Chapter 2186
Although the Huizhou salt merchants have some connections in Yingtian Mansion, which can temporarily prevent the Yangzhou government from making small moves too obvious, these high-ranking connections ultimately need to use a large amount of money to continuously support them, and silver, they can Yes, of course the opponent can also give it, it just depends on who is more willing to spend money at this juncture.
As the fighting in Yangzhou becomes more and more fierce, the main business of the Huizhou salt merchants has been greatly affected, and their income has been greatly reduced. It is really difficult to compete with their opponents for financial resources. Considering that opponents may also pay for their own protection, Dai Yingda and others dare not fully count on the protection from Yingtian Mansion.
Under such circumstances, it becomes increasingly important to obtain military assistance from Zhoushan. Although there are still some disputes among the Huizhou salt merchants over the details of the cooperation, everyone agrees that Haihan's support must be obtained at the moment, and a certain degree of compromise can be temporarily made for this purpose.
Providing money and people is not a big problem for Huizhou salt merchants. After all, life and death are about to come. If you don't fight now, it will be worse. Moreover, the credibility of Haihan people is much more reliable than that of officials who only recognize money but not people. There is no need to worry about the position of this cooperation partner swinging.
Of course, the most important thing is that when they go to the government officials, they just give a mouthful. At most, they can only ease the situation, but they cannot fundamentally solve the problem. But it's different when you come to Haihan. Haihan people don't just bluff, they will never be vague as long as their vital interests are involved. What kind of posture will they take? Yangzhou has already had a precedent last year.
Even though the Haihan people emphasized that the so-called assistance did not include extreme measures such as sending troops, in the eyes of Dai Yingda and others, it was far better than the useless talk of local officials. What's more, Haihan has made it clear that it can liberalize the sale of high-end weapons to them, and will also provide short-term military training to the personnel selected by the salt merchants to help them form the musketeers they dream of.
Huizhou salt merchants have always believed that their biggest disadvantage is that their military methods are not strong enough and they lack a team that can fight hard. Cooperation with Haihan can solve this problem that has troubled them for a long time. If you take a longer-term view, this way of solving the problem is obviously more cost-effective than hiring Haihan to send troops. After having your own musketeers, you no longer have to pin your hopes on others for many things.
But of course the musketeers are not available immediately. The training time suggested by Haihan may last for about a hundred days. During this period, the Huizhou salt merchants still need Haihan to provide force protection.
"When the brothers of Jindun arrived in Yangzhou, I immediately felt much safer! I believe that with Shopkeeper Yuan leading the team here, the scoundrels in Yangzhou City should be restrained!" Dai Yingda did not hide his gratitude to Yuan Tao. feeling.
Other salt merchants were also unambiguous and started a new round of fancy flattery. If Yuan Tao hadn't traveled all over the country in the past few years and contacted many wealthy businessmen of the Ming Dynasty, he would probably have been stunned by their series of flattery.
But Yuan Tao knows very well that a businessman is a businessman, and even if he flatters, he will pay for it. Moreover, these guys who can stand out in the fiercely competitive group of salt merchants must all be as smart as ghosts. The reason why he is praising himself now is probably to make it smoother when he makes requests to himself in the future. Maybe he will be encouraged to take the initiative and deal with their opponents in Yangzhou City for them.
Yuan Tao responded calmly: "You're welcome! Yuan came to Yangzhou this time mainly to complete the tasks assigned by the above and protect your personal safety. If someone is not discerning and comes to trouble you, then The brothers under Yuan will naturally teach them how to behave.”
Yuan Tao deliberately emphasized the content of his mission again. Jin Dun only came to Yangzhou to protect the personal safety of Huizhou salt merchants, and had no other action content.
Dai Yingda's expression did not change when he heard this, and he still responded very calmly: "The situation in Yangzhou is complicated, and next there will be shopkeeper Lao Yuan!"
Yuan Tao felt that the conversation was almost complete, and there were still some more sensitive topics. He preferred to communicate with Dai Yingda in private, but the current situation was obviously not a suitable environment. Yuan Tao then proposed that he wanted to see where his men stayed.
Last year, Daijiazhuang built several new yards in order to accommodate other salt merchants who might come to take refuge. However, the situation improved later, so these yards remained empty and were not really used. This time Jin Dun came to Yangzhou and was arranged to stay in Daijiazhuang. Dai Yingda happened to put the few empty yards to use.
However, there were too many people coming from Jindun, which exceeded the normal reception capacity of these courtyards, so all the rooms could only be vacated and used as bedrooms.
Daijiazhuang couldn't get so many beds at the moment. In order to avoid attracting the attention of opponents, it couldn't go to Yangzhou City for large-scale purchases, so everyone was accommodated here, but most people could only sleep on the floor temporarily.
"We are in such a hurry that we really don't have time to prepare enough beds for Jindun's brothers, but I promise Shopkeeper Yuan here that everything will be solved within five days!" Dai Yingda, who accompanied Yuan Tao to visit Jindun's station, noticed that the other party's face was a little worried. He immediately explained the reason.
Yuan Tao nodded and said: "If it is only three to five days, my brothers will be able to carry it. But if you want to be stationed here for a long time, you need to maintain a good state to deal with emergencies, so the environment of the station is I’d better trouble Mr. Dai to put more effort into making the brothers’ stay a little more comfortable.”
Yuan Tao can understand Dai Yingda's explanation. After all, the preparation time left for them is limited, and it is not bad to be able to arrange to live in such a compound in Daijiazhuang. However, how long this garrison will be used, Yuan Tao estimates, will depend on changes in the local situation. If the opponent wants to avoid Daijiazhuang and attack other salt merchants' estates, then the Jindun people will have to split off another part in order to Protect other salt merchants.
At this time, the members of the Golden Shield who had finished the reception banquet also came back one after another. Although they lived in Daijiazhuang and the environment was relatively safe, these members still arranged their own night watchmen to guard the front and rear doors of the yard as they usually did when performing tasks outside. , the main room roof and other key locations.
"As expected, they are professionals, and they do things carefully." Dai Yingda was very impressed when he saw that the first thing these members did after they came back was to set up defenses.
Yuan Tao has long been accustomed to this. Hearing this, he responded: "It's a little late today and it's too late to take over the defense of your village. I will personally lead the team tomorrow to re-defense your village." Yuan Tao said what he said. Of course, it seems that there is no intention to seek Dai Yingda's opinion again. Dai Yingda smiled bitterly, nodded and said: "Then there will be shopkeeper Lao Yuan!"
The two walked into the courtyard. Yuan Tao stepped back and asked Dai Yingda: "Master Dai, have you selected the personnel you want to send to Zhoushan for training?"
Dai Yingda did not dare to neglect and responded in detail: "After receiving the news from Boss Ma from Zhoushan, our several salt merchants have initially selected more than 70 people from each company. Speaking of this matter, I just wanted to ask for advice. Manager Yuan, how many people should be sent to Zhoushan? What are the specific requirements for trainees?”
Yuan Tao responded: "Any young and strong man with good health and no disability is acceptable. Of course, it is best to have a good brain, so that you can learn things faster. As for the number of people... you can find some more people as appropriate. Keep it between one hundred and two and one hundred and five!”
The number reported by Yuan Tao is roughly based on the establishment of a company. This is also the intention of the Military Intelligence Bureau. This is to control the size of the musketry team and to facilitate formation during training. Ji Yuanqing even hoped that Yuan Tao could first screen the personnel selected by the salt dealer in Yangzhou and eliminate some personnel who were obviously unsuitable.
Haihan thought that the Yangzhou salt merchants might be preparing to send a large number of people to satisfy their desire to use force to deal with their opponents. However, they did not expect that the salt merchants were quite restrained and have only selected more than 70 people so far. , In this way, it even reached the bottom line of Haihan's expected ideal number. Yuan Tao had to suggest Dai Yingda to increase the number of selected personnel.
Dai Yingda's face was calm, but he was overjoyed in his heart. He was originally worried that Haihan would deliberately hide his secrets and limit the number of people who could go to Zhoushan to learn the "true inheritance" to a very small number, but now it seems that he has overthought it. If we can have an establishment of more than a hundred people, then our own team will not suffer in terms of organization size compared to the opponent's musketeer team. If you add in the advantages in weapons, tactics, etc., you can definitely beat the opponent.
However, despite being happy, Dai Yingda can't help but have some worries. The more than 70 young men they have selected so far are almost all elites trained by each family since childhood. Not only can they read and write, but most of them have practiced some martial arts. He is a talented person with both civil and military skills. It is not difficult to expand the selection. After all, the seven major surnames are also big families, and there are many descendants. However, the people selected again may not be as reliable as these dozens of people, and there will definitely be gaps in personal abilities.
In addition, Dai Yingda also had another concern that he didn't dare to mention to Yuan Tao, that is, he was worried that these elites would be brainwashed by the Haihan people when they were sent to Zhoushan for training. They would become subordinates of the Haihan people and marry them in vain. Clothes.
This is not unfounded by Dai Yingda's worries. He had previously learned about Haihan's methods of attracting immigrants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in recent years. Some people are poor people from various places who take the initiative to seek refuge in Haihan in order to make a living. In addition, the Haihan people will entrust intermediary agencies such as Yaxing in various places to hire craftsmen with certain production skills at high wages to settle in Haihan.
In addition, the Haihan Association holds some completely free activities from time to time, inviting famous young scholars and businessmen from various places to visit Zhoushan and other places. After such seemingly sightseeing activities, some people often choose to move to Haihan to settle down, and even soon become Haihan citizens, abandoning their current identities and becoming Haihan people.
According to the information obtained by Dai Yingda, Haihan will continue to instill various consciousnesses in these people during the process, making them think that Haihan is the utopia on earth that can realize their dreams, so they give up their current identities and join Haihan. Chinese.
Haihan spared no effort to attract these people, naturally because of the special social value of these people. Although Dai Yingda really hopes that Haihan can save the current unfavorable situation of Huizhou salt merchants, he does not want the elites among the younger generations of the seven major surnames to be bewitched by Haihan, become their pawns, or even change their identities and become Haihan people.
This time, the training time may last up to a hundred days. Just imagine staying in a closed environment like the military for such a long time. It is difficult to guarantee whether they will be brainwashed by the Haihan people. If the soldiers they spent a lot of money to train ended up taking orders from Haihan, and might even monitor themselves in turn, wouldn't that be a huge loss?
Worried, Dai Yingda had no way to prevent this situation from happening. In order to protect the seven surnames, he had to hand these juniors into the hands of the Haihan people and let them receive all-round training. What they will become in the end, and whether these people can continue to be loyal to the Seven Surnames after they return from training, Dai Yingda can probably only pray for God's blessing.
Then I heard Yuan Tao continue to say: "Master Dai, if these people you have chosen have children with foreign surnames, you must remember to find out their family backgrounds and be careful to prevent people from the other family from sneaking in, which will cause endless troubles! Also! , it is best to decide who will command these people in the future, otherwise when they come back, there will be a lot of competition for the position of commander. "
Only then did Dai Yingda understand why Yuan Tao chose a one-on-one occasion to talk to him about this matter. This team will definitely become a weapon for Huizhou salt merchants in the future, and those who want to master this weapon will definitely not Less, if not done well, it is likely that this team will fall apart at the beginning of its formation. Yuan Tao's reminder is indeed necessary.
"Thank you, Shopkeeper Yuan, for the tip! We have initially reached a consensus on the candidate for the commander, and the dog Dai Chengrong will be the one to take over. As for the family backgrounds of these candidates, we will also check carefully to make sure nothing goes wrong."
Dai Yingda felt that Yuan Tao was quite kind. If the Haihan people were harboring evil intentions, he would not have raised these issues at all. Now it seemed that he was overly worried.
Yuan Tao was thinking about the young man he had met at the Jie Feng Banquet before, and it seemed that he didn't have much conversation with him. After all, almost all the people at the table were his uncles and elders, and he was not given any chance to speak.
In such an important position, Dai Yingda was able to promote talents without avoiding relatives, and was recognized by everyone, which shows that his prestige among the seven surnames is indeed very high. Yuan Tao decided to wait until tomorrow to talk to this young man to see how good he is.
But before that, Yuan Tao had to get a good sleep. It had been a long time since he spent the night on the boat for several consecutive days. He didn't have a good rest. Now he had to make up for the sleep he had gained in the past few days.
(End of chapter)