Chapter 33                                                                                                                             �

Zhou Mengchen put everything Haining did in Haining and reported everything Hai Rui did in Haining. Zhou Mengchen was always paying attention to the Shachuan Gang, and Wang Zongyuan handled a series of financial affairs. Four million stones of grain is not a small number. Although Changsha, Wuchang, Jiujiang and Anqing in Huguang were all places where grain and rice gatherings were collected. In summary, the annual grain transaction volume was more than tens of millions of stones. As for how many tens of thousands of stones at most, it is hard to say, after all, there were not such developed statistical methods in ancient times.

But even so, four million stones is a very large number. And grain trading is not as simple as ordinary goods, and it is easy to pay one hand and deliver one piece. Bulk goods trading, trading is actually the simplest thing, checking the quality of grain, delivery cycle, storage and transportation, is not a trivial matter.

Not to mention, raising money and grain from Jiangnan is also very important.

In short, Wang Zongyuan was very busy. Fortunately, Tang Shiying had already arrived at the governor of Zhejiang and coordinated some silver from the Zhejiang treasury to be considered as the silver to buy rice.

As for Zhao Wenhua's property, the industry besides silver is still in dispute.

However, these are all about communication with the gentry of Jiangnan. Whether it is the east wind that overwhelms the west wind or the west wind that overwhelms the east wind. This matter is easy to resolve, but Zhou Mengchen will not bow his head easily. Wait until Hai Rui can kill all directions. Zhou Mengchen has heard that the gentry of Jiangnan has all focused on Haining.

It will take time for Haining to really decide the outcome.

Zhou Mengchen was not idle either. He immediately summoned the leader of the Shachuan Gang and the owner of the Shenchuan Gang.

However, when Zhou Mengchen saw the owner of Ship Shen, he suddenly became worried and felt that he had overestimated the power of the Sha Ship Gang.

Wu He can see from the dress of this ship owner Shen, that the strength of the Sand Ship Gang is not too great.

It's very simple. The Ming Dynasty's atmosphere has become more and more luxurious after Zhengde. Zhou Mengchen only wants to be comfortable in clothes. He doesn't like silk on his body, but instead likes cotton and linen fabrics because it's comfortable. That is, he wears silk in summer because it's cool. But even so, Zhou Mengchen's requirements for cotton and linen are very strict. After all, modern people's various enjoyments are simply unimaginable in the eyes of ancient people.

Therefore, Zhou Mengchen's clothing materials were always made by the Zhou family. For this purpose, Li Yunzhen specially recruited several craftsmen and specially selected a piece of land to grow cotton in the imperial village outside the capital. It can be said that from cotton selection to finally becoming cloth and cutting, they are always perfect. Only by wearing Zhou Mengchen's clothes. This kind of fabric can only be used by Zhou Mengchen and his wife and children in the inner courtyard of the Zhou family.

In Zhou Mengchen's opinion, this is already an extremely luxurious task.

But in the eyes of the literati of Jiangnan, it was nothing more than Er.

As for the degree of luxury, I won’t talk about it here. Just talking about the owner of Shen Ship in front of me, he looks very luxurious in silk clothes, but wearing the owner of Shen Ship in love, he feels uncomfortable left and right and wrong. It is obvious that this owner of Shen Ship in daily life has never worn such clothes, and in front of Zhou Mengchen, he is timid, as if he is an ordinary citizen.

That's right, Zhou Mengchen's status is getting higher and higher. Many of the people he met were trembling when they met Zhou Mengchen.

However, there were at least more than a thousand families following the shipwreck owner, and he was also a famous figure on Chongming Island. At this time, this performance made Zhou Mengchen a little disappointed and said in his heart: "Is it the Sand Boat Help that the words were exaggerated?"

Zhou Mengchen asked: "How many ships are there under the command of the shipwreck owner?"

The owner of the shipwreck said, "There are only thirteen ships under his command?"

Zhou Mengchen's heart skipped a beat and asked, "How many mast ship is it?"

The owner of the wreck said: "There are only three three-masted ships."

Zhou Mengchen frowned immediately and said to himself: "Is He Xinyin's information wrong?"

Everything Zhou Mengchen had about the Shabo Gang was obtained through He Xinyin. In the Yuan Dynasty, Chongming Island was a place to go to sea from the exit of the Yangtze River. Local people made a living by sailing on seaboards. At that time, the main destination was the north, and it was the capital.

In this dynasty, this habit has not changed. It can be said that it is to rely on the mountains to eat the mountains and water to eat the water. Even local officials cannot take away the people's livelihood for no reason, this is a problem.

Zhou Mengchen thought that the habits of the people here were similar to those of the people in Fujian. But now it seems that they are different.

Because among the people of Fujian, there are some people who are strong in sailing, but most of the people who are engaged in sea trade make a fortune. They are not like the owner of a shipwreck.

And the owner of the wreck also has too few ships.

For a mere three three-masted ships, you should know that the Ming Dynasty's sea ban was only banned by more than three-masted ships. It can be seen that although the Sand Ship Gang cannot be said to be the duty of the people, it can be regarded as the true people of the Ming Dynasty compared to those lawless maritime merchants in Fujian.

But this is not what Zhou Mengchen wanted.

He couldn't help asking: "I want to transport grain from Tianjin next year, can the Sand Boat Gang take on this matter."

When the shipwreck owner heard this, his originally squinting eyes suddenly became brighter. He narrowed slightly and then dimmed, saying, "Sir, it can be transported within one million stones. If more than one million stones, the Sand Boat Gang can't bear it."

Zhou Mengchen was stunned and said, "You only have these few ships, how dare you accept a million stones of food?"

The owner of the shipwreck seemed to have talked about his professional field and relaxed a little, saying, "I don't know that the so-called Sand Boat Gang is not me alone, but I, Mr. Shen, who has some prestige in Chongming, so he advocates me as the main point. In fact, everyone usually does their own business and helps people transport goods on weekdays, but they don't handle goods themselves. They usually have a few companies that cannot be eaten, so they recommend me to coordinate and take on a false reputation. The grain that my family can transport is only 30,000 to 50,000 stones, but it is no problem for the Sand Boat Gang to transport millions of stones."

Only then did Zhou Mengchen understand the real Sand Boat Gang.

In this era, there is a difference between the so-called gangs in later generations. In this era, gangs have the nature of guilds. Of course, Zhou Mengchen did not believe that the Shachuan Gang did not use violence when snatching business. Nowadays, two villages can even kill several lives. Not to mention other businesses.

However, these are just episodes of the times, and the Sand Boat Gang seems to think more about business.

Moreover, in business, he showed that he was not as brave as Fujian. He could tell that the sand boat gang only helped people transport goods, but did not participate. The meaning was very clear. In the Ming Dynasty, it was banned by the sea, but the sea ban could not resist three-masted ships, and the goods on the ship were not their own. They just earned freight, and when they encountered something, they could push them clean.

This is a very common way to take advantage of loopholes.

Of course, Zhou Mengchen didn't believe it. The Sha Chuan Gang really didn't participate in the maritime trade at all. But their attitude proves that they are still afraid of national laws.

Zhou Mengchen thought to himself: "It's barely enough." After all, Zhou Mengchen may not be able to see the scale of the Sha Boat Gang, but he is really envious of the mature sailors of the Sha Boat Gang. After all, today's sailing is still a technical job, which is not something that ordinary people can do.

However, Zhou Mengchen didn't know the scale of the Shachuan Gang. When Wanli conquered the Japanese army, the Shachuan Gang was recruited by the Ming army to transport military supplies, and even 500 people directly participated in the naval battle against Japan. When the Ming Dynasty fell, a Shen Tingyang even advocated sea transportation and even opened up sea transportation. However, the Ming Dynasty's rivers were declining, and Chen Tingyang finally fought against the Qing Dynasty and died. In the Qing Dynasty, the Shachuan Gang still existed, but the Shachuan Gang had changed from a surname Chen to a surname Zhu. What's more interesting is that during the Kangxi period, the wife of the first head of the Zhu family who moved from Fengyang to Chongming, was surnamed Chen.

The Shachuan Gang controlled by the Zhu family has been prosperous for hundreds of years. During the late Republic of China period, it was also one of the tycoons in Shanghai.

History is so thought-provoking.

Of course, the great development of the Sand Ship Gang is also due to the great development of sea transportation. Is the great development of sea transportation? It was after the Longqing switch. Although the Japanese pirates are powerful now, the amount of sea trade is not too large.

Zhou Mengchen asked: "If you want to transport four million stones of grain, what is needed?"
Chapter completed!