"Minister!" Yu Shuai cupped his fist at Mi Zhu.
Mi Zhu nodded and Yu Shuai stepped aside. Yu Shuai's mission was complete. Two people hurried forward from behind Yu Shuai.
"Shouchun prefectural magistrate, Jiang Wan! Greetings, Minister Mi! "
"Head of the Armed Police Department, Li Chen! Greetings, Minister Mi! "
The two men were none other than Jiang Wan and Li Chen. They rushed over as soon as they heard Yu Shuai's message.
"No need for formalities!" Mi Zhu waved his hand, gesturing for the two men to straighten their backs. Since Mi Zhu was a minister, he naturally accepted their bow.
"May I know if Milord is still alright?" Li Chen asked anxiously.
"Hm?" Mi Zhu was taken aback. What did he mean by that? Wasn't he standing here perfectly fine?
Yu Shuai walked over to Mi Zhu's side and whispered something into his ear. Only then did Mi Zhu realize that Yu Shuai was trying to get the Shouchun prefectural magistrate to immediately send over the armed police. Yu Shuai had said that Minister Mi Zhu had been hit in the middle of a busy city and that there would be people who would harm him.
This sentence really scared the two of them half to death. If anything happened to Mi Zhu, the two of them wouldn't be able to keep their hats. Mi Zhu was the Minister of Revenue and this was the main city of Shouchun. It would be a joke if they couldn't protect a Minister in Shouchun.
Immediately, all the free armed police personnel rushed over. Even the prefectural magistrate of Shouchun and the head of the Armed Police Department rushed over.
Mi Zhu shook his head with a bitter smile. Yu Shuai might have made a mountain out of a molehill, but in any case, he had successfully completed his mission.
Of course, Mi Zhu wouldn't explain himself to the two officials.
Mi Zhu pointed at the carriages and explained, "Milords, I, Mi Zhu, indeed have an important matter to discuss. However, this important matter isn't to protect me, but to protect these boxes!"
"Those chests?" The two of them were stunned for a moment. Only then did they see several burly Han Dynasty generals standing there, ready for battle.
These Daoist Han Generals were very strong and the swords in their hands were much sharper than the batons in the hands of the armed police. Not to mention, these Daoist Han Generals were the personal guards of the Hanwang Mansion. Any one of these Daoist Han Generals could easily become a commander of a hundred soldiers in the Yangzhou New Army because these Daoist Han Imperial Guards were the Urban Army.
At that time, the Urban Army was divided into two. Those who had the talent to be a commander were thrown into the Yangzhou New Army. Those who didn't have the talent to be a commander, but were brave and good at fighting, except for those who were assigned as scouts and vanguards, the rest were left in the Han King's Mansion as guards and became the Han King's personal army.
With so many guards, why did Minister Mi ask them to bring the armed police over? However, their suspicions were immediately dispelled.
"Men, open the boxes!" Mi Zhu said to the burly Han general.
"Minister, what are the boxes?" General Wu jumped in fright. There was nothing good inside.
"Just open the boxes. If anything happens, leave it to Minister Mi!" Another of Mi Zhu's guards said.
"Yes!" The Burly Han General nodded. Although the boxes were valuable, they were still lacking compared to Xu Banzhou. Furthermore, Mi Zhu was now in charge of the Burly Han Dynasty's finances.
"Men, open all the chests for me!" General Wu ordered, and all the chests were opened.
"Wah, wah wah!" The entire place quieted down.
The golden light shone on the boxes. It was now the scorching sun, so the items in the boxes shone brightly.
"Gold, gold! It's all gold! All the boxes are filled with glittering gold! " Each of the carriages had a large chest on top of it, and the chest was filled with gold.
Everyone's heart was pounding.
Some people could already hear their own heartbeats. In this crowded crowd, there were no less than big merchants, but they had never seen such a scene before. Especially after Yangzhou became popular with gold Lu Bu, no one would flaunt gold in the streets, because it was not safe and also very heavy.
The 5,000 Gold Coins were directly thrown in front of him. The impact was truly shocking.
Some people started to get greedy, but they quickly calmed down under the cold gleam of the battle blades that were unsheathed.
Although money was tempting, their lives were even more precious. If they were to make a move now, perhaps the sharp saber would fall on their heads. Therefore, they all shrunk their necks and watched the show.
"Si si si si!" Jiang Wan and Li Chen sucked in a breath of cold air. They had heard from the other side that this batch of gold was worth five thousand gold. What kind of concept was five thousand gold? If it was based on their salary, the combined salary of the two of them would not be able to reach five thousand gold in their lifetime.
However, Minister Mi of the Ministry of Revenue directly gave them 5,000 gold on the streets. Even if you want to show off your wealth, you shouldn't do this.
If they were robbed on the streets, Jiang Wan and Li Chen wouldn't be able to bear the consequences.
Li Yan started to regret not bringing enough soldiers with him.
"Pass down my orders. No one is allowed to come within ten steps of the carriages. If they come within ten steps, they will be beaten. If they come within five steps, they will be killed!" Li Chen was also a retired soldier. He had once been a general in Hao Shao's army.
Now that Hao Shao's Changjiang Barracks had been handed over to Jiangdong's Little Conqueror Sun Ce and his good friend Zhou Yu, Hao Shao's mission was naturally vacant.
Liu Mang transferred Hao Shao to Yuzhou and guarded the buffer zone between Yangzhou and Yanzhou with Wei Yan.
Some of the soldiers in Hao Shao's army were also old. Such people were treated as treasures by the armed police forces everywhere. This was because the armed police's task was to protect the people quietly. They were also responsible for city defense. Hao Shao's army was best at defense.
Under the same conditions, as long as one dared to give Hao Shao time, he would be able to make it difficult for ten thousand people to move an inch, and make it so that one hundred thousand soldiers could only watch helplessly.
Liu Big-eared had suffered a lot under Hao Shao's hands.
Li Chen came out from Hao Shao's barracks. With an order, 500 armed police formed a three-pronged formation, protecting the carriages in the middle.
Even the people from the Han Palace had to admit that Li Chen was more capable when it came to defensive formations.
This was a small Black Tortoise Formation.
All the batons were elongated one by one, and the barbs were pulled out of the mechanism inside. Unlike Li Yan, Jiang Wan, and the others, Mi Zhu was much calmer. If the five hundred armed policemen and two teams of guards could be robbed, then he would admit defeat. In other provinces, such a force would be the first line of elite troops. However, in Yangzhou, they could only serve as the second line of armed police. If you wanted to snatch something from them, you would need at least one or two thousand people to have a chance. He looked at General Wu and said, "General Wu, please read out His Highness the King of Han's decree again!"
The general was a little confused, but Mi Zhu was the Minister. He nodded and went forward to read Liu Mang's decree again.
The uproar below became even louder. Five thousand gold coins, these glittering five thousand gold coins, were actually given to Sun Wen by His Highness King of Han? What kind of dogshit luck did this little traveling merchant from Jiao Province have? Was his ancestral grave emitting green smoke?
The word 'borrow' had been omitted. For merchants, time was money.
As for Sun Wen being His Highness the King of Han's relative, it had been denied. From the sacred domain, it was clear that His Highness the King of Han favored Sun Wen because of that word.
"Go out to sea!" Everyone suddenly came to a realization. But soon after, they were filled with regret. They didn't think that going out to sea was a big deal. They even mocked the people who went out to sea. But now, it seemed like it was a joke.
Even if His Highness the King of Han gave them 500 gold taels, they would do it. Sun Wen's entire wealth didn't even add up to 500 gold taels. Now, it suddenly became 5,000 gold taels.
Immediately, some people wanted to continue renting those ships. However, they did not have the opportunity because the remaining merchant ships were rented by Liu Mang himself. Liu Mang also had a batch of things in his army that needed to be dealt with. Those were the scraps that were eliminated in the past.
Those things that could be melted were already melted. Those that couldn't be melted were shipped to the ships.
Liu Mang had good intentions. He wanted to help the rulers of Fu Nan and Lin Hu to consolidate their rule.
Otherwise, if there was a peasant uprising, they wouldn't have anything to play with. The so-called scrap metal in Yangzhou could be used. For example, those armors and swords could be used to kill people.
Liu Mang didn't want these weapons to go to the people, so he could only sell them.
The news of His Highness the King of Han offering a reward of 5,000 gold taels to those who went out to sea quickly spread out. Those who were originally disdainful of going out to sea also began to doubt it. Should they support His Highness the King of Han? Or should they be stubborn?
Some of the more insightful people directly made orders to the shipyards. They ordered large ships. If they couldn't go out to sea this time, then they would go out to sea next time. Going out to sea was different from going in a big river. Ships needed large ships. For example, small ships that could sail in Jianghu could be overturned by a single wave in the sea.
These shipyards were very happy. Liu Mang also did not restrict them. Other than a few Sovereign class ships that were still under construction, the rest of the shipyards were also used to build merchant ships. One by one, the ships began to have their keel laid on them.
As for the small merchants who couldn't afford to buy ships, they didn't need to be afraid. There were rental contracts there. Some of the shipyards were idle, so they built large ships in one breath. Those who could afford to buy ships were those individuals. As for the remaining ships, Liu Mang didn't want to sell them himself. He felt that the risk was too high. He also didn't have the capital, so he rented them out to small merchants. The small merchants rented the ships together and waited for the ships to come out. Then they loaded the goods and left for the southeast.
Another place that received the 5,000 gold taels from Liu Mang was the Zhang family from Yan Province.
Although the head of the Zhang family wasn't in Yangzhou, the distance between Yangzhou and Yan Province wasn't too far. In two days, the head of the Zhang family in Chenliu knew about Yangzhou's Highness Liu Mang's good intentions.
"His Highness the King of Han actually gave 5,000 gold taels to our Zhang family's caravan?" The head of the Zhang family was puzzled.
The reason why they joined the caravan was to give face to Liu Mang. After all, the Zhang family wanted to do business in Yangzhou. Yangzhou's trade route was very developed. As long as you could join the circle of merchants in Yangzhou, you would definitely be able to make a profit. It depended on your ability. A wooden chair in Yangzhou might only be worth five copper coins, but in Yan Province, it would be worth ten copper coins. Of course, this was just an example. Most of the things that came from Yangzhou were cloth and the like.
Yangzhou's new cloth was not only good in the west, but also cheap.
Such a large piece of white cloth only cost a few dozen copper coins. If the locals of Yan Province bought it, a bolt of cloth would cost at least a hundred copper coins. This was because it required a weaver to work day and night at home in order to be able to complete the stitches.
With the cost of labor and the cost of materials, the price couldn't be lowered.
However, it was different in Yangzhou. The cloth was made by machines. It couldn't be said to be fully automated, but at least the efficiency was several times or even more than ten times that of the people in Yan Province. This resulted in the Zhang family importing a large amount of new cloth from Yangzhou. When the cloth arrived in Yan Province, they didn't need to raise the price. They just sold it at the same price as the cloth pointed out by the weavers in Yan Province. In this way, the people naturally knew which cloth to choose. The cloth sold from Yangzhou not only didn't have thread ends, but it was also pure white. There were even some that were colored. The people in Yan Province weren't fools and naturally bought these cloth at such a cheap price.
The result of this was that the Zhang family became rich. At the same time, the weavers in Yan Province also suffered. This was because the cloth they sent out couldn't be sold. If they couldn't sell the cloth, they wouldn't have food to eat or a source of income to add to the household expenses.
This burly man had always been a small farmer. If a family lost an important source of income, it would be fine in the beginning. However, if this continued, the consequences would be terrible.
It wasn't just cloth. There were also other industrial products that came in a steady stream.
The Zhang family's business was getting bigger and bigger. Now that the King of Han had sent five thousand gold coins, the head of the Zhang family was puzzled.
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