Smuggling Daming

Hearing that the Wangcai brothers were going to take him to the most important place in the port, and it was a must-go place for everyone who came to the port, Zhou Zhong was also very curious, so he asked them to lead the way, and then the three of them headed east And go, soon came to a very prosperous place on the port.

This is already the easternmost end of the port controlled by the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and further east is the port area controlled by other chambers of commerce. However, at the junction of the port forces, a very prosperous area has been formed. There are many restaurants and inns here. , All kinds of small vendors filled it, shouting one after another, vying to win over the merchants walking on the street.

Compared with other places in the port, the area in front of Zhou Zhong's eyes is not only more prosperous, but also the restaurants and inns on both sides of the street are obviously more upscale, and even the fireworks girls sitting by the windows in several brothels are more prosperous than other places. The ones here are more beautiful. As for the pedestrians on the street, most of them are well-dressed. Obviously, this must be the golden location of the entire port.

Wangcai and Fugui led Zhou Zhong through several restaurants and inns, and soon came to the center of this area, but what surprised Zhou Zhong was that in the core of this golden area, there was a very The flat open space should be a square to be precise, and what is even more surprising is that in the center of the square, a three-story teahouse stands quietly there.

Zhou Zhong looked at the teahouse in the center of the square, then turned his head to look at the restaurants and inns on the edge of the square, and found that the nearest building to the teahouse was also twenty feet away, and the surrounding buildings formed a circle with the teahouse as the center. As if the stars are holding the moon, this invisible setting makes the teahouse itself have an indescribable majesty, which makes people feel awe at the first sight.

"What...what is this teahouse for? Why is it so...so special?" Zhou Zhong couldn't think of any words to describe the teahouse in front of him. From the perspective of the architectural environment, this teahouse is very domineering. There are no other buildings in Shizhang, but no matter how domineering, it is still a tea house. The tall flag in front of the gate has a big word "tea" written on it. Although the gate face is large, the decoration is very ordinary. It is an ordinary tea house with a relatively large area.

"Hehe, the young master doesn't know something. This Beigang teahouse is not an ordinary teahouse, but if you explain it, it can't be explained clearly in one or two sentences. Let's go in and have a look. Then you will naturally understand it, young master." Understood!" Fugui said at this time, the two brothers have similar looks, the common thing is that they are ugly, and there is not much difference in personality, the only difference between the two of them can be distinguished, that is, Fugui is darker than Wangcai.

Zhou Zhong looked at the teahouse again after listening to it, and found something different from ordinary teahouses. He saw a few guards standing in front of the gate of this teahouse named Beigang, and these guards looked familiar to him, they should be People from their own chamber of commerce.In addition, there is a constant flow of guests in the teahouse, and most of the people who come in and out are extraordinary and expensively dressed, and you can tell that they are not ordinary people at a glance.

Seeing that there were guards from the chamber of commerce standing guard in this teahouse, and there were so many people coming in and out, Zhou Zhong couldn't help being curious, and immediately walked forward with Wangcai and wealth, wanting to go inside to see what was going on. Members of the chamber of commerce recognized him quickly, and were surprised at the time. They were about to salute Zhou Zhong, but he stopped him with a wave.

After entering the teahouse with the flow of people, Zhou Zhong saw that the hall of the teahouse was very vast, with hundreds of tables inside, and almost every table was full of people, whether drinking tea or talking, it looked no different from ordinary teahouses.

Zhou Zhong didn't pay attention to it at first, and when he entered the hall, he saw that there was no one at a table in the corner, so he walked over and sat down.But before he asked the waiter to serve tea, he saw a middle-aged man in his 40s turned around and cupped his hands at the table next to him and said, "This little brother is polite, may I ask what you want to buy? I have cotton cloth from Songjiang and silk from Suhu, all of which are top-grade goods, I wonder if you are interested?"

"Purchasing goods?" Zhou Zhong was taken aback when he heard this, and then asked with a strange expression, "What kind of goods do I not want to buy?"

"Don't want to receive the goods?" The middle-aged man looked Zhou Zhong up and down with a strange look, and then suddenly smiled, "Little brother, if you didn't come here to buy goods, you might as well come to drink tea of?"

"Isn't this a tea house? Why can't I come here to drink tea?" Zhou Zhong was even more surprised when he heard this, he couldn't understand what this middle-aged man who took the initiative to strike up a conversation was talking about?

But as soon as Zhou Zhong's words fell, the middle-aged man looked at him with the eyes of an alien, as if he saw something very strange, but the middle-aged man soon realized that this was a very strange thing. It was a disrespectful move, so he showed a smirk and cupped his hands: "It turns out that the little brother is here to drink tea, I misunderstood it!"

After the middle-aged man finished speaking, he immediately turned around and ignored Zhou Zhong, which made Zhou Zhong a little confused. He turned his head and wanted to ask Wangcai and Fugui, but found that these two guys were covering their mouths and laughing.

Seeing this, Zhou Zhong immediately understood that Wangcai and the others must know the reason, and immediately glared and said: "What are you laughing at, tell me what this teahouse is for, why does this person ask me if I want it as soon as he comes up?" goods?"

Hearing Zhou Zhong's words, Fugui and Wangcai didn't dare to laugh any more. Wangcai stepped forward and secretly pointed to a table next to him and said to Zhou Zhong: "Master, do you think there is any difference on that table?"

Zhou Zhong followed Wangcai's fingers after listening, and found that there were three people sitting on that table, all of them were businessmen, they were chatting and drinking tea, listening carefully to what they were chatting, it was nothing more than Some business matters seem to be no different.

"What's the difference? Isn't it just that Sanshang Businessman is talking about business?" Zhou Zhong looked at it for a long time but didn't see anything special, and asked Wangcai with a puzzled expression.

"Master, take a closer look, the key is what's different on the table?" Fugui also pointed out at this time.

"On the table?" Zhou Zhong looked over there again when he heard this, but this time it really made him see the difference.

Ordinarily, there should be nothing on the table for drinking tea in the tea house except teacups and pastries, but that table is different. I saw three people sitting in the middle in front of the person, except for the teacups and the plate holding the pastries. There is also a small plate with a unique shape, and some crystal white sugar is placed on the plate.

If it is in Europe and other places, it is not surprising to put sugar on the tea table. After all, they can't taste the bitterness and sweetness of the tea, so they like to put sugar in the tea. But this is Daming, and it depends on the other party's clothes. A businessman who is also dressed in Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to have the habit of drinking tea with sugar, so it is really strange to have a plate of white sugar in front of the other party.

Noticing the strange plate of sugar on the table, Zhou Zhong listened carefully to the conversation of the three people, and soon found that what the three were talking about was a sugar business, and it was the two people who had no sugar in front of them. Both intend to sell a batch of sugar in their hands to the person in the middle who puts the sugar in front of them. Now the two are proposing the benefits they are willing to give up, and the person in the middle is considering it.

Seeing this, Zhou Zhong seemed to understand something, but he still had a lot of doubts, but before he could open his mouth, Wangcai next to him finally explained: "Master, our Beigang teahouse is actually for businessmen who come and go. For business use, you must have seen that the businessman sitting in the middle is here to collect sugar. According to the unwritten rules of the teahouse, he put a plate of sugar in front of him, so that when someone happens to have sugar to sell , will sit down and discuss with him, if several merchants want to make a move, then sit together and discuss with everyone, whoever offers the lowest price and whose goods are good will buy the one."

"So that's it!" Zhou Zhong nodded after hearing this, and at the same time looked at the tables in the teahouse, only to find that almost every table was filled with goods that needed to be purchased, such as porcelain, silk, cotton cloth, etc. In addition, many people did not sit and drink tea, but walked around the teahouse, apparently looking for someone to buy their own goods.

But Zhou Zhong quickly thought of a question, and asked immediately: "No, I didn't say I wanted to buy the goods when I sat down just now, and there was no goods to be bought in front of me, but the middle-aged man asked What kind of goods do I want to buy, this is obviously not normal?"

"Hehe, the young master doesn't know something. There is an unwritten rule in the Beigang teahouse, that is, when there is an empty table in the teahouse, only the person who buys the goods will be the first to sit down, and then put out the samples of the goods to be bought. Just wait for the seller to come up and talk. After the seller enters the teahouse, if he can find a buyer, he will naturally sit down and talk, but if he doesn’t find a buyer, he can’t sit down by himself Instead of drinking tea on the table, you have to leave information about the goods you want to sell in the teahouse, so that the teahouse can help you pay attention." Fugui also explained at this time.

Now Zhou Zhong finally understood. It turned out that when I sat down here, although I didn’t put anything to buy, according to the default rules of the teahouse, I was already a person who bought goods. No wonder the middle-aged man came up to ask him. What to buy.

Knowing the rules of the Beigang Teahouse, Zhou Zhong also found it very interesting. Now he asked Wangcai and Fugui for more information about the teahouses. According to them, places like Beigang Teahouse are the most important places in Shuangyu Port. There are three teahouses in total, including one in Westport, one in Southport, and one in Beigang, and Beigang Tea House is the largest, with the largest daily trading volume.

Zhou Zhong also noticed that the Beigang Tea House is actually a commodity trading center. Most of the goods shipped from the port are traded here, and the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce in charge here takes a cut from it. The greater the transaction volume, the greater the profit of the Chamber of Commerce. big.

It's just that Zhou Zhong also found that the trading methods here in Beigang Tea House are too primitive. It is actually very inefficient to rely on those merchants to find business opportunities, but the tea house does not take the initiative to participate in the transaction. I should think of a way to change the primitive trading method of the teahouse!

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