In the afternoon, in the east city of Yecheng, the neighborhoods where restaurants gathered were filled with a faint fragrance of wine, and there were shouts one after another, "This restaurant has newly arrived American peppers! There are enough for a lot of people!" The gluttons who were preparing to eat stopped.

American peppers are many times more spicy than dogwood. Since peppers came to the Central Plains last year, they are widely popular among diners in various places, and Yecheng is no exception.

Many people will cry when eating chili peppers, which are as spicy as it is burnt. Then they will never forget them. When eating common spicy seasonings such as dogwood, they no longer feel spicy. Therefore, if the restaurants and wine shops in Yecheng can provide sufficient supply of chili peppers, they can ensure that the business is booming.

However, peppers are not native to Central China. Therefore, last year, the peppers in the restaurants and restaurants in Yecheng were extremely limited, and only a few could continue to supply peppers. Others could only watch these businesses boom but had no choice but to do anything.

However, each restaurant and winery can buy a small amount of pepper seeds and you can grow your own peppers. Therefore, after a year of cultivation and each family has invested heavily in a warm room to cultivate, this year, there has been a relatively high supply of peppers in Yecheng.

Even so, it still cannot meet the strong demand of diners. Fortunately, a new batch of American peppers has arrived.

Liu Er, who held a banquet to entertain guests in the Wuweizhai Yecheng branch, talked about the American peppers that arrived this year in the third floor private room.

"Several ships with ten thousand hu of sea boats, filled with peppers, arrived in Luzon across thousands of miles, and then to Fanyu. As a result, half of the goods were stopped by Nanshi. The scene was extremely hot. If you don't know, you thought Nanshi was an open fire."

"Everyone knows that the climate in Lingnan is damp and hot, so we need to eat some spicy food to remove dampness. Now that we have good things like chili, the people of Lingnan must be inseparable from it. However, they only started planting last year. The yield is not enough, so we can only rely on imported American peppers to help."

"This is the case in Lingnan, and the same is true for the two lakes, so the peppers that can be transported to Yecheng are not easy to get. However, in a few years, the area of ​​pepper planting in various parts of the Central Plains will not be so embarrassing."

Everyone here actually doesn't care whether the peppers are enough, because they have peppers grown in the heating rooms of their homes, which can be self-sufficient. However, the topics that everyone is interested in are related to peppers, so they asked:

"Brother Liu, then, what will the American chiefs do to trade with Beisi in the future?"

Liu Er did not shy away from anything and directly replied: "Of course it's real money."

His direct answer made the guests who were planning to indirectly strike amaze, and then his eyes became eager. The man said again: "This...that rumor...is it true?"

Liu Er drank a cup of tea and said, "Really, the Native Americans don't know what's going on. They seem to be unable to smel iron, agricultural tools, and weapons are basically made of stone. It is said that although there are metal products, they are used as accessories. I really don't know what they are thinking about."

"However, iron smelting is not good, and it is easy to smelter gold and silver. The gold and silver accumulated over generations are not small."

"The Beishi's expedition team uses iron tools to deal with the other party. The other party has not much valuable things, so they can simply exchange real money or wait for the exchange. If you have heard this for the first time, can you believe it?"

After hearing this, the others were still a little unbelievable, and questions emerged one after another: "Then, is this really a use of iron for gold and silver?"

"Are Native Americans really descendants of the Shang Dynasty?"

"They don't have iron tools. How do they chop wood on weekdays? How do they kill enemies? Are stone tools really useful?"

There are many questions, but Liu Er is calm and answers them one by one.

He is a well-informed person and has a very reliable source of information. After all, as the "manager" of the Xiangzhou Branch of Rixingchang Bank, Liu Er cannot do it if his credit is not good.

Beishi (Beiyang Trading Company) is now organizing a team to explore America thousands of miles away, establishing strongholds, opening up new routes, and establishing connections with many local indigenous tribes. These things are gradually becoming familiar to everyone.

Corn and pepper are "fresh fruits" transported by Beishi from America, but for many people, the biggest attraction of America is not strange flowers and plants, but gold and silver.

According to the news that everyone heard from different channels, it is said that the Native Americans are very rich, and the chiefs wear gold and silver, and their places are all golden.

At the same time, Native Americans were very poor, with no clothes covering their bodies and lacked anything, and few tools and weapons were made of metal.

Therefore, these indigenous tribes, suspected to be survivors of the Shang Dynasty, were like beggars holding golden bowls to beg.

Since you are so poor that you can't eat enough, the golden rice bowl is not valuable to beggars. Beisi's team can exchange the gold and silver (equal weight) in the hands of the other party with glass beads, iron knives, even iron scissors and iron needles that are commonly seen in the Central Plains.

Such a ridiculous thing may be a fact, which made many rich people who heard the rumors gradually unable to sit still.

The rumors are naturally not random.

It is summer now, and in the early summer, a fleet of fleets returned from the Americas. More than ten ship-sized fleets brought back a large number of American specialties, including chili peppers, and gold and silver.

How much gold and silver is brought back by the fleet? Under normal circumstances, outsiders cannot know it, but because of the large number of members of the fleet, various news naturally spread, including the amount of gold and silver.

No matter what amount of gold and silver brought back by the fleet, what everyone can confirm is that the gold and silver brought back to the court by Beishi through "iron exchange for gold and silver" is not a small amount.

The American trade that was not favored by everyone before may become prosperous.

If Beishi was the best silk, porcelain and various high-quality products exchanged for gold and silver from the Native Americans, no matter how envious they were, they would not be too shocked. After all, Beishi had exchanged silver from Japan through trade.

However, Beishi used ordinary iron tools to exchange gold and silver, or wait for the exchange. Such a strong contrast made many people eager to move: When will Beishi raise funds publicly and expand its trade with the Americas?

The style of trading in Liangyang Trading Company is to make money together and never eat alone. The problem is that when Beishi explored the Americas of the far east, because the profit prospects were dim, many people were on the wait-and-see attitude when they continued to invest in the expedition team.

Later, there was news that the emperor paid for the adventure out of his own pocket, and many people were a little shaken, but they still did not dare to be too optimistic.

Now, everyone regrets it: it turns out that there is indeed good things in the extreme east.

For example, chili peppers, which appeared in the Central Plains last year, were sparse in the number of chili peppers, so only those who invested in the American adventure can get chili peppers as soon as possible.

As soon as chili peppers appear, traditional spicy plants such as dogwood, the fruits are instantly outdated, and those restaurants that have launched dishes with chili as seasonings have their thresholds broken by diners.

There is also corn, which is said to be drought-resistant and can be planted in the mountains. However, somehow, the imperial court did not promote it, but instead "breed" first.

But no matter how good the pepper and corn are, they cannot be compared with gold and silver.

Everyone here today has heard the rumors and thought carefully that if the Native Americans were indeed survivors of the Shang Dynasty, it would be natural for the other party to not smelify iron. It is said that since the demise of the Shang Dynasty, it has been said that these survivors have mined gold and silver for generations in the Americas, and they have accumulated a large amount.

So, before these "fools" came to their senses, everyone quickly exchanged the gold and silver in the other party's hands with iron. It was a transaction that was dozens of times profitable. If they couldn't catch up, they would regret it.

So many people began to inquire about insider information and wanted to know when Beisi would publicly raise funds, so everyone would be ready early.

Liu Er understood this behavior very well. He had a special mission to invite several people to a party today: his secret boss issued an order to spread the "good news" of a bright future for American trade (including gold and silver trading) to the rich.

"Don't be anxious. As far as Liu knows, this transaction is not a transaction that needs to be done for a long time. Beisi is now negotiating with the local chief and intends to come up with technology to allow the existing local gold and silver mines to adopt the Central Plains smelting method to produce more gold and silver."

"At the same time, we must send an exploration team to explore the veins locally to see if we can find new gold and silver veins, and then cooperate with the local chief to mine gold and silver."

"So, this American gold and silver transaction can be carried out for many years. Just like in Japan, don't be anxious, there will always be a chance to take a sailboat."

"Beijing will inevitably raise funds, gather more people and ships to operate in the Americas. If you despise the business, you will inevitably launch new financial projects and financial management projects related to Americas trade. So if you are interested, you can raise funds first and wait for the time to be ripe."

Liu Er has a dual identity. His "open" identity is the branch manager of Nixingchang Bank, and his other identity is the court hawk and a spy from the emperor. Therefore, he often uses his open identity to do things within his ability to serve the court according to the instructions of his secret boss.

Of course, what he said now is not a lie, because even if what he said is not all the truth, at least eight out of ten sentences are true.

The imperial court itself did not have the extra financial resources to carry out American trade, and the Beiyang Trading Company was also unable to do so, so it had to raise private funds to develop American trade faster and better, and exchange gold and silver with local natives.

Therefore, we must spread this kind of positive news as much as possible, and first "warm up" it. Only when the Beiyang Trading Company really starts raising funds will it have the effect of "one call and one hundred responses".

Such "warming up" requires "support" to help and flatter, and when it comes to flattery, Liu Er has great skills.

Back then, he was a famous "idle" in Xiyang City, and he specially brought wealthy people to eat, drink and have fun, so that the other party would be willing to spend money.

In a blink of an eye, almost thirty years have passed. Rixingchang Guifang, which was established in Xiyang, has now been upgraded to a "bank". The idle gangs of that year have naturally become well-known figures.

His ability to praise has become more and more perfect, but he used to solicit business for various restaurants, restaurants, and fame. Now, he is soliciting business for Nixingchang Bank and Beiyang Trading Company.

Of course, the guests here didn't know that this was a secret agent, but were happy with the news that Liu Er revealed.

Everyone thinks that no matter how many strange flowers and plants in the Americas are, their value may not be as valuable as gold and silver. However, whether the native Americans are survivors of the Shang Dynasty or not, they have reproduced there for many years. As long as there are gold (silver) mines within their sphere of influence, it is equivalent to a chicken that lays gold (silver) eggs.

If you encounter a chicken that lays golden eggs, killing the chicken to retrieve eggs is the stupidest way to do business. It is best to find a way to keep the chicken in a cage and then obtain the golden eggs regularly, just like planting a money tree in your own backyard.

Therefore, the essence of American trade is probably to exchange handicraft products from the Central Plains for gold and silver in the hands of the indigenous people. So, if there is any exploration team that needs funding, everyone must invest.

However, everyone did not know much about America before, and only knew that the sea routes were at least 50,000 or 60,000 miles back and forth. Just listening to it made people feel far away. Not many people were willing to know more, so now the idea of ​​trading in America was to have a dark eye.

In this regard, Liu Er, who was well prepared, took the return of the fleet as an example and began to explain: "Of course, you have to use the wind to achieve the route of 50,000 or 60,000 miles back and forth, so the American route cannot be taken at any time."

"Go, we must be in the late spring and early summer; when we come back, we must also be in the late spring and early summer. On the one hand, we can smooth the ocean currents, and on the other hand, we can avoid the frequent sea storms in the summer and autumn. After all, once we encounter storms in the vast ocean, we cannot hide..."

As he spoke, Liu Er began to reveal "insider information" again: "Don't think that American trade only has the only way to make profits such as the Central Plains products for gold and silver. You should know that there are good resources in the local area... Do you know that the local natives like to sacrifice people, oh, that's really a sin..."

When the guests heard the "human sacrifice", they heard Liu Er sighing about "doing evil", and they all came to their spirits: "Brother Liu, how do you say this?"

"I also heard from the people of Beishi that the indigenous tribes in the Americas continued to conquer each other, and then the defeated people became prisoners, and the end was very miserable."

"When something happens, such as drought and rain, such as floods caused by too much rain, or plagues, or during festivals, the local chief will treat the prisoners as humans and kill them to sacrifice to heaven."

"For example, now, the expedition team is doing business with the local chief, and iron tools are exchanged for gold and silver. After the transaction is completed, the chief chief is in a good mood, so he killed a few slaves as a way to cheer him up."

"Look, I always use human sacrifices. Is this tune similar to the pre-Qin and Shang dynasties?"

When people present heard this, they couldn't help but be amazed, because there was a saying before that the Native Americans were probably survivors of the Shang Dynasty, so there were people who were a habit of worshiping. Now, after Liu Er said this, everyone felt that the Native Americans were really closely related to the Central Plains.

Everyone is smart. I know that Liu Er talks about this kind of "interesting news" and it is not just a simple chat, so someone thought of something: "Brother Liu, is this Beisi still planning to do a business with raw words?"

Liu Er nodded: "That's not the case. So many young and strong people were killed in vain. It's a waste. It's a good deal to exchange iron products for slaves."

The man asked again: "But, but I'm afraid I'm going to lose money when I came back from Yunmei Shengkou."

"Who said he wanted to transport it back? Hehe, there are a lot of wastelands in the North American stronghold opened by the Beishi. Is it not good to directly transfer slaves to open up land? These natives are not well fed or worn or warm on weekdays, and have never seen the world. As long as they eat and drink well and wear clothes, they will work for us wholeheartedly."

"Think about it, instead of traveling thousands of miles from Central Plains to North America to open land, it is better to sell slaves from Central America and open land in North America nearby. If iron ore is opened, it will be smelted into iron products and sold directly to Central America. That is much more convenient than transporting iron from Central Plains to far away."

"I think that in the next ten years, the American trade will inevitably be prosperous and the future is endless!"
Chapter completed!