Chapter 2234

As a guest of Fort Victory, Li Nai had frequent contacts with political and business figures from various countries during his stay in Sanya. It was nothing new for Li Nai. Because of this, he could easily guess that he wanted to arrange arrangements through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Who is the person meeting.

But as to why the Crown Prince of Joseon would have such a request, no matter how smart Li Nai was, it would be difficult to guess the specific situation.

Li Nai asked: "What urgent matter does this prince have that makes him bother Mr. Tian to wait at the dock?"

Tian Zhengdao: "It's nothing urgent. I'm just worried that the Third Young Master will be busy with official duties after arriving in Sanya and won't have time to meet with the Prince of Korea. So I came here early so that the Third Young Master can arrange his time. I'll see when the Third Young Master is free here.

, let’s have a casual meal together, and then I will inform the crown prince and confirm the meeting place.”

Li Nai responded with a smile: "Master Na Tian is really interested! Let me think about it... I have to meet with the Dutch today to let them inspect the goods shipped from Guangzhou, and I have to go to the customs office to go through the transshipment procedures. I don't know.

How long will it take to finish it, maybe tomorrow? Tomorrow at noon in Qingfeng Building, I will be the host. If Mr. Tian is free then, please come and sit with us."

Tian Zheng said: "Third Young Master, that's what we said at that time. As for the matter of being a host, you don't have to argue. The Crown Prince of Joseon has said that he will treat this meal."

"Then it's better to be respectful than to obey." Li Nai didn't care about trivial matters like who paid the bill for dinner, but the other party took the initiative to treat him, so maybe he had something to ask of him.

After Li Nai came to Sanya last time, he already knew that the senior officials of Haihan attached great importance to the study abroad of the Joseon Prince. They not only arranged an island tour for him, but also gave the Joseon Prince great autonomy in the direction of his study. This was not the case in the past.

A rare phenomenon.

According to the information Li Nai obtained from senior officials of Haihan, he believed that Haihan regarded North Korea as an important ally in the far northern frontier. Its role and status were roughly similar to those of Annan, and it could serve as a basis for Haihan in the north.

Development provides various supplies, which can even be temporarily used as Haihan's strategic depth when necessary.

In order to achieve this goal, Haihan even took the risk of sending troops to Korea to stop the Qing army from marching south to conquer the Korean Peninsula. After the war, he arranged for the crown prince of Joseon, who would be in charge of the throne in the future, to study in Sanya, which shows that Haihan hoped to

Use a mature top-down plan to influence North Korea's future development direction and win it over to your side.

Although Li Nai is a businessman, he has been hanging out with people like Haihan senior officials all year round. Under the influence, his vision and knowledge are far incomparable to ordinary people, and his understanding of the international situation is even better than that of the real ruling class like Li Xie.

.Li Nai is also very interested in observing and studying how Haihan exerted influence on North Korea bit by bit.

In addition, as Haihan's most loyal trading partner, Furifeng was also one of the first foreign companies to enter North Korea after the war last year, and has already established a business store there.

Although the affairs Li Nai is responsible for do not include business in the north, if there is an opportunity to have face-to-face communication with powerful figures in North Korea, he is still happy to participate. Take this opportunity to learn more about the situation in North Korea, and even

Establishing an ideal personal relationship with the Crown Prince of Joseon will help Furifeng carry out trade activities in North Korea in the future.

What's more, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took the lead in arranging this matter. It was obvious that the official attitude was to facilitate a meeting between the two parties. Although Tian Zheng did not explain the specific reason, since this was the official intention, Li Nai knew that he must also

There wouldn't be any harm, so I just agreed.

After Tian Zheng finalized the matter, he said goodbye to Li Nai and went to Li Xie to reply. Li Nai, on the other hand, continued to stay at the dock waiting for inspection. His men had already notified the Dutch to come to the dock for inspection.

Special cargo carried on board ships.

Since this batch of goods is steel products that must be controlled by Haihan, before the goods are delivered, they must be inspected and registered by the relevant official institutions of Haihan. As the owner of the goods, Li Nai had to wait on site.

Not long after, the people from Haihan Customs arrived first, and Li Nai asked people to take out the relevant formal documents and hand them over to the customs people for registration. These documents included the type, quantity and transaction objects of the relevant goods. Haihan officials could pass the registration.

Have a rough grasp of the number of steel products purchased by the Dutch from the Ming Dynasty every year.

Of course, with Batavia's current industrial production capacity, it is not an easy task to make armor and weapons out of these steels that were finally obtained. And the thresholds set by Haihan go even further.

This significantly increased the cost of the East India Company's own weapons manufacturing, thereby indirectly controlling the scale of its armed forces.

The customs officers boarded the ship to look at the cargo in the cabin, registered it, and left quickly. If it were other people's cargo, they might be able to make some profit from it, but these two ships were loaded with Furifeng's cargo, so then

But no one dares to make random decisions.

As soon as the customs people left, the Dutch arrived. Due to the special nature of this batch of goods, the East India Company also attached great importance to it. Su Keyi, the minister stationed in Haihan, personally came to inspect the goods.

Of course, the reason why Su Keyi came forward, besides attaching great importance to this batch of goods, was that he heard that Li Nai personally escorted this batch of goods, so he came over specially to show his face to show his respect for Li Nai.

This was not the first day that the two of them had interacted. After a few words of greeting after meeting, Li Nai handed him the Haihan inspection document that was still wet with ink: "The formalities have been completed. Brother Su can board the ship to inspect the goods. If there are no problems,

, then we can arrange the transfer.”

Su Keyi thanked him and stretched out his hands to take the documents. Without this procedure, these steel products could not be legally handed over to him for transportation.

As the East India Company's representative in Sanya, Su Keyi has been here for several years. Naturally, he is also very familiar with the various restrictions Haihan has set up against the East India Company. For example, the regulations restricting the purchase of steel products from the Ming Dynasty are clearly stated.

It's just a deliberate attempt to raise prices, and the agent Fulifeng is also one of the main beneficiaries.

Of course, although he was very dissatisfied with the purchase restriction system created by Haihan, he did not dare to offend Furifeng easily, because in addition to steel products, Batavia also had many products produced in the Ming Dynasty that needed to be passed through.

Fulifeng completed the acquisition in Guangdong, so even though he knew that every steel product transaction was a tribute to Fulifeng, Su Keyi still had to deal with Fulifeng politely.

Of course, Su Keyi himself would not do such menial work as drilling into the ship's cabin to count cargo. In just one sentence, his subordinates would take care of it. He himself stayed on the dock and talked with Li Nai about the current situation. Many people would think that Su Keyi was a Han because of his identity.

The Dutch felt very shameful towards him because he worked for him, but Li Nai was an exception and would not look at Su Keyi in a discriminatory way. This was one of the reasons why Su Keyi had a good impression of Master Li San.

Unlike most people, Li Nai has no negative views on Su Keyi playing for the Dutch. He believes that although Su Keyi is Han, he was born in a place ruled by the Dutch. It is only natural for him to play for the Dutch when he grows up.

This is just as understandable as the vast majority of people living in Hainan Island becoming Hainanese citizens.

Moreover, by communicating with a Han Chinese with a special status like Su Keyi, Li Nai could also understand the views of people from different positions on Haihan, which was also a very interesting thing for him.

"The goods shipped this time should be much less than the quantity we ordered, right? Could it be that something happened in Foshan?" Of course, Su Keyi also noticed the quantity on the customs declaration form, and after chatting for a while, he

Bring the topic back to business.

"It's not Foshan's problem, but the imperial court has to requisition it. It's not easy to acquire these from the market." Li Nai explained the reason lightly.

Su Keyi said: "Could it be that the civil strife in the Ming Dynasty intensified?"

Li Nai nodded and said: "The war in Sichuan and Shaanxi continues, and the imperial court issued a decree to lift the maritime ban on Fujian and promote trade. In addition, they have recently laid off redundant officials in Nanjing to save money. They have requisitioned privately produced steel in Foshan.

, used to create weapons and armor for the army, which is also one of the measures taken by the imperial court recently."

This information cannot be said to be confidential. As long as you are willing to inquire, it is not difficult to learn from the market. Therefore, Li Nai did not intend to hide it from Su Keyi and told everything frankly.

In fact, the situation of the Ming Dynasty at this time was much better than in history, because Haihan held back the pace of the Qing army going south in Liaodong, and the Ming Dynasty was able to temporarily concentrate on dealing with the peasant army in the hinterland of the Central Plains. Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai and other troops successively

After suffering a defeat at the hands of the Ming army, Zhang Xianzhong simply surrendered to Xiong Wencan in Gucheng.

However, it is worth mentioning that in the original history, Zhang Xianzhong's surrender was only a temporary measure, and he rebelled again in Gucheng the following year. Xiong Wencan, who was then the governor of the five provinces and the right deputy censor of the capital, died because of this major mistake.

He was imprisoned, and later sentenced to be beheaded and abandoned in the market, and was tricked to death while still alive.

Foshan is the smelting center of Guangdong, and it is reasonable for the local steel to be requisitioned by the government. Su Keyi had actually seen the relevant news in the Haihan newspaper before, and at this time he was just using the excuse of inspecting the goods to report to Foshan.

Li Nai wanted to confirm the authenticity of the news, and also test whether Li Nai would tell him the truth.

The government's expropriation naturally made procurement more difficult, so that the amount of steel shipped to Sanya this time was about a quarter less than the amount scheduled by the East India Company. Su Keyi knew that this was not Furifeng's deliberate embarrassment, it was just

Can accept this fact.

While we were talking, the inventory on the ship had also ended. All the iron ingots that arrived were cast and molded. Not only were they of the same color, but each piece was the same size and weight. You could calculate the weight by just counting the number, and the entire inventory process didn't take too long.

long time.

Su Keyi is also a cheerful person, so he immediately sent someone to go to Haihan Bank with Li Nai's men to handle the payment transfer. Having been in Sanya for a long time, Su Keyi has already become accustomed to the transaction method formulated by Haihan. Large transactions can be handled directly at the bank.

Settlement, so there is no need to use a large amount of cash for transactions, it is safe, reliable and efficient.

"There is quite a bit of time. If you have no other arrangements, Third Young Master, why don't we have a casual dinner together?" Seeing that the business was almost done, Su Keyi extended an invitation to Li Nai.

Li Nai declined: "To be honest, I have to go to Fort Victory for business, so I really can't agree to Brother Su's invitation. I will stay in Sanya for a while this time, so why not make an appointment another day!"

Su Keyi heard that he was going to Victory Castle, so he couldn't force it anymore. He nodded and said: "Since the Third Young Master still has business to do, I won't bother you anymore. I will send someone to deliver the invitation to the Third Young Master's house later."

.”

After finishing the delivery of money and goods with the East India Company after three times, five times and two times, Lin Nai took his own carriage and went all the way to Fort Victory.

When he arrived at the gate of Fort Victory, Li Nai got out of the car, greeted the officers on duty, and then entered on his own. Coming to Fort Victory was just like returning to his own home, and he didn't need to go through the tedious registration like outsiders. This face

Just use it as a pass.

When Li Nai arrived at the office building of the Executive Committee and asked, it happened that senior officials were having a meeting behind closed doors, so he could only wait outside.

But it didn't take long, and the meeting inside was over. Ning Qi was the first to come out of the conference room, and when he saw him, he took the initiative to greet him: "The third young master is here!"

Li Nai hurriedly stepped forward to greet him. Although he had a good personal relationship with senior officials such as Haihan and basically got along with each other as friends, Ning Qi taught him the most knowledge, so Li Nai usually treated him as a disciple when he saw him.

Then Tao Donglai, Yan Chujie, Bai Kesi, Schneider and others walked out of the conference room one after another, and Li Nai also greeted them one by one. In terms of the degree of familiarity with these big figures in the Haihan Executive Committee, Li Nai was probably the best in the Ming Dynasty.

"I just arrived in Sanya today. After completing the cargo handover at the port, I came directly to Victory Fort. It's been a long time since I saw you, and you are still in such good spirits!"

"You came here in such a hurry, right?" Tao Donglai joked: "Every time I arrive in Sanya, I come to Victory Fort to have a meal. Do you really think we are a canteen here?"

Li Nai responded seriously: "How can this matter? Mr. Tao is joking! I just haven't seen you adults for a long time and miss you very much, so I came to visit first to avoid getting estranged. As for eating, I would like to enjoy the meal.

Eat, of course I want it!"

Li Nai has known these senior officials for many years, and there has long been no identity barrier. After meeting, they talked and laughed quite casually. They were not at all as restrained and cautious as ordinary foreigners when they arrived at Fort Victory.

He actually didn't have anything important to do when he came to Fort Victory. He was just used to checking in at Fort Victory first every time he came to Sanya, so he would rather turn down Su Keyi's invitation than come over to meet everyone first. Of course.

, it would be even better if you could have a meal by the way. After all, the food in Fort Victory cannot be eaten in any restaurant outside.
Chapter completed!