The purpose of Ang Lee's southward trip is to completely open up the Maritime Silk Road, not only to open up, but also to station a large number of soldiers and horses along the way to carry out necessary maintenance of this important route, so that this route can truly become a safe and stable road to prosperity. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Ang Lee couldn't bear the doubts of the businessmen at all, but no matter how good the words were, they were not as convincing as the actions, so Ang Lee didn't plan to explain too much, but only slightly expressed his decision and let the businessmen see him act.

In fact, the merchants are already very happy that the imperial court can send troops south, and they don't dare to have too high extravagance, as long as the imperial court goes south to hit the pirates hard, even if they can't be wiped out, the pirates' behavior in the future will definitely be much more low-key, which is not bad for them.

Ang Lee wanted to know the losses of the merchants of Guangzhou, and how many of the merchants in the city had been engaged in maritime trade, and whether they had encountered pirates.

"How many of you are merchants?"

The merchants mentioned in Ang Lee's mouth refer to the merchants who do maritime trade, and the concept of merchants is relative to sitting merchants.

Merchants are also divided into types, selling goods back and forth in multiple trade points is a merchant, line means walking, and sitting a merchant is staying in one place, they buy the goods of the merchant, and then sell them to the local people, meet the daily needs of the people, and earn a certain profit.

In many areas, merchants and merchants can not do at the same time, this is the rule of doing business, merchants can only wholesale goods to merchants, let merchants sell to the people, so that it is also convenient to ship, can do business more quickly.

However, many merchants in Guangzhou have already done businessmen's deeds, and they see that some merchants have earned more wealth by going to sea at one time than they have been sitting for ten years, so their hearts are naturally very unbalanced, so they have started the idea of going to sea to trade.

It's a pity that they don't have the connections of the older generation of merchants, they are not familiar with pirates, and they don't even know what sea areas exist pirates, and they often encounter pirate attacks nine times out of ten times they go to sea, and the losses are extremely heavy, some make a little money, some lose money, and even the merchants who commit suicide because of their losses are a lot of people.

"Li Shilang, most of us are local businessmen in Guangzhou, but we have all been going to sea to do businessmen all these years, but unfortunately pirates are rampant, and the business of this businessman who goes to sea is really not good, and I lost my life if I was not careful."

An old businessman frowned.

"Isn't it? There are many dangers at sea, and the most terrible thing is pirates. ”

"Our people are better, we can finally save our lives, and many of us have made some money, but many of our colleagues have been ruined by pirates, and some have lost their lives."

"I didn't dare to go to sea in the next half a year, so I could only honestly do business in Guangzhou and watch others make money."

Several young businessmen followed.

When Li An heard this, he felt a little interesting, and hurriedly asked, "Watching others make money?" What does this mean, who are you looking at making money? ”

After speaking, he looked at the young businessman who was speechless.

"Back to Li Shilang, it is the merchants of the Zhang Chamber of Commerce, and I don't know what the situation is, they can return safely when they go to sea to trade, and they will almost never encounter pirate infestation, which is really incomprehensible."

The young businessman said a little sourly.

As a businessman, watching others make a lot of money but not even drink soup yourself, this feeling is definitely envy, jealousy and hatred.

"Oh, the merchants of the Zhang Chamber of Commerce are very powerful! You can't even touch pirates. ”

Li An grinned, feeling that there must be a story in this, and the encounter between these businessmen in front of him and the merchants of the Zhang Chamber of Commerce was completely challenging probability.

"Li Shilang, this is true, the president of the Zhang Chamber of Commerce is called Zhang Batian, when he was young, he was a fisherman who went to sea to fish, and he was good at making friends, and then somehow he stopped fishing, changed his career to become a businessman, and made a fortune in just a few years, there are more than a dozen big mansions in Guangzhou, and the furnishings at home are also very particular."

Another businessman said.

"The fisherman turned into a merchant and made a fortune, so he seems to be a capable person? So why don't you join the Zhang Chamber of Commerce? Isn't it good to get rich with it? ”

Li An asked curiously.

"Go, Zhang Batian doesn't look down on me, let me do a good job as a businessman, and don't wade into the troubled waters of business."

A young businessman didn't choose to speak, and after speaking, he quickly covered his mouth with his hand, lowered his head and stepped aside.

"Li Shilang, the old man also had an interview with Zhang Batian, according to him, if there are too many merchants, there will be no guarantee of profits, so he is unwilling to help us, and later, we insisted on being merchants, he didn't say anything, but we can't avoid pirates, and we can't compare with him."

An elderly businessman said.

"Then why do you think Zhang Batian and they can always avoid pirates, but you can't."

Li An asked curiously.

"Li Shilang, Zhang Batian is an old fisherman, extremely familiar with the situation in the sea, and good at making friends with heroes, maybe these heroes know the pirate leader, but we are just guessing, and there is no substantial evidence to prove that they have a relationship with pirates."

"Yes! Li Shilang, although this Zhang Batian does not share his business experience with us, he has also done a lot of good things in Guangzhou, and he is a great good person in the eyes of the common people, and he has never heard of any evil things he has done. ”

"Also, also, Zhang Batian's caravan does not pick the time to go to sea, does not take shelter from the wind and rain, once my merchant ship followed behind, a few days later encountered a big wave, we had to go to Champa for temporary refuge, but Zhang Batian's merchant ship continued to sail, not afraid of the waves overturning their merchant ship at all."

Several businessmen began to talk about it.

After hearing so much, Li An became more and more interested in Zhang Batian, who wanted to meet him, needless to say, this old guy must be a very powerful character, and Li An was almost certain that this guy must have something to do with pirates, otherwise, no matter how familiar he was with the sea route, it would be impossible to avoid the pirates' roadblocks and robberies every time.

After talking to dozens of merchants for half an hour, Ang Lee had understood most of the situation, waved his hand, asked the merchants to go back, and promised once again that he would never let the pirates go, so as to reassure these guys.

"Feiyu, you send more people to check this Zhang Batian, the more detailed the investigation, the better."

Before meeting Zhang Batian, Li Ang had to investigate this person's background to see if it was consistent with what the businessmen said just now, so as not to let these businessmen talk nonsense out of jealousy.

"Yes, big brother, I'll do it."

Li Feiyu personally went to inquire about the matter, and there were more than 100 subordinates sent out.

Soon, the investigation was reported, and it was basically the same as the situation reported by the businessmen just now, Zhang Batian was really a very authoritative businessman, and he did a lot of good deeds in Guangzhou City, and was well received by the poor people.

However, Ang Lee always felt that there was a problem here, the more a person did good deeds, the more likely there was a problem, and he deliberately did it in order to make up for the debt in his heart.

Since ancient times, there have been the most hypocritical people, and the most favorite thing for corrupt officials of all dynasties and generations to do is to go to the temple to burn incense, to bless them from happening, and to bless them that they can always be corrupt officials and be greedy for more and more money.

In addition to corrupt officials, the rich have also been very keen on charity since ancient times, especially businessmen who suddenly became rich, because they were worried about being jealous and hated by others, they chose to do charity to appease the jealousy of others.

Even, criminal syndicates with the nature of the underworld, after they are large enough, will choose to do some charity to alleviate their own crimes and put on the cloak of hypocrisy.

"There are not many fishermen in Guangzhou, and they usually fish somewhere."

Li An looked at the little official beside him and asked.

"Li Shilang, there are not many fishermen in Guangzhou, there are more in Leizhou and Yazhou, all of which add up to tens of thousands of people! Some of them fish in the offshore waters, but many of them will go thousands of miles south of Yazhou to fish, where there are fewer people and more fish. ”

The little official hurriedly replied.

"There are tens of thousands of fishermen, quite a few! They still have to go fishing thousands of miles south of Yazhou, so they are not afraid of encountering pirates? ”

Ang Lee asked.

"The fishermen are all poor, the fishing boats are generally not very big, there is nothing to rob, the pirates at most get on the boat to see the fish and shrimp, and when they see the good ones, they take them directly, and then leave."

The little official hurriedly said.

"Well, that's right, there must be a lot of fishermen among the pirates, who want to eat fish and shrimp, and they can fish themselves, but they really don't need to rob fishermen."

Ang Lee suddenly felt stupid and asked such a stupid thing.

Pirates, merchants, merchants, Li An just arrived in Guangzhou, he came into contact with these three forces, they are all chasing interests, but the pirates' behavior has endangered the interests of Datang, it must be eliminated, if the merchants have harmed the interests of Datang, Li An will not be spared.

In the evening, Ang Lee enjoyed the beautiful singing and dancing while tasting delicious food, and enjoyed the pleasure of feeding the beauty from time to time.

The beauties selected by Guangzhou Thorn History are very smart, very young, and the most important thing is that they are more sensible, and the beauties who accompany Ang Lee are not restrained at all, and they throw a wink at Ang Lee from time to time, and the meaning of teasing is extremely strong.

Li An is also not polite, hugging two beautiful women and entering the couch, Li An's status has reached this point, there is no need to have any scruples at all, even if he is accused of the emperor for style problems, it has nothing to do with it, the emperor laughs at most.

When I got up early in the morning, Li An was lazy, and the service of the two little girls last night was quite good, which made Li An quite satisfied, and I felt that the whole person was much more relaxed.

"Li Shilang, Zhang Batian is here."

Li An was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said, "Please." ”

Soon, a shriveled old man walked in alone.

"Grass people Zhang Batian, meet Li Shilang."

Li An hurriedly stretched out his hand and said, "No need to be polite, please take a seat." ”

"As soon as this official came to Guangzhou, I heard that there is a great benevolent Zhang Weng, it is you!"

"It's the grass people, and it's what I should do to help the township, and I can't be called a good person."

Zhang Batian replied modestly, and secretly looked at Li An from time to time, wanting to understand Li An as a person through observation.

Although, Zhang Batian has long had a clear understanding of Ang Lee's details, and who in the entire Tang Dynasty doesn't know Ang Lee, but those are all from others, he has never seen Ang Lee, this is the first time to see Ang Lee, he must personally observe Ang Lee, with his decades of life experience, he can still see some eyebrows.

"I heard that you are the leader of the merchants in Guangzhou, and you have been a merchant for decades, and you have never encountered a pirate robbery, is it true?"

Li An looked at Zhang Batian and asked.

"The old man is just a small person, not a leader, but his peers are too touted, as for pirates, they are still often encountered, and they have also been robbed, and the number of times is less."

Zhang Batian was neither humble nor arrogant, and replied calmly.

"Oh, you've often encountered pirates, so why do people say your caravan has no losses?"

Li An continued to ask, and felt that this Zhang Batian was very interesting, and he dared to tell the truth boldly.

"Don't hide it from Li Shilang, the old man walks a lot more on the sea than ordinary people, and he is relatively familiar with pirates, he can pass by spending some money to buy a road, and he will not be robbed generally, but he often has to encounter multiple pirates along the way, and the toll is also a lot."

Zhang Batian continued to answer without humility or arrogance, without the slightest intention of concealing it.

Because he saw that Li An was confident and was not easy to fool, if he talked nonsense for a while, saying that his caravan had never encountered pirates, then Li An would definitely not believe it, so he would be embarrassed, and directly tell the truth, just say that he was blackmailed when he met pirates, and Li An could only be helpless, who let the court not be the master for the merchants? What's wrong with a merchant being blackmailed by pirates.

"Huh! It seems that the pirates are still quite face-saving, and if you change to another merchant, you will rob it directly, and you only need to pay the toll. ”

Li An said unconvinced.

"Not necessarily, there are many pirates with different personalities, some only need to pay tolls, and all merchants can pass after paying money, while some pirates are extremely rampant, they like to kill and rob, and it takes a lot of effort to get it."

Zhang Batian replied.

"What do you want to think about?"

Li An asked curiously.

"This is a trade secret, however, since Li Shilang asked, the old man did not dare to conceal it, that is, to do what he liked, after being robbed once, next time he directly sent a few ships of goods over, begging him to raise his noble hand, not to kill people and goods, and promised that we will give the toll every time, come a few more times, be patient, and always do the work, although this is suspected of colluding with pirates, but our businessmen are not pirate opponents, otherwise they will suffer greater losses, and it is also a helpless move!"

Zhang Batian pretended to be helpless.

"Oh, it looks like you're not going to be easy! If your Chamber of Commerce has a good relationship with pirates, why not allow other merchants to join you? Isn't it good to make money together? ”

Ang Lee asked.

"Li Shilang, the Tang Dynasty and overseas markets are limited, the more businessmen join, the less guaranteed profits will be, and Li Shilang should understand the truth that scarcity is expensive."

Zhang Batian replied again without humility or arrogance.