The reason why Zhao Xin agreed to borrow money to Wanhexing was mainly to open up a channel for population export in Guangdong.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangdong and Fujian were in a difficult state due to their limited arable land area and long-term agricultural production, and have always been the main force of the immigration wave in Southeast Asia. Instead of letting these people go to Southeast Asia to be piglets for Westerners, it is better to come to the northeast to develop the Great Northern Wilderness.

Although it is a bit cold outside the Northeast, you don’t have to pay for a boat trip, and you can also be well-fed and warm. You should know that if you want to make a living in Luzon, Borneo and Java, everyone has to pay a considerable amount of ship and food in advance. You have to owe a lot of debts as soon as you get on the boat, and you can’t pay it back in two or three years.

As for his insistence on going south personally, the first thing is that the use of Thunder God to transport silver was too much, and the other hand, he also wanted to help Hong Tao purchase a batch of medicinal materials.

At present, the population of Beihai Town has exceeded 100,000, and it is far from enough to rely on Zhao Xin and Hong Tao to buy medicine from another time and space. As the boss of Beihai Town's health system, Hong Tao urgently needs to find alternative medicines in this time and space.

He found the Wu brothers and asked the other party to make a list. Among them were Tian Qi, which stopped bleeding and removed blood stasis, Wu Jiapi, which eliminated rheumatism and swelling, Tangerine peel and Tian Zhuhuang, which eliminated cough and phlegm, green peel that eliminated accumulation and stagnation, rhinoceros horns that cleared heat and cooled blood, and king cobra, commonly known as mountain wind, etc.

There is the biggest benefit of buying Chinese medicine in this time and space. It is free of fertilizers and pollution, and you can buy whatever you want, such as beef yellow, bear gall, rhinoceros horn, tiger bone, seahorse, etc. Zhao Xin plans to only purchase irreplaceable Western medicine in the future, and try to use Chinese medicine to solve the problem of the others.

There are three old Bodhi trees in Haizhuang Temple, all planted in Chongzhen in the fifteenth year. In another time and space, although there have been countless wars and even downward and reconstruction, these three trees have been preserved. After Zhao Xin checked the information, he decided to use these three trees as his anchor points.

On the third day of December, from early morning, it started to drizzle in Guangzhou. At 10 o'clock in the morning, Cai Zhaoping came to the stream hall with the butler and a tall servant in a straw raincoat.

"Is this the substitute you found? Still not tall enough." Seeing the Cai family servant who took off his straw raincoat and looked like a bamboo pole, Liu Zheng estimated that the other party was about 1.72 meters tall. Although it was rare in this time and space, he was still half a head shorter than Zhao Xin.

"Brother Liu, this month, I sent people to search for the villages and towns around the city. This person is already the tallest in a radius of 100 miles, four feet, eight inches and three. If you really want to follow the five feet, six inches mentioned by Brother Liu, you really can't find it!"

To put it simply, people in the Ming and Qing dynasties were calculated based on the tailoring ruler, rather than the construction ruler. For example, the tailoring ruler in the Qing dynasty was 35.55 cm, which was about 1.11. The tailoring ruler in the Ming dynasty was slightly shorter than that in the Qing dynasty, and the same length as the Baochao paper, 34 cm; as for the construction ruler, it was even shorter, only 32 cm, which was as long as the ink edge on the Baochao.

When Liu Zheng nodded helplessly when he heard Cai Zhaoping say this, he felt that he could only do this.

It turned out that in order to allow Zhao Xin to successfully enter the mall area from the Doulan Street Wharf, Liu Zheng decided to come and "Li Dai Taozun" after discussing with Cai Zhaoping, and deceived the soldiers and ears of the government on the wharf.

The specific method is that after Zhao Xin arrived at Haizhuang Temple, he changed into the servant's clothes, wore a straw raincoat and a straw hat, and waited in the evening to board the boat and cross the river when the sky was dark and the sight was unclear. The tall servant wanted to stay in Haizhuang Temple for a day, and then went directly to the Cai family's villa on the south bank of the Pearl River the next night.

At 10:30 in the morning, Liu Zheng and twenty people from the guard platoon followed Cai Zhaoping to Doulan Street Wharf, boarded two watermelon boats, and drove towards the other side of the river. The group arrived at Haizhuang Temple and went to the living room under the guidance of Zhike Monk, eating vegetarian food and drinking tea as usual. Because it was raining outside, everyone had no intention of taking a walk to see the scenery, so they started playing "Please close your eyes when it's dark."

Speaking of which, Liu Zheng and his subordinates of the guard platoon have been playing this game for more than a month, and it started after Sun Shiyi's autumn decision to "kill the chicken to warn the monkey". The main reason is that Liu Zheng's own boredom is, and the guard platoon has nothing to do except stand guard and exercise. His spirit is much worse than when he first came, so he thought about building something to enhance fighting spirit and cohesion.

The problem is that Liu Zheng studied veterinary medicine and had never taken care of personnel or MBA, so all he could think of was the "killing game" he played in college. I remember the craziest time he played with a group of classmates for a summer vacation, and got together every now and then, and the longest time he played for 10 hours.

Liu Zheng brought out the earliest version, which is the kind with only killers and no policemen. Except for the one class responsible for standing guard, all 20 people in the other two classes must participate, and he, the "judge", will guide the game.

Since then, after lunch at Xiaoxi Pavilion, they have to "kill" for two hours every day. The guard platoon has been brought into the trap by Dr. Liu without realizing it. In order to cultivate the observation, logical analysis ability and language expression ability of these people, Liu Zheng has to discuss it after each game to improve everyone's logical analysis ability.

After only more than a month, the thirty people in the guard platoon were no longer the mechanical obedience and submissive execution of orders before. From the platoon leader to the ordinary soldiers, their psychological quality and language expression skills have been significantly improved. When they encounter problems, they no longer just act as a sound tube, but have their own analysis and opinions.

Liu Zheng was very pleased with this and enjoyed it. He felt that even if he could not do anything big in Guangzhou, as long as he continued to train according to this method, all the thirty subordinates would be responsible for becoming officers in the future.

In addition, Dr. Liu has a secret in his heart that he cannot tell others, that is, to cultivate his own power, and the guard platoon is his basic foundation.

Cai Zhaoping and the butler didn't understand what Liu Zheng and the others were playing at first, but just drank tea and watched the fun. Even when a few people pointed out that someone was a "killer", they were blushing and thick-necked, they couldn't help but laugh. But as they looked, they felt something was wrong. This was not a game of catching the murderer, it was clearly calculating people's hearts! Judging the identity and purpose behind it from a person's language, expressions, and actions!

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Speaking of which, like his businessman, he is actually inseparable from calculating people's hearts. He has to calculate every matter, and no matter what he can't calculate, it's okay.

But the problem is that many of his business experiences are either a fall in love or can only be understood after listening to his father's guidance. And it is unheard of for cultivating through games like Liu Zheng and others.

"Brother Liu, I watched it for a long time. Your game is really interesting. Can you let me join me?" Finally, when the second "Murder Game" ended, Cai Zhaoping couldn't help it. Instead of sitting and talking, it's better to get up and go.

"No problem! Come on, come on, I'm just about to go and have a rest."

Liu Zheng left the living room and came to a dormitory next door for them to rest. He closed the door and took off his shoes and went to bed, covered his quilt and fell asleep. Soon the snoring sounded.

I don't know how long it took, but he was awakened by a bell while sleeping. When he got up in a daze, he realized that the sky outside had already darkened. He washed his face with the water from the copper basin in the dormitory. Liu Zheng felt much more awake. When he opened the door, it was still raining outside, but it was a little smaller than before.

While he was in a daze, he heard ten more bells ringing. Because he had been here before, Liu Zheng knew that it was time for evening class in the temple. He took out his watch from his pocket and looked at the time. It was just past four o'clock in the afternoon.

When he came outside the guest hall, he saw more than a dozen people in the room, including Cai Zhaoping, who were "killing" in full swing. He hesitated for a moment and said to the guard platoon leader who came up: "Give me an umbrella, I'll go ahead and go around, and I don't have to follow."

After a while, Liu Zheng leisurely came to the Bodhi tree on the southwest side of the Heavenly King Hall. He said before that there are three ancient Bodhi trees in Haizhuang Temple. In addition to the one in front of the Heavenly King Hall, there is one in the inner side of the north gate of the temple and the southeast behind the Great Hall.

Because today is the "Open Day for Foreign Businessmen", there are no pilgrims; and this is the evening class time, all the monks in the temple went to the Main Hall, so the empty field in front of the Heavenly King Hall was extremely quiet.

After waiting under the tree for a while, smoking two cigarettes. Liu Zheng felt that it was still early, so he turned around and left, intending to go around the Main Hall. Unexpectedly, as soon as he took a few steps, someone patted his shoulder from behind, which scared him so much that he was shocked. When he turned around, he looked over and saw who was not Zhao Xin.

"Brother, can't you cough first? I almost scared me to death!" Even though you complain, Liu Zheng was still very happy to see Zhao Xin. It's almost four months old, and he can be considered seeing his relatives!

"Wow, it's raining here. The air is very good." Zhao Xin looked around and found that the Haizhuang Temple in this time and space was much better than the other time and space, and there was no longer the hustle and bustle of the high-rise buildings and bustle in the communities.

"It's good to rain! It's getting smaller, I'm hoping to get bigger so that you can get into the dock."

"Well. Where are our people?"

"In the living room behind, Cai Zhaoping is also there."

"Then let's go."

Although Liu Zheng reminded the guard platoon yesterday that they should not reveal their identity when they saw Zhao Xin and should not appear too excited, Zhao Xin's appearance still made everyone in the guest hall who were opening their eyes and closing their eyes stop playing, and the expression on their faces was also shocked and happy. They wanted to break their heads and didn't understand how this person came to Guangzhou, and could enter the temple without knowing it.

Is it a wall-breaking? Or a dog-go-sick... Can't say it, can't say it!

Cai Zhaoping had the same idea after seeing Zhao Xin. He really couldn't think of how Zhao Xin, who was so conspicuous, sneaked into the temple. This also gave him a new understanding of the methods of Beihai Town, that is, even if such a force is a rebel, he must not offend him!

"You are Mr. Cai?" Zhao Xin bowed his fists at Cai Zhaoping and said in a deep voice: "I am the king of the next generation. This time I came to contact your mansion."

"I am Wanhexing Cai Wenfang and have met Mr. Wang. I thank you for your help this time, and the Cai family is extremely grateful!"

Cai Zhaoping bowed his hand and said to Liu Zheng: "Brother Liu, it's getting late. If you go back too late, the government will definitely be suspicious. Please ask Mr. Wang to change his clothes and cross the river later."

In short, Zhao Xin followed Liu Zheng to the dormitory to change his clothes. When he appeared in front of everyone again, he saw him wearing a semi-new short dress, wearing straw sandals on his feet, and a fake braid like a pigtail stuck behind his head, and his face became dark. When he put on a hat and put on a straw raincoat, he bent his waist and bowed his body. As long as he didn't look close, he was basically no different from the tall and thin servant of the Cai family.

After that, the group hurriedly left Haizhuang Temple and came to the riverside to board the boat. After more than 20 minutes, they arrived at the Doulan Street Wharf.

At this time, the sky was getting darker, and the drizzle of the river made the figures of the group appear more and more blurred. Whether it was the dock or the official guarding the entrance of the mall, they all received the money from the Cai family, so they just counted the heads roughly and saw that the number of people was fine, so they opened the wooden fence and let it go.

Since getting off the boat, Zhao Xin pretended to be submissive, held a greasy umbrella with his waist and followed Cai Zhaoping to shelter him from the wind and rain. Although it was only a short distance from the dock to the stream hall, it was not until Zhao Xin entered three times and followed Liu Zheng upstairs to change his clothes. Cai Zhaoping's heart was only over ten meters away.

After about a cup of tea, Zhao Xin, who had changed clothes and washed up, came to the flower hall, put a kraft paper file bag on the Eight Immortals table, and said, "Mr. Cai, this is a loan agreement we have drawn up. Please take it home to discuss with Lingzun. If there is no objection, sign and seal it tomorrow and the silver will be in place soon."

"I wonder if Mr. Wang brought money or cash money?"

"Current silver."

"So, then Cai will disturb Mr. Wang tomorrow."

Although Cai Zhaoping was very curious about how Beihai Town transported the money into Guangzhou, it was the most important thing to reach an agreement first. So he was unwilling to stay for too long, so he hurriedly said goodbye with the contract and went back to report to his father Cai Shiwen.

Xiaoxi Pavilion, which was restless due to Zhao Xin's arrival, quickly returned to silence with Cai Zhaoping's departure and nightfall. Although the guard platoon was excited and could not hide its excitement, they quickly got into the role. After all, standing guard and guard protecting the safety of the place was their job.

"How do you feel when I came to Guangzhou in the past few months?"

In the quiet flower hall, Zhao Xin, who put down his chopsticks, took out a cigarette and threw it to Liu Zheng, and lit one himself. A cigarette after a meal is better than a living god.

"How to say it? It's apart from what I read in the book, and it's not small!"

"oh?"

Liu Zheng was silent for a while, and after the guard platoon in charge of logistics packed the dishes and chopsticks, he slowly said: "Whether textbooks or those articles on the Internet, the Qing Dynasty was closed to the country. But after I came here, I realized that it was both yes and no."

“How to say it?”

Liu Zheng frowned and thought for a while, saying, "For example, let's go to trade in one go. We always thought it was Guangdong Customs and Guangzhou, right?"

"yes."

"But do you know that Guangdong Customs has seven general customs and forty-one sub-districts? From Chaozhou in the east, from Lianyu in the west, and from Qiongya in the south, all coastal states have portals to go out to sea."

"There's still this?!"

Seeing Zhao Xin's face showing surprise, Liu Zheng smiled bitterly, "Are you surprised? After Cai Zhaoping finished talking to me, my reaction was the same as yours."

In fact, since the 23rd year of the Kangxi reign, that is, in 1684 AD, with the destruction of the Zheng regime in Taiwan in the previous year, the Qing court ordered the abolition of the maritime ban, and successively established Fujian Customs, Guangdong Customs, Zhejiang Customs and Jianghai Passes in Xiamen, Guangzhou, Ningbo and Songjiang respectively to manage all maritime trade and tariff collection matters in the south.

This was the "Four-Port Trade" era in the early Qing Dynasty that lasted for 73 years, from the 23rd year of Kangxi to the 22nd year of Qianlong.

But don’t think that there are only four customs in the four gates. In the order from north to south, the four customs respectively govern all seaports in their respective provinces. Among them, there were at most 24 sub-districts under the Jianghai Pass, and later reduced to 18; Fujian Customs has 31 sub-districts; Zhejiang Customs has three major gates under Ningbo, Zhapu and Wenzhou, and 7 sub-districts under the three major gates, 11 small gates, 15 side gates and 1 department; Guangdong Customs has seven general gates, namely Guangzhou, Macao, Chaozhou, Huizhou, Gaozhou, Leizhou and Qiongzhou. These seven general gates manage the 41 sub-districts below.

The reason why we set up branch customs under the four major customs is mainly because of the function. Customs in the early Qing Dynasty were usually divided into three categories: regular tax outlets, registration ports and inspection ports. Among them, regular tax outlets and registration ports are responsible for customs declaration registration, filling out tax forms and paying customs duties. The inspection ports are only responsible for the inspection of imported and export ships and goods.

This means that even in the era of one-time trading, foreign merchant ships can register customs declaration and pay customs duties at the seven general authorities under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Customs, and then they can go to Guangzhou Huangpu Port to sell and purchase goods.

Of course, it is not impossible for foreign merchants to stop and unload goods in Chaozhou. The question is who bought it? The merchants are all in Guangzhou!

Among the four major customs in the early days of Kangxi and Yongzheng and Qianlong, the main countries of Fujian customs trade with foreign trade include the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, Zhejiang customs are the United Kingdom and Japan, Jianghai customs are the United Kingdom and Japan, and Guangdong customs face all countries.

After hearing this, Zhao Xin nodded, picked up the teapot and added water to Liu Zheng's cup, and said casually: "Isn't this good? Why did you change it to a one-sip on business later?"

Liu Zheng sighed and said helplessly: "This matter is just the old lady's foot binding. I heard it from Cai Zhaoping, Dejine and the British senior team respectively. The truth is ridiculous."

"It's raining to beat the child, and it's idle, just listen."

"There is still something that comes from twenty-seven, no, twenty-eight years ago, there was a guy named James Flint, whose Chinese name was Hong Renhui..."

It turned out that in March of the 20th year of Qianlong, the British businessman Hong Renhui, who was proficient in Mandarin, sold all the goods brought in Guangzhou, and then led the ship northward to Ningbo in April. He was arranged by local local officials to rest in a foreign business. In June, another British merchant ship also arrived in Ningbo. The two merchant ships brought a total of 220,000 Spanish silver dollars, intending to buy raw silk tea in Ningbo.

Qianlong soon received a report from Zhejiang Customs Supervision, but he only asked the eight Chinese sailors on the ship why they didn't wear braids? Zhejiang Customs' explanation was that these eight people were hired by the British from Batavia, and then Qianlong asked Zhejiang Customs to handle the matter on its own according to the previous system.

Two years later, Hong Renhui led a ship to Ningbo for the second time to trade. He thought this would be as smooth as last time, but he unexpectedly aroused Qianlong's vigilance. In the latter's view, it would be fine if British merchants visited Ningbo occasionally, but once they were asked to develop a habit, a second Macau might appear.

In fact, what Qianlong was worried about was not a "Macao" who did maritime trade business, but a "Macao" that was used as a base by Catholic missionaries and penetrated into the inland. You should know that in the "Fu'an lesson plan" that occurred in the 11th year of Qianlong, the five missionaries arrested set out from Macau and disguised themselves in the inland missionary.

Originally during the Kangxi period, the Qing court encouraged foreign merchant ships to trade in Ningbo. Li Wen, who was once the supervisor of Zhejiang Customs, even requested Kangxi to open a foreign merchant store in Zhenhai County, hoping to turn Zhenhai into another Macau. However, because the surcharge tax of Guangdong Customs at that time was lower than that of the other three customs, Zhejiang Customs' measures were pure wishful thinking and were to show the blind man a glare.

Out of concerns about Catholic infiltration, Qianlong quickly issued an edict and issued three measures against European merchant ships:

First, increase the customs duties of Zhejiang, so that foreign merchants are unprofitable; second, foreign merchant ships such as Hong Renhui who came to Ningbo for trade will be forced to repatriate, and are not allowed to enter all the sea ports in Zhejiang; third, foreign businesses and Catholic churches are not allowed to be opened in Ningbo.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! In November of the same year, the Qing court issued another edict, stating that Western merchant ships are only allowed to conduct mooring transactions in Guangzhou in the future. This means that the three customs of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu have completely closed the trade window with Europe, but the maritime trade with East Asia and Southeast Asia is still retained.

However, for British East India companies that are eager to expand trade with China, it is in their interests to expand their market in China and choose places that can make a lot of money as a trading port. In particular, the origin of raw silk and tea is concentrated in Fujian and Zhejiang, and the Jiangnan region is the main digestion of Western commodities. Therefore, it is particularly important to expand the Jiangsu and Zhejiang markets and increase the import and export trade volume in Ningbo Port.
To be continued...