Chapter 807 Foreign Trade!

However, because the impact of the arms smuggling case some time ago was so great, even though they heard the introduction of the City Defense Bureau, Sun Taihai, Zhang Chengzhe and others also checked it personally and confirmed that the weapons in the secret room were all homemade in the local workshop before they felt relieved····························
Looking at Zhao Jigang, the captain of the City Defense Department in front of him, Sun Taihai asked in a deep voice:
"Do you know where this Deng Gao came from and his background?"

Facing Sun Taihai's question, Zhao Jigang hesitated for a moment before saying:
"This Deng Gao seems to have served in the military, but I don't know the details!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Taihai asked again:

"Then how did your City Defense Department discover this gambling house today?"

In response to this question, Zhao Jigang said without hesitation:
"We received a report from a merchant named Wang Zhengzai three days ago. According to Wang Zhengzai himself, he was a regular customer of this gambling house and lost more than 300 taels of silver in Deng Gao's gambling house. Later, he found out that the reason he lost was because Deng Gao and others had set up a trap to trick him!"

"He was upset and went to talk to Deng Gao about it, but Deng Gao not only refused to listen to him, but also beat him up severely, breaking two of his ribs and threatening him not to cause trouble for him. He felt aggrieved so he asked his eldest son to report to the city defense department!"

Sun Taihai nodded slightly when he heard this and then asked:
"Where is this Wang Zhengzai now?"

Zhao Ji thought for a moment and then said:
“This Wang Zhengzai’s family has some money. They own a two-story courtyard on Donglin Street…”

After asking these questions, Sun Taihai asked Zhao Jigang about other situations, and then took over the case from Zhao Jigang.

If this case was as simple as an underground gambling house, then the City Defense Department and the Censorate would naturally follow up on it. However, because it involves weapons, especially firearms, the problem is much more serious. According to the laws of the Fengwu Army, intelligence departments like the General Coordination Office need to intervene!
After taking over the investigation of the case from the City Defense Bureau, Sun Taihai immediately gave instructions to his men behind him:

"Bring all these gamblers, thugs, and craftsmen back to the coordination office. Interrogate each of them to see what they know!"

"Yes!"

After explaining all this, Sun Taihai turned his gaze to his most valued subordinate Zhang Chengzhe and said:

"What do you think about this matter?"

Zhang Chengzhe heard this and a strange look flashed in his eyes. He said in a low voice:
"There must be something wrong with the City Defense Department!"

Sun Taihai was not surprised at all, but asked calmly:
“How come you see?”

Zhang Chengzhe continued:
"I just did a quick count and found that there are more than 80 gamblers captured. The daily turnover is estimated to be at least hundreds of taels of silver. Underground gambling houses of this scale are rare in Yijing. I think this gambling house has been open for at least a year!"

“Yijing is the place that enforces the licensing system most resolutely. The City Defense Department and the Censorate conduct very strict inspections. A gambling house of this scale should not be completely unaware of the situation…”

"And judging from what happened to Wang Zhengzai, this shouldn't be the first time Deng Gao and his gang have done something like this. Perhaps most people were frightened by him and didn't dare to report to the police, but there must be someone who wanted to report this gambling house. However, this gambling house has been able to operate safely until now, so I think there must be a protective umbrella behind him!"

After hearing Zhang Chengzhe's analysis, Sun Taihai nodded in agreement. As a captain of the Coordination Office, he had rich work experience. He had dealt with many cases like these involving illegal gambling houses and brothels. All these cases had one thing in common, that is, they involved gangs and evil!

As for the evil gangs, the Fengwu Army has carried out severe crackdowns on them many times in the past few years, which has greatly improved people's livelihood and public security. However, it cannot be said that the Fengwu Army has eliminated all the evil gangs. A very small number of ruffians have corrupted the officials of the Fengwu Army through money and beauty, making the officials their umbrellas and a community of interests!

These illegal gambling houses and brothels are most likely protected by protective umbrellas, and the main task of the City Defense Department is to maintain public security. Therefore, in many similar cases in the past, many people in the City Defense Department were part of the protective umbrellas. For their own interests, even if orders were given from above, they would disobey them in secret.

And according to what Zhao Jigang said just now, they came to seal up the property as soon as they received the report, which is somewhat abnormal based on past experience. There is only one answer to this situation, and that is that Deng Gao’s protection umbrella failed to suppress this matter·································

After thinking for a while, Sun Taihai instructed Zhang Chengzhe:

"Zhang Chengzhe, go investigate the City Defense Department, especially the recent appointments and dismissals of officials there!"

Zhang Chengzhe nodded and said:

"Understood, sir! Leave this matter to me!"

After handing the matter over to Zhang Chengzhe, Sun Taihai watched the spies from the Coordination Office push the suspects into the prison van one by one, and his heart fell into deep thought.

The reason why he was sure that there was a protective umbrella behind this illegal gambling house, in addition to his work experience and logic, was also because he got some information from Zhao Jigang just now!
When answering his own questions just now, Zhao Jigang was generally very fluent and did not think too much. However, when answering his own questions about Deng Gao's background, he hesitated and thought about it. In the end, he reluctantly answered himself that he knew Deng Gao had been a soldier, but he was not sure about other answers! This is the first interesting point that Sun Taihai thinks. Of course, judging that there is a problem based on this point may be a bit too subjective!

But the problem is not just this one. Sun Taihai has checked all the swords, guns, armor and firearms found in the secret room. When handling cases in the past, it was normal for these scoundrels on the ground to wield swords, guns, sticks and clubs, and it was not worthy of much attention····························
But armor and firearms are different. These things are relatively high in technical content, and Sun Taihai has just checked them. Although these armors and three-barreled guns were produced in a local workshop, the quality is not low, and the style is not surprisingly imitating the equipment of the Yan army at that time.

What did Deng Gao want to do by making this kind of thing? Where did he get the method to make these things?
As soon as he thought of these two questions, Sun Taihai felt the smell of conspiracy, so the most important task now was to investigate Deng Gao’s specific identity background, who he was interacting with, and whether he had a gang or a boss!
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Ye Mansion, in the study
Su Yi, who had just taken office as the deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau, came to Ye Mingsheng's study under the guidance of Ye Cheng. Seeing Ye Mingsheng sitting on the chair waiting for him, he hurried forward and bowed to greet him. In order to save precious time, Ye Mingsheng also asked directly:
"What do you have to report to me?"

Because she was reporting directly to Ye Mingsheng, Su Yi was still a little nervous. She adjusted her breathing before speaking:
"Marshal Jiangnan sent us a letter five days ago informing us that Jiangnan will raise the tariff on our Fengwu Army's products by another 20%!"

"This is the third time they have raised our tariffs this year. If this policy is implemented this time, we estimate that we will lose 270,000 taels of silver a year!"

Hearing this, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but frowned slightly and said:
"What is our current trade surplus with Jiangnan?"

Su Yi thought for a moment and said:
"In the past year, Jiangnan purchased civilian goods from us with an added value of about 1.3 million taels of silver, and arms trade was about 1.7 million taels. We also purchased silk, tea and other materials from Jiangnan, spending about 300,000 taels of silver, so the trade surplus is about 2.7 million taels of silver!"

After saying this, Su Yi said:
“Because our arms trade with Jiangnan is about to end, and Jiangnan has been raising tariffs on us, the trade surplus for next year is estimated to be only 700,000 taels of silver. If Jiangnan continues to raise tariffs, the trade surplus will be even less…”

Upon hearing this, Ye Mingsheng's expression became extremely serious. In the past, the Fengwu Army and Jiangnan were separated by Gao Zongchang, Xu Zhaojie, Cao Changping and others, and the Fengwu Army posed no threat to Jiangnan.

In addition, in order to guard against Xu Zhaojie's covetousness, Jiangnan wanted to obtain firearms from the Fengwu Army, so they were very friendly to the Fengwu Army. Not only did they give the Fengwu Army an arms contract worth nearly two million taels of silver, but they also gave the Fengwu Army preferential trade policies. These preferential trade policies also ensured that the Fengwu Army could obtain huge profits from Jiangnan.

The silver from Jiangnan was an important support for him to frequently launch foreign wars in the past. Otherwise, the financial resources of Youyan and Liaoyang would not have been able to sustain him for long.

As the Fengwu Army defeated the Luoan court in Yunbing and invaded Qi, Lu, Anqing, Huainan and other places one after another, Lu Jianchao, aware of the threat, gradually tightened his trade policy towards the Fengwu Army.

To be honest, Ye Mingsheng had anticipated this situation. After all, although Lu Jianchao had no intention of external expansion, he still had a strong desire for self-preservation and independence. He had always wanted to maintain the existing power structure, so he was still very resistant to the Fengwu Army, which had already shown a trend of unification!
Ye Mingsheng has always sneered at Lu Jianchao's little tricks. The world nowadays is like sailing against the current, if you don't move forward, you will fall behind!

If you always make no effort to make progress and only think about protecting yourself and seeking peace, you will be swallowed up by others sooner or later. What's more, Jiangnan is the richest province in the world. It is a big fat meat that everyone wants to take a bite of...

Although he did not agree with Lu Jianchao's idea, Ye Mingsheng was still happy to see it come to fruition. After all, with Jiangnan's financial resources, if he really wanted to expand outward, it would be a bit troublesome for the Fengwu Army, which was determined to unify the world, to deal with it.

Although he was very dissatisfied with Lu Jianchao's practice of continuously increasing tariffs, Ye Mingsheng also knew that unless the Fengwu Army was at the gates of the city and used force to force Lu Jianchao to change his mind, otherwise, out of fear of the Fengwu Army, Lu Jianchao would not change his mind about increasing tariffs!

In the past period of time, the silver from Jiangnan once accounted for half of the total financial revenue of Fengwu Army. Now that this silver is gone, it will indeed have a significant negative impact on the finances of Fengwu Army. Fortunately, the reforms in Qilu and Hebei and Henan have begun to show results, and it will soon be time to reap the rewards, and then this gap can be filled!

Even so, Ye Mingsheng still asked Su Yi unwillingly:
"I have told you to plan ahead and build connections with overseas customers. How are you doing?"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's question, Su Yi said with some shame:
“Marshal, after receiving your order, our Foreign Affairs Department has been working hard in this regard, but because Jiangnan has maintained trade channels with overseas customers for a long time, it is difficult for us to intervene in this area. So now we have negotiated some orders with overseas customers, but the trade volume is not large…”

At this point, Su Yi seemed to feel that she had overemphasized objective factors, so she quickly added:

"Of course, our efforts are not enough. Next, our Foreign Affairs Department will redouble its efforts in this regard to ensure the continued growth of our military's trade revenue!"

Hearing Su Yi's statement, Ye Mingsheng also looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze.

Although the Fengwu Army exported a large number of goods to Jiangnan, Jiangnan was not the main consumer of the goods. The businesses in Jiangnan mainly acted as middlemen, using their trade channels to sell the Fengwu Army's goods to various places overseas and make huge profits from it.

Regarding this trading model, Ye Mingsheng felt that the Dadongsheng Company could ignore the middlemen in Jiangnan and negotiate directly with overseas buyers to obtain more profits.

Although he was somewhat disappointed with Su Yi's work content, Ye Mingsheng decided to give him another chance and said in a deep voice:
"Can you tell me what the current situation in Jingchu is like?"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng change the subject, Su Yi felt relieved and continued:
“Reporting to the Marshal, the former Jingchu Inspector General Sun Liangyu has been confirmed to have been poisoned. After Xu Zhaojie and Wang Dayou joined forces, Sun Chenggong won battles one after another at the beginning, and was driven all the way to the city of Hanyang. However, Hanyang was the old nest of the Sun family that had been operating for many years, so the coalition forces of Xu Zhaojie and Wang Dayou have also been attacking hard but to no avail recently…”

(End of this chapter)