In the fifteenth verse, Li Luo came

"It seems that we are going to Lingao once." Li Luoyou put down the letter in his hand and seemed to be talking to himself.

There was no sound standing next to him, since the last time he went to Foshan, Li Luoyou seemed to have missed the place "Lingao".

His subordinates did not understand much, and Weishenme's own shopkeeper suddenly became interested in this small county, which even people in Guangdong Province knew very little. Only a few cronies know that the shopkeeper Li believes that the source of the most popular Australian goods in the city is Lingao.

As a businessman, he is far more sensitive to this kind of thing than anyone else. Recently, there have been more and more never-before-seen goods on the market in Guangzhou, all of which are wholesaled from Zichengji in Guangzhou. And Zicheng Ji is a business house for Australian goods.

Li Luoyou is extremely concerned about Australian goods, and sends special personnel to Zichengji and Zizhen Zhaili every day to inspect, and immediately buys them back when they see new goods. From exotic treasures to worthless sweets and pickles. Now he has a room in his main cabinet, which is full of Australian products that can be bought in the market.

He found that unlike the previous Australian goods, which were exquisite and expensive luxury goods, the Australian goods that Zicheng Ji recently wholesaled were all practical items for Nissan's consumption, and the things were as exquisite and easy to use as ever, but the price was much more approachable, and people from well-off families could afford to consume them.

The 12 sewing needles packed in a pack of bamboo tubes not only have a good steel mouth, but also have no hairs on the real nose of the needle body; The "monosodium glutamate" sealed with wax in a porcelain bottle can be extremely fresh when added to the dish; The colorful transparent hard candy is not only colorful and beautiful, but also has the taste of various fruits in the mouth; The thick "towel" full of coils is soft and comfortable to wipe the face, and it is particularly absorbent, which is much better than a washcloth with a bare board; I don't know what material to use to make thin, soft and breathable socks; You don't need to hit a flint, you can just swipe a small wooden stick to light a fire...... zuihou is a snow-white and smooth paper, Li Luoyou has never seen such a white paper, the most haode into the imperial rice paper, if you look closely, it is still slightly yellowish, but this kind of paper is completely pure white, the same as the snowflakes in winter. As for the smoothness of the paper, Li Luoyou has never seen it before.

Of course, if you want to talk about white paper, the big white paper used for pasting in Jingshi is also very white, but this kind of paper is brushed with a layer of white clay on the soil paper, which cannot be used for writing, and the surface is also very rough, which is no less than the difference between white paper and cloud mud.

What surprised him even more was that he bought a thick stack of paper and pulled out a random piece of paper, the quality was exactly the same, and there were almost no flaws. It doesn't matter how much you buy.

He felt this phenomenon on all Australian goods, and he took one from each of the two packs of sewing needles, and its length and luster were exactly the same.

Not only can it be made well, but the quality is consistent. That's where Australian goods come in. One thing that is even more terrifying is the price.

The Australian goods sold by Zicheng Kee recently are still expensive in terms of price, but compared with the original similar things in the local area, it can reflect the huge advantage in price.

The price of the Australian paper sold by Zicheng Ji is almost the same as the cheapest locally produced account paper, but the quality is dozens of times better. With such a price advantage, the sales of local and other foreign paper suddenly plummeted. There is a lot of Australian paper in the market. Subsequently, Zicheng Kee began to sell various paper products. This includes bookkeeping ledgers, students' red books, and various posts......

The paper quality is good, the printing is extremely beautiful, and the price is even cheaper. This... Taken together, more than 90 percent of the goods in the paper shops in Guangzhou have become Australian paper, and only a small amount of calligraphy and painting paper and coarse paper used in the pasting and mounting industry continue to be the original products.

Li Luoyou has never been able to figure it out, how can Australian paper be sold so cheaply and still make money? The paper certainly wasn't shipped from Australia all the way, but even if, as he expected, it was made in Lingao, he couldn't think of how the Australians did it. It seems impossible to say that there are a lot of paper-making raw materials in Lingao, which are particularly cheap - there were no paper-making workshops in this place in the past.

If Australians are trading at a loss, then what are their intentions? Li Luoyou became more and more interested in this Australian.

In the room where Australian goods are stored, all kinds of Australian goods have been filled with rosewood multi-treasure shelves in the house, and they are full of food and play. Li Luo would come here from time to time to admire and fiddle with these novel gadgets. His favorite is a crystal clear "Divine Machine Tap Fire", which can be seen to contain something like water. With a single tap of the small wheel, a flame can erupt. It fascinated him. Sometimes it occurred to him that it would be better to use it to fire a cannon than a smoking, easily extinguishable arquebus. Because he was preparing to take on the task of casting cannon firearms from the Guangdong government, he was very attentive to this new thing that would help improve the performance.

It's a pity that this item is too expensive, and the high-handed shop has been out of stock for a long time. As for Zichengji, he has never sold this thing at all. He took care of the guy and inquired, if there is a large order, will it be available? Zichengji's guy clearly refused, saying that this thing "won't be there again in three or four years".

"Gotta check it out." He muttered to himself again.

"Master is going to Lingao?"

Gu Baocheng, who was standing on the side, saw that he had said this for the second time, so he asked cautiously.

"Yes, I wanted to go back in a while, but now it seems that time is running out." Li Luoyou looked intently at the pile of correspondence and books on the table. Among them is a letter from the head of the Beijing Division.

The content of the letter was very simple, informing him that Jiannu had retreated. The semicolon of Zunhua was completely destroyed, and both people and goods were damaged. The shopkeeper of the Shenyang branch has been secretly informed, trying to inquire about whether there are any abducted men and family members of this number, and trying to rescue them. The other Gyeonggi branches have different property losses. There are those who were plundered by Jiannu, and there are also those who were coerced by the officers and soldiers from all walks of life to take advantage of the chaos to coerce the "labor army". All in all, the losses were heavy.

And Inspector Yuan, whom he once had high hopes for, has been imprisoned. Public opinion in Beijing is turbulent, which is very unfavorable to him. Li Luoyou sighed after receiving the letter. Regardless of Inspector Yuan's crime, I am afraid that the end will be more than lucky. It is not possible for no one to come out to take care of such a loss of teachers and humiliation of the country.

Originally, I thought that Inspector Yuan passed through Liaodong, and the Ningjin defense line was impregnable, even if he could not "restore Liao in five years", he could still do it by keeping Jiannu out of the pass. I didn't expect to make a detour to Mongolia to enter the customs from Da'ankou in Jizhen, looking at this appearance, the imperial court was completely defenseless. The so-called Guanning Iron Cavalry is nothing more than Erer.

Thinking of the place where the Jiannu Iron Horse passed, I don't know how many families wanted to be ruined, and public and private property was plundered. Thinking of this, Li Luoyou was indignant.

Not only sorrow, but also disappointment. In the past, the Tatars were just a small tribe in the Jianzhou Jurchens, and the dead slave chief Nurhachi was just an entourage under Li Chengliang back then. At the gate of the Beijing Division, the feet of the Son of Heaven were hundreds of miles long, and the official army was defeated, and even Zunhua lost the world of the Ming Dynasty.

According to Li Luoyou's past thoughts, with the power of the Ming Dynasty, even if the town soldiers were unfavorable in the field, as long as they relied on artillery and firearms, fortified the wall, and only defended but not attacked, they dragged Jiannu to death.

Now it seems that Jiannu is becoming more and more energetic. Based on Li Luoyou's understanding of Houjin and Daming, Jiannu's entry into the customs this time will definitely not be a loss-making business, and the people, money, grain, property, and livestock obtained must be very large, and they can live a fat year; As for the officers and soldiers, most of them followed far behind to "send them out".

Indignation or disappointment. Li Luoyou knew that he was just a businessman and could not play a role in military affairs. But in the matter of making firearms and refreshing armaments, it is still possible to work hard to do haode. Li Luo lobbied the governor of Liangguang and the governor of Guangdong through his connections in the previous stage, and handed over the matter of copying the Hongyi cannon to him, and the activities have already achieved initial results, and it will not be long before the "Guan Shu" will come down.

Although Quark had sent people back to China to buy equipment and hire craftsmen, the shipping schedule was long, and even if everything went well, it would have to wait more than a year and a half. The Australians have always had rumors of sharp firearms, and since they can make so many exquisite and useful goods in Lingao, there must be skilled craftsmen and machines in Lingao. Whether it is directly buying machinery and hiring people, or co-operating with Australians, Li Luoyou just wants the foundry to start work as soon as possible and make more firearms for the officers and soldiers.

"Mr. Quark, please." Li Luo commanded.

John?quark or quark? The poor lived a very comfortable life in Daming, and he was tired of staying in the Li Family Merchant House in Macau, so he went to Li Luoyou's Guangzhou Mansion to eat and drink. From time to time, you can also take a free tour of South China with Li Luoyou. Li Luoyou had the heart to envelop him and took care of him meticulously. Women's spirits have everything. The British businessman was so happy that he couldn't get sick.

Quark was not in a bad mood: the cotton cloth he had trafficked from India had been piled up in Macao and Guangzhou, and had not been able to sell it, but recently he had suddenly sold all of it, and although the profit was not large, he had made a small profit in total. And this big shopkeeper Li wants to build a cannon and a gun car, which is a potential big deal. He sent one of his fellows back to England with a handwritten letter to see if he could find ironworkers and mechanics willing to come to China, and he instructed them to "gather up to date the latest machines for the gunworks."

The prospect of being an arms supplier to the squadron made him a little flustered. The Portuguese have become mercenaries for the emperor. Wouldn't it be better for the British to be the emperor's arms dealers -- at least not to exchange their lives for money.

He heard that the Tatars had attacked the vicinity of the capital this time, and the officers and troops suffered a few defeats, and even secretly rejoiced. The more pressure the emperor and his civil servants came under, the easier it was for them to be persuaded. Quark knew from Li Luoyou's mouth that European firearms performed well in all battles, so the more the imperial army lost and ate, the greater the ** they bought new firearms to arm the army.

Of course, he didn't show this kind of thought, but just followed Li Luoyou to scold "Tartar", "barbarian" and the like.

"To Lingao?" Quark was a bit surprised. Li Luoyou has been talking about this for a long time, but he has not moved. He himself was a foreigner who was not familiar with the place, and he didn't even know which direction Lingao was in Guangzhou, so naturally he couldn't go.

"That's right, I think I'm going to check it out in the next few days." Li Luoyou nodded.

"Great, I'd like to see this place," Quark was excited, "I want to see how they do it?" And that ship. ”

"I'd like to see it too." Li Luoyou smiled, "Actually, you should be more interested in them." ”

“weishenme？” Quark wondered.

"Hehe, do you know who bought your cotton cloth?"

"Australian?" Quark was really surprised. Indian cotton cloth is cheap enough, but it is still not as cheap as local cloth to be shipped to China, and the thousands of cotton cloth he shipped at the beginning were sold for several years before selling one-tenth of it, or those with more unique patterns.

He was still ambitious to sell British wool to the north, and when he saw this situation, he knew that it was impossible to sell wool.

"Although I have no proof," Li Luoyou nodded, "but I can be sure that they bought it." ”

"Lingao," Quark said, "is this place thriving?" Or is there a good harbor? He was suddenly moved: since the Australians can stay here for a long time, can British merchants also get a piece of the pie? You must know that there is not a single European country that does not want to obtain a stable trading base on the coast of China, but no one has succeeded except the Portuguese - the place occupied by the Dutch can no longer be considered the coastal waters of China.

If you can establish trade relations with the Australians, and even establish a British trading house, it will be of great benefit to Britain's trade with China, and you will be very meritorious. If the opponent is not strong, he can also seduce the East India Company to send an expedition to expel them. The East India Company was also indispensable to its own benefits.

In this way, Lingao has to go, even if you can't negotiate business, you can also inquire about the truth.

"It's sparsely populated, and there's almost no commerce." How did Li Luoyou know that this Englishman had used so many brains. He also knew very little about Lingao. This time, in order to prepare for the realization of the plan to go to Lingao, it was not easy to find a person who was familiar with Lingao, and knew that Lingao was a typical "poor countryside" in this province.

"As for ports, there are so few, and they can't be talked about good ports."

"That's weird, where do Australians run and what do they do?"

"The sky is high, and the emperor is far away." Li Luoyou said.

"You mean, Lingao is a place that the emperor can't control?"

"China is very big, and there are many places that the emperor can't take care of." Li Luoyou said, "But once the emperor knows, he has to take care of it." ”