Chapter 213 Persuasion

With the existing conditions in the 17th century, it is of course impossible to restore Baili Island to the military fortress state of the 20th century. Such a large-scale project to change the world is not something that can be completed with the current level of construction. However, if you want to build a new island on these islands,

Setting up a small-scale military stronghold is not too difficult.

"To choose a site to set up a stronghold here, there are two problems that must be solved. One is fresh water, and the other is the port." Xiao Liang pointed to the map and explained: "Also considering that the area of ​​the island itself cannot be too small, the remaining options

There are not many left, probably the three neighboring islands of Dawanshan Island, Baili Island and Dongao Island. The objective conditions of these three islands can meet our needs, but which one to choose in the end?

I’m afraid it will take several on-site inspections before we can make a decision.”

Xiao Liang didn't say it directly, but Schneider already understood what he meant: "You mean we'd better figure out the situation on these islands as soon as possible?"

"At least make sure there are no pirate forces entrenched on these islands." Xiao Liang nodded and confirmed Schneider's guess: "Li Jifeng should have more or less news about this."

Li Jifeng sat in the hall with his eyes slightly closed, thinking about the meeting with Schneider later.

The development speed of Haihan people greatly exceeded his expectations. It has only been more than three months since the first news about Haihan came back from Yazhou. The business of these Haihan people has expanded from Yazhou to Guangzhou.

, and also plans to develop further north. But at the same time, Li Jifeng also knows very well that the Haihan people probably do not have the real strength to expand northward, because as far as he knows, Mr. Shi, who is good at doing business, has recently been buying a boat in the market.

, this is enough to show that Haihan people still seriously lack transportation capacity.

Since there is not enough transportation capacity, why do they want to desperately inquire about the situation of the coastal forces in Fuguang? Li Jifeng believes that this is another little trick played by Schneider, and he wants to use it to seek certain benefits, such as establishing an alliance with a certain big company.

Get on the line with the maritime forces, and then directly sell arms, private salt and other materials to them. In this way, the intermediate link of "Furuifeng" can be eliminated, and the Haihan people can obtain more benefits from these businesses.

Li Jifeng has always been very guarded against such attempts. He knows that the biggest reason why Haihan people choose to cooperate with "Furuifeng" is because of their own sales network, and the so-called various agency rights are all

It is built on the fact that "Furuifeng" spreads across Fuzhou and Guangzhou. If the Haihan people established their own channels for selling goods, then the existing basis for cooperation between the two parties would no longer exist.

Although the Haihan people do not yet have enough maritime transport capacity to expand the northern route, in Li Jifeng's view, the Haihan people's trade ambitions will force them to open up the northern trade route as quickly as possible, and by then the Haihan people will definitely leave behind "Fu".

"Ruifeng" is looking for new local agents to cooperate with in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Jiangsu and Zhejiang are far richer than Fuzhou and Guangzhou, and there are many big merchants there. With the Haihan people's business methods, it is not difficult to find a better company than "Fuzhou"

Ruifeng" is a stronger partner. This is the situation Li Jifeng least wants to see.

Li Jifeng has been thinking about how to tie the interests of both parties together these days to prevent Haihan, the cash cow, from running away. Of course, he can continue to use various reasons to shirk the Haihan people's demands, and even give them to the Haihan people.

Using a small stumbling block to make their maritime trade develop less smoothly. But Li Jifeng did not dare to ensure that this trick could be hidden from the Han people, especially the extremely shrewd Mr. Schneidersch. If the two sides fell out, the maritime trade would not go smoothly.

The Han may soon find another partner in the city of Guangzhou.

Haihan products have become popular recently, and all the big merchants in Guangzhou are trying their best to find out where these things come from. Although "Furuifeng" has been carefully keeping secrets, the Haihan people have set up a point outside Guangzhou, exposing them to the public.

It is only a matter of time before it is exposed to the public eye. By then, a large number of businesses will definitely come to seek cooperation. If something goes wrong on the "Furuifeng" side and is caught by the other party, then the Haihan people deliberately left it in the agency agreement

I'm afraid those loopholes will come into play.

Schneider recently proposed this "most favored treatment", which gave Li Jifeng hope to solve this problem. If "Furuifeng" gets this treatment, then no matter which merchant the Haihan people choose to cooperate with in the future, at least "Furuifeng" will

can have the same competitiveness as it. From this perspective, Li Jifeng believes that it is worthwhile to inform the Haihan people some relatively confidential information. But what Li Jifeng is not sure about is where the upper and lower limits of the Haihan people are for this intelligence information.

, if the situation is leaked too much, will it have an adverse impact on our future maritime trade business on the southeast coast?

Li Jifeng thought about it again and again, but still felt a little uneasy. He picked up the tea cup on the table and took a sip. Just as he was about to put it down, he remembered something and said: "Don't use this big red robe when we serve tea. I bought it from Hangzhou this year."

Mr. Shi prefers the Yuqian Longjing.”

In the afternoon, Schneider came to visit on time. He Qiang went to the gate to pick up the person and led him into the inner hall to meet Li Jifeng. After a few words of greeting, the two took their seats. After the servants served tea, they were the only ones left in the hall.

Two people.

"Good tea!" Schneider praised after taking a sip: "The most authentic Longjing tea can only be drunk at Shopkeeper Li in Guangzhou!"

Li Jifeng smiled and said: "Since Mr. Shi likes it so much, I will send a few pounds to my house later."

After Schneider said a few polite words, he quickly got to the point: "I wonder what Shopkeeper Li has thought about the matter I mentioned to Manager He yesterday?"

Li Jifeng had met with Schneider several times, and he was used to his down-to-earth, down-to-earth style. He immediately responded: "The conditions offered by Mr. Shi are very good, but I don't know how to achieve this."

Most Favored Treatment' agreement?"

After yesterday's discussion at the Guangzhou Guangdong Office, Schneider already had a relatively comprehensive plan on how to proceed with this matter, and immediately explained it to Li Jifeng.

First of all, the Haihan side needs to understand the distribution of coastal forces in Fujian and Guangzhou. The more detailed the better. This area includes the area from the Pearl River Estuary to Wenzhou Prefecture adjacent to Fujian, as well as the waters of the Taiwan Strait. At the same time, Schneider also

He said that at present, it is just to understand the relevant situation. In the short term, Haihan will not get involved in the shipping business between Fuzhou and Guangzhou, and has no intention to compete with "Furuifeng" for customers. The purpose of understanding these situations is just to let the executive

The committee is simply assessing the risks of expanding trade channels northward.

Secondly, the goods sent by "Furuifeng" to Fujian must be supervised by Haihan, and some goods are prohibited from being sold to merchants or local forces on the blacklist provided by Haihan, even if they are resold through middlemen.

, once discovered, Haihan will immediately terminate the exclusive agency rights of "Furuifeng" for all products in Fuzhou and Guangzhou.

Li Jifeng was mentally prepared for these two requirements, but he did not fully believe the reasons explained by Schneider. Although the Haihan people are very trustworthy, it does not mean that they are a very rigid group of people, quite the opposite.

Yes, everything the Haihan people do has a purpose, but sometimes the means they adopt make it unclear what their purpose is, just like the current situation. Li Jifeng believes that what Schneider said, "The Haihan Executive Committee needs

"Assessing risks" is just an excuse, and at the same time, this excuse also prepares countermeasures for the uncooperative attitude that his side may adopt - then Schneider can use "The Executive Committee believes that the risk of the Fu-Guang sea route is too great" and the like

For this reason, we openly refused to cooperate with "Fu Ruifeng" in Fujian and even the coastal provinces further north.

"Looks like loyalty, but is actually cunning!" Li Jifeng secretly commented to Schneider in his heart. However, Schneider would definitely not care about this kind of evaluation. With his thick skin, he would probably interpret Li Jifeng's resentful evaluation as a criticism of his professionalism.

Praise.

As for the second request made by Schneider, it did not surprise Li Jifeng, because the Haihan people had already jumped out to point fingers in the first batch of arms sales and did not agree with "Furuifeng" to sell these arms.

They gave it to the Fujian pirate gang "Eighteen Zhi", but they could only sell it to Xu Xinsu, a large merchant in Xiamen named by them.

If it weren't for the huge profits in the arms business, with hundreds or thousands of taels in profit from trafficking a cannon, Li Jifeng would definitely not tolerate these Haihan people interfering in his own business. After all, there are frequent wars in Fujian, so the arms business can continue for a long time.

Even if Li Jifeng had trouble with the Haihan people, he would not have trouble with money. In order to be able to receive large arms orders from Fujian in the future, Li Jifeng decided to endure this tone first.

However, he did not expect that the Haihan people would go even further this time and directly demand "supervision power" and a "ban on sales" that could take effect at any time. Li Jifeng found this both difficult to understand and unacceptable.

"Mr. Shi, both parties are willing to cooperate in buying and selling. Don't you think that such a move is akin to forced buying and selling?" Li Jifeng is also considered a somewhat sophisticated person. He did not get angry because of this, but tried to refute the other party verbally.

.

Of course, if Schneider would admit defeat verbally, then he would not be listed as one of the five big talkers of the Cross Travel Group. Regarding Li Jifeng's question, Schneider had already prepared an answer: "Shopkeeper Li, we made this request

The reason is not to interfere with your freedom of doing business, but to ensure that our business on the southeast coast can continue safely and steadily for a long time. What can be sold and what cannot be sold, who can buy it and who cannot buy it

, these are all decisions made after careful discussion by our executive committee. They are not just empty words, and we can sing whatever comes to mind. To put it simply, you can understand this as a sales strategy, and we require supervision rights.

Just to ensure that this strategy can be implemented."

Li Jifeng was confused by what he said. He seemed to understand, but he didn't seem to mention anything substantive at all. Li Jifeng secretly thought about it for a while before responding: "If you ask me to do something, then

At least you should tell us clearly why you are doing this instead of trying to explain it with words!"

Schneider picked up the tea cup and pretended to drink tea, thinking to himself that this old guy actually understood quite well, and it seemed that he couldn't restrain himself without using some killing moves.

Schneider put down the teacup and said seriously: "Since Shopkeeper Li must want to know the reason, I will reveal it appropriately. However, the law is not passed down to the ears. I hope Shopkeeper Li will die after hearing what I said here today.

In my heart, otherwise I am afraid that something bad will happen to me."

Li Jifeng sneered in his heart, you are a literate scholar and you still want to scare me with your words? I went to sea with my parents when I was twelve years old. I have seen a lot of pirates, soldiers and Westerners. I have nothing to be afraid of.

Although Li Jifeng disagreed in his heart, he still said calmly: "Just like Mr. Shi said, I must keep it a secret."

Schneider nodded and said, "I'll take Fujian as an example. It's been almost two years since the 'Eighteen Zhi' fought with Xu Xinsu in Xiamen, right?"

Li Jifeng was startled and thought to himself that Schneider didn't know anything. He even knew when the fighting would start and how long it would last. He nodded in agreement and waited for Schneider to continue.

"I know that your bank has business dealings with both warring parties. I would like to ask, will Shopkeeper Li clearly choose one side to support?" Schneider asked.

Li Jifeng shook his head and said: "The Bihang family is not the only one who has dealings with them. Any maritime merchant who wants to do business in Fujian waters will maintain a certain relationship with these two families to avoid being affected by Chiyu. As for supporting one of them... this war

Both sides are strong, and until the winner is decided, who dares to easily choose sides? If you make a mistake and bet on the wrong thing, wouldn't you be asking for trouble? Whoever is willing to pay, I will do it with.

Business, it’s that simple.”

"In Shopkeeper Li's opinion, which side has a greater chance of winning in the end?" Schneider continued to ask.

Li Jifeng thought for a while and then said: "I think the 'Eighteen Zhi' are just a group of pirates. Although there are heroes like Zheng Yiguan leading the army, Da Yuan Island is short of materials and difficult to supply, and Xu Xinsu is backed by the mainland and has a navy.

The general title brings many conveniences, and if it is delayed for a few more years, it stands to reason that Zheng Yiguan will also be wasted to death."

Schneider nodded repeatedly after hearing this. If he was not familiar with this period of history, he would probably have similar thoughts to Li Jifeng. Regardless of whether these people under Xu Xinsu were listed or not, they could still be regarded as the regular army of the Ming Dynasty. They had no worries about supplies from the mainland.

Since he had enough money to build ships and buy weapons, there was no way he would lose to a group of pirates. This was probably the reason why Li Jifeng originally planned to sell the weapons to "Eighteen Zhi"

one.

"Then if I say that Zheng Yiguan will win this battle in the end, what do you think?" Schneider asked with a smile.

Li Jifeng frowned and did not answer his question immediately. Instead, he thought about it in his mind. If the Haihan people were more optimistic about Zheng Yiguan, it would be easy to explain their previous interference behavior - selling arms to "Ten

"Bazhi" has only one function, and that is to speed up the end of this battle, and this obviously does not meet the interests of the Haihan people as arms dealers.

Li Jifeng thought for a moment and then said: "Why are you so optimistic about Zheng Yiguan? It should be noted that the two red-haired people are not helping each other now, and Xu Xinsu has the support of the Fujian government behind him. I really don't see how Zheng Yiguan can win.

Opportunity...perhaps you think that in one or two years, the war situation will change and it is hard to say that the situation will take a turn for the worse, but I dare not make any hasty judgments."

Schneider shook his head and said: "This is not a rash conclusion, it is an inference after our rigorous research. It doesn't have to wait until two years later, next year Xu Xinsu will be defeated by Zhongzuo Suo, and his own life will be lost there.

.You don’t have to look at me in such surprise. This is bound to happen. If we sell the weapons to the 'Eighteen Zhi', then Xu Xinsu will probably be defeated before he can survive next year. You know what that means.

What are you wearing?"

Li Jifeng said in astonishment: "It means...from now on, Fujian has stopped its activities and the demand for purchasing weapons has dropped sharply?"
To be continued...