Section 147: A Trip to Foshan (13)

Watching the sweeping leaves withdraw, Li Luoyou calculated that in Dengzhou, he had a thousand catties of red ginseng and a few hundred catties of deer antler velvet that had just been transported from Liaodong, which was worth more than 10,000 taels of silver - with Yang Run's strength in opening the hall, it would not be a problem to eat them all. It's just that there are so many red ginseng on the market in Foshan all of a sudden, I'm afraid it will cause trouble.

Suddenly, he remembered something, pulled a key from his waist, and unlocked the door of a cabinet. Find a "ledger" from inside. There are only three words "Foshan Town" on the cover of this ledger's -Mao-blue cloth, and below is the year number: Revised in the first year of Chongzhen.

This is a "human love account", which lists in detail the public and private things that need to be entertained in Foshan Town. Including details such as family members, addresses, personal preferences, etc., some particularly important people, even the deaths of their deceased elders are clearly recorded. There is also a record of every gift given in the past. He flipped to the entry for "Lin Ming". Lin Ming's whole family is listed one by one, and everyone's birthday is noted below. Mrs. Lin's birthday was just three days away.

Lin Baihu, the local Jinyi Wei Baihu Office, is very talkative, and he also has contacts on weekdays, as long as he pretends not to know, no one in Foshan will say that he knows.

"It's just the right time." Li Luoyou nodded and closed the account book.

With the relationship between Lin Ming and him, it can not be said that he is very familiar, in addition to the usual three gifts, he suddenly gave a generous gift, too - Lu - Yu Xing. Mrs. Lin's birthday is a good opportunity to give extra gifts.

The gift must be expensive and please Mrs. Lin, otherwise you can just send a few hundred taels of silver to the past. Although the silver is good, it doesn't mean much to Mrs. Lin, once a woman feels that she is not valued, it is also very powerful to blow the pillow wind on the bed, not to mention that this Mrs. Lin is very favored and more lethal. So gift-giving is quite a time-consuming affair.

He unlocked a large cabinet in his study, which was filled with boxes of various kinds: brocade, luodian, reddish...... They are all expensive gifts, specially used to entertain important people.

At present, what women like the most and want the most is nothing more than an Australian goose egg mirror in Guangzhou Zizhenzhai.

He had been to Zizhenzhai once, and as soon as he entered the door, he was startled by the entire giant glass mirror inside. Glass mirror, Li Luoyou has seen it in Macau for a long time. But even the Portuguese in Macau were amazed at such a huge, polished mirror, saying that it was impossible to make such a huge glass.

Not only mirrors, but also the novelty of the things sold by Zi Zhen Zhai, many of which have never been seen locally - it is just that they have not been seen locally, and a businessman like Li Luoyou, who often travels to and from Macao, and is quite familiar with the Hong-Mao-people, has never seen it.

In order to give it conveniently, Li Luoyou purchased a lot of novelty gadgets in Zizhen Zhai and stored them in several places for easy access at any time.

At that moment, I took a goose egg mirror of Zizhenzhai; a box of twelve-color-glass bottles of distilled floral perfume; A box of silver tray lipstick sticks, zuihou took another box of pearls, this is not Zizhenzhai things, but the real "East Pearl" - the pearls of Liaodong are known for their large and round, far better than the nearly exhausted "Hepu Pearl" in Guangdong. It is also the goods that he often trafficks;

What was prepared for Lin Baihu was much simpler, and a new bill of exchange from Delong Bank that was recently issued was redeemed at sight. This thing is really convenient to use, at least you don't have to openly carry the box for gifts and bribes.

Of course, Li Luoyou knew that this was not Long's invention, that is, there was "flying money" in the Tang Dynasty, and he had also seen Brahmin merchants and Portuguese merchants in Macao using bills of exchange, which were bills of exchange to put it bluntly. It's just that he never thought of introducing this kind of system into the Ming Dynasty. I didn't expect this Long to really be introduced, and it was also done in this area. Of course, this is inseparable from the strong support of Guo Yi, the big shopkeeper of Zizhenzhai, and the Gao family in Guangzhou, who is very suspicious that this so-called Long is the boss behind these two companies.

After dinner, Li Luoyou invited two foreigners to the secret meeting in the study.

"Come, let's have a drink and talk while we drink." He took out three wine glasses and a black-colored wine bottle from the cabinet. This is a wine that has been shipped all the way from Europe. Li Luoyou doesn't like this kind of sour wine very much, and he doesn't like to drink it so dry without snacks, it is purely to embellish foreign guests.

"Xiexie, you'll always have something surprisingly good here." Quark smiled sheepishly. This British businessman was poor and rich, and when he was down, he often ate at Li Luoyou's mansion in Macau.

“xiexie。” Ma Yangchun's eyes lit up when he saw wine. He has been in Macao for more than three years, and he has spoken the official language very well, and he is also familiar with Li Luoyou. But he was a respectable figure in the Society of Jesus in Macau - a man who always smelled of a beast that even his colleagues could not stand, and the German was said to be extremely reluctant to bathe and drank without restraint. It made the president very nervous.

However, under the careful training of the Italians, this rude German priest had become much more civilized, and at least knew how to bathe and change clothes frequently. He had a big beard, but he had shaved it fine to make it easier for him to preach, and he looked much younger.

"Li, is there a 'Tang Princess' here?"

"No, this is Zichengji's export goods, I don't have them here." Li Luoyou smiled, the bitter taste of rhubarb in Princess Datang was really unbearable.

"Here, let's have a toast first."

The three of them drank the wine from their glasses. Li Luoyou poured it for them again. That's where we get to business.

This time, he brought two foreigners to Foshan for two things. The first is to see if it is possible to open up a missionary base in Foshan, and Li Luoyou is a Catholic -- his father was baptized when he went to Macao to do business in his early years. He was not very interested in doctrinal teachings and other things, but he was quite interested in European natural sciences and mathematics, and he learned algebra, plane and solid geometry well, and was one of the very few people who mastered Western mathematics in this time and space.

As one of the few Catholics in the Ming Dynasty, Li Luo was duty-bound to spread the gospel, and he repeatedly traveled back and forth between Macao and Guangzhou, transporting missionaries in and out of the country, transporting religious books, and recruiting believers in his own servants. Of course, his activities were not entirely motivated by religious fervor, and the Jesuits also played a vital role in his business.

Second, it is preparing to open a foundry in Foshan to manufacture Western cannons and muskets. After the victory of Ningjin, the imperial court's interest in Western firearms soared. In the first month of this year, the imperial court accepted Xu Guangqi's suggestion and ordered Li Fengjie, the governor of Guangdong, and Wang Zun, the governor of Liangguang, to ask Portuguese merchants to purchase Western cannons on their behalf. The Portuguese immediately offered ten cannons and a number of arquebuses. They were escorted by Portuguese officers and a missionary with several gunners. This is the second large-scale purchase and delivery of Western artillery into Beijing after Zhang Tao and Sun Xueshi transported artillery into Beijing during the Apocalypse.

Li Luoyou read Xu Guangqi's speech from his copy - he and Xu Guangqi did not know each other, but they were both Catholics, and they also had a strong interest in Western military science. He was in favor of Xu Guangqi's policy of imitating Western cannons and "training elite soldiers to turn them into sharp weapons" -- Li Luoyou, who had been trading in Liaodong for many years and had seen Guangning withdraw from the town with his own eyes, had a clear understanding of the state of the "border army" that relied on the Great Wall of the imperial court. This weak, poorly trained, and demoralized army was no match for the post-Kim soldiers at all.

The increase in the demand for Western firearms in the imperial court was a great business opportunity for Li Luoyou - in addition to the business opportunity, he also had the idea of serving the country by a loyal monarch who refreshed the weapons of the imperial army and improved its combat effectiveness. Nowadays, many people in the officialdom regard gun-powder-firearms as a stepping stone to their careers, and all kinds of gunpowder-formulas, firearms, and artillery articles, articles, and recitals are flying all over the sky. For Li Luoyou, who doesn't know much about firearms, but knows a little about Western science and technology, he is heartbroken by the number of mistakes -- this is going to mislead the country. He decided: Instead of letting people who don't know how to use firearms as their own promotion charms, it is better to do it himself.

Li Luoyou estimated that the imperial court would not purchase too many cannons from Macao, and it would soon move to the imitation stage. He was well aware that the Portuguese foundries in Macao had limited capacity and that there was a serious shortage of skilled foundry craftsmen. He was also aware of the resolution passed by the Macau City Council, which called for the inducement of Chinese foundry craftsmen to work in Macao to cast iron cannons as much as possible. The 30 so-called Hongyi cannons purchased during the Apocalypse were simply naval guns dismantled from the stranded ships of the British East India Company -- this matter was not clear to the imperial court, but it did not mean that he Li Luoyu was in trouble.

In terms of cost, it is naturally cheaper to manufacture in the country, and the imperial court will also feel that this kind of "militaristic heavy weapon" is more reliable for the people of the court to make than those foreigners with high noses and deep eyes.

There are not many workshops in Foshan that cast cannons for the imperial court. But none of them knew the main guns of Western artillery. Li Luoyou didn't understand either, but he had the support of the Jesuits, and it was not a problem to recruit specialized craftsmen from Macau and Goa. Moreover, he had Quark Poor, an Englishman at his disposal, who could go to the East India Company if necessary.

"Of course I agree with the proposal to open a foundry in Foshan." Ma Yangchun said that this German man wore the clothes of the Ming Dynasty and wore a turban, "The president told me that firearms are the most concerned thing in the Ming Dynasty, and as long as the needs of the emperor and officials are met in this, we will spread the gospel more and more smoothly." ”

"The priest is right." Li Luoyou said, "This is how Father Lu and Father Tang entered the Beijing Division. ”