However, it is obvious that it is almost impossible to solve Zhao's food shortage problem through private procurement.
If buying grain can solve the problem, Taoyi, which is closer, is a more convenient place. Why should Zhao Kuo go far away and come to Linzi, Qi State, to buy grain.
The reason why buying grain cannot solve the problem is simple. The grain Zhao needs is measured in millions of dan. Such a large amount is simply not something that today's businessmen can possess.
Even Taoyi and Linzi, where most of the world's merchants gathered together, could not produce so much food together.
You know, in today's era, food is the population, food is the soldiers, food is everything!
Therefore, agriculture is an absolute pillar industry no matter where it is. Even in Taoyi and Linzi, which are famous for their commerce, even in the former Luo City, and in the Kingdom of Han, which makes money by selling ironware, the majority of the people are engaged in farming.
At the same time, high-ranking officials and nobles generally have their own fertile land and do not need to buy or sell food at all. At most, it is only a temporary turnover.
Coupled with the general stability of food prices, unless there is a war in an area, the price of food in other areas generally tends to be stable. In other words, unless food is sold to war zones, the profit from food is extremely limited.
This is also the result that the government is happy to see.
Therefore, profits cannot increase and sales volume cannot increase either. Naturally, it is destined that the business of grain trading cannot be too large.
Not to mention big deals measured in millions of dans, the combined grains held by all grain merchants only amounted to no more than a hundred thousand dans.
Therefore, only by taking the country as a unit can we come up with the figure of one million dan that Zhao wanted.
So is Zhao Kuo doing useless work?
Obviously not!
This has at least three purposes:
First, of course, he silently told King Qi that the purpose of this trip was that Zhao Guo was bound to win. This silent action was a layer of invisible pressure;
The second is to reveal the wealth, so that the King of Qi and the ministers of Qi can see that the State of Zhao comes with full "sincerity", and the interests will drive the King of Qi to carefully consider the transaction with the State of Zhao;
Third, it is necessary to put a certain amount of realistic pressure on Qi State. Under Zhao Guo's operation, Qi State's food prices will soon reach a new high. This is for the people of Qi State who rely on the salt industry for their livelihood. , definitely a big blow. The salt industry is the pillar industry of Qi State.
Whether it was for the purpose of protecting the people or for the stability of its own salt industry, Qi State had to discuss it carefully with Zhao State.
Obviously, in order to win over the King of Qi, Zhao Kuo not only used the overlord status that Zhao Guo had won on the battlefield, but also used the economic means he brought from later generations.
In just one day, the people sent out by Zhao's envoys had already purchased all the food in Linzi City. Even the grain brought in by several major grain merchants in the past month had been settled in advance by the Zhao people at prices they could not refuse.
Not only that, the Zhao State envoy even sent personnel to directly guard the four gates of Linzi. When they saw the grain transport team, they directly captured it and even saved them the cost of entering the city.
As a result, starting from tomorrow, except for small and medium-sized grain merchants who may still have a small amount of grain, the entire Linzi City will have no grain to buy.
But even so, the grain received by the Zhao envoy was only 70,000 dan.
A little is a little less, but a certain amount is not.
While the city gate was still open, Zhao's envoy waved his hand and transported the 70,000 loads of grain collected from the east of the city back to Zhao.
After all, Linzi is the capital of Qi State, and such a large-scale food purchase event occurred. These deeds of Zhao State's envoys soon spread to the ears of the King of Qi.
Combined with the credentials just handed over, King Qi still doesn't know what Zhao Guo wants to do.
There seemed to be no better choice before King Qi.
Refuse Zhao Guo’s request to borrow grain?
The King of Qi believed that if Zhao refused, he would spare no effort to continue buying grain from Qi, but Qi's grain merchants would not care so much, and would try their best to get grain for the Zhao people. Even the grain merchants around will be beeing
They flocked to Zhao to provide food.
This is the second issue. The problem is that if the people of Zhao buy the grain, what will the people of Linzi do?
Do you want the King of Qi to give food to the people himself?
Obviously, whenever the Qi government released grain at a low price, the grain would be resold to the Zhao people in the blink of an eye. If Qi State also sells grain at high prices, considering the livelihood of the people, the government would really not dare to charge sky-high prices.
Rather than letting the money and silk be earned by these grain merchants who don't know which country they belong to, it is better to let them earn it themselves.
Of course, there is still resistance, and the biggest resistance is the deterrence from Qin.
King Qi, who had seen the tigers and wolves of Qin State, did not want to offend Qin State by helping Zhao State. Peaceful times were his only thought now.
However, judging from what Zhao Envoy did, it was obvious that he had received the death order from King Zhao and would not give up until he achieved his goal.
If you don't help, you will offend the State of Zhao, and the momentum of the State of Zhao in recent years is no weaker than that of the State of Qin. In addition, the land of Huaisi has just been transferred to the State of Zhao. From the land of Huaisi, you can directly enter the hinterland of the State of Qi!
It is the lesser of two evils. Since you are destined to offend a powerful country, it is obviously better to offend the one further away. Not to mention that if you choose Zhao State, you can also get a lot of benefits.
Soon, King Qi had already made a decision in his heart after receiving the news. The only question now is how much Zhao Guo is willing to pay for this batch of grain.
Sure enough, when the people of Linzi suddenly discovered that there was no food to buy in the entire Linzi city, the King of Qi summoned the Zhao envoy who was still collecting food into the palace.
Because both sides are determined to facilitate this deal, the mutual negotiations are naturally smooth and smooth.
Of course, the envoys of the State of Zhao also made some "struggles" for the interests of the State of Zhao, but obviously their willingness to struggle was not obvious. They almost gave in half-heartedly, and the envoys of the State of Zhao reached an agreement with the King of Qi.
how to say?
All I can say is that King Qi is really a good man.
From the beginning, the King of Qi did not have any territorial or population demands on Zhao.
Zhao Kuo's order to the envoy was: As long as my land, population and other things are not touched, you can take them.
In other words, from the beginning, King Qi's request was already lower than the bottom line given by Zhao Kuo.
Under such circumstances, the envoy from the State of Zhao persisted in several rounds of bargaining, which was almost at his limit - if the talks continued, the envoy from the State of Zhao would probably laugh out loud.
No way, the biggest request of King Qi is to ask Zhao State to protect Qi State from Qin State's revenge?
This "reasonable" request was beyond "reasonable", and Zhao Shi naturally agreed without hesitation.
As for the rest, it was nothing more than the interest on the grain, money, silk, and jade. Of course, King Qi was not completely ignorant, and he still made some "serious" requests. .z.
For example, Zhao Jun’s weapons.
Also, Qi does not produce iron, and the development of iron weapons is not very fast. The strength of its weapons has always been at the bottom among Qi, let alone Qin, Zhao, and Han, which are at the top of the weapon sophistication. The bitter and cold Yan State, Chu State, and Qi State are not as good as each other.
Therefore, it is considered to be the right thing to propose that Zhao Jun give some weapons.
It was the quantity of this weapon that kept Zhao's envoys bargaining. After all, the export of standard weapons currently in use by a country is still very sensitive.
However, if Zhao Kuo knew that Qi State actually wanted his own standard weapons, he would probably laugh out loud.
Family members, who knows?
The party's arsenal over there has just made a technological breakthrough and can finally mass-produce weapons. Someone here wants to pack up the old weapons and recycle them.
It's like we've just been about to install the 95 gun series, and the African brothers over there are already snapping up our guns. Not only does it save you a lot of money, you can even make a fortune.
Wow, this is so exciting!
Of course, it is a pity that the Shangdang’s arms factory still has
It is classified as top secret, and the weapons of the new standard are even more secret among secrets. Even the envoys of Zhao State are not aware of their existence.
Naturally, for the sake of his own safety, Ambassador Zhao still cut the number as small as possible.
However, this is fine, after all, the change of equipment cannot be done overnight, and Zhao State itself must have sufficient weapons reserves.
But no matter what, after a whole day of dark negotiations, the basic framework has been formed, and at the same time as dozens of carts of treasures carried by Zhao’s envoys entered Qi’s internal treasury, the first batch of 300,000 dans of grain , has also started departing from Linzi.
After eating the food of Zhao State, King Qi did not forget to harvest a handful of his own leeks.
Taking advantage of the falsely high grain prices, the King of Qi decisively withdrew tens of thousands of tons of grain from the treasury, took a detour to the cities near Linzi, and sold it to various grain merchants at high prices.
At the same time, the King of Qi quietly sold grain in Linzi City.
Because of the distance, the grain merchants had no idea what was happening in Linzi while they were buying grain at high prices.
The people of Qi, who were invaded by the fear of running out of food, finally saw the food and hoarded it without hesitation.
When the grain merchant drove his carriage and hummed a tune back to Linzi, he found that Zhao's envoy had stopped collecting grain the day before yesterday, and the people in Linzi who needed food had already stocked up enough food.
The relationship between supply and demand was instantly reversed, and the huge economic pressure and storage pressure became the last straw to crush food prices. Almost in a day, food prices continued to fall.
Fortunately, just when food prices were about to fall into the quagmire, a "good Samaritan" finally appeared and began to purchase food.
But the price at this time was already half the normal price of food.
Even if it is cut in half, it will be sold!
This cut-in-half price can be said to be right at the point where the merchant can vomit blood but not die.
Looking at the continuous flow of grain delivered to Linzi, all the grain merchants instantly understood that selling it would only hurt their muscles and bones. If they collect their capital, they can continue to do business. But if they don't sell it, what if the mysterious man stops selling it? The purchase, food and cocoa are all thrown into the hands, that is, there is no place to die.
However, what no one knows is that this endless flow of food was arranged by their king himself; as for the kind person, it was naturally the work of King Qi's inner treasury.
Therefore, the King of Qi took over the hand of Zhao State and looted the merchants in Linzi. They ate the high-priced grains from other places, ate them at low prices in Linzi, and sold them to Zhao State to eat again.
Just by traveling around Linzi and the surrounding cities, King Qi gained several times more.
Moreover, this harvest is still silent. Even if Qi people want to find someone to settle the score, they can't.
Who to look for?
Are you looking for an envoy from Zhao? They said from the beginning that they would only collect it for a few days, and they wanted all the food that they paid a deposit for. It was because they were so inconsequential that they wanted more after selling it once.
What's more, even if you want to find the envoy of Zhao State, you have to find him. When the turmoil intensified, the Zhao envoy had already embarked on his return journey with King Qi's 300,000 loads of grain.
Looking for the person behind the scenes?
Then you have to know who the person behind the scenes is!
Of course, others may not know, but how could Ambassador Zhao, who was watching the whole battle, not know.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, the inference is not that difficult.
In Linzi, who else but the King of Qi could mobilize so much grain, money and silk to carry out such an operation in a short period of time;
Besides King Qi, who else could perform so many operations without discovering any clues.
Looking at King Qi's seemingly masterful operation, Ambassador Zhao shook his head helplessly: Using the people as a mine and cutting them down from time to time, how can we not perish? !
In order to speed up the demise of Qi State, Zhao Envoy also quietly left some traces of their king's buying and selling for the merchants of Qi State.
With the shrewdness of the people of Qi, I believe they will soon discover what role their king played in this.
Water can carry a boat and also overturn it. This is what Zhao Kuo often taught him.
The words of Zhao's courtiers...
