On the official road to the northwest.
Before noon, a group of fierce northwest soldiers dismounted and walked into the wine shop.
"Boss, serve the food and wine."
Li Sheng looked at this group of fierce soldiers, he didn't dare to be negligent, and greeted them himself.
Pei Rong was playing with a dagger with a cold expression.
The soldiers came forward and reported in a low voice, "Speak to the general, Madam Zhao sent someone to deliver a letter, and wanted to see the general."
"No! Tell her, this general leaves Beijing and returns to the northwest, and don't ask me about the capital."
Pei Rong returned to Beijing to marry off his younger sister Pei Man.
Gu Ting and Pei Man had already left the capital last month and headed for the northwest.
Pei Rong was delayed for more than a month because he had business to deal with.
It wasn't until today that I finished everything and set off back to the Northwest Camp with my own soldiers.
"Madam Zhao said that what she wants to talk about is not about the capital, but about the northwest, about Xiliang and Beirong."
Pei Rong snorted coldly, "Ask Liu Zhao to talk to me."
The soldiers were very embarrassed, but also admired Gu Jiu. He actually anticipated all the general's reactions in advance, and even prepared the answers.
The personal soldier bowed and said, "Mrs. Zhao said that it is inappropriate for His Royal Highness to come forward in this matter."
hehe…
Pei Rong responded with a sneer.
He has never dealt with Gu Jiu, only heard various rumors about Gu Jiu. The perception of Gu Jiu is average.
He said to the soldiers: "Tell her, this general only talks to Liu Zhao. It's useless for her to come."
Anyway, after eating this meal, the next time I return to Beijing will be a few years later. The person who is anxious is the other party, not him.
The personal soldiers fulfilled their duty of delivering the message, bowed to accept orders, and hurried out of the wine shop.
Mr. Dou, the military adviser, asked in a low voice: "The general really didn't see Mrs. Zhao?"
Pei Rong smiled, "Why do you see her? We only have business dealings with her. For business matters, I have a special person to take care of them. It's useless for the general to see her. If she is speaking for Liu Zhao, that's even worse. There is no need to meet. It is impossible for our Pei family to cooperate with Liu Zhao, at least not for now."
Mr. Dou thought for a moment, and said: "I feel that Mrs. Zhao's insistence on seeing the general may have other deep meanings."
"Hmph! No matter what her deep meaning is, this general will ignore it."
"Amitabha!"
Following the sound of the Buddha's chant, Master Wuwang walked into this small wine shop.
The boss Li Sheng looked left and right, and drove all Xiao Er to the backyard with interest. He himself went to the kitchen.
In the lobby of the restaurant, there are only a group of soldiers left, and the hopeless master who looks like an eminent monk.
Seeing Wuwang, Pei Rong sneered, "It's so rare that I will meet Master here. Master, come here and be safe!"
"The general is the same as before, luckily!"
Pei Rong played with the dagger, and looked at the hopeless contemptuously, "Who is the master here for? Or for your Buddha."
"Amitabha, the poor monk is just helping someone to send something to the general."
"what?"
Desperately reaching into his arms.
In the lobby, weapons sounded.
Just one look is enough to make Hopeless blood splatter on the spot.
Hopeless to remain unmoved.
Pei Rong waved his hand, signaling that the guards don't need to be so nervous. It is expected that there is no hope and no courage to engage in assassination.
Hopeless took out a receipt from his arms.
"Someone asked the poor monk to give this document to the general for review."
Pei Rong raised his chin, and the soldiers took the receipt and placed it in front of him.
On the documents, there are all kinds of goods, and the quantity is large and the value is high.
Pei Rong sneered, "Show me this, do you want to bribe me?"
"The general is overthinking. This is the list of goods, with a total value of 500,000 taels. If it is successfully delivered to the capital of Xiliang, the value will be as high as 3 million taels."
boom!
Three million taels!
What is this concept
The soldiers were all shocked by the three million taels that Wuwang said.
Pei Rong narrowed his eyes, picked up the cargo list, and looked carefully.
Ivory products, silk and satin, tea, brown sugar, white sugar, porcelain, jade, lacquer, bronze, gold, jewelry of various colors, exquisite cashmere products, wool products, all kinds of books, and all kinds of ironware that are extremely scarce in the grasslands …
Any item transported to Xiliang King City will be looted.
The only thing to worry about is: earning money but spending it.
With a serious face, Pei Rong waved his hand, all the soldiers stood up, surrounded the whole wine shop, and no one was allowed to enter.
Passing merchants and pedestrians, seeing this situation, dare not approach, lest they escape too slowly and become dead souls under the sword.
Pei Rong put the list of goods on the table, "Madam Zhao asked you to come?"
"Exactly!" Hopeless, neither humble nor overbearing.
"She asked you to send this list, what does that mean?"
Hopeless looked compassionate, "Madame wants to negotiate a deal with the general to help him in his westward expedition."
Pei Rong looked at Dou Junshi calmly.
Master Dou nodded slightly.
Pei Rong asked, "Where is Lady Zhao?"
"Five Mile Pavilion ahead."
Pei Rong smiled, "Didn't you run errands for Liu Zhao? When did you become Mrs. Zhao's pawn again?"
Wuwang smiled indifferently, "Thank you General for your concern, the poor monk is willing to drive Madam Zhao."
Pei Rong chuckled, "Lead the way!"
Hopeless turned and left the wine shop, galloped away on horseback.
Pei Rong took his own soldiers, Dou Junshi, and followed behind.
Wuliting has long been cleaned up.
Green Bamboo is using a small red clay stove to boil water and cook tea.
Wang Yi surreptitiously lowered a few tripping ropes.
Xu Yousi led the people to stand at the intersection, looking in the direction of the wine shop.
Gu Jiu took a book and flipped through it for entertainment.
Brother Yu accompanied Gu Jiu, sitting obediently, with a serious face, like a little adult.
Gu Jiu smiled at him, "Are you nervous to see General Pei soon?"
Brother Yu nodded, then shook his head again.
"With mother around, my son is not nervous."
Gu Jiu patted his head, "It's normal to be nervous. He is a soldier, and he is a soldier with great military exploits and murders. He has a fierce aura on his body, and most people feel scared when they look at it from a distance. You are so young, you will be afraid, It's normal to be nervous, don't feel ashamed."
"When my son grows up, I won't be afraid."
"It's not enough to just grow tall, you have to grow your brain and exercise your body. When you have enough confidence, you don't have to be afraid of facing anyone."
Brother Yu raised his head, "What is confidence?"
"It's how many chips you have in your hand." Gu Jiu explained simply.
Brother Yu seems to understand but not understand.
In the distance, the ground vibrated and dust was flying.
Soon, people came to the front, kicking up dust all over the sky.
Fortunately, the pavilion was a little away from the official road, so the dust did not float over.
Pei Rong dismounted, wearing half armour, with a sharp sword at his waist, and strode towards the pavilion.
"General Pei, nice to meet you!"
Gu Jiu stood up and took the initiative to greet her.
Pei Rong smiled, and looked at Gu Jiu presumptuously, "You are Mrs. Zhao?"
"General Pei's memory is bad. I remember that we only met once when Gu Ting got married."
"I didn't take a closer look at that time."
Gu Jiu greeted Pei Rong to take a seat.
Green Bamboo served tea.
"General Pei drinking tea."
"You can drink tea at any time, Madam, let's talk about your purpose directly. The general has limited time, so you can't waste it on unnecessary eating and drinking."
Gu Jiu smiled softly, "General Pei is refreshing."
She clapped her hands, Qingzhu took out a package of things wrapped in oil paper from the food basket and put it on the stone table, it looked like something to eat.
Then, she signaled Pei Rong to open it herself.
Pei Rong was full of doubts, and opened the oiled paper package, which contained small pieces of meat.
"this is?"
Gu Jiu said softly: "This is beef jerky. The cattle and sheep seized by your Northwest Army on the grassland over the years are basically purchased by our Sihai Commercial Bank through Shaofu. The purchase price is about four taels of silver for an adult cow. Fair enough.
Beef jerky is made from the prairie cattle you captured, so it can be stored for a long time. Beef jerky packaged like this has been verified that it can be stored for half a year in a humid and rainy place. In places where there is drought and little rain, it is not a problem to store it for a year or two.
We also adjusted the production process and made beef jerky of various flavors, including five-scented, spicy, spicy, sweet and salty, to ensure that it can satisfy people with any taste. General Pei, do you want to have a taste and ask your soldiers to taste it too? "
Pei Rong was dubious, picked up a piece of beef jerky, put it in his mouth, and chewed it slowly.
What he ate was five-flavored, which tasted really good and was very chewy.
He tasted other flavors and found that he could accept spiced, spicy, and salty flavors. I don't like spicy and sweet taste very much.
He threw the remaining beef jerky to the guards, and asked the guards to taste it too.
Gu Jiu laughed, "Beef jerky is easy to preserve, tastes good, and fills you up easily. It can be used as dry food, suitable for long-distance marches, and also suitable for businessmen who travel outside for a long time."
"You want to sell beef jerky to the Northwest Army?" Pei Rong asked.
Gu Jiu shook his head, "I just said that for an adult prairie cow, our purchase price is four taels of silver. The cowhide can be used to make cowhide boots, cowhide backpacks, cowhide leather armor, and the bones can be ground into powder and mixed into food. Tendon offal and high-quality beef can be sold to restaurants and wine shops.
The remaining beef is made into beef jerky and sold all over the world. General Pei guessed, how much money can a full-grown cow go through after a series of processing? "
Pei Rong vaguely grasped the truth.
He pretended not to know, and asked, "How much money?"
"In the territory of Dazhou, the money earned is about eighteen taels. If you sell beef jerky and cowhide products to Xiliang, you can get about thirty-two taels of silver."
"Buy for four taels, but sell for thirty-two taels?" Pei Rong frowned.
Gu Jiu laughed, "General Pei might as well think again, what will happen when we dump a large amount of such a small and unremarkable food as beef jerky to Xiliang?"
Buying at four taels and selling at thirty taels will soon empty the pockets of Xiliang herdsmen.
Pei Rong is very shrewd, he can see through the power of the little beef jerky at a glance.
Gu Jiu took out the list of goods again, "The goods worth 500,000 yuan have been successfully delivered to the Xiliang King City. It is conservatively estimated that the value will reach 3 million taels. From the perspective of General Pei, how about the items on the list? "
"Excellent!"
Gu Jiu said with a smile: "General Pei said it was excellent, so it must be very good. If there is no accident, this batch of goods will be looted by the nobles and rich families of Xiliang. Those women, men, Be fascinated by our goods.
And we only accept gold and silver transactions, or exchange cattle, sheep and horses. In exchange for exquisite porcelain, silk, tea and other goods, the nobles and rich families of Xiliang would potter the gold and silver they hid in their cellars. If gold and silver are not enough, they will exchange cattle, sheep and horses from pastures.
In order to meet the needs of noble women in Xiliang, we ensure that a batch of goods worth no less than three million taels will be delivered to the Xiliang King City within three to four months. General Pei guessed, how long would it take for such a transaction to empty out the gold and silver of Xiliang King City? Cattle, sheep and horses that hollowed out the pasture? "
When Xiliang was in deficit and the economy went bankrupt, the nobles would redouble their efforts to squeeze the herdsmen in order to maintain a luxurious life.
This will form a vicious cycle.
If there is no external force to inject blood into Xiliang, Xiliang will not be far from the end. The entire country will be dragged down by economic bankruptcy.
The king of Xiliang will not be able to support a decent army.
A country without an army is just a piece of fat, and everyone can rush to take a bite.
Pei Rong has already fully understood Gu Jiu's intentions, "It's a good idea to empty Xiliang's gold and silver with exquisite goods, but it's a pity that it's unrealistic. There are smart people in Xiliang, not all of them are fools."
Gu Jiu nodded, and then said with a smile: "At any time, smart people are a minority. Even if the smart people in Xiliang can see through our purpose at a glance, so what? He can stop Xiliang nobles and wealthy households from paying attention to fine porcelain and silk. Followed and loved
When the nobles of Xiliang got used to the luxurious and exquisite life, they were told to tighten their belts and not allow them to buy goods from the Great Zhou. Based on what General Pei knew about the king of Xiliang, would he have the courage? "
Pei Rong hesitated.
Mr. Dou, the military adviser at the side, asked: "Mrs. Zhao, are you sure that this move of yours can empty Xiliang's gold and silver, and plunge Xiliang into civil strife?"
"I'm not sure, so I need Mr. Dou to advise me."
"I didn't expect Mrs. Zhao to know the old man."
"Mr. Dou was joking. Who doesn't know Mr. Dou who is very famous around Lu Hou?"
Mr. Dou stroked his beard and looked at Pei Rong.
On this occasion, it is inconvenient for him to say more.
Pei Rong laughed, "Madam Zhao's idea is very good. What do you need this general for?"