The people in Lotus City were very polite, at least on the surface they looked that way; not only were there boats leading the way, but when they arrived at the pier, a somewhat blessed middle-aged man greeted Wu Yiping and the others.
"Welcome to our Lotus City, welcome!" He walked up to the lifeboat with a beer belly that was rare in this era, and introduced: "I am Zhang Jingbo, the welcome messenger of the Pinghailong family in Lotus City. I don't know who your leader is. Who is this person?¡±
Wu Yiping had never experienced this. When he was in Shoufeng City, he did not see any such so-called welcome messenger. At this time, Luo Hu quietly said to Wu Yiping: "Instructor, I should have learned this from the Dutch; it is them It will be established soon.¡±
"My name is Wu Yiping, and I am their leader. I have met Ambassador Zhang."
Now that you are on someone else¡¯s property, basic courtesy is indispensable. Besides, I don¡¯t know anything about the situation now. Although Luo Hu and the others have been to Lotus City, there was no such welcome messenger at that time. In addition, this Zhang Jingbo was chosen to welcome the guests, so he must be that Ping Hailong¡¯s confidant. , if he offends him and puts on some boots for himself, I am afraid it will be difficult for him to survive in Lotus City.
Zhang Jingbo squinted his eyes and smiled, shook his head and said: "I don't dare to take it, I am just a small messenger. But Boss Wu has two such big ships at such a young age, he is really formidable!"
Although he said he didn¡¯t dare to take it seriously, looking at Zhang Jingbo¡¯s expression of enjoyment, I¡¯m afraid he was very useful to Wu Yiping¡¯s flattery.
Wu Yiping saw that Zhang Jingbo was chatting with him in random directions but had no next step, so he immediately realized it and sent some high-quality dried fish, a bag of rice and two taels of gold beans that he had prepared long ago.
The reason why I can bask in the wind and sun with a smile on my face is just for this extremely rich job. Zhang Jingbo took it away very naturally, and even thought it was Wu Yiping who was testing it. After discovering the weight of the gift, he asked his subordinates to put it away. Then the smile on his face became more intimate, and he said very enthusiastically:
"Our boss has rules. If you want to sell goods here, you must pay taxes. Both of your boats are made of dried fish. These are good things. Just pay the tax of 200 taels!"
Wu Yiping felt sorry for his rice and gold at first, but when Zhang Jingbo said that he would only pay 200 taels of silver in tax, he immediately stopped feeling sad, and the rewards he received were beyond imagination.
Luo Hu estimated that he might have to pay 400-700 taels in taxes this time, but now he only paid 200 taels. The gift must have played a big role.
From ancient times to the present, bribery will seriously disrupt the market order, and even seriously affect a country. Wu Yiping hates bribery, but it is the best weapon if used on the enemy.
Now Wu Yiping's attitude toward Zhang Jingbo has become more sincere, and he is flattering him again.
When leaving, Zhang Jingbo did not escort him, but sent a young man to take Wu Yiping to the Chamber of Commerce in the city. A few minutes later, the face of Lotus City appeared in front of Wu Yiping.
Lotus City is larger than Shoufeng City and has a larger population; there are low-rise houses everywhere, and just the crowds passing by are no worse than some small cities. But the clothes and expressions of the people on the street are the same as those in Shoufeng City. It's all a lifeless feeling.
The only thing that surprised Wu Yiping was seeing several blacksmith shops on the street. But considering that Lotus City is very rich in minerals, all this makes sense.
Unlike Shoufeng City, this place is located near a mountain and does not have a large amount of flat farmland. Coupled with the drought, Lotus City's food supply is even more tense than that of Shoufeng City.
When I walked to a street corner, I saw a two-story wooden building with a huge high wall. The door was guarded by four soldiers who had been brought there.
With the certificate issued by Zhang Jingbo, Wu Yiping easily passed through the gate of the wall and truly entered the interior of the Lotus City Chamber of Commerce.
In fact, Ping Hailong also learned this chamber of commerce from the Dutch. He saw that the Dutch had chambers of commerce in every city to formulate transaction rules, which enabled the Dutch to make a lot of money, so he followed suit and established a chamber of commerce. However, due to management problems, it was only in form and failed to really work.
In fact, when Wu Yiping and Zhang Jingbo were still in the door-to-door talks, various well-informed forces in Lotus City had already received the news. If they could eat two whole boats of high-quality dried fish, it would be a huge income. Of course, they could not let go of their visible interests, and forces large and small sent people to negotiate with Wu Yiping.
According to procedures, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce must register with the Chamber of Commerce. Only after the Chamber of Commerce dispatches supervisors will they allow transactions in the city. However, the Chamber of Commerce in Lotus City will ignore you after you pay the money. . So Wu Yiping is very busy now and has to socialize a lot.Many people.
Wu Yiping is a skilled technician in modern times, and he really doesn't understand the ways of doing business. What Wu Yiping didn't expect was that Gu Yonglong seemed to be very talented in this area. Seeing that Wu Yiping was surrounded by those local snakes Unable to parry.
Gu Yonglong came out to replace Wu Yiping's role, sat down on a chair leisurely, and interacted with these representatives.
Especially with a calm tone and a eloquent mouth, you can get other people's information and clues out in just a few clicks. I have to say that his previous role as Lu Mingyu's bodyguard was a huge waste.
Wu Yiping simply handed over the entire negotiation process to Gu Yonglong.
But he sneaked out to see the blacksmith shop that he cared about most.
In fact, science in China had greatly developed during the Ming Dynasty. The reason why it later became more and more backward was entirely due to the slavish rule and academic suppression; this was not good, that was not accurate, and it was slow. Slowly, I stopped doing research.
Just like what Wu Yiping saw now, in a blacksmith shop in Lianhua City, he actually found a small coal-fired steel-making furnace.
Seeing this thing, Wu Yiping was greatly surprised! ¡°Is there such an advanced thing at this time??¡±
" Then he became overjoyed again: "I have been making no progress in steelmaking. Now that I have found technical personnel, I must not give up."
So, Wu Yiping immediately arranged for someone to find out who opened the blacksmith shop and what the technology was like.
With a large number of people, things are easy to do. Several well-spoken soldiers from the village protection team came out at the same time, and soon they had his basic information.
It turns out that this blacksmith shop was opened by a person who knew Zhao Dongxu. He can be said to be the best blacksmith on the entire island of Taiwan and is famous far and wide. In the past, many dignitaries came to him specifically to make knives.
His biggest hobby is studying how to make good steel and some weird things. Because of this, he has not yet married and lives alone.
In Zhao Dongxu¡¯s words, as long as the business can maintain expenses, I will continue to study how to make good steel and how to make sharper swords; but since Lotus City was captured by Ping Hailong, his life has gone from bad to worse.
It turns out that Ping Hailong¡¯s weapon repair and production were regarded by his men as a way to make money and were left to their relatives to complete, and outsiders could not get involved at all.
Most of the people who came to Zhao Dongxu to build things in the past also fell into Dutch colonies. Now I make a living by making farm tools, kitchen knives and the like.
The Dutch burned, killed and looted everywhere, or imprisoned a large number of farmers in the form of farms. As a result, fewer and fewer people came to him to make farm tools, and gradually there was no business at all.
After understanding this, Wu Yiping observed it for a long time in the name of buying steel, and found that this was really a steel-making furnace. By adding carbon powder into the furnace, what came out was direct steel, not iron. Although it is not a good steel, there is no problem in making some basic machine tools or tools.
Seeing this, Wu Yiping found the owner of the blacksmith shop named Zhao Dongxu and asked him to sell all the more than 5 tons of steel in stock to him.
Zhao Dongxu was very happy to hear that Wu Yiping wanted so many things and said: "Oh! That's great. If it weren't for Boss Wu who wanted to buy so much steel from me, I would have to farm. There is no business at all now."
After hearing what Dongxu said to Wu Yiping, his eyes were shining and he said: "Master Zhao, why don't you move the blacksmith shop to our village! Due to the burning, killing and looting by the Dutch, many of our villages have formed a big village with a large population. Tens of thousands (just a little trick); your business will be booming if you move there."
"Uh! Moving?" Zhao Dongxu was shocked, then shook his head and continued: "Brother, I think it's better not to use it. Although my business here is poor, the city here is high and there are many soldiers.
The Dutch had nothing to do with the Pinghailong for the time being. If they moved to another place, they would be defeated by the Dutch sooner or later. I heard it! General Zhou in Shoufeng City surrendered to the Dutch, and the people there lived a miserable life! well! "
"Master Zhao, please don't worry!" Hearing his concerns, Wu Yiping beat his chest loudly: "We in Dafeng Village have a village protection team, which is also very powerful. The Dutch don't dare to come to our village easily."
"Oh! Thank you for your kindness, brother, but I'm really used to being here and don't want to run around"
Wu Yiping saw that Zhao Dongxu was worried about the Dutch and was unwilling to leave here. He didn't say anything, but he had already made up his mind to get this person away no matter what.