Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Don't look at the current Wu Shigong who is quite jubilant, but in fact, he is still worried about one thing: Yuan Xingshan said that the boat will arrive at the fortress of Qianhusuo in a month or so.However, counting the days, nearly ten days have passed, and the ship has not arrived yet.

Not to mention those supplies, just the nearly 3 taels of silver on Yuan Xingshan's boat, if anything is lost, Wu Shigong's place will collapse immediately.Wu Shigong simply didn't dare to imagine the consequences.

In fact, the current Wu Shigong is not only walking a tightrope in the officialdom, but also walking a tightrope financially.When he wanted to build Qianhusuo Fortress into a fortress, he actually wanted to build a small society in Qianhusuo Fortress.And since a small society is going to be established, Wu Shigong has to worry about the food, clothing, housing and transportation of the people in the fortress of the thousand households.

And these people's food, clothing, housing and transportation expenses are far greater than Wu Shigong's own imagination.So far, these expenses have been supported by the money Wu Shigong earned in the capital.But Wu Shigong didn't develop any new sources of income in Qianhusuo Fortress.

Moreover, Wu Shigong also discovered a misunderstanding of himself through this Holy Spirit Society's counter-insurgency: If Wu Shigong still wants to maintain the normalization of force in his hands, then it is definitely a dream to support war with war.Unless Wu Shigong wants to be a bandit.

Although on the surface this time, Wu Shigong seemed to have benefited a lot from the seizure.However, this is based on the fact that Wu Shigong collected almost all the supplies, money and food from the Holy Spirit Society rioters as his own.

This gain is almost impossible to replicate.Because in future battles, do you really not want to turn over what you have captured?Isn't there any friendly army to share some of the spoils?

In addition, Wu Shigong's battle this time ended with almost zero casualties.But in future battles, will there be such battle losses?That's even more impossible.As long as there are certain casualties, Wu Shigong will have to spend a lot of medical expenses for treatment and burial expenses, which certainly cannot be compensated by those captured on the battlefield.

It's better not to think too much, just wait for Yuan Xingshan's fleet to come back and get through the things in front of him first.Looking forward to the stars and looking forward to the moon, on the seventh day after Wu Shigong returned to Qianhusuo Fortress, Yuan Xingshan finally returned with his fleet.

Yuan Xingshan's fleet was halfway there, and they also got the news of the rebellion from the Holy Spirit Society, so they didn't dare to move forward with the other boats.In the end, when the news came that the rioters had been wiped out, they continued to move forward, so it dragged on for more than ten days.

However, Yuan Xingshan didn't dare to go alone, so he went with other fleets and arrived at the small town below the fortress of Qianhusuo.

The one who accompanied Yuan Xingshan was a salt merchant named Lu Jianchen. This time, he shipped more than 1000 shi of salt to this small town.

As soon as Yuan Xingshan introduced Lu Jianchen to Wu Shigong, Wu Shigong immediately became excited.Salt merchant!what is that?That is silver!For Wu Shigong who is currently suffering from no financial resources, this salt merchant who came to his door is simply too precious.

Wu Shigong knew in modern times that the salt merchants in ancient times, especially the salt merchants in Yangzhou, were simply the richest in the world.They made huge profits by trafficking in smuggled salt.If Wu Shigong can squeeze into the circle of smuggling salt, at least his own military salary problem can be solved.

Therefore, Wu Shigong immediately kindly invited Lu Jianchen to be a guest in the fortress of Qianhusuo, thinking of improving the relationship between the two of them.

However, that Lu Jianchen saw Wu Shigong's thoughts at a glance, and he declined Wu Shigong's invitation with a smile.However, Lu Jianchen was also very honest, he gave Wu Shigong five stone salts as a gift to Wu Shigong.

The Lu family where Lu Jianchen lives is indeed a salt merchant in Yangzhou.In Lu's family, Lu Jianchen's elder brother and Lu Jianchen are in charge of the business.Lu Jianchen's elder brother is basically the master of the inside, and Lu Jianchen is basically the master of the outside.

However, although the Lu family is a salt merchant, it is also a wealthy family in the eyes of outsiders, but the Lu family is only a small salt merchant in the entire salt merchant group in Yangzhou.They also have a small salt farm, but not many salt products are produced each year, and the sales volume of salt products is not large.

And Wu Shigong's sales point here is the most important sales point of the Lu family, accounting for about half of the entire Lu family's sales.This is why Lu Jianchen personally escorted the salt cargo.

However, Lu Jianchen rushed to the town and wanted to deliver his salt goods to the seller here, but found that the town had been basically destroyed and the seller had disappeared.In the whole town, there was not even a complete room in an inn that could be lived in.Now, Lu Jianchen was a little embarrassed.Because he just rejected Wu Shigong, he was also embarrassed to ask Wu Shigong for help.

Wu Shigong saw Lu Jianchen's face, and immediately understood Lu Jianchen's difficulty.Therefore, Wu Shigong once again kindly invited Lu Jianchen to visit Qianhusuo Fortress.This time, Lu Jianchen also went downhill, and after being polite, he followed Wu Shigong to the fortress of Qianhusuo with some gifts.

After Lu Jianchen arrived at the Qianhusuo Fortress, he first briefly visited the Qianhusuo Fortress under the leadership of Wu Shigong.In the evening, Wu Shigong arranged a banquet to greet Lu Jianchen alone.

That Lu Jianchen, after all, is used to traveling all over the world, at the banquet, he chatted and laughed happily with Wu Shigong.Unexpectedly, during the chat, they learned that each other knew Zhang Chunyu who was in Tongzhou, and now the relationship between the two became harmonious.

Now that they have found a common language, Wu Shigong also bluntly proposed to Lu Jianchen: he also wants to get a share of the salt business.

In fact, Lu Jianchen had already seen Wu Shigong's thoughts.Otherwise, he wouldn't have politely declined Wu Shigong's first invitation just now.

Lu Jianchen said to Wu Shigong: "My lord, I'm really sorry. It's not that the villain refuses. It's just that there are rules for making salt. If you want to buy some salt for your own use, then it's fine. Just make salt. The business of goods, if you put it harshly, you may have more than enough heart but not enough power."

Then, Lu Jianchen introduced the basic situation of the salt business to Wu Shigong in detail:

With the development of the Ming Dynasty to the present, the world's salt industry has long since become a stable and saturated market.Although it is unavoidable that there are still some competitions in some places, in the inland area, which salt merchant supplies the supply, how much salt is supplied, and which seller sells it has basically formed a rule.

And this rule cannot be broken casually.If any salt merchant breaks, unless he has great strength to settle it, otherwise, he will be rejected by the entire salt industry guild.Eventually, he will lose his qualification as a salt merchant.

For example: If Lu Jianchen gave Wu Shigong a batch of salt today, ask Wu Shigong to sell it.First of all, Lu Jianchen will offend the sellers who originally sold in this area.And this seller already has great influence in the salt industry market in this area.That seller will never come to Lu Jianchen to pick up salt again.

Secondly, when the Salt Industry Guild learns that Lu Jianchen has such dishonorable things, it will also push the Lu family out of the ranks of salt merchants.

In the end, even if Wu Shigong snatched the right to sell salt goods in this area, he would not be able to get a grain of salt from other salt merchants.There is no supply from the previous home.

Therefore, it wasn't that Lu Jianchen didn't want to appreciate Wu Shigong's face, but that Lu Jianchen really didn't dare to let Wu Shigong do the salt business.

After listening to Lu Jianchen's words, Wu Shigong understood that the salt industry market in the Ming Dynasty was actually a bit like the situation where the upper family united to form a modern monopoly enterprise, and the sales were divided into general distribution and sub-distribution.

As an outsider, I just want to rush into this hugely profitable market, which is obviously impossible at this stage.So, Wu Shigong let go of his mentality instead, and chatted with Lu Jianchen.

A few days after this matter came to an end, Lu Jianchen came to look for Wu Shigong again.

It turned out that the salesman Lu Jianchen also fled into the county magistrate of Qi when the rioters from the Holy Spirit Society came.Therefore, when Lu Jianchen arrived in the town, he failed to find the seller.

And after finding the seller in the past few days, the seller expressed his difficulties to Lu Jianchen.

For that seller, the sales area is not divided according to the administrative area.He is not only responsible for the sales of salt goods in the county seat of Qi County Magistrate, but also in charge of the sales of salt goods in several counties on the side of Runing Mansion.

And this seller is the general distributor in modern terms.But this time, the Holy Spirit will rebel against the people and kill several sub-distributors in Runing Mansion under the general distributor.Therefore, the current general distributor does not need so much salt goods from Lu Jianchen at all.

Moreover, in the rebellion of the Holy Spirit Society this time, the general distributor's family also suffered a lot of losses, so they didn't even have the ability to temporarily eat the extra salt.Therefore, he asked Lu Jianchen to forgive him a lot.

The friendship between Lu Jianchen and the general distributor must be very good.Besides, it is impossible for the natural disaster to force the general distributor to buy the excess salt.But it was impossible for Lu Jianchen to bring back all these extra salt goods.So, he came to Wu Shigong for help.

Wu Shigong thought: Now that he has taken in so many more domestic slaves, and captured so many mules, horses and livestock this time, the salt must be used up.Besides, with Lu Jianchen as a friend, there will be another way in the future.Therefore, he agreed to Lu Jianchen's request.

The final price negotiated was that Wu Shigong bought the excess salt at a price of one or two or six renminbi per stone.This price is slightly lower than the price of local salt goods.

However, Wu Shigong used the seized materials to barter.And Lu Jianchen can also load these supplies on the empty ship back home, and pull them back to Yangzhou to sell the price difference, making a profit at both ends.Therefore, this transaction is also a happy one.