1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 475
Wei Ping went on to say: "After the leaders of Haihan settled in Yulin, the people of Yazhou also benefited a lot. In the past, who would be willing to move to the ends of the earth where the prisoners were exiled? Now when we talk about Sanya, who doesn't know where this place is? One of the best places in Qiongzhou Island? Brother Li, you can ask around, but within a radius of tens of miles, are there still people who are too poor to afford food?"

Li Qingyang was silent, he was not the kind of aristocrat who didn't know the sufferings of the people, the life that ordinary people wanted was nothing more than food and clothing without fighting, he still understood this truth.The Haihan people have obviously done a good job in this regard, and have already gained a considerable degree of prestige among the people. Probably a considerable part of the local people only have the executive committee in their hearts, and there is no imperial court.

After coming out of the inspection department, Lin Nan took Li Qingyang to the naval station.It is said that the navy is stationed, but in fact the navy does not even have a real warship in Shengli Port.Now if Haihan has any major foreign military operations, it will definitely not work if he wants to borrow troops from Yacheng Shuizhai as he did in the past two years.The few warships in Yacheng Shuizhai have all been converted into cargo ships, and the sailors have also changed jobs to become sailors and crew members. They transported Haihan salt produced in Shengli Port and Tielu Port to the whole country for salt dealer Luo Shengdong. ports across the island.

Li Qingyang followed Lin Nan into the yard of the navy station, and was startled by what he saw.There is not the solemnity of the barracks here, but it is similar to the market. A large group of people gather in the courtyard in front of the hall, discussing something loudly.If it weren't for the people maintaining order in the courtyard wearing Ming army uniforms, Li Qingyang would really have thought that he had gone to the wrong place and entered a certain chamber of commerce.

Lin Nan called a soldier over and asked, "Where is General Luo?"

The soldier glanced at the bronze badge of the Ministry of Security on Lin Nan's chest, and responded respectfully: "This chief, wait a moment, and the villain will go and tell Master Luo."

After a while, Luo Shengdong came out of the house, but the group of people in the courtyard immediately rushed forward when they saw him appear.Luo Shengdong stretched out his hand to scratch these people away, and said loudly: "Don't squeeze! Whoever squeezes will lose their share!"

As soon as these words came out, it was effective immediately, allowing him to pass through the crowd smoothly and come to Lin Nan: "Master Lin, you are a busy person, but you have nothing to do. I don't know if it's a private matter or a business. ?”

Lin Nan smiled and said, "I'll bring this Mr. Li over here to find out the way. It's official business!"

Luo Shengdong sized up Li Qingyang, clasped his fists and said, "Luo Shengdong, general of the Yacheng navy, met Mr. Li!"

Li Qingyang quickly returned the salute with cupped fists. Luo Shengdong was considered the highest ranking Ming official he had seen since he came to Sanya, so this courtesy was indispensable.

Luo Shengdong said: "It's sunny outside, please follow me into the room to talk, both of you."

Luo Shengdong brought the two of them to the front hall, and Li Qingyang suddenly discovered that although it was the layout of the yamen hall, what he did had nothing to do with the White Tiger Festival Hall in the army.There are several tables on the left and right in the hall, and behind each table is an accountant, who is dialing the abacus and calculating something.

Luo Shengdong asked someone to bring two chairs over, put them behind the desk, and then invited them to sit down.Li Qingyang saw that this position was a little sensitive, so he quickly declined, Luo Shengdong said with a smile: "It's okay, just sit wherever you want, we don't do business here, we only talk about business!"

Seeing Lin Nan nodded, Li Qingyang sat down.Luo Shengdong pointed to the few people who were planning to make plans in the hall: "They are now calculating the salt sales situation of last month. After the accounts are settled, they will start to distribute the salt quota for the next month. Wait in the yard outside. The group of people who are caught are the traders who came to fetch salt from various states and counties on Qiongzhou Island."

"Private salt?" Li Qingyang immediately came to his senses and asked Luo Shengdong.Selling salt in Daming requires a written certificate issued by the salt department, and the salt merchants use this tool to go to the salt farm to get the corresponding quota of salt.And this process has nothing to do with the Daming Navy, let alone the fact that the Navy Yamen is in charge of selling salt.However, Li Qingyang had heard about the fact that the sailors on the southeast coast were engaged in private salt trafficking by virtue of their own transport capacity, but he did not expect that the sailors on the Yazhou side were so unscrupulous in participating in the private salt trade, and they went straight to the court Organize sales.

Luo Shengdong shook his head and said, "To the imperial court, it is indeed private salt, but to the people of Qiongzhou Island, the salt sold here is official salt!"

Li Qingyang asked puzzledly: "An official is an official, and private is private. Why are there two opinions?"

"On Qiongzhou Island, only Haihan's salt field is producing salt. It's the only one. Where else can I buy it? The officials and gentlemen in Qiongzhou's prefecture city also eat the salt here, but no one dares to mention Haihan's salt. Salt is banned, do you think it is private salt or official salt?" Luo Shengdong replied proudly.

With the commissioning of the Yinggehai Salt Field, Haihan's salt production capacity has far exceeded the consumption needs of more than 20 people in Qiongzhou Island, and the Danzhou Salt Field in the north of Qiongzhou Island has long been dumped by the low price of Haihan's salt After being defeated, the source of salt for the entire Qiongzhou Island has been concentrated in Haihan's hands.Although it is in the nature of private salt, it can already be sold publicly in the market, and the government has no intention of banning it-of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that most of the distributors in various states and counties have official backgrounds.

The business of private salt has never been played by a few private salt dealers. It must involve the interests of many people. Li Qingyang was born in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which is where salt merchants gather. All kinds of tricks, so Li Qingyang understood Luo Shengdong's statement as soon as he heard it.However, Li Qingyang was still a little dissatisfied with the fact that the Haihan people controlled the salt business in Qiongzhou Island: "The supply of local official salt is insufficient. Could it be that there are no salt merchants from the mainland to sell it?"

As soon as these words came out, both Luo Shengdong and Lin Nan couldn't help laughing out loud. Li Qingyang didn't know what he said was wrong, so he could only watch them laugh blankly.

"Mr. Li, to tell you the truth, nearly half of the official salt in the Guangdong market is actually sold by Haihan." Luo Shengdong pointed to the people standing in the courtyard outside: "The group Among them, many are salt merchants from the mainland, do you think they will first transport the salt back to the mainland, and then bring it back to Qiongzhou Island to sell it again?"

"Then why didn't they buy the salt in Sanya and sell it nearby?" Li Qingyang asked.

Luo Shengdong gave a thumbs up and pointed to himself: "I am responsible for the salt in Qiongzhou Island. No one else is allowed to sell salt in Qiongzhou Island without permission! The salt they buy here can only be shipped back to the mainland Go sell it!"

Haihan's current salt production system is mainly composed of the three major salt farms and the salt company responsible for unified sales. In order to save manpower and transportation capacity, the salt company also has many regional agents like Luo Shengdong.Of course, among all the agents, Luo Shengdong is a special one, because he "conglong" early, so the territory under his jurisdiction is almost the largest among all the agents.In order to take care of the business in the north of Qiongzhou Island, Luo Shengdong specially bought two replacement [-]-material seagoing ships from the Shipping Department this year, and has already placed an order with the Shipping Department for two ships that will be delivered early next year. Exploration Class" Merchant Ship.

Originally, it was not Luo Shengdong's business to issue quotas to these mainland salt merchants. However, the office of the salt company has recently moved out of Fort Victory, but the interior decoration has not yet been completed, so it is temporarily unable to work, so the Navy Yamen is temporarily closed. Acted for part of the functions of the salt industry company, and gathered the mainland agents who came to Sanya to buy salt to this yard to wait for the quota to be released.

Luo Shengdong didn't think it mattered, anyway, the Navy's yamen had nothing to do right now, and even things like going out to sea to patrol the sea had already been done by the Haihan Navy.

Soon a subordinate came to report, saying that the accounts had been settled and the quotas could be distributed.Luo Shengdong nodded and said, "Then let's get started. Your salt industry company will settle the accounts by itself. If there is a mistake, I will not be responsible for it!"

These things of cleaning up the accounts and issuing the salt certificates are all carried out by the staff of the salt company. Luo Shengdong does not directly intervene, but just sets up an office to help maintain order.

Then someone stood at the door and began calling out numbers according to the region: "Yong'an Office... Lemin Office... Haikang Office... Hai'an Office... Kitanan Office, anyone whose name is called enters the house to go through the formalities!"

When Li Qingyang heard this, the area was actually divided according to the establishment of the guards. He didn't want to know that these so-called salt merchants probably had some official background.If he was familiar with the coast of Guangdong, he could tell that the places he called just now were all within the territory of Leizhou Prefecture.

These salt merchants had previously deposited the money for buying salt into the designated account of Haihan Bank, and now they took the bank receipts and came here to get the salt proof, and then went to the three major salt farms to transport the salt by themselves.

In fact, as far as the process is concerned, the method used by the Salt Industry Company to sell table salt is almost the same as that used by the Daming Salt Education Division. They both pay first and then receive the salt.It must be said that there is a difference. It is probably that the salt industry company will not have direct access to cash, which to a certain extent eliminates the possibility of the handling personnel's favoritism and fraud.

When Li Qingyang saw that the court of the navy's yamen had started to sell private salt so blatantly, he felt dumbfounded for a moment.But he also knows how amazing the interests involved in this business are. He has seen the wealth of Huaiyang salt merchants before, and the area covered by Haihan's private salt has at least a few hundred thousand people. Also quite impressive.

Li Qingyang couldn't help but glanced at Luo Shengdong again. He had seen many family members of officials working as salt merchants before, but he rolled up his sleeves for the officials and was a military officer, which really broke him a bit. past perceptions.

Luo Shengdong seemed to feel Li Qingyang's gaze, and he took the initiative to say: "If Mr. Li has anything unclear, feel free to ask, I will not hide anything I can say."

Unlike Wei Ping, Luo Shengdong had already been notified two days ago, asking him to "cooperate" with the Ministry of Security's persuasion work.Luo Shengdong himself came from the capitulation faction in this way, how could he not understand the way in the middle, so he patted his chest and agreed immediately.

Li Qingyang asked: "Luo Shen will focus all his energy on this private salt business, how about the local coastal defense?"

Luo Shengdong smiled and said, "How about Haiphong? I'm not afraid to tell you the truth. It's been almost 20 years since the Wanli period, and the Yacheng water village has never received anything other than the annual salary." Funding from the Ministry of War! The latest warship in the water village was built in the 17th year of Wanli, and it has been almost 40 years now! Let you patrol the sea with this broken ship that is about to fall apart. Do you dare to go? Today, the coastal defense in the south of Qiongzhou Island They are all in charge of the Haihan militia. They have money and boats, guns and cannons. They can protect the port and fight pirates. What else can we say? People like us who have nothing to do just come out to help The committee sells salt, runs errands, earns a little money, and everyone gets along in harmony, what’s wrong with that?”

Li Qingyang was also speechless for a while after listening.The fact that the Daming navy stationed in Yacheng was so impoverished was indeed something he had never imagined beforehand.Of course, such a navy will not have the confidence to fight against the rich and powerful Haihan people, and the Haihan people don't seem to have any plans to make the Daming Navy disappear completely. ** to run errands.As Luo Shengdong said, the two sides have chosen to compromise in the face of interests, and miraculously managed to live in harmony.

Of course, being poor is a thing of the past, and now General Luo is one of the richest businessmen in the area.Ever since he embraced Haihan's thigh, Luo Shengdong has almost never worried about money.Luo Shengdong was also one of the first customers to place an order when Sanya New City first launched the garden house.And the fleet of the former Yacheng Shuizhai has gradually turned into Luo Shengdong's private fleet.If it wasn't for the executive committee's need for him to continue to wear the title of general, he would have already shed his skin and retired from the army to concentrate on being a private salt dealer.

Seeing that Li Qingyang remained silent, Luo Shengdong continued, "You don't have to feel discouraged. The chiefs of Haihan never said they would fight against Da Ming. After the executive committee managed this place well, the one who benefited the most is not Da Ming. people?"

Li Qingyang wondered if these people still regarded Daming as their own, at least from what they saw so far, the local people didn't seem particularly concerned about whether this place belonged to Daming or Haihan.

"You must have a lot of things that you can't figure out now, and this is actually normal. The people who just came here are similar to you." Luo Shengdong said with a smile: "If you stay here for a while, you will naturally understand what's going on here. .”

(End of this chapter)