Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 223 Military expenses are settled (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

Hong Chengchou was very surprised by Zheng Zhilong's sudden arrival.

Although the prince has brought in large sums of money from various lords and gentry since his southern expedition, these are all one-time deals.

The real "money bag" of the Liaodong Army is Zheng Zhilong's Dongliuqiu Company.

The annual turnover of more than 10 million taels and the net profit of 6 million taels of silver are the cornerstones supporting the development of Liaodong.

Hong Chengchou said: "What kind of wind blew Brother Zheng to the south of the Yangtze River?"

Zheng Zhilong said with a smile: "Of course it smells like money. The current food prices in Jiangnan are so high. How could our East Ryukyu Company miss such a good opportunity to make money!"

If Shen Zhengzong and others wanted to buy up Jiangnan's grain, they would naturally have to prepare a large amount of money.

Originally, the transactions between these Suzhou businessmen and Zheng Zhilong were settled on a quarterly basis.

Zheng Zhilong first obtained the goods from them and settled the payment every three months.

Although there are certain risks in doing so, Zheng Zhilong's price is still 20% higher than the market price.

After all, the two parties have cooperated for many years, and there is still some trust.

However, more than a month ago, Shen Zhengzong and others requested that the transaction method be changed to cash settlement on the grounds of need for capital turnover.

Zheng Zhilong suggested that cash would be acceptable, but his purchase price would have to be reduced by 10%.

This 10% is pure profit. Unexpectedly, they agreed readily.

These abnormal behaviors naturally aroused Zheng Zhilong's suspicion.

As a person of later generations, Li Xianzhong still knew a thing or two about the thoughts of these profiteers.

Soon the Intelligence Department found out that they were trying to steal food.

In Liaodong, the government will give guidance prices for grains, but these systems have not yet been implemented in the customs.

Since these profiteers wanted to play big, he would simply use their trick and leave Nanjing in the name of the Western Expedition.

They also deliberately took away a large amount of military rations to create favorable conditions for them.

Hong Chengchou said excitedly: "Brother Zheng, do you have food in your hand?"

Zheng Zhilong said: "I have transported all the 150 million shi of grain reserves in Taiwan to Chongming. Soon, the 150 million shi of grain purchased from Annan and other places will also arrive one after another."

"Three million stones of grain," Hong Chengchou almost screamed with excitement!

Zheng Zhilong said: "Last year there was a bumper harvest of sweet potatoes and potatoes in Liaodong, but there is still a considerable amount of inventory that has not been disposed of."

"The prince of Liaodong County wants to put in these sweet potatoes and potatoes first so that the people at the bottom will not be unable to eat!"

Soon sweet potatoes and potatoes appeared on the market in Nanjing, Changzhou and Suzhou.

In fact, these crops were introduced to Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions as early as the middle of Wanli period. However, people here are not used to eating these things, so no one uses them as food rations.

However, the price of food has skyrocketed. Faced with rice costing 4 or taels of silver per shi, these grains costing taels of silver per shi have quickly become a hot commodity.

Although it doesn't matter if you are full, it is cheap. For one stone of rice, you can buy more than ten stones of this stuff.

Wealthy people naturally disdain to eat these coarse grains, but how can the people at the bottom care about so much?

The emergence of these low-priced crops has also caused the price of food to fall, with food prices in various places falling below 5 taels.

At this time, businessmen in Suzhou were gathering at Songhe Tower.

Grain merchant Xi Qiming said: "I really underestimated this Hong Chengchou. They actually transported a large amount of sweet potatoes from the north so quickly."

"In order to increase the price of grain, we have bought up all the surrounding grain. Currently, we have a total of 550 million shi of grain on hand, and the average purchase cost is 1 tael and 5 yuan."

"Now the price of grain has dropped to 3 taels of silver. The problem is that fewer and fewer people are buying it, and the grain in our hands cannot be sold at all. Those tenants have all gone to buy sweet potatoes. Who among the big families in Jiangnan will be short of grain?"

After Xi Qiming finished speaking, many businessmen began to whisper!

They spent more than 800 million taels just to purchase grain, and the daily maintenance cost of these grains was not low.

Now is the rainy season. In addition to renting a warehouse, they also need to hire a large number of people to take care of the food to ensure that the food does not get damp and moldy.

This is also a considerable expense.

Shen Zhengzong said: "We cannot let these low-priced grains continue to be sold in the market, otherwise the high-priced grains in our hands will not be sold, and we must eat them!"

Xi Qiming said: "Although this batch of goods is cheap, the quantity is large. We simply don't have so many warehouses to store it now!"

Shen Zhengzong said: "Who said they should be stored? It doesn't matter even if these things are rotten. As long as we eat them, the lost part can be earned back from the price of food!"

"How much money can we still use at present?"

Xi Qiming said: "There are still about 300 million taels of silver in cash!"

Although these big merchants from Jiangnan have a lot of assets, it is unrealistic for them to come up with so much cash at once.

For this grain speculation, a lot of the money was borrowed from property mortgages.

Shen Zhengzong was going all out, so these people were naturally a little worried.

At this time, Ding Yunyuan, the prefect of Suzhou, said: "There is no turning back when you shoot. Brother Shen is right. Now we can only make a comeback by eating this batch of grain."

"As for the money, I can borrow some more from Duke Baoguo and the others to make sure everything is safe!"

"In addition, we can dig a few more dykes to flood more fields and make people completely lose hope for summer crops!"

Soon Zheng Zhilong received the news that the sweet potatoes and potatoes in the market were quickly cleared.

He immediately raised the price to 6 silver coins per stone.

However, this still did not stop their enthusiasm for purchasing. In just a few days, 400 million stones of sweet potatoes and potatoes were sold out in various markets.

Hong Chengchou said: "These businessmen are really crazy, they actually eat so much food at a high price."

Zheng Zhilong said: "They have made so much preparation in the early stage, and now is the time to prepare for harvest. There is no way that we sweet potatoes can ruin their plans."

"Of course these are just appetizers, and they only cost them 200 million taels of silver."

As the sweet potatoes and potatoes on the market were sold out, and news came that large tracts of fertile farmland had been submerged, the price of food indeed began to rise with a vengeance!

Food prices in Nanjing are even rising every hour.

When I was waiting in line, I still had three taels of silver, but by the time I got to the queue, it had become four taels.

You can't hesitate yet, because it will soon become 5 taels of silver.

Just two days later, the food supply in Nanjing had risen to 6 taels of silver and one stone.

Of course, the people at the lowest level bought a batch of sweet potatoes before, so they will not be short of food for the time being.

Now it's hard for those people who have some assets. They looked down on sweet potatoes before.

But now, faced with the fact that there is less and less food at home and the price of food is higher than the same day, they can only decisively buy it.

Grain prices in the Jiangnan area are generally relatively stable, and ordinary small households do not have the habit of storing large amounts of grain.

Although the family is not going to run out of food soon, if we don’t buy it now, we won’t be able to afford it when we actually run out of food!

Xi Qiming said: "Brother Shen is still better. In just a few days, we have sold 20 shi of grain and returned 100 million taels of silver!"

Shen Zhengzong said proudly: "In fact, the real production center of the Ming Dynasty is Huguang. In the Jiangnan area, only Nanjing, Changzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, Jiaxing, and Huzhou have more grain. Now that Huguang is in war and has too much time to take care of itself, we have taken control again. Naturally, Hong Chengchou cannot get food from these state capitals!"

Due to the rise of the silk trade, many places in the Taihu Lake Basin have converted from rice to mulberry. Even Zhejiang needs to rely on purchases from other provinces for a large amount of grain! Even large-producing mansions like Susong, Hujia, etc. still have large tracts of fertile land for growing mulberry, and they are not wealthy enough to have much food.

"If Suhu is familiar with it, the world will be satisfied" has long become a thing of the past!

The war in Huguang, the granary of the Ming Dynasty, was the reason why businessmen like them dared to fight a food war in the south of the Yangtze River.

Xi Qiming said: "It is said that Li Xianzhong's western expedition did not go smoothly. He has been confronting Zhang Xianzhong's troops in Wuchang City for nearly two months."

"It won't be long before Li Xianzhong needs to send food to Nanjing. Now the granaries of the various prefectures in Southern Zhili have bottomed out, and Hong Chengchou will not be short of money. When the time comes."

After Xi Qiming finished speaking, all the businessmen present showed greedy smiles.

Xi Qiming added at this time: "In this rainy weather in Jiangnan, the large quantities of sweet potatoes and potatoes we purchased before are not storage-resistant, and some of them have gone bad. How should we deal with these things?"

A few of them calculated it together and concluded that these things couldn't be sold anyway. They would have broken down after being left for a few months. Instead of wasting manpower and material resources to take care of them, it would be better to just let them rot and fertilize the land in advance.

Hong Chengchou was furious when he learned that these businessmen were willing to let the food rot in order to make dirty money!

Zheng Zhilong on the side disagreed. It was only normal for businessmen to do such things in pursuit of profits. He deliberately made them proud for a while. After destroying this batch of grain, the grain procurement cost of these Jiangnan merchants had increased to nearly 2 taels of silver and one stone. They had cut off their retreat.

Zheng Zhilong took action quickly, but in order to paralyze his opponent, he asked Hong Chengchou to transport 50 shi of grain from Jiangbei to Jiangnan through the canal.

These grains were disguised as emergency shipments from the north to stabilize grain prices in the south of the Yangtze River.

Suddenly the price was raised from 6 taels to 4 taels.

These merchants from Jiangnan are really in trouble. Only Jiangnan has always transported grain to the capital through canals. When have you ever seen the reverse operation?

To eat these 50 shi of grain requires 200 million taels.

But this is almost all the liquidity in their hands.

They didn't expect that Hong Chengchou was so difficult to deal with. He borrowed grain from Huizhou merchants, transported sweet potatoes and potatoes, and now he actually got grain from the north!

At this time, Ding Yunyuan, the prefect of Suzhou, said: "According to accurate information, the grain transported by Hong Chengchou this time is the military grain stored by Li Xianzhong in the north. It should be the last batch!"

Everyone thought about it, Jiangnan and Huguang were already out of food, and the food from Jiangxi was transported to Huguang.

It is difficult for places like Fujian, Guangxi and Guangxi to be self-sufficient in food. How much can they rely on transporting food from the north?

However, Shen Zhengzong said: "Didn't Duke Baoguo promise to lend us money before? How much can he borrow?"

Ding Yunyuan said: "The Hui merchants introduced by Bao Guoguo need us to mortgage. The conditions for these Hui merchants' mortgages are very harsh. We can only release 20% of the market price of silver, and the interest is 10% a month!"

Under normal circumstances, the pavement properties in their hands can be mortgaged at 3-4% of the market price. Although the % is lower than the market price, it is still higher than the price offered by the pawn shop.

Shen Zhengzong said: "It's okay if we don't have any silver in our hands. Let's take out the property of 750 million taels of silver and borrow 150 million taels of silver from them. The interest of 15 taels a month is acceptable!"

After receiving loans from Hui merchants, Shen Zhengzong and others swept away the 50 shi of grain that Hong Chengchou put on the market.

At this time, the price of food in Nanjing and Suzhou was raised to 6 taels of silver.

It's not that they don't want to raise the price even higher, it's just that they eat too much food now, and they need to convert food into silver.

But soon they discovered something was wrong. Grain appeared out of nowhere and was sold one tael cheaper than them.

As a result, their food will not be shipped.

But at this moment, they only have 150 million taels borrowed from Huizhou merchants, and they don't dare to rashly raid the food supply.

I decided to observe it for two days first, to check the source of the food on the one hand, and to see how much food they had on the other.

The results of the investigation made Shen Zhengzong and others take a breath. These people who sold the grain were actually Shanxi merchants from Shanxi. They had spent a long time trying to drive up the price of grain, but these people actually came to grab ready-made food.

Forget about eating, they ruined the place and actually brought the price down!

Although it is difficult to save food due to the years of war in the north, these Shanxi merchants are also big businessmen, and they may have some food reserves.

Shen Zhengzong and the others were under a lot of pressure. It would be impossible if they couldn't sell food.

Finally, they also decided to lower the price to 5 taels of silver per stone.

However, they found little success. Even if the price was reduced to the same price, they did not sell much food.

Xi Qiming said: "We mix at least one bucket of sand into each stone of grain. Naturally, we cannot sell it to others at the same price."

They were still hesitating here and the other party lowered the price.

The grain quantity has been adjusted from 5 taels to 4 taels.

Now Shen Zhengzong and others panicked. The other party's price reduction meant that they had a lot of food in their hands. Otherwise, they would have no reason to cut prices and ship goods.

In the end, Shen Zhengzong decided to adopt the method of lowering first and then closing.

They lower the price first, and if the other party continues to follow up, they can consider taking away the other party's grain at a lower price.

If the other party doesn't follow, after all, they can still make a profit at the current price.

I now have 600 shi of food on hand, so I can cash out some of it first.

So they dropped the price of food to 3 taels and 5 cents.

But I didn't expect Shanxi merchants to quickly adjust to 3 taels.

Then both sides fell all the way until Shanxi merchants adjusted the price to 2 taels.

2 Liang has approached their procurement cost line.

Shen Zhengzong has no room for decline.

So they decided to go shopping. These Shanxi merchants came from afar, and he didn't believe how much food they could get!

Surprisingly, after selling their 150 million taels, they only got back 75 shi of food!

It's over, they have completely lost!

Xi Qiming said: "Old Shen, let's sell it at a lower price. It doesn't matter if we lose the money. At least we have to pay back the 150 million taels of silver. Otherwise, all the property in our hands will be lost and there will be no chance of recovery!"

Shen Zhengzong said: "I want to see Duke Baoguo in person. They still have money in their hands. If we lose, they will never get any money!"

When Shen Zhengzong rushed to Nanjing from Suzhou, he found that the Duke Zhu Guobi, the Marquis of Lingbi Tang Guozuo and others had been captured by Hong Chengchou on suspicion of burning down the granary in Nanjing!

What made him even more desperate was that there was an endless stream of sailboats on the docks of Nanjing.

There are people carrying food everywhere.

Rumors spread throughout the city of Nanjing that Li Xianzhong, the king of Liaodong County, had transported a large amount of grain back from Nanyang.

The price of food in Nanjing City has plummeted, from 6 taels to taels of silver.

Since millions of stones of grain were suddenly put on the market, there is no shortage of food at all.

Even if Shen Zhengzong and others sold it for 5 coins, it would be difficult to get rid of the 650 million shi of grain in their hands.

Creditors from all walks of life came to collect debts one after another after hearing that they had failed miserably in grain speculation.

At this time, Shen Zhengzong was surprised to find that their creditor was not Hui merchants, but Liaodong Bank.

Hui merchants have transferred their loans to Liaodong Bank.

They proposed to use grain to repay the 150 million taels they owed to Liaodong Bank, as well as the interest of 15 taels.

Liaodong Bank is not stupid. The house, workshop and acres that Shen Zhengzong mortgaged to them are worth 750 million taels.

They have no reason to leave 750 million taels without taking it!

With the cooperation of the government, Liaodong Bank quickly took away related industries from Shen Zhengzong and others.

At this time, they couldn't even send people to maintain the barn and couldn't get any money.

These rice grains will soon become moldy.

After all, it was 600 million shi of grain, and Hong Chengchou couldn't let it go moldy.

It’s time for the government to take action at this time.

Soon Shen Zhengzong and others were arrested and brought to justice!

These businessmen shouted: "We are not breaking the law by speculating on grain!"

The officer replied: "Who said they arrested you because of grain speculation? Someone reported that you deliberately broke the dike and flooded countless farmland!"

In the end, the government confiscated the remaining property and grain of these people to compensate for the flooded farmland.

Flooding is a natural disaster. For thousands of years, the most the government has done is exempt some taxes and distribute some relief grains.

This was the first time they heard about compensation.

The actions of the government are supported by the people!

The case was handled surprisingly quickly.

On June 20, the second year of Hongguang's reign, the houses of Duke Zhu Guobi and Marquis Tang Guozuo of Lingbi, who participated in the arson of the granary in Nanjing, were directly confiscated and beheaded in Nanjing West Market.

More than 60 other nobles and officials involved in this incident were expelled or exiled.

At the same time, in Suzhou City, the chief culprit who deliberately flooded the fields and manipulated grain prices, Suzhou prefect Xi Ding Yunyuan, as well as more than a hundred businessmen, including Shen Zhengzong and Xi Qiming, were all executed on the spot, their property was confiscated, and their families were exiled. !

After Li Xianzhong of Wuchang learned that Hong Chengchou and others had seized more than 600 million shi of grain and received tens of millions of taels of silver during this commercial war, he ordered that the Suzhou Prefecture be exempted from the land tax this year and that 200 million shi of grain be transferred to the north!

With this money and food, we won’t have to worry about next year’s military expenditures!

Jiangnan's matter is over, he no longer has anything to worry about!

After the money and food are in place, he can start war against Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng at the same time!

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(End of this chapter)