Chapter 854 Shuangyu Waterway

The Haihan military did not hesitate to spend huge military expenditures to promote this expedition to Zhoushan, Zhejiang. In addition to its own expansion needs, the military was also very optimistic about the economic benefits of this operation. Many generals believed that this expedition was extremely valuable.

It may exceed what was seized when attacking the rebel city in southern Annam in the early years. However, so far, the coalition fleet has fought against some sporadic small groups of pirates along the coast of Zhejiang. There is some gold and silver property seized, but the amount is far from the military's point of view.

It was not much, and it had to be shared with the allies of the Ming army who were traveling with them. Therefore, the military had always placed relatively high expectations on how much could be captured in the final target of the Zhoushan Islands.

The secret casino Xu Ke and Zhao Cheng discovered on the Haisha Gang's territory at the southern end of Liuheng Island is a huge treasure cave. Maybe the seizure of this place can be worth the entire expedition of the coalition fleet.

Military expenditures have been spent. Xu Ke may not yet know how significant this place is to the coalition forces, but Zhao Cheng knows that this unexpected discovery will definitely be a great achievement if reported back, even more important than the original task of reconnaissance of the port.

In order to avoid complications, the two of them went back to their room and took no further action. They stayed there peacefully until the next day. Apart from the secret casino they accidentally learned about last night, there was really nothing else in this small port.

How much content can be scouted can basically be seen at a glance. The Haisha Gang has set up checkpoints in various passages, making it almost impossible for them to explore places outside the port. They can only choose to leave the port after replenishing supplies.

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In order to get a glimpse of the true nature of the nearby Haisha Gang ship port, Xu Ke's ship waited until three o'clock in the morning and the morning fog on the sea dissipated before setting off. This small port on the west side is larger than the two ports on the east used for foreign trade.

The port is much smaller, only about half as deep, and it is easier to observe the situation inside the port.

In order to give Zhao Cheng more observation time, Xu Ke asked the sailors to lower the sails by half and slowly glide across the sea outside the harbor. Zhao Cheng lay on the side of the ship, covered with thick canvas and fishing nets as cover

, use binoculars to observe the situation in the harbor. There are two small piers in the east and north of the harbor, with almost no obstruction. Zhao Cheng can have a clear view of the situation in the harbor with binoculars.

Most of the sailboats in the Haisha Gang are small ships that are common in the offshore. Zhao Cheng estimates that the displacement is less than fifty tons. Several sailboats with a displacement of more than a hundred tons are already more conspicuous in the harbor. The real displacement is close to that of an exploration-class warship.

, the main warship that can be considered a "big ship" by Ming standards, there are only two or three lucky ships in the port.

This level of equipment makes Zhao Cheng slightly disappointed. Except for a few more ships, the equipment level of the Haisha Gang does not seem to be much better than that of its counterparts in the waters of southern Zhejiang. If the strength of the Haisha Gang is like this, then the combined fleet

Just sending a small team to fight is enough to crush these pirate ships.

After the ship sailed some distance away from the port, Zhao Chengcai emerged from the bunker, carefully handed the telescope to his men and put it into a special moisture-proof sealed box, and then stopped to wipe his sweat. Although it was only April,

I had just been covered in a pile of airtight canvas for more than an hour, and it was really uncomfortable to be stuffy and hot.

"How come there are only so many ships in the Haisha Gang?" Zhao Cheng showed Xu Ke the results of counting the ships in the harbor with the help of a telescope. He was not completely convinced of what he observed.

Xu Ke also felt that this was not very consistent with what he knew beforehand. He scratched his head and replied: "I don't know, maybe some of their ships have gone to sea! If the Haisha Gang can occupy a place here, it must not be too weak.

.”

Zhao Cheng frowned slightly, not satisfied with the reconnaissance results. According to the confession of Qianhu Ma Ling from Shipu Guards Station, there were nearly two thousand armed personnel of the Haisha Gang and more than fifty armed sailing ships. But in the past two days,

Judging from the situation detected, Zhao Cheng only saw about a dozen armed sailing ships, and the others were at most fishing boats or cargo ships. It seemed that they were not the entire maritime armed force of this group of pirates. He was not worried that the pirates could rely on

What kind of ambush could this small number of troops create? Instead, they were worried that if the coalition fleet launched an attack, it would be difficult to wipe out the Haisha Gang in one fell swoop.

However, according to the plan, Zhao Cheng did not have time to linger in this small port. There was a second stop in this operation waiting for them to reconnoiter, which was the Shuangyu Waterway at the northwest end of Liuheng Island.

Shuangyu Waterway is the waterway between Liuheng Island and the adjacent Fodu Island. Fodu Island is located to the west of Liuheng Island. It has a zigzag coastline, long and narrow headlands, and numerous mouths. It is said that there are nine creeks and eighteen creeks. It is said that Guanyin Master

Before finding Mount Putuo, I stopped on this island for a transition, hence the name Fodu.

Fodu Island is only less than two kilometers away from Liuheng Island. The two islands face each other across the sea and guard each other. There are many small harbors on the coastline on one side of Liuheng Island that can be used to dock ships. Although the one with the best conditions is naturally

The port had been filled in by the Ming army during the Jiajing period. Over the past hundred years, smugglers and pirates have successively developed and built other ports here. According to Ma Ling's confession and Xu Ke's knowledge, this place is currently

At least four ports are still in operation, and the force controlling these ports is another group of pirates on Liuheng Island, the "Sanlin Gang".

Sanlinbang occupies a longer coastline than Haishabang, but the port conditions are not as good as the three side-by-side harbors in Haishabang. The depth of these small harbors on the west coast of Liuheng Island is very shallow, and the effect of sheltering from wind and waves is not as good.

The harbor on the southeast side, but because it is closer to Ningbo Fucheng, has a slight advantage in terrain, and has the bonus of the century-old name of Shuangyu Port, many smugglers are still willing to choose the Sanlin Gang's territory as a trading place.

According to Ma Ling, the Sanlin Gang is backed by local officials in Ningbo. Therefore, although its armed strength is not as good as that of its rival Haisha Gang on the same island, no one dares to provoke them easily. It is still some distance from Shuangyu Waterway.

, Xu Ke took out the flag issued by the Sanlin Gang and asked the sailors to hang it on the mast. At the same time, he replaced the flag of the Haisha Gang. Of course, he had exchanged these two flags with money before.

Only with this thing can we travel safely in the sea areas controlled by these armed forces.

After Zhao Cheng completed the task, he had to get into the bunker of canvas and fishing nets again to observe various port facilities and ships on the shore. What surprised Zhao Cheng slightly was that although the port conditions here were not as good as those of the competition.

Rivals, but there are more merchant ships berthing here for trade than the ports in Haisha Gang.

Following Xu Ke's suggestion, the ship went straight to a port at the northern end of Shuangyu Waterway. It is said that this is also the location of the new Shuangyu Port. Zhao Cheng noticed that there were no less than fifty merchant ships densely parked in this harbor, and

The housing density on the pier on the shore is also significantly higher than that of its counterparts in the south, and it seems that the business situation is good.

The Sanlin Gang has also deployed many small boats in Shuangyu Waterway for surveillance and early warning purposes. However, because the harbors here are relatively small, there are no special arrangements for small boats to pilot. As long as the ships carry the Sanlin flag on the mast, they will

They can all enter the port and berth on their own. Xu Ke has been here before to stop ships for supplies, and introduced to Zhao Cheng: "Master Zhao, please look at the two-color flag on the pier, the trestle and the pier hung with red cloth.

It’s a place that’s already occupied, so you can’t park at will. If you see the one with a blue cloth hanging on it, it means you can park there if there is space.”

After observing for a while, Zhao Cheng said: "The people who manage this port are quite smart. It is not easy for such a small and crowded port to be so orderly."

In fact, a similar port traffic command system has long been popularized in the ports under Haihan's rule, and it is more comprehensive and scientific. The two heads of the Maritime Department are professionals with professional backgrounds, and their knowledge of port planning and operation is far beyond the

In this era, although it is impossible to completely copy the port management system from centuries later to this era, some modifications based on local conditions are enough to make the operational efficiency of Haihan Port greatly exceed the average level at this time.

Zhao Cheng was indeed a little surprised to see such measures in a port operated by smugglers. In terms of port terminal utilization efficiency, it must have surpassed the Haisha Gang.

After the ship docks, staff at the pier will board the ship to register the owner and the purpose of docking. The defense here is obviously looser than the Haishabang Pier that I have been to before. After registration, you can disembark on your own without asking for permission.

Activity. Xu Ke said that he came here to supply supplies and see what goods could be bought back to Xiangshan. The person in charge of registration took the initiative to recommend them to go to the exchange on the island to have a look.

"Is there an exchange on this island?" Zhao Cheng was a little surprised after hearing this, but did not immediately ask about the exit. The fact that a trading port has such a fixed and public institution as the exchange shows that the trade volume here has reached a

To a considerable extent, only when both buying and selling are prosperous can such specialized trading institutions emerge. The major trading ports on Hainan Island all have commodity exchanges established by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce, and Zhao Cheng has also seen them.

He really wanted to see the operating conditions of the exchange run by pirates and smugglers.

Xu Ke had come here in passing before, and had never seen the exchange on the island. So after the two of them landed, they asked for directions. It was not far from the pier, so they walked along the stone road. Towards the southeast.

After walking out of Li Xu Land, we saw the so-called exchange.

This exchange is actually a house. You can't tell how big it is from the outside, but the walls on both sides of the gate extend to a width of twenty or thirty feet. The main entrance actually has no door, but looks like an archway.

The gatehouse had the words "Shuangyu Commercial Port" written on it. The two of them entered the courtyard without stopping at the door for too long.

The first entrance to the courtyard is actually a small square courtyard without any houses. Instead, there are many three-inch wide and two-foot-long wooden signs hanging on the walls surrounding the courtyard, with white wooden signs of the same width stuck on them.

There seemed to be some words written on the paper. Many people stood in front of the wall and browsed these wooden signs. Some people still held charcoal paper in their hands and copied something from time to time.

The two of them took a closer look. It turned out that the wooden sign contained information on various commodities to be traded. It contained a brief introduction to the goods, a quotation, and the number of the dock where the cargo owner's ship was docked. Some cargo owners also stored the goods at

In the warehouse on the island, it was also stated at the back that the Sanlin Gang could collect payment and deliver the goods.

The two of them looked around for a while and found that the goods information on these walls were actually classified by place of origin. For example, the goods on the east wall were from the north of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, while the goods on the west side were from the area of ​​origin.

From the area south of the Yangtze River, the goods from Japan, Ryukyu, and Korea are on the south wall, while the goods from Southeast Asia are on the north side. After looking at the goods for a long time, merchants can rest for a while on the stone benches and wooden benches in the middle.

Continue to look for the goods you like. If you find them, you can enter the courtyard at the back through the doors on the wall and go through the goods transaction procedures with the Sanlin Gang.

Xu Ke asked several merchants and found out that all transactions here will be charged by the Sanlin Gang as intermediary fees. A simple calculation shows that the income earned by the Sanlin Gang is also quite large, and after the market is formed, the number of customers and goods will increase.

In terms of stability, this business idea is undoubtedly far ahead of its competitor Haisha Bang.

Zhao Cheng believes that this model also has many similarities with the exchange at the port under Haihan's rule, especially the way of listing goods to be traded to seek buyers, which is one of the characteristics of Haihan Exchange. Zhao Cheng

I have some suspicion that maybe someone brought Haihan’s operating methods to Zhejiang and followed the example to create this trading system. However, compared with the exchanges established by relatively mature commercial ports such as Sanya Port and Shengli Port, the operations here are

The method is still in its infancy, especially for the settlement and delivery of goods. Without the support of Haihan's unique financial system, most transactions must be delivered in cash, requiring inspection of quality and weight, and the efficiency is definitely incomparable.

Haihan’s paper currency transaction method.

But the Sanlin Gang was able to come up with this set of things. There is no doubt that there are knowledgeable experts behind it, which makes Zhao Cheng a little impressed. Compared with the Haisha Gang's underground casino, the Sanlin Gang's trading system is obviously more sustainable.

Long-term relationships with trading partners. Even those merchants who will not trade directly with the Sanlin Gang will use this place as their first choice market because of the complete range of goods and timely release of information. Such an operating philosophy actually

It is very close to Haihan's original concept of positioning Victory Port and Sanya Port as the first port. If given time, maybe they can build a decent large-scale trading port off the coast of Ningbo, or even

It is to recreate the glory of Shuangyu Port a hundred years ago.
Chapter completed!