Guangzhou Chengnan Wharf, although it is not as lively as Qingpu and Huangpu, it is still longing for sails and noisy people.

A stiff sailing ship leaned on a remote berth, looking at the simple nailed gun door on the hull, it was a warship. The hull is old, and it should be the warship of the Manchu and Fujian and Guangdong naval divisions of the Qing Dynasty in the early years, not the warship of Jiangsu and Zhejiang that was recently surrendered. The size is only two or three hundred ingredients, which is inconspicuous.

Scattered guests were boarding the boat, and the middle-aged man who looked like a middle-aged man on the bow of the boat under the pedals below, looked at and looked at the barnacle-like clock hanging from his waist, and looked anxious.

"Funan Li Shun!? I know that I am rubbing, so I don't hurry up! Who am I? Remember, I'm the king's bow, and I'm the boss on this ship! ”

"Panyu Liu Wenlang? Ouch, Master Liu, he really deserves to be an arithmetic, and he can be accurate to ...... minute and second when pinching the hour. ”

"One less? Who is it? Qujiang Zhong ......, Zhong is on the throne, why hasn't he come yet!? ”

After counting the passengers, the head of the king was so anxious that he jumped to his feet, but the berth was charged by the hour, and after the hour, it would be counted for half an hour, which was two taels of silver.

While there was smoke burning overhead, a carriage came galloping, and in the distance I saw four horses with high flowers on their heads. Getting closer, the carriage is inlaid with gold and jade, and there are crystal glass on all sides, almost dazzling people's eyes. Steady his eyes and look again, his eyes are dazzled again, and the four horses are all pure white with water.

If it weren't for the fact that the horses were all golden and shiny, and there was no guard of honor before and after, Wang Chuantou really thought that it was a lady or even the emperor who went out on patrol. When he came back to his senses, he couldn't wait to paste gold and jade all over all the corners of the carriage and horse, so that the king's bow felt familiar again.

"The coal master of Cochin, ......"

As soon as the arithmetic named Liu Wenlang said this, Wang Chuantou suddenly woke up, and the two of them sneered in unison, nouveau riche, no one can get used to it.

"Yo, the bow of the boat, wait a while for a friend to come and give it away, this favor is not easy to push."

The carriage stopped and turned a fat man out of the carriage, and as he spoke, he stuffed a small ingot to the head of the king's boat, and the face of the bow of the boat instantly bloomed like a flower. This feeling should be the ingots of five taels of Kupingjiao,...

Zhong Shangwei shook his fan, staring at the broken ship, and his head was shaking with the fan.

In the past few years, he has been immersed in digging coal in Jiaozhi, no, he is immersed in organizing people to dig coal, and he has finally accumulated a net worth. The identity is not enough to squeeze into the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, but the Jiaozhi Coal Chamber of Commerce of their group of coal bosses also has a place in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Unlike other peers who only know how to spend money to spend their "status" all day long, Zhong Shangwei has a history of blood and tears for many years, always thinks of danger in times of peace, and is extremely self-motivated. In recent years, the Anglo-Chinese country, including the Nanyang regions, has seen rapid growth in coal consumption, and his business is booming, but he always feels that his psychology is not steady, after all, he can already look at how big the plate is, and he feels that he has reached the ceiling.

Except for occasionally going to the Jiaozhi coal yard to see his stall, Zhong Shangwei squatted in Guangzhou City to think about bigger business. As an old man in the countryside in the "old era", he is not used to any investment, joint stock and other things like not seeing real goods and just waiting for others to give him money, so he only thinks about doing it himself.

I lost money on stock speculation earlier, but fortunately, Zhong Shangwei was timid and didn't lose enough to jump into the river. After that, he went to study the "Navigation Regulations", wanted to learn from others, and pulled up a team to occupy the island. But when he received the Ministry of Commerce's "Instructions for Colonial Companies" from the Ministry of Commerce, Zhong Shangwei's head immediately exploded.

After that, he studied building shipyards and iron mills, and felt that he couldn't get a big business, and he didn't want to open a small workshop, so he gave up one by one.

is bored in Guangzhou City, with a group of coal friends all day long fighting crickets and pigs, and birds and beasts, the imperial court has issued the "Trade Regulations", Zhong Shangwei This group of people is in high spirits, a great opportunity!

The opportunity is not only to be able to buy coal to the south of the Yangtze River, but more importantly, the domestic sales of these coal bosses are not in their own hands, but in the hands of underwriters from all over the country. Jiangnan is not under the rule of Yinghua, and they can go to the coal industry to spend their own money and control the price by themselves.

As soon as these coal bosses put it together, they decided to hurry up and inspect the "market." "In particular, it is necessary to figure out how to open up business in this hostile situation between the North and the South.

Zhong Shangwei was duty-bound and took this task on himself, and he had other expectations for the trip to Jiangnan. Now he had a son, whom he had born in the side chamber of Cochin. But out of his idea of "Huayi's discrimination", and he didn't want this son to take over his career, he wanted to marry a native girl as a continuation and give him a "pure" son. …,

But now in the country of Britain and China, the standard for marrying a daughter is high. Whether my uncle is rich or not is secondary, the key is to be handsome and dive, and dive is potential...... It doesn't matter if you don't have money now, as long as you are young enough, willing to study, have a smart brain, and have a heart, there will always be a great future in this ever-changing country. They were so poor that they had only money left, and they were despised in the barbaric land of Jiaozhi.

When it comes to Jiangnan, Zhong Shangwei thinks of the water spirit of the Jiangnan girl, as well as the virtuous person who knows how to learn. He has been in Jiaozhi for several years, and he is used to being called "the master of the kingdom" by the people of Jiaozhi. "Looking at Jiangnan people now, they have a similar sense of superiority. Xindao relied on his identity as the lord of the country, added a lot of silver, and married a woman from a scholarly family in the south of the Yangtze River, which should be a piece of cake.

Seeing this broken ship now, Zhong Shangwei was full of emotion. Now that Yinghua is a country, it is difficult to find a ship, and the big ships and fast ships have been rented by the company and the imperial court, so they can only be broken like this. From Guangzhou City to Longmen Port, a ferry ticket costs 20 taels of silver, but there are still so many people.

Look at a few ordinarily dressed people on the deck to look at their luxurious carriages, the bell is dark, and the fan is hula fan faster.

"Why don't you leave when the time comes?"

"It's great to have money, everyone is a ticket, why should you wait for him?"

Unexpectedly, these people nagged, Zhong Shangwei's face sank, and he snorted secretly, snorted secretly, twenty-one tickets, how can you mud legs afford it? Did all this money fall from heaven?

"We all keep the contract, why don't you keep the contract at the bow of the ship?"

"It's convenient to be with people, it's a trivial matter, Master Liu has a lot of it, and he can accommodate ",..."

The arithmetic named Liu Wenlang also urged impatiently, Wang Chuantou had to talk, in this Anglo-Chinese country, arithmetic is also a scholar, and the arithmetic of a large company has at least a person's identity.

Liu Wenlang frowned and looked at the culprit Zhong Shang, Master Zhong was shaking his shoulders, and the two looked at each other, like swords intersecting, and they stuck together with a bang.

The wheels and the eerie clanging sound of bells pulled the two apart.

Not only the two of them, but even the passengers on the overtime were stunned.

The carriage is also the same virtue as the carriage on the top of the clock, and I can't wait to flash my blind eyes, but the worst thing is that it is actually four camels or dromedaries ...... pulling the carriage.

The camel is tied to a gold, silver and jade bell around its neck, and it rings all the way, and there are all kinds of styles, and countless people on the boat are dumbfounded.

Another fat man moved down from the carriage, looked at the carriage on the top of the clock, laughed and bowed his hand, and looked very proud. Zhong Shang's laughter in response was shriveled and weak, like a cricket with its beard cut off.

A man on the boat wondered, "What are they doing?" ”

Liu Wenlang shook his head disdainfully: "The coal master fights the rich and ......." ”

The people frowned: "Doufu? We Funan, whoever cuts more heads will be rich, and it is better to be directly better than people's heads, what is there to be aggressive? ”

Only then did Liu Wenlang notice the other party's dark complexion, and he shuddered in fright, and hurriedly avoided it like a snake and scorpion.

Funan!? It is said that it is full of exiled prisoners, who fight and kill the natives all day long, and they have been refined to the point that they are Gu and cannot be invaded by all poisons.

The two of them were digressing from the topic, and the crowd let out another exclamation of "yo ho".

"Hey, hey......."

Another carriage, no, a carriage of men and women. The carriage still has a strong golden atmosphere, but the shape has changed, like a pavilion. This is nothing, there are eight women in feather clothes sitting in front and back of the car, like a float, this is nothing, what is scary is that the cart is also pulled by eight women in the same costume, flowers. Jiao's voice made everyone both envious and pitiful.

The carriage opened, and another big fat man got out, and the fat man in front of him greeted him with a green face, and shouted: "The head!" ”

The head of the Jiaozhi Coal Chamber of Commerce smiled and tried to make his voice spread all around, "Our brothers, this title is outside!" Low-key, low-key ......".

Then there were all kinds of "carriages" rolling in, some imitating the emperor and riding in a sixteen-person sedan chair, and some with two large bird cages on the roof of the carriage and two peacocks. The coal bosses of the Jiaozhi Coal Chamber of Commerce simply regarded the send-off of Zhong Shangwei as a travel show, and they fought hard for "face" one by one. …,

A bunch of coal bosses laughed and tossed for a while, and the people on the boat couldn't wait and made loud noises.

Finally sent off the Chamber of Commerce colleagues, Zhong Shangwei turned around, and his face suddenly collapsed.

Wang Chuantou said: "It seems that Master Zhong is still a normal person...... ”！ More than 100 passengers on the ship set out on the road, and it was already October, taking advantage of the monsoon to head north. The passengers on the ship come from all over the world, and their identities are also very different, and they constantly slander each other, and they are fighting for the cabin and sharing the water and making endless trouble.

But the conflict never crossed the boundaries of the quarrel, and the imperial court took possession of a piece of land in Jiangnan last month, named Longmen Port, precisely to facilitate the citizens of the country to act in accordance with the "Trade Regulations" in Jiangnan. They go to Jiangnan, they are all going for interests, since they are fellow believers, there is no need to fight for blood, the future is sufficient, and they can suppress the grievances in their hearts.

Their ship was moving slowly, and their grievances were gradually suppressed, and the expectation of the trip to Jiangnan linked them together, both longing and apprehension, and everyone gradually threw away their identities and talked to each other.

Zhong Shangwei, Liu Wenlang and Li Shun, who came from Funan, lived in a cabin, and they were the last three people in the crowd to communicate with each other.

Li Shun was very puzzled: "Why didn't the imperial court directly send troops to collect Jiangnan?" What is the purpose of such a toss? ”

Zhong Shangwei and Liu Wenlang said in unison: "I can't accept it!" ”

The two looked at each other, and then added in unison: "At least not now!" ”

Li Shun carefully looked at the two of them, a rich man and a scholar, how could they have such a tacit understanding? . ）