In the evening, the three people came out of the palace with glowing faces. It seemed that Emperor Wanli was very satisfied with them! As soon as they saw Liu Haojia, Zuo Liqiu raised his hands and said, "I won't thank you enough for your kindness. We brothers have taken note of this! If Brother Liu has any instructions in the future, he will definitely do it!"
The other two people also nodded in agreement and repeatedly said that they would definitely listen to the greetings in the future! Naturally, Liu Haojia would not respond politely! Finally, he said, "I'll leave it to three of you to transport the salt this time!"
Zuo Liqiu patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, all the water bandits who dare to hijack the ship this time will be killed! After the ship is unloaded, we will recruit some brothers to replace all the people in the caravan! If those salt owl don't come, then Come on, you will definitely die when you come!"
Liu Haojia was naturally overjoyed when he heard this and immediately arranged a banquet for them to celebrate! The three of them had nothing else to do this time, so they naturally drank freely, and ended up drinking like a mess!
Soon after they left, it was time to launch the plan. The navy dispatched a large number of ships to transfer salt, all the way from Shandong to the estuary of the Yangtze River!
In the past two years, because the promotion of low-priced salt has not been very smooth, Zhangzhi has continued to expand the salt field, resulting in a large backlog of salt! Fortunately, these table salts will not be damaged as long as they are not damp, they just take up space when stored! Now that the whole ship of salt has been transported away by the navy, Zhang Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief!
Before the salt had been transported to the Yangtze River Estuary, the news had been quickly delivered to Yangzhou! This is the headquarters of salt merchants!
Because Yangzhou is on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, it has prosperous commerce and a large number of people! Moreover, the climate here is pleasant and the scenery is picturesque, which naturally attracts many wealthy people! That’s why there is a saying about riding a crane to Yangzhou with a hundred thousand guan in your pocket!
On this day, a garden in Yangzhou was surrounded by many people, both covert and covert. It could be said that it was heavily guarded. It looked like a big shot was staying there again. And if anyone could enter this garden, they would be very surprised by the layout of the entire garden!
The garden is beautifully manicured, with plenty of pavilions and pavilions, surrounded by streams and ponds, and dotted with ancient trees, rocks, flowers and plants! The most eye-catching one is a nine-winding corridor!
There are windows like fans in this corridor. Looking out from these windows, the scenery from each window is different. It can be said that you can see every step you take! So just judging from the layout of the garden, it probably cost a lot of money!
At this time, there were five people sitting in the pavilion in the garden, and a beautiful little maid was boiling water and serving tea to them! Just by smelling the aroma of tea, you can tell that this tea is extraordinary! But these five people didn't feel anything when they drank it. It was obvious that they drank it often and they didn't care about it!
As for these five people appearing in this garden, they are naturally from wealthy backgrounds! Not to mention anything else, just looking at the clothes and accessories they wear, you can tell how much money they spent! As the saying goes, it takes three generations of officials to know how to dress and eat. Now these five people are all experts in dressing and eating!
These five people are the five most famous salt merchants in the entire Jiangnan! The wealth of generations naturally makes them extraordinary! If someone painted a picture of them and the beautiful maid together, it would be an excellent work of a hermit drinking tea!
But if you listen to the conversation of these people, you will know that what they are talking about is not poetry, but a major event involving salt worth millions and hundreds of lives!
Sitting in the middle among them is Qiu He, the owner of this garden! He is a native of Yangzhou and the initiator of this gathering. The middle-aged man on his left is named He Yunshan, and the man on his right is Shao from Mei Li! The people on the left and right are called Liu Yunsheng and Li Shen respectively!
It can be said that these five people control too many salt merchants and salt lords to count! It can be said that a few of them can determine the salt price of the entire Ming Dynasty! What a right! So because of their wealth and power, they became the leaders of the salt merchants!
At this time, I heard Qiu He say: "Everyone, everyone has heard the news. What do you think?"
He Yunshan frowned and said, "What I'm worried about is nothing else. What I'm worried about is that they will transport large quantities of salt to the big cities along the river and sell it locally. This is a big problem! You must know that those big cities really use the most salt. , the people in the countryside can’t even eat a few kilograms of salt!”
Liu Yunsheng is more approachable than him
He was relatively close and echoed: "Yes, if these big cities are filled with their low-price salt, our salt will not be sold either! Then countless people will buy salt from them and ship it to everywhere. , those people who can’t stop them all even if they want to!”
Mei Liren and Li Shen also nodded in agreement, and then they discussed the information in detail. Qiu He finally said: "It seems that Wu Ninghou is preparing to accomplish his feats in one battle this time! There are big cities along the Yangtze River, which are our main sales places, and we cannot afford to lose them! So we have to fight for it no matter what!"
At this time, Mei Liren said angrily: "I don't know what those court officials are thinking. We gave them so much money, but now they don't even speak to each other! It's not that they don't get along with Liu Haojia. Well, why didn’t you go against him?”
Qiu He said: "Brother Mei Xian, don't call Wu Ninghou like this. We still have to have this kind of grace! As for those ***, I'm afraid we can't count on them!"
He Yunshan also nodded and said: "Yes, I have seen this from what happened some time ago! I am afraid that those officials were suppressed by Prime Minister Zhang. He was counting on low-priced salt to be sold throughout the Ming Dynasty. He What a great way to leave a name in history!"
Liu Yunsheng clapped his hands and said, "This sentence is really to the point! We can give those officials no matter whether they are greedy for fame or profit! But we can't give what Prime Minister Zhang wants!"
He Yunshan was a little more impatient and said directly: "If that's the case, what else can we say? Just gather people and do it! Gather all the water bandits and salt lords who often cooperate with us and let them do it! Hewing boats on the river, on the ground Intercept the caravan and don’t let any of them escape!”
But Li Shen said: "But this time Wu Ninghou transported it with such a big fanfare, could there be fraud in it?"
Liu Yunsheng said: "So what if it's a scam? We intercepted his scattered salt shipments in the past. This time he just wanted to gather more people to bring good luck to the salt! Let's simply put more effort this time to defeat them completely and let them He gave up this idea!"
He Yunshan frowned and said: "Wu Ninghou is also a person who is well versed in the art of war. He will not fail to guess what we are thinking! I'm afraid he will also send elite troops to strengthen the future this time to transport salt!"
