Chen Kai's face reminded all the generals present of the most prestigious profiteers in their respective hometowns, but if you think about it carefully, it seems that this crazy energy that has a great intention to hollow out the gold, silver and jewelry in Guangzhou City, and those guys are afraid that they will be dwarfed together.

Since Du Yonghe and below, all the generals are ashamed of Chen Kai's strength in business and trade. But on second thought, this is also a good thing, and these goods, shipped to Guangzhou, are also a lot of taxes. If you have money, you can recruit soldiers, not to mention that Chen Kai also sells weapons, in this era when soldiers are the king of grass, no matter how you look at it, it is a sure deal.

Du Yonghe didn't have much effort to figure out the benefits of this, and even Zheng Chenggong would also get a large profit from Haimao because of this, and Chen Kai would take advantage of this credit to make his position in Zheng Chenggong's group more stable. As for the disadvantages, that is, Zheng Chenggong's department has a better understanding of the situation in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Estuary, and that's probably it.

"There is also a Huizhou between Chaozhou and Guangzhou!"

Du Yonghe's mind was moved, but Rao was so, but he never refused to answer, and simply chatted about some innocuous things, until he served tea and sent off guests, and then arranged for someone to invite Chen Kai to move to the inn and wait for news.

After Chen Kai left, the generals gathered in front of Du Yonghe, their eyes blazing, obviously like him, and they understood the benefits. Among them, Li Jianjie even opened his mouth to say, "I just said that Huangming's scholars have the courage to deceive Chaozhou, this guy is clearly a profiteer, and his Tongsheng Eight CD was bought with money".

Li Jianjie is Li Chengdong's righteous son, ranked fifth, also known as Li Wu, and Li Yuanyin, who is the head of Li Chengdong's righteous son, stayed in Guangzhou to monitor Du Yonghe and Fan Chengen, Wu Wenwen and other generals' cronies.

Du Yonghe knew this, but there was no need to break it. After listening to Li Jianjie's words, he also nodded his head and expressed his agreement with this point of view.

However, the generals waited for him to come up with an idea, and this feeling still made Du Yonghe enjoy it very much, and when he estimated that the patience of the generals was about to be exhausted, he coughed lightly and said: "This governor has thought about it, this matter is indeed a good thing." However, the silver can't be earned by those profiteers, only in the hands of our loyal and brave soldiers, can we better defend the city of Guangzhou for the imperial court. ”

"The words of the army are reasonable!"

"yes, that's what happened."

"If you want to say that the heart of the army is still towards us soldiers who fought bloodily for the imperial court!"

“……”

In the group response, Du Yonghe felt that his status among the generals was also higher. After Li Chengdong's death, Du Yonghe did not hesitate to bribe the generals, so as to obtain the position of the queen to take over the position of the governor of Liangguang Yinxin, in order to one day take over Li Chengdong's position by virtue of the prestige of the imperial court. However, to this day, the generals are still going their own way, and even with the killing of Yang Dafu and Luo Chengyao, and the successive surrender of Huang Yingjie and Zhang Daocheng, the military and political forces that once dominated Guangdong are getting weaker and weaker, which makes him feel heartbroken.

Fortunately, when this opportunity came, he could greatly increase his prestige by defending the city of Guangzhou, and even repelling the captives. Now there is a boy like Chen Kai, who has money and weapons, he can recruit as many soldiers as he wants, and he finally sees hope for the future.

"Hang that profiteer surnamed Chen for a few days, and then negotiate terms with him!"

"The army is clear and clear."

In the next few days, Du Yonghe did not summon Chen Kai again, but instead focused on the reconstruction of the water division and the defense of the city.

Du Yonghe didn't come to invite, and Chen Kai was not interested in coming to the door. Every morning, I came out of the post house, accompanied by the officials of the post house, and wandered around the city of Guangzhou. Among them, there are scenic spots, but Chen Kai is more concerned about people's livelihood. Put on the clothes of ordinary scholars and wander in the streets and alleys of Guangzhou City, which is a unique taste.

Compared with the streets and alleys of Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou and the north and south of Beijing that I have seen in the book, Guangzhou City is not inferior. As in the big cities of the period, there were often two- and three-story buildings standing on both sides of the street. Once inside, "the interior of the house is usually as white as milk, like smooth paper, covered with ashlar slabs, and painted vermilion or almost black along the ground for a handful or so." Neem wood is smooth and flat, beautifully constructed, and properly placed. It seemed polished, or painted, or white, or white, or white, like a brocade glitter, almost like gold, so bright that it seemed that it should be faded when it was painted......"

"There was a courtyard at the back of the doorway room, with small trees, a pavilion for resting, and a small spring. Further back, in front of the door to which the women had retreated, there was a covered aisle, open to the courtyard, where large and delicate cabinets were placed as the ...... of the walls of the house" (note)

The interior of the house is beautifully decorated, and the small courtyard behind the house is also unique, and the small door is already like this, not to mention the courtyard where those large families live together. It's a pity that Chen Kai is just a very boring stroll, and at most he will buy some local products to enter those small shops along the street.

A few days later, Chen Kai had the honor to go to the city to have a look, and the alleys in the city were as neat as a chessboard under the division of horizontal and vertical roads. This is true inside the city, and so is the outside of the city, and even from a distance, it seems that the area outside the city is larger than that inside the city.

"It's a pity that such a magnificent city will be difficult to observe next year."

Chen Kai got out of the city, and instead of walking as usual, he got into a carriage. The city is bustling, businessmen gather, goods are piled up, pedestrians are rubbing shoulders, in the words of Ming Ye Quan - although the alleys are noisy, it is not reduced in the area of Wuchangmen and Hangqinghefang!

Suzhou's Changmen Street and Hangzhou's Qinghefang are the most prosperous and wealthy commercial streets in the two cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou in this era.

It's a pity that as far as I can see, due to the captivity of the Qing army, there are many people outside the city who have avoided living in the city, those who have relatives have joined relatives, those who have friends have joined friends, and those who have money have lived in inns, but those ordinary people who want nothing have more to do in the streets and alleys, doing some odd jobs to maintain a family's livelihood, but because the surrounding areas are tug-of-war between the Ming and Qing armies, commerce inevitably declines, so that they often can only starve, and even sell their children and daughters.

The prosperity began to become deformed, and Chen Kai couldn't stand it anymore. Fortunately, when he returned to the inn, Du Yonghe probably didn't have the patience to continue to consume it, so he directly received an invitation from Du Yonghe to hold a banquet in Zhenhai Tower.

"I'm tired of going back and telling Du Zhijun, and the lower official will set off after bathing and changing clothes."

Note: This text is from the "China Chronicles" of the Portuguese missionary Cruz, who came to China during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty and described the livelihood of the people in Guangzhou. At that time, Guangzhou, due to the opening of the sea in Longqing and the new policy of Wanli had not yet begun, was far from entering its heyday, but Guangzhou was rich, and there was actually some eyebrows in its writing.