Chapter 877 Zhoushan Investment Promotion Conference (2)
Haihan understands the profit-seeking mentality of businessmen more thoroughly than people of this era, and is better at utilizing this human nature. On the one hand, they use the method of sending invitations to local prominent figures to show their emphasis on investment promotion activities. On the other hand, they also publicize among the people that even if they do not receive invitations, they will still have the opportunity to go to the island to participate, through a method similar to hunger marketing. Attract more merchants’ attention. People who were originally hesitant about whether to go or not will naturally develop a herd mentality when they see so many peers in the market vying for qualifications to attend the conference. Thanks to word of mouth among businessmen, the Zhoushan Investment Promotion Fair quickly became a hot topic after dinner in Ningbo.
Of course, those who are interested in the Zhoushan Investment Promotion Association are not only businessmen who are bent on profit. There are also people who are interested in this matter for other reasons, such as those whose interests have been seriously damaged due to the change of ownership in Zhoushan. To them, Haihan was not the God of Wealth who descended from the sky, but an enemy who destroyed his family and took away his wealth. The Investment Promotion Conference, a place with many people and mixed eyes, seemed to be the perfect place to use it to carry out revenge.
Twenty miles east of Ningbo City, at the foot of Taibai Mountain, under Huading Peak, there is the Asoka Temple, which was built during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Jin Dynasty. By this time, it had a history of more than 1,300 years. During this period, Ashoka Temple was destroyed by fire many times and was rebuilt on the original site many times. In the fifteenth year of Hongwu's reign in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang named it "Ashoka Zen Temple" and listed it as the fifth of the five Zen mountains in the world. During the Wanli reign of Emperor Shenzong, stupas, verandas, meditation halls, monk rooms, etc. were rebuilt here, and the scale of the buildings expanded.
Due to the large number of believers and traveling monks visiting from other places, there is a manor covering an area of more than 1,000 acres outside Ashoka Temple to receive these people, called "Guangli Village". This place is open to all believers and provides free food and lodging. Of course, the free food and lodging conditions are very poor. They just have a mouthful of porridge to hang themselves on and a roof to cover themselves. Some wealthy believers can also book a room or even the entire courtyard here by donating incense money, and enjoy the vegetarian banquet prepared by the monks in the temple every day.
At the beginning of the month, a wealthy customer booked the largest courtyard in Guangli Village, and directly paid three months' money, and also donated five thousand taels of incense money to the temple. However, the wealthy guest who rented this courtyard rarely goes out for activities, nor does he go to the temple to worship. It seems that he just lives here to soak up the Buddhist atmosphere. However, the abbot of the temple did not find this strange at all. In the thousands of years of history of Ashoka Temple, there were many situations where dignitaries who did not want to appear in public would live outside the temple for a while and then leave. As long as they are willing to donate incense money to the temple, the temple does not care about the identities of these wealthy people.
But if the master in charge of Ashoka Temple knew the true identity of this wealthy guest, he probably would not have accepted the money to let him stay, because the trouble this might bring to the temple was far beyond what this little money could solve.
The high-profile guests living in this courtyard are Wang Jialin and other key members of the boat gang who had just escaped from Zhoushan Island. Wang Jialin had arranged this foothold in advance before the fall of Zhoushan. After the Haihan people captured Dinghai Fort, he led his followers to flee. After entering the mountainous area, he turned west and spent a day escaping to a place on the west coast of Zhoushan Island. Take a boat trip to the secret port.
Wang Jialin believes that Haihan's next target is likely to be Daishan Island, Qushan Island, Shengsi Islands and other areas north of Zhoushan. The Haihan people's previous actions have always been to occupy the islands, so he chose a counterattack. Following the right escape route, he entered Ningbo Mansion to hide.
Hiding in Ashoka Temple is undoubtedly an excellent choice. There is a large floating population here, and the people around you are not very vigilant. No one will pay special attention to the identity and behavior of others. Even if the Haihan people want to trace the whereabouts of Wang Jialin and others in Ningbo Prefecture, it is probably difficult to think of a place like Ashoka Temple. And this place is not far from Ningbo City, so it is more convenient to inquire about various information. Wang Jialin, who is hiding here, has also heard about the Zhoushan Investment Promotion Conference that has been making a lot of noise in Ningbo Prefecture recently.
Wang Jialin was not willing to give up the territory he had worked hard for many years to the Haihan people who descended from the sky. Although he also knew that the power he had in his hands was far behind compared to the Haihan people, he still believed that he still had a chance to make a comeback - -For example, look for an opportunity to kill the leader of the Haihan fleet.
Collecting intelligence is not just Haihan's patent. Wang Jialin also has his own intelligence channels. The news he received said that there were very few Haihan people in the fleet coming to Zhejiang this time, just a few people, and these Haihan people had a very high status internally. As long as something happened to someone, the Haihan expeditionary force would be in chaos.
Although the Zhoushan Boat Gang suffered heavy losses in the battle with Haihan, it had not yet reached the point of annihilation. Since Wang Jialin could think of transferring the gang's property in advance, of course he still had other backup plans. When he was defeated and fled, he also arranged for some personnel to hide in various places. Currently, there are at least nearly a thousand people who can be mobilized. However, these people are scattered everywhere. It will take some time to gather them under unified command. Just make adjustments.
The Haihan people are so anxious to start re-formulating the rules of the game for the Zhoushan Islands. Wang Jialin sees this as an opportunity that can be exploited. If this opportunity can be used to allow a certain number of subordinates to sneak into the venue and wait for action, they will capture if they can and assassinate if they can. Even if the result is not so successful, as long as some movement can be made, the Zhejiang business community will realize that the Haihan people do not have them. If it is believed to be so reliable, it may be able to prevent some people from establishing a cooperative relationship with Haihan. If you are lucky and succeed, Haihan will be in chaos and the opportunity to counterattack will come. If we can capture a few Haihan ships, then who else will dare to go against the Zhoushan Ship Gang on the sea in Zhejiang?
Of course, this dream is easy to dream, but not so simple to implement. Wang Jialin also knows this very well. He had fought face to face with the Haihan people, so he naturally knew that in addition to their sharp weapons, these opponents were also extremely rigorous in their work. There were basically no flaws in the attack on Zhoushan. Although this investment fair says that everyone can go there, they are bound to face numerous checks after going there. How to attack the target under tight security also requires careful planning.
Compared with the foreign Haihan people, the Zhoushan Boat Gang has a great advantage in being familiar with them on the ground. After activating various personal connections, it is not difficult for Wang Jialin to arrange some reasonable and legal identities for his men. But whether Wang Jialin himself should go to Zhoushan Island or not, this question has always made it difficult for him to make a decision.
If Wang Jialin goes to the island by himself, there is no doubt that he will have greater confidence in rallying people and commanding actions. Once the action is successful, he can also make more timely deployment and response as soon as possible. But the risk of doing so will also be very high. The Haihan people have already offered a reward of one thousand taels of silver for him. No matter whether he lives or lives, as long as he provides information and catches the person, he can get the money. Except for a few buddies and cronies who are following him, Wang Jialin is not sure whether his men will be unable to resist the temptation and betray themselves for the reward of one thousand taels of silver. This is a very likely and high probability event.
Even if Wang Jialin has the courage to take this risk, he certainly cannot gather with his subordinates to act together. The risk of exposing his identity will also increase exponentially, but this will inevitably affect the command efficiency during the operation, making it difficult to achieve the best of both worlds. .
After nightfall, the men Wang Jialin sent outside to inquire for information finally returned to the courtyard of Guangli Village, and the news they brought back gave Wang Jialin another glimmer of hope.
"Master Wang, the boat shops on the Yongjiang River are recruiting a lot of people these days. It is said that there are too many people going to Zhoushan Island at the end of the month, and the existing sailors are seriously insufficient. I arranged for people to go to several boat shops to try out the work. , got in easily." This subordinate didn't even bother to take a sip of tea, and hurriedly reported the information he had collected to Wang Jialin: "It is said that the boatmen on the Yao and Fenghua rivers saw oil and water. There are also many people coming downstream to grab business.”
"What's the news from the Haihan people?" Wang Jialin asked with concern.
The subordinate responded: "It is said that the Haihan people have set up a registration office on the south side of Jintang Island. All ships going to Zhoushan Island to participate in the investment fair at the end of the month must first register and receive the traffic order flag issued by them. Otherwise, when the time comes You can’t dock in the port.”
Wang Jialin sneered and said: "What a Haihan! I'm afraid I made a lot of money in the name of registration!" The man shook his head and said: "It's strange to say, I heard that the Haihan people don't charge fees, most of them just watch. We don’t have to spend this small amount of money. Mr. Wang, we can just get a boat to register ourselves, and then we can just land on the island with the passage flag issued by the Haihan people.”
Wang Jialin thought for a while and then said: "It would be better if we could find a completely unaware foreign businessman to come forward."
The subordinate responded: "It's not difficult. In recent days, there are more people in Ningbo than boats. Many people can't hire a boat even with money. Some people have even put out bids and are ready to buy a boat on the spot. If we get a boat with enough manpower, The boat arrives on the Yongjiang River, and it doesn’t take half a day to find the employer.”
Wang Jialin paced back and forth, and after a long time he finally made up his mind and said: "Well, you find a suitable boat as soon as possible. I will pretend to be a cook on the boat, and the brothers will go to Zhoushan Island to look for bad luck for the Han people on the sea!"
The influx of a large number of businessmen into Ningbo has brought sudden prosperity to the shipping market here, and most of them are scheduled to ship within a few days of the end of the month. Although the voyage from the mouth of the Yongjiang River to Dinghai Bay is only more than 20 nautical miles, and the speedboat can arrive in half a day, businessmen certainly don’t rent a boat for only half a day. They often book it for three or four days directly, and almost all those who plan to go to Zhoushan Island They are all owners who are not short of money, and the boat they ordered will not be shared with others. Some people were so thoughtful that they even booked a cargo ship, planning to buy some cash from the Haihan people and transport it away once the business was concluded.
Although Ningbo Prefecture has a lot of ships, in this situation, the supply exceeds the demand. Starting from the day before the investment fair and the following seven or eight days, the price of chartered ships has doubled or tripled in just a few days.
Wu Huanzhi was very distressed at this time. He really didn't expect the situation in Ningbo when he came. Now he can't even rent a decent ship. If he had known it, he would have hired a ship from Suzhou, and it wouldn't have cost much more. silver. Now there are only two days left before the investment fair, and I haven't found a boat yet. Is it possible that I will hire a fishing boat to go to Zhoushan Island by then?
Wu Huanzhi had been wandering around the Yongjiang pier for almost an hour, but he still couldn't find a boat with availability. When he was anxious, a man came over and asked in a low voice: "Does the boss want to use a boat?"
"If you didn't use a boat, why did you come all the way to jump into the river?" Wu Huanzhi said anxiously: "If you have a boat, just quote the price. If you don't have a boat, there is no need to ask."
The man didn't take Wu Huanzhi's rude attitude seriously, and smiled and said: "I just returned from Wenzhou by boat, and I happened to have no new errands. I heard that many people hired boats, so I came ashore to take a look. This guy If the boss is not in a hurry to use the boat, the villain would like to go back and see his family first.”
Wu Huanzhi was stunned, and then asked with a happy face: "Are you going to Zhoushan Island?"
"You can go! I just heard that Zhoushan Island seems to be uneasy recently. If the boss wants to go to Zhoushan, the boat price will have to be increased a little..."
Before the man finished speaking, Wu Huanzhi interrupted him: "Jiajiajia! Take me to see the ship now. I'll pay you a deposit immediately if it suits you!"
Soon Wu Huanzhi saw this lucky boat with about 300 materials on a pier. There were more than 20 boatmen and sailors on board, old and young, and there seemed to be nothing unusual about it.
"Okay, okay!" Wu Huanzhi took a rough look and immediately asked his entourage to bring out five ingots and twenty taels of silver: "Boss of the ship, don't go home either. I will hire this ship from now on. This one hundred taels is the deposit. , take me to Jintang Island first! By the way, what do you call it?”
"Villain Zhou Hai." The man took the money with a smile and responded happily.
"Okay, Zhou Hai, don't hire anyone else on your boat. After I finish my work on Jintang Island, you can buy good rice, meat, and vegetables when I come back. You will need to stay there for a few days when you go to Zhoushan in two days." "Oh my god." Wu Huanzhi was also in a good mood at this time, and it was lucky to find such a suitable boat at the last moment. If you are lucky enough to negotiate a deal with the Haihan people, you can get back the money you spent on hiring the ship just by talking.
Wu Huanzhi took the ship to Jintang Island and docked at Dapukou Port in the south of the island. Haihan set up a registration office here to handle the registration of maritime merchants attending the conference. When Wu Huanzhi arrived, there were still a dozen people lined up in front of him. Fortunately, the Haihan people are very organized in their affairs. To queue up, you only need to get a number, sit next to you and drink tea. When it is your turn, someone will naturally call your number. After waiting for about half an hour, it was Wu Huanzhi's turn.
(End of chapter)