Chapter 383 It’s Time to Act
Qingzhou
After receiving the letter from Luoyang, Young Master Ji and Wu Ren looked at each other and smiled, "It's time for us to act."
Their grain transport operation was so grand and unconcealed that it quickly attracted people's attention.
Merchants have a keen sense of smell. A merchant who is familiar with the two asked them, "Manager Wu, Young Master Ji, what are you doing?"
The Liaodong Chamber of Commerce is well-known to the people of Liaodong County, and it is also very famous in the south. In addition to these two places, the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce is not unknown in the Central Plains.
Wu Ren is currently the general manager of the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce. This time he led a team to lay out trade routes. Due to fate, the first stop was Qingzhou.
After Wu Ren came to Qingzhou, Young Master Ji came soon. Young Master Ji took him to meet many people.
At this time, in order not to appear so deliberate, Wu Ren and Young Master Ji did not answer directly, but smiled.
"My dear nephews, are these grains?" someone asked again.
The two of them still didn't speak, and they looked like two fresh quails when they were close together.
But businessmen are best at dealing with people and being familiar with each other. It doesn't matter if the two of them don't speak, they just need to speak.
"Where are you going to ship this to?"
"Oh, don't hide it, you two, make money together, and I will give you a big red envelope when I make money!"
"Manager Wu, tell me, I will decide to reduce the rent of your store for three months."
Young Master Ji and Wu Ren looked at each other, as if they were very helpless, "My dear uncles, the sacks are indeed filled with grain, and we plan to ship this batch of grain to Nanyang. The grain price in Nanyang has risen again."
"Rise again?" The man who spoke raised his voice unconsciously.
"Yes, with the intervention of the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association, it has now risen to 280 wen per dou."
"280 wen per dou?!"
This price made all the merchants present shut up in surprise.
As merchants, they are well-informed. Everyone present has heard that since the earthquake in Nanyang, the price of grain in Nanyang has remained high, selling at a high price of 260 wen per dou.
In Nanyang, someone is obviously manipulating the grain price.
This price is good, but it is still a little short of making them take action. After all, the grain price in Qingzhou is not low.
They did some calculations. The labor cost of transporting grain to Nanyang plus the consumption on the road, selling it at 260 wen per dou, did not increase the profit much, which was not enough to impress them.
Moreover, such a high grain price is not friendly to the imperial envoys who went to provide disaster relief. It is said that Lord Zhang and Lord Zuo who went to provide disaster relief are the favorites of the emperor, so they are somewhat cautious.
Now it’s 280 Wen per dou, the profit is obvious, we must act.
And now the grain price has been rising again and again, which shows that in the struggle between officials and businessmen in Nanyang, merchants have the upper hand.
280 Wen per dou, they can’t help it. Deducting the labor cost and consumption of transporting grain, you can make money anyway, and you are a cuckold if you don’t make money!
Another businessman squeezed his chubby body to push aside his colleagues around him and asked, "Master Ji, which port do you transport grain from Qingzhou to Nanyang?"
Master Ji: "Luoyang."
There are three or four canal ports in Yuzhou, among which Luoyang is the closest to Nanyang, Kaifeng and Xiangru County (Zhoukou) are next to Xuchang, and Liangjun (Shangqiu) is farther away from Nanyang.
"How much is the freight?"
Others also pricked up their ears.
"It's expensive now, right?"
"Not bad." After saying these two words, Young Master Ji pointed to the front and said, "Can you see that the man standing in front of the deck of the first ship is Deputy Chief Lin of the Cao Gang. If you want to know the price of transporting grain to Nanyang, why don't you ask him?"
Hearing this, the merchants swarmed towards Lin Shan.
After asking around, the merchants found that the cost of transporting the grain was not as high as they imagined.
Has the Cao Gang not reacted? So the price remains the same as before, and there is no price increase. It may not be the case later.
The merchants felt that they had found the truth.
So the people present came to Lin Shan to place orders, hoping to make a deposit and fix the freight.
Lin Shan accepted everyone who came.
When these merchants got off the ship one by one, they thought of Lin Shan's confused and out-of-state look just now, and they were all secretly happy. They all felt that they were cunning and got the upper hand.
Coincidentally, Lin Shan thought so too.
In the cabin, he looked at a stack of signed orders and felt that he had made a lot of money.
Ever since he went to Fang County, Liaodong County, and met with President Lu Songli, he had been preparing secretly. Now it seems that the opportunity has come.
Situations like this often happen in places rich in grain.
In this way, with the help of Ji's Business and Liaodong Chamber of Commerce, the news that Nanyang's grain prices were the highest in the country spread like wildfire, and grain merchants from all over the country took action after hearing the news.
Liaoxi County, Yi County
It has been half a day since the two adults Lu Desheng and Lu Yiliang led their troops to the governor's mansion. Everyone is very worried about Lord Lu. Worried about his safety and the result. After all, this is a major event related to whether they can go to Liaodong County to live next.
And they also understood before that it seemed that their Pingzhou Governor was on the side of Liaoxi County. Can Lord Lu defeat two people alone?
Xue Xu comforted them, "Don't worry, Lord Lu has always convinced people with reason." He almost never lost.
Looking at Mr. Xue who was calm and composed, and then looking at the people of Liaodong Chamber of Commerce who were also calm, the hearts of the refugees in the south also settled down.
Xue Xu thought for a while and said, "I guess we can't leave today. It's getting late now, so let's set up camp here tonight."
"Okay, I'll go tell everyone."
"Tell the guards to remember to strengthen their vigilance tonight."
Hearing that they would spend the night here tonight, everyone unpacked their packed bags skillfully and started to get busy.
When night fell, they skillfully lit a bonfire.
When Lu Desheng came back, he brought 6,000 people with him, and the movement was quite big.
The scouts sent by the guards turned back and told them that it was Lord Lu who came back, so everyone should not panic.
"Lord Lu is back!"
"Are you okay, Lord Lu?"
Everyone cared about him very much, after all, Lord Lu was running around for them.
"It's okay, the problem has been solved. Everyone, just stay here tonight, and we can set off for Liaodong County early tomorrow morning."
Without outsiders, Lv Desheng was too lazy to give face to Shi Tao, saying that the governor was very reasonable.
Hearing this, all the refugees from the south were looking forward to it.
Xue Xu quickly arranged hot meals for the 6,000 people. They didn't have much else, but they had a lot of food.
Lv Desheng didn't leave tonight. After eating and washing up simply, he went to sleep directly in the place arranged by Xue Xu. Mainly because he was tired and too lazy to toss around.
But his move touched the more than 20,000 refugees in the south.