While Yan Le was keeping a close eye on Xu Fu's movements, a tavern in the east of the city suddenly became lively.
All the major merchants in Guanzhong gathered together.
It's just that everyone's interest is not high, and even when they speak, they seem very dull, as if they are extremely aggrieved and resentful.
Feng Dong sat in the main seat, looked at the people below, and nodded secretly.
He knew what was going on.
It has been some time since the implementation of 'Guan Shan Hai'.
The profits of each of their companies last month have basically been calculated, but after the calculation, everyone couldn't accept it. Even though they had known the result for a long time, after seeing the accounts that had shrunk by nearly 70% to 80%, they still couldn't accept it. Feeling extremely heartbroken.
That's money!
their money.
Although they were charged high taxes in the past, they controlled salt ponds and mines, and could secretly sell them, or raise the prices of salt and ironware, or buy inferior goods, so that people could only continue to pay for them. To maintain daily life and production, but now, these methods are not feasible.
The only thing they can do is to do business properly.
But the profit from doing business is too meager.
Too meager to accept.
The gap between the profit in the past month and the profit in the current month is really huge.
It was too big for them to accept.
As the dancers finished their dance, Feng Dong waved his hand to ask the singers and dancers to leave, and he was given a few bottles of wine.
When the surroundings calmed down, Feng Dong glanced at Feng Zhen. Feng Zhen immediately understood. After bowing to everyone, he walked out of the house and stood at the door to watch the wind.
At this time.
Feng Dongcai coughed lightly and said, "Everyone should have finished counting last month's accounts."
"After a month of hard work, you can count the profits."
"As far as I am concerned, Feng's profit has shrunk by 70%."
"If the family's daily expenses are excluded, last month's profit was only enough to meet the family's daily expenses."
"This profit shrinkage is really alarming."
"I, Mr. Feng, are like this. Your situation is not much better, right?"
Cheng Zheng and others looked at each other, but did not say a word, but their attitudes were expressed on their faces.
Their situation is also not optimistic.
See this.
Feng Dong chuckled lightly and teased: "Looking at your faces, you must be similar to me."
"I, Feng Dongchi, am a few years older than you, so I have the courage to invite you all to attend, in order to discuss how to change the current disadvantage."
"We are businessmen, and what we make is money."
"At present, the imperial court controls salt and iron, restricts prices, and even launches official businesses to compete with us, causing us to lose too much money. We are all big families, and our daily expenses are very high. If we continue to maintain the status quo, I’m afraid it won’t be long before everything comes to nothing.”
"I think you all know this too."
Cheng Zheng frowned and said, "Feng Dong, what exactly do you want to say?"
Feng Dong stroked his beard and was not in a hurry to express his thoughts. He just said: "You may not know something, but the reason why we suffered this disaster is actually the hand of one person."
"This person is called Mr. Zhong."
"But I haven't found out the specific name."
"During this period, I sent many people to investigate, and even contacted the government, but no one with the surname Zhong in the city came to confront him."
"This person was still wearing a mask at the time. I am not sure whether this person was lying or deliberately concealing it, but no matter what, this person must be responsible for our disaster."
"You can pay more attention in the future."
Feng Dong reminded.
Hear the words.
Cheng Zheng and others frowned.
They thought about it in their minds. They really couldn't recall the memory related to Zhong, but they secretly memorized this information.
The most important thing for a businessman is to be sensitive to information.
Feng Dong glanced at everyone in the venue calmly, and continued: "The information I have found about this 'Mr. Zhong' is limited, so I won't go into more details. Some time ago, there was an uproar in the city about the Qidi rebellion. You may have heard about it."
Cheng Zheng and others frowned even more tightly.
But they were full of doubts, why did Feng Dong mention this?
What does the Qidi rebellion have to do with them?
And they don't think that Qidi's rebellion can succeed.
At present, the First Emperor is still here, the Qin army's combat power has not been reduced, and there is a rebellion in one place, so what?
But they vaguely guessed Feng Dong's thoughts.
Qi's business is booming, and under the "official mountains and seas", Qi's merchants, nobles, and powerful people may not be able to accept it, so this turmoil broke out. However, Qi's rebellion belongs to Qi, and they are currently in Guanzhong. Who dares to cause trouble under Da Qin's nose?
They still don't think they have a long life.
But they were also secretly thinking about what Feng Dong wanted to say.
Feng Dong still did not express his thoughts, but said: "During this period, Qin Ting pardoned some businessmen who were prisoners and allowed them to take over part of the salt and iron business. Now these people have completely become Qin Ting's minions. , they are keeping an eye on us all the time, and you may be very dissatisfied with this."
"We used to be a world-famous rich man."
"Although he is not as famous as Feng Luo, he is still a household name in Guanzhong."
"Qin Ting only gave us some empty rewards, but took away our foundation. Although I, Feng Dong, am old, I can't bear to scold me. Qin Ting went too far in bullying others."
"Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents!"
"Qin Ting clearly wants to cut off everyone's financial path including me."
"It's intolerable."
"We are in Xianyang, so we can't be like Qidi. We don't have the strength, let alone the need."
"Money is not what I want."
"Qin Ting is bullying people too much right now. We should resist vigorously and safeguard our original interests."
"What do you think?"
Feng Dong closed his eyes slightly and glanced around coldly.
It was quiet all around.
No one took the initiative to say anything.
They were indeed dissatisfied with what Qin Ting had done.
But they know their own strength better. They don't have the strength to fight against Qin Ting.
But what Feng Dong said was correct.
Qin Ting went too far in bullying others. He gave them some frivolous rewards and then took away most of their profits, which did not give them a way to survive at all.
Everyone's eyes moved slightly.
But he didn't dare to answer this question.
It was quiet for a long time.
Cheng Zheng asked: "Brother Feng, what do you want?"
Others also looked over.
Feng Dong smiled faintly, his originally cloudy eyes suddenly became sharp, and he said loudly: "Falling into the water and sinking the ship!"
As soon as he finished speaking, some people stood up and objected.
"impossible."
"Feng Dong, are you crazy?"
"Qin Ting doesn't care about the transportation. The ship that transports the goods is our own. Let us destroy the ship. What kind of bullshit idea is this?!"
"I can't possibly agree."
Feng Dong glanced at Cao Bingsheng and said calmly: "Brother Cao Bing, please be patient. I haven't finished speaking yet."
"It was indeed our own ship that sank."
"But only we know how much cargo is carried in the ship."
"What if this is an empty ship?"
"What do you mean?" Cao Bing raised his head fiercely.
A bold idea has emerged in his mind.
"The imperial court does not care about transportation." Although Feng Dong looked old, he was in good spirits at the moment. He faced the heavy cases below and sneered: "In the past, the salt and iron in Guanzhong were controlled by a dozen of us, but now it is under the intervention of Qin Ting , some parts are no longer under our control, Qin Ting is strong, and over time, he will inevitably continue to encroach on our share, and if we continue to maintain the status quo, we will only be continuously cannibalized."
"thus."
A cold light flashed in Feng Dong's eyes, and he said sternly: "We must drive out the other few."
"Of course this is just one aspect."
"It's more important to make money."
"Now we are working hard in business, and most of our money is plundered by the government. I don't know what you think about this situation. I, Mrs. Feng, cannot accept it."
"The imperial court can take the big head, but it can't let us drink the water."
"It's winter now, and not many people in Guizhou are buying salt and iron. Most of them are frugal. We can take the opportunity to hide some of the salt and iron. When spring starts, local spring plowing will begin, and those in Guizhou are in urgent need of salt and iron. At that time, we will sink the ship again and raise the price of salt and iron."
"On the other hand, the 'salt and iron' that fell into the water can continue to be secretly sold at high prices."
"The market lacks a large amount of salt and iron provided by us. Only a few other companies cannot meet the demand."
“But we can’t take a break from spring plowing, let alone miss the farming season.”
"They can only buy it at a high price!"
"As soon as we come back, the cost of the ship will come back. We won't have to pay more than half of the government tax, and we will still have a lot of surplus."
"There are still three months left before spring starts. We have enough to stockpile a lot of salt and iron. When spring plowing begins, we can sell it privately for a month or two. However, a few minions of the imperial court can only continue to maintain high prices. , over time, it will become impossible to operate.”
"They don't earn much money, and they don't have much savings."
"What are they trying to do with us?"
Hear the words.
Everyone's hearts moved slightly.
But I don’t dare to agree easily.
Cheng Zheng said: "Brother Feng, you may have forgotten that the imperial court is severely cracking down on smuggling."
"We have been hoarding three months' worth of salt and iron. The quantity is huge. It's impossible to sell it quietly."
Feng Dong smiled faintly and replied calmly: "I know better."
"So our salt and iron cannot be sold in Guanzhong, but to Guandong. The imperial court can control Guanzhong, but not Guandong. The officials in Guandong will not strictly investigate smuggling. Even if they are really caught, they will at most give these officials a sum of money. , but compared to paying more than half of the tax, you still make money."
"What's more important is that Guanzhong will be short of salt and iron."
"When there is a shortage of salt and iron in Guanzhong, the imperial court turns to us for help."
"After all, the share of salt and iron is in our hands."
"Of course we can bargain with the government."
"What if the government forcibly takes away our share?" Cao Bingsheng asked.
Feng Dong raised his head slightly and said: "It is indeed possible, but even if the other companies are willing to provide ships, salt and iron cannot be produced immediately. We occupy more than 90% of the salt and iron in Guanzhong. This share is not short-term. It can be made up.”
"If the imperial court forcibly seizes our share, we can ban the sale of the remaining salt and iron."
"Exacerbating the lack of salt and iron in Guanzhong."
"Unless the government really takes advantage of us, they will have to bow to us and either give us benefits, or they can only sit back and watch the people of Guanzhong live in dire straits."
"If the government insists on plundering by force, it will be us who are robbed today, but not other merchants tomorrow."
"Once Qin Ting does this, the impact on the world will be too bad, and it will only be worse in Guandong. Without merchants to transport goods, the world will only become more corrupt."
"The government would not dare to do this."
Cao Bingsheng nodded slightly and continued: "Without ships, how can we smuggle out the salt and iron?"
"The amount of salt and iron we have is not a small amount."
Feng Dong said coldly: "If big boats can't do it, then small boats or fishing boats can do it."
"I want to transport it out, is there anything I can do?"
There was laughter all around.
Sudden.
Cheng Zheng suddenly said: "What if the imperial court discovers it?"
The laughter all around stopped suddenly.
Feng Dong's eyes turned cold, he smiled coldly, and said: "Then I can only sweep away the snow on my own. But if you can't even do this concealment for a few months, then don't implicate others, but think big." If there is a huge shipwreck, the ships we are waiting for should march together, so that we can block the mouth of the government."
"I'm done with my thoughts."
"What do you think?"
Cheng Zheng and others frowned and did not speak immediately.
What Feng Dong said is indeed very tempting.
But the risks are also high.
Not to mention that the cost of sinking the ship is very high, transporting a large amount of salt and iron, concealing it from others, and finally selling it, etc., all of which require careful planning. A slight mistake can easily arouse the anger of the court. It's not just a loss of a little bit, but the entire clan.
Salt is easy to say.
Iron is different. What comes out of the mine is pig iron. If you want to make it into farm tools, you still need to go through some forging and workmanship.
But if it is made into a finished product, something goes wrong while it is being shipped to various places.
And don’t rush to send the salt and iron out, just keep it in your own hands. The things are real. As long as they delay it long enough, they will have enough time to deal with it. They have the time and the energy to deal with it. Do it.
more importantly.
Spring plowing is still several months away.
This period of time was enough for them to arrange too many things. They had enough time to prepare, both at the government level and at the local level.
Cheng Zheng and others' eyes flickered.
After a period of weighing, greed for money still defeated reason.
They really couldn't stand Qin Ting's mutilation.
There was a long silence.
Finally, Cheng Zheng and others whispered: "Brother Feng is thoughtful. Qin Ting has indeed gone too far."
"I'm not that easy to bully as a merchant."
As people expressed their opinions one after another.
The somewhat depressing lobby instantly erupted into bursts of laughter.
It didn't take long.
In the lobby, people are already pushing glasses and helping people drink.
The most important thing is harmony.
(End of chapter)
