Chapter 15: The Origin of Li Luo
"It seems that we have to go to Lingao once." Li Luoyou put down the letter in his hand and seemed to be talking to himself.
The people standing next to him were silent. Li Luoyou seemed to have been obsessed with the place "Lingao" since he last went to Foshan.
His subordinates didn't quite understand why their shopkeeper suddenly became interested in this small county that even people from Guangdong Province knew very little about. Only a few close associates know that shopkeeper Li believes that the source of the most popular Australian products on the market in Guangzhou is Lingao.
As a businessman, he is far more sensitive to this kind of thing than others. Recently, more and more unprecedented products have appeared on the market in Guangzhou, all of which are purchased from Zichengji in Guangzhou. And Zichengji is a trading company that sells Australian products.
Li Luoyou was very concerned about Australian products. He sent a special person to inspect Zichengji and Zizhen Zhaili every day. When he saw new products, he immediately bought them back. From rare treasures to worthless candies and pickles. Now there is a special room in his main locker room, which displays all Australian products available in the market.
He feels: Unlike the previous Australian products, which were all exquisite and expensive luxury goods, the Australian products recently released by Zichengji are all practical consumer items produced by Nissan. The items are as exquisite and useful as ever, but the prices are much more approachable. People from well-off families can afford it.
A pack of 12 sewing needles packaged in a bamboo tube not only has a good steel mouth, but also has no burrs on the actual nose of the needle; the "monosodium glutamate" that is packed in a porcelain bottle and sealed with wax can be magically added to dishes. Incomparably fresh; the colorful transparent hard candies are not only colorful and beautiful in shape, but also taste like various fruits in your mouth; the thick "towel" full of coils is soft, comfortable and special when you wipe your face It absorbs water much better than a bare washcloth; I don’t know what material is used to make the socks that are light, soft and breathable; I don’t need a flint, a small wooden stick that can light a fire just by scratching it anywhere... Finally, it is snow-white and smooth. Paper, Li Luoyou has never seen such white paper. The best rice paper from Jinyu is still slightly yellowish if you look closely, but this kind of paper is completely pure white, just like winter snowflakes. As for the smoothness of the paper, Li Luoyou has never seen it before.
Of course, when it comes to white paper, the large white paper used for paper in the capital can be considered very white, but this kind of paper is made of earthen paper brushed with a layer of white soil. It cannot be used for writing, and the surface is also very rough. It is no different from Australian white paper. The difference between cloud and mud.
What surprised him even more was that he bought a thick stack of paper and randomly pulled out a piece of paper. The quality was exactly the same, with almost no flaws. No matter how much you buy, it's the same.
He noticed this phenomenon on all Australian products. He randomly took out one sewing needle from two packs and found that its length, gloss, and thickness were exactly the same.
Not only can it be made well, but its quality has always been consistent. This is the great thing about Australian products. The last point is even more terrifying, and that is its price.
The Australian products recently sold by Zichengji are still expensive in terms of price, but when compared with similar products originally sold locally, the huge advantage in price can be seen.
The price of the Australian paper sold by Zichengji is almost the same as that of the most common mass-produced paper and the cheapest local account paper, but the quality is dozens of times better. With such a price advantage, sales of local and other foreign paper suddenly plummeted. The market is flooded with a wide variety of Australian papers. Later, Zichengji began selling various paper products. Including accounting books, students’ red books, various posts...
The paper quality is good, the printing is extremely beautiful, and the price is even cheaper. Adding these factors together, more than 90% of the goods in Guangzhou's paper shops have become Australian paper. Only a small amount of paper for calligraphy and painting and coarse paper used in the pasting and mounting industry continue to be the original products.
Li Luoyou still couldn't figure out how Australian paper could be sold so cheaply and still make money? This paper definitely didn't come all the way from Australia, but even if it was made in Lingao as he expected, he couldn't figure out how the Australians did it. It seems impossible to say that the paper-making raw materials in Lingao are particularly abundant and cheap - there were no paper-making workshops in this place in the past.
If the Australians are doing business at a loss, then what are their intentions? Li Luoyu became very interested in this Australian.
In the room where Australian goods are stored, all kinds of Australian goods have been filled up on the red sandalwood treasure rack in the room. There is a dazzling array of things to eat and play with. Li Luoyou would come here from time to time to enjoy playing with these novel gadgets. His favorite is a crystal-clear "magic fire", which can be seen to contain something like water. Just turn the small wheel to create flames. This fascinated him. Sometimes he would think that if this thing was used to fire cannons and muskets, wouldn't it be better than a match that emits smoke and is easily extinguished? Because he was preparing to take over the task of casting cannons and firearms for the Guangdong government, he was very attentive to this new tool that could help improve performance.
It's a pity that this product is too expensive, and Gao Zhi's store has been out of stock for a long time. As for Zichengji, it has never been sold at all. He asked his clerk to ask if it would be available if he ordered a large quantity. The clerk at Zichengji clearly refused, saying that this thing "won't be available again in three or four years."
"You must go and see it." He said to himself again.
"Master is going to Lingao?"
Gu Baocheng, who was standing aside, asked cautiously when he saw that he had said this for the second time.
"Yes, I originally wanted to go there some time later, but now it seems that time is not waiting for me." Li Luoyou looked at the pile of correspondence and books on the table attentively. Among them was a letter from the capital's headquarters.
The content of the letter was very simple, informing him that the slaves had retreated. Zunhua's semicolon was completely destroyed, and both people and goods were damaged. The shopkeeper who had informed the Shenyang branch tried to find out whether any of the employees and family members of the branch were abducted and tried to rescue them. Other branches in Gyeonggi Province have suffered different property losses. Some of them were plundered by the slaves, and some were taken advantage of by officers and soldiers from all walks of life to intimidate "laborers". All in all, the losses were heavy.
And Governor Yuan, whom he once had high hopes for, has been imprisoned. Public opinion in the capital was fierce, which was very unfavorable to him. Li Luoyou sighed after receiving the letter. Regardless of Governor Yuan's crime, the outcome will probably be more disastrous than bad. It's impossible for no one to take care of such a thing, which is a loss of a teacher and a humiliation to the country.
It was originally thought that when Governor Yuan was in charge of Liaodong, the Ningjin defense line was impregnable. Even if he could not "recover Liao in five years", he could still keep Jiannu out of the customs. Unexpectedly, they would take a detour through Mongolia and enter the customs at Da'ankou in Jizhen. Looking at this, the court was completely unprepared. The so-called Guan Ning cavalry is mediocre.
Thinking about where the Jiannu cavalry passed, I don’t know how many families were destroyed and their public and private belongings were robbed. Thinking of this, Li Luoyou was filled with worry and anger.
Not only angry, but also disappointed. The Tatars used to be just a small tribe in Jianzhou Jurchen. The dead slave chief Nurhachi was just a follower of Li Chengliang. He actually defeated the Ming Dynasty, which had hundreds of millions of people and was rich in the world, and retreated steadily, losing Liaodong. Forget it, now even the side wall has come in. At the gate of the capital, the emperor's feet stretched for hundreds of miles, beating the army to a complete defeat, and even Zunhua was lost. What happened to the Ming Dynasty?
According to Li Luoyou's past thoughts, with the power of the Ming Dynasty, even if the field battle was unfavorable, as long as he relied on cannons and firearms, strong walls and fortifications, and only defended but not attacked, Jiannu would be dragged to death.
Now it seems that Jiannu is living more energetically. Based on Li Luoyou's understanding of the Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, Jiannu's entry into the customs this time will definitely not be a loss-making transaction. The gained population, money, food, property and livestock must be very large, which can lead to a good year; as for the officers and soldiers, most of them are far away. Followed from a distance and "sent gifts out of the country".
Be it angry or disappointed. Li Luoyou knew that he was just a businessman and could not play any role in military affairs. However, we can still work hard to make firearms and refresh armaments. In the previous stage, Li Luo lobbied the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi and the governor of Guangdong through his connections, and entrusted him with the imitation of Hongyi cannons. The activities have already achieved initial results, and it will not take long for the "Guan Shu" to be issued.
Although Quark has sent people back to the country to purchase equipment and hire craftsmen, the shipping schedule is long. Even if everything goes well, it will still have to wait for more than a year and a half. Australians have always had rumors of sharp firearms. Since they can produce so many exquisite and useful goods in Lingao, there must be skilled craftsmen and machines in Lingao. Whether it was buying machines and hiring people directly or cooperating with Australians, Li Luoyou just wanted the foundry to start working as soon as possible to make more firearms for the army.
"Please come to Mr. Quark." Luo You ordered.
jn?qur, or Quark Qiong, lived a very comfortable life in Ming Dynasty. He got tired of staying in the Li family store in Macau, so he went to Li Luoyou's Guangzhou mansion to eat and drink. From time to time, you can also tour South China for free with Li Luoyu. Li Luoyou deliberately won over him and took good care of him. Women’s spirits are all available. The British businessman was so happy that he couldn't miss Shu.
Quark is in a good mood: the cotton cloth he trafficked from India was originally piled in Macau and Guangzhou and could not be sold, but recently he suddenly sold it all. Although the profit was not large, it was a small profit in total. And this shopkeeper Li wants to build cannons and artillery carriages, which is a potentially big deal. He sent one of his clerks back to England with a handwritten letter to see if he could find ironworkers and technicians willing to come to China. He also instructed his clerk to try to "collect the latest machines specifically for gun factories."
The prospect of being an arms supplier to the Chinese Army made him a little excited. The Portuguese had become the emperor's mercenaries. Wouldn't it be better for the British to be the emperor's arms dealers - at least not to exchange their own lives for money.
He heard that the Tatars had attacked near the capital this time, and the officers and soldiers suffered several defeats, and he was even secretly happy. The greater the pressure on the emperor and his civil servants, the easier they were to be persuaded. Quark knew from Li Luoyu that European firearms performed well in all battles, so the more the imperial army suffered in defeat, the greater their desire to buy new firearms to arm the army.
Of course, he didn't show this kind of thoughts, he just followed Li Luoyou and cursed "Tatars", "barbarians" and the like.
"Going to Lingao?" Quark was a little surprised. Li Luoyou has been talking about this for a long time, but there has been no action. As a foreigner, he was not familiar with the place. He didn't even know which direction Lingao was in Guangzhou, so naturally he couldn't go there.
"That's right, I think I'll go check it out in the next few days." Li Luoyou nodded.
"Great, I've wanted to see this place for a long time." Quark was very excited. "I want to see how they made those things? And that ship."
"I want to take a look too." Li Luoyou smiled, "Actually, you should be more interested in them."
"Why?" Quark wondered.
"Haha, do you know who bought your cotton cloth?"
"Is he Australian?" Quark was really surprised. Indian cotton cloth is already cheap enough, but it is still not as cheap as local cloth when shipped to China. It took several years to sell a tenth of the thousands of cotton cloths he shipped. Only those with unique patterns were sold. Lose.
He was originally ambitious and wanted to sell British woolen goods to the north, but when he saw this situation he knew that it would be impossible to sell the woolen goods.
"Although I have no evidence," Li Luoyou nodded, "but I can be sure that they bought it."
"Lingao," Quark said, "Is business prosperous in this place? Or is there a good harbor?" He suddenly thought: Since the Australians can stay here for a long time, can British businessmen also get a share of the pie? You must know that no European country does not want to obtain a stable trading base on the coast of China, but no one except the Portuguese has succeeded - the place occupied by the Dutch can no longer be regarded as China's offshore.
If we can establish trade relations with the Australians, or even establish a British business office, it will be of great benefit to Britain's trade with China, and I will make a great contribution. If the opponent is not strong, they can also seduce the East India Company to send an expedition to drive them out. The East India Company also had its own benefits.
From this point of view, Lingao must go. Even if the business cannot be concluded, he can still find out the truth.
"This place is sparsely populated and has almost no business." How did Li Luo know that this British man had already used so much thought. He also knew very little about Lingao. In order to prepare for going to Lingao this time, I finally found someone who was familiar with Lingao and knew that Lingao is a typical "backwater" in this province.
"As for ports, there are only a few, but they can't be said to be good ones."
"That's strange, where are Australians going and what are they doing?"
"The sky is high and the emperor is far away." Li Luoyou said.
"You mean, Lingao is a place beyond the emperor's control?"
"China is very big, and there are many things that the emperor cannot take care of." Li Luoyou said, "But once the emperor knows about it, he will have to take care of it." e! ~!
