Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

After Cui Hongtao left, Yang Zhengshan came to Yu Tonghai's study.

In the study, Yu Tonghai and Sun Cheng were writing down what they saw and heard in the Li Sheng Dynasty. In fact, they did not go deep into the Li Sheng Dynasty, but only stayed in the Qunshan Prefecture City at the southernmost end of the Li Sheng Dynasty, and the news they inquired about was also collected from the Qunshan Prefecture City.

Yang Zhengshan flipped through the content they had written, thinking.

From what the two saw and heard, it can be seen that the people's livelihood in the Li Sheng Dynasty is not good. The people in Qunshan Prefecture City are not in good mental or physical condition, which should be the result of being in a state of hunger for a long time.

This is also normal. According to what Sun Cheng said before, the rebellion of the Li Sheng Dynasty broke out four years ago, which means that this civil war has lasted for four years.

The four-year war is enough to plunge the entire Li Sheng Dynasty into hunger and poverty.

After all, the territory of the Li Sheng Dynasty is not large, almost equivalent to a province of Darong, not as good as the Liaodong area.

The Liaodong region refers to a large part of the Liaoyuan Province, Pingyuan Province, and Shanhe Province. The Liaodong region alone is more than twice the size of the Li Sheng Dynasty.

In just one province, a civil war lasted for four years. The result is predictable.

Yang Zhengshan thought about it, sat down next to him, took out a blank document, and started writing.

He wanted to report this matter to the old emperor. It involved the regime change of the Li Sheng Dynasty, which was definitely not something he could decide.

At the same time, if he wanted to continue trading with the Li Sheng Dynasty, he had to get the consent of the old emperor.

As for whether the old emperor would agree, Yang Zhengshan couldn't guess in his heart.

Soon, the three of them sorted out a memorial and a file. Yang Zhengshan took it back to the Acropolis and sent it to the post station of Jing'an Prefecture, and then sent it to Kyoto.

As for the trade with the Li Sheng Dynasty, it could only be stopped temporarily. Before getting the consent of the old emperor, Yang Zhengshan thought it would be better not to trade with the Li Sheng Dynasty.

But this does not mean that Yu Tonghai and Sun Cheng can be idle.

Yu Tonghai has handed over the route with Jiangnan to Xue Ping and Ningbo. After a while, they will train other deputies to replace Xue Ping and Ningbo. The voyage is not only for trade, but also for cultivating talents.

Why did Yang Zhengshan send the fleet to Li Sheng Dynasty after three months? One is because the navy needs training, and the other is because there is a shortage of navigation talents.

Three months is not enough for an ordinary soldier to become an elite sailor, nor is it enough for a person who has never been exposed to navigation to have rich navigation experience.

But it can make them adapt to sailing on the sea and let them memorize the basic knowledge of navigation.

Then the old will lead the new and slowly accumulate experience.

Only in this way can a strong navy and a group of military officers who are good at navigation and naval warfare be cultivated.

Now that we cannot trade with Li Sheng Dynasty, this obviously affects Yang Zhengshan's plan, but this is not a big problem. If we can't go to Li Sheng Dynasty, then go to De Sheng Dynasty.

After five days of rest, Yu Tonghai and Sun Cheng went out to sea again with more than 20 battlefields and merchant ships, heading for the Desheng Dynasty.

On the second day after Yu Tonghai and Sun Cheng set out, Luo Shang came to Tenglongwei.

Luo Shang had just returned from Jiangnan. He originally wanted to wait for Luo Chen to return to Jiangnan before returning to Liaodong. As a result, Yang Zhengshan arranged another thing for them, so he stayed in Jiangnan for more than two months.

In the Weisi Yamen, Luo Shang came to Yang Zhengshan's study.

"Thank you for your hard work!" Yang Zhengshan looked at Luo Shang, who had lost a lot of weight, and said with concern.

Luo Shang laughed and said, "You are joking, I am not tired!"

Yang Zhengshan smiled, poured him a bowl of tea, and asked, "The fleet didn't encounter any accidents!"

Luo Shang naturally did not come back alone, he came back with the fleet of Tenglongwei.

"No, it was smooth along the way, and the things that the adults asked were also done!" Luo Shang said.

"Oh! How many ships did you buy?" Yang Zhengshan became interested and asked.

The thing he told Luo Shang to do was to buy ships.

Tenglong Guard currently has more than 100 warships, including two Dafu ships, eight Haicang ships, 16 sentry ships, 24 mother-and-child ships, and 80 eagle ships, which is the standard configuration of a guard navy.

In addition to the battlefield, Tenglong Guard also has eight merchant ships, which are the eight merchant ships that Yang Zhengshan bought from the Zhang family in Liaoan.

Although Dafu ships and Haicang ships can also transport goods, they are not cargo ships after all, and the cargo they carry is far less than that of cargo ships.

If the three routes of Jiangnan, Li Sheng Dynasty, and De Sheng Dynasty are all opened, the current merchant ships will definitely not be enough, so Yang Zhengshan asked Luo Shang to buy some more merchant ships in Jiangnan.

"Hehe, eighteen ships! Four Fu ships and fourteen speedboats." Luo Shang said.

Yang Zhengshan raised his eyebrows, "So many!"

"Not only that, I also ordered two Fuchuan ships and ten fast ships from a shipyard in Jiangnan!"

Luo Shang looked at Yang Zhengshan and said, "But sir, you have to give me some of these ships. I want two Fuchuan ships and six fast ships."

Yang Zhengshan was speechless for a while. This guy couldn't wait to form a fleet.

But this is normal. In just three months, Tenglongwei made nearly 100,000 taels of silver on the routes between Liaodong and Jiangnan, and almost every time there was a profit of more than 10,000 taels.

With such a large profit, Luo Shang would naturally be jealous, and it is reasonable to want to form his own fleet.

"Did those 18 merchant ships come back together?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"Well, it's docked at the pier now!" Luo Shang said.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, "How is the quality?"

"Although it's an old ship, it's well maintained and can be used for another ten years!" Luo Shang said.

"Well, these ships are all from Tenglongwei. You wait for the batch of ships in the shipyard!" Yang Zhengshan said very straightforwardly.

"Uh! Sir, can you give me a few ships first, I will train the boatmen first!" Luo Shang said reluctantly.

He has no people and no ships at present, and it will take a long time to build a fleet.

According to his idea, he will first recruit a group of experienced boatmen, and then recruit a group of new boatmen, train them for two or three months, and then they can go to sea in September and October.

As for the captain, he has already invited two more.

"Boatmen?" Yang Zhengshan smiled, "You just need to train the boatmen in the navy camp for two months, and then go out to sea when the new ships arrive!"

Shipmen for merchant ships are easier to train than those for warships, and they only need to be able to operate the ship.

"That's right!" Luo Shang thought about it and felt that this would work.

"Well, I'll wait for the new ships!"

Yang Zhengshan laughed and said, "Recruit more boatmen, Tenglong Guard is also short of boatmen!"

Eighteen merchant ships require a lot of boatmen, at least four or five hundred people. Navy officers and soldiers can temporarily work as boatmen on merchant ships, but sooner or later they will need people to replace them.

Well, just recruit from within Tenglong Guard, which can be regarded as adding jobs for the military households of Tenglong Guard.

"Uh!" Luo Shang didn't expect Yang Zhengshan to arrange another job for him so quickly, "Sir, it's more appropriate for the government to do this!"

"Well, I will arrange two people from the government to cooperate with you!" Yang Zhengshan said.

The clerks in the yamen were very busy, and it was not easy to spare two people, so Yang Zhengshan could only capture able-bodied men and let Luo Shang take charge of this matter.

"Okay!"

Luo Shang thought about it and did not refuse. Anyway, he had to recruit boatmen, and it would not be a big deal to recruit more.

Besides, recruiting in the name of the yamen would definitely be easier than recruiting privately.

...

Luo Shang was very efficient. The next day after arriving in Weicheng, he took two clerks out of the city to recruit boatmen.

His actions naturally could not be hidden from other merchants in Weicheng. Soon many merchants asked him what he was recruiting boatmen for. He did not hide it and directly stated that he wanted to form a fleet.

When other merchants heard about this, they could not help but be moved. They ran to the Weisi Yamen to meet Yang Zhengshan, wanting to ask if they could also form a fleet now.

At the beginning, Yang Zhengshan said that they would be allowed to form a fleet when the route was opened.

Although only the route to Jiangnan was opened now, they were already a little impatient.

Yang Zhengshan would naturally not refuse them. This was a good thing. He wished that all these guys would form their own fleets. At that time, the Weisi Yamen would only need to sit on the dock and collect money.

Moreover, it would take at least three to five months to form a fleet. If there was no foundation, it would take a year or two.

So Yang Zhengshan readily agreed to their request to form a fleet, and also promised that they could put the boatmen in the navy camp for training.

With Yang Zhengshan's consent, these merchants quickly took action.

Among them, the fastest action was the Jizhou Hengdaomen. The Hengdaomen had its own fleet and was originally involved in sea trade.

It was just that the sea trade in Jizhou would be taxed by the Shibosi, so they had long wanted to dock at the dock of Tenglongwei.

However, the Hengdaomen did not bring all the fleets to Tenglongwei, but prepared to form a new fleet in Tenglongwei.

They did this in the process of cleaning up. First of all, the relationship between the Hengdaomen and the Jizhou Maritime Customs was quite close, and they could not offend the Shibosi just for the sake of profit.

Secondly, Tenglongwei is quite far from Jizhou. The cost of transporting goods from Tenglongwei to Jizhou may not be lower than letting the Shibosi collect taxes.

They plan to build a cargo transfer station in Tenglongwei, mainly to provide goods for commercial stores north of Jizhou.

In this way, not only will the Shibosi collect taxes, but also a lot of freight can be saved, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Yang Zhengshan naturally had no objection to this, and he even specially allocated a piece of land near the dock to build a warehouse for Hengdaomen.

The land near the dock is all saline-alkali land, which is worthless, so it’s fine to give it away for free.

But if Hengdaomen builds a storage base there, it will bring many benefits to Tenglongwei.

Apart from anything else, a storage base will definitely require a lot of porters, which can provide at least hundreds of jobs for Tenglongwei.

Well, Yang Zhengshan has now begun to consider the employment of military households.

Although farming is the foundation for the guards, every additional job means an increase in income for a military household.

The military households were very deceptive. Let's put it this way. In fact, the military households were even worse off than the tenants. The tenants in Liaodong only had to pay 40% of the rent to the landlords, while the military households had to hand over 50% of the grain.

Although the soldiers also had food and wages, they also had to pay for them themselves.

Collecting their food and then paying them food and wages, is that nonsense?

If the weather is good, they can get enough food and clothing, but if they encounter some natural disasters or man-made disasters, they can only starve.

Natural disasters are rare, but man-made disasters are continuous. Officials occupied military farms, enslaved soldiers, and withheld food and wages. The results are predictable.

Why did the guards of Darong become so corrupt and why did the military households keep fleeing? It was because they really couldn't survive.

Yang Zhengshan couldn't change the matter of military farms. This was a system problem of Darong, and he couldn't change it.

So he could only provide more jobs for the military households as much as possible and ensure the full payment of food and wages as much as possible.

No matter who it was, as long as they were willing to invest in Tenglongwei, Yang Zhengshan was willing to provide convenience.

Hengdaomen was just the beginning. He would try his best to induce other merchants to set up industries in Tenglongwei and increase investment.