"Li Gongzi didn't know that in the past, the maritime merchants in Quanzhou supported each other and became one, this matter is simple. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoWhoever wants to be a maritime merchant, as long as there is a ship and the government approves it, then it will do. At most, give everyone a greeting post, say a word, and that's it. Zhao Yutian said to Li Chengqian: "But now, it's different. Shuntai and Tongshun are dominant, and if I didn't still have some of the shadow of my father's generation, I would have been able to do it a long time ago. Not to mention other maritime merchants. If you want to be a maritime businessman, you must first have a relationship with Shuntai and Tongshun, even if there is no relationship, you must make a relationship. so as not to be squeezed by the two families, this is called filial piety. In addition, Shuntai and Tongshun are still trivial matters, and the biggest problem is that the sea in Quanzhou is not very peaceful, and there are pirates, robbing goods, hijacking ships, and killing people. But all the maritime merchants who go to sea, either leave at least half of the goods, if they refuse, those pirates will directly kill people and steal the goods, and even the ships will be robbed. Later, the pirates simply came, and no matter who it was, as long as there was a ship to go to sea, they had to charge a lot of money per ship. If they are honestly handed over, then these ships will not be plundered by this gang of pirates when they go to sea. If they don't teach, the pirates will directly kill people and cross the goods, rob the ship and leave. ”

These things are actually known to Xia Hongsheng and the others, but it is the first time that they have heard it from other people's mouths.

Li Chengqian pretended to be surprised, and said indignantly: "This Quanzhou pirate is so arrogant?!" openly extorting money from maritime merchants in broad daylight, and the government of Quanzhou doesn't care? ”

"Tube! But what does he do?! Zhao Yutian clapped his hands and sighed: "The government doesn't care, but this pirate is out of nowhere, and the government has sent out several official ships, but there is no trace of the pirates." This official mansion, we can't say that it doesn't matter with a clear conscience, we have encountered it once in the middle, but these pirate ships are bigger than official ships! There's also a stone thrower on it! The official ships could not catch up, they could not fight, they lost five or six ships, and many people died. Later, the government didn't care much. ”

Hearing Zhao Yutian say this, Xia Hongsheng and Li Chengqian glanced at each other.

But I heard Zhao Yutian say: "These pirates were not the same before. In the early years, although there were pirates in the territory of Quanzhou, they only robbed goods, not people and ships. And it won't be so much, often only one percent of the cargo on each ship. Moreover, at that time, there was more than one pirate on the water, and some pirates who were Japanese wanted to rob, and they would be beaten away by the pirates in Quanzhou. Those pirates of the Japanese are the blackest, and they like to kill the most, even if they hand over all the goods, those Japanese will not give up and specialize in killing people for fun. So the pirates at that time, although they also robbed goods, they were not in vain. But then somehow, the pirates on the sea suddenly changed, began to kill people and rob ships, and if they were lucky, they were robbed of most of the goods and were released. But most of them were murdered and hijacked. Later, there was a talk of paying money to avoid robbery, and this money had to be taken to thirty percent of the goods on each ship at once! Just like those pirates! ”

Xia Hongsheng opened his mouth and asked again: "Shopkeeper Zhao, dare to ask when this ship is about to go to sea, how did the pirates contact the maritime merchants and collect money?" This...... We haven't received any contact from the pirates, have we? ”

Zhao Yutian shook his head and said, "We haven't seen any pirates either. If you want to come, you also know that when you go to sea, you have to sacrifice, worship the god of the sea, and ask the god of the sea to bless you from encountering storms all the way and coming and going safely. But in this Quanzhou, when you go to sea, you must not only sacrifice to the gods, but also to the ghosts! ”

"Sacrifice ghosts?" Xia Hongsheng asked. In my heart, I immediately remembered what I had interrogated from the mouths of those three pirates before, about the pirate leader, who called himself "Zhenhai Ghost King", and was called an old ghost by those pirates. So as soon as he heard Zhao Yutian say about sacrificing ghosts, Xia Hongsheng immediately remembered the pirate leader.

Sure enough, I listened to Zhao Yutian look around, then lowered his voice, and quietly said to Li Chengqian and Xia Hongsheng: "That pirate leader is said to be called an old ghost!" ”

"Then this ghost sacrifice ......," Li Chengqian said in surprise.

Zhao Yutian nodded and said, "It's very evil! After the sacrifice to the god of the sea, it is necessary to sacrifice the ghosts. This sacrifice to the ghosts is to pay money to those pirates. As they say, put it in a boat, put it in the sea, and wait a while, and the boat will float back on its own. If the ship floats back on its own and the contents on it are gone, it means that the old ghost is very satisfied with the contents of it, and the ship can go to sea smoothly and ensure that it will not be looted by pirates. If the ship comes back and doesn't move, then the old ghost is dissatisfied with this amount, so he has to add more, add more! After adding it, let the boat go out until the old ghost accepts it! Really, it's very evil, you said that there was no one on the ship, why could he float to the old ghost by himself, and then float back by himself? ”

I don't understand the direction of the wind and the currents. Xia Hongsheng smiled and said, "Thank you for your advice!" We were going to go to sea early because we heard that the sea route here was not very peaceful, so we wanted to take a break outside and set off early to avoid pirates. ”

Zhao Yutian listened to Xia Hongsheng's words, shook his head, and said to Li Chengqian: "Li Gongzi, you are young and promising, and after coming to Quanzhou for such a short time, the Yiren firm has already faintly overshadowed the momentum of Tongshun and Shuntai. Forgive Zhao for talking too much, you are still young. All you think about is that the ships will leave early, avoid the pirates and go to sea, so that the pirates will not be able to catch up. But won't the ship of your Yiren Merchant come back as soon as it goes out? You set out to avoid pirates, but when you come back, you can't help but enter the port! At that time, wouldn't they have thrown themselves into the net, and the pirates would be angry and even more likely to kill and seize the ship! ”

Li Chengqian's expression was solemn, he got up and raised his hand to salute Zhao Yutian, and said, "Thank you Zhao Shopkeeper for reminding me, I almost missed a mistake!" ”

"Where, where!" Zhao Yutian returned the salute again and again.

"Alas, after listening to what Zhao's shopkeeper said, this maritime merchant in Quanzhou is really not good." Xia Hongsheng suddenly opened his mouth and said to Zhao Yutian: "But those pirates have not shown up for a long time, even if we want to pay those anti-robbery money, we don't know how to pay it, how much to pay!" ”

"This ...... Zhao couldn't help much. Zhao Yutian shook his head and said, "Those pirates often just leave letters at night, which indicate the time and number of ghost sacrifices. ”

"Then we'll have to find another way." Li Chengqian sighed: "The Yiren firm will not shrink back because of a few pirates. Tomorrow afternoon, the sea ship will go out to sea. As for the pirates, they can only figure out a way. ”

Zhao Yutian didn't say anything more, and Li Chengqian and Xia Hongsheng didn't say anything more, so they left.

After several people left Zhao Yutian's house, the spies sent by Xia Hongsheng were also in place outside the three firms at the same time. (To be continued.) )