Chapter 74 Bribery
Luo Shengdong opened his mouth, but didn't even say a word because he really didn't know how to refute Tao Donglai's statement. In terms of talking skills, ten Luo Shengdong may not be as good as one Tao Donglai. Whether it is vision, knowledge or mature worldview, the level of the two is too far apart. But even if he couldn't argue with the opponent, Luo Shengdong still refused to give up his position.
Tao Donglai had no intention of pursuing the victory in a hurry. He just looked at Luo Shengdong with interest, waiting to see how he could refute.
"But you are outsiders after all, and I, the Ming Dynasty, am the ruler of this land of thousands of miles!" Luo Shengdong's every counterattack took a long time to think about, and the content became increasingly pale and feeble.
"You are right, so we have no intention of overthrowing the current court by force." Tao Donglai thought for a while and added: "At least we won't do that until the current court takes a hostile attitude towards us."
"You... that's all. If you only want trade and don't offend our great power, no one will take the initiative to cause trouble for you." After Luo Shengdong saw the scene of the artillery test firing on the ship, he basically Having given up the idea of military confrontation, all that can be done now is to settle for the next best thing and hope that the Haihan people can take the initiative to maintain peace out of interests. Otherwise, if the two sides start a war, I, the naval commander, will probably die the fastest.
Tao Donglai just smiled and did not continue with this question. Instead, he asked about another matter: "I remember before you went back, you said that you would send ten times the population to help you and your subordinates escape." For the exchange, I thought there should be three to five hundred people, right? But I just asked, it seems that only five households of shipbuilders came this time. What's going on?"
Luo Shengdong stood up after hearing this, clasped his fists in a rather solemn voice and said: "Sir Tao, speaking of this matter, I also have something to ask of you."
"Did you encounter any trouble in Yazhou and need our help?" Tao Donglai saw that he was cautious, so he also put away his smile and asked.
"I still have forty-two subordinates serving in your labor camp. I don't know when they can be released?" Luo Shengdong asked, paying attention to Tao Donglai's face.
Tao Donglai nodded knowingly and said: "I see, you want us to release people first, and then you will send us the hard labor of prisoners you mentioned before. Do I understand you correctly?"
Luo Shengdong kept saying "I don't dare", but he did not deny Tao Donglai's speculation.
Tao Donglai pondered for a while before responding: "It's not difficult to release them, but after these people go back, can you guarantee that no one will talk nonsense and betray you?"
As soon as Luo Shengdong heard this, he knew there was something going on, and said quickly: "What I want is for the brothers to be freed. There is no need to let them all return to Yazhou. There are some who are not strict with their words, so let them After settling here, his family can move here later. I have made my own decision before and have written to the General and the Governor, proposing to build a fort and garrison troops here to ward off pirates in the South China Sea. In this way, this place can be left reasonably and legally. The batch of sergeants can still use the excuse of building forts to continue to transfer laborers from Yazhou. "
Tao Donglai nodded noncommittally and said: "This method is good, but if some of these soldiers still don't listen to your orders and want to go back to Yazhou, what are you going to do?"
Luo Shengdong's face immediately darkened: "If someone disobeys military orders and ruins our important task of border garrison, that will naturally be handled by military law!"
When Tao Donglai heard this, his impression of Luo Shengdong rose even more. Luo Shengdong returned to Victory Port this time and took the initiative to intercede for his subordinates who were still doing hard labor. This shows that he is quite courageous and loyal. He also knows how to adapt and understand the importance of things. He is indeed someone who can be supported with care. . Luo Shengdong got off the slope and asked if he could bring the bones of his colleagues and subordinates who died that day back to Yazhou. Tao Donglai also agreed and said that he could have some thin-skinned coffins prepared in the carpentry workshop. . These unlucky ghosts who were shot to death by the Time Travelers were buried somewhere outside the Yulin Fishing Village. They were the victims of Luo Shengdong's wrong decision. Now that he is determined to help these unjust dead people transport their bones back to their hometown for burial, the Time Travelers will naturally not stop them. .
In the afternoon of that day, Tao Donglai took Luo Shengdong to visit the salt farm commune and the farm commune. This was actually the first time Tao Donglai himself went to see the production organization of the commune. At present, the manpower of the communes has been replenished to the level before the conscription, and because a lot of newly recruited young and strong labor has been injected into the two communes after the conscription, the proportion has even increased compared with before the conscription. Looking at the orderly labor scene, Luo Shengdong had to admit again that no matter what these Haihan people did, they seemed to be very organized and efficient. Even seemingly simple things like growing grain and vegetables were very difficult. The level of sophistication is by no means comparable to the current level of this dynasty.
The Salt Farm Commune has already collected two thousand kilograms of salt in accordance with the arrangements of the executive committee, and is preparing to hand it over to Luo Shengdong to sell and test the water. Schneider completely treated Luo Shengdong as an agent distributor. He sold this batch of salt to Luo Shengdong on credit at a package price of 100 taels of silver, and then asked him to pay 150 to 200 taels per catty. The price sold in the market is exactly about half of the official salt price. When you come back next time after selling this batch of goods, you will make the first payment settlement.
Luo Shengdong calculated that one pound of salt can earn at least one hundred taels of silver. After selling two thousand jins of salt, he will get at least two hundred taels of silver, which is equivalent to four years of salary for this position! Even excluding the transportation and channel management costs along the way, the profit is extremely generous. Luo Shengdong once again calculated his salary, plus his usual gray income. It was a big question mark whether he could earn one hundred taels of silver a year now. It seemed that the money of this Haihan man was really good. earn!
Luo Shengdong was not worried about how the salt would be shipped back. Luo Shengdong had already started arranging this matter after the last operation team left Yazhou. There are currently two salt merchants in Yazhou, and they sell official salt shipped from Danzhou. The cost is much higher than the private salt that Luo Shengdong got from the Haihan people. If they dare to raise the price If it falls to the same level, then there is basically no hope of making any money. If you start a price war with private salt, you will definitely lose. Moreover, Luo Shengdong was not too worried about his competitors reporting to the government because the Ming army had always sold salt privately.
According to the regulations of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty, all those who serve as soldiers in the army have a certain quota of salt every month. This quota can be purchased from salt merchants at one-third of the market price or less. It can be regarded as one of the benefits of being a soldier. But in this way, the military leaders who take short pay can reasonably and legally use this regulation to earn market price differences. They buy low-priced salt based on the number of people on the roster, increase the price of the short portion, and then sell it. Although this method is not public, the military, salt merchants and local governments all agree on the rationality of its existence.
The army chiefs can use this to make some gray income, while the salt merchants, with the mentality of taking advantage of each other, use this opportunity to build relationships with local military chiefs. As for the local government, as long as no one makes trouble, the world will be peaceful. Anyway, it is the Ministry of Household Affairs that collects the salt tax, and the Salt Class Promotion Department is in charge of salt administration, which has nothing to do with the local government. However, the Salt Class Ti Si was basically in the same group as the salt merchants. The salt merchants did not say anything, so the Salt Class Ti Si was content to relax.
Although this method is good, Luo Shengdong has not been able to use this method to earn extra money in the past. One of the reasons is that he did not have enough military rank in the past and could not afford it on many occasions, and salt merchants may not sell him this face. Secondly, because the situation in Shuizhai is quite special. It is almost fully staffed and there are very few vacancies. Even if you can buy and sell smoothly every month, the little money you make by reselling salt will not be enough.
But now the situation is different. Behind Luo Shengdong is Haihanren, a big salt merchant. Although it is a little early to say "big" now, Luo Shengdong has no doubt that Tao Donglai will give him the "big" promise. The daily output of the salt farm will reach more than 2,000 kilograms in half a year." This is a bold statement.
Luo Shengdong is now very grateful that his father sent him to private school for several years and learned how to read numbers and calculate accounts. Otherwise, he might not even be able to calculate how much he earns in a year. There are more than 20,000 residents in Yazhou. According to the Haihan people, the average annual salt consumption per person is five kilograms, which is about 100,000 kilograms. One kilogram of private salt only earns one tael of silver. This is also the annual income of 10,000 taels of silver. Buy or sell!
This is not a business that was talked about in Yazhou City, but the money has actually been delivered to the lips, and people cannot refuse it at all. Luo Shengdong silently recited in his mind, "No one is a saint, and no one can do anything wrong." At the same time, Luo Shengdong signed and stamped the bill of goods that Schneider took out, and signed for the two thousand kilograms of salt.
Seeing that Luo Shengdong was finally dragged into the water, and the plan to bribe and corrupt senior Ming army cadres had achieved initial results, Tao Donglai could not hide his excitement and called Ren Liang in front of Luo Shengdong. The phone call asked him to arrange for the Ming army prisoners in the labor camp to end their current life of hard labor as soon as possible, and to grant certain relaxations in treatment. In addition, several people named by Luo Shengdong will also be released when he returns and return to Yazhou together. At this time, the more than 40 Ming army prisoners who were still in the labor camp were lucky. If Luo Shengdong had arrived a few days later, some of them might have been drilled to death by the evil foreman Gao Qiaonan.
After finishing the business affairs, Tao Donglai simply took Luo Shengdong by boat to the recruit training camp. Firstly, he also wanted to see the training progress of these recruits with his own eyes, and secondly, he could use this opportunity to give Luo Shengdong another beating. Dong, let him know how much power the Executive Committee has in its hands.
(End of chapter)