"Life in this countryside is still very difficult." On April 18, 1696, at Yanglou Cave, the comprador Li Nanxian rested in a small mountain village.

At this moment, he was wearing a long coarse cloth gown, sitting on a bamboo chair, holding his thick and round chin, looking at the gurgling stream in front of him, looking bored. The coarse cloth blue shirt, thousands of layers of cloth shoes, and listless. At first glance, you can never think of the super comprador with hundreds of thousands of dollars, but he is like a wealthy country landlord sitting in front of his yard basking in the sun.

However, the more than ten men with short and strong uniforms around him betrayed his identity. Yishui'er's 1633 flintlock rifle was not common in the countryside of Lianghu. Although Dashun's rule was difficult, the public security was still good. News of bandits on weekdays were not often heard. Even if some landlords were timid and hired some martial artists to protect their families, their equipment was only forsaken, and they were only for the spear and big sword to buy some old coercion guns that were scattered. When would they see such a grand "foreign gun"?

Li Nanxian's home was located in Yanglou Cave. He was the first-class wealthy in the town. He was even very influential in Linxiang County and Yuezhou Prefecture. Ordinary county magistrates and prefects were treated with courtesy when they met Boss Li. This was not only because Li Nanxian had close relationships with many big bosses in the court, but also because this lord was a comprador from the East Coast. His identity was extraordinary and he should not be offended easily.

The mountain village where Li Nanxian rests is not small now, and mainly makes brick tea. The elders in the village are also very familiar with Li Nanxian because of their many commercial cooperation.

"Look, in the town at the foot of the mountain, the tea shops are one by one, like endless. The silver rolling every day is probably tens of thousands of yuan, it is really a treasure land." After getting up from the chair, Li Nanxian's eyes crossed the stream and landed on Yangloudong Town at the foot of the mountain.

There are several east-west streets, each with about a mile long and full of shops of all sizes. Except for a few that sell daily necessities and grain medicine, most of them are tea shops, that is, shops that operate tea import and export. Among these shops, only one-third of them run by locals, and most of them are opened by foreign merchants. Li Nanxian's shops are also among them, and they are one of the largest ones.

As one of the tea compradors designated by the East Coast people, Li Nan, whose procurement base is set in Yanglou Cave, did the best. This place has been planting camellia since the Tang Dynasty and was already very large in the Song Dynasty. By the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the tea making industry in Yanglou Cave reached its peak, with hundreds of tea shops of all sizes, and it is well-known.

Because of the relationship between Hunan and Hubei, Yanglou Cave is also a military center. The Dashun court set up a village in an important place outside the town and stationed a commanding musketeer. In Linxiang County, dozens of miles away, there are two camps, one cavalry camp and one cannon camp, with a total of seven or eight thousand troops, which shows the importance of this place.

The tea that Li Nanxian purchased was mainly brick tea. This is a cheap consumer product for the public and has a huge demand. Taiwan banks in Dinghai purchase brick tea worth hundreds of thousands of yuan every year to transport it back to the East Coast. This amount is increasing every year. It is a big market that many people covet. Li Nanxian once sent his son to the East Coast to inspect. The tea produced in the East Coast not only has low yields, but also has a very low taste. Even if they get brick tea, not many people like to drink it. After learning about this situation, Li Nanxian had a lot of tea farms in Yangloudong and invested in building a roasting tea factory, which produced and sold by itself, and the business was so prosperous.

The brick tea purchased by Li (including those in his own tea farm) is mainly transported westward by large trucks and directly to the Yangtze River. Here, his Dafayong Shipping ships will be responsible for transportation. Generally speaking, the East Coast people will deliver to them in Wuchang, and sometimes in Baling or Madang, which is not as much as in Wuchang.

The place where Wuchang was delivered was called "Nanshi", which is the Baishazhou area. Because Hanyang, Hankou and other places in the north of the Yangtze River became military fortresses, and the land sinking of Hanyang Parrot Island, many merchant ships that were originally anchored there began to be anchored to the Nanshi City. It was quite interesting to think about it. Parrot Island emerged from the river water at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and became a commercial center for thousands of years. It was also changed to the Han River and fell into the river water at the end of the Ming Dynasty because the Han River was diverted, which was quite legendary.

Nanshi was once abandoned during the Dingjie in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Later, because of the task of transporting materials to the Dajun camps stationed in Jiangbei, Nanshi gradually flourished as a wholesale commodity distribution center. When Dashun and the Qing Dynasty successfully confronted each other and the situation stabilized, other businesses in Nanshi began to prosper slowly, and gradually had the current situation.

Yuan Hongdao's "Climbing Qingchuan Pavilion to Look at Wuchang" once described: "A hundred miles of sail walls and thousands of miles of water, one layer of city walls and several layers of mountains; from afar, you can know the lush land, only in the bustling bustling." This refers to the prosperity of Baishazhou (South City) closely connected to the original Parrot Island. It can be said that Nanshi inherited the status of Parrot Island commercial center, and it is the wallet of Wuchang City. Logistics distribution center. In fact, after Parrot Island sinks, Hankou is the best choice to take over its mantle. Unfortunately, this is a military-controlled area, with several battalions of cavalry and infantry artillery stationed in Dashun Youying, which is really not suitable for a commercial center.

The current strength of Dafa Yong Shipping is really incomparable to the beginning. This company, which can be called the number one shipping company in Shunguo, now basically monopolizes the shipping business between famous commercial ports such as Baling, Wuchang, Shatou City, and Laohekou, and further extends its power to Jiangxi and Sichuan (opening irregular routes), and its business is booming. Perhaps it is a bit exaggerated to say that daily money is a bit too much, but there is a profit of more than 100,000 yuan a year.

He not only has the source of goods (tea farms, roasting tea factories), but also has its own transportation and sales channels, and has no shortage of positions. It is really difficult for Li Nanxian to think about his business. In comparison, another big comprador, Zhang Shaozong, is inferior. This man is taking the textile route. This thing cannot be sold at the East Coast people, and the Chinese in the agricultural society will not buy it themselves. The market sales are limited, mainly for government procurement and limited urban markets. Zhang Shaozong's real source of income is to sell cotton yarn and handmade coarse cloth to the East Coast textile companies in Ningbo, but it is definitely not comparable to tea.

"It's a pity that the court's taxes are too heavy, which makes all industries difficult. If the court officials do not impose excessive taxes and the banknotes and the banknotes will help, the tea shop can be several times more. The population of the entire Yanglou Cave can reach 50,000." Li Nan first walked around the stream with his hands on his back, but his eyes never left the street at the foot of the mountain.

In fact, to be honest, the Shunguo court supported industry and merchants. They gave high social status that had never been given in previous dynasties, allowing merchants to be equal to scholars, farmers, and workers in law (it was just legal). And this country is relatively open-minded in thought, okay, some people say that the monarch and ministers do not understand the wise and do not suppress any school of thought, and they feel that flowers are contending. The only disadvantage is that they are too poor and like to conquer, and they fight with people every few days. After fighting the Tartars, the chieftains, and the Nanming, and even almost fought with the East Bank. They were simply unreasonable. As a result, the money was spent like flowing water, and the burden was still to be transferred to ordinary people and merchants?

"The court also has difficulties for the court." A middle-aged man with long beard and white face walked over and sighed, "Fortunately, the war is almost over. Guangxi is just like that, and the situation in Yunnan is becoming clearer. Guizhou is only a few defeated bandits scattered among the mountains to be cleaned up. The more than 100,000 troops in the southern expedition have returned a considerable part, and the remaining ones can be completely trained within one or two years. At that time, if you work hard to govern for a few years, the court's vitality will be restored, business will flourish, and this business will flourish."

"Yes." Li Nan nodded first and said, "The Silver Gun Jie Army has withdrawn several battalions, and the situation in the south is becoming more and more stable. What is particularly gratifying is that the relationship with the Eastern Kingdom is also improving day by day, and business has gradually recovered. For people like me, this is more important than anything else. Otherwise, if you are caught between the two ends, you will be hard to live a life."

By the way, the Dashun court basically had a clear relationship with the people of the East Coast in Guangxi. The two sides had officially signed a demarcation treaty, fixing the current line of control in the form of legal provisions. In Yunnan, Hao Ping, commander of the Yinqijie Army of Yinqijie, also reached an oral agreement with General General and Sichuan Jiedushi Liu Zhonggui, under the instruction of Li Laiheng, to control some prefectures in Yunnan, appoint officials and develop the economy.

The Dashun court, which solved these two problems, could basically withdraw most of the troops in the southern expedition. After fighting for so many years, the treasury could almost run away, without a single copper coin. Moreover, a large number of treasure money with severe depreciation were circulated among the people, and the people were in a difficult situation. It was time for everyone to relax, otherwise it would definitely not last.

In Li Nanxian's view, Dashun urgently needs to restore the trade amount with the East Kingdom to the level before the Southern Conquest of Ming Dynasty. In this way, they can obtain a large number of machinery, livestock and other commodities from the East Kingdom, improve the production efficiency of tea farms, yarn mills and other factories scattered in various places, and create more wealth for society. Fighting with the East Coast for so many years, Dashun's factories have really suffered from big seedlings, and many of them are only half-open or even closed. How can this be done?
Chapter completed!