Chapter 54: Mi Family Separation Mi Zhu, who had been busy until midnight, just returned to his residence, only to see Mi Fang waiting for him anxiously. Seeing him return, Mi Fang hurriedly asked, "Brother, are you okay?" Mi Zhu felt a little warm in his heart and smiled, "It's okay. This trip has been fruitful! My Mi family finally has a chance to make a breakthrough!" The farming business has been going on for generations, and while it may seem prosperous on the surface, it is actually filled with endless sorrow. In the hierarchy of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants were at the bottom. Although the policy towards merchants in the Eastern Han Dynasty was much more relaxed than that in the Western Han Dynasty, some merchants gradually developed into powerful people, colluded with officials, and even joined the ranks of officials through various means. But the Mi family was of pure ordinary people origin, and they followed their ancestors' teachings for generations, emulating Tao Zhugong Fan Li, following the right path and being Confucian businessmen. Although his family was as wealthy as many other wealthy merchants in the world, he was the only one among them who had neither an official position nor a title. For example, the Zhen family in Hebei even had a hereditary marquisate. Mi Zhu was still a commoner, and his wealth did not match his status, which naturally attracted the covetousness of many people, and he often walked on thin ice. Now, someone finally appreciated his talent, recruited him under his wing, and entrusted him with important tasks. At this moment, Mi Zhu felt that he had finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel and met a wise master.
"Brother, has Governor Tian recruited you?" Mi Fang understood the situation instantly and asked anxiously. Mi Zhu nodded and said, "Yes, my lord has appointed me as the Golden Army." "That's great, brother! Jin Cao is a real position!" Mi Fang was extremely happy. Before this, there were people who wanted to recruit his elder brother, but most of them were county governors or county magistrates, and the positions they were given were all empty titles such as aide-de-camp and clerk. In fact, those people only valued the wealth of the Mi family and gave them a title, taking the money without doing any work. But he never thought that the governor Tian valued his elder brother so much that he actually gave him the post of Jin Cao. Jin Cao was in charge of currency, salt and iron affairs, and had considerable power. "Second brother, our lord is definitely not an ordinary person. You are aware of the current situation. Whether our Mi family can prosper in the future depends on our lord." Mi Zhu said solemnly. "I have discussed with my lord and have decided to hand over all of Mi's assets to you for management." Tian Ze was not interested in Mi Fang, the traitor who stabbed Guan Yu in the back. He was greedy and didn't know the difference between the important and the trivial, so he was not fit for the important task. However, he was Mi Zhu's younger brother after all, so Tian Ze couldn't treat him coldly. After much deliberation and after obtaining Mi Zhu's consent, Mi Zhu decided to leave the Mi family and hand over the Mi family to Mi Fang. Although Mi's assets were a considerable fortune, Tian Ze did not value them. What he needed were population and food, not copper coins. Even if he took them back, it would only be icing on the cake and would not be of much significance. On the contrary, it would be more beneficial to let Mi Fang manage it alone and maintain the relative independence and cooperative relationship between Liaodong and the Mi family. Mi Fang had been in business for a long time and had some talent. Although he had obvious flaws, they would not have any impact if he could handle them properly. Tian Ze was prepared to entrust the task of recruiting refugees from the Central Plains to Mi Fang, and to take advantage of Mi Fang's greedy character and tempt him with benefits. Because Tian Ze was not short of money, as long as Mi Fang could recruit refugees and food, Tian Ze would purchase them at a fixed price, and all the profits would belong to Mi Fang himself. Tian Ze knew very well that although there were continuous droughts in the world, the situation was relatively stable and the price of grain was still below one thousand coins. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion breaks out next year, the price of grain will quickly soar again, and it is not impossible that a stone will cost 10,000 coins. Copper coins will depreciate rapidly, and then food and resources will be real. Therefore, Tian Ze was eager to spend the money he had. While recruiting refugees and purchasing grain, he outsourced the matter to Mi Fang to improve efficiency.
As for how Mi Fang would do it, Tian Ze didn't care. He just wanted to see results. Mi Zhu also understood the character of his younger brother, who would easily cause trouble in Liaodong. He did not oppose Tian Ze's choice, but instead supported it very much. Instead of keeping Mi Fang here, it is better to let him go out and explore the world. Based on his understanding of Mi Fang, he knew that once his second brother saw the tangible benefits, he would be blinded by the benefits and would use any means to recruit refugees and purchase grain. It is not a bad idea to act as a middleman and contact wealthy merchants from all over the country to act together. Although Tian Ze was happy to see this, Mi Zhu still gave him a few words of advice. "Second brother, from now on you will take over Xuzhou in my place. If anyone asks, you can say that my Mi family has split up and you will be the head of the family." "The lord is going to let you be responsible for recruiting some refugees and purchasing food. Of course, it will be in the form of cooperation." "As long as you transport the refugees you recruit and the food you transport to Xuzhou, the lord will buy them at a high price. He doesn't care about the process, he only cares about the result. The profit is huge and it will all belong to you." "I know that you are as talented as me in business and you will be able to do this well. But you must promise me three things." Mi Fang was surprised and delighted when he heard Mi Zhu's words. He thought he was very talented, but his brother had rarely given him opportunities. He never thought that he would have a chance to stand out now. He quickly said: "Brother, please tell me what you want to say. I will obey you." Seeing Mi Fang like this, Mi Zhu sighed softly in his heart. Too eager for quick success. He knew that Mi Fang was capable and had let him take charge of family business several times before. Although the profits were quite high, Mi Fang's methods were somewhat deviant and laid many hidden dangers. It took him a lot of effort to solve these problems, but overall he still suffered a lot of losses. He had warned Mi Fang about this many times, but each time Mi Fang didn't care and even thought he was overthinking it. Mi Zhu, who had seen too many people lose big because of small things and fall into an irretrievable situation, knew the pros and cons of it, but he was unable to convince Mi Fang, who had never experienced this. Moreover, Mi Fang's temperament had already been set and was difficult to change, so he gradually gave up. "First, you must not disclose any contact with the Lord. The ships that transport people and food are all arranged by the Lord. But you must also be low-key and cautious to avoid being known by others." "Second, the refugees you recruit must voluntarily follow you. You cannot force them, and you cannot bully the people. And you cannot compete with the people under your command, and stay away from the five states of You, Ji, Qing, Yan, and Yu." "Third, you should focus on recruiting refugees, and then food. The lord has given you more room for profit in terms of population. One refugee is worth 5,000 coins, including the elderly, the weak, women and children. It is much more profitable than transporting food." Tian Ze made such arrangements to prevent the people from being harmed. The speed at which Liaodong recruited refugees far exceeded the corresponding grain reserve speed, so as to prevent the people of the world from starving to death due to food shortages and high grain prices. The price of purchasing refugees has increased because of the current surge in food prices, in order to ensure sufficient profit margins. When Mi Fang heard that a refugee cost five thousand coins, his eyes suddenly lit up. Although food prices are high now, the costs are also not low, and the net profit is not that shocking. And five thousand coins for each refugee, most of that is pure profit. You know, as the famine spreads, food prices are rising, but the price of slaves is falling. The price of a slave has now dropped to more than two thousand coins. Even if refugees were recruited from more distant places, it would take more than a month to transport them to Xuzhou, and the grain needed would be no more than two or three dan, leaving at least two or three thousand coins of profit margin. Going to get rich!
Mi Fang seemed to see a mountain of gold. Just as Mi Zhu expected, the first thing he thought of was to become a middleman and subcontract the business. Food is scarce in the world now, but refugees are everywhere. With such a huge profit margin, even if he buys refugees from Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Guanzhong and other places at the price of 3,000 coins per refugee, there will still be many people willing to do it. This makes much more money than selling food, and transporting people is much more convenient than transporting food. After all, people can walk by themselves. Moreover, solving the refugee problem will also help maintain local stability, and perhaps we can gain some benefits from the local government, which is really killing two birds with one stone. Seeing that Mi Fang fell into fantasy again, Mi Zhu couldn't help but pat his arm. "Second brother, do you remember it?" "Remember, brother!" Mi Fang said excitedly. "I will conduct inspections from time to time. Once I find that you have violated any of the above items, I will petition my lord to cancel this matter and severely punish you!" Mi Zhu stared at Mi Fang and said seriously. He knew how important what Tian Ze was planning was, and there must be no problems on his part, so he would secretly place some people around Mi Fang. If he didn't need an open spokesperson, he could just let his confidants do the work. (End of this chapter)
