The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 263 Is This an Attempt to Win Over Civil Officials?
The Loess Plateau in September is crisp and colorful, just like a painting.

This place is different from the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, where the autumn rain is continuous.

In the autumn on the Loess Plateau, the sky is clear and cloudless, the air is fresh and bright, and there is a cool breeze.

It is the most comfortable to work in this kind of weather.

Tens of thousands of craftsmen in Yanping County, the former Yansui Town, were working busily.

All around the county town, bridges and roads were being built, houses and workshops were being constructed.

At the bottom of the slope near Yau Tong in the north, the rows of workshops stretch for several miles.

On both sides of the Yan River in the middle, the exquisite courtyards were built along the winding river for more than ten miles.

There are already several stone arch bridges on the river, but craftsmen are still building them.

They will settle down here in the future, so building a few more bridges will make it more convenient for them to travel.

When Qi Jiguang, Deng Zilong and others arrived here, they were all stunned.

It's not that they haven't been here before. In their impression, the original three borders of Shaanxi were only decent in terms of the houses inside the city, but there were few decent courtyards outside the city.

The exquisite courtyards here are so continuous that you can't see the end at a glance. They are lined up on both sides of the river, densely packed and stacked one on top of the other.

To be honest, they all found it hard to believe that the once desolate and dilapidated border had become like this.

It's still a border area here and there, and the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River are not so prosperous.

At this time, the Emperor was waiting for them, and they had no time to look closely.

A group of hundreds of riders rode into the city in a hurry. When they arrived outside the county government office, they dismounted and walked quickly into the lobby.

At this moment, Wanli, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei, Crown Prince Wang Bing, Shan Sinan and others had been waiting in the lobby for a long time.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli smiled slightly and said, "Yuan Jing, how is the harvest of the Nine Frontier Cavalry?"

These guys just robbed people indiscriminately.

Qi Jiguang said rather embarrassedly, "Your Majesty, they only captured tens of thousands of men, women, old and young, and hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep and horses at the beginning.

During this period, the northern barbarians' defenses have become increasingly tight. Basically, wherever the border cavalry rushed, the nomadic tribes fled in all directions. Their gains were very small, just some animal skins and tents, which were not worth much.

The grasslands outside the Great Wall are probably even more lively than here right now.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How is it, Sigong, have all the secret guards sneaked in?"

Luo Sigong nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, the secret guards have all infiltrated. The grasslands outside the Great Wall are too chaotic right now. It's okay for the secret guards to run around everywhere."

That's good.

The next step is to discuss how to make money.

Wanli thought for a moment, then asked, "Bangning, how is business in Nanzhili?"

That's simply too good to be true.

Wan Bangning said excitedly, "Your Majesty, there are too many wealthy people in Nanzhili. We can sell several boxes of Golden Immortal Pills and Silver Immortal Pills that cost over a thousand taels a box every day. The ordinary Golden Pills, Silver Pills, Dragon Pills, and Tiger Pills are sold out as soon as they arrive. Even dozens of boxes a day are not enough to sell.

As for ordinary medicines, Nanzhili sells more than 20,000 boxes a day, which is more than 1,000 taels a day. Now our daily gross profit exceeds 10,000 taels."

Well, yes, medicine is indeed profitable. In Southern Zhili and Northern Zhili alone, the monthly income is 500,000 to 600,000 taels.

The key point is that they made money, and the border troops and garrisons who grew medicine also made money.

When the border troops and garrison guards have money, they can buy coal and oil, thus slowly earning money from the rich and revitalizing them.

If things continue like this, the Ming Dynasty will become more and more prosperous.

Wanli nodded slightly, then took out a lighter and lit several oil lamps on the large table in the middle. He then introduced in detail: "We are refining oil here, and the main products are kerosene for the navy and lamp oil for lighting.

Not to mention the navy's kerosene tanks, each naval soldier is guaranteed to have two boxes, twelve in a box. It doesn't matter if you use them freely. When they are used up, you can replenish them. The navy warships can just come to the river mouth dock to get them.

We are now discussing the sale of lamp oil. We refine two types of lamp oil: one is colorless and odorless, and the other has a slight odor.

After saying that, he opened the lid of a tube of kerosene on the table and let everyone smell it.

The smell is indeed a bit strange, but many people here have smelled it before, because now the Beijing camp, border troops and navy soldiers are all equipped with kerosene lighters. Qi Jiguang and Deng Zilong have them. They are used to the smell and don't find it strange.

Others who had not smelled it could not help but frown slightly.

Upon seeing this, Wanli closed the lid and asked directly: "What do you think of this kerosene at one tael of silver and thirty catties?" Oh, it turns out to be half the price of lamp oil made from animal fat.

When everyone heard this, they nodded repeatedly to indicate that there was no problem.

Unless you are so poor that you have no food to eat, most people always buy some lamp oil. Otherwise, if something unexpected happens at night, you will be caught in the dark.

The original lamp oil was indeed a bit expensive and the production was not large, so generally only rich families would light lamps at night. People who didn't have much money would basically go to bed and make babies as soon as it got dark. They used very little lamp oil and bought it by the pound.

If the price of lamp oil is reduced to one tael of silver for thirty catties, that would be more than thirty wen per catty, and one tael is only about two wen. There will definitely be a lot of people buying it.

Seeing that everyone nodded, Wanli picked up another tube of kerosene and let everyone smell it.

This oil has no odor and no color. It smells like water and looks like water.

Everyone looked left and right, seemingly a little bit unconvinced that this thing could be lit.

Seeing this, Wanli closed the lid and asked directly: "What do you think of this kind of lamp oil for one tael of silver and twenty-five catties?"

what?
so cheap!

Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, does this burn like kerosene?"

of course.

Wanli pointed to a few oil lamps and said, "This is the lamp oil added. It burns almost like kerosene, but the smoke is a little bigger.

But it doesn’t matter. Rich people can buy sets of palace lanterns, and the smoke is directly discharged outside through pipes, just like the ones in this lobby.”

After saying this, he pointed to the palace lanterns installed on the pillars in the lobby.

Upon seeing this, Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen slowly nodded and said, "Your Majesty, I believe this kind of lamp oil should be more expensive than ordinary lamp oil. Ordinary lamp oil still smells a bit like burnt meat when it burns, and it is not as convenient to use as this kind of lamp oil."

The lamp oil extracted from animal fat is indeed not easy to use at this time.

Because if the temperature is too low, the lamp oil refined from animal oil will become sticky.

Therefore, most lamps these days are like small plates, with the wick placed in the groove next to the small plate.

This is to use the heat from the burning wick to keep the lamp oil in a watery state.

If it were like a kerosene lamp, where the burning wick was about an inch away from the kerosene, the ordinary lamp oil would have become sticky and the wick would most likely go out.

The lamp oil they refine does not have this problem, and it has no smell when burned.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then nodded decisively and said, "Well, then, let's sell this kerosene for ten catties of silver and give it to the rich. What do you think?"

When everyone heard this, they nodded repeatedly, indicating that the price was acceptable.

Who will be in charge of this business?

Wanli glanced around slowly, then said decisively: "Yingzhen, you will be in charge of this business, Wang Guozhang will be responsible for refining the oil, and Yuanjing, Wenbi, Yuangong, Yunqing, Weizhi, and Chengxun, you all help with sales.

The profit from lamp oil is very high, so you can only share 10% of the net profit. Of this 10%, Ying Zhen and Wang Guozhang will each get 20%, and you will each get 10%.

When everyone heard this, they nodded repeatedly to show that they understood.

They all thought that there wouldn't be much money left if they divided it this way.

Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, how much profit can be made from lamp oil?"

It might scare you if I tell you.

Wanli explained in detail: "We have now built more than 200 oil refineries. Each refinery can refine four pots of oil a day. Each pot of oil can produce about 200 kilograms of lamp oil and 300 kilograms of kerosene.

Our goal this year is to build 500 refineries, producing 400,000 kilograms of lamp oil and 600,000 kilograms of kerosene daily. As for next year, we'll see how sales perform. If demand exceeds supply, we'll continue building refineries."

what?
so much!
If 400,000 catties of lamp oil are produced every day, that would be 40,000 taels, and if 600,000 catties of kerosene are produced every day, that would be 20,000 taels. Adding them together, that would be 60,000 taels!
By this calculation, more than 20 million taels can be earned in a year. A 10% net profit is about 2 million taels, and 10% of 10% is 200,000 taels.

However, one million kilograms of lamp oil must be sold every day.

Upon hearing this, Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen was stunned and said, "Your Majesty, kerosene is cheap. If the soldiers in the Beijing camp and the border troops all use kerosene lamps at home, and if they encourage a group of civilians to use them, then we might be able to sell 600,000 kilograms of kerosene a day. The problem is, I'm afraid I can't sell 400,000 kilograms of lamp oil a day."

Wanli pointed to the oil lamp on the table and said, "This time we will give an oil lamp to all civil officials. Those above the fifth rank will receive this palace lantern, and those below the fifth rank will receive this exquisite oil lamp. This will be given to all officials, whether they are in office or retired."

Uh, what does this mean?
Is His Majesty trying to win over the civil servants?
Everyone was stunned when they heard this.

(End of this chapter)