Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 571 The Origin of Li Luo

"It seems that we are going to Lingao once." Li Luoyou put down the letter in his hand, as if talking to himself.

The people standing next to him didn't make a sound. Since the last time he went to Foshan, Li Luoyou seemed to be obsessed with the place "Lingao".

His subordinates didn't quite understand why his shopkeeper suddenly became interested in this small county that even people in Guangdong province knew little about.Only a few cronies know that shopkeeper Li Da believes that the source of the most popular Australian products in the Guangzhou market is Lingao.

As a businessman, he is far more sensitive to such things than others.Recently, more and more unprecedented commodities have appeared on the market in Guangzhou, all of which are wholesaled from Zichengji in Guangzhou.And Zichengji is a firm of Australian goods.

Li Luoyou is extremely concerned about Australian goods, and sends special personnel to inspect Zichengji and Zizhen Zhaili every day, and buy them back immediately when they see new products.From exotic treasures to worthless candies and pickles.Now a special room has been set up in the cabinet of his main office, and all the Australian products available in the market are displayed in it.

He found that: unlike the previous Australian products that were all exquisite and expensive luxury goods, the Australian products that Zichengji has recently wholesaled are all Nissan’s practical and consumer items. The things are as exquisite and easy to use as before, but the prices are much more approachable. People from well-off families can afford it.

A pack of 12 sewing needles packaged in bamboo tubes not only has a good steel nipple, but also has no burrs on the real nose of the needle; the "monosodium glutamate" sealed with wax in a porcelain bottle can be wonderful if you add a little to the dishes. It is extremely fresh; the colorful transparent hard candy is not only colorful and beautiful in shape, but also tastes like various fruits in your mouth; the thick "towel" full of coils is soft and comfortable to wipe your face, and it is also special I don’t know how much better it absorbs water than a bare face cloth; I don’t know what kind of material is used to make light, soft and breathable socks; there is no need for a flint, a small wooden stick that can be ignited with just a stroke... Finally, it is white and clean Paper, Li Luoyou has never seen such a white paper, the best Jinyu rice paper is slightly yellowish when you look closely, but this kind of paper is completely pure white, just like snowflakes in winter.As for the smoothness of the paper, Li Luoyou had never seen it before.

Of course, when it comes to white paper, the large white paper used for pasting in the capital is also very white, but this kind of paper is made of earthen paper with a layer of white clay, so it can't be used for writing, and the surface is also very rough, just like Australian white paper. The difference between cloud and mud.

What surprised him even more was that when he bought a thick stack of paper and picked out a piece of paper at random, the quality was exactly the same, with almost no flaws.It doesn't matter how much you buy.

He can feel this phenomenon in all Australian products. He randomly takes one out of two packs of sewing needles, and the length, luster, and thickness are exactly the same.

Not only can it be made well, but the quality is consistent.That's the beauty of Australian products.The last point is even more terrifying, and that is its price.

The Australian products sold by Zichengji recently are still expensive in terms of price, but compared with the original similar products in the local area, it can reflect a huge advantage in price.

For the Australian paper sold by Zichengji, the price of the most common high-end goods is almost the same as that of the cheapest local ledger paper, but the quality is dozens of times better.With such a price advantage, the sales of local and other foreign papers plummeted immediately.There is a huge variety of Australian papers on the market.Subsequently, Zichengji began to sell various paper products.Including account books, student tracing books, various posts...

The paper quality is good, the printing is extremely exquisite, and the price is even cheaper.Adding these three elements together, more than 90.00% of the goods in the paper shop in Guangzhou have become Australian paper, and only a small amount of calligraphy and painting paper and rough paper used in the pasting industry continue to be the original products.

Li Luoyou still couldn't figure it out, how could Australian paper be sold so cheaply and still make money?This paper certainly didn't come all the way from Australia, but even if it was made in Lingao as he expected, he couldn't figure out how the Australians did it.It seems impossible to say that Lingao's papermaking raw materials are particularly plentiful and cheap—there used to be no papermaking workshops in this place.

If it is said that the Australians are losing money, what is their intention?Li Luoyou became more and more interested in this Australian.

In the room where Australian goods are stored, all kinds of Australian goods have filled the red sandalwood multi-treasure shelf in the room, which is dazzling for eating and playing.Li Luoyou would come here from time to time to admire and fiddle with these novel gadgets.What he likes most is a crystal clear "God Machine Tap Fire", which can be seen to contain something like water.Lightly hit the small rotating wheel, and flames can emerge.It fascinated him.Sometimes he would think, if this thing is used to ignite cannons and birds, wouldn't it be better than the smoking and easy-to-extinguish matchlock?Because he was preparing to undertake the task of casting cannons and firearms from the Guangdong government, he paid great attention to this new thing that can help improve performance.

It's a pity that this item is too expensive, and the store in Gaoju has been out of stock for a long time.As for Zi Cheng Ji, he never sold this item at all.He asked his buddy to inquire, if there is a large order, will it be available?The staff of Zichengji clearly refused, saying that this thing "will not be available again in three or four years".

"You must go and see." He said to himself again.

"Master is going to Lingao?"

Gu Baocheng, who was standing aside, asked cautiously when he saw that it was the second time he said this.

"That's right. I originally wanted to go there some time later, but now it seems that the time is not waiting for me." Li Luoyou looked intently at the pile of letters and books on the table.Among them was a letter from the headquarter of the capital.

The content of the letter was very simple, informing him that Jian Nu had retreated.Zunhua's semicolon was completely destroyed, and both people and goods were lost.The shopkeeper of the Shenyang branch tried to find out if there were any kidnapped staff and family members of the branch and tried to rescue them.Other subcolons in Gyeonggi had different property losses.Some were looted by Jiannu, and some were threatened by various officers and soldiers who took advantage of the chaos and threatened the "labor army".All in all, a big loss.

And Yuan Dushi, whom he once had high hopes for, has been imprisoned.The public opinion in the capital is fierce, which is very unfavorable to him.Li Luoyou let out a long sigh after receiving the letter.Regardless of Yuan Dushi's charges, I'm afraid the end will be more or less auspicious.It is impossible for no one to take care of such a matter of losing a teacher and humiliating the country.

Originally thought that Yuan Dushi was in the east of Liaodong, and the Ningjin defense line was solid. Even if he couldn't "recover Liao in five years", he could still keep Jiannu out of the pass.Unexpectedly, they would detour through Mongolia and enter the customs through Da'ankou in Ji Town. Judging from this appearance, the imperial court was completely unprepared.The so-called Guanning cavalry is nothing more than mediocre.

Thinking of the places where Jiannu's iron cavalry passed by, I don't know how many families were destroyed, and their public and private property were looted.Thinking of this, Li Luoyou was filled with worry and indignation.

Not only angry, but disappointed.The Tartars used to be just a small tribe in Jianzhou Jurchen. The dead slave chieftain Nurhachi was just a follower of Li Chengliang back then. Forget it, now even the side walls are in.Hundreds of miles across at the foot of the emperor at the gate of the capital, the government and army were defeated, and even Zunhua was lost!What happened to the Ming world?
According to Li Luoyou's past thinking, with the power of Ming Dynasty, even if the town troops are unfavorable in field battles, as long as they rely on cannons and firearms, fortify the walls and fortify them, and only defend but not attack, Jiannu will be dragged to death.

Now it seems that Jian Nu is more alive and energetic.Based on Li Luoyou's understanding of Houjin and Ming Dynasty, the entry of Jiannu this time will definitely not be a loss-making business. The far ones followed behind and "gifted out of the country".

Be it resentment or disappointment.Li Luoyou knew that he was just a businessman and could not play any role in military affairs.But the manufacture of firearms and refreshment of armaments can still be done well.From the previous stage, Li Luo lobbied the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi and the governors of Guangdong through his connections, and entrusted him with the imitation of Hongyi cannons. The activity has already achieved initial results, and it will not take long for the "Guan Shu" to come down.

Although Quark has sent people back to China to buy equipment and hire craftsmen, the shipping schedule is long, and even if everything goes well, it will take more than a year and a half.Australians have always had rumors of sharp firearms. Since they can manufacture so many exquisite and easy-to-use goods in Lingao, there must be skilled craftsmen and machines in Lingao.Whether it's buying machines and hiring people directly, or cooperating with Australians, Li Luoyou just wants the foundry to start work earlier and make more firearms for the officers and soldiers.

"Mr. Quark, please come." Li Luoyou ordered.

John Quark, or quark? Poor lived a comfortable life in Daming. He got tired of staying in the Li's shop in Macau, so he went to Li Luoyou's Guangzhou mansion to eat and drink.From time to time, you can also follow Li Luoyou for free tours in South China.Li Luoyou wanted to win him over and took care of him meticulously.Women's spirits are available in everything.The trouble made the British businessman reluctant to leave.

Quark is not in a bad mood: the cotton cloth he smuggled from India had been piled up in Macau and Guangzhou and could not be sold, but recently he suddenly sold them all.And this shopkeeper Li Da wants to make guns and guns, which is a potential big deal.He sent one of his clerks back to England with a personal letter to see if he could find ironworkers and technicians who were willing to come to China. He also instructed the clerk to try to "collect the latest machines for gun factories".

The prospect of being an arms supplier to the Chinese army made him feel a little giddy.The Portuguese had already become the emperor's mercenaries.Wouldn't it be better for the British to be the emperor's arms dealer-at least not to exchange their own lives for money.

He heard that the Tatars had attacked near the capital this time, and the officers and soldiers suffered a few defeats, and they were even a little secretly happy.The more pressure the emperor and his civil servants were put on, the easier it was for them to be persuaded.From Li Luoyou, Quark knew that European firearms performed well in all battles, so the more the imperial army suffered from defeats, the greater their desire to buy new types of firearms to arm the army.

Of course, he didn't show this kind of thought, he just followed Li Luoyou and scolded "tartars" and "barbarians" all the time.

"Going to Lingao?" Quark was a little surprised.Li Luoyou has been talking about this for a long time, but he has not acted.As a foreigner himself, he was not familiar with the place, and he didn't even know where Lingao was in Guangzhou, so naturally he couldn't go there.

"That's right, I think it's just a few days to see." Li Luoyou nodded.

"Great, I've wanted to see this place for a long time!" Quark was very excited, "I want to see how they made those things? And that ship."

"I also want to take a look." Li Luoyou smiled, "Actually, you should be more interested in them."

"Why?" Quark wondered.

"Hehe, do you know who bought your cotton cloth?"

"Australian?" Quark was really surprised.Indian cotton cloth is already cheap enough, but it is still not as cheap as local cloth when shipped to China. At the beginning, the thousands of cotton cloth he shipped were sold for several years, and only one-tenth of them were sold. Only those with unique patterns were sold. Lose.

Originally, he was still ambitious and wanted to sell British wool to the north. Seeing this scene, he knew that it was impossible to sell wool.

"Although I have no proof," Li Luoyou nodded, "but I can be sure that they bought it."

"Lingao," Quark said, "is this place prosperous in commerce? Or is there a good port?" He was suddenly moved: Since Australians can occupy this place for a long time, can British businessmen also get a share of it here?We must know that there is no European country that does not want to obtain a stable trade base along the coast of China, but no one has succeeded except the Portuguese-the place occupied by the Dutch can no longer be regarded as the coastal waters of China.

If you can establish a trade relationship with the Australians, and even establish a British business office, it will be of great benefit to the British trade with China, and you will make great contributions.If the opponent is not strong, you can also seduce the East India Company to send an expedition to drive them out.The East India Company also had its own benefits.

From this point of view, Lingao must go, even if the business cannot be negotiated, you can still find out the truth.

"This place is sparsely populated, and there is almost no business." How did Li Luoyu know that the British had already used so many brains.He also knew little about Lingao.This time, in order to make preparations for going to Lingao, I finally found someone who is familiar with Lingao, who knows that Lingao is a typical "backcountry" in this province.

"As for the port, there are so few, and it's not a good port."

"This is strange, where do Australians go?"

"The sky is high and the emperor is far away." Li Luoyou said.

"You mean that Lingao is beyond the control of the emperor?"

"China is huge, and the emperor has many things he can't take care of." Li Luoyou said, "But once the emperor knows, he will definitely take care of it."

(End of this chapter)