Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 825 All Quiet on the Western Front

The sun is good today, and the small hall of Yantai "Sun Ji Nan Store" is crowded with residents who come to shop.As the only store in Yantai that sells southern goods, it is not surprising that this newly opened store has a good business.The store was opened by the descendants of Sun Chunyang, a wealthy businessman from Ningbo. It specializes in selling tea, silk cloth, cotton cloth, dried bamboo shoots, mushrooms, toon buds, melon seeds, and secret Sun Chunyang tea legs produced in Ningbo Prefecture in the south.

Sun Chunyang was originally a Confucian student in Ningbo. After failing many exams during the Wanli period, he abandoned Confucianism and went into business. He opened a Nanhuoshop in Suzhou. The name was Sun Chunyang Nanhuopu.After the Qing army went south, the Sun family who was in charge of the store at that time sent some nephews back to their hometown in Ningbo to avoid the risk of military disaster.But who knows that within a few years, this Ningbo fell into the hands of the yellow-clothed thieves again, and judging by his style, he seemed to be entrenched, which made the speculative Sun family see a certain possibility.So, seven months after the "trapped thief" in Ningbo, the Sun family saw the opportunity and decisively joined Wei Boqiu, who was in charge of the economic construction work in Ningbo. Opening stores in the region to prosper local commerce has won Wei Boqiu's approval.

Now that the approval of Deputy Commander Wei has been obtained, things will be much easier to handle.In mid-March, several young people sent by the Sun family came to Yantai on a ship transporting immigrants from the east coast, and opened their first store "Sun Ji Nan Huo Shop" in Yantai area.The reason why the old signboard of "Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Shop" was not used was mainly because he was afraid of causing trouble to the clansmen who were still in the area ruled by the Qing court. What if they were framed as traitors?

After the preparations for the Nanhuo Shop in Yantai were completed, at the end of April, the Sun family's own ship with a full load of goods set sail from Dinghai Port and arrived at Yantai Port after a long voyage.So far, tea, silk, earthen cloth, bambooware, rattan chairs and some special foods from the south have entered the Shandong market, and the trade link between the two places, which had been interrupted for ten years since the end of Chongzhen, was reconnected.

The government of the Heishui Pioneering Team of Sun Jinan Merchant Store holds [-]% of the shares, and is the largest shareholder; Shao Shude, Wei Boqiu and other well-known officials in Heishui account for a total of [-]% of the shares, and the Sun family owns [-]% of the shares.At present, the operating method is still adopted by Suzhou Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Shop, that is, the method of sub-cabinet operation-the shop is divided into six rooms: Nanhuo, Haihuo, Pickled Curd, Sauce, Candied Fruit and Candle.After the customer chooses the product and is optimistic about the marked price, he pays the money in front of the unified cash register, and then the cashier will give the customer a ticket, and the customer can use this ticket to pick up the goods in each warehouse.

This method of separating cash and goods greatly reduces the number of salespersons, reduces costs, improves sales efficiency, and also reduces corruption by salespersons and enhances financial security. It can be said to serve multiple purposes.In addition, Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Shop adopts "one-pen" financial management, with a summary every day and a year. The accounts are clear, the settlement is standardized, and the profit and loss of the company can be seen at a glance on the same day. It has already formed the embryonic form of modern supermarket management.

In the late Ming Dynasty, there were a lot of merchants in Jiangnan who shoddy and cheated. Their business ethics were extremely bad, but the Sun family has always been known for their honesty and trustworthiness.The goods sold in the store are all selected and specially made. For decades, professionals have been selected (sometimes even inspected in person) to ensure good quality. This is the secret of the store's continued prosperity.

Zamparini, with a 41-year steel bayonet pinned to his waist and a faded military uniform, was holding a can of tea and watching carefully.The tea is Quhao produced in Fenghua, and the price is four cents and five cents a catty, and this big can is a catty.Although Zamparini is not very good at tasting tea, as a senior non-commissioned officer in the East Coast Army, he is a "respectable person" who may be promoted to second lieutenant after returning to China. He feels that he should also do some decent things, such as drinking tea.

Which decent person in the country today—or the middle class—is not a tea addict?You don't care if you really like it or you don't like it, anyway, masters with a little spare money will flock to it.Zamparini felt that he was qualified to be called "Sir" after returning to his hometown - the deposit certificate of the Northwest Reclamation Bank of more than [-] yuan in his pocket was his confidence - so he needed to buy some very popular among decent people. Take the tea back home, not to mention the surprisingly low price of these teas.

"Give me five...no, ten cans of each kind of tea! Yes, ten cans of this kind, this kind, and this kind!" Zamparini stood in the south warehouse, pointing to the counter Tea said.

Sun Chengren, a descendant of the Sun family who was acting as a clerk, was slightly taken aback when he saw this, thinking that these Qiu Bas were really rich. The total of forty cans of these four kinds of tea would cost thirteen or fourteen silver dollars, and they didn't even blink. Just bought it.But he was just slightly taken aback, because there were too many Qiuba shopping in his shop these two days, many of them spent tens of dollars, much stronger purchasing power than those dressed as ordinary people.

"Isn't this yellow-clothed army scraping the ground in Shandong, and Qiu Ba, who is not even a general, has so much money?" Sun Chengren sneered secretly, taking out the tea leaves one by one and putting them aside, then motioned to Zamparini Go to the till and pay.

"The silver pancakes made by people from the east bank are really exquisite." Sun Chengren's cousin, Sun Chengyi, who also harvested in the South Warehouse, stood aside, took out a silver coin with a denomination of [-] cents from his pocket, and said in an admiring tone : "The color is good, the weight is sufficient, and the value of each piece is clear at a glance, which is very convenient for business."

Sun Chengren glanced at his cousin and nodded, but he was thinking in his heart that the Yellow Army of the East Bank must not be defeated, otherwise their business will not be able to continue. After all, they and the dignitaries of the East Bank The nobles are too deeply involved, and it is already difficult to get out.I heard that at this time the main force of the Qing army had already entered Qingzhou Prefecture, and there were Tartar zero cavalry outside the Jiaozhou Fort where the people on the east bank were heavily stationed. , the situation is extremely critical, I don't know what will happen next, I hope the Tatars can retreat in spite of the difficulties.The road from Qingzhou to Denglai has been destroyed in a bad way, and there are no people in the countryside, let alone any supplies. If more than 2000 people rush over at once, this person must not drag them to death. .

Furthermore, Sun Chengren had also read one or two military books, and knew that if the Tartar army entered Dengzhou, the supply line would be unbearably long.However, the Yellow Army has thousands of cavalry. If they landed in large numbers behind them and cut off the food roads, wouldn't the Tartars have to worry about the whole army collapse?In this lean and yellow season, food roads are cut off, and there is nothing to plunder. What else can we do but wait for death?Therefore, he believed that the possibility of the Tartar army attacking Dengzhou was not very high. If he was exhausted, he would send a vanguard cavalry into Laizhou to show off his might, and there would be nothing else to sing.

The biggest possibility for the Tartars is to station the main force in Qingzhou Prefecture, and then overhaul the fortress and organize group training to prevent the yellow-clothed army from advancing westward from the land. There is no other way.Maybe some people will be sent to besiege Jiaozhou Fort, but they should retreat after being unable to attack for a long time.But in this way, the more than [-] elite troops of the Tartars will definitely be dragged here to do nothing, but this is the trouble of the Tartar court, and he, Sun Chengren, is too lazy to care about it.

Instead of worrying about it, he might as well go to the sea goods store to help out. In the past two days, some high-quality sable fur, blue fox fur, squirrel skin, bear skin, deerskin and other fur goods have been imported there. Uncle Zu couldn't close his mouth with a smile, and even said that he hadn't seen such a good-looking fur product for many years.Since the rise of Jiannu in Liaodong, the business of leather goods has been monopolized by Shanxi merchants. It is rare to see such high-quality goods in the south. I didn’t expect such good leather goods to be sold in Dabo County. How many are there? How much did you charge.When the time comes, bring them back to Ningbo, contact some old contacts, and they will almost be sold out.

In addition, the sea vegetables, crab meat, oysters, sea cucumbers, dried salted fish, etc. are all rare high-quality goods in the south. If they are shipped back to Ningbo, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Taizhou, Songjiang and other neighboring provinces for sale , Absolutely a lot of profit.Alas, it seems that we have to open another store in Yin County, selling only northern goods, and at the same time buying rice and selling it to the north, it must be very profitable!

While Sun Chengren was daydreaming, Zamparini paid the money and came to pick up the goods.Sun Chengren checked the invoice carefully, and then handed the bundled tea leaves to Zamparini.Zamparini didn't talk much, nodded with Sun Chengren, and then walked towards the pier outside the city with the tea leaves, planning to send the tea back to his hometown through the Yantai Post Office.

The all-steam-powered ship "Tahiti" that arrived at Yantai Port for many days is about to carry a group of immigrants and silver (60 taels, most of the booty won by Ningbo Prefecture last year) to head south for Australia. Therefore, every ship on the east coast returning to the mainland has to undertake certain postal tasks, so many soldiers choose to send part of their luggage back to the country through the "Tahiti", such as the tea sent by Zamparini, but forty It's only a catty, and it's not over the limit!

In the barracks next to the pier, 2 officers and soldiers from the 240nd company of the new army are undergoing routine training. They are replacing Zamparini's old army, the 104th company of the army. Served for two years, helping some of the servants who had just completed "slimming down" to carry out training.

Looking at these main forces wearing dark blue military uniforms, Zamparini, who can only wear khaki reserve military uniforms, can only be deeply envious.He vaguely heard that this elite company will soon go south with the new Black Eight Banners [-]th Infantry Battalion, and temporarily join the battle sequence in the southern theater, and will be sent to Ninghai County, Xiangshan County, Changguowei and other places that are still under the control of the Qing court. Take it down, and then establish a stability maintenance committee locally to control it in the hands of the people on the east coast.

In addition, they will also support the Shaoxing battlefield depending on the situation.At present, Commander Liu of the navy is playing well in Shaoxing Prefecture. He has repeatedly defeated more than 1 soldiers and horses under the command of Qing Zhejiang Admiral Tian Xiong, and occupied Yuyao, Shangyu, Shanyin, Shengxian, Xinchang, Linshanwei and other places. The remnants of the army had already retreated to Xiaoshan County; more than [-] people led by Zhang Mingzhen also made a scene at the junction of Songjiang Mansion and Jiaxing Mansion. Zhang Cunren, who was trapped in Hangzhou, was in a hurry, so he had to dispatch Chen Tai's troops from Fujian to rush northward, otherwise Hangzhou would be in danger .

The people from the east bank made such a fuss in the southern war zone, which once again completely disrupted the strategic deployment of the Qing government.Originally, the [-] elites led by Chen Tai had gone south from Fujian and invaded the Chaoshan area in the northeast of Guangdong. The local Ming army surrendered again under the pressure of the Qing army. .It's all right now, with the transfer of Chen Tai's troops to the north, Li Chengdong has saved his life and can continue to linger on.

The situation in Guangdong is like this, and Jiangxi is also very similar.More than 1 Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners led by Jierhalang fought hard for many days in Jiangxi. Although there were not as many cannon fodder and green battalions available as in history, they still put down Jin Shenghuan who was defending Nanchang after a lot of effort.The remnants of Jin retreated to the south-central area of ​​Jiangxi and merged with Wang Deren's troops guarding Ganzhou. However, the more than [-] soldiers and horses after the two merged were still no match for Jierhalang's troops. The situation is extremely critical.

However, since the yellow-clothed thieves made a big fuss in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu at the end of last year, and occupied Ningbo Mansion for a long time, the Qing court ordered Jierhalang to lead the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia to withdraw northward after weighing the pros and cons, and then to support the Zhejiang battlefield.As for the Jiangxi battlefield, it is maintained by the newly recruited traitor Green Battalion. Geng Zhongming and Shen Zhixiang are under the old men of Liaodong, and they are still worthy of battle.With them in Jiangxi, if they take a defensive position, the local situation should not completely collapse in a short period of time, but the area that the Qing court can control may only be half of Jiangxi, and there is no way around it.

In this way, unexpectedly, the people from the east bank made such a fuss in Zhejiang and the southern Zhili prefectures, which actually affected the situation in several southern provinces, and made the Qing army feel helpless.At the same time, the southern war zone stationed in Ningbo Prefecture also maintains close ties with Shandong, and the troops between the two places move frequently and quickly—it may take more than a week for a sail transport ship to travel from Ningbo to Shandong by sea. There was not enough time for the Qing army to walk from Qingzhou to Laizhou.

Under such linkage between the northern and southern war zones, a large number of elite troops of the Qing army were pinned down, unable to free up their hands to wipe out the resurgent anti-Qing armed forces such as rebellion and rebellion. This is undoubtedly an extremely bad thing. If it is delayed for a long time, it will inevitably have a great impact on the prestige of the Qing court.Don’t you see that the Chuangni brigade has already attacked Xiangyang in the north again? If Xiangyang is breached, the Henan Plain without a single soldier will be completely exposed to them; and Zhang Xianzhong’s troops in Sichuan are also working hard to capture the Qing court states in northern Sichuan The county and local officials were in a hurry, but the "bandit situation" in Shaanxi was also very serious at this time, and there was really no way to spare troops to go south for reinforcements, so they had to let it go.

How to choose and how to choose at this time is really a matter of testing the wisdom of the rulers of the Qing court.

(End of this chapter)