Yi Xin as a concubine

Chapter 220 Compromise

In March, the ground began to show signs of thawing, and Chu Xingchen began a new round of busyness.

He secretly recruited a group of blacksmiths to enter the mining area, use local materials directly, and began to make a batch of new agricultural tools according to Xin Baoer's drawings, in preparation for spring planting.

At this time, the aristocratic families finally couldn't sit still after struggling for half a month and still got nothing.

The interests of the various families are intertwined and complicated, but once their own interests are threatened, they are also the most unreliable partners.

The current situation is not good, and their previous relationship was already precarious. If Chu Xingchen had not suddenly appeared and given them a common enemy, their relationship would have fallen apart long ago.

Now that they were unable to resist the outside forces even though they were united, some people could not hold on and quietly left the organization and secretly contacted people from the Ministry of Households.

Director Zhang of the Ministry of Revenue has been smiling a lot recently, and he has said a lot of things, but he is not stupid. Since the other party has taken the initiative to seek peace, they must not give in easily. Repaying evil with kindness only happens in stories. They are very poor now, and if they don't make a lot of money from them, they will be sorry for the humiliation they have suffered before.

By mid-April, 90% of those noble families had secretly contacted the Ministry of Household Affairs or the Xin family.

Although they had anticipated this situation, Chu Xingchen and the Xin family finally breathed a sigh of relief, because they were not as rich as they seemed, and the continuous large-scale moves during this period had almost drained their family assets.

Spring planting is just around the corner, and people in various places have begun to be organized to enclose land and reclaim wasteland, but they have not yet prepared enough grain seeds. If the grain seeds are not in place in time, the reputation that the Xin family has accumulated for the Northern Royal Court with all their wealth will be greatly reduced.

Chu Xingchen secretly met with the three masters of the Xin family to discuss how to completely break the last bit of strife between the families and willingly send them grain seeds.

"Father-in-law, the noble family is cunning and their attitude is always ambiguous. I'm afraid I have to give them a dose of Mian medicine." Chu Xingchen had a headache.

It took so long to plan and spend huge amounts of manpower and resources to achieve the current results. Seeing that the family alliance was about to disintegrate, he knew that he could not be impatient when the final blow came. However, time was really pressing, and the longer it dragged on, the easier it would be for their predicament to be exposed.

The three masters frowned and started thinking after hearing this.

"Third brother, you usually have the most ideas, so why don't you think of a solution? These old guys are as thick-skinned as a city wall. Everyone knows what they do openly and secretly, but they can shamelessly pretend to be ignorant. They really can pretend that no one knows each other." The second master had a quick temper and had long hated the hypocritical faces of those aristocratic families.

"Yes, third brother, do you have any ideas?" Master Xin looked at his third brother expectantly and asked.

"Your Majesty, have you prepared a batch of farm tools?" the third master asked tentatively.

Chu Xingchen secretly arranged people to do this, and logically no one should know about it, but the third master actually asked about it, which made Chu Xingchen stunned.

The third master also knew that this matter could not be said openly. Seeing Chu Xingchen's face change, he felt uneasy and thought to himself that he was almost talking too much.

However, Chu Xingchen still had some trust in the Xin family, but for the sake of safety, he asked seriously: "How did Third Uncle know this?"

The third master was a little nervous, his palms were sweating, but he still explained: "That's... I guessed. When I went down to do business, I heard that all the blacksmiths were recruited. I thought of the farm tools that Bao'er mentioned, so I guessed it. But don't worry, Bao'er's book has not been leaked, and others will definitely not guess it."

Seeing the nervousness of the three masters of the Xin family, Chu Xingchen was silent for a moment and finally spoke again: "Uncle San is perceptive. Is the method that Uncle San thought of related to these farm tools?"

Hearing that Chu Xingchen had no intention of getting angry or blaming him, the third master secretly breathed a sigh of relief and organized his words in his mind before speaking.

"In fact, this matter is simple. Your Majesty, you are the one who is confused. They are maintaining such an ambiguous attitude now. On the one hand, they put down their posture to please us, and on the other hand, they deliberately delay time. Isn't it because they think that we will definitely be weak? As long as we show the slightest sign of fatigue, they will immediately turn against us."

"Aren't you talking nonsense?" Master Xin Er interrupted.

"Listen to what your third brother has to say. Why are you in such a hurry?" the eldest master scolded, and the second master shut up unwillingly.

The Third Master was already used to his Second Brother's quick temper, and he continued without even raising his eyelids: "Since they want to take advantage of the situation, let's remove their fig leaf, let them face each other directly, and completely destroy their possibility of forming an alliance again."

"At the same time, we will distribute new farm tools, which can be used for tilling the soil, saving time and effort. I believe the response will be very good. It will not only stabilize the people's hearts and buy time for us to collect grain seeds, but also let the noble families see our time. You know, each noble family has a lot of land."

"As long as they have demand, we will have another bargaining chip. As the situation changes, they will have no choice but to compromise. Maybe we can even get a batch of oxen for free."

When the people in the room heard this, their eyes lit up. Chu Xingchen didn't hesitate and just did what he said, and directly asked Wangchuan to give the order.

Chu Xingchen was short of staff, so the Xin family took over the matter consciously and were very efficient. Under their leadership, the efficiency of those who were integrated into the team also improved.

The advent of the curved plow directly accelerated the speed of land reclamation. Although there were no oxen and the plow could only be pulled by manpower, the speed was much faster.

When the noble families got the news, they were both envious and hateful. They had been thinking of delaying the situation until the Xin family and the royal court ran out of ammunition and food, and then they could launch a desperate counterattack.

But unexpectedly, not only did they not run out of food, they even invented new things. If this continued, more and more land would be reclaimed, and the people would have their own land to cultivate. Who would come out to find a job? The spring plowing season was approaching, and their lands were still waiting to be cultivated.

In the past few years, they only needed to give people a full meal to work for them. This year, that is obviously not feasible. And with the wages of the Xin family's hired workers as a base, it is impossible for them to lower the price, and they are bound to lose money.

The shop doesn't make money, and farming costs a lot of money. There is also the possibility of a situation where even if you spend money you can't find people to work. Moreover, the Xin family had set up a trap before, causing the noble families who came to show their goodwill to clash with each other again and again. Everyone has to save face, so they will definitely not be able to cooperate in the short term.

Under various pressures, the aristocratic families finally compromised.

The Ministry of Revenue has been packed with people these days, and Manager Zhang has raised his chin two inches high. Isn't that just arrogance? Who wouldn't be that?

When the noble families walked out of this door, they all looked pale, as if they had been severely abused.

In fact, it is true. Now that the identities of the two parties have been exchanged, it is the turn of those arrogant families to be humble. If they do not give them something to make things difficult for them, they will be unworthy of their thin lips.

In fact, the new contract not only did not exploit them, but even provided many rewards.

For example, the top five will receive extra rewards in addition to the normal interest. In addition, the more grain they provide, the more money or other compensation they will receive in the future in addition to new grain as per the contract, such as the qualification to enter the royal court, but there are only ten places available.

However, those noble families did not trust the new royal court and felt that Chu Xingchen was just promising them something. At the same time, because the new contract limited the amount of loans they could receive, the minimum could not be less than ten thousand taels, which made them feel that they were being forced. So after signing the contract, their expressions were not very good.

However, these noble families have been operating in the North for so long that they cannot be easily controlled, especially after they feel they have suffered a great loss.

At this time, they no longer cared about face. After suffering the same loss, they naturally gathered together to discuss how to fight back.

Maybe it's true that there is strength in numbers, and they actually came up with an idea that they learned from what Chu Xingchen and others did before to win back the hearts of the people.

They organized a group of people, compiled a list of how much money and grain each family had contributed, and prepared to distribute it to various parts of the north to let the people know that they were not as cold-blooded as previously rumored.

However, what they did not expect was that as soon as their lists were sorted out, the loan and grain borrowing contracts they signed were made public in detail, and there were special explainers to explain the detailed terms of the contracts to the people, intending to tell the people that those noble families did contribute money and grain, but these were all borrowed from them by the royal court and they would have to pay them back in the future, and double the amount.

This wave of operations directly caused the plans that the noble families had discussed to fail in the womb, and even raised the disgust value to the maximum.