"Young Master, let me toast you." Yang Yuan raised his glass.
Li Guozhu also raised his glass.
The two people clinked their glasses and drank the wine in their glasses.
Putting down the wine glass, Yang Yuan said with a smile: "Our boss has admired Mr. Li for a long time. If he knows that the eldest young master is here, he will be very happy."
"Dongzhu Liu has also heard of my father's name?" Li Guozhu asked curiously.
Zheng Tie on the side explained: "In Xujiazhuang, where our proprietor is located, there are often merchants from all over the world. Many merchants from the south will mention Mr. Li's reputation. Our proprietor once said that if it were not for Mr. Li's presence, , I’m afraid those Francois and Red-haired Yi have already invaded the coast of the Ming Dynasty.”
"Dragon Master Liu, thank you very much."
Hearing the owner of the Tiger Flag, whom he had never met, praise his father, Li Guozhu became very fond of Liu Hengda, whom he had never met.
Yang Yuan picked up the jug and poured wine into the wine glass in front of Li Guozhu, and said: "The eldest son has been tired all the way, so why not stay here to recuperate for a few days. Later I will arrange a carriage and personally take the eldest son to Lingqiu."
"Thank you so much, shopkeeper Yang, for your kindness." Li Guozhu said, "I think it's better to go to Lingqiu to see Mr. Liu first. This time, my father hopes that the two families can continue to cooperate for a long time. In the future, my Li family will be responsible for the iron goods shipped to the Japanese country with the tiger-character flag. Eat it all at a fair price.”
"This is a good thing." Yang Yuan picked up the wine glass and said, "When the eldest son came, I was discussing borrowing a boat with Zheng Qianhu. Now there is another batch of iron goods in the shop ready to be transported to the Japanese country by sea ship."
Hearing this, Li Guozhu's eyes lit up.
He came from Hirado this time mainly because he wanted to see with his own eyes the strength of Liu Dongzhu from Datong, and whether he really had the strength to send shiploads of iron freight to Japan.
Although a shipload of iron cargo can be worth a lot of money, if the quantity is too small, it will become dispensable to the Li family, and the Li family will naturally have no need to cooperate with the Tiger Flag.
Now I heard that Tiger Flag has another shipment of iron cargo ready to be shipped to Hirado, which shows that Tiger Flag still has some strength, otherwise it would not have prepared another shipment of iron cargo in such a short period of time.
"What did Zheng Qianhu say?" Zheng Tie asked Yang Yuan.
Yang Yuan said: "Originally Zheng Qianhu did not agree to send another ship to sea. Later, Duan Ping, who went to sea with you, came back and agreed to send a ship."
Zheng Tie frowned and said: "Now we only have two ships owned by Zheng Qianhu to use. Only one ship is assigned to go to sea at a time, which is simply not enough."
"Why don't you two build your own ship?" Li Guozhu said suddenly.
Yang Yuan said: "To be honest with you, my boss has long wanted to build a ship, and has already built his own sea-going ship at Tianjin Wei's dock. Unfortunately, he lacks enough sailors. Currently, he can only rely on Zheng Qianhu's men to go to sea. sailor."
Li Guoshu thought for a while and said: "In the future, when our two families cooperate, my Li family can send some sailors over until your Tiger Flag has trained its own sailors."
"If that's the case, that would be great." Zheng Tie looked happy, picked up the wine glass and said, "I would like to propose a toast to the eldest son."
Only after I went to Hirado did I know the strength of the Li family at sea. Compared with the urgent shortage of sailors in the Tiger Flag, the most important thing the Li family lacked was sailors.
Li Guozhu smiled and picked up the wine glass and touched it with Zheng Tie.
Yang Yuan on the side heard the meaning of Li Guozhu's words. In order for the Li family to help them train sailors under the Tiger Flag, the two families needed to cooperate.
Putting down his wine glass, Li Guozhu said: "Sailor training is quite troublesome. Not only do you have to learn to do various things on the ship, but you also have to get used to living on the ship for a long time."
"I'll be honest with Mr. Li," Yang Yuan said, "We in the Tiger Flag are almost all northerners, and many of them have never even been on a boat in the river, not to mention the sea."
Li Guoshu said with a smile: "This is not a big problem. You can get used to it as long as you stay on the ship for a few months."
"It's true." Zheng Tie continued, "The people who went to Hirado with me this time were very uncomfortable when they first got on the ship. Most of them even got seriously ill on the ship. When they came back from Hirado, This decreased greatly and eventually some people got used to the bumps in the boat."
If you want to become a sailor, you don't just need to stay at sea for a few months on a ship, but for most of the tiger flags who are from the north, being able to get used to life at sea is already a big progress.
When the moon rises above the treetops, the banquet ends.
Li Guozhu was sent to the room to rest.
The leftovers in the room were removed and replaced with fragrant tea.
Yang Yuan took a sip of tea, looked up at Zheng Tie who was sitting opposite, and said, "Is this Mr. Li really just coming to our Lingqiu to meet the master?"
Zheng Tie shook his head slightly and said: "I am not very clear about the purpose of Mr. Li, but this time I went to Hirado. The Li family attaches great importance to our iron goods and hopes to continue to cooperate with our Tiger Flag for a long time."
"It seems that as the boss said, not only our Ming Dynasty is short of iron, but overseas is also deficient in iron." Yang Yuan rubbed his chin with his thumb.
Zheng Tie said: "This time I went to sea, I have gained a lot of experience. Our ship of iron and freight was directly exchanged for a ship of silver when it was shipped to Japan. No wonder there are so many sea ships in the south doing maritime business. This silver is the same as Bai Jian's. The same."
Yang Yuan smiled and said: "I will accompany Mr. Li back to Lingqiu tomorrow, and you will stay here at the port for the time being."
"Ah!" Zheng Tie was stunned.
This trip to Hirado was not only a narrow escape from death, but also a narrow escape for a northerner like him. Now he finally had the chance to return to Lingqiu, but he couldn't, which made him quite disappointed.
Yang Yuan said: "After you went to sea, the master sent another squadron of soldiers. Now you are learning how to be a sailor from the sailors on Zheng Qianhu's ship. There is a lucky ship of our own under construction at the dock. What the master means is , from now on we will build our own sea ships, and they will all be under your command from now on."
"This..." Zheng Tie didn't know what to say for a moment.
Ever since he left Liu Heng's side and took a boat to Hirado, he knew that he would get a suitable position when he came back, at least at the level of captain, but he never expected that he would be left in Tianjin Guard.
This position cannot be said to be bad. When the ships of Tiger Flag are built in the future, his status will probably be higher than that of the general captain of Tiger Flag. But after all, this place is too far from Lingqiu. No one knows what will happen in the future. What will happen? Maybe one day Lingqiu will no longer pay attention to sea trade, and then his position will be awkward.
Yang Yuan took a sip of tea and said: "Before you came back, our Tiger Flag had opened up the trade route to the grassland. In the future, all fur goods on the grassland may need to be traded through your hands."
"Is this an order from the master?" Zheng Tie asked.
"Yes, the Headmaster's order and this letter are also given to you by the Headmaster." As he spoke, Yang Yuan took out a letter and handed it over.
