Chapter 1468 Northern Route (1)
For Qu Yutong, this kind of idle position does not cost the yamen a coin. It is just a name. Even if something happens in the future, he can easily get out of it. It is just a matter of his words. If Shi Diwen didn't take the initiative to mention Liaodong's new business to him recently, he might as well find some opportunities to make a fortune in Liaodong through the He brothers. If you understand the trends, you can gain something.
Qu Yutong was very confident in He Xiao's ability to handle such matters, so he directly handed over the task of drafting official documents to He Xiao. He is not worried that He Xiao will do anything that exceeds the rules behind his back. After all, in terms of personal relationship with senior officials of Haihan, He Xiao is far from being comparable to him. Even if there is anything wrong, Haihan people He will definitely give him a warning and will not let He Xiao act recklessly.
He Xiao came out of Qu Yutong's study, called He Li who had been waiting outside, and then left the prefect's Yamen. He originally asked He Li to come over because he thought that if Qu Yutong wanted to talk to He Li face to face, he would at least be prepared. However, he never thought that Qu Yutong would take this matter very seriously and agree to it immediately. He didn't mention meeting He Li. In this way, He Xiao saved a lot of trouble and no longer had to slowly convince Qu Yutong to accept his plan. In a few days, Haihan will count and inspect the carrier's ships, and He Li is working with four companies to gather a group of ships to run the northern route. They have many things to be busy with these days.
After getting the protective umbrella from Qu Yutong, He Li quickly notified the other three partners, asking them to seize the time to gather the sailboats and sailors under their respective names, and set off to Zhoushan Dinghai Port for Haihan Shipping three days later. Officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce inspected.
These maritime merchants, including He Li, usually do offshore business, and their sailboats mainly operate in the Yangtze River Estuary and Hangzhou Bay. However, because this job came in a hurry, each company has a few boats still there. Since I haven't come back from outside, I can only get together a dozen boats to go to Zhoushan for business. However, He Li had already asked before when he was in Zhoushan. This inspection was actually only symbolic. It was mainly to see the quality of the carrier's people and ships, not to pull all the ships to Zhoushan.
There was naturally room for maneuver. After discussion, He Li and others specially selected a few sailboats with the best condition, paired them with a group of sailors with the most experience in sailing, and sent them to Zhoushan for inspection. He Li was extra thoughtful and brought along the yamen appointment procedures that He Xiao had just completed to show off his fresh official umbrella.
Although the position in the appointment letter is just a casual position responsible for purchasing supplies, with this thing, He Li has obtained a temporary public official status. It can also have a lot of convenience when dealing with local people when going to other places. At the same time, he can To provide a legal cover for the fleet under his command.
Just as He Li expected, this little trick worked. Their fleet passed Haihan's inspection smoothly, and the other party expressed unabashed expressions to He Li's application for public office status specifically for this purpose. He Li also had a deeper understanding of a point his brother once told him, that is, compared with ordinary businessmen, the Haihan people were more willing to deal with Ming officials or businessmen backed by officials, because they believed that this You can make fuller use of the power held by Ming officials to protect your business. And once the interests are tied up with Ming officials, Haihan's own security will also be greatly increased.
He Li even had a little doubt whether his brother had planned this step long ago, so when he returned to Ningbo the day before yesterday, his brother could show such a confident and calm attitude. And step by step after that, He Li felt that his brother's planning skills were far superior to his own. Even if he didn't come to Zhoushan in person, he had already clearly calculated the attitudes and reactions of all parties.
After a day and a half of evaluation, the fleet of He Li and others received identification plates and carrier-specific flags issued by Haihan, so that they can dock at ports controlled by Haihan in the future. Verify identity at the time. Then the crew and sailors will undergo three days of training at Dinghai Port. It is said that the main content is to teach them how to handle and respond to various maritime emergencies, as well as some knowledge of cargo storage.
Although Haihan's training tutorial did not require the ship owner to be present, out of careful consideration, He Li stayed with three other companions and received the training together with the crew. In the process, He Li also truly understood Haihan's meticulous and accurate style of doing everything, and he understood better why Haihan could dominate the southern seaboard in just a few years.
According to the training arrangement, all crew members, including the captain, must learn navigation knowledge, ship freight, ocean transportation business, marine meteorology, shipping regulations, medical first aid, carpentry and many other subjects during this short training period. It is obviously impossible to systematically learn this knowledge in such a short period of time, and we can only select some more practical content to teach.
Regarding these things, He Li's crew and sailors are not completely ignorant, but navigation knowledge is often passed down orally from generation to generation by sailors and can only be mastered after practicing. They will not classify all knowledge like Haihan. It was well organized, and even the ropes had standardized knotting methods, which was an eye-opener for He Li and others.
After the first day of class, He Li went to find the Haihan instructor responsible for training sailors and asked him how long it would take to learn this complete set of navigation knowledge.
The instructor did not hide it from him and told him the answer directly: "If we follow the standards of our shipping department, it will take at least one year to become a qualified sailor. The first two months will be full-time study, and the next ten months will be spent on different ships. Job internship. For higher-level positions such as captain, first mate, and second mate, the requirements for working in the shipping department are much stricter than those for carriers like you, but in terms of the quality of the crew, I Haihan is indeed unique in the world! Even those people who sailed thousands of miles from the west to come to the South China Sea are far less capable than our Haihan crew.”
He Li was secretly stunned when he heard that the crew training period was relatively long. It was not a big deal. Newcomers on ships such as Daming often had to be on board for one or two years before they could start their training. However, with Haihan's meticulous training method of different disciplines, the cost was very high. The scale is far beyond comparison with traditional models. Moreover, many of the things these sailors learned were unique skills that the old sea dogs kept secret and would only pass on to their successors. However, Haihan seemed to be eager for the more people to learn these skills, the better. Although this may be deliberate bragging by the other party, Haihan's ability to advance from the South China Sea along the Ming coastline to Liaodong fully illustrates the extent of its maritime shipping capabilities. Even if they were taught things by outsiders, there were many new things that He Li had never heard of before. And judging from the other party's confident attitude, it seemed that he was not worried about what Daming would do to him after learning these valuable navigation knowledge. Some kind of threat. This is either stupidity, or he has such an attitude because he has the confidence to be much stronger than his competitors, and based on what he knows about Haihan's situation, it is obviously impossible to be the former.
During the training, He Li also learned that his fleet would soon receive its first mission, transporting a batch of grain and spring and summer military uniforms to Liaodong. In order to ensure that their fleet, which was running the Liaodong route for the first time, would not lose its way halfway, they would set off with the military's transport fleet. To be considerate of them, a dedicated person was arranged to lead the way on the first trip. But you may not get such treatment on your return trip.
Of course, this will not trouble He Li's fleet. No matter how incompetent the crew is or lacks experience in ocean navigation, at least they can still distinguish between north and south. As long as they go south along the coastline, they will return to Ningbo sooner or later.
During the training period, He Li also noticed a phenomenon, that is, large merchants such as Zhenguo Shipping Company and Zhan's Shipping Company did not send anyone to participate in crew training. At first, he thought these companies were just showing off their big names, but later he found out that almost all of the captain-level backbones of these large merchants had grown up under the Haihan training system. Their familiarity with the shipping business is no less than that of the instructors who trained He Li and others. Naturally, they no longer have to waste time learning things they have already mastered.
Three days later, the sailor training course ended, and the relationship between the various carriers seemed to have become much more harmonious after these days of joint learning. However, He Li saw clearly that this was not due to the principle of making money by being friendly, but due to lack of competition. Among the several carriers selected by Haihan for the northern route, except for Zhenguo Shipping, which was promoted from the waiting list by lottery, the other carriers are similar in strength and qualifications to He Li and his group, and do not have enough outstanding professional talents to assist them. Even with its operational capabilities, it simply cannot handle the large number of freight tasks thrown out by the authorities.
Since there are too many tasks to complete, the competitive atmosphere among these carriers has been reduced a lot, and everyone can maintain the superficial peace with peace of mind, and there is no need to rush to grab the meat in the bowl of their peers.
However, He Li did not relax his vigilance because of this. He remembered his brother's instructions before he set off. Since he did not have any advantage in intelligence information, it meant that the information he knew about Liaodong was very difficult for other competitors. They may all know it, and even know it in more detail than themselves. He Li is probably not the only one who is interested in Liaodong. Therefore, if you want to seek opportunities to make a fortune in Liaodong, you will still face a certain amount of competition. pressure. Perhaps these carriers running the northern route have placed their hopes of making profits in the Liaodong direction.
Compared with other carriers, it can be said that He Li has no obvious advantages at all, and his so-called status as a government official is actually nothing in front of these carriers with different backgrounds. He Li thinks that the only thing he can rely on at the moment is that He Xiao is a powerful strategist behind him. However, He Xiao's identity cannot leave Ningbo casually. After he goes to Liaodong, everything will still have to be played by ear.
For this first errand, He Li didn't feel comfortable letting his three partners lead the team. He decided to make a trip in person to see if the actual situation in Liaodong was worth throwing money into. He Li simply didn't even return to Ningbo. He sent his men home to pick up their luggage, and then waited on Zhoushan Island for Haihan to arrange the mission to go north.
By the end of April, the transport fleet affiliated to the Haihan military completed its assembly at Dinghai Port in Zhoushan and began loading goods onto the ship. Different from the tasks of private carriers such as He Li, military equipment such as weapons and ammunition are transported by the Haihan military itself, which is also due to safety considerations.
Even though he had obtained the qualifications of a partner, He Li still did not enter the military port to watch the loading process of these weapons and ammunition up close. He could only watch from a distance, envying the Haihan Navy's huge Yugong class. Heavy transport sailing vessel. The cargo capacity of one of his ships is about three and a half. If the ships under his command can have such transportation efficiency, the benefits of using them to run ocean routes will be considerable.
He Li was more discerning and inquired with officials from the Ministry of Shipping, and finally heard good news. Not only was this Yugong-class heavy-duty sailboat installed in the military, but it also had a civilian version. Compared to the military version, it was only There are no heavy weapons and equipment on the ship for self-defense, and the hull's anti-strike standard is slightly lower, but the cargo capacity is almost the same. However, when He Li excitedly asked how to buy this kind of civilian version of a sailboat, he was poured cold water on his head - this kind of sailboat can only be built in Hainan Island, and the shipbuilding order has already been scheduled for two years. , and its cost is also very high, far exceeding that of the Daming sailboat of the same tonnage.
In order to save labor and materials, Haihan's shipyard no longer accepts small orders for one or two ships of this type of ship. It has to order at least four ships, and 80% of the payment must be paid in one go, and the cost is He Li The amount is unaffordable. Currently, in Zhejiang and the northern seas, only a few well-known maritime merchants own such heavy-duty sailing ships. If a maritime merchant like He Li wants to use such a heavy-duty sailing ship, he or she must buy second-hand sailing ships from other companies. To get a boat, the other option is to collect money to place a deposit and wait for the schedule.
He Li knew that neither of these paths was practical, so he could only give up his delusions and continue to use the boat at hand honestly. On April 28, He Li also received a notice from the Ministry of Shipping and began loading goods to his ship from that day on.
(End of chapter)