The sky outside was dark and gloomy, the north wind kept "whistling", Zhou Zhong was wearing a cyan cotton robe and a hooded cloak outside, looking like an ordinary rich boy. Because of the consideration of himself and Xie Lingyun's affairs, Zhou Zhong had a headache and didn't want to stay in the study, so he went out for a walk, and Wangcai and Fugui behind him dressed up as two small servants and followed him to serve.

Wangcai and Fugui were originally the servants of the Zhou Mansion, before Zhou Zhong disbanded the servants in the mansion, the two of them were not willing to hire because of their ugliness, and they almost became the ones who asked for food, fortunately, they had followed Zhou Hai to the sea before, and knew some things about Shuangyu Port, so they went to sea and came to the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and were later taken in by Sun Tong to become a shipwright.

After proving Zhou Chong's identity before, because of secrecy, the two brothers Wangcai and Fugui have been staying in the backyard of the Chamber of Commerce, and later destroyed the Jeolla Chamber of Commerce, Zhou Chong asked them from Sun Tong to become his little servants, after all, the other party is a servant in the family, and he has followed Zhou Hai out to sea, so it can be seen that he should be very trusted by Zhou Hai, and he can use it at ease.

Originally, the station of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce was next to the port, so Zhou Zhong did not let him prepare the carriage, walked out of the gate, and soon arrived at the port. At this time, Wangcai pointed to the lively port in front of him and introduced: "Young master, look, this large area in front of us is all the ports of our Chamber of Commerce, and the westernmost side is the wharf used by our Chamber of Commerce itself, which only accounts for less than one-tenth, and any other ship can dock, of course, we have to collect taxes." ”

Zhou Zhong looked in the direction of Wangcai's finger, and saw that there were many cargo ships in the port not far away, large and small ships docked densely together, and the sails of the clouds almost covered the entire sea.

Although the weather is very bad today, it has not affected the busyness of the port at all, I saw that the cargo ships in the port are constantly coming, most of them are coolies on the port, are sweating and unloading the goods, and the stewards on the cargo ship stand at the bow of the ship and shout loudly, so that the coolies are careful not to damage the goods.

It is worth mentioning that those coolies on the port are actually people from the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, but they are only peripheral members of the Chamber of Commerce, and they are usually only responsible for working and getting money to eat.

From a security point of view, it seems that the members of the periphery of the Chamber of Commerce are very advantageous, after all, they all work for the Chamber of Commerce, but they don't have to work hard for the Chamber of Commerce. But in fact, every peripheral member of the chamber of commerce dreams of becoming a full member, mainly because of the different treatments, such as the peripheral members like coolies, the money they earn every day is only enough to make ends meet.

In contrast, although the official members of the Chamber of Commerce occasionally have to work hard for the Chamber of Commerce, their monthly remuneration is quite generous, which can not only support themselves, but also allow their families to live a life of abundant food and clothing. As the so-called people die for money, the generous remuneration makes most people ignore the danger of formal members of the Chamber of Commerce, especially those peripheral members who are tired and tired every day, and try their best to become full members of the Chamber of Commerce.

However, a chamber of commerce is limited by the size and financial resources, it is impossible to recruit formal members unlimitedly, usually the chamber of commerce is only to absorb some people with special talents, such as experienced boatmen, craftsmen, and even literate and hyphenation people, etc., these people are the talents needed by the chamber of commerce, so generally as long as these people are willing, it is easy to become a full member of the chamber of commerce. Of course, there are exceptions, for example, if a chamber of commerce suddenly casualties a large number of people, then there will be an urgent need for some people to fill in, and the conditions for joining the association will naturally be much relaxed.

Zhou Zhong calmly walked to the port, and then looked at the coolies in front of him who were only wearing a single coat in the winter, in the words of later generations, these coolies are the reserve team of the members of the Chamber of Commerce, some time ago the strength of the Chamber of Commerce was greatly damaged, and it is said that some manpower should also be replenished, but because the business is greatly affected and the financial resources are also very scarce, so it has not been able to replenish manpower until now.

"Wangcai, now the Chamber of Commerce needs shipwrights, if these coolies are recruited into the Chamber of Commerce, how long will it take to train them into qualified shipwrights?" Zhou Zhong suddenly asked at this time.

If Zhouzhong's plan to quickly revitalize the Chamber of Commerce is implemented, then the development speed of the Chamber of Commerce will definitely increase exponentially, especially the smuggling fleet will grow faster, and more shipwrights will be needed at that time, and these coolies just happen to be the main source of shipwrights.

Hearing Zhou Chong's question, Wangcai immediately stepped forward and replied: "Young master, being a qualified boatman is easy to say, but difficult to say, for example, most of these coolies in front of us are fishermen, and there is naturally no problem in manipulating the boat, so it can be said that being a boatman is a boatman." However, they used to fish in the near sea, but the goods had to run to the far sea, and the goods may have to stay on the ship for several months, that kind of taste is not something that anyone can bear, when I and Fugui followed the old man to transport goods at sea for two months, now I don't know how Lu Dao survived, if it wasn't for the two of us really can't do it, we won't come back to find Boss Sun as a boatman. ”

"yes, yes! The ability to do boatmen to operate the ship is still secondary, the key is whether they can endure to stay at sea for a few months, I heard some old boatmen say that there have been some new shipwrights who have been on the ship for a long time, and the most after the last one actually went crazy, there are those who jump into the sea and those who kill people, although we have not met Lu to see, but it sounds really scary! At this time, the rich man next to him also agreed.

Although Wangcai and Fugui are a bit chaotic, Zhou Zhong also understood it, and translated into the words of later generations, that is, most of these coolies on the dock have the basic skills to become shipwrights, but most of them do not have the psychological quality of a shipwright. This is mainly because in the era of the Ming Dynasty, the speed of sea ships was very slow, and it took a long time to transport a cargo, and the shipwrights naturally had to stay at sea for a long time, think about staying in the small space of the sea ship for several months, and sometimes eating moldy dry food and drinking stinky water, this kind of life is not something that everyone can bear.

It is precisely for this reason that if you want to become a real shipwright, you must not only learn the basic skills of manipulating the ship, but also have a strong psychological quality, but the psychological quality is something that cannot be seen or touched, and the only thing that can be guaranteed is that those new shipwrights will slowly enhance their psychological quality in the process of transporting goods again and again. Therefore, if you want to become a real boatman, there is no shortcut, at least you have to really go to sea a few times, and when you adapt to the boring life at sea, you will naturally become a qualified boatman.

"I see, I didn't expect to be so particular about being a boatman!" Zhou Zhong nodded at this time. In his previous life, he also participated in smuggling, and he was no stranger to life at sea, but at that time, sea transportation was many times stronger than now, such as smuggling in the southeast industry, which generally arrived in a few days, where would it be like now to walk for several months with the help of the wind?

Zhou Zhong walked around the port, roughly calculated along the way, and found that in the port under the jurisdiction of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, there are nearly 200 cargo ships loading and unloading at the same time, and these cargo ships will immediately give up the berth to the ships behind after loading and unloading the goods, plus this is only one-third of the port in the North Port area, so it can be seen how amazing the daily cargo throughput of the entire North Port is.

It happened to be noon at this time, and many coolies were almost done, after the leader and the owner of the ship greeted each other, a team of coolies began to go to the port to eat, Zhou Zhong also felt a little cold at this time, and just wanted to turn back, but was stopped by Wangcai and Fugui with a smile: "Young master, since we have come to the port, there is a place where we can't not go, and that is where people of your status should go." ”

"Oh, where am I supposed to go?" Zhou Chong heard that this was a little strange, but then he thought of something, and pointed at the two brothers with a smile and said, "What kind of bad idea are you two playing, you don't want to take Young Master Ben to that kind of place to hide filth and dirt, right?" ”

Shuangyu Port is the same as Zhoushan Port where he passed before, the port is full of restaurants and brothels, and the port here is bigger and more prosperous, and there are naturally more wine shops and brothels in the port than in Zhoushan Port, for example, in the Beigang District where they are located, there are twenty or thirty brothels alone.

Speaking of these brothels are not all opened by the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, and even the real count, most of them are opened by the Japanese and the Koreans, they transport the women of the country here, and these exotic women also really attract a lot of men who try the new things, every dusk, the doors and windows of the brothels on the port shoot a hazy pink light, and the drunk men linger among these exotic prostitutes, which has become a scene of the entire Shuangyu Port, and the foreign chambers of commerce that control these green buildings behind them have also made enough money.

It is also that the port is full of green buildings, so Wang Cai and Fugui said that they would take Zhou Zhong to a place that matched his identity last year, and immediately made him think that these two people were going to take him to the green building for a visit, after all, the Ming Dynasty is a legal era, for men, going to the green house is actually not much different from going to the restaurant, even if the wife of the man's family knows the way, he will not say anything.

However, what Zhou Chong didn't expect was that the two brothers Wangcai and Fugui hurriedly denied it after hearing it: "No, no~, young master, you misunderstood, the most annoying thing for the master was the place like Qinglou, how dare we take the young master to that kind of place, otherwise if Xu Bozhi is told, then it won't break our brother's legs?" ”

Hearing that he was not going to Qinglou, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but ask with some curiosity: "Then where do you want to take me?" ”

Although Wangcai and Fugui had bad eyes, they could also see the curiosity on Zhou Chong's face at this time, but at this time, they sold Guan Zi and said: "Hehe, young master, you will know when you go, don't look at the port in front of us is so lively, but the place we are going to is the most important place in the whole port, but anyone who comes to the port will run there as soon as they get off the boat." ”