Troubled Times: Start with 800 Dead Soldiers

"Don't worry about it. As long as you do what I tell you, I won't give you any money. Look!"

Su Xia said, looking towards the wonton stand. Ma Baoguo also looked back and looked at his grandson who was enjoying a meal at the wonton stand. Suddenly, his eyes became gentle.

Su Xia continued: "With money, your life will be stable. Remember, do a good job of statistical registration every month, and then someone will contact you specifically every three months to get your records."

"Good, good, good!"

Ma Baoguo was confused by this pie-in-the-sky thing. He even said a few good words and hurriedly put away the money Su Xia gave him.

Outside the tea shed, after giving her contact information and watching Master Ma and his grandson leave, Su Xia felt infinite melancholy in her heart!

Why did Su Xia ask him to count the number of brothels and restaurants? The reason was simple. It was all caused by the "prostitute economy".

During the Three Kingdoms period, when Cao Mengde captured Wancheng, he first asked: "Are there prostitutes in the city?"

Cao Cao believes that if a city's brothels are large in scale, it means that the business is profitable, which proves that there are still many people who can go to the brothels to spend money. Generally speaking, the economy here will be good.

Su Xia also agrees with this truth, because if the scale of prostitutes in a city is small, it is very likely that the living standard here will not reach the minimum food and clothing line.

After all, there is an old saying - when you are full and warm, you will think of lust.

If you can't even eat enough, then the prostitute's business will naturally not be better.

From this point of view, the number and beauty of prostitutes are closely related to the local economic conditions. Cao Cao and Cao Mengde also used this to roughly understand the local conditions, and then laid the foundation for subsequent management measures.

Therefore, the scale of the prostitute business can reflect the prosperity of the local area. As for the number of restaurants, it is even better to say. If the people in the city have little spare money, how can they spend money on restaurants?

The so-called food, sex, sex, and food, these things indirectly reflect the material economic level.

This is why Su Xia arranged for Ma Baoguo, a mediocre "chess piece", to go to Qingzhou to count these things.

Ma Baoguo's role is more like an inconspicuous chess piece or spy, obtaining these seemingly insignificant information about life, and often it is this seemingly useless information that can change the victory of a battle or even the situation!

Su Xia could conclude that there were only two people in this dynasty who could come up with such an idea.

Since you may be at war with the imperial court in the future, you must prepare in advance!

Know thyself, ever-victorious.

Intelligence warfare is a plan actively carried out by Su Xia, except for "spies" such as Ma Baoguo who he personally arranged.

Su Xia had already asked Xiong Hui, Zhu Gui and others to arrange their own soldiers and cronies to go to the counties of Dengzhou Prefecture, asking them to settle down in these counties while inquiring about information for them, and to be "lurking" for a long time.

In other words, these soldiers and cronies are undercover agents arranged by Su Xia and others in various states and counties. They receive their pay at fixed times and have a single line of vertical communication. Some of them do work like sharpening scissors and kitchen knives near the military camp. Some opened a small tea shed next to the government office of the state capital, and controlled every move of the nearby state capital, officials and troops, money, grain, salt and iron transportation.

As long as there is any disturbance in these places, Su Xia will know it immediately.

However, Su Xia believes that it is not enough to deploy it in several states and counties. Even in Bianliang, Tokyo, there should be its own intelligence system.

He rode horseback and galloped to the newly built Ruyi Restaurant at the pier.

Looking at the four-story restaurant rising from the ground, Su Xia was filled with emotion.

The person in charge of the restaurant is Handi Kulu Zhugui. As mentioned before, Zhugui has many functions in opening a hotel here. First, it is to facilitate smuggling of goods in the name of opening a restaurant: salt, iron, cloth, etc. are temporarily not produced on Salmon Island. Everything must be collected and transferred through the dock restaurant.

Secondly, this is an "information station" where intelligence is gathered. As soon as Su Xia entered the dock restaurant, Handi Hulu Zhugui walked out and greeted: "Sir, you are back!"

Su Xia nodded. After the two of them went straight up the stairs, seeing no one around them, Su Xia asked, "How is it? How is the business with Ximen Qing?"

"Ximen Qing is a weird person, with a lot of money. Seeing that our restaurant is so luxuriously renovated, he actually asked me if I have a girl to accompany me!"

"Oh, so what did you say?"

"Of course we don't have it. Because of this, Ximen Qing is still a little depressed."

Su Xia shook her head and secretly scolded Ximen Qing for being lustful and lustful: "How are the sales of colored glass beads?"

"What the glass beads didn't say, he directly asked for two hundred glass beads, eight taels each. He wanted to buy them for 1500 taels of silver, but I didn't agree, and finally bought them all for 1600 taels of silver."

Su Xia grinned when she heard this: "What about the restaurant business?"

Zhu Gui curled his lips and said: "The restaurant's business is not doing well. This restaurant is luxuriously built, but it has been losing money. The people who welcome and send it are our lucky brothers."

"After all, this is still a wasteland, far away from Dengzhou capital. However, as long as our glass beads make money, the restaurants that lose money are not worth mentioning."

"That's what you said!" Zhu Gui said, leading Su Xia to the second floor to rest.

Opening the window of the restaurant, the sea breeze blew slightly, and there was also a salty and humid atmosphere in the air. Su Xia looked at the sea not far away, and looked at it quietly for a while: Turning around, he asked: "Zhu Gui, what's on the restaurant's books now?" How much silver is left?"

"Ximen Qing's business made a fortune yesterday. In addition to repairing the restaurant wharf and making up for losses, he probably still has more than [-] taels of silver!"

"Okay, get ready, take out 600 taels of silver, I'm going on a long trip!"

"Understood!" Zhu Gui didn't ask why Su Xia wanted so much money. After Su Xia finished speaking, he went downstairs to get ready.

That's right, Su Xia is planning to take a long trip again!

If Salmon Island wants to develop, it will naturally need a wide range of talents. This time he is going to Bianliang, Tokyo, to find a right-hand man for the development of Salmon Island!

Su Xia did not expect to meet Wu Dalang, Ximen Qing and others when she returned from time travel this time. Based on this reasoning, Lu Zhishen, Lin Chong and others should also be there. Su Xia naturally could not let this opportunity pass.

In Su Xia's heart, Lu Zhishen is the best representative of the chivalrous characters in the entire Water Margin, and is also an important link between many key figures in the entire Liangshan Heroes.

Wu Song and Lu Zhishen are the figures Su Xia values ​​​​more.

When I was in military school, I always read Wu Song and Lu Zhishen when studying "Water Margin".

If he had to choose one person among the two, Lu Zhishen would be the one he must choose for two reasons.

First, among the 108 heroes in Liangshan, there are dozens of heroes who have direct relations with Lu Zhishen, such as Lin Chong, Yang Zhi, Li Da, Shi Jin, etc.

Therefore, if Lu Zhishen can be transferred to Salmon Island, the development of Salmon Island will inevitably grow. This is one of them.

Secondly, Su Xia understood that he had such a large-scale construction project on Shamen Island and recruited a wide range of people. Although the confidentiality measures were strict, there was no airtight wall in this world, and naturally he would be discovered by the court sooner or later.