Chapter 57 Dragging the water down
Yan Chujie nodded. In fact, even if Luo Shengdong did not complain, the executive committee had already designated him as a "key target". The executive committee believes that Luo Shengdong has seen the power of Chuangzhong and can be regarded as a smart person who is well-informed and knowledgeable. He also has a certain ambition in his personal career. It is perfect to serve as a nail buried in Yazhou in the future. Candidate.
Yan Chujie glanced at Schneider, and Schneider spoke understandingly: "Mr. Luo Bai, we have plenty of ways to get rich. It depends on whether you dare to do it or not."
Luo Shengdong was already a little drunk, but when he heard this, he immediately woke up and ordered several of his subordinates: "You go out first, guard the door and don't let anyone in!"
After several of his men left and closed the door, Luo Shengdong quickly asked: "I wonder what Chief Shi can teach me?"
Schneider held out two fingers and said: "There are two options. Let me talk about the first one first. You are now an officer of the imperial navy, and you may get a promotion next. When you become the commander-in-chief, what will happen? Can’t we mobilize most of the ships in the water village? ”
Luo Shengdong pondered for a moment and said: "If you want to mobilize most of the ships, you must have a warrant from General He, but it should not be a problem if you usually have to dispatch a few ships."
"How about using the ships you can mobilize to help us transport the goods?" Schneider suggested: "Just go to Shengli Port, Yazhou, and Qiongzhou Fucheng. The freight can be converted into silver at the market price. I heard that Shuizhai There are more than twenty boats in there. How about making full use of these boats to make some extra money?”
"How could this happen!" Luo Shengdong said in shock: "If this is found out and used for private purposes, the crime will be quite serious!"
"You drag whoever can check you into trouble. You can't earn all the money by yourself. Sharing some benefits with your colleagues, bosses, and subordinates will not hinder your plan to make a fortune." Schneider is like the devil. The same, constantly persuading Luo Shengdong.
"I don't want to dominate this business, but..." Luo Shengdong seemed to have some scruples and hesitated to speak.
Yan Chujie couldn't stand it any longer and decisively launched his ultimate move: "Say Mr. Luo, you were already dead when you lied about military information before. What else do you have to be afraid of now?"
Luo Shengdong's heart suddenly thumped. His feet had already stepped into the mud. How could he expect to land cleanly? What is loyalty to the court and what is loyalty to the emperor, everything has become a joke from the day he was captured alive! These Haihan people are trying every means to do business with me, the Ming Dynasty, so they probably have no intention of becoming an enemy of our country. In this case, why don't I get some benefits for myself?
After figuring this out, Luo Shengdong's originally anxious mood immediately relaxed a lot, and he nodded in agreement: "Then I'll deal with this first, and we can discuss the details slowly. Mr. Shi might as well talk about the second method. .”
"The second way is to illicit salt." Schneider ignored the surprised expression on Luo Shengdong's face and continued: "To tell you the truth, our salt farm in Victory Port will be put into operation soon, and the output will definitely exceed Passing through other salt fields throughout Qiongzhou Island. You are a naval officer, and the navy's ships can transport goods everywhere without any obstruction. You are like a fish in water. As for the profits of private salt, I don't need to go into details. ?”
Speaking of the salt fields on Qiongzhou Island, the largest one today is the Yangpu Salt Field in Danzhou. It became an official salt field in the Tang Dynasty and was one of the few salt fields that first used the sun-salting method to make salt. Raking the mud for watering, filtering the salt mud, and drying the brine are all methods that salt workers there have used to make sea salt for thousands of years. But even the largest local salt farm, according to historical records, the annual output does not exceed 300 tons. Such an output is simply not enough for Chuanchuanzhong, which has huge needs in the chemical industry. It cannot even meet the needs of the entire Qiongzhou Island residents. Not enough.
According to the plan of the Executive Committee, the area of the salt field off the coast of Victory Port has reached twice that of the Yangpu Salt Field. After adopting more advanced salt production technology, the output should also increase significantly. Even if it is the first salt field put into operation. Year, the output should not be less than 1,000 tons. In this way, the cost of producing salt will be much lower than that of the official salt fields, not to mention that the salt fields of Chuanzhong will not pay taxes to the court at all, so the price competitive advantage is very obvious.
The World Health Organization once issued a salt intake standard, recommending that adults over the age of 18 should consume no less than five grams of salt per day. However, my country's recommended standard is six grams per day. Based on this, the average annual salt consumption per capita is approximately Four to five pounds. As far as Luo Shengdong knows, the current price of salt on the market, depending on the quality, is about three to four cents of silver, which is three to four hundred cents per pound. At present, the entire population of Qiongzhou Island has exceeded 200,000, and the salt consumed in a year can reach one million kilograms. Even if the selling price of private salt is only half of the official salt, it is still a business of more than 100,000 or 200,000 taels of silver per year. !
For such a large amount of money, even if he could only get one out of a hundred, Luo Shengdong would not hesitate to think that this was definitely a huge sum of money. But at this time, he suddenly thought of another thing - what Schneider just said about transporting private goods in water fortified warships must be paving the way for this second method, right? To traffic in illegal salt, is there any safer way than using the military to smuggle it?
Luo Shengdong suddenly felt a deep sense of powerlessness in his heart. Facing the Haihan people's calculations, his original persistence would have no effect at all. If he really smeared his face and rejected the Haihan people's proposal, then these people would probably contact their colleagues or even their superiors tomorrow and use this irresistible money offensive to completely bribe them. Luo Shengdong had no doubt that his boss, who was about to reach the top of his career ladder, would never refuse to use the little power he had to make a fortune before retiring. And if I want to play the role of this stumbling block, it is very likely that I will be "disposed of by military law" by General He before the promotion order from Qiongzhou Prefecture is issued. "That's it! In that case, I'll give it a go!" Luo Shengdong breathed out a sigh of relief and agreed to Schneider's suggestion.
The action team has completed more than half of its tasks this morning, and the afternoon has become easier. Luo Shengdong led a group of people from the action team around the city. After satisfying these people's strong intention of "visiting here", the team left the city from the south gate and went specifically to visit the area near Nanshan Town. The famous "Big and Small Cave Sky" scenic spots.
The sea view, mountain view and stone view here are known as the first scenic spots in Qiongya. When you climb Aoshan Mountain, you can see the vast expanse of blue waves of Yazhou Bay, the nearby mountains, deep clouds, green forests, strange rocks and caves, and various large and small groups of rocks. Among them, the huge character "Shou" on the immortal longevity stone is said to have been written by Patriarch Chen Tuan. This character "Shou" consists of the four characters of person, longevity, year and abundance. The people who saw it made people marvel at it. The end is naturally a A photo taken for nostalgia. There are many cultural landscapes like this in the Dongtian Scenic Area, including the Rock View Pavilion, the wonders of the sea and mountains, the landing place of Monk Jianzhen, etc., which made these people who had never been there before the journey very excited.
At first, Luo Shengdong didn't quite understand why all these Haihan people were lining up in strange postures in front of the stone inscriptions. Later, he found that the person standing opposite was pointing a strange little black box at them. He curiously went over to take a look, and almost peeed out of fright. He saw that all the people in front of the small black box had turned into tiny figures about an inch tall, and were reflected on the box. He didn't know what kind of advanced magic they were from. .
"Mr. Luo, let's take a photo together too!" Seeing Luo Shengdong looking there curiously, Wang Tom enthusiastically went over and patted him on the shoulder. As he spoke, he was about to pull him to the opposite side of the photographer. go.
Luo Shengdong seemed to have roots under his feet: "No, no! I can't bear this kind of magic!"
When Tom Wang still wanted to pull him, Luo Shengdong had already broken away from him with force, and stepped out six or seven feet in one stride. He looked at Tom Wang with a wary expression, as if the other person was trying to drag him to the execution ground, and the onlookers watched. The people who traveled through time burst into laughter.
After the tour, everyone went down the mountain and returned to the beach camping place. At this time, the two trading houses in Yazhou City had delivered the goods to the seaside as promised, and were counting and handing over the goods to the people who stayed on the ship. And the shopkeepers of the two companies unexpectedly came together. It seemed that they also wanted to witness with their own eyes the strength of this overseas merchant. Of course, the first thing that caught their attention was the white, strange-looking dhow docked at the beach.
The two shopkeepers, who thought they were well-informed, stood on the beach and looked at it for a long time, but they couldn't figure out what kind of material the ship was made of or why it had such a weird shape. However, the hull of this ship is extremely wide and low. It is indeed not a ship built by the Western Francois or the Dutch. It seems that the Haihan people's claim to be from the East is not just a random lie.
Before leaving, Yan Chujie called Luo Shengdong to the boat. Schneider ordered five hundred taels of silver to him, and then told him again: "This is the activity fund for you. You can help us in Yazhou City." Find a yard, preferably with a shop facing the street. You can rent or buy it. We will send people to move in later. You can keep the rest of the money. If you need to take care of your boss, you can make your own decisions. But everything is yours. All expenditures must be recorded, and we don’t know when we will check them, do you understand?”
"I understand, I understand." Luo Shengdong responded hurriedly, knowing that this was the Haihan people preparing to do something big in Yazhou. Fortunately, what they were looking for was to settle in and trade, not to attack the city and plunder the territory. This is a trivial matter. Of course I can agree.
"In addition, please contact several dental shops for us that can hire workers. We may hire a group of craftsmen to bring them back to Victory Harbor next time we come." Yan Chujie made no secret of the executive committee's next plan.
"Yes, yes."
"Work hard, and your end goal will not be just the boss!" Yan Chujie gently patted Luo Shengdong's shoulder, looking like a revolutionary mentor.
(End of chapter)