Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 240 Chapter 230 Eight: Trapping the Japanese Again
Half a year passed in a hurry, and it was the time of spring again. Wang Daoqiu said goodbye to his parents, wife and children, boarded a ship at Tongzhou Pier, and headed south to Hangzhou.After contacting the source of goods in Hangzhou, he set out to sea from Hangzhou Bay and arrived at Shuangyu Port in Zhoushan.

Shuangyu Port was built by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols and the Beijing nobles contacted by Wang Daoqiu. After tens of millions of oceans were thrown down, the construction of the free trade port here has begun to take shape.The wharf can dock more than 30 large ocean ships at the same time, loading and unloading goods here, and the warehouse covers an area of ​​hundreds of acres.

After getting off the ship and looking at the prosperous port, Wang Daoqiu's father-in-law, Shen Yashi, who had always come to welcome him, said: "It's a sin, it's a sin. Mr. Lao Taishan personally welcomes him, and my son-in-law will die!"

"Hahahaha, my dear son-in-law, you still have such a poor mouth. By the way, is Xiangning okay?"

"It's not good. Xiangning is pregnant again. She's been tormented by the little one in her belly all day long. She can't eat well or sleep well. She's suffering."

When his father-in-law asked about his daughter-in-law Shen Xiangning, Wang Daoqiu also expressed emotion. This woman was really suffering from being pregnant for ten months.

When he heard that his daughter was pregnant again, Shen Yishi was not as heartbroken as Wang Daoqiu, but was very happy.After all, in ancient times, the more children a woman had, the more secure her position in her husband's family.

Especially for someone like Wang Daoqiu, who was in a high position at a young age, there was no need for women.If Shen Xiangning had no children, and she was a merchant's daughter, then she would not be able to hold the position of Wang Daoqiu's first wife for long.It would be useless even if he, Shen Yishi, and Wang Zhaowen, now the head of the Wang family, were close friends.

Therefore, Shen Yishi was very happy that his daughter Shen Xiangning could become pregnant again after giving birth to Wang Daoqiu's eldest son Wang Gaowen.

So Shen Yishi said with a smile: "Having many sons and daughters is a woman's blessing, and it is worth suffering a little. By the way, my dear son-in-law, the last time Xiangning wrote a letter, he said that she was awarded a first-class imperial edict, and that Xiao Gaowen was also a school inspector. Jin Yiwei also knows this, is this true?"

"Yes, Lord Taishan, this is true. My mother, like Xiangning, was granted a first-rank imperial order, and my father was also promoted to a fifth-rank last year as a doctor of Shandong Qinglisi, the household department."

"What, Brother Zhaowen is now a fifth-rank imperial official?"

"Yes! How cruel! He is a fifth-rank doctor in the household department, but he reprimands me, his immediate boss, the minister of household affairs, every day at home. When he is unhappy, he makes me kneel in the courtyard or go to the study to face the wall and reflect on my faults. .Old Taishan, tell me, in the nearly 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, has there been such a tyrannical doctor in the Department of Household Affairs? How dare he make his immediate superior, the Minister of Household Affairs, kneel down and think about his mistakes? For this reason, the emperor even sent an internal servant to complain to him , let him pay attention to the court's decorum. But it's no use, he is still like that, whenever he sees that I don't like it, he will deal with me. "

"Hahahahaha, my dear son-in-law, please bear with me. Brother Zhaowen has such a temper, hahahahaha!"

.........

After chatting with his father-in-law for a while, Wang Daoqiu brought the topic down to business. He asked: "Old Taishan, to what extent has the Shuangyu Free Trade Port been built now?"

"Oh, son-in-law, you ask this! The situation is very good now! Our port now has 33 deep-water wharves, and there are four more under construction. The warehouse covers an area of ​​more than 490 square meters. Mu, the shipyard has eleven berths, which can build eleven large ships at the same time. In addition, we have allocated more than 500 mu of land for those Frangji merchants, Japanese merchants, Korean merchants, Persian merchants, Arab merchants, and Tianzhu merchants. They live here for them to build temples and churches. Now there are more than 300 foreign businessmen living here, and in the past six months, they have bought more than 2000 million silver dollars from us.”

In just a few months, the transaction volume has exceeded 2000 million yuan, and business is booming!Wang Daoqiu was very happy to hear this.However, compared to selling goods, Wang Daoqiu is more concerned about the construction of channels.After all, as long as the channels are established, with the current monopoly position of Ming products in the world, are you afraid that they will not be able to sell them?

Then the channel issue came to mind, and Wang Daoqiu asked Shen Yishi: "Old Taishan, our goods have always been easy to sell, but there have been problems with the sea routes. Have you opened a new route now?"

"It's open. I'll tell you Xian-sou. Now the navy in the north and along the coast of Zhejiang and Fujian are all listening to you. It's just that the navy of Guangdong and Guangxi is still controlled by Zhang Jing, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. He doesn't give much to us." These businessmen would often seize ships and goods if they met. Therefore, in order to avoid Guangdong and Guangxi, we cooperated with Wang Zhi and Xu Dong from Nanyang, along Dongpanyizhou opposite Fujian to Luzon, then from Luzon to Borneo, and finally From Borneo to the Lion City (Singapore). A new route has been opened. There must be a large port within a thousand miles along the way to serve as a supply and haven. This new route has been running for several months now and is very convenient." One thousand. miles, that is, [-] kilometers, and a large transit port will be set up within [-] kilometers.At the current speed of ten to fifteen kilometers per hour for sailing wooden boats on the sea, the journey of five hundred kilometers is less than three days.When the ship is sailing on the sea, it can replenish fresh water and food every three days, which is really convenient.

Just as Wang Daoqiu was thinking about the new route, Shen Yishi said again: "Now we have sent troops to garrison the several large supply ports on the new route, and have controlled the areas within a radius of a hundred miles around those ports. , to recruit local people to farm and mine. Now when we ship from Shuangyu, when we transport the goods to Lion City and return, we will load spices, timber, rice, tin, We can return pearls, bird's nests and other Nanyang specialties and make a fortune on the return trip. So now it is still very profitable to sail to Nanyang."

Sending freight from Daming to Singapore, and then transporting Southeast Asian specialties back to Daming for sale is not as efficient as empty shipping!Talking about the local specialties of Southeast Asia, Wang Daoqiu asked again: "Old Taishan, how are the goods shipped from Southeast Asia sold now?"

"Oh, it's like this. Spices, pearls, and bird's nests are mainly sold back to our country in the Ming Dynasty. The wood is mainly left on this island to dry and will be used for shipbuilding and ship repair in the future. As for the tin and rice, we only sell a small part of it in our country. , most of them were shipped to North Korea and the Japanese country, mainly the Japanese country. There were wars there every day, and there was a shortage of tin and rice, especially rice. The Japanese country has many mountains and natural disasters. Normally, they can't produce much food in a year, not to mention they have big shit now. The place is divided into 66 countries, and wars are fought every day. So rice there now sells for ten cents per catty, three times as much as here in Zhejiang. Therefore, most of the rice shipped from Nanyang is now shipped to Japan for sale. "

Rice, grain!Yes, the Japanese country is located at the intersection of two continents. Earthquakes and tsunamis are common. The terrain is mountainous. Most of the land is in high-latitude and cold areas, so it is inherently unsuitable for the development of agriculture.

Their place is not suitable for the development of agriculture, but people have to eat!Thinking of this, Wang Daoqiu thought of the tricks used by some developed countries in later generations to trap poor and weak countries.So Wang Daoqiu asked Shen Yishi: "Master Taishan, which companies are doing the grain business in Japan now?"

"There are not many companies. After all, you have to sell food from Nanyang to Japan, which requires a large fleet. And those companies are not the only ones that have the strength to build a large fleet and have the strength to bear the risk of losing both people and goods if the ship capsizes at sea. Are you rich and wealthy? Among them, my Shen family is the biggest. Our Shen family currently has seventeen large-scale ships on the sea, and nine ships have been ordered from the shipyard and are under construction. It can be said that half of the rice shipped to Japan is worth a stone's throw. Yes. My dear son-in-law, ask me about the grain business in the Japanese country. What is the purpose of this?"

Damn it!It turns out that my Yue family is the largest supplier of food to the Japanese country!In this case, it's easy to handle.

So Wang Daoqiu said to Shen Yishi: "Master Taishan, my son-in-law would like to ask you, how much money do you need to sell rice from Nanyang to Japan?"

"Cost? In Nanyang, it is hot and rainy all year round. Everything grows, and rice can be grown all year round. Basically, the rice seedlings can grow by themselves. So the rice in Nanyang has a large output and is very cheap. It costs about five pennies. You can buy one catty. Including freight and losses, the cost of shipping it to Japan is probably a little over two cents per catty!"

A pound or two cents is a little more than that, and Wang Daoqiu stayed in the Japanese country last year, and the natural conditions and backward production methods of the Japanese country were so great.The cost of a pound of rice there is at least six or seven cents, so a pound of rice sells for ten cents there.

Thinking of this, Wang Daoqiu said to Shen Yishi: "Master Taishan, go out and contact those who sell grain to Japan and ask them to transport rice from Nanyang to Shuangyu and sell it to you for three yuan. Then you will sell it to Japan in Japan The price of grain has gradually dropped to four cents per catty."

"What, Si Wen? Why is this a good son-in-law? Why don't we earn stable money?"

Hearing that Wang Daoqiu was going to turn a business with several times the profit into a low-profit business, Shen Yishi was confused and even doubted whether his son-in-law intended to go to the Japanese country!Otherwise, why would you win over the people of Japan?

Seeing Lao Taishan and Shen Yishi confused, Wang Daoqiu explained: "Lao Taishan also stayed in the Japanese country last year. You should know that four cents per pound is definitely not enough for the Japanese country to produce one pound of rice. So as long as we are in the Japanese country, rice sells for four cents. If you only have one kilogram of money and a large supply is guaranteed, growing grain in the Japanese country is a loss-making business. Since it is a loss-making business, naturally no one will do it. In this way, the landowners and farmers of the Japanese country will have to change careers, and the Japanese landowners will have to change their careers. Those princes will also take the young men who were originally used for farming and send them to fight as soldiers. In this way, what will happen to the agriculture of Japan in ten years? Think about it, Old Taishan."

"This, this, if the Japanese country has been doing this for ten years, the fields will definitely be barren and they won't even be able to find a decent farm tool."

"Of course, what Lao Taishan said is very true, so as long as the agriculture of the Japanese country is overthrown and the grain bags of the Japanese people are held in our hands, the Japanese people are still at our mercy."

(End of this chapter)