Chapter Sixty Development Direction

  Kang Lihong's trial plan was approved, and 1,240 taels of silver were allocated. However, whether to allocate silver or how much silver to allocate was not decided by Lin Chunhong, but by the thirteen senior craftsmen of the Engineering Academy together.

  Lin Chunhong was inspired by Kang Libo, selected 13 craftsmen with higher reputation and made significant contributions to the group, formed the Engineering Institute, and allocated special funds, and let the Engineering Institute decide whether to support individual experiments.

  The main responsibility of the Engineering Institute is to study the technical development strategy of the group, provide strategic consulting services to the group, and organize personnel to tackle key technologies with significant strategic implications.

  However, these responsibilities are all long-term plans and currently only exist on paper. The first thirteen academicians can at most be called senior technicians, far from meeting the standards of engineers or scientists. Their vision and thinking ability are extremely lacking, and they don't even understand what strategy means.

  According to the regulations of the Engineering Institute, after the Engineering Institute supports a certain research project and it is successful, the group and individual will negotiate the monetary issue of purchasing the technology. The cost of purchasing the technology can be adopted in two ways: one is direct purchase, and the other is personal share, which is determined by both parties through negotiation. Li Chongde also formulated a system, Lin Chunhong directly gave this system a name, called "Patent Regulations".

  This "Patent Procedure" made Kang Libo overjoyed, and he plunged into the mountains of Ma Lian, day and night tinkering with his experimental furnace. This patent procedure also caused other craftsmen to rush around, immediately taking out their so-called ancestral secrets, and discussing buyouts and splits with thirteen craftsmen. Lin Chunhong saw that the negotiations between the thirteen craftsmen were just superficial, and he couldn't see what technology was useful for the Lin Group. He couldn't help but bring Zheng Tiancheng along to personally select the technologies beneficial to the group, and discuss compensation matters. As a result, Lin Chunhong's wallet flowed out with tens of thousands of silver coins again, making him heartbroken.

  Given the group's development speed has slowed down significantly and profit level has decreased, it urgently needs to explore new markets and new profit growth points. To gather ideas, Lin Chunhong decided to convene the first group expansion conference.

  Lin Chunhong proposed several topics, the first of which was the issue of the group's name. As the group's influence grew, outsiders generally referred to it as Lin's Business House, a term that was neither formal nor convenient for Lin Chunhong. After discussion, everyone agreed that from now on, the group would be called Bontai Commercial Corporation and would be registered in Jingzhou Prefecture.

  The second topic is to open up new markets. Everyone agrees that the market must be expanded to Jiangnan and Guangdong, Fujian. At present, the market of Bangtai Business Association is limited to Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan provinces, and it urgently needs to develop towards Jiangnan, which is the most prosperous and consumer-friendly place in the Ming Dynasty. As for Guangdong and Fujian, it is mainly due to the consideration of cotton cloth and tea sales.

  Since Lu Shi-yuan and Zhao He-hai arrived in Guangzhou, Zhao He-hai took a fancy to the promising profession of piracy and extracted 300,000 taels of silver from Lin Chun-hong as start-up capital, which was also the main reason for Lin Chun-hong's tight silver supply. Lin Chun-hong didn't even frown, immediately agreed to Zhao He-hai's request, and dispatched a large team to escort the silver to Guangzhou.

  As for Lu Shi-yuan, he set up the Guangzhou warehouse, mainly facing overseas sales of cotton cloth and tea. The cotton cloth of Bangtai could not compete with Songjiang, and the sales route was not broad, even if it was sold to overseas through Guangzhou, the profit was not high. But Lin Chun-hong bit his teeth and insisted, he could clearly remember that the Industrial Revolution started from the cotton textile industry.

  Watching everyone's endless longing for the beautiful prospects of Jiangnan and overseas markets, Lin Chunhong thought to himself: These two markets are not easy to develop. Overseas is controlled by Zheng Yiguan, and he has a feud with Zheng Cai, currently there seems to be no possibility of resolving it, even if it is resolved, Zheng Yiguan will absolutely not allow others to share the profits.

  As for Jiangnan, it's even more difficult. The merchant forces in Jiangnan are powerful, not only with strong local businessmen but also with historically famous Huishang merchants, and they have also fostered the political representatives of Jiangnan: the Donglin Party and later the Fushe. To say that Jiangnan is more difficult to deal with than overseas.

  "I don't believe it, Jiangnan doesn't even have a gap, after a while, I'll go to Jiangnan for a trip!" Lin Chunhong secretly made up his mind.

  The meeting continued, and the third agenda was to create a fist product for Bontai Business Company, forming a new profit growth point. Since Lin Chunhong had ordered the construction of a three-masted sailing ship which had already been launched, its massive body and towering mast shocked all the participants, and everyone's first thought was to build ships. Lin Chunhong had no objection and immediately decided to add investment to the shipyard, building more large-scale docks.

  However, some people are worried about the court's attitude, which is directly ignored by Lin Chunhong. Lin Chunhong knows that the power of merchants in Jiangnan has expanded to the point where they are almost not subject to the constraints of the imperial court, so why would they care whether the imperial court allows the use of three-masted sailing ships?

  Apart from shipbuilding, Kang Libo also suggested that Jiangnan has no iron ore mines, so Bangtai should take advantage of its existing iron ore resources to create all kinds of iron-related products and sell them in Jiangnan. Lin Chunhong wholeheartedly agreed with this idea, as steel production is a symbol of national power in the industrial era, what reason does he have not to actively develop the downstream market for steel?

  Furthermore, Li Chengzong suggested selling the armor and weapons externally, but Lin Chunhong firmly rejected it. He was also preparing to expand his army on a large scale, these armor and weapons were not enough for himself, how could he sell them externally? Moreover, the armor and weapons were too sensitive, if they were not careful, the imperial court would think that they were plotting a rebellion, then everything would be over.

  Everyone didn't think that the most profitable financial product would be proposed by Lin Chunhong himself, to do credit*. The opposition voices were one wave higher than the other, everyone thought that credit* was not something that no one had tried before, but it often ended in failure due to counterfeiting, and without finding an effective anti-counterfeiting measure, it was impossible to experiment with credit*. Lin Chunhong couldn't help it, so he ordered every attendee to think of a strategy to prevent counterfeiting, each person must come up with a plan.

  After the meeting, Lin Chunhong kept the core members to discuss the expansion of the army. Everyone had no objection to the expansion, they felt that with the impending chaos in the Ming dynasty, Jingzhou and Yiling would not be able to stand alone, a strong military force was the most basic guarantee for all business profits. Based on the current financial resources of the Bangtai Chamber of Commerce, the team size will be controlled at around 5,000 people, and the armory will speed up the production of weapons to meet the needs of the army.

  Jiangxi Province, Jiujiang Prefecture, Hukou County.

  Hukou County is located at the entrance of Poyang Lake into the Yangtze River, known as "the key to the Yangtze River and the throat of three provinces". Li Mengshen's activity range finally reached the mouth of Poyang Lake. As there were not many merchants from Huguang, Li Mengshen plundered for half a year but gained little, so he made efforts to develop towards the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

  As early as the summer of Chongzhen 4, Lin Chunhong issued an order to Li Mengshen to plunder. Lin Chunhong believed that secretly plundering was a three-in-one affair: getting the stolen silver was not to be mentioned, and Lin Chunhong hoped to weaken the power of the Jiangnan financial group through this means, reducing the obstacles for himself to dominate Jiangnan; in addition, Lin Chunhong also hoped to force the merchants of Jiangnan to buy three-masted sailing ships. Three-masted sailing ships have many sailors, high and large hulls, and sturdy bodies. As long as they are careful, they don't worry about the plundering of pirate ships at all.

  The entrance to Poyang Lake is three miles wide and merges with the Yangtze River, forming a vast expanse of water that stretches as far as the eye can see. On the opposite side of the entrance is a desolate island that extends into the middle of the Yangtze River, where Li Mengshen has anchored his ship, the Du Xie (Poison Scorpion). Li Mengshen is particularly fond of this ship and has named it the Poison Scorpion, a name that Lin Chunhong and Li Chongde find distasteful. They think it would be better to call it the Centipede or even the Mud Eel, but Li Mengshen doesn't care. His sailors like the name Poison Scorpion, which is gradually becoming famous on Lake Dongting. Li Mengshen's nickname "Duxie" (Poison Scorpion) is also spreading throughout the land, causing headaches for the authorities. Now, Li Mengshen has dispatched a fast boat to survey the water conditions near the lake entrance.

  There were five people on the fast boat, one of whom stood at the bow, holding a rope with a knot in his hand, and an iron block tied to the end. He shouted: "Drop anchor, stop the boat!" This man was named Huang Shunxing, who was good at hydrological surveying, and was sent by Lin Chunhong to assist Li Mengshen.

  Only one sailor was seen throwing the anchor into the water, and the ship continued on for a while before stopping. Huang Shunxing threw the iron block at the end of the rope into the water, holding one end of the rope to measure it several times, making sure the rope was straight, then bent down to carefully examine where the water surface was in relation to the rope.

  "Two zhangs one chi and three tenths!" Huang Shunxing shouted out loud, pulling the rope out of the water and jotting down this data in his notebook.

  After doing all this, Huang Shunxing shouted again: "Go ahead, move forward a bit, and let's measure the water flow rate!"

  ……

  Huang Shunxing's measurements were tedious and time-consuming, which had long been dissatisfying Li Mengshen. He suggested to Lin Chunhong that he should not continue doing such meaningless things. However, this suggestion was firmly rejected by Lin Chunhong. Lin Chunhong advised him: "For future generations, it is essential to investigate the geography of heaven and earth. If you do not understand the hydrology of the Yangtze River, how can you fight a war? Even if you are familiar with it yourself, in the future when I send other ships to plunder there, how will they know where to go and where not to go?" Li Mengshen had no choice but to let Huang Shunxing waste his time. As a result, the hydrological data of the Yangtze River was constantly submitted to the archives of Zhijiang, preserved as important materials.

  However, this system persisted for a while, and Li Mengshen highly praised Huang Shunxing's work. At that time, when Huang Shunxing handed over the nearby hydrological data to him, he was very clear about the situation here, and he said while looking at it: "Hmm, the water depth of the North River is only one zhang two, our boat can't go there, brothers, after looting in the afternoon, we will go upstream from the South River to avoid the official's pursuit!"

  The sailors all cheered, having followed Li Mongshen for so long without ever losing a hand. Moreover, they had also gained enormous wealth from the looting. Lin Dianshi was quite generous, taking only 40% of the profit, and leaving the rest to be distributed by Li Mongshen. Although the risk of looting was great, with three sailors lost last month, high risk meant high returns, and the sailors were all eager to do their best in this business, after all, there were still many sailors waiting behind to get rich on the ship.

  In the scorching heat of May, Jiufu was sweltering, and Li Mengshen and his companions took refuge in the shade of the poisonous scorpion boat, constantly wiping away sweat. The Yangtze River did not lack a river breeze, but the southeast wind blowing in could hardly alleviate the sweltering heat, instead it carried away the body's moisture, making people unable to help but hug their water bottles and gulp down a mouthful.

  "Are all the cannons ready?" Li Mongshen tilted his head back and took a sip of water, asking Ling Su. Ling Su was the artillery captain appointed by Li Mongshen.

  Ling Su hastily stood up, bowed his waist and replied: "Reporting to King Bao, everything has been wiped clean, the gunpowder is also ready!"

  "Hmm, not bad. This is the first time we've used cannons on our own after the French left. Don't make any mistakes!" Li Mongshen instructed solemnly, his one eye gleaming with an intimidating light. Ling Su's heart tightened and he hastily bowed to pledge.

  Li Mengshen was highly respected among the sailors, after all, he had control over the distribution of spoils. Moreover, he was experienced and the sailors trusted him completely.

  Li Mingshen turned his head and said to Wu Tianhai, "Tell the brothers to prepare their long guns, make sure the gunheads are polished, once we board the ship, it's up to you!"

  Wu Tianhai took orders and left, he was the captain of the vanguard, unfortunately, his martial arts skills could not be fully displayed on the Poison Scorpion. In general, after the Poison Scorpion fired its cannons, merchant ships would usually surrender immediately. But Wu Tianhai did not dare to slack off, every day he led the rowers to practice battle formations, and gained Li Mengshen's appreciation.

  ……

  Li Mengshen asked about the preparations of all parties and then leaned on the railing, gazing in the direction of Poyang Lake. In fact, he couldn't see anything and didn't need to look. On the bow of the ship, there was a special lookout tower where a dedicated lookout held binoculars to observe the wind. This was something Li Mengshen had begged from Lin Chunhong, but later he got another one with inferior performance, so he returned it to Lin Chunhong, who cursed him severely.

  "Don't stare at the sun, you little rascal! Want to blind your eyes? Look at me, I'm like this from staring at the sun too much!" Li Mongshen scolded, seeing that the lookout's eyes were fixed upwards.

  Liang Wang's hand called Han Si Liang, who was only seventeen years old and very clever. He wasn't afraid of Li Meng Shen either, so he chuckled and turned his head to look elsewhere.

  Looked for a while, Han Si-liang shouted: "Arrived, two boats!"

  The sailors suddenly became excited, even forgetting to wipe their sweat, and gazed at Li Mongshen with eager eyes. Li Mongshen nodded in satisfaction. He was quite satisfied with the sailors' reaction. In the past, as soon as the sailors heard that prey had arrived, they would rush around in a chaotic manner. Li Mongshen had scolded them several times, but to no avail, and only after severely punishing a few sailors did the situation improve. Now on the Du Xie Hao, orders were strictly followed, and without permission, no one was allowed to move.

  Li Mingshen beckoned to Fei Daishan and instructed, "Today you're in command, I'll sneak off and be lazy." After finishing speaking, he crawled down to the bottom hold to act as a rower. Fei Daishan was Li Mingshen's deputy and had followed him for a long time, basically able to take charge of battles on his own. Li Mingshen hoped that Fei Daishan could fly solo soon, after all, the second centipede ship had already been built and was just waiting for someone to operate it.

  Fei Daishan didn't mince words either, taking over the token and shouting at the flag bearer beside him: "Everyone to their posts!"

  The flag waver waved his flags up and down, left and right, and the other flag wavers followed suit. The sailors quickly sprang into action, running to their respective posts in an orderly manner under the leadership of their team leaders. At first, Li Mengshen also gave orders by shouting, but the Toxic Scorpion was too big, and sometimes the sailors couldn't hear his commands at all. Adding to that, during battles, the cannon fire was deafening, making it impossible for anyone to hear anything no matter how loud they shouted. That's when Li Mengshen came up with this method - placing flag wavers in key positions on the ship to relay orders.

  As Fei Daxin's series of orders were issued, the black sail of the Poisonous Scorpion rose rapidly, and countless legs stretched out from both sides of the ship, stirring up the river water. The Poisonous Scorpion began to accelerate, charging towards the merchant ship.

  The merchant ship was sailing with a small sail, going upstream very slowly. When the sailors on the merchant ship saw the poisonous scorpion, they were suddenly frightened. Where had such a monster been seen on the Yangtze River? Only this monster's body was huge, and countless legs grew beside it, rushing forward like an arrow off the string, its intention to plunder obvious. The captain of the merchant ship was greatly shocked, immediately ordering the ship to turn around and sail downstream, hoping to shake off the poisonous scorpion.

  When the merchant ship was turning around, the shout from the Venomous Scorpion also came over: "Leave some money for the passage... Leave some money for the passage..." The captain didn't care and only anxiously ordered to turn around.

  "Boom......" A loud cannon shot came, and the cannonball that followed made the merchant ship's sailors break their guts, and they exclaimed: "This ship has a cannon!"

  A loud splash, the shell fell into the water. The sailors on the merchant ship were in a panic, wishing they could also stretch out their oars like the Venomous Sting to shake off the pursuit.

  The poisonous scorpion's speed was very fast, getting closer and closer to the two merchant ships. "Boom..." Another cannon shot came, this shell did not fall into an empty space again, directly piercing the hull of the merchant ship and rolling into the cabin.

  "It's leaking......" The sailor let out a hysterical roar.

  The captain was greatly alarmed and saw the poisonous scorpion approaching in front of him. He roared: "Archers return fire, swordsmen prepare!"

  The sailors of the merchant ship, apart from going to block the leak, gathered on the deck, preparing to fight against the poisonous scorpion. Unexpectedly, the poisonous scorpion did not approach, quickly rowing forward, directly blocking the way for the two merchant ships.

  Another cannon shot came, this time the projectile was not a solid shell but a canister shot. The lead balls flew in all directions, and the merchant ship immediately fell into chaos. Several sailors fell to the ground, letting out blood-curdling cries.

  "Scorpion's voice came again: 'Surrender immediately, we want wealth not lives...'"

  The two captains of the merchant ship were unable to raise a white flag.

  As the white flag of the merchant ship rose, Li Mengshen's face broke into a smile: "Fei Daishan is not bad, knows how to save gunpowder, heh heh..." At the same time, Wu Tianhai secretly sighed: "Ah, this time there was no chance to make a move again!" It's no wonder Wu Tianhai would sigh, having never made a move, the spoils of war were fewer.

  ……

  Under the night sky, the Poison Scorpion hung black sails and slowly sailed upstream. Due to the swift action of the Poison Scorpion, it directly left the government soldiers who had rushed to the scene empty-handed.

  "Damn it, and it's raw silk again... I'm going to become the king of raw silk soon..." Li Mengshen cursed as he looked at the boat full of raw silk. Fei Daishan, who was commanding an independent raid for the first time, was still excited and said, "Raw silk is valuable too." Li Mengshen had pulled off a few heists at the lake port, and apart from stealing some silver, most of what they got was raw silk. Li Mengshen wasn't ruthless with the merchants either, only plundering valuable goods that were easy to transport, after all, the Venomous Scorpion couldn't carry too much cargo.

  "The raw silk from Southern Zhili, apart from being exported, can also be transported to Fujian via Ganjiang. Later on, we will get even more raw silk in Hukou." Fei Daishan's words made Li Mengshen feel disheartened. He thought the most enjoyable thing was to plunder official ships, where there were silver coins that could be taken directly and loaded onto the ship. It wasn't as troublesome as now, when they had to wait for merchant ships to come and collect them.

  "Ga...... Ga ga...... Ga ga ga......" A regular wild duck call came, Li Mengshen excitedly shouted: "Kong Yinglong this old man is coming so quickly this time...... Haha......"

  Fei Daishan poked his head out of the cabin and took a look. Sure enough, it was Kong Yinglong's three-masted sailboat coming over...