Qingdao Port, a restaurant.

More than a dozen businessmen from other places gathered at a table and talked a lot.

"The general soldier of Denglai has raised the price of saltpeter again this month, and a thousand catties of saltpeter have reached three taels of silver, grandma's, there are people everywhere who pour urine to make nitrate, and the smell is noisy." A merchant said, waving his hand.

"This kind of business is what some small businessmen in Shandong are willing to do, sporadically pouring millions of catties, which is only a few thousand taels of silver, but those big businessmen don't do this business."

"It's too slow to pee, I heard that there is a basin over there in Lianghuai that is rich in saltpeter, is it true?" A businessman asked.

"Of course it's true, it's a place where gunpowder is made in Nanjing, and we can't get involved."

"Who's to say you can't do it? Stuff some silver for the eunuchs in Nanjing, and then say hello to the general soldier of Denglai and let him cover it, this is not a private sale of gunpowder, and there will be no. ”

At this time, a merchant spoke, and the scene suddenly fell silent, and these merchants each thought of a feasible surname, and each had an idea of saltpeter in the Huainan Basin.

"In fact, you don't need to go to Nanjing, in fact, there are nitrate mines everywhere, but there are not many reserves, if you look for it carefully, you can still find it in many places, which is also one of the ways to make money!"

"Hmmm! Yes, I'll go back and send someone to inquire around to see if there is anything to dig around my hometown, if I do, it's much better than urine. ”

"What do you want so much saltpeter for?" At this time, a crisp voice sounded from the table on the side, and I saw two young people dressed in Confucian skirts and scholars sitting at the table.

"It's a girl." One of the merchants whispered, and the merchants looked at it curiously, and after everyone looked at it, they didn't bother to break it.

"This little brother asked well, the chief soldier wants so much saltpeter, so naturally he is going to fight."

"Nonsense, it's about building roads! I didn't hear that this Denglai is building roads everywhere! Gunpowder is used to open the mountain, and if you use people to dig slowly, you have to dig until when! ”

"You're just talking nonsense, you didn't see the New Year's New Year Denglai soldiers and horses gathering! Guns were fired all day long. Moreover, when I came from Tianjin, I found that Denglai's warships were gathered near Changshan Island, which was full of officers and men, and my ship was interrogated for nearly a quarter of an hour before being released, and it was definitely about to go to war. ”

"Hit whom?"

"Hit ......"

"Shhhh At this time, a merchant hurriedly spoke, and everyone hurriedly kept silent.

Want to fight Liaodong? Yan Yuyao on the side immediately thought of the target that the Denglai Army might have to deal with, and in a trance, she was choked by the tea for a while, and coughed violently a few times, and her tears came out.

"Childe, Childe." The maid on the side hurriedly took out a handkerchief and patted Yan Yuyao on the back.

"It's okay, it's okay." Yan Yuyao took the handkerchief and shook her head lightly.

At this time, the table of merchants was lively, and they were talking about what goods they had to sell back to make the most profits, and one of the merchants said: "The fish of Denglai is easy to make money, and this salted ribbon fish has the best market, but it is delicious!" ”

As he spoke, the merchant picked up a piece of salted hairtail, tasted it in his mouth, and nodded: "The most important thing is to press rice, but it is a rice hammer." ”

"The sea cucumber that makes money in the seafood is the best quality, and the quality of the stinging cucumber in Yantai is the best, which is a precious medicinal material, and it can be eaten wherever it is sold."

"The amount of sea cucumber is too small, and you may not be able to buy it! As soon as you fish it out, it will be robbed, unless you go to squat to buy, otherwise you want to buy a few. ”

"Yes! However, Denglai is developing a fishery this year, and the output of sea cucumbers is estimated to increase. ”

"Then I have to mention it, I feel that the goods are still easy to sell."

"There is nothing to produce, those are said to be this goods, most of them are some shitties (dried aquatic products), and the rest are gold, silver and copper, I heard that in the future, Denglai's trading fleet will no longer buy those goods from this book, because Denglai fishing will expand and there will be no need."

"Denglai's fleet will go back and forth six or seven times in two months, and no matter how much silver there is, it will be emptied, and when the silver is emptied, it can only transport brass and gold, and if gold and brass are emptied, then it can only rely on things."

"How can the brass be emptied, there are too many brass in this book!" A businessman from Fujian Province who came to Shandong to sell export goods shook his head and said, "There are still people in the field!" ”

"What if I can't pick it?"

"That's right!"

"Once the price of brass is higher than that of Daming, then no one will transport it, so it will not be empty." The Fujian businessman said with a smile, "It's been good for the business of Yuben in the past few years, and there will be no profit for Yuben's business in the future." ”

Yan Yuyao saw a lot of things in Denglai, where water conservancy and roads were being repaired everywhere, and people were working hard and training.

There was a steady stream of merchants and visitors, each of whom trafficked goods from other places, and shipped out of Denglai's salt, cotton, seafood, and other goods.

Speaking of Ye Zhiqiu, Yan Yuyao also saw a lot of things from these phenomena, and was secretly surprised by the strength of Zhao Yan, the general soldier of Denglai, such a prosperous commercial trade and crazy trade, plus Shandong Yanli, plus the famous glass mirror, it can be said that Jindou can not be compared.

Especially for the trade of Yueben, Zhao Yan actually ignored the maritime ban policy in Denglai. However, it is true that no one abides by the maritime ban policy in this era, and the huge profits from trade can make Denglai's financial resources go to a higher level. The father made the relationship between the two parties old and dead, which is indeed very troublesome.

Zhao Yan has such huge financial resources, if his father gets his support, he will definitely be able to make political achievements in Shandong, his father in the court relies on attacking other officials to gain the trust of the saint, the popularity in the court is not very good, if there is no effective ally to support, I am afraid that the future will be very sad.

…… Zhao Yan has been preparing for war since the Spring Festival, and the war against the Manchu Qing is naturally to prepare carefully, and to prepare with all his might.

First of all, in terms of trade, we no longer accept aquatic products. Instead, he only accepts the gold, silver and bronze of the book, and as for the best-selling product such as the sword, Zhao Yan decided to make a copycat version, and he will not import it from the book in the future. In February, several sword-casting masters were invited to Denglai, and later began to produce the Chinese version of the sword, and Zhao Yan named the Chinese sword-making Tang knife. The sword itself was developed from the Tang knife, but the Tang knife was not curved.

In addition to bringing back gold, silver, and copper from the trading ships, they also transported saltpeter and sulfur in preparation for the upcoming war.

Since the Spring Festival, combat units have been in place one after another, and the expansion of front-line troops has also been completed one after another, and there is a great demand for gunpowder in training, and at the same time, gunpowder is also very large in road construction and water conservancy repair, so there is an urgent need to import saltpeter and sulfur from other places.

However, gunpowder is not too short, since Zhao Yan was appeased, he already has an official status, and it is much easier to obtain gunpowder.

First of all, more than a dozen small nitrate mines have been excavated in Shandong, and Shandong's nitrate ore reserves themselves are not much, and it is difficult to meet the needs of training.

The real contribution is still the nitrate ore transported from other places, as well as the nitrate produced by the local method of nitrate in Shandong, and the soil method of nitrate production in Shandong can be said to be everywhere in Shandong.

However, it is some small businessmen with little capital who operate this kind of business, and the capital of this kind of livelihood is small, and the profit is not too high, but it is safe to win, and it is generally impossible to lose money.

Most of the big businessmen in Shandong were dealing in salt goods and mirrors, and they also bought yarn and cotton cloth from Denglai to sell them in other places, and some even went to Handan to sell iron tools.

The more nitrate, the better, and the Ordnance Bureau can also build more rockets.

After the continuous transformation of the Ordnance Bureau, the range of the rocket has been increased to 3,000 meters, and it can hit the target more accurately under windless climate conditions.

The rocket's surname can be improved, but the rocket soldier has to adapt to the new range.

Among the three weapons of paper bullets, artillery shells, and rockets, that is, rockets consume the most gunpowder and are the most expensive.

After a month of running-in training, on February 20, the Liaodong Corps took a warship and conducted a landing exercise on Changshan Island.

Some crew members still experienced seasickness, but this did not affect the landing.

At this time, Zhao Yan reported to the imperial court that the good news also arrived, at this time Zhu Youzhen's mood can be described as gloomy, since the beginning of the first month, Hong Chengchou and Li Zicheng and other troops fought a few battles, Hong Chengchou led the army in the central county (now Huangling, Shaanxi) to catch up with the stars and the stars. Due to the large strength of the official army, the two divisions of Guo and Manchu avoided fighting and drove westward to join Li Zicheng and Chaotianxing, intending to attack Lanzhou, Gansu. Hong Chengchou transferred Zuo Guangxian and Liu Shaozong, the general soldier of Gansu, to attack the rebel army in Ganyanchi (now Haiyuan County, Ningxia). The thieves were defeated, and Guo Tianxing (Zhang Tianlin) asked for surrender. Gan Xuekuo, the governor of Shaanxi, installed tens of thousands of his troops in Yan'an, and soon left.

At 10 o'clock in February, a mutiny broke out in Ningxia, and the governor Wang Ji was killed. Hong Chengchou felt that a provincial governor had been killed, and the situation was serious, so he personally rushed to Guyuan, Ningxia to deal with it. Li Zicheng, Mantianxing and other departments "revived".

Zhao Yan's good news shocked Zhu Youzhen's spirit, although the victory of the Hongyi people was not painful, but it was a big victory, which was consistent with his intention to revitalize the Ming Dynasty.

"Sinking eight Hongyi warships, one fast ship, killing four hundred Hongyi, and capturing eight hundred and twenty Hongyi alive, can't it be fake?" The military department Shangshu questioned incredulously.

The Hongyi people have strong ships and cannons, how can Zhao Yan sink their nine ships? As soon as this news came out, there was another uproar in the DPRK and China.

"If it's true or not, send someone to check it, the Xiyi people look weird, and they can't fake it." Zhu Youzhen also knows the common sense of Hongyi people's appearance.

On the same day, Zhu Youjian sent someone to Denglai for inspection.

Although Zhao Yan made a lie in the report, he was not afraid of checking the capture and capture, and the place where he cheated was naturally the warship, he captured six Dutch warships, but in order not to let some people think about it, he simply reported it as sinking.

(To be continued)