Qin Li smiled and adjusted his comfortable sitting posture, saying, "You have been thinking too much. The country has been established for more than 100 years. How long has the Ming Dynasty been established? You don't know the foundation of the country at all, so you have this feeling. Don't worry, victory must belong to us."

Kong Lianshun stared at him: "I believe that the Qin people must have thought so too back then. They were killed by Ming people in a few ways, and the Chu people must have thought so too. But they didn't even fight seriously a few times before they were killed by Ming people inexplicably. Lord Qin, you said this, it won't reassure me, but I'll be even more frightened."

Qin Li's face suddenly turned dark and he said with some disdain: "How can Qin Chu compare with Da Qi!"

"Qin Chu is indeed not comparable to Da Qi. Da Qi is much stronger than them, but the current Ming Kingdom is no longer the past. Lord Qin, you have been busy for Da Qi for the rest of your life, working hard and fearless life and death. But how much do you know about Ming Kingdom? As far as I know, you have spent the past ten years on the Ming people. If you even look at Ming Kingdom this way and look down on Ming people, I have to worry that the future winner will be them." Kong Lianshun did not mean to take care of Qin Li's face and said bluntly.

Qin Li sat up straight without realizing it. He was still a sober person after all. "Why do you think so?"

"Because I have lived in Changning County for many years and lived in Chang'an for another year. I have been back in Taoyuan County for four years. I am just a small person, so I can't stand taller than you when I look at the problem and see farther. I can only look in front of me, look at the present, look at people like me or those who are worse than me." Kong Lianshun said: "But I saw from these people that the two countries are completely different."

"Tell me how you feel." Qin Li nodded and said, "You have some truths. Looking at the problem from different perspectives can make it more comprehensive. This may also be beneficial to me."

Kong Lianshun thought for a while and said, "Mr. Qin has always emphasized the foundation of Qi. I don't deny this. Moreover, Qi is also undergoing earth-shaking changes. This will indeed increase the strength of Qi in the future. But Master. Qin, do you know what Qi feels to me?"

"powerful?"

"It's indeed very strong. Now he is like a strong man in his forties." Kong Lianshun said.

Qin Li couldn't help but laugh: "Your feeling is very accurate. The Qi Kingdom is getting stronger day by day. In time, he will be stronger."

Kong Lianshun said lightly: "Mr. Qin, a strong man, at the age of forty, is already at his peak. In the future, he will go downhill. Don't glare at me. I know that today's Qi State is indeed stronger than the Qi State in the past, and in the future, or more than the Qi State in the past, but this is a vertical comparison, which is compared with the Qi State in the past. But now, we want to compare him with the Ming State."

"How old is Mingren in your eyes?"

"Twenty years old!" Kong Lianshun said: "In the future, he will truly become stronger and stronger. Now he can compete with Qi State, but he still has decades to grow. The more he goes, the strength of the Ming people will be more obvious. Qi State is indeed becoming stronger day by day, but the speed of becoming stronger than Ming people is far from enough."

Qin Li's face was very gloomy.

"You mean, if we go to war with Ming now, we will have a better chance of winning?"

"The number of five or five." Kong Lianshun said decisively.

"What's going on?"

"As time goes by, the possibility of Daqi winning will become smaller and smaller, unless there is any major change." Kong Lianshun.

Qin Li laughed: "Kong Lianshun, Kong Lianshun, you really only saw something from a low level, but what you said was still a bit inspiring to me. I will submit a report. What I want to tell you is that since the beginning of the emperor, we have never underestimated the Ming people, and we have never paid any attention to them before. So, don't worry."

"I'm just worried that your attention is still far from enough." Kong Lianshun's eyes did not weaken at all. He picked up the wine bottle on the table and placed it in front of Qin Li: "Do you know how much this bottle of wine costs?"

"I know this, ten taels of silver per bottle." Qin Li said: "The best and strongest wine made by the Ming people. Not only do the fighting men in the army like it, but even ordinary people also like it, but not many people can afford it."

"But do you know how much this bottle and this wine cost?" Kong Lianwen asked.

Qin Li picked up the bottle and looked at it: "This bottle is a good glass at first glance, and it must be expensive. With this strong wine, ten taels of silver, it doesn't sound expensive."

Kong Lianshun sneered: "I thought so before, and he told me the truth only after I met a man who specialized in selling this kind of wine to Qi Kingdom and successfully became friends with him. He entered this kind of bottle from the official workshop of the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver and silver. As far as he knew, the cost of the workshop of the Ming Dynasty made this kind of bottle was only one cent and ten times the profit. He bought this kind of bottle and then filled it with strong liquor. The cost of this kind of wine would not exceed one tael of silver or two taels of silver. It would be sold to the merchants of Daqi, and one bottle would be eight taels of silver."

Qin Liyi Dai: "Didn't it mean that glass is very expensive?"

"That's what the people of Qi think. The Ming Dynasty has long conquered the technology of making glass. It will shock you to lose your teeth when you say it. The raw material for making glass is sand." Kong Lianshun said.

Qin Li couldn't help but be stunned.

"The Ming Dynasty did not make this kind of spirit wine on a large scale because it consumed food. Most of the spirit wines made in the past were used as medicines in the army, but now they can brew them on a large scale. Why? Because they imported the large grain from Qi. Perhaps Qi was complacent about selling new grains with old grains? Didn't you know that when you came back, you earned more money by the Ming people. The little money you obtained from selling grains had been earned by the Ming people a hundred times a thousand times."

Qin Li couldn't help but breathe heavily.

"So, we must prohibit the sale of food to the Ming people."

"It's useless." Kong Lianshun sighed: "You are prohibited from selling, but merchants will smuggle Ming people because of high profits. Ming people have developed the habit of drinking strong liquor in Qi people. Your ban on selling grain will only increase the price of this liquor. I'm afraid that the Ming people will make more money."

"Can we ban the sale of this kind of wine in Qi Kingdom?"

"Don't the army need it?" Kong Lianshun said coldly: "Has Daqi mastered the technology of brewing this kind of spirits? And I am afraid that the stricter the ban, the more popular the trend. And the Ming Dynasty watched you ban the sale?"

Qin Li couldn't help but be stunned.

"Actually, it's far more than this!" Kong Lianshun sighed, "Did you see the sand sugar that was being unloaded in front of the door? The Ming people imported a large amount of this sand sugar from Qi, transported it back to China, processed and made into frosting, rock sugar, and rainbow candy that has been popular for many years, and then returned to Qi. Lord Qin, you may not know about business, but I am sure that the workshops that make frosting and rock sugar in Qi are about to go bankrupt. Because the prices of these products from the Ming people, even if they are transported to Qi from thousands of miles away, are still cheaper than those made by Qi themselves."

Qin Li stared at a business downstairs, where he was carrying bags of sand candy into the house.

"I am a businessman, so I look at the problem from the perspective of a businessman. What I see is that the Qi people sold to Ming Kingdom, which are all the most basic raw materials, while the Ming people sold to Qi Kingdom, which are the same finished products. The price difference between Qi Kingdom is only investigated and converted, and you will understand the huge gap. Daqi seems to make money in the trade between the two countries, but it is far less than that of Ming Kingdom. The Ming people are using Qi Kingdom's resources to make money from Qi Kingdom."

"I will report what you said to the above." Qin Li gritted his teeth and said, "Does the officials of our Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works eat shit?"

"They only saw that the treasury was full, but they did not see the hidden crisis. I have been doing business in recent years and communicated more with some big merchants, so I slowly realized the trick." Kong Lianshun sighed: "What's even more terrifying is that the merchants in Ming Dynasty seem to be implementing a strategy in a unified manner, that is, the products produced by some of the most basic industries in Daqi were sold to Qi at a lower price. On the surface, they didn't even make money."

"Didn't you just say that merchants are seeking profits? What do they want? Is the Ming Dynasty court oppressing them?"

"Of course not. They do not make money on the surface, but secretly, they have another way of coming." Kong Lianshun said: "These merchants borrowed loans from the two major banks in the Ming Dynasty, and the interest rate for ordinary loans is 20% or even higher. The difference here is where the profits of these merchants are, because they can lend a large amount of money and invest in industries with higher outputs, thereby making up for the losses in this regard. In other words, these merchants are subsidized by the court. Can Daqi understand this method?"

Qin Li said silently. Even if he understood, he was afraid that Da Qi would not be able to do such a thing.

"Master Qin, they are quietly destroying the foundation of Daqi." Kong Lianshun lamented: "But Daqi is still happy and thinks he is planning to do it. He thinks that everything will be fine if the Ming people are isolated from the banks. If this situation continues, I am afraid that the people of Daqi will become poorer and poorer. Have you ever seen the lives of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty? Take Taoyuan County as an ordinary farmer. An ordinary farmer earns hundreds of taels of silver a year. Their taxes are extremely low, and there is no corvee service. The past corvee service has even become a means to increase their income. The Ming Dynasty court seemed very poor, but his people were really rich. When the Ming Dynasty emperor needed money, he issued so-called national debts. No matter how much it was issued, the Ming Dynasty could consume it cleanly. In other words, the Ming Dynasty emperor only needed money, and he could gather a huge amount of wealth at any time."

Qin Li took a deep breath: "I need to go and see what you said in person, I want to go to the Ming country."

"That's too dangerous. There are many people in Ming Dynasty who recognize you." Kong Lianshun shook his head and said.

"It's okay, I can live until now, so I naturally have my means. In addition, I will arrange someone to look for the little sister Fan you mentioned immediately, so I will not mislead your affairs."
Chapter completed!