Chapter 313 Zhang Family's Fleet

After the corruption case of the Salt Transport Bureau was over, Yang Zhengshan thought that this matter had nothing to do with him, but he did not expect that the Zhang family of Liao'an Prefecture would come to his door the next day after he received the news.

In the main hall of the Yang family's front yard, Yang Zhengshan looked at the trembling Zhang Maosheng and smiled faintly, "I wonder what the Zhang family master wants to do here?"

This time the Zhang family suffered a huge loss. Not only were all the deposits of officials from the Salt Transport Bureau in their Zhang family's Datong Money House confiscated, but the Zhang family also paid a fine of one million taels of silver.

The so-called fine silver can also be called dirty silver, which is an illegal profit. To put it simply, the court felt that these salt merchants made too much money, so they took some of it from the salt merchants' pockets.

It may sound unreasonable to say this, but the fact is that these salt merchants did participate in bribery.

Compared with those salt merchants whose properties were directly confiscated, the remaining salt merchants were considered lucky.

"I'm here to thank General Yang!"

Zhang Maosheng bowed solemnly to Yang Zhengshan with a humble attitude.

Behind him, the two brothers Zhang Qingsong and Zhang Qingyun also followed suit to express their gratitude.

"This general did not help you!" Yang Zhengshan said indifferently.

"General, you didn't imprison us at the beginning, which was already helping us!" said Zhang Maosheng.

This is absolutely true. At that time, Yang Zhengshan only sealed off the Zhang family and did not imprison people from the Zhang family. This way, the Zhang family could find people and connections to deal with the matter.

If Yang Zhengshan treated the Zhang family the same way he treated the Salt Transport Administration, the Zhang family would most likely become one of the salt merchants whose property was confiscated.

Yang Zhengshan smiled and said nothing.

He originally just thought that the Zhang family's attitude of admitting their mistakes was good, so he didn't imprison them, but he didn't want to get any benefits from the Zhang family.

"I have prepared a thank you gift, please accept it, General!"

Zhang Maosheng took out a gift list and handed it to Yang Zhengshan.

Yang Zhengshan thought about it and took the gift list.

If it's just a thank you gift, there's nothing wrong with accepting it.

However, he still underestimated the Zhang family's thank-you gift, which was so generous that it was a little scary.

Everything else would be fine, but there is actually a big house, eight shops, three farms, and three thousand acres of fertile land!

Looking at this thank-you gift, Yang Zhengshan suddenly felt that the court's fine of one million silver was still too light and should be doubled.

My god, the Zhang family is really wealthy.

"I accept your gratitude, but this thank you gift is too great!"

As Yang Zhengshan spoke, he winked at Wu Hai beside him. Wu Hai immediately understood and took out the pen and ink.

Yang Zhengshan crossed out the houses, shops, farms and fertile fields on the gift list, leaving only some gold and silver jewelry, cloth and other miscellaneous items.

"That's enough!"

Yang Zhengshan returned the gift list to Zhang Maosheng.

Zhang Maosheng took the gift list, glanced at it, and thought to himself, "The general is honest!"

Hearing the word "integrity", Yang Zhengshan couldn't help laughing out loud.

honest!

This is simply talking nonsense.

How many officials in this world are honest?

Yang Zhengshan does not consider himself a corrupt official, but he is definitely not clean either.

He has always disdained corruption and bribery, but he has done a lot of abuse of power for personal gain.

For example, the Luo family and the Yang family's horse farm can actually be considered as abusing their power for personal gain, but what Yang Zhengshan did was mutually beneficial with the government, and not entirely for his own personal gain.

Thinking of mutual benefit, Yang Zhengshan suddenly said, "I remember that your Zhang family seems to have a few ships?"

Zhang Maosheng was stunned for a moment, then reacted and said, "There are indeed several ships, two 800-ton Fu ships and six 400-ton fast ships."

The Zhang family's industry is not mainly based on maritime trade, but the Zhang family is large and powerful, and is also involved in maritime trade, but they just don't take it seriously.

When Yang Zhengshan was learning about the Zhang family's industry, he noticed that the Zhang family had a fleet.

"I don't know, are you Zhang family willing to sell this fleet?"

"This, General, if you need it, I can give it to you!" said Zhang Maosheng.

"There's no need to send it. The Weisi Yamen will buy the Zhang family's fleet at the market price, including the ships and boatmen!" Yang Zhengshan said with a smile.

He didn't want to take advantage of the Zhang family. Well, it did seem like that, but his main purpose was to save time.

Tenglongwei had no boatmen, no navy, and even no ships. If it wanted to develop a navy or engage in maritime trade, it had to start from scratch.

Yang Zhengshan originally wanted Luo Shang to go to the south to find some people who were good at sailing. If the Zhang family had not come to him today, he would not have thought of buying the Zhang family's fleet.

"There is no problem with the boat, but those boatmen are all long-term workers of our Zhang family, and I don't know if they are willing to do so!" Zhang Maosheng did not say too confidently.

He was not angry because Yang Zhengshan wanted to buy the fleet. Not to mention buying it, even if Yang Zhengshan wanted it for free, he would give it to him.

Because for the current Zhang family, Yang Zhengshan is someone they absolutely cannot afford to offend.

More importantly, he wanted to use this incident to establish a relationship with Yang Zhengshan. Having lost Luo Fu as their backer, the Zhang family was in urgent need of a new backer, and Yang Zhengshan was one of their best choices.

"I want all the boat workers. Their long-term contracts can be transferred to us at the market price, and I will also increase their monthly wages! By the way, the captain must give it to me!" Yang Zhengshan said in an unquestionable tone.

He didn't want a ship. Although seagoing ships were scarce, they could still be bought if he wanted.

What he values ​​are the skilled sailors and captains, who are the foundation of the fleet.

The captain is the captain of the ship. Sailing involves many things, such as routes, tides, geography, climate, etc. If you want to engage in trade, you must also understand the humanities, politics, customs, and products of various places.

These can only be mastered if one has truly seen, experienced, and understood them. If one wants to master these, one must have a lot of sailing experience. It is not something that can be learned by just reading books or attending classes.

Therefore, a qualified captain is the talent that Yang Zhengshan needs most at the moment.

"Yes! I understand!" Zhang Maosheng did not shirk his responsibility and agreed directly.

"Well, don't worry, I am not a person who likes to rob. I will pay you every penny you deserve!"

Yang Zhengshan reiterated.

"The general is kind and righteous!" What else could Zhang Maosheng say? He could only say this.

Seeing that he was sensible, Yang Zhengshan didn't say anything more. He picked up the tea and took a sip. Zhang Maosheng immediately understood and said goodbye.

Wu Hai sent the Zhang family's two sons away, and Yang Zhengshan sat in the hall and finished his tea.

The Zhang family is undoubtedly a powerful and wealthy business family, as can be seen from the fact that they sold Luo Fu without hesitation.

And Yang Zhengshan was not unable to guess the purpose of the Zhang family's visit.

Thanks is just an excuse; the main purpose is to establish a relationship with him.

Unfortunately, Yang Zhengshan doesn't want to have too much relationship with the Zhang family.

Collusion between officials and businessmen is inevitable, and Yang Zhengshan is not averse to such things.

Because he has a lot of things that need businessmen to do.

But he didn't like the Zhang family and didn't want to have too close contact with them.

The Zhang family is impossible to tame. You can share prosperity with them, but not adversity. They will even stab you in the back when you are in trouble.

Luo Fu is an example.

In addition, the Zhang family will not focus on Yang Zhengshan. The Zhang family has its own heritage, its own foundation, and its own plans. They will not help Yang Zhengshan wholeheartedly.

In comparison, the Luo family, which Yang Zhengshan had built up, made him feel more at ease and was more worthy of his care.

Yang Zhengshan entrusted the task of purchasing a fleet from the Zhang family to Yang Mingcheng.

This matter went very smoothly. In less than five days, Yang Mingcheng bought the fleet and asked Han Fei to deliver the silver to the Zhang family.

Two days later, the fleet docked at Tenglongwei's dock.

Yang Zhengshan personally came to the dock and looked at the eight large ships belonging to the Wei Si Yamen.

Tenglongwei Wharf has only been simply built and looks very crude, but the small hill extending out from it is indeed very suitable for docking ships.

Eight large ships were docked, but it didn't seem crowded at all.

If it is built well, it will be no problem to dock twenty or thirty large ships. As for small ships, it is even easier. They can just dock by building a wooden platform.

The Zhang family’s ships were divided into two types: the 800-ton Fujian ship and the 400-ton speed ship.

The Fu ship is as tall as a building, with a pointed base, a wide top, and a raised mouth. A Fu ship weighing 800 tons is almost 13 meters long and looks extremely majestic.

The clipper ship has a pointed front and a narrow back. It is as narrow as a shuttle at the bottom and as wide as a wing at the top. A clipper ship of 400 tons is nine zhang long and overall looks two sizes smaller than the Fu ship.

These two types of ships were the most common ships among the Dayei naval vessels, and the Fuchuan was even the main warship of the Dayei navy.

This was the first time that Yang Zhengshan saw a ship in this world. To be honest, he was very shocked.

The 13-zhang long Fu ship is about 40 meters long, with three short sails at the front and back ends, and three main sails over 30 zhang high in the middle.

Yang Zhengshan stepped onto the deck and took a careful tour of the Fu ship.

When he had almost finished browsing, Yang Mingcheng said, "Dad, the captain and the boatmen are already waiting downstairs!"

"Well, let's go meet him then!"

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly and jumped directly off the boat.

The Zhang family’s fleet has two captains. One is called Sun Cheng, who is in his fifties. Although he is just an ordinary man, he has rich sailing experience. It can be said that he has spent almost his entire life at sea.

The other one is called Ningbo, he is in his thirties and is a second-level acquired martial artist. Ningbo’s ancestors for three generations were all ship captains, or maybe they were pirates. Anyway, no matter what, he has rich sailing experience.

There are more than 280 sailors in the fleet, some of whom are ship operators such as helmsmen and sailors, and some are guards.

There were about 180 guards among them, all of them warriors.

Although there are no masters, it is still a considerable force.

Yang Zhengshan stood in front of the group of boatmen, with ten of his followers standing behind him. There were also more than a dozen Yang family guards and a general flag soldier around him checking the situation on the boat.

The Yang family guards came with Yang Mingcheng, and those soldiers were brought by Yang Zhengshan. Next, they will be responsible for guarding these ships.

(End of this chapter)