Lu Ming

So he walked all the way, his eyelids kept twitching: These ships are almost all private ships of the big businessmen who came to post yesterday.It not only has polished rice from the south, but also expensive Taicang white grain. In addition, it also has refined noodles from the north, which are of the same grade as the ones on his cart.

"It's a pity that Master Kong still wants to make a fuss about food and grass..." Lu Shui sighed and rushed to the old school field.

When approaching the door, the scene of queuing up yesterday reappeared, but the queuing was replaced by the big businessmen themselves.

All of these wealthy merchants are prominent figures in Dazhigu.At this moment, these elders are sitting firmly in their carriages, holding the stove in their hands, and beside them are the "insulated pots" and teacups shipped from the south, waiting patiently to enter the old school yard.

After seeing this scene, Lu Shui no longer had any doubts, and happily sent all the food and fodder he brought to the old school yard.

Then when he entered the old school grounds, he found that the dilapidated school grounds were already in full swing.

Many craftsmen were repairing the schoolyard wall with their apprentices and small workers. The ground was filled with green bricks and cement at some point.

There are also some craftsmen who are digging the foundation, obviously planning to build a new house.And outside the school yard wall, on the muddy beach to the west, teams of peasants are pushing earth and stones with small carts to pad the ground, it seems that they intend to raise this useless low-lying land.

"It's really rich that can turn ghosts!" Lu Shui sighed, and delivered the goods with the white tent.

What he didn't expect was that not only did the white tent not take advantage of him afterwards, but also gave him the full amount of money to buy the noodles according to the normal market price.

That's not all.When Lu Shui received the money, he was led to a line in front of a dilapidated house on the school grounds.

This made Lu Shui very flattered - at this moment, there were wealthy businessmen lined up in front of and behind him.

After a while, Lu Shui was put into the house by the green-coated soldiers holding firecrackers.

Then he saw two tall, fair, businessman-like middle-aged men sitting side by side behind the table.

Chapter 419

The two sitting in the simple reception room are Xue Haiyuan, the future station chief of Beijing Station, and Yao Jianshe, the current station chief of Tianjin Station.

Comrade Yao Jianshe's earliest career was circuit design. He was the last person who crossed the intelligence front by relying on "internal potential digging" by the Intelligence Bureau...

After all, since last year, Emperor Cao has stopped "inviting" people to the New World, so the intelligence bureau is now repeatedly defeated, flickering, and most of the proud and expensive gentlemen are unwilling to be dogs spy.

So the last informant, Yao Jianshe, was assigned to an important location in Tianjin as soon as he came out of the mountain.

Fortunately, the difficulty of intelligence work in the seventeenth century was very low. Judging from the experience of the previous intelligence stations, the traversers who presided over the work did not need to take any risks and pressures. The difficulty was no different from that of the branch offices of later generations.

So Yao Jianshe came to Beijing and Tianjin this time with veteran Xue Haiyuan—the two families are close to each other, and it is convenient to support each other in case of any situation.

Today, it was the first time for the two stationmasters to make public appearances in the Beijing-Tianjin area when they met people from all walks of life.

Due to the shortage of manpower, according to the latest guidelines, the future intelligence station masters will have official public identities in order to implement the "one person, one city" strategy.The previous layout of one light and one dark will be eliminated.

Therefore, the two stationmasters that Lu Shui, a small official from the Ming Dynasty, saw in the room had already put on the robes of low-level civil servants, and their titles had become "Experiences of the Chief Soldier's Yamen Experience Department".

The experience department is a low-level civil service unit responsible for managing cultural transfers.This unit is mainly used for docking documents and executions of higher-level departments. It was quite extensive in the Ming Dynasty, and it is somewhat similar to the offices of later generations-the principal's office, the office of the Education Bureau, and so on.

In short, almost most of the yamen in the Ming Dynasty would set up subordinate experience departments.In this way, the "experience" of the experience department, like the title of "director" in later generations, will change with the level of the superior yamen.

For example, the Experience Department of the Dudu Mansion of the Five Armies is a fifth-rank unit; while the Experience Department of Shuntian Mansion is only a mere seventh-rank unit.

Therefore, according to this characteristic, the inconspicuous, and one-handed experience of the experience department has become the best way for the two webmasters to conceal their identities.

In addition, the appointment of this position is also very convenient: the experience department of the General Military Mansion is a seventh-rank yamen, and it can be regarded as a semi-independent subordinate officer recruited by General Cao himself.

The receptionist that the local aborigines in Tianjin saw at the school today was the experience of the appointment of the two general soldiers.

After Lu Shui entered the room, the two who were still tall and fair in the eyes of the northerners exchanged a few words with him briefly.Next, the amiable Xue Jing and Yao Jing talked about "homely" with Lu Shui in a strange "Southern dialect".

Lu Shui knew that this was "at the bottom of the market", so he quickly introduced a few words about his family's situation, and then appropriately expressed his "admiration" for the general - he knew that there were still a lot of big shots waiting outside. Then, the conversation will end soon, so we must seize the time to express the "central idea".

Sure enough, after 5 minutes, the initial contact between the two parties was over.Lu Shui happily left the house after getting a promise that "good friends should move around frequently and take care of each other".

The two experiencers fiddled with the tape recorder on the table, smiled and commented on Lu Shui, a clever little official, and said to the guard: "Next one, please."

……

Cao Zhen's soldiers and horses who came to "Qin Wang" began the so-called "rest and reorganization".

It didn't take three days for Tianjin Wei's civil and military officials to be dumbfounded: Cao Zongbing has never seen him drill soldiers since he nested in the old school field, but instead met with guests and businessmen wantonly, and put a sacred "Journey to the King" Forcibly made a business trip full of copper smell.

... At this time, Cao Zongbing's background was completely blown up in Tianjin Wei, and everyone knew that he was rich.

In this way, Mr. Cao inevitably attracted the attention of the natives, especially the local civil and military officials in Tianjin Wei.

This southern general is really too weird—everywhere he travels, the behaviors that seem to be "spreading money for nothing" always make the natives feel incredible.

Whether it is the repair of the Dajiaochang or the padding project of the muddy puddle, these are purely death in the eyes of the officials: Your surname Cao is a guest army, and you cannot be stationed in Tianjin. Spending such a huge amount of money to repair the station is not Is it just brain damage?

The chief soldier who is willing to spend his own pocket to repair the barracks in Biezhen is probably this idiot Cao who is not short of money!

However, the time-traversing people still go their own way, looking like they want to carry out stupid things to the end: on the cold construction site in winter, Cao fool did not hesitate to buy a lot of coal, hire a large number of workers, and spend all night without stopping, spending several times more expensive than in summer. The price is working hard.

What the officials didn't notice was that many of the fools hired by Cao were refugees.

Are there any refugees in Tianjin Wei?Of course there are, and there are still a large number of temporary refugees.

Since the army of the Eight Banners went south, countless Ming people in the Jingyuan area began to take their families and go south to seek refuge.As a hub of water transportation, Tianjin not only has convenient canals, but also hoards a large amount of food and supplies, and rich people are everywhere, so there is no doubt that this has become the first stop for refugees to seek refuge.

What are you waiting for?A certain faction has mastered this routine after traveling for three years.

The first step is to hire a large number of refugees to work.

The second step, in this process, is to fully demonstrate to the beggars what it means to be rich and powerful, to rescue the suffering, and to treat others with sincerity.

The third step is to identify scammers, pack them and ship them away.

Relying on this set of increasingly familiar procedures, the empire is now absorbing natives in many cities along the coast of Daming, and the effect is remarkable.

But this time, when the traveling people from the north saw a large number of northern refugees, their saliva was about to flow down: enriching the source of population in their hometown is urgent, and the arrival of a large number of northern immigrants will make the "domestic" southerners live in a high situation. This is an important national policy related to "long-term stability" and must be taken seriously.

One week, in just one week, the dilapidated old school ground stood up again like a brand new silver coin.

The original wall has now repaired the breach, and has been re-smeared with white lime, and a watchtower has been added, which is beautiful and neat.

In the vast school grounds, the dilapidated houses had been repaired, and some temporary soldiers’ dormitories were built beside them: low houses built with double-layer bricks and wood, with cement applied in the gaps.

Although this kind of temporary low-rise house has poor lighting and is cramped, it can block the winter wind of the Little Ice Age, which has surpassed most ordinary houses.

In addition, on a part of the mud field that has been raised and compacted, the walls and stables built with bricks and wood are being extended one after another.

What surprised the natives the most was a small boiler hoisted from a transport ship.Now the natives knew what the converted house with the brick chimney on the schoolyard was for.

With the boiler, there is 24-hour hot water, and there is also a bathhouse to keep soldiers healthy and hygienic.This is the real killer. You must know that in the north of the Little Ice Age, most people could not afford to take a bath. The sanitation of the aborigines was extremely poor. Various germs and infectious diseases were everywhere, which made the travelers shudder.

Of course, all these achievements are inseparable from the local big businessmen.

Including recruiting refugees, hiring craftsmen, organizing a large number of building materials, organizing logistics supplies, etc. These seemingly smooth projects are all behind the resources mobilized by big businessmen from everywhere. less than.

However, Cao Zongbing also gave the merchants enough rewards: Compared with the kerosene lamps and kerosene agency rights in a certain area, the "small favors" and the food that the merchants have helped in the past few days are nothing What?

In the past few days, the goods unloaded from the transport ship have unsurprisingly caused fierce competition among local businessmen.This is also the main reason why the progress of the project can be advanced at a high speed - the merchants regard this as a test of the strength of their own firms.

……

Seven days later, Cao's army, which had begun to take shape and officially settled down, started a new round of eye-catching activities.

Since this morning, a herd of horses has come to the old school field along the dirt road.The owner of the horses is a horse dealer who came from outside.

Horse dealers have not only horses, but also camels and cattle.

As a water transportation hub, there are quite a lot of caravans assembled in Tianjin on weekdays.The horses in the hands of these people will go all the way south along the canal. The luxurious horses used by the rich merchants in the south of the Yangtze River to pull carts are all bought from this generation.

And the one who drove the horses to the old school field today is the largest caravan currently stationed in Tianjin Wei.

The caravan that had been informed in advance brought nearly [-] Mongolian horses to choose from, so at the moment the school field was very lively with people shouting and neighing.

The grooms provided by the merchants and some old guards who are familiar with the nature of horses are all on the school grounds at the moment, discussing loudly while inspecting the horses.

And Cao Jiajun, who was completely helpless in this regard, could only be helpless—the crossing crowd was not a god after all, so he didn't take horse inspection into consideration when he set off.Most of the team are from the south, although some have ridden before, but being able to ride a horse and being able to meet a horse are two completely different things.

So for today's horse buying fair, we can only rely on the temporarily hired grooms and guards, and General Cao just pays for the money.

The vigorous horse selection event lasted for most of the day.In the end, most of the horses with a shoulder height of more than 1.3 meters were kept, and the total number reached 200.

At this time, the newly built stables in the mud next to it came in handy.

Lu Shui, who sent the military supplies a few days ago, was directing his servants to help, water and feed the horses—the black beans, wheat and buckwheat he personally delivered were as expected from the white tent that day. It was poured full into the manger, claiming to be "fat" for the horses.

"It's really rich and powerful!" Lu Shui clicked his tongue secretly.In fact, in the north, these black soybeans, old wheat and buckwheat were originally the daily food of many troops and ordinary people, and there was no such thing as "horse feed" at all.

Then it's time to checkout.

Then the people surrounding the school grounds saw Cao Jiajun's tent lift off the felt blanket, revealing a pile of shiny, rectangular iron boxes piled up underneath.

Chapter 420 Liquor Industry

If future generations see these rectangular iron boxes painted with army green paint, they will probably be able to guess what is inside: gasoline, lubricating oil, olive oil... nothing more than these things.It's in the windows of auto repair shops and in the back of many people's cars.

The iron boxes opened on the school grounds today are made of tinplate, and inside are wine.

Baijiu is not produced in the "native land" of the empire because it consumes staple food.As mentioned earlier, grape plantations have been opened up in Tainan, and the upper class is vigorously promoting wine.

The liquor trade method for the Ming Dynasty has always been that the kiln district is responsible for providing glass wine bottles, and the Hangzhou station, which is rich in grain and grain, produces liquor with brewing equipment.

This type of trade is very successful.

The beautiful glass wine bottle, the pure color and transparent liquid, the mellow and fragrant taste, and the 35% alcohol content specially formulated for the gentry class, made the wealthy people of Ming Dynasty flock to it, and couldn't buy it.

You must know that literati drinking is not the same as bitter haha.Literati pay attention to slowing down, brewing, lightly smoking, singing poems and wine, and finally splashing ink when they make a show, so scholar-bureaucrats should not drink too much.

Precise market positioning has made the two high-end liquor brands full of artistic conception, "Hundred Years Confused" and "Shede", quickly gain fame among the gentry class.If it weren't for the lack of raw materials, the total profit of this baijiu business would definitely rank among the top among many industrial products... just look at the Moutai of later generations.

This time, the tinplate barrel baijiu brought to Tianjin by the fleet was a commercial project specially planned by the commercial department to test the waters of the northern trade environment.

First of all, because Tianjin is too far away and the freight is high, the guiding idea is to produce some inconvenient commodities as much as possible locally, and the most profitable one is of course liquor.

Secondly, Tianjin is the recipient of grain. Winemaking here, the grain absorbed by the distillery will not affect the purchase in the south, so the enterprises set up by the crossing people here can open up to brew wine.

In this way, the medium and low-grade liquor plan with a larger output has entered the plan.

So what is the most suitable wine to trade with the northern nomads and take into account the needs of the middle and bottom people?

No doubt about it: Erguotou.

What is in these small tin barrels on the school grounds today is the standard 55% Erguotou wine.

……

After seeing this pile of shiny tin boxes, the onlookers standing on the school grounds looked at each other in blank dismay, wondering what kind of medicine was sold in the gourd, could it be broken silver inside?

At this time, the two "experiences" responsible for signing the commercial contract made their debut.

After ordering people to bring porcelain bowls to the horse dealers, grooms, and all the guards who came to help, including the little official Lu Shui and his subordinates, the two experienced Xue and Yao lifted the iron bucket with a smile, Unscrew the lid, and pour the clear liquid inside into the porcelain bowls in people's hands.

In an instant, the strong smell of wine began to waft in the school grounds.

The next moment, the people who had figured out the situation started to drink heavily amidst laughter.

In history, Erguotou was really created, and that would have to wait until the reign of Emperor Kangxi.Today, what is brought out by the time traveler is the standard Erguotou produced with the equipment and technology of later generations.

After entering the mouth, the wine, which seemed to be like a clear spring, slid into the abdomen like a thread of fire, and then the whole body began to feel warm.After a while, the strength of the wine came up, and my head began to feel slightly dizzy.This feeling like a sharp knife and fire, coupled with the heat burning all over the body, immediately made these men who have been walking in the cold wind outside their mouths all year round flushed and raised their thumbs: "Good wine! Good wine! "

After observing the reactions of these poor people, Xue Haiyuan and Yao Jianshe couldn't help but smile at each other: It seems that Erguotou is the same in ancient and modern times, and it is the favorite of the people at the bottom!

These wines poured from iron barrels, when tested in advance, including indicators such as transparency, alcohol content, aroma, and taste, must exceed those brewed by Ming people.The reaction of these wine tasters today also made the sellers finally relieved.

In this case, let's start the market.So all the stable boys and guards present got a bucket of samples: this was taken back for the boss behind them to taste.

Next is sales.

The situation was very optimistic. After some research, the horse dealers made a statement on the spot: they were willing to use all the purchase price of two hundred horses in exchange for this "high-quality liquor".

For horse dealers, silver money is of little use.Because when they went to Outer Mongolia to buy horses, it was basically a barter trade.Those herdsmen who raise horses need most of the daily necessities of the Ming people, such as wine and salt, and they don't want money.

Therefore, the horse dealers were very satisfied with Erguotou, and they made a positioning for this product at a glance: placed on the whole sheep mat, high-end spirits poured by Mongolian princes and nobles to distinguished guests.

The reason for the high-end is not only the connotation, but also the outer packaging.

This kind of beautiful iron box is "ingenious" and can be used in hand and stacked, and it is not afraid of bumps during transportation, which is far better than a wine jar tied with hemp rope - in this era of scarcity of materials, it can be used afterwards The tinplate barrels used to hold other things undoubtedly have higher added value, which is synonymous with high-end.

The horse dealers immediately made a deal with the two experiencers.

However, although the transaction was successful, if you want to pick up the goods, you have to wait for a while.Because the wines displayed on the school field today are just promotional samples that came with the ship.

The next step is to travel through the crowd first to find a partner and set up a brewery before they can produce products...

Of course, the process is quick.Because that night, after the masters tasted Erguotou and studied this kind of iron barrel that looks very ugly, early the next morning, Tianjin Wei, who intends to invest in and open a winery with the cross-border partners, once again crowded in the school grounds Inside.

……

Due to the dual advantages of transportation and food storage, Tianjin is like Maotai Town in later generations, and the winemaking industry has been extremely developed since ancient times.The local wine produced here will radiate to most of the north.