Chapter 849: Han people shepherd horses

Chen Ao smiled and apologized to Zhou Heng. Zhou Heng was angry for a while, but there was nothing to say. Both of them were laughing and laughing. After lunch, they sucked each other again.

In the evening, Zhou Heng asked Chen Ao, "What method does my brother-in-law plan to deal with the Khitans?"

Chen Ao became serious and said, "After two or three days, have all the merchants in Quanzhou arrived?"

Zhou Heng said: "When I was in Linhuang Mansion, I had already sent a letter from Fei Ge. These people came without stopping. More than 600 people came, all with names in Quanzhou. Now they are resting in the inn and waiting for their brother-in-law to summon them."

Chen Ao said: "No need to delay, let them recommend some big merchants to come in and speak."

Today's great victory was a complete destruction of the Jurchens. Chen Ao was in great spirits. Although he was a little tired, he refused to rest. He ordered Zhou Heng to call people, and he sat on a chair to have tea. The matter here must be resolved very quickly. Chen Ao was eager to return to Bianjing. With the prince here, there may be variables at any time. The most urgent task is to welcome Your Majesty back to Beijing, so that the task will be completed.

Chen Ao took a sip of tea, lying on the chair, slowly nurturing his spirit, pondered for a moment, opened his eyes, and his thoughts floated to the Khitans again. Yelu Dashi was very scheming, and was definitely not a person who was willing to surrender easily. This imperial decree was in the opinion of Yelu Dashi to test Chen Ao's attitude, but in Shen Ao's opinion, did not declare Yelu Dashi's attitude? Yelu Dashi was unwilling to give in, and most of his heart wanted to restore the power of the Khitans, so he came to test Chen Ao, hoping to return to the grassland, and the grassland... was the source of the power of the Khitans.

"If you want to play, I will accompany you and I to the end!" Chen Ao sneered in his heart, and his deep eyes showed a bit of mockery. When he came to this world, he encountered countless enemies. Chen Ao always faced difficulties because of Chen Ao's never-give-up-all-out-of-require nature.

Chen Ao thought for a while, then called a captain and said, "Go and tell the Khitans who are in charge of the army, let them think clearly, don't make a mistake in eternal regret, tell them that I can kill the Jurchen people and they can also kill them!"

After listening to Chen Ao's orders, the captain became confused and answered his order to convey Chen Ao's meaning.

After a while, the merchants finally arrived. These people heard that there were a large number of pastures in Linhuang Mansion and Dading Mansion, and they were already tempted. For them, business is business. The most lacking in the market now is manpower and livestock. There is not much manpower, so they can only recruit from various places, so they try to attract refugees and attract farmers. But these livestock are different. The Song Dynasty was mainly farming and doing business. Shepherding horses and sheeping have never been the strengths of the Song people. In addition, although the territory of the Song Dynasty was widely praised, there were very few places for grazing, even if there were a few occasionally, it was also controlled by the imperial court to supply the needs of the army first.

Now so many pastures are provided at once. In the eyes of merchants, this is money. Three or four years ago, when the maritime government just started, the price of a horse was roughly floating around 8 knots. Now, it has already risen to 17 knots, which has doubled. Most of these are short Shu horses. If it were Khitan horses, the Xixia horse would be even more valuable, and it can often reach 30 knots. Now the Auxiliary King openly recruits business travelers to rent and sell pastures. As long as you can get a piece of the pasture, recruit horseherds, guards, etc., after a year, At least you can raise thousands of horses and sell them all. Even if the value of the horses has decreased, the annual income is at least hundreds of thousands of chunks. Although Quanzhou has unlimited business opportunities, there are many people doing business, and its profits are no longer as good as before. Although the business is not bad, it is much worse than the income from raising horses. Therefore, when you hear the news, everyone rushed over. Some merchants took action in person, and some were in charge of the business trip. They made up their minds to get a piece of land no matter what.

Some of these people are money, and what they lack is investment channels. It is said that the four major maritime merchants in Quanzhou have also come. These four major maritime merchants are all rich enough to compete with the country. Their sea boats are more than hundreds and countless workshops. They are even trembling when they stomp their feet in Quanzhou. These people are also determined to win the ranch, which shows how fierce the competition will be this time.

Hearing the summoning of the regent, the major chambers of commerce also brought their own leaders. Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiangnan West Road and other places all recommended their leaders and went to the palace together. Chen Ao and they finalized the details of the sale of the land and took out a map. This map was naturally drawn by the Martial Arts Captain and the Jinyiwei. Although it may not be accurate, the general drawings were out. At that time, the most serious exploration would be that the grassland of Linhuang Mansion is more than 7.7 million mu, with a radius of thousands of miles. The Dading Mansion is slightly less than Linhuang Mansion, with only more than 3.9 million mu. Chen Ao took 100,000 mu as a piece. In total, there were 116 pieces of land. At that time, everyone would bid for it. The higher the price would be.

These lands are the most abundant lands. When merchants saw that there was a lot of land, they were bidding against each other, and they were ready to go, and they all tried their best to bid.

After sending these merchants away, the merchants returned to their respective chambers of commerce and repeated the words of the auxiliary king. Some small merchants had already begun to join the group, while the big merchants were determined to win the pastures, but they were relieved and prepared for the future. They had sent people to recruit people. After taking the land, they did not mean that they would raise horses. They had to build herdsmen's houses first, and they had to have various living utensils. They also had to hire horse shepherds and guards. These were all early investments. A roughly one ranch would have to have at least thousands of people to take care of. It should be noted that 100,000 acres were roughly a radius of dozens of miles. In this pasture, there was enough to support a small tribe. Moreover, this was the most abundant place for water and grass, and manpower was absolutely indispensable.

On the second day, in a palace in this palace, hundreds of merchants gathered here. After a long time, a map was hung on the wall, and each area was roughly marked. Although Chen Ao did not appear, many doctors from the Martial Arts School came. There were no greetings, and the auction began in the eyes of the crowd.

The first piece of land is close to Liaodong and far from Linhuang Mansion. Several tribes are also marked nearby, which can be regarded as the edge of the grassland. The bidding of merchants is not high, and only a few small merchants are stalemate. In the end, a merchant surnamed Wu bought it for 50,000 yuan. In fact, the real big merchants look down on this kind of pasture. After all, they are too far away from Linhuang and rely on the tribes on the grassland. Although all tribes are honest now, there are still restless people and there are many horse thieves. I don’t know how many guards to hire at that time.

Next, more and more ranches were rented and sold, and most of them were marginal areas, with a maximum of only 70,000 guan. There was another one, because it was too remote, and only more than 300 guan was taken down.

However, when all the inconspicuous ranches were rented out, the real big merchants began to get ready. As more and more ranches were rented out, the remaining ranches became fewer and fewer. The big merchants finally appeared, and the price was stalemate from tens of thousands to 100,000. Especially the ranches within a hundred miles of Linhuang Mansion and Dading Mansion, which reached a tense point. The four major sea merchants finally took action, and their value was speculated to more than 300,000 yuan. When the small and medium-sized merchants saw it, they immediately stopped talking, just watching these big merchants bid for each other. The big merchants were originally a character who spent a lot of money, so how could they give in to each other at this time?

The bid lasted for a day and a night. Although Chen Ao did not show up, his attention was attracted by the bidding. He waited uneasy in his bedroom. When the bidding ended, he immediately asked the doctor who bid to ask. After the doctor calculated it, he finally gave a total of: "Your Highness, all 116 pieces of land have been rented and sold out, and the total number is 61 million yuan."

Chen Ao sighed and said with a smile: "I said that these merchants are all talented people, and they will not know the value of these lands. Good, very good, very good, 61 million guan. Except for taking out part of the Xixia soldiers to reward Xixia soldiers, and then keep some of them in the navy to build ships, the rest should be kept as rewards and pensions. The court's pensions and promotions were too stingy. The rewards allocated from the treasury were only 500,000 guan. How can we use our lives? It is not easy for everyone. This is a very hard work. Your doctor has formulated a charter to pay for the soldiers who died in battle and how to reward merits. These must be paid in detail. Everyone will follow my king's life and death, and I have no reason to treat them badly."

The Dading Mansion became extremely lively in an instant. After the land was sold, there were naturally some happy and some sad families. Those who had not obtained the land went back to the house in disgrace. However, those who had obtained the land began to recruit people. The Jurchens rushed in and did not know how many refugees had produced. These people were in the north for many years and had some horse-raising skills. In addition, the Han people in the north had more strength, and the horse-herds and guards were ready-made, and the merchants were willing to pay a considerable price to recruit. The entire Shangjing Road and Zhongjing Road were clamored for a long time.

Now that so many merchants have come, some merchants have taken the opportunity to open shops in Linhuang and Dading, which have gradually become much more lively.

What we need to do next is to carefully draw the boundaries of the pastures, lay down piles, build sheds, horse circles, and buy foals on a large scale. Some tribes on the grassland were unhappy when they saw the Han people coming to herd horses, but they did not dare to cause trouble. At this time, when someone bought foals, they rushed over. Taking advantage of the market conditions, they took out the horse breeds from the tribe and sold them, and exchanged them for some daily necessities.

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Chapter completed!