After the two slave traders Gu Rui and Lu Frei left, Zhu Jingyuan sat in his chair and thought for a while.
What these two slave traders did themselves, as well as the transportation of female slaves to the Big Food Country itself, are actually not that big a deal.
What Zhu Jingyuan was slightly concerned about was the extent to which the British indulged in the Tianzhu slave trade.
From Tianzhu to the British colony of Southwestern Mozhou, it only takes more than 20 days, even if we use a boat that can only run ten knots, and the round trip takes less than 50 days.
You can make seven trips a year.
A 6,000-ton transport ship can hold 3,000 people inside.
Two hundred of the same ships could transport more than 40 million people if they ran for ten years.
In the southern Tianzhu area now controlled by the British, there are Taixi people, mixed descendants of Taixi and Tianzhu people, and pure-blood Tianzhu people. The combined population of all ethnic groups is only about 70 million.
The transportation volume of 40 million people is enough to transport all the young adults and relatively healthy middle-aged people from southern Tianzhu to Tianzhu.
If you don't need a woman, it will be completed in less than five years.
Because Tianzhu has just experienced a world war for more than ten years, millions of young and middle-aged men have been lost, and the ratio of men to women is outrageous.
At the same time, it is certainly not a problem to transport Tianzhu to accumulate gold and silver wealth.
In five years, more than 20 million young and strong male Tianzhu people were transported to Southwest Mozhou to rebuild a new Tianzhu.
No, we can popularize English in this process and build a New England composed of Tianzhu people.
Young women were sold to nearby vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.
In the original southern part of Tianzhu, only the old, weak, sick and disabled were left, and most of them would die slowly, leaving only a handful in the end.
In the end, Ming Dynasty took over a "wasteland" like South Tianzhu.
If other countries are determined to win Southern Tianzhu, what the British are doing now may anger them.
For Daming... this should be considered a good thing...
Even if Ming Dynasty realizes that its population is not enough, it will not ask for Tianzhu people.
If the British could really evacuate all the people from southern Tianzhu, then Ming Dynasty could peacefully coexist with the British for a longer period of time.
Could the Ming Dynasty also transport people from Tianzhu to Dongmozhou to open up wasteland?
It seems that there is no need. As before, just pull some servant soldiers from Tianzhu and go to Dongmozhou to conquer the local indigenous political power.
However, single immigrants going to East Mozhou can be allowed to bring a Hu Ji concubine from the Tianzhu area to Mozhou to prevent them from having bad thoughts about Mo people.
When Gu Rui and Lu Frei returned to the dock, the Tianzhu Orchid here had already begun to disembark.
Still the same as before, there were guards standing guard outside, and women from the Ming Dynasty beside the boat first checked the ears, and then were diverted to doctors for examination.
Gu and Lu didn't worry about anything when they saw this situation. The sailors on the ship were their confidants, so there was no problem with the points.
However, some goods can only be mobilized by two leaders.
After returning to the ship, the two people immediately went to two special cabins, picked up eight Hu Ji who were held in solitary confinement, and handed them over to the officials responsible for receiving them.
The Dian Book of Dashi Country also came to the scene.
The two of them came directly to find the dianbook:
"Master Dianbu, these orchids are all carefully selected and are the best ones we have prepared for your Majesty.
"I was in a hurry when I went to see the king. I didn't have time to take it out, so I asked you to hand it over to me."
Dianbo glanced at the Hu Ji first.
Their appearance is quite upright, they look young, and their bodies are relatively clean.
If it is an ordinary officialdom veteran, there must be a more tactful way to deal with it.
However, the original officials of the Dashi Kingdom were quite aloof. After Dianbo understood what was going on, he said very rigidly:
"Wait here, I'll ask someone to ask the king for instructions."
Then he immediately called a handyman back to the palace to tell Zhu Jingyuan.
Zhu Jingyuan waved his hands indifferently and said:
"now that
Since it is a gift, it is not chargeable or counted, so just treat it as an extra and let the diary accept it. "
Zhu Jingyuan knew in his heart that what Gu Rui said about careful selection may be true, but it may not be specially selected for him.
Slave traders like them mostly select a few high-quality products in advance and give them to the lords wherever they sell ordinary slaves.
As far as I was concerned, it was nothing if I didn't take it. If I took it and gave it to the workers together with the ordinary female slaves, it would be better than letting them take it back.
The key is that there will be no consequences if they accept it, and they don't dare to think that they have received a big gift or owe them any favor.
The market price of a high-quality orchid is estimated to be in the range of five to six hundred silver notes, which is almost half of that of a Korean maid or a Japanese maid of the same grade.
The total value of eight fine Orchids is more than 4,000 silver coins, which is quite a lot in front of ordinary people.
But the current target is Zhu Jingyuan, and the transaction between the two parties is worth hundreds of thousands of banknotes, so this addition is not particularly conspicuous.
With the help of immigrant women from the Ming Dynasty, Gu Rui and his wife counted the orchids brought by them that evening.
In addition to Zhu Jingyuan's eight gifts, there were 612 dry ears and 2,460 oil ears, for a total of 3,072 people.
According to the conditions negotiated by Zhu Jingyuan, individual grades will no longer be broken down, so the total price will be revealed after counting.
A total of two hundred and eighty-eight thousand six hundred Ming Dynasty banknotes.
The two slave traders Gu and Lu originally thought that they would have to spend a few days in Dashi Country to collect money.
As a result, as soon as the counting was completed, Dashi Wangfu paid cash directly without delay all night.
In the bright prison room of the Royal Palace, after carefully counting a box of banknotes, the two slave traders carefully resigned.
Although they knew that it was impossible for the Big Food Country to take advantage of others, the two of them were still quite nervous with this huge sum of money.
They almost jogged all the way back to their ship, and only after being surrounded by their own sailors did they feel completely relieved.
Entering the captain's room, Gu Rui put the box on the table and spread it directly on the chair.
He took a few deep breaths, lit a cigar, looked at Lufrey opposite and said:
"Although the king of the Dashi Kingdom is domineering and aggressive in bargaining, he is open-minded and straightforward, so this business can be done."
Lu Frey also said excitedly:
"Yes, this big food country is really rich. Three thousand female slaves ate it directly without any delay in cash."
When Gu Rui heard this, he suddenly laughed:
"This king told us before that the land of Dashi Country is barren and the products are scarce..."
Luvrey also laughed:
"The land is indeed barren. The capital is surrounded by sand. There is nothing but oil."
Gu Rui took a deep puff of his cigar:
"Isn't it okay if there is oil? If I had a piece of land that was leaking oil, I wouldn't do this business anymore. Who wouldn't be happy just to make money while lying down."
"I wonder where there is oil? Do you want to try going to Mozhou to explore it?"
Lufrey thought for a while, then looked at the box in front of him, still nervous about the money:
"Let's talk about this later. Let's divide the money first. After we have divided it, we will divide it among the brothers.
"First make all the money from this business we have, and then think about other things."
Gu Ruiqian smiled and reminded:
"Now that the Ming Dynasty New Year has just arrived, a new round of local immigrants from the Great Food Country will set off after the Spring Festival or even after the 15th day of the 15th.
"It will be at least mid-February before we arrive in the Big Food Country.
"So the time for Dashiguo to send us the next batch of goods is set at the end of February in the Ming Dynasty.
"Then the next batch of goods should be after April.
"It won't take you a month to prepare the supply in Nantianzhu.
"You can take in male and female slaves at the same time. You send the slaves to Mozhou at the end of January, and I will send the female slaves to Dashi Country in late February.
"You come back in late March and immediately take in a group of female slaves, and then let me go to the Dashi Country in late April.
"Your people have been busy. Except for two trips to the Dashi Country, which lasted only ten days in total, I was idle the rest of the time.
"With so many people, I can't just watch you make money!"
"In today's market, everyone is making money. If you don't make money, you are losing money!"
Rufray suddenly understood, but still smiled and shook his head and said:
"Then don't think about oil. You can't take advantage of two months to go to Mozhou to find oil?
"You are from Ming Dynasty, why not directly invest in and contract Yinzhou's farm.
"It's okay to invest in a shipyard if you really can't. Isn't your Ming Dynasty now an industry where full payment is made upon commencement of construction and profits are made immediately upon commencement of construction?
"If you are really busy, you can arrange for people to buy stocks. Now Daming also makes money when you buy them.
"And these are your own affairs and have nothing to do with our cooperation.
“It’s better to divide the money now so that the brothers can feel at ease.
"The orchid trade in Dashi Country has just begun, and the business will continue to grow in the future..."
Gu Rui didn't delay any more. There was no way to delay this matter:
"Okay, let's split the money first."
Although the money earned this time was not much because Osman's "companions" were grabbing business.
But this kind of trade is inherently huge profit. Many Tianzhu female slaves in South Tianzhu are just like picked up for free, and they make money by sending them to the big food country.
All the people on Gu and Lu's ship received a certain amount of money according to their status and merit.
Then the ship stopped in the Big Food Country for three days, replenished coal, fresh water, and food before leaving.
Their boat met another small boat outside the Dashi Peninsula. Gu Rui took his people to change boats and returned to Beitianzhu.
Gu Rui went to find out how to invest.
When Luvrei returned to his hometown in Mumbai, South India, he met Li Bot and Wang Weir, the officers of the British Naval Intelligence Agency in South India.
It was the two British "civilian friendly persons" who were expelled from Nagasaki Port in Toyohara Province.
After the two of them were sent to Tianzhu, they directly stayed to work in Tianzhu.
At this time, the famous MI6 had not yet been established, and the current British Intelligence Agency was also in a relatively early stage.
Luvrey himself was not a British intelligence officer, but he was a peripheral informant for British Naval Intelligence.
These transnational maritime merchants would report their findings to the Intelligence Agency liaison personnel from time to time.
It doesn't need to be something very confidential, just what you saw and heard during the transaction, and various such public situations will suffice.
For example, how big is the dock in Dashiguo, how many berths of different levels are there, and how many oil storage tanks are on the dock.
The location and size of the palace at the dock, the number of oil wells around the palace, etc.
During this exchange, the two officers, Li Bot and Wang Weir, were both shocked by Lu Frey's description.
"Their crude oil production is like pumping water from a well?"
Luvrey immediately shook his head and said:
"No, no, no, it's not pumping water. They don't need a pump. The oil well spurts out on its own.
"The Great Food Country is a pipe installed on a natural fountain. There is a switch on the pipe. When it is turned on, crude oil will spurt out."
Libot said with some excitement:
"That's a high-pressure self-injection well. How fast does the fuel gush out? Do you have a chance to observe it? How long does it take to fill a standard one-stone oil barrel?"
Luvrei recalled what he saw in those three days:
"Their oil well is not far from the dock, at least it can be seen by ships docked at the dock.
"If you get closer to the palace, you can see it more clearly.
“But most of the crude oil is sent directly to large storage tanks on the docks through pipelines.
"Only a small number of them are directly loaded into oil drums. A standard oil drum with one stone can be filled in just over 20 seconds.
"I roughly counted, at least three barrels can be filled in one minute..."
Both intelligence officers
I was surprised again:
"Three barrels a minute..."
"One barrel in twenty seconds, there will be no more than four or five thousand barrels in one day..."
Libot immediately continued to ask:
"How many of these oil wells do they have?"
Luvrey recalled the situation and said:
"Only 18 wells are in production, but workers are continuing to drill..."
Li Bote and Wang Weier seemed to be slightly relieved after hearing the news. There were only eighteen wells...
However, thinking about the output of these oil wells, the expressions of the two people could no longer relax.
Then he was extremely careful and repeatedly confirmed the authenticity of the news.
He continued to ask for more details, then left and returned to his office.
After the two discussed for a long time, they wrote a simple report, attaching their judgment:
"The Ming Dynasty increased its oil production on a large scale, combined with the information that the Ming Dynasty abolished coal stations and built oil storage facilities, indicating that the Ming Dynasty's navy may be switching to fuel power."
It was then sent by telegraph to Naval Intelligence headquarters in London.
