Chapter 2186

Although the Huizhou salt merchants have some connections in Yingtian Mansion, which can temporarily prevent the Yangzhou government from making small moves too obvious, these high-ranking connections ultimately need to use a large amount of money to continuously support them, and silver is something they can

Yes, of course your opponent can also give it, it just depends on who is more willing to spend money at this juncture.

As the battle in Yangzhou becomes more and more intense, the main business of the Huizhou salt merchants has been greatly affected, and their income has been greatly reduced. It is really difficult to compete with opponents for financial resources. Considering that opponents are also likely to pay for their own protection,

Therefore, Dai Yingda and others did not dare to completely count on the protection from Yingtian Mansion.

Under such circumstances, it has become increasingly important to obtain military assistance from Zhoushan. Although there are still some disputes among the Huizhou salt merchants about the details of the cooperation, everyone agrees that it is necessary to obtain the support of Haihan at the moment.

To this end, a certain degree of compromise can be temporarily made.

Providing money and people is not a big problem for the Huizhou salt merchants. After all, life and death are coming soon. If you don't fight now, it will be worse. Moreover, the reputation of Haihan people is better than that of those who only care about money but not people.

The officials are much more reliable, and there is no need to worry about the partner's position swinging.

Of course, the most important thing is that when they go to the officials to seek help, they will just give a mouthful. At most, they can only ease the situation, but they cannot fundamentally solve the problem. But it is different when they go to Haihan. The people of Haihan

It won't be just a bluff, as long as its vital interests are involved, there will be no ambiguity. What kind of posture they will take, Yangzhou has already had a precedent last year.

Even though the Haihan people emphasized that the so-called assistance did not include extreme measures such as sending troops, in the eyes of Dai Yingda and others, it was far better than the useless talk of local officials. What's more, the Haihan side has made it clear that it can

The sale of high-end weapons will be released to them, and short-term military training will be provided to the personnel selected by the salt merchants to help them form the musketeers they dream of.

Huizhou salt merchants have always believed that their biggest disadvantage is that their military methods are not strong enough and they lack a team that can fight hard. Cooperation with Haihan can solve this problem that has troubled them for a long time. If you take a longer-term view, this

This way of solving the problem is obviously more cost-effective than hiring Haihan to send troops. After having your own musketeers, you no longer need to pin your hopes on others for many things.

But of course it is not said that the musketeers will be available immediately. The training time suggested by Haihan may last for about a hundred days. During this period, the Huizhou salt merchants still need Haihan to provide force protection.

"When the brothers from Jindun arrived in Yangzhou, I immediately felt much safer! I believe that with Shopkeeper Yuan leading the team here, the gangsters in Yangzhou City should be restrained!" Dai Yingda did not hide his gratitude to Yuan Tao.

feeling.

Other salt merchants were also unambiguous, and started a new round of fancy flattery. If Yuan Tao hadn't traveled all over the country in the past few years and contacted many wealthy businessmen of the Ming Dynasty, he would have been stunned by their series of flattery.

But Yuan Tao knows very well that businessmen are businessmen, and even if they flatter themselves, they will pay for it. Moreover, these guys who can stand out in the fiercely competitive group of salt merchants must all be as smart as ghosts. Praising themselves now is probably for the future.

If they make requests to themselves more smoothly, they might be encouraged to take the initiative and deal with their opponents in Yangzhou City on their behalf.

Yuan Tao responded calmly: "You're welcome! Yuan came to Yangzhou this time mainly to complete the tasks assigned by the above and protect your personal safety. If someone is not discerning and comes to trouble you, then

The brothers under Yuan will naturally teach them how to behave."

Yuan Tao deliberately emphasized the content of his mission again. Jin Dun only came to Yangzhou to protect the personal safety of Huizhou salt merchants, and had no other action content.

Dai Yingda's expression did not change when he heard this, and he still responded very calmly: "The situation in Yangzhou is complicated, and next there will be shopkeeper Lao Yuan!"

Yuan Tao felt that the conversation was almost complete, and there were still some more sensitive topics. He preferred to communicate with Dai Yingda alone in private, but it was obviously not a suitable environment at the moment. Yuan Tao then proposed that he wanted to see where his subordinates stayed.

.

Last year, Daijiazhuang built several new yards in order to accommodate other salt merchants who might come to take refuge. However, the situation improved later, so these yards have been empty and not really used. This time Jindun was arranged to come to Yangzhou

After moving into Daijiazhuang, Dai Yingda happened to make use of the few empty yards.

However, there were too many people coming to Jindun, which exceeded the normal reception capacity of these courtyards, so all the rooms could only be vacated and used as bedrooms.

Daijiazhuang couldn't get so many beds at the moment, and in order to avoid attracting the attention of opponents, it couldn't go to Yangzhou City for large-scale purchases, so everyone was accommodated here, but most people could only sleep on the floor temporarily.

"We are in such a hurry that we really don't have time to prepare enough beds for Jindun's brothers, but I promise Shopkeeper Yuan here that everything will be solved within five days!" Dai Yingda, who accompanied Yuan Tao to visit Jindun's station, noticed that the other party looked a little worried.

He immediately explained the reason.

Yuan Tao nodded and said: "If it's only three to five days, my brothers will be able to carry it. But if you want to be stationed here for a long time, you need to maintain a good state to deal with emergencies, so the environment of the station is

I'd better trouble Master Dai to put in more effort and make the brothers' stay a little more comfortable."

Yuan Tao can understand Dai Yingda's explanation. After all, the preparation time left for them is limited. It is not bad to be able to arrange to live in such a compound in Daijiazhuang. However, Yuan Tao estimates how long this residence will be used.

It depends on the changes in the local situation. If the opponent wants to avoid Daijiazhuang and attack the estates of other salt merchants, then the people who cannot say that Jindun will have to split off another part to protect other salt merchants.

At this time, the members of the Golden Shield who had finished the reception banquet also came back one after another. Although they lived in Daijiazhuang and the environment was relatively safe, these members still arranged their own night watch personnel to guard the front and rear gates of the yard as they usually did when performing tasks outside.

, key locations such as the main room roof.

"They are indeed professionals, and they do things carefully." Dai Yingda was very impressed when he saw that the first thing these members did after they came back was to set up defenses.

Yuan Tao has long been accustomed to this, and he responded after hearing this: "It's a little late today, and it's too late to take over the defense of your village. I will personally lead the team tomorrow to redeploy the defense of your village."

Yuan Tao's words were taken for granted, and it seemed that he had no intention of asking Dai Yingda for his opinion. Dai Yingda smiled bitterly, nodded and said, "Then there will be shopkeeper Lao Yuan!"

The two walked into the courtyard. Yuan Tao stepped back and asked Dai Yingda: "Master Dai, have you selected the personnel you want to send to Zhoushan for training?"

Dai Yingda did not dare to neglect and responded in detail: "After receiving the news from Boss Ma from Zhoushan, our several salt merchants have initially selected more than 70 people from each company. Speaking of this matter, I just wanted to ask for advice.

Shopkeeper Yuan, how many people should be sent to Zhoushan? What are the specific requirements for trainees?"

Yuan Tao responded: "Any young and strong man with good health and no disabilities is acceptable. Of course, it is best to have a good brain, so that you can learn things faster. As for the number of people... you can find some more people as appropriate.

Control it between one hundred and two and one hundred and five!"

The number reported by Yuan Tao is roughly based on the establishment of a company. This is also the meaning of the Military Intelligence Bureau. This is to control the size of the musketeers and facilitate formation during training. Ji Yuanqing even hopes that Yuan Tao can be in Yangzhou first

Screen the personnel selected by the salt dealer and eliminate those whose conditions are obviously not suitable.

Haihan thought that the Yangzhou salt merchants might be preparing to send a large number of people to satisfy their desire to use force to deal with their opponents. However, they did not expect that the salt merchants were quite restrained and have only selected more than 70 people so far.

, this even reached the bottom line of the ideal number expected by Haihan, and Yuan Tao had to suggest Dai Yingda to increase the number of selected personnel.

Dai Yingda's face was calm, but he was overjoyed in his heart. He was originally worried that Haihan would deliberately hide his secrets and limit the number of people who could go to Zhoushan to learn the "True Tradition" to a very small number, but now it seems that he is overthinking it.

If we can have an establishment of more than a hundred people, then compared to the opponent's musketeer team, our own team will not suffer in terms of the size of the establishment. If we add in the advantages in weapons, tactics, etc., we can definitely beat the opponent.

.

However, despite being happy, Dai Yingda can't help but have some worries. The more than 70 young men they have selected so far are almost all elites trained by each family since childhood. Not only can they read and write, but most of them have practiced some martial arts.

It can be said that he is a talented person with both civil and military skills. It is not difficult to expand the selection. After all, the seven major surnames are also big families, and there are many younger generations. However, the people selected again may not be as reliable as these dozens of people, and

There will definitely be differences in personal abilities.

In addition, Dai Yingda also had another concern that he didn't dare to mention to Yuan Tao, that is, he was worried that these elites would be brainwashed by the Haihan people when they were sent to Zhoushan for training. They would become subordinates of the Haihan people and marry them in vain.

Clothes.

This is not unfounded concern by Dai Yingda. He had previously learned about Haihan's methods of attracting immigrants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in recent years. Some of them were poor people from various places who took the initiative to seek refuge in order to make a living. In addition, the Haihan people would entrust the local immigrants to

Through intermediaries such as banks, high-paying craftsmen with certain production skills were hired to settle in Haihan.

In addition, the Haihan Association holds some completely free activities from time to time, inviting famous young scholars and businessmen from various places to visit Zhoushan and other places. After this kind of seemingly sightseeing tour,

After the event, some people often choose to move to Haihan and settle down, and even soon become Haihan citizens, abandoning their current status and becoming Haihan people.

According to the information Dai Yingda learned, Haihan will continue to instill various consciousnesses in these people during the process, making them think that Haihan is the utopia on earth that can realize their dreams, so they give up their current identities and join Haihan.

Chinese.

Haihan spared no effort to attract these people, naturally because of the special social value of these people. Although Dai Yingda hoped that Haihan could save the current unfavorable situation of Huizhou salt merchants, he also did not want the elites among the younger generations of the seven major surnames.

Bewitched by Haihan, he became their pawn, and even changed his identity to become a Haihan person.

This time, the training time may be as long as a hundred days. Just imagine staying in a closed environment like the military for such a long time. It is difficult to guarantee whether they will be brainwashed by the Haihan people. If they spend a lot of money,

The soldiers who were trained ended up taking orders from Haihan, and might even monitor him in turn. Wouldn't that be a huge loss?

He was worried, but Dai Yingda had no way to prevent this situation from happening. In order to protect the seven surnames, he had to hand these juniors into the hands of the Haihan people and let them receive all-round training. What would they look like in the end?

, whether these people can continue to be loyal to the seven surnames after they return from their studies, Dai Yingda can probably only pray to God for blessing.

Then I heard Yuan Tao continue to say: "Master Dai, if these people you have selected have children with foreign surnames, you must remember to find out their family backgrounds and be careful to prevent people from the other family from sneaking in, which will cause endless troubles! Also!

, it is best to decide who will command these people in the future, otherwise when they come back, there may be a lot of competition for the position of commander."

Only then did Dai Yingda understand why Yuan Tao deliberately chose a one-on-one occasion to talk to him about this matter. This team will definitely become a weapon for Huizhou salt merchants in the future, and those who want to master this weapon will definitely not

If it is not done well, it is very likely that this team will fall apart at the beginning of its formation. Yuan Tao's reminder is indeed necessary.

"Thank you, Shopkeeper Yuan, for the tip! We have initially reached a consensus on the candidate for commander, and the dog Dai Chengrong will be the one to take over. As for the family backgrounds of these candidates, we will also check them carefully to ensure that nothing goes wrong."

Dai Yingda felt that Yuan Tao was quite kind. If the Haihan people were harboring evil intentions, he would not have raised these issues at all. Now it seemed that he was a little too worried.

Yuan Tao was thinking about the young man he had met at the Jie Feng Banquet before, and it seemed that he did not have much conversation with him. After all, almost all the people at the table at that time were his uncles and elders, and they did not leave anything for him to say.

Chance.

In such an important position, Dai Yingda was recognized by everyone for his ability to promote talents without avoiding relatives, which shows that his prestige among the seven surnames is indeed very high. Yuan Tao decided to talk to this young man tomorrow to see what else he has.

What's the quality like?

But before that, Yuan Tao had to get a good sleep. It had been a long time since he had stayed overnight on the boat for several days in a row. He didn't have a good rest. Now he had to make up for the sleep he had gained in the past few days.
Chapter completed!