The shopkeeper walked to the door, gently opened the door, and then signaled the entourage at the door to go to the distance to let the wind out, and closed the door and sat down when everything was arranged. He poured Zhong Nan and his own wine glasses full of wine, and after the two of them drank again, the shopkeeper continued: "Actually, I really need the help of your army to make a living in this maritime trade, you think, Shandong is not peaceful now, whether it is the Japanese Kou or the White Lotus Sect, they all like to do some things to rob finances." If you can have your soldiers to protect my transport team, then the road will definitely be much more peaceful! ”

Zhong Nan understood now, the shopkeeper wanted to find the army to send troops to do the escort work, but with Zhong Nan's understanding, he felt that these things should be done by a dart bureau. In response to the question of the guerrilla lord, the shopkeeper of the building responded: "How can there be an adult in the dart bureau, your army is safe, not to mention anything else, just take your recent sweep of Phoenix Mountain, who can do it?" Those white bandits and robbers, which one dares to fight your team now? ”

"But my army is all army, but there are no sailors!" Zhong Nan raised a new question.

"My lord, as for the affairs of the sea, I don't bother with you, I have my own arrangements. The soldiers only need to escort the goods to the corresponding docks, and the rest is left to care! ”

Zhong Nan thought about it for a while and felt that it was feasible, which was a bit like the armed escort team in later generations, earning labor fees. Every time you act, you only need to draw some soldiers from the barracks to help escort the goods of the building to the dock, and the risk will not be much, on the contrary, you will take a small advantage, and it is estimated that the shopkeeper of this building is somewhat flattering to himself.

After a few minutes, Zhong Nancai asked in a casual manner: "I don't know how many soldiers the shopkeeper needs me to transfer, and how much do you plan to spend?" ”

"The number of people depends on your arrangement; As for the cost, you can rest assured, you will definitely be satisfied! "What Lou Dong wants is Zhong Nan's attitude.

Zhong Nan didn't ask about the details, he believed that Lou Dong was not a short-sighted person, since he said that he was satisfied, he would definitely not be petty. Thinking of this, Zhong Nan was somewhat relieved, and the snow in the building relieved him of his urgent need when he was struggling with military spending. So when leaving, Zhong Nan expressed his gratitude and said that he remembered this friendship, so the two tacitly returned satisfied.

During the Ming Dynasty, Xiamen Bay was a hot spot for foreign trade, and at the mouth of the Jiulong River in its south, there was the Moon Port belonging to Haicheng County, Zhangzhou Prefecture; At its northern end, there is Anping Port, which belongs to Jinjiang County, Quanzhou, and the prosperity of the second port has laid the foundation for the rise of Xiamen Port.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, Fujian's main port for foreign trade was Quanzhou City in Quanzhou Bay. After the implementation of the sea ban in the Ming Dynasty, the overseas trade of Quanzhou Port gradually declined, and the Quanzhou City Shipping Division finally moved to Fuzhou. However, the smuggling trade, with Zhangzhou people as the core, developed in the Moon Port of Xiamen Bay, and finally expanded to the surrounding areas.

While China's coastal areas were closed to the outside world due to the activities of the Japanese pirates, Yuegang became the only place in China where people were allowed to do business overseas. Yuegang was established in the first year of Longqing, its name is Haicheng County, and the seat of the county was originally Yuegang City of Longxi County. After years of development, Yuegang gradually became the main foreign trade center of the Ming Dynasty, and the export goods from all over the country gathered in Haicheng, and the goods exported by Haicheng were also scattered in the surrounding ports.

As for Anping Port, although it was also one of the main smuggling ports in Fujian during the Jiajing period, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, its reputation was not a little worse than that of Yuegang, and it could only be regarded as an ordinary town.

After that, the smuggling trade in Anping Port gradually developed into direct trade with the Japanese state, but after the failure of the sea ban, the Japanese sea ships simply sailed to the coastal trade of Fujian, and the lack of management of foreign trade caused contradictions between the two sides, which is also one of the important reasons for the repeated Japanese pirates along the coast of Fujian. In the rebellion of the Japanese invaders, Anping port was greatly damaged, after the rebellion was basically pacified, the imperial court opened the Zhangzhou Moon Port to foreign trade, because the imperial court was in Haicheng issued a ship guide, so even the merchants of Anping had to go to the moon port to apply for foreign trade permits, under this fatigue, Anping Port is no longer prosperous.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the focus of foreign trade in the Ming Dynasty shifted from Manila to Nagasaki, Japan, and the foreign trade of Yuegang began to decline, while Anping Port developed rapidly, and Zheng Zhilong, a giant businessman, appeared, but this is a later story.

Although Yuegang and Anping ports are the places where smuggling is prevalent, for the merchants of Shandong, they have to transport the goods to Deng and Laizhou first, and then go down the river to Fujian to load ships and go to sea.

Five days later, Lou Dong was going to transport a truckload of goods to Dengzhou, Zhong Nan received the news a day in advance, so he assigned Chen Kepeng to be responsible for escorting. Originally, handing over this matter to Cui Dazheng reassured Zhong Nan, but not long ago, Cui Dazheng had just become a parent, and it was somewhat inappropriate to let people go out on business at this time.

Chen Kepeng knew the importance of the matter, and selected a team of people from his own outpost "Zhong Jiajun" and personally led the team. More than 30 people changed into civilian clothes, and after meeting with the people of the shopkeeper's house, they headed for Dengzhou.

The person in charge of the building is Ning Jiahao, a sturdy young man less than thirty, although he looks relatively honest, he is actually very clever. Ning Jiahao has always been in charge of the route from Dongchang to Dengzhou, so this time it is a familiar road, Chen Kepeng saw that the other party acted calmly, and he felt a lot more relieved.

Because it was the first time to cooperate, the two were a little raw at the beginning, and they didn't get acquainted until the next day, and Chen Kepeng also took the opportunity to find out some news. However, Ning Jiahao seems to be rough, but he is a careful person, he shouldn't say it, no matter how Chen Kepeng knocks on the side, he won't reveal half a sentence, and in the end he was forced to be in a hurry, so he had to give the bottom.

"Master Chen, don't be embarrassed for me, it's not that you don't tell you if it's small, you really can't say it!"

Seeing that Chen Kepeng was not dead, Ning Jiahao continued: "Master Chen, in fact, as long as the time is right, my shopkeeper will tell Master Zhong one by one!" ”

"Yes, then I won't ask." Chen Kepeng is not an unreasonable person, knowing that this is the bottom line of the other party, he did not ask any more, but changed the topic.

After traveling like this for a few days, the transport team successfully arrived in Dengzhou, and the receivers who had already received the news loaded the goods onto the ship, followed by inspection and counting, and the handover was completed after everything was safe.

Since Ning Jiahao still needed to run errands in Dengzhou, Chen Kepeng returned to Dongchang with his own people to resume his life. After returning to the Dongchang military camp, Chen Kepeng reported to Zhong Nan as soon as possible.

After listening to Chen Kepeng's account, Zhong Nan asked a few questions that he was most concerned about.

"Big brother, what kind of items are they transporting this time?"

"Every box in the car, Ning Jiahao opened it for me to see, it is considered ceramics and tea."

"Are the people who answered in Dengzhou Han Chinese, Japanese people, or Semu people?"

"It seems that it should be Han Chinese, but the people who answered didn't speak, and I can't be 100% sure!"

"And what happened along the way?"

"We had a smooth journey this time, and I heard Ning Jiahao say that they didn't always get into trouble before."

Then Zhong Nan asked three or two more questions, and after getting the answers, he lowered his head and thought about it. For him, as long as the building is not smuggled with firearms or national treasures and other items prohibited by the imperial court, there is no need to care; As for the core news such as channels, it is best to be clear, but it is really impossible to find out, and it doesn't matter much.

"Second brother, that Ning Jiahao is very tight-mouthed," Chen Kepeng added, "but he said that the shopkeeper will tell you all at the right time." ”

"Okay, I see." Zhong Nan said, "This time it's hard for the second brother, and the cooperation with the shopkeeper will take more effort from the second brother in the future!" ”

"Second brother, don't be polite to my own brother, I will pay more attention to it in the future, if they have anything abnormal, I will definitely notify you as soon as possible!"

Soon after the two ended their conversation, Lou Dong came to visit in person, and it turned out that Lou Dong had come to deliver silver this time. When the 20,000 taels of silver tickets were neatly placed in front of Zhong Nan, the guerrilla masters understood what the other party said about "the cost of satisfying him" - 20,000 taels a year.

20,000 taels of silver were converted according to Zhong Nan's original time and space, and there should be more than 10 million, so it seems that the shopkeeper of the building has placed a heavy bet on Zhong Nan. Not only that, but after the building, Zhong Nan met several wealthy businessmen in Dongchang Mansion. The wealthy merchants selected soldiers from his army to serve as nursing homes, and in this way, the security business similar to that of later generations was carried out smoothly.

Armed escort, security, and some other military industries gradually provided a stable source of military spending for the "Zhong Family's Army", and Zhong Nan finally no longer had to find ways to raise money. At the same time, with the silver, Zhong Nan could expand the scale of his descendant "Zhong Family Army" and increase the number to 800 people. Although the scale of the "Zhong Jiajun" has expanded, the training intensity of the contingent has not been reduced in the slightest, and ideological and political construction has also been intensified. Combat ability and loyalty to the main general are grasped with both hands, and Zhong Nan hopes to brand this team more of his own.

Time passed slowly, and the "Zhong Jiajun" after the expansion of the army was very effective, and the cooperation between Zhong Nan and the shopkeeper was also quite pleasant. It's just that at the beginning of June, he received an unexpected order to go to Jizhou as the deputy commander-in-chief, which surprised Zhong Nan, who originally planned to sharpen himself in Dongchang, because this time it was not only a promotion, but more importantly, the place of office was also quite important.

The order required that the new deputy commander-in-chief of Jizhou leave immediately, first report to the Beijing Division, and then go to the station. So Zhong Nan could only take his family members to Beijing first, and arranged for 800 "Zhong Family Army" to go directly to Jizhou afterwards.