“… It's not just ebony, rhino horn, ivory and rice that Vietnam can produce, in my opinion, the most valuable products in Vietnam are coal and iron ore. Wild Sand Literature Network is near Yongxian Xialong Bay, there is an excellent open-pit coal mine that can be mined into excellent coke, whether it is an iron factory in Hainan or an iron-smelting base in Foshan, these high-quality coal and coke are extremely needed.

As for Vietnam's iron ore, the iron content is much better than that of our domestic iron ore, which is almost the same as the quality of Hainan's iron ore. The refined iron produced in Hainan is directly supplied to the ordnance superintendent, and the price of a small part of the refined iron that enters the market is also more than 20% of the market price. In other words, as long as we can bring iron ore from Vietnam back to China, we will be able to make a profit immediately.

The use of fine iron today is not limited to making some iron pots, needles, farm tools and other small things, just the production of a railroad track, it costs more than 20 kilograms of good iron per meter. One kilometer of one-way track is more than 40 tons of good iron, and now the railways being built in China and overseas will not be less than 1,500 kilometers per year, which is the market of more than 60,000 tons of good iron.

Now the value of good iron for making rails on the market will not be less than 100 yuan per ton, which is a big market worth 6 million yuan. However, this market is now dominated by the North Iron and Steel Plant, the Wuhan Iron and Steel Plant and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and the Foshan Iron Works made no more than 500,000 yuan of rails last year.

The reason for this situation is that the cost of good iron produced by Foshan Iron Works is too high, and it is difficult to compete with these iron mills. If we can get high-quality coke and iron ore from Vietnam, then we can significantly reduce the cost of iron smelting. Ladies and gentlemen, if we can control the coke and iron ore in Vietnam, can't we still use this to become the owner of the Foshan Iron Works? ”

Chen Shangjiu's words immediately caused a group of businessmen to think deeply, although they used the Ming Dynasty's policy of opening up the sea to build a career in Vietnam. But no matter how good it is mixed overseas, it is not as strong as having a strong foundation in China, after all, overseas is not the land of China after all, and now it is forced by the strength of the Ming Dynasty to greet them with a smile, if the Ming Dynasty declines again, God knows how these people will turn their faces, and they have not heard of this kind of thing.

Foshan iron smelting base is now the largest steel base in the two Guangxi region, salt and iron since ancient times is the most important source of wealth for the state, the Han Dynasty there was a salt and iron conference specifically to discuss whether the state monopolizes the operation of the salt and iron industry. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the salt and iron industry was also very important, but in the later period, it only paid attention to the salt industry, but the iron smelting industry was liberalized, and even the government-run iron factories were voluntarily closed.

The reason for this is naturally the involvement of the local gentry in this industry, coupled with the fact that the profits of pig iron are not as high as those of the salt industry. But for these merchants, iron smelting, like salt making, is a family industry, after all, iron is also an indispensable tool for the people, especially now that there is a new thing such as railroad rails, the use of iron is more extensive.

If they can take this opportunity to invest in Foshan Iron Works, for them businessmen, it is undoubtedly to leave a way back for themselves, even if the investment is large now, it is still worth it. This proposal immediately aroused everyone's interest, so he urged Chen Shangjiu to continue.

Chen Shangjiu paused slightly, then continued: "... It is about 160 kilometers from Thang Long to Zhennanguan, and another 200 kilometers from Zhennanguan to Nanning. If we can build such a railway, then we will not have to take the risky sea route from Thang Long to Guangzhou.

As we all know, although the volume of sea ships is much larger than that of land routes, when it comes to typhoon season, going to sea is similar to gambling. If we can invest in this railway, it will be much safer to travel between Thang Long and Guangzhou, at least in the future, we will not have to venture back and forth to and from the country.

And once this railway is opened, we will be able to return to China directly by rail without having to wait for the weather to change, which is good news for us to strengthen trade between the two places.

In addition, I don't know if you have noticed such a phenomenon, last year the Prime Minister Yamen divided the shipyards into three levels. Ships with an annual output of 800 dwt are small shipyards; medium-sized shipyards with an annual output of 800-2000 deadweight tons; Large shipyards produce more than 2,000 deadweight tons of ships per year.

According to the shipbuilding yearbook published by Prime Minister Yamen last year, there are about 349 small shipyards from Dongyang to Nanyang, with the ratio of shipyards belonging to domestic and overseas states being 1:1, and 82 medium-sized shipyards, accounting for about 60% of them overseas. There are 28 large shipyards, accounting for eighty percent of the domestic total. Small shipyards can produce ships of less than 100 tons, medium-sized shipyards can produce ships between 300 and 800 tons, and large shipyards mainly produce ships of more than 1,000 tons.

Thanks to China's policy of vigorously supporting the shipbuilding industry in recent years, the orders of various shipyards at home and abroad have been full, and the ships built by these shipyards are all new shipbuilding methods, that is, a large number of metal components are used, about 0.6 tons of metal components per ton of wood.

Last year, the ships launched by these shipyards in a year seemed to exceed 220,000 tons, which exceeded eighty percent of the total deadweight tonnage of China's domestic merchant ships. As you can imagine, as the shipbuilding industry continues to expand, the use of steel in the shipbuilding industry will gradually increase, which is another huge emerging market.

So, for us, Vietnam's iron and coal mines are a real cornucopia..."

Finally, someone couldn't help but interrupt him and said: "We already know very well what we can get in return for supporting the Zheng family, so let's talk about how we can help the Zheng family solve this game." If we can't solve this game, we still have to think of a way to find another one that can replace Zheng, right? ”

The rest of the people couldn't help nodding their heads again and again, echoing and asking Chen Shangjiu to say a way to solve the Zheng family's crisis, Chen Shangjiu seemed to have a success in this point, he didn't think about it and said directly: "For the Zheng family, the biggest problem now is to transfer troops back to Thang Long Mansion, and then completely suppress the Ruan brothers, as long as the Zheng family can hold the Thang Long Mansion at a small price and defeat the Ruan brothers, others will not dare to stand up and challenge the Zheng family easily."

After all, except for the Nguyen brothers, a newly rising force, the other feudal towns are all people with family backgrounds, and they will not easily risk their own future. And the rebels who rebelled against the Vietnamese court everywhere, except for the Nguyen brothers, were just local bandits. Therefore, as long as the Trung clan won a great victory over the Nguyen brothers, the Vietnamese peasant revolt that spread throughout the country could soon be quelled.

The transfer of troops, which is a big problem for the Zheng family, is nothing more than a simple matter for us. Because shipping off the coast of Vietnam is now in our hands. It was difficult to travel by land, so we used ships to go by sea, and this was only ten days and half a month.

The real trouble was that the Quang Nam Nguyen clan had to be appeased not to take this opportunity to cause trouble and send troops north. It is also necessary to confuse the Nguyen brothers for a while, so as not to let them rush to Thang Long Mansion now. Maybe the Nguyen brothers may not be able to take Thang Long Province now, but it is possible to capture Hai Duong, which is now a place where we store grain, and if the Nguyen brothers take the opportunity to capture it, it will be a great loss for us.

And if you want to appease the Nguyen clan in Quang Nam, you must ask Ambassador Lin to come forward, and please invite the Ming fleet, which is now visiting Hoi An, to come forward and put pressure on Lord Nguyen so that he will not be able to free up. As for the Ruan brothers, we will first send someone to mediate the war as a messenger of the Ming Dynasty, as long as we can make the Ruan brothers hesitate for a while, and wait for the Zheng army to return north, we can cancel the mediation matter..."

Chen Shangjiu's proposition caused a heated discussion among everyone, and even Lin Yueshan believed that Chen Shangjiu's plan was feasible. Some people can't wait to suggest that a coal and iron company should be set up by the Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, first, to share the cost of supporting the Zheng family, and second, they naturally plan to receive the benefits of Zheng's feedback in the name of this company.

Some people even planned the shares contributed by the company and distributed them according to the shares of the seven officials of the people. This official does not refer to the imperial court, but to the prime minister's yamen. Although the members of the embassy were very excited, Lin Yueshan did not express his position immediately, and when a businessman persuaded him, an embassy official came up to report that the Zheng Mansion had sent someone to ask to see Lin Yueshan.

Lin Yueshan subconsciously looked out the window, and found that the rain outside had stopped for some time, so he straightened up and said to everyone: "It's okay if someone from the Zheng family comes over, I'll go talk about the tone first, and you will continue to add up the total first." Yigong also followed me to meet the visitor, since you have such an idea, you should naturally see if the Zheng family is worth our investment. ”

Chen Shangjiu immediately agreed, and followed behind Lin Yueshan, and the others had no choice but to go back when they saw this, waiting for Lin Yueshan to come back and continue to discuss. After walking out of the somewhat dark conference room, the sunlight outside shone directly on the aisle of the arcade, which was very bright.

The water trails left on the wooden floor aisle became steamy in the sunlight, which immediately made the two people who had just left the conference room sweat, but the fresh air after the rain was much fresher than the conference room, which made it much more refreshing. Not far from the conference room, Lin Yueshan said to Chen Shangjiu on the side, intentionally or unintentionally: "What Huang and Sheng said just now is still good, and it may be the most appropriate to set up a company to coordinate this matter."

However, they said that the shares should be distributed according to the seven officials of the people, which may be a bit inappropriate. The internal personnel of the Prime Minister's Yamen are complicated, and if this is reported according to the regular procedures, I am afraid that the daylily here will be cold. Premier Feng and they are far away in the capital, and they will not understand the difficulties of us ambassadors overseas. However, if it is possible to set aside a part of the company's shares for people, it may be easier to do this. ”

Chen Shangjiu hurriedly nodded and said: "Understood, understood, why don't you go back and discuss with everyone later, reduce the share of official shares, and hand over the saved shares to the adults to distribute, but the adults think it is more appropriate to reduce it?" ”

Lin Yueshan glanced back at him, and then said with a smile: "15% of the Prime Minister's Yamen is enough to explain, you can take care of the rest, and then Premier Feng's side, I can also introduce you to you." ”

Chen Shangjiu was suddenly surprised and delighted and said: "The villain will definitely do things properly, and he will definitely not leave any trouble for you..."