<>Deeper still, occasionally there are lanterns hanging in front of the door eaves of a house. In the dark and only slightly bright stone street, the clatter of horse hooves can be heard.
After Lin Fu and Lin Meng reached an agreement on the terms, they left the Dongyang Guild Hall, still a little drunk, and led their horses with Lin Jingzhong.
"Jingzhong, I want to establish my own business in Jiangning. You stay and help me."
"I'm not familiar with the place in Jiangning, how can I help you?" Lin Jingzhong said.
"Is there anything unfamiliar about this place?" Zhao Hu put his arm around Lin Jingzhong's shoulders from behind, "I was a little panicked when I arrived in Jiangning. After staying for two days, I found that the people in Jiangning city are not that big of a deal..."
Lin Jingzhong silently looked at the dark night in the distance, thinking about what happened during this period. Lin Fu used a knife at the mule and horse market in Shanglin to force the second son, Lin Xunzong, to kneel down. Lin Jingzhong was still worried that Lin Fu was acting impulsively.
, seeing Lin Fu forcing Lin Mengde to agree to secretly help him establish his own business in Jiangning today, Lin Jingzhong finally knew that the scholar was no longer the scholar he once was.
Luomashi rushed to the top and drew his sword, which can be said to be an act of will. Today, Lin Fu took advantage of the situation to force Lin Mengde into a blind corner from which he could not turn around. This method, Lin Jingzhong thought to himself, even if he could think of it, he would not dare to use it dangerously.
In Lin Mengde's case, he thought he was still inferior to the scholar, and it was inevitable that he felt a little disappointed.
"Seventh Madam asked me to come to Jiangning to gain experience, how can I agree to your stay?" Lin Jingzhong said hesitantly.
"Just agree, Madam Seven, and I'll write a letter for you," Lin Fu patted Lin Jingzhong's shoulder and said with a smile, "You should also be aware of the current situation. The head of the family is still alive, and the Lin family can still maintain its current status.
The situation is good, but I don’t know how long the owner of the family can survive..."
"Well, once the head of the family dies and the Seventh Lady has no heirs, she has no right to continue to be in power. The Second Master, the Sixth Lady and the others saw this precisely and let the Seventh Lady take charge," Lin Jingzhong said.
When fighting with Lin Mengde for the power of Jiangning, in the end, you still have to make time for others. It is better to just set up your own business... Scholar, your thoughts and eyes are more thorough than mine. Let me explain this to the seventh lady,
The Seventh Madam will also approve of you establishing your own business in Jiangning."
Lin Fu smiled and would not tell Lin Jingzhong what Gu Yingxiu had sent him in a private message. He only said: "In that case, let's discuss the matter of establishing our own business when we get back..." He pressed Lin Jingzhong's shoulder and asked him
, "You have been working as an accountant in a warehouse for two years. Do you dare to be the shopkeeper of Jiangning Company?"
"Why don't you dare?" Lin Jingzhong took a long breath and said proudly.
"You just said you were unfamiliar with the place in Jiangning..." Zhao Hu teased him.
"Being unfamiliar with a place is an adversity, and adversity should be a time to cheer up?" Lin Jingzhong said with a smile. Once he made up his mind, his mind couldn't be empty. He didn't have time to return to Jiyunju, so he discussed a business name in the dark night of the long street.
"After Gu Wuchen was acquitted, the Gu family regained their qualifications as tea merchants. However, under the suppression of the Lin family, the tea produced and harvested by the Gu family could only be sold out of Shiliang County at low prices through Lin Ji Warehouse, earning a small profit.
The Gu family has a deep grudge against this. Now that Gu Wuchen has come to Jiangning to serve as deputy inspector, the Gu family will naturally be unable to hold back. However, the Gu family has been too miserable in the past ten years. Even if they can gain power today, they still need money and people.
There is no one, and other powerful families in Shiliang County are all on the same side as the Lin family. The Lin family no longer suppresses the Gu family, but just secretly creates some small obstacles, which is enough to make it difficult for the Gu family to move forward. Even if Gu Wuchen is a dignified fourth-grade deputy inspector, what can he do?
However, the Lin family is not alone in the court. With the secret consent of the Seventh Lady and Lin Mengde, we can help the Gu family transport the tea out of Shiliang. The only headache is that neither we nor the Gu family have much capital to collect tea.
There is no boat... It is impossible for Madam Seven and Lin Mengde to openly ask the Lin family's boat to transport tea for us."
"I have five thousand taels of silver in my hand. The Gu family's tea production is not large. In addition to the principal for collecting tea, they can also add a few ships... How to use these five thousand taels of silver? I need you, Jingzhong, to do it for you."
I plan carefully," Lin Fu said, "I can't buy any new ships in a day or two. Madam Seven also has forty horses. We can use the horses to transport the tea to Jiangning for distribution." Using war horses and camels, think about it.
What a waste of a good thing.
Lin Jingzhong knew what Lin Fu's previous wealth was. Not to mention five thousand taels of silver, even if he could come up with five thousand coppers, it would be difficult. He thought that Lin Fu's establishment of his own business in Jiangning might be the instruction of the seventh lady, or it might have something to do with those foreign horse dealers.
----Those foreign horse traders sold twenty good horses to Shanglinli Township Camp and got 3,000 taels of silver. ----He decided not to worry about it for the time being, and said: "There needs to be a shop in the city for the market."
We are mainly engaged in distribution. We do not need to go to the city to transport tea. We also need to find a warehouse outside the city to store the tea bags..."
"I think the company should have its own warehouse," Lin Fu said. "When we entered the city, we came in through the Jinchuan River waterway. We thought the Jinchuan River branch entrance was conveniently located. How about buying land and building a warehouse there?"
Lin Fu opened a business in Jiangning as a cover. He had to control all the cargo transfer and storage in his own hands, so that he could quietly deliver supplies to Changshan Island. This warehouse was an important part of it, so naturally he couldn't leave it to others.
.
"Ah?" Lin Jingzhong looked at Lin Fu. He didn't think that Lin Fu had other intentions. He just thought: a business must have a store, a warehouse, a ship, and a horse team. This is not to establish its own business. It is clearly for the Lin family.
He pondered for a moment and said, "I also passed by the mouth of Jinchuan River when I came here, not to mention other things. The water there is vast. If you build a warehouse there, what will you do if the water bandits on the Yangtze River attack?"
The wider the water surface, the easier it is for water pirates and warships to travel around the world. Outside the mouth of the Jinchuan River is Chaotiandang with a radius of a hundred miles. Warehouses are built there to store goods, which is destined to attract river bandits and water pirates to visit frequently.
"It's late at night today. We'll have a look at the mouth of Jinchuan River in two days to see if it's feasible..." Lin Fu said.
The next day, Lin Jingzhong wrote a letter to the warehouse clerk to take back to Shanglin, explaining the matters of staying in Jiangning. Even though Lin Fu wanted to write to the seventh lady, he did not dare to ask the Lin family to help send it back, waiting for Wu Qi
After they obtained their identities in Shiliang, they would send people to Jiangning to contact them.
Inviting Yang Pu to the dust-washing banquet was indeed effective. In the following days, Dongyang Township Party members came to the house to visit and communicate with each other. On the third day, Lin Fu and others got up early and went to the mouth of the Jinchuan River branch outside the east gate of the city to look at the terrain.
The mouth of the Jinchuan River is only eleven or two miles away from the base of the wall in the northeast corner of Jiangning City. There is a low hill in the middle, so the city wall cannot be seen. However, when the morning mist dissipates, you can clearly see the Qiao Tower located in the northeast corner of Jiangning City.
Flying eaves. To the south is Moling Lake and the majestic Purple Mountain, and to the north is the vast Yangtze River and Chaotiandang.
Lin Jingzhong was weak and afraid of the cold, so Zhao Hu hooked up a carriage to take him. Lin Fu, Zhou Pu, and Chen Enze all rode horses. They went out of the city and whipped their horses, which was a great pleasure.
After getting off his horse at the end of the field, Lin Fu stood on the steep stone bank, looked at Chaotiandang to the north, and said to Lin Jingzhong: "The terrain here is open and the transportation is convenient. It is very convenient to build warehouses and distribute goods into the city or transfer them to other counties.
In such a convenient place, no one dares to build a warehouse, because they are afraid that the water is open to the sky and can accommodate water pirates from all directions," Lin Fu said, "so the shops in Jiangning City would rather go to the troublesome ones outside the south city.
Build a wharf and warehouse upstream of Yongjangpo, or go directly into the city from Shuimen and go to the city's unloading warehouse."
"It's a pity that Moling Lake is listed as a forbidden land for the emperor, otherwise the shore of Moling Lake would be a good place to build a warehouse." Lin Jingzhong sat on the front of the carriage and sighed.
Although Jiangning has a water gate to enter the city, goods must pay taxes and fees from the water gate to the city and out of the city. Merchant ships passing through Jiangning for resale to other places will naturally not enter the city to be exploited twice more. In addition, there are also merchants who hoard goods in order to seek huge profits.
, a warehouse with a larger area is needed to store a large amount of goods for a long time, and it is obviously not happy to bear the high cost of land rent in the city; in addition, the Shuiguan and the rivers in the city cannot allow large boats to enter, so there is a need to build warehouses outside the city.
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Seven or eight miles from the Jinchuan River Road is Moling Lake. The three islands in Moling Lake are forbidden areas where Jiangning's household registration records are stored. Fishing and navigation have been banned in Moling Lake since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Otherwise, it is an excellent inner lake dock.
Warehouse, if Jiang bandits want to enter Moling Lake and plunder the warehouse, they first consider whether they can catch turtles in a jar for the officers and soldiers.
Since warehouses could not be built on the banks of Moling Lake, many businesses in Jiangning chose to build warehouses upstream of Yongjangpo.
The source of Longzangpu comes out of Nanshan Mountain in the southwest of Jiangning. When it reaches Jiangning City, it is divided into two. The inner water enters the city from Nanshuiguan, and the outer water flows around Xicheng, and then merges outside Xishuiguan and flows into the Yangtze River. Longzangpu is located on the three sides of Nancheng.
The mouth of the Chahe River is the area with the highest concentration of warehouses in Jiangning. Although it has to go around dozens of miles of waterways, it is these dozens of miles of inland waterways and the Jiangning garrison general's water camp stationed at the mouth of the river that effectively restricted the river bandits.
of intrusion.
Lin Fu looked at the vast river, and it was really sad to think about it. Jiangning was the southern capital of Vietnam, the most famous city in the world, with nearly 30,000 troops garrisoned nearby, 3,000 people in the water camp, and hundreds of various warships. These dozens of
Over the years, they have still been unable to get rid of the troubles of river bandits and water bandits. Even the Dongting Lake bandits in the upper reaches, the Taihu bandits in the lower reaches, and the Eastern pirates also go fishing and hunting outside Jiangning City from time to time.
Lin Fu took a long breath and said: "There are many business houses in Jiangning City, and all walks of life are helping the township party. We said that we want to set up our own business, but it is not an easy task. The land at the mouth of the three branches of Longzangpu
All the warehouses have been divided among the big merchants. We want to squeeze in and get a piece of the pie, but we are afraid that other warehouses will join forces to suppress us. Besides, the Yongjangpo waterway has become shallow due to siltation over the years, and a thousand-rock ship with three masts or more can sail in.
Worried about being trapped, they then use the river water to transport goods. The bigger the ship, the cheaper the transportation cost. Now it is rare to hear of an eight-masted giant sail passing Jiangning..."
Lin Jingzhong looked at Lin Fu's expression and seemed to have made up his mind. He thought to himself: Although plunder by river bandits and water bandits does not happen all the time, it is enough for the warehouse to be looted once and to pay full compensation for the goods stored by merchants.
The owner of the warehouse went bankrupt, and they did not have enough financial resources to build an elite rural army like Shanglin Xiangying. Besides, Jiangning was the southern capital of the imperial court. Building private soldiers outside Jiangning City was naturally not as casual as in Dongyang. Even if it was
There will also be strict restrictions on having private soldiers in the name of caravan guards.
Lin Jingzhong was inconvenient to directly attack Lin Fu's self-confidence. He stood up and pointed at the boats passing by the center of the river and asked Zhao Hu: "Do you think any of those boats are doing business without capital?"
"Maybe, they don't know how to put up their flags. Besides, they are doing business during the day and rob ships at night." Zhao Hu said.
"Actually, you don't have to worry too much." Lin Fu knew what Lin Jingzhong was worried about, and pointed to the Jiangxin Island not far away, "That's the prison of the Inspectorate, and there are guards stationed on the island. If we can convince Gu Wuchen to add one more point to the prison,
The defense force, or even adding two warships, will make this place safer. In addition, after we build the warehouse, we should try not to retain high-value goods that are easy to get rid of... and I am sure that the companies that want to build warehouses in these places will definitely
There are more than one or two businesses. After all, there are too many restrictions in Yongzangpo. If someone dares to start, more businesses may flock to it."
"It's hard to say," Lin Jingzhong still didn't have confidence, but since he stepped on the boat, he didn't have too many scruples and said, "Since you chose this place, then we will use this place to plan..."
At this time, there was an official ship floating in the water towards the sky. Looking at the gold-plated black head plaque on the bow, it was the official ship that Gu Wuchen was riding on.
Lin Fu immediately climbed up the river embankment and watched the official ship sailing into the Jinchuan River. He saw a few people crowding around him. Gu Wuchen was wearing a pair of straight-winged black gauze crowns, and a fourth-grade vermilion official uniform with a curved collar and wide sleeves.
Wearing a cowhide waistband inlaid with gold, silver and jade, he stood on the bow deck of the ship with his head held high. Today was the auspicious day for him to officially enter the city to take up his post.