Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 58
After Xu Tianqi left, Zhu Youjian sent a secret letter from the Jinyi Guards who went south, which was news from Zhang Guoji.

After Zhang Guoji arrived at Lianzhou Prefecture, he went directly to the Lianzhou Prefecture. Now that he was purchasing grain for the imperial court, he naturally no longer had to conceal his identity. He directly revealed his identity and asked the Lianzhou Prefecture to coordinate the purchase of grain and rice.

Lianzhou Prefecture is adjacent to the Chief Minister of Guangxi and Annan. Both places are grain-producing areas, especially Annan. Rice is harvested three times a year and the grain production is abundant. It is a veritable land of fish and rice.

Zhu Tianqi also took a fancy to this point and sent Zhang Guoji to Vietnam to purchase grain and rice. The Red River Delta in Vietnam is a plain in northern Vietnam formed by the impact of the Red River and its tributary, the Taiping River.

Although the area of ​​the Red River Delta is not large, the climate here is suitable, with rain and heat at the same time, which is very suitable for rice growth. Rice can be harvested three times a year, and for the same area of ​​​​field, the rice here is better than once or twice a year. In other places, the output is even nearly one-third higher, which is why Vietnam is called the "Grainbasket of Asia."

But even so, the prefect of Lianzhou was still in trouble after learning that Zhang Guoji wanted to purchase millions of taels of grain and rice, because even according to the current domestic grain price in the Ming Dynasty, at 2 taels of silver per stone of rice, he He had to help Zhang Guoji find more than 50 shi of rice, which was not a small amount. As a small prefect, he might not have that much energy to help Zhang Guoji find a grain supplier.

The Guangdong and Guangxi regions have always been regarded as major grain-producing provinces. The reason why Guangxi's grain production is higher than that of Guangdong is because Guangdong grows a lot of cash crops such as sugar cane. Therefore, Guangxi's grain output is very prominent, even Guangdong also often needs to buy grain from Guangxi to ensure food supply.

This means that in addition to being self-sufficient in food, Guangxi also needs to supply the people of Guangdong, and there is not much surplus food. Not to mention that it is difficult to help Zhang Guoji raise these hundreds of thousands of stones of grain and rice. Even if he can raise it, Zhang Guoji will With so much grain and rice taken away, wouldn't there be a famine in Guangdong?
Therefore, the prefect of Lianzhou finally had no choice but to inform Zhang Guoji of the situation.

Zhang Guoji is naturally not unreasonable. He knows that the food he came to purchase this time is to be transported to Shaanxi to relieve the victims. The people of Shaanxi and the people of Guangdong and Guangxi are the same subjects of the Ming Dynasty. He cannot complete his errand in order to save Shaanxi. The people of Guangdong and Guangxi will take away the food rations of the people of Guangdong and Guangxi and let the people of Guangdong and Guangxi starve, right?

Therefore, Zhang Guoji could only give up his plan to purchase grain and rice in Guangdong and Guangxi, and made up his mind to go to Annan.

In fact, according to Zhang Guoji's previous plan, he did not want to go to Annan to purchase grain and rice unless he was forced to do so. Because there is a civil war in Annan right now and the situation is very chaotic. He is not just considering his own safety. After all, he also has the court's personnel with him. With more than 100 million taels of silver, I don't dare to take risks easily.

But now it seems that if he doesn't go to Annan, he may not be able to exchange the money in his hands for food. Therefore, he can only inform Zhu Tianqi on the one hand to explain the situation, and on the other hand, ask the Lianzhou prefect to help arrange the trip to Annan. matters.

After all, Lianzhou is a coastal city, and there are still many merchants doing maritime business. However, most of these maritime merchants are actually half-merchants and half-bandits. They engage in serious business, but occasionally turn into pirates and plunder on the sea, causing The reasons for this situation include not only the factors of the maritime merchants themselves, but also certain objective factors.

Since the "Longqing Switch", the Ming Dynasty officially announced the lifting of the maritime ban. However, this reform did not actually completely open the door to the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade, but only opened the only foreign trade special zone in Yuegang, Haicheng, Fujian. If a private boat wants to go to sea, it has to go through complicated procedures here. In addition, there are many restrictions.In addition, the corruption among officials was serious, and the maritime merchants became more and more resistant to the restrictions of the imperial court. After all, for the maritime merchants, instead of being controlled and exploited by the imperial court, it was better for them to simply take refuge in pirates and be protected by pirate gangs.

The protection fees of many large pirate groups along the coast are clearly marked, and are even cheaper than the "handling fees" required by the court. However, the court does not dare to interfere with the ships of the pirate groups.

Over time, the imperial court's binding force on maritime merchants became worse and worse. Most of the ships did not have legal procedures. Since they were illegal in themselves, they occasionally did illegal things such as robbing families and homes, so naturally they had no psychological pressure. Got it!
The prefect of Lianzhou knew that Zhang Guoji's purchase of grain and rice for the court was of great importance, so he had to treat it with caution. He specially found his cousin Zhang Shili and asked Zhang Shili to personally drive Zhang Guoji to Annan.

Many county officials in coastal cities have interest relationships with maritime merchants, and many people here rely on the sea for their livelihood. Even if officials do not want to cooperate with maritime merchants, it is inevitable that they have relatives in the family who are engaged in maritime business.

This is the case with the prefect of Lianzhou and his cousin Zhang Shili. They were distant relatives who were born in Wufu. They knew each other, but the prefect of Lianzhou never took the initiative to contact Zhang Shili in order to avoid suspicion.

But this time the Lianzhou magistrate had to find Zhang Shili. He was worried about letting Zhang Guoji ride on another merchant's ship. Zhang Shili was his cousin after all. With this level of kinship, it was better than Outsiders are more trustworthy.

Zhang Shili's business is neither big nor small. He has a large ship worth 1 pieces of material (0.33 piece of material is approximately equal to [-] tons of displacement), and five or six small boats worth [-] to [-] pieces of material. They specialize in traveling along the coast of Fuguang. The trade to Southeast Asia can go as far as Manila, but his ship is not good and the risk of going to Manila is too high, so he only runs this route once or twice a year at most.

Zhang Shili was happy to curry favor with his cousin, who was the prefect. Who was doing business these days, who wouldn't want to find an official to protect him?So as soon as the prefect of Lianzhou came to him, he immediately came to the door, and when he heard that Zhang Guoji was a high-ranking official from the capital, he was even more fawning, and naturally readily agreed to send Zhang Guoji to Annan.

Zhang Guoji knew that people like Zhang Shili who were engaged in maritime business were unreliable. In order to prevent Zhang Shili from not doing his job diligently, he specially rewarded Zhang Shili with some silver. As a commission, Zhang Shili was naturally grateful and specially gave his ship to him. A large ship with eight hundred materials was transferred.

Zhang Guoji didn't waste much time in Lianzhou Mansion. As soon as Zhang Shili's boat arrived, he boarded the boat and set off.

Now that he has boarded Zhang Shili's ship, Zhang Guoji did not hide his purpose of going to Annan from Zhang Shili. After all, Zhang Shili often does business in the nearby waters, and he must have some understanding of Annan's situation and the food market. Yes, Zhang Guoji also hopes that Zhang Shili can be his guide after arriving in Annan.

(End of this chapter)