Li Guobin was overjoyed, got up and said, "Thank you, Proprietor Zhang!" ”

Zhang Han said with a smile: "Actually, it's not that I'm generous, I'm really listening to it, our proprietor Li and proprietor Ma have done their best, and you are tired of saying it, why don't I come out to be this peacemaker, everyone will save trouble." ”

Everyone laughed when they heard this, Li Dayong got up and opened the door, and asked the shop outside to serve wine and food, and the shopkeeper knew that these were all high rollers, so he didn't dare to slack off, so he had already prepared the wine and food, and sent it up in an endless stream for a while.

After a few rounds, Li Dayong said with a smile: "Only then did I know the true meaning of Zhang Dongzhu to drink after finishing business, and sure enough, there is no need to calculate Mr. Li when drinking this wine, it tastes relaxed and happy, and the taste of the wine is much better." ”

Everyone laughed when they heard it, Li Guobin didn't even dare to say it, he was still cautious at this time, obviously he had experienced a lot of this kind of occasion, and he would not be completely relaxed because of the achievements of the transaction.

"Zhang Dongzhu," Li Guobin toasted Zhang Han again, and said: "Lingqiu is for iron, I don't know which official road to take?" ”

Zhang Han muttered: "If it is a mature route, of course, it is from Lingqiu to Xinpingbao first, from Xinpingbao to Zhangjiakou, and then from Zhangjiakou to Jingshi. However, this time I plan to go east from Lingqiu to Guangchang, through Shimenxia, through Bauhinia Pass, Yizhou, and then go straight to Beijing, this route, than from Zhangjiakou to save a lot of distance, but all the way over the mountains and mountains, and to the east of our mule and horse branch route only to Guangchang, and then to the east and to Beijing need to open up a new route. ”

Li Guobin said: "Isn't it because Zhang Dongzhu's big cars are doing better?" ”

Zhang Han smiled: "Sure enough, it's Mr. Li, it's really in one sentence." ”

Li Guobin said well, the morale of the craftsmen is very high recently, there are new breakthroughs in several key points of the carriage firmware, the body of the new car is more and more solid, and the main use of fine iron parts is at the undertaking place, the cost of the carriage is mainly the high cost of these parts, if the production is finalized, and there is Lingqiu for iron, the cost will also be greatly reduced, in the repair and loss, the carriage will be lower and lower, and finally the profit of the mule and horse dealer will be greatly increased.

Zhang Han has undoubtedly opened a new model in the matter of mule and horse travel.

In Daming is not without logistics, in fact, the logistics mode of Daming is very rich, just in the south of the Yangtze River carrying ships there are a kind, from the boat to the sand boat, the river boat, there are always more than a dozen kinds, according to the flow of water and the distance, but also divided into a variety of people or goods, the south of the boat, the north of the car, just because of the road restrictions and the level of carriage production, the level of the northerner's vehicle is far less than the southerner's boat, the Ming Empire distributed throughout the country post stations and official roads are like capillaries in the human body, constantly supplying nutrients to the body, The official roads and carriages and horses in the north are very small, and the most important main artery of the Ming Empire is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Therefore, the Yuan Dynasty because of the rude method of rule, political desolation, the Grand Canal blocked a lot, the Yuan Dynasty was mainly shipping, to the Ming Dynasty dredged the canal, this Grand Canal became the most important logistics channel of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the logistics of the north and south mainly rely on this canal, such as Huaiyin, Linqing, Dezhou, Tongzhou, these cities along the river have become very prosperous and wealthy.

There are thousands of ships on the canal, not only official and commercial activities, but also non-governmental commercial activities, and personnel exchanges between the north and the south are all completed on this canal.

The canal also has serious defects, every year there will be a long dry period, to the dry season, a large number of boats backlogged, relying on the ship to traffic goods will also be piled up on the ship, let you hurry to hang, the river does not rise, no one can go.

Every year, the river section had to be excavated to clear the silt, which was a very difficult thing for the local incompetent Ming government. Every once in a while, the central Ministry of Industry and local governments have to file lawsuits, and some important projects are often bogged down in the middle of a wrestle, lacking funds and manpower, and there is also a lack of competent local officials to preside over them.

In the Longqing years, the former scholar Shoufu Gao Gong tried to change the river to the sea, at that time there was already a motion, to build a large number of sea ships, from the Yangtze River estuary to the sea, coastal north, this is actually a very correct plan, but in Zhang Juzheng drove away the high arch after the abolition of the high arch policy, the shipping thing is done.

In the north, a large number of carriages and horses are very simple and rough, the people use a large number of wheelbarrows for short-distance transportation, and a small number of two-wheeled or four-wheeled carts for long-distance transportation, the cost is extremely high, the time is extremely high, and the efficiency is also very low.

Before Zhang Han integrated the mule and horse travel, the foot travel in various places was mixed and lacked rules, especially the long-distance transportation was very chaotic, not only the transportation capacity was low, but the safety was also very worrying.

Now that he Yusheng's mule and horse shop has become famous, Zhang Han took the opportunity of transporting iron to take the initiative to open up the route from Beizhili to Beijing, which is also very appropriate.

Li Guobin said: "There are also a lot of discussions and Yusheng merchants in Beijing, they have some goods to Liaodong and Henan, it is very difficult to transport, most of them are businessmen from all over the country to try their own way, if there can be a big mule and horse shop like Yusheng to enter, I am afraid everyone's business will be much easier." ”

Zhang Han said: "For the time being, we can't go to the hinterland of Henan. ”

Li Guobin said: "There are many relatives and clans in Henan, and there are many checkpoints, if Zhang Dongzhu has no real relationship, it is better not to go for the time being." ”

Zhang Han smiled, talking to smart people is to save worry and effort.

Li Guobin said again: "Lingqiu iron, Heyusheng alone now has millions of catties, the Jingshi mainly wants Fang Mao Tie, I don't know if there is a definite amount of Fang Mao Iron supplied in a year?" ”

Zhang Han and Li Dayong glanced at each other with Ma Huaxian, turned their heads to Li Guobin and said, "More than 20 million jin to 25 million jin, there may be more." ”

Zhang Han continued: "There can be more in the next year." ”

Li Guobin was surprised: "Lingqiu can supply so many square hairy irons? ”

Fangmao iron is the preliminary smelting of fine iron, but also a kind of wrought iron, it is also the wrought iron smelted by the double-chamber method with Yusheng, this kind of iron is not better than pig iron, since it is wrought iron, it needs to extract certain impurities, the need for preliminary smelting, the number of furnaces and workers required is also astronomical.

Li Guobin said: "Of course, the more the merrier, but with such a high number, I am worried that those big commercial banks may not be able to get rid of all of them." After all, Fujian Iron still has a considerable share, and it will take time to squeeze the market. ”

What Li Guobin said is also what Zhang Han is worried about, he is actually very short of cash now, and he needs to expand production, and Li Zhuang also needs it, and the business war of the Fan family represented by Yusheng and Fan Yongdou has now entered the stage of bayonet red, Zhang Han is soft, and it will collapse immediately, and the failure of the business war with Yusheng must be catastrophic, first of all, the smuggling business of the main store is completely yellow cabbage, and then the business of the account bureau will be greatly affected, and then the turnover fails, Li Zhuang can not maintain it, and then the iron yard has to be reduced in scale, Pursue greater profits rather than scale up first to grow.

It may not be much affected by the mule and horse traders, but there is no way for the mules and horses to open up new routes.

The entire business war is a large-scale chain, and the lack of a link may cause the entire front to lose, and Zhang Han's hard work in the past few years has been completely in vain.

Zhang Han needs cash, a lot of cash!

Li Guobin's eyes were very vicious, Zhang Han was silent for a while, and then he said with a little nervousness: "Actually, Zhang Dongzhu can try to deal with the imperial court. ”

Zhang Han looked thoughtful, and Ma Huaxian said: "Does Mr. Li mean to sell iron to the Ministry of Industry?" ”

Li Guobin said: "Exactly, now I know that because of the Liao incident, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry have to cast a large number of armor and weapons, and the important thing is that firearms such as birds, especially artillery, use a lot of iron and silver, and a large amount of iron must be bought every month. Now the Ministry of Industry is mainly to buy Fujian's Fangmao iron, if Zhang Dongzhu can say that the Ministry of Industry officials, buy Jin Iron, I am afraid that every year a million fine iron can get out of a lot. ”

Zhang Han said: "Mr. Li is really calculating, this can be regarded as a clear way for us, and I thank you in the inferior." ”

In fact, not only what Li Guobin said, but several important directors of the Lingqiu Chamber of Commerce are also worried about the problem of overproduction. Of course, there is a large shortage of iron in the people, but the demand for refined iron with the highest profits in the private sector is not as large as ordinary pig iron, and the quality of refined iron is very good, but it must be the middle class or rich households.

"There is another way...... Li Guobin hesitated a little, but he continued: "Now there are quite a few merchants secretly preparing sea ships, going to sea in Tianjin or the Jiangnan area, some people go to the South Seas, and most of the northern ships go to the Wa Kingdom. Most of the ships in the south of the Yangtze River are porcelain, raw silk, silk and tea, and there are all kinds of leather goods and a large number of iron tools to go to the Wa Kingdom. A shipload of goods, at least double to double the profit, and then bring back the goods of the Japanese or red-haired people, such as self-striking bells, wool, Japanese fans, knives, and other goods, the profit is not small, one come and one back, the profit is quite rich. If a piece of iron is made into various iron tools at the current price of Lingqiu fine iron, the profit will be at least twice as high as after the ship arrives in Japan. ”

When Zhang Han heard this, his eyes really lit up!

The trade with Japan was only monopolized by Zheng Zhilong in the middle of Chongzhen, and now it should be the eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing their magical powers.

The South Seas are dominated by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, the Dutch East India Company is the last, the Dutch naval strength has far surpassed those old empires, the Republic as the core of the Netherlands is actually a super large company, basically composed of merchants composed of chambers of commerce, and the European banking guilds, the Dutch maritime companies are also restraining each other, as much as possible to maximize the benefits.

In a short period of time, the Netherlands had tens of thousands of merchant ships, in fact, tens of thousands of ships ready to arm, and the number of warships was also the highest in Europe.

Later, Britain, which dominated the seas and had colonies all over the world, had just freed itself from the constraints of the Spaniards and began to catch up.