1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2003
Yang Chengye's response can be described as very frank, and he did not try to deliberately conceal his attitude.It's not that he didn't think of being friendly to facilitate the deal, but he subconsciously felt that those cover-up methods should not be able to fool the shrewd-looking Boss Gong in front of him.The purpose of the other party's coming to Yangzhou is not pure, and he will definitely be full of wariness towards him. If he wants to show his favor on purpose, it may backfire.So Yang Chengye simply expressed his thoughts directly to see if the other party was willing to accept it.

Gong Shiqi didn't expect that the man who visited in the middle of the night was so upright that he had the idea of ​​buying the two boats of salt and sending him out of the country respectfully.Compared with the group of people who came in the morning, this salt merchant surnamed Yang was obviously much more generous. At least he was willing to buy the two shipments of salt at the market price, and he didn't show any intention of buying or selling by force.

But from Gong Shiqi's point of view, he couldn't just give him the salt and leave with a pat on the ass.These two boats of salt are just tools. Gong Shiqi needs to use these salts to achieve his own goals, and the other party is trying to resolve potential conflicts through acquisitions. Gong Shiqi can only say that this man thinks things too simply. up.

"Boss Yang, I'm afraid it's hard to satisfy your request." Gong Shiqi shook his head and said, "If you really want to buy a lot of salt, then I can match you up and supply it at a low price for a long time. Salt farms in the area collect salt even cheaper!"

Instead of agreeing to Yang Chengye's proposal, Gong Shiqi used this opportunity to persuade Yang Chengye to join the sales system of Ningbo salt merchants, which made Yang Chengye dumbfounded.

For salt merchants, changing the purchase channel actually means changing their camp. It is impossible for Huizhou salt merchants to go to the salt farms controlled by Shanxi salt merchants to collect salt. As for changing the source of goods to the salt farms in Ningbo, that is even less possible.

When Haihan first started building new salt farms in Ningbo, Yangzhou salt merchants tried to contact them, hoping to completely monopolize the production of these salt farms and participate in the daily production and operation of the salt farms.However, it is obviously difficult for the two parties to reach an agreement on this issue. Haihan has always controlled the source of goods firmly in its own hands when operating the salt farm. Even the local salt merchants in Ningbo can only act as regional distributors.As for participating in the operation of the salt farm, it is a privilege that can only be enjoyed by local officials with a certain level of real power. No matter how rich Yangzhou salt merchants are, they still cannot pass this status threshold.

You can only be a regional distributor, which means you have to act according to the face of Haihan people. This is of course an unacceptable condition for Yangzhou salt merchants. Agreements have been reached at several Ningbo saltworks that have not yet started production.In their view, even if these new salt farms can be put into operation within a year or two, their scale is limited after all, and their production capacity can at most meet the local needs of Ningbo, and will not have much impact on the traditional market of Yangzhou salt merchants. The worst thing is to lose the market of one or two state capitals.

Of course, the later situation was completely beyond the expectations of the salt merchants in Yangzhou. After the Ningbo Salt Field was put into operation, the production capacity not only satisfied the local market, but soon began to spread to surrounding areas.The market originally under the control of Yangzhou salt merchants was soon impacted by the low-priced and high-quality Ningbo salt, which made them feel a strong sense of crisis, which led to the subsequent attack.

Yang Chengye shook his head and said, "Long-term supply is fine. I'm only interested in these two shipments of salt. If Boss Gong can give Yang this face, then this transaction can be regarded as making friends."

Gong Shiqidao: "Then I might as well put it bluntly. If you want to mediate the conflict between Yangzhou salt merchants and Ningbo salt merchants in this way, it will definitely not work."

Seeing that the other party had seen through his real intentions, Yang Chengye immediately asked directly: "Then, according to Boss Gong's intention, how can we solve the current situation?"

Gong Shiqi said: "It's very simple. The Yangzhou salt merchants hand over the real culprits behind the previous assaults. We can talk about other things slowly. If this condition cannot be met, then don't mention other things. "

Gong Shiqi thought that the other party might represent a certain camp of the Yangzhou salt merchants, so he also took this opportunity to send out a signal to clearly inform the other party how to resolve this matter.Of course, he didn't have too many expectations for the Yangzhou salt merchant's reaction, and the other party was far from being at the end of his rope, so he definitely wouldn't cooperate as he asked for.

Sure enough, Yang Chengye immediately had a headache when he heard it. He originally wanted to come here to solve the problem, but he didn't expect that the Ningbo salt merchant would be so stubborn. Instead, he posed a new problem for him.Things did not develop in the direction he expected, and the situation became more and more complicated.

Yang Chengye shook his head repeatedly and said: "What Boss Gong said, I can't understand the next sentence. I have never heard of any assault case, and I don't know what you mean by the real murderer behind the scenes. Boss Gong probably has something. Misunderstood?"

Of course, it was impossible for Yang Chengye to betray his friend Lu Kangtai to strangers, but he also realized that the purpose of these Ningbo salt merchants coming to Yangzhou was not simply to sell salt. They really came prepared with a clear purpose. , obviously trying to use the excuse of selling salt to stimulate the local salt merchants to come forward.But what's ridiculous is that all the influential local salt merchants are still hiding in the dark and watching, and the only one who came forward to negotiate a peace with the other party was him, who originally wanted to stay out of the matter.

Yang Chengye also knows his shortcomings and is not good at conducting seesaw negotiations with others. To be able to muster up the courage to take the initiative to come here to meet with the other party is already the best he can do.He couldn't satisfy the conditions put forward by the other party, so he had to respond carefully so as not to be taken advantage of by the other party.

"It's too difficult for me!" Yang Chengye could only lament his difficulty in his heart. Whether it was Lu Kangtai, the Anhui salt merchant group, or the Ningbo salt merchant who had just arrived, it seemed that everyone he met today was trying to find ways to embarrass him He, and each of them, asked questions beyond his capacity.Since he took over the Yang family business, it seems that he has rarely encountered such a difficult situation.As for how to solve it, he is already in a bit of a mess now, and it is difficult to think about more problems.

"Since the conditions cannot be negotiated, I don't think there is any need to waste everyone's time. Boss Yang should have understood our attitude. You might as well bring this news back and discuss it with other people to see if there is a better one. The solution." Seeing that there was basically no possibility of reaching an agreement, Gong Shiqi didn't want to waste any more time on this kind of conversation.

Gong Shiqi only regarded Yang Chengye as a lobbyist sent by a certain salt merchant, and never thought that this person was a big salt merchant with one of the seven surnames of Huizhou salt merchants, otherwise he probably would not have dismissed him so easily leave.This is also to blame his habitual thinking, thinking that the local salt merchants will not show up easily, who would have expected that such an outlier as Yang Chengye would sneak up to negotiate a peace in the middle of the night.He felt that he couldn't get much valuable news from a lobbyist running errands, and he might not even be able to find out the master behind it. He didn't know that among the entire group of salt merchants in Yangzhou, Yang Chengye was probably the only one who opposed the two major salt merchant camps. People who understand the situation.

Of course, Yang Chengye didn't dare to reveal his identity. This visit was extremely dangerous. If his identity was exposed, he would be directly detained by the other party.When it came to this point in the negotiation, Yang Chengye seemed to have no other conditions to bargain with the other party, and the other party's attitude seemed to be determined to resolve the attack first, which was a deadlock for him that was difficult to untangle.

Yang Chengye left the pier with disappointment, and went home by boat again across the river.This daring late-night visit did not achieve his expected goal, but it was not in vain. At least he had confirmed the other party's special intentions from Gong Shiqi's mouth, which might play some role in the subsequent negotiations.But what he is more worried about now is that this group of people will not leave Yangzhou. Then Lu Kangtai and the Huizhou Merchants Council will continue to put pressure on him. How should we deal with it next?
"Perhaps you should have been more patient just now, so that you can extract more information from that person." After Yang Chengye left, Ji Yuanqing appeared. He had just observed the whole process of the two people's talks in the dark. Gong Shiqi's performance, he still thought it was a little too hasty.

"You're right, but don't we have another source of information? One is more hostile to us, and the other is less hostile. Of course, the attack is more suspected of being more hostile." Gong Seventeen succinctly explained his thoughts: "Of course, the most important thing is that I have already opened his mouth when we caught this guy earlier. Whoever wants to use force against us will find out later."

Ji Yuanqing said: "Only one source of information is still a bit one-sided after all. The person just now was not hostile to us, so it is more worthy of routine, even if it can provide us with some valuable information."

Gong Shiqi thought for a while and admitted that Ji Yuanqing's opinion was reasonable.Since that person didn't show obvious hostility just now, it is indeed time to chat with him for a while and learn more about the local salt merchants.It was not a big or small mistake to come into contact with such an "industry insider" with great difficulty, but to be let go by him so lightly.

But now that the decision had been made, there was no turning back, so the two went to the bottom cabin to interrogate the man they had caught earlier.Sure enough, Gong Shiqi's previous verbal offensive worked. The man knew that there was no hope of escape from these ruthless people. When he saw Gong Shiqi again, he took the initiative to ask him to leave Yangzhou Mansion and settle down elsewhere.

This trivial matter was naturally not difficult for Gong Shiqi, so he promised to send him to a very safe place, and give him dozens of acres of land, so that he can live in the fields honestly in the future.Now the land reclamation development zone on Taiwan Island is in need of a large amount of labor, even if a few hundred more people come, Gong Shiqi can arrange it with ease.

Although the man was dubious about Gong Shiqi's promise, he had no choice but to believe that Gong Shiqi would fulfill his promise, and immediately revealed all the news he knew.The master he served was the Wang family of the Shanxi Shanxi salt merchants, whose economic strength can be regarded as a wealthy family among the Yangzhou salt merchants, and the purpose of coming here tonight was just to intimidate Gong Shiqi and others. Force them to leave Yangzhou as soon as possible.

When these gangsters came to make trouble, they didn't carry many weapons, so Gong Shiqi agreed with this person calling his behavior "intimidation".Of course, it is also possible that the other party underestimated their own strength, thinking that as long as there are many people, they will be able to frighten the Ningbo salt merchants from resisting. Who would have thought that there are experienced and ruthless people like Gong Shiqi sitting here, once they come up He started directly without saying three words.

But no matter what, from Gong Shiqi's point of view, the other party has fully exposed their hostility and chose to use force to resolve it. This is already highly suspected to be related to the previous attack.

"Wang Yu? The name seems to be a bit impressive..." Gong Shiqi thought for a while, then remembered: "It's a person from the Shanshan salt merchant."

The name given by the prisoner is also briefly recorded in the information held by the Ministry of Security.Among the Shanshan-Shanxi salt merchants, the three most powerful families are the He, Lu, and Wang families, and the current head of the Wang family seems to be this Wang Yu.As for the reason why Wang Yu wanted to attack them, the prisoner couldn't say anything. He only admitted that if he could drive Gong Shiqi and others out of Yangzhou, he would get a lot of money from Wang Yu. A reward of 300 taels of silver, and then he will get half of it for himself, and the remaining half will be distributed to those subordinates.

As for the previous attacks that occurred in several nearby state capitals, the prisoner refused to admit it, and he didn't know who was the real culprit behind the scenes.And according to what he said, Wang Yu's thugs were actually just a gang of gangsters, and there was no special team equipped with muskets.The clues that Gong Shiqi was expecting seemed to come to an abrupt end.

"You're right. We should have had a good chat with Boss Yang who came to buy salt. Although this guy provided a lot of information, there wasn't much of what we needed." Coming out of the cold and stuffy bilge After that, Gong Shiqi couldn't help complaining about his previous misjudgment again.

Ji Yuanqing said: "Brother Gong, you don't need to be too pessimistic. Since this low-level trick has hit a wall with us, maybe they will use some more radical methods in the future. It's just that the enemy is in the dark and we are in the open. Without a more definite source of intelligence to determine when they will launch, you have to be more careful."

Gong Shiqi nodded and said, "Brother Ji is right. Obviously, many people in the local area don't want to see us stay here. The struggle will probably have to escalate!"

(End of this chapter)