Fenghou

Chapter 1331 The Return
It was already noon, so Chen Qing asked Zhou Kuan to have lunch and drink tea together at Qingfeng Teahouse. Chen Qing didn't see his father-in-law, Lu Jin. He is now the owner of Qingfeng Teahouse, and he put all his thoughts on running the teahouse. In the teahouse, it is usually in the teahouse, but Chen Qing also knows where the old man is now?

Lu Jin opened another Qingfeng teahouse in Nancheng. Naturally, it was a piece of land given to him by his daughter Lu Xiu. Five tea princesses with beautiful appearance and superb tea skills were recruited.

The opening of Qingfeng Teahouse, whose name was written by Chen Qing himself, caused a sensation in the south of the city. No.1 is the Longfeng Teahouse of the Wei Family, No.2 is the time-honored Chang’an Teahouse, and No.3 is the new Qingfeng Teahouse.

It's late August now, when the autumn tigers are raging, so ice cubes are also placed in Qing'an Teahouse, but the quantity is cleverly controlled. It doesn't have the refreshing feeling of summer, but it is also very comfortable like a spring breeze.

Chen Qing and Zhou Kuan sat down in their special seats. This is Chen Qing's exclusive private room, which is not open to the public.

The two sat down, and Zhou Kuan asked, "I heard that the negotiation in Lin'an broke down?"

In fact, the negotiation broke down a month ago, but this time Hu Yun wrote a detailed report and sent someone to Jingzhao, but did not send a pigeon letter, so Chen Qing only received the report yesterday.

Chen Qing smiled and said: "As expected, they made unrealistic demands. Of course I want the lion to open his mouth and ask for Fujian Road."

Zhou Kuan smiled and said, "What if the emperor agrees? Will you promise him?"

Chen Qing shook his head, "He will never agree, you may not understand the importance of Fujian Road."

"Tell me, what's important?"

Chen Qing dipped his finger in some mouthwash, and drew a sketch on the table, "From Lin'an to Lingnan, there are four roads to take in total, one is Jinghu South Road, the other is Jiangnan West Road, and the other is Fujian Road. The other is the sea route. Once I take Fujian Road, Fujian Road will be integrated with Jiangnan West Road. The Imperial Court and Lingnan Road will be separated from the land road. In the end, we can only take the sea road, but the sea road is basically taken by the Western Army. Once I do not allow the other party's officials to cross the border, the imperial court will completely lose contact with the two routes of Lingnan, and the only land controlled by the imperial court is Jiangnan East Road and Liangzhe Road. Both the emperor and the imperial court know the power of it, so You will never agree to give up Fujian Road to me."

"But we are determined to win Fujian Road, aren't we?"

Chen Qing nodded, "That's right. At the beginning, I deployed Quanzhou to take down the entire Fujian Road. At the latest after the spring of next year, our navy will take action. Whether the court admits it or not, we must actually control Fujian. road."

"It is estimated that the imperial court will have to negotiate with you again. One wants face and the other wants face."

"maybe!"

Chen Qing said lightly: "If they want face, I can give them face so that they still own Fujian Road in name."

The two of them had dinner, and each ordered a cup of tea. Zhou Kuan said, "I talked with Zhang Miao about the reform of officials. I always felt that it was the same thing. What's the difference?"

"The name change is to decouple from the imperial court. In legal terms, the prefects and counties are all officials dispatched by the imperial court and have nothing to do with the internal affairs hall, but the governor and county magistrate have nothing to do with the imperial court. They are officials appointed by me and the internal affairs hall. This kind of decoupling is The imperial court and I are taking the first step towards a split, so the state officials seem to remain unchanged, but in fact they have changed, legally.

In addition, the county level has undergone relatively large changes. A county supervisor in charge of industry, agriculture and mining has been added, and three detainees have been promoted to rank nine. In this way, there are eight court officials at the county level, although the burden on the court is a bit heavier. , but it is of great benefit to the imperial court to control the county. "

"I understand His Highness's thinking. It is a good thing to strengthen the imperial court's control over the local area. You can try it first. If it doesn't work, let's change it slowly."

At this time, a soldier came in and said something to Chen Qing in a low voice. Chen Qing smiled and nodded, "I see, I'll go right away!"

"Is something wrong?"

"Zheng Tongquan is back, just arrived in Jingzhao!"

Zhou Kuan suddenly became excited, Zheng Tongquan went to Japan to exchange pig iron for silver, this is the matter of the Finance and Taxation Department!

He hurriedly said: "I will go back to the official office with you!"

Chen Qing smiled and shook his head, "It's not going back to the government office, it's going to the pier!"

"Then go to the pier!"

The two of them didn't care about drinking tea, so they got into the carriage and rushed to the Weihe pier. On the pier, they saw Zheng Tongquan from afar. He set out in spring and only came back in autumn. They haven't seen each other for half a year. .

Chen Qing secretly blamed himself, Zheng Tongquan is already 60 years old, and he can't let him cross the ocean and travel long distances like this, just this once!Fortunately, they also sent several young officials to go with Zheng Tongquan.

Zheng Tongquan walked up quickly, bowed and saluted, "See Your Highness!"

"Thank you, Uncle Zheng!"

Zheng Tongquan was shocked. This was what Chen Qing called him more than ten years ago. He could hear Chen Qing's gratitude to him from the bottom of his heart, which made him feel inexplicably moved.

"Serving His Highness is a humble duty!"

Chen Qing nodded and said with a smile, "How is it, did you succeed?"

Zheng Tongquan looked at Zhou Kuan next to him, saw him stretch his neck, his eyes were full of expectation, and smiled slightly: "Of course it's good news, our pig iron was warmly welcomed unexpectedly, Japan is at war, so all the famous names They came here to snap up our pig iron, of course they exchanged it for silver, and gold, basically one tael of silver for one catty of iron.”

Zhou Kuan was overjoyed, "Does it mean that you got back 50 taels of silver?"

Chen Qing said with a smile: "It should be more than that, he also brought armor, weapons and shields, right!"

Zheng Tongquan smiled wryly and said, "It was sold, but it didn't sell very well. They don't like it very much."

"Why?" Chen Qing was puzzled, since a war broke out, soldiers are not welcome?
"We didn't think carefully. The Japanese are very small, like children. Our armor is too ill-fitting for them. The weapons are too heavy. They can't handle the spears. They have to be remade."

Chen Qing couldn't help laughing, he had forgotten this factor, and it seemed that he wanted to customize armor for Japan.

"You sold your armor and weapons at a loss?"

"How could it be possible to lose money? It's just that I didn't get the huge profit I wanted. I originally wanted to get ten times the profit, but in the end I only got three times the profit. It doesn't feel like it's worthwhile to travel so far and only get three times the profit."

Chen Qing fully understands that Zheng Tongquan is not modest. Generally speaking, the profit of overseas trade is at least five times higher, so the profit is only three times higher, which is indeed a little less.

However, what they sell are all old armor and old weapons, and the value has to be discounted by half, and the three times the profit is relative to the cost of the recruit armor, so they are actually six times the profit.

At this time, several officials stepped forward to salute. There were five officials in total, and the leader was Chao Kun. He rushed from Quanzhou to Dengzhou to meet Zheng Tongquan and the others, and then went to Japan together.

These five officials will form the Overseas Trade Administration in the future, and Chao Kun will serve as the first executive order.

"How did you solve the problem of language barrier?"

Chao Kun hurriedly brought up a man about 30 years old. The man knelt down and kowtowed to Chen Qing, "Little Liu Qing pays homage to His Royal Highness King Yong!"

"Please get up!"

Chen Qing glanced at Chao Kun, "Who is he?"

Chao Kun introduced: "His father is from Quanzhou, Fujian Province. He went to Japan to do business with his father when he was very young. His father bought a shop in the port of Hizen Kingdom and became a merchant. He bought goods from Song Dynasty merchants and resold them to Japanese businessmen, they have stayed in Japan for 20 years. His parents miss their homeland. This time I brought their family back. His parents returned to their hometown in Quanzhou. This Liu Qing came to Jingzhao with us. He can speak Japanese language. In Japan, he is responsible for translating for us."

"Not bad! Not bad!" Chen Qing praised sincerely, this Liu Qing is definitely a rare talent.

Zheng Tongquan said with a smile: "Your Highness, let's go to the ship and have a look at the cargo!"

Chen Qing nodded, surrounded by everyone, and walked towards the big boat with Zhou Kuan.

(End of this chapter)