Chapter 1471
Northern Route
Chapter 1471 The Northern Route ([-])
The people who can sit in this county government office and interview Zhang Zhixian are also businessmen who have accepted Haihan's conditions and have deep cooperation with Haihan, so although they are a little surprised by Zhang Pucheng's attitude, they will never make a sound. be opposed to.In the end, everyone's position is similar, and they all want to hold Haihan's thigh to get more benefits, but Zhang Pucheng, as a local official, needs to consider the beneficiaries of not only himself, but also the local people.
The purpose of Haihan officials bringing these businessmen to meet Zhang Pucheng is to give them another reassurance, and let them experience for themselves how reliable Haihan's business in Shandong is.Although the official in front of him was just a magistrate, not a great person, these businessmen had also seen the market and understood how difficult it was for Haihan to achieve such results in Shandong.With the endorsement of the local officials, at least they don't have to worry that their fleet will be picked up by the government during their stay in Shandong.
Because He Li has an elder brother who is an aide in the prefect's yamen, his understanding of politics is a little deeper than that of ordinary businessmen, so he feels more deeply about it.Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fukuyama, has publicly turned to Haihan. Either Dengzhou has a similar attitude and acquiesced to his actions, or the government at the higher level has completely lost its control and influence over Fushan County. , can only let things happen here, and dare not easily change the local officials in order to maintain the current peaceful situation.
Of course, this peaceful situation is not only due to the restraint of the local officials in Shandong. Haihan obviously has no plans to attack the local area, only Zhifu Island is included in the military defense zone, and places like Fushan County are still controlled by the local officials. .He Li estimated that the Dengzhou government and even the provincial governor of Shandong were happy to see this situation, and did not want to stimulate the Haihan people too much. After all, the Haihan people have always been soft-hearted and not hard-hearted. If they want to use military means to drive them away, the local officials may not can bear the consequences.
After leaving the county office, Fushan County took the general Huangqu and everyone around the county town, and finally took them to a restaurant in the county town for a luncheon.Of course, this meal must not be paid for by him, and Haihan will settle the cost by himself.Such an arrangement was naturally also to show the southern merchants the reality that the local civil and military officials had surrendered.
Huang Qu is now an idle military attache, and all the symbolic guards at the gate of the county have been withdrawn, and he does not need to worry about defense.According to the advice given by the Haihan people, he invested money to open a car and horse shop, specializing in the ore transportation business of the Fushan Copper Mine. Now, not to mention that he makes a lot of money every month, but at least he is better than before. The air pay of the big head soldiers is much stronger.He now understands that the Haihan people are only here to do business, and as long as they don't block their way of making money, they won't be too hard on themselves.Since the court has nothing to say, it should be okay to do business with the Haihan people to earn some extra money.
Huang Qu has no objection to the Haihan people arranging themselves to receive merchants from the south. This kind of errand is not for nothing, and there is still a hard fee to be paid after the end. There is nothing to complain about when Huang Qu is eaten and taken, and this is not a long time ago. The first group of merchants from the south was just a routine thing for him.
Since a visit was also arranged in the afternoon, the banquet ended quickly at noon. After a short rest in the restaurant, the visiting team went out of the county to the next place to visit.
As soon as the team left the county seat, a team of cavalrymen waited outside, and then followed the convoy to set out together, seemingly serving as a guard.This made everyone curious about where they were going.The team went all the way west from the county seat, and after walking along the official road for about ten miles, they began to turn into the mountainous area.
Seeing that the surrounding environment became more and more desolate, when everyone began to worry, the entourage explained to them that the place they were going to was a copper mine.Of course, the current owner of this copper mine is not the Daming government, but the Haihan people who discovered and exploited this copper mine.The official road leading to the copper mine was also built after Haihan began to mine the mine.
He Li recalled that when he met Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan, the other party had mentioned that all the local criminals were taken by the Haihans to do hard labor in the mines, which must be the place he was talking about.After walking for a while, they finally saw a convoy of carriages transporting supplies running along this road. There were as many as more than [-] vehicles. Only then did everyone confirm that there was indeed a mine in this mountainous area.
However, when they actually saw the real thing, He Li and others were a little suspicious of the attributes of this destination, because it looked more like a military stronghold, rather than the image of mines and caves everywhere.This group of businessmen has been to a lot of places, but they have never seen a mine where the entire area is surrounded by tall barbed wire, and there are anti-overturning devices on the top.The accompanying officers explained that this was to prevent criminals serving in the mines from waiting for an opportunity to escape.
He Li and others thought that this was a big prison?To put it more seriously, this is that the Haihan people set up private prisons in Shandong, imprisoning and arresting the people of Daming.This is also the local government pretending to be deaf and dumb, to be serious, this can be counted as a crime of Haihan's invasion of Daming.
Of course, it is not difficult to think that the Haihan people must have troops stationed here, and the use of force is an option to be avoided as much as possible for local officials, so this kind of thing, although it is unreasonable, still occurs here.
The accompanying officers briefly introduced to them the battle of the Dengzhou garrison raiding the mines in 1634. In order to take into account the face of the Ming army in front of these people, the officer just understated it as "repelling the Ming army's offensive", and based on this In exchange for the tranquility of this place today.He said it easily, but the audience could imagine that the matter is not as simple as what he said. It is estimated that the Dengzhou army suffered a lot, so they could not even think of revenge, so they could only acquiesce to Haihan Occupation of this copper mine.
Then everyone got off at the gate and entered the mine to visit.Haihan has been mining this copper mine for nearly two years. Some steam equipment with relatively simple maintenance, such as ore conveyor belts, stone crushers, steam trains, etc., have also been gradually put into use in the mine.After seeing these things, He Li and others finally understood why Haihan sent a large amount of coal to Fushan County by sea. They dared to use these mining machines to improve mining efficiency.After they read it, they knew that these steel beasts could only be played by the Haihan people, and it seemed unrealistic to expect them to be introduced into the Ming Dynasty.
As for the so-called hard labor of criminals, He Li and others can see that there is water in it at a glance, because it is impossible for any county-level prison to have so many young people, and even older people can't see two One, you can think with a little brain, these people will definitely not all be fished out of the prison in Fukuyama County.
He Li and others expected it to be not bad. In addition to the prisoners in Fushan County, these hard labors were more of the bandits, bandits and Ming army prisoners captured in previous battles.As for those who are old and in poor health, they have basically died of exhaustion and illness in the mines. The remaining people who can persevere are naturally young and strong.Of course, this kind of cruel truth, the officers who led them to visit this place will definitely not tell the truth.
Of course, these hard labors are not the main purpose of Haihan arranging them to visit this place. They just want to make these southern businessmen realize that Haihan has enough profitable projects in Shandong to support the development of this colony. Sustainability will also bring more transportation tasks and earning opportunities to their partners.As for how to seize these opportunities, it depends on each person's ability to comprehend and act. Haihan has given opportunities, but only those who are ready can seize them.
After visiting the copper ingot warehouse of the mine, the merchants also generally understood why Haihan sent troops to garrison here, not only to guard the hard labor, but more importantly, to guard these valuable precious metals.He Li even had a very malicious thought in his heart. With Haihan's craftsmanship, if copper coins were minted to hit the Ming's currency market, the power might be even greater than the military's armed offensive.
Of course, Haihan will definitely not use precious copper for such a boring project as casting money. The development of the industry requires a lot of copper as raw materials. It's still far from enough.For industrial manufacturing and production, such uses are obviously not understandable to businessmen like He Li, so the military escorts did not mention the whereabouts and uses of these copper ingots at all.
After visiting the copper mine, He Li saw that it was getting late and thought that Haihan would arrange to stay at the mine, but he never thought that there would be arrangements for the next stop.The officer leading the team said: "Because of time constraints, we have only arranged a one-day visit time for you, so you can only be aggrieved and burdened, and you have to go to the last place."
Everyone said that they dared not. Haihan was willing to organize them to visit around, which in itself was a great trust. These businessmen were all knowledgeable and knowledgeable people, and naturally they would not make the organizers feel embarrassed.Besides, they were really curious, what kind of place was the last local stop that the other party wanted to arrange for them to visit.
Everyone went out of the mine and got on the carriage, and after another bump, they came to a town that looked quite prosperous.Looking at the carriages, sedan chairs, and pedestrians entering and leaving the town, He Li felt that this place seemed to be more lively than the county town he visited in the morning.
The entourage introduced to everyone: "This is Majiazhuang, the largest trade distribution center in Fushan County at present, and also my country's trade window in Shandong. As you can see, the floating population here is mainly caravans from other places. Shandong Every state capital has it. They transport special products from all over Shandong, and then exchange them for gold and silver, or various goods produced in my country. I can say without exaggeration that the trade volume here is even higher than that of Dengzhou City. It is much larger, and there may be a gap between the trade scale of Jinan Prefecture, but it is probably a matter of time before it catches up.”
Naturally, everyone had never heard of such a place as Majiazhuang, but the sight in front of them made them believe that Haihan had created an exclusive trade distribution center here.Judging from the prosperity of the place, the introduction I just heard is probably not a lie. The situation that Haihan has managed here is obviously more brilliant than that of the government. estimate.Moreover, it can be inferred from the presence of so many caravans here that the Shandong government has obviously turned a blind eye to the existence here. Make big bucks on this semi-open smuggling trade with Haihan.
This kind of operation is almost the norm in the coastal areas of Daming where Haihan has penetrated, but all officials with real power in their hands are happy to use their power to exchange some practical benefits from the Haihan people.Moreover, the Haihan people will arrange the most reasonable channels for the transmission of interests, so that the process will not be too simple and straightforward for people to easily catch the handle.After years of repeated practice in many places, this operation method has been perfectly perfected in detail, and it will not be too much hindrance to use in Shandong. At most, it will take longer to open up the joints.
Ma Dongqiang, the owner of Majiazhuang Village, personally greeted the guests.Just like how Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan, received more than this group of visitors to Majiazhuang, Ma Dongqiang also had a set of rhetoric, so that these southern businessmen can fully feel the influence of Haihan in the local area.It didn't take a moment for He Li and others to understand that Ma Dongqiang's identity was the spokesperson for the interests of Haihan in the local area.
Ma Dongqiang took them to visit some shops in the town to let them understand the business conditions of the businessmen in the local area. At the same time, he expressed that if he was interested, he could also invest in setting up shops in the local area to handle goods from north to south.At the moment, several people were moved, but He Li was able to hold his breath, thinking that even if he wanted to invest in the north, he had to go to Liaodong to see the local situation before making a decision.This Majiazhuang looks pretty good, but its location is already outside the Haihan military defense zone. What if one day the court changes a second idiot to Shandong to become a high-ranking official, and directly mobilizes troops to overthrow the stall here.
Ma Dongqiang didn't have the idea of pulling a few merchants to take root in the local area. He just showed them the local construction achievements and informed them about some of the trade policies that Haihan implemented locally.As for whether to spend money on business in Fushan County, Ma Dongqiang is not too busy.
Everyone strolled around the town until night fell, and then Ma Dongqiang was the host to entertain the visiting team at the largest restaurant in the town.
(End of this chapter)
The people who can sit in this county government office and interview Zhang Zhixian are also businessmen who have accepted Haihan's conditions and have deep cooperation with Haihan, so although they are a little surprised by Zhang Pucheng's attitude, they will never make a sound. be opposed to.In the end, everyone's position is similar, and they all want to hold Haihan's thigh to get more benefits, but Zhang Pucheng, as a local official, needs to consider the beneficiaries of not only himself, but also the local people.
The purpose of Haihan officials bringing these businessmen to meet Zhang Pucheng is to give them another reassurance, and let them experience for themselves how reliable Haihan's business in Shandong is.Although the official in front of him was just a magistrate, not a great person, these businessmen had also seen the market and understood how difficult it was for Haihan to achieve such results in Shandong.With the endorsement of the local officials, at least they don't have to worry that their fleet will be picked up by the government during their stay in Shandong.
Because He Li has an elder brother who is an aide in the prefect's yamen, his understanding of politics is a little deeper than that of ordinary businessmen, so he feels more deeply about it.Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fukuyama, has publicly turned to Haihan. Either Dengzhou has a similar attitude and acquiesced to his actions, or the government at the higher level has completely lost its control and influence over Fushan County. , can only let things happen here, and dare not easily change the local officials in order to maintain the current peaceful situation.
Of course, this peaceful situation is not only due to the restraint of the local officials in Shandong. Haihan obviously has no plans to attack the local area, only Zhifu Island is included in the military defense zone, and places like Fushan County are still controlled by the local officials. .He Li estimated that the Dengzhou government and even the provincial governor of Shandong were happy to see this situation, and did not want to stimulate the Haihan people too much. After all, the Haihan people have always been soft-hearted and not hard-hearted. If they want to use military means to drive them away, the local officials may not can bear the consequences.
After leaving the county office, Fushan County took the general Huangqu and everyone around the county town, and finally took them to a restaurant in the county town for a luncheon.Of course, this meal must not be paid for by him, and Haihan will settle the cost by himself.Such an arrangement was naturally also to show the southern merchants the reality that the local civil and military officials had surrendered.
Huang Qu is now an idle military attache, and all the symbolic guards at the gate of the county have been withdrawn, and he does not need to worry about defense.According to the advice given by the Haihan people, he invested money to open a car and horse shop, specializing in the ore transportation business of the Fushan Copper Mine. Now, not to mention that he makes a lot of money every month, but at least he is better than before. The air pay of the big head soldiers is much stronger.He now understands that the Haihan people are only here to do business, and as long as they don't block their way of making money, they won't be too hard on themselves.Since the court has nothing to say, it should be okay to do business with the Haihan people to earn some extra money.
Huang Qu has no objection to the Haihan people arranging themselves to receive merchants from the south. This kind of errand is not for nothing, and there is still a hard fee to be paid after the end. There is nothing to complain about when Huang Qu is eaten and taken, and this is not a long time ago. The first group of merchants from the south was just a routine thing for him.
Since a visit was also arranged in the afternoon, the banquet ended quickly at noon. After a short rest in the restaurant, the visiting team went out of the county to the next place to visit.
As soon as the team left the county seat, a team of cavalrymen waited outside, and then followed the convoy to set out together, seemingly serving as a guard.This made everyone curious about where they were going.The team went all the way west from the county seat, and after walking along the official road for about ten miles, they began to turn into the mountainous area.
Seeing that the surrounding environment became more and more desolate, when everyone began to worry, the entourage explained to them that the place they were going to was a copper mine.Of course, the current owner of this copper mine is not the Daming government, but the Haihan people who discovered and exploited this copper mine.The official road leading to the copper mine was also built after Haihan began to mine the mine.
He Li recalled that when he met Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan, the other party had mentioned that all the local criminals were taken by the Haihans to do hard labor in the mines, which must be the place he was talking about.After walking for a while, they finally saw a convoy of carriages transporting supplies running along this road. There were as many as more than [-] vehicles. Only then did everyone confirm that there was indeed a mine in this mountainous area.
However, when they actually saw the real thing, He Li and others were a little suspicious of the attributes of this destination, because it looked more like a military stronghold, rather than the image of mines and caves everywhere.This group of businessmen has been to a lot of places, but they have never seen a mine where the entire area is surrounded by tall barbed wire, and there are anti-overturning devices on the top.The accompanying officers explained that this was to prevent criminals serving in the mines from waiting for an opportunity to escape.
He Li and others thought that this was a big prison?To put it more seriously, this is that the Haihan people set up private prisons in Shandong, imprisoning and arresting the people of Daming.This is also the local government pretending to be deaf and dumb, to be serious, this can be counted as a crime of Haihan's invasion of Daming.
Of course, it is not difficult to think that the Haihan people must have troops stationed here, and the use of force is an option to be avoided as much as possible for local officials, so this kind of thing, although it is unreasonable, still occurs here.
The accompanying officers briefly introduced to them the battle of the Dengzhou garrison raiding the mines in 1634. In order to take into account the face of the Ming army in front of these people, the officer just understated it as "repelling the Ming army's offensive", and based on this In exchange for the tranquility of this place today.He said it easily, but the audience could imagine that the matter is not as simple as what he said. It is estimated that the Dengzhou army suffered a lot, so they could not even think of revenge, so they could only acquiesce to Haihan Occupation of this copper mine.
Then everyone got off at the gate and entered the mine to visit.Haihan has been mining this copper mine for nearly two years. Some steam equipment with relatively simple maintenance, such as ore conveyor belts, stone crushers, steam trains, etc., have also been gradually put into use in the mine.After seeing these things, He Li and others finally understood why Haihan sent a large amount of coal to Fushan County by sea. They dared to use these mining machines to improve mining efficiency.After they read it, they knew that these steel beasts could only be played by the Haihan people, and it seemed unrealistic to expect them to be introduced into the Ming Dynasty.
As for the so-called hard labor of criminals, He Li and others can see that there is water in it at a glance, because it is impossible for any county-level prison to have so many young people, and even older people can't see two One, you can think with a little brain, these people will definitely not all be fished out of the prison in Fukuyama County.
He Li and others expected it to be not bad. In addition to the prisoners in Fushan County, these hard labors were more of the bandits, bandits and Ming army prisoners captured in previous battles.As for those who are old and in poor health, they have basically died of exhaustion and illness in the mines. The remaining people who can persevere are naturally young and strong.Of course, this kind of cruel truth, the officers who led them to visit this place will definitely not tell the truth.
Of course, these hard labors are not the main purpose of Haihan arranging them to visit this place. They just want to make these southern businessmen realize that Haihan has enough profitable projects in Shandong to support the development of this colony. Sustainability will also bring more transportation tasks and earning opportunities to their partners.As for how to seize these opportunities, it depends on each person's ability to comprehend and act. Haihan has given opportunities, but only those who are ready can seize them.
After visiting the copper ingot warehouse of the mine, the merchants also generally understood why Haihan sent troops to garrison here, not only to guard the hard labor, but more importantly, to guard these valuable precious metals.He Li even had a very malicious thought in his heart. With Haihan's craftsmanship, if copper coins were minted to hit the Ming's currency market, the power might be even greater than the military's armed offensive.
Of course, Haihan will definitely not use precious copper for such a boring project as casting money. The development of the industry requires a lot of copper as raw materials. It's still far from enough.For industrial manufacturing and production, such uses are obviously not understandable to businessmen like He Li, so the military escorts did not mention the whereabouts and uses of these copper ingots at all.
After visiting the copper mine, He Li saw that it was getting late and thought that Haihan would arrange to stay at the mine, but he never thought that there would be arrangements for the next stop.The officer leading the team said: "Because of time constraints, we have only arranged a one-day visit time for you, so you can only be aggrieved and burdened, and you have to go to the last place."
Everyone said that they dared not. Haihan was willing to organize them to visit around, which in itself was a great trust. These businessmen were all knowledgeable and knowledgeable people, and naturally they would not make the organizers feel embarrassed.Besides, they were really curious, what kind of place was the last local stop that the other party wanted to arrange for them to visit.
Everyone went out of the mine and got on the carriage, and after another bump, they came to a town that looked quite prosperous.Looking at the carriages, sedan chairs, and pedestrians entering and leaving the town, He Li felt that this place seemed to be more lively than the county town he visited in the morning.
The entourage introduced to everyone: "This is Majiazhuang, the largest trade distribution center in Fushan County at present, and also my country's trade window in Shandong. As you can see, the floating population here is mainly caravans from other places. Shandong Every state capital has it. They transport special products from all over Shandong, and then exchange them for gold and silver, or various goods produced in my country. I can say without exaggeration that the trade volume here is even higher than that of Dengzhou City. It is much larger, and there may be a gap between the trade scale of Jinan Prefecture, but it is probably a matter of time before it catches up.”
Naturally, everyone had never heard of such a place as Majiazhuang, but the sight in front of them made them believe that Haihan had created an exclusive trade distribution center here.Judging from the prosperity of the place, the introduction I just heard is probably not a lie. The situation that Haihan has managed here is obviously more brilliant than that of the government. estimate.Moreover, it can be inferred from the presence of so many caravans here that the Shandong government has obviously turned a blind eye to the existence here. Make big bucks on this semi-open smuggling trade with Haihan.
This kind of operation is almost the norm in the coastal areas of Daming where Haihan has penetrated, but all officials with real power in their hands are happy to use their power to exchange some practical benefits from the Haihan people.Moreover, the Haihan people will arrange the most reasonable channels for the transmission of interests, so that the process will not be too simple and straightforward for people to easily catch the handle.After years of repeated practice in many places, this operation method has been perfectly perfected in detail, and it will not be too much hindrance to use in Shandong. At most, it will take longer to open up the joints.
Ma Dongqiang, the owner of Majiazhuang Village, personally greeted the guests.Just like how Zhang Pucheng, the magistrate of Fushan, received more than this group of visitors to Majiazhuang, Ma Dongqiang also had a set of rhetoric, so that these southern businessmen can fully feel the influence of Haihan in the local area.It didn't take a moment for He Li and others to understand that Ma Dongqiang's identity was the spokesperson for the interests of Haihan in the local area.
Ma Dongqiang took them to visit some shops in the town to let them understand the business conditions of the businessmen in the local area. At the same time, he expressed that if he was interested, he could also invest in setting up shops in the local area to handle goods from north to south.At the moment, several people were moved, but He Li was able to hold his breath, thinking that even if he wanted to invest in the north, he had to go to Liaodong to see the local situation before making a decision.This Majiazhuang looks pretty good, but its location is already outside the Haihan military defense zone. What if one day the court changes a second idiot to Shandong to become a high-ranking official, and directly mobilizes troops to overthrow the stall here.
Ma Dongqiang didn't have the idea of pulling a few merchants to take root in the local area. He just showed them the local construction achievements and informed them about some of the trade policies that Haihan implemented locally.As for whether to spend money on business in Fushan County, Ma Dongqiang is not too busy.
Everyone strolled around the town until night fell, and then Ma Dongqiang was the host to entertain the visiting team at the largest restaurant in the town.
(End of this chapter)