Lu Ming

Chikan Avenue is brightly lit, and various barbecue food stalls and bright windows tempt people to take out the small money in their pockets.Seeing the other members of the team having a great time, Mr. Bu had no choice but to eat two skewers of grilled squid, and then went back to sleep with his sleeves flung on the excuse that he couldn't get used to the Laoshizi chili noodles.

……

After a hasty night, Master Bu and the others got up early the next morning, washed up, ate a breakfast of raw porridge and rice rolls provided by the hotel, and waited for the guests to come to the door with peace of mind.

To be honest, no matter how much Lao Bu despises the Cao gang, he likes all kinds of organs and tools made by them from the bottom of his heart.Let alone the flushing toilet: this clean, white and good-looking appliance that can wash away dirt without leaving a trace of odor, in Master Bu's opinion, is naturally prepared for gentlemen—gentlemen are gentle and moist. Like jade.

As for those ordinary people... It's right to use wooden barrels, which suits their identities.

Yet these thoughts are just thoughts.Master Bu is very aware of the reality: since this expensive toilet requires a series of pipes, water supply and sewage systems, in Xinghua Prefecture, only a few wealthy businessmen and wealthy families have installed it in their homes, and ordinary people cannot afford it. of.

Even Master Bu himself, since he lives in a dilapidated official house and not his own property, he cannot enjoy such convenient and useful things on weekdays.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the guests came to the door on time.

It was two young officers in light green short-sleeved military uniforms.Master Bu and his party are no longer interested in this kind of gentleman wearing a big hat, although they can't understand the colorful seniority badge on the chest of the visitor and the pattern on the armband on the arm.

However, the way the young officer turned his head slightly and saluted in a chic manner, after all, he still bluffed Master Bu... After the latter bowed his hand in return, the two sides quickly chatted politely.

The older of the two officers, surnamed Li, reported that his family was a staff officer of the Army Logistics Department, and he came today to lead a tour group to select weapons.Master Bu had nothing to do, so the two parties went out.

Today's errands are quite special, so I can't bring so many followers, and the military four-wheeled carriage parked in front of the hotel also hinted at this.So Master Bu took Fang Tangjing into the car alone.

After the carriage started, head north along Binjiang Road.Riding the sea breeze, when the carriage crossed a series of lagoons, it was a military camp.Then the carriage continued to drive around the barracks. On the back was a series of shallow mounds with a small lake. The Army's test range was here.

Before entering the shooting range, the sound of rumbling cannons was heard from far away.And when the carriage came to the test site, the passengers could already see the white smoke of the artillery and the shells hitting the foot of the mound.

However, today's guests don't care much about artillery—Master Bu is here this time to purchase some cold weapons and light weapons such as blunderbusses. Artillery is not on the purchase list.

In addition, a group that is bent on rebellion does not intend to sell artillery to other forces.Not to mention the cost of artillery, no matter who you sell it to, you may be hit by shells on your head in the future.There are a lot of money-making products in the crossing crowd. If you use the iron material of a cannon to make a lighter, you can earn N times more silver than the cannon.

So Master Bu can only watch something else today.

In the small playground, Master Bu tried some cold weapon samples provided by Staff Officer Li one by one.These cold weapons include several types of machetes and several gun heads, all of which are commonly used by the Ming army.

As the deputy envoy of military preparations, even if he is an idler, Master Bu has done superficial articles such as reviewing the military operations under his rule and checking the military equipment on weekdays, so he is one of the few scholar-bureaucrats who have some knowledge of the standard weapons of the Ming army. .

The quality of knives and guns produced with crude steel and assembly lines is far superior to those produced by Ming blacksmiths.So after Master Bu tested the samples with a bamboo and wood target, the words "good knife!" popped out of his mouth—Master Bu followed the path of a gentleman, and he dared to scold Xiong Wencan face to face when he was in a hurry, but he didn't He will insist against his conscience that the knife in his hand is not good.

Next, Master Bu tested the matchlock gun again.

The matchlock gun is basically the highest level of ammunition exported by the crossing forces.This kind of old-fashioned musket, the gunner needs to light the match to fight, and the killing distance is accurately controlled at 50 meters.

The only bright spot of this gun is naturally the specifications: the parts of the firearms produced on the assembly line are interchangeable.At present, apart from this "made in kiln area", the matchlock guns of all other forces cannot do this.

After firing two shots at the target clumsily, Master Bu was noncommittal.Matchlock guns, a smooth-bore toy, rely on size to win, and their hit rate in singles is very poor, so a player like Master Bu missed the target with two shots.

Staff Li, who knew it well, naturally wouldn't explain so much.Next, he just exchanged the parts of several guns according to the procedure. As for whether Master Bu could see the mystery, that was not his concern.

It turns out that playing tickets is playing tickets.Scholar bureaucrats without any actual combat experience could not understand the industrial strength and huge strategic value represented by the exchange of weapon parts.As for the matchlock gun, Master Bu couldn't say anything other than general praise that the barrel of the gun has no burrs and is well-made.

After firing the matchlock gun, Master Bu tested the samples of the bird gun and the three-eyed gun. After that, the two sides started the first negotiation on the arms purchase case.

Sitting on both sides of the long wooden table in the barracks, Master Bu lowered his head and carefully read the contract handed to him by Staff Officer Li.What surprised him secretly was that the price of weapons on the contract was not too high, but too low.

The quotations of these high-grade weapons basically fluctuated around three taels of silver, which was actually the same price as ordinary goods in Fujian, and the price of 20 taels of silver for firearms was also not high in Master Bu's opinion.

Comrade Bu Daxing was a little confused now: Originally, in his expectation, what he saw today must be a batch of low-quality and high-priced weapons—how else would his immediate boss, Mr. Jiao, make money?

He raised his head, closed his eyes, and slowly stroked his long beard under his chin. The ice-snow-smart Master Bu guessed the trick in just 2 minutes: the samples shown to him today are all top-grade, and when the goods are delivered in the future, It will become a pile of broken copper and rotten iron!

Comrade Bu Daxing, who has no idea about the price of industrialized commodities, thinks he has seen through everything, secretly made up his mind at this moment: when he goes to Xinghua Mansion to deliver and inspect the goods in the future, he will teach you and other villains to walk around without food!

Now that he had figured it out, Master Bu signed the agreement of intent in a chic manner, and the arms purchase case between the two parties officially entered the implementation stage.Staff Officer Li said straightforwardly: The weapons Master Bu ordered should be delivered in a week.

"If that's the case, I'll be thankful for everyone." Master Bu cupped his hands with a smile on his face, and ended this brief official business.

……

Just like business trips in later generations, after hastily finishing business affairs, the time left for personal affairs is the most important.After Mr. Bu spent only one morning serving his country, he took his entourage to spend money on Chikan Avenue in the afternoon.

Chikan Street, whose status is equal to Fifth Avenue in New York, has long been famous.Mr. Bu was scared away by the red men and women last night. Today, these shameless people have all gone to work, so he naturally wants to do some shopping.

The decoration is gorgeous, one next to one high-end shops with glass windows are lined up on Chikan Avenue, the five members of the visiting group are all dispatched this time, the first shop they entered was a men's gift shop.

A wide variety of tobacco rods, cigarette cases, belts, lighters, nail clippers, ear picks, rings, wallets, key rings, ties, tie clips...

The small gifts made by the surface electroplating process exude dazzling metallic light under the light of the light bulbs at the four corners of the counter.The female shopping guide wearing an embroidered cloisonné cheongsam smiled all over her face, and took out the goods one by one with her white and tender hands, and put them on the table for customers to choose.

Master Bu was not very disgusted with girls in long gowns. While listening to the girl's clever introduction, he picked up the small gifts and tried to figure them out one by one.

The other members of the visiting group on the side were naturally not to be outdone, and people like Fang Tangjing, who usually pretended to be romantic, were especially concerned.

We must know that these useful and good-looking gadgets have long been popular in Hangzhou's rich second-generation circles, master circles, including Qingke circles.Among them, the most popular one, the least in number, and the most attractive one is the metal windproof lighter that can make a long and clear sound when lighting... So since someone from the other party came to the source of the goods today, he must not miss it.

So without much consideration, Fang Tangjing bought all the lighter models he was optimistic about, and bought up to the upper limit of four "quota" for each model-almost all products on Chikan Avenue are restricted, and the purchase limit for lighters per passenger is 2 One/person/model, so Fang Tangjing and Xiao Si can only buy 4 of each model together.

This kind of restriction is also impossible.The first is the lack of production capacity in the kiln area, and the second is to protect agents in various places-if there is no purchase restriction, there have been many embarrassing incidents in the past that merchants used horse-drawn carts to pull silver boxes along the street to sweep goods.

Master Bu also made a move at this time.Except for the Dunhill brand lighter represented by Boss Jiao's brother-in-law, who didn't like him, the master bought 300 taels of silver for the rest of the gadgets.Master is not stupid, even if you go back to give away the extra, the gift you get in return will far exceed the original price.

However, the next moment the master was outraged.After paying the bill, the easy-going servants of the family each took out another stack of banknotes from their pockets and patted them on the counter: "Thank you, sister, calculate how much money we have left, and buy the rest at every turn." Alright."

Chapter 365 Self-driving tour

When Mr. Bu saw that the shopping guide took out a lighter and some other gifts and put them on the counter, he immediately flew into a rage, pointed at the counter and cursed: "You bastard! What is this for?"

These two bastards dare to spend the master's money without authorization... Although the quota for the three people is not used up, but the master has already bought enough?What do you two slaves want?Stealing in front of the master?

"Go back to the master." Chang Sui Bugui was not in a hurry at this time, bowed his legs respectfully and said: "This is my wife's selfishness. Before I came, I told the little one to buy some things and give them back."

Immediately afterwards, the little servant Bu Mo also joined his legs and said: "Master, the young master and miss asked the young one to bring some things back."

"Ah! So it's Madam's private money!" Master Bu never expected such an answer.The next moment, the anger in his heart disappeared instantly, and the fear of being insulted, beaten, and scratched by his old wife for many years quickly filled his whole body-Master Bu was always afraid of guilt, and everyone he knew knew it.

"Bastard, master, I said it was the fire scythe!" Years of transfer experience saved him, and master Bu resolved the main conflict with a trick of turning the stars: "I don't know if I don't like Dunhill, sir? Replace all the fire scythes with Marlboro!"

"Here!" The two servants had no fluctuations in their hearts, and they nodded in agreement.

……

For the rest of the day, the group abruptly browsed through the shopping malls on Chikan Street.Like all business travelers who come here to shop, the visiting group finally returned with a full load.

Master Bu and Fang Tangjing actually bought a lot of various goods in large and small packages, so that the long-term follower Bu Gui had to rent a small cart on the spot, and ran back and forth several times just to deliver the goods to the hotel.

In addition to small gifts, exquisite glass tea sets, glass jewelry sets, vanity mirror sets, women's cosmetics sets, perfumes, cigarettes, high-end deerskin bags and leather shoes, bamboo mouse leather robes, short-sighted and reading glasses, heaven brand iron bone umbrellas, Thermos pots, thermos cups, kerosene lamps, kerosene stoves...

Human beings lack resistance to exquisite objects, which is a kind of nature and an implicit worship of wisdom.

In the late 70s, the Friendship Store, which only served foreigners, diplomats and government officials, opened, selling peanut butter and Hershey chocolate, as well as American refrigerators and washing machines.

Since only foreign exchange certificates are accepted as currency, "guards will prevent anyone who looks Chinese from entering the store".Even so, there are many people peeping outside the store every day, looking for opportunities to go in and take a stroll.

Later, in the 80s, Japanese household appliances that entered the country began to be queued up all night to buy, and then consumption upgrades, and people began to chase after big phones, luxury cars, kidney machines, and Canadian geese...

These living examples tell us that unless the products with high added value are physically separated, they will definitely be sought after by people in relatively backward areas. This trend cannot be stopped by ideology or hostility.

General Kim is so poor that he still has to import hundreds of millions of dollars of luxury goods from the enemy every year to distribute to the top leaders of the Workers' Party. At the beginning, it was hard and simple because of ignorance. If you really have knowledge, don't give it a try?

Let's go far, let the story go back to Master Bu in the seventeenth century.

Although Master Bu is equally reactionary in terms of ideology and hates the Cao Group very much, this does not prevent him from sending all the money he brought this time to the store opened by the "Cao Family".Relying on the public visas they obtained when they entered the customs, the visiting group spent crazily all the way on Chikan Street, making some small businessmen who were short of money and shopping procedures drool enviously.

Back at the hotel in the evening, Master Bu, the master and his servant, settled the bills against the room full of goods... Well, together with the money brought by the master himself, the public funds paid in advance for business trips, and the money entrusted by the lady to the servants A total of more than 700 taels of silver was spent for private house shopping in one afternoon.

"Tomorrow, please ask the person on the cabinet to come and do that... um, consignment with the wind." At this point, Master Bu could only let the servant rub his feet, and at the same time gave orders to his long follower with a wry smile—he was already very familiar with the travel guidebook. I am convinced, since the above said that the consigned goods are safe and secure, and the fragile items are also packed with extra reeds, then of course the old man will not bother to carry the luggage by himself.

At the same time, Fang Tangjing at the opposite door was also counting the goods.He came to Taiwan for investigation and research, and he was originally responsible for purchasing tasks, so his purchasing power was stronger than that of Master Bu.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, except for the military leaders, the gentry had a lot of money, a mere few thousand taels of silver, and a middle-level scholar-bureaucrat could easily spend it.

Fang Tangjing's master and servant have bought up all the quotas for all the commodities today.Including thick canvas, denim, and khaki, which Mr. Bu despises, Mr. Fang from the cotton-producing area in the south of the Yangtze River bought two copies of them and prepared to take them back for research.

Checking, recording the trophies, eating, bathing and drinking coffee, Mr. Bu spent the shopping night happily.

Early the next morning, after contacting Shunfeng Express, the carriage soon stopped in front of the hotel.After watching his goods being packed, Master Bu filled in the address of Xinghua Mansion on the triple sheet.

After that, the client doesn't have to worry about it.Because Xinghua Fucheng is a second-tier city after Fuzhou, Shunfeng has an outlet in the local area and will deliver the goods to your door.The same is true for Fang Tangjing.The goods were sent directly to Hangzhou, and a letter from home was sent back by the way.

……

After finishing the big business of purchasing, Master Bu finally breathed a sigh of relief.The three goals of this trip to Taiwan: military purchases, procurement, and observation, now only one of the most relaxing and free is left.

So Master Bu took out the travel guide from his sleeve, and after researching it, the head of the group immediately decided: everyone will walk to the pier to visit the shipyard first, and after lunch, they will hire a car to go around the fields.

The boss spoke, and the others naturally had no objection.So after sending off the courier, everyone walked in the car and walked along the wharf area by the Taijiang River all the way to the shipyard.

In the shipyard, apart from the numerous hangers and ant-like workers, Master Bu and the others also saw a huge battleship.

The main outline of the western-style battleship, which is more than 70 meters long and has a double gun deck, has been completed, and workers are installing the top deck and mast.Visitors standing on the pier can clearly see the majestic hull of the ship and the steel cranes that stand out from the crowd and are painted in orange.

"This is the reliance of the Cao family across the sea." Master Bu said lightly while stroking his beard as he looked at the prototype of the extremely tall giant ship.

Fang Tangjing's attention was on the steel frame crane.Looking at the iron frame that was erected like a toy, the next moment he used his slender long arms to flexibly hoist the bundles of ship planks to a height of several feet, he also sincerely sighed: "That iron frame is not ordinary. Things, that generation's skill of hundreds of crafts is the best in the world, given time, I'm afraid no one can cure it."

"Hmph!" Master Bu snorted heavily: "There is no one who can cure him right now, if the court doesn't stay vigilant, catastrophe will be imminent!"

Only then did Fang Tangjing realize that he had inadvertently hooked up the patriotic enthusiasm of the old cynic, so he quickly pulled the topic aside—he knew that the old cynic had been planning something, but he didn't want the old cynic to end his investigation. Doing things in front of me hurts myself.

After visiting the shipyard, he saw that it was already noon, so Master Bu, who was in a bad mood, found a canteen on the pier.After lunch, the master took out the guidebook to look at it again, and then took everyone to a car rental shop to rent a car.

During this process, they also saw a group of Westerners who were participating in the auction fighting in front of a warehouse on the pier, and by the way, they also saw a man who looked like a coachman being smashed in the head by a flying hammer...Master Bu cursed a few words for being gentle and sweeping the floor After that, I hurried to the car rental company.

There are no sedan chairs in Da Yuan’s car rental shop, and there are only one carriage here, but there are two types for carrying passengers and carrying goods.After Mr. Bu took out banknotes and visas, he easily booked a four-wheeled carriage for sightseeing.

The sightseeing carriage is open and polished all over.The blue body, the yellow trim and the wheels wrapped in silver iron make the carriage look beautiful.But the appearance of this thing depends on who you compare it with. In addition to the lack of rubber tires, the two short Yunnan horses pulling the carriage also make the carriage lose its British style, and the style has dropped a lot.

Fortunately, Master Bu has never seen the carriage of later generations, so he felt very satisfied when he sat on the cushion: the smooth road surface and the spring damping system made the master's butt very comfortable. I've been in such a smooth and comfortable carriage.

Since the carriage can only accommodate four people, the master left his long follower, Bu Gui, to move about freely—this is exactly in Bu Gui's favor, it is definitely better to go to the street to see girls than to go to the fields to see rice.

The carriage quickly turned onto the road leading to the farm on the east side. Although the two Yunnan horses could not run fast, they ran at a stable speed, which was suitable for passenger transportation.

The handlebar is called Lao Hai, he is a middle-aged man with dark skin and a solid body.Like all taxi drivers in the world, Lao Hai is very talkative, so Fang Tangjing, who was interested in doing research, naturally chatted with Lao Hai.

I don’t know if I don’t talk about it, but I’m startled when I talk about it: it turns out that Lao Hai is already the first batch of successful entrepreneurs in the local area.

This Laohai was originally a grocery store in Taizhou City, and the two generations of people who run it can be regarded as a small fortune.I don't want to see a disaster come last year: the government wants to "act as a comprador" for a batch of goods worth a huge sum of five hundred taels, and Lao Hai is appointed to undertake it.

This kind of trick, which is equivalent to free robbery, was called "hemai" in Tang and Song Dynasties. In short, it was a bad way for the government to search for businessmen.

After Lao Hai heard the bad news, he didn't sit still.He first asked someone to inquire about the inside story of this matter, and after finding out that it was irreversible, he continued to do nothing and secretly sold all valuable goods to his relatives at low prices at night.

Then Lao Hai arranged for his wife and daughter to sneak out of the city and wait for him to meet up.Before leaving, Lao Hai did one last thing: he pawned half the price of the house deed to a pawn shop opened by a wealthy family in the city.

In the end, the government only got some worthless goods, Lao Hai ran away, the house deed went to the big family, and the government servants did not dare to come to ask for it.

The reason why Lao Hai acted so aggressively was because of the crossing forces—Lao Hai had taken a boat to Da Yuan to do groceries before, so he knew he was welcome here.

Chapter 366 Policy

After Lao Hai ran to Taiwan, he settled down on his front foot, and then he thought about starting a new business on his back foot.

However, the 600 taels he brought as a seller is definitely not enough to open a shop here, so in the end, after Lao Hai investigated, he took out all his savings, plus the 200 taels he went to the bank for a loan, and gritted his teeth and went to the car dealership to buy them. He bought an expensive sightseeing carriage and two Yunnan horses, and became a taxi driver.

I didn't want Lao Hai to make the right bet.He bought a carriage on the front foot, and the number of tourists coming to the big officials surged on the back foot. Lao Hai, who was in business, quickly paid off the loan.

After that, he started capital operations again: he mortgaged his car to the bank, and then bought an extra carriage, so that he became the driver and the owner of the car at the same time.

On the clean and beautiful street, while driving, Lao Hai was talking about the mountains with his guests, and when he talked about rising, he even cursed the darkness and corruption of the Ming government, which made Master Bu, who was wearing a thin robe, pale. black.

However, although the master was upset, he couldn't give a reason to refute: he knew very well that the evil government of "being a comprador" was the culprit that caused many small people to break their homes.

After listening to Lao Hai's bumpy entrepreneurial history, Fang Tangjing, who was sitting behind him, couldn't help but become more interested: he was very concerned about the way of life of the local immigrants, because these conditions could reflect the attitude of the local government towards the people under its rule.

However, Lao Hai was familiar with Tang Jing's inquiries like this - almost all the big businessmen from the Ming Dynasty who could afford to pack a carriage to visit this place would ask him for the same content.

Lao Hai told Fang Tangjing: For all immigrants who come to Daguan, the General's Mansion will arrange a job to support their families, regardless of gender.So there is no idler to be found here, not a single one.Most of these immigrants are actually at the bottom of society. They carry mortgages and immigrant arrears, and need to go to work every day to make money.

However, the General’s Mansion is under Qingming, there is no oppression by subordinate officials, and there is no excessive taxation. The General not only takes care of everyone’s pension, but also cares about sickness and children’s schooling, so everyone is very motivated and feels that life is promising.

Next, Lao Hai talked about himself: In fact, there are not many successful small bosses like him, because most of the immigrants are poor ghosts, and the proportion of people who can make the first pot of gold is very small.So now, except for a few like him, those who can be small bosses are local naturalized savages.

When it comes to savages, Lao Hai is quite envious.These aborigines who have been deprived of their ancestral hunting and fishing grounds are now living in big houses, and the General's Mansion implemented a policy at the beginning of the year: these people have all compensated a land acquisition fee.

The money is not counted, in order to prevent these savages from becoming "demolition and shabby households" who are suddenly rich and poor, they also held special classes to teach the savages the secret recipe of fried chicken and shop decoration pictures.Now these savages are all shaking, and they are the ones who opened the Niande Chicken Restaurant and Zhengxin Chicken Chop on the street.

"But you don't need to worry about it. You won't be able to make a fortune in this generation." Without noticing the weird expressions on the passengers' faces, Lao Hai said this, pointing to the beautiful wooden houses surrounded by white fences on both sides of the road, and then told the guests: those savages With a low level of education, you can only work in the catering industry.Most of the savages who have money are buying canteens in various communities, and they are very conservative in business.

It was only at the end that Lao Hai told the part that Fang Tangjing was most interested in: how the foreign rich man gained a foothold in the local area.

It is said that in the hall on the first floor of the Chikan District Government facing the street, there is a window for the Merchants Office, which is a counterpart unit specially used to receive big businessmen from the Ming Dynasty.Lao Hai told Fang Tangjing: The officials in the government office are very polite and enthusiastic, and they will not deceive ordinary people, just go if you have something to do.

In addition, Lao Hai also told Fang Tangjing that the Merchants Office has a "negative list", and any business in the general's mansion that is no longer on the negative list can be invested and traded by foreign businessmen, whether it is a joint venture with the general, or it can be done alone.

……