"Eldest Master, Shopkeeper Zheng, this is Louis, the cannon forger at the cannon factory, and this is Simang, the cannon operator, who also knows a bit about cannon casting." Zheng Yiguan introduced.
"I've met the eldest son, Shopkeeper Zheng." Louis made a Portuguese courtesy.
"I am an excellent gunner and can hit a target five hundred yards away," said Simang.
Zheng Yiguan was at the side translating what the two people said.
"I didn't expect you, Yiguan, to get things done so quickly." Zheng Tie turned back to Zheng Chao and said, "Where's the money?"
Zheng Chao walked up, took out a cloth bag, took out a thousand taels of silver and put it on the table.
Next to him, Li Guozhu's face sank and he said, "Shopkeeper Zheng, I told you that I will pay for this money. Next time Huang Cheng goes to Hirado, I will give the money to him."
Zheng Yiguan looked a little nervous when he heard this.
In addition to making up for the 350 taels spent on the shop counter, the remaining 500 taels of silver were the benefits he received from being a broker. If his uncle was asked to go to Hirado to find the eldest son to get the silver, the remaining 500 taels would be Two may not fall into his hands.
Zheng Tie said with a smile, "Don't be angry, eldest son. You and I will still have a lot of business dealings in the future. One thousand taels of silver is nothing to Mr. Li or to our Tiger Flag. It doesn’t matter who takes the one thousand taels of silver. Now that there is no shortage of silver on the ship, there is no need to trouble Shopkeeper Huang to make a hard trip."
Seeing what Zheng Tie said, Li Guozhu stopped saying anything.
The Li family and Hu Ziqi's iron cargo business has almost two hundred thousand taels of silver. Naturally, the two families are not short of this one thousand taels of silver.
Looking at the shiny silver ingots on the table, Zheng Yiguan's Adam's apple squirmed and said, "We don't need so much silver. The manager of the artillery factory only spent three hundred and fifty taels."
"I'll reward you with the rest." Zheng Tie said with a smile.
Compared with the 20,000 taels of conference tickets given to them by the headmaster before coming here, now they only spent 1,000 taels of silver, not even a tenth of which was used. Moreover, he had a good impression of Zheng Yiguan and wanted to take it back to Datong.
Li Guoshu said, "First officer, if Shopkeeper Zheng asks you to take it, just take it. You have helped Shopkeeper Zheng so much, so I should give you a little more money."
"Thank you, shopkeeper Zheng, for the reward." Zheng Yiguan saluted Zheng Tieyi with a happy face.
Immediately, he collected all the silver on the table, and took out 350 taels of it and gave it to Zheng Zhihu, and put it on the counter of the shop to make up for the shortfall of the more than 300 taels of silver he had withdrawn before.
Li Guoshu looked at Zheng Tie and said, "The matter of the gunsmith has been settled. Shopkeeper Zheng, would you like to stay in Xiangshan'ao for a few more days and wait for Huang Cheng to return from Luzon?"
"No." Zheng Tie said, "The ship has to go to Fujian. Before coming, my boss asked me to bring some seeds back. "
Zheng Yiguan, who was putting away the money, heard this and asked curiously, "I wonder what kind of seeds shopkeeper Zheng wants? The villain is from Fujian."
"You came from Fujian, that's great." Zheng Tie was delighted and immediately said, "Before I came here, I heard that Fujian has sweet potatoes, potatoes, and jade and wheat. Do these things really exist in Fujian? ?”
Zheng Yiguan said, "Shopkeeper Zheng doesn't need to go to Fujian at all. These things are available in Xiangshan'ao, and the potatoes that shopkeeper Zheng mentioned are called potatoes here in Xiangshan'ao."
"Great." Zheng Tie said, "Yiguan, can you get the seeds of these things?"
"My uncle's shop has these things." Zheng Yiguan said, "Shopkeeper Zheng, wait a moment, I will ask Brother Wang to take the things to the backyard to see if they are the things you mentioned, Shopkeeper Zheng. "
"No need to go to such trouble, I'll go with you." Zheng Chao stood up.
The two people left the courtyard together.
Li Guozhu said with a smile, "It seems that shopkeeper Zheng doesn't need to make another trip to Fujian."
"Yes, I still have to lose an official." Zheng Tie said with a smile.
After a short time, Zheng Chao and Zheng Yiguan returned to the room together.
Zheng Chao came to Zheng Tie and said in a low voice, "The things are right. They are all what the master wants. They add up to more than two stones, and I bought them all."
Zheng Tie nodded and said, "Hire a big truck and take these things back to the ship first."
"Yes." Zheng Chao agreed.
Leave the room, find a carriage, load the seeds on it, and send it to the port.
"Yiguan, do you want to go to Datong with me?" Zheng Tie looked at Zheng Yiguan.
He has a good impression of Zheng Yiguan, and he is also good at talking with Buddha. In the play, he wants to bring this person back to Datong to work for the Tiger Flag.
"This..." Zheng Yiguan hesitated.
He had never thought about leaving Xiangshan Ao, but the generosity of the shopkeeper Zheng in front of him really made him feel a little moved.
Li Guoshu on the side smiled and said, "Shopkeeper Zheng, you are poaching my Li family in front of my Li family."
"Haha, love is so heartfelt. Don't blame me, eldest son." Zheng Tie bowed his hand apologetically.
At the same time, I remembered that Zheng Yiguan's uncle was Huang Cheng, and Huang Cheng was Li Dan's disciple and worked for the Li family.
Li Guoshu smiled and said, "It's a good official. I want to take him to Hirado."
Both sides were vying for him, and Zheng Yiguan stood aside with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Master Li has so many talented people, why not give him Yiguan to me? Our boss is short of people like Yiguan who can speak Buddhist language." Zheng Tie said with a smile.
Li Guoshu smiled and said, "Don't worry, Shopkeeper Zheng. Let him decide where the first official will go. Maybe he will be willing to come to the Li family to work."
"Okay, let's listen to Yiguan's own opinion." After saying that, Zheng Tie turned to look at Zheng Yiguan.
Zheng Yiguan hesitated for a moment and said, "Eldest Young Master, Shopkeeper Zheng, Zhihu and I have been living at my uncle's place, so this matter needs to be discussed with my uncle. I don't dare to make the decision alone."
"Okay, we won't force you, but this time you have to go to Datong with me first." Li Guoshu said.
Having just refused once, Zheng Yiguan knew that he could no longer refuse the eldest son, so he said, "I will listen to the eldest son in everything."
Li Guozhu said with satisfaction, "Pack your bags today and tell your family that you will board the ship with Shopkeeper Zheng tomorrow."
"Yes." Zheng Yiguan cupped his fists.
………………
At dawn the next day, Zheng Tie, Li Guozhu and others arrived at the port.
Duan Ping sent two small boats to take them to the big ship.
Before boarding the boat, I heard someone say, "Excuse me, can we get on the boat with you?"
Zheng Tiehui turned around and looked at the speaker, who was a missionary.
Standing with this missionary were several missionaries dressed similarly.
"Father John." Zheng Yiguan smiled and greeted the missionary.
"Hello Nicholas, do you know the captain of this ship?" Tang Ruowang beamed when he saw Zheng Yiguan, an acquaintance.
Zheng Yiguan raised his hand and pointed at Zheng Tie and introduced, "This is shopkeeper Zheng, he hired this ship."
"That's great." Tang Ruowang said, "Dear shopkeeper Zheng, can you take us on the boat together? We want to go to the capital. Of course, we will pay for the boat expenses."
Zheng Yiguan walked up to Zheng Tie and said in a low voice, "Shopkeeper Zheng, this Father John is very capable. He is even better at forging cannons than Louis."
Hearing this, Zheng Tie's eyes lit up.
If there is a more powerful cannon maker, he will naturally not let it go.
In this way, Tang Ruowang and the missionaries around him boarded the ship back to Tianjin Wei with Zheng Tie and others.
