Chapter 475 Naval Yamen

Wei Ping continued: "After the leaders of Haihan settled in Yulin, the people of Yazhou have also benefited a lot. In the past, who would be willing to move to this place where prisoners were exiled? Now when we talk about Sanya, who doesn't know that this is

One of the best places in Qiongzhou Island? Brother Li, you can ask around, but within a few dozen miles, are there people who are too poor to afford food?"

Li Qingyang was speechless. He was not the kind of aristocrat who didn't know the sufferings of the people. What ordinary people wanted in life was to have enough food, clothing and clothing without having to fight. He still understood this truth. The Haihan people obviously did a pretty good job in this regard, and in

The people already have a considerable degree of prestige, and a considerable number of local people probably only have the executive committee in their hearts, and no longer have the existence of the court.

After coming out of the Inspection Department, Lin Nan took Li Qingyang to the naval station. It was said to be a naval station, but in fact, the navy did not even have a real warship in the Victory Port. Now if Haihan has any big

For foreign military operations, it is definitely not feasible to ask Yacheng Water Village to borrow troops to look after the family as in the past two years. The originally few warships in Yacheng Water Village have all been converted into cargo ships, and the sailors have also changed jobs.

He became a sailor and worked for the salt dealer Luo Shengdong to traffic Haihan salt produced in Shengli Port and Tieliang Port to various ports across the island.

Li Qingyang followed Lin Nan into the yard of the navy station and was shocked by what he saw. It was not as solemn as in the barracks. Instead, it was similar to a market. A large group of people gathered in the courtyard in front of the hall.

, were discussing something loudly. If the people maintaining order in the courtyard were not wearing Ming army uniforms, Li Qingyang would have thought that he had gone to the wrong place and entered a certain chamber of commerce.

Lin Nan called a soldier over and asked, "Where is General Luo?"

The soldier glanced at the bronze Security Department badge on Lin Nan's chest and responded respectfully: "Chief, please wait a moment. I will go and inform Mr. Luo right now."

After a while, Luo Shengdong came out of the house, but when the group of people in the courtyard saw him appearing, they immediately swarmed up. Luo Shengdong stretched out his hand to separate these people and said loudly: "Don't crowd! Who else will crowd in later?"

No one has a share!”

As soon as these words came out, they had immediate results, allowing him to pass through the crowd smoothly and come to Lin Nan: "Master Lin, you are a busy man who goes to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing. I don't know if it is a private matter or official business that comes here today."

?”

Lin Nan smiled and said: "I'll bring Mr. Li here to show him the way. It's official business!"

Luo Shengdong looked Li Qingyang up and down, cupped his fists and said, "Yacheng Navy Commander Luo Shengdong has met Mr. Li!"

Li Qingyang quickly returned the greeting with cupped fists. Luo Shengdong was the highest-ranking Ming official he had seen since coming to Sanya, so this courtesy was still indispensable.

Luo Shengdong said: "The sun is shining brightly outside, please come with me to the house to talk."

Luo Shengdong brought the two of them to the front hall, and Li Qingyang suddenly discovered that although it was the layout of the Yamen lobby, what was done had nothing to do with the White Tiger Festival Hall in the military. There were various figures on the left and right of the hall.

There were several tables, and behind each table sat a cashier, dialing an abacus and calculating something.

Luo Shengdong had two chairs brought over and placed them behind the desk, and then invited the two of them to sit down. Seeing that this position was a bit sensitive, Li Qingyang quickly declined. Luo Shengdong smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, just sit down wherever you want.

We don’t do business here, we only talk about business!”

Seeing Lin Nan and nodding, Li Qingyang sat down. Luo Shengdong pointed to a few people in the hall who were making abacus calculations: "They are now calculating the sales of salt last month. After settling the accounts,

, and began to distribute the salt quota for the next month. The group of people waiting in the yard outside were traders from various prefectures and counties on Qiongzhou Island who came to collect salt."

"Private salt?" Li Qingyang reacted immediately and asked Luo Shengdong. To sell salt in the Ming Dynasty, you need a written certificate issued by the Salt Class Promotion Department. The salt dealer can use this to go to the salt field to collect the corresponding quota.

of salt. And this process has nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty Navy, let alone the naval yamen taking the lead in selling salt. However, the navy on the southeast coast relied on its own transportation capacity to engage in private salt trafficking.

, Li Qingyang had heard about it earlier, but he didn't expect that the navy here in Yazhou would be so unscrupulous in participating in the private salt trade, and directly organized the sale in the court.

Luo Shengdong shook his head and said: "To the imperial court, it is indeed private salt, but to the people of Qiongzhou Island, the salt sold here is official salt!"

Li Qingyang asked in confusion: "An official is an official, and a private person is a private person. Why are there two different opinions?"

"On Qiongzhou Island, Haihan's salt farm is the only one producing salt. Where else can you buy it if you don't buy it here? The officials in Qiongzhou City also eat the salt here, but no one dares to mention Haihan's salt.

Salt is banned, do you think this is private salt or official salt?" Luo Shengdong responded proudly.

With the commissioning of the Yinggehai Salt Farm, Haihan's salt production capacity has far exceeded the consumption needs of Qiongzhou Island's more than 200,000 people. The Danzhou Salt Farm in the north of Qiongzhou Island has long been sold by the low price of Haihan Salt.

Dumping was defeated, and the entire source of salt in Qiongzhou Island has been concentrated in the hands of Haihan. Although it is private salt, it can be sold openly on the market, and the government has no intention of banning it - of course, this

Most of the distributors in various states and counties have official backgrounds and have a great relationship.

The private salt business has never been started by just a few private salt dealers. It must involve the interests of many people. Li Qingyang was born in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which is where salt merchants gather. He also knows the importance of salt business.

There are all kinds of tricks, so Li Qingyang understood Luo Shengdong's statement as soon as he heard it. However, Li Qingyang was still a little dissatisfied with the fact that the Haihan people actually controlled the salt industry in Qiongzhou Island: "The local official salt supply is insufficient.

, aren’t there salt merchants who traffic it from the mainland and sell it?”

As soon as these words came out, Luo Shengdong and Lin Nan couldn't help laughing. Li Qingyang didn't know what he said wrong, so he could only watch them finish laughing.

"Mr. Li, to tell you the truth, nearly half of the official salt on the market in Guangdong is actually sold by Haihan." Luo Shengdong pointed to the people standing in the patio outside: "Those groups

Among them, many are salt merchants from the mainland. Do you think they will transport the salt back to the mainland first and then bring it back to Qiongzhou Island to sell it again?"

"Then why didn't they buy the salt in Sanya and sell it nearby?" Li Qingyang asked.

Luo Shengdong raised his thumb and pointed at himself: "I am responsible for the salt on Qiongzhou Island. No one else is allowed to sell salt on Qiongzhou Island without permission! The salt they buy here can only be shipped back to the mainland.

Go sell it!”

Haihan's current salt production system is mainly composed of three major salt farms and a salt industry company responsible for unified sales. In order to save manpower and transportation capacity, there are many regional agents like Luo Shengdong under the salt industry company. Of course,

Among all the agents, Luo Shengdong is considered a special one. Because he "followed the dragon" early, the territory under his jurisdiction is almost the largest among all agents. In order to be able to take care of the northern part of Qiongzhou Island, Luo Shengdong

This year, we purchased two replacement 400-material ships from the Ministry of Shipping, and we have already placed an order with the Ministry of Shipping for two "Exploration-class" merchant ships that will be delivered early next year.

Originally, it was not Luo Shengdong's responsibility to allocate quotas to these mainland salt merchants. However, the salt company's office recently moved out of Fort Victory. However, the internal decoration has not yet been completed and it is temporarily unavailable. Therefore, the Navy Yamen temporarily closed the office.

It acted as an agent for some functions of the salt industry company and gathered the mainland agents who came to Sanya to buy salt into this yard to wait for the quota to be distributed.

Luo Shengdong didn't think it mattered. Anyway, the Navy Yamen had nothing serious to do now. Even things like patrolling at sea had long been handled by the Haihan Navy.

Soon a subordinate came over to report, saying that the accounts had been settled and quotas could be distributed. Luo Shengdong nodded and said, "Let's start doing it. Your salt industry company will calculate the accounts clearly by itself. If there is an error, I will

Bian is irresponsible!"

These matters of cleaning up the accounts and issuing salt receipts were all carried out by the staff of the salt industry company. Luo Shengdong did not directly intervene, that is, he set up an office space to help maintain order.

Then someone stood at the door and started calling numbers according to the region: "Yong'an Office...Lemin Office...Haikang Office...Hai'an Office...Jinbao Office, whoever's name is called, go in and complete the formalities!"

When Li Qingyang heard this, he realized that this area was actually divided according to the establishment of the Ministry of Health. He didn't expect to know that these so-called salt merchants probably had some official background. If he was familiar with the coast of Guangdong, he would be able to recognize what he had just called.

These places are all within the territory of Leizhou Prefecture.

These salt merchants have previously deposited the money for salt purchase into the designated account of Haihan Bank. Now they come here with the bank receipt to receive the salt collection certificate, and then go to the three major salt farms to transport the salt on their own.

In fact, in terms of process alone, the method used by the Salt Industry Company to sell salt is similar to the method used by the Ming Dynasty Salt Class. They both pay the money first and then receive the salt. If there is any difference, it is probably the Salt Industry

The company will not have direct access to cash, which to a certain extent eliminates the possibility of managers engaging in malpractice and enriching their own pockets.

Li Qingyang felt dumbfounded when he saw that the navy's courtroom actually started selling private salt so blatantly. But he also knew very well how amazing the interests involved in this business were, and he was familiar with the wealth of Huaiyang salt merchants.

Yes, and the area covered by Haihan Private Salt has a population of at least hundreds of thousands, so its profits must be considerable.

Li Qingyang couldn't help but glance at Luo Shengdong again. He had seen many officials' family members work as salt merchants before, but rolling up his sleeves for officials to go into battle in person, and also being a military attache, really broke him a bit.

past perceptions.

Luo Shengdong seemed to feel Li Qingyang's gaze, and took the initiative to say: "If Mr. Li has anything unclear, just ask, I will not hide anything I can tell."

Unlike Wei Ping, Luo Shengdong had been notified two days ago, asking him to "cooperate" with the Ministry of Security's efforts to persuade him to surrender. Luo Shengdong himself came from the capitulation faction, so how could he not understand this process?

The doorway, I immediately patted my chest and agreed.

Li Qingyang asked: "Luo Shen will focus all his energy on this private salt business. How is the local coastal defense?"

Luo Shengdong smiled and said: "How about coastal defense? I'm not afraid to tell you the truth. Starting from the Wanli period, it has been almost twenty years now. Apart from the annual salary, Yacheng Water Village has received nothing more.

With funding from the Ministry of War! The latest warship in the water village was built in the 17th year of Wanli. It is almost forty years old now! If you are asked to go out to patrol in this broken ship that is about to fall apart, do you dare to go? Now Qiongzhou Island

The Haihan militia are responsible for the coastal defense in the south. They have money, ships, guns and cannons. They can protect the port and fight pirates. What else is there to say? People like us who have nothing to do can just

Come out and help the executive committee sell salt, run errands, earn a little money, and everyone can live in harmony, what's wrong with that?"

Li Qingyang was speechless for a moment after hearing this. He had never thought that the Ming Dynasty Navy stationed in Yacheng was so poor. He had never thought of it beforehand. Of course, such a navy would not have the confidence to compete with the Haihan people who had great wealth, strong ships and powerful guns.

Confrontation, and the Haihan people did not seem to have any intention of letting the Ming Dynasty disappear completely. They actually gave a part of the private salt business to these gangsters to run errands. As Luo Shengdong said, both parties have made a choice in the face of interests.

Compromise and miraculously achieve harmony.

Of course, poverty is a thing of the past. Today, Luo Shengdong is one of the most wealthy businessmen in the local area. Since he embraced Haihan, Luo Shengdong has almost never worried about money. Sanya New Town

When the garden house was first launched, Luo Shengdong was also one of the first customers to place an order. The former Yacheng Shuizhai fleet has now slowly turned into Luo Shengdong’s private fleet. If not

The Executive Committee still needs him to continue to hold the title of General. He has probably shed this skin long ago and quit the army to concentrate on being a private salt dealer.

When Luo Shengdong saw that Li Qingyang was silent, he continued: "You don't have to feel discouraged. The leaders of Haihan have never said that they would go against the Ming Dynasty. The executive committee has managed this place well, and it is not the Ming Dynasty that has benefited the most.

The people?"

Li Qingyang wondered whether these people still regarded the Ming Dynasty as their home. At least judging from what he had seen so far, the local people did not seem to care particularly whether this place belonged to the Ming Dynasty or the Han Dynasty.

"I guess you have a lot of things that you can't figure out right now. This is actually normal. The people who just came here are almost the same as you." Luo Shengdong smiled and said: "If you stay here longer, you will naturally understand what's going on here."

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Chapter completed!