Sui Dynasty: I, Yang Guang, am both scrupulous and stable

Chapter 242 Virtuous Cycle

"General Liu, calm down. I also have my own reasons. Although His Highness the King of Jin does not personally inspect the firearms every day, he keeps them together when not in use. The number is fixed. He will always order someone to count them every three to five days. I If you leave this musket here, you will definitely be caught if it is missing during the inventory, and then it will really be over before anything is done."

After Li Feng said what he said, Liu Tongyou frowned, but he felt that what Li Feng said was reasonable.

Don't let the small lose the big. If this musket is discovered and the matter is exposed, what will happen to the muskets behind it?That's three hundred muskets.

"Little brother, I believe in you, don't let me down."

"General Liu, I'm just looking for money. I just want to make money with this vote. And I guess I won't be able to stay in Daliang and Sui Dynasties anymore. I have to come to our Dachen side. I hope General Liu will do it when the time comes." Take good care of me.”

"Nature, nature."

While laughing, Liu Tongyou loaded all the things for Lao Lu and the others onto the boat and sent them back on their voyage.

Liu Tongyou watched the departing boat disappear into the night, and his smiling face turned sinister: "Here, go inform Captain Sima and the King of Changsha about the muskets."

The soldier on the side said: "Your Highness, that boy just now is obviously a greedy person. You gave him 1000 taels of silver. Aren't you afraid that he will take the money and run away?"

Liu Tongyou smiled evilly and said: "Hey, it's just because this guy is greedy. 1000 taels is not enough. I am about to get 6 muskets, but the price I agreed to pay is [-] taels. People who are not greedy can't do this job." "

"Do we really give this money? This is too much."

"Our Da Chen's royal family's annual tax revenue last year was only more than 600 million taels. This kid's opening is one percent of the national tax. He still dares to open his mouth, but can he spend his life on it? Put the things first It is a great achievement to get your hands on a musket, I believe the King of Changsha will be very interested."

"I'm afraid it won't be good if we go past Captain Sima and inform the King of Changsha directly."

Liu Tongyou smiled disdainfully: "That little soldier dares to be so greedy. Why can't we be greedy? Of course, the one with the highest price will get it. The King of Changsha is much richer than Captain Sima. Even if he offends Captain Sima, he will be attached to the King of Changsha in the future." It would be a better choice not to."

After saying this, Liu Tongyou said with some regret: "It's a pity not to leave the musket as a weight. I'm afraid that my words are unfounded and I can't convince the two of them."

……

Li Feng and others docked, and the other two smugglers were directly controlled, but only the items were confiscated. Yang Guang was true to his word and would let them go, but he had to wait until the matter was over to avoid leaking the news.

The boatman Lao Lu was taken to the temporary palace for questioning together with Li Feng.

First, he told everything about what happened on the boat, and then Li Feng continued: "His Royal Highness King Jin, His Royal Highness Prince Liang, the general observed on the boat that these smugglers were all wearing the military uniforms of the Chen Dynasty. Judging from the attire and The standing posture should be that of a regular army. The lazy mountain bandits and water bandits don't have that upright posture. They should undoubtedly be from the Nanchen court. As for Sima's trouble, the general has not seen it."

Yang Guang nodded: "A person of Sima Xiaonan's level, even if he is the mastermind behind it, cannot often appear on the ship in person to take care of such "little things", but the musket incident will definitely alarm his level. Maybe he can do it next time." seen."

"Your Highness, Liu Tongyou and others should believe that the musket is constructed based on the Mohist mechanism, and they also believe that you have to wait a quarter of an hour after the musket is fired."

"Well, well done."

"What will your Highness do next?"

"Don't show your face during this period, don't appear around me, and let's follow the plan together."

Yang Guang looked at Lao Lu at this time, waved his hand, placed a box containing 50 taels of silver in front of Lao Lu, and said, "You did a good job. This is the silver reward this time. If you cooperate well, you will be rewarded." There will be more, and I will reward you with 500 taels of silver when the matter is settled."

"Yes, yes, thank you, Your Highness, thank you, Your Highness."

Lao Lu was grateful and kowtowed to thank him. They were just looking for money. Now they were following Yang Guang, eating and drinking, and doing smuggling.

The others left, leaving only Li Feng, Yang Guang, Xiao Cong and the sixth child of the Xiao family.Xiao Xuan asked: "Brother-in-law, are you really not afraid of Nan Chen's counterfeiting of this musket?"

"If it were so easy to imitate, our prince of the Sui Dynasty would have imitated it a long time ago. The production, smelting, forging, and polishing of muskets are all indispensable. They may not be able to imitate it even if they don't have the key to study it for two or three years."

Xiao Cong was a little worried about another thing: "If Li Feng brings it back, it can basically confirm that Nanchen's court was involved in smuggling. We have never thought about this matter before, and we have to put an end to it this time. "

"The people in Nanchen think the same as me, but I don't think the imperial court initiated this matter. It should be Sima Xiaonan who did it himself. He sold Nanchen goods to earn the price difference and got a lot of money. Things should have passed through the Western Liang Dynasty and entered the Sui Dynasty."

"Nanchen has some products that have their own advantages. The price in Xiliang is much higher than in Nanchen. They smuggled it over and made a large price difference. However, the smuggling vendors in Xiliang have no bargaining power. Xiliang smugglers The products that go out are sold at low prices, and when they arrive in Nanchen, they sell them at high prices. They are making money inside and outside. In the eyes of smuggling vendors, the huge profits are just a bit of hard work for transporting goods."

Xiao Cong now also understood what Yang Guang wanted to do before getting involved in smuggling. To put it bluntly, he wanted to make money from Nan Chen. Goods, especially clothing, could be remanufactured, but it was difficult for the money to flow in and out.

Sima Xiaonan and others thought of it earlier than him, so they did it earlier.

"Brother, how does the current navy in Daliang compare with the navy on the other side of the river?"

"It can be defended but cannot be attacked. There is not much difference in the strength of the naval forces on both sides of the Taiwan Strait."

"The geometry of the warship?"

"Sixteen warships."

"Can you lend me two boats? If you can't, just one."

Xiao Cong looked at Yang Guang doubtfully: "What are you going to do again?"

"In addition to muskets, the firearms that came from Daxing City this time are also a new type of firearm. I want to use them with the warships. I might take advantage of this opportunity to directly engage in actual combat."

"Are there any other firearms besides muskets?"

"Of course there are. I'll take my uncle to see them when we get there. There are also warships that I want to paint black for him, which will be more suitable for fighting at night."

Xiao Xuan didn't seem to be very interested in the war: "Brother-in-law, our plan has been selected and we can start construction just waiting for the cement from Daxing City to be shipped. But why doesn't brother-in-law choose those with the lowest bids?"

"Those who quoted prices that are too low, even lower than the cement cost I mentioned before, are obviously not here for the purpose of repairing the road, but simply to please our Prince, although it seems that we are not interested in this matter. You can take advantage, but this is not a good thing for the court."

"First of all, the person who does the project has no money to make. Even if he can afford to lose money, he will eventually cut corners and skimp on labor. By then, the roads built will not meet the requirements, and the cement will be difficult to clean, leaving a lot of troubles waiting for us. It will be more troublesome to deal with it. This kind of quotation has not even been carefully considered and calculated, and these people cannot use it."

"Secondly, there is no profit margin. If we force them to borrow money from banks and repay interest, it will obviously be even more unreasonable. In all things, you have to make people earn money and leave reasonable profit margins in each link to generate a A virtuous cycle.”

Xiao Xuan murmured to herself: "A virtuous circle. Why didn't I expect such a thing? Brother-in-law, hurry up and get the cement here. I can't wait to see what this project can bring to Jiangling City."

"The cement manufacturing workshop has already found a location. It is not far from the beam. It will be built as quickly as possible. People can start compacting the soil on the highway first."

"Brother-in-law, I'm going right now."

Seeing Xiao Xuan running out happily, Xiao Cong said with a smile: "After you came, he was much more excited than before."

"Xiao Xuan is a smart kid, especially in business."

(End of this chapter)