After Ding Debao and others paid their taxes, they all looked pained.
They came to a well-known restaurant in London and ate mature steaks and drank the special alcoholic beer here in Europe under the surprised eyes of others.
Li Xingge said depressedly: "We risked our lives and crossed the ocean to come to England.
The profits earned from selling some goods are only a little more than the taxes collected by the government."
Wang Sen reminded: "We are selling off-stock goods, so if we can make some income, that makes us happy.
The most important thing is to free up the cabin and use it to transport other goods.
Now let's seriously think about what kind of goods we will buy from Europe on our return trip.
We cannot return with an empty ship, otherwise we will lose a very important profit."
Li Xingge put down his wine glass and agreed: "We definitely can't return with an empty ship.
Even if you just transport some beer back to your country, you can still make a lot of hard money.
The beer here in Europe is very good, the alcohol content is very low, the taste is very low, and the price is not expensive.
Workers who drink well will not delay their work even after drinking.
I have hired a group of technicians who are good at brewing and collected some hop seedlings and seeds.
I'm going to make beer domestically.
We really need to think carefully about what kind of goods to transport back to the country to bring the highest benefits.
The country is relatively short of food, cotton and various minerals.
But the unit price of these items is low and they take up a lot of space.
We have high-value things, and we will definitely not choose these things."
Wang Sen thought for a moment and said: "We definitely can't choose food, minerals or cotton.
The longer the processing chain of goods, the higher the added value they carry.
For example, the value of sugar is relatively high, so we all choose sugar to transport sugar instead of sugar cane.
The price of grain is low and the humidity inside the ship is relatively high, which is not conducive to transportation.
It is better to transport various alcoholic beverages. In addition to the lower price of beer, other alcoholic beverages are of higher value and are very durable for storage.
According to this idea, I would rather buy low-quality cloth here in England than make more money by shipping cotton back."
Ding Debao agreed: "The handicraft industry here in England is developed, and we can buy some local handicrafts.
In addition to goods, population is also a very important resource.
For example, the brewing technicians that Brother Li is looking for are skilled technicians, and they are of great value.
The value of women is also very high, and many people in China cannot find a wife.
There are many sailors and bachelors in our fleet.
England is a relatively safe country, but the war in continental Europe is very lively.
There are a large number of refugees and prisoners produced by the war, and the price is very cheap.
There were a large number of slave traders in England who sold these people to the Americas.
I have asked the sailors for their opinion, and they have no objection to women here in Europe.
These women would go back and be trained as female workers, and then marry them off to single men in the business.
This kills two birds with one stone. We have cheap workers and gain the loyalty of our subordinates.
The money spent on purchasing female workers can be charged with high interest rates, allowing them to work and get married to pay back the money."
When Li Xingge heard Ding Debao's words, his eyes lit up, he gave a thumbs up and praised: "Brother Ding has figured it out.
There is no shortage of men in the country, and a large number of men can be obtained from all over Southeast Asia.
But female workers are scarce, and there are too few women working in factories.
It is not troublesome to buy more women. Even those who are already married are willing to take concubines.
It is not safe to pay taxes through British channels.
The people I traded with before were slave traders.
I will be responsible for contacting you about this matter, and when the time comes, everyone will unite and purchase these slaves at a low price."
After discussing it, they started taking action immediately.
Chinese businessmen wanted to collect enough supplies before departure.
They were extremely generous and purchased a large amount of goods through their partners.
The actions of Chinese businessmen directly caused the prices of various alcoholic drinks in England to rise sharply.
The drunkards complained and cursed the increase in drink prices.
…………………………
Ding Debao and other merchants finished purchasing the goods and bid farewell to Ambassador Chu Sheng.
They boarded the ship with Mi Jun, the embassy attaché.
The cargo ship was slowly heading south under the protection of some armed merchant ships.
Li Xingge and others took armed merchant ships and some empty ships to the place agreed with the slave traders.
They came to an island and saw many armed ships patrolling near the island.
These ships all have pirate flags flying on them.
The Chinese merchant fleet immediately opened its gun windows and aimed its thick artillery at these pirate ships.
You would be a fool to believe that these pirates will keep their promise.
Only force can make these pirates abide by their contracts.
The two parties faced off for a moment before the pirate ship moved out of the way.
Li Xingge and others sent representatives to the island in small boats to negotiate deals with slave merchants.
They command armed merchant ships and maintain vigilance in the open sea.
As long as it is not surrounded and suppressed by England and Spain, the two maritime powers, they send their navy to attack.
They are confident of breaking through the encirclement set by other forces.
The representative sent to negotiate the price soon boarded the ship with several slaves.
These slaves were disheveled and had a strange smell coming from their bodies, but they could tell they were women.
They were skinny, with dull eyes, and some of them were very short.
The fat shopkeeper, who looked a bit smooth, pointed at these people and said: "Several bosses, the younger one went over to negotiate.
Those slave merchants sold us wholesale prices. All women, no matter what they were, were sold for three taels of silver coins. We had to buy at least 50,000 people.
I have been talking for a long time. We don’t want slaves who are too young or too old. We don’t want slaves who are sick.”
Li Xingge asked: "What's the price like? It's not worth a donkey yet. If you lower the price, it will waste too much time."
"Just this price! We won't lose money anyway." Wang Sen agreed.
They made an agreement with the slave traders and the slaves began to be loaded onto ships.
For every batch of slaves sent, these slave merchants will receive corresponding silver coins.
Li Xingge and others wanted to complete the transaction as soon as possible. The transaction process was very simple, just checking the number of people involved in the transaction.
There is no time to check everyone's situation.
Slave traders disguised many little boys as women and mixed them into the team.
These little boys cannot work immediately and need to eat every day. They are a bunch of losers.
Slave traders found opportunities and sold them all, which was also an important reason for their happy transactions.
After the transaction was completed, armed merchant ships escorted the cargo ship and cautiously evacuated the place.
Li Xingge looked at the tens of thousands of female workers he had purchased and ordered: "In the early stage, only feed them two meals of gruel a day to prevent them from starving to death, but do not feed them too much. Feed them steamed buns again after a week.
You know how to deal with people who are seriously ill."
The fleet returned to its route and soon caught up with the cargo ship that had left earlier.
Wang Sen stood on the deck and looked at the rough sea.
His experience in Europe this time was richer than his previous experiences in his entire life.
This trip also gave Wang Sen a lot of knowledge.
The ships of Yang's fleet moved forward at full speed. At first, they moved together, but soon they were divided into several batches due to different ship speeds.
The first boat was the pilot boat they were on, and the boat behind them was the boat transporting female workers.
The boats in the middle are boats carrying various specialties.
The ships at the rear of the fleet were laden with gold and silver.
Most of the money the caravan made this time was on these ships.
Wang Sen was very satisfied when he saw the fleet. He came back from Europe with a full load.
The profit from an ocean voyage is at least five times the annual profit of Tianjin Textile Factory.
It is this huge profit that drives these businessmen to risk their lives and transport goods to all parts of the world.
…………………………
Ding Debao stood on the deck and looked at the navigator who was looking at the sky.
They are all experienced people, familiar with the changes in the stars in the sky, and use the stars to calculate the position and direction of the ship.
When sailing on the sea, it is necessary to have these experienced navigators to determine the position and direction of the fleet.
Ding Debao is not afraid that the navigator will make mistakes and lose his way on the sea.
He knew that people in the imperial court had special instruments that could determine the position of ships on the sea.
Mi Jun did not ask to return home with them.
In order not to lose their way at sea, Ding Debao and others would also ask the embassy to send a ship to guide them.
Every day he counted the time, feeling that he was now approaching the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of the route.
"Lao Fang, how far is the Cape of Good Hope from us?"
Lao Fang looked at the star map in the sky with a confused expression.
"My boss, I am familiar with the star map of the northern hemisphere.
Even in England, I can still find my bearings on the sea.
Now the starry sky above our heads has completely changed. The starry sky in the southern hemisphere is very different from that in the northern hemisphere.
I'm not that familiar with the starry sky in the southern hemisphere, so I can only make an estimate now.
We feel like we are not far from the Cape of Good Hope.”
Ding Debao frowned when he heard Lao Fang's somewhat uncertain statement, and was about to return to the cabin to take a few sips of wine.
He heard the observation post on the mast shouting: "Lighthouse, there is a lighthouse ahead."
When Ding Debao heard this, he was shocked.
He looked to the left and ahead and saw a vague light on the shore.
Various maritime powers built lighthouses on the shore to guide ships at night.
It is found in China and also on the English coastline.
Near the Cape of Good Hope, there was no lighthouse when they came.
Could it be that these lighthouses were built by King Li Qingmu of the Liao Dynasty? He really established a foothold in southern Africa.
Not just Ding Debao, but everyone who saw the lighthouse was in high spirits.
With a lighthouse on the sea to guide the way, they don't have to worry about ships deviating from their course.
The fleet followed the guidance of the lighthouse and moved forward with full sail.
They soon discovered the brightly lit dock.
You can still see through the moonlight that there are several old steam cranes on the pier.
When the dock saw a fleet approaching, they lit bright carbide lamps.
The light from the carbide lamp illuminated the dock as if it were daytime.
Ding Debao saw the fort next to the pier, and the muzzle of the gun was already aimed at them.
The light of the carbide searchlight hit their mast, illuminating the dragon flag on the mast.
The port then sent people to contact them.
…………………………
Ding Debao slept one night on the shore yesterday.
The inn at the pier is not very comfortable, but it is more comfortable than sleeping on the boat.
After washing up in the morning, he went with other businessmen to meet with Yao Qiwen, the Minister of Household Affairs of the Liao State.
When Yao Qiwen saw Ding Debao and others, he said: "We rushed all the way from China to southern Africa.
We separated at the Cape of Good Hope and went to Europe to do business.
I follow the king here to conquer the world.
I take the liberty to come here to meet you this time.
Mainly I want to do some business with you guys.
We in Liao are short of everything. I just want to ask you what products you brought back from Europe.
If there are goods that Liao needs, we will buy them at the right price."
On behalf of all the merchants, Ding Debao bowed his hands and replied: "Master Yao, you are so polite. It is our honor to be able to sell our goods to the Liao Kingdom.
Mr. Yao, please wait for a moment, I will have someone sort out the product list immediately."
Ding Debao brought out coffee and beer to entertain Yao Qisheng. At the same time, he ordered the shopkeepers of each ship to compile the product list as soon as possible and send it here.
Yao Qisheng drank bitter coffee, chatted with them, and soon waited for the product list.
He looked at the products carefully and shook his head when he saw coffee and wine.
The Liao Kingdom, which was prospering from all kinds of wastes, had not yet reached the stage of luxury, and these things were not practical at all.
When he saw many women on the boat, his eyes lit up and he said: "I see there are many women on your boat.
Most of the immigrants from the Liao Kingdom were bachelors, and the proportion of women was very small.
In order to ensure the stability of southern Africa and prevent the Liao Kingdom from being assimilated by the large number of black people.
The monarch issued an order that Chinese people were not allowed to marry black people, which had become the national policy of the Liao Kingdom.
Few women from the surrounding areas of China were willing to immigrate to Liao.
You women, can you let them immigrate to the Liao Kingdom?
I will give you a generous immigration subsidy."
When Ding Debao and others heard the amount of the immigration subsidy, they smiled and immediately agreed to the matter.
In addition to the little boy they found, the fleet also left behind the woman who was betrothed to the sailor.
The other women were all transported to the dock.
The Liao Kingdom is very close to Europe, and most women are now very healthy.
If we continue walking for thousands of miles, no one can predict how many of these thin women will die.
Ding Debao and other businessmen accompanied Yao Qisheng to visit Daliao City, the capital of the Liao Kingdom.
This pier is very large, but it looks a bit shabby, and there are very few ships coming and going from the pier.
They also looked at the situation in the Liao Kingdom and found that except for the large Liao City, which was as large as a provincial capital, other places were not as good as the domestic countryside.
Yao Qisheng saw the lazy black slaves in the countryside and said angrily: "These black slaves, let alone rice and wheat, they can't even grow sweet potatoes.
The land here is very fertile, and the land planted by immigrants has a higher food output than many places in the country.
Even with supervisors, the yield of the fields planted by these blacks was less than one-third of that of the immigrants.
I am very worried about this matter. The grain has been harvested for the first time, and because the output is not enough, we still have to purchase grain from outside.
Now it is accepting so many women, which is really adding insult to injury.”
When Li Xingge heard Yao Qisheng's difficulties, he squatted on the ground and grabbed a handful of soil, letting the soil flow out from between his fingers.
"Master Yao, the soil here is indeed very fertile.
Black slaves don't know how to farm. You can grow simple crops, such as taro.
Taro is very easy to grow. It does not require intensive cultivation. As long as you water it on time, you will get a harvest.
If taro is eaten as a staple food, it will cause harm to the body. If not processed properly, it can even cause poisoning.
But this kind of food, at least people will not starve, and the food of those black slaves is guaranteed."
When Yao Qisheng heard what Li Xingge said, he said excitedly: "Mr. Li, I will ask agricultural experts about your suggestions.
If they agree with this method and solve the problems in Liao, the monarch will give them another reward.
This idea proposed by Mr. Li provided a solution to the Liao Kingdom's problem.
We in the Liao Kingdom have a batch of copper ingots and sold them to you, and we will not let you return empty ships."
There are many mineral resources in southern Africa.
In order to raise money to buy food, the Liao Kingdom found mines and drove a large number of black slaves to mine minerals.
When Li Xingge heard what Lord Yao Qisheng said, he was extremely pleasantly surprised.
He didn't expect that just having an idea would actually benefit him.
Li Xingge led the merchants to buy copper ingots to fill the short positions.
They left the Liao Kingdom and continued on their way back.
As the fleet passes the Cape of Good Hope, it is getting closer and closer to China.
