Seven troops to Dali 2

Ali was not polite, and said: "Businessmen naturally will not do loss-making transactions, and if they can't make money, they will definitely think of other ways, and now it is definitely impossible to raise prices, so there is only saving expenses." There are also two ways to save expenses, one is to reduce the number of trips to the sea, or to reduce the minimum expenditure tariffs through smuggling as soon as possible, and the consequence of this is that the tariff revenue of the city and the parking department will be greatly reduced. The other is to reduce the number of people, which will cause a large number of people who used to work in the business to have nothing to do, and those who are not working in the business, but are also closely related to the various businesses, such as the porters on the docks, the hotels by the docks, carpenters, lacquerers, etc., their livelihoods will also be affected, but they also have to survive, once they lose their jobs, it is easy to become a crisis of riots. Although it is only at the beginning and has not yet manifested, if measures are not taken, in three to six months, the consequences will appear. ”

Yang Yan and Zhao Qianru only then understood what was going on, and Yang Yan was fine, but Zhao Qianru had always pretended to read the books of the virtuous group and the ancient and the present, but she didn't expect that there was such a complicated connection here.

Yang Yan said: "I don't hide it from Brother Xie, this time I came to Guangzhou to pacify the pirates and make the sea routes of the Great Song Dynasty unblocked, so as to ensure the safety of all merchants, and today I dismissed Cheng Yuanzhou for the crime of fornicating with pirates." Therefore, I hope that Brother Xie and Ali can do their best to help the imperial court, so as to pacify the pirates in the south as soon as possible. ”

Xie Yuanqing said: "If you can really eliminate the pirates in the South China Sea, it will naturally be better, if you need Yuanqing's help, even if you open your mouth, as long as I can do it, I will definitely do my best to help." ”

Yang Yan thought for a moment and said, "If I order all merchants to stop paying tribute to Meng Heng now, does Brother Xie think it is feasible?" Please Brother Xie don't have to be secretive, tell me the truth. ”

Xie Yuanqing sighed and said: "The horse said so, I will tell the truth, I'm afraid it won't work, the imperial court has had similar regulations before, but there are no measures to ensure the safety of the ship, after other merchants stopped paying tribute to Meng Heng, they were all attacked by Meng Heng at sea, and the ships and goods were empty, and several officials in Guangzhou lost their official positions for this, and the horses should still be cautious." ”

Ali also said: "Yes, although Lord Yang wants to pacify the pirates, don't act lightly until there is a good way to keep the ship safe." ”

Yang Yan nodded, and asked again, "Then how did you pay tribute to Meng Heng?" How did he calculate the cost of the tribute, and how did he keep you safe? ”

Xie Yuanqing said: "This is very simple, we go to Meng Heng's business to pay money within ten to fifteen days before we go to sea, and report the size, quantity, captain's name, etc., and then they will issue us a number plate, if we encounter pirates at sea, take out the number plate, as soon as they meet the number, they will let us go." The cost of the tribute is calculated according to the material, which used to be a consistent amount of money, but now it has risen to a consistent half a dollar. ”

Yang Yan asked again: "Is it true that all the merchant ships that go to sea from Guangzhou pay tribute to the pirates, and if all the merchant ships pay tribute to the pirates, then the pirates don't have to go to sea, and they can count the money while sitting at home?" ”

Xie Yuanqing said: "As far as I know, almost all the merchant ships that go to sea from Guangzhou pay tribute to the pirates, but there are some merchant ships from Huizhou and Fujian Road that do not pay tribute to them, and the main target of the pirates is them, but the sea is too big, and the pirates cannot be completely controlled, and the probability of avoiding the pirates is not small, and there are also foreign merchant ships, they are the main targets of pirate robbery, because they are foreign ships, and we have nothing to do with the Great Song Dynasty, and so the foreign state of the South and Western Oceans is very small, and they are not able to clear the pirates. ”

Yang Yan knows that the ships that go to sea from Guangzhou are generally about 500 to 1,000 materials, and there are at least ten or more ships going to sea a day, and at most there will be more than 30 ships. The income of the Guangzhou City Bosi is not so high. Coupled with the looted property, it is no wonder that pirates are rich and rival countries.

Yang Yan thought for a while, and then asked, "Then does Brother Xie know that pirates usually operate there, and in addition, how many ships do they usually dispatch each time they rob?" ”

Xie Yuanqing said: "I know that the hiding places of the three major pirates are all on the islands around Qianli Changsha, so they generally operate in the area from Qianli Changsha to the coastline. There are about ten ships at a time. ”

Yang Yan nodded with satisfaction, he had also asked about this information from Meng Lanjun, and now it is basically the same as what Xie Yuanqing said. Said: "Just ask these today, thank you brother for telling me so many things, and there will be something to ask Brother Xie in the future." ”

Xie Yuanqing said: "Don't worry, don't worry, there is nothing to do in Xia in the past few months, I will stay in Guangzhou, if there is anything I need to help in Xia, I will do my best." In fact, we businessmen are looking forward to the day when the imperial court will come out to eliminate these pirates, and to be honest, it is good to hand over the money given to the pirates to the imperial court. ”

Yang Yan saw that he had almost asked questions to understand, so he got up and said goodbye to Xie Yuanqing.

The next day, Yang Yan and Zhao Qianru immediately invited Yue Lin, Zhao Ruyu, Li Gongzuo, and Gao Zhen to tell them about the situation they had inquired about from Xie Yuanqing yesterday.

After hearing this, the four of them also fell into deep thought. Yue Lin and Zhao Ruyu are both regional officials in Guangzhou, although they are no longer good at the economy, but after all, they have been in Guangzhou for a long time, and they have more or less understood the importance of price stability, knowing that Xie Yuanqing is not wrong, I am afraid that in a few months, the whole Guangzhou will be in chaos.

Yue Lin said: "I think the most urgent thing is to find a way to let the merchants see that we have the ability to deal with pirates, so that they can have the credibility to stop paying tribute to pirates, and they can stabilize prices." ”

Zhao Ruyu said: "It's just that it's not easy to wipe out all the pirates for a while." They are right, don't act lightly until there is no good way to keep your ship safe. I have also heard that merchants have been forbidden to pay money to pirates on several occasions in the past, but this has not been able to ensure the safety of merchant ships, and the result has been that several officials have been dismissed. ”

Gao Zhen said: "Is it possible to do this, let Li Commander lead the fleet to the sea, find pirates to fight a few battles, as long as we can win a few battles, it will also give the merchants some confidence, proving that we can defeat the pirates." ”

Yang Yan shook his head and said: "This is not appropriate, I am afraid that once our fleet goes to sea, the pirates may not dare to fight with us, they will only hide in the area of Changsha for thousands of miles, use the sea route to familiarize themselves, and deal with us, but our fleet cannot always stop at sea, and after we leave, they will come out to rob merchant ships." ”

Li Gongzuo said: "The last general thinks that it is possible to change the warship into the shape of a merchant ship, lure the pirates out, and fight a few victories, I believe that it is not difficult, but this cannot completely remove the threat of pirates to merchant ships, unless they know the specific location of their old soldiers, directly attack the old soldiers, and eliminate all the pirates, so as to ensure the safety of the sea." But the problem is that Meng Heng's old suppression of Zanglong Island and Xu Hai's old suppression of Mingshan Island, we only know the approximate location, and Mingshan Island is just to the edge, according to Miss Meng, there are many islands near Zanglong Island, and the reefs are dense, if you are not familiar with the sea route, you can't get close to Ben. Or let's destroy Mingshan Island first, and then think of attacking Hidden Dragon Island. ”

Yang Yan smiled bitterly: "We still want to take advantage of the contradictions between the three pirates now, so that they can attack each other and weaken each other's strength. If Xu Hai is destroyed, it happens to help Meng Heng, and he can take the opportunity to unify all the pirates in the South China Sea, and it will be even more difficult to deal with at that time. And Xu Haizhuo's strength is not weak, Ju said that he has seventy or eighty ships under his command, but it is not so easy to fight, what if we attack Mingshan Island, what if Meng Heng sends troops to attack from behind our back? ”

Zhao Qianru clapped her hands and said: "This will not work, we will organize the merchant ships, unify the time of going to sea, send troops to protect each merchant ship, and then send a fleet to escort them after thousands of miles of Changsha, and then disperse." As long as I can hold on for a few months, I think I will be able to make Meng Heng and Xu Hai fight. ”

Li Gongzuo nodded and said, "The princess's method is good, I think you can give it a try." And we can also charge protection fees to merchant ships, which of course is much less than pirates. ”

Yang Yan said: "Have you thought about it, it's okay to send them out, but those merchant ships are all going to come back, what to do when they come back, we can't let our fleet wait at sea." ”

Zhao Qianru was speechless when she heard this. Li Gongzuo said: "It would be good to have a big island near Changsha, we can use it as a temporary base, and the fleet can stop there and wait." When necessary, you can also send troops there to garrison, build city walls, and store supplies, and use them as a receiving station, but unfortunately I am not familiar with the waters around the South China Sea, if it is the East China Sea, I know that there are four or five such islands. However, there are many islands in the area of Changsha, and there will definitely be suitable islands, but we don't know. If only I could find someone who is familiar with the waters in this area. ”