After dinner, the study room of the West Courtyard.

Cheng Rui was writing on the table, Nangong Jin made three bamboo dragonflies on the side, and was building a small house with small bamboo sticks. After writing for a while, Cheng Rui said: "Uncle, my brother also wants to come today." ”

"Oh?"

After a while, Cheng Rui sighed again: "Alas, sometimes, my brother is really awkward." When he was in the school, he was always reading and reading, and he didn't come when we asked him to play, and then everyone stopped asking him to play. I know, he wants to play too. ”

"Then he must be very good at reading?" Nangong Jin is doing a small house.

"Yes, but a lot of gentlemen don't like him. I don't know why, but he's a good reader. ”

After a while, Cheng Rui said, "Uncle, in fact, I don't really want to live in the school. ”

"Don't want to live? Then tell your dad. ”

"I can't say that. My brother doesn't want to live at home, and if I come back, my brother will be lonely in the school alone. After thinking about it, he continued, "However, he wants to change his studies in a different college." ”

Nangong Jin raised his head and looked at Xiao Chengrui, who was always writing, "You take good care of your brother?" ”

"Brother, he takes good care of me too." Cheng Rui looked up at Nangong Jin: "Uncle, let me tell you something, my brother said that he hates learning martial arts and hates doing business at home." It's annoying, I don't know what to do. ”

Nangong Jin asked casually, "Why?" ”

Cheng Rui straightened up, shook his head and said: "Everything is inferior, only reading is high." After speaking, he looked at Nangong Jin: "This is what my mother said to us, and my mother also said that a good martial artist is at most a gangster who can fight, but if he reads well, he can be a very good minister, and this is the real outstanding." Then he wrenched his fingers and said: Scholars, farmers, industrialists, merchants, and merchants are at the bottom, but Wu is not in the stream at all, and the family is too low, so I want my brother to shine on the lintel." frowned again and looked at Nangong Jin: "But, but, my father said that our family is a martial heirloom." ”

Nangong Jin laughed: "I see, I thought he only looked down on me, this is even his own family." Your mother is really ....... Then he asked, "How old are you?" ”

"Six years old, not small. When I was a child, I loved to eat rock sugar gourds, but now I don't like to eat them. ”

"Finished writing?"

"Not yet." After speaking, Cheng Rui lowered his head and wrote again. As he wrote, he asked, "Uncle, don't you like my brother too?" ”

"You're all my brother's children, a family." Nangong Jin's words were very perfunctory.

"Yes," Cheng Rui smirked: "We are all younger brothers, my brother is very troublesome, but no matter how troublesome it is, it is my own brother, we have to take care of them, right?" ”

Nangong Jin was laughed at by him: "Do you want to eat supper?" ”

"At this time? There's no one in the kitchen, right? Cheng Rui felt that it was impossible.

"Uncle made it for you, how about wine-brewed balls? You're in charge of lighting the fire. ”

"Good!" Cheng Rui threw the pen and jumped up happily.

**********

When Nangong Dingkang saw the whole picture of Daming, he was also shocked, and then looked at this picture quite carefully. Nangong Jin felt that this picture could not withstand careful scrutiny, and said embarrassedly: "This picture is not very accurate, there will be some differences in the records on several different local chronicles, and when I draw it, I find that it is often inaccurate." ”

"You can draw these terrains by looking at the local chronicles?" Nangong Pu couldn't believe it.

"It's not difficult to put it bluntly, it's just a lot of effort."

"Have you studied Kanyu?" Nangong Pu asked.

"No, there is a wide map, just come to the latitude and longitude lines above."

"What are these?" Nangong Pu looked at the note roughly.

"I don't know a lot of places, so I can roughly understand the situation in a place and try to set a benchmark, otherwise I don't know if those accounts are right or wrong, whether they are true or false, and how to understand the situation." Nangong Jin said while paying attention to Nangong Dingkang.

On the side, Li Songran saw Nangong Dingkang looking through Huai'an's small note, and his face flushed: "Uncle, Huai'an's is not finished yet." In the past few days, Ah Jin has been teaching me how to get it. I'm just going to try to ...... first. Seeing that Nangong Dingkang looked more carefully, the more Li Songran spoke, the less confident he became.

"It's not teaching, we've been discussing. I was always caught by that gentleman during the day, and I really couldn't help it. However, Songran is much more detailed than me. Nangong Jin patted Li Songran on the back.

Nangong Dingkang read it carefully, looked up and asked Li Songran: "After that, what are you going to do?" ”

Li Songran looked at Nangong Jin, and Nangong Jin gave an encouraging smile. Embarrassed to say: "Ah Jin said that the industry will be divided into categories first, optimized according to the characteristics of Huai'an, and then select a few points to cooperate with Quanzhou." ”

"Ha, I'm just talking in the vernacular, but Huai'an's business is what you want to do yourself. Besides, Xiang Ji doesn't have the strength of you. To be honest, I'm really afraid that you will be disgusted and directly uncooperative. In case that happens, I don't even know who to cry to. Nangong Jin laughed and laughed at herself.

Nangong Dingkang nodded, looked at Li Songran, and said with a smile: "What Ah Jin said is right. The Li family's industry is concentrated in Huai'an, but Beizhili still has your mother's dowry, and Pingyang has also placed it for you over the years, and you don't have the burden of the clan. Looking at the auspicious record again, there is only debt. As he spoke, he looked at Nangong Jin again: "Therefore, this cooperation depends on whether Xiang Ji can come up with a plan that is beneficial to both parties." ”

Nangong Pu smiled and motioned for everyone to sit down, and said to Nangong Jin: "I heard Song Ran say before, Xiangji's business is divided into two parts: land and water? ”

"Yes, the original idea was to do inland transportation business by sea, after all, the time is short and the volume is large. Now, Xiang Ji can't afford to do ocean going at such a high cost. Xiang Ji already had a caravan to the interior, but I sold them all out and disbanded them at that time, and they needed to be rebuilt. Therefore, and Songran here, for the time being, is to transport goods for Huai'an. ”

Nangong Dingkang nodded, remained silent, and waited for Li Songran to finish the tea and sit down before speaking: "I talked to Mr. Wu, and the plan he told me was bigger, and the scope was the entire Ming Dynasty. There are a lot of details that he doesn't know, I don't know if you've thought about it? ”

Nangong Jin shook his head: "I originally had this idea, but it was just to raise money. Later, the time was too tight, and I wanted to build a framework before filling in the content, so I gave it to Uncle Wu, in fact, I only wanted to write it down at the time, and I didn't think about it. ”

Nangong Pu shook his head and said with some reproach: "At that time, you were already sick and groggy, and you can still think about this, the eldest brother really admires you a little." ”

"Now that I think about it, it's not quite right. Even if the Cao Gang does not come to the door, the plague on the southeast coast cannot be solved by installing a cannon on the ship. Land transportation is even more so, everything is sold out, Xiang Ji doesn't even have a car, and it is not easy to rebuild. In fact, Peng Sheng had doubts about these, and he was eager to raise funds at that time, but he didn't hear it. ”

Nangong Dingkang Zhengse said: "According to what you say, Xiangji can't even take the first step now, how can you repay the dividend promised at the end of the year?" ”

Nangong Jin laughed: "Xiangji doesn't look so miserable." As he spoke, he spread out the paper, picked up the pen and wrote: "1. There are ships in Xiangji, and they are three ocean-going ships; Second, there are seamen, and I think it should not be a big problem for these people to start one or two ships, talk to them, and maybe get money afterwards; 3. It has its own wharf and warehouse in Quanzhou; These three states that as long as there are supplies, you can go to sea. ”

Then he took another piece of paper and wrote, 'Go to sea to replenish the money'.

Go back to the original piece of paper and continue the fourth, "Fourth, Qifengzhuang." They invested 20,000 yuan, and they didn't really plan to make a splash. Uncle Wu and the Jingzhou Chamber of Commerce. However, to use the Jingzhou Chamber of Commerce, there must be a plan for all parties to benefit. With Uncle Wu's efforts, through Jingzhou and Huai'an, Xiangji should have no problem with food and clothing, and the pressure is not so great. ”

As he spoke, he wrote 'long-term plan' on another piece of paper. "Without this, Xiangji would only be a matter of one or two years. Fifth, Xiang Ji is not completely out of cash. The deed of Xiang Ji was originally for the old grandson, so it has not been moved. If you have 15 to 2,000 taels. That place, the location is not bad. After writing, he drew a circle on another piece of paper on the 'supply money for going to sea', "This can be solved." ”

Then he took a piece of paper and began to write, saying: "As far as I know, there are many maritime merchants, and there are thirty or forty large and small maritime merchants in Quanzhou alone. There are more than a dozen big ships, and Xiang Ji definitely does not belong to the big ones. Second, the way, rent, do your own. These are the two ways in which the maritime merchants do business. Leasing a position, this piece is actually used to fill the warehouse when their own goods are not satisfied, especially small maritime merchants, at least they will not run empty. The seafarers generally transported goods from Daming to the West by themselves and sold them, and exchanged them for Western goods back to Daming to sell. 3. There are many varieties of Western goods. The goods out of the Ming Dynasty are generally porcelain and silk, and the ones shipped back are varied, it is not easy to go to sea, and it is not easy to transport some strange things back, and always feel lost, anyway, as long as it is a foreign goods, it can always be sold, nothing more than price and time. Fourth, the price of goods along the sea is low. At present, the southeast is rampant, and those who go to the West are concentrated in Quanzhou and Guangzhou, and where the Japanese invade less, the small and medium-sized maritime merchants are unable to carry foreign goods into the interior, so they can only take action when they arrive at Hong Kong. Fifth, this is actually nonsense. The farther away the place, the longer the voyage, the greater the risk. ”

Nangong Jin took these pieces of paper and looked at them again: "What else?" I can't think of it for the time being, everyone adds. ”

"You want to go to sea?" Nangong Dingkang asked.

"I have a boat, I have people, I have some money, and going to sea is the easiest." Nangong Jin nodded.

"What about land transportation?" Nangong Dingkang asked.

In fact, the land transportation mentioned here does not mean literally, but also includes river transportation. Jingzhou and Huai'an are both water and land combined. But now Xiang Kee does not have its own water and land transportation channels, and the cost is too high, so I want to stop this piece for the time being after there are other sources. Nangong Jin seems to have thought about it a long time ago.

"Stop?" Li Songran was puzzled.

Nangong Jin looked at Li Songran: "Of course, we have also seen it in the past few days, and now you haven't saved much, and I can only make ends meet." ”

Nangong Dingkang smiled: "The freight that reaches the entire Ming Dynasty is not completely impossible. ”

"For the current auspicious record, it doesn't work."

Nangong Dingkang nodded, pointing to a few pages of paper full of words on the table: "After writing so much, what do you think?" ”

Nangong Jin thought about it, and added a note on the piece of paper where two lines of words were written: "There is still a problem, time." Half a year, up to seven months. I don't know how to sail, so I don't know if I can go now. Even if he could, he would only be able to run out for three months. Where can I go in three months? He said to himself, "I'm not familiar." However, it should not take more than three months to get to Nanyang. You can also go to the East, no, it's risky to go in that direction, and that's only the South Sea. ”

Nangong Jin spread out a few pieces of paper with words written on them, "First of all, sea transportation." The destination may be Nanyang, you can run a few more times, of course, this is uncertain, you need to ask a professional person. Xiang Kee currently has two ships ....... ”

"Three. The one that stopped in Guangzhou was repaired, and now it should also be in Quanzhou. Nangong Dingkang interrupted him with a smile. You bear twenty percent, and the bill is in Xiangji. ”

Nangong Jin was stunned and asked softly: "I can't pay it for the time being, can I talk about it next year?" ”

"It's up to you, you can talk about it. Go on. Nangong Dingkang smiled.

"Okay. I estimate that the funds will be able to start a ship. This one is as usual. In fact, there are many specialties that can be shipped out in the Ming Dynasty, as far as Huai'an and Jingzhou are concerned, Huai'an is the land of fish and rice, and the specialties are basically eaten, which is a problem, and it is not easy to preserve, especially at sea. However, some of the crew's supplies, I plan to use Huai'an's, anyway, we also do Huai'an's freight, don't empty when you return, besides, these days compared the price, a lot plus freight, or Huai'an cheap, but the time is longer. The shipment is still conventional, but the funds are limited, I choose silk and use Jiangling satin. ”

"Gangneung satin?" Nangong Pu was surprised: "You did one in Jingzhou last time." ”

Nangong Jin laughed: "Yes, the last incident made Jingzhou increase a lot of weavers who weave Jiangling satin. The output is large, and after that incident, every household has hoarded a lot and no one has collected it. I contacted Uncle Wu, and he told me that the price of Gangneung satin is now down by 40% compared to usual. ”

"I remember you specified the patterns before, which ones are better to sell?" Nangong Pu asked.

"Well, I'm talking nonsense. I haven't even seen a foreigner, so how do you know if it will sell well. I do a full set of plays, but I think the ones I draw are also pretty good, at least not conventional. After thinking about it: "Let the eldest sister take a look tomorrow." ”

Nangong Pu smiled helplessly and shook his head.

Nangong Jin continued: "The rest of the empty warehouse, what others do, I will do." ”

"It's just that you only go to Nanyang, I'm afraid you don't have so much business." Nangong Dingkang asked.

"Also, almost all ships pass through the South Sea to the West Ocean. It's a problem. Nangong Jin frowned, unable to think of a better way.

Li Songran said: "I heard that there are many ports in Nanyang now, and many bazaars have been formed spontaneously, and there are indeed many maritime merchants trading in those places. ”

"yes." Nangong Jin picked it up and remembered what he had heard in Quanzhou before: "In that place, out of the port, there is a forest, and there are no people." The locals farm a small piece of land, and they can harvest it at least three times a year......" Speaking of this, Nangong Jin stopped, sat for a long time, and suddenly became excited, "Can I go to Quanzhou?" ”

"What do you want to do?" Nangong Dingkang asked with a smile.

"I said, can you leave tomorrow?" Nangong Jin bargained.

"I can't." Nangong Dingkang directly vetoed it.

Nangong Jin bit her finger, and her other hand kept gently tapping on the table, holding it for a long time, but she still said, "I'm going to Quanzhou." ”