Among these four people, except Wang Yukun, the head of the Wang family, the other three are Lu Handu, the head of the Lu family, Du Yuanqiao, the head of the Du family, and Liu Wensheng, the head of the Liu family. The hometowns of these four families are in the four provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, but today they gathered together by the West Lake in Hangzhou.
In the eyes of others, the four of them seem to have no connection, but in the smuggling circle, these four families are well known! Because these four families had the most officials in the court, they had the largest share of smuggling!
As for them gathering here today, they are definitely not here to drink tea, but are entrusted by more than a hundred large and small families who control the underground trade in coastal cities to discuss how to deal with Liu Haojia and the sea ban!
The head of the Wang family said: "...Things are like this. It can be seen that Uncle Wu Ning has made preparations. So it will be difficult to instruct those common people to cause trouble!"
Liu Wensheng nodded and said, "Yes, although those ordinary people are very stupid, if they know that someone is willing to buy goods from them, they will go on with some hope and will not cause trouble according to our arrangements."
Du Yuanqiao said: "Then can we persuade those weaving mills not to purchase raw silk, or to produce silk and hoard it instead of putting it on the market. This can also have a certain impact!"
Lu Handu shook his head and said: "This is difficult! First of all, our influence can only affect private weaving workshops, and to do so, we must pay enough money and favors to do it. But now the main products on the market The silk weaving workshops are all official! Unless we open up the joints!"
Wang Yukun smiled bitterly and said, "It's useless. I just received the news that Eunuch Zhao, the eunuch guarding Nanjing, just sent a letter to weaving workshops everywhere, asking them to complete all silk orders this year with quality and quantity! He even told us clearly They said that the demand for silk on the market this year may be more than in previous years!”
I have to say, these people are really powerful! Eunuch Zhao's order may have just been delivered, but the same news has already been sent to them! There may be some weaving workshops far away that have not received the news, but now it is on their desks. This shows how deeply these people have penetrated into Jiangnan officialdom!
Du Yuanqiao said: "What about the guards officers who work for us on weekdays? Can they come forward to intercept them? They take the goods in the name of smuggling. How about we eat them at a lower price?"
Wang Yukun shook his head and said, "It's easy for us to eat those goods, but they can't be stored for a long time. Once they are not stored well, they will turn yellow and change color! Although we have some money at home, we don't throw it into the water like this!"
And Lu Handu immediately added: "I'm afraid this idea will not be realized! Someone from the guard station sent me a message that Wei Guogong just ordered all the guards to inspect the troops and asked to ensure that there are no soldiers and horses in each place in the near future. When bandits appear, they are not allowed to intercept merchants or block logistics!"
The other three people immediately frowned when they heard this, and Wang Yukun sighed and said: "It would be really difficult to handle it like this! Although we have had transactions with them, and some people even have leverage in our hands, but with Disobeying Duke Wei's military orders is equivalent to losing one's official position, and no one would be willing to do that!"
Du Yuanqiao said: "What if we bribe a group of them and let them act secretly?"
Lu Handu said: "It's also not feasible! If we want to bribe, we can only bribe a few people, and it won't affect the overall situation!"
At this time, Liu Wensheng sighed and said: "Despite his young age, Uncle Wu Ning is very impeccable in his actions! This is a clear plan to exclude us from sea trade!"
Wang Yukun smiled bitterly and said: "That's not necessarily the case! His biggest purpose is to hope that we bow our heads, pay taxes to him and buy the Green Dragon Tooth Flag!"
At this time, Lu Handu said with a "humph": "This is forcing us to break the net! It seems that we can only use the power of the court to impeach him!"
Wang Yukun said: "If we use the power of the imperial court, we will suffer a lot of losses! After all, favors are limited and will be used up sooner or later!"
Liu Wensheng sneered and said: "That would be better!" Then we will focus our resources on our own families
, then they will know how difficult it is to lose our support, and they will definitely come back obediently! "
Several of them discussed for a long time but did not come up with any particularly effective method. This is the benefit of overwhelming others with momentum! Run him over in a dignified manner, leaving you defenseless!
After another long discussion, Du Yuanqiao said fiercely: "Then let's sacrifice the interests of those small merchants! Let the policemen and rural soldiers under our control go to the road to set up checkpoints and let other goods go, just raw silk and tea! Once these small merchants are discovered, When merchants transship raw silk and tea, they simply detain them for smuggling!"
Wang Yukun said: "The problem is no longer here. We can't transport it after eating it at a low price, and raw silk and tea cannot be stored well, so Heshi is lost in vain!"
Du Yuanqiao gritted his teeth and said: "Save as much as you can, and destroy it if you can't! As long as we mess up the market, people in the court can take advantage of it and say that Wu Ningbo has messed up. Market!」
But everyone was very dissatisfied with this method of killing a thousand enemies and losing a thousand themselves! After all, the reason for all this effort is to make money, not to burn money! Therefore, the four people did not discuss any charter in the end!
They can only follow the final proposal and use all means to disrupt the market, hoping that the court can put pressure on Liu Haojia to restore them to their previous appearance.
Soon Wang Yukun and Liu Wensheng left, leaving only Du Yuanqiao and Lu Handu drinking tea slowly in the private room.
After a long time, Du Yuanqiao asked someone to bring pen and ink to write a letter, and then called a confidant to send the letter to the capital. Lu Handu, who had been watching, said, "Can such a letter satisfy the head of the society?"
Du Yuanqiao spread his hands and said, "Then there is nothing I can do! You have also seen the situation just now, how can you come up with a solution?"
Lu Handu shook his head and sighed: "Now I regret joining your Overlord Club! More than two years ago, you boasted about the Overlord Club to the extreme, but now you can't even deal with an ordinary nobleman, but you still have us build our own Yinzi, where do you have the ability to run the court like you mentioned?"
Du Yuanqiao's face turned a little blue when he heard this, but he still said with a smile: "What you said is not comprehensive! In the past year or so, how much has your Lu family gained through the power of the Master Association? Just Two of your family members in the imperial court have been promoted, and three others have been rated as "top" and will take another step forward next year! Not to mention supporting you in swallowing up two local industries! Why do you complain now when you need to take action against the enemy? 「
