"Where's Yoshiko!? Right in here? ”

Suzhou Weaving Mansion, Li Xu pointed to a huge wooden box and asked, Jiangxi Sanye Tang is a grocery store, nominally dealing in scissors, needlework and thread and other bits and pieces, but in fact also trafficking in controlled materials such as knives and steel, is a distant relative on his behalf to run a hall number, the business is not big, the focus is on mastering the situation in Guangdong. Before, I asked Ji Heizi to go to Guangdong to squeeze that Li Shi, and it happened that the people of Sanye Hall were the guides, but I didn't expect that two months had passed, and Ji Heizi had no news of him with a bitter face on the shopkeeper of Sanye Hall.

"A year ago, there was a great chaos in Foshan, and he followed six followers to fall into the chaos, and he has been in turmoil so far...... Still no news. ”

The shopkeeper didn't dare to hide it, and as soon as he told him about the events before and after, Li Xu gasped, blinked his eyes for a while before he came to his senses, his brows furrowed, and the word "Li Xi" was coldly squeezed out from between his teeth. Ji Heizi has been doing things for him since he was a child, he doesn't think that this guy will be defeated and abscond, it is estimated that he has been poisoned by Li Shi.

"These useless dogs, all dragged and beaten hard!"

Pointing to the entourage who had slipped back with the shopkeeper of the Three Leaves Hall, Li Shi said in a deep voice, and then looked at the big wooden box.

"What the hell is this?"

The shopkeeper of the three leaves hall was also sweating on his forehead, and hurriedly beckoned his work to open the wooden box.

Li Xi ...... I sent this thing, saying that there was a business to give to the weaving master......"

There was a loud bang, the box board was disassembled, and the wooden block straw that filled the box was removed, and a rather strange iron frame was revealed.

"Business? He's so bold! The person who got me still thinks that I give him a good face!? Has Guangdong become his territory? If I put pen to paper, his life will be over! ”

Li Xu didn't see the usefulness of this thing, waved his sleeves, and turned back angrily, not knowing who he was going to post to, or if he wanted to write a note directly.

"This thing is a new jacquard loom made by Li Shi, a three-person tube, half said to be able to weave twenty or thirty feet of silk!"

The shopkeeper's words were almost shouting, this business can be successful, he Sanye Tang is a reseller, and the silver must not come in an uproar, what Ji Heizi, who cares if he lives or dies?

"Half twenty or thirty feet?"

Li Xu stopped, and he had been weaving for more than 20 years, and he could not understand the meaning of this number. At this time, the silk loom is also a three-person pipe, and it can produce five or six feet even after half a turn, and this iron machine, with the same manpower, can produce four or five times!?

"How much does this machine cost?"

Turning back, Li Xu pointed to the machine and asked, seeing that it was all iron, which was definitely much more expensive than the wooden loom.

"Fifty-eight taels, counting eighty taels of foot strength. Li Shi said that if there are 100 pieces, the original price can be reduced to 50 taels, and he also sent craftsmen to demonstrate it to the weaving master in person. ”

The shopkeeper breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the weaving master was still on his own mind after all.

"It's so expensive!? Besides, what use is it to save those weavers? ”

Li Xu was still frowning.

"Li Xi said that adults use this machine to weave a lot of silk, if it can't be sold, there are Guangdong merchants to buy it......"

When the shopkeeper said this, Li Xu frowned, his Suzhou Bureau was in charge of 27,800 officials and craftsmen, and a large amount of silk silk was handed over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Household Affairs every year, and the Ministry of Household Industry allocated less than 100,000 taels of funds every year, and he could not earn much money in this weaving business. If the loom can have such an effect, even if it is just a secret official craftsman, he can get a lot of silver every year, if he does not cut, the loom will turn, and the silver will ring...... "Li Xi also said that this machine can also be underwritten by adults through our Shamrock in Jiangnan. ”

The shopkeeper added more force, and the corners of Li Xu's eyes jumped, Jiangnan weaves everywhere, this iron loom is really so powerful, those big weaving shops must be bought, and they have to sell thousands of copies.

"Show me how!"

Li Xu hurriedly beckoned, he still had a deficit of more than 100,000 taels on his back, although the emperor was lenient and repeatedly bought him time, but his family's big business was bigger, and he had to support the eighth elder brother, and he couldn't make it up in seven or eight years, if he could have a new way of wealth, this burden that had weighed on him for half his life could be regarded as being able to be unloaded.

Not long after, the craftsmen from Guangdong assembled the iron loom, one person sat on the pedal, one person shook the wheel and threw the shuttle, one person took care of the spindle, the back and forth of the iron stall clanged non-stop, and the thin silk threads crisscrossed and weaved.

"Hmm...... Yes, it seems that this iron loom is really wonderful. ”

Seeing the silk threads quickly gathered and weaved, Li Xu smiled, both relieved and ruthless. This Li Xi really thinks that he is a green onion, and slapped himself in the face, and still expects to rely on this thing to make amends? No, this kid still has to negotiate the price with himself! It's so arrogant...... After grinding for a few days, before he could make up his mind how to rectify Li Shi, Li Xu received another letter from Beijing, a handwritten letter from Babeile Yinxi. In addition to the usual greetings, he also made a special mention of Li Zhushou, the prefect of Guangzhou, saying that Li Zhushou had done a lot of wonderful things in Guangzhou, and even the emperor was very happy.

"I heard that Li Zhushou's nephew is familiar with you, and there are some small holidays in business, they are all a family Li, so there is a group of harmony, so there is no need to dig deeper."

Yinxi said very tactfully, Li Xi didn't understand for a while, this Li Zhushou's nephew ...... Who is it?

Li Xu is not very familiar with Li Zhushou, but he knows how he became the prefect of Guangzhou. More than half a year ago, this person came up from Guangdong and lived in Beijing to wait for his job. The eighth didn't pay much attention to him at first, and only swept it as usual. Then something happened to Ye Yang, the prefect of Guangzhou, and the eighth wanted to continue to install his cronies, but the emperor stared at him very closely, and there was no suitable candidate for a while. This Li Zhushou didn't know where he got the capital, but he actually paid his filial piety to the eighth child, and the court was worried that there was no place to send this person. The eighth child spoke secretly, and the court nodded in unison, and Li Zhushou sat in the position of the prefect of Guangzhou.

Calculate that Li Zhushou came out of Yingde County before...... Li Xu took another breath of cool air, and the nephew of Li Zhushou that the eighth child said was actually Li Shi!?

Li Xu looked at the three words "Family Li" on the letter in a daze, and the resentment that was still churning in his heart had to be pressed down with Ji Heizi's name.

"This Li Shi, first the customs line, then the ship line, and now he has made such an iron loom, I really want to see in person what kind of fairy it looks like."

Li Xu sighed with mixed feelings.

On a mountain plateau outside Shilagmite Village, Xin'an, Lantau Island, Guangdong, Zhang Ying, a short man whose face had been blown red by the sea breeze, snorted with snot and tears: "Fourth brother...... You're here! If I don't come again, I'm going to go to Boss Xiao and cry to him that the fourth brother doesn't want me anymore, this is a bitter place. Others can't stay for three days, and I'll stay for three months, three months! ”

The original Shaozhou town standard Zuoying Qianzong, now sent to the Dapeng Battalion under the control of the governor of Guangdong, became the "village master" of the Qianzong of Tunkou Village, in charge of six or seven floods, more than a hundred bitter local soldiers, although the place is still the boundary of Guangzhou Prefecture, desolate and barren, but can be compared with Qiongzhou, naturally aggrieved.

"Come on, at the annual meeting, you are bragging about how happy you are here, what a soil emperor, what a Hong Kong marquis......"

Li Xian unceremoniously exposed Zhang Ying's lies, making this guy quickly change the topic with a smile.

"Fourth brother, you are really a fairy, when will you still build a ship? The ship...... It's really weird, and it looks a little like a foreign ship. ”

He pointed to a boat moored in the bay below the mountain, and sighed again.

Li Xian nodded, Zhang Ying, who was originally a landlubber, could also see that it seemed that the past three months had not been in vain on Hong Kong Island. Previously, he brought Zhang Ying to Hong Kong Island, which is still the boundary of Xin'an County, to prepare for his next step after the Foshan raid.

Now the construction of Foshan Iron and Steel Company is in full swing, and so the civil and military four are in place, facing the "old rules" of Foshan is another set of things, and there is Li Zhushou pressed on it, and so on the official operation of Foshan Iron and Steel, Foshan is his bag. And the steps after Foshan should be stepped into.

After Foshan, what is missing is an outlet to the sea.

According to the previous practice, this outlet to the sea should be asked by Guangdong Customs, but Li Shi followed Duan Hongshi and others to study carefully and came to the conclusion that Guangdong Customs was unreliable. Because the oil and water are too rich, the supervision of the Guangdong Customs is changed once a year, and it is all the coatings of the Internal Affairs Bureau, not to mention that the cost of buying is too high, what does Li Shi want to do, and the matter will easily poke into Kangxi's ears.

It is also a way to settle down, but the outlet that Li Shi wants is not only to ship commercial goods, but also to vent his anger. In his game of chess, he has to rely on this opening to make a living, in addition to circulating commercial goods, he also has to build an army, both on land and sea.

After thinking about it, in the end, Li Xian made a heart, since he couldn't come openly and use the officialdom, then come secretly and hard! More than 100 years later, even though the Qing court's control was countless times stronger, Hong Kong was still a pirate nest, and Hong Kong pirates even made waves in Vietnam, sailing thousands and 100,000 people. And then there were opium ships all over the sea, when was it really firmly controlled by the Qing court? At this time, there were no British people in Hong Kong, and the Qing court's control here was extremely weak, so it was a good time for him to hold it tightly.

Zhang Ying came here for this, and it couldn't be easier to get him here, so he asked Bai Daolong to find a reason and told Wang Wenxiong, the governor of Guangdong, that he wanted to send a subordinate, so he came to the most desolate and remote place in Guangzhou Prefecture. For this reason, Bai Daolong is still a pity, and there is a lack of a pipeline closely connected with Li Xi.

"This boat is just an experiment, let the boys play with it first."

Li Shi said this, Zhang Ying's stomach suddenly boiled with sour water, this is also a sea ship with hundreds of materials, just play with those Siwei boys!? He, a peripheral member of Qingtian Company, when will he be able to share this benefit?

"We're in the Navy! The kind of navy that the Director-General said! ”

On the deck of the ship, Meng Songhai jumped and shouted excitedly, and Hu Hanshan, who was coming up from the cabin, snorted coldly, and hurriedly stood up and saluted: "Wing Commander!" ”

"Captain! Call me Captain! ”

Although Hu Hanshan had a tense face, the corners of his mouth could not be suppressed, and now he was the captain of this "Silver Carp". There are not only eighty soldiers under his command, but also eight cannons, which can be regarded as a general in his own right.

"Don't be like Little Maotou, who cocks his tail when a gust of wind blows! This is only a small boat, what can it be called a navy!? ”

Hearing Hu Hanshan reprimand him like this, Zhao Hanxiang, the deputy on the side, smiled.

"Hanshan, do you really think you're the captain? So what is Captain Kim called? ”

Hu Hanshan held back, and glared at Zhao Hanxiang who deliberately demolished the stage, but he was speechless. The ship had to be sailed by an old shipwright surnamed Jin with more than a dozen shipwrights, who were nothing more than crew members and apprentices.

"Raise the sails! Set sail! ”

Ignoring Zhao Hanxiang again, Hu Hanshan shouted on the helm platform at the stern.

"We can't lose to Jia Tou'er!"

Accustomed to encouragement, the guards are also accustomed to rounding their throats and responding together.

"Victory! Win! ”

Behind Hu Hanshan, Lao Jin, who was holding the steering wheel, shook his head with a smile, these boys were just following Li Shi's order to feel the sea current around Hong Kong Island, but they were like a war, and they were particularly energetic. Having joined this Qingtian company, he also feels that he is living more and more energetically, and he has been rocking the oars all his life, and he actually has the opportunity to touch the steering wheel.

The gray and white soft sails on the three masts, one high and two low, were lowered, and the hull began to move, Lao Jin quickly stabilized the steering wheel, and the thin and long loach boat was not like the usual big ships, it was a little dizzy......

(To be continued)