Xiao Zishan told Sun Chang to prepare a mule cart and sedan chair to pick up people at the dock. The others quickly cooked and cleaned, and the empty house suddenly became busy. Sun Chang said that there was no need to pay for the mules and carts, and he could just call the Wei Escort Bureau.
——Due to the needs of escort agencies, escort agencies generally have an "outer cabinet" (tertiary industry) for mule and carriage shops, and everything is ready-made.
While arranging to pick up the people, he also ordered a sedan to be prepared to visit Gaoju. On the way, he asked Sun Chang about various developments in the past year. Sun Chang said that since they left, Gaoju often sent people to deliver things. Asked
I asked if there was any news about Australian maritime merchants. The neighborhood was quiet. Except for the market being slightly disturbed because of Liu Laoxiang’s commotion at the Pearl River Estuary, there was nothing major. He didn’t know much about official affairs, so he knew that Beijing had fallen.
For a high official in the palace, the officialdom of Guangzhou City has also undergone some changes, and the rest is hard to explain.
Xiao Zishan knew that this so-called high official in the palace was Wei Zhongxian. History has not changed its trajectory in this time and space: the powerful Jiu Qian was already in a hotel in Nanguan, Fucheng County, Hebei on the sixth day of the eleventh lunar month last year.
Suicide in the store. From December last year to the first half of this year, Emperor Chongzhen was investigating the remnants of Wei Ni, and it was not surprising that the officialdom was shaken. Travelers should be grateful to this situation to a certain extent: people are panicked, and no one has the intention to come.
Responding to a pirate infestation on Hainan Island.
Gao Ji was surprised and delighted by Xiao Zishan's sudden visit. When he built Wei Zhongxian's shrine, he had no other good idea, so he used the "tuo" word trick given by shopkeeper Wen. The shopkeeper had also made it clear that he would have to do it that month.
There was a big change, as expected: Eunuch Yang was originally based in Guangzhou, and he almost came to the government to urge him every day. Gao Ji did not dare to delay too much, but made slow preparations, which took about twenty days. Suddenly, little Eunuch Yang came to say goodbye.
He ordered the preparations for the construction of the shrine to be suspended, and hurried back to Beijing with all the Australian goods he had prepared. He was so stunned that he was stunned. After about ten days, he received a letter from Beijing, and then he had to
Zhi: On May 18, the emperor suddenly fell ill and his condition was very serious. Now Gao Xiu was not surprised, but had goosebumps on the back of his head.
"On May 18th, there are changes in Beijing, and things can be slowed down." This is what Shopkeeper Wen said when he said goodbye. Now in comparison, this group of maritime merchants who were originally somewhat mysterious made him feel even more unpredictable. He hurriedly looked around
The servants inquired, asking if anyone had seen a strange overseas ship? But there was no news. He had to give up and wait for the merchants to come to him - after all, the payment of 200,000 taels of silver was still here. Wait.
After waiting for more than a year, there was still no news. Just when he felt hopeless, he heard some news in the past month: an unprecedented huge ship appeared in Qiongzhou. The sailors on the ship all had short hair and short clothes.
It was very fierce. I couldn't help but wonder in my heart: Could this be an Australian maritime merchant's ship? I was thinking about whether to send someone to the local area to investigate.
Gao Zhang asked someone to put some wine on the table and asked him about his welfare. He also brought him the sales list of the goods and told him that he had 50,000 taels of silver that he could withdraw at the moment, and the rest could be collected in more than ten days.
"Don't be in a hurry for the money. You can deposit it with Shopkeeper Gao first." The traveler is not short of money right now, but is short of supplies. Xiao Zishan didn't have too many polite words and told him that the purpose of this trip was to purchase goods. Because the goods were of various types, Gao had to be invited.
The shopkeeper helped a lot. He held up the porcelain, spices and hardwoods that he thought were from the past, and he promised them all. But when he opened the list and looked at it, he was dumbfounded. The items listed above were completely unexpected: pig iron, graphite, fluorite, gall vitriol.
Gao Zhi didn't recognize most of these things himself. Some of them he knew were needed in the workshop, and some were simply medicinal materials. Saltpeter and sulfur were things controlled by the government, and pig iron cost 10,000 shi, which was okay.
, it’s just that they have to go to more iron fields, and this mercury also costs ten stones - even if the mercury in the whole city of Guangzhou is collected, I’m afraid there won’t be even one stone - what do they want these for? Is there an emperor or nobleman in Australia who died, and they need mercury?
Anticorrosion?
While he was thinking wildly, Xiao Zishan saw his expression changing and asked, "Is there any difficulty in this?"
"I can find everything." Gao Ju put down the list, "But isn't the quantity a bit too much? Let's talk about gallbladder, mercury and the like. It would be nice to have only one stone in the city. How can there be so many."
"Then please take the trouble, Mr. Gao, and ask for as many as you want." Xiao Zishan didn't know what the use of these things was, but since they were purchased by name, it was crucial.
"Brother asks me to do something, so I should do my best," Gao Ju suddenly changed his title and whispered, "But there are a lot of forbidden things in it. It's not that brother can't handle it. You just have to ask about everything, and it will be easier to master it.
Proportionate.”
Xiao Zishan was stunned for a moment. He knew that saltpeter, sulfur and the like might be things controlled by the government, but he never thought about other things: "I wonder which goods are prohibited?"
"Iron, this item is not allowed to be exported. But this is easy. Copper, arsenic, saltpeter, and sulfur are a bit more difficult, especially since the quantity my brother wants is very large-"
"These are all raw materials for Australian goods." Xiao Zishan already knew from Sun Chang that Gao Li made a fortune from Australian goods and became a "wealth myth" in Guangzhou. Using the raw materials for making Australian goods as a reason, he must
Try our best. But this is also the truth: the Ministry of Industry urgently needs these things to start modern manufacturing
Sure enough, Gao Ji immediately fell silent, as if he was thinking about something. After a moment, he seemed to have made up his mind and said: "Since brother wants it, brother, I will definitely help. It's just that it takes time to prepare the goods. How long can brother wait?"
"Fifteen days."
"It's a bit tight. I asked my shopkeepers to go out separately to purchase. Try my best to arrange it! I wonder where the goods are shipped? Is it still-"
"I have to ask my brother for advice on this matter." Another purpose of Xiao Zishan's trip is to establish a transportation line from Guangzhou to Hainan. In the future, he will conduct large-scale purchases in Guangzhou and urgently needs a suitable transfer point. People in the city are too discerning.
It is extremely inconvenient to transport large quantities of goods in and out, so it is necessary to find a warehouse outside the city as a place for cargo transfer.
He told Gao Ji about his request, and Gao Ji said it would be easy. He would set up his own warehouse and dock on Youyu Island at the mouth of the Pearl River—the territory of fishermen who specialize in smuggling, and they were all half-private and half-bandit figures. In the city
If you are too busy to do business, you don't dare to go in. It's almost like a world outside the law. The time traveler's ship can dock here. He is setting aside a separate warehouse for the turnover of goods.
"This is very good." Xiao Zishan was quite satisfied with this arrangement, and then told Gao Ju that they were purchasing these goods for a long time, and as long as they could acquire them, they would take as much as they could.
After the plan was settled, Gao Ji asked if any new Australian goods had arrived during their visit to Guangzhou. Xiao Zishan just smiled and said, "Those are just trivial things. In a few months, my brother will naturally find out."
"
These words gave Gao Zhi a lot of room for imagination, but they also left him with a little fear. From a personal point of view, he was not afraid of the short-haired man in front of him, but the vaguely powerful force behind him made him fearful.
Uneasy. This group of Australian maritime merchants are by no means as simple as businessmen.
The next person Xiao Zishan visited was Sun Kecheng, the shopkeeper of the Qiwei Escort Bureau. The Escort Bureau has the ability to transport bulk materials over long distances and is a good assistant in establishing land transportation lines.
Along the way, Sun Wei had already told his boss all the details of the escort agency. This is an escort agency that is composed of family, fellow villagers and teachers. From Sun Kecheng, the chief escort, to the young men at the counter, grooms, etc.
The same race and hometown are the relationship between masters, apprentices, and brothers. The geographical, blood, and patriarchal relationships between each other are extremely close. They specialize in taking the route from Guangzhou to Nanchang, Jiangxi, and also short-distance within the province. There are many foreign branch offices along the way.
The whole province of Guangdong can be considered medium-sized, and there are some contacts in all aspects. Xiao Zishan calculated that if this escort agency is controlled, it will be of great benefit to the trade and intelligence activities in Guangdong.
Shopkeeper Sun was quite pleased with his visit - the Australian maritime merchants were really friendly people. Xiao Zishan sent some more gifts, and the two parties had a good conversation. Xiao Zishan took the opportunity to ask about the business of the escort agency.
Sun Kecheng sighed repeatedly, and his expression became gloomy.
The escort business is not bad, but it is becoming more and more uneven along the way. There used to be a lot of bandits on the road, but they were still well-known figures in the world and more or less abided by the rules of the world. In the past two years, the world has become a world of bandits and bandits. They are not
Desperate peasants are deserters who cannot be paid. These two groups of people don't care about your business name or rules. They will rob things and kill people when they see them. In the past, bandits only wanted gold and silver, but now the bandits they encounter are simply
I need everything, including things and a car.
Bandits are rampant, and villages and towns along the way have formed regiments one by one, and set up forts everywhere. When passing through villages and towns, they must be questioned and guarded. For a foreign bodyguard agency like them, if the master and apprentice brothers are basically from Jiangxi and have some personal connections, it would be really hard to find them.
It was difficult to get a foothold in the place. I managed to walk a few times, but even though I didn't lose any escorts, I killed or injured about ten brothers. Everyone in the escort agency felt that the future was unpredictable.
When Xiao Zishan proposed to finance them by investing in shares and open a new escort agency, Sun Kecheng's mouth was opened wide - since the business of escort agency started, the escort agency was not a profitable business. The brothers teamed up to spread the flag.
If you can start a business, you can earn money by working hard, and you can live a well-off life all year round. It is impossible to get a large dividend, so no one has ever used money to invest in the Escort Agency business.
"Don't pay dividends." Xiao Zishan then came up with the idea, "Now that we want to do business and open a business in Daming, we need to transport goods from the store. No one in this industry is more familiar with this matter of water and land transportation than you. With this money, we
Firstly, we don’t want the Escort Agency to pay dividends, and secondly, we don’t want to interfere in the internal affairs of the Escort Agency. It’s just that wherever our trading name goes in the future, the Escort Agency’s escort route will also go wherever we go!”