1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1996
On the left of the thin man, a fat man weighing two hundred catties wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, and replied: "I just asked, the people we sent out followed from Leigongzui all the way to the vicinity of Wenfeng Pagoda last night. , Because it was too dark and lost, I didn’t see where the two boats docked, but they searched along the river bank this morning, and confirmed that the two boats should be the ones coming from Ningbo.”

"Since all kinds of evidence have confirmed the origin of this group of people, and they refused to listen to persuasion to leave Yangzhou City, we have to find a way to show them some color!" The man with gray temples who spoke earlier said softly. Wiping off the grains of salt on his hands, he said to the others: "No matter what their background is, Yangzhou City must not lose its rules!"

"Yes, yes, Master He is right! You have to teach these ignorant guys a lesson!"

"That makes sense! Then listen to Master He's arrangement!"

Everyone echoed the man called "He Ye", expressing that they should make this group of strangers suffer a little bit.Tens of thousands of catties of salt is not a particularly large amount to them. Even if it is sold out in Yangzhou City, it will not have a real impact on the industry under their name. Salt, this is tantamount to slapping them in the face of these local salt merchants in public, and it is definitely not acceptable to pretend to be deaf and dumb.

The fat man who had been wiping his sweat didn't follow the crowd, but asked the people present a somewhat unsightly question: "Just because we are busy here, is there any movement on the other side of the river?"

The voice in the room suddenly fell silent, and someone responded later: "The people in Hedong may not have received the news. It is normal that there is no movement at this time."

"Come on!" the fat man shook his head and said, "I don't know how many eyeliners from Hedong are on the Yan Wharf outside the south gate. The group of outsiders have already set up a stall for a long time. If there is no news, the seven surnames in Hedong You can get out of Yangzhou now."

The room fell into silence again. It seemed that these people were very afraid of the "seven surnames in Hedong" mentioned by the fat man, and did not dare to express their opinions easily.

At this time, Gong Shiqi and Ji Yuanqing were also researching information about the local salt merchants.The Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau searched and rescued some information about Yangzhou salt merchants through various channels in the early stage. Although the first-hand information is not much and not very detailed, it still has some reference value.

"According to the information we have so far, the local salt merchants in Yangzhou are mainly divided into two camps. One is from Shanxi and Shaanxi, and the other is from Huizhou in southern Anhui. The Shanxi salt merchants came early, so they mostly live in the east of Yangzhou and the Grand Canal. The Huizhou merchants who entered Yangzhou relatively late settled in the area between the east and south of the canal, which is a little farther from Yangzhou City. Most of the manors on the bank we saw when we came yesterday They are all the estates of Huizhou salt merchants."

Ji Yuanqing sorted out the known intelligence information while comparing it with the map in hand.Since there is a conflict of interest between the two camps of Yangzhou salt merchants, this is likely to become a variable in this mission, so they must learn as much as possible about the situation of local salt merchants, and then try to use it .

The camp of the Shanxi salt merchants was headed by the three families of He, Lu, and Wang, while the camp of the Hui merchants was dominated by the seven surnames of Yang, Dai, Ji, Ma, Xu, Cui, and Guo.In terms of financial resources and operating scale, the two sides can only be said to be about the same, with little difference. The main difference lies in the operating strategy and development direction.

Judging from the current situation, the Anhui merchants following the official route obviously have the momentum to come from behind. Not only have they established a firm foothold in Yangzhou, but they have also succeeded in taking part of the salt trade that was originally monopolized by Shanxi salt merchants. market share.Shanshan salt merchants, who regard the local salt industry as a taboo, certainly will not let their competitors take the lead. In recent years, open and secret battles have become more frequent, and competition has gradually expanded from the business field to more fields.

"I have previously collected information about the Yangzhou Salt Merchant Organization Salt Protection Team. If you compare it with the camps, both camps have actually taken measures in this regard." Gong Shiqi scratched his head and said: "It is said to be the Salt Protection Team, but it is actually this It is a weapon used by the two factions of salt merchants to fight privately, but we still lack more convincing evidence as to which side made the attack on Ningbo Salt.”

In theory, of course, there is another possibility, that is, the two factions of salt merchants have attacked separately or even jointly attacked the salt transport team from Ningbo, but this possibility is unlikely because of the conflict between the two factions of salt merchants. The degree of conflict of interest is far greater than the threat posed by external competition, and it is unlikely that they will choose reconciliation just because of the appearance of Ningbo Salt.

However, Gong Shiqi's strategy of mobilizing one faction against another faction can only be used after identifying the mastermind behind the scenes, and the information they have now seems to be insufficient to make an accurate judgment on this.

"Several groups of people came this morning to drive us out of Yangzhou, which ones are they from?" Ji Yuanqing remembered an important clue that was close at hand.

"Two of them came to one side, they were impeccably average, and their attitudes were almost the same. I didn't feel any different positions." Gong Shiqi shook his head, saying that this clue did not provide valuable information.

The four groups of people who came in the morning all had the same purpose, which was to threaten Gong Shiqi to leave Yangzhou as soon as possible. One group asked him to leave all the salt he had brought in, and the other group went too far. They also planned to collect them together, and the remaining two groups were not polite, and asked Gong Shiqi to either deal with the salt price to himself, or pay 1 taels of silver as "road money" before leaving Yangzhou safely.

Undoubtedly, neither the Anhui-style salt merchants nor the Shanxi-Shanxi salt merchants will welcome foreign competitors, and the attitude is very clear, that is, to let the outsiders back out of difficulties and not try to do things here .

Ji Yuanqing sighed and said, "You really treat us like persimmons!"

"So I have to be tough and let them realize that we are not so easy to deal with. This may make their master appear earlier." Gong Shiqi's tone was relaxed, but in fact he also knew that such means might provoke anger The opponent ignores the government and directly uses force to solve the problem, so he has to bear certain risks for this.

Their current situation is undoubtedly very passive. The two large boats of salt brought in to lure snakes out of the cave are simply weapons to absorb hatred, and they have to guard these two boats all the time, waiting for the opportunity to collide head-on with the local salt merchants.

But only when the opponent makes a move, can they confirm the existence of the mysterious musketeer team, and follow the vines to find out who is behind the scenes who provided these weapons to the salt merchants.

Another possibility to solve the problem is what Gong Shiqi expected, to determine the real opponent through local intelligence sources, and this also requires a positive contact with the salt merchants first.

Either way, it seems that it is not too easy to achieve the goal.But fortunately, before they set off, they were already mentally prepared for the difficult situation they might encounter, so although the current situation was complicated and dangerous, they were not panicked, and they were still analyzing information in an orderly manner, preparing for what might happen next. status.

At this time, on the south bank of the canal, in a manor only Li Xu away from them, several salt merchants belonging to another camp also gathered together, discussing the group of foreign salt merchants who appeared outside Yangzhou City today.

A middle-aged man with a goatee said: "Ningbo's salt merchants are really lingering! There have been so many things going on recently, and they dared to intensify and come to Yangzhou to grab business! What do you think?"

"This group of people is quite stubborn. I sent someone over to test the truth in the morning. The other party didn't know if there was any reliance, but they were not polite at all!" The man in gray sitting next to him took up the conversation: "It is said that Not only do they not plan to leave Yangzhou City immediately, but they also want to settle here! If this is true, the situation in Yangzhou will be even more complicated in the future."

A white-haired old man sitting at the top laughed and said: "Is the confrontation across the river going to become a three-legged confrontation? That's really interesting!"

The man in gray said anxiously: "Master Dai, don't let Ningbo salt merchants enter Yangzhou! These people sell refined salt as rough salt, and they intend to fight with us on price to steal our business. If you let them in, these people will It will only be more limitless than those Shanshan salt merchants!"

The old man called Master Dai replied: "Xiao Guo, why are you panicking? How did I ever say that I would let Ningbo salt merchants enter Yangzhou?"

The gray-clothed man called "Xiao Guo" is about 40 to [-] years old, but he still behaved respectfully in front of this Master Dai. Hearing this, he quickly apologized, "It's the younger generation who is being rude. Don't blame Master Dai!"

The old man waved his hand to show that he didn't care, and then said: "When I, Dai Yingda, came to Yangzhou with the elders of the clan, the situation I encountered was actually similar to that of these Ningbo salt merchants. I was constantly threatened by the local salt merchants, asking our Dai clan to leave Yangzhou, and you are not allowed to engage in business related to salt characters. Hehe, if you were timid at the time, how could there be Daijiazhuang today?"

Huizhou merchants entered Yangzhou to operate the salt industry in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Dai Yingda’s family was actually not the first group of people who came here. However, Huizhou merchants had no roots in Yangzhou in the early days, and they could not compete with Shanshan, which almost monopolized the Jianghuai salt industry at that time. Salt merchant.Moreover, in order to crowd out and attack latecomers, these northern salt merchants even made special allies to deal with the unstable Huizhou merchants.

Many Huizhou merchant families who entered Yangzhou in the early days did not survive to the end under the attack of various means, but the Dai family was lucky. Salt merchants fought back and forth, and after two generations of struggle, the Dai family also successfully took root in Yangzhou, and Dai Yingda has also become a very prestigious figure of the older generation among the salt merchants in Huizhou .

It was also because of this that everyone present was basically regarded as his junior, and they didn't dare to interrupt his lecture, so they listened obediently.

Dai Yingda went on to say: "Ningbo people only brought two boats of salt, and you all panicked. Why don't you think about how much salt we compete with Shanxi salt merchants every year? It's more than [-] boats! A few foreign salt merchants, We won't be able to achieve success in a short period of time, our real opponents are still the gang of old enemies across the river!"

"In the past ten years or so, our business situation has been getting better and better, and the life of Shanxi salt merchants has become more and more difficult. If there are new competitors entering Yangzhou at this time, who do you think will be more anxious? The nearby state capital is out. Who else could do so many attacks on salt transport teams from other places? These Ningbo people really plan to settle down in the local area, so we are not the most anxious ones. We might as well sit on the wall and watch the show first, let them fight first .”

The man with the goatee replied: "It's Mr. Dai who is old-fashioned and considerate. In this way, we really don't need to get involved in this matter. Since the Ningbo salt merchants have a tough attitude, let them confront the Shanshan salt merchants first." Once the collision is completed, no matter which side loses, it will be beneficial to us and harmless."

The gray-clothed man added: "If the two groups can't fight, then we can help out by lighting a fire for them."

Dai Yingda put down the teacup in his hand, and said slowly: "We don't need to intervene, there will definitely be some action on the other side of the river, they don't even want to give the Ningbo salt merchants the surrounding state capitals, how can they let the other side be safe and sound?" Yangzhou settled down. Actually, I am very curious. It is said that Ningbo salt merchants have a strong background. They are backed by the local government and taken care of by Haihan people. How come they have been attacked so many times, but they have not even heard the slightest hint of a counterattack. The old man Ma, your family has a lot of business in Ningbo, what do you think?"

The person named by Dai Yingda had gray hair and looked a little old. Hearing the words, he responded: "I have been to Ningbo three times this year, and I even went to Zhoushan Island controlled by the Haihan people. With all due respect, if the sea The Han people feel at ease to intervene in this matter, let alone the few salt merchants across the river, even the Yangzhou government will not be able to do so."

The man in gray asked: "Master Ma, is this Haihan really so powerful?"

Ma Ye replied: "Xiao Guo, you are used to spending time and drinking in Yangzhou, and you don't know how much the outside world has changed! The Haihan people have occupied many places in the coastal areas south of the Yangtze River Estuary, far more than Ningbo. It’s just the Zhoushan Island in the government, and they also have settled in Shandong and Liaodong in the north. These places were not obtained from the local government by bribery, but the places where they sent troops to grab them. My Ming Dynasty In fact, part of the reason for making friends with Haihan is that they are worried that one day the Haihan people will expand their ambitions and invade directly, and the garrison of the coastal state capital will not be able to stop them!"

The man in gray said disapprovingly: "No matter how powerful the Haihan people are, they are still at sea! This Yangzhou is hundreds of miles away from the sea, can they still send a fleet to Yangzhou?"

Master Ma sneered and said: "Two years ago, the governor of Zhejiang also thought the same way, but he was blocked in the city of Hangzhou by the fleet of the Haihan people. The Haihan people are in a hurry, but they can do anything!"

(End of this chapter)