Mo and Liu are worthy of being people who have lived in the market for a long time, and they are also half of the people in Jiangnan, so they still have some understanding of the customs and customs of this place. But after some talking, Hu Barong also discovered his own problem.

In the past, in the name of goods trade, Wantong was involved in the raw cotton trade very little, and it was able to operate with a little bit of Australian goods with a small quantity and high price. After the Senate sent him to collect cotton, he only secretly let some new faces of the foreign economy to do, and the cotton cloth shop has been uninvolved, and even at the beginning, some cloth shops thought that Wantong was just a new big hoarder, and sent a shopkeeper to ask them about the market.

For a long time, Hu Barong has indeed been like a blind man for the local cloth industry, as Mo Houguang said. Hu Barong secretly thought that at least the small weaving mills and weaving households in the province should have an in-depth understanding of the small weaving factories and weaving households in the province, but at the moment he was not good at doing such a thing himself, so he could only ask Mo and Liu for help, and he had to rush back to Shanghai to preside over the overall situation.

Jiangnan trade is prosperous, although the cloth shop has a monopoly on cotton cloth, but mainly through the means of borrowing from the cotton farmers, unlike some places in the belly dare to use strong, the means are more sophisticated, but due to the volume of trading nature can not be completely monopolized, this is the reason why Wan Tong was able to tear off a piece of meat from the hands of the cloth shop.

But now there are more variables among the people, and Liu Fengchun's words reminded him that it is necessary to change the strategy to deal with it again, otherwise it will be a situation where he is subject to restrictions everywhere. From Liu Fengchun, he also heard a rumor that there are people in the market who are looking for outsiders to put their stand-ins in debt, but whenever someone recruits this kind of substitute for punishment, most of them are preparing to do things, and they have always been endless, which makes him a little more worried, at this time he will feel that if there is a chief in Shanghai Station, he will also be happy to have less pressure, but he feels that this will inevitably give the Senate an 'unbearable' evaluation, or have to cheer up.

But after Mo Houguang, an outsider, mentioned something, he is now much sober, and he has some success in what to do.

According to Mo Houguang's analysis, the cotton farmers, the traders and the weavers were not one and the same, and the real threats were the weavers, which was also what the chief reminded him in the telegram. Some of the weavers are civilians in the local county, but more are poor households who work in the suburbs outside the city, many of whom are paid daily, and there is no land in the township, which is a proletarian home in the true sense, and it is this kind of talent that is more open. In the twenty-ninth year of Wanli, the main force to kill the tax collectors was those weavers and mechanics.

Although the cotton farmers are mostly tenant farmers, and are exploited by the cloth shop, but one is that they are scattered and do not hold together, and the other is more than some permanent tenant households, although the cotton planting field is not their own industry, but many are also old households that have been planted for decades, if the cotton farmers are afraid of the cloth line, but the landlord is different, according to the local saying in the south of the Yangtze River at this time, although the field bones are in the landlord, the field is the cotton farmer's, sometimes the loan can not be repaid, but there are also arrears of tenant rent, the cotton farmer is not forced to a desperate situation but will not 'rebel' with the weavers.

In this way, the next thing to do is to try to buy people's hearts and minds and divide all parties.

On the carriage back to Shanghai, Hu Barong instructed Hu Hai: "Brother Hai, go back and see the owner of the hijacked ship, and he wants to come to the list of boatmen and sailors above, and the dead and wounded go from house to house to pay for the pensions. ”

"Didn't the dead dart masters already give Dianyi?"

"Those are their own people, but they have neglected it, and this thing is not done in vain." The last time the cargo ship was robbed and killed, the dart master was sent by the Guangdong Dart Bureau, and it was considered that he should be compensated, and he would ask for this if he didn't go to the Senate.

"How much silver is appropriate?" Hu Hai asked, the dead dart master is two hundred taels of silver per person, and the family and children have other care, but that is the treatment of 'their own people'.

Hu Barong said: "One hundred taels of death, and one hundred taels of wounded will be given silver one by one according to the severity of the injury, and the family members must visit and understand, and when the support of the chief comes, these people will always be useful." ”

"I'm afraid there won't be enough money in this way." Hu Hai naturally understands Hu Barong's intentions, this is also the method of the Senate has always been Huairou natives, it is very effective, but he didn't think of this layer for a while because he was dazed, and this hand is inevitably bigger than Hu Barong's usual behavior, and now the market is like this, because of the deaths and injuries caused by the bandits, the shipowner gives a few taels of buried silver is a great kindness, not to mention that he is still a cargo owner who can't beat the eight poles and has also suffered a lot of losses.

Hu Barong said: "There shouldn't be many such people, didn't those pirates keep their hands?" Not even the ship was burned, but the goods were robbed. When I went back, I stopped harvesting cotton first, and according to what Liu Fengchun said, I changed to collecting grain. Hu Barong said in a deep voice, "In addition, I have to go to see the lord of the county after I am busy these days." ”

The new Shanghai County Lu Jun is a native of Pinghu, Zhejiang, Wan Tong has not yet been dotted, Hu Barong's foundation is actually in the provincial capital, but Hangzhou is really far away, and I am afraid that no one is willing to interfere in such things.

Hu Haidao, "This is natural, in addition, the safe house in the county has also been prepared, if there are really chaotic people who are bewitched by others, the city will live in peace." ”

Hu Barong interrupted him, "The best way is to not have rioters." ”

"No rebels?"

"Yes, we're going to do two things ourselves when we go back."

Hu Hai has become accustomed to taking out a notebook at such a time and jotting them down one by one with charcoal.

"The first thing, from tomorrow, will start to build a new stackhouse outside the warehouse, you tell those port owners, and then directly send us all ducks and geese, not more, 1,000 ducks and 200 geese a day, and the labor saved will be used to give money to ducks and geese."

"The second thing is to find out the way of the troublesome weavers, the weavers are not ironclad, the craftsmen with craftsmanship and the strength are not the same, and the single household is not the same as the person with the deed, especially who is the leader to ask to understand, if it is not easy to check, then walk around with Mo and Liu and let them do it."

"I understand, I'll arrange it when I go back." Hu Hai answered the promise and said nothing all the way.

…………

"What? Wantong is buying grain? Hu Ba: What is this going to do? Two days later, in the back hall of Deyun Hall, a voice asked with some surprise.

"Not only did they buy grain, but the carpenters and masons in the county were hired a lot."

After listening to the news from the next person, Guo Zengfu fell into deep thought, and the surnamed Hu did not continue to eat cotton according to the script he set. But after thinking about it, could it be that Zhang Lei and their hijacking of the ship earlier scared Wan Tongtong? But it's still not right, it's obvious that the ship was hijacked before, and Wantong harvested cotton after the cargo ship was hijacked, and something must have happened in the middle.

He can think through Hu Barong's increase in price and cotton to strengthen his momentum, but now he suddenly runs to collect grain and hires craftsmen, which is really incomprehensible.

Early the next morning, the cabinet steward Ding came to Guo Zengfu's house.

"The proprietor, the news from Shanghai has been inquired about the fact that Wan Tong is actually recruiting workers, and now he has also set up porridge sheds to relieve cotton farmers and weavers."

"It's the idea to fight." Guo Zengfu laughed as if he had figured it out, "I'm afraid of stirring up a popular uprising, and I want to buy people's hearts, but where is this people's hearts so easy to buy, how can a few meals be compared to the livelihood of the next year, and even if he really plans to open a factory locally, I'm afraid that this Australian cloth will have to have a special loom, and where can it be transported in a hurry, it's just a delaying tactic, and his family's silver is probably not much." ”

Guo Zengfu thought that he had seen through Hu Barong's thoughts, and now there are people on the sea who are specifically targeted, although Zhang Lei is at most better than a single household, and the ordinary bandits of the gang can't look down on it at all, but in the last operation, they were together with several bandits in Nansha, and they also pulled up more than a dozen large and small ships. But if Hu Barong set up his own factory to weave it is not the same, the local cloth out of the cloth to sell in a unified manner, but they can't sell it to the outside road, here is close to the canal, the cloth can go directly to the north, which is different from cotton, but Guo Zengfu is not worried, the canal can make a lot of means, and as he expected, I am afraid that there is really no silver.

"I'm afraid things are a little different from what the proprietor thinks." Steward Ding interrupted Guo Zengfu's words.

"Huh?"

Wan Tong played the banner of recruiting workers, and built a shack outside the wharf for them to live in, saying that he was hired to help them clean up the eiderdown, and the promised food and silver was two or three percent higher than that of the weavers in the market, as long as he promised to follow him Wan Tong to work all the deeds on an annual basis, and give the silver on a monthly basis, as for the cotton farmers, there was not only porridge in the porridge shed...... And meat to eat......"

"Eiderdown ......" Guo Zengfu groaned when he heard this, and he couldn't figure out Hu Barong's path.

"Hu Ba seems to have set up a name, called Hailan Hall."

Master Guo finally felt that his heart was a little blocked, but he still forced himself to calm down and complained, "It's really difficult." ”

Steward Ding whispered: "Master, why don't we go and find a few ways to dump the corpse and send it to the gate of Wantong at night, the torture room in Shanghai County still has some old connections, so let the county come forward with some silver, whether it is reported to the official or not, they can always be allowed to eat something." ”

"It's not proper, the surname Hu is not an ordinary person, he didn't come out of thin air, Wan Tongtong's piece of land is still with Liu Yikun's praise and painting post, the joint in the middle has not yet been figured out, or wait for the people who go to Hangzhou to ask and come back."

"Isn't Liu Xianggong already sick? Now the newcomer Su Xianggong (Su Maoxiang) will not also sell face with the surname Hu. ”

"It is rumored that the Hu family has something to do with Xu Guangqi, but I haven't seen him take out Xu Xianggong's name post, and the Gu family has deliberately avoided suspicion these days. It depends on how much weight Liu Yikun's line has, so that he can arrange the back hand. ”

The former governor of Zhejiang, Liu Yikun, was promoted to the governor of Zhejiang as the governor of Siyiguan, and Guo Zengfu was not surprised that Hu Barong and the Australian maritime merchants behind him could have a relationship with this one. At present, Liu Xianggong should not have made Guo Xingshou jealous when he went to office due to illness, but his third brother Liu Yixiao is now a scholar of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University, and Fang Congzhe and Han Yi are both ministers of life, and they are out of the Donglin family with Ye Xianggao. Fortunately, the distance in Hangzhou is not far, and it will not take long to find out the details of Wantong.

"Then we can't just watch, can we?" Steward Ding asked.

Guo Zengfu thought for a moment and felt that he still had to make up his mind before acting, "That's it, our people have been staring at the port for the past few days, as long as they load the goods, they will report to me immediately, and the cotton they eat will have to be spit out for me, and don't even think about leaving Songjiang." ”

He naturally wants to let the Zhang brothers go out, no matter what, as long as the ship of ten thousand passages cannot go to sea, it will be a situation of being trapped to death, with this killer move, he can always rest assured in his heart.

However, Guo Zengfu still decided to work harder, "You go and call Yang Yuanxi." ”

[References]

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