Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 13 Shopkeeper Huang Hexing
Lin Hai then remembered that the Chinese New Year was approaching, and the Ming Dynasty cabinet did not work before and after the Lantern Festival, not to mention a shipyard in Haojing.This was also a good thing for him, giving him more time to prepare for the interview.

In fact, he had never heard of Suzhou code and tripod account, but he expected that it would not be difficult to learn them.The only troublesome thing is abacus, which requires hard work. Although he learned it in elementary school, he has basically forgotten it.

After going home for lunch, Lin Hai went out to buy some cooked meat and fresh bream, and bought two jars of good wine. He was just waiting for the cashier Cheng from Huang Hexing next door to come back. He would be returning to Zhangzhou after the Chinese New Year, and the head office would send someone to him in the first month of next year. The new accountant is here, I guess I can learn a few tricks from him by bribing him.

After Cheng's accountant came back, Lin Hai came to his room carrying hot wine and meat.As soon as Lao Cheng looked at the thing in his hand, he immediately frowned and said, "Brother Lin, what are you doing? Shopkeeper Huang said yesterday that we, Huang Hexing, do not accept outsiders."

Lin Hai smiled and said: "Sir, you may have misunderstood. Xiao Ke just wants to become a teacher and learn some accounting skills."

When Lao Cheng heard that this was the reason, he raised his brows and started bargaining: "You are such a good calculator, you want to learn how to make a living in this life with just a little food and wine?"

Lin Haidao: "Sir, I'm only staying in Haojing temporarily. Why don't you teach Xiaoke for an hour every night, and the money for lamp oil will be calculated separately. If you teach Xiaoke for ten days, I will give him one tael of gold. Whether he learns or not is up to me. What do you think?" "

Want to go out in ten hours?It seems that this boy doesn't know a lot, and he won't be afraid of having to pay for it when he learns it... Lao Cheng thought about it, stroking his beard and said: "I think Brother Lin is very talented, and there is absolutely no need to learn this accounting skills." Ten days. How about I save some money for you and charge one penny to teach you for one day until the church is over?"

Lin Hai secretly cursed the old fox and said with a smile on his face: "Just follow what you said."

"Okay, okay, you are really a kid who can be taught!" Old Cheng said, stroking his hands and saying, "Let's have a drink tonight, and I will teach you everything I have from tomorrow."

That night, Lin Hai caught Lao Cheng and forced him to drink.This guy's wine is not good, and he starts to brag when he gets a little better: "This old man Hao Jing has had enough time. It's boring to interact with the barbarians who don't know etiquette every day. Do you know what kind of person I am in Zhangzhou? Even if he is the prefect's master The housekeeper doesn’t dare to take it big when he meets me.”

"That's right, you are a highly respected man. Who doesn't admire you greatly? Come on, Xiao Ke, give me another bowl of wine." Lin Hai continued to pour wine.

"Hahaha... You are really sensible, young man." Lao Cheng shook his head and drank a sip of yellow soup, then looked at Lin Hai sideways and said, "Brother Lin doesn't believe it? Do you know the name of the big boss of Huang Hexing Headquarters? I and I What’s the relationship between the big shopkeeper and me?”

"How dare you not believe it? Please give me some advice, sir."

"Speaking of this great shopkeeper, it is really embarrassing to kill Duke Tao Zhu and to kill Shen Wansan. Even if the Donghai Dragon Palace is evacuated, it may not be worth half of his property. If the governor of Fujian is short of vassal treasury, he must also Come to ask for help, not to mention the Daotai magistrate of Zhangzhou..."

Lao Cheng boasted loudly, and suddenly the conversation changed and he began to brag: "As for me, when I fell into the imperial palace more than ten years ago, I was invited by the big shopkeeper to join the mansion as a teacher. Even now I still call me sir when I see him. , Ha... Tell me, who else in Zhangzhou dares to be disrespectful to me?"

It turned out that this guy was still a scholar. Lin Hai heard that he had a good nose and eyes, so he shouldn't be bragging, so he asked: "May I ask the name of this big shopkeeper?"

"It's okay to tell you that my Dongweng's surname is Huang Mingzuo! Not to mention Zhangzhou, here in Haojing, just ask the wealthy merchants who travel to the sea, whether they are from Tang Dynasty or Western Yi, who has never heard of this name? "

Huang Mingzuo... No wonder the business name Huang Hexing sounded familiar yesterday. It turns out that the boss is this person.

The corners of Lin Hai's mouth turned up slightly. It seemed that the rent of this house was really worthwhile.

The reason why he wanted to rent Huang Cheng's house was mainly because he was the uncle of the future Pirate King Zheng Zhilong. Unexpectedly, there was another big figure hidden behind this old boy - in the 30 to [-] years before Zheng Zhilong's rise, if there was any Chinese sea If Shang can be compared with Zheng Zhilong's adoptive father Li Dan, then it must be Huang Mingzuo.However, compared to Li Dan, this person's reputation in later generations was not prominent.Who told him that he didn’t have a godson like Zheng Zhilong?The reputation of Chinese maritime merchants in this era was not determined by their strength, but by who had a deeper relationship with Zheng Zhilong.

In fact, Huang Mingzuo debuted at about the same time as Li Dan, but Li Dan's power is mainly overseas, while Huang Mingzuo's base is rooted in Fujian officialdom.

This is because Li Dan is the leader of the Quanzhou Gang, and Huang Mingzuo is the leader of the Zhangzhou Gang.Since the opening of Longqing in the Ming Dynasty, Zhangzhou Yuegang has been the only legal overseas trading port for Chinese merchants. This is a unique advantage for Zhangzhou maritime merchants.

As early as 20 years ago, Wei Malang led a barbarian ship to Penghu to seek market. Huang Mingzuo, under the instruction of Fujian Governor Xu Xueju, came forward to negotiate with the Dutch in a private capacity.With the cooperation of the warships of the famous general Shen Yourong, Huang Mingzuo finally persuaded the Dutch to withdraw from Penghu and still trade with Chinese merchants in Dadi, the Malay Peninsula.

In the second year of the Apocalypse, the Dutch invaded Fujian again. The Fujian authorities imprisoned Li Dan's brother Xu Xinsu in Xiamen to coerce Li Dan, who was far away in Japan, to mediate.Afterwards, Huang Mingzuo, as the special envoy of Fujian Governor Shang Zhouzuo, went to Batavia with General Manager Chen Shiying to negotiate with the Dutch.

From this incident alone, we can see that in the eyes of the Fujian authorities, Li Dan was a maritime hero who was both a merchant and a thief, while Huang Mingzuo could be regarded as half of the government.

In addition to Zhangzhou Yuegang, which is a legal port on the surface, Huang Mingzuo also has a private port, which is Wuyu Island overseas in Zhangzhou.According to Dutch records, Huang Mingzuo built wharfs, docks and warehouses on Wuyu Island, and stationed a private armed force. The Dutch even directly called Wuyu Island Mingzuo Island.

After pouring Lao Cheng, Lin Hai went back to his room to rest. He looked up at the residence of Huang Cheng's family upstairs, thinking deeply in his heart.

Both Zheng Zhilong and Huang Mingzuo will be the top players in East Asian waters in the next ten years.Since we live in Huang Cheng's house by chance, we can't live in vain, right?

Time flies by, and in a blink of an eye it is February of the fifth year of Tianqi.

Lao Cheng had set off back to Zhangzhou more than half a month ago, and in the end he only earned three coins from Lin Hai.

Among them, Suzhou Mazi and Sanjiao taught for one night, during which they also boasted for more than half an hour, such as how much money I handled at the Zhangzhou head office, etc., which actually gave Lin Hai a general understanding of Huang Hexing's business volume. .

These two things have no technical content at all to Lin Hai. Suzhou code is a set of numerical symbols, a bit like Roman numerals, and tripod accounting is an incomplete double-entry accounting method, which is much simpler than the debit and credit accounting method of later generations.Once you master these two, you will basically master the accounting skills of the late Ming Dynasty.

Abacus requires familiarity. Lin Hai taught Cheng Shi for two nights, and then he bought an abacus and practiced it by himself.Lao Cheng secretly thought that he had made a mistake, but he was also surprised by Lin Hai's understanding. Little did he know that Lin Hai had a basic foundation and could practice on his own after reviewing the formulas.

In this way, Lin Hai successfully joined Chenji Shipyard on the [-]th day of the first lunar month and became a glorious part-time worker.Of course, his abacus skills were still a bit poor, but fortunately, Chen Yaozu put in good words and he managed to get by.

On February [-]th, Lin Hai was making calculations on the counter when he suddenly heard a voice not far in front of him.

"First officer, look at that small object. It looks like a red-haired plywood boat?"

(End of this chapter)