I seek economic hegemony in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 157 Prelude to the Financial War between Han and Wei
As we all know, according to official history, the biggest enemy is not the emperor of Wei, but the Sima family.

Cao Shuang was the assistant minister selected by Cao Rui. From the fact that he was sent to Liangzhou this time, it can be seen that Cao Rui actually wanted to train Cao Shuang.

As a time traveler, I know that Cao Rui may not live for a few years.

The state of Wei has undergone tremendous changes.

Sima will come to power sooner or later, unless the time traveler can summon meteorites and fall into Sima Yi's home.

But Li Heng obviously would not have such daydreams.

He must respect the operating logic of reality.

The actual operating logic is that Cao Shuang must be forced to control Sima Yi as much as possible.

As for how to assist Cao Shuang while maintaining the layout of Longyou and Liangzhou, Li Heng has already thought of a strategy.

Very simple.

Negotiate and do business with Cao Shuang.

Of course, negotiating with Cao Shuang at this time is equivalent to stepping on a dog's tail.

Even if a dog is beaten severely by you, it will still be unconvinced and thinks it can kill you.

The best time to negotiate is to wait until Cao Shuang loses further in the next battlefield.

In other words, this strategy takes time.

Li Heng was not in a hurry, so he decided to start this round here.

Let the bullet fly for a while.

The most critical issue right now is the issue of new money for Xiegukou Free Trade City.

Li Heng closed the money bank's records and said to Jiang Wan and Meng Guang who were sitting opposite: "The new money has started to buy goods, please wait and see."

The tenth day of June, Duling County.

Du Ling walked in in panic and saw Du Yu enjoying the cool air in the back garden.

"Lang Jun!"

Du Ling's tone was very serious, which made Du Ling feel strange. Du Ling had never spoken to him in this tone.

Du Yu sat up from the recliner, and the sunlight made his white coat seem to emit a faint halo.

"Is it Li Jian who replied?" Du Yu guessed.

"No, the Shu people have already used Shu money at Xiegukou."

Du Yu was slightly surprised, then smiled and said: "We will not accept the use of Shu money. I have already told Li Jian that if he insists on forcing us to use Shu money, I would rather suspend the sale of this paper first."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple anymore!" Du Ling said in an unprecedented solemn tone, "Now things are getting serious!"

Du Yu frowned, looked at Du Ling with strange eyes, and said reproachfully: "What exactly do you want to say?"

Du Ling took out a small white cloth bag from his pocket, opened it slowly, and revealed the salt inside.

The hand holding the bag was trembling, and his voice was trembling: "Mr. Lang, would you like to taste it?"

"This is?"

"It's salt."

"Nonsense, how can salt be so tiny!"

"Mr. Lang, please try it!"

Du Yu hesitated for a moment, dipped a little, licked it with his tongue, tasted it in his mouth, and then his whole body was shocked.

When he looked at the salt in Du Ling's hand, his eyes had completely changed.

He almost widened his eyes and said in shock: "This is really salt!"

"It's salt!"

"Why is the taste of salt so different from that of the past?"

"Do you think the salt you ate in the past was very bitter?"

"Yes...where did this come from?"

"Bought it at the Shu Army's Free Trade Center at Xiegukou."

As he spoke, Du Ling took out two Shu coins and emphasized: "Bought with Shu coins."

"Where did you get Shu money?" "I sold some grain and exchanged it for Shu money!"

Du Yu said somewhat reproachfully: "Those grains are not for you to exchange for Shu money, but to buy paper..."

"But you have to use Shu money to buy this salt!"

Du Yu was completely stunned, his expression slowly changed and darkened.

Then his eyes changed when he looked at Yan, and all kinds of emotions flashed through his eyes.

He slammed his fist on the table and roared in a low voice: "How much salt is there?"

"When I went there, there was a long queue. Prime Minister Zhuge's Sima Fei Yi was personally in charge. I got the Shu money from him!"

Du Yu's heart had completely sunk.

"How come Shu people have this kind of salt?"

"I asked many people, and they just said it was provided by Chengdu."

"Chengdu..." Du Yu felt his breathing became heavy, and he immediately thought of a name.

"Li Jian!" Du Yu took a deep breath, and countless thoughts flew through his mind in an instant.

"It can only be him!"

Du Yu stood there for a moment before lying down again, closing his eyes and becoming silent.

It wasn't until the time of burning the incense that Du Yu said with a helpless smile: "He is more powerful than I thought. I thought he would use paper to bind Shu money, but I didn't expect it!"

"I didn't expect it to be salt!" Du Ling added, "Now there are many businessmen in Chang'an buying salt at Xiegukou. Many people exchange grain and cloth for Shu money, and then use Shu money to buy salt, but Lang Jun doesn't have to Worry, there is not much of this salt and it will be sold out quickly.”

Du Yu smiled bitterly and said, "This is because you don't understand Li Jian anymore. How can he be so hasty to do something?"

"What do you mean, Mr. Lang?"

"The amount of salt is definitely sufficient. The reason why it is insufficient now is that they deliberately asked merchants to exchange Shu money in advance so as not to have to exchange it temporarily next time and not be able to get salt."

Du Ling was shocked.

He really didn't expect this.

He suddenly said to Du Yu: "Lang Jun, how about we go hang out with this Li Jian?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? My father is an official of Wei Dynasty!"

"Listening to what you said, Li Jian is really powerful, I'm afraid..."

"It doesn't matter. Although the inflow of Shu money is a disaster, the amount is limited after all. I don't believe that Li Jian can cast unlimited money!"

After saying that, Du Yu picked up the paper again and prepared to write another letter to Li Heng.

At this time, the people below came in a hurry and said, "Mr. Lang, I have a letter from you."

Du Yu opened it calmly and was stunned for a moment. It turned out to be a letter from Li Heng.

He couldn't help laughing after reading the letter.

"Why is Mr. Lang smiling?"

"Nothing, Li Jian wants to persuade me to go to Chengdu."

"That's not bad."

"I said that he can't make unlimited money. I admit that his strategy is very clever, but it is still a little bit worse if he wants to use it to defeat his opponents."

"He wants me to go to Chengdu and join him. Not to mention that the entire Wei Dynasty uses Shu money, even if the entire Guanzhong uses Shu money, I will also obey him!"

Du Ling hesitated for a moment, then suddenly said: "Fei Yi told me that he hopes we can cooperate with salt like we cooperate with paper."

"It can't be done." Du Yu shook his head.

"But there's a lot of profit in it."

"It requires a lot of Shu money, and the risk is too great."

“If we don’t do it, I’m afraid others will do it too.”

"You mean others?"

"Liu Xu's people have been active in the free trade city. He must have known about this new salt."

Du Yu thought for a moment and then said, "Let him do it."

(End of this chapter)