Chapter 283 The Surprise Brought by Luo Shang

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

Luo Shang looked up in surprise and said, "My Lord, are you interested in maritime business?"

"I do have some ideas, but I don't know much about maritime merchants, so I would like to learn more about them first!" Yang Zhengshan said.

Luo Shang thought about it and said, "It's hard to be a maritime merchant!"

"It's difficult? In what aspects?"

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

"Secondly, 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!"

"Your Excellency may not know that many of the sea merchants in the south are both merchants and pirates. After going out to sea, they can turn into pirates at any time and rob and kill any merchant ships they encounter!"

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

It was precisely because of this understanding that he became interested in maritime commerce.

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

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

Yang Zhengshan had the idea of ​​building a dock on the seashore, creating a few ships, and engaging in maritime trade. However, in order to implement this idea, careful preparation was required.

Luo Shang continued, "The third reason is that the customs duty on goods is extremely high, which makes most of the sea merchants in Jiangnan try every means to bypass the customs duty!"

Dayong allowed maritime trade, but the control over maritime trade was relatively strict. The formal procedure was that the Maritime Customs issued a public certificate before the ship could go out to sea. For ships returning to the port, the Maritime Customs would conduct a sampling of the imported and exported goods, that is, the goods would be divided into coarse and fine colors, and the government would take a number of shares according to a certain ratio. This was actually an import tax in the form of physical goods.

What Luo Shang meant by bypassing the Maritime Customs was smuggling.

Smuggling can be exempted from customs duties, but there is a risk of being seized by the Maritime Customs.

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

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 problem of large investment is easy to solve. Yang Zhengshan is not short of money now. Neither the Yang family nor the Weisi Yamen are short of money. It is easy to invest hundreds of thousands of taels.

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

He could predict natural disasters, so it wasn't difficult for him to avoid them.

Man-made disasters. There shouldn't be many people who have the ability to withstand the disaster at sea.

But the question is, can he go out to sea?

The taxes levied by the imperial court are the big expense. Taking such a big risk only results in making a small profit in the end. This is a losing business.

Yang Zhengshan thought about it and felt that this matter still needed careful consideration. Fortunately, he was not in a hurry now, so he could 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: "My lord, this time I brought you a gift!"

"what gift?"

Yang Zhengshan was slightly stunned.

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

"Please wait a moment, sir. I will keep you in suspense for a while!" Luo Shang stood up and ran out of the tea room. Yang Zhengshan looked at his back in surprise.

"This guy is already old, and he's still trying to surprise me!"

Luo Shang's behavior made Yang Zhengshan more excited about his gift.

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

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

Yang Zhengshan stood 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 inside was a spear.

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

The tip and barb of the gun are silvery white and sharp, and the gun handle is dark black with silvery white curling grass patterns engraved on it.

Yang Zhengshan reached out and grabbed the pole, the curling grass pattern had a good anti-slip effect.

He tried to lift it lightly but failed.

"How heavy is this gun?"

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

No wonder it took two people to carry it over!

Yang Zhengshan gently exerted force and immediately raised the spear, then he performed two tricks in front of the door.

And when he mobilized the Kuiniu power in his body, the spear actually made bursts of thundering sounds.

Now Yang Zhengshan became even more excited and couldn't help waving his spear repeatedly in the open space in front of the tea room.

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

The spear danced, and every strike seemed to carry a tremendous force, as if it could pierce the sky.

Yang Zhengshan practiced excitedly for half an hour before stopping.

"Nice gun, hahahaha, nice gun!"

"What's this gun called?"

Since the gilded flying fish spear was scrapped, he has not found a suitable weapon and can only use the standard iron spear in the army. Now that he suddenly got a suitable long spear, his excitement was beyond words.

This gun is more handy than the gilded flying fish gun.

The gilded flying fish spear was too light for him. The weight of more than 30 kilograms made him feel light and fluttering.

This gun weighs 138 kilograms, which is definitely not heavy for him and it is not difficult at all to use.

"Sir, this spear is made of refined black iron and comes from the Shen family in Xiangyuan Prefecture. However, this spear does not have a name yet. Sir, you can give it one!" Luo Shang said.

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

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

Although the status of craftsmen in Darong is not high, it does not mean that the status of good blacksmiths is not high.

Warriors cannot live without weapons, and a blacksmith who can forge magical 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 powerful strength. In addition, generations of the Shen family have served as officials in the court. Many craftsmen in the Imperial City's Armory and the Ministry of Works' Military Equipment Bureau are from the Shen family.

Just like the gilded flying fish spear that Yang Zhengshan had used before, it was most likely made by a member of the Shen family.

However, the gilded flying fish spear is also a standard weapon, which was 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 gun, it is a gilded python dragon gun.

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

This time, he got a hundred-refined black iron spear, which was an advantage for Luo Shang.

“Since it’s made of refined black iron, let’s call it the Black Iron Gun!” Yang Zhengshan was bad at naming, so he simply named it after the material.

A heavy sword has no edge, and a heavy sword has no skill.

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 Black Iron Heavy Sword comes from a meteorite from outer space.

The black iron in this world is a kind of ore iron. This kind of ore iron is relatively hard and heavy, so it is called black iron.

"You spent a lot of money, didn't you?" Yang Zhengshan said lovingly as he stroked the curling grass pattern on the gun pole.

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

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

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

However, he did not stand polite with Luo Shang and said that he would pay the money himself. The Yang family and the Luo family had been tied together for a long time, tied together by interests, and could not be separated at all.

"You have a heart!"

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

After making another pot of tea, Yang Zhengshan turned the topic to the purpose of why he asked Luo Shang to come to the Acropolis.

"There may be a lot of things here next year that require your cooperation!"

Luo Shang took a sip of the tea and said with a smile: "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.

"You should learn about the situation of salt merchants recently!"

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

Yang Zhengshan tapped the table and said, "Salt and iron are both valuable commodities. As a military commander, I cannot touch iron, but I can try the salt."

Luo Shang's expression became serious, "Sir, the salt industry is not so easy to interfere with!"

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 a background.

There is no need to say much about official salt. It is impossible to be a salt merchant without a backer.

As for smuggling salt, it is even more full of conflicts, which requires not only background but also strength.

The salt policy of Dayong was mainly based on the salt permit system, which was a license issued by the imperial court to salt merchants to transport and sell salt.

Salt merchants paid money to buy salt permits, and then used the permits to go to designated salt fields to buy salt and transport it to designated areas for sale.

In theory, as long as you have money, you can buy a salt permit. But the problem is, even if you buy a salt permit, you may not be able to buy salt; even if you buy salt, you may not be able to sell it within the designated area; even if you transport the salt to the designated area, you may not be able to sell it.

Such a salt permit system had many loopholes, such as over-issuance of salt permits, salt fields refusing to provide salt due to insufficient salt production, and the salt transportation process having to go through layers of checkpoints.

This resulted in officials from all over the country being able to manipulate the salt industry and make huge profits.

Those with a strong background can avoid a lot of trouble and guarantee profits from trading. Those without an identity background simply cannot transport salt to the designated area.

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

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

Selling illegal salt is a serious crime, but many underworld forces operate in the black area. For them, as long as they can make money, they are willing to do it even if it means risking their lives.

Private salt dealers violated the interests of the big salt merchants, so the big salt merchants colluded with the government to suppress the private salt dealers, so conflicts between private salt dealers and the government often occurred.

In short, the official salt trade was monopolized by big salt merchants, and the private salt trade was subject to suppression from the government and big salt merchants.

Yang Zhengshan would naturally not engage in private salt business. If he wanted to do it, he would do official salt business.

However, if he wanted to get involved in the official salt business, he would inevitably have to negotiate with the big salt merchants.

This is tantamount to snatching food from the mouths of the big salt merchants. Without a strong background and strength, how could the big salt merchants give up their interests so easily?
(End of this chapter)