1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2172
As one of the busiest ports in the eastern coastal area of ​​Ming Dynasty, Dinghai Port has hundreds of people arriving or leaving the port every day. Some people are unwilling to leave this highly competitive port to find another way out, but at the same time there are more People come here with the expectation of getting rich, convinced that they can make a fortune in this place full of gold.

Just as Yu Chengli and Gonzales were saying goodbye, a lucky boat slowly docked at the pier next to them. The boat stretched out a gangplank to the pier, and then a five-year-old man in a black silk robe was followed by several entourages. Surrounded by them, they walked ashore slowly.Although the old man's appearance was not impressive, but the attendants around him were all dressed in uniform clothes, which made him look like a wealthy family.

However, there are too many dignitaries entering and leaving Zhoushan, and it is not uncommon to have a group of servants around, so the arrival of this group of people did not attract the attention of others, not even Yu Chengli and Gonzales who are not far away. Keep an eye out for these guys coming.

There were already men of the old man in black waiting at the pier, and the carriage was prepared in advance. The old man did not stop at the pier after getting off the boat. After boarding the carriage, the group left the port and headed for the city.

"Is there any new trend after the Haihan army in Zhoushan returned to the camp? They went out to fight before, and did they have any definite news about the results of the battle?" On the way, the old man couldn't wait to ask his men stationed in Zhoushan about the current situation on the island.

This old man is Ma Zhengping, a Yangzhou salt merchant who visited Zhoushan before the East China Sea Fleet set off.At that time, he was representing the Anhui salt merchants in Yangzhou to seek peace from Haihan, and by the way, he was looking for opportunities for future cooperation.At that time, Yang Yun, the chief business officer, received him in Zhoushan. The two sides negotiated relatively smoothly, and reached a cooperation intention for the development of the salt industry in Yangzhou, and even negotiated for Ma Zhengping to set up a business in Zhoushan. Long term business.

However, at that time, Haihan’s high-level officials had confirmed that they would send troops to attack Hirado. Shi Diwen asked Yang Yun to suspend the approval of foreign businessmen’s plans to purchase land and property on Zhoushan Island in order to ensure stability in the rear. As a result, the entry of Yangzhou salt merchants was temporarily blocked.After watching the military parade on Zhoushan Island, Ma Zhengping returned to Yangzhou, leaving only two of his subordinates to follow up on Zhoushan.

After the East China Sea Fleet came back, Zhoushan, which was under military control during the war, gradually restored normal social order, and various temporarily suspended commercial activities also began to restart.When Ma Zhengping's subordinates heard that the temporary restrictions on foreign businessmen had been lifted, they hurriedly sent the news back to Yangzhou.After Ma Zhengping received the news, he rushed to Zhoushan as soon as possible, hoping to strike while the iron was hot and cooperate with Haihan officials according to the previously negotiated conditions.

Before going to see Yang Yun, Ma Zhengping had to confirm the results of Haihan's East China Sea Fleet's overseas operations.If you win the battle, everything is easy to say, but if the Haihan army loses the battle, you may have to wait and see for a while.

These messages were not described in detail in the letter sent back to Yangzhou, so after getting off the ship, Ma Zhengping was eager to implement the relevant information first, so as to judge what measures he should take next.

Of course, from Ma Zhengping's standpoint, he definitely hoped that the Haihan army could defeat the Japanese and completely cut off the source of weapons for the salt merchants in Yangzhou, Shanshan and Shaanxi, so that the Huizhou salt merchants would have a chance to defeat their competitors.

The subordinates who stayed in Zhoushan reported the recent news to him. The Zhoushan military had officially announced the victory of the overseas campaign, and there was reliable news that the Hirado Port in Japan was completely razed to the ground by the Haihan army.

"What? Hirado Port is gone?" Ma Zhengping couldn't believe it when he heard the news.Although he has never been to Hirado, he also knows that Japan across the sea mainly relies on Hirado Port for cross-border trade.Almost all kinds of commodities shipped from Daming to Japan flowed into various parts of Japan through Hirado Port.

However, Haihan sent troops to completely destroy Hirado Port this time. Ma Zhengping felt that his imagination was too lacking, and he never expected that Haihan sent troops to make such a big move.

"Did they... slaughter Hirado?" Ma Zhengping thought about it, and seemed to think that this was probably the most likely scenario, otherwise it would be hard for him to imagine how Haihan would raze a port city to the ground.

"According to the news that the villain found in the local area, the Haihan army took away all the local people after the war, and then burned down Hirado City!"

Ma Zhengping couldn't help being surprised when he heard this, transporting all the local people away was much more difficult than massacring the city, the Haihan people really would spend so much effort to clean up the mess?
"The news is true?" Ma Zhengping felt that this matter still needs to be implemented, maybe the Haihan people are just exaggerating and deliberately expanding the results of the battle.

"When the East China Sea Fleet came back, it carried a lot of Japanese on board, and many local businessmen also withdrew to Zhoushan with the fleet. The villain specially went to meet some Han people who came to Zhoushan from Hirado, and they all said the same thing. The Haihan people did evacuate Hirado. Many Japanese were transported to other places for resettlement, and at least a thousand people from Zhoushan were distributed to various towns.”

Ma Zhengping still doesn't know Hai Han well enough, otherwise he should be very clear about how much Hai Han needs manpower. Taking away all the local people after the war is not a trouble for Hai Han, but part of the spoils.From a long-term point of view, these populations are even more valuable than the property that the Haihan army looted locally.

Although the Haihan army hadn't included the local population of Hirado in the battle plan when they started their operations, but at the end of the war, they found that such a big fruit was in front of their eyes, and they would feel sorry for themselves if they didn't pick it, so they temporarily revised the plan. Take all the local people away.Although confrontation and resistance among the immigrant groups were unavoidable during this period, under the strong control of the Haihan army, there were not many waves.

These Japanese were transported to Zhoushan, and then distributed to various villages and towns for resettlement, all done in public, so this is no longer a secret in the local area.What's more, businessmen like Yu Chengli can move around without restriction in the local area and contact people at will, so the actual situation of Hirado will naturally spread among the people very quickly.If Ma Zhengping's subordinates wanted to collect relevant information, they could easily find many witnesses, and their credibility had been fully verified.

After the subordinates finished explaining how they got the news, the carriage had already arrived at the hotel where they were staying.Ma Zhengping did not rest, and continued to inquire about the local situation in detail.

As far as Ma Zhengping knows, the muskets owned by the Shanxi salt merchants were provided by the Japanese in Hirado, and whether the actions of the Haihan people completely eliminated the source of weapons for the Shanxi salt merchants is a must for him. Important information for implementation.

However, the news about the Hirado Soldiers Workshop is already in the scope of military secrets. Even the weapon craftsmen captured by Haihan from the local area have all been resettled, so almost no relevant information has flowed out to the outside world.Although Ma Zhengping's subordinates were diligently inquiring in Zhoushan, they had no way of contacting senior military officials, so they had no way of knowing the key information.

This can't help but disappoint Ma Zhengping a little. If he wants to find ways to contact officials to inquire about news, it will inevitably take a lot of trouble.The only official he knew now was Yang Yun, and Yang Yun was not a military officer, but was in charge of business activities. Ma Zhengping felt that even if he contacted Yang Yun, it would be difficult to get accurate news.

However, when Ma Zhengping came to Zhoushan this time to handle follow-up affairs, he had to visit Yang Yun. He thought that maybe he could let Yang Yun introduce some officers to him. Of course, if he could get in touch with Yang Yun's boss, General Shi, That would be the best.As soon as he said it, Ma Zhengping asked his subordinates to prepare the gift list and greeting cards, and then went to see Yang Yun after dark.

The reason why he had to wait until dark was because Ma Zhengping didn't want to go to Yang Yun's office to show his face, but planned to go directly to his home for a private visit.In this way, the discussions between the two parties can be more straightforward, and the topic does not need to be limited to the scope of work.

"Boss Ma, long time no see, how have you been?"

Later that day, Ma Zhengping finally met Yang Yun. Seeing that the other party's attitude was still very warm, Ma Zhengping was relieved, and he clasped his hands and said, "Thank you, Mr. Yang, for your concern. I just went back to Yangzhou recently. I just came back today." To Zhoushan."

After exchanging greetings and sitting down, Yang Yun asked straight to the point: "Boss Ma came to see me as soon as he came to Zhoushan this time. I don't know why?"

Ma Zhengping said: "Firstly, I brought some special products from Yangzhou over here, and I would like to greet Mr. Yang by the way. Secondly, I wanted to ask whether it is possible to buy land in Zhoushan to build a commercial warehouse. Thirdly, it is the cooperation that I have previously agreed with my lord." Is there anything else that needs to be changed?"

Seeing that Yang Yun was going straight to the point, Ma Zhengping stopped going around and told the other party why he came.Of course, the souvenirs he gave were not worth much, but they were just deceptive things. The real gift was actually five hundred yuan Haihan banknotes.Now that Yang Yun accepted the gift, Ma Zhengping could rest assured to discuss these topics with him.

But Ma Zhengping didn't bring up the matter of the musket deal right away, and planned to decide whether to ask about it later depending on the situation.

Yang Yunying said: "If Boss Ma doesn't change his mind, then we certainly welcome Boss Ma to set up a business store in Zhoushan for long-term operation. It's fine to take time to go to the business office to go through the relevant procedures. As for the cooperation between us, I remember Boss Ma. At that time, it was said that they would go back to Yangzhou to discuss with other salt merchants, but I don’t know if there is any result?”

When the two met last time, they roughly discussed the cooperation in the salt industry. The main content was that the future purchase channels of Yangzhou salt merchants should be mainly from the salt farms under the Zhoushan colonial area. The proportion of retailer sales should be maintained at more than [-]%.

Of course, the "Yangzhou salt merchants" referred to in the agreement did not include the Shanshan salt merchant group in Yangzhou, but specifically the Huizhou salt merchants represented by Ma Zhengping.After all, the relationship between Haihan and Shanxi salt merchants is basically irreconcilable, and Huizhou salt merchants are a relatively good partner. Haihan also needs such channel distributors to open up Haihan salt beyond the Yangtze River. Sales in the North Territory.

Ma Zhengping said: "After I returned to Yangzhou, I called the salt merchants I knew well to discuss the plan proposed by Mr. Yang. There is no problem with the direction of the large cooperation, but it is necessary to buy a large amount of sea salt from Zhoushan at the beginning to maintain the [-]%. This sales case will make it difficult for us to deal with the official salt farm!"

Yang Yun said with a smile: "Boss Ma doesn't think I don't know anything about the salt industry in Yangzhou, does he? This won't affect the quantity you buy from the official salt farm. Why would anyone make things difficult for you!"

Boss Ma was pointed out face to face by Yang Yun. Fortunately, he was thick-skinned and did not panic. He gave another reason: "My colleagues in Yangzhou are worried that the supply in Zhoushan will not be stable, so they still need to maintain the original supply. channel."

Yang Yun said with a grim expression: "We propose to start cooperation at a ratio of [-]%, which is to leave a way for you to retreat and let you continue to maintain the relationship with the official salt farm, so as not to be completely out of touch and make it difficult for you to operate. To say Supply, even if there are a few more Yangzhous, we can supply them together, how can there be any talk of unstable supply!"

In the past, more than half of the salt sold by Yangzhou salt merchants was purchased from official salt farms.Salt merchants pay the government to obtain salt imports, and then use the salt imports to salt farms to supply salt, and then transport the salt to designated areas for sale.What is really valuable is not the salt, but the salt that is used as a certificate of qualification for selling salt.

A portion of salt is worth three hundred catties of salt, but the salt that is actually sold by salt merchants is often more than this amount, and the extra amount is illegal salt with extremely high profits.The salt merchants are so rich, a considerable part of their wealth actually comes from this tricky operation between buying and selling.

The cooperation plan discussed by the two parties before was that the Yangzhou salt merchants would buy salt from Haihan in proportion to the purchase of salt from the government.In this way, behind each salt quotation is [-] catties of official salt and [-] catties of private salt.It is not surprising that a salt merchant who is good at operation sells thousands of catties of salt for a portion of salt, but not every salt merchant has the courage and ability to dare to operate like this.

If these salts can be sold, it will naturally be a lucrative business, but salt merchants must also consider the risks involved.If you feel that it is difficult to ship, you can only reduce the purchase of private salt.So what Ma Zhengping meant was that he hoped that Haihan could reduce this purchase ratio, and it would be best if the Yangzhou salt merchants could decide the purchase volume on their own.But he didn't dare to put forward such a condition directly, so he could only express it in a subtle way.

Seeing Yang Yun's expression of hesitation, Ma Zhengping had no choice but to explain: "Master Yang, Yangzhou is the salt capital of the world, and countless eyes are on us big salt merchants. If this breaks the rules, our life will be bad." It's easy. Why don't you... how about adjusting it to [-]%?"

Yang Yun didn't answer his proposal, but asked instead: "Is Boss Ma worried that the enemy in Yangzhou will report you to the government if they know your source of goods?"

Ma Zhengping smiled awkwardly and said, "Master Yang sees it clearly, it is indeed possible."

(End of this chapter)