Chapter 2185
Dai Yingda continued: "The salt business is our main business, but in addition, we also operate many other industries."
In fact, large salt merchants like Dai Yingda are involved in far more than just grain trading in non-main business areas. They are also involved in transportation, warehousing, infrastructure and other industries related to salt industry operations. Salt merchants can not only rely on these long-term industries to obtain relatively stable profits, but also effectively reduce the operating costs of their main businesses.
Yuan Tao only knows a little bit about the management of the salt industry, but he has spent several years in Zhoushan, a large trading port, and is no stranger to this cross-industry management method. In fact, even Jindun has a similar business model. Although its main business is armed escort, it also operates supporting institutions such as carriage and horse shops, shipping companies and even merchant stores.
Then Dai Yingda continued to introduce: "Although Daijiazhuang is not as prosperous as Yangzhou City on the other side of the canal, basically everything in Yangzhou City is available here. If Shopkeeper Yuan needs anything, just say hello to us." We will try our best to satisfy you.”
Yuan Tao said: "Thank you for taking care of me, Mr. Dai! It would be best if you could provide us with detailed intelligence information about your opponents as soon as possible!"
Most of the information Yuan Tao obtained before setting off came from the Military Intelligence Bureau. Although the content was relatively targeted, because Zhoushan was far away from Yangzhou, the timeliness of the information was inevitably poor.
Although Ma Zhengping also provided some information after arriving in Zhoushan, because he was not a professional, the information provided was relatively messy, and the truly valuable parts needed further screening.
The "detailed information" Yuan Tao needs now does not refer to superficial reports such as which companies the opponent has and how many trained manpower it has, but more detailed content, such as how many muskets the opponent currently has and who owns them. Command, general scope of activities, style of conduct, etc.
Only by mastering specific and detailed information can Yuan Tao adjust his response strategy on the front line. Otherwise, it would be difficult for the more than a hundred people he brought to Yangzhou to deal with the most wealthy and powerful local snakes, and it would be difficult to be foolproof.
Dai Yingda responded: "Don't worry, Shopkeeper Yuan. When you settle down, someone will contact you. I hope Shopkeeper Yuan can give you some advice."
As he spoke, he had already arrived at the entrance of Daijiazhuang. Yuan Tao was a little surprised to notice that there were two decent watchtowers 15 feet high on both sides of the intersection leading to the village, all made of large pieces of bluestone. It is complete, and there are even crenels built on it for shooting, which is very different from ordinary villages.
Dai Yingda noticed that Yuan Tao's pace had slowed down, so he took the initiative to explain to him: "This was just built at the end of last year, just to prevent opponents from knocking on the door. Fortunately, so far, this thing has not been put to use yet. .”
Yuan Tao said: "Just repairing this watchtower won't do much. Other places in Zhuangzi must be surrounded by high walls. Otherwise, if there are other intersections entering Zhuangzi, this watchtower will be useless."
Dai Yingda smiled bitterly and said: "We did have such a plan at the beginning, but the project of building a protective wall around Zhuangzi was really a bit big, and it coincided with a big setback for our family at that time. Many people thought that there was no need to spend a lot of money and a lot of manpower to build it. to protect the wall, so the project was temporarily stopped.”
What Dai Yingda said was "a big mistake for the enemy" was when the Zhoushan authorities sent a small group of elites to Yangzhou at the end of last year to deal with the musketeers of the Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants. , some people are optimistic that the opponent has lost all its fangs and claws, and there is no need to maintain a high state of tension. The fortifications that were originally planned to be built outside the residences of various salt merchants were also stopped due to this.
Dai Yingda is the richest among Huizhou salt merchants, and Daijiazhuang under his name is also regarded as the "last fortress" by Huizhou salt merchants. If the situation in Yangzhou continues to deteriorate, Daijiazhuang may be used as a refuge. Therefore, various salt merchants pooled their share of money to build fortifications and personnel resettlement facilities in Daijiazhuang. However, after the Shanshan Salt Merchant accident, these projects were stopped.
Although almost everyone involved could guess that it was Haihan's men who took action in Yangzhou, due to diplomatic concerns, Haihan officials would probably never admit the matter, and Dai Yingda also wisely did not point out that He knew this detail, because he also knew that even if he was asked about it, Yuan Tao would definitely not admit it.
After hearing this explanation, Yuan Tao understood why there was such a half-baked project. He shook his head and said: "Since it has been built, it should be completed. I think the shape of this watchtower must have been designed by someone who knows how to do it. The entire defense of Daijiazhuang is in accordance with military standards. If this project can be completed, even without our help, I believe it will be difficult for a few people to break through this line of defense."
Dai Yingda responded helplessly: "Shopkeeper Yuan really knows his stuff. I spent a lot of money to hire a military attache who had retired for many years to design Daijiazhuang's fortifications. The standards are indeed based on those used to build castles in the military, but this cost is The amount is really too big, so we can only share the cost among different parties and decide the scale of the construction together. Everyone feels that there is no need to repair it, so we can only stop the project first.”
Yuan Tao is not sure how expensive it is to build a military-standard castle, but since even a wealthy businessman like Dai Yingda thinks the amount is too large and requires multiple salt merchants to share the cost, it must be a huge expense. .
As he spoke, he had already entered Dai's village. According to Dai Yingda's introduction, the people living in the village were basically Dai clan members, and those who were responsible for planting farmland outside the village were mostly tenant farmers with foreign surnames who were hired by the clan and did not live in the village. Shonai.
Of course, the land outside the village alone is not enough for the Dai clan to live a prosperous life. In fact, their income mainly comes from helping Dai Yingda manage the industry, which is the most traditional family business.
The reception banquet prepared by Dai Yingda for the people of Jindun was divided into two places. Yuan Tao was a distinguished guest, so he naturally enjoyed the highest-level family banquet, while other members of Jindun were arranged in the open space outside the Daijiazhuang ancestral hall. Otherwise, It is really difficult to arrange so many people at Dai Yingda's house.
Dai Yingda's house is located in the center of Daijiazhuang. To be honest, the area is not exaggeratedly large, that is, there are four courtyards and two east and west courtyards. Considering that the value of the land here is far less than that of Yangzhou City across the river, the size of this house is really ordinary for a wealthy businessman of his level.
However, the interior of the house is very exquisite, with small bridges, flowing water, pavilions and pavilions, and winding paths. Its specifications are no less than the wealthy gardens Yuan Tao has seen in Suzhou and Hangzhou in the past.
Dai Yingda first took Yuan Tao to sit down in the main room and called his family members to come out to meet Yuan Tao. Dai Yingda has one wife and four concubines, thirteen children in total, and seventeen or eight grandchildren. Most of the children have already started their own families, and not all of them live here. Even so, it took Yuan Tao at least a cup of tea to meet this large family.
Of course, not everyone in this family is qualified to participate in the reception banquet. In the end, only Dai Yingda's two sons, Dai Chengliang and Dai Chengrong, were left. After the banquet, Yuan Tao noticed that there were a lot of glassware from Haihan on the table, and immediately asked: "Master Dai also likes the glassware from Haihan?"
Dai Yingda responded: "The glassware produced in your country is much better than the goods sold by Westerners in the past. Who can not like such exquisite things?"
It's hard to say whether Dai Yingda really likes Haihan's glassware so much, but Yuan Tao can clearly feel the other party's overtures. Several other salt merchants also chimed in and talked about the Haihan products they used in their daily lives.
Yuan Tao has seen many scenes similar to this, but most of them are businessmen selling Haihan goods in the prefectures near Zhoushan. After all, those people are considered vested interests, so it is reasonable to behave like this. among. However, the Yangzhou salt merchants had only conflicts of interest with Haihan before. From this, it seems that these salt merchants were really impatient and did not hesitate to put down their posture to show their closeness to Haihan.
Yuan Tao smiled and listened to everyone present taking turns to praise him while enjoying the dishes on the table. Huaiyang cuisine is one of the four major cuisines in China, and its dishes are naturally extraordinary. This banquet was prepared by Dai Yingda in advance, and almost all local signature dishes were served on the table.
The three famous traditional Yangzhou dishes, braised silver carp head, braised lion head, and grilled pig head, are naturally indispensable. There are also special dishes such as large boiled dried shreds, three sets of duck, crystal meat, and general crossing the bridge, which Yuan Tao can enjoy , to sweep away the fatigue of the journey.
During the banquet, Dai Yingda's subordinates came in and reported that the Jindun personnel had been brought to the village, and accommodation and reception banquets had been arranged. Even the personnel left on the two ships have been sent to deliver meals and daily necessities to them.
After drinking for three rounds, Yuan Tao realized that he had almost eaten, so he took the initiative to bring up the business: "Master Dai, can you briefly tell me what is the situation in Yangzhou now?"
Dai Yingda was worried that it would affect Yuan Tao's mood for eating, so he kept suppressing the mention of business matters. When Yuan Tao took the initiative to mention it, he was exactly what he wanted, and immediately explained to him the current situation in Yangzhou.
Compared with the information Ma Zhengping brought to Zhoushan, Dai Yingda's narrative was much more detailed. Yuan Tao believed that this was also a trick played by the Yangzhou salt merchants, deliberately concealing some negative information to avoid Haihan's perception of risks. Too big to give up aid to them.
After Haihan took action in Yangzhou at the end of last year, the Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants suffered a heavy blow. Lu Kangtai, who was responsible for setting up and commanding the musketeer team, disappeared from the market for a long time. Dai Yingda even thought that he had been raped by Shanxi. He Huan, the head of the Shaanxi salt merchants, was dealt with secretly.
The Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants, whose vitality was severely weakened, also restrained themselves a lot. They temporarily stopped sneak attacks on the salt transport teams of Huizhou salt merchants and acted much more low-key.
The Huizhou salt merchants once thought that this was an act of self-protection after their opponents suffered heavy losses, but later they discovered that their opponents might just be worried that Haihan had formed an alliance with the Huizhou salt merchants, so they suspended their actions and quietly observed whether the situation would escalate. change.
It was precisely because Huizhou salt merchants were blindly optimistic about the situation that they did not take advantage of the good momentum in time to pursue their opponents. They even stopped building fortifications, thinking that the market would be peaceful from now on.
Their misjudgment of the direction of the situation gave their opponents a chance to breathe. After more than two months of calm, Shanxi and Shaanxi salt merchants once again provoked disputes in the salt market. Officials and shopping malls took a two-pronged approach and used various means to crack down on Hui people. The business of a salt merchant.
And that's not the worst part. By March this year, Huizhou salt merchants desperately discovered that their opponents seemed to have secretly formed another musketry team, and it seemed to be larger than the previous one. The commander of this musketeer team was Lu Kangtai, who had disappeared for several months in Yangzhou Prefecture for no apparent reason.
Perhaps because he had learned lessons from the past, Lu Kangtai's behavior was more cunning than before. His attacks on Hui salt merchants were all successful and he immediately retreated, trying not to cause casualties in the encounter.
Although the Huizhou salt merchants also purchased some muskets through various channels and formed their own musketeers, their combat effectiveness was still inferior to their opponents. Moreover, due to insufficient confidentiality, they were dispatched several times to perform escort missions. They all ran into the opponent's attack, and their own side lost a lot of manpower, making the gap in strength between the two sides wider and wider.
Moreover, the fleets of Huizhou salt merchants have been attacked several times on the canal. The opponents' attacks have become more and more frequent. The Huizhou salt merchants have begun to worry that sooner or later, they will directly hit the south bank of the canal. Therefore, after discussion, they It was decided to request assistance from the Zhoushan authorities and at the same time restart the construction of defense projects in various estates.
When Ma Zhengping went to Zhoushan for the first time, it was on the eve of the East China Sea Fleet's expedition to Hirado. Shi Diwen was focused on combat operations and could not take care of the affairs of Yangzhou. Therefore, Ma Zhengping did not take any action in Zhoushan during that trip. to any substantive commitments.
During Haihan's expedition to Pinghu, the situation in Yangzhou became increasingly unfavorable to the Anhui salt merchants. The Yangzhou government turned a blind eye to the forceful measures adopted by the Shanshan salt merchants, and instead sent people to investigate the private possessions of the Hui salt merchants. arms. If Dai Yingda hadn't gone to Yingtian Mansion to find someone to collect a lot of money, he might have been arrested by the Yangzhou government on charges.
But Dai Yingda and others also know that procrastination is not the answer. It is difficult for one to defeat the opponent in officialdom or privately. If one does not think of ways to change the situation, it will only be a matter of time before the opponent comes to the door. He Huan has even made harsh words in the Yangzhou market, saying that all seven Hui salt merchants must be expelled from Yangzhou.
At a time when life and death were at stake, Dai Yingda and others, regardless of country differences, once again sent Ma Zhengping to Zhoushan for help. Although he knew that Haihan's intention was to intervene in the Yangzhou salt market, at this time, he could no longer worry about whether this would be an act of attracting wolves into the house. He could only seek Haihan's intervention first.
(End of chapter)