In Shanghai Yu Garden, this famous garden was temporarily rented by Li Guodong. The owner of Yu Garden, Zhang Zhaolin, was a Jinshi in the 35th year of Wanli. Now Zhang Zhaolin is not living a good life. The reason is that he did not believe in the Jiangnan floods that Li Guodong "prophecies" the year before yesterday, and he was reluctant to spend money to build water conservancy projects and transform farms. Then he suffered a disaster. His family, who mainly collects land rent, became poor. So Li Guodong temporarily rented a part of Yu Garden as a place where he temporarily lived in Jiangnan, met guests, discussed business, and held banquets.

The reason why it was rented rather than bought was because Li Guodong was unwilling to spend too much money on building gardens. Whether it was Suzhou gardens, Yu Gardens, or various gardens in Jiangnan, they were symbols of the luxury of the Donglin Party. The Donglin Party in Jiangnan was so rich that it was too much money to spend, so they used the silver to build gardens. The censors of the Donglin Party advised the emperor to "not compete for profit with the people" in the court to evade taxes. Those that should have turned into military expenses, disaster relief food, and the white money turned into gardens.

There was a wine table in the Liangyi Pavilion in Yuyuan. Li Guodong invited Zheng Zhilong who came to Jiangnan to the banquet. The water was too cold, Chen Yujie, Xu Ji and Shanghai County Magistrate Wang Chenjin. Even Songjiang Prefect Qian Sule came to the banquet specifically from the city to attend the banquet, which gave Zheng Zhilong enough face.

In fact, when we held a banquet to entertain Zheng Zhilong today, Li Guodong not only had something to say to Zheng Zhilong, but also some things that needed to be understood by these gentry in Jiangnan.

"Brother Zheng, I have been missing for many years. I will prepare a small wine and talk to my elder brother." Li Guodong invited Zheng Zhilong to take his seat.

Zheng Zhilong looked ashamed: "Brother Guodong is already a uncle. If you call me Brother Zheng, you can't afford to take responsibility."

"Brother Zheng is now out of here! You will always be the eldest brother in front of me. Hurry up, please take your seat!"

According to the customs of the Jiangnan banquet, there were ten red high-legged bowls on the table, with duck tongues, sauce meat, fruits, dried fish, desserts, scallion shrimp, wax duck and other delicious dishes. The servants carried plates of dishes and walked in from outside. The maid inside took the tray, walked into the hall, and placed the dishes on the table.

The two beautiful maids whom Shui Tailiang prepared for Li Guodong that day have now been accepted by Li Guodong and turned into his maids.

Li Guodong would definitely not do anything about the goat lip feast that wasted ingredients, but the dishes he prepared for Zheng Zhilong were all delicacies, such as bear paws, braised deer tendons, fish lips with abalone sauce, wild pheasant stewed skirt edges, mushroom sea cucumber soup, steamed abalone wings and other delicacies, served them one by one.

The so-called goat lip feast was done by Mao Pijiang. He used 300 sheep, each of which took the meat from the lips, and cooked it together with chickens, gooses, and fish. The other meat was abandoned. The disaster in the late Ming Dynasty, and the people could not survive, but Mr. Mao was so extravagant. This was just a microcosm of the gentry in Jiangnan. How could the Ming Dynasty not destroy the country?

Although Li Guodong used delicacies to entertain Zheng Zhilong, his dishes were within the normal range, and his purchase prices for bear paws, deer tendons, etc. were very cheap. To be honest, they were all obtained from the Qing Dynasty. He sold to the Qing Dynasty products such as tobacco leaves, silk and other goods, and exchanged them for some goods, and took out a portion of them to entertain Zheng Zhilong. As for sea cucumbers, shark fins and other seafood, Li Guodong also had a way to obtain them at a lower price.

What Dadewang Businessman wants to do with Daqing business sea cucumbers is that as long as he does not export strategic materials such as grain, iron, cotton, etc., and only exports tobacco, silk, tea, salt and spices, he will not strengthen the strength of the Qing Dynasty. Li Guodong has a good grasp of this.

Zheng Zhilong praised: "Brother, you are so polite! Even Zheng doesn't eat these bear paws and deer tendons often."

"Brother Zheng, I have an idea to let everyone here make money, and make a lot of money." Li Guodong put down his chopsticks and made a suggestion.

"What's the best way?" Not only Zheng Zhilong was interested, but the water was too cold, Wang Chenjin and Qian Sule both widened their eyes.

"What is the Ming Dynasty most lacking now?" Li Guodong asked.

"Food." Chen Yujie answered the first time.

"The answer is correct! In the past few years, natural disasters and man-made disasters have become barren lands, agriculture has been destroyed, and the people in the north have long been in vain. Now the food is controlled by Huguang's grain, and they have the final say. If we can obtain cheaper food, part of it is left in our own hands, and most of it is sold to the north, then can we make a lot of money?"

"But where do we need to get cheap food?" Shui Tailiang asked, "I can't stand the gentry of Huguang. The price of grain is the final decision. How much of the money we sell every year is cheated by them by raising the grain price!"

Li Guodong laughed: "I know there is a place where rice is ripe three times a year, and all of them are continuous rice fields, and the food price is very cheap."

"Where?" everyone asked in unison.

"Jiazhi, Chameng, and Siam are all places with high grain yields, and their textile industry is very poor. If our Ming Dynasty's inferior cotton and linen are sold to these places, we can make a lot of money and exchange them for cheap grain. After one round and one trip, wouldn't this silver be rolling in?" Next, Li Guodong reported the price of cotton and linen in Chameng, Jiaozhi and Siam, and the price of grain in the three places.

After comparison, everyone found that this is indeed a good business! The food prices in Champa, Siam and Jiaozhi were only one-fifth of that in the Ming Dynasty, and the prices of cotton and linen were more than five times higher. After this, the ship transporting cloth went and the ship loaded with grain came back. After one trip, all kinds of expenses were deducted, and there was still a ten-fold profit! Moreover, many defective products from the products produced in Jiangnan were sold intelligently to the poor in the north in China. If they were taken to Jiaozhi, they could buy a good price.

"But how do we sell cotton and linen cloth to these places?" Shui Tailiang asked.

"Isn't this me?" Zheng Zhilong laughed, then his face darkened again, and he raised two more questions, "But our ship can only go to Jiaozhi and Chameng at most, and I'm afraid we can't go to Siam. After passing Chameng and going south, it's the route of the Red-Farewell Yi, I'm afraid they won't let us intervene in this route. In addition, when the typhoon comes to the South Ocean, our fleet is not as good as the big ship of the Red-Farewell Yi. As long as we encounter a typhoon, we will lose all our money."

Li Guodong explained to Zheng Zhilong: "To solve these two problems, the solution is actually very simple. We can build ports and warehouses in Jiaozhi and Chameng and hire locals to do things. Every summer typhoon season is also the season for their early rice harvest. The harvested grain is first stored in the warehouse. When the late autumn and the late rice is ripe, our ships will go back to transport the grain. Moreover, after the ports and warehouses are built, the Siamese ships can send the grain to Chameng and store it in Chameng warehouses. After the typhoon season, our ships will transport the grain back, and the goods we want to sell to Siamese will also be traded in Chameng."

"A good idea!" Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed.

"There is only another question. Can we rest assured by hiring locals to take care of the warehouse?" Shui Tailiang asked.

"So, this requires that we have our managers stationed in warehouses in Chameng and Jiaozhi, and we also need to have guards stationed. Once we find that their people are treacherous and greedy for our goods, we must be severely punished! We can reward them for good performance."

"Station management personnel, stationed guards? Where can we find so many people?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

"Are you still afraid of insufficient manpower? In the Ming Dynasty, what we don't need the least is people." Li Guodong laughed.
Chapter completed!