The group went to the port in a carriage and stopped at the door of a house of more than 100 square meters, where two people were guarding the door. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Mr. Robert, you're back." Two warehouse guards came over with a flattering smile and greeted them.

Robert nodded and said, "Hmm." I sold my goods to this gentleman, and he came to inspect them. ”

Hearing this, the two people guarding the warehouse looked at Zhao Guohua and the others, and saw that they were all strong, but they did not smile, knowing that these people were not ordinary businessmen, so they didn't dare to ask more, and silently got out of the way.

Zhao Guohua found that the sweet potatoes and potatoes at this time were not as big as those of later generations, and the corn grains were also a little small, and he didn't mind, because he knew that the sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn of later generations were all improved, and the sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn at this time were definitely not as good as those of later generations hundreds of years later.

After inspecting the goods, he tied up the sack and walked out of the warehouse.

"Robert, how much do the two of them get paid to guard the warehouse during this time?" Zhao Guohua asked.

Robert did the math and said, "Seven hundred and fifty." Fifty wen per person per day, and today it is fifteen days. ”

Seeing that the two of them were dressed a little shabby, Zhao Guohua took out two ingots and five taels of silver, and said: "Two, please go and find a suitable car dealer for us, this is ten taels of silver, five taels per person, which is considered the hard work of the two." ”

"Uncle Xie! Uncle Xie! The two of them happily knelt down and kowtowed, and then turned around and quickly went to find the car dealership.

Seeing that the two were far away, Robert said; "Mi Si Zhao, the salary you gave is too much, several times more. Is it because you have too much money? ”

"Nope. Robert, you're wrong, don't you see that the clothes they are both wearing are so shabby? The clothes are full of patches, which means that their family is very poor, and if I give them a certain amount of money, they can make more new clothes and buy more rice and noodles to go home. Their parents, wives and children can also have a little to eat. ”

Hearing this, Robert said: "Mi Si Zhao, you are really a good official, I am very relieved to deal with people like you. ”

Smiling, Zhao Guohua handed the silver ticket of 16,000 taels to Robert.

"Goodbye. Dear Miss Zhao. After counting the silver tickets, Robert said hello to Zhao Guohua and left

After a while, the people of Shuntong Carriage followed the two people who guarded the warehouse.

Each person was five taels of silver, and the two people guarding the warehouse took the silver and left with a smile.

"Boss, I want to transport these things to Macheng County, Anhui Province, how much freight does it cost?" Zhao Guohua asked, pointing to the sweet potato bag on the ground.

Looking at these things, the owner of the car came over to lift the weight, lost a few bags, and said: "This gentleman, I am afraid that you have to have about 20,000 catties of these things, according to the calculation of 2,000 catties for each carriage, it will take ten carriages, and the road is so far, I am afraid that it will cost 3,000 taels of silver for freight." ”

"Three thousand taels of silver? It's too expensive, isn't it? Zhao Guohua said in surprise. In his opinion, Fujian and Anhui are separated by a Jiangxi, and the land distance is more than 1,000 miles, how can there be so much freight. In fact, he was wrong, more than 1,000 miles in the present is just over two days to arrive, this is because in modern times there are cars and trains and other means of transport, there are inter-provincial highways, in ancient times, the road conditions are extremely poor, long-distance transportation is basically by horse-drawn carriages and wind-powered wooden boats, not only the time is long, but also on the road people eat horses and chew the expenses are also quite large, in ancient times to transport military grain to the border pass, transport a thousand catties past, when the border pass is still half left, it is good.

"Uncle, this freight is not much, you calculate, a carriage needs two coachmen to take turns driving, people on the road to eat and horses to eat grass, and the cost of coming back is not small, we are honest people, if the uncle is really expensive, you can find the Cao Gang to transport it to Songjiang Mansion by boat, and then go ashore and transport it to Macheng County, Anhui Province by car." Said the man at the car dealership.

Zhao Guohua has not considered it by ship, but the current sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn are really not easy to find, and there are some risks in shipping by ship, although land transportation is a bit slow, but it is safe.

After thinking about it carefully, Zhao Guohua said: "Okay, it's just three thousand taels, I ask to leave tomorrow, is it okay?" ”

"No problem." The man in the car said happily.

Zhao Guohua instructed: "In this case, now you will pull these things to your Shuntong car shop for loading and unloading, and we will set off with you early tomorrow morning." ”

The man at the car dealer said, "No problem, I'll call the car to pull it." ”

After a while, ten big carriages came, and there were ten guys, many people with great strength, a stick of incense, 20,000 catties of crops were loaded into the car, the delivery voucher was written, handed over to Zhao Guohua, and he said hello, and the people from the car dealer drove the carriage away.

Thinking that he was going back to Anhui tomorrow, it was not appropriate to say goodbye without saying goodbye, so he had to say hello to Chen Sihai and the Zheng brothers. So he went to Chen Sihai's house first, and told him that he would go back to Anhui tomorrow, and heard that Zhao Guohua was going to leave tomorrow, Chen Sihai said in surprise: "General Zhao, you haven't eaten a few good dishes in Fuzhou, and you haven't seen a place in Fuzhou's good mountains and rivers, why are you leaving?" If you live for a while, I will take you to eat all the good food in Fuzhou, and walk all over the good mountains and rivers of Fuzhou, and I will never keep you when you leave. ”

"Thank you Brother Chen for your kindness, it's just that you are in military affairs, so you don't dare to delay. When the world is peaceful in the future, I will return to Fuzhou to find Brother Chen to drink wine and roam the landscape. Zhao Guohua said with a smile.

Listening to his words, Chen Sihai knew that he couldn't keep him, so he said, "Since this is the case, then I won't keep Brother Zhao, and I will practice for Brother Zhao at Piaoxiang Restaurant at noon today." ”

"Thank you Brother Chen for your kindness, and please come with Brother Zheng." Zhao Guohua said.

Chen Sihai said briskly: "Okay." No problem. ”

At noon, Chen Sihai and Zhao Guohua were talking in the private seat on the second floor of Piaoxiang Restaurant, and the two were talking while waiting for the Zheng brothers. At this time, a middle-aged family member of Chen Sihai's faction who greeted the Zheng brothers at the door ran in, panting and said: "Master, they are here, not only Zheng Sanye and Zheng Siye, but also Haiphong guerrilla Uncle Zheng and several generals under him. ”

"Uncle Zheng is here too? You read that right," Chen Sihai asked in disbelief. Because Zheng Zhilong rarely accepts banquets from merchants, Chen Sihai only saw him when he went to his mansion to pay the navigation protection fee.

"The person who walked in front of Zheng Sanye and Zheng Siye must be Uncle Zheng." This family member said analytically.

Hearing what he said, it also made sense, Chen Sihai said: "Brother Zhao, let's go, let's go out to meet them." ”

"Okay." Zhao Guohua said happily. He also wanted to see what Zheng Zhilong, the overlord of the East Asian seas at the end of the Ming Dynasty, was like. In later generations, he was a controversial figure with mixed reputations.

As soon as I walked to the lobby on the first floor, a large group of people walked into the door, all of them were purple and red, their bodies were strong, they walked calmly, their limbs were powerful, they looked like people who had been begging for a life at sea for many years, a middle-aged man in his forties stood calmly at the forefront, Zheng Zhibao and Zheng Zhibiao followed behind, and there were several strong men in the back.

"I've seen General Zheng...... I saw General Zheng...... "The merchant who was eating in the house saw this person, and hurriedly got up and left his seat, bowing and saluting

"Good! Good... Okay..."The man gestured with a smile and strode towards Chen Sihai.

Sure enough, it was the coastal defense guerrilla Zheng Zhilong, Chen Sihai hurriedly strode over and said: "Oh, it turned out that the coastal defense guerrilla Zheng Dajia arrived, and the small people failed to greet the big driver, and I ask the adults to forgive me." ”

"Ah, shopkeeper Chen, Zheng came uninvited, please don't blame ......" The man laughed as he spoke

Zhao Guohua looked at Zheng Zhilong carefully and saw that he had a well-proportioned figure, a long face, slender eyes, thin lips, and a black beard under his chin

The eyes open and close with a glint of light, the laughter is loud and presumptuous, and the heroic state is fully revealed.

Zheng Zhilong, the largest maritime merchant and military group leader in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, successively attached to the Ming and Qing dynasties as an official, Zheng Chenggong's father, and the founder of the Zheng dynasty in Taiwan. Zheng Zhilong was a merchant, soldier, official and pirate in South China, Taiwan and Japan in the last years of the Ming Dynasty. In European literature, it is famous for its (Yiguan).

In 1628, Zheng Zhilong was appeased by the Ming court, and the official was the governor of the capital. After surrendering to the Qing Dynasty in 1646, he was placed under house arrest in Beijing; The Qing Dynasty repeatedly surrendered his son Zheng Chenggong, who was imprisoned in 1655; He was killed in 1661.

After laughing, Zheng Zhilong glanced at Zhao Guohua beside Chen Sihai, and said with a smile on his face: "This must be General Zhao Guohua, the governor of the loyal and righteous Protector Army......

He smiled and said, "Don't dare to be, Zhao Guohua has seen General Zheng." ”

"General Zhao, you are too polite, in terms of official positions, we are almost the same, and we are both military generals, there is no need for those sour red tape, come and come, we will go up and drink, and if we don't get drunk today, we won't return." After speaking, Zheng Zhilong laughed, took Zhao Guohua's hand and strode upstairs, and Zheng Zhibao Zheng Zhibiao and others followed.

The reason why Zheng Zhilong appeared here today is because he heard Zheng Zhibao and Zheng Zhibiao say that Zhao Guohua is Xiong Wencan's favorite general, and he leads an army called the Loyal and Righteous Protector Army, he is a coastal defense guerrilla, and has a good relationship with the current governor of Fujian. A militia group can be reorganized into a formal official army and given by the emperor himself, which shows that Zhao Guohua's army is not bad, in this troubled era, there are soldiers, there is everything, and getting to know a military general with a strong army is a worthy investment, out of this consideration, so he came to see if Zhao Guohua is worth befriending today.

Under observation, Zheng Zhilong saw that Zhao Guohua was neither humble nor arrogant, neither ostentatious nor cowering, a little hidden, and already had the heart to make friends, so he decided to make a decision after drinking with him.

After going to the restaurant and sitting down, Zheng Zhilong said with a smile: "General Zhao, you didn't come to me for business in Fujian this time, don't you look down on me." ”