Smuggling Daming

The sky outside was dark and the north wind kept blowing. Zhou Zhong was wearing a blue cotton robe and a hooded cape, looking like an ordinary rich man.Thinking about the matter between himself and Xie Lingyun gave Zhou Zhong a headache, he didn't want to stay in the study anymore, so he came out for a walk, Wangcai and Fugui behind him dressed up as two servants, followed closely by his side to serve .

Wangcai and Fugui were originally servants of the Zhou mansion. Before Zhou Zhong dismissed the servants in the mansion, no one wanted to hire them because they were ugly. In the end, they almost became beggars. Fortunately, they had traveled to sea with Zhou Hai before and knew something about Because of the matter in Shuangyu Port, he went to the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and was finally taken in by Sun Tong as a boatman.

After proving Zhou Zhong's identity before, the two brothers Wangcai and Fugui stayed in the backyard of the chamber of commerce for reasons of confidentiality. After the Jeolla chamber of commerce was wiped out, Zhou Zhong took them from Sun Tong to become his sidekicks. He is a servant, after all, the other party is a servant of the family, and he has also gone out to sea with Zhou Hai. From this, it can be seen that he should be trusted by Zhou Hai, and he can use it with confidence.

Originally, the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce was located next to the port, so Zhou Zhong didn't let him prepare a carriage, walked out of the gate, and soon arrived at the port.At this time, Wangcai pointed to the bustling port in front of him and introduced: "Look, young master, the large area in front is all the ports of our chamber of commerce, and the westernmost side is the pier used by our chamber of commerce, which only accounts for one-tenth of the port. Now, any other ship can dock, of course we have to collect taxes."

Zhou Zhong looked in the direction of Wangcai's finger, and saw cargo ships gathered in the port not far away, ships of all sizes docked together densely, and the sails of the clouds almost covered the entire sea surface.

Although today's weather is very bad, it has not affected the busyness of the port in the slightest. There is a constant flow of people on the cargo ships in the port. They stood at the bow and yelled loudly, telling the coolies to handle them carefully so as not to damage the goods.

It is worth mentioning that the coolies at the port are actually members of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, but they are only peripheral members of the Chamber of Commerce, usually only responsible for working and getting money for food. The Jeolla Chamber of Commerce generally let the official members of the Chamber of Commerce do such things. Wangcai and Fugui around Zhou Zhong are the official members of the Chamber of Commerce.

From the perspective of safety, it seems that the peripheral members of the chamber of commerce are taking advantage of it. After all, they all work for the chamber of commerce, but they don't have to work hard for the chamber of commerce.But in fact, every peripheral member of the chamber of commerce dreams of becoming an official member. This is mainly because of the different treatment. For example, peripheral members like coolies earn only enough money to survive every day.

In comparison, although full-fledged members of the chamber of commerce occasionally have to work hard for the chamber of commerce, their monthly remuneration is quite generous, which can not only support themselves, but also allow their families to live a life of adequate food and clothing.As the saying goes, people die for money, and the generous remuneration makes most people ignore the danger of full members of the Chamber of Commerce, especially those peripheral members who are exhausted every day, and try their best to become full members of the Chamber of Commerce.

However, a chamber of commerce is limited by its scale and financial resources, so it is impossible to recruit full-time members without limit. Usually, the chamber of commerce only recruits some people with special talents, such as experienced boatmen, skilled craftsmen, and even people who can read and write. Wait, these people are the talents needed by the chamber of commerce, so generally as long as these people are willing, they can easily become full members of a chamber of commerce.Of course, there are exceptions. For example, if a certain chamber of commerce suddenly loses a large number of people, it will urgently need some people to join in, and the conditions for joining the association will naturally be relaxed a lot.

Zhou Zhong calmly walked to the port, and then looked at the coolies in front of him who only wore single clothes in winter. In the words of later generations, these coolies are the reserve team of members of the chamber of commerce. However, due to the great impact on the business and the lack of financial resources, it has not been able to replenish the manpower until now.

"Wangcai, the chamber of commerce needs boatmen now. If these coolies are recruited into the chamber of commerce, how long will it take to train them into qualified boatmen?" Zhou Zhong suddenly asked.

If Zhou Zhong's plan to quickly revitalize the chamber of commerce is implemented, then the development speed of the chamber of commerce will definitely increase exponentially, especially the smuggling fleet will grow faster, and more boatmen will be needed by then, and the coolies in front of them are just right Is the main source of boatmen.

Hearing Zhou Zhong's question, Wangcai immediately stepped forward and replied: "Master, it is easy and easy to be a qualified boatman, but it is also difficult to say. For example, most of the coolies in front of us are fishermen, so there is no problem in manipulating the boat." , It can be said that boarding a boat is a boatman. However, they used to fish in the near sea, but they had to go to the far sea to transport the goods, and the goods may have to stay on the boat for several months. Not everyone can bear the feeling Well, Fugui and I stayed at sea for two months with the master transporting goods. Now that I think about it, I don’t know how we survived. If it weren’t for the two of us, we really couldn’t help it, and we wouldn’t come back to find Boss Sun as a boatman. "

"Yes, yes! The ability of a boatman to maneuver a boat is secondary. The key is whether he can bear to stay at sea for several months. I heard from some old boatmen that some new boatmen stayed on the boat for a long time. Going crazy, some jumped into the sea and some murdered, although we have never met it, but it sounds really scary!" At this time, Fu Gui next to him also echoed.

Although what Wangcai and Wealth were talking about was a bit confusing, but Zhou Zhong also understood it. Translated into the words of later generations, it means that most of these coolies on the pier have already possessed the basic skills to become boatmen, but most of them do not have the psychological quality of a boatman .This is mainly because in the era of the Ming Dynasty, the speed of sea ships was very slow, and it took a long time to transport goods once, and the boatmen naturally had to stay at sea for a long time. For months, sometimes they have to eat moldy dry food and drink stinky water. Not everyone can bear this kind of life.

It is precisely for this reason that if you want to become a real boatman, you must not only learn the basic skills of manipulating the ship, but also have a strong psychological quality. However, psychological quality is invisible and intangible. The only thing that can be guaranteed is , those new boatmen will gradually enhance their psychological quality in the process of transporting goods again and again.So if you want to become a real boatman, there is no shortcut, at least you have to go to sea a few times, and after you get used to the boring life at sea, you will naturally become a qualified boatman.

"I see. I didn't expect to be a boatman with such special attention!" Zhou Zhong nodded at this moment.He also participated in smuggling in his previous life, and he is no stranger to sea life, but the sea transportation at that time was much stronger than it is now. For example, smuggling in the Southeast area usually takes a few days. Walk for several months with the help of the wind?

Zhou Zhong walked around the port, did some calculations along the way, and found that there were nearly [-] ships loading and unloading goods at the port under the jurisdiction of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and these cargo ships would immediately give up their berths to The ships behind, and this is only one-third of the port in the North Port area, from this we can see how amazing the daily cargo throughput of the entire North Port is.

It just happened to be noon at this time, and many coolies were almost done. After the leader greeted the owner, the teams of coolies began to go to the port to eat. Zhou Zhong also felt a little cold at this time , just wanted to turn around and go back, but was stopped by Wangcai and Fugui with a smile: "Young master, since we have come to the port, there is one place we have to go, and that is the place where people of your status should go."

"Oh, where should I go with my status?" Zhou Zhong was a little strange when he heard this, but then he thought of something, pointed at the two brothers with a smile, "What kind of crooked ideas are you two thinking about? You don't want to take this young master to that kind of filthy place, do you?"

Shuangyu Port is the same as the Zhoushan Port he passed by before. The port is full of restaurants and brothels, and the port here is bigger and more prosperous. Naturally, there are more wine shops and brothels on the port than Zhoushan Port. In Beigang District, for example, there are twenty or thirty brothels alone.

Speaking of which, not all of these brothels were opened by businessmen from Ming Dynasty. In fact, more than half of them were opened by Japanese and Koreans. They transported domestic women here, and these exotic women really attracted a lot of people. Men who are early adopters, at dusk, the doors and windows of the brothels on the port emit a hazy pink light, and the drunk men linger among these foreign prostitutes, which has become a scene in the entire Shuangyu Port, especially those who control The foreign chambers of commerce in these brothels have also made a lot of money.

It is also because there are brothels everywhere in the port, so Wangcai and Fugui said that they would take Zhou Zhong to a place suitable for his identity, which immediately made him think that the two wanted to take him to a brothel, after all, the Ming Dynasty was a prostitute. In the legal era, for men, going to a brothel is actually not much different from going to a restaurant. Even if the wife of a man knows about it, she won't say anything.

But to Zhou Zhong's surprise, the two brothers Wangcai and Fugui hurriedly denied after hearing this: "No, no, young master, you misunderstood. Back then, the most annoying thing for the old man was places like brothels. How dare we take you with me?" Go to that kind of place, otherwise, if Uncle Xu finds out, won’t we break our brother’s legs?”

Hearing that he was not going to a brothel, Zhou Zhong couldn't help asking curiously, "Then where do you want to take me?"

Although Wangcai and Fugui's eyes were not good, they could also see the curiosity on Zhou Zhong's face at this time, but at this moment they pretended to be closed and said: "Hey, young master, you will know when you go, don't look at the busy port in front of us. , but the place we are going to is the most important place in the entire port, and anyone who comes to the port will run there as soon as they get off the ship."

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