『Chapter error, click here to report』

Time rewinds to the day when the people of western Guangdong were sent out to the governor's yamen by Chen Kai in a few words, everything in Guangzhou City is the same, and there is nothing completely different from usual. Even the lawyer of the Thousand Corps only received an invitation, and if they needed to serve, the Guangdong Business Alliance would pay them, and that's it.

The scene of more than 100 litigants fighting the generals of western Guangdong could not be staged due to the latter's evasion, which is really a great regret in China's judicial history. Fortunately, in Hong Kong, at the headquarters of the Guangdong Trading Company, another confrontation was quietly staged, and today's schedule was made up.

In the conference hall of the Guangdong Trading Company, Cai Cheng, the chief treasurer of the trading company and the chairman of the committee of the Guangdong Business Alliance, sat on one side, and several people beside him, including the manager of the trading company, the members of the Guangdong Business Alliance, and the housekeeper of Chen Kai's house, representing Zheng Xiyuan, the wife of Chen Kai, the largest shareholder of the Guangdong Trading Company and the general manager of the Guangdong Business Alliance, were here, so as to better implement Chen Kai's will.

On the other side of the long table, there was a cousin of Li Changrong, a general of Hailing Island, who had always been in charge of trade with the outside world and was very close. This time, his cousin was invited by Chen Kai to discuss matters related to business cooperation.

"My brother is now leading Yangjiang County, Hailing Island and the surrounding waters, and he has always looked forward to Chen Fujun's horse. However, the guards of the two thousand houses of Pisces and Hailang ......"

"Shopkeeper Li, let's only talk about business this time. Military and political affairs do not have this right in the future, and the Elder Fujun has not been obliged to discuss with your Excellency in the future, nor does he intend to mix other things in business matters. ”

"What Shopkeeper Cai said is that the little brother is too talkative."

For military generals, especially today's military generals, the number of soldiers and horses under their command and the size of the territory can be directly linked to their status - Jin Shenghuan and Li Chengdong Anyway, they have their own titles of dukes; The Great Western Army supported the Ming Dynasty to resist the Qing Dynasty, and there was a prince and two county kings; Zheng Chenggong's soldiers are strong and strong, and the sailors are the best in the southeast coast, it is said that this time the court said that it would be like saying that it would give a title to a county king, and this was still in the case that Zheng Chenggong was in the southeast and too far away from the court.

Li Changrong is a general of Hailing Island, and he has been since very early on. A mere general naturally can't satisfy his thirst for an official. The reward after the First World War in Guangzhou has not yet come down, and it is probably not the turn of the knight, but to be able to divide him into a county, the chief military officer and the general of the seal can still be counted on. However, if you want to advance further, you can only try to expand the size of the army. In this way, it is more advantageous to have a larger territory.

During this period, as soon as Li Changrong's cousin opened his mouth and wanted to fight for the territory of the two thousand households for his brother, he was immediately vetoed by Cai Cheng. The Pisces and Hailang offices are located in the west and east of Yangjiang County, and the two offices in this county jointly control the entire coastline of Zhaoqing Prefecture, and in the opinion of Li Changrong and his cronies, they have a good cooperative relationship with Chen Kai, and it is beneficial and harmless for both parties to fight for control of these two thousand households.

However, Cai Cheng vetoed the matter as soon as he opened his mouth, and when he spoke, Li Changrong's cousin couldn't help but think about it, thinking that maybe Chen Kai didn't plan to break up with Lianchengbi, the entire civil official group in western Guangdong and the generals in western Guangdong. Since there is no intention of breaking out into a direct conflict, it is unreasonable to meddle in the affairs of Zhaoqing Mansion.

If you can fight for it, you must fight for it, and if you can't win it, don't force it, so as not to be tabooed by Chen Kai's side and affect future cooperation, then the gains outweigh the losses.

Before leaving, Li Changrong instructed his cousin like this, and the cousin naturally remembered it in his heart, and he didn't dare to forget it. At this time, Cai Cheng was like this, so he immediately put the matter behind him and continued to talk about the cooperation of Fang Cai.

"What Mr. Cai means is that his brother will form a trading company and join the Guangdong Business Alliance. The younger brother understands, but this means? ”

"That's true." Nodding, Cai Cheng continued to explain: "Once you join the Guangdong Business Alliance, you must act in accordance with the rules of this organization, and any violation of the rules will be punished. At this point, in order to maintain the orderly progress of commerce, the Fujun Boss mentioned to his subordinates at the beginning of the establishment of this organization that no one can break the rules. I think shopkeeper Li is also a person who abides by the rules, right? ”

"That's, that's, my brother is guarding the sea border in the south of Zhaoqing Mansion and checking smuggling, and he has always done it according to Chen Fujun's requirements."

determined the basis of cooperation, and Cai Cheng also showed a kind smile. With a wave of his hand, someone stepped forward and handed the relevant regulations of the Guangdong Business Alliance to Li Changrong's cousin, who understood it word by word. If there is something unclear, Cai Cheng will also take the trouble to tell it, and always make sure that the other party can understand the spirit of this organization.

As soon as we talked, it was a whole morning. At lunchtime, Mr. Tsai invited Mr. Lee's cousin to one of the best restaurants on the island of Hong Kong, where the braised pigeon was said to be no worse than the famous chefs in Fucheng. However, Li Changrong's cousin also knew the importance of this matter, and hurriedly said goodbye and rushed back to Hailing Island.

Li Changrong has now moved from Hailing Island to Yangjiang County, and his days are naturally much more moisturized than before. However, there was never a trace of negligence in the patrol tasks at sea and the drills for the fleet. This time, I am here to train the sailors, but it is more important to determine the news in Hong Kong as soon as possible without avoiding the eyes and ears of the civil official group in western Guangdong.

Once the brothers met, under the explanation of his cousin, Li Changrong quickly figured out the purpose of the Guangdong Business Alliance. Trade-offs are inevitable. At the same time, Li Changrong was also asking about the rules of those organizations over and over again, until the moment when he figured it out.

"Chen Fujun, I'm afraid it's never as simple as just wanting to do business."

"So, shall we still go along?"

"Go! Why not! This Guangdong Business Alliance will be a man-eating monster if it doesn't work out in the future, and now it's just joining it, is it possible to wait to be eaten alive in the future? ”

There is still a lot of distance between Hailing Island and Hong Kong Island, and Li Changrong has confirmed the matter of joining, and his cousin set off overnight to rush back. During this period, the representatives of Cai Cheng and Chen Liangce have also completed the joining ceremony.

Latecomers such as Chen Qice and Li Changrong, if they follow the regulations, must start from the probationary members to qualify, and only after the review period can they be considered to be officially admitted. However, when formulating the rules, Chen Kai clearly said that he wanted to leave a back door for the Zheng Group, and set up a system of members with members, which was specially used to attract allies to join the group. Compared with regular members, they have the same rights as full members, but they only have the right to nominate committees, enter committees, and vote on major matters, and they still need to pass the review period before they can enjoy the relevant rights after becoming full members.

Originally, the back door was left to the Zheng Group, because Chen Kai and the Zheng Group have a deep relationship. Now, Chen Kai needed to continue to expand the influence of the Cantonese business alliance and divide the opposition, and after consulting with the committee members in Guangzhou, he directly sent someone to pull Chen Qice and Li Changrong into the gang - they have been allies for many years, especially the former, who have lived and died together, and this time through common interests to better bind up.

Almost at the same time, in the state city of Luoding Prefecture, west of Zhaoqing Mansion, Wei Yingdeng and Ye Biao, who were originally from this state, sat side by side, but in front of them was a young man dressed as a businessman standing here, talking eloquently.

"There are iron ore and lime in Luoding Prefecture, and the production of crude iron is famous in Guangdong Province. Foshan now needs crude iron to resume production and build weapons, farm tools, and ......"

Businessmen came, and they still talked about cooperation. The establishment of the manufacturing bureau branch in Foshan has already been set up in the yamen of the governor of Guangdong, and in the case of the Chaozhou manufacturing bureau, a large amount of steel must be needed. Foshan does not produce iron ore, but it can be finished with crude iron. However, Luodingzhou, the largest crude iron supply place in Foshan, is in the hands of the generals of western Guangdong, and even if it is transported to Guangzhou, it will have to pass through the boundary of Zhaoqing Prefecture. In addition, a workshop has recently been established in Zhaoqing Mansion City to build and maintain weapons, so Wei Yingdeng and Ye Biao are not easy to trade with Chen Kai clearly, so the existence of a middleman is needed, and this young businessman went to Chen Kai to recommend himself and asked for this errand.

In front of Wei Yingdeng and Ye Biao, the businessman talked eloquently, and put the necessity of resuming the production of crude iron in Luoding Prefecture on the bright side. Among them, the most important is the issue of profit.

"Two marshals, how much grain can be harvested per mu of farming, more than three stones, dare to ask the villain, right?"

The grain yield per mu in Luoding Prefecture can reach 400 catties, which is certainly higher than the national average, but in Guangdong Province, it is only a very ordinary level. Wei Yingdeng and Ye Biao are both from Guangxi to the Ming army of Luodingzhou, not local, but from the seventh year of Yongli to work here, although there are expelled by the Qing army during the period, but for many years here to fight, Li Dingguo has been entrenched for nearly a year and a half since the second entry into Guangdong, and the situation here is still relatively well understood.

The merchant did his homework meticulously, and the two looked at each other and nodded in affirmation. Immediately afterwards, as if he was encouraged, the businessman should make persistent efforts: "Grain, one stone is only one or two silver, now all the prefectures and counties are desperately growing grain, and there are merchants in Qiongzhou who buy grain from Annan, but I am afraid that one or two silver will not be able to sustain it." But in this Luoding Prefecture, each iron furnace produces 3,600 catties of iron per day, which is 1,314,000 catties a year! ”

Such a huge output is also supported by the same amount of manpower. According to historical records, each iron furnace in Luoding Prefecture needs nearly 1,000 furnace workers, miners, charcoal burners, and transportation workers, so as to maintain the operation of the iron furnace and the output of iron materials. But at this scale, the wages of nearly 1,000 people are not a problem worth mentioning.

In fact, according to the system of the Ming Dynasty, an iron furnace in Luoding Prefecture was taxed 18 taels and 7 cents and 5 cents per year, with an additional levy of 5 taels of field fees and 21 taels of silver for military ammunition, totaling more than 40 taels. This may not seem like a lot, but it is more than the liquor tax and the tax on the local products of the bazaar mountain lacquer collected by Luoding Prefecture, which is an important tax in the state.

Today's Luoding Prefecture is controlled by the military, and in terms of taxes, even if it must be meant to Zhaoqing, the amount is actually negligible. The huge profits that existed in this made the officials, gentry, merchants, and people of Luoding Prefecture in the Ming and Qing dynasties flock to it in mining and smelting.

For the rest, there is no need for the lobbyist to say anything more, Wei Yingdeng and Ye Biao's eyes have already been dizzy by those upcoming yellow and white trances. However, there is still a practical problem that needs to be solved, that is, the population of Luoding Prefecture has plummeted, the manpower is insufficient, and the local agricultural production has collapsed.

"This problem, the villain once asked the boss of the Fujun for advice, and the boss of the Fujun proposed a new concept at that time, called the crude iron for food plan, the villain thought it was very interesting, and the two marshals could consider it."

………………

The war leads to food shortages and evacuation, and if there is food, you can try to attract people from neighboring prefectures or hidden in the mountains, which is the most obvious reason.

Wei Yingdeng and Ye Biao still need time to weigh the pros and cons, especially since it is likely to involve the issue of political sides. However, no matter what time it is, it is an immutable reality that money moves people's hearts, and in the face of real money, what needs to be done is often how to operate, not whether to do it.

Here, negotiations between the Foshan Manufacturing Bureau and Luodingzhou are still ongoing, in Qingyuan Mountain in Shaozhou Prefecture, which was once the territory of Wang Han, the leader of the rebel army. Chen Kai recovered Shaozhou Mansion, Wang Han's side was in contact with Guo Zhiqi and Lian Chengbi earlier, coupled with Chen Kai's sudden move, the two sides did not have any intersection, but this time, Foshan did not intend to hold all the iron lifelines in the hands of Wei Yingdeng and Ye Biao, and the iron ore in northern Guangdong was put on the agenda, and Wang Han's territory had iron ore.

Compared with Luodingzhou, Wang Han's situation is much worse, there is no formal establishment, and he has not been assigned to the actual control area after the war, and he is still a rebel army entrenched in the mountains. This time, Foshan sent people to negotiate, and the two sides quickly reached a tacit understanding in front of the official position and silver, which was much faster than that of Luodingzhou.

The news soon spread back to the city of Guangzhou. In Guangzhou City, the members of the Guangdong Business Alliance, including representatives of the trading companies that Chen Qice and Li Changrong had just formed, gathered in the branch conference hall of Guangzhou City to listen to Chen Kai's speech on the stage, and applause came one after another.

"Guangdong is a province that is in ruins, and if it follows the usual practice, the government will allow the people to resume production on their own, and the most that can be done is the maintenance and construction of government and infrastructure. That is the Taoist means of inaction, and it is fine to put it in Chengping, but today, the situation of the strong and the weak has not changed, and the official thinks that it is necessary to give more play to the power of the merchants in the province and accelerate the recovery of people's livelihood by virtue of commercial behavior. ”

"Guan Zi once said that if you are in a warehouse, you will know etiquette, and if you have enough food and clothing, you will know honor and disgrace. The official firmly believes that whether it is farming, working, or doing business, as long as it is a normal tax, it should be treated fairly. Therefore, any behavior that dares to obstruct normal business operations and disrupt business order is intolerable! ”

Note: The data on iron production in Luoding Prefecture comes from the "Guangdong Xinyu" by Qu Dajun, a relict of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and another work of his own, "Chengrenlu of the Four Dynasties of the Emperor and Ming Dynasty", records a lot of details about the martyrdom of the martyrs in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, including the record of the martyrdom of the four guards and the assistant officers in the Guangzhou Massacre in the fourth year of Yongli in the humble work.

"Bookmark for easy reading"