My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 420 Inspecting the Industry
Liu Feng realized this and couldn't help but smile wryly. He had been so careless that he had forgotten that Mi Zhu at this time was quite different from the one in the original timeline.

In the original timeline, when Liu Bei was trapped in Haicheng, Mi Zhu made up his mind to increase investment, directly throwing in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods, various supplies and weapons, a large amount of grain, and even his own beloved younger sister.

However, this timing was quite delicate. At that time, Liu Bei was betrayed by Lü Bu and suffered defeats at Xiapi and Xuyi. He was defeated by Lü Bu and Yuan Shu in succession, but his troops did not completely collapse. This was entirely due to Liu Bei's high personal charisma.

Even so, Liu Bei, confined to a corner of Haicheng, was so destitute that he resorted to cannibalism.

However, Liu Bei did not eat the flesh of ordinary people like Cao Cao's army did; instead, he ate the flesh of soldiers and officials who died of disease or starvation.

It is conceivable that the investment points chosen by the Mi family were questionable.

Liu Bei was a hero.

Even someone as brilliant as Cao Mengde regarded Liu Bei as a hero, and the only hero who could be ranked alongside him.

How could someone like that accept coercion?

Regardless of whether the Mi family intended to coerce, their decision to increase their bets at this point already constituted coercion.

This is also a thorn that the Liu and Mi families can never get rid of in the future.

Because of this incident, Mi Zhu remained low-key and diligently served as a figurehead. On the contrary, his younger brother Mi Fang, who was inferior to him in both talent and virtue, was able to fight alongside Liu Bei.

But now it's completely different.

The marriage agreement between the Mi and Liu families was changed to Liu Feng and Mi Yue. Most importantly, the Mi family's investment seemed natural and did not have any coercive connotation. On the contrary, they were in a humble and ingratiating position.

After all, Liu Feng's status was far higher than that of the Mi family, and in fact, he was leading the Mi family to make a fortune.

In this way, Mi Zhu, now free from his burdens, naturally had his own ambitions, wanting to make great achievements and follow Liu Feng and Liu Bei to be remembered in history.

Furthermore, the fact that the two brothers served as governors of Xuzhou was indeed somewhat intimidating. In fact, it wasn't just the Mi brothers who thought this way; many people had advised Liu Bei behind the scenes, suggesting, either openly or covertly, that the Mi brothers be transferred away.

However, Liu Bei simply laughed it off and never took it to heart.

Given such a great opportunity, it's only natural that Mi Zhu couldn't resist.

Although Mi Zhu had a good idea, Liu Feng couldn't find anyone to replace him in the short term.

Liu Feng has many talents under his command who are far superior to Mi Zhu, but when it comes to understanding commerce and industry, very few can surpass Mi Zhu.

Even those few who were appointed were burdened with more important tasks and it was impossible for them to be transferred to Pengcheng to serve as prime minister.

Therefore, Liu Feng had no choice but to appease Mi Zhu, saying, "Brother, Pengcheng is extremely important now. We cannot do without Pengcheng workshops for military equipment, armor, and agricultural tools. These are turbulent times, with war clouds gathering on all sides, and a major battle may be imminent. At this time, Pengcheng cannot do without your presence. Please take good care of us."

Upon hearing Liu Feng's words, Mi Zhu was clearly somewhat dejected, but he still forced himself to reply, "General Zuo, please rest assured, I will do my utmost to maintain this."

In contrast to Mi Zhu's dejection, Mi Fang was overjoyed.

Yongning County was originally a piece of fat meat that Liu Feng prepared for the Mi family. Since the elder brother can't get it, then it will fall into Mi Fang's bowl, right?
“My two elder brothers, there is one more thing that I need your help with.”

Liu Feng then brought up the matter of the government bonds.

The Mi family possessed a vast amount of wealth, with at least thousands of catties of gold and silver, and hundreds of millions of wuzhu coins.

Liu Feng naturally also had his eye on the Mi family; otherwise, if they continued to hoard their stockpiles like this, it would be Liu Feng who would have a headache.

Upon hearing the mention of government bonds, Mi Zhu and Mi Fang's first reaction was exactly the same as Cao Bao's: extortion and bribery.

But they quickly realized that the person in front of them was Liu Feng.

It's not that Liu Feng isn't greedy, but his character has already earned the unanimous approval of Cao Bao and the Mi family. Even if Liu Feng wanted to raise money, he could have just asked directly; why resort to such a despicable method?

Having figured this out, the Mi brothers began to seriously consider the government bonds.

Upon further reflection, the two of them actually discovered quite a few things.

Unlike Cao Bao, even Mi Fang had a strong business sense, after all, he came from a merchant family. Even if he was not as sharp as Mi Zhu, he still had a basic understanding of economics.

They all realized that Liu Feng's purpose was not just to raise money.

"This matter is of great importance, and we cannot make a decision on it in a short time."

Mi Zhu considered carefully before saying, "Could we please discuss this at home?"

Liu Feng nodded understandingly: "Of course it's possible."

Mi Zhu and Mi Fang then hurriedly took their leave and went to their father's place in the backyard.

After listening, Mi Zeng's judgment was the same as Mi Zhu's and Mi Fang's: Liu Feng had many other purposes besides raising money.

The most obvious example is the testing of sides; it doesn't matter who bought government bonds, but it does matter who didn't.

Secondly, it's also possible that with a major battle imminent, Liu Feng wanted to expand his reserves of supplies and wealth.

To take a recent example, after sweeping away Liu Yao, Sun Ce, Wang Lang, and others during his southward campaign to Jiangdong, Liu Feng distributed a total of 120 million in cash and goods during a recent military reorganization.

Although these goods included large quantities of silk, cloth, salt, and grain, coins accounted for more than a third, amounting to fifty to sixty million. Adding the expenses of mobilizing the army, Liu Feng would indeed be short of money if a major battle were imminent.

"Right now, the most important thing is how my family should make a decision."

Mi Zhu's words brought everyone back to reality.

Mi Zeng suddenly asked, "How much is this government debt?"

Mi Fang replied, "Reporting to Father, I heard from General Zuo that 350 million have been allocated to our Donghai Kingdom, and he hopes we can help with the underwriting."

Mi Zeng looked over in confusion: "Underwriting?"

Mi Fang quickly explained, "It means helping with sales, trying our best to help General Zuo sell the government bonds."

Mi Zeng suddenly realized and nodded. The shops on the ground floor of the Mi family also offered similar services. For example, people could put their items in the Mi family's shops for sale, and they would receive a commission once a transaction was completed.

"Three hundred and fifty million...?"

Mi Zeng silently calculated for a moment, then looked up at Mi Zhu: "Zi Zhong, what do you think?"

Mi Zhu had clearly already thought of an answer, and when his father asked the question, he immediately replied, "My family will buy half."

"Oh?" Mi Zeng looked at Mi Zhu with feigned confusion: "Only half?"

The Mi family was already a wealthy family in Donghai, with assets worth hundreds of millions, including hundreds of millions in liquid assets.

Now, following Liu Feng, they enjoy the fruits of his labor and have gained far more wealth than in previous years.

In just two or three years, their annual income has exceeded hundreds of millions, much more than what Cao Bao received. After all, in addition to snow salt and frost sugar, the Mi family can also get a share of the pie from ports, warships, merchant ships, sesame oil, iron ore, military equipment, farm tools, and so on.

It's no exaggeration to say that the Mi family could immediately come up with over 100 million in cash. If they were given another half month, raising 400 million in assets would be absolutely no problem.

This also means that the Mi family could easily sweep up the 350 million in public bonds that Liu Feng allocated to the Donghai Kingdom on their own, without having to distribute them to other powerful clans.

However, Mi Zhu's opinion was to acquire only half, so it's no wonder that Mi Zeng asked with doubt.

In fact, Mi Zeng's doubts may not be true, but Mi Fang, who was listening in, was indeed completely baffled.

If his father hadn't been there and asked the question on his behalf, he would have asked it already.

Amid Mi Zeng and Mi Fang's curiosity, Mi Zhu shook his head emphatically and replied, "Half is enough; too much is as bad as too little."

Upon hearing this, Mi Zeng burst into laughter, then turned to say something to Mi Fang.

But looking into his youngest son's clear eyes, Mi Zeng swallowed his words back in the end.

"Let's do as Zizhong suggests."

********
Liu Feng's main purpose in coming here was to arrange the engagement; promoting the government bonds was merely a side matter. Although the amount of government bonds was over 300 million, given Liu Feng's current status and position, would he really need to personally come to collect a mere 300 million?

Liu Feng was almost completely unmoved by the fact that the Mi family had taken half of the amount and guaranteed the underwriting of the other half.

The Mi family is not like the Cao family; the difference in their foundations is like heaven and earth.
Aside from Cao Bao exploiting his soldiers, embezzling their rations, the spoils of war, and the money Tao Qian gave them to buy equipment, what other sources of income could the Cao family possibly have?
Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so happy as to have struck it rich after sharing part of Cao Hong's fortune with Xu Dan. You should know that of those ten or twenty million coins, besides half being handed over to Liu Bei and the state government, there were quite a few people who had to share the rest.

It's estimated that only five or six million coins actually ended up in Cao Bao's pocket.

It's easy to imagine how narrow-minded Cao Bao was; he truly had never seen much money before.

How can this compare to the Mi family, who are incredibly wealthy?

Cao Bao now sits in the position of Prefect of Xiapi. He has been persuaded by Cao Qing to become an honest official. His biggest source of income right now is the share that Liu Feng gives him every year.

The Mi family was different. Although Liu Feng brought the Mi family a much larger share than the Cao family, the Mi family could still make a fortune even without that share.

So, even if the Mi family had taken all of the government bonds, Liu Feng wouldn't be surprised. Besides, Liu Feng had already guessed that the Mi family only took half to show restraint; surely they could sell the other half.
Even if there were any left, the Mi family could simply change their gloves and eat them all.

Liu Feng's most important task left was to inspect the industries near Qu County.

The people accompanying Liu Feng were naturally the brothers Mi Zhu and Mi Fang, which disappointed Liu Feng, who had originally thought that Mi Yue might be accompanying him.

Liu Feng knew that although women in this era were far less conservative than those in later years, it was still impossible for them to meet before marriage. In fact, if Liu Feng and the Mi family hadn't been engaged, he would have had the opportunity to meet Mi Yue, for reasons that those who understood the situation naturally understood.

Mi Zhu first accompanied Liu Feng to the port, which was the same harbor that Liu Feng had chosen when he stood on Mount Qu.

The place has been completely transformed. A brand-new port has been built, with two stone slab walkways and six log walkways. There are also eight docks in the shipyard next door, where all the ships produced are capable of sailing.

Now, eight shipyards are operating at full capacity, adding more ships to Liu Feng's fleet as quickly as possible.

The last time they landed at Qiantang, they lost dozens of ships of various sizes while trying to outflank Sun Ce. Now, Xuezhou and Zhengbao are heading south to Dongye to provide naval support for He Qi, and they also need a large number of ships.

The difference between riverboats and seaboats is quite significant; riverboats can hardly go to sea, while seaboats can go into rivers.

Because ocean-going ships generally have pointed bottoms, while riverboats of this era mostly had flat bottoms.

The main reason for this situation is that flat-bottomed boats have low technical barriers and are sufficient for use on rivers, since there is only one Yangtze River in all of China.

Because of the Yangtze River, there were more pointed-bottom boats in the south. Firstly, the southern waterways and sea were frequently interconnected, and even without long voyages, pointed-bottom boats were necessary for near-shore operations. Secondly, the Yangtze River itself was so vast and expansive that even on a clear day, it was difficult to see the opposite bank at its widest point.

Such wide rivers are almost indistinguishable from the near sea; once the wind and waves rise, flat-bottomed boats can easily capsize. That's why ships in the south were forced to spontaneously upgrade to pointed-bottom boats, which have a higher technological threshold.

“Brother Zizhong.”

Liu Feng looked at the shipyard and asked Mi Zhu, "Have you seen the ship models I sent earlier?"

Mi Zhu immediately nodded: "We have seen them. They are truly masterpieces. Engineer Zheng and Engineer Lu were captivated by them after seeing them. As per your request, the first two experimental ships have been launched and are currently undergoing naval navigation."

The ship Liu Feng had previously sent was a small model of a ship, modeled after the 16th-century Spanish sailing warship, the Manila Galleon. Both the ship and the model were quite famous; Liu Feng had bought one before his time travel and even assembled it himself.

Liu Feng, by instructing the craftsmen around him, created this model, but it lacked the cannons on the ship's side and instead added the mysterious naval weapon, the battering pole, located at the front and rear of the warship.

The technique of using a baton is not very difficult and is relatively easy to imitate.

But it didn't matter to Liu Feng, because he had already conquered the three provinces of Yu, Xu and Yang, and had almost no rivals in Jiaozhou. His only major enemy in naval battles was Liu Biao of Jingzhou.

As long as the fishing rod can help Liu Feng wipe out the Jingzhou navy in one battle, it doesn't matter if it's leaked.

"We need to conduct not only naval operations, but also river operations. If successful, we can build six more ships and incorporate them into the navy."

Liu Feng cautioned that the data he provided was far inferior to the actual historical Manila galleons, at best a bankrupt version.

The reason is actually quite simple. Although the Eastern Han Dynasty already had a large number of ships, the technology of the Manila galleon was too advanced and its tonnage was too huge. You can't get fat in one bite.

Therefore, Liu Feng lowered many of the data, and this new ship is at most a miniature version of the Manila Galleon.

However, even the miniature version, once built, would have a tonnage and scale far exceeding that of any ship currently in existence.

Now that the first two ships have been completed and launched, as long as the naval and river naval operations pass smoothly, Liu Feng will have another trump card to play against the Jingzhou navy.

The Jingzhou navy relied on only two things: first, its elite naval personnel, and second, its huge and advanced warships.

Now that Liu Feng has inherited the Sun family's legacy, coupled with his meticulously trained navy, he has already overwhelmed the Jingzhou navy soldiers in the first aspect.

Now that the new ships have been launched, they undoubtedly surpass the Jingzhou navy in the second aspect as well. Liu Feng is increasingly looking forward to seeing what Liu Biao's expression will be at that time.

The Jingxiang region relied almost entirely on waterways.

Once Liu Biao's army marching south to quell the rebellion is cut off by Liu Feng's waterways, Liu Biao's expression must be quite interesting.

(End of this chapter)