Chai Shao was stunned for a moment, it seemed like there was indeed something going on here.
Li Sheng nodded and continued, "Because His Majesty wants all merchants to sell goods from the Tang Dynasty as much as possible so that gold and silver can be collected. But many merchants bring gold and silver to purchase.
Curious goods from overseas, which will lead to the loss of gold and silver in Datang."
"If you want to avoid this kind of thing, you need to find ways to encourage one side and suppress the other side. This is what the Tang Dynasty is currently doing, and this is also the case with the ultimatum some time ago. However... some merchants
, they don’t need ultimatums.”
"No need for an ultimatum?"
Chai Shao couldn't help but be startled, they had killed a lot of pirates recently.
Either detect the den and land for crusade, or hunt directly at sea, or pretend to be a merchant ship to fish and kill them. In short, the harvest is not small, but...
It is also because the harvest is not small. Chai Shao is more aware than ordinary people of how terrifying the number of pirates has been recently. Ordinary merchants know that they cannot afford to offend them. After all, there are too many good guys.
In this case, how come there are merchants who don’t need ultimatums?
this……
Chai Shao frowned, but he also felt enlightened and knew that things seemed to be more complicated this time, so he probably wasn't doing anything sneaky.
As if hearing his thoughts, Li Sheng smiled slightly and nodded.
"What Chai Gong thought was right, some pirates were originally merchants who changed jobs or pretended to be businessmen. Let's not talk about these..."
What Li Sheng meant was that although these pirates were merchants taking risks or pretending to be merchants, they could be directly regarded as pirates and were no different from other pirates.
"But now, some merchants...well, how should I say? They have not engaged in any pirate activities - of course, it is not ruled out that they will engage in it in the future, but now, although this group of people did not rob, they did it for His Majesty
It’s caused a lot of trouble!”
"oh?"
Chai Shao was startled, "What do you mean?"
"To put it simply, His Majesty hopes that merchants can take the goods of the Tang Dynasty to trade and exchange them for gold and silver to reserve strength for the future of the Tang Dynasty. But there are many merchants who are not so afraid because of their strong strength.
Pirates, this group of people are able to still export gold and silver at sea without any formalities!"
"Chai Gong, let's think about it. Exporting gold and silver... can Your Majesty be happy? Anyway, I'm not happy. There will be many places to spend money in the Tang Dynasty in the future. How can it be lost like this?"
When Li Sheng said this, Chai Shao immediately understood.
This was the Zhenguan era in the early Tang Dynasty, not the Kaiyuan era, and the time for the end of the troubled times was still very short.
And what is the most abundant thing in troubled times? Of course, it is the various warlords who raise private soldiers all over the world.
Nowadays, although the Tang Dynasty has been established, there is no need to raise private soldiers anymore, but there are still people who raise dead soldiers, and there are many of them!
This group of people is going to sea, so the ships are naturally not at the same level as ordinary merchants when armed, and their combat effectiveness is naturally not low.
If such a group of people follow Li Er's guidance to earn gold and silver, then it will naturally be a good thing - because it will save the court a lot of troops to deal with pirate bandits.
But if these people want to purchase exotic goods from overseas to make profits, it will be very troublesome...
The strategy of guiding merchants through differentiated military and social security will not work, because the pirates are not able to deal with these people.
Chai Shao finally understood what Li Sheng meant!
The problem lies with this rather special group of maritime trade merchants.
But Chai Shao thought about it and still felt a little confused, "But pirates are not vegetarians. There are times when the Forbidden Army overturns and is defeated. Even if this group of people has some private military force, how can they withstand so many pirates?"
Chai Shao felt a little strange!
After all, when doing business at sea, if you can repel nine waves of pirate invasions, you are awesome. But if you fail in one wave, you will lose all your money, including the ship and the crew.
At present, being a pirate is a popular "job" among all the heroes in the world of Zhenguan. There are so many pirates... In this environment, the ants will kill the elephant to death.
Chai Shao felt that this was the case. Since the problem of pirates was still something that no merchant could truly withstand, how could they not need an ultimatum?
However, this problem is not a problem at all in Li Sheng's view.
"Chai Gong, you are still kind. You must know that it is difficult to do business at sea. The price of exotic goods from overseas has naturally risen... But after all, the price rises based on the difficulty of doing business for ordinary merchants. But at this time, if there are some merchants,
They can resist pirates to a certain extent, so the cost of purchasing goods for this group of people will be much lower than that of ordinary merchants. In this way, they can make huge profits by purchasing exotic goods from overseas!"
"This...god!"
Chai Shao was immediately taken aback, and now he understood completely.
Originally he was a warrior and didn't know much about business. His only understanding of the economy was about food and grass issues.
However, Chai Shao really learned a lot about all aspects of operating Zhongzuosuo Island for such a long time and dealing with maritime merchants every day.
Now he really understood what Li Sheng meant. Being able to resist pirates was like an ordinary peddler of smuggled salt being able to resist the imperial army.
Then the cost of these hawkers selling private salt is much lower than that of other hawkers... Isn't this huge profits?
And hearing this...
After Chai Shao was shocked, he fell into deep thought...
After pondering for a while, when Chai Shao raised his head again, his eyes became extremely firm.
Li Sheng's explanation finally made Chai Shao understand the problem.
Aren't these pirates just a gang of smugglers in salt?
Selling smuggled salt is not a heinous business, but considering that the profits from official salt are used for disaster relief, military construction, water conservancy projects, etc., isn't smuggling salt a crime?
Chai Shao quickly understood this truth and finally knew what Li Sheng wanted him to do.
"So... what the Holy Marquis means is..."
Chai Shao guessed what he said, and when he saw that Li Sheng had no intention of refuting and showed a smile, his expression immediately relaxed.
Since we are doing our old job, it is not easy!
As a famous general in Lingyan Pavilion, Chai Shao's martial virtues are not in vain. He immediately patted his chest and bowed his hands in an extremely formal salute to Li Sheng!
"In this case, I understand what the Holy Commander means! All we have to do is wait for three thousand elite soldiers and five large ships to arrive at a certain point..."
Chai Shao went straight into a state of rhetoric, after all...
What the hell, how dare a mere merchant to be disobedient, why don’t you just deal with it yourself?
Li Sheng smiled slightly, "Mr. Chai, don't get excited, take your time... enter the village quietly, don't be a shooter..."
Chai Shao couldn't help laughing. Although he didn't understand what Li Sheng meant by "shooting", he still knew that he had to pretend to be a pirate this time, and he really had to keep a low profile...
However, Chai Shao is also confident that this matter will not be difficult for the elite of the Forbidden Army! ...
