On the tenth day when cloth prices plummeted, Chen really showed his fox tail.
Taking advantage of all the cloth shops selling at low prices, Chen suddenly turned against Tiangang and purchased cloth at half the price, including silk from all the silk mills. Almost all of it fell into Chen's hands in one day.
First suppress the market price, and then go back to cutting the leeks. It is a proper capital conspiracy, and the appearance is not too ugly!
Silk is the foundation of the cloth industry, and now it has been bought out by the whole city of the Chen family. The Shen family cannot weave hundreds of pieces of cloth in a day just relying on its own silk reeling capacity.
Cutting off people's wealth is equivalent to killing their parents. It is really unkind to do business like this.
In the evening, family dinner.
"Wenjun, I didn't see you eating last night, and you won't eat tonight either. Are you ready?" The mother-in-law put a piece of braised pork into Shen Wenjun's bowl.
Shen Wenjun stabbed the rice hard with his chopsticks, "I'm worried that our business will not survive!"
The mother-in-law said: "Oh, if you don't want to do it, then you won't do it. I don't agree with your daughter's public appearance outside the house. The world is so chaotic now, why don't you just delist and close the business, give me a grandson, and live with your husband and raise your children at home?" Strong in everything.”
"Mom! You are here again. I have told you many times that the ancestral heritage cannot be lost." Shen Wenjun turned his eager eyes to his father-in-law: "Dad, can you also say something?"
"You young people are just impatient. There are so many storms in the business world. How can you be desperate for life and death at the slightest bump in the road?" The father-in-law held the wine glass with a calm expression and said lightly: "Don't worry, it won't be long. , the price of cloth will naturally go back up."
After all, he is an old man who has been in business for decades. It is not surprising that he can see through the mystery at a glance.
"Father-in-law, from your tone, do you know Chen's purpose?" Song Che asked.
My father-in-law said softly: "I'm probably going to pay tribute to you."
Sui coins, in layman's terms, are protection fees paid by the weaker party to the stronger party in order to avoid war and seek peace.
Silk, gold, silver, salt, iron, tea, and even women are all within the category of "year coins".
The father-in-law said: "There are people in the Chen family in the imperial court. They must have heard some rumors, so they hoarded silk. In the past, the cloth tribute was probably purchased from Shu and Jiangnan. This time He’s probably coming to Jiangnan.”
Shen Wenjun's eyes were bright: "So, doesn't our family also have the opportunity to eat a bite of royal food?"
"What qualifications do we have to compete with the Chen family for this royal food?" My father-in-law said in a serious tone, "There are people in the court. If there is a business and they take it early, how can it be our turn?"
The father-in-law poured himself a glass of wine, poured it into his mouth, lowered his head and sighed: "It's only my fault that the Shen family is withering away. If I can occupy a person in the court, even a small official as big as sesame seeds and mung beans, the trade routes will be much easier." .”
Although this remark did not mention anyone by name, the target of the attack was nakedly pointed at Shen Wenjun.
The father-in-law was deeply worried about the fact that the family had no sons.
Song Che also felt quite unhappy. His father-in-law never regarded him as his heir. Who named him Song instead of Shen?
"I'm full." Shen Wenjun threw down his chopsticks and fled the dining room as usual.
"Shen, look at you, you made your daughter angry and ran away again!" the mother-in-law said with a glare.
"Don't talk about me. It's you who urges her to have children all day long!" The father-in-law still refused to be outdone.
Song Che sighed secretly, put down his chopsticks and got down from the table wisely, and followed him out of the dining room.
…
The night is as cool as water, and the breeze sings lightly.
The beautiful woman leaned alone in the small pavilion, looking at the pond and secretly wiping tears.
It's a shame that he's not a man, the fault is that he's only a girl!
Song Che held the lantern and leaned against the pillar, smiling without saying a word.
Perhaps after being sad enough, Shen Wenjun turned his head, pursed his lips and shouted: "Why are you laughing!"
"Madam, do you really want to eat this royal food?" Song Che asked.
Shen Wenjun was silent for a while, then whispered: "I don't care much about this royal food... I just want to prove that no one in the Shen family loses, and I don't want to see the Chen family succeed."
"But let me tell you, the imperial food is not delicious at all," Song Che said. "Once you deal with the court, you will not only have to face the intrigues in the shopping mall, but also the intrigues in the officialdom."
When Song Che came to ancient times, he always reminded himself not to have anything to do with the court - the water of the court, the poison of power, was bottomless, and you would be drowned if you were not careful. Many pure things, once they got involved with power, , it will gradually deteriorate.
"You don't know the benefits of being an imperial merchant," Shen Wenjun said: "The imperial merchant's tax is very low. You only need to take three cents to pay the tax, and that is a yearly coin. One order is hundreds of thousands of pieces of silk. Which Aren’t businessmen jealous?
The most important thing is that once we do business with the imperial court, our logistics will be smooth, and no matter how rampant the bandits are, they will not dare to rob the emperor's goods. "
"Sounds good," Song Che pursed his lips and asked, "But regarding the 'Sui Coin' matter, there is only a slight rumor, but the eight characters have not been mentioned yet."
Shen Wenjun said: "The Liang Dynasty has always valued culture over military affairs. Throughout its more than three hundred years of history, every time it suffered losses on the battlefield, it would pay tribute to the enemy. Now that Dijon is coming menacingly, this year's coin is almost a certainty."
Song Che asked with a smile: "According to what you said, do you hope that Daliang will be defeated?"
"I——" Shen Wenjun bit his lip and stopped talking.
Once a war starts, there are often two voices, one is to compromise, and the other is to fight to the end.
The imperial court increased taxes to replenish the treasury, and replenishing the treasury was either to seek peace and pay tribute, or to recruit troops.
Daliang has been at war with the Hu tribe in the northwest for five years. Even if the current emperor has no brains, the imperial cabinet cannot be stupid. If Dijon in the north cannot be stabilized, the country may be destroyed when it is attacked by two parties. However, the Daliang Dynasty did not do this. Sending troops to fight Dijon can only mean one thing. The opposition to peace in the court may be even greater.
The amount of tribute coins cannot be determined.
"For the current plan, it is better to wait and see what happens and maintain the business at hand. If Daliang really intends to pay tribute and seek peace, it will not be too late to fight for the annual coin business by then," Song Che held Shen Wenjun's jade hand and smiled: " How could that idiot Chen Rencai be my husband's opponent?"
Shen Wenjun's eyes flickered, "But now that the silk has been bought out by the Chen family, even if the price of cloth can recover, we will have no raw materials for weaving."
"Hahaha……"
"Why are you laughing!"
"Madam, do you know where silk comes from?" Song Che asked, blinking.
Shen Wenjun said: "Of course it comes from reeling silk and peeling off cocoons."
"Where did the cocoon come from?"
"I bought it from silkworm farmers."
"That's right. The characteristic of Jiangnan is that every household has mulberry trees. There are millions of households in Jiangnan. No matter how big the appetite is, Mr. Chen can't eat them all.
There are two seasons of sericulture, spring and summer. Silkworms can usually spin cocoons in forty days. This shows that the next three months will be the peak period of sericulture, and our potential supply can be said to be endless;
The Chen family has a monopoly on the silk in Suzhou City, so we go to the countryside to buy it. In this way, the silkworm farmers don't have to go to the city to sell it, saving a lot of travel expenses. Why wouldn't they do it? "
Song Che paused and then said: "To take a step back, even if we can't harvest silkworm cocoons, the worst we can do is open a mulberry workshop ourselves. There are so many refugees outside the city anyway. How can we cultivate and reel silk by ourselves and be self-sufficient?" Is it stuck in our necks?"
"After you said that, I suddenly felt a little hungry..." Shen Wenjun rubbed his stomach excitedly.
"You, you have a bad habit of being unable to eat or sleep when you are worried." Song Che pulled Shen Wenjun up and walked out of the pavilion: "Aunt Wang just squeezed two jars of milk and went to the kitchen to make milk tea for her husband. Here’s a drink for you.”
