While some merchants in the capital were waiting for news, some were packing their bags, and some were moving south with their families, the presidents of the eight major industries including salt, grain, tea, iron, sugar, wine, cloth (silk), and porcelain.
As well as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the grain merchant Yu Songyi, the vice president, the salt merchant Ma Yongliang, and the tea merchant Fan Qiaozhi, as well as the little aunts from the special service industry, as well as the presidents of some newly added industries, were all kneeling outside the East Palace Courtyard. Been waiting for a long time.
For merchants who are not the president or vice-president of their own industry, they are not qualified to enter the palace. If they are unwilling to leave at this time, they can only wait for good news outside the palace.
Because the prince is summoning civil servants and generals to handle urgent border affairs, which is the top priority at the moment, even if they, low-status merchants, come, they can only kneel down and wait.
However, in order to show goodwill to the prince, the things that should be given had to be given out in advance. Each industry contributed 20,000 taels of silver. If it was not enough, more could be added.
"I have long understood your thoughts. You are simply worried about the defense of the capital. I am afraid that the capital will be attacked by the Donglu. All the property you have accumulated through hard work will be robbed by the Donglu. If you are unlucky, even the capital will be destroyed. The whole family will be affected. Therefore, I don’t care about those who took their families and fled south to seek refuge. After all, they are also thinking about their families. However, at the time of the national crisis, you not only did not leave, but also came to see you. A lot of money was presented. Naturally, I will not turn a blind eye to such an act of caring for the court. As for how to defeat the enemy, I believe that I have a sure chance of victory. The specific matter is related to military aircraft, so it is inconvenient to reveal anything to you here. However, how do outsiders imagine? It is not easy for me to stop you. When you came to the Queen's Residence, you also saw me. I and my mother are still in the palace. Whether the capital can be defended or not, you must weigh it in your hearts. At present, the court is short of money, so I There is no shortage in the palace, and I have lent millions of taels of silver to the Ministry of Finance for emergency purposes. Regarding your wishes, I will not accept them. But if someone insists on doing so, I will accept it with a smile, but I will accept it. It is not money, but materials or services. For example, if a grain merchant sells grain to the court, the court will purchase it in full at double the market price. The same is true for salt, tea, cloth, iron and other industries. In addition to grain, every For the time being, each industry is limited to presenting materials with a market price of one hundred thousand taels. You can go back and negotiate the specific share contributed by each merchant. If the consumption is too fast, I will notify you. This is one of them. Second, after the Donglu were repulsed and the king's army regained Liaodong, the markets in Liaodong and even western Liaoning could be divided up by merchants who had made significant contributions to the court. The merchants in the capital are currently the most powerful and the most contributors. By then, I will I will definitely never forget your contribution today. I cannot guarantee anything else. I can only promise you that if you follow me, you will make more and more money in the future and your life will be better and better. Betray me, Even those who commit treason and surrender to the enemy. Once caught, I don’t need to elaborate on the consequences, right? I believe that all of you who are here to see me today are loyal to the emperor and serve the country. Your desire to protect the Ming Dynasty is no worse than that of scholars, farmers, workers, soldiers and other classes. , I am very pleased with this. I have spoken to you many times about your words of encouragement, so I will not repeat them here. I have also explained to you the benefits brought by this just now. If anyone dares to collude with Donglu, inform Donglu, and secretly cooperate with Donglu to attack the city, don’t blame me for being ruthless!"
If you always ask businessmen to donate, it will really be a waste of money.
You can do it once or twice, but if you do it often, no one can bear it.
So this time a certain prince changed the donation to selling, and the court will purchase from various industries according to market prices.
Most of the purchased materials will be used as military supplies, so the quality and quantity must be guaranteed. If you cheat, you will be jailed.
The imperial court spent one million taels of silver at a time to purchase materials other than food, which was considered a rare and generous act.
Whoever hugged a certain prince's lap and invested a lot of money before will be able to enjoy huge returns now.
An industry worth one hundred thousand taels, as the president and vice president, they can account for at least half to 10%.
Li Shiwen, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, had to agree even if he didn't agree, because the daily consumption of an army of 100,000 alone was astonishing.
In order to preserve the power of counterattack, Jifu's various tribes plus the imperial court raised more than 20,000 war horses and pack horses.
The food intake of one horse is equivalent to five soldiers, which is equivalent to an army of more than 200,000 people including men and horses.
When the livestock of the officials, nobles, wealthy gentry, and common people around the capital and in the city were gathered together, just providing grain and grass to feed these four-legged things was enough to make Li Shiwen wait.
The merchants would definitely not be happy to buy it at the original price without saying anything, and they must be allowed to taste a little sweetness.
Purchasing supplies at twice the market price during wartime was considered a reasonable move, with neither party losing money.
Besides, he always takes advantage of the merchants and does not give certain benefits. Over time, a certain prince's character will automatically be compromised.
During his lifetime, a certain prince continued to make money based on his character...
"Your Highness is wise! Cao Min and others thank the Holy Grace. Don't dare to disobey. We will definitely do your best for Your Highness!"
The entire area outside the Pass, excluding the Monan area, has a population of over one million, and the market size is almost equivalent to the size of the capital city.
Although it is far inferior to those in Guanhai, especially in Jiangnan, Huguang, Guangdong and other regions, it is already a big gift just for the merchants in the capital to divide it up.
This gift cannot be received now, but there is a great chance that it can be received in the future.
The extremely smart prince had no excuse to "hunt south" to run away, which showed that the capital could still be defended.
Merchants are well-informed, but they are much smarter than ordinary people. If you can't figure this out, then you don't have to do the business at home.
For the time being, the merchants couldn't figure out the reason for the prince's behavior of not accepting cash but only buying goods, so they could only kowtow and agree.
Although the profit earned by supplying military supplies does not need to be larger than retail sales, it is the most important and valuable thing to gain a good reputation, especially to have a name with the prince.
After the prince supervised the country, the merchants could not help but play the pass game.
First, pay taxes in full, then purchase Zijin bonds, and then order overseas Jinshan shares. Now you have to provide military supplies. Only by participating every time can you develop a deeper sense of presence.
Participating even once less will make some businessmen feel that they are lagging behind others, and may be in a passive position in business competition in the future.
This is their pledge of support. They will not bleed out their heads, but if they lose their market share, cannot sell their goods, and cause the family to be ruined, it would be better to die.
For example, the grain merchant Yu Songyi, the salt merchant Ma Yongliang, and the tea merchant Fan Qiaozhi, who were regarded by their peers as the three major bastards in the capital's business, were the first to keep the crown prince's leg.
Nowadays, Yujia Grain Store has become Yu's Grain Co., Ltd., occupying more than 10% of the market share in the capital. The company has been selected by the Ministry of Household Affairs as one of the military grain suppliers.
This means that there is no need to worry about selling the grain, and you can also enjoy the benefits of unified purchasing and marketing. That is, the Ministry of Household Affairs will place the order first, and the Yu family will then transport the grain from the south of the Yangtze River. There is no need to worry about the backlog of insects.
Salt merchant Ma Yongliang did even better. After learning that the imperial court was vigorously building salt farms in the coastal areas of Shandong to dry sea salt, Ma Yongliang simply reduced the amount of purchases from Lianghuai salt merchants.
After understanding the quality of sea salt and trying it out for a period of time, I focused on sea salt. After a while, I finally gave up on Huai salt and purchased all sea salt for sale.
Due to its low manufacturing cost, sea salt does not need to be boiled and only needs to be dried for a long time to be finished, so it is naturally welcomed by ordinary people in the market.
It is perfect to use this thing to outshine peers. The first batch of sea salt produced by Shandong Salt Farm has arrived in the capital and is currently being tested.
Tea merchant Fan Qiaozhi’s family’s tea comes from Zhejiang and Southern Zhili. Due to the special nature of tea, the origin is almost impossible to change, and his family is not a local tea merchant with extensive tea gardens.
Anyone else would have to accept the control of upstream manufacturers honestly, otherwise they would be cut off from supply, but "incomparably kind" Fan Qiaozhi had already thought of a countermeasure.
This method is very simple and very vicious, that is, taking advantage of the opportunity of the reconciliation between the two parties, detain the other party's person and ledger, and then send it to the factory guard.
Since everyone had gained the stolen goods, and there were witnesses involved who were willing to testify, this move directly led to the three suppliers who had been supplying Fan Qiaozhi all year round having their homes confiscated by factory guards...
Fan Qiaozhi has nothing to do with them whether they die or not?
It would be better if the previous family died, and Fan Qiaozhi could just take over!
Relying on this method of cheating his teammates, Fan Qiaozhi directly controlled three tea gardens with a total area of tens of thousands of acres, and instantly became the leader among tea merchants in the Jiangnan region.
For this kind of "kind act", all the people who were cheated did not hate him, and all his colleagues scolded him. However, despite the scolding, his colleagues secretly regretted that they did not use this trick to trick Bai Lang earlier.
Fan Qiaozhi didn't care about others' evaluations of himself. He did not harm the interests of the court or the prince. Instead, he helped the prince lower the market price of tea and paid taxes in full, which was a great contribution.
The three of them are the president and vice-president of the Capital Chamber of Commerce. They are so "kind" and with the help of the prince, others cannot compete with them even if they want to interfere with them.
"Okay, that's all that needs to be said. You can make your own decision as to where to go. It's getting late, so you can go back to eat and rest. Fortunately, it's past the Mid-Autumn Festival and the weather has turned cooler, otherwise you and I would all be in trouble by now. Already feeding the mosquitoes!”
It's enough to give the merchants a general explanation. There is no need to tell them more in depth.
If you take refuge in pigtails, what awaits you in the future is sliced shabu-shabu hotpot!
If you support me, what awaits you in the future is a piece of cream cake!
The situation is already very clear. You are neither blind nor stupid. If you still can't see it, then there is no need to do anything and just go home and farm.
"Your Highness, I have something to say!"
"But it doesn't matter!"
"There are no goods in the slave shop and cannot be supplied..."
This is the famous little aunt - Zhou Xin'er. She really doesn't have any products to provide to the household department, so she can't send all the pretty and lovely ladies to Taicang.
"Oh! By the way, I almost forgot just now. Not only in your store, but also in your industry, you don't need to spend real money or buy goods on your behalf. You just need to make some vouchers. Go back and discuss your differences. The amount you can afford is enough. I have already talked about what a voucher is in class. If you listen carefully, you will understand. Your industry also spent one hundred thousand taels and made them into vouchers with a face value of five Ten taels, one hundred taels, two hundred taels, five hundred taels, and one thousand taels will be printed uniformly by the printing house, and an authorization seal will be stamped at that time. The function of this object is to reward the soldiers who have made meritorious service in defending the city, and use this to encourage the soldiers We fight bravely to kill the enemy, and I think we will get twice the result with half the effort! I will let you know how to describe the specific usage."
The little aunts and sisters all love Daming very much, and they will not be happy if they are not allowed to contribute.
A certain prince took advantage of the situation and asked the little aunt to get some practical vouchers as prizes for killing the enemy.
Under the guidance of a certain prince, the entertainment venues in the capital have become more and more sophisticated, which has also directly improved the consumption level.
Ordinary soldiers are determined not to have the money to spend, even officers at the rank of captain cannot afford it.
Even if they receive reward money and let them spend hundreds of taels of silver at a time, many people are reluctant to part with it.
So a certain prince who was considerate came up with this mutually beneficial method, which would receive fierce praise once it was announced.
"Your Highness is wise! I know the meaning of the voucher, so I will go back and prepare one hundred thousand taels of vouchers with my sisters!"
One hundred thousand taels may seem like a lot, but it depends on how you spend it. For example, if you go to the Beauty Gallery and the Beauty Gallery, a booth is worth twenty taels.
Counting drinks, snacks and other expenses, one fifty taels of silver disappeared. High-end consumption is so shocking.
During the siege of Donglu, other industries were allowed to increase prices, and entertainment venues were no exception.
It is reasonable to buy a deck that cost twenty taels of silver before and now sell it for fifty taels.
A family receives an order of 10,000 taels, which is only ten performances on average, and even less when other services are included.
Aunts like Zhou Xin'er and Qi Yu'er also want to use this to retain or even expand the number of high-end customers.
The generals were not civil servants or wealthy gentry, and many of them did not usually garrison the capital.
Now there is an opportunity to gather together to keep warm. Before Donglu attacks the city, it is only human nature to go and spend money.
The presidents and vice-presidents of other industries who had not yet resigned suddenly showed envious eyes. After all, it was the prince who could even think of such a way to win people's hearts...
When a certain prince saw the expressions of the people below, he knew that there were many more "kinder" ways, so there was no need to advertise them widely now.
For the majority of soldiers, only money, food and women are the most real, and the rest are imaginary.
Many Ming armies who were pretty bad immediately glowed with unlimited combat effectiveness after taking refuge in Braid.
The reason is that the side of the braid is not like the side of the blame dumper who wants everything or nothing, and has to be self-sufficient in the war.
Seeing that the Qin army originally under the command of Sun Chuanting actually brought fishing nets, a certain prince knew how poor the logistics supply was.
It’s strange that we can defeat Braid with such a force!
Now we have money, we have food, and we have rewards for high-quality services.
Whether you can win the braid is just a matter of trembling...
There is no need for his subordinates to do this trick, just a certain prince trembling.
King Chicken may have others, but there is absolutely no antidote for smallpox virus.
Because a certain prince doesn’t have it here. Cowpox is a vaccine, not an antidote.
The antidote is used after poisoning, and the vaccine must be injected into the body before poisoning.
If you wait until you are infected with the smallpox virus and then use the vaccine, no matter what kind of pox you get, it will not work!
Giving the virus to a large army of two to three hundred thousand people is a chore in itself.
Fortunately, it can be "broad and bombarded"!
In the jargon, it’s called “sow before you grow”!
And it’s free to sow!
