Chapter 436: Food, Banks, and Death

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the General's Mansion opened.

Yang Zhengshan, wearing a thick fur coat, strode to the lobby.

"Order all the lieutenants to come to the General's Mansion to discuss matters on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month!"

Yang Zhengshan gave the order as soon as he entered the study.

It is definitely not an easy task to fight against natural disasters. Liaoyuan and Pingyuan provinces have a population of more than 10 million. A severe drought may not turn everyone into refugees, but at least it will turn millions of people into refugees.

Once a drought occurs, in the absence of food and water, if the people want to survive, they must leave their homeland and move to other places.

Even if only a part of the refugees come to Chongshan Town, there will be hundreds of thousands or millions of refugees.

What Yang Zhengshan has to do is to do a good job of resettling these refugees.

"Yes!" The attendant responded and immediately ran out of the study to convey Yang Zhengshan's order to the personal guard camp.

Yang Zhengshan sat on the desk, thought about it, and then picked up a pen and paper to write.

These days he has been thinking about the next plan. In fact, he has thought of the general plan. The rest is to assign tasks.

For disaster relief, the most important things are food and water.

As for water sources, Chongshan Town will not be too seriously affected by the disaster, and the Yinghe River will not be cut off. There is almost no disaster in the north, and there is no need to consider the water problem.

Therefore, the biggest problem he faces is food.

The food stored in Chongshan Town at present is definitely not enough to feed millions of refugees, so the first thing is to buy food, a large amount, regardless of the consequences.

"Come here!"

"My Lord!" A personal attendant walked in from outside the door.

"Send someone to deliver this letter to Tenglongwei, to Lord Wu Chongzhe!" Yang Zhengshan ordered.

"Yes!"

The personal attendant responded and left the study with the letter.

Then, Yang Zhengshan called another guard and ordered: "Go and inform the six major merchants, and tell them that I will discuss matters with them on the 16th day of the first lunar month, and ask their heads to come as much as possible. If the heads of the families cannot come, then send someone who can make the decision!"

"Yes!"

Several personal followers ran out of Yang Zhengshan's study, and soon teams of soldiers from the guard camp rode out of Chongshan Pass and dispersed in all directions.

Yang Zhengshan's actions were not over yet. After arranging things, he immediately went to the money and grain department to check the deposits and grains of the general's mansion.

"My Lord, this is the grain and grass that entered the general's mansion last year!"

"My Lord, this is the silver and money that entered the general's mansion last year!"

The clerk of the money and grain department placed two thick account books in front of Yang Zhengshan.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, and first opened the account book of grain and grass and read it.

In fact, he had seen these account books before the New Year, but he did not pay too much attention to it at that time, and only remembered the general number.

Last year, the amount of grain and grass stored in the General's Mansion was not much. It was basically the batch of grain and grass sent by the Dusi Yamen, which was about 300,000 dan.

If refugees come to Chongshan Town, Chongshan Town must guarantee the refugees' food for one year.

From reclaiming farmland, to sowing, to harvesting, if refugees want to be self-sufficient, they have to wait until at least September or October next year.

During this period, all the refugees' food needs to be provided by the General's Mansion.

If an adult wants to have enough food, he may have at least two kilograms of food a day.

That is to say, at least more than 700 kilograms of food are needed a year, which is nearly six dan of food.

The consumption of the elderly, the weak, women and children is smaller. If averaged, each person needs at least one dan of food a year.

If Chongshan Town wants to settle one million people, it will need at least three million dan of food.

This is a number estimated by Yang Zhengshan, which is definitely not accurate. After the refugees are settled, they will definitely find food for themselves, such as digging wild vegetables, catching wild game, etc., and they can also make money to buy food.

But no matter what, Yang Zhengshan has planned to prepare food according to this amount.

That is three million dan of food!

This is definitely an extremely huge number for Chongshan Town.

The current grain price in Liaodong is two taels per stone, and three million stones is six million taels. However, if Chongshan Town purchases a large amount of grain, the price of grain will definitely rise.

Moreover, Yang Zhengshan also plans to buy grain from Jiangnan, Li Sheng Dynasty, and De Sheng Dynasty, and the price may be higher.

"Eight million taels!"

Yang Zhengshan narrowed his eyes slightly, and his heart was a little heavy.

At present, there are less than two million taels in the account of the General's Mansion.

Last year, the General's Mansion had an income of about five million taels of silver, including four million taels of bonds, and the glass business had an income of nearly one million taels. The remaining bits and pieces were from other aspects of the General's Mansion.

This year, the glass business will expand. Yang Zhengshan estimates that there will be no problem in earning three million taels, but it will take time to expand the production of glass. In the first half of the year, only one million taels can be earned. It will take until the second half of the year for the glass production to increase.

The problem is that Yang Zhengshan needs silver for hundreds of years, and he can't wait until the second half of the year.

"Issue another bond!" Yang Zhengshan frowned.

Issuing bonds is the best way to get a lot of money in a short period of time, but the money obtained from bonds must be repaid. The annual interest rate is 36%, which more than doubles in three years.

If you borrow one million now, you will have to pay back more than two million in three years.

Last year's bonds will have to be repaid more than eight million in two years.

If you borrow another four million this year, you will have to pay back more than eight million in three years.

Repaying more than eight million for two consecutive years is unbearable even if the glass business is profitable.

"We can't issue bonds anymore, otherwise the General's Mansion will be dragged down by debt repayment!"

Yang Zhengshan rejected the idea of ​​issuing bonds again.

If the buyers of bonds were all merchants, he could still default on his debts, but many officials and soldiers in Chongshan Town had purchased a large number of bonds.

If he couldn't repay the bonds, the soldiers would be alienated from him, and he couldn't take that risk.

But bonds can't be issued, but he can still borrow money.

To be precise, it's to absorb deposits!

Chongshan Money House!

When Yang Zhengshan left the Finance Department, he was already planning to expand Chongshan Money House.

Time is a bit tight, but it should be able to absorb a lot of deposits.

Yang Zhengshan has decided to move the bank in his previous life to this world.

Depositing money not only does not charge management fees, but also pays interest, which is an advantage. With this advantage, he should be able to absorb a lot of deposits.

The deposit period can be divided into demand, three months, six months and one year.

There is no interest on demand, which is equivalent to issuing silver bills.

Take the Datong Bank of the Zhang family in Liao'an as an example. If you deposit 100 taels of silver in Datong Bank, you have to pay a management fee of 1 tael of silver, which is 1%.

If you exchange for silver bills, you have to pay the bank 3 taels of silver for 100 taels, because silver bills involve cross-regional exchange.

However, the circulation of silver bills is limited by region. For example, the silver bills of Datong Bank can only be circulated in Liaodong, because there are no Datong Bank stores outside Liaodong.

The Zhang family in Liao'an also has a bill exchange, which specializes in bill business. For example, there are bill exchanges of the Zhang family in Liao'an in prosperous places such as Kyoto and Jiangnan.

However, Chongshan Bank must not do bill business, first because it is too troublesome, and second because it takes time to do bill business. What Yang Zhengshan lacks most now is time.

So Yang Zhengshan only plans to let Chongshan Bank do two businesses: accepting deposits and issuing silver bills.

In fact, the two businesses he wants to do are not much different from issuing bonds, except that bonds have a long time limit and high interest, while deposits and silver bills have many time limits, or even no time limit, and extremely low interest.

Yang Zhengshan is not a finance major, and his understanding of banking business is only superficial.

What he wants to do is not to develop financial business in this world, but to borrow chickens to lay eggs, that is, to use the depositors' money to buy food for refugees and resettle refugees.

There are certain risks, such as the possibility of a run, but Yang Zhengshan feels that he can still bear this risk.

After making up his mind, Yang Zhengshan immediately began to prepare.

It does not take much preparation to absorb deposits, but it takes some preparation to issue silver bills.

Silver bills need to rely on money houses, and people need to have a place to exchange silver bills for silver.

Yang Zhengshan intends to let the silver bills issued by Chongshan Money House circulate throughout Chongshan Town, so it is necessary to ensure that several large cities in Chongshan Town have branches of Chongshan Money House.

To this end, he directly set up a room department in the general's mansion that is specifically responsible for Chongshan Money House, namely the money house department, with one official, two deputy officials, and several principals.

Zhao Dong, the clerk who was originally in charge of Chongshan Money House in Guancheng, was promoted to official, specializing in money house affairs.

Li Hai, the chief of the money and grain department, was transferred to serve as the deputy chief, responsible for the supervision of the money house.

Wang Xie, the sentry chief, was transferred from the personal guard camp to serve as the deputy chief, and Wang Xie selected a thousand elite soldiers from the five camps of the town flag to form the money house guard camp.

The main task of the money house guard camp is to escort silver and fight crimes against the money house.

In addition, a group of clerks were transferred from each room to serve as the chief of the money house department. These chiefs will be the shopkeepers of Chongshan Money House in various cities in the future.

After several busy days, Yang Zhengshan finally built the framework of the money house.

On the 14th day of the first lunar month.

The six lieutenants of Chongshan Town gathered at Chongshan Pass.

In addition to the six lieutenants, Yang Zhengshan also invited the governor Pang Tang, the commander-in-chief Ning Qinghe, the governor Song Ying, the inspector Zhang Cong, and the eunuch Zhang Mingzhong to the general's mansion.

In the hall of the General's Mansion, Yang Zhengshan exchanged some simple courtesies with everyone, then coughed and said, "Let's talk business next!"

The hall was instantly quiet, and everyone's face became serious.

Although Yang Zhengshan had not told him what he was going to discuss today, judging from the scene in front of him, he must be discussing something very important today.

This time, Yang Zhengshan summoned all the high-level officials of Chongshan Town, even the eunuch Zhang Mingzhong, who was in charge of the town, and it was obviously not for some trivial matters.

Yang Zhengshan also had a solemn look on his face and said, "I summoned all my colleagues today because I want to entrust them with a few things to do!"

"The first thing is to store food!"

"We must store food in the near future, the more the better, at all costs!"

"This Marquis has decided to purchase 3 million shi of grain in the name of the General's Mansion before August!"

Yang Zhengshan said in a firm voice.

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

"3 million shi? Lord, are you kidding?" Pang Tang couldn't help but say.

"No, I won't joke about this!" Yang Zhengshan said.

Pang Tang stared at him and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

"Three million shi, that would cost seven or eight million taels of silver, or even more!"

Everyone looked at Yang Zhengshan with horror.

"I know, but we have to do this!" Yang Zhengshan said.

"Why?"

Yang Zhengshan lowered his eyes slightly and said, "I have a feeling that there will be a severe drought in Liaoyuan and Pingyuan provinces this year, and it is very likely that there will be no harvest!"

His sensing ability could not be explained clearly, but he still decided to force an explanation.

In fact, it is not impossible to predict the weather and meteorological changes.

Whether it is the Imperial Astronomical Observatory in the court or the old farmers in the fields, they can predict weather and meteorological changes.

It's just that their predictions cannot be 100% accurate, and there are large deviations.

"This~~" Pang Tang naturally couldn't believe Yang Zhengshan's premonition, but he didn't know how to refute it for a while. He couldn't say you were talking nonsense!

Yang Zhengshan said lightly: "I have been farming in the countryside for more than 20 years and have some experience in predicting weather changes. This year, according to my previous experience, I found that there is a great possibility of drought this year."

"Pang Da, maybe you didn't find that the snow this winter is much less than last year. Last year, the heavy snow continued. The longest one lasted for six days, and the snow accumulated to a thickness of one foot and three inches. This year, the largest snow in Chongshan Pass only fell for one day and one night, and the snow accumulated less than four inches!"

He couldn't explain his ability to sense celestial phenomena, but he could use experience and observation to prove that his words have a certain degree of credibility.

And he didn't lie. The snow in Chongshan Pass this year was indeed much less than last year.

"According to what I have learned, there is still heavy snow in the north this year. Heiyun Mountain and Fuzhou City have had several heavy snowfalls!"

"But Liaoyuan and Pingyuan provinces only had a few light snowfalls this year, not as good as Chongshan Pass!"

"All this shows that there will be less snow and rainfall this year, and a severe drought is inevitable!"

Yang Zhengshan said in a very affirmative tone.

Pang Tang's face became more and more ugly, and he believed Yang Zhengshan's words.

"Marquis Jing'an, there are some things that cannot be said casually!" Zhang Mingzhong suddenly stood up and said.

Yang Zhengshan was stunned, "What does Eunuch Zhang mean?"

Zhang Mingzhong's face was solemn, and his eyes stared at Yang Zhengshan, "Marquis Jing'an, the new emperor has just ascended the throne, and you said there is a severe drought. Are you trying to say that the new emperor is immoral?"

Yang Zhengshan's face changed, and Pang Tang's face instantly became extremely gloomy, and the atmosphere in the hall was instantly suppressed to the extreme.

Yang Zhengshan overlooked one thing, that is, the court and the people's views on natural disasters.

Once a major disaster or strange phenomenon occurs, many people will blame it on the court and the emperor, believing that the emperor's policies and morals are lacking, and the heavens are sending down heavenly punishments to warn the world.

When a country is about to lose its way and fail, the heavens will first send disasters to warn it; if it does not know how to reflect on itself, it will send strange things to frighten it; if it still does not know how to change, it will suffer and fail.

Therefore, after a natural disaster breaks out, many people will directly advise the emperor to "cultivate virtue and avert disasters" and issue a self-blame edict to ask for forgiveness from heaven.

Emperor Yanping has just ascended the throne, and this year is still the first year of Yanping. If a drought breaks out, it is still unknown what kind of turmoil it will cause.

And droughts are often accompanied by locust plagues.

If droughts and locust plagues break out together, it is almost equivalent to stacking up buffs, saying that Emperor Yanping has no virtue.

And now the drought has not yet appeared, Yang Zhengshan has predicted it first. Isn't this equivalent to cursing Emperor Yanping?

Zhang Mingzhong used to serve in front of the emperor, so he was naturally the most sensitive to such things.

When he heard Yang Zhengshan say this, his first feeling was that Yang Zhengshan was looking for death.

That's right, this is looking for death!

If Yang Zhengshan's words today were spread out and reached the ears of Emperor Yanping, it is unknown how much Emperor Yanping would hate him, and if it were heard by the ministers in the court, those censors and literati would also criticize him.