1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3837

Lu Congshan believed that the problem lay in the enormous profits involved. Most ships traveling from Jiujiang to Haihan Trading stopped at Nanjing or Yangzhou, with very few going to Hangzhou, where Yue Shizong was located.

This is because Hangzhou is far away, and the navigation capacity of the Grand Canal is limited. The time spent traveling between Zhenjiang and Hangzhou along the canal would take at least half a month, which is enough time to make an extra round trip between Nanjing and Jiujiang, where the latter is obviously more efficient at making money.

Secondly, Hangzhou was the location of the new capital of the Han Dynasty, so Ming Dynasty ships had to be strictly inspected when entering and leaving, which made it inconvenient for them to conduct business. Many merchants preferred to complete their transactions in Nanjing and Yangzhou, where the management was relatively relaxed.

Third, the Yangtze River basin downstream of Nanjing is entirely controlled by Haihan. The local shipping industry has long been divided up by Haihan's competitors. Ming Dynasty ship merchants have no competitive advantage in this area. If ships do not purchase goods on their return journey, they often go empty because they cannot get cargo business, wasting shipping capacity.

Despite the extensive trade between Jiujiang Prefecture and Haihan, the shipping network centered on Jiujiang did not extend to Hangzhou for various reasons. Consequently, Yue Shizong, who was in Hangzhou, could not profit from it. Lu Congshan believed that this was the real reason why Yue Shizong sent him the letter.

Looking back over the past two or three years, Lu Congshan realized that although he had made a considerable amount of money from cross-border trade, he had never sent anyone to Hangzhou to bribe his former classmate. He figured Yue Shizong must have learned about the trade activities in Jiujiang Prefecture through some means, and that's why he was using this method to remind him not to pretend nothing was happening when it was time to offer incense and tribute.

The more Lu Congshan thought about it, the more convinced he became that this was indeed the case. Given Yue Shizong's position in Hangzhou, many people involved in international trade must be secretly offering him benefits and bribing him. His own inaction was bound to attract attention.

Lu Congshan was not a stingy person. He certainly knew the necessity of maintaining various relationships. However, his cross-border trade had been going smoothly, and he had focused his attention on maintaining connections in Nanjing, Yangzhou, and other places. He had forgotten that there was such an overlooked big shot in Hangzhou.

Since Yue Shizong had taken the initiative to speak and his attitude was rather tactful, Lu Congshan decided to offer some benefits to show his goodwill, thinking that he might need this relationship someday.

Lu Congshan suddenly remembered something and asked his subordinate who had returned with the letter, "You said that the ship that delivered this letter to Jiujiang was Haihan's?"

The subordinate replied, "I have seen this kind of fast ship in Nanjing. It is used to carry out various emergency missions for the Haihan Army. So I inquired about it at the dock earlier. This ship departed from Hangzhou seven days ago. If you reply and ask the ship to take it back to Hangzhou, it should arrive in about five days by sailing downstream."

"So fast!" Lu Congshan was also surprised when he heard this: "Could it be the legendary steamship?"

The subordinate nodded and said, "Your Excellency is wise; it is indeed a steamship. This ship uses coal to heat water, and the boiling steam drives the propellers for propulsion, hence the name 'steamship' given to it by Haihan. However, such ships are not easy to build and have high operating costs, making them a rare sight even in Haihan. Haihan used this ship to send a message to Jiujiang, so the content must be very important. Therefore, I dared not delay and rushed back immediately after obtaining the message."

The subordinates did not know the contents of the letter, but based on the ship's special features, they deduced that the letter must contain something special.

But after listening to his explanation, Lu Congshan had a different idea.

Yue Shizong's tone in the letter was not urgent, but he used such a special fast ship to deliver the letter to Jiujiang at full speed day and night. This arrangement, which disregarded cost, was obviously not very reasonable.

Lu Congshan interpreted this as Yue Shizong flexing his muscles in a special way—the fact that the Haihan Army would dispatch fast ships to deliver a message for him was a privilege not afforded to ordinary people. It seemed that Yue Shizong's influence in Hangzhou far exceeded his status as a diplomat.

As for how Yue Shizong won such treatment, and whether he had some secret connection with Hai Han, Lu Congshan wasn't particularly concerned. After all, he himself was involved in transnational trade activities, and his background wasn't exactly clean either.

What Lu Congshan truly valued was that Yue Shizong actually had the ability to get the Haihan Army to help him with this. He wondered if he could also resolve any problems his shipping business might encounter in Haihan territory through Yue Shizong's connections.

There are also areas that Jiujiang merchant ships currently cannot easily reach; Yue Shizong might be able to pull strings and provide some special conveniences.

This assessment thrilled Lu Congshan. If Yue Shizong could truly provide such assistance, the resulting benefits would obviously far outweigh the personal gains Lu Congshan was about to give to Yue Shizong.

Even if this plan doesn't work out, establishing a stable relationship with Yue Shizong would still be a gain. After all, Yue Shizong is in the capital of Haihan most of the year and can frequently come into contact with the Haihan high-ranking officials. Just by providing "guidance" to Jiujiang Prefecture once or twice a year, they could earn a lot of money from trade activities.

Lu Congshan thought about it more and more and felt that it made sense, so he immediately asked someone to prepare pen, ink, paper and inkstone and began to write a reply to Yue Shizong.

In his reply, he did not mention in detail the trade information requested by Yue Shizong, but instead carefully recalled the years when the two were classmates in the Hanlin Academy.

Although they didn't develop a deep friendship at the time, Lu Congshan portrayed them as close friends who could talk about anything.

After establishing their friendship, Lu Congshan stated that although Jiujiang and Hangzhou are far apart, this should not be a reason for the two to lose contact, and they should keep in touch more often in the future.

Finally, Lu Congshan mentioned that he would be sending some Jiangxi specialties with the letter, and asked Yue Shizong to accept them.

Lu Congshan put down his brush and instructed his subordinate, "Go to Lufax, select some good items to prepare a gift list, and take three thousand yuan in Haihan paper money from the counter. Send it back to the embassy in Hangzhou along with this letter."

Lu Congshan thought for a moment and then added, "If the Haihan people's ship allows you to board, then you should go with them and visit Lord Yue at the embassy in Hangzhou."

Lufaxing was a trading company under Lu Congshan's name used for cross-border trade. Its warehouse contained many Jiangxi specialties, so it wasn't difficult to pick out some good items.

However, the ship from Haihan accepted the letters and gifts, but the requests for accompanying personnel were politely declined. Military vessels of this type were not permitted to carry foreign personnel without authorization, especially since the orders received before departure did not include bringing anyone back to Hangzhou from Jiujiang.

After the goods delivered by the Jiujiang Prefectural Government were inventoried and a receipt was issued, the ship departed from Jiujiang Port and sped downstream.