Qingyuan Mansion, Lanshan Island.
Zhu Fanzhou came from Tianjin, the central capital, and the boat went straight into the port. In previous years, this young Tsunasou used this fast ship to carry native goods from the north to the south, such as furs, celadon and the like. But on this trip south, his ship did not carry any cargo that would slow down the speed. It only carried enough water. After leaving the sea, it merged directly into the southward ocean current and moved forward as fast as a swimming fish.
Zhu Fanzhou still felt that he was not enough, so he raised eight sails to fight for the wind. In fact, the southeast wind was strong in summer, and no matter how much thought was put into the sail, the boat's speed would not be much faster, but at the end of the whole journey, it actually gave him an extra day.
When the ship entered the port, Zhu Fanzhou pressed the side of the ship with one hand and turned over, stepping onto the ground first.
He turned back and shouted: "Five days of rest, let everyone eat and drink well. I will pay for the drinks, so I can't overdo it or cause trouble!"
The sailors who had not yet had time to get off the boat heard the leader's instructions and all praised him happily.
Zhu Fanzhou just waved his hand, touched the tightly wrapped letter box at his waist, and ran away.
A person like him who goes to sea with a clipper ship is certainly not a big merchant. However, if this urgent letter is delivered, you can get a designated share for the purchase of special goods. The share is not much, but for Zhu Fanzhou, it is enough to make a fortune every day; in a year and a half, he can buy a new big ship.
Such a good thing was mainly due to the cooperation between Zhu Fanzhou and Zhou Keshan, a famous merchant in Qingyuan Prefecture.
In the past two months, a group of high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the imperial court had formed a partnership and privately reached an agreement with the Northern Jin people to form a Shanghai bank dedicated to north-south trade. At that time, those who were busy preparing for the establishment of this trading house, according to the official reputation of the Song Dynasty, were Jia She and his son who now went to Huaidong, and the other person was Zhou Keshan.
This gentleman was originally an unknown person from the sea, just like Zhu Fanzhou. But in the past two years, his financial resources and influence have increased dramatically, and he has even donated his official position. Even in the Shipping Department, he is regarded as a high official.
Behind Keshan this week is usually considered to be the Zhang family, a well-known local family. But Zhang Kai, the outstanding figure of Zhang's generation, is just a general official. It seems that his interest is still in official career, so how can he have influence at sea? Zhang is probably not the key.
Zhu Fanzhou estimated that the real reason for this was probably related to the Northern Jin Kingdom. Perhaps Zhou Keshan was also the representative of a certain noble person in the north, otherwise he would not have been using various methods to conceal the truth from the court and transport large amounts of grain to the north in the past half year.
Most of the grain smuggled to the north originally came from Zhejiang and Zhejiang, but because of Zhoukeshan's efforts, this year, rice from Lingnan has gradually been transported northward. Lingnan has always produced rice, and it’s just a matter of money per liter of rice all year round. There is no need to prepare cargo specially. Before the big boat sets off to the north, if there are any empty cabins, it will be filled and transported to the north. It will make ten times the profit. Why not?
So in the past two months, some giant merchants have even begun to transport rice from Champa to the central capital of Tianjin.
Including the travel time, the cost is too much. But since someone does this, it proves that the noble people in the north paid a particularly high price for this, which can make people make a lot of money.
Zhu Fanzhou also wanted to make a lot of money.
So he ran very fast, not only to let the official Zhou in Li Aofang see his attentive attitude with their own eyes, but also to let everyone in Li Aofang see that I, Mr. Zhu, was doing things for the official Zhou! I brought news from the north to the big shots above!
Not long after he rushed into the restaurant high up in Li'aofang, he walked out with his chest puffed out and his belly puffed out. Even the thick salt stains couldn't hide the red and proud smile on his face.
There are always some idle people hanging around outside the restaurant. Most of them were entrusted by some maritime businessman to investigate Zhou Keshan's movements. But at this moment, many maritime merchants in silk robes also came. Since they did not dare to enter the restaurant to disturb them, they sat across the street in the famous tea house called "Yikugui".
Seeing Zhu Fanzhou coming out, several people waved to him at the same time: "Young man from the Zhu family, come! Come!"
Zhu Fanzhou suddenly saw the faces of several large merchants and shrank his head subconsciously. He was stunned for a while before he mustered up the courage to go over and bowed.
"You brought news from Zhongdu Tianjin, right?"
"Exactly!"
Someone suddenly started shouting: "This is the fourth group. Mr. Xuan is really good at inquiring in the north! He can send messages back so continuously, which shows that Zhou Daguan also contributed a lot!"
"But Mr. Xuan didn't find out that Guo Ning took action? Isn't Zhou Daguan's busy work in vain?"
"Nonsense, Zhou Guogong's army is dispatched from Shandong, and Mr. Xuan is in Zhongdu. How can we know? The three letters he sent before said that nothing happened. It is obvious that the battle situation in Xuzhou has not reached Zhongdu yet!"
"If Shandong sends out a large army, how can there be no news in Zhongdu? Then he is still useless!"
"Shut up, everyone, let's get down to business!" A strong man stopped everyone with a shout, and turned around and asked politely: "Young man from the Zhu family, what did Master Xuan say in his letter this time?"
"Zhongdu has dispatched a large army to go south! It is said that the total army is 50,000. The troops are divided into two wings. They will take Hebei and Daiming first, and they will conquer Kaifeng in one fell swoop!"
There was almost a roar in the teahouse, and everyone jumped up.
At the top of the restaurant, Zhou Keshan looked down and saw many merchants running away in a hurry. Someone accidentally mixed garlic under his feet and fell so hard that his face and hands were all muddy. But he got up and continued to run regardless, not even a bit. delay.
"How about it?"
Zhou Keshan looked back and said: "The army is fighting in the north. For the maritime merchants, not only the demand for food has increased greatly, but the prices of iron materials, bamboo materials, glue paint, and medicinal materials will also increase. Everyone can make a lot of money." , and the number of war horses trafficked to the south may be even greater. In their eyes, this is a good thing!"
He was sitting in a private seat on the top floor of the restaurant. The table was decorated with a bouquet of wine and food, and the table was worth a fortune. But there were only two people sitting at the table.
One is Zhang Liangpeng, who was originally promoted from East Zhejiang and recently joined the Coastal Construction Department, and the other is Jia Sidao.
"Haijia came back rich but not rich, so it's very sad to sacrifice his own life for goods. It seems that the prime minister in the chicken forest recently only has gold but not poetry!"
Hearing Zhou Keshan's words, Zhang Liangpeng snorted coldly and read two lines of poetry.
Zhou Keshan laughed loudly: "The poem is a good poem, and it is right. But that's what merchants are, let alone maritime merchants? Ahem... I still have an old saying, blockage can't be blocked, it's better to block it than to open it up."
Previously, when the Southern Dynasty blocked the grain trade, Zhou Keshan's influence in Qingyuan Mansion was limited and he was almost helpless. The merchants had nothing to do in response to the orders of court officials.
But in just a few months, maritime trade has not only been strongly supported by the Jin Kingdom's Zhongdu court, but also recently by nobles from the Southern Dynasty getting involved. Those noble people put together a trading company to make money, and used various methods to protect it. As a result, the backbone of the maritime merchants has obviously become stronger, and they have become more and more unscrupulous in recent times!
Zhang Liangpeng had nothing to do with them, but Zhou Keshan became a reliable person who was willing to think about the court and share the worries of officials.
At this time, Jia Sidao, who was sitting on the other side of the banquet, read the letter several times, stood up and said: "You two, I won't accompany you any longer. Since the situation in the North has changed, I will rush back to Xianggong to report to Mr. Shi." !”
Jia Sidao was in Qingyuan Mansion recently, but he was a popular person there.
He accompanied Xuan Zhen on his way north, and arranged latent messengers in Haizhou and other places. He also asked Zhou Keshan to come forward and bribed reliable maritime merchants in Tianjin, the central capital, so that Xuan Zhen could send news from the north at regular intervals. This is much better than the situation when the envoy went north and there was no news for several months. Therefore, there have been rumors in the industry that Shi Xiang planned to give Jia Sidao a background so that he could be promoted in the future.
A few days ago, there was a military report saying that Guo Ning, the ruling official in Zhongdu, had gathered troops in Shandong at some unknown time and bribed the remaining troops of Ding Haijun. He held the Nanjing Road empty and attacked Kaifeng in one go.
This situation may be beneficial to the Song Dynasty's war situation in Huainan and other places, but Xuanzhen did not notice it at all in Zhongdu, which would be remiss. So some people speculated that Xuanzhen would be reprimanded after returning to Zhongdu, and then Jia Sidao The Yemeni court in Qingyuan Mansion was left indifferent.
However, Xuan Zhen received news from Ding Haijun that he would send another large army, which was very crucial. If it is sent to Xingzai in time, it will definitely be beneficial to Shi Xiang's planning.
Of course, Jia Sidao, who is responsible for receiving the news, is also optimistic about the market.
At this moment, he stood up to say goodbye, and Zhang Liangpeng quickly took a few steps away.
Jia Sidao got on the carriage and walked away. Zhang Liangpeng still squinted for a long time.
He turned back to the top of the restaurant and suddenly asked, "Both Jia Sidao and you recognize the people from the north, right?"
There is a vague accusation in these words, and there seems to be a threat? Zhou Keshan only smiled relaxedly and said: "Ahem, Shibo, come and see."
He held Zhang Liangpeng's hand, stood next to Chuang Ling, and pointed at five carriages in the alley behind the restaurant.
"Here are five thousand guan of coins. In addition, there are gold beads equivalent to 5,000 guan. The copper coins were left by Jia Sidao just now. They were specifically named by the Privy Councilor under Shi Xianggong's family to give Shibo your courtesy. "The five thousand gold beads were brought by a ship under my name two days ago. They were given to Shibo by Li Langzhong, a minister of Duke Zhou of Zhongdu."
Zhang Liangpeng gasped and pointed at the carriage, his fingers trembling: "This, this..."
"Shibo, Zhongdu has now mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to go south to determine the elite of the navy. Kaifeng will never be able to stop it. Soon after, there will still be only one Dajin, and the only Dajin that dominates the territory If our country controls such a powerful army... it is actually not difficult for them to get something from our Song Dynasty."
Zhou Keshan lowered his voice: "Instead of letting the north and south fight again and talk with swords and guns, it is better for the two families to be harmonious and do some business. Things at sea should be handled according to the rules of the sea. Each court takes what it needs, and no one wants to You’re at a disadvantage, right?”
Zhang Liangpeng suddenly retreated to his seat and was speechless for a long time.
The court of the Song Dynasty wanted to rely on trade to drive the Jin Kingdom, thus reversing its centuries-old passivity towards the Jin Kingdom. However, looking at the appearance of the merchants of the Song Dynasty, seeing these people rushing to do business with the Kingdom of Jin, and inputting all the necessary actions to the Kingdom of Jin, Zhang Liangpeng only felt that a monster was born in the vast sea, and this monster was definitely It was beyond the control of the Song Dynasty, but more like a tool of the Jin Kingdom. The Zhongdu court's move to mobilize troops gained far more than half of the Jin Kingdom's territory. Its subsequent impact will definitely penetrate deep into the Song Dynasty and cause greater and more dramatic changes.
