~~~~~~~

Not long after, Li Yuanqing met Niu Gensheng, whom he had not seen for a long time.

Niu Gensheng hurriedly knelt down in front of Li Yuanqing, tears welling up in his eyes: "I have seen the general in my humble position."

Li Yuanqing hurriedly pulled Niu Gensheng up affectionately and patted his shoulder hard: "He's getting darker and a little thinner. How are you these days? Are things going well?"

Niu Gensheng hurriedly smiled and said: "General, things went very well. After that day, we set sail the next night. There were a few white sailors to lead the way, and the trip went smoothly. General, your trip is probably longer.

About a day later. Now, Sansheng is taking the fleet to rest in a small bay more than ten miles away."

With that said, Niu Gensheng respectfully handed a list to Li Yuanqing: "General, this is the harvest this time!"

Li Yuanqing nodded, glanced at it, and couldn't help but reveal an unspeakable smile at the corner of his mouth.

Varun da Gama, I'm afraid he wants to hang himself now!

Not counting these Spanish warships, just the real gold and silver, plus antiques and collections, I'm afraid it would be worth at least two hundred thousand taels of silver.

These ‘old fritters’ are really rich!

It’s no wonder that people say: “When the cannon goes off, there are ten thousand taels of gold!”

Compared with this business, Lao Shizi's sea trade is simply weak.

"Gensheng, thank you for your hard work! You go back and rest first! If anything happens, let's talk about it tomorrow!" Li Yuanqing smiled and patted Niu Gensheng hard on the shoulder.

Niu Gensheng was overjoyed and said with a smile: "Yes!"

Watching Niu Gensheng leave, Li Yuanqing felt happy.

What is lost is the east corner, and what is gained is the mulberry tree.

Everything cannot be generalized!

After gathering his thoughts, Li Yuanqing focused his thoughts on the Dutch East India Company.

Although they are notorious, it is undeniable that they have gone ahead of the Ming Dynasty in terms of vision, strategy, layout, and means.

For example, at this time, Cohen had very detailed information about Li Yuanqing, but the reason why Li Yuanqing knew about him was entirely based on the accumulation of knowledge from later generations.

For another example, the East India Company has many "brokers" like Ben Coster who are proficient in multiple languages, but for Li Yuanqing, only Joseph can slightly top it.

Not to mention the warships.

You don’t know if you don’t compare. Only by comparing will you know how big the gap is between the two sides.

Fortunately, although Cohen "jumped the gun", he was less than five meters behind Li Yuanqing. Li Yuanqing was in a core position like Brunei at this time, so everyone still had a chance!

After cleaning up here, Li Yuanqing returned to Wan'er's room to rest, also to make up for the mistakes he made last night.

Wan'er was in a much better mood today, she was extremely gentle and soft, and she served Li Yuanqing with all her heart.

But for some reason, Li Yuanqing, even though Wan'er beneath him was almost captivated, Zhang Chunxue's inexplicably vivid and pretty face always appeared in his mind...

What the fuck...

…………

The next morning, trade between the fleet and Brunei officially began.

Brunei is considered a free trade port. Relatively speaking, it is freer and more dynamic than trade ports under colonial rule such as Manila, Jakarta, and Malacca.

In large ports like Manila and Jakarta, small merchants and small households basically do not have many opportunities, and they are not even qualified to buy goods.

But in Brunei, this is not a problem.

The Chinese, local indigenous people, including many white people, were very interested in the cargo on Li Yuanqing's ship.

The entire pier was full of people talking in various languages, and the sounds of bargaining were very lively.

Ben Coster woke up at this time, came to Li Yuanqing's side, and said with a smile: "Honorable General Li, look~~, your goods are really popular!"

Li Yuanqing glanced at him with a smile, "Ben, there was something I wanted to mention to you yesterday, but after thinking about it, I still felt it was too rash. But~~, today, I have considered it maturely, so I want to

Bring it up to you directly."

At this time, Ben Coster had somewhat understood Li Yuanqing's intention, and his little heart couldn't help but jump. He smiled and said: "Honored general, if you have any orders, please tell me frankly. Your servant Ben, I would like to be sincere

at your service!"

Li Yuanqing laughed loudly: "Ben, I think you can become my personal staff and provide me with analysis and intelligence on some matters. As for salary! I can give you an annual salary of five hundred taels!"

Five hundred taels of silver, even if converted into gold coins, is by no means a small amount! It is enough for Ben Coster to live a life like a master in the Nanyang region. Even if he returns to Europe, this guy will definitely be able to get along.

Up to the middle class.

Only a fool would refuse at a time like this.

He smiled hurriedly and said: "Honored general, your servant Ben is willing to sell his life to you. But-----"

He paused for a moment, then said: "Distinguished general, you also know that I am still working part-time in the Dutch East India Company. I have some affairs, I'm afraid..."

Li Yuanqing laughed loudly: "Ben, my friend, you don't have to worry about this. I won't make it difficult for you. I won't let you do things that are difficult for you. It's just some small things, you need to provide me with analysis

and information!”

Ben Coster couldn't help but be overjoyed and wished he could kiss Li Yuanqing a few times.

After chatting with a smile for a while, Li Yuanqing took the lead in paying Ben Coster's one hundred taels of 'sincerity money' and said with a smile: "Ben~, I will give you your first task now!"

Ben Coster quickly pricked up his ears and said, "Honorable General, I am all ears!"

Li Yuanqing smiled: "I need more white people like you who are proficient in Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese! Well! Best, they can also be gentlemen like you. As long as they are proficient in Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese!

You can find one for me! I will provide you with a commission of ten taels of silver! There is no upper limit!"

Ben Coster was overjoyed instantly and hurriedly said: "Honorable General, are you serious about what you said?"

Li Yuanqing's face suddenly turned cold, "Ben~, my friend, don't you believe in my majesty?"

Ben Coster couldn't help but nodded desperately and laughed loudly: "Honorable General, I have many such friends! Just wait, I will write a letter now!"

Seeing that he was about to leave in a hurry, Li Yuanqing smiled even more and shouted to his back: "Ben~~, I will stay in Brunei for half a month. I hope you can help me and these people here as soon as possible!"

Niu Gensheng also got up at this time, quickly came to Li Yuanqing, and whispered in a low voice: "General, do you really plan to give this white-haired monkey so much money? What if he really finds a few hundred?

, then don’t we suffer a big loss?”

As the leader of Li Yuanqing's personal soldiers, Niu Gensheng naturally had to stay by Li Yuanqing's side at all times.

Although before, he went out to perform extremely private tasks and had heavy responsibilities on his shoulders, now, even though he was a little tired, he still wanted to stay with Li Yuanqing.

Of course Li Yuanqing understood what Niu Gensheng was thinking, and patted his shoulder with a smile: "Gensheng! You must remember one sentence, put a long line in order to catch big fish! Even if he can find hundreds or thousands of people, then what?

What? It’s just a matter of ten thousand taels of silver! You need to remember that with these ten thousand taels of silver, we can’t get rich, but without these ten thousand taels of silver, we can’t be poor! But we can get a good reputation, and

Why not do it?"

Although Niu Gensheng still didn't understand what Li Yuanqing meant, he nodded respectfully and began to think hard.

Li Yuanqing couldn't help but smile.

This model, which is similar to a pyramid scheme, has not experienced the baptism of the information explosion era in later generations. How could Niu Gensheng react to it for a while?

The reason why Li Yuanqing wanted to 'dump' money like this was also the result of careful consideration.

If we follow the normal regulations, if Li Yuanqing wants to establish his intelligence system in Nanyang, he will not even think about it in ten or eight years!

Moreover, the Chinese are actually very conspicuous in the Nanyang region. If they are not careful, they can easily become victims of these white-haired monkeys who "kill chickens to scare the monkeys."

Spending a lot of money to build such an intelligence chain is really not worth the gain.

As for the idle white people, second-rate men, sailors, retired soldiers, and officers in the Nanyang region, there are simply countless of them. Eight to nine times out of ten, these people are not doing well!

This~~, isn’t this the cheapest labor force?

It's like a pyramid scheme, one is the second generation, the second generation is the fourth, and it continues to the unlimited power.

Even though they are Li Yuanqing's intelligence system, they can also act as Li Yuanqing's 'headhunters', helping Li Yuanqing find more real craftsmen with real talents and knowledge!

As for the money consumed, "earning according to work" and "paying in installments", isn't it easy for Li Yuanqing to get it?

However, although there are many merchants in Brunei, because most of them have limited abilities, only a few can eat Li Yuanqing's goods.

After working hard all day, in the evening, Guan Canghai came over to report to Li Yuanqing that throughout the day, the number of transactions reached nearly two thousand, but the transaction amount was only about 150,000 taels.

According to preliminary estimates, the gross profit of the Changshengying fleet is between 70,000 and 80,000 taels.

"General, Brunei is still too small! If we want to gain something here, I'm afraid it will be very difficult! If we want to make a lot of money, we are afraid we have to go to the Persian Gulf to try our luck as planned.

"I heard that some countries in the Indian Ocean are rich in various gemstones. If these treasures are shipped back to the Ming Dynasty, some people will definitely like them."

Guan Canghai smiled and said to Li Yuanqing.

At this time, from the time it went to sea to the present, the fleet basically only shipped goods, but did not purchase goods. The entire fleet, with nearly 20,000 people, was eating, drinking and eating every day without any production of its own. They all relied on purchases. This is absolutely incredible.

It’s not a small amount!

Li Yuanqing smiled: "What? Can't you bear your temper?"

Guan Canghai couldn't help but smile bitterly: "General, it's not that I can't bear my temper, it's just... ah! How should I put it? If things continue like this, I will always feel that I have no confidence in my humble position!"

Li Yuanqing smiled, took out a list from his pocket, and handed it to Guan Canghai.
To be continued...