Fenghou

Chapter 1125 Let's talk again
Inside the Changfeng Teahouse, Zheng Tongquan sighed and told the story of his being forced to donate [-] thousand-stone cargo ships and [-] guan to the imperial court.

Hu Yun smiled slightly and said: "This kind of flat-bottomed cargo ship is easy to build, and it can be seen everywhere. There are at least tens of thousands of ships from the imperial court and civilians, and thousands of ships from Sichuan and Shaanxi. They are like sheep. The fate of being slaughtered, His Royal Highness King Yong valued the Wanshi sea ship, he said that the Wanshi sea ship is a strategic weapon, it is hard to come by, hundreds of thousands of stone cargo ships are nothing, Zheng Gong should not take it to heart."

Zheng Tongquan sighed and said, "That's right, the Wanshi Sea Ship is indeed hard-won. The material of the keel alone is very particular. It takes hundreds of years of dense trees, and it takes another five years to make it. Just one keel is worth the price." Two or three thousand guan, His Royal Highness Yong Wang is right, it is a strategic weapon."

"We have already sent people to various ports to promote it. I wonder if it will be effective?"

Zheng Tongquan shook his head, "There will be a little effect, but the effect will not be too great. As far as I know, almost all maritime merchants have old ships. They may avoid this disaster by dumping old ships and hiding new ones. It’s not that the whole family moved to Quanzhou as the special envoy said.”

"Why don't you want to move to Quanzhou?"

Zheng Tongquan explained: "I can move to Quanzhou, because my son is in charge of the capital on Sichuan Road. I know that the Western Army will not embarrass me, but other people don't think so. They will definitely worry. Is it a sheep to sail to Quanzhou?" Enter the tiger's mouth?

Moreover, a large amount of their wealth has been exchanged for real estate and land. If they run away, the real estate and land will definitely be confiscated by the government. If their ships and money are taken away by the Western Army, they will have nothing. "

"So they will take the initiative to cooperate with the government?"

"It must be like this. Hand over some of the old sea ships and keep new ships for yourself. Some sea merchants have earned enough. Hand over the ships and exchange them for honorary officers. They will enjoy the rest of their lives comfortably, as I know The Yu family, their family has fifty sea ships. Ever since Yu Wanfeng's second son died at the hands of the pirate Zheng Guang, Yu Wanfeng wanted to give up maritime business and turn to official career. He will definitely dedicate the ship."

It was only then that Hu Yun realized that his considerations were simple before, but Dong An's words "If you can run away, you can't run away from the temple" made sense. These maritime merchants are all worth millions. Would they abandon their property for a few ships? ?
Of course it was impossible. If the imperial court traded their official position for a ship, it would most likely succeed. They wanted fame and status, and the imperial court wanted a ship. This was indeed an exchange that both parties were satisfied with.

I think the sea merchants are too simple, I always feel that they regard the ship as their life, but in fact it may not be the case!

After Zheng Tongquan left, Dong An saw that Hu Yun was lost in thought, so he persuaded: "We not only have the front hand, but also the back hand. If the front hand is not successful, then we will use the back hand. In fact, it is the same."

Hu Yun sighed and said: "The front hand has a wide range. If it is successful, it can prevent more than [-]% of the ships. Although the back hand is effective, it is not wide enough. It is not bad to grab three achievements. I can't explain it to His Royal Highness King Yong. what!"

Dong An also persuaded: "Let's try our best! King Yong will understand us, after all, these maritime merchants are beyond our control."

At this time, the master Bo Yang Jingzhi came from outside and said: "Special envoy, Xu Xiantu, who knows the Privy Council, just sent someone to send a document!"

Yang Jingzhi handed the document to Hu Yun. Hu Yun took the letter and read it carefully. It was an official document issued by Zhengshitang, with the seal of Zhongshumen on it, requesting that the two parties continue to negotiate on the status of Bianliang, and the negotiation ended from the second round. As a starting point, restart the third round of negotiations.

The first two rounds of their negotiations were good, but from the third round, Qin Hui began to dominate and forcibly added the terms of returning Jiangling Mansion and Ezhou, making it impossible to continue the negotiations.

Now this official document vetoed Qin Hui's third round of conditions, and started from the end of the second round, making a big circle and returning to the original point.

Of course, Hu Yun couldn't make the decision, and immediately sent the news of the court's request to continue the negotiation to Jingzhao in the form of pigeon letters.

It has been ten days since Chen Qing returned to Jingzhao. During this time, he turned into a farmer for one hour every day, taking good care of his corn and pumpkins. The corn grew rapidly and reached five feet high, and the pumpkin seedlings also climbed up. On the wall, the melon leaves were swollen, and just this morning, the first golden pumpkin flower quietly bloomed, which really surprised Chen Qing.

"Remember, you two little ones, you must never pick this yellow flower. If you pick it off, you won't be able to grow melons, understand?"

Chen Qingsheng was afraid that the two naughty daughters would pick his pumpkin flowers, so he specially brought the two little guys to teach them on the spot.

The two little guys nodded together, Chen Qing sighed in his heart, knowing that they didn't listen, he simply lifted the leaves, revealing the small golden flowers under the leaves.

"Ah! It's so beautiful!" The two little guys exclaimed at the same time.

"Listen well, both of you. After the flower withers, a melon the size of a finger will form on the flower base, and then it will grow slowly. In autumn, it will grow into a big pumpkin. You can eat it later. It’s time to steam the pumpkin, didn’t you like it very much last time? If you want to eat sweet pumpkin, you can’t pick the flowers.”

The two little ladies clapped their hands with joy, and now they really listened.

Aunt Wen smiled and said: "Master, there is actually more than one flower. I saw seven or eight flowers before dawn. This one should be a female flower, just like wax gourd."

"How do you know it's a female flower?" Chen Qing asked puzzled.

"There is a button under the female flower, and there is one under this flower. That is the female flower, which is easy to identify."

Chen Qing nodded, and asked again: "Is the aunt pollinating?"

"When it's not dawn, pick off the male flowers and pour the pollen into the female flowers. Last time the master said, I will. I wanted to find a box of bees to come back, but I don't need it at all."

Seeing that the two young ladies were serious, Chen Qing patted their cheeks and said with a smile, "Let's go! Daddy will take you to catch grasshoppers."

When the two little ladies heard about the grasshopper catch, they jumped up and down for joy and ran to the grassland by the lake.

After playing with the children for half an hour and catching five or six grasshoppers, Chen Qing set off for the official room. It was noon, and the officials could rest for half an hour. After chatting for a while, I will go back to work.

As soon as Chen Qing returned to the official room and sat down, the bell rang for the beginning of the afternoon, and the officials and civil servants began to get busy again.

At this time, Wei Ji brought in a document and presented it to Chen Qing, "His Royal Highness, this is an urgent pigeon letter from Lin'an just received at noon."

Chen Qing took the copy and read it briefly. There were two contents in the letter. One was that the imperial court requested renegotiation, gave up the unreasonable demands of Jiangling Mansion and Ezhou, and continued the initial negotiation. Way to admit.

The second content is that the emperor appointed Han Shizhong as the commander-in-chief of the water army, began to prepare for the construction of the water army, and began to comprehensively recruit sea ships. It was difficult for them to stop it, and they could only partially stop it.

Chen Qing nodded and said, "Reply!"

Wei Ji immediately took out the pen and paper, and stood at the recording table beside him. Chen Qing said slowly: "Add one more item to the negotiation, requiring that we recognize our ownership of Xiangzhou at the same time, and the concession of Bianliang remains unchanged. Second, the matter of the sea ship , do your best."

Chen Qing also knew the difficulty of stopping the sea-going ship, so he didn't force his subordinates to do things that he couldn't do by himself.

(End of this chapter)