Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 172 Toyo

"Isn't this a threat to Hong Mao? After all, there is Huang Mingzuo selling goods to Zheng." Xu Letian said after hearing what Lin Hai said.

"Someone with the surname Zheng bought some of them, and the price of the silk goods that Huang Hexing sold to Hongmao must be more expensive. In addition, Huang Mingzuo and the person surnamed Zheng are not the same people, and they might break up one day." Lin Hai said again. He said, "If your father is worried about the unsaleable silk goods, why not sell more to me at the original price given to Hong Mao."

The price of raw silk that Xu Xinsu gave to Da Yuan Dutch was about 135 taels per load. This price was much more expensive than that at Wu Mansion in Shanyin, and the quality of the silk products was worse, but it was still an acceptable price for Lin Hai. price tag.

It is impossible for him to purchase goods from Wu Mansion in Shanyin next year. If the alliance with the Spanish is successful, he will have another big customer, so he must increase the quantity of goods purchased from Xu Xinsu.

"Sure, I will definitely bring Brother Lin's words." Xu Letian nodded and replied.

"Even if your father doesn't agree to sell out Hongmao, please prepare more supplies for me next year. I will take as much as I have."

"Brother Lin, don't worry about this. As long as you have money, I can get as much silk as you want." Xu Letian laughed. In the end, he didn't stay for dinner and rushed back to Xiamen that night despite the wind.

After Xu Letian left, Lin Hai had dinner with his adopted brother. After half a year of living at sea, most of the childishness on Ou Zuoji's face had faded, and he looked much more mature than before.

The wind and frost at sea tend to make people age quickly. Ordinary sailors in this era usually finish their work when they are forty years old. No matter how old they are, they can no longer work.

Ozuoji set off from Nagasaki on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. He first followed the first island chain to Dongfan and Xiamen, then crossed the sea off Luzon Island, passed through the Lubang Islands and Palawan Island, and then arrived in Boni. Head east from Bo Ni to Sulu.

The second half of the voyage was one of the two mature needle routes from Fujian to Sulu. The other was south along the Philippine Islands. Since Ozuoji's ship was flying the VOC flag, in order to avoid the Spaniards, he did not take this route. A waterway.

After stopping in Sulu for a while, Ozuoji went to Makassar on Sulawesi Island and Surabaya on Java Island, and then returned along the original route after the arrival of the southerly season.

In addition to Lin Hai's three hundred Visayan slave laborers and one thousand kilos of Javanese rice, he also brought with the ship some pearls, corals, cloves, peppers, sandalwood and other specialties from the Oriental routes, which were popular both in Japan and in Japan. The goods are very popular in Ming Dynasty, and this trip to sea can be said to be a great success.

"Zuo Ji, have you established contact with their upper-class people in Sulu and Surabaya?" Lin Hai only asked what he was most concerned about after Xu Letian left, because he once told Ou Zuoji that he would deal with those who went to the East Ocean route. Purpose kept confidential.

"Of course, I even met the King of Sulu. He heard that we were willing to sell weapons to him, and even gave me two Sulu beauties." Ou Zuoji chuckled, "But I didn't see that. These two beauties are so beautiful, if they hadn't been holding it in for too long at sea, they might not have bothered to take it."

Um...you guys are playing doubles again. This was what you did when you were in Nagasaki.

It seems that it is really hard for a man to learn well, but he will slip away when he learns badly. Ou Zuoji was a rough man a year ago, but now he is so hungry that he has not touched a woman for several months.

"Why don't you just bring a few beauties on the boat? There are many old subordinates on the boat, how can they still steal women from you?" Lin Hai said with a smile.

"That won't work. Even if no one says anything about me, I can't break the rules of the sea." Ou Zuoji replied seriously. In this era, Chinese merchants were generally not allowed to bring women on board ships unless it was really necessary. This may also be the case for Li Dan. One of the reasons for having a male pet.

In contrast, Europe has less taboos in this regard. There are even female soldiers and sailors on VOC’s transoceanic ships, so there is still a folk song like this in the Netherlands: “A long time ago, capable girls went to sea to work as sailor."

Well, he is indeed very capable, to be precise, he is very durable.

"Very good, very good! As expected of the second uncle Ou's son." Lin Hai admired Ou Zuoji more and more, and he continued, "I have started making guns and cannons here. Next year, you will give it to King Sulu." Send a batch of muskets and cannons over."

He is about to form an alliance with Spain, and he must not openly sell weapons to the King of Sulu. For the time being, the Eastern Route can only be handed over to Ou Zuoji.

It is still necessary to secretly support the King of Sulu. This is a necessary check on Manila. After all, Sulu and Majindanao are the biggest confidants of the Philippine Governor, and to some extent they are even ahead of the Dutch.

"What about the other side of Surabaya?" Lin Hai then asked.

"Surabaya is not as enthusiastic as Sulu. A thousand stones of rice is nothing to them." Ou Zuoji replied after hearing this.

"Then buy more next time. Rice in Surabaya is cheap anyway." Lin Hai added, "You don't need to bring more boats. Anyway, you have plenty of manpower on the boat. After arriving in Surabaya, just buy their big boat and sail back. Come to Dongfan and sell it to me, including the boat and the rice."

Not only is food cheap in Southeast Asia, but ships are also cheap. Because of the development of the rice trade, large cargo ships carrying hundreds of tons are everywhere in Southeast Asia.

Although strapping ships are garbage in naval battles, they are still very good as transport ships. Lin Hai needs a large number of cheap cargo ships to transport immigrants and imported materials from Daming.

Ou Zuoji nodded and agreed, only to hear Lin Hai continue: "In addition, there are [-] loads of raw silk at Umino Sahei's side, one thousand loads of which were agreed by the Matsuura clan lord of Hirado, please help me transport it there. . I will give you the other five hundred dan, and you can take it to Nagasaki and sell it."

Five hundred dans of raw silk were sold to Nagasaki, which cost another hundreds of thousands taels of silver. Ou Zuoji waved his hands after hearing this: "No, no, how can I ask for my second brother's money again? I'll still sell the [-] dans for you." , I will bring you some money to Dongfan next year."

"Listen to me. This batch of silk goods was stolen. Umino Sahei and the others also worked hard, so it is appropriate to give you some." Sooner or later, Lin Hai will include Ou Zuoji on the company's board of directors. His assets They will all be the assets of the company in the future, but they will have to be given more shares at that time.

Ou Zuoji gave Lin Hai more than [-] people when he was short of manpower, and now he supports the company's East Ocean route and Japanese route. This is what he deserves, and Lin Hai will definitely not treat him badly.

In fact, there is no shortage of sailors under Lin Hai now, but he lacks trustworthy cadres. Zheng Tingqiu has been sent to take charge of Beiyang affairs. Shibi and Miguel should not be away for a long time when the enemy is facing them. He really has no one to entrust to Toyang. People who were involved in shipping routes and Japanese affairs.

What's more, there is actually not much profit on the East Ocean route, and the risks are not low. Lin Hai's layout of East Ocean trade is mainly considered from a strategic level. Ou Zuoji currently has not joined the company, which means he is operating independently, which to a certain extent is equivalent to helping the company bear risks.

"Second brother, you are so kind to me." Ou Zuoji was moved to tears. From his point of view, he was able to go to sea entirely because of Lin Hai, and he received Lin Hai's support of [-] taels of silver twice. , became one of the top Chinese maritime merchants in just one year. "Brothers, don't talk to each other." Lin Hai patted Zuo Ji on the shoulder and said, "Work hard and strive to be more promising than your father in the future, so that Uncle Ou can also smile."

That night, Lin Hai took his adopted brother to the flower boat in Guandu. Tamsui's entertainment industry had officially started not long ago, and it currently adopts a government-run model. This is also learned from the ancestors of the Legalists. The first to set up a female village was Confucius said, "I, a Weisi man, wear his hair in a left-hand bun", Guan Zhong and Guan Yiwu.

The person in charge of Guandu Flower Boat is Aunt Chunhua. She was originally unwilling to return to her old business, but she couldn't stand Zheng Xiaobao's persuasion and finally accepted the job.

Just like in Nagasaki, Ou Zuoji ordered two more Qinghuan people, and this time the double-flying madman was considered a real success.

Lin Hai did not fool around with his adopted brother and went home honestly. Letting Aunt Chunhua be in charge of the flower boat was to a certain extent self-defeating. After all, she and Zhu Niang were too familiar.

Sure enough, that night, while Zhu Niang was waiting for Lin Hai to take a bath, she suddenly asked, "Have you gone to Hua Ting?"

"I went." Lin Hai sat in the steaming bathtub and replied confidently, "I am the company's chief executive. I want to go to the subordinate departments to inspect what's going on?"

"If you dare to fool around, I will chop off your weird peddler and feed it to the dogs." Zhu Niang raised her sword eyebrows with a fierce look. She actually knew that Lin Hai didn't do anything on the flower boat.

"Come on, come and bite me." Lin Hai stood up with a roar, put his hands on Zhu Niang's shoulders with a smile, and pressed down gently.

"You are a strong person and you bully others..." Zhu Niang fluttered her long black eyelashes and knelt down in the tub. Her delicate face was hidden in the steaming heat, like a looming fairy in the water.

The sound of gurgling water sounded, and the petals rippled on the water, rippled, rippled again...

After a long while, the water fairy suddenly transformed into a dominatrix and shouted sternly: "Are you done yet? The water is already cold!"

"Huh? Is the water cold? I'll pour you a cup of hot water and teach you a new move called Ice and Fire."

……

Seven days later, Xu Letian returned from Xiamen and brought Salvador Diaz with him.

"So, your father agrees with Lin's opinion?" Lin Hai asked Xu Letian.

"Yes, as expected by Brother Lin, the man surnamed Zheng repented on the night of the recruitment and returned to Yingang with his men and ships." Xu Letian continued, "After my father heard about this, I repeatedly praised Brother Lin for his foresight, so he decided to act according to your plan."

"It's just a lucky guess." Lin Hai said modestly, and then added, "Why did the man named Zheng surrender and then rebel again? Do you know the reason?"

"It is said that Cai Shanji, the new Fujian Coast Guard Commander, was arrogant when he accepted the surrender and asked Zheng to send most of his men off the ship. Zheng pretended to agree and fled back to Singang with his men that night."

In fact, Lin Hai knew what Xu Letian was talking about before he traveled through time. After arriving in the Ming Dynasty, he heard about Cai Shanji in Macau. Because this man once served as the magistrate of Xiangshan County, the "Ten Rules for the Control of Macao" formulated by him are still the guidelines for local governance of the Haojing Portuguese people in Guangdong.

Lin Hai then asked: "Is this Cai Daozun from Wucheng, Zhejiang? I heard that he is an old acquaintance with Thief Zheng?"

"Brother Lin is right. Cai Shanji was the prefect of Quanzhou more than ten years ago. At that time, Zheng Shaozu, the father of Zheng Thief, was the official in charge of the warehouse in the government office. One time, Zheng Thief was playing in front of the government office and hit Cai Shanji with a stone. His forehead, but Magistrate Cai saw that he was handsome and handsome, so he didn’t punish him in the end.”

Xu Letian continued: "Somehow this matter got to Master Zhu Dou's ears, so Cai Shanji, who was idle at home, was appointed as the Haiphong Road, specifically responsible for recruiting Zheng Thief, but he didn't want to backfire."

Xu Letian was quite gloating about his misfortune. What he said was recorded in many history books, and Lin Haiben also knew about it, but at this time he felt that it might not be true.

"Brother Lotte, I remember your father said that the big shopkeeper Huang Hexing is quite powerful in the governor's office?"

"That's true." Xu Letian replied, "Huang Mingzuo's younger brother is the official of the Fujian Governor's Office. He has been in this position for twenty years. Basically, all the subordinates in the governor's office are this old man. He is a crony of the thief. In addition, he has strong financial resources, so all the successive governors rely heavily on the old thief Huang."

The so-called Lingshi is a type of official in the main hall. In the Ming Dynasty, the governor was actually an imperial envoy, and his official was actually the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Therefore, the governor did not have a chief officer, and the Lingshi was equivalent to his chief officer. Therefore, although the Lingshi under the governor is just an official, his actual power is very great.

Moreover, local officials did not understand local affairs when they took office, and often had to rely on local officials. Some officials who studied the Four Books and Five Classics had no ability to handle government affairs at all, so they had to rely on local officials.

Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the power of officials has become more and more powerful. Even many affairs of the six central ministries are controlled by officials. For example, during the Jiajing period, when the Literary Selection Department of the Ministry of Personnel selected low-level officials, the decision was directly made by subordinate officials. Si Langzhong didn't ask anything.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, this situation became more and more intense, so much so that Gu Yanwu once said, "Today, the power of hundreds of officials is taken away and everything is returned to the subordinates. This is the so-called hundreds of officials who have a false reputation, but those who serve the country are just subordinates."

After listening to Xu Letian's words, Lin Hai finally understood why Huang Mingzuo had been fighting openly and covertly with Xu Xinsu for decades. They also relied on officials and gentry, but there were slight differences between the two. Huang Mingzuo relied more on officials, while Xu Xinsu relied more on gentry. The two are often enemies. No wonder Huang and Xu can't do anything to the other.

"I guess Huang Mingzuo was the one who was causing trouble in this matter. I'm afraid that what happened when Zheng was a child may not be true. He may just want to push Cai Shanji to sabotage the recruitment." Lin Hai said and smiled at Xu Letian, "It seems like this Old Thief Huang doesn't want to see Thief Zheng being recruited even more than your father."

　Thanks to the flying little pig for the reward of 500 taels!

　　

　

(End of this chapter)