Chapter 226: Huai'an Freight Yard

Zhang Xianzhong, the eighth king, is very depressed these days, a few days ago, his three warships were all set on fire by the people and ships of Yaogang on the Yangtze River, killing and wounding many officers and soldiers, these three ships, two of them sank directly into the river, and the other one could only be used as wood to burn the fire. This is something that Zhang Xianzhong, who has never suffered, can't accept. In addition to scolding the incompetence of the generals of the navy, there is also a hidden worry in his heart, that is, he has always wanted to connect with the Yaogang people in the north, although he is doing a good business with them now, but he proposed to meet Zhang Zhimu, and they have not agreed. When I was working hard for this, this incident happened, but fortunately, it didn't hurt the kiln people. If you feel distressed if you lose a little, you should feel distressed, but don't hurt the harmony with the kiln gang people. But this happened after all, and we must let the contact person who went to Yangzhou make it clear to the Yaogang people as soon as possible, this is a misunderstanding. Speaking of which, I don't blame my own water army, if you want to blame them, you have to blame them for their incompetence, and they can't beat the kiln people. I really can't tell the people of the navy about wanting to form an alliance with the Yaogang people. These sailors also went to the Yangtze River to inspect according to their own orders, and they could catch a handful.

Zhang Xianzhong just doesn't understand, the boat of the kiln gang people is smaller than his own and less than his own, but why can't he beat the others, it is said that the boat of the kiln gang people will smoke, and there is a roaring sound, and the cannonballs sent out are all with fire oil, and the fire oil can not be extinguished when it is stained on the ship and burned.

Zhang Xianzhong knew that the ship encountered by the navy this time was the kind of steam ship he saw from the "Yaogang Weekly", but he didn't expect this kind of steam ship to be so powerful. Zhang Xianzhong asked the intelligence system to find out everything about the steam ship as soon as possible to see if he could build this kind of ship.

This Zuo Liangyu of Jiujiang, I heard that the boat he went out to collect money was choked enough by the kiln gang people, dozens of people were killed and injured, and the ship was almost blown up, so angry that he scolded, but no matter how the kiln gang people got the emperor's favor, the people who provoked my Zuo Liangyu deserved to die. He instructed that the people of Yaogang must have gone to Jingdezhen, and they would definitely come back, and we would send a few more boats to wait for them at the entrance of the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake. At the same time, he sent people to Jingdezhen to see when the Yaogang people would come out.

Someone said, "Let's just go to Jingdezhen and arrest them, why bother?" ”

Zuo Liangyu said: "You don't understand, we don't want to arrest people openly, they have the emperor's imperial bronze medal, if you go like this, we are rebelling, in the lake and on the river, that is our final say." ”

Although Li Mao and Mu Yi easily defeated Zuo Liangyu's official army, both of them were not easy in their hearts, they knew that no matter what, they were all official soldiers, and they were the most powerful official army today. They don't just end up with a loss.

After the ship arrived at Jingdezhen and stopped, Mu Yi told the musketeers and artillerymen on the steamship to be on standby at all times, and it would be absolutely unkind if someone forcibly boarded the ship. It is necessary to guard against attacks by officials and troops at all times.

After going ashore, Li Mao learned that most of the porcelain had been fired, and a small part would soon be out of the kiln, which made Li Mao feel a lot better. Those who went to Dayu to engage in tungsten ore also returned, and according to the plan, they got back 400 tungsten ore this time, which is also the loading capacity of a flat-bottomed ship. Since the boats that went to Dayu were all small boats, after returning to Jingdezhen, some of them were transferred to flat-bottomed boats. It's just that the people who went to Huizhou haven't come back yet, and Li Mao feels that it's soon. Originally, I wanted to buy some silk tea in Jiujiang, but it seemed that Jiujiang couldn't go either, so I had to buy these things near Jingdezhen.

When all the porcelain was burned, the people who went to Huizhou also returned. The news they brought, but also Li Mao was very happy, and Huizhou paper mill agreed, every month they send a boat of paper to Yangzhou, this time the paper has three quality of paper, because the future kiln for paper use is also different, so the purchase of different quality of paper.

Fortunately, in the past few days, the official army has not moved, and after all the goods have been loaded, Li Mao and Mu Yi discussed, "After we beat Zuo Liangyu's sailors, it is abnormal for them to not react, they will definitely wait for us when we leave Poyang Lake." ”

"Yes, I've been thinking about this a lot these days. We can take advantage of the night time, take advantage of our night flight, and rush out. The next time we come, we'll come with a steam warship, and we'll be afraid of nothing. Mu Yi said.

Li Mao said: "After we loaded the ship, we were silent, and suddenly set sail at night, even if they had a detailed work here, they didn't have time to send the letter out." ”

When Li Mao and the others left, the innkeeper was very surprised, it was going to sleep in the dark, but the guests suddenly checked out and checked out to leave, and some of the boatmen hired by Li Mao were still drinking on the shore, and the sailors on the ship had to hurry to find them back. The fleet set sail in the night. Leaving the dock, the searchlights on the steamship began to light up.

After the steamship set sail, none of the musketeers and artillerymen on board dared to rest, and they were all ready to fight. When the sky was just dawning, the fleet came to the exit of Poyang Lake, and what Li Mao and Mu Yi didn't expect was to meet the official and military boats here.

In fact, when Li Mao's goods were almost ready, Zuo Liangyu and the others sent here to send the information flying pigeon to pass the book. Zuo Liangyu sent a boat out, and the two boats have been waiting in this area, but they didn't expect that Li Mao would come out at night, they thought that Li Mao would have a flying pigeon to inform the shore when they came out, and the shore would notify them in time.

By the time the officers and men on these two ships heard the roaring sound of the ship, Li Mao's fleet had already rushed out of the morning fog and came to them.

In fact, Li Mao and the others were also taken aback, and they were also very close to find these two boats, but fortunately, Li Mao and they were prepared. The positions of these two ships were in front of Li Mao's left, so that one of the ships was very close, and the other was a little farther away, and when the ship was closer, Mu Yiming ordered a salvo of crossbow thunder and fire bombs, and the nearest ship immediately burst into flames in a burst of explosions. After staggering the ship's position, Muyi ordered the mortars to fire at the other ship, firing two salvos from each gun. Due to the speed of the ship, and some wind and waves, the shells did not hit the ship, but it also scared the ship to turn around and run. Li Mao and the others did not chase, but fortunately, the wind direction was just right, and all the ships raised their full sails, and under the drag of the steamboat, they rushed out of the mouth of Poyang Lake at the fastest speed, entered the Yangtze River, and went straight downstream.

Li Mao's fleet faced the rising sun in the east, all the way to the east, at this time Li Mao and Mu Yi were really relieved, Mu Yi said: "Next time you come here, you must have a steam warship to follow, and at that time, you will not be afraid of any ship." ”

Li Mao was also very energetic, and said: "Let's go back and let Mr. Zhang build a steel-hulled ship as soon as possible." At that point it will be a question of who we want to fight. ”

At this time, Li Mao and Mu Yicai felt that they were really sleepy, so they arranged for someone to be on duty, and they went back to sleep.

On the way back to Yangzhou, Li Mao and the others only stayed in Yingtianfu (Nanjing) for one day, because Li Mao still had to buy some silk here. Li Mao, the silk mill here, had been here before, and had a lot of familiar relationships, and he quickly bought a lot of silk fabrics. Then after going down the river, enter the canal from Zhenjiang. After returning to Yangzhou, Li Mao gave a brief explanation and directly brought the fleet to Huai'an.

When they arrived in Huai'an, Li Mao unloaded the goods that Lu Qi and the others were going to bring back to Sulu and put them in a warehouse near the wharf. Fortunately, there is not much work now, and now that the ship is parked here, there are still people who give silver, and the boatman is very happy. Because what Li Mao thought of was that if the current ship was released, the goods would be unloaded and loaded again, which would be time-consuming, laborious and costly. It's better to spend some silver and let them wait and count. The most important thing is that when the food comes, I'm afraid no one will take care of these little things. That's not enough of a problem.

Li Mao analyzed, last time from Quanzhou back a lot of grain, this time Mr. Zhang personally went to Guangzhou, there will be more grain, with Mr. Zhang's temper, he can ask for as much grain, so this time, Li Mao at Huai'an Wharf, saw a few yards and warehouses, because this season, the rain here is heavy, and the grain will be moldy if it is not put well.

After arranging the things here, Li Mao returned to Yangzhou, because he still needed to deal with the matter of grabbing summer grain there.

But Li Mao returned to Yangzhou, and it was not three days before the family affairs were arranged, and news came from Huai'an that the first batch of grain ships led by Fan Chengkun had arrived.

Li Mao hurried to Huai'an again.

The big boats are still at the mouth of the Huanghuai River, because there is no big tide, they can't enter Huai'an Port, Fan Chengkun put down small boats on the boat and came in.

After Li Mao saw Fan Chengkun, he heard that so much food had come this time, which frightened Li Mao. He knew that it was impossible to transport these grains back to Shanxi at one time, and it would be good to transport them back three times, so a large amount of grain should be stored in granaries.

Fan Chengkun and Mu Yi are still very happy to see each other, they have been separated for many days, they usually spend every day together, but after suddenly separated, they are still very unaccustomed to it. However, they were in Huai'an, and when they saw Li Mao's decisiveness and calmness together, they all admired it in their hearts.

In order to unload the grain as soon as possible and transport it to the granary, Li Mao hired many people in advance. These are all perennial dock meals, and they are very good at getting on and unloading ships.

Even so, there are only three berths for large ships at Huai'an Wharf, and there is no way to unload three large ships.

On the wharf, Li Mao adopted the method of continuous operation, unloading the grain from the ship, and transporting it directly to the granary of the freight yard without landing.

Up to now, Li Mao has found a big problem, that is, there are too few deep-water wharves in Huai'an, and the speed of manual unloading of grain is too slow.

Until Zhang Zhimu and their second batch of grain ships arrived, the first batch of grain had not yet been transported.

Zhang Zhimu and the others also took a small boat and came to Huai'an Wharf first, although the seasickness and dizziness of the legs and feet were weak, Zhang Zhimu still came to the scene of unloading grain. Before Li Mao could say anything else, he said: "Mr. Zhang, there is no way now, the speed of unloading grain is too slow." There are few deep-water docks here, and it's useless to be in a hurry. I've rented a grain yard over there, and we can't get any grain out of here, so let's put it here first. There is a lot of rain in the south, and if you don't get it, the grain will be moldy and spoiled. ”

Zhang Zhimu was very satisfied with Li Mao's arrangement and said: "Thanks to you here, I'm afraid that you won't be able to come back, and there will be a mess here." ”

Li Mao said: "I was in a hurry, so I rushed back in a hurry." I think Mr. Zhang, you should take a look at the grain yard first. ”

Zhang Zhimu followed Li Mao to the freight yard to take a look, and felt that this was a big freight yard, and the rows of granaries here were very neat and clean, obviously managed by a very capable person.

Zhang Zhimu thought to himself, getting grain is a long-term thing, it is better to buy a freight yard, in that case, it will be much more relaxed to make grain. asked Li Mao: "Can you buy the yard here?" ”

Li Mao didn't expect Zhang Zhimu to have such a big appetite, this is a big freight yard on Huai'an Wharf, which is not something that can be bought for a small amount of money. Li Mao said: "This, this, I haven't thought about this. But Mr. Zhang, this requires a lot of silver! ”

Zhang Zhimu smiled and asked, "Do you think we are short of silver?" Hehe! ”

Li Mao said: "That is, if Mr. Zhang makes up his mind, I will ask people, I think their business is not very good, and there is a possibility of selling." With a freight yard, it's much more convenient for us. ”

When Lu Chengxiang brought the second group of people ashore, Zhang Zhimu said: "Mr. Lu, let's organize a group of ships to transport 100,000 stone of grain to Kaifeng, King Zhou said that they are still short of grain this year, and by the way, go to Xuzhou to see their situation." ”

Lu Chengxiang was stunned when he heard that Zhang Zhimu was going to transport 100,000 stone of grain to Kaifeng at once, but he quickly complied. Lu Chengxiang felt sorry for the grain that could not be shipped back, he knew that the grain that was transported to Kaifeng would not be sold at a good price, and if it was transported to Kill Hukou and Datong, it would be very profitable, but he knew that Zhang Zhimu's decision had his reasons, so he went to arrange the ship.

Li Mao said: "I'll do this with Mr. Lu, I'm still familiar with it here." ”

After arranging the ship, Li Mao asked that the grain unloaded from the big ship be loaded directly onto the ship, because a shallow ship of 400 stones, when the water depth is enough, can be loaded up to 600 stones, and the boatmen are willing to load more, so each ship is loaded with 600 stones. Since the section from Huai'an to Kaifeng happened to be tailwind, when several ships were loaded, Lu Chengxiang said: "I will take these ships and go first, and inform King Zhou to arrange for people to unload grain, otherwise they will not be able to unload the ships together." I also informed our Kaifeng branch to arrange a granary and leave some grain for them to sell slowly. ”

Zhang Zhimu nodded and said, "Mr. Lu is thoughtful, you go first, come back as soon as possible, there are more things here." ”

Lu Chengxiang took people and accompanied ten shallow boats, and went to Kaifeng first.

Li Mao has been asking people to inquire about whether the goods yard is being sold. The owner of that freight yard is also a big family in Huai'an, although the business of the freight yard has been very bad, that is, barely maintained, they never thought that there would be people who want to buy their freight yard, because the location of this freight yard is excellent, and generally people can't afford this silver. Besides, because the business here is not good, no one will give so much money to buy a silver business.

When they were asked if they were selling, they all replied that they were not going to sell. But they said they should be allowed to think about it. Li Mao got the letter and told Zhang Zhimu, Zhang Zhimu said: "We have to go to the neighborhood to inquire about other places, otherwise, they will agree to sell, and they will open their mouths." ”

Li Mao said: "Mr. Zhang, what I said is that the current Huai'an wharf is not as good as before, and there should still be a yard to buy." ”

Maybe it was Li Mao who inquired about the trading yard elsewhere, and the owner of the yard came to the door himself. As soon as they met, he said: "We know that the Zhang Dong family in Yaogang is a big deal, and the freight yard operated by my family for several generations will be handed over to you, and we are also relieved." I came this time to quote a real price to Zhang Dongjia, if Zhang Dongjia can accept it, our business will become, can't accept it, Zhang Dongjia will inquire elsewhere, how about it? ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "We are very sincere to buy this yard, can you quote a price?" ”

The proprietor stretched out two fingers of his right hand, gestured and said, "This number is the lowest number we have discussed in our family." ”

To be honest, Zhang Zhimu didn't understand how much it was, and asked, "Two hundred thousand taels of silver?" ”

The proprietor nodded and said, "Yes!" ”

This is a bit out of Zhang Zhimu's expectations, in Zhang Zhimu's psychology, this freight yard is less than 500,000 miles. He'll take it.

Zhang Zhimu deliberately thought for a while and said, "Okay, I'll be a little happier today, and I'll hand over the money and do the paperwork this afternoon." What do you think? ”

This time, it was the owner's turn to be a little surprised, and asked, "200,000 taels of silver, don't you need to prepare?" ”

Zhang Zhimuxin said, "One million taels, you don't need to prepare." But he said, "Don't worry, this afternoon, we will count the silver while we do the paperwork." Then in the evening we drank together to celebrate, and we had another good friend in Yaogang.

Zhang Zhimu's words also infected the owner, and he was also happy that he had negotiated such a big deal so happily, so he made an appointment to meet in the afternoon.

After the guests left, Li Mao asked: "With such a large sum of silver, don't you have to go back to Yangzhou to get it?" ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "After a while, the tide will rise, and our steamship will come in and there will be on board. Not to mention 201,000,000, you can give them right away. ”

Li Mao said: "I thought it would cost about 500,000 yuan, but this is on the Huai'an wharf." ”

"200,000 taels, that is, we have to use this freight yard ourselves, otherwise, no one will buy it if we rely on it to do business. But in that case, we can accept 500,000 miles. Zhang Zhimu said.

Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He came with the steamer, and as soon as they went ashore, they heard that Zhang Zhimu and they were ready to buy a large freight yard, regardless of seasickness and discomfort, they had to go to the freight yard to have a look.

Yang Yulin also came with them, she saw such a large freight yard, especially the rows of granaries, which made her very happy, and asked Zhang Zhimu, saying this: "From today onwards, this place will be ours?" ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Of course, but we also have to give a bunch of silver to others." ”

Yang Yulin said: "Oh, the silver is meant to be used to buy things, otherwise why keep those things?" ”

Yang Yulin's words caused everyone to laugh quickly.

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Calculus formulas, tables of chemical elements; Conquer Japan in the east and attack Mayi in the south; Penicillin, syringe. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".