Chapter 101: Maritime Business Operations (II)
After Huo Chong expressed his willingness to meet the Taoist priest, he felt something was wrong and quickly said that he could not go to Mount Laoshan to meet the Taoist priest. If the Taoist priest was interested in meeting him, Huo Chong would have to wait until next year to go to Mount Laoshan.
Feng Yukuan rolled his eyes when he heard this, "Brother Huo, are you looking down on Master Changxin?"
"No!" Huo Chong shook his head quickly. "If Master Changxin asks me why I don't go to Laoshan to pay him a visit, please tell Master Changxin that I can't take care of myself right now and just want to stay alive. When I recover, I will naturally go to pay a visit to Master Changxin."
"Brother Huo, what you said... is too difficult." Feng Yukuan sighed.
Huo Chong immediately took advantage of the situation and emphasized Li Daoqiong's matter again, "Li Daoqiong has already taken advantage of me and wants to tie up my master. So many scholars are supporting Li Daoqiong from behind. Do you think it's appropriate for me to go and pay my respects to the Taoist priest now?"
Feng Yukuan also frowned after hearing what Li Daoqiong did. After a moment, he said in confusion: "Li Daoqiong is so close to the scholars, what does he want to do?"
"Of course I want to get benefits from the people who have made contributions." Huo Chong gave a very natural explanation. Unexpectedly, Feng Yukuan shook his head repeatedly and expressed his opposition with a fierce attitude, "Brother Huo, are there people who can do both black and white things? Of course there are. You can do it."
Huo Chong felt a little unhappy when hearing this. Is this really the kind of person he is in Feng Yukuan's eyes?
Feng Yukuan didn't feel anything was wrong, and continued, "Brother Huo, no matter how much Li Daoqiong does, he is still a gangster. What he does in the white world is a legitimate business, and only business like Brother Huo's can be called a legitimate business."
"Well. And then what?" Huo Chong continued to ask.
Feng Yukuan frowned and shook his head slightly, "Why does Li Daoqiong do this for the gentry? What is he trying to achieve?"
This question also gave Huo Chong some new ideas. What exactly was Li Daoqiong trying to achieve? The last time Huo Chong interacted with Li Daoqiong, Huo Chong was holding a European broadsword and using swordsmanship to fight his way out of Li Daoqiong's place. Now sending someone to meet Li Daoqiong again was inappropriate no matter how you looked at it!
"Brother Huo, you have to send someone to meet Li Daoqiong." Feng Yukuan said decisively.
Huo Chong could only look up to Feng Yukuan, who could be called a "sea merchant" or simply a "smuggling leader". He really didn't know what Feng Yukuan was thinking.
"The underworld has its own rules. Li Daoqiong broke the rules. Of course, we brothers in the underworld have to ask him what he wants to do!" Feng Yukuan answered decisively.
Huo Chong felt that he had no interest in participating in such a gangster event, so he began to think about who could take on the responsibility of going there in his place. After much thought, he came up with two people. The first one was Huo Chong's eldest disciple, Qian Qing. Because he lost his mother at a young age and his family at a young age, this child's understanding of fighting was deep in his bones. The second one was Qian Qing's relative, Huo Chong's second disciple Yang Wangfu.
Yang Wangfu is the nephew of Yang Youfang, the leader of Baji Sect. This background allowed him to come into contact with many underworld brothers when he was a child. In the past two years of cooperation with Feng Yukuan, Yang Wangfu has been working for Huo Chong.
Just as he was thinking about who to send to deal with it, Feng Yukuan asked, "Brother Huo, don't you want to go?"
"Yes. I don't want to go."
"Brother Huo, you are so good at martial arts, you are the most suitable person to go."
"Brother Feng, what you are saying is that the brothers who eat the sea route are going to fight in a ring? I have always felt that everyone is willing to eat this route in order to make money."
Feng Yukuan couldn't help laughing when he heard this. He laughed so hard that Huo Chong showed an unhappy look. Feng Yukuan said with an expression that he didn't know whether to call aggressive or confident: "Brother Huo, if you really only want money, who would want to do this business?"
Huo Chong did not say anything more, but agreed with Feng Yukuan that he would be notified if there was a meeting with friends in the underworld. Huo Chong went to Hongshengzhai in Jinan. Boss Zhang here was dressed in a long gown and horse riding, looking like a shrewd businessman, and his conversation did not contain any hint of armed struggle.
This made Huo Chong feel relieved. This was the type of negotiating partner Huo Chong wanted. Boss Zhang of Hongshengzhai had been working with Huo Chong for a while. He went to Beijing three times a year, bringing Shandong specialties to Beijing and bringing Beijing specialties back. At least half of the "Shandong specialties" that the boss of Hongshengzhai brought were Huo Chong's new products.
After talking with Huo Chong for a while, Boss Zhang asked, "Master Huo, do you still have that candy?"
Huo Chong took out a small bamboo box from his arms and opened it to reveal the red and green translucent candies inside. Boss Zhang pinched a green candy and put it in his mouth, and his face immediately wrinkled slightly. After tasting it for a while, he sighed with some pleasure: "It's sour and comfortable."
"Of course." Huo Chong answered proudly. In order to produce a more delicious fruit acid, he had already used several hundred kilograms of hawthorn in his experiments. If all the technicians had not defected, Huo Chong would have believed that he had once again mastered a technology that was temporarily irreplaceable.
Just like the core of sorghum malt is maltose with some sorghum flavor, there are many people who can make sorghum maltose in this era, and many craftsmen make maltose that is even better than Huo Chong. But if the full score is 100, Huo Chong's maltose is a product with 80 points for taste, 110 points for cheapness, 120 points for yield, and 130 points for shelf life.
In order to achieve this effect, a simple sorghum candy contains seven or eight technologies that are beyond this era. The important raw materials are taken from a wide range of areas from the seaside to the mountains. The key materials are all produced by Huo Chong himself.
Huo Chong really didn't take those glutinous rice makers seriously, as they only sourced their materials from a few miles around and at most got some glutinous rice .
"Mr. Huo, it will be okay for a pregnant woman to eat this, right?" Boss Zhang asked carefully.
Huo Chong first put a green sour candy into his mouth, and then said: "Anyway, those of us who can't get pregnant will be fine if we eat it."
Boss Zhang was stunned for a moment, then Huo Chong made him laugh out loud. Huo Chong laughed a few times, but he was not happy.
What Boss Zhang said was totally out of line. Who the hell would deliberately make candies that would cause harm to pregnant women? Isn't this courting death? On second thought, Huo Chong felt that something was wrong. What kind of person was Boss Zhang planning to sell the candies to?
If ordinary people eat candy, they will eat it as long as everyone else is eating it. Even if something happens after eating candy, they will not blame the candy for it.
But this originally normal principle becomes abnormal when it comes to those powerful families. Those families will try every possible means to shirk their responsibilities.
If a rich person swallows a piece of candy and immediately has diarrhea half a minute later, the responsibility will be put on the candy. It doesn't make sense.
Thinking of this, Huo Chong answered decisively: "Why don't we sell this to the common people in the capital? If we send it to the rich families like a treasure, can we afford it if something goes wrong?"
