In fact, Lee Siu Kee thought about the Nagasaki trade very simple at first, but the development of things has exceeded his expectations.

Li Zhaoji's original idea was to use the four pirates to fight the price of silk tickets in Guangzhou, and then let Hai Shuzu come forward to buy a batch, and in April, take advantage of the highest price of spring silk to sell directly to Nagasaki. In this way, even the Zheng family can't react, Li Zhaoji can exchange the raw silk in his hand for a large amount of cash, and according to his estimate, he can earn 200,000 taels of silver.

This is a huge start-up capital, even if it is only to earn this vote, it is a big profit.

It's just that with Chen Zizhuang's insight and the intervention of the Guangdong gentry, everything has changed.

The Guangdong gentry group is too large in size and too much energy, and everyone knows about this matter in an instant, and it is impossible for the Zheng family not to know about it, and the raw silk market in Nagasaki has always been monopolized by the Zheng family.

Li Zhaoji told Chen Zizhuang the inside story of this incident in a short language, Chen Zizhuang nodded slightly, and said: "Zheng Zhilong has always been domineering, in the early years, there were merchants from Guangdong who went to the Japanese country to buy and sell, and they were harassed by him at sea without buying his family's water flag, and when he arrived in Nagasaki, he could not sell the goods.

That Zheng Zhilong married the wife of the Wa Kingdom, has been rampant at sea for many years, and has a lot of influence in the Wa Kingdom, your worries are justified. It's just that there is a saying that taking people's money is like killing parents, as long as we go to the Japanese country to trade, we have to do raw silk trading, and doing raw silk trading will affect Zheng Zhilong's interests.

How do you think it should be avoided? ”

Li Zhaoji smiled and said: "In the long run, only if the strength is strong enough, can the Zheng family share the benefits with us equally." But at the moment, we don't have such strength, so we can only choose to be false and wrong. ”

"Oh, how can you make a mistake with the snake method?" Chen Zizhuang only heard this, and knew that Li Zhaoji had a way.

Li Zhaoji said: "Since the Zheng family issued the water order flag, and the flag bearer enjoys the protection of the Zheng family overseas, then this time, we can go and buy the order flag." Depending on the size of the ship, the small one is three or five hundred taels, and the largest one is only three thousand taels.

Let's spend money to buy him a Lingqi, which can be regarded as spending money to buy peace. With the Lingqi and the prestige of the Guangdong gentry, he Zheng Zhilong will never be embarrassed with us again. At least it won't be difficult with our goods. ”

"It's just that you show weakness to the enemy like this, how will you fight with the Zheng family in the future?" Chen Zizhuang asked, he was a little unsure, whether Li Zhaoji's method of buying the Lingqi was a last resort, or whether he was ready to surrender to the Zheng family, if it was the latter, then Chen Zizhuang felt that there was no need to pay too much attention to Li Zhaoji.

Li Zhaoji smiled and said: "It's not a shame to admit that you are weak, the Zheng family will not always be strong, and I will not always be weak." Master Chen, I'm not going to just show weakness to the enemy, and at some point, I will also let the Zheng family know how powerful I am.

Nagasaki is a table of food, if he Zheng Zhilong leaves a chair for us, it is hello, I am good, everyone, if he does not divide, hehe, I will lift the table, so that he can't eat. ”

Chen Zizhuang nodded slightly, admiring Li Zhaoji's courage to challenge the Zheng family, and he asked, "How can you prove to him that you have the strength to lift the table?" ”

"My four gunboats are the best proof of this, four ships blocking Nagasaki, those merchant ships of his can enter the port? If he has the ability, he will lead the fleet to Nagasaki to fight me in a decisive battle. Li Zhaoji said.

Chen Zizhuang immediately asked, "Then he really wants to send a fleet?" ”

"Master Chen, you don't understand this, he Zheng Zhilong can't even hold the big guys, and even Penghu was taken away by the red hair. How can you fight me in the oceans and seas? If he has that ability, why did he let the red-haired people jump off the beam along the coast of my Daming? Li Zhaoji said unceremoniously.

Chen Zizhuang: "Since your gunboat is so powerful, why buy him a water flag, it's better to ....... Alas, it was the old man who lost his word. ”

Chen Zizhuang only said this kind of thing after he didn't have a brain for a while. If he can not tear his face with the Zheng family, Li Zhaoji will naturally not break with it, not to mention anything else, this is blocking Nagasaki Port with gunboats, and the Zheng family will do nothing.

Li Zhaoji's trading company used these ships to block and not do commercial use, and the trading company's trade was interrupted, and it collapsed itself. The Zheng family's business is not just at sea, and if they are depressed at home for two years, they can solve Li Zhaoji.

Chen Zizhuang suddenly clapped his hands, and the servants guarding outside walked in, and Chen Zizhuang said, "Go, call Huaiyu." ”

"Yes, sir." The Chen family servant said.

Li Zhaoji knew that the sons of the Chen family were all from the nostalgic generation, and he didn't know what Chen Zizhuang asked his son to do. And Chen Zizhuang waited for a while, but his son always didn't come, so he could only say: "You said that you want to go to Fujian to buy the water order flag, is it your trading company or us?" ”

"It's better to come forward as the boss." Lee Siu Kee said.

Chen Zizhuang said: "That's right, the old man has four sons, the others are good, only the fourth son Huaiyu, he really has no talent on the way to the imperial examination, but he likes to walk the streets and alleys every day, make friends, on weekdays, his mother can't see him idle, let him take care of the fields and shops, but there are some appearances."

This time I went to Fujian to buy Lingqi, it was up to him to go out, by the way, go to Nagasaki to buy and sell, and let Huaiyu follow you. ”

Li Zhaoji understands that Chen Zizhuang, the leader of the clear stream, should not be involved too much in the matter of businessmen, and the other sons are interested in the imperial examination, and the only one who is reliable and can participate is this Chen Huaiyu.

Li Zhaoji has no opinion on this arrangement, even if it is just a matter of two companies joining forces to do business, they have to send the accounting office to go, let alone such a big thing.

The two agreed that half of the money for buying the Lingqi would be paid by the trading company, half by the gentry, and by the gentry. Li Zhaoji's opinion is not big, to put it bluntly, the purchase of Lingqi is for the Oriental trading company to have more, and the trading company has more silver.

But the matter was discussed, the main lord still did not come, Chen Zizhuang felt that something was wrong, just when he called the servants again, the housekeeper of the inner house hurriedly came, knelt on the ground when he entered the door, and said: "Master, the fourth master is not in the house." ”

"No, but what's wrong?" Chen Zizhuang got up directly.

The butler lowered his head and said, "It should be fine." ”

Chen Zizhuang was immediately annoyed: "Bastard, the young master has been lost at home, and you are still here to say that there is nothing to do, how can it be reasonable." ”

Li Zhaoji hugged Chen Zizhuang, although he didn't know about the Chen family, but when he saw that the housekeeper didn't dare to tell the truth, he guessed seven or eight points. He took the initiative to ask, "Your fourth young master is out, where will he stay?" ”

"This ...... In the evening, when the master was entertaining in the flower hall, the fourth master had to go to see the excitement, but the uncle didn't allow it, and the little one was afraid that he would disturb you, so he stopped it. The fourth master lost his temper and was about to go out, but the little one could only open the door for him ....... The butler said carefully.

Li Zhaoji said: "To be honest, where should your fourth master be, but I received a blackmail letter from a strongman here, saying that if you don't give money, you will tear up the ticket." ”

Li Zhaoji's scare, the housekeeper didn't dare to hide it, and said: "No, the fourth master should be in Yuxiang Building, how can he provoke a strongman?" ”

"Get out!" When Chen Zizhuang heard the three words of Yuxianglou, his face changed greatly, because it was a brothel in the city.

If you talk about brothels, Chen Zizhuang also went to them when he was young, even if he was old, he also had contacts with famous people and others, but it was an elegant place, how could it be a place for men to steal and prostitute women, but Yuxianglou was a place for prostitutes.

"Master, the fourth master ......." The butler fell to the ground in fright and asked hurriedly.

Li Zhaoji smiled: "Your fourth master is fine, maybe he is at ease in Yuxiang Building at this time, you go and find him, your master has important arrangements." ”

At this time, the housekeeper realized that he had fallen for Li Zhaoji's plan, and he even crawled away.

Chen Zi slapped the table angrily: "The family is unfortunate, the family is unfortunate, there is such a rebel." ”

Li Zhaoji didn't care: "Men, who hasn't done anything out of the ordinary." It's good to go through something. ”

Seeing that Chen Zizhuang's anger was hard to dissipate, he said: "Master Chen can rest assured that he will hand over Huaiyu to me, and as soon as he goes to sea with me, not to mention women, he can't even see the ewe, I can change the habit of being lustful." And I won't go out to talk about what I hear here, so don't worry. ”

Chen Zizhuang was somewhat relieved when he heard Li Zhaoji say this.

Not long after, Chen Huaiyu, who was full of horror, came in and was caught by his father, Chen Huaiyu was so scared that he immediately knelt in front of Chen Zizhuang, admitted his mistake and apologized.

Chen Zizhuang was reluctant to say more to him, and directly informed him of his own arrangements.

"I thought it was hard work to go to sea, but my father still felt sorry for you, and I thought that you would go again in a while, but now it seems that you are not doing your job at home, so it is better to follow Zhaoji tonight, and have more experience by his side, and change the stinky problems of his body." Chen Zizhuang finally said.

Chen Huaiyu's face was covered with sweat, he never thought that he would go out to prostitute for one night, and he would be inexplicably thrown to a shopkeeper's dispatch, even if this Li Zhaoji is also very famous in Guangzhou, how can he be the son of the Guo family, how can he suffer such grievances, not to mention, he was caught, it was caused by Li Zhaoji.

"Daddy, he is a sea dog who walks the sea, I am your son, how can I be sent by him." Chen Huaiyu pleaded loudly.

Chen Zizhuang has a way to rectify his son, he said: "Okay, since you don't want to manage the family's business, from today on, follow your brother to study, and you can't leave him for a while, and you have to sleep in his study." ”

Obviously, this trick worked, Chen Huaiyu immediately didn't dare to say no, his eyes rolled and he said, "Daddy, even if you want to go, you can't go now." ”

"Why?" Chen Zizhuang asked.

Chen Huaiyu said: "If you go north to Fujian to buy a water flag now, it will hurt the interests of the big guys, and I don't know how much you will lose." ”

"What kind of reasoning are you, Hugh is going to mess around here, for the sake of his father's mind, your mother and your brother will not be able to protect you." Chen Zizhuang said.

Chen Huaiyu hurriedly explained: "Daddy, my son is not delaying time, he really thinks so, you think, if you go to buy a water flag at this time, wouldn't you tell the Zheng family directly, our gentry in Guangdong are going to Nagasaki to do business, and now the price fluctuations of silk tickets in the Guangzhou market are in a uproar, and the Zheng family has already known it."

What should they do if they are mentally prepared? ”

Li Zhaoji smiled, a little more interested in Chen Huaiyu, this guy is indeed a bit business-minded.

As Chen Huaiyu said, if the Zheng family is sure that the Guangdong gentry want to go to Nagasaki to buy and sell, they must prepare in advance, and the best way is to immediately raise funds to buy spring silk, and then immediately rush to Nagasaki, advance the time of spring silk trading, and take down the most profitable first batch of raw silk trading, and when the ship of Guangdong arrives, the raw silk from Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang will also arrive, and even the Dutch will transport the raw silk over, and the profits will definitely drop significantly.

And Chen Huaiyu also said these words to Chen Zizhuang, Chen Zizhuang looked at Li Zhaoji, Li Zhaoji said: "The fourth prince is really amazing, he can see through the omissions at a glance, admire, admire." ”

"That's it, I'm a son of Guo Huaiyu's family, and my knowledge is comparable to that of you, a reckless person." Chen Huaiyu said disdainfully.

Chen Zizhuang said: "Even so, you have to go with Zhaoji tonight, and if the trade to Nagasaki is not completed, you will not come back." ”