Therefore, Cheng Shijie specially ordered a batch of measuring tapes from a hardware tool store in later generations. The scales on them directly canceled millimeters, centimeters and meters, and changed them to the standard units of feet, feet, inches, minutes, centimeters and millimeters.

Ning Haijun's recruits need to be five feet, two inches and eight minutes tall, which is approximately (166 centimeters). The second factor is weight, no matter how thin they are, they must not be less than one hundred kilograms.

After reaching the age, weight, and endurance test, the examiner needs to wear Ning Haijun's standard armor, hold Ning Haijun's standard spear, dog-leg knife, lunch box, and carrying equipment, and run a thousand steps fully armed.

time to pass.

The next step is to check the family background. It is best to be a farmer's boy, a frontier soldier is also acceptable. The family is in business, an official, a local gangster, and a bandit. If there are not enough people from the farmer's boy, then pick from them.

.

But the hope is very slim.

This time, not only soldiers from the Dongjiang Army came to join the army, but even soldiers from the Guan Ning Army came to join the army.

…

At the same time that Cheng Shijie began to recruit troops in southern Liaoning, a carriage drove into Jinzhou City. The carriage was engraved with a cloud pattern of the word "Fan", and was followed by dozens of tall men in cloth clothes with bare hands, their palms covered with thick

Calloused, muscular, and with fierce eyes, he is obviously his bodyguard.

The owner of the carriage was wearing a blue round-neck Confucian shirt. He was about thirty years old. He was fair and fair. There was a smell of books between his eyebrows. The unique copper odor of the businessman left no trace on his body.

, which makes people feel good.

This person is none other than Fan Yongdou, the head of the Jiexiu Fan family and a representative figure among Shanxi merchants.

The Fan family was doing business in Shuntian Prefecture (Zhangjiakou), and it has been passed down to Fan Yongdou's generation, which is already the seventh generation. It can be said that it is a wealthy family in Shanxi and has deep roots.

Although the Fan family has a lot of wealth, it is still one step away from being a real wealthy family. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang imposed strict restrictions on businessmen. The biggest restriction was that businessmen and their children and relatives were strictly prohibited from taking the exams. In that only country,

In those days when people were well-educated, it was hard to do anything without a reputation.

Just when Fan Yongdou was in his weak years and had not yet taken over the control of Fan's business, by chance, as the big boss, he led a caravan to trade with Jiannu for the first time, and was received by Nurhaci.

He also rewarded Fan Yongdou with a bucket of the most precious pearls and two beauties. During that time, Fan Yongdou received extremely high courtesy from Nurhaci.

Nurhaci rewarded Fan Yongdou with beauties and pearls. The reason, in modern terms, is that the Ming Dynasty imposed strict trade sanctions on Jiannu and prohibited trade with Jiannu. And Zhangjiakou, to be precise, was the Shanxi merchants doing business in Zhangjiakou.

, became the only channel for the slaves to obtain supplies.

After building a friendly bridge with Jiannu, Fan Yongdou's trade volume with Jiannu became larger and larger. Especially after the forty-seventh year of Wanli, although Jiannu's life was difficult, a stone of grain could be sold in Zhangjiakou for only four coins.

But it was eight taels of silver for Jiannu, a full twenty times profit.

In the first year of Tianqi, the price of food increased tenfold. The greedy Fan Yongdou even sold the food for more than eighty taels of silver per stone. In just a few years, Fan's branch of the company established six branches.

There are more than 100 families, and there are as many as 30,000 to 40,000 clerks and servants serving the Fan family.

Fan's family property also exceeded 15 million taels of silver, surpassing Cao Sanxi, the original richest man.

In December of the fourth year of Chongzhen, a serious snowstorm broke out in Liaodong. Especially in February of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the late spring cold made Jiannu even worse and suffered heavy losses.

In this case, the Jiannu had no choice but to use the money they grabbed from the pass to buy valuable materials such as grain, salt, silk, tea, and of course prohibited materials such as steel and gunpowder from their only good friends, Shanxi merchants.

But the problem is that the journey from Datong to Zhangjiakou and then to Shenyang is more than 2,000 miles. The consumption of transporting grain for more than 2,000 miles is too great. 440,000 shi of grain reaches Shenyang.

There were less than 80,000 shi left, and the losses on the road were as high as 80%.

Due to severe drought in the north, low grain output, and many factors such as bandit rebellion, Fan Yongdou spent one, two or three taels of silver per stone on the grain he purchased. The 440,000 dan of grain cost nearly 600,000 taels of silver.

, but the income was only less than two hundred thousand taels of silver.

This was a huge profit. In just over a month, 600,000 taels of silver turned into more than 800,000 taels of silver. This was a huge profit in itself, but human desire and greed are never-ending.

, after hearing that Cheng Shijie had stored a large amount of grain in southern Liaoning, he decided to buy grain from Cheng Shijie.

You must know that the direct transportation from southern Liaoning to Shenyang is less than 800 miles, saving nearly two-thirds of the distance on the road. More importantly, this trade route does not need to pass through Mongolian territory, and there is no need to pay fees to Mongolian masters.

Protection fee.

Entering Jinzhou City, Fan Yongdou observed this brand-new city through the car window. It was bustling with people coming and going, and there were a lot of goods in the shops on the street.

This greatly increased Fan Yongdou's confidence, as long as Cheng Shijie did not discriminate against businessmen.

Located in the Ning Haijun General Mansion, opposite the current Liaodong Economic and Strategic Envoy's Mansion, there is a bustling teahouse. Fan Yongdou came to the door of a private room on the second floor and saw two fierce and strong men standing in front of the door.

Entering the private room, Bao Chengxian was drinking tea leisurely: "Mr. Fan, you are late!"

"When doing any business, the first thing is to find out the opponent..."

Bao Chengxian said with disdain: "The man named Cheng was lucky enough to win a few battles, but he can no longer distinguish between east, west, north and south. Do you really think of him as a person?"

"He was already a big shot!"

Fan Yongdou said: "If you can do his job, he can provide you with as much grain as you want. He has reclaimed more than five million acres of land. Excluding his own consumption, he can sell at least millions of dan of grain."

Bao Chengxian sneered sinisterly: "Do you think we need to spend money on these grains?"

"If Mr. Bao thinks so, then Fan will set off now!"

Fan Yongdou stood up and left without any hesitation.

Bao Chengxian stared at Fan Yongdou's back coldly: "How dare you...you are not afraid!"

"It's you who should be worried now. General Cheng has a grudge against Jiannu for destroying his family and genocide. Guess whether he will send you to the capital, or just stay in southern Liaoning!"

"Since you know that he has a bloody feud with Dajin, you still want to bribe him. How stupid are you?"

"That's because you don't have enough money. As long as you have enough money, if you ask Fan to kill his biological father, that's no problem!"

"Bao wants to see how you bribe him?"

“Please wait and see!”

Fan Yongdou is full of confidence and he understands human nature very well, especially when it comes to buying other people off. What he likes most is to hit people with money.

If you want to give a gift, give a big one.

With Cheng Shijie's current identity and status, he would definitely not take a few thousand taels of silver seriously, but what about a hundred thousand taels of silver?

Will Cheng Shijie be moved?

…

Fan Yongdou directly asked someone to deposit 100,000 taels of silver in Liaodong Bank. After the 100,000 taels of silver were deposited in the bank, he signed a supplementary agreement with the bank staff, authorizing other people to operate the money and withdraw it on his behalf.

.

Take the bank's special password and seal and send these things directly to the General Military Mansion.

Cheng Shijie received a report from Yang Yuniang while eating. Today, a distinguished guest came to Liaodong Bank. Without blinking, he deposited one hundred thousand taels of silver. Fan Yongdou became the first person to deposit one hundred thousand taels of silver in Liaodong Bank.

"Who is the head of the household?"

"Fan Yongdou of the Jiexiu Fan family!"

Before Cheng Shijie had time to speak, he received a greeting from Fan Yongdou.

"I'll go, and the fat pig will come to your door!"

Cheng Shijie knew very well who Fan Yongdou was. He was one of the eight imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty, and Fan Yongdou actually came to his door in person and asked him to take care of him.

"Here comes someone, let him wait in the front hall!"
Chapter completed!