"Sea trade!"
Hong Chengchou whispered two words in his mouth.
Yang Jiachen was stunned for a moment after hearing this.
He was born in the north, and the people he had most contact with since childhood were Han merchants on the grasslands. He didn't know much about sea trade, but he also knew that the profits brought by sea trade were very considerable. It was said that one ship of goods went out and one ship of money came back.
"I have also heard about the profits of sea trade. There is no shortage of people doing sea trade in a prosperous place like Jiangnan, but what does this have to do with our Tiger Flag?" Yang Jiachen asked in surprise.
Hong Chengchou smiled and said, "Of course it does matter, and it does matter a lot."
"What does this have to do with it? The maritime business is not monopolized by one company, and these Lords of the Ming Dynasty have been doing maritime trade for many years. They must have their own maritime trade routes and their own regular customers." Yang Jiachen said.
The Yang family is a Han merchant. He has been exposed to these since he was a child, and he is very familiar with business matters.
In doing business, a lot of it is about doing things that are done well and not raw.
Like the Yang family, every time they go out to do business, they usually go to some familiar tribes. For those unfamiliar grassland tribes, even if they go there, they will be wary and beware of the other party doing things like killing people and selling goods.
He remembered that when he was a child, whether it was Han merchants on their grasslands or caravans from the Ming Dynasty, they would often only go to tribes he was familiar with.
The grassland is vast and sparsely populated. Some Mongolian tribes may have been smiling and doing business with the merchants who came to the tribe two days ago. As soon as the merchants left, they immediately turned into bandits, picked up knives, killed the merchants, and took back the goods. .
Seeing that Yang Jiachen didn't understand what he meant, Hong Chengchou asked: "On the grassland, what would the big Han merchants behind the scenes do if they wanted to deal with those Han merchants who had offended them?"
"Of course they sent people to kill people and loot goods on the way. No matter how wealthy a businessman is, he can't withstand a few robberies." Yang Jiachen said.
The jungle law of the weak and the strong prevails on the grasslands. Even the Mongols themselves often have large tribes annexing small tribes.
Hong Chengchou said again: "If our navy of the Tiger Flag wants to deal with the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty at sea, do you think the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty can protect our own safety?"
"The Ming Dynasty also had naval forces..." Yang Jiachen stopped talking mid-sentence.
Although he had never seen with his own eyes what the navy of the Ming Dynasty was like, several of the navy of the Ming Dynasty in the north were defeated by their fleet with the tiger flag at sea more than once.
I think the remaining navy of the Ming Dynasty would have the same result when facing the fleet of the Tiger Flag.
Hong Chengchou faced Yang Jiachen and said: "There is one thing you may not know. If Ming Dynasty's merchant ships want to go to sea, they must pay us a sea tax, which is to pay for the passage."
After hearing this, Yang Jiachen opened and closed his mouth several times in surprise.
Although he knew that the Tiger Flag had a fleet on Da Yuan Island and it was the earliest fleet of the Tiger Flag, he did not know that the Ming merchant ships had to pay for the Tiger Flag to pay for passage if they wanted to go to sea.
From this alone, he could imagine the superior status of the Tiger Banner Navy in the Ming Sea.
"You're surprised! When I first heard about this, I was as surprised as you." Hong Chengchou looked at Yang Jiachen's shocked expression and couldn't help but laugh.
He even wondered whether the person who told him about this matter would look the same as he does Yang Jiachen now after seeing the look on his face.
Yang Jiachen nodded and said: "This is indeed the first time I have heard of this. However, even if there is no sea trade, these lords are still the top wealthy households in Jiangnan. Each family has many land workshops, and there is no shortage of money." .”
"It's not as simple as you think." Hong Chengchou said, "Let's talk about the land in the south of the Yangtze River first. The land here is not like the place under the Tiger Character Banner. In the south of the Yangtze River, the land is mostly used to grow mulberry and hemp, because these The benefits from growing things are greater than growing food.”
Yang Jiachen frowned and said: "People here eat and drink whatever they don't grow food! No, there are Huguang and Sichuan. You only need to use money to buy food from places rich in food, and you can earn more money. "
"That's right." Hong Chengchou said, "Many people in Jiangnan either work in workshops or work as domestic servants for wealthy families. Although life is difficult, they can barely survive."
Yang Jiachen said: "I know this. There are many slaves here in the south of the Yangtze River. This is much more than the slaves raised by the gentry and landlords in the north."
"Let's talk about the workshop again." Hong Chengchou said, "The workshop can bring a lot of money to Jiangnan, but the things produced by the workshop need to be sold in order to get money. Although Jiangnan is big, it has more workshops. Only Jiangnan can One place cannot digest the output of so many workshops.”
Yang Jiachen suddenly realized: "I understand, the products produced by Jiangnan workshops are sold overseas through sea trade. If we cut off sea trade, it will directly cause a large number of workshops to close down and close down, which will destroy the people who work in the workshops. Losing their jobs and being unable to support their families is likely to lead to unrest in the south of the Yangtze River. The most important thing is that people like Ming Xungui will not be able to earn money and will have to spend money to deal with the people who can no longer survive."
"The bustle is only for profit. The Ming Dynasty has supported its nobles for hundreds of years, so that these nobles only have the word profit in their eyes. Whoever harms their interests is their enemy." Hong Chengchou took out his pipe and knocked it on the leg of the table. Knocked.
I purged the tar inside, then pinched the tobacco, lit it and took a nice puff.
Yang Jiachen said: "I understand, these noble families headed by Wei Guogong can only stand on the side of our Tiger Flag for their own interests, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty can't offer them any benefits at all."
"That's right, most of the lords of the Ming Dynasty do not want the imperial court to do the Northern Expedition. Our trip to the Ming Dynasty for peace talks has given them an excuse to refuse the Northern Expedition. They will definitely cling to it." Hong Chengchou said with a smile.
Yang Jiachen looked at Hong Chengchou and said: "No wonder you have always been so confident. I didn't expect that we have natural allies in the Ming Dynasty. It's a pity that those civil servants don't think so like those nobles. These people are all stubborn. ”
He despised the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty from the bottom of his heart.
These people are very capable of holding back, and they talk a lot about righteousness, but when it comes to serious matters, they only have a mouth to talk about, but they do nothing.
The Ming Dynasty ended up like this. Of course the emperor was at fault, but the problems of these officials were even bigger.
Hong Chengchou took a puff of smoke and said: "Don't even think about the civil servants. Everyone is seeking fame, and there are not many who work seriously. Even those who want to work can't climb out of this mud pit. .”
Sun Chuanting and the dead Lu Jiandou are the best examples.
