Dragon Sea Empire

"We can't buy from other companies." Yin Feng frowned and asked, "We can come to buy products from other manufacturers."

The children of the Han family shook their heads: "The governor of Suzhou and the head of the local guards all run official stores and guard stores, and all shipments from machine operators must go through their hands, otherwise there will be no business at all, you Even if they are willing to buy at your door, these dealers will not dare to give you the goods."

"Why is this? Could it be that Li Shi, the weaving eunuch in Suzhou, has already controlled the silk industry in the city,"

The disciples of the Han family smiled wryly and said: "Dadong, the governor of Suzhou and Eunuch Li are in the same group. As long as the machine household and the silk shop don't listen to them, the Yamen of the Suzhou government will come to trouble you for various reasons. Moreover, the governor of Suzhou The "Daxing" in the city was also hired by Eunuch Li, and any merchants who dared to fight against him would be visited by the Daxing..."

When Yin Feng heard it, his heart moved: This scene seems to be very similar to the real history of a certain time and space. The government colluded with the underworld, bureaucrats and powerful people used their power for personal gain and monopolized the market, while ordinary people could only swallow their anger.

"What is the main business of my company in the local area?"

The children of the Han family said: "It is mainly silk, and everything related to silk. [-]% of the silk products that our company carries out to sea every year are purchased in Suzhou, and another [-]% are from Songjiang. These officials and businessmen have monopolized the silk Many merchants have suffered greatly from it, and I have heard of those who went bankrupt and hanged themselves. Fortunately, we mainly sell overseas, and we set the selling price, otherwise..."

Yin Feng sighed and said: "You are right. Fortunately, we mainly do sea trade and monopolize the business route of silk going to sea, so we can still make a lot of money."

Xu Hongji also sighed and said: "When the eunuch Sun Long was in Suzhou, he sealed the city gates and plundered wantonly. ,"

Yin Feng sneered and shook his head, thinking of the time before time travel, some people on the Internet described this kind of officials as officials and businessmen, and bureaucratic power economy as "capitalism", which is simply a dream.

After they left Suzhou, they came to the same conclusion: the Jiangnan area is very rich, but the rich are all officials and gentry, and the common people have nothing to do with prosperity.

The business of the entire Ming Dynasty was indeed prosperous, but this strongly aroused the greed of the emperor, the subordinates and noble officials at all levels. They regarded business as the most convenient fat to slaughter, and regarded it as an inexhaustible source of wealth. Therefore, they set up checkpoints widely, excessively increased the names and amounts of various taxes, took "and buying" and taking things for free as a matter of course, even relied on privileges to operate monopoly trade, and squeezed private commerce to intercept profit sources. These behaviors of abusing businessmen and businessmen are more prominent in the Jiangnan area. At that time, businessmen and businesses were constantly being exploited, lacking the protection of identity and legal property, looking for business opportunities in the cracks of the ruling network, and finding business opportunities with difficulty. exist and develop.

……

The boats meander under the small rivers and bridges in the south of the Yangtze River.

Yin Feng and the others sometimes passed through some towns on temporarily hired boats, row upon row of houses, stone bridges and wooden bridges of various shapes, and women washing and washing vegetables by the river, and washing rice. Chen Zhongji, who had the opportunity to travel inland, felt fresh, and Yin Feng couldn't help but think of the famous saying "Little bridges and flowing water". It is in stark contrast to the barren land that is common in the north.

This reminded Yin Feng of the main task of his trip to the mainland. He knew that under the current strategy of becoming a king and dominating one side, the big bosses in the company have different ideas: Han's father and son, Huang Cheng and other key members of the company's board of directors think People in the civil service system such as Zeng Qi, Zeng Shan, and Zeng Jingshan wanted to occupy at least one or several provinces on the mainland and then fight against the Ming Dynasty; According to Zhao Tie, Ye Hua, Yan Siqi, Chen Zhongji and other military radicals, they should go straight to Huanglong, attack the capital, and compete with the Ming Dynasty for the world.

Regardless of the plan, the Chinese company will completely turn against the Ming Dynasty; and with the political rigidity and conservatism of the Ming Dynasty, endless wars between the two sides are inevitable. Once in a state of war, it will be difficult to purchase silk and other goods from Jiangnan At the same time, the food produced by the rich and prosperous Jiangnan will be able to support the Ming court for war.

Yin Feng was distressed thinking about the successful deeds of the heroes who conquered the world in history, and found that Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor of the dynasty, was the only one who occupied the south of the Yangtze River and then swept the whole country. He couldn't help but smiled wryly.

Chen Zhongji has never seen Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake, but he has seen the inner lake in Manila. In comparison, this Taihu Lake is the largest lake he has ever seen in his life, with the endless blue waves, the green islands reflected in the lake, the green islands surrounded by reeds and The undulating and rolling distant mountains amidst willows on the bank, and the white waterfowl flying up and down in the gorgeous sunset, all made him feel as if he was in an intoxicating landscape painting. Around their boats, fishing boats, big and small, were sailing Returning, from some ships came a long and graceful song.

Mei Xinlan sat on the bow of the boat, picked up her pipa and played an ancient song. The reflection of the beauty in the lake water was like a dream, and Yin Feng couldn't help seeing the god.

"What a wonderful place, it's so beautiful, no matter Japan, Ryukyu, Luzon, or Nanyang, nothing can compare to the beauty here," Chen Zhongji stood up and sighed loudly.

Yin Feng laughed: "Do you like Jiangnan? Well, if we can achieve great things, you will be in charge of Jiangnan affairs."

……

Yin Feng and others came to Zhejiang smoothly. Because Yin Feng has been to Hangzhou many times, many Huizhou merchants and Zhejiang merchants in Hangzhou are shareholders of Zhonghua Company. Therefore, Yin Feng and his party did not enter Hangzhou City, but went around Over the city, cross the Qiantang River and head towards Taizhou.

As officials of the imperial court who traveled far away to Yazhou to take office, many checkpoints and customs offices along the way let them go, almost never inspecting, but some people think it is strange: to go to Qiongya, you should take the road in Anhui, Jiangxi and other places, why? This group of people is passing through Zhejiang.

Chen Zhongji, who pretended to be the leader of the family, told the guards at the checkpoint: They went to Changguowei to find Ningshao general Luo Qing, and borrowed his warship to go to Yazhou by sea.

Several guards were taken aback: "The wind and rain on the sea road is changeable, and accidents may happen at any time. This...you are too courageous."

Although Zhejiang is very close to the ocean, these officers feel so strange and afraid of the ocean. Yin Feng shook his head helplessly: During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Mingzhou (Ningbo) was one of China's ocean-going ports; The ban on the sea for more than a year has made people in Zhejiang, a coastal province, no longer know the sea.

To go to Ningbo, you have to pass through Yuyao, the headquarters of the Xie family in Yuyao. The local Xie family started from Xie Xuan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It has been handed down for more than a thousand years. When I went to Ningbo from the East Zhejiang Canal, I found out along the way: The reputation of the Xie family in the local area is not very bad, and some members of the Xie family are honest officials or good people. As squires, the sons of the family have a good reputation in the local area, but some officials are not. At this time, the so-called squires include not only officials who have been dismissed from office, but also officials who Ding You kept at home and righteous officials who donated money and food. Relying on their status and power, these people are also extremely dishonest in the countryside and specialize in doing bad things, so they are called "gentry". His descendants and family members colluded with rogues and hooligans, and arbitrarily decided the country song.

Yin Feng and others waited for a day in a small fishing village on the coast near Xiangshan Mountain, and fired fireworks signals for two consecutive days on the coast. Two days later, the Sea Soul finally appeared. Captain Huang hurriedly greeted everyone on the shore: " Hurry up and get on board, the officers and sailors along the coast are searching for ships that are prohibited from going out to sea, and the ship closest to us is the ship of the Songhai Navy Battalion, and the Xinxing is dealing with them,"

Yin Feng asked curiously: "What's going on, didn't Shen Yourong be transferred to Fujian to be the deputy commander-in-chief? Luo Qing, the general of Ningshao, is one of our people, why would there be someone who has trouble with our ship?"

Captain Huang smiled wryly and shook his head, "I don't know either. I heard that Songhai Qinyi has replaced the general manager. The new Songhai general is strict in handling affairs and strictly enforces the law. He has already captured many scattered private merchant ships."

"President Songhai, who is this person?" Yin Feng asked.

"Yu Zigao, I heard that he is the son of Yu Dayou, Master Yu,"

Yin Feng and Chen Zhongji shouted together in surprise: "It's him," and among the few people present, they were the only ones who knew who Yu Zigao was.

Yu Zigao is Chen Dagao, who studied at the Chinese Army Military Academy for two years and took part in the attack on the Ryukyu and Japanese pirates Satsuma. This young staff officer looked down on the Chinese Army at first, and later became the staff officer of Yin Feng's old battalion. In fact, As soon as Chen Dagao entered school, Lin Xiao sent someone to find out his true identity. Lin Xiao planned to arrest Yu Zigao and drive him out of Taiwan, but Yin Feng stopped him.

After the Satsuma clan was defeated, Yu Zigao boarded a Ryukyu merchant ship on the way back to Taiwan, and left the team without authorization to go back to the mainland. He took part in the martial arts examination and returned to his hometown to serve as Wei Qianhu in Quanzhou, Fujian. Because he worked hard during his tenure, He offended the local gentry officials. In the following years, although he wiped out several bandit scourges in western Fujian, he has not been able to be promoted. He did not expect to come to Zhejiang now.

Chen Dagao and Yu Zigao are the same person, and very few people in Zhonghua Company know about this.

Chen Zhongji said with a smile: "I didn't expect Da Gao to be quite serious in his work. I don't know how he will deal with us if he meets us at sea."

Yin Feng whispered to Chen Zhongji: "The question is how long he can persist like this. Now that officers and soldiers have lax military discipline, neglected training, and neglected weapons, how long can he persist in this muddy water alone?"