Especially the crystal clear glass products, the zodiac animals, tiger, rat, rabbit, horse and ox are all lifelike.
Once such good things are put on sale, any one of them can be sold for a high price, which will also earn him a lot of money.
But no matter how good he was, when it was finally over and he saw the person in charge of the auction handing over a million taels of silver, he was still shocked at that moment.
He was shocked at the time, but after leaving Chen's auction house, Huang Yuliang thought of a countermeasure. Your business tax here is heavy, right? Then I won’t sell in your Ming Dynasty territory. What can you do to me?
When he thought that whether he sent it to the Qing army or to Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong, he would not have to pay a tael of silver in commercial tax, he had a smile on his face again.
But this smile soon disappeared when he returned to Huang's shop. Taxation officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs came to him and wanted to collect taxes on the grain sold in the past few days.
In the past few days, Huang's Grain Store has still sold some grain, especially for some powerful people. The price of grain has only increased three times, which is nothing to them. All grains sold are registered and recorded, which is also convenient for the owner to audit the accounts in the future.
The tax collection officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs came, got the account books, and started collecting taxes from Huang's Grain Shop based on the sales in the past few days.
The tax collection ratio was naturally based on 20% of the tax. When the housekeeper Huang Ran took out the money and handed it over, his eyes were filled with distress. After dealing with these official duties, he trotted to the backyard and began to complain to his master.
"Okay, haven't you seen that even the killing god's property has been taxed heavily at 20%? What else do we care about?" Although Huang Yuliang was also angry in his heart, he had no solution at this time.
Without it, today the auction house directly paid a million taels of tax in front of everyone. That was one million taels, compared to the fact that they only paid less than ten thousand taels this time, so what does it count?
In comparison, what I paid was not much, but the money was handed over in vain, and anyone else would be displeased.
Then he thought that he still had so much food in his hands, and he was afraid that he would have to pay taxes later. At this moment, Huang Yuliang couldn't stop cursing Zhu Changwu in his heart.
This so-called New Deal was created by Zhu Changwu and then implemented by Zhang Yi. At the beginning, he thought this was an opportunity for him, especially since the goods had to be handed over to the market and their pricing power was also given to their merchants. At that time, he praised Zhu Changwu for his vision.
Now it seems that the other party is more ruthless than me.
"Master, are we still selling our grain?" Huang Ran ran out of ideas, looked at Huang Yuliang and asked for instructions.
"Sell, why not sell? Our food prices are so high, we can still make money even after paying taxes." Huang Yuliang said in an affirmative tone. Anyway, paying more taxes also proves that he earns more. He wants to see what tricks Zhu Changwu and Zhang Xi can come up with next.
Huang Yuliang thought he was sure to win, but don't forget that his grain shop incurs costs every day it is open. If the grain sold in one day is extremely limited, then after deducting the cost and paying taxes, it will be There's really nothing left.
Of course, if there is always a shortage of food in the capital, he can still make money. After all, people are made of iron rice but not steel. If they don't eat one meal, they will starve. Hard currencies such as grain can be sold at a higher price in more troubled times.
But how could Zhu Changwu not think of this and follow his third move.
Just after the Huang family and some grain stores in the capital had just collected a wave of commercial taxes, rumors spread in the city that the Ming army had defeated the intruders and captured a lot of them. of food.
The news spread first, and then trucks of food began to be transported from outside the city to the city.
I don’t know if it was because I was in a hurry, but when the grain truck entered the city and entered the busiest street, a grain truck overturned on the ground, and the white rice appeared in the sight of many people.
When he saw that there was a big letter "Li" on the grain bags, Huang Ran, who was crowded in the crowd, panicked and trotted back to the grain shop, and found his master Huang Yuliang again.
"Seized grain? These thieves are really useless." After learning the news, Huang Yuliang couldn't help but curse out loud.
But scolding is enough, this is already a fact and cannot be changed. What he is eager to know now is how much food the Ming army got this time. This is the most important thing. "In this case, you go check it out right away. Don't be afraid of spending money. We just want the results, and they have to be fast."
"Don't worry, sir, I understand." Huang Ran agreed and then turned around and trotted away.
The victory of the Ming army in this battle was indeed due to the seizure of some grain from the intruders on the battlefield, but the amount was not very large, that is, about 30,000 to 40,000 shi. In addition to the grain left in the original treasury, the total amount could be mobilized by Zhu Changwu. He only had 50,000 shi of food.
Fifty thousand shi of food is a lot, but if we want to solve the stomach problems of the nearly two million people in the entire capital, it is obvious that the gap is still too big.
It doesn't matter, there is insufficient food and grass to scrape together.
Every night, after the curfew in the capital, trucks of grain will be transported out of the city again. The grain left in the Daming Department Store in the city, except for the upper layer, is filled with straw, unless someone can open the bag to check. , otherwise, there seems to be no problem on the outside.
Zhu Changwu played the trick of building plank roads openly and crossing Chencang secretly. Just like in the early days of the Three Kingdoms, when Dong Zhuo led his troops into the city, the cavalry would enter the city during the day and go out quietly at night. Uninformed people saw Xiliang cavalry entering the city every day, so they thought there were more cavalry and successfully frightened them. Some people want to resist.
After Zhang Yi got the strategy given by Zhu Changwu, he also played the same trick. During the day, cartloads of grain entered the city and were put on sale at the Daming Department Store. The price was the same as before, two liang and one stone.
At night, the grain brought in during the day will be quickly shipped out of the city, leaving only rice bags filled with grass.
This was repeated for three consecutive days, with about 40,000 shi of food entering the city every day. The original food shortage in the city was completely suppressed because of Zhang Yi's actions.
Not to mention, there are rumors that the price of food is likely to fall in the future, and that the general Zhu Changwu is in urgent need of money. If the food is not sold now, once the external food arrives in the capital, Then these grains will probably be thrown into the hands. In the coming year, they will have to be sold as old grains, and the price will only become cheaper.
It was a helpless move to release this news. Otherwise, there would only be 50,000 stones in total. If the people went crazy and grabbed it, they wouldn't be able to sustain it for long. However, once news of price cuts spreads, smart people will not be so active. As long as they buy enough food for the time being, they will wait and wait to buy food when the price becomes cheaper.
Another advantage of doing this is that it can put more pressure on grain merchants such as Huang Yuliang.
Huang Ran had already returned after inquiring about the news. He spent a lot of money to ask several centurions of the Ming Army who had just been promoted, and learned from their mouths that a lot of food had indeed been captured on the battlefield this time. They don't know the exact amount, but there should always be three or four hundred thousand stones.
These people would say that Zhu Changwu revealed the information in advance to prevent someone from coming to inquire about the information.
Huang Ran didn't know this. When he heard that there were 340,000 shi of food, he was frightened and ran back to see Huang Yuliang without saying a word.
After getting the news, Huang Yuliang was also anxious, but he didn't want to let go of an opportunity to make a lot of money. He was still thinking about whether he could buy all the grain in Daming Department Store. In this way, his pressure It's a bit bigger, but after all the food is in his hands, he has the power to re-price it.
But before he could raise funds to do this, there was news that the price of grain would continue to drop. It was said that grain merchants outside the capital had already known that the city of Beijing was safe, and now someone was preparing to send money here. Selling food.
Well, as soon as the new news arrived, Huang Yuliang became completely honest. He was afraid that his new grain would turn into old grain and become even less valuable. In desperation, he had no choice but to reduce the price, and the price was even cheaper than that of Daming Department Store.
The price of food has indeed dropped, and the people who got the news were naturally very happy. They walked to Huang's grain shop one by one, with smiles on everyone's faces.
For ordinary people, the cost of living has dropped, which is the best news. As for other things, what does it have to do with them.
Seeing so many people flocking to his grain shop to buy grain, Huang Ran became happy. But the joy did not last long, and news came that the food from other places was less than a hundred miles away from the capital. It was expected to arrive in a few days, and the price of food in the Daming Department Store was 10% cheaper.
When they heard that the food in Daming Department Store was cheaper than here, the people who bought food regretted it, and the people who didn't buy food became less anxious. They want to see if the price will continue to drop. If this is the case, won't they suffer a big loss if they buy it now?
Huang Ran hurriedly went to ask Huang Yuliang for instructions. In order to sell the grain earlier, Huang's grain store reduced the price by another 20%, which was 10% lower than the grain in Daming Department Store. This price is almost the same as the price at which Huang collected grain before.
At this time, Huang Yuliang no longer thought about making money from it, as long as he didn't lose money this time.
He never thought that the intruders would be defeated so miserably and that they would abandon so much food to the Ming army.
Er did not expect that the grain merchants outside had such good noses that they would react so quickly.
