With the current conditions of the 17th century, of course, it is impossible to restore Baili Island to the state of a military fortress in the 20th century, and the kind of large-scale project that changes the world cannot be completed at the current level of construction. However, it is not too difficult to establish a small military base on these islands.

"There are two issues that must be solved in order to establish a base here, one is fresh water, and the other is the port. Xiao Liang pointed to the map and explained: "Considering that the area of the island itself cannot be too small, there are not many options left, probably the three adjacent islands of Dawanshan Island, Baili Island and Dong'ao Island. The objective conditions of these three islands can meet our needs, but I am afraid that we will have to do several field visits to decide which one to choose. ”

Xiao Liang didn't say it directly, but Schneider already understood what he meant: "Are you saying that we had better figure out the situation of these islands as much as possible?"

"At the very least, make sure that there are no pirates on these islands. Xiao Liang nodded and affirmed Schneider's guess: "Li Jifeng should have more or less news about this." ”

Li Jifeng sat in the hall, his eyes slightly closed, thinking about the meeting with Schneider later.

The speed of development of the Haihan people greatly exceeded his expectations, and it has only been more than three months since the first news about the Haihan people came back from Yazhou, and the business of these Haihan people has expanded from Yazhou to Guangzhou, and they also plan to further develop north. But at the same time, Li Jifeng is also very clear that the Haihan people probably do not have the real strength to expand northward at present, because as far as he knows, Mr. Shi, who is good at business, has recently bought ships in the market, which is enough to show that the Haihan people are still strict and lack transportation capacity.

Since they do not have sufficient transportation capacity, why do they have to go all out of their way to inquire about the situation of the coastal forces in Fuguang? Li Jifeng believes that this is another small trick played by Schneider, and he wants to use this to seek certain benefits, such as setting up an alliance with a certain large maritime power, and then directly selling arms, smuggled salt, and other materials to them, so that the intermediate link of "Furuifeng" can be omitted, and the Haihan people can obtain more benefits from these businesses.

For such an attempt, Li Jifeng has always been very tight, he knows that the biggest reason why the Haihan people choose to cooperate with "Fu Ruifeng" is that they have taken a fancy to their own sales network, and the so-called various agency rights are all based on the semicolon of "Fu Ruifeng" throughout Fuguang and Guangzhou. If the Haihan people themselves established a channel for selling goods, then the existing basis for cooperation between the two sides would no longer exist.

Although the Haihan people do not have enough maritime capacity to expand the northern route, in Li Jifeng's view, the Haihan people's ambitions in trade will tend to make them open up the northern trade route as soon as possible, and the Haihan people will definitely abandon "Fu Ruifeng" and look for new local agents in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to cooperate. Jiangsu and Zhejiang are far richer than Fuguang provinces, and big businesses abound there, and it is not difficult to find a stronger partner than "Fu Ruifeng" with the routine of Haihan people doing business, which is the situation that Li Jifeng does not want to see.

Li Jifeng has been thinking about how to tie the interests of the two sides together these days, so as not to run away on its own, a cash cow of Haihan. Of course, he can also constantly use various reasons to push the demands of the Haihan people, and even make a small stumbling block for the Haihan people, so that their maritime trade will not develop so smoothly. But Li Jifeng did not dare to ensure that this trick could be concealed from the Haihan people, especially the unusually shrewd Mr. Schneidersch. If the two sides fall out, the Haihan people will probably soon find another partner in the city of Guangzhou.

Recently, Haihan goods have been on fire, and all the big merchants in Guangzhou are desperately inquiring about the origin of these things, although "Fu Ruifeng" has been carefully keeping secrets, but Haihan people have set up a point outside Guangzhou City, and it is only a matter of time before they are exposed to the public eye. At that time, there will definitely be a large number of merchants to seek cooperation, if something goes wrong on the side of "Fu Ruifeng" is caught by the other party, then the loopholes deliberately left by the Haihan people in the agency agreement may play a role. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable)

And Schneider's recent proposal of this "most favored treatment" gave Li Jifeng hope to solve this problem. If "Furuifeng" gets this treatment, then no matter which business Haihan people choose to cooperate with in the future, at least "Furuifeng" can have the same competitiveness. From this point of view, Li Jifeng believes that it is worthwhile to inform the Haihan people of some relatively confidential information. However, Li Jifeng was not sure what the upper and lower limits of the Haihan people's intelligence information were, and if the situation leaked too much, it would have an adverse impact on his own maritime trade business on the southeast coast in the future.

Li Jifeng thought about it again and again, but still felt a little apprehensive, picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip, just about to put it down and remembered something, and instructed: "Don't use this big red robe when you serve tea, use the pre-rain Longjing bought from Hangzhou Mansion this year, Mr. Shi prefers it." ”

In the afternoon, Schneider came to visit on time, and He Qiang went to the gate to pick people in, and introduced the inner hall to meet Li Jifeng. After a few words of greeting, the two of them took their respective seats, and after the servant served tea, only the two of them were left in the hall.

"Good tea!" Schneider praised after taking a sip: "Guangzhou City is still the only place where Shopkeeper Li can drink the most authentic Longjing tea!"

Li Jifeng said with a smile: "Since Mr. Shi likes it so much, I will ask someone to send a few catties to the house when I go back." ”

After Schneider said a few polite words, he quickly got to the point: "I mentioned the matter to Steward He yesterday, I don't know how Shopkeeper Li thought about it?"

Li Jifeng and Schneider have met several times, but they are also accustomed to his practical style of not liking politeness, so he immediately responded: "Mr. Shi's conditions are very good, but I don't know how to reach this 'most favored treatment' agreement?"

After yesterday's discussion at the Guangzhou Office, Schneider already had a relatively comprehensive plan for how this matter should be carried out, and immediately explained it to Li Jifeng.

First of all, the Haihan side needs to understand the distribution of coastal forces in Fuguang and Guangzhou, and the more detailed the better. This area includes the sea from the mouth of the Pearl River to Wenzhou, which borders Fujian, and the Taiwan Strait. At the same time, Schneider also said that at present, it is only to understand the relevant situation, and in the short term, Haihan will not get involved in the shipping business between Fuzhou and Guangzhou, nor does it intend to compete with "Furuifeng" for customers, and the purpose of understanding these situations is only to let the executive committee assess the risk of expanding trade channels to the north.

Secondly, the goods sent by the "Fu Ruifeng" side to the direction of Fujian must be subject to the supervision of the Haihan side, and some of the goods are prohibited from being sold to the merchants or local forces on the blacklist provided by the Hai Han, even if they are resold by the middlemen.

For these two requirements, Li Jifeng still has a certain amount of mental preparation, but he does not fully believe the reasons explained by Schneider. Although the Haihan people are very trustworthy, it does not mean that they are a group of very rigid people, on the contrary, the Haihan people have a purpose in everything they do, but sometimes the means they take make people unable to see what their purpose is, just like the current situation. Li Jifeng believes that Schneider's "Haihan Executive Committee needs to assess risks" is just an excuse, and at the same time, this excuse also prepares measures for the uncooperative attitude that his side may take, and Schneider can use reasons such as "the executive committee thinks that the risk of the Fuguang sea route is too great", and openly refuse to cooperate with "Furuifeng" in Fujian and even the coastal provinces further north.

"It seems to be loyal, but in fact it is treacherous!" Li Jifeng secretly commented on Schneider in his heart. However, Schneider will definitely not care about this kind of evaluation, with the thickness of his face, most of them will understand Li Jifeng's disgruntled evaluation as a compliment to his professionalism.

As for Schneider's second request, it did not surprise Li Jifeng, because in the first batch of arms sales before, the Haihan people had already jumped out to point fingers, and did not agree with "Fu Ruifeng" to sell these arms to the Fujian pirate gang "Eighteen Zhi", but could only sell them to Xu Xinsu, a Xiamen maritime merchant named by them.

If it weren't for the fact that the arms business was lucrative and there were hundreds or thousands of taels of gross profit from trafficking in a single gun, Li Jifeng would definitely not tolerate these Haihan people interfering in his own business. After all, there are frequent wars in Fujian, and the arms business is a good deal that can be done for a long time, even if Li Jifeng can't get along with the Haihan people, he won't get along with money, in order to be able to receive a large order for arms from Fujian in the future, Li Jifeng decided to put up with this breath first.

But I didn't expect the Haihan people to intensify this time, and they actually directly demanded the "right to supervise", and there was also a "ban on sales" that could take effect at any time, which Li Jifeng found both incomprehensible and unacceptable.

"Mr. Shi, buying and selling, both parties are willing to cooperate, don't you think such a move is suspected of buying and selling?" Li Jifeng is also a bit of a city government, and he did not attack because of this, but tried to refute the other party verbally.

Of course, if Schneider would have conceded defeat, he would not have been listed as one of the five mouths of the Crossing Group. Schneider had already prepared an answer to Li Jifeng's question: "Shopkeeper Li, the reason why we made this request is not to interfere with your freedom of doing business, but to ensure that our business on the southeast coast can continue safely and smoothly for a long time. What can be sold, what can't be sold, who can buy it and who can't buy it, these are all decisions made after careful debate by our executive committee, and they are not empty words, singing whatever comes to mind. To put it simply, you can think of this as a sales strategy, and we ask for oversight just to ensure that this strategy can be implemented. ”

Li Jifeng was covered by his words, and seemed to understand, but he didn't seem to mention anything substantive at all. Li Jifeng secretly thought about it in his heart for a while before responding: "If you ask you to do something, then you should at least tell us why we are doing this, instead of prevaricating with words!"

Schneider picked up the teacup and drank tea, and secretly said in his heart that this old guy actually understands that it seems that he can't control it without making some killing moves.

Schneider put down the teacup and said seriously: "Since Shopkeeper Li must want to know the reason, then I will reveal a little bit appropriately." However, the law does not pass on the six ears, what I said here today, I hope that Shopkeeper Li will rot in his heart after listening to it, otherwise I am afraid that something bad will happen. ”

Li Jifeng sneered in his heart, you scholar still want to scare me with words? Uncle Ben went to sea with his father at the age of twelve, whether it was pirates, officials and soldiers, or Westerners, he had seen a lot, so what else was there to be afraid of.

Although Li Jifeng didn't think so, he still said quietly on his face: "Just as Mr. Shi said, I am determined to keep it a secret." ”

Schneider nodded and said, "I'll take Fujian as an example, 'Eighteen Zhi' has been fighting with Xu Xinsu in Xiamen for almost two years, right?"

Li Jifeng was startled, and said in his heart that Schneider didn't know anything, he didn't even know when and how long the fight would start there, so he nodded yes and waited for Schneider to continue.

"I know that your bank has business dealings with both warring parties, so I would like to take the liberty of asking, would Mr. Li clearly choose a side to support?" Schneider asked.

Li Jifeng shook his head and said: "It's not just one of them who has dealings with it, but all maritime merchants who want to do business in the waters of Fujian will more or less maintain a certain relationship with these two families, so as not to be affected by the pond fish." As for supporting one of the parties...... The two warring sides are both strong, and when it is not time to decide the winner or loser, who dares to take sides lightly? If you bet on the wrong treasure when you see that you are leaving, won't you be asking for trouble? Whoever is willing to pay will do business with whomever you want, and things are as simple as that. ”

"So according to Shopkeeper Lee, which side has a better chance of winning in the end?" Schneider continued.

Li Jifeng thought for a while before saying: "I think that the 'Eighteen Zhi' is just a group of pirates, although there are heroes like Zheng Yiguan to lead the army, but Dayuan Island is short of materials and difficult to supply, and Xu Xinsu has his back to the mainland, and there are many sailors to hold the general title, and there are many conveniences in acting, and it will drag on for a few more years, and it stands to reason that Zheng Yiguan will be consumed to death." ”

Schneider nodded again and again, if it weren't for the people who knew this history, they would probably have similar thoughts to Li Jifeng, whether these people under Xu Xinsu's hands were listed or not, they could be regarded as the regular army of the Ming Dynasty, with their backs to the mainland for supplies, and they had money on hand and couldn't afford to build ships and buy weapons, so it was impossible to lose to a group of pirates, and this was probably one of the reasons why Li Jifeng planned to sell arms to "Eighteen Zhi" at the beginning.

"Then what do you think if I say that Zheng Yiguan will win this battle in the end?" Schneider asked with a smile.

Li Jifeng frowned, did not answer his question immediately, but calculated it in his heart. If the Haihan people are more optimistic about Zheng Yiguan, it is easy to explain their previous interference Selling arms to the "Eighteen Zhi" has only one effect, that is, to accelerate the end of this battle, which is obviously not in line with the interests of the Haihan people as arms dealers.

Li Jifeng thought for a moment and then said: "You are optimistic about Zheng Yiguan, but what reason do you have? You must know that the red-haired people are not helping each other now, and Xu Xinsu has the support of the Fujian government behind him, so I really can't see that Zheng Yiguan has any chance of winning...... Perhaps you think that after a year or two, the situation of the war will change and it will be difficult to say that the situation will take a sharp turn, but you will not dare to make judgments. ”

Schneider shook his head and said: "This is not a presumptuous judgment, it is an inference after our rigorous research, there is no need to wait for two years, Xu Xinsu will be defeated next year, and his own life will be lost in that place." You don't have to look at me in such amazement, this is something that is bound to happen, if we sell the weapon to 'Eighteen Zhi', then Xu Xinsu will probably lose if he doesn't even survive next year. Do you know what that means?"

Li Jifeng was stunned and said: "It means...... Since then, the Fujian side has died down, and the demand for weapons has plummeted.

"That's just one of them. Schneider shook his head and said: "After Zheng Yiguan controls the coastal areas of Fujian, he will immediately return to the Ming Dynasty and take over Xu Xinsu's position in the Fujian Navy." The 'Eighteen Zhi' will become the largest maritime power in the entire southeast coast, and all ships engaged in maritime trade in their jurisdiction will have to pay them an annual protection fee...... Shopkeeper Li, you should know what protection money is, right?"

Seeing Li Jifeng's ugly face and nodded, Schneider continued: "Your bank has a lot of ships going to Fujian every year, and the protection fee to be paid is not a small amount, so if Zheng Yiguan wins this war, it will not be good for your bank or us." All we can do now is to let Xu Xinsu not lose so quickly, the longer they fight, the greater the benefit to us. Of course, even if Xu Xinsu wins, it will not be good for us, so if Xu Xinsu has the upper hand in the future, then we will also adjust the sales strategy according to the development of the shape, and tend to support the relatively weaker side, so that they can fight this war for a long time. ”

Li Jifeng sighed: "I originally thought that not choosing a side was the most clever strategy, but now it seems that Mr. Shi is still a better player!"

Schneider said in his heart, I'm different from you, it's a gamble of luck for you to choose a side, and for me it's just a small golden finger. Schneider spread his hands and said, "Now Shopkeeper Li should be fine, right?"

Li Jifeng still shook his head and said: "Speaking of which, Mr. Shi is all empty words, such a big thing, how can you believe it lightly with Mr. Shi's few words?"

Schneider sighed, it seems that this spoiler party is not very easy to do, and it is impossible to gain Li Jifeng's trust if he doesn't come out with some dry goods.