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Tang Tong didn't know the other person standing next to Tian Wan, and Tian Wan didn't introduce him to Tang Tong, but Tang Tong could tell that the man didn't seem to be Tian Wan's follower.
When the man saw Tang Tong looking at him, he nodded slightly and said, "People say that Lord Tang is the God of Wealth who has descended to earth. Seeing him today, I can see that his reputation is well-deserved. I am Shen Zhong, the cousin of the former Zhang Guozhang."
The former Zhang Guozhang that Shen Zhong mentioned refers to Zhang Guoji, the father-in-law of the Tianqi Emperor. Because Chongzhen respected Empress Zhang, the wife of the Tianqi Emperor, very much, the power of the current Zhang Guozhang's family is not much worse than that of the Tian Wan family, and the relationship between the two families is quite good. This time when Tian Wan went to Jiangnan to look for beauties, Shen Zhong, a local, relied on the relationship with the Zhang family to get in touch with Tian Wan and accompanied Tian Wan all the way. However, although Shen Zhong was rich, he was only a cousin of Zhang Guozhang's family after all. Tian Wan did not really take him seriously. After all, with the current power of the Tian Wan family, if the predecessor of Tang Tong's body had not been Tian Wan's childhood friend and could be regarded as a true friend with some feelings, it would be difficult for Tian Wan to take Tang Tong seriously just based on his identity.
Tang Tong naturally knew who Zhang Guozhang was. As Zhang Guozhang's cousin, Tang Tong, with his current position as deputy general, could not look down on Shen Zhong, so he chuckled and said, "I am just a rough man. There is no God of Wealth descending from me. I just got lucky and built a few small factories and made a little money. If you are interested, Brother Shen, you may as well come to the auction tomorrow to show your support. I will auction the operating rights of copper, iron and other mineral deposits in Japan and Korea."
"Haha, no problem. I will be there tomorrow. But Lord Tang, why are these mineral deposits from Japan and Korea being auctioned by you?" Shen Zhong smiled, but felt a little strange in his heart. This was the first time he met Tang Tong, and he didn't know what Tang Tong had done specifically, let alone what he had done in Japan and Korea.
"This is nothing. Last year, I took my men to travel around Japan and Korea, and helped the Emperor of Japan and the King of Korea do some things. Out of gratitude, these two countries gave me half of their country's mineral mining rights. Since I have too many things to do and don't have the energy to take care of them, I just sold some money to spend." Tang Tong naturally would not tell others that he went to these two places to beat up people and forced them to give him half of the profits from the minerals. People who were educated in Confucian culture are very opposed to Tang Tong's violent behavior. If the scholars of the Ming Dynasty knew that Tang Tong was bullying others, it is likely that a large number of scholars would jump out and accuse Tang Tong of wrongdoing.
Shen Zhong saw that Tang Tong was talking lightly, and the shrewd Shen Zhong knew in his heart that what Tang Tong said was untrue. He went to help others a little, and they gave him all the country's mineral resources. Did he think that Japan and North Korea were fools?
Seeing that Tang Tong was not telling the truth, Shen Zhong also knew that their friendship was too shallow and his question was a bit abrupt, so he turned the topic to other aspects. Tian Wan benefited from it. He was also a smart man. He knew that Tang Tong gave him the operating rights of the coal mines in Japan and Korea, which was a big favor and a huge profit. Naturally, he felt that Tang Tong, his childhood friend, was a good friend. He took Tang Tong to meet the beautiful girl from Jiangnan whom he had newly selected, and patted his chest and said that he would definitely help Tang Tong get a higher official position.
Tang Tong now has a lot of beauties from Japan and Korea on hand, and he has long been a little aesthetically fatigued. So although the beauties that Tian Wan found now are very beautiful, they cannot make Tang Tong moved. Instead, Tang Tong gave Tian Wan a few more beauties from Korea, which made Tian Wan smile from ear to ear.
Afterwards, Tang Tong talked to Tian Wan about some things related to the steel plant. The current Ma'anshan Steel Plant can produce 3,000 tons of steel. All of this steel fell into Tang Tong's hands. The best steel was used to produce weapons, the inferior steel was used to produce machine tools, and the rest of the steel was used to produce cold weapons. A large amount of it was used to equip Tang Tong's Japanese auxiliary army and sold to the daimyos of foreign countries in Japan.
The shareholders of the steel mills received dividends, but they didn't care who got the steel. Moreover, because these shareholders were powerful people, after all the manipulation, the silver they handed over to the court was less than one thousand taels, which was not as much as what the supervising eunuch got.
The next day was the day when Tang Tong auctioned the mining rights of Japan and Korea. More than a hundred people came from Jiangsu and Zhejiang for Tang Tong's sake, but there were not many people with a net worth of over one million taels of silver. This made Tang Tong somewhat disappointed. However, Tang Tong did not have that much energy to manage those things. His target was South Pacific Australia and North and South America. In addition, Tang Tong also needed to attract more people to his warship. If Tang Tong relied solely on his own development and wanted to compete with Western countries at sea, it would take a long time.
Tang Tong's men naturally took charge of the auction. Tang Tong found a more secluded position in the venue to watch. In this era, it was still unknown how to refine and use many mineral deposits. Only four kinds of minerals were actually auctioned: copper, iron, mercury, and lead. The whole auction scene was not very lively. After all, those places were not where the Ming Dynasty was located, and those people had great doubts in their hearts. In the end, the mining rights of these four things were auctioned for only a few hundred thousand taels of silver, far less than the value Tang Tong expected.
After getting the result, Tang Tong sneered slightly, thinking that those guys who didn't get it will regret it one day. In addition, Tang Tong was extremely dissatisfied when he saw that none of the people who came this time were salt merchants. Most of these salt merchants were worth millions of taels of silver, and some were even worth tens of millions of taels of silver. In other words, they were rich enough to rival a country. These people were rich and powerful. Even if Emperor Chongzhen wanted to touch them, he had to think carefully. Naturally, he didn't take Tang Tong seriously.
Thinking of salt, Tang Tong couldn't help but be moved. Although there was a method of drying salt in salt fields in this era, the efficiency was not high, so Tang Tong thought of using cement to build a large salt field. The cost was much lower than the current salt production method. With his own maritime strength, it was entirely possible for him to control the northern region. As for the license to produce salt, that was just a small matter. Tang Tong planned to smuggle it directly.
Thinking of this, Tang Tong pulled Tian Wan aside and told him his idea. He was willing to provide Tian Wan with the supply at half the current price of salt merchants. Tian Wan was naturally very happy about this. Although he didn't know the strength of Tang Tong at sea, he was a royal relative, so who would he be afraid of? Although those salt merchants were not easy to mess with, he was also not easy to mess with as a royal relative. If Tang Tong provided the supply at half the price of others, it would be just slightly higher than the price of others. Moreover, Tian Wan had long wanted to get involved in the interests of the salt industry. After Tang Tong said this, Tian Wan immediately agreed, and returned to Beijing that day to organize a smuggling team. As for the plan of looking for beauties in Jiangnan, he also put it behind his mind.
After Tang Tong signed the treaty with the buyers of the mining rights that were auctioned, in order to thank them for their support, Tang Tong gave them unnecessary government positions in the Korean concession. Although this position was not within the official system of the Ming Dynasty, it was still an official position after all. After those businessmen got this unexpected position, they were somewhat happy.
Afterwards, those people enthusiastically invited Tang Tong to attend their banquet. At the banquet, Tang Tong learned that the reason these people auctioned off the operating rights of the mine in large quantities was because they had all been to Kokura Castle in Japan and witnessed the strength in Tang Tong's hands. They knew in their hearts that Tang Tong was almost the emperor of Japan. As long as Tang Tong was there, their interests in Japan and Korea would be guaranteed. Maybe they could even use the power of Lord Tang, who was always protecting their own family, to act like a bully in Japan and Korea.
Seeing that these people were so understanding, Tang Tong also wanted to win them over. He assured them that they could form their own security teams in Japan and Korea, and he would provide them with as many Western muskets as they wanted.
Tang Tong did this in order to train these people to become colonial rebels, because the colonies that Tang Tong would obtain in the future would definitely need to be guarded by someone, and it would be unrealistic to rely solely on his own army. If these businessmen had their own teams, they could strengthen the rule and defense of the colonies to a certain extent, as long as he always controlled the situation and prevented the most advanced weapons and equipment from falling into the hands of these militias.
As for muskets, these people used to be sea merchants and now knew how powerful muskets were. When they heard that Tang Tong was willing to help them and provide those powerful Western muskets, they were all moved and thanked Tang Tong one after another. After the banquet, they hurried home one by one, planning to form a private musket team.
In the late Ming Dynasty, wealthy families all kept armed servants. These armed servants were much better equipped and more powerful than the military households in the late Ming Dynasty. Although the number of armed servants from each household was nothing, if they were organized together, they would be an extremely powerful force. Any individual who touched the interests of this class would end up being crushed to pieces.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen knew very well why he could not collect taxes, but he could only helplessly wait for his hair to turn white. Tang Tong was also very clear about this, so Tang Tong planned more to guide these people in the direction he wanted to go, and this guidance was interests. For people of this era, personal interests were above everything else.
The auction was a complete failure, so Tang Tong didn't want to stay in Jinling any longer. He returned to his home in Changzhou with his men. They hadn't seen each other for most of the time, and Tang Tong couldn't help but miss Yuan'er and the others.
Zheng Zhilong, who was far away in Anhai, was already preparing to set off with his troops.
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