Chapter 3504
Chapter 3504
Chapter 3504
He couldn't enter the forum venue without an invitation, and he couldn't meet the Hai Han officials he wanted to meet. Zengshan Masayoshi had no choice but to focus his attention elsewhere.
He believed that since Hai Han had spent so much time and effort to host an international event of this scale, it would definitely not limit all content to the venue. Sure enough, news soon reached him that there was a ship exhibition held by several shipyards in Dinghai Port.
Although these shipyards are privately owned rather than government-run, they are still excellent purchasing opportunities for Masayoshi Zengshan.
Zeng Shanzheng had long heard that Fujian's navigation and shipbuilding were very developed, and even many daimyo in Kyushu had placed orders with local shipyards. However, every time he came to Hai Han, he went to Hangzhou and had no time to visit the shipyards in Fujian, making it difficult for him to understand the specific situation of the local shipbuilding industry.
This time, the shipyard in Fujian took the initiative to come to Zhoushan to hold an exhibition, which made Zengshan Masayoshi much easier. He immediately ordered people to prepare carriages and horses so that he could go and see the exhibition in person.
What made Zengshan Masayoshi a little uneasy was that these Fujian shipyards were obviously not unfamiliar with Japanese customers and even prepared translators in advance. The other party even openly claimed that they had received many orders from Japan in the past year.
But when Masuyama Masatoshi asked for details, the other party cleverly changed the subject and avoided talking about the specific destination of these shipbuilding orders. Obviously, the shipyard also knew Masuyama Masatoshi's identity and knew which information needed to be kept secret from the Tokugawa shogunate behind him.
As for the civilian-to-warship model that the shipyard was trying to promote, Zeng Shanzheng was not unfamiliar with it. During his previous visits to Hai Han, he had already placed similar orders with the Jiangsu and Zhejiang shipyards. After all, the production capacity of Hai Han's official shipyards had long been unable to meet the needs of the Japanese market.
However, the production capacity of shipyards in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has now reached saturation, so such orders will gradually shift to shipyards in Fujian in the south.
Zengshan Zhengli did not have much objection to the quotation given by Fujian Shipyard. Compared with the orders from Jiangsu and Zhejiang shipyards last year, the shipbuilding price in Fujian was even lower. This was probably because the production capacity of Fujian Shipyard was not yet saturated at this time.
But when Masayoshi Zengshan asked for the order to be delivered as quickly as possible, the shipyard's response did not satisfy him.
"Are you saying that my order delivery time will be later than other countries?"
Zeng Shanzheng Li shook his head and said, "Today is only the first day of the exhibition. Am I not your first customer? Why should I wait in line after others?"
The shipyard receptionist responded, "Master Zengshan, other customers have already placed orders before you."
Zeng Shanzhengli said: "If my order is larger, can it be given priority?"
The receptionist replied: "Of course, the shipyard will definitely adjust the shipbuilding plan and make special arrangements for major customers."
Zeng Shanzhengli slammed the table and said, "Then let's get ten ships first! Four exploration-class ships, four exploration-class ships, and the remaining two will be built as Barracuda-class transport ships!"
The receptionist said, "Master Zengshan, I'm afraid that your order...will not be able to enjoy special arrangements."
Zeng Shanzhengli was surprised and asked: "Aren't ten boats enough?"
Seeing the receptionist shaking his head slightly, Zeng Shanzhengli had no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "Then add five more exploration-level ones!" However, the number he added still failed to exceed the previous order placed by Matalan Country, and naturally he could not get the result he wanted.
This was not because Zeng Shanzheng was stingy, but because the Tokugawa shogunate did not have much military procurement funds left. However, the amount he reported twice was rejected by the shipyard, which made Zeng Shanzheng very embarrassed.
Since the situation in Kyushu deteriorated last year, the Tokugawa shogunate, having sensed that something was wrong, has already allocated money and placed a large number of military purchase orders with Hai Han, including dozens of warships of various types.
At the end of last year, most daimyos in Kyushu stopped paying local taxes to the shogunate, so some daimyos in the neighboring Shikoku and Honshu regions followed suit, waiting to see how the shogunate would react.
The cessation of these sources of income had a significant impact on the shogunate's financial situation. Apart from sending letters to reprimand these daimyo, the shogunate seemed unable to come up with more effective punishment measures for the time being.
After all, it was winter, and it was difficult for the shogunate to send troops to conquer these local feudal states that refused to obey its management. Everything had to wait until spring.
Faced with the local forces that are ready to stir up trouble in the country, the most urgent thing for the Tokugawa shogunate at present is to strengthen its own strength through military purchases and make adequate preparations for the civil war that may break out next.
Although there was not much available funds, before Masuyama Masayoshi set out this time, Tokugawa Ietsuga still gave him the power to make his own decisions and to purchase some faster-delivered military equipment from Hai Han at his discretion.
Zengshan Zhengli did not meet the Matalan people when he came, so he didn't know who the person who placed the order before him was. After thinking about it for a while, he still couldn't figure out who would have rushed here so early to place an order.
But there is one thing that Zengshan Zhengli can conclude, that the other party must also have a strong demand for the delivery period, and there seem to not be too many such customers.
The more Masatoshi Zengshan thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. He believed that the mysterious customer that the shipyard was unwilling to disclose information about was most likely someone in Kyushu, or even several daimyo.
After all, the financial resources of the Kyushu domains are limited, and I'm afraid no domain can purchase so many ships at once. It's possible that the order was placed by several daimyo jointly.
It would be best if they could put pressure on the shipyard to reveal the true identity of the customer, or to cancel the order from the mysterious customer, but it is obviously difficult to achieve such a goal given Masayoshi Zengshan's identity.
If he had the patience to wait a few more days, the shipyard would most likely use the Matalan order to solicit business, but he was so eager at this time that the shipyard would certainly judge the situation, let him continue to be suspicious, and force him to place a larger order.
Sure enough, after much thought, Zengshan Masayoshi felt that he could only increase the order to squeeze the production capacity of Fujian Shipyard and thus delay the delivery of ships to the mysterious customer.
So he added up to twenty-five ships, and the receptionist finally said that the shipyard's production plan could be adjusted to arrange part of the production capacity to serve Zengshan Masayoshi's order.
As for Masatoshi Zengshan's wish to complete his own order first and then build the ship ordered by the mysterious customer, it was naturally rejected by the reception staff without any suspense.
You know, if the shipyard cannot deliver on time, it will have to compensate the shipowner according to the contract. There is no way the shipyard can complete the Zengshan Zhengli order first and deliver the 20 ships ordered by another major customer on time. By then, not only will the shipyard not make any money from these two orders, it may even have to lose a large sum of money.