Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 218, can't stand it anymore

In Liu Jin's courtyard, Liu Jin was listening to Tong Yuan's report on the situation in the capital.

"Master, it seems that the price of grain in the capital is about to lose its stability. Some grain merchants have quietly lowered the price to sell it. It seems that it is about to be overwhelmed."

Tong Yuan said to Liu Jin with a smile on his face that he has been paying attention to the grain prices in the capital every day, and he has been making rumors about large-scale purchases of grain all the time.

"In the past, even if I was willing to pay a high price to purchase grain, these grain merchants were not willing to sell it to me. Now some of them have contacted me quietly and are willing to sell grain to me on a large scale at a price of one hundred yuan a catty. It seems that they are really in a hurry."

"Of course they are anxious. The cost of these grains is at least a dozen yuan a catty, especially the grains from the south that they eat later. The price is high and the quantity is huge, which makes their overall cost skyrocket."

"Calculating the time, the food transported by the imperial court from the south will arrive in the capital in about half a month. When the food enters the capital, their doomsday will come."

"So taking advantage of the present, they must find a way to sell these grains one by one, and they are definitely not an iron plate among themselves. These businessmen, none of them are fools, will definitely compete to sell the grains in their hands one by one. No one would be foolish enough to wait until the end to throw these high-priced grains into their own hands."

When Liu Jin heard this, he couldn't help laughing. This war without gunpowder was finally about to see the outcome. They wanted to use food as a weapon to achieve their goals, but in the end they lost on food.

Moreover, Liu Jin has already seen their tragic ending. It is nothing to lose his family and property. What he really loses may be his own life, or even the fate of the entire family.

Emperor Hongzhi still hasn't issued an order to severely investigate and deal with these businessmen. Obviously, he is taking a long line to catch big fish. These businessmen are just small fish and shrimps to Emperor Hongzhi, and they are insignificant at all. The real opponent is the court. Those who want to limit the imperial power and control the imperial power.

Any emperor would not tolerate anyone touching the imperial power, unless the emperor himself was a puppet. Obviously, Emperor Hongzhi was not, and the real good show came later.

"Master, what should we do now?"

Tong Yuan is also full of smiles. He likes mathematics, and he has learned knowledge and content from Liu Jin that is not in the Four Books and Five Classics. Now he seems to understand the power of the economy and the power of the market.

"What do you think we should do now?"

Liu Jin looked at Tong Yuan and asked back.

"I think at this time, we should increase the supply of sea fish in the capital."

"In the past few days, we have launched several fishing boats, and together with the fishing boats that have returned from the sea, we have caught more than three million catties of sea fish every day. The sea fish has been sun-dried if it can't be eaten."

"As long as our side increases the supply of one million catties of marine fish to the capital every day, they will definitely collapse immediately."

Tong Yuan thought for a while and replied.

"You are really talented in economics and mathematics. Starting tomorrow, you will increase the supply of marine fish in the capital, but don't increase too much at once. Increase the supply of [-] catties of marine fish a day, which will completely overwhelm the people in the capital. Grain merchants come."

After Liu Jin listened, he looked at Tong Yuan and couldn't help admiring that this was almost exactly what he thought.

At this time, what Liu Jin needs to do is very simple, that is to continuously increase the supply of sea fish, and slowly overwhelm the grain merchants in the capital.

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, Tong Yuan nodded quickly.

……

In the capital, in a secret manor.

Hu Wan'an has long since lost the unrestrained composure he used to have, and he has also lost the elegance of strategizing and winning thousands of miles away. Since the news of the court a few days ago spread, his good days are coming to an end.

Originally, in his imagination, the princes in the DPRK and China would definitely join forces to attack the sea fish, prohibit sea fish from entering Beijing, and strictly prohibit fishing in the sea.

After all, the sea ban is the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, and the influence of the southern scholastics on the court is unparalleled. Whether it is the cabinet ministers, six ministers, ministers, etc., there are many, many bigwigs who came from the southern scholastics.

In this regard, the interests of these scholars in the south are almost the same. They oppose the increase of commercial taxes and strictly enforce the maritime ban. This is a measure that is in line with the interests of the scholars in the south.

He believes that as long as the court and all the princes work together, they can easily prohibit sea fish from entering Beijing, and at the same time implement a stricter sea ban policy. If they cannot go fishing, everything in Tianjin will be in chaos.

A large number of victims will be hungry if there is no sea fish. At that time, if some people are mixed in to fan the flames, it will be easy to turn Tianjin into a huge powder keg, and directly blow up Liu Jin, who dances the most. to pieces.

Without sea fish, the millions of people in the capital plus the gathered disaster victims would still need the food in his hands to survive, and the food ace weapon in his hand could still play a role in deciding the outcome.

However, what happened in the morning above a few days ago was really unexpected.

Before the princes in the DPRK proposed a strict sea ban and fishing ban, Hubu Shangshu Zhoujing proposed to completely lift the sea ban, and then it was even more unexpected that the princes in the court finally agreed to allow fishing in the coastal areas , and even took Tianjin as a pilot to fully lift the sea ban.

As soon as this news came out, it was like a super earthquake, directly disrupting all of Hu Wanan's deployment and follow-up plans.

This means that not only Tianjin can go fishing in the sea, but the entire coast of Daming can go fishing in the sea from now on. More importantly, it is legal for Tianjin to go to sea for business and trade. Only the big families and big businessmen in the south.

The big families and big businessmen in the north can also enjoy the huge profits of sea trade. I don’t know how many big families and big businessmen in the north are running to Tianjin in the past few days, preparing to make arrangements in advance.

"I lost, this time I lost completely."

Hu Wanan walked around in his room. He had been thinking hard about countermeasures for the past few days, but after much deliberation, he couldn't think of any good solution.

He clearly realized that this time, he had lost miserably, miserably, and more importantly, he hadn't figured out exactly where he lost until now.

Everything was proceeding according to his plan, and he was sure of winning, but the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse, as if everything collapsed all of a sudden.

He clearly felt that everything behind this was controlled by an extremely clever person, and all his deployments were seen through by the other party, and the corresponding arrangements were made in advance. Once he made a move, he had no power to fight back.

"Master, Master~"

Just as Hu Wanan was thinking hard about countermeasures, the housekeeper Hu Yining hurried over.

"what's up?"

Hu Wanan asked quickly.

"Others have lowered the price, and they started to sell grain at a lower price regardless of the agreement."

Hu Yining looked very lively.

This time it was the Hu family who took the lead and led many grain merchants and salt merchants together. The original agreement was to listen to Hu Wanan's command, make a fortune together, and slaughter a super fat sheep together.

Now that other grain merchants and salt merchants have started to sell grain merchants at lower prices without Hu Wanan's order, how can Hu Yining not be angry?

"Have you started selling grain at reduced prices?"

Hu Wan'an looked very calm, as if he had already expected this.

Because he knows too well how much grain they are holding in their hands now, and the grain in the two official warehouses of Linqing warehouse and Dezhou warehouse is in their hands.

Since the famine, they have eaten all the grain sold from the south to the north at high prices. In addition to the huge amount of grain in their hands, it can be said that almost all the grain in the three northern provinces has reached their hands.

Holding a huge amount of food, the more critical thing is that the cost of these food is too high.

Getting grain from the Dezhou warehouse and the Linqing warehouse cost millions of taels of silver, from the filial piety of the princes in the court to the officials and petty officials who manage the two warehouses, which one is not necessary? RBI, need to unclog.More need tens of thousands of taels of silver, and less need hundreds of taels of silver.

There is a famine in the north, and the grain merchants in the south will naturally transport grain to the north in a steady stream. The price of this grain is already high in famine years. If you want to eat these grains, the price is very high, even more expensive than usual Several times, this still requires an acquaintance, otherwise the other party may not even sell it to you.

Because if they sell this grain by themselves, they can sell it at a higher price, and the price of selling it to people like Hu Wan'an must be lower.

The investment in eating food from the south is the largest. As soon as the news of the famine comes out, businessmen chasing profit will naturally come rushing like sharks smelling blood.

Although the strength and influence of Huizhou merchants and salt merchants are huge, they cannot control all the merchants in the entire Ming Dynasty. , Merchants in the north, they don't care about Huizhou merchants or salt merchants, they only care about money.

In order to eat these grains from the south, people like Hu Wan'an spent millions of taels of money, because no matter how much grain came in, they had to eat it. Only in this way could they form a situation of control.

"I can't stand it anymore, and I don't blame them."

Hu Wan'an didn't mean to blame other people, because he knew that everyone couldn't stand it anymore, and as soon as the relief food from the imperial court arrived, everyone's end would come.

"Give me an order to sell all our family's grain at a reduced price, and we will also sell it for a penny a catty. At this time, money is no longer as important as life."

　Today is just one chapter. It’s too cold at home, and I don’t have the heart to code during the Chinese New Year~~I want to go out for a while~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)