The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Li Chengliang and Mu Changzuo finally sat together and began to discuss the distribution of the mines in Myanmar.

In fact, both of them knew very well that this situation could not last long.

Apart from anything else, if Luo Rufang had not arrived in Ava City, if he had seen the mess made by the two people in the city, he would definitely report to the court immediately and severely impeach the two people.

This is why after the first fight, both of them tacitly suppressed the matter.

Of course, this would only prevent these things from being brought to the court, letting the court officials know that there were spies from the Jinyiwei in the army, and they also knew that it was impossible for the capital to be completely unaware of these things.

Therefore, in this discussion, they not only had to determine the distribution of the mines, but also had to make it clear that the capital might intervene.

"Lord Mu, I'm afraid the news here can't be hidden from the capital. I wonder how Lord Mu plans to calm the attention there?"

Li Chengliang didn't want to decide on all the mines in Myanmar right now, because although he had been inquiring about the news recently, and his son in the south also passed on the news he heard by letter, he was still not as familiar with the situation as Mu Changzuo, a local resident.

If we make a clear distinction now, it will be easy to fall into the trap of that old guy and be deceived by the real valuable mines in Myanmar.

"For the capital, it's nothing more than sending some silver.

It's best for you and me to pay this silver in proportion to the benefits we get."

Mu Changzuo suggested after thinking for a moment.

"If we directly distribute the mines in Myanmar, the output is not easy to determine. How should the proportion be determined?"

Li Chengliang continued to ask.

"What is your opinion, Governor Li? Just say it. It's just you and me here. Let's discuss and decide on the matter."

Mu Changzuo lowered his head and thought for a while before speaking.

"For those mines of Lord Mu, should the merchants pay money to resume production and then take a share?"

Li Chengliang is not stupid. He has noticed that some merchants have appeared in those mines. After all, he has dealt with these people before and asked them for some guards to act as guides.

To put it bluntly, the Qianguo Mansion is unwilling to use you to open a mine. They prefer to use their power to occupy the mine, and then cooperate with the merchants, let them pay people and money to manage these mines, and finally take the bulk of the profits.

The merchants invest more, although they can only get a small part of the profits, but they are also very profitable.

Of course, for greater profits, these merchants will naturally find ways to exploit the miners, almost forcing them to death.

In fact, most of the mines in the Ming Dynasty, whether private or government-run, were opened in this way.

The difference is that one has a "mining license" issued by the government, and the other does not.

The so-called government-run mining is actually contracted to private operation. They only need the mine to deliver the specified output every year.

And what about Li Chengliang?

He is actually the same.

He is very skilled at chopping people with a knife, but it is a bit difficult for him to send his smart and clever family to do business.

No one under his command knows how to do business, so he has to rely on those businessmen.

Therefore, the Li family, like the Qianguo Mansion, hopes to contract out the mine and take the dry shares directly to get the silver.

Moreover, if they act in this way, even if something big happens in the mine in the future, they can get themselves out of it.

These mines are nominally obtained by merchants from local officials, and of course they have to pay taxes.

To mine smoothly, they naturally have to nod their heads, that is, there are enough benefits and dry shares that satisfy them, so that the mine can produce smoothly.

Otherwise, even if the merchants get the mining rights, he has ways to prevent them from operating.

The mine is a powder keg. If the miners make trouble in the future, it will be a grudge between the miners and the merchants, and it has nothing to do with them.

Their profits are directly delivered to them by the merchants, and they will never interfere in the operation of the mines openly.

In this way, it has nothing to do with them if something goes wrong.

Mu Changzuo heard Li Chengliang's words and more or less understood what Li Chengliang meant.

Before, he planned to assign the big mine to his side, so that he could make a lot of money, but from what the other party said, it seemed that he planned to divide all the mines in Myanmar to the merchants to operate, and then they would share the profits of the shares.

This, the original idea of ​​dividing the mines has become a share of shares, and the good thing of taking advantage of the other party will naturally not work.

"Haha, there are not many talents in this area in my mansion, and the merchants are still familiar with the operation."

Mu Changzuo laughed dryly.

"In this case, let's hand over the mines to the merchants and divide the shares directly.

When there are expenses in the capital, it will be better to send silver in proportion, right?"

Li Chengliang said happily.

Myanmar is his biggest concern, but don't underestimate the relationship between the Duke of Qian's Mansion and the palace.

Although many years have passed, Mu Changzuo is backed by the Duke's Mansion after all, and their relationship with the royal family and nobles is much stronger than Li Chengliang.

Therefore, if Li Chengliang doesn't want to make things too big, he can just share some of the benefits.

However, the benefits of the Li family must not be less than that of the Duke of Qian's Mansion.

While the two were playing dumb and testing each other, Wei Guangde and Feng Bao had received an urgent message from the southwest, which was about this matter.

The news, of course, was not issued by the official, but the intelligence from the Jinyiwei.

Wei Guangde was still frowning when he saw the copy, while Feng Bao jumped anxiously when he saw the document.

He has long regarded Myanmar's mineral resources as his own.

Now Li Chengliang and Mu Changzuo were at war over these things, how could he bear it.

Feng Bao suppressed Jin Yiwei's secret report directly.

He didn't want the palace to know about this, it was not a good thing after all.

The life-and-death fight between the Li family and the Duke of Guizhou had nothing to do with him. He didn't care at all that it was an internal conflict between the Ming army. He was only worried about his own profits.

Feng Baohuo came out of the Clerk of Ceremony with a secret report and went directly to the cabinet to find Wei Guangde.

"Is Shan Loan in there?"

Outside the door, Feng Bao asked Lu Bu directly.

"Here, the master is working inside."

Lu Bu knew that Feng Bao would not dare to stop him. He was the eldest companion in the palace, the most trusted eunuch of the emperor and the queen mother, and the most powerful person in the inner court.

Although I was a little confused about his sudden arrival, I didn't dare to delay for a moment.

"You guys are watching from the outside and don't let anyone get close to the check-in room."

Feng Bao directly ordered Lu Bu and the eunuch servant who followed behind him, and went directly into the duty room.

Wei Guangde had already heard the voices outside, and the message from Jin Yiwei was immediately put away by him.

Strictly speaking, this thing can be in Feng Bao's hands, but it cannot appear in his place.

What Feng Bao got was the secret report sent to the palace by Jin Yiwei, but he was not qualified to let Jin Yiwei pass the news to him.

If he makes a fuss, he will not only be expelled for violating the rules, he may even be dismissed from office and imprisoned.

Moreover, anyone in Jinyiwei who delivers the news to him will also be punished by Jinyiwei family laws.

Those people were all arranged by the Lu Mansion.

The current Lu family is only affiliated with Jinyiwei in name, but in fact it has moved away from the Jinyiwei command center and has become a guard commander in the Beijing camp.

However, the threat of death is still there, and many people in Jinyiwei still obey the Lu family's orders.

Wei Guangde put away his things and just stood up when Feng Bao had already entered the room.

"Brother Shuanglin, what brought you here to me?"

Wei Guangde guessed Feng Bao's intention and greeted him with fists clasped.

"Shandai, something big happened in the southwest."

Feng Baoke didn't know that Wei Guangde could get the news about Jin Yiwei.

The same goes for the courtiers themselves, who are as fearful of the Jinyiwei as no one wants to provoke them.

If there is a chance, I would be willing to step on him no matter if there is any grudge or not, because Jin Yiwei's reputation outside is too bad.

That thing is the royal weapon's weapon against officials like them. Who wants to be watched by such people all the time.

Even in later generations, officials' legs trembled when they saw the cadres of the Discipline Inspection Commission.

"Look, how can this be done?"

Feng Bao handed the Jin Yiwei secret report to Wei Guangde and let him read it for himself.

"I am also responsible for this matter. If such a big thing happens, not only those two losers, but the Ministry of War and you are also responsible.

See for yourself how to handle this matter. "

Feng Bao added another sentence.

Wei Guangde took the secret report and looked at it, first pretending to be surprised and looking at Feng Bao.

"Don't look at it. How dare I report this to the noble man? Isn't it going to make the noble man angry?

It's better that we handle this matter privately and don't make it a joke. "

Feng Baoyi said solemnly, with an attitude that was completely caring for the emperor and the queen mother.

This is also Feng Bao's cleverness. Even if this matter is exposed, he still has these words in front of him. It is all for the sake of the palace empress and His Majesty, not for himself.

Wei Guangde pretended to wipe the sweat on his forehead, read the secret report completely, and then pretended to be angry and said: "I didn't expect that Li Chengliang and Mu Changzuo, two losers, would actually do such a thing. "

"No, if the news reaches the court, I don't know how big of a commotion it will be.

Even if it spreads to Nanyang, I'm afraid it will be laughed at by those vassal states. "

Feng Bao said in an ironic tone, "Shandai, what do you think we should do about this matter?

But we can't continue like this. If there is a big trouble, and Burma has not yet been calmed down, our two Ming generals will start fighting among themselves. "

Wei Guangde understood Feng Bao's request, nodded and said, "We have to send them a letter to ask them to calm down and put state affairs first."

"That's how it should be."

Feng Bao nodded and said, "It seems that the things we talked about before must be arranged earlier."

Previously, Wei Guangde said there was no rush and he would wait until Myanmar calmed down before starting mining.

Nima, the war is still going on, and the grabbing of minerals has begun over there.

Of course, this also made Feng Bao more convinced that those mines in Myanmar really had great benefits.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for Mu Changzuo to force his way in even though he knew he was no match for Li Chengliang.

"I'm afraid they can't get around this matter."

Wei Guangde just lowered his head and thought for a moment before saying, "One is the dragon crossing the river, and the other is a local snake."

"Can't you and I still defeat them?"

Feng Baoyi frowned and said displeased.

"It doesn't matter if it can be suppressed. If they stumble at ten o'clock, it will be difficult to open the mine."

Wei Guangde shook his head and said.

"Brother Shuanglin, please sit down first and let Rongwu think about it for a while."

Wei Guangde comforted Feng Bao and thought for a while before saying, "Does Brother Shuanglin know what is going on in our mines in Ming Dynasty?"

"Um?"

Feng Bao was a little surprised. He really hadn't paid attention to this matter.

If Wei Guangde hadn't mentioned the gem mines in Myanmar before, he wouldn't have paid attention to this.

"Our mines in the Ming Dynasty are all government-run, but in fact they are contracted to private individuals for mining. The government regularly receives output and taxes."

Wei Guangde reminded that he believed that Feng Bao would be able to figure out the trick.

Sure enough, Feng Bao understood the inside story in just a moment.

Those businessmen who contracted the mines only had a position in the government and managed the mines as officials, and the officials would also receive huge benefits from this.

If you pay enough to the court, the rest is yours.

"You mean, they do the same thing in Myanmar?"

Feng Bao asked in a low voice.

"That should be the case. Do you and I have anyone who knows how to mine?"

Wei Guangde asked rhetorically.

Feng Bao nodded slightly. He was not a novice. Although he was a little greedy, he didn't understand anything.

Not to mention other things, Xu Jue beside him didn't know how much money he got outside in his name.

However, he needs Xu Jue to help him with things, and he also understands the principle that when the water is clear, there will be no fish.

As long as things can be done well, Feng Bao is not stingy with this.

"So, we can only take part of the profits from them."

"It should be so."

Wei Guangde responded in a low voice, and then continued: "To put it bluntly, the only people who can get a piece of the pie, apart from the royal court's mining tax, are the businessmen who contributed, Li Mu and us.

I'm afraid it will be a bit difficult to eliminate them. After all, if the matter spreads to the court, how will you and I deal with it? "

"Okay, I want 20%."

Feng Bao said in a low voice.

He calculated that after deducting the cost, there were still five groups to divide the profit. He did nothing, but it must not be lower than the harvest of others.

"Well, I want that too. The rest depends on how they negotiate."

Wei Guangde whispered.

"Also, Shandai, write a letter to Southwest as soon as possible, asking them to control the situation. Once the court finds out, the two people must be punished, and no one can protect them."

Feng Bao said.

He believed that Wei Guangde could suppress Li Chengliang and Mu Changzuo, even if he was the Duke of Guizhou.

"I'll write to you shortly."

Wei Guangde nodded and said.

Feng Bao left Wei Guangde's duty room with the Jin Yiwei secret report and returned to the ceremonial supervisor.

After sending Feng Bao away, Wei Guang thought for a moment, laid out the rice paper, picked up his pen and started writing a letter.

It was easy to contact Li Chengliang. He and Li Chengliang still kept in touch with each other through letters. This was the Duke of Guizhou, Mu Changzuo, and Wei Guangde had never contacted him, although his family still received filial piety from Yunnan every year.

In fact, although the Mu family is not in the capital, they still have people arranged for it. The people in the capital will know when there is any trouble, but it is just a little delayed.

On three birthdays and two birthdays in the palace, gifts are always sent to maintain the relationship with the royal family.

There are naturally many of them in the noble houses in the capital and in the homes of the powerful people of the day.

"Three Festivals and Two Lives" refers to the old custom for school teachers. On Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, New Year's Day, Confucius' birthday, and the birthday of school teachers, an extra month would be given to each school teacher, which is called "Three Festivals and Two Lives".

Until now, it generally refers to various festivals and birthdays.

Regarding the capital's requirements, Wei Guangde only mentioned them in his letter to Li Chengliang, but did not say much about them to Mu Changzuo.

He believed that Li Chengliang and Mu Changzuo should understand the meaning after reading the letter. (End of chapter)