"You caught it! His family is in Jinzhou, and you detained his family's cargo ship at Lion's Mouth, and then took his son as a hostage, saying that he would return his son only after transporting the goods to Mingzhou. He waited here for more than half a month, went to the dock every day from morning to night, and finally looked forward to your fleet, how can you deny it! You're still not human! Unexpectedly, as soon as Hong Tao's words of denial came out, Jiang Zhuyi's face was frosted, and the more she spoke, the more excited she became, with tears in her eyes, she probably remembered what happened to her father and brother again. At this time, Hong Tao was a beast in her eyes, a villain who killed people without blinking, and she still didn't dare to admit it.

"Stop, stop, stop...... Don't be in a hurry to scold me, come, sit down and talk. I think there must be a misunderstanding here, I've been to Golden State, but I've never met a ship pulling saltpeter...... Hey, no! Wait! Hong Tao clicked his lips, he turned around on the dock just now, and when Hong Dashan's mood was gone, Bai Nima grinned for a long time, making Jiang Zhuyi scold all of them. At this time, he hadn't remembered anything about detaining the ship and taking his son as a hostage, but in the end, he finally had a little impression, as if when he first arrived at the lion's mouth, he met two cargo ships with copper coin flags coming out of Lushun's mouth, and he seemed to have let a cargo ship deal with it at that time. As for how to deal with it, I didn't ask at all, where did I have the time to think about two cargo ships at that time, and they were fighting!

Leaving Jiang Zhuyi alone in the bedroom, Hong Tao ran to the deck and asked Swan to find all the captains of the cargo ships and ask, yes, the people were really detained. At that time, the captain of the cargo ship could not tell whether the two cargo ships carrying saltpeter and sulfur were the shareholders of the Straits Company, and he did not have time to carefully investigate, and the flag of docking had already been raised on the flagship. So he came up with a way to save trouble. took the son of the Xu family as a hostage. Anyway, the fleet will have to return to Mingzhou sooner or later, and then we will tell. This deduction was deducted for more than a month, and he himself forgot about it, and the son of the Xu family was also mixed with the prisoners of war, and was working on the dock at this time.

"Find him, pack him up, bring him to me, and then you go get a bucket of water yourself!" If you can't tell the difference, you can't forget to report! Take your son away. Forget also, are you happy? "Hong Tao is so angry, his good reputation has been ruined by others like this, but now it's too late to say anything, and the basin of arresting someone's son as a hostage is detained again, and he can't hide from it.

"Old man, take your son back, there are still a few bags of candy here, not a good thing, they are all my specialties there. Think of it as an apology. But old man, the flag of the Strait Company can't be hung indiscriminately. You also know that now that the Straits Company and Mongolia have started a war, you are running a ship in the north, and it is very dangerous to hang this thing! When he returned to the cabin again, Hong Tao's face was full of kind smiles, and his waist bent down a lot, and he was making amends and making amends, which was regarded as returning all his sons to Zhao. But his grandson can't be dressed in vain, followed by a big stick,

"General...... Oh no, chairman, chairman...... "It was Xu Liangzhi, a maritime merchant from Jinzhou, who came with Jiang Zhuyi, who transported saltpeter and sulfur to Mingzhou, and waited for Hongtao's fleet to come, and waited for the right not to come, so he went to the merchant who bought his goods in Mingzhou, and told him about his son's detention as a hostage."

The merchant who can help Luo Youde quietly buy saltpeter sulfur in Mingzhou, although he is not a member of the Statistics Bureau, but also a close confidant of Luo Youde, after thinking about it, he found Jiang Zhuyi, a newcomer, but a perfume agent personally arranged by Cixi. They don't know the specific identity of Cixi, but they know that Cixi is a person close to Hong Tao, so this Jiang family is likely to have a connection with Hong Tao, or why not send it all the way from Guangzhou to Mingzhou, and also help buy a house and build a perfume shop.

"Hey, don't kneel, don't kneel, let's not kneel and talk here, let's sit. If you have something to say, you can say it directly, this time it is indeed my negligence, even if there is a loss, I will pay for the delay of your ship for so long. Hong Tao held Xu Liangzhi's arm and didn't let him kneel, and then helped him to a chair and sat down. Looking at the look on his face, there must be words of suffering, and it is nothing more than a matter of loss. In this era, the maritime merchants went to sea depending on the weather, and if they delayed a good time, they were afraid that it would be a month or two, and the loss was great.

"No, no, no, no loss, no loss, I just don't know ...... Jinzhou" Xu Liangzhi didn't leave immediately at the lion's mouth, at least he saw how Hong Tao's fleet bombarded the Mongolian cavalry, and now he was sitting with Hong Tao, a half-immortal who could use thunder in his palm, very nervous, and began to stutter when he spoke.

"Oh, the old man is from Jinzhou...... This is it...... Jinzhou is gone, burned flat......" Hong Tao heard it, yes, another enemy came to the door, and he burned down his hometown, why did he let the family go back? At this time, he suddenly felt a cold chill piercing his back, and when he turned his head, Jiang Zhuyi was staring at a pair of eyes, which were full of anger.

"But the local people didn't kill them, they all ran away......"

"Okay, okay, the old man's family has gone to the countryside. I just want to ask the chairman, can your strait company still have shares, I heard that there are places every year, but your company is far away in Guangzhou, and I can't catch up. Xu Liangzhi was slowly confused by Hong Tao's smile, his nervousness eased, and he mustered up the courage to make his request.

"Strait Company...... It's okay to accept people, but they do all the business of Nanfan and Big Cannibals, and you haven't been in contact with it before, so I'm afraid it's not easy to get started. Your family used to transport saltpeter and sulfur leather goods, although these things are not very eye-catching, but they can't stand the long stream, and it is better to be cooked than raw. Golden State must not be able to go back, in fact, not only Golden State, the port in the north is basically gone, even if there is, it will be gone in a few days, do you want to listen to my advice? When Hong Tao was waiting for the Xu family's son on the deck just now, he had already asked Jiang Zhuyi about the origin of Xu Liangzhi. Jiang Zhuyi has quite a complete set of information, and it is obvious that he has inquired about the origin of this northland merchant in Mingzhou before. From this point of view, Cixi's vision is still quite accurate, she does have the talent to be an intelligence officer, and she brought people over without recklessness, not only inquired about the Gao family in Mingzhou, but also asked other maritime merchants about the details of the Xu family.

"It is said that the chairman is a boy who scatters money, and the old man can't ask for it......" Hearing that Hong Tao was reluctant to let the Xu family join the Strait Company, Xu Liangzhi was a little disappointed, and when he heard Hong Tao say that there were other suggestions, he rekindled his hope. Regardless of whether Hong Tao is talking big or not, anyway, the lion's mouth and Jinzhou are estimated to be really gone, a maritime merchant, it is not enough to have a ship, but also to have a home and a family, otherwise who will provide you with the goods you pull away, and who will sell the goods you pull back? This set of industrial chain can not be set up in a while, even if the Xu family goes to other ports to make a living, there is no business to do in a short period of time, the reason why he wants to join the strait company, Xu Liangzhi also wants to use the company's power to make it easier to run his own business.

"Saltpeter and sulfur are the company's key procurement goods, and I dare not say that they will not change for a hundred years, at least for decades. If the old man can continue to run this business and make the business bigger, I dare to guarantee that I will collect as much as you bring in and the price will be favorable. I don't know if you are willing to continue to do this business, don't worry about the sales, but the supplier needs you to contact yourself. "The demand for saltpeter and sulfur in Jinhewan is very large, and it will get bigger and bigger, relying on such scattered acquisitions, not only the cost is high, but the supply is also unstable. Hong Tao has noticed this problem, and originally planned to solve it in the near future, but now a Xu family suddenly popped up, and it was just right to cooperate.

The nearest source of saltpeter is the great northwest region of China, especially the saline-alkali land of the Turpan Basin, where there is not only saltpeter, but also miscanthus salt. Unfortunately, most of the saltpeter production areas are in Mongolia, and they can still be traded when there is no war in the past, but once the war starts, the trade routes will be cut off, and the little amount that flows by smuggling cannot meet the needs of Jinhewan. The most troublesome thing is that the cannon is a weapon that cannot be known to others forever, and after a few beatings, the Mongols will slowly figure out the basic principle of the cannon. Even if they can hide this secret, the Southern Song Dynasty court is also a leaky sieve, as long as they know, it is basically equivalent to the Mongols will soon know, and it is estimated that saltpeter and sulfur will be contraband in the north, and it is very problematic whether they can be smuggled out.

Another major source of saltpeter is the Indian peninsula, especially the North Indian region. At present, the most important cargo purchased by Bojiao in the port of Kabalan for Jinhe Bay is saltpeter. As for the saltpeter mine in North Africa, Hongtao doesn't think about it, it's too far, and in the absence of the Suez Canal, it's better to go to North Africa than to go directly to Chile to find saltpeter. In fact, whether it is a saltpeter mine in North Africa or Chile, it is far from quenching the thirst of the current Golden River Bay.

Once the saltpeter mine from India was cut off, Hong Tao had to dig a pit in the most primitive way and use animal manure and artemisia to make salt and nitrate. But this method needs to be buried for several years before the salt and nitrate can be cooked, and it really comes to that point, and the cannons in Jinhewan have to be counted and fired.

In addition to saltpeter, there is another raw material, which is sulfur. There must also be sulfur mines in the volcanic area east of Jinhe Bay, but that volcano is active, and it will be sprayed from time to time, and it is too difficult to send people to mine it, and the cost is too high, so it is better to find out if there are any areas rich in sulfur in the surrounding area, and it is more cost-effective to exchange whale oil and sugar that are easier to produce. (To be continued.) )

PS: PS: It's the New Year, as a storyteller, there is only one red envelope that can be sent, which is to tell a little more! This chapter is my New Year's greetings to everyone, from the Chinese New Year's Eve to the seventh day of the new year, every day at noon on time...... There are also those overseas book friends, I wish you good health and smooth work in our own New Year, and we can toss them hard outside...... Turn your thoughts into motivation!!