Chen Ming will inevitably leave Lushan for a long time to fight for the rest of the war. And some of the people in his hands who are in charge of civil affairs have all dispersed to other places. It seems that the supporters of the central government are still there. Old people like Chen Cong and Gao Jia. In fact, if Chen Ming doesn't come up with the method of this military cooperative, they will also hint that Chen Ming has to communicate with other people.

"Although His Highness does not study history books or observe authority, he is astounded by his endless schemes."

At noon, when Wang Huizu, Xiong Bingzhang, and Liu Wu sat down together for a dinner, they said in admiration. When he first heard about the "military cooperative", Wang Huizu wanted to be amazed. This is really the ultimate weapon to win over the military.

After the meeting, the more Xiong Bingzhang thought about it, the more profound he felt. He even regarded Chen Ming's move as one with the Fuhan Army's introduction of the industrial and commercial class. If there is no business group, even if these things exist, they will only slowly dissipate among the people, or be sold to the logistics department. The benefits are there, but Chen Ming's color is much lighter. Unlike now, the businessmen who first contracted the military's ration processing can replace the military and logistics departments and become the largest demanders of cooking oil. Even the bean cake left over from the oil extraction can become a necessity that the military and the logistics department are competing for. The military wants to use it to feed livestock, and the logistics department wants to use it to raise livestock.

The Fuhan Army now prohibits the slaughter of large livestock within its jurisdiction. Horses, mules, donkeys, and cattle are all protected animals. Because the artillery and transportation troops of the Fuhan Army continued to use large quantities of animal power. In the past year or so, cattle raising has become popular in the Nanyang area. You can send as much as you want to the munitions procurement offices set up by the Han army in each county. You are guaranteed to get enough cattle and money, and you will never be short of a dollar or two. Therefore, the soybean cakes after soybean crushing are urgently needed by the military. Soybeans are a good thing.

Juniors such as Huang Song, Gao Yanming and Chen Jiqing listened to everything, but in important matters they only had the right to comply and had no say. After returning home in the evening, these words immediately reached the ears of Gao Pengqi, Chen Hui and the Huang family uncle.

Gao Pengqi is now the Minister of the Police Department and a member of the cabinet. He is an absolute top official in the Fuhan Army. In terms of affairs, he is Chen Ming's absolute supporter. Chen Ming's "separation of military and political affairs" is not because the current leaders of the Fuhan Army have objections to Chen Ming, but because they are afraid that Chen Ming will have too much power, so they have no scruples and directly recruit a team of people to establish their own small The group is like the attendant room. By then, Chen Ming will be away fighting all year round. If the Chen family really has the day of becoming a dragon, will Chen Ming pay more attention to the people in front of him? Or do you value these veterans?

The reason why Chen Ming was allowed to "separate military and political affairs" was not to shake Chen Ming's status as prince. Although the two sides did have some contradictions on some things, which made no sense conceptually, the main purpose was to curb Chen Ming's development in government affairs. It is necessary to insist on Lushan Chaotang as the "center" unwaveringly. Even if Chen Ming succeeds to the throne in the future, he will continue to use them, rather than directly establishing a new central government and kicking them away as a group of old people.

Gao Pengqi was angry with Chen Ming about this matter, Chen Cong was also angry with Chen Ming, and the Huang family, including his father Chen Hui himself. This is all to ease Chen Ming's heart, so that Chen Ming will not misunderstand or think nonsense. It was as if the scientific examination had never happened.

Chen Ming could also understand that just like Li Shimin's Tiance Mansion, many people had the impression that after Li Shimin became emperor, all important civil and military positions in the Li Tang Dynasty were held by people from the Tiance Mansion. Chen Ming can understand this, and he even thinks much more clearly about this than Chen Hui and others think.

Because he has long been aware of the boldness of his ministers. They dare to blatantly lie to you and look good for you. They dare to confront you openly and even dare to form gangs to threaten you. Emperor Qin, Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Tang and Song Zu could not change this. Because everyone has interests and brains, the emperor can take away his official position and life with just one word, but he cannot take away the thoughts of his ministers. How to get along with the ministers, how to deal with the ministers, is a big question, and Chen Ming is learning it bit by bit now.

But he also had to say that many people in Lushan thought about this matter too simply. Many things are simply unintended. As for the scientific examination, things are far from simple. As far as Chen Ming knew, Lu Shan's brains, many of his disciples, relatives, and even staff members had all signed up for this scientific examination. Almost everyone had a great stake.

This person's selfish interests are innate in nature and are really inexhaustible.

With so many people getting involved, and so many people standing there who hope for too high a level in the imperial examination, Chen Ming has to retreat. Besides, this imperial examination was originally for advertising. It raised the grade and attracted visitors better. Chen Ming also thought about it.

Chen Hui found out about this the next day. In the current study room of the Han Palace, which was the original county government study room, Chen Hui, Chen Ming and his son were separated from each other by a small coffee table. Chen Hui talked about this matter with Chen Ming with great interest.

He listened to Chen Ming's explanation of the concept of the military cooperative and its future development direction, as well as all aspects that could be communicated in the future. Although he was still hesitant about Chen Ming's industrial and commercial substitution for Shilin, Chen Hui agreed that Chen Ming's knees were weak. ’ concept, he felt that as long as his family was strong, he would not have to worry about no one becoming an official. And those masters, staff, poor scholars, civil servants, and even government officials, after they become officials, they are also "scholars."

As an old man who has been working in households for ten or twenty years, Chen Hui has a clear understanding of the power of businessmen. As long as the ruling class gives some support to businessmen, businessmen are really powerful. And as long as these businessmen take the fat thrown by the Fuhan Army, they will never be able to get rid of the reins of the Fuhan Army.

The faster these people develop and grow, the stronger and deeper the foundation of the Fuhan Army will be.

"Company?!" After Chen Hui heard the news, he specifically asked his entourage about the origin of the word. Sure enough, it was not made up by his son. "Confucius's "Datong" and "Liici Zhuan": The public is the wealth of several people. "Si" means operation. Zhuangzi said: "Accumulating shortcomings and making them high, combining small things to make big things, and merging them into public things are called 'company'. "

Chen Ming's face revealed his father's learned look without concealment. He really didn't know that "company" was a native Chinese word, and thought it was passed from the West.

"Joint-stock company!!" Chen Hui, who was stroking his chin beard, also expressed his understanding. He wanted to unite the small with the big, join forces, and do business in partnership. He understands.

"This company is terrible, terrible..."

I heard my son explain that in the future, in addition to entering the grain, oil, cotton and other agricultural trade businesses, the company could also be involved in the cloth and raw silk businesses. It could also invest in other companies and take shares in other people's businesses. With countless Fuhan Army soldiers at his back, this business must be successful. How can such a company not be intimidating?

"So this kind of company must have restrictions." Chen Ming did not hide anything in front of his father, "It's just the beginning now, they can still become one. When our army's territory expands to the north and south in the future, Fuhan Army soldiers across the country will Can they still become one?" Chen Ming himself couldn't possibly watch them become one. "Even with the current ranks of our army, there is already considerable competition among the battalion heads. When our army becomes stronger and has more troops in the future, the competition among them will only become more intense, and this will extend to the cooperatives. , the unification of this province is impossible.”

Chen Ming believes that the military cooperative will be transformed into a joint-stock company in the future and can become a banner for the interests of Fuhan military personnel. However, there are conflicts of interest between armies and between regions, and these conflicts cannot be reconciled at all.

The ceiling of this interest group is a province. And with the economic development of the entire society, it will continue to fall apart.