Guangzhou's Nancheng faces the Pearl River and is a docking place for maritime merchants and foreign ships. In the Song Dynasty, Nancheng became a commercial center and was protected by the East and West Yanchi City. It was destroyed by war in the Yuan Dynasty. After the Ming Dynasty, business prospered here, but after Tuolin's mutiny, residents in the south of the city were destroyed.
After suffering the damage, the government immediately built a new city based on the old site of Yanchi City. "Guangdong Tongzhi" said: "In the 42nd year of Jiajing, Wu Guifang, the censor of Jiazidu, rebelled against Tuolin and harassed the residents outside the city. He built the southwest corner tower and Wuyang Tower.
The post is encircled to the southeast corner of the new city for defense."
With the protection of the city wall, although New South City faces the Pearl River and Hao on three sides, it is the smallest among the three cities in Guangzhou. However, the maritime area, dock area, commercial area, and wealthy residential areas are all concentrated here, making it the largest city in Guangzhou.
Commercial and economic center.
At this time, there were several people standing on the Pearl River embankment outside Jinghai Gate in Nancheng, wearing raincoats and hats. They seemed to be patrolling something.
The haze is tight and the mist is hazy. There are about a dozen sailboats moored faintly on the river, and only the outlines of black clusters can be seen in the thick mist. Looking far away, Sicui Island and White Goose Pond are hidden in the depth of the mist, as if they are with
The clouds and sky are connected.
"Damn it, where did the Australian ship come from?" one of the people inside spat and said angrily.
"Boss Wang, we have been looking for it for more than ten days. We have looked at all kinds of ships along the river. There is no weird big ship."
The man who was called Wang Tou'er didn't answer, and looked at it for a long time, silently. In the middle of the river, there were circles, and old fish were blowing the waves. There were rugged rocks under the bank, and the waves were beating against them. Not far away from them was an ocean.
The ship was unloading, and a group of porters came down from the ship's side carrying the cargo to the dock warehouse.
"Brother Wang, I really don't understand. Why did I get so interested in asking us to come look for some Australian merchants after doing so well in Zhongzuo? I have followed you all over the world over the years, and I have never heard of Lao Shizi's Australia.
!”
The king snorted coldly and scolded: "What are you talking about? Where is this place?! You don't want your head?"
Everyone was silent after hearing this.
After a long while, I heard Mr. Wang say: "Although Australia is a place we have never stopped talking about, the things sold in the Gao family's shop on Haopan Street don't fall from the sky, right? Guangzhou City is currently in a state of flux.
If the city is crazy, who doesn’t know about Australia’s rare goods? Since this kind of business to make a fortune can be done by sea, how can we brothers not make a fortune." He laughed evilly, "I must find out this gang this time.
Here are the details of maritime trade."
It turns out that these people are the subordinates of Zheng Zhilong, the "giant bandit" who is currently invading Fujian and shaking the two provinces of Fujian and Guangdong. Now he and Li Kuiqi have gathered more than 30,000 people to occupy Zhongzuo, Gulangyu, Dadan and Lieyu in southern Fujian.
, Gaopu and a series of important coastal islands and seaports, some plundered merchant ships, strangled people to report to the water, or broke into the inland, burned, killed, and looted, and they have become a hegemon on the coastal waters of southern Fujian.
A group of people walked along the pier towards the city, and gradually saw more and more pedestrians and vendors. After passing the Dragon King Temple, they saw the Jinghaimen Gate Tower. After entering the city, they followed the road to Wuyang Gate. In front of them was a majestic and magnificent tower.
The Great Temple Temple is the Tianfei Temple built during the Hongwu period. This is the transportation center of Nancheng. It is a place where people from all walks of life come and go, mixed with sedans, mules and carts. Merchants gather together, and the market is lively and noisy.
There are stalls lined up, and the market is bustling with business.
The prince was obviously very careful. He just walked along the wall, turned around the corner, and walked into the alley. There was a small hotel at the root of the city. There was a black and dirty half-hung bamboo curtain. A group of people walked into the store.
There were several oil lamps hanging in the shop, making it very dark even during the day. The diners were noisy, and the floor was wet and slippery, filled with the strange smell of vegetables, wine, oil, smoke, and sweat.
When Qi Tang saw someone coming in, he hurriedly came up to greet the guests. Wang Tou'er asked for an empty seat in a single room and ordered some food and drinks. The curtain was not completely lowered, but was tied halfway up so that the brothers sitting at the door could have a full view of the whole store.
After waiting for a while, another person who looked like a street gangster walked into the door of the store. He was a middle-aged man with a white face and no beard. The two parties met their eyes, and the newcomer came in and took a seat without saying anything. Everyone just minded their own business.
They started eating and drinking. Seeing that there was no plainclothes Kuaishou fanzi in the store, Mr. Wang asked quietly: "What's the news about the brothers on Haopan Street?"
"After nearly half a month of following, there was nothing useful. I saw the goods in the Gaofu being picked up one by one and delivered to the shop. I didn't see any special goods coming in, nor did I see any weird people.
.”
"What the hell!" The king had no intention of eating, staring at a hot plate of fragrant green onions and fried snake shreds. "How did you get so much goods in?" Is it a cover-up? This Australian goods were not shipped from the Gao family.
Just using this method to cover up?
"Where's the Gao family's hotel on the dock?"
"I've asked about it too," he shook his head. "The rules in the Gao family's shop are very strict, and you can't find out anything at all. After asking for many days, the brothers found out that the steward of the hotel had a lover who left the door ajar, and it took some time.
I just got some news from that woman." He stopped talking and started drinking alone.
Wang Tou knew that the social rat on the ground was taking the opportunity to extort money again. He cursed in his heart and just said: "The money is easy to talk about. What did you find out?"
"The manager said that Australian goods are never sent or received in the warehouse. They are all sent out from the private warehouse of the house. Each time there is not much, only a few boxes of goods. But each item is worth a lot of money." The middle-aged man.
As he spoke, there was greed in his eyes.
“How often does it take to ship?”
"I'm not sure, it's usually around ten days."
This shows that the goods did come out of Gao's house, but how did they get in? Gao's house is not at the seaside, and ships cannot go in. Did it fall from the sky?
"Have you ever inspected the things that the Gao family brought into the house?"
"I asked the foot-traveling old man to help with this matter, and he asked for a lot of money..."
"Easy to say." Wang Tou'er said this, but he touched the short knife in his sleeve.
"He asked for ten taels of silver," the middle-aged man squinted at Wang Tou'er, testing his reaction. Wang Tou had a stupid smile on his face and didn't answer. He glanced at the people around him, all of whom were sneering. This man
Suddenly he remembered who was sitting in front of him, and he quickly answered, "Flying Foot Lao San ordered people to secretly check the things brought in by the Gao family. There is indeed something strange!"
"Oh? The goods were brought in?"
"No, it's just that the things shipped in and out are a bit weird."
They bribed people on foot and privately inspected the large quantities of goods shipped in and out of Gaozhai in the past month. The things shipped in used to be mainly porcelain and ironware, and the goods shipped out were about the same. But this month
It's different. In addition to these, a lot of musk, dragon's incense, and red sandalwood were also brought in. The strangest thing is that they have never been shipped out. It seems that as soon as they entered, they disappeared into the sea.
After checking for a long time, I still couldn't figure out where it came from. Wang Tou'er sighed in disappointment. Since the foxes and rats on the ground couldn't find anything, I'm afraid it would be even harder to find out on their own.
They took out more than ten yuan of foreign money and sent him away. The whole group found it unbelievable. They had sneaked into Guangzhou City for a month and spent countless twists and turns. Until now, although they knew where these merchants were based, their ships were anchored.
We still don't know where or how the goods were transported. Now, we can only wait for the report of the people who were sent to sneak into Gao's house a few days ago.
After waiting for a long time, the two people who were planning to sneak into the high house yesterday came back. One of them had a bruise on his face. Wang Tou saw that his expression was changing and he knew that something was wrong.
"There are gates on the back streets over there, so it's inconvenient to go in. I went up to the city wall and went around in a circle. I lurked on it for a few days before I discovered something strange." These two people were famous snitches on the road before they went there.
, because they committed a life-threatening lawsuit and were captured by the sea pirates, they went to join the pirates. This time they were brought to Guangzhou to take risks, and the Zheng family promised a large sum of money.
On the city wall, they observed the people and cargo coming in and out of the back door of the high-rise house, and found that they all came out of the backyard of another house. They managed to get into the yard to have a look, and saw Australian maritime merchants.
"There are four people in total. They are all wearing the clothes of this dynasty, but they have long hair and look like monks."
Knowing that there was something fishy about this yard, I inspected it for two more days and found that this was originally the secret house of the Gao family, and now it has become the Australian Maritime Trading House. All the goods were moved from this secret house to the Gao family, and the Gao family also moved goods.
Go to the secret house.
So the problem circled around again, and we still didn't find out where the goods from this group of maritime traders came from.
"I wanted to listen to what they had to say, but it's a pity!" said the man with bruises on his face, "there was a Lianjiazi among them, and he found him just as he was about to get closer, and he threw the rocks fast and hard."
"I think we won't stop doing this without doing anything else." Someone inside whispered, "Let's take out the quilt and arrest the Gao family's manager Yan or even Gao Ji himself, and ask all the questions.
Chu!"
Wang Tou snorted: "Catch him? Which of the merchants on Haopan Street is easy to mess with? Not to mention their hands and eyes, even if the mansion has a nursing staff, they can give you enough to drink a pot."
"Then arrest one of the merchants." The man chuckled, "Even if we don't offend the Gao family, offending these unfounded merchants is still not a problem, right? I heard from Brother He that there is only one practitioner here.
He has no bodyguards from the Gao family. Even if he is covered in iron, how many nails can he drive? Let’s gather a few more skilled brothers, go in and tie one up, and take him to the boat. Not to mention someone from Australia.
You have to make it clear that he is from the Kunlun Mountains. Besides," he laughed greedily, "If you want to release people, why don't you get some good things out of them?"
Everyone cheered loudly when they heard this. They all looked at Wang Tou. Wang Tou thought that this might be a solution. It was not a big deal to kidnap a maritime trader, and Gao Zhang wouldn't necessarily be furious about it, as he could still make some moves in the future.
Thinking of this, several people immersed themselves in planning.