Chapter 61: The Three-Masted Sailing Ship

  Under the vast night sky, the three-masted sailing ship was like a giant monster, cutting through the waves and advancing with a whoosh. The ship took in a lot of water, stirring up waves that made the Poison Scorpion shake back and forth. Li Mengshen stood on the deck, gazing at this massive vessel, not hiding his admiration for it, and sighed: "With such a ship in Dengzhou, how can Kong Youde's bandits dare to be so arrogant?"

  A three-masted sailing ship let out a loud creaking sound, and the massive anchor weighing thousands of kilograms was thrown into the water. The sailboat finally came to a stop under the tension of the ropes. Li Mengshen hastily ordered the Du Xie Hao (Poisonous Scorpion) to pull over. The Poisonous Scorpion was agile and slowly approached the giant ship against the current. Finally, several coils of rope were thrown from the giant ship and were tightly tied to the mast by the sailors on the Poisonous Scorpion. Li Mengshen pulled himself up with the rope and jumped onto the giant ship, shouting: "Younger brother Ying Long, did you bring wine?"

  "Would you like some of the best Jiangling Zhangji Chen wine?" A loud voice came from the giant boat, it was Li Mengshen's familiar voice. He was shocked: "Is Governor Censor also here?"

  Lin Chunhong burst out laughing: "I'm preparing to go to Yangzhou, and I'll take the opportunity to see how my brothers are doing with their business lately."

  Li Mingshen took a closer look and saw that Li Chongde, Zhang Daohan, and Gu Xiulin were all on the boat. Without answering Lin Chunhong's question, he exclaimed in surprise: "So many people are going to Yangzhou? Are they going to visit brothels?" After finishing speaking, he felt that his words were too crude, so he slapped himself on the face and chuckled: "Hehe, a dog's mouth can't produce ivory."

  Everyone was amused by Li Mengshen and burst out laughing, inviting each other to walk towards the cabin together.

  Lin Chunhong this time brought Li Chongde and others to Jiangnan, on the one hand to prepare for the feasibility of building a cargo warehouse in Yangzhou, on the other hand, also prepared to visit Qu Shiyu in Changshu to promote relations with the Donglin Party and Fushe, and also planned to inspect the silk weaving industry and cotton textile industry in Suzhou and Songjiang, providing reference for setting up spinning and weaving workshops in Baili Zhou.

  Yangzhou is the intersection of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, with a prosperous market and many merchants. To expand business in Jiangnan, Yangzhou is the first stop. The manager of the Yangzhou warehouse has been selected, and it will be Gu Xiu Lin.

  Lin Chunhong believes that the current workshop owners in Baili Zhou are financially weak and have no power to improve their technology. Given the large demand for cotton cloth, he decided to set up his own spinning and weaving workshops, hoping to guide the development of the cotton textile industry.

  Just then, the term of office of Jingzhou Prefect Mo Keng was up and he was reassigned elsewhere. Zhang Daohuan did not want to leave Jingzhou and continue as a staff officer, so he accepted Lin Chunhong's invitation to go down to Jiangnan together.

  "Huaihai's famous capital is far away, Jiangnan is hidden and visible across the Southern Dynasty. The green mountains are half- reflected in the trees of Gua Zhou, the fragrant grass is slanted and connected to Yangzi Bridge. Suiyuan's buildings are lost in the morning mist, Wu Palace's flowers and moon send off the spring tide. The Bian River is all newly planted willows, still resentful of the east wind that has not dissipated."

  As they approached Yangzhou, Zhang Daohan stood at the bow of the boat, gazing out at Yangzhou and reciting the poem. Li Chongde and Lin Chunhong had never heard this poem before, and they asked each other where it came from. Zhang Daohan smiled and said: "Chen Wozu of Songjiang is famous in Jiangnan, you two are busy with official duties, so it's not surprising that you don't know!"

  Li Chongde sighed: "The land of Jiangnan is indeed a place where heroes and sages are born, and its reputation is well-deserved. The Suzhou-Songjiang area is particularly remarkable. Alas, it focuses solely on poetry and literature, what use is that to the people?"

  "The gathering of humanities and the prosperity of culture are exactly the embodiment of people's stable life, they complement each other and none can be missing."

  Lin Chunhong listened and secretly smiled. Li Chongde and Zhang Daohuan were on the road, each with their own sharp words, unwilling to give in to each other, and often arguing over some issues. Lin Chunhong understood that Li Chongde valued practical learning, while Zhang Daohuan valued heart/mind learning, and at the fundamental level, they did not fundamentally oppose each other, but at least had great differences. Therefore, Lin Chunhong never joined their debates, only timely changing the subject, so that the relationship between the two would not become too awkward.

  "Yangzhou has arrived, the boat is about to stop!" Lin Chunhong shouted.

  Li Chongde and Zhang Daohan shut their mouths, looking towards the riverbank, where they saw green willows shading the shore, with a beauty unmatched. As the windlass spun rapidly, the massive anchor plunged into the water, firmly grasping the rocks, securing the giant boat in the middle of the river.

  Gu Xiu Lin looked puzzled and asked: "Hasn't the boat landed yet?"

  Captain Li Yinglong said: "The ship is too big and there is no suitable dock in Yangzhou, so it can only be anchored in the middle of the river."

  "How did the goods get ashore?"

  "We'll have to use a small boat to transport it!"

  Gu Xiu Lin and others were stunned, muttering: "Isn't this too much trouble..."

  As ship after ship arrived at the dock, the whole city of Yangzhou was stirred up. Citizens and passing merchants all ran to the dock to watch that huge thing, pointing fingers at the giant boat. For a hundred years, Yangzhou had never seen such a large riverboat, no wonder people were amazed.

  As soon as the news of the giant ship's arrival from Jingzhou spread, the townspeople couldn't stop talking about it. "When did Jingzhou become capable of building such a large ship?" they asked. As a result, when Lin Chunhong and his companions disembarked, they immediately became the center of attention. This made Li Chongde and Zhang Daohan very uncomfortable, feeling like they were sitting on pins and needles, wishing they could hide away immediately. On the other hand, Lin Chunhong and Gu Xiulin were overjoyed, thinking that such a high level of attention would be beneficial in quickly opening up Yangzhou. The most excited of all was Kong Yinglong, who had transformed from a pirate into the center of attention overnight. He felt an unutterable sense of pride, puffed out his chest, and walked with exaggerated strides, looking down on everyone as if to say, "Hey, look at me! I'm the captain of this giant ship!" Lin Chunhong took a closer look and saw that Kong Yinglong's hands and feet were shaking slightly, so he quickly pulled him back and reminded him to calm down.

  The huge influence indeed benefited the sale of goods, and Xilankapu brocade and Rongmei green tea suddenly became the hotspots of Yangzhou's transactions. Everywhere, businessmen were asking where they could buy special products from the mountains. Due to unfamiliarity with the Yangzhou market, Lin Chunhong brought several types of goods that had sold well in Yueyang and Jingzhou warehouses. However, the three-masted ship's cargo capacity was over 3,000 units, and it almost completely bought out the local specialties, causing Lin Deshao and Peng Xin to complain endlessly, lamenting that this year's performance would plummet.

  Lin Chunhong wasn't worried about the source of goods at all. If the goods were scarce, next year's production would naturally increase greatly, what was there to worry about? When the production went up, Lin Chunhong could naturally decide which local tyrant's goods to purchase, wouldn't that put the local tyrants firmly under his control? As soon as Lin Chunhong thought of this, he became excited, it seemed like those barbarians were already paying taxes and rent under his command, listening to his orders to go on campaigns north and south.

  What delighted him even more was that the Xilankapu brocade and green tea opened up a market in Yangzhou overnight, and then radiated to the north and Jiangnan through Yangzhou. The sales volume is of course not comparable to Jingzhou and Yiling, so wouldn't the silver be pouring in?

  Zhang Daohan didn't understand the goods, after arriving in Yangzhou, he went sightseeing and visiting ancient sites everywhere. Lin Chunhong and others were busy as can be, it took them half a month to finish dealing with the goods. In the end, after tallying up the accounts, Gu Xiulin was very optimistic about the future of the Yangzhou warehouse: the entire ship's cargo had earned a profit of 63,000 taels of silver!

  Lin Chunhong left all the proceeds from selling goods to Gu Xiulin, a total of over 100,000 taels of silver, and instructed: "Don't be afraid of losing money, you've seen the prosperity of Yangzhou too, this will be our focus in the future!"

  Gu Xiu Lin understood that the Lin family's funds were tight, and he was deeply grateful to Lin Chun Hong for his generosity. Initially, the investment in Jingzhou warehouse was only over 30,000 taels of silver, but this time in Yangzhou, he left behind 100,000 taels of silver for him to squander, which made anyone feel a great sense of responsibility.

  Lin Chunhong continued: "In Yangzhou, we have to get along with the Huishang merchants. They are the real local snakes here, and their family businesses cover the entire Ming dynasty, involving cotton cloth, tea leaves, salt, pawnshops, rice... Tea leaves and cotton cloth, we will more or less compete with them, let's take a good look and see where we can get in."

  Gu Xiu Lin exclaimed: "Starting to fight with them? This is a bit difficult, I heard they are all from the same family doing business together, and their funds are very substantial."

  "Let's divide the small profits first, and the future disputes are inevitable. You should be prepared. Tomorrow we will go to Huizhou Guild Hall to take a look. Coming to Yangzhou without visiting Wang Dajun, how can we do business?"