Chapter 161 – Transporting Military Rations

What else could Jiang Zhen mean?

Naturally, he was dealing with him in his own way.

These people bribed his men, made a move on his property, and even tried to harm his family . . . Why shouldn’t he do the same?

He also has more people on his hands than these people!

Jiang Zhen has always been repaying revenge with revenge and favor with favor, splashing chicken blood and beating someone was just the beginning.

Liu Baitong had a shipyard under his hands and supported a lot of craftsmen. Although the craftsmanship of these craftsmen was not as good as those of Wen family they were already very good. Relying on this shipyard he was able to become one of the most powerful sea merchants in Wexing Province.

But as result just during just one-day dozens of the shipbuilding craftsmen under him went missing overnight! Even the families of these craftsmen were missing too!

Liu Baitong was very angry with Jinzhen escort agency for beating his son so hearing such news he no longer could sit still.

It was Jinzhen escort agency! It was definitely Jinzhen escort agency!

Without so many workers, how could his ship be built?

“Someone, prepare the carriage!” Liu Baitong didn’t act alone against Jiang Zhen. No to mention that nothing happened to Jiang Zhen so why was he so persistent?

Liu Baitong intended to see Jiang Zhen and at the same time, other people also intended to see Jiang Zhen.

A number of sea merchants and salt merchants went to the Jinzhen escort agency together, looking for Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge.

But Jiang Zhen didn’t meet any of them.

These people make him unhappy so why should he see them?

Jiang Zhen did not meet him but let his own people go out and make trouble for them.

He didn’t kill or blatantly injure anyone,to avoid his men getting arrested for crimes, but even so he was already able to make a few families unable to sleep in peace.

When these families’ servants went out to buy the food they would always encounter something, throwing at them rotten vegetables, leaves or rotten eggs was one of the most common things!

Throwing rats and smelly fish into their houses was also already nothing special, even a good lotus pond would somehow turn into a fecal pit which was just the worst.

Some homes even seemed to be hunted, with mysterious shadows appearing in the middle of the night…

Liu Baitong has not slept well for a long time, a pair, his eyes red but he could not do anything in face of such a situation.

Many people saw all of this with their own eyes.

“That Boss Jiang is really strong!” Luo Tianzhi, who came to the south of Yangze river to do business, was overwhelmed with emotion. He had long known that Jinzhen escort agency was developing well, but it was not until this moment that he realized how well it had developed.

In Wexing Province there were people of Jinzhen escort agency everywhere.

Luo Tianzhi was quite happy while the middle-aged man who came here with him also looked a little dignified: “This Jiang Zhen is not another Cheng Yongzhen!”

“If it weren’t for the short-sightedness of those old men in the imperial court, why would they have forced him into such a state?” Luo Tianzhi said: “If they had treated Cheng Yongzhen well, maybe at this moment Daqi would have a strong navy!”

“You can’t say that.” The middle-aged man said: ”Cheng Yongzhen openly claimed the title of king, which is like directly slapping the face of the imperial court and not treating imperial court seriously.”

Luo Tianzhi knew that his good friend had always been loyal and patriotic, so he didn;t say more, only asked:”Are you going to see Jiang Zhen?”

The middle-aged man pondered for a moment and then nodded: “Yes.”

When Jiang Zhen received Luo Tianzhi’s invitation, he was a little surprised.

This Luo Tianzhi has been in Wexing Province for some time already, selling goods and buying other goods. But unexpectedly come to see him only at this time.

Jiang Zhen and Luo Tianzhi, who were still friends with each other meet.

Luo Tianzhi, who had been starved by pirates before and become thin become fat again. So fat in fact that when Jiang Zhen saw him he only thought of high blood sugar, high blood pressure ……

Along with Luo Tianzhi there was also another middle-aged man who glanced at Jiang Zhen with inquiring eyes.

“Boss Jiang, we come here because we want to cooperate with boss!” Seeing Jiang Zhen, Luo Tianzhi immediately smiled and said: ‘No, its not cooperation, we want to hire Jinzhen escort agency to transport goods for us.”

“What you want transported?” Jiang Zhen asked.

“Food and grass.” Luo Tianzhi uttered a words that really surprised Jiang Zhen.

In Daqi, court control things like salt so naturally they also had control over things like grain, for example, they had always forbidden large-scale grain trading among the people.

Who exactly is Master Luo?” Jiang Zhen asked.

“I’m just a merchant, and this is the real lord.” Luo Tianzhi pointed to the middle-aged man beside him.

As a matter of fact, Luo Tianchi also had some status, he was a son from official family, but later, when his father was convicted, he also became a sinner himself.

But he had a good friend, the one next to him, who tried his best to protect him and introduced him to a prince who was eager for wisdom.

He followed that prince and started to do business, since he was capable it eventually grew bigger and bigger making him win the prince attention.

Of course, he was still just an ordinary merchant. He couldn’t interfere in such matters as grain trading but his good friend was different.

Luo Tianzhi briefly introduced them but not say the exact identity of the middle-aged man beside him, but he still more or less revealed some clues. Their purpose of coming to the south of Yangzhe river also become clearer the longer he was speaking.

This time, they come to buy military rations for Liaodong Iron Riders.

In the previous dynasty, the court tax collection has always been the collection of grain. But when it was first implemented, it was exploited so it was changed in Daqi.

Now Daqi collected taxes in silver.

In this way, it becomes much more convenient in many areas but also becomes troublesome in some places.

For example, military ration becomes very difficult to handle.

Liaodong Iron Riders which was one of the most elite troops in Daqi which was paid one or two million silver every year by the military court and sometimes even more always meet problems due to food shortage.

The middle-aged man in front of him came to the south of the Yangtze River to buy food and grass for the Liaodong Iron Riders.

“It cost a lot of money to transport food by rivers so we hope to be able to go by sea.” Luo Tianzhi said.

“Sea transport?” Jiang Zhen raised his eyebrows in surprise, there was a sea ban in this imperial court.

“Boss Jiang, this sea ben actually only exists on paper, you should also be clear about it.” Luo Tianzhi said, of course he didn’t dare to say other reasons.

Liaodong Iron Riders were very strong, thus, they didn’t actually care about some regulations in the dynasty.

“I have to think about this.” Jiang Zhen said.

After Jiang Zhen sent Luo Tianzhi away, he approached Zheng Yi to ask about Liaodong Iron Riders and finally agreed.

Now, that Rong people in the north were eyeing Daqi covetously it all depended on Liaodong Iron Riders to hold them back. Since Liaodong Iron Riders were short of food and grass he should help them as much as he could.

What’s more, after acquiring some shipbuilding craftsmen without doubt he would only have more and more ships.

That’s right, those shipbuilding craftsmen were all directly taken away by Jiang Zhen.

He has been trying to poach shipbuilding craftsmen around but without much luck. But when he become angry he directly captured them!

At this time, all these craftsmen were sent to the seaside by him.

At first, these craftsmen were afraid, but soon, they got used to living under Jiang Zhen’s hands which had a lot to do with the low status of craftsmen at that time and the good treatment given to them by Jiang Zhen.

In other places, these craftsmen were no different from servants, and many of them needed to sign a deed of sale but under Jiang Zhen it was different.

The technicians needed to be treated well, Jiang Zhen has always thought like this so he was naturally very good to these craftsmen, and after these craftsmen found that life under Jiang Zhen’s hands was very good they started to work under Jiang Zhen at ease.

Also, after Jiang Zhen gives them some bonuses they become even more energetic in building ships.

In this year, Cheng Yongzhen, a sea merchant, became king of Ryukyu.

This year, Jiang Zhen encountered some trouble, but quickly solved them.

In this year, Jiang Zhen took the job of transporting grain and grass for the Liaodong Iron Riders.

From this year, Jiang Zhen no longer went to sea with his ships and paid more attention to the management of his subordinates.

In the blink of an eye, three years have passed.

During these three years a lot of things happened, among which what makes Jiang Zhen most sad was the sea merchant Cheng Yongzhen incident.

Although Cheng Yongzhen became king of Ryukyu, he was not rebellious. At the beginning, he left Daqi because local officials wanted to take away his fleet, and even send some people to assassinate him.

But he still yearned for the court, and this weakness of his was soon used by the imperial court.

Empress Dowager sent officials to Minnan Province to discuss matters with Cheng Yongzhen personally while sending Cheng Yongzhen’s captured family members as well as his friends and relatives to Ryukyu. Then officially invited Cheng Yongzhen, agreeing to Cheng Yongzhen’s many demands.

Cheng Yongzhen agreed to meet them and then with dozens of his men followed the official to the Minnan Province. But after getting off the ship and sitting on the sedan chair, he was carried directly to the prison.

Jiang Zhen’s brow furrowed when he heard this news.

Ever since he had once encountered merchants from Europa, these European merchants appeared more and more often in the vicinity of Daqi.

There was no doubt that some places have already entered the era of great voyages.

Daqi originally could be part of it but as a result, they arrested Cheng Yongzhen.

Not only did they arrest Cheng Yongzhen, but they failed to recruit Cheng Yongzhen’s men, and caused some trouble.

Japanese invaders.

Japanese invaders appeared in the coastal area, but these so-called Japanese invaders were in fact Cheng Yongzhen’s old forces.

At the beginning, Cheng Yongzhen broke up a lot of pirates groups, making his own fleet bigger and more powerful, at one point having more than 100,000 people working under him. But now since he was gone, his men naturally were in disarray and old pirates went back to being pirates.

Also among them, there were a lot of ronins who used to be employed by sea merchants in Daqi, but now we’re just roaming around.