1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 74
Luo Shengdong opened his mouth, but didn't say a word, because he really didn't know how to refute Tao Donglai's statement.When it comes to talking kung fu, ten Luo Shengdongs may not be as good as one Tao Donglai. Whether it is vision, knowledge or mature worldview, the level of the two is too far apart.But even if he couldn't argue with the other party, Luo Shengdong was still reluctant to give up his position.

Tao Donglai didn't mean to rush to pursue the victory, but just looked at Luo Shengdong with interest, waiting to see how he could refute.

"But you are outsiders after all, and I, Daming, are the rulers of this ten thousand miles of land!" Every time Luo Shengdong counterattacks, it takes a long time to think, and the content becomes more and more pale.

"You are right, so we have no intention of overthrowing the current imperial court by force." Tao Donglai thought for a while and added, "At least not until the current imperial court takes a hostile attitude towards us."

"You guys... that's all, if you only seek trade and trade, and don't violate my great prestige, no one will take the initiative to trouble you." Luo Shengdong saw the scene of the artillery test fire on the boat Having given up the idea of ​​confrontation by force, all he can do now is to settle for the next best thing, and hope that the Haihan people can take the initiative to maintain peace out of consideration for their own interests.

Tao Donglai just smiled, and didn't continue with this question. Instead, he asked another question: "I remember that before you went back, you said that you would send ten times the number of people to get you and your subordinates to escape." I wondered how there should be three to five hundred people, right? But I asked just now, and it seems that only Wuhu shipbuilders came this time, what's going on?"

Hearing this, Luo Shengdong got up and clasped his fists quite seriously and said, "Sir Tao, speaking of this matter, I have something to ask you."

"What trouble did you encounter in Yazhou, and you need our help?" Tao Donglai saw his cautious attitude, and asked with a smile.

"I still have 42 subordinates serving in your labor camp. I wonder when they will be released?" Luo Shengdong asked, paying attention to Tao Donglai's expression.

Tao Donglai nodded knowingly and said, "So that's the case, you want us to release people first, and then you send us the prisoners you mentioned earlier, I understand right?"

Luo Shengdong said "don't dare" in his mouth, but did not deny Tao Donglai's guess.

Tao Donglai pondered for a while before answering: "It's not difficult to let people go, but after these people go back, can you guarantee that no one will talk nonsense and betray you?"

As soon as Luo Shengdong heard this, he knew that there was a way to do this, and quickly said: "What I want here is to let the brothers regain their freedom, not all of them need to return to Yazhou. If there are some who are not strict, let them be there. After settling down here, their family members can also move in. I have made my own decision before, and I have written to the General Counselor and the Lord Zhizhou, suggesting to build a fort here to guard against the pirates in the South China Sea. After the sergeant, you can continue to transfer the labor force from Yazhou on the grounds of building a fort."

Tao Donglai nodded noncommittally and said, "This method is not bad, but if some of these soldiers still refuse to listen to you and want to go back to Yazhou, what are you going to do?"

Luo Shengdong's face immediately turned gloomy: "If someone disobeys the military order and destroys my important task of garrisoning the frontier, then it will be military law!"

When Tao Donglai heard the words, his impression of Luo Shengdong rose again.When Luo Shengdong returned to Victory Harbor this time, he was able to take the initiative to plead for his subordinates who were still serving hard labor, which showed that he was still quite courageous and loyal, and he knew how to be flexible and could distinguish the seriousness of the matter. He was indeed a person who could be supported with heart .

Luo Shengdong got off the donkey and asked if he could bring the skeletons of his colleagues and subordinates who died in the battle back to Yazhou. Tao Donglai also agreed and said that he could have some thin-skin coffins prepared by the carpentry workshop. .These unlucky ghosts who were shot and killed by the Chuanzhong were buried somewhere outside the Yulin fishing village. They were victims of Luo Shengdong's wrong decision. Now that he has the heart to help these unjust deceased people transport their bones back to their hometowns for burial, the Chuanzhong side will naturally not stop them. .

In the afternoon, Tao Donglai took Luo Shengdong to visit the salt farm commune and farm commune. This was actually the first time Tao Donglai went to the field to check the production organization of the commune.At present, the manpower of the commune has been replenished to the level before the conscription, and because after the conscription, a lot of newly recruited young laborers have been injected into the two communes, and the proportion has even increased compared with that before the conscription.Looking at the orderly labor scene, Luo Shengdong had to admit again that no matter what these Haihan people did, they seemed very organized and efficient. The level of sophistication is by no means comparable to the current level of this dynasty.

According to the arrangement of the executive committee, the Salt Farm Commune had collected two thousand catties of salt, and was going to hand it over to Luo Shengdong for sale to test the waters.Schneider completely treated Luo Shengdong as an agent distributor, and sold the batch of salt to Luo Shengdong on credit at a package price of 100 taels of silver, and then let him sell it on the market at a price of 150 to [-] taels per catty. The sale is exactly about half of the official salt price.When this batch of goods is sold out and comes back next time, the first payment settlement will be made.

Luo Shengdong calculated that one catty of salt could earn at least one hundred taels, and after selling two thousand catties of salt, he would get at least 200 taels of silver in his hands, which is equivalent to the salary of the general manager for four years!Even if the transportation and channel management costs on the way are removed, the profit is extremely rich.Luo Shengdong calculated his salary again, plus his daily gray income, whether he can earn 100 taels of silver a year now is still a big question mark, it seems that the money of the Haihan people is really easy to earn !
Luo Shengdong didn't worry about how the salt would be shipped back. After the last action team left Yazhou, Luo Shengdong had already started to arrange this.At present, there are two salt merchants in Yazhou, all of which sell official salt from Danzhou. The cost is a bit higher than the private salt Luo Shengdong got from the Haihan people. If they dare to set the price If it falls to the same level, then basically don't think about making any money. If you want to fight the price war with private salt, you will lose no doubt.Moreover, Luo Shengdong is not too worried that competitors will report to officials because of this, because the Daming army has always sold salt privately.

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, those who eat food in the army and serve as soldiers have a certain monthly salt quota. This quota can be purchased from salt merchants at only one-third or less of the market price. It is one of the perks of being a soldier.But in this way, the short-paying military leaders can reasonably and legally use this regulation to earn market price differences. They buy low-priced salt according to the number of people on the roster, and then sell the short part after increasing the price.Although this method is not public, the military, salt merchants and local governments all acquiesce to each other of the rationality of its existence.

The military leaders of the army can use this to make some gray income, while the salt merchants take advantage of each other and use this opportunity to win over the relationship with the local military leaders.As for the local government, as long as there is no trouble in the world, it will be fine. Anyway, the Ministry of Households collects the salt tax, and the Salt Bureau is responsible for the administration of salt administration, and has nothing to do with the local government.And the salt class promotion department is basically a group with the salt merchants.

Although this method is good, Luo Shengdong has not been able to use this routine to earn extra money in the past. One of the reasons is that his past military rank is not enough, and he can't eat it on many occasions, and the salt merchant may not sell his face.Secondly, because the situation in the water village is quite special, almost all staff are full, and the vacancy is pitifully small. Even if you can buy and sell smoothly every month, the little money earned by reselling salt is not enough.

But now the situation is different. Luo Shengdong has a big salt trader from Haihan behind Luo Shengdong. Although it is a little early to say "big", Luo Shengdong has no doubts about Tao Donglai's commitment to his "downgrade". In half a year, the daily output of the salt field will reach more than [-] catties."

Luo Shengdong is now very grateful that his father sent him to a private school for a few years, and he also learned to know numbers and settle accounts, otherwise he might not be able to calculate how much he can earn in a year.There are more than [-] residents in Yazhou. According to the statement of the Haihan people, the average annual consumption of salt is five jins, which is about [-] jins, and one jins of private salt only earns one coin, which is also an annual income of [-] taels of silver. Buy and sell!

This is not the business that was talked about in Yazhou City at the beginning, but the real money has been delivered, and people can't refuse it at all.Luo Shengdong recited in his heart "people are not saints and sages, no one can be blamed", while signing and stamping on the manifest that Schneider took out, he signed for two thousand catties of salt.

Seeing that Luo Shengdong was finally dragged into the water, and the plan to bribe and corrupt senior Ming army cadres had achieved phased results, Tao Donglai couldn't hide his excitement, so he called Ren Liang in front of Luo Shengdong. Call, let him arrange for the prisoners of the Ming army in the labor camp to end their current life of hard labor as soon as possible, and give them a certain relaxation in terms of treatment.In addition, several people named by Luo Shengdong will also be released when he returns, and they will return to Yazhou together.The more than 40 Ming army prisoners who were still in the labor camp at this time were lucky. If Luo Shengdong was a few days late, some of them might have been drilled to death by the evil foreman Gao Qiaonan.

After finishing the business affairs, Tao Donglai simply took Luo Shengdong to the boot camp by boat. First, he also wanted to see the training progress of this batch of recruits with his own eyes. Second, he could also take this opportunity to beat Luo Sheng again. Dong, let him know how much power is in the hands of the Executive Committee.

(End of this chapter)