1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1995
The quality of Ningbo salt is obviously better than that of Jianghuai salt, and it is easy to tell the difference between the hatchback and the hatchback. Therefore, the bulk salt sold by this group of foreigners on the wharf is not a local product just by looking at it.After the nearby salt merchant sent someone over to confirm, he sent a steward over to find out the truth.

The steward boarded the boat along the gangway on the shore, and seeing a man on the deck leisurely sitting on a rattan chair drinking tea, he immediately stepped forward to greet him and said, "Open in Xiazhuang, and reach the management of the firm." , what is your name?"

Gong Shiqi smiled and replied: "My surname is Gong, and the individual names are all neatly arranged."

"So it's Boss Gong, I've admired him for a long time!" Zhuang Kai arched his hands and said, "I don't know where the salt that Boss Gong sells here comes from?"

In fact, Zhuang Kai already knew about the origins of the two ships through other news channels, but he still wanted to see how the parties would respond to the questioning, whether they would evade and cover up and lie about other sources, or try to muddle through with vague words.

Gong Shiqi pointed to the rattan chair opposite him and said, "The manager should sit down and have a cup of tea first!"

"Then bother you!" Zhuang Kai saw that the man surnamed Gong was not in a hurry, as if he hadn't realized his real intention of approaching him at all, so he was not in a hurry to get angry at the moment, and wanted to see the other party's attitude again.

Gong Shiqi poured a cup of tea for Zhuang Kai, and then he said unhurriedly: "The salt I sell is official salt with a salt reference certificate. As for where it is produced, does it matter? If Manager Zhuang wants to buy Salt, why not report the amount, the price can be negotiated later.”

Zhuang Kai was taken aback when he heard the words. If the "Gang Salt System" implemented by this dynasty is followed, there is indeed no problem with the other party's statement.As long as the salt is pulled from the salt field with the official salt reference certificate, it is considered legal salt. It has nothing to do with where it is produced, but the quantity, price, and where it is sold. It stands to reason that these should be followed. Salt cited on the certificate.

Of course, the salt import acts as a bond of interest between the government and the salt merchants, and there is actually quite a lot of room for manipulation in the middle. It is not uncommon to sell a large amount of private salt as official salt after taking the salt import. It is also the usual practice of salt merchants to sell in the specified sales area mentioned above, and to sell across regions by themselves.Generally, except for the salt department and the salt merchants, no one cares too much about where the salt on the market comes from and whether it can be legally sold locally.

Zhuang Kaidao: "Boss Gong, may I ask, how much salt did you put on the two boats? If you packed them together, how much would you charge?"

Of course Gong Shiqi didn't believe that the other party was so upright, so he bought all the salt he brought in as soon as they met, and smiled immediately: "The two ships each contained [-] catties of salt, a total of [-] catties. If I buy them all at once, then I will calculate it at a discount of [-]% off the market price of refined salt. If I don’t make money, I will treat it as making friends.”

Zhuang Kai sneered and said, "Thirty percent off? Your Excellency thinks too much of your status! For your honor's sake, I paid 200 taels of silver to collect these two boats of salt. One boat costs 100 taels. You hurry up and arrange manpower." Unload the cargo, unload all the salt on the pier before dark, and then get out of Yangzhou overnight!"

After hearing this unceremonious reprimand, Gong Shiqi smiled instead of anger: "Does Guanshi Zhuang regard himself as the leader of the salt department? The salt business in this place is decided by Guanshi Zhuang." ?”

The opponent's turnaround was a little bit beyond Gong Shiqi's expectations. Although he thought that the opponent's purpose was to find trouble for him, but seeing Zhuang Kai sitting down to talk, he thought it was okay to communicate with the opponent first. Opinion, to see if I can take the opportunity to match the other party's words, I never thought that Zhuang Kai probably didn't take himself seriously at all, and started to speak wild words without saying a few words.

If it was another occasion, Gong Shiqi thought that he could break the guy's neck with a single face-to-face meeting, but he also knew that it was not an occasion for fighting. It will make myself fall into a passive situation and affect the development of the follow-up plan, so I can only bear with it first, and don't care about verbal offenses with this Zhuang Kai.

Zhuang Kai probably didn't expect the other party's attitude to be so tough, he glared and said: "Your Excellency is quite courageous! I would like to advise Your Excellency, don't toast or eat fine wine!"

Gong Shiqi smiled and said, "I've always had a good capacity for drinking, and I can swallow any kind of wine. Besides, in broad daylight, can you still rob me of these two boats?"

Zhuang Kai said angrily: "Your Excellency, don't be stubborn, I'm afraid that not only the two boats of salt will not be able to leave, you will have to stay in Yangzhou even with the boat!"

"Then give it a try!" Gong Shiqi had never seen anything before, and he was prepared for the risk of this trip, so how could he be easily frightened by the verbal threats of this little steward? Shouted back.

Zhuang Kai was probably rarely confronted face-to-face by someone like this. Hearing this, he was so angry that he couldn't answer for a while, got up and walked a few steps, then turned around and said harshly: "You wait!"

Gong Shiqi held his teacup and didn't even look at him when he spoke: "Okay, then go and come back!"

Zhuang Kai got off the boat angrily and returned to the shore, and quickly left here with his men.Gong Shiqi watched these people leave from the side of the boat, and smiled helplessly. He knew that this was just the beginning, and the real troubles should still be behind.But this time I came to Yangzhou to look for trouble, and since I was not familiar with the place, I could only find a way to stimulate the other party and let him jump out on his own initiative.

Although the other party is unlikely to fight in the current environment, Gong Shiqi still carefully ordered everyone to be on alert. There were more than ten people on each of the two ships holding weapons in ambush in the cabin, waiting for the critical moment to arrive. Can be ejected from the cabin.

As early as last year, the Military Intelligence Bureau had been equipped with a small amount of seven-shot rifles that were originally only qualified for first-line ace troops. However, this advanced weapon can only be used when performing certain special field missions.The Security Bureau also installed this weapon, but because the military had the advantage of being close to the water, the field team of the Security Bureau got this rifle a whole year later than the military.

With this kind of advanced weapon, coupled with certain adaptation training, even the basic action squad, the current firepower output intensity has doubled several times, and the attack power is almost equivalent to at least one platoon of ordinary musketeers.In a place like Yangzhou, as long as the garrison does not make a big move, Gong Shiqi is sure that his own manpower is enough to withstand the opponent's offensive.

Of course, things like muskets cannot be used casually. As long as you use this thing once, you will basically reveal your identity. After all, this kind of continuous gun is only used by the Haihan family, and there is no semicolon in the world.Unless it was absolutely necessary, Gong Shiqi could not reveal his identity in public, so as not to affect the diplomatic relationship between Daming and Haihan.

So in addition to the musketeers just in case, the others also prepared weapons based on eyebrow-level sticks.More than 20 sailors from the navy have received formal military training. The eyebrow-qi stick can be used as a musket with a bayonet attached. Ordinary people will definitely not be able to stand up to their specially trained joint hand attack.

As for the government, Gong Shiqi didn't think any officials would come forward to get involved so soon.He has been dealing with governments at all levels in the past year or so, and he has a relatively in-depth understanding of some habits of local officials in Daming. Although officials usually receive benefits, they will definitely deal with troubles for the benefactors, but if they come from unknown sources Officials will generally take a wait-and-see attitude, lest they can't deal with it if they come forward rashly, or use the wrong method, but put themselves in the trap instead.

Especially for the salt industry dispute, since the Jianghuai salt merchants have always placed the location outside Yangzhou to attack the Ningbo salt transport team, Gong Shiqi believes that part of the reason for this is that Yangzhou officials do not want to appear on the territory under their jurisdiction. For troubles such as armed conflicts, the salt merchants took into account the feelings of officials, so they would look far away and arrange attacks in other state capitals.

Now that Gong Shiqi first arrived in Yangzhou, the local salt merchants hadn't found out about him yet, and probably no official would take the initiative to solicit trouble for the salt merchants at this time.Moreover, the salt that Gong Shiqi transported to Yangzhou was legal official salt in terms of formalities, and nothing happened after he arrived in Yangzhou. Even if the government came forward, it would be difficult for the government to have an excuse to trouble him.

Gong Shiqi knew that the news that "[-] jin of refined salt was brought in from a foreign salt merchant" would soon spread among the local salt merchant circles, but he thought that the people who would come to his door were not just those who came to trouble him, maybe There will also be people who come with other purposes.

However, until noon, three groups of people came after Zhuang Kai, all of whom were subordinates of the salt merchants, but without exception, they all asked Gong Shiqi to stop the current sales and leave Yangzhou City as soon as possible, and their attitudes were almost the same as those of Zhuang Kai. , all in a condescending command tone.

Gong Shiqi suspected that these groups of people hadn't communicated with each other before they came. Obviously, he didn't accept this at all, but these people still tried to threaten him with the lowest level of means.Of course, he was not polite, and they all turned back one by one.He didn't have much to say to these errand runners, he could only wait for the real master behind them to show up before making any plans.

Ji Yuanqing returned to the pier before lunch. The work he was in charge of went smoothly. His colleagues had already hired a carriage and horse dealer in a town east of the Grand Canal, and there were enough carriages and horses for them. Called when evacuating Yangzhou.But there is also a prerequisite for this, that is, they must first successfully evacuate to the east bank of the Grand Canal.

"The place is about ten miles away from Yangzhou City. The town is on the riverside. You can see the signboard of the car and horse dealership when you get off the boat." Ji Yuanqing explained the direction of the town to Gong Shiqi with a picture: "As for The route to evacuate to the predetermined location by the sea has already been implemented.”

It is only now that the land retreat route is being implemented, not because the work efficiency of the Military Intelligence Bureau is too low, it is really a helpless move.Originally, the Military Intelligence Bureau did not arrange for people to lurk in Yangzhou City. It was only in the past few days that a few people were transferred from Yingtian Mansion to Yangzhou to stand in front of this operation.And the work of arranging the carriages and horses was only completed one day before they arrived in Yangzhou, so the action route from the carriage and horses to the scheduled coastal pick-up point could only be confirmed at this time.

Moreover, this place is about [-] miles away from the seaside. Considering the time it will take to confirm the route on the way back and forth, it is very likely that we have to give up sending people to conduct on-the-spot investigations, and can only formulate the retreat route based on the information provided by the chariot and horse dealer.

After hearing the situation introduced by Ji Yuanqing, Gong Shiqi couldn't help frowning. He also knew that the Military Intelligence Bureau had tried its best to arrange this matter, but if it was done in this way, the risk of retreating by land was actually no worse than taking the water route. How much smaller.Even with enough chariots, horses and guides, it would probably take them two days to retreat to the sea, which is not even as fast as going down the river by boat.The most terrible thing is that they have to try to cross the Grand Canal before turning to land, but since they can also cross the river by boat, why not choose to retreat directly by boat, so the chance of escape seems to be greater.

However, Gong Shiqi did not open his mouth to question the arrangement of the Military Intelligence Bureau. After all, this is a backup retreat route, and no one can tell whether it will be really used. It can only be regarded as a precautionary measure.

Then Gong Shiqi also described the situation in the morning to Ji Yuanqing, quarreled four times, and received various threats, but so far, he has not seen any signs of aggressive measures from the other party.

"The salt has already been sold for several hundred catties." Gong Shiqi said helplessly, "At this rate, it should be no problem to sell a thousand catties of salt today."

Most of the people who came to buy salt were civilians, and they bought a little loose salt by the pound.The price of salt sold here by Gong Shiqi is slightly lower than the price of salt on the market, and the quality is even better, so many people still came here after hearing the news without the salt merchants publicly obstructing it.Of course, whether some of the sold salt has been put on the salt merchant's desk and become a sample for other people's research, Gong Shiqi thinks the answer is yes.Four groups of people have come here in the morning, which shows how much the local salt merchants attach importance to him as an outsider.

In fact, this is also the case. In a manor less than two miles away from this wharf, the top figures of several salt merchants have gathered together to study the foreign salt they just bought.

"This is Ningbo salt!" A man with gray temples gently let the fine grains of salt fall from between his fingers: "This salt is finer, whiter and less impurity than the salt we sell. And the price is even lower, apart from the salt from Ningbo, there won’t be another one!”

"The news was sent back from Ningbo a few days ago that someone brought two large boatloads of salt to Yangzhou from the local area. It must be the group who appeared today." Another thin man replied: "Didn't the Lu family send a special order to send salt to Yangzhou?" Manpower went downstream to Leigongzui to guard the two boats, so can we confirm their origins?"

(End of this chapter)