Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 94 Buying a Boat
Eight famous prostitutes came on the stage one after another, and the eight performances lasted for a month, making Jinchailou the most widely discussed brothel during this period, and it was very successful as soon as it opened, but the performance of Jinchailou is not over yet , will also invite other courtesans to perform here.

However, it is no longer Li Biansha, Gu Zheng, Gu Cuima and other first-class courtesans. Next, we will select outstanding second-rate courtesans to perform. Yang Chao planned a large-scale performance from two months until the end of the year. , will go on until the business is closed during the Chinese New Year.

But they won't be specially inviting guests anymore. Instead, they will send a month's program list through that account book. Interested guests can reserve seats in advance. They must be booked ten days in advance, otherwise there may be no seats.

This model will be the fixed model of Jinchailou in the future, similar to the grand theaters of later generations, where the program list is released and guests buy tickets to enjoy it, instead of the Qinhuai River brothel opening model in the first few days, inviting celebrities to hold the show.

Once the pattern is fixed, Yang Chao doesn't plan to take care of it anymore. What needs to be explained, should be explained, and what should be instructed, should be instructed completely.

Then Yang Chao: "I will concentrate on training in the future, and I don't have much time to come here."

Hearing that Yang Chao didn't have time to come, the two couldn't help feeling sorry.

Yang Chao said again: "Brother Wang, I don't know if your family has anything to do with the shipyard? Help me get the boat from Longjiang Shipyard cheaply."

Wang Xiao said, "Brother Yang wants to buy a boat?"

Yang Chao said: "Nonsense, I'm the commander of the navy. If there is no boat, it's still called a navy."

Wang Xiao nodded: "Now is a good time to buy a ship, the freight rate changes every day."

Wang Xiao is now in control of Wang's Grocery Store, which is a large grocery store. Although it is losing money, where is the size? It needs a large amount of goods to be transported every year, every month, every day, so the freight rate is a matter of great concern. matter.

The river bandits are infested, and the freight across the river alone is more than [-]% higher than in the past, and it is still rising.

But what surprised Yang Chao was that when Yang Chao wanted to buy a ship, Wang Xiao immediately thought of the shipping price, and thought that Yang Chao was in business, so he was really the son of a born businessman, but it's a pity that he wasn't his son.

Afterwards, Yang Chao didn't care about the Jinchai Tower and returned to the barracks. The army was far more important to Yang Chao than the Jinchai Tower.

But Yang Chao also cares about the business of Jinchai Building from time to time.

The Jinchai Tower is naturally well-known. Four famous prostitutes gathered together twice, and most of them appeared on the stage to perform dramas. This is the first time in Nanjing. It is hard not to be famous.

The only pity is that the Jinchai Building does not have its own headliner, its attractiveness to those flirtatious young men is gradually declining, and part of the source of customers is gradually lost.

And because they are so famous, many people scold them. The most scolding ones are those poor scholars who have no money. Little talents, because Jinchailou didn't invite them for the opening, they have been aggrieved all the time, making troubles, spreading rumors, writing poems and satirizing, and doing everything they can.

Just like the Vanity Fair in later generations, the more famous you are, the more you will be scolded, and if no one scolds you, you will not be popular anymore.To enjoy fame and wealth, one has to accept slander, the world is so fair, there has never been a good thing to only enjoy the benefits without paying the price.

Gaining a great reputation as soon as it opened, this is what the brothel industry needs most. How much fame you can gather at the beginning often sets the tone for your future. Whether it is a first-rate brothel or a second-rate role, it depends on whether you can gather huge at once. popularity.

From this point of view, Yang Chao has been very successful, it depends on how Kang Hui's follow-up management will be.

But to Yang Chao's surprise, the business was running high and low, and the speed was very fast. Although there are still some regular customers, they can still have a thousand taels of silver every month, which is second only to Mei in Nanjing. There are a few brothels such as Xianglou and Meilou, but they are far from Yang Chao's expectations. Yang Chao never thought about competing with brothels like Meixianglou, but wanted to set up a big banner and set a benchmark. But I didn't expect that, let alone the benchmark, when it really competed, it really couldn't compete in the world.

Kang Hui thinks that the Jinchai Building does not have its own town girl, but the girls do. Liu Rushi and Dong Xiaowan are very good, but it is a pity that the Jinchai Building does not dare to use them. They can only hide and raise them. They dare not let anyone know that they are hiding in Jinchai Building, otherwise they will cause trouble.

Yang Chao has never had a good idea. He can't ask Gu Mei and others to help him every day. Once or twice is okay, but it won't work after a long time. Moreover, he has already used the fame of these famous prostitutes twice. They came together, and then even invited one or two, but there was no effect. To put it bluntly, Jinchailou still had to rely on its own hard power.

It's a pity that Yang Chao couldn't put too much energy into Jinchai Tower, so he could only let Kang Hui explore by himself.

For Yang Chao, military training is the most important thing right now.

Fortunately, there were no accidents in the barracks during this period. The eight teams were training recruits step by step, and they were all very excited.

A few months ago, they were still being scolded, but now they suddenly stand up as serfs and sing, and suddenly they are being scolded.

So one by one put on a pose, put on a majestic posture, beat and scolded at every turn, and the soldiers who beat them grinned.

It's not that they like beating people, but that Yang Chao has promised that their promotion depends on the results of their training. Yang Chao has always followed his word, and he has never given less money than he should have, and seldom paid him late.

So they all believed that Yang Chao would decide who to promote as the Banner General based on the level of training. Although Yang Chao didn't say how many he would promote, everyone knew it. There were at most three Banner Chiefs out of a hundred soldiers, and there was already one in the barracks. One who raises pigs and one who grows vegetables.

If it doesn't work, Mr. Yang will only promote one Banner, and eight people will compete for one position. Most of them are holding their breath.

The effect of healthy competition among officers is obvious, that is, the level of their military posture in the military station, and the rapid advance, not to mention ten days, Yang Chao feels that there are five days, and they can pass the test.

There are also unsatisfactory ones. The Longjiang Shipyard behind the barracks has never agreed to reduce the price. The warship that no one has ever wanted will not be sold if it is less than 500 taels, preferring to let the ship rot in the dock.

500 taels Yang Chao didn't care too much, but Yang Chao would often buy boats here in the future, so it was impossible to pay a high price.

The Wang family is in the canal business, and the size of the Wang family's fleet is well-known throughout Jiangnan, so it must have something to do with the shipyard.

It's a pity that the result was unexpected. When we parted at the Jinchai Building, Wang Xiao made it clear that the Wang family had nothing to do with the Nanjing shipyard, because most of the Wang family's tank boats were built by themselves, and the Wang family had shipyards in Hangzhou and Huai'an, so they didn't need it at all. Use another ship.

"My lord, why don't we get rid of that warship, how about changing to a shallow boat, the price of shallow boats is not high recently, the shipyard is willing to sell it for 100 taels of silver!"

Unable to buy a warship, Lao Zhang suggested that Yang Chao change to a ship.

What Lao Zhang said made Yang Chao very puzzled. Shallow boats are the main style of Ming Dynasty water boats, and they have always been in short supply.

This kind of shallow boat usually pulls hundreds of loads of grain.

The volume of goods pulled is not large, but the sales are very good, because the Ming court is the largest customer of this kind of ship, and the court allocates funds to buy hundreds of ships every year, but there is still a big gap.

Originally, millions of loads of grain in the south of the Yangtze River had to be transported to the north by water boat. In recent years, the north has experienced a severe drought, and the imperial court will also purchase grain in the south of the Yangtze River, so the transportation volume is much larger than the official tax grain.

Therefore, the shallow boats did not have to worry about finding buyers. Many officers and soldiers who transported troops actively raised money privately to build water boats for the government. Among them, the profit of carrying private goods is very large.

Most of the time, transporting troops is actually just an extra sum of money to the shipyard, allowing them to lengthen and widen the government-made tank ships, so that they can pull more cargo than the official tank ships, and the extra part is the profit of the officers and soldiers.

Many shallow ships carry only [-] tons of cargo on the account books, but in fact each ship often loads up to [-] tons.

The so-called Tao is one foot high and the devil is one foot high. The court is not unaware of this problem. Therefore, some ministers suggested that the regulation of the tank boat be directly set as a thousand loads, which limits the entrainment of private goods by soldiers, because if it exceeds one thousand Dan may not be able to pass through some of the locks on the canal.

It's just that the imperial court acquiesced to this unspoken rule, thinking that if private goods were prohibited, they might not be able to make a living after transporting troops, and would not honestly undertake the task of water transportation, or even flee.

In addition, the vast majority of the entrainment is actually the entrainment of officials, and the entrainment of soldiers is only a small part of it, so there is a lot of opposition, and in the end this unspoken rule continues to prevail.

Therefore, shallow boats have always been very popular, and there is no need to worry about sales, but Lao Zhang said that the price of shallow boats has dropped sharply recently.

"Why, is there something wrong with the shallow boat?"

Yang Chao couldn't help wondering whether the quality of the shallow boats in the shipyard was faulty, and that's why no one wanted them.

If it's a quality problem, Yang Chao won't take it either.

(End of this chapter)