Zhu Yunwen stared at the arrogant and domineering squad leader. He was obviously instigated by someone else to give orders while wearing official uniform.
Look, there are advantages to coming a few days early, but if you come later, the salt price issue in Yangzhou City will be covered up again, and who knows when it will come out.
Although Feng Cheng is in the dental industry, he still needs to obey the government.
The squad leader left, and Feng Cheng sat down heavily in his chair with a sad look on his face: "Hey, this is going to force people to death, and so does the emperor. Wouldn't it be better to stay in the capital? Why do we have to go on a northern tour? It's superfluous!"
Zhu Yunwen twitched the corner of his mouth, Liu Changge lowered his wrist, and was about to kill this dirty-mouthed guy. Jie Jin and Xia Yuanji were also secretly surprised. This guy was too courageous.
“Does the government have the final say on the price of salt?”
Zhu Yunwen didn't care about the other party's disrespect.
From the other party's point of view, when the emperor comes out for inspection, the local government always needs to cover up some problems for the sake of political performance and official uniforms. However, there are not many problems in Yangzhou City now. The biggest problem that affects the people is the crazy increase in salt prices. As long as the price of salt is brought down by decree, there won't be much problem with the emperor's inspection.
Feng Cheng lamented: "If our dental shop doesn't listen to the yamen, how can we survive in the future? Many salt shops will bleed now, or even go bankrupt. And I will also become a sinner."
Without thinking, Xie Jin asked: "The Yamen can only control the price of salt for a few days. The emperor's northern tour is just passing through Yangzhou, so he won't lose much, right?"
Feng Cheng shook his head.
Xia Yuanji explained on the side: "The current price of salt has suddenly dropped to ten cents per catty, from eighteen cents per catty. Once the news comes out, people will go crazy hoarding salt. Then the salt shops will suffer huge losses due to the large amount of salt produced, and even Forced to close.”
Xie Jin immediately understood that it was impossible for these salt shops to close down. Yangzhou Yamen was afraid that they would not agree. Otherwise, if "Emperor Jianwen" really arrived in Yangzhou and saw such a depression, how could Yangzhou be so prosperous...
Zhu Yunwen felt that the salt price issue was by no means a problem of the dental department. It could even be said that the dental department was probably the least responsible. As for the cases involving Feng Cheng, they still need to be investigated later.
After walking out of Mingyue Warehouse, Zhu Yunwen, Xie Jin and Xia Yuanji arrived at a restaurant. It was not a high-end restaurant. It only had two floors. Most of the people coming and going were ordinary people, and occasionally businessmen stayed here.
They went to the second floor and ordered a few side dishes. Zhu Yunwen and others tasted the wine. Although it was shochu, it was still much worse than the Jingshi Restaurant.
Two middle-aged men sat facing each other at the table next door, one with a beard and small eyes, named Chen Dashan, and the other with a big cheek and a big mouth, named Chu Han. The two were drinking one glass after another, seemingly drinking to relieve their sorrows.
Chen Dashan couldn't help it and sighed: "Tell me, brother, is it easy for us to do border trade? How much grain has been transported to the frontier and how many farms have been managed by us. Not to mention meritorious deeds, at least we have a clear conscience, right? , why did it end up like this?"
When Chu Han's pain point was mentioned, he said sadly: "What can we do? No one can take care of this matter. If the internal businessmen don't take over, the money in our hands will just rot in our hands. They are forcing us to Reduce the price.”
Zhu Yunwen heard clearly from the sidelines and could conclude that these two businessmen were border merchants, that is, they delivered grain to the border troops in exchange for warehouse notes. They came to Yangzhou intending to sell the warehouse notes in exchange for silver. But now they have warehouses in their hands. Qian had no way to take action.
Xia Yuanji seemed to understand and whispered to Zhu Yunwen: "If the banknotes in the hands of the border merchants are still unable to be converted into silver taels, the merchants there will not be able to stay in Yangzhou forever. The most likely option is to stay for a few months and then sell them at a low price." If you sell your money, the profits will belong to the internal businessmen."
Zhu Yunwen shook his head slightly: "The internal merchants so neatly refused to accept the warehouse notes and deliberately made it impossible for the border merchants to ship the warehouse notes. It is definitely not something that one merchant and two merchants can do. I am afraid that the internal merchants have also received the news."
Xia Yuanji's eyes became sharp, saying that there was great corruption in the Lianghuai Salt Farm, and they were controlling the salt price with one hand! Who has so much energy?
Xie Jin glanced at the businessman next to him and said to Zhu Yunwen, "Would you like to talk to them and ask them their names?"
Zhu Yunwen smiled. Xie Jin was right. Instead of speculating, it would be faster to find a few names and come directly to ask about the situation.
"You two, can you share a table? I'm also a businessman."
Zhu Yunwen stood up and walked over, his face gloomy.
Chen Dashan and Chu Han looked at each other. Hearing that it was a border merchant, they couldn't help but stand up: "Please sit down."
Zhu Yunwen took his seat, and Chen Dashan asked the waiter to add bowls and chopsticks, and then asked: "I wonder what you call me? Oh, Mr. Nian, I have admired you for a long time."
"Have you heard my name?"
Zhu Yunwen was a little surprised.
"Well……"
Chen Dashan was depressed. Why didn't the guy in front of him wake up? These are polite words, do you understand?
Zhu Yunwen smiled indifferently and then became melancholy: "Hey, I wonder where my two brothers are from the border business. It's hard to sell the money this year."
Chu Han and Chen Dashan were told what hurt them, and they spoke out directly out of sympathy.
Chen Dashan is a border merchant from Liaodong, and Chu Han is a border merchant from Daning. They are both from Jizhou. Although they are from different places, they still have some hometown friendship.
Chu Han sighed: "Brother Chen and I are just small businessmen. The total cash we hold is less than two thousand, but if we don't sell this cash, we won't be able to survive. Once we lose this time, who will pay for it next year?" Dare to be a border trader.”
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
Zhu Yunwen frowned.
There were three channels for food supply in the frontier areas of the Ming Dynasty. One was the land reclaimed by the guards themselves and military settlements. The second is that the imperial court transports grain, which often exists in places that can be reached by sea ships, such as Liaodong.
This third channel is Kaizhongfa, where merchants transport food to border guards or towns.
Don't underestimate the grain sent by border merchants under the Kaizhongfa. According to data from the Hongwu Year, border merchants delivered nearly 200 dan of grain to the frontier every year. This amount is huge. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers relied on the grain here to survive.
For example, in Liangzhou, Gansu, Jiayuguan and other places, the soldiers there need to eat. If you talk about setting up military camps, how many tricks can you come up with? Even if you include the Gobi Desert as your home, how much food can you harvest in a year?
Military settlements are not self-sufficient for barren areas. The imperial court is unwilling and impossible to recruit tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people every year to transport food to the frontiers. The only way and the only main body is the frontier merchants.
Once the interests of border merchants are harmed and they stop working, the consequences can be imagined, and the court will have to use a lot of manpower to do these tasks.
But the people have to farm, not deliver food. It takes more than half a year to go back and forth. Who is willing to do this hard work?
Businessmen are only businessmen who pursue profit!
There is a problem with the border merchants. They will withdraw after they are no longer profitable. Their withdrawal will fundamentally destroy the Kaizhong method. If the Kaizhong method cannot operate normally, the border will not receive the food sent by the merchants. If there is no food, the court will ask for it, and the court will have to find someone to deliver food...
There are many problems, and all are costs. In the final analysis, as long as Ming Dynasty still needs to use the opening method, the border merchants must benefit. Zhu Yuanzhang, a stingy boss, knew this and left a certain profit margin for him, but now some people don't want the border merchants to benefit.
"Loss, how much loss?"
Zhu Yunwen asked.
Chen Dashan was filled with bitterness: "For the two of us, based on two thousand taels, the cost of each citation is 500 yuan, and the total cost is 1,000 taels. It is currently difficult to withdraw money from the warehouse. In addition, it has been more than three months since we came to Yangzhou, and there is still no way. Get rid of warehouse money. If this continues, it will be impossible to quote 600 essays per quote. We are willing to sell 500 essays. If we still can't sell it, we can only quote 400 essays per quote, or even..."
Zhu Yunwen frowned.
You have to continue with the loss-making business just to avoid losing everything.
Many people may scold these two people: You idiots, Yangzhou can't sell warehouse notes and salts, so don't you know how to hang ropes on other trees, such as going to Nanjing? Going to Suzhou or Hangzhou?
There are also salt fields in Liangzhe and Zhejiang, and there are domestic merchants and water merchants. Do we have to stay in Yangzhou?
In fact, they really can only stay in Yangzhou.
There are regional restrictions on the sales of salt in the Ming Dynasty. Salt produced wherever it is produced can only be sold in which province or prefecture. This is regulated. Correspondingly, the warehouse notes in the hands of the border merchants naturally stipulated the place where they could exchange the warehouse notes for salt and withdraw the salt.
For many border merchants in the north, if they want to sell their warehouse money, the only place that can support them in exchanging warehouse money for salt is the Lianghuai Salt Transfer Department. The world is huge, but it can be used by these border merchants. This is the only one responsible for this matter. It is impossible to run to Suzhou and Hangzhou with Lianghuai's warehouse money.
Therefore, they can only stay here, wait, and waste until they choose to actively lower prices in desperation, and then leave at a loss.
Although Zhu Yunwen is not a businessman, he also understands the laws of value and the laws of the market. It is impossible for the world to lose the pie, and it is impossible for a businessman to do business at a loss.
If one does not practice righteousness and spares wealth, he either has a huge wealth and is not worried about food and clothing, or he is generous and has poor brains. The vast majority of businessmen are purely seeking profit. If there is no profit, they can't afford it. If there is no profit, who will do the work?
In future generations, performance rewards will come and go, and honorary rewards have given way to material rewards. Businessmen also need material rewards to motivate them, and they also need money to support their shopkeepers, clerks, and families.
The "Open China Law" must continue to operate now, and these people cannot be allowed to give up their identity as border merchants.
Zhu Yunwen pondered for a long time and then said: "The internal merchants are unwilling to take over Yanyin. There must be someone behind this. Who could target our border merchants like this?"
"Who? Who else could it be, Bu Laosong?"
Chen Dashan gritted his teeth and said.
Zhu Yunwen frowned: "Who is this Eternal Pine?"
"You don't know about the Old Pine?"
Chen Dashan and Chu Han were both shocked.
Zhu Yunwen explained that he was a new border merchant and it was his first time in Yangzhou, which cleared up their doubts.
Chen Dashan sighed and said seriously: "This Old Song is a powerful old man. His surname is Liu and his given name is Zhan. I heard that he has a very good background."
Liu Zhan?
Zhu Yunwen couldn't figure it out. There seemed to be no one with this name in the Yangzhou magistrate's office.
