When the "Taobao Group" led by Qian Qianyi, Kong Yinzheng, Zhu Zhiyu and others took a boat across the sea and arrived at Lushunkou, a port city at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, this emerging commercial port city was undergoing vigorous construction. Near the port, there are construction sites under construction and brand-new houses that have just been completed.
The whole city is not only full of vitality, but also shows absolute confidence in safety and security everywhere!
It is as if this city is not held in the Qing Dynasty's tiger's mouth, but placed in the safest safe.
Lushunkou originally had two cities, the north and the south, both of which were ancient cities passed down from the Hongwu period. The two cities were more than a hundred steps apart, with troops stationed in the north city and goods stored in the south city. Later, the Qing army, led by Kong Youde, captured Lushunkou and demolished the north city, leaving only the south city garrisoned. After the Ming army went north again and captured the Jinzhou Peninsula in Lushunkou, the south city of Lushunkou was also demolished.
Subsequently, Zhang Huangyan, who was appointed the prefect of Jinzhou, and Shen Tingyang, the Beiyang Foreign Trade Ambassador who moved to Lushun, began to build a new city on the coastal plain at Lushunkou.
The outer city wall of the new city was built according to the hills and mountains around the coastal plain of Lushunkou. It was made of wood, earth and stone that were everywhere near Lushunkou. It was not very tall. There was no city wall built on the side of the coastline. Generally speaking, it was not considered a wall. It's strong, but it's enough to make people living under the protection of this city wall feel at ease.
Because the security of Lushunkou is not pinned on this city wall and the Jinzhou Long Wall (located on the Jinzhou Isthmus, about 15 miles long) more than 80 miles away, but on a model infantryman of the Ming Army stationed in Jinzhou Prefecture. Division and the Beiyang Navy based at Lushun Port. A model infantry division relying on two long walls and several fortresses built on hilly terrain was enough to withstand the Qing Dynasty's 100,000 elites. The navy that controls the sea route can continuously bring supplies and reinforcements to Lushunkou.
The safety of Lushunkou was guaranteed, and its geographical location was right between the Ming, Qing, and North Korea, with extremely convenient water and land transportation. It was also close to the northeastern region that was the focus of development by the Qing Dynasty, so it quickly became popular. Businessmen from all nationalities and countries crisscrossed the city. Groups of camels and columns of carriages and horses constantly travel between Jinzhou Changqiang and Lushunkou.
The bay at Lushunkou was filled with merchant ships from North Korea, the Ming Dynasty, and the Tianjin and Wei areas of the Qing Dynasty. Occasionally, a few Western sailing ships can be seen, and they are not big ships. They are small and medium-sized merchant ships with a carrying capacity of two to three hundred tons, flying the flags of the Netherlands, England, Portugal and Spain.
Qian Qianyi, Kong Yinzheng, Zhu Zhiyu and others who went north to search for treasures took a merchant ship belonging to the Confucian disciples to cross the sea from Penglai. This was a large maritime sand ship with a load of three thousand stones. It was a member of the Confucius family in Qufu. Owned by a clan member named Kong Yinxi. This Kong Yinxi, like Kong Yinzheng, was a descendant of the Confucius family in Qufu. However, he was not as brave as Kong Yinzheng, so he could not pass the Yanshenggong examination. Instead, he took the imperial examination first and then went into business. His career was only a small success. He was selected as a scholar when he was eighteen years old, and then he wasted his time until he was nearly 10 years old. Because Qufu was attacked by the Qing army, Kong Yinxi, who did not build a dangerous wall, fled to Dengzhou. He did not continue studying, but used the capital he brought to open a restaurant in Dengzhou, and hired several good cooks from his hometown in Qufu (the Confucius family in Qufu had little achievements in Confucianism, but they were improving in food from generation to generation. , so the chefs in Qufu are very famous), and they actually made a lot of money after running it for several years.
In the past, the Kong family must have bought land when they made money. Here in Shandong, as long as the land is named Kong, there is no need to pay any tax assessments, and there is no need to pay tribute to officials and minor officials. The signboard is stronger than Wangzhuang. The real Guaranteed profit without loss. But now things have changed, and the Kong family's brand name is no longer reliable, so Kong Yinxi, who has money, no longer buys land, but buys ships to invest in shipping. First, we ran the Dengzhou-Tianjin route, and now we run the Dengzhou-Lushun route. Moreover, we also bought land in Lushunkou City and built a "food street". The business is getting more and more prosperous.
And in the summer of the third year of Hongxing, Kong Yinxi discovered a new way to make money - treasure appraisal!
He has always liked tinkering with antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and he also has some eyesight, which is barely enough to reach a professional level, but not to the point where he can be noticed everywhere.
However, the "treasures" that have recently appeared on the market in Lushunkou are said to be ancient artifacts excavated from Qufu, which are the treasures of the Confucius family!
The treasure of the Kong family was given to Kong Yinxi to take care of. How could it be wrong? Even if it’s a slap in the face, people still think it’s true!
So Kong Yinxi's life has really been endless in the past few months. He can make money even while lying down. Not only has he made money, but he has also become famous in the Beiyang antique circle.
Dengzhou Kong recognized him at a glance!
Not only the rich people here in Denglai seek his favor, but also people from Shanghai, Ningbo, and Quanzhou come here. And this time, Kong Yinzheng, who had just been admitted to the imperial examination, was roped into the "Taobao Group" and went north to Lushun to see the "Holy Treasure".
This is incredible!
He had seen quite a few artifacts dumped out of the tombs of Duke Yansheng in previous dynasties, but most of them were from the current and previous dynasties, and the furthest away were the Tang and Song dynasties. It's not even a little bit different from the level of the Holy Relic!
Therefore, Kong Yi didn't dare to neglect, and he quickly made arrangements, and even brought out a large sand boat that had just been launched for a while for the Taobao group to use. He also volunteered to take the front line and headed north first. At Lushunkou, he met the agent of the party selling the Holy Relic, Jiabus, the big boss of Jiale Market, one of the nine great merchants of the Qing Dynasty.
Here in Lushunkou, Boss Jiale and Jiabusjia are no ordinary beasts!
The trading at Lushunkou is theoretically the "Ming and Qing Mutual Market", which is the small mutual market located between Jinzhou Changqiang (near the isthmus) and Xiaoheishan Changqiang (Qing army's fortifications). With this sign, the big business in Lushunkou can continue. Therefore, the merchants in Lushunkou have to raise a sum of money to send to this mutual market every year, which is regarded as a tax for the mutual market.
This Ming and Qing mutual market was run by Jabs, who was a member of Zhenglan Banner!
After Jabs got the money, he would not immediately send it to Duduo in Shengjing. Instead, he would make a large purchase at Lushunkou - the Qing Dynasty emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, and money was of little use in economic life. But there is still a need for various handicrafts, so there is a lot of bartering.
I met Jiabus at the Jiale Market in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and saw several bamboo slips coated with a thick layer of unknown grease. The writing on it is very vague, and one of the bamboo slips is engraved with five large seal characters of "Zi Lun Ge Wu Pian". On the other bamboo slips, there are engraved dialogues in the form of questions and answers using analysis, inference, empirical and other methods to investigate objects.
Although Kong Yinxi could not tell the authenticity of the bamboo slips, he was still a little Confucian. He did not dare to memorize the Four Books and Five Classics by heart, but he still knew the great principles, but he had never seen this kind of "Confucius said" teaching people how to study things.
Moreover, the contents recorded on the bamboo slips seem very philosophical and can give people a sense of sudden enlightenment.
This kind of truth can only be proposed by sages like Confucius and Mencius, right?
...
"Holy Duke, Qian Zhongtang, Shi Zhijun, these are the sentences on the bamboo slips copied by Wan Sheng."
In the middle hall of the Governor's Office of Liaodong and Shandong in Lushunkou, Kong Yinxi, who hurried back from the Ming and Qing mutual markets, handed several pieces of white paper with seal characters written on it to several big people sitting in the hall who came to Liaodong to search for treasures. Official.
Qian Qianyi took a piece of white paper with words such as "Confucius said that trial and error can lead to finding the truth" and looked at it again and again, and his brows gradually wrinkled. He was initially hesitant about the posthumous articles and did not take them too seriously. He always felt that even the posthumous articles about the study of things were at best instructive teachings such as careful observation and could not be anything subversive - Confucianism After so many years of studying things, I don’t know much about it. Could it be that one posthumous chapter of Confucius can suddenly enlighten everyone?
But after reading the copy of this posthumous chapter, Qian Qianyi finally realized how knowledgeable "Zi" was!
