Fushun Pass, on top of the city gate.
Zhou Qingfeng looked out of the pass with his hand on the wall. There were many Han and foreign traders trading near and far. The cows, horses, sheep, and other livestock were crying and the smell of blood rose one after another. The scene looked very chaotic.
Under normal circumstances, if the northern foreign tribes wanted to trade with Daming, they had to hold an edict issued by Daming as a trade permit. Each edict also stipulated the number of people and the amount of money to be traded. Whether a tribe was strong or not depended on how many edicts they had. In order to fight for the edicts, wars often broke out. Currently, Nurhachi had the most edicts, but they didn't care anymore.
Every trade was carried out at an appointed time. The leader of the foreign tribes had to go to Fushun's' Fuyi Hall 'to pay a visit to the manager of Fushun, which was Li Yongfang. Now, this ritualistic system had become a joke. No one cared about Daming's authority anymore.
Zhou Qingfeng stood on top of the city gate and watched as a large number of livestock were driven into the city gate. There was also a large number of Han goods being transported out of the pass to be traded with the northern barbarians. The previous trade was full of drawbacks. The officials in charge of management would often deduct the payment and collect excessive taxes. The northern barbarians would also do everything possible to smuggle all kinds of ironware, tea, and cloth. Especially ironware.
Now that Fushun was controlled by Zhou Qingfeng, he didn't collect taxes or lower prices, but he strictly checked the output of ironware. For this reason, he completely changed all the officials and soldiers at the pass and conducted a strict investigation of all the traders in Fushun. And then … there was no then.
The merchants who could sell ironware to Nurhachi all had powerful backgrounds. Behind them stood high officials and dignitaries. Liaodong's various military commanders all participated, including Li Yongfang's Liaodong military commander Zhang Chengyin. After the inspection, Zhou Qingfeng didn't say anything and directly let the goods pass. He wasn't so unscrupulous that he wasn't afraid of anyone.
"This batch of goods is armor, a total of 100 sets." An old man in his fifties reported to Zhou Qingfeng. When he spoke, he habitually lowered his head and looked at the ground. "The goods are from Liaoyang. I heard that they went through the Liaodong Inspector-General's route."
Unlike paper or cotton armor, this was an authentic metal armor that was threaded through cold forged metal sheets with leather ropes. This kind of armor had very good defense, and its durability was also better than paper armor or cotton armor. It was a standard military weapon. The reporting old man even reminded him, "These armors are all specially made magic artifacts. They are far better and more expensive than ordinary goods. These one hundred sets cost at least fifty thousand taels of silver. "
The Daming Dynasty did not forbid the use of swords and spears, but they strictly controlled the use of armor, bows, and arrows. When Nurhachi first raised his army, he only had thirteen sets of armor left behind by his grandfather, and they were already treated as treasures. On the other hand, whether a soldier was armored or not, there was a huge difference in their combat strength.
"Motherf * cker! Even I don't have that many good armors. "Zhou Qingfeng punched the entrance of the mound. One could imagine how unhappy he was. After he took control of Fushun, he immediately took over the arsenal of Fushun Qianhu. There were many things in the storeroom, but they were all covered in dust. Rusty spears and rotten armor were everywhere, and there were piles of rat droppings. The paper armors that were stored for riding were not durable, and would be eaten by insects after being stored for a long time.
Zhou Qingfeng thought that he could get some good equipment from the imperial court's arsenal, but when he called the soldiers guarding the storeroom over, he found out that the good stuff had already been sold off. How could they have left it for him to take advantage of? The things in the storeroom in front of him were often scraps that no one wanted for decades. Many of them had been stored longer than the grandfather of the soldier guarding the storeroom.
In order not to waste his trip, Zhou Qingfeng waved his hand and pulled out all the scrap metals in the storeroom to be used as raw materials for smelting iron. The tattered paper armors were used as fuel. Over a hundred Crouching Tiger Cannons made of wood were chopped into firewood. The only things that could still be used were some carriages. After some modification, they could be used as transportation.
Unable to get any equipment from the storeroom, Zhou Qingfeng could only buy them with his own money. And where was the source? Wasn't it in the horse market outside of Fushun Pass? He had no way of stopping the profiteers with deep backgrounds, so he could only think of a way to buy the goods that they were funding the enemy.
But Uncle Zhou had no money.
In order to get Guo Buyi to join his gang and overthrow Li Yongfang, Zhou Qingfeng promised to give all the money he got to Guo Buyi after he succeeded. And although Guo Buyi didn't directly intervene, he provided spiritual energy that allowed Zhou Qingfeng to display his invincible might and obtain a complete victory.
A promise made after a victory naturally couldn't be changed. Zhou Qingfeng got a lot of grain and real estate, but all the precious metals from Li Yongfang and Zhao Yihe's families were all sent to Guo Buyi. He didn't leave a single penny behind. Wang Kai's family property was also mostly preserved, and he didn't casually confiscate it.
So where did the money come from? Naturally, it came from power.
In order to collect enough money, Uncle Zhou racked his brains and used the group of accountants that he used to do 'commercial insurance'. In addition to 'casual loans', which were small loans aimed at the bottom of society, he also made some financial innovations and invented 'money making treasure', an investment and financial management product, which was claimed that even a fool could rely on it to make a lot of money.
Zhou Qingfeng used all his own businesses in Fushun as the foundation, promised more than 50% of the super high income for half a year, and also got Li Yongfang's endorsement as a guarantee. He fabricated a wonderful story of setting up a large number of workshops in Fushun to expand the business with the barbarians in the north to make a profit.
'Money making treasure' was 500 taels per share, which ordinary people definitely couldn't afford. Only rich families could invest in it. At first, no one cared about it at all. Even the street storytellers couldn't attract a single penny of investment.
Just when they were at their wits' end and the project was about to fall through, Zhou Qingfeng suddenly announced a piece of good news. Fushun's famous Wang Kai, Wang Yuanwai, had decided to invest 50,000 taels of silver in this project. Wang Yuanwai had rushed back to Fushun from Shenyang and had decided to participate in this venture the very day he paid a visit to Zhou Qingfeng.
Didn't Wong Yuanwai run away? Why did he come back?
On the night that Wang Kai returned, the house was once again full of distinguished guests. It was crowded with officials and wealthy businessmen. Everyone came to ask what was going on with this' money making treasure '? Wong Yuanwai was very patient with all the guests. He enthusiastically explained Zhou Qingfeng's current financial situation, and showed great confidence in the future business dealings between Daming and the Jurchen tribes in the north.
Wong Yuanwai even took out a PowerPoint presentation. ….
No, no.
Wong Yuanwai took out several huge diagrams. He pointed a long pointer at the diagrams and explained the large number of profit descriptions and words drawn on it all night. His earnest and well-intentioned explanation drew cheers from the audience. Many people understood that this money-making treasure actually had extraordinary profit-making abilities. Its capital, background, and model were all beyond the times.
Would such a good financial product be sold like hotcakes and set off a huge wave of explosive sales?
Uh …., it was still not enough. Wang Kai was famous, but his reputation as an unscrupulous businessman was not enough for many people to invest a huge amount of money. But then, Miss Guo Jiao suddenly arranged for people to transport 250,000 taels of silver by carriage to Li Yongfang's residence where Zhou Qingfeng lived. She said that her father also thought highly of and was willing to invest in this' money making treasure 'financial product.
Guo Buyi's reputation was much better than Wang Kai's. This time, Zhou Qingfeng's' money making treasure 'finally caused a sensation. Zhou Qingfeng even held a business fair and invited all kinds of wealthy businessmen and celebrities to participate. At the meeting, Guo Buyi reluctantly showed up and said that the 'money making treasure' was a good thing. If there were no accidents, the profits after half a year would be very stable.
When had the wealthy gentry of the Daming Dynasty ever met a swindler like Zhou Qingfeng, no … financial expert? All kinds of extravagant terms popped up all over the place. The beautiful vision was enchanting. There were also officials, wealthy merchants, and otherworldly experts who vouched for them. Now, the money-making treasure immediately became a hot commodity.
It was the moment when flowers were blooming and oil was added to the fire. Zhou Qingfeng also publicly announced that the first phase of the 'money making treasure' had been raised perfectly and had entered the closed operation stage. The second phase of the 'money making treasure' was sold in limited quantities. The total amount was 500,000 taels of silver. If you want to buy it, please do so as soon as possible.
The business fair was extremely successful. On the same day, a large number of Fushun celebrities rushed to give money to Zhou Qingfeng to buy this unprecedented super money making product. Zhou Qingfeng even had to decline and say, "Oh, our second phase's quota is really not enough. I just received news that even Nurhachi of the Jin Nation is very optimistic and said that he will personally come to discuss investment intentions."
The more people did not want to invest, the more people wanted to invest. It was just like how banks always lent money to the rich. When they learned that more and more people were buying this' money making treasure ', and the expected profit of 50% in half a year, they finally lost their minds. At first, it was the rich people of Fushun who wanted to buy it. Soon, all the rich people of Shenyang and Liaoyang heard the news and came to inspect it like crazy.
The hot sales made Zhou Qingfeng's accountant too busy. On the first day, he received more than 50,000 taels of silver. On the second day, he received 180,000 taels of silver. When the funds of Fushun were emptied by Zhou Qingfeng, the officials of Tieling and even Kaiyuan all came to send money. Zhou Qingfeng had only drawn a few charts, and he had earned more than five hundred thousand taels.
This time, Zhou Qingfeng really hoped that Nurhachi would quickly call back in half a year. If he didn't call back, he really couldn't afford the money! At that time, people would chase him to the ends of the earth. Many of the people who bought the 'money making treasure' were high-ranking officials and nobles of Liaodong. None of them were people that Zhou Qingfeng could afford to offend, not even with the protection of a 'road bully'.
To a certain extent, Nurhachi was going to help Zhou Qingfeng solve the problem. This kind of guy who even wanted to use his enemy was really rare in the world.
As soon as the money was in his hands, Zhou Qingfeng began to spend it. He wanted all the investors to see that he was really operating. After all, half a year was quite a long time. Some people might come to their senses and want to redeem the money in advance. In order to avoid redeeming the money in advance, Zhou Qingfeng specially set a 5% handling fee. Redeeming the money in advance would definitely result in a loss, but it depended on one's mood.
The reason Zhou Qingfeng dared to stand on the wall of Fushun Pass and intercept the goods was because of the large sum of money he had swindled. The reason he gave was that he wanted to stock up. However, this thing was really expensive. The magic armor was only of the First Stage, and a set of helmets cost 500 taels of silver. A hundred of them cost 50,000 taels of silver. War was really burning money. Without money, one really couldn't afford to fight.
In order to prepare for war, in order not to let Nurhachi take advantage of it, and in order to strengthen himself, Zhou Qingfeng desperately spent money to buy a large amount of supplies. But now … Spend it all you want. What Uncle Zhou has is money!
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
