Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

"You have spent a lot of time in Jiangnan in the past few years. Do you know anything about the sea merchants in Jiangnan?" Yang Zhengshan suddenly asked.

Luo Shang looked up in surprise and said, "Are you interested in sea merchants?"

"I have some ideas, but I don't know much about sea merchants. I want to learn more about them first!" Yang Zhengshan said.

Luo Shang thought for a while and said, "It's hard to be a sea merchant!"

"It's hard? In what aspects?"

"First, if you want to go to sea, you have to invest a lot. A small ship costs thousands of taels of silver, and a large one may cost tens of thousands of taels!"

"Second, there are many dangers at sea. Natural disasters and man-made disasters can happen at any time. Natural disasters are fine, but the most troublesome are man-made disasters!"

"You may not know that many sea merchants in the south are both merchants and pirates. After going to sea, they can become pirates at any time and rob and kill merchant ships they encounter!"

How could Yang Zhengshan not know this? He had learned about Li Dan, Zheng Zhilong and the like in detail in his previous life.

It was precisely because of this that he was interested in sea merchants.

Maritime trade can bring huge benefits, but Tenglongwei has no other advantages, the only advantage is that it is close to the sea.

Although it is located in Liaodong, the maritime trade business is relatively backward, but fortunately there is a place to go to sea.

Yang Zhengshan has the idea of ​​building a dock by the sea, building a few sea vessels, and conducting maritime trade, but if this idea is to be implemented, it still needs careful preparation.

Luo Shang continued: "The third is that the Shibosi imposes extremely high taxes on goods, which makes most sea merchants in Jiangnan try to bypass the Shibosi!"

Darong allows maritime trade, but the control of maritime trade is relatively strict. The formal procedure is that the Shibosi issues a public certificate, and the sea vessels can go to sea. For ships returning to the port, the Shibosi will implement a draw on the imported and exported goods, that is, the goods are divided into coarse and fine colors, and the government draws a certain proportion of several copies. This is actually a kind of import tax in kind.

And what Luo Shang called bypassing the Shibosi refers to smuggling.

Smuggling can be exempted from the Shibosi tax, but it has to risk being seized by the Shibosi.

Darong also has a lot of naval forces. Although the combat effectiveness of these naval forces is mediocre, they are good at confiscating ships.

After listening to Luo Shang's story, Yang Zhengshan fell into deep thought.

The three problems are large investment, high risk, and high taxes levied by the court.

The large investment is easy to solve. Yang Zhengshan is not short of silver now. Whether it is the Yang family or the Weisi Yamen, they are not short of silver now. It is still easy to invest hundreds of thousands of taels.

As for the high risk, if Yang Zhengshan goes to sea in person, there should be no risk.

Natural disasters, he can predict them, and it is not difficult to avoid them.

Man-made disasters, there should not be many people who have the ability to rob on the sea.

But the question is, can he go to sea?

And the taxes levied by the court are the big head. Taking such a big risk, in the end, you can only make a little money. This is a loss-making business.

Yang Zhengshan thought about it and felt that this matter should be considered carefully. Fortunately, he is not in a hurry now, so he can think about it slowly and understand the situation slowly.

The two chatted for a while, and Luo Shang changed the subject and said with a smile: "Sir, I brought you a gift this time!"

"What gift?"

Yang Zhengshan was slightly stunned.

Luo Shang brought a lot of things, cotton cloth, fur, herbs, etc., all of which were the materials that Tenglongwei lacked.

"Sir, wait a moment, let me keep it a secret!" Luo Shang got up and ran out of the teahouse, and Yang Zhengshan looked at his back with a look of astonishment.

"This guy is already old, and he still wants to surprise me!"

Luo Shang's behavior made Yang Zhengshan look forward to his gift a little more.

About a quarter of an hour later, Luo Shang came back with two people carrying a long wooden box, but he did not enter the house, but stood outside the door, "Sir, come and see this!"

As he said, he opened the wooden box outside the door.

Yang Zhengshan got up and walked closer, looking at the things in the wooden box, his eyes suddenly lit up.

The wooden box was very long, more than seven feet long, and there was a long spear inside.

A hook-and-sickle spear, seven feet and two inches long, with an eight-inch spear head, a sharp point, and a sideways protruding barb at the bottom, with the hook tip curved inward. The spear shaft is six feet long, with a thick round diameter of three inches, and an iron spike at the end of the shaft, four inches long.

The spear tip and barb are silver-white, sharp, and the spear shaft is dark black, with silver-white curling grass patterns engraved on it.

Yang Zhengshan reached out and grasped the spear shaft, and the curling grass pattern has a good anti-slip effect.

He tried to lift it lightly but couldn't lift it.

"How much does this spear weigh?"

"One hundred and thirty-eight pounds!" Luo Shang grinned.

No wonder it took two people to carry it!

Yang Zhengshan gently lifted the spear and immediately performed two grabbing flowers in front of the door.

When he encouraged the Kui Niu strength in his body, the spear actually made thunderous sounds.

Yang Zhengshan was even more excited now, and couldn't help but dance the spear repeatedly in the open space in front of the teahouse.

The roar of thunder and the sharp sound of breaking through the air intertwined together, and a heavy and sharp momentum burst out.

The long spear danced, and each strike seemed to carry a force of ten thousand kilograms, as if it was going to pierce the sky.

Yang Zhengshan practiced excitedly for half an hour before stopping.

"Good spear, hahaha, good spear!"

"What is the name of this spear?"

Since the gilded flying fish spear was scrapped, he has not found a handy weapon and can only use the standard iron spear in the army.

Now that he suddenly got a handy long spear, his excitement was beyond words.

This gun is more handy than the Gilded Flying Fish Gun.

The Gilded Flying Fish Gun is too light for him. The weight of more than 30 kilograms always makes him feel light and fluttering.

And this gun weighs a full 138 kilograms, which is definitely not heavy for him, and it is not difficult to use.

"Sir, this gun is made of hundred-refined black iron and comes from the Shen family of Xiangyuan Prefecture. However, this gun has no name yet. Sir, you can give it one!" Luo Shang said.

Yang Zhengshan's thoughts moved slightly. The Shen family of Xiangyuan Prefecture is a famous blacksmith family in Dayong.

That's right, blacksmiths can also be called a family.

Although the status of the artisan households in Dayong is not high, it does not mean that the status of powerful blacksmiths is not high.

Warriors cannot do without weapons, and a blacksmith who can forge magic weapons will be sought after by countless warriors.

The Shen family of Xiangyuan Prefecture is not just a blacksmith family, but also a martial arts family with strong strength. In addition, the Shen family has served as officials in the imperial court for generations. Many craftsmen in the Imperial City's Arms Bureau and the Ministry of Works' Military Equipment Bureau came from the Shen family.

Just like the gilded flying fish spear used by Yang Zhengshan before, it is likely to be made by a child of the Shen family.

However, the gilded flying fish spear is also a standard weapon, which is specially made by the royal family to reward meritorious soldiers.

According to the texture, it can be divided into python pattern, flying fish pattern, bullfighting pattern, and the best natural python pattern. If it is a spear, it is a gilded python dragon spear.

In the past, Yang Zhengshan was able to use the gilded flying fish spear because of Zhou Lan's help.

And this time, he got a hundred-refined black iron spear because of Luo Shang's advantage.

"Since it is made of hundred-refined black iron, let's call it a black iron spear!" Yang Zhengshan is a bad namer, and he directly named it after the material.

A heavy sword has no edge, and great skill is not workmanship.

Yang Guo has a heavy black iron sword, and he has a black iron spear!

It's just that this black iron is not that black iron.

The black iron of the heavy black iron sword is a meteorite from outer space.

The black iron in this world is a kind of mineral iron, which is hard and heavy, so it is called black iron.

"You spent a lot of silver, right?" Yang Zhengshan stroked the curling grass pattern on the gun pole and said lovingly.

"Haha, as long as the adults like it, what does a little silver mean?" Luo Shang said indifferently.

Yang Zhengshan naturally understood that the little silver he said was not a little silver, but tens of thousands of taels, or even hundreds of thousands of taels.

The precious black iron plus the craftsmanship of the Shen family is definitely worth ten thousand taels.

However, he did not say anything polite to Luo Shang, saying that he would pay for it himself. The Yang family and the Luo family have been tied together for a long time, tied together by interests, and it is impossible to tell them apart.

"You are thoughtful!"

Yang Zhengshan put away the black iron spear and returned to the tea room.

After brewing a pot of tea again, Yang Zhengshan turned the topic to the purpose of his asking Luo Shang to come to the Acropolis.

"Next year, there may be many things here that require your cooperation!"

Luo Shang took a sip of the tea and smiled, "When the time comes, you can just give me the order. If I'm not here, Luo Zhen can also do things for you!"

"Hmm!" Yang Zhengshan savored the fragrance of the tea carefully.

"Learn about the situation of salt merchants in recent times!"

"Salt merchants!" Luo Shang raised his head suddenly.

Yang Zhengshan tapped the table lightly and said, "Salt and iron are high profits. As a military commander, I can't touch iron, but I can try salt."

Luo Shang's expression became solemn, "Sir, the salt industry is not so easy to intervene!"

Yang Zhengshan stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Of course I know this, but we are still qualified to intervene."

The sale of salt is not something that ordinary people can do. Whether it is official salt or private salt, it requires background.

There is no need to say much about official salt. You can't be a salt merchant without a backer.

As for private salt, it is even more full of struggles, requiring not only background but also strength.

Da Rong's salt policy is mainly based on the salt permit system, which is a salt transportation and sales license issued by the court to salt merchants.

Salt merchants pay money to buy salt permits, and then use the salt permits to buy salt at designated salt fields and transport it to designated areas for sale.

In theory, as long as you have money, you can buy salt permits, but the problem is that you may not be able to buy salt after buying salt permits, you may not be able to sell salt to the designated area after buying salt, and you may not be able to sell it after transporting it to the designated area.

Such a salt permit system has many loopholes, such as over-issuance of salt permits, such as salt fields refusing to provide salt goods due to insufficient salt production, and the process of transporting salt requires going through layers of checkpoints.

This has caused officials from all over the country to manipulate the salt industry and make a lot of money.

Those with backgrounds can avoid a lot of troubles and guarantee profits from buying and selling. Those without identity backgrounds cannot transport salt to the designated area at all.

Therefore, some monopoly salt merchants appeared in Dayong's salt industry, and it was difficult for outsiders to intervene in the official salt business.

As for private salt, the private salt trade involves not only official affairs, but also underworld forces. Many underworld forces make money by selling private salt.

Selling private salt is a serious crime, but many underworld forces wander in the black area. For them, as long as they can make money, they are willing to do it even if it means they will be beheaded.

Private salt dealers touch the interests of big salt merchants, and big salt merchants collude with the government to suppress private salt dealers, so there are often conflicts between private salt dealers and the government.

In short, the official salt trade is monopolized by big salt merchants, and the private salt trade will be suppressed by the government and big salt merchants.

Yang Zhengshan will naturally not do private salt trade. If he wants to do it, he will do official salt trade.

However, if he wants to intervene in the official salt business, he will inevitably have to play a game with the big salt merchants.

This is tantamount to taking food from the big salt merchants. If they don’t have a strong background and strength, how can the big salt merchants easily give up their interests?