In Yingtian Mansion, Yang Jun, the Prime Minister of the Mansion, was working at his desk and was informed that Fang Xiaoru, the Minister of the East Palace, asked to see him.
Although Yang Jun's official position is much higher than Fang Xiaoru's, and unlike Fang Xiaoru's fictitious position, he is the real second-in-command of Yingtian Mansion. However, Fang Xiaoru's reputation in the scholarly world is extremely high, which Yang Jun cannot compare to.
"Please." He quickly put down the documents in his hand, and Yang Jun suddenly stood up and followed the yamen servant out.
Arriving at a side room, Yang Junren smiled without saying a word as soon as he showed up. He started to raise his hands from the door and said: "Master Fang is here to welcome you. I am late to greet you. Please forgive me for being late."
Fang Xiaoru also stood up with a smile and returned the greeting: "Mr. Yang is being polite, but I am being rude."
The two of them smiled, exchanged a few words, and sat down one after another.
Without Yang Jun’s instructions, officials would naturally serve the tea quickly. .??.
The two of them bowed to each other, and after taking a sip of tea, Yang Jun took the lead and asked, "Master Fang is here, is there anything Yang can do for you?"
Fang Xiaoru laughed and responded politely: "Master Yang, you are too polite. I will not go to the Three Treasures Hall for any reason. Master Yang expected it to be true. I do have something to ask of you."
"Master Fang, no matter what you say, as long as Yang can do it, I will never refuse." Yang Jun said this very beautifully, and even gave people the impression that he could help you, and that he was a bit generous. But in fact, this
It's just a polite word. If he can do it without refusing, then if he can't do it, he can justifiably refuse. Moreover, there is no standard for whether this can be done. It is completely decided by Yang Jun.
Yang Jun didn't promise anything to Fang Xiaoru at all. Instead, he sat on the wall and watched, depending on the situation.
Of course Fang Xiaoru understood the meaning of his words, but Fang Xiaoru didn't think that he would refuse to agree to a small matter of buying land at the wharf.
Then he said directly: "Master Yang is like this. As for me, I want to pay to buy the dock. I wonder if Master Yang can be accommodating?"
Buy land!
Yang Jun instantly became alert. Now the land around Han's racecourse is simply rising. Countless people are discussing it. I don't know how many people are regretting it. If they had acquired the land around the racecourse earlier, they would have become rich by now.
They are rich. But they don’t think about who bought the land in the first place.
Yang Jun is naturally not as naive as ordinary people, thinking that he can also swallow the huge profits that others can take. However, this incident still shocked Yang Jun greatly. Now that he heard that Fang Xiaoru wanted to buy land, his
My heart suddenly became alert.
Seeing Fang Xiaoru looking straight at him after finishing speaking, Yang Jun did not say anything casually, but calmly took a sip of tea, calmed himself down for a while, and then asked: "I don't know if it's Fang."
Sir, you want to buy it yourself, or"
While talking, Yang Jun stared at Fang Xiaoru closely, his eyes unblinking.
Fang Xiaoru couldn't help but frown, raised his eyes to Yang Jun, and asked doubtfully: "Master Yang, what do you mean?"
Perhaps he got the answer he wanted, Yang Jun laughed, waved his hand and explained: "Yang didn't mean anything else, just curious and wanted to ask, is this for Mr. Fang to buy for himself? Or is he buying it for others?
?Master Fang, don’t mind. After all, everyone knows the relationship between Master Fang and Marquis Zhenhai.
Haha, after all, the several purchases of land by the Marquis of Zhenhai made many people beat their chests and regret it, and even caused people to lose their reputation. Yang just didn't want to follow in the footsteps of those people, so Yang just wanted to ask more clearly. That’s all.”
Yang Jun's words made Fang Xiaoru unable to refute, and at the same time he sighed at Han Du's great power. Without hesitation, Fang Xiaoru nodded and said: "Actually, this dock is not bought by me, nor by Han Du, but by the academy."
Yang Jun felt relieved when he heard that it was not Han Du who wanted to buy it, but when he heard that it was the academy that wanted to buy it, he couldn't help but become curious. "Oh? Why did the academy buy the dock?"
It’s good to teach and educate people in the academy, so why buy a pier? Such a strange behavior made Yang Jun even more curious.
Fang Xiaoru was silent for a moment, then hesitantly said: "Well, the academy is doing a research and wants to try using the dock.
"
Yang Jun immediately understood that Fang Xiaoru had not told him the truth, but he did not reveal it to his face. He sat up straight, subconsciously rubbed his fingers and muttered: "Although this dock is logically the land of Yingtian Mansion, but now everyone there is A large amount of goods are loaded and unloaded every day. If I sell it, I am afraid it will harm my reputation. At least, I cannot escape the label of competing with the people for profit."
Although Yang Jun didn't say it clearly, his meaning was very clear, that is, he would not sell it!
Fang Xiaoru did not insist and asked instead: "What about the land next to the pier? Can you sell it to the academy?"
This was something Han Du and Fang Xiaoru had discussed a long time ago. There was little hope of buying the pier directly. Ying Tianfu was not a fool. As soon as the academy bought the pier, they would definitely find a way to tow it and check the situation first. Moreover, this pier Now there are so many goods that need to be loaded on ships every day. If you buy it, it will definitely need to be rebuilt. Wouldn't this delay the loading and unloading of goods?
Therefore, Handu had no plans to buy the dock directly from the beginning. The reason why he proposed it in this way was to pave the way for the real purpose.
Yang Jun rejected Fang Xiaoru's first request, so he couldn't refuse the second one, right? Yang Jun's rejection of Fang Xiaoru's purchase of the pier was quite reasonable. After all, the pier seemed quite important. He insisted not to sell it, and no one could Can't say anything to him.
But the land next to the dock was originally a wasteland. If he continued to refuse Fang Xiaoru's request, it would be a tendency to offend others.
Yang Jun is also a smart man. When Fang Xiaoru changed his mind, he instantly understood that the wasteland next to the dock was Fang Xiaoru's real purpose.
However, he understood that he could no longer refuse Fang Xiaoru. After sighing slightly, he said with a forced smile: "Of course, it is just a piece of wasteland that even the people are not willing to cultivate. If the academy wants it, of course I can take it." Sell it to the academy. I just don’t know how much the academy is going to spend and how much to buy?”
"How much do you want, sir?" Fang Xiaoru asked instead of asking directly.
"One hundred dollars per acre." Yang Jun spoke in a very soft voice, with a complete understatement. It seemed that in his opinion, the price was not high at all.
But when Fang Xiaoru heard this, his eyes suddenly widened. Although Han Du had already discussed with him that the price of the land would definitely not be too low, he thought it would be the price of fertile land at most.
"How much? Mr. Yang, if you don't want to sell, just say so. Why are you asking for so much?"
Facing Fang Xiaoru's stern questioning, Yang Jun did not feel the slightest bit embarrassed. Instead, he said with a smile: "Master Fang, although you bought the land for the academy, it stands to reason that I can't sell it to you at a high price. But you also know,
The Marquis of Zhenhai is also the academy judge, so I have to leave a way out. If the price of these lands increases in the future, I can give everyone an explanation, right?"
"No, this price is too high and the academy will not accept it." Fang Xiaoru shook his head repeatedly and stood up to leave, "Ordinary land only has ten or twenty acres per acre, and your wasteland only has a few acres at most. Now you
But it’s impossible to sell it for ten times the price. I’ll excuse you for today and say goodbye.”
Yang Jun saw Fang Xiaoru walking towards the door without any hesitation. Yang Jun suddenly panicked, and he was afraid that Fang Xiaoru would be frightened by the high price. After all, the money was picked up for free, and if he missed it,
, that’s more or less a pity.
"Brother Fang!" Yang Jun quickly stood up and stepped forward to hold Fang Xiaoru.
Fang Xiaoru suddenly felt enlightened. He stopped and looked back at Yang Jun. He sighed and shook his head and said, "Mr. Yang, at your price, the academy really has no way to buy it. Besides, the academy just wants to make an experiment. If it costs too much,
If it’s too much, then it’s not worth it, so it’s better to give up.”
"Brother Fang, what are you talking about? Who doesn't know that the academy is rich?" Yang Jun didn't know the situation of the academy, but since the academy is the financier, it is natural to praise the financier vigorously.
"I'm afraid Mr. Yang also knows the situation of the academy. Although there is some income, so many students in the academy are admitted completely free of charge, and the academy has to provide them with food, clothing, housing and transportation every month. This expense is huge, how can there be any money?
?" Since Yang Jun strongly praised her, Fang Xiaoru naturally had to do the opposite. Anyway, everyone is working towards the side that is most beneficial to themselves.
Pulling Fang Xiaoru to sit down again, Yang Juncai continued: "The price can be negotiated. Since Brother Fang thinks that one hundred dollars per acre is too high, I and Brother Fang hit it off as soon as I met him today, so I made the decision without authorization.
How about nine acres and one acre?"
Is your love at first sight only worth a thousand dollars? Fang Xiaoru felt contempt in his heart. Of course, he was not polite to Yang Jun and casually raised the price to five dollars.
After some extreme push and pull, the two finally reached an agreement and settled the deal at sixty guan per acre, and the land purchased by the academy could not be less than 50 acres.
Moreover, Yang Jun deliberately sold only river beach land to the academy. Therefore, when Fang Xiaoru got the title deed, it was a piece of land extending along the Yangtze River.
Han Du saw Fang Xiaoru come back with a somewhat unhappy expression, so he took the land deed from his hand, took a look at it and nodded with satisfaction. Asked the reason why Fang Xiaoru was unhappy, Han Du smiled and comforted: "Sixty ounces per acre.
It’s not expensive, so why should Brother Fang be worried about it?”
"I know that the price is not expensive for us, but I was thinking, this means that you can only accept such a price if you have the ability to turn stone into gold. But what if it is ordinary people? How can they accept it?" Fang Xiaoru
These doubts have been suppressed since Yingtian Mansion, but now they are finally able to express them.
Han Du said nonchalantly: "Ordinary people will not buy any river beach land."
"That's true." Fang Xiaoru had to nod and admit, the people would not even look for riverbank land to cultivate wasteland, so how could they spend money to buy it? But these riverbank lands, which have no effect at all in the eyes of the people, are in Han Du's eyes.
It's worth the price of gold.
Regarding this, Fang Xiaoru had to admire Han Du. He was always able to see business opportunities that others could not see, and he was always able to make money that others could not make, and he made a lot of money.
"Okay, now that we have the land, you should follow our plan and find someone to build the dock as soon as possible." Han Du folded up the land deed, handed it to Fang Xiaoru, and then got up and went home.
Fang Xiaoru nodded and took the land deed. Looking at Han Du's leaving figure, he couldn't help but shake his head to get rid of the distracting thoughts in his head. He lowered his head to look at the land deed in his hand. It was better to focus on what was in front of him first.
I don’t know how Empress Ma argued with Lao Zhu. Anyway, the matter of Zhu Ping’s transfer overseas finally came to an end. Unlike Han Du’s belief that Lao Zhu would transfer Zhu Ping to the continent, Lao Zhu released Zhu Ping.
Arriving in Annan. According to Zhu Biao, this was the result of Empress Ma's strenuous argument with Lao Zhu. The reason was that she wanted Zhu Ping to be closer and she could recall him at any time when she missed him. She even specially told Zhu Ping to go to sea.
I put it aside for a few months, just to see Zhu Ping more before he went to sea.
Han Du didn't know how Lao Zhu agreed, but there was an urgent problem.
"Is what His Highness said true? But Anping is in such chaos right now. How can the King of Qin be enfeoffed here?"
Next to Anping is Annan. Annan is now eyeing Anping covetously. What did Lao Zhu think of enfeoffing such land to his son?
Zhu Biao looked at Han Du meaningfully and asked pointedly: "Don't you understand yet? Father is going to take action against Annan."
Take action?
Han Du's heart moved. Annan had indeed become much more hostile to the Ming Dynasty in recent years. Especially after Han Du eliminated the Japanese pirates, occupied Anping County, and the Ming Dynasty established the Governor's Palace here, he regarded the Ming Dynasty as an enemy.
The rest of the Nanyang Thirty-Third Governor's Mansion was relatively peaceful. At most, when the natives made trouble, they would send troops to suppress it. However, due to the natives' overwhelming fighting power, it was a one-sided massacre in the face of the Ming army's firearms.
It ended without even being considered a decent battle.
But the situation in the Anping Governor's Mansion was completely different. Not only were they harassed by Annan from time to time, but occasionally Annan would launch a large army to attack the Governor's Mansion. Although he was repulsed by the Anping Governor every time. But there were too many ants, and it would be difficult.
Had it not been for the naval backing and timely replenishment of troops, the Anping Governor's Mansion would have been recaptured by Annan long ago.
For this reason, the Ming court sent envoys to Annan more than once, hoping that Annan would transfer Anping County to the Ming Dynasty and stop attacking Anping.
This request may seem a bit overbearing, but Anping County was not originally from Annan. It was originally occupied by Japanese pirates. For the Ming Dynasty, since it belonged to the Japanese pirates, after the Japanese pirates were eliminated by the Ming Dynasty, this place would naturally become the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
There is nothing wrong with this at all!
But for Annan, their thoughts were different. In the eyes of Annan's monarchs and ministers, they could not afford to offend the Japanese pirates. After all, the Japanese pirates really knew how to burn, kill, and loot without restraint. They knew it would hurt if they were struck on the head with a steel knife.
But they are not afraid of the Ming Dynasty, because in their view, the Ming Dynasty is a country of etiquette, and everything must be done with reason first.
Anping is close to the sea on one side and borders Annan on the other. It should naturally belong to Annan. Even if the Ming Dynasty wiped out the Japanese pirates in Anping, it should take the initiative to return Anping to Annan.
After all, the Ming Dynasty was a celestial kingdom. How could it take advantage of a small country like theirs? Isn't it natural to fight for them and eliminate the Japanese pirates?
It is precisely because of this that Annan used various ridiculous reasons to frustrate the Ming Dynasty's several discussions.
Now it seems that Lao Zhu has reached the end of his endurance and has decided that he no longer needs to endure it.
Also, this Annan didn't even look at Lao Zhu's temper. He really thought that Lao Zhu had given up everything in the world after discussion.
Han Du sneered in his heart and was completely uninterested in Annan, the frog in the well.
The addition of cement makes the construction of the wharf faster. Anyway, Handu does not require the wharf to be built perfectly, as long as the gantry crane can be lowered.
From the first day of construction of the new wharf, people were curious about what it was going to do. As time went by, the full picture of the whole wharf was slowly revealed. After the tall gantry crane was assembled and installed, people were surprised by how tall it was. However,
I am completely confused as to what this thing does.
Han Du was not prepared to explain to anyone, so he directly found a boat and sailed the boat under the gantry crane. He watched the heavy cargo being hoisted by the huge iron hook, and it was easily lifted onto the boat in less than ten breaths.
The whole process was smooth and concise.
There was no need for Han Du to do any promotion. This scene had long been seen by the ship owners who were watching the loading and unloading of cargo at the nearby dock. They were all dumbfounded and also came forward to ask Han Du if he could also help them load and unload the cargo. The price was easy to talk about.
.
Han Du had originally targeted these ship owners, and he naturally accepted all their requests. With a wave of his hand, he found a group of students who were good at mathematics in the academy and asked them to deal with these densely packed ship owners.
These students not only understand mathematics, but also have learned related accounting knowledge. They can concretely classify the goods of each ship, both by type and weight. Anyway, with this group of people who are good at calculation, the academy will not be able to
That’s the one who suffers.
For the first time in the Ming Dynasty, there was such a huge machine, which naturally attracted people to watch. Even if it was blocked by the wall and could not touch it at close range, being able to see how the gantry crane worked from a distance was exciting.
"Look, such a big box can be hoisted easily."
"Yeah, I sell rice. Look at the size of the box. If it's all rice, it would weigh at least several thousand kilograms."
"How many kilograms? I think it's tens of thousands of kilograms."
Among the bursts of exclamations, exaggerations about the gantry crane were naturally inevitable.
Even Lao Zhu was attracted to come and take a look in person. Of course, Lao Zhu was different from the people who were blocked outside the wall. He could observe the gantry crane at close range.