Women Wearing Men: The Growth Path of the Bastards of the Aristocratic Family

The grass and vine armor in front of him was in tatters, and there was a big hole on his chest that had been pierced by a spear. There were many scratches caused by wolves around him, and there were even varying degrees of damage on his arms and back.

It can be seen that if these weapons actually fall on a person, the other party will appear in a bloody and tragic state.

Yu Jingming was right. Fortunately, today was an exercise. If it were on a real battlefield, would the people under his command still be alive?

Shui Sanzi's face turned pale, and cold sweat wet the clothes on his back in an instant. He looked at Yu Jingming in panic, his lips trembling, and it took him a long time to find his voice: "...Brother Yu, what should we do now?" What to do? If the imperial court uses this kind of military formation to deal with us in the future, then we will..."

"The exercise is over. What matters now is the negotiation later." Yu Jingming's face was solemn and he reached out to interrupt him. "For the current plan, the only way is to make good use of the negotiation and strive for as much benefit as possible for us."

Shui Sanzi's throat rolled, and he wanted to say something, but couldn't spit out a word.

He had been a pirate for decades and was used to being free and undisciplined. He had no desire to join the imperial court.Reluctantly, Tao Lian only wanted to return to his roots, so he had no choice but to follow his boss to Shaoxing Prefecture for negotiations. He originally planned to defeat the officers and soldiers in the exercise, so that Tao Lian could see how cowardly and incompetent the court was, and teach him not to surrender. thoughts.

Who knew that it would be them who were beaten to a pulp in the end, and it was such a disastrous defeat. They were almost wiped out, but the imperial court had basically no casualties.

In this way, not only Tao Lian became more determined in his idea of ​​joining, but the others were also shaken.

After an exercise ended, the pirates were no longer as arrogant as before. They sat at the negotiation table with gloomy faces and different thoughts.

Su Qi has a somewhat careless temperament, but when he is doing business, he is quite reliable, calm and unflustered, which makes people feel at ease just looking at him.But after all, he is still a young man in his 20s. He won the drill. Su Qi was in a good mood and smiled deliberately:
"This halftime break is really relaxing for my body and mind. I feel completely refreshed now, don't you think so?"

The pirates opposite had extremely ugly expressions and were not in the mood to talk at all. Only Tao Lian was worried about the embarrassment and forced a dry smile at him.

The two sides sat at the negotiating table again, but their respective situations were completely different from before.This time, Mei Feng and others relied on the confidence of winning the exercise, with smiles on their faces, but their attitude was quite tough, almost saying "If you don't agree, just wait for us to beat you to death like we did just now." On the face.

Whether they were afraid of being beaten or not in the mood to argue with them, Tao Lian and others kept their faces solemn throughout the whole process and spoke very little.No matter what conditions Mei Feng and others offered, although they did not agree to it, they did not refute it verbally.

Tao Lian's title, the whereabouts of his subordinates, the specific official positions and remuneration in the future... After talking about each item, Tao Lian and several others seemed to be mute. Basically, they did not raise any objections, and the negotiation went on smoothly. Go down.

The sun was getting higher and higher, and the negotiations finally came to the last item, which was also a very important item - the sea trade business run by the Tao Lian faction.

Tao Lian is a pirate. In addition to robbing families and homes, of course he also does serious business.The imperial court's maritime trade mainly involved selling silk, tea and other items from the dynasty to Western merchants, allowing them to take them back to their own Western countries for sale. Westerners would also sell some of their knickknacks, such as clocks and watches, to I'm heading home.

Although in this process, the court's exports far exceeded its imports and it made a lot of profits, the trade channels were too single, and all were through Westerners as middlemen. The court was relatively passive. If one day the Westerners found another The source of goods, the imperial court's sea trade was cut off.

However, Tao Lian and others started from Nanyang. The base camp of their power is in the Nanyang sea, and their trade business covers most of Southeast Asia.On weekdays, they mainly sell some specialties from Southeast Asia and even South Asia to Westerners to earn silver.Or they also serve as middlemen, transporting local goods to Nanyang and then selling them to Westerners.The Westerners completed the transaction in advance and saved travel expenses, so they were naturally very happy. Tao Lian also obtained the difference in profits and made a lot of money over the years.

Besides, as a pirate, Tao Lian has strong military support, is able to mix both black and white, and has a wide network of contacts. This also leads to their business scope and business types being larger and more diverse than ordinary merchants. In some aspects, even the imperial court Not as good as them.

If we can recruit An Taolian while also recruiting the business network they run, it will be a great help to the court. This is also one of the important reasons why the court strives to recruit An Taolian.

The maritime trade business was a cash cow for Tao Lian and others. Not only was the court eye-catching, but they themselves also regarded it as extremely important.If this matter were to be negotiated before the exercise, Mei Feng would definitely be cautious and offer the most generous terms possible to facilitate recruitment.

But now that he had the confidence to win the exercise, Mei Feng didn't have to worry too much and spoke more confidently and calmly: "As for the maritime trade business run by Gang Leader Tao, the court's approach is to have the government take a stake and incorporate it into the official system, and Send dedicated personnel to gradually take over the entire situation.”

"Head of Tao Gang only needs to retain a certain number of shares and receive dividends every year. There is nothing else to worry about."

This is almost like Tao Lian giving up all his business to the imperial court.

In fact, in the original plan, the court made much more concessions than this, almost handing over most of the autonomy of maritime trade to Tao Lian.But Mei Feng believed that even under such harsh conditions, Tao Lian and others would not dare to say anything.

As expected, after hearing Mei Feng's words, several pirates' faces turned red and they wanted to get angry but didn't dare.Shui Sanzi, who couldn't hold back his anger the most, was about to slap the table and stand up, but Su Qi's casual look chilled his heart, and his anger was completely extinguished in an instant.

After talking about everything, Mei Feng slowly closed the official document in his hand and asked calmly: "The above are all the conditions we can offer for recruitment. What do the Tao Gang think? If you agree, we can sign the agreement today."

Tao Lian grimaced, calmed down a little, and said after a long while: "...This matter is of great importance. I still have so many brothers under my command. I have to discuss it with them no matter what. Let me go back and think about it for a few days. "

Mei Feng also knew that he needed to give him some time to slow down and accept this reality, so he readily agreed: "Okay, no problem. But Gang Tao wants to give me an exact time, and we can't let us wait like this. If you don't agree, , we might as well take other measures as soon as possible."

It is self-evident what the “other method” is.

Listening to Mei Feng's overt and covert threats, Tao Lian's face looked as ugly as if he had eaten a fly: "...Many of my brothers are outside. It will take some time to recall them. Give me a month... No , New Year’s Eve, I will definitely give you an answer before the end of the year.”

It's the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, less than a month before New Year's Eve, and Mei Feng can afford to wait at this time.

He smiled and nodded: "Okay, let's wait for news from Gang Leader Tao."