Chapter 795 Chang'an Emperor, Guangzhou Maritime Merchant
The fifth watch drum sounds.
Morning light breaks.
The city of Guangzhou became noisy again. South of the Five Ridges has always been regarded as a land of smog by the Central Plains, and its development was still very backward in the Tang Dynasty. However, only Guangzhou and Guilin, one south and one north, were water and land gateways, major trading ports, and were very prosperous.
From the Southern Dynasties to the Sui Dynasty, Guangzhou's commerce and trade had reached prosperity.
Since the port of Guangzhou entered Zhenguan, it has become a large trading port. The goods exported through Guangzhou are mainly silk products such as silk and silk, as well as porcelain.
Therefore, the goods exported from Guangzhou are actually the entrepot trade of goods from the Central Plains.
In recent years, Guangzhou Port has added two major commodities, tea and sugar, as well as wine, paper, ironware and other goods, and the port has become more and more prosperous. Imported goods to Hong Kong are mainly spices and slaves, as well as gold, silver and copper, as well as iron, ore, pearls, ivory, hemp and green and other raw materials and precious metals.
Among them, the wrought iron brought by the Persians, also known as Uzi steel ingots, and the suma liqing brought by the Arabs have become tight sellers.
The porcelain kiln established by the Qin family in Jiangnan West Road almost took over Su Maliqing who came to Tang Dynasty. The blue and white material has a pleasant blue color and a unique effect.
Originally, Arab merchants brought this Soviet material to China as a sample reference when ordering porcelain, but when Qin Lang saw it by chance, he immediately thought of blue and white porcelain.
The stewards of Qin's Porcelain Industry were inspired by Qin Lang's creativity. They used Sumaliqing as cobalt material to color the porcelain body, and then fired the blue and white pattern at high temperature. Inspired by a huge reward, the craftsmen of Qin's family finally researched New patterns and new colors.
The blue-and-white porcelain produced by the Jingde Kiln of the Qin family located on Jiangnan West Road was immediately favored by Arab merchants, and then Persian, Roman, Egyptian, Frankish, and Tianzhu merchants also placed orders at the Qin family's order meeting. Fight for this new product.
With this kind of blue and white porcelain, the Qin family immediately succeeded in entering the top three in the porcelain industry. The blue and white porcelain of Jingde Kiln became the third most famous kiln after the white porcelain of Hebei Xing Kiln and the celadon of Hangzhou Yue Kiln.
Come from behind, surpassing Luoyang Gong Kiln and Changsha Porcelain Kiln, the two most popular foreign trade porcelain kilns in recent years.
After the two traditional porcelains, white porcelain and celadon, there is a new product, blue and white porcelain, which is even more precious and even exclusive to the Qin family.
Qin's blue and white porcelain and crystal glass have become the two most popular commodities in Guangzhou Port for foreign businessmen, but they are always scarce and expensive.
Yang Yiguang, second ascension, three Hangzhou, four cross five.
Yangzhou is the largest port in Datang. Although Guangzhou is not as good, it is also close behind.
In recent years, there is even a desire to compete for the leading port.
The benefits of Guangzhou’s commerce and trade had been highlighted as early as the Southern Dynasties. Therefore, although most of the Southern Dynasties adopted a prison policy for Lingnan and appointed local rich chieftains and commanders as local governors, Guilin and Guangzhou were the only exceptions. Large ports like Jiaozhou , and there are still times when the local chieftain is the chief, but Guanggui never lets go.
Although for many officials in the Central Plains in Lingnan, if they went there to serve as officials, they would basically be demoted and exiled. But only in Guangzhou, none of the officials sent was relegated.
Even during important periods such as the change of dynasties, the governors of Guangzhou were generally appointed by important figures in the DPRK and China.
At present, the news came that Pingzhang’s political prince Zhan Shiwei and Duke Qin Lang were appointed as the governor and governor of Guangzhou, and one hundred thousand households in Guangzhou responded one by one.
In an instant, the leaking water was dripping.
"The navy's ship is about to arrive in Guangfu."
Guangzhou City has a population of 100,000 households, densely populated, and most of the people are bamboo sheds with thatched roofs, but this is a vast mansion, located in a prime location in the center of the city, with a rockery garden inside. Although there are no carved beams and auxiliary buildings, it is also extremely luxurious .
In the house, the owner of the mansion is a bearded man with a hooked nose, deep eye sockets and blue eyes. He is an Arab businessman. Since the Han Dynasty, Arab businessmen have been coming to Jiaoguang from the sea. At that time, Guangzhou had not yet been separated from Jiaozhou.
Up to now, countless Hu merchants come by boat every year in Guangzhou Port, just like Chang’an, there are countless Hu merchants doing business or living in the city.
According to the official statistics of the Guangzhou Metropolitan Government, the total number of barbarians in Guangzhou is more than 20,000. In order to facilitate the management of these barbarians, the two governors, Dang Renhong and Zhou Shaofan, are both running Fanfang. In Guangzhou, a new outer city was built to accommodate these Hu merchants and prevent Hu merchants from mixing with Han people.
At the same time, Fanshi was opened in Fanfang, and more than 20,000 people from Fanfang were moved in. Dang Renhong was accused of embezzling millions of dollars.
"Dang Renhong was defeated, Zhou Shaofan came, Zhou Shaofan died suddenly, and now there is another Qin Lang, each of whom is bigger than the other. It seems that the emperor in Chang'an is very dissatisfied with the status quo in Guangzhou."
The bearded man speaks Chinese, without any accent at all.
A middle-aged scribe in a silk robe entered the door. He stood at the door and refused to go in. "Qin Sanlang is famous for his ability to toss, and he is famous for his shit-stirring stick. Those who come are not kind."
"The good ones don't come!" said the bearded man.
"Then went south, but spent more than half a year in Liuqiu Island in the East China Sea. There were hundreds of thousands of Dongfan plundered before and after. The navy has become more and more capable of fighting in the past six months. Not only has it received many warships, but it has also replenished a lot. Soldiers and weapons, now there are three major fleets and six squadrons, each with 2,000 soldiers and horses, a total of 12,000 troops, and now they are coming here with murderous intent."
The bearded man didn't make a sound.
The atmosphere in the room gradually froze.
There was a loud thunder outside the window, and then the raindrops sounded densely, and the rain was rushing down.
for a long time.
The bearded man put down a blue and white porcelain cup he was playing with in his hand, and said with a smile, "A sound of spring thunder, rain moistens everything. This rain is good."
"I just heard the news from the Shibosi Yamen that the imperial court will prohibit foreign merchant ships from selling spices through Guangzhou. From now on, spices, pearls, ivory, and rhinoceros teeth can only be traded in the three ports of Guangzhou, Wu'an Prefecture, and Jiaozhou. The shipping company will buy it after extracting it."
"If there is a violation of the prohibition, the ship will carry spices and so on to the north. Once the navy finds out, the ship will be seized, the goods will be confiscated, and the owner and crew will be convicted."
The bearded man froze.
With a strong hand, the paper-thin, crystal clear, blue and white blue cup in his hand shattered. The bearded man flicked his hand, and the broken porcelain fell to the ground.
A high-quality blue and white porcelain cup worth tens of thousands of dollars was destroyed in this way.
"Tang Tianzi wants to monopolize the benefits of the spice trade?"
The scribe at the door nodded, "That's right, we will no longer be able to sell spice ivory directly to the Haidong countries, and we can't even sell directly to Yangzhou, Hangzhou and Dengzhou, let alone directly to Chang'an. All spices that go to Tang by sea These luxury goods such as ivory can only be sold to Shibosi in the three ports of Jiaowu-Guangzhou. part..."
"It's a little too much." The bearded man said.
"This is more than excessive? This is to cut off our money. We braved the storms at sea and came to Datang with a narrow escape, but now we can only run errands and deliver goods for Datang. We let them make all the big money, and we can only make money." Some errand money."
The bearded man got up.
"Emperor Chang'an, don't you know that there are tens of thousands of Fan merchants in Guangzhou alone? Don't they know that in the South China Sea, seven of the ten ships are merchant ships of our Fans?"
The scribe told the bearded man, "Feng An was left in Chang'an, and may not be able to return in a short time."
"Chen Longshu was also left in the capital."
The bearded man was thoughtful, "In this case, our good friends can't help us much. This Emperor Tang really came prepared."
"Is there nothing we can do?"
The scribe stroked his beard.
"There are thousands of ways, how will you know the result if you don't try? Unless you are willing to give up everything in front of you!"
"Hmph, how can we give up just because we have been here for hundreds of years?" The bearded man sneered dissatisfiedly, "You can help me contact Eagle's Nest, as long as I say I am willing to pay 100,000 guan, I hope they can help me Solve this problem."
"Specifically?"
The bearded man picked up a blue and white porcelain cup and played with it carefully, "If the person who caused the trouble is solved, the trouble will naturally be solved."
"The real troublemaker is Emperor Tang." The scribe reminded.
"No, Emperor Tang is thousands of miles away in Chang'an City. The real trouble is that Qin Lang. Get rid of him first, and the immediate trouble will naturally be solved."
"Let me remind you that we have already dealt with Dang Renhong and Zhou Shaofan who refused to cooperate with us before. We even had to kill Zhou Shaofan, but this has brought us great risks. Qin Lang is the emperor's The son-in-law is the prime minister of the empire, he is not an ordinary person, before we move him, we must carefully consider the consequences."
"Consequences?" The bearded man was annoyed, "Of course I know the consequences, but they provoked us first, I don't care if this Qin Lang is the son-in-law of the emperor, the prime minister of the empire, or the governor of the navy, the governor of Guangzhou, in short, we have absolutely nothing when he comes. Have a good time."
The scribe was silent for a while.
"Can Eagle's Nest complete the mission?"
"Han people always like to say that money can turn ghosts into millstones. With one hundred thousand guan, do you know how many ships and goods you can buy? How many slaves can you buy?"
"Give one hundred thousand coins to Eagle's Nest, they will definitely go all out and send the best people to complete this task."
"Tell them, it's best to cause an accident. Whether it's a fall into the sea, a horse fall, or a wind on the horse, it's better to be an accident. Don't make it too straightforward for me. I paid 100,000 I hope Eagle's Nest can afford the price!"
(end of this chapter)