Xia Xun learned the basic situation of the two largest local pirates from Yu Ren, and wanted to ask more details, but Yu Ren didn't know.
After a while, the wine and food came up, Yu Ren and his father-in-law accompanied Xia Xun to eat wine, and Yu Ren asked: "Brother Xian came to Haining this time, what business do you want to do?"
Xia Xun said: "The little brother wants to buy a batch of folding fans, and then buy dozens of knives, these things are easy to get rid of, the greater the profit, but it is a pity that he has not been in business for a long time, and there is no way to do this, he has been wandering around here for a long time, but he has not seen it in any store." ” Yu Ren listened and said embarrassedly: "I'm afraid this is a little difficult, if the virtuous brother is here, just to buy some seafood and parallel goods, or local specialties, I can help you for my brother."
But the things you want are probably hard to buy in the market.
The imperial court stipulated that without a national certificate, no survey, and no tribute, no merchant ships were allowed to dock to do business, so the only way to buy these things was a smuggler, and my brother did not know anyone in this regard. ” Xia Xun heard Yu Ren say this, knowing that this founder gentleman really didn't know about the relationship between these sideways, and he couldn't hope to get on the line with those pirates from him, so he couldn't help but be disappointed, but Yu Ren's father-in-law Huang Laohan heard it and said: "Brother Xia is my benefactor, let the old man figure out a way to do this." ” Xia Xun was overjoyed: "The old man recognizes them" The old man said with a smile: "The old man has an aunt and cousin, who opened a shop in the local area, selling some Chinese and foreign lacquerware, some of which are called this goods, I think there must be a relationship in this regard, you are the old Han Engong, I must help with this favor."
Virtuous son-in-law, after a while, you will accompany you to go over, and say that Brother Xia is your own brother, and he can't refuse. ” Yu Ren nodded again and again when he heard this, Xia Xun was overjoyed, and hurriedly raised his glass to thank him.
The three of them talked happily and stayed to their heart's content, and Yu Ren and Huang Laohan accompanied Xia Xun to his cousin's lacquerware shop.
The shopkeeper of this lacquerware shop is surnamed Li, called Li Tang, the antique name, the antique shop, the store is placed with antique antique shelves, and there are some gold-sprinkled tables, gold-painted powder boxes, gold-sprinkled hand boxes, gold-smeared copper cups, sprinkled gold-wood Cho horns and other lacquerware.
There was only one young man in the store, sitting there bored, he knew Huang's father-in-law, as soon as he saw him coming, he hurriedly got up to greet him, asked the reason, and hurriedly ran to the backyard to find the shopkeeper, and after a while, Li Tang greeted him.
This Li Tang is forty-seven or eighteen years old, lean, his figure is like a slender bean sprout, he bows his waist slightly, and when he sees his cousin coming, his thin face shows a little smile, and he hurriedly asks someone to serve tea and hospitality, and asks for clarity, Huang Laozhang said that Xia Xun is his uncle's cousin, and asks him to help buy some goods.
As soon as he heard that it was his own relative, Li Tang immediately let down his guard.
At that time, the folding fan and the knife were very popular in the Central Plains, a knife was only worth 800 to 1,000 yuan, but it could be sold at a high price of 5,000 to 6,000 in the Ming Dynasty, and the same was true for folding shoulders, and the fan was beautifully made and had great artistic value, so it was also extremely popular in the Central Plains.
Of course, at this time, the Central Plains goods are more dumping.
A Fujian anal is worth a thousand gold in this price, a bird anal is also worth hundreds of gold, a batch of Tongjian is worth 40 gold, the land is worth 20 gold, flame nitrate, iron, gold are 20 times the profit, especially raw silk, is in short supply.
Xia Xun pretended to be a businessman with a small business, and only buying some knives and folding fans was also in line with his identity.
Li Tang asked Xia Xun a few casual questions, Xia Xun had been doing business for a while, and he barely answered correctly, so Li Tang knocked on the table and muttered: "Listen to your tone, you have done business, but I'm afraid you used to run by land, and you haven't done business on the sea, but the little gold fan is just fine, and you can transport this knife."
Xia Xun hurriedly smiled and said: "This is not a problem, the junior has a friend who is on an errand in Yingtianfu, and with his care in this regard, there will be no problems."
Li Tang frowned: "That's it, that's it, I'm about to buy a batch of goods tonight, you bring money at night, go with me, remember to bring your own car, and the goods will be shipped away immediately."
If it is an ordinary time, whether it is a street transaction or a store transaction, it is all grandiose and does not need to be guarded against, but it has not been done recently, and the government has been watching it more closely, and it is necessary to pay attention to it. ” Xia Xun's original intention was to gain his trust in the name of trading, and then find an opportunity to get rid of him and get in touch with the pirates alone.
After Xia Xun returned to the inn where he lived, he first hid the waist card, official defense and other important items that could determine his identity in the cabinet, and then went to get a donkey cart, and stayed until the evening, only bringing some treasure money and copper coins, and rushed to the small shop again.
The shopkeeper Li Tang was waiting for him, and when he arrived, he immediately set off on the road.
Li Tang drove an ox cart, driven by a young man, and Xia Xun followed behind, and went out of Yanguan Town together.
Xia Xun didn't know where they were going, just followed behind, they turned around and he turned, they went straight and he went straight, the road became cheaper and cheaper, and when it was completely dark, he had heard the faint sound of the waves, Xia Xun secretly wondered in his heart: "Could it be that he has already arrived at the riverside" Sure enough, further on, there is the rolling Qiantang River, and in the distance, there are fires everywhere, like stars on the beach.
There are also many vehicles that are faintly visible.
Xia Xun followed the shopkeeper to the nearest place, only to see a big boat parked on the river, gloomy like a giant beast undulating with the waves, and many small boats were rushing back and forth between the big boat and the river bank, unloading a boatload of goods ashore.
There were people on the shore with rosters, people with torches, shouting names one by one, and some people went forward to check the goods, deliver money or barter, and load them and transport them away.
Xia Xun was secretly stunned, and only then did he believe that what Li Tang said in the past that he could directly trade with pirates on the streets and even in the shops was indeed true, if it wasn't for the unscrupulousness, how could so many shops trade directly by the river now to see this skillful situation, it is obviously not the first time.
I didn't expect that the private business in Yanguan Town was so developed.
Speaking of which, pirates have always existed, but a large reason why pirates are so strong at this time is because of the maritime politics of the Ming Dynasty.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the country, he had implemented a policy of restraint on the Ming Dynasty and allowed them to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not understand the national conditions of the country, and mistakenly regarded Prince Huailiang, the general of the expedition to the west, as the king of the Ming Dynasty, and at that time, Prince Huailiang was busy with the civil war and did not know much about the current situation of Middle Earth, and thought that the Central Plains was still the world of the Yuan Dynasty.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang sent an envoy to condemn Prince Huailiang and asked him to strengthen his control, Prince Huailiang was busy with the civil war between the north and the south, how could he have the leisure to take care of those idle ronins, in fact, he couldn't manage it if he wanted to, which made Zhu Yuanzhang very dissatisfied, thinking that the official government was deliberately perfunctory.
Immediately afterwards, Hu Weiyong's conspiracy broke out, and after interrogation, it was found that there was a figure of himself, who planned to hide the ambush soldiers in the tribute ship, and hide the gunpowder weapons in the giant candles of the tribute, and when he entered the palace to see the driver, he joined forces inside and outside, and acted together to kill Zhu Yuanzhang.
Although these warriors may not have been sent by the rulers of Yueben, it is very likely that Hu Weiyong invited mercenaries with a lot of money, but Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, and when he asked those prisoners, he knew that Prince Huailiang was not the king of Yueben, and he felt cheated, and in a fit of anger, he simply canceled the official contact with Yueben.
Since then, Lao Zhu is tired of the small files on the island, and later the Ming Dynasty sailors exterminated a group of Japanese pirates, and presented a fan as a trophy to him, Lao Zhu was full of poetry for a while, and also wrote a poem on the top: "The king has no Taoist people as thieves, disturbing living beings and ghosts, watching the sky and sitting in the well, and breaking his hair and spotted clothes to think that it is convenient."
The monarch and the minister stomped and whispered frogs, and jumped the beam in Tianxian. ridiculed those files on the island as frogs sitting in the well and watching the sky, and despised them fiercely, which shows Lao Zhu's perception of people.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang still allowed Yue himself to come to pay tribute, but he strengthened the control in this regard, and stipulated the tribute period and the number of tribute ships for him.
Lao Zhu said that the conditions set by him were too harsh, such as five years or even ten years, and only one tribute could be paid, and no more than three ships were allowed at a time.
This article alone could not meet the trade needs of the two countries at all, Zhu Yuanzhang even stipulated that no trade was allowed without a national letter and a survey, at that time, it was said that all the candidates on the island were fighting in circles, and people's heads were about to be beaten into dog heads, and there were several princes who could get the king's letter of state to allow the Ming Ming to agree that the survey was the only one, and there was no other semicolon.
And Lao Zhu also stipulated that tributary ships are not allowed to carry weapons, which is indeed a bit embarrassing, in the vast sea, there are pirates in both countries, how to escort without weapons As the saying goes, they rely on the mountains to eat the mountains, rely on the water to draft the water, the coastal residents do not allow them to trade, the number of official trade is very small, they can only earn a few pennies by fishing, so the private merchants began to flood, the private merchants are illegal, and they have to establish their own military escort team, there is no law and discipline, most of them are no different from pirates, but what they do is actually very beneficial to the coastal people, with the support of the coastal people and for them to be their eyes and ears, the imperial court is completely prohibited, so that a huge scale is formed.
Li Tang drove to the riverside, waited patiently there, about half an hour later, the person holding the roster called his name, Li Tang hurriedly stepped forward, did not take it first, but whispered to the leader, thinking that it was to help Xia Xun contact the temporary increase in goods, the man listened: "Is it okay to say that the knife and the fan, is the money brought?"
"Brought, brought, eldest nephew, come here, come and see Leader Jia."
Xia Xun hurriedly stepped forward, the bearded man looked him up and down a few times, turned his head and ordered: "He Tianyang, He Tianyang, go to the boat and get fifty knives and a thousand small fans." ” A person next to him came out in response, his eyes turned on Xia Xun, and suddenly shouted: "I know that he was sued by the gang leader today, and he was present when the officers and soldiers surrounded and suppressed."
Before he could say a word, a series of "click" sounds of pulling knives out of the sheath next to him made people lose their teeth when they heard it, Xia Xun was just stunned, and six or seven sharp steel knives had already forced him to front and back.
To be continued: