When the boat arrived in Penghu, sure enough, some people came up, all of them were elderly people around the age of sixties, and most of them were alone, either men or women.

After these people got on the boat, the craftsmen inquired and learned that this is the family members of the officers and soldiers of the naval division or the infantry recruited in Penghu recently, there are many idlers in Penghu, and everyone has lived quite hard, in the last two or three months, the Nan'an Hou Mansion of the Eastern Domain has successively recruited more than 2,000 people from four battalions in Penghu to leave Penghu, which is not a small help to Penghu's food supply, prices, and people's hearts in the market.

The old men on the boat were in a good mood, their clothes were in tatters, their luggage was just a small package, the Eastern Domain was not allowed to bring bulky furniture, and in fact they had nothing decent to carry.

Pigs, chickens, cattle and sheep must have been dealt with, replaced with cash, farm tools and furniture are very tattered, and the Eastern Domain also converted some reserve prices to them, and threw them away or gave them away directly in Penghu.

Many people got on the boat alone, with smiles on their faces, knowing that there were people in charge of three meals a day in the Eastern Domain, or that there was a ready-made courtyard as their home, and the family could reunite in the Eastern Domain, instead of being trapped in Penghu, which was no less than a new life for many people.

Many people are people who have worked hard all their lives, their hands are covered with calluses, their faces are full of wrinkles, their fifties are white, they look like octogenarians, their teeth are shaky, they have night blindness, and their bodies are a little rickety, which is caused by long-term lack of nutrition and calcium deficiency.

But they still have a lot of strength in them, and their muscles have not atrophied due to the heavy work they have done for a long time, and they can still work all day in the fields, and their calluses and rough hands are still strong.

Sitting on the boat, these people were almost huddled in a corner, and then the craftsmen slowly began to talk to them, and everyone began to laugh.

Even if the atmosphere was harmonious, no one took the initiative to talk to Lin Yangxian and Chen Duzhu, and the classes on both sides were very different.

The little sentinel boat stayed in Penghu for less than a quarter of an hour, and after the people were all on board, they rowed out with their oars, and after adjusting the direction of the sails, a group of sailors took turns paddling until the wind came up, and they did not stop.

Due to the close distance, the wind is strong, there are not many people on the small sentinel boat, and after dark in the evening, they continue to sail on the sea, before the watch, the sleepy Lin Yangxian and Chen Duzhu feel the hull of the ship vibrate, and then they heard the sound of someone talking in a daze, and then they saw the lights bright, and a sailor came over and told them: "Two masters, the Huaxi Port of the Eastern Domain has arrived." ”

The two of them got up one after another, feeling that the port was built quite large and magnificent, the port area was very large, there were many brick and stone roads and buildings on the shore, and the straight avenues led directly to the port, leading to the distance in the dark.

"No wonder it costs a lot." Lin Yangxian squinted for a while and said, "It is said that the Eastern Domain invests money here like flowing water, and the money flows out like sea water, but now it seems that there is no need for what you say." ”

Chen Duzhu said with a smile: "I haven't been here in Huaxi Port once, it was originally a dilapidated place, but now, it's really upside down." ”

"Isn't it?"

The two of them are really a large port area, and the sea ships are not close to the beach, especially the large ships of several hundred tons, which are particularly heavy after being loaded with goods, and it is quite difficult to enter and exit the shallow water area of the port, which needs to be towed by small boats.

There should be a berthing area, a drop-off area, a loading area, a storage area, and only then leave the dock area and go to the place where the merchant's area is located to trade.

This is what a normal port looks like, whether it is the port of Mingzhou in Dawei, the port of Yuezhou in Zhangzhou, or the port of Quanzhou, all of them are the same, without exception.

The port here in the Eastern Domain was originally very small, and it was enough to have a place to berth and unload goods.

Originally, it was a trade of dozens of ships a year, but it was enough to have the previous scale.

But now it is ten times larger, which makes Lin Yangxian and Chen Duzhu quite surprised.

"Brother Zhu, raise the first brother."

Soon after the two men came ashore, a group of gentry surrounded them.

Everyone gave in to each other and saluted, and the people who came before may have arrived in the morning or last night, all of whom were the gentry who had arrived in the Eastern Domain in the past few days.

Most of them are members of a large family, or members of a large trading house, a big treasurer, or a high-end professional broker.

These people have the same identity as Chen Duzhu and Lin Yangxian, and their goals are the same, of course, they are here for the salt of the Eastern Domain.

This time, the amount of salt is huge, and it is not difficult for the Changwen Hou Mansion to eat it all, but if you want to open up all the doors everywhere at once, sell a large amount of salt in a short period of time, break the original private salt network, seize the market of the entire Fujian, and even distribute it to the two Zhejiang and two lakes, the Changwen Hou Mansion is obviously not qualified.

In addition to these people from Fujian Road, there was also a group of businessmen from Liangzhejiang and Huguang, who of course did not come from Liangzhejiang Road or Lianghu, and were originally based in Fuzhou.

In the places of Liangzhejiang and Lianghu, there are also a large number of goods from Fujian to the sea, or to buy local local goods in Fujian to trade back and forth.

The two lakes produce the most grain, and the other is a large amount of local products.

The commerce of the two Zhejiang provinces is also quite developed, and there is Mingzhou as a port for foreign trade, but Quzhou and several other mountainous prefectures and counties in western Zhejiang are closer to Fujian through Jianzhou and the Minjiang River into the sea, which is much more convenient than them to Mingzhou, so it is not surprising that there are more merchants in Fujian and Zhejiang.

A group of people greeted each other, Chen Duzhu and Lin Yangxian were of course the core of everyone, and these people were originally here for them.

"Brother Jiuzhen, Brother Yanda." After the greetings, Chen Duzhu said with a smile: "The situation here in the Eastern Domain has been confirmed, have you been to see it?" ”

"Haven't been there yet." Wei Jiu was really a middle-aged gentleman in his forties, and he said with a smile: "We came here in the afternoon, it was almost dark, and then a warden from the Hou Mansion here told us that the two brothers would be here tonight, so we just waited." ”

"With the relationship between the Wei family and the Eastern Domain, there is actually no need to wait."

"No, no." Wei Jiuzhen made a powerful hand gesture and said, "There are no rules, there is no circle, of course we have to wait." ”

The Wei family and the Xu family, as well as the rest of the families, all nodded, the Nan'an Hou Mansion and the Changwen Hou Mansion were the same, and this time the Eastern Domain Salt was also designated to the Changwen Hou Mansion to take its responsibility.

Each family takes the goods from the Changwen Marquis Mansion, and it is estimated that the shipping price will be slightly higher than that of the Eastern Domain, but this is normal, even if it is a little higher, this business is still very profitable, and each family can earn at least a few pennies per catty.

For a business that is 10,000 catties or even tens of thousands of catties when it is shipped, this is more profitable than grain.

Wei Jiuzhen's family is the Wei family in Fuzhou, which is also deeply rooted in Fujian Road, and the people in the family are also officials in many places, operating some grocery trading, and underwriting tens of thousands of stone salt a year is also a small thing, after all, salt is irreplaceable hard currency.

And the Wei family and the Nan'an Hou Mansion and the existence of Wei Yi, if you want to talk about the relationship between the two families, of course, they are quite close, Wei Jiu is really Wei Yi's uncle, this relationship is not close.

As for Xu Yanda, he is Xu Xingwei's cousin, and they are not far apart, and the relationship between Xu Xingwei and Nan'an Hou Mansion is also quite close.

The rest of the families are inextricably linked to the Changwen Marquis Mansion, and they are also powerful figures who have relationships in various states and counties.

You must know that although the imperial court has a law to allow the Eastern Domain to fry salt and boil salt for sale, it is not considered private salt, but if ordinary businessmen dare to sell openly, they will copy the goods first, and then shut up the people. It's better to buy illicit salt secretly, it's better than having an accident under the nose of the government.

"There's someone from the Hou Mansion waiting over there." Xu Yanda and Wei Jiuzhen pointed to the end of the official road together, and walked less than two miles from the beach port to enter the normal area, and under the moonlight, you can see that there are houses everywhere near and far, Chen Duzhu, who had been to the Eastern Domain when he was young, expressed considerable surprise at this, and he said in a deep voice: "I used to laugh at the ninth brother when he came to the Eastern Domain, except for Zhongzhai, this is a desert island, and now it seems that I am too shallow." ”

Wei Jiuzhen said: "I was also shocked when I came, such a big stroke, I'm afraid that Nan Anhou can do it." ”

"The Marquis of Changwen's Mansion has also contributed a lot." The relationship between the families is very close, and Xu Yanda joked: "Your Mansion Hou Mansion, it cost 300,000 yuan to repair the courtyard for Nan'an Hou, and a large number of houses were built. ”

"If it weren't for the joint efforts of the two companies, there would not be such a great achievement." Chen Duzhu said with a smile: "But there is one thing to say, if it was the Changwen Marquis Mansion, it would not have made such a big determination to build such a big stall." ”

According to the idea of the Changwen Marquis Mansion, it must be to expand the port warehouse and build a few main roads, which is enough.

Because the people who farm don't have to enjoy it too much, and the scale of trade on the island is certainly limited, there is no need for such a large port and a large area of trade and storage.

But it's already like this, so I can only accept it.

"With the economic path of Anhou in the south, the future of the Eastern Domain is really limitless." Xu Yanda, Wei Jiuzhen and others tacitly understood each other, and said at the same time.

Chen Duzhu could only nod silently, still feeling slightly disapproving in his heart.

Even if there is really a large amount of sea salt here in the Eastern Domain, it can produce more than one million stone salt every year, which is quite amazing, and the Changlu salt field is almost a few million stone a year.

In terms of Fujian Road, the population of about 15 million, with Fujian's mountainous and small geographical environment, this population density is quite large, and it has also made Fujian people dare to dare to fight, and have a tradition of overseas development and immigration.

As long as the development of the Eastern Domain is good, there is no need to encourage it, and those Fujianese who have lived in difficulty in their hometowns will spontaneously immigrate over in an endless stream.

In terms of salt, a family of six is a normal family combination in Fujian, of course, this is the state of a small family, many families are not separated, and it is normal for a family of twenty or thirty people.

For a family of six, the minimum standard is more than 50 catties of salt a year.

In later generations, a bag of salt was 400 grams, and the average family always had to eat more than ten or twenty bags a year, which was still a snack that was usually eaten, and the takeaway contained sufficient salt.

In this day and age, the only way for most people to supplement their salt is through direct intake, but there are no snacks to give them extra salt.

Therefore, ten catties of salt a year for a person is the minimum standard, and it cannot be lower.

This is the minimum standard, and failure to meet this standard will result in insufficient salt intake, leading to large neck disease, edema, and weakness.

The common people may not know any scientific truth, but the consequences of not eating salt are quite serious, which is something that everyone understands.

A family of tens of catties and hundreds of catties, at least more than one million households in Fujian, need tens of millions or even more than 100 million catties of salt every year, just Fujian all the way, if the Eastern Salt grabs the entire market, I am afraid that the output will be in short supply.

Of course, this is not necessary, nor can it be done, to grab most of the private salt market, and push the sales to the two lakes and two Zhejiang, the salt farms of the Eastern Domain at this stage, only a few million catties a year, at most tens of millions of catties, the difference is too far.

It is a sustainable development path to pave out the private salt network and then expand the salt works on a large scale.

"Nan Anhou is also a wonderful person." Someone's chubby official gentleman said with a smile: "It's really a whimsical idea to sell official salt through the channel of private salt." ”

"Isn't it?" Someone answered: "I heard that there is a salt pond for drying salt here, so I think that Nan'anhou Mansion has the right to boil salt, and the court is afraid that it will have a headache." Now it's good, he and the smuggler are robbing the market, and some losses in the imperial court can't be made, let alone have nothing to say. ”

Everyone praised each other, and they were indeed interested in Xu Zixian's ideas and practices, and greatly appreciated them.