Lu Ming

Chapter 145 Xiong Dao
Liu He, the manager of the Liu family who is in charge of business trips, got the master's consent and hooked up with him in the past two days. Early this morning, he and the Lin brothers set off from Hangzhou City in a small boat and headed straight for Tangzhuang.

Along the way, Liu He introduced the situation of his good friend to the two of them: this person's surname is Xiong Mingdao, he is a maritime merchant from outside, and the owner of Tangzhuang.Mr. Xiong is rich and wealthy, promises a lot of money, and has a close relationship with Liu's family. He is a top businessman.

After the Lin brothers learned the inside story, they were also a little puzzled. It stands to reason that no matter what kind of goods Liu He wanted to buy, he would definitely be able to find them from Hangzhou City. Why bother to invite the two brothers to meet?

Suppressing the doubts in his heart, Lin Baoquan smiled all over his face, chatting and laughing with Steward Liu along the way, after going out of the city to the east for more than ten miles, the boat turned along the river, and after a short distance, the brothers of the Lin family saw five houses along the river. The warehouse built by the river.

This row of warehouses is obviously newly built. The warehouses are tall and the white ash plastered on the stone walls has not yet dried. There are several blue stone river piers in front of the warehouse. Those who run old boats can see at a glance that what the laborers are carrying into the warehouse is rice.

"These are all new warehouses built by Master Xiong." Seeing the Lin brothers staring at the warehouse, Liu He added with a smile.

Lin Baoquan nodded and did not reply, and his evaluation of the financial resources of this unseen Master Xiong increased in his heart: this kind of large stone warehouse is not cheap, and ordinary merchants cannot afford to build one.It is not counted after the completion of the production, but there must be a large amount of money to stockpile the goods, and hire people to guard them day and night, which costs a lot.

The boat came to the ground: in a bend in the river that had obviously been rested in front, there were three sandships parked at the moment, the leading one was wider than Lin's Xing'anping, and some laborers were loading the sandship.

Before the two of them took a closer look at these sand boats, some people who were talking on the pier had noticed them. Liu Hehe and Lin Pu got off the boat, and the leader opposite gave a long laugh, leaving the servants and companions beside him, Come forward slowly.

This man is tall and fat, in his prime, with a fair and rich face, with white teeth showing when he opened his mouth, obviously he came from a wealthy family; he was wearing a Nanjing brocade robe embroidered with Xiangfei bamboo, and a pig-sister-in-law dragonskin belt around his waist, There are three or four gold and jade rings around his hands, and his fists are shining with gold.

"It must be the two elder brothers of the Lin family who came face to face, and Xiong Dao took the liberty to invite you yesterday. It was a bit abrupt, and I hope the honored guest will be happy, ha ha, ha ha." Xiong Dao's voice was loud, but his tone was gentle. Although the accent was a little weird, others listened It feels kind to my ears.

"Where is there, when I heard that Master Xiong was calling, Brother Xiong was too happy, so why did you say it so abruptly?" Merchant Lin clapped his hands in a Hokkien accent and saluted, and naturally exchanged warm greetings with Merchant Xiong.

A few people walked and chatted, Liu He was gagging aside, and after a few steps, everyone became as close as old friends, talking and came to the gate of Tangzhuang.

Tangzhuang has not changed, it is still the grand manor, there are people coming and going at the door, and people who look like sailors in bunts come in and out from time to time, each of them looks sturdy and powerful.

Xiong Dao saw that the Lin brothers were thoughtful after seeing the sailors, so the topic inadvertently turned to the future of the sea. Departures.

Xiong Dao's words resonated with the Lin brothers, they all go to sea and know the difficulties, the Lin family's boat doesn't even want to go to Fuzhou now, they only want to go north to Hangzhou, the reason is that the ocean is not calm.

Naturally, Xiongdao, a secret place like the backyard of Tangzhuang, will not reveal its secrets to outsiders. The guests were then led to an elegant side courtyard in the villa. The fruit plate and the tea are served only after the tea is served.

Slowly drank three courses of tea, during which time everyone chatted for a while. Emperor Xi Zong passed away and sat on the throne at nine thousand years old. Who knows the way forward? After such gossip and anecdotes, the atmosphere in the house became more and more harmonious. Tell me why you met today.

According to Xiong Dao, when he was handling goods on weekdays, he found that most of the iron materials used locally in Jiangnan came from Fujian and Guangdong, and Fujian iron was the best, with large quantities and good quality.

Now that Xiong Dao has a foundation in a foreign city that is in urgent need of iron materials, he thought that buying iron with his own family in the south of the Yangtze River would be more convenient if he asked a familiar Fujian merchant to purchase it on the spot. Ship to the land, which saves the cost of going to Hangzhou again, and it is cheaper for everyone. As for the cost of shipping and goods, it is easy to discuss.

After Lin Baoquan heard this, he nodded slightly: the sale Master Xiong just mentioned was within the guesswork of his two brothers last night, and it did not surprise him.

There are many mountains in Fujian, and there are not many iron pits in prefectures and counties, and furnaces are everywhere. Over the years, Fujian Railway has been sold in two capitals and thirteen provinces in Ming Dynasty, and its reputation is resounding.Funing Prefecture, where the Lin brothers live, not only has iron pits, but also government-run silver pits; the Lin clan itself has a stake in the iron pits in the mountains, so buying iron materials is not a big deal.

The only thing to worry about is that Mr. Xiong just ordered a whole ship of iron materials, which made Lin Baoquan a little vigilant: iron materials are rough goods, and few people buy them in bulk. So simple.

Thinking of this, Lin Baoquan asked with a nudge: "I don't know where the iron material purchased, where does the owner want to send it?"

Xiong Dao chuckled, tapped his middle knuckles twice on the black lacquered mother-of-pearl inlaid Longxizhu table in front of him, and then slowly uttered two words: "Master".

"Hiss..." Erlin took a breath at the same time when he heard the name of the place.Rao, the two brothers already had a case in their stomachs before, but they never expected that the iron material was sent to the senior officials!
At this time, it has only been more than two months since the senior staff changed to a new owner. Naturally, the Lin brothers will not know what is going on there.So the first reaction of the two brothers was: hello comprador brother! At this moment, they regard Xiong Dao as a red-haired comprador.

It's a pity that the Ming Dynasty didn't pay attention to this. Merchants on the southeast coast have done business with Semu people for thousands of years. No one despises compradors these days, because the Semu people haven't launched the Opium War, so it's not very attractive. Everyone accepts Semu People are proud of their money running away.
After hearing the word Dayuan, Erlin immediately made the whole thing clear: the red-haired man had a hard time living in Dayuan, spending money everywhere to find big merchants to buy goods on his behalf. This has long been public news along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong. Master Xiong is also one of them.What Erlin didn't expect was that the red-haired man's line was so far away that there were actually people in Hangzhou City who helped his generation plan.

After Lin Baoquan pondered for half a cup of tea, he raised his head and asked Xiong Dao: "I have heard that this 'big official' usually loves raw silk and likes porcelain cloth. Crude goods such as iron materials probably won’t be sold at a high price.”

Lin Baoquan has been in business for half his life, so he is naturally cautious. He knows that in the city of Hangzhou, it is best not to say such words as "red hair, Dutchman", so he uses "a man of high rank" instead.

After Xiong Dao listened, he smiled slightly: These two pretended to understand in confusion.He naturally wouldn't reveal it at the moment, so he pretended to be confused with his understanding: "Xian Kunzhong, but don't worry, Dayuan Island is just waiting to be rebuilt, and the people on the 'island' are all doing long-term business, how can you let them run around?" The friends who deliver the goods don't have to make a profit?"

As Xiong Dao spoke, he stretched out a palm full of rings: "Five cents, five cents a catty of pig iron."

(End of this chapter)