Kai Fu Han

Chapter 167 There are a hundred people, all kinds of people
Moreover, the price of cement, the final auction item, was also scrambled for a price increase. The highest price of 13 shi reached 11 taels, and the lowest price was [-] taels.

"It seems that the concrete blocks on the shore have solidified very well." Liu Xinqi said to Jiao Rui.

After Cui Wu sent the cement blocks made on July 25 to the shore yesterday, he never took them back to the ship, and kept throwing them on the shore for inspection and testing by interested people.

Before the auction ended, Liu Xinqi repeated what he said at yesterday's auction to let the participating Korean merchants know that the Xinghan League would select those with good reputations as their fixed trading partners in the future.

At noon, the auction ended, and the same as yesterday, the participating Korean merchants were directly sent ashore.

Cui Wu stayed on the shore to receive them, while Liu Xinqi changed his clothes and walked towards Kaijing City with an interpreter.

Kaijing City is not big, and compared with Hangzhou City, which Liu Xinqi has been to once before, it is much worse.

There are not many wealthy people in the city, most of them are civilians, and the hierarchy is strict.

I walked around the Seongsi Market and then found a teahouse to have some tea. From time to time, I could hear Goryeo nobles chatting in Chinese.

"This country's trade potential is not great." Liu Xinqi discovered after walking around.

It is estimated that the trade fleet of the Xinghan League will come over four or five times at most, and the demand for luxury goods will be saturated, resulting in a drop in the price of glass products.

"It's just a small country." The translator next to him said after listening to Liu Xinqi's words.

"It's not too small. The land area is equivalent to two roads (provinces) of our Zhao State, and the population should be 400 million." Liu Xinqi estimated: "In the future, when visiting Goryeo, we must reduce the number of glass products and increase the number of steel products. Quantity, steel products are a necessity to some extent and can keep prices stable for a long time.”

The translator knew that Liu Xinqi was not talking to himself and was in a state of thinking to himself, so he did not continue to answer the conversation.

After wandering around for more than an hour, Liu Xinqi left the city and returned to Kaijing West Port. As soon as he left the west gate of Kaijing, he saw a large group of people surrounding the Laizhou from a distance, as if something had happened.

"Let's go over and have a look."

Liu Xinqi quickened his pace, and the translator could only run forward to follow.

Squeezing into the crowd, Liu Xinqi found that there were not many people surrounding the crowd, only a few Goryeo officials and the two translators brought by Cui Wu.

The two groups of people were not talking at this time, as if they were waiting for something. Liu Xinqi was not in a hurry to get involved and watched Cui Wu deal with it.

After a while,
"I'm coming."

A small sampan docked next to the Qizhou. A soldier got off the boat, holding a piece of paper in his hand, and ran over quickly and handed it to Cui Wu.

"My lords, this is our tax payment certificate, please take a look."

With a smile on his face, Cui Wu unfolded the tax payment certificate and showed it to several Goryeo officials for inspection.

This tax payment certificate was the tax payment certificate that Cui Wu had requested from the Goryeo government after paying taxes by chartering a ship.

The Goryeo official standing at the front wanted to reach out and take the tax payment certificate, but General Cui retracted his hand and did not give it to him.

"give me!"

The official scolded.

"I'm sorry, sir. This is the only tax payment certificate, so it's inconvenient to give it to you."

When Cui Wu heard the tone of the Goryeo officials' words, he put away the smile on his face.

"How dare you, Zhao people, dare to do business here without paying taxes, aren't you afraid of being arrested by our Goryeo army?"

Cui Wu handed the tax payment certificate back to the soldiers behind him and said leisurely: "Don't be afraid!" Then he stared at the Goryeo official who was speaking, waiting for his further actions.

"Arrest all the Zhao people!!"

As soon as the Goryeo officials said these words, the surrounding onlookers began to discuss in low voices.

Before the people behind the officials could move to arrest people, a shout came from the outside of the crowd: "Wait!!"

Then the crowd quickly separated, and a group of soldiers walked in. The leader, Liu Xinqi, whom he knew, was from Wang Hao's family who had boarded the ship before.

This man walked up to the leading Goryeo official and whispered a few words in his ear. The official's expression changed drastically, and he left with his people without even bothering to say a word to Cui Wu.

Then Wang Hao's family bowed their hands to Cui Wu and left with them.

"Look at the boom in our sales. Those who come here to fight the autumn wind belong to the kind of low-level officials who don't know the so-called, and the news is not well-informed." Cui Wu should have seen Liu Xinqi in the crowd before, waiting for the Korean officials and this team of Korean soldiers. They all left and came forward to report to Liu Xinqihui.

"There are such blind people everywhere." Liu Xinqi also sighed: "The forest is really big, and there are all kinds of birds."

……

On July 28, the auction entered its third day. Not only did the number of Korean merchants come to participate in the auction, but the strength of the participating merchants also improved significantly. The most obvious manifestation is that the transaction prices of all goods were higher than those in the previous two days. It has increased significantly, with the highest transaction price more than doubling.Liu Xinqi took advantage of the trend and increased the number of auction items, reaching [-]% ​​of the total.

On July 29th, the fourth day of the auction, the number of participating Korean merchants remained the same as that of the previous day, but it was obvious that small merchants had been squeezed out, leaving only some powerful merchants.

These merchants must have formed some kind of alliance in private, keeping the transaction price very stable without significantly increasing the price, which was basically the same as the previous day.

The number of auction items arranged by Liu Xinqi also remained the same as the previous day, accounting for [-]% of the total.

On the night of July 29, something very unexpected happened to Liu Xinqi.

Before dark that day, according to the practice of the previous few days, the fleet once again withdrew from the Yeseong River and anchored outside Ganghwa Bay.

It was cloudy that night, Haishi (22:[-]), there was no moon in the sky, and the sea was dark. Only the "position lights" on the masts of the ships of the Xinghan League fleet glowed faintly.

Due to his strong physique, Liu Xinqi only needed about two hours of sleep a day to ensure he was energetic throughout the day, so he did not fall asleep.

At that time, Liu Xinqi was reading in the lounge cabin by the light of an oil lamp. Suddenly he heard the shouts of the night watchman on the deck. Then he heard Li Cang, who lived next to Liu Xinqi, immediately left the cabin and went to the deck to check.

After a while, the noise still didn't stop, and came from time to time:

"there!"

"I can't find it again!"

...

Out of curiosity, Liu Xinqi put down the book in his hand and came to the deck.

I saw that more than a dozen lights had been lit on the deck, and in the dark night, the deck was brightly illuminated.

There was a soaked man tied under the main mast. It looked like he was not from the fleet, but probably an outsider.

There were sailors on the sides of the ship exploring the water, and there were also two small sampans patrolling back and forth on both sides of the Qizhou.

(End of this chapter)