bastard seizes tang

Chapter 258 Pricing
What Lin Yuantu's intentions are, perhaps because he is timid and afraid of getting into trouble, and dare not offend Yan Xing, perhaps because his talents are mediocre and he doesn't know how to handle things, Li Ke doesn't know.

But Li Ke knows one thing, that is, the situation is urgent now, and he has no time to waste time with Lin Yuantu here. Floods wait for no one. He is here in Xuyi, and he needs to do things quickly, so Li Ke doesn't have the slightest shirk , So he ordered Lin Yuantu to order under Li Ke's order to invite the people in charge of the salt shops and grain companies in Xuyi City to come to Xuyi County Yamen, and Li Ke wanted to invite them to "drink tea".

No matter whether it is a salt shop or a grain company, even if they are local snakes in Xuyi and even Huainan, they are still tyrants without official positions. In their eyes, Li Ke is the one who really stands up to the sky. , It was something they couldn't even see when they met in the past.

But it's such a big shot, the first thing he did when he first arrived in Xuyi was to invite them to the county government office for tea, it's strange that they can feel calm in their hearts.

The principals of these parties heard Li Ke's news, and all of them had wry smiles on their faces. They didn't want to go, but they didn't dare not to go. In the end, they had to bite the bullet and go to the county government.

"Cao Min pays homage to His Royal Highness King Chu."

The six people who were in charge of Xuyi Salt Shop and Lianghao's various offices had just arrived at the entrance of the main hall of the county government office. They saw Li Ke, who was young but sitting at the head of the center with a mature face, and hurried inside to pray.

Li Ke was sipping tea, when he heard the crowd entering, he didn't look at them, he still held his teacup, took a sip, and after a while he said with regret: "Sit down."

Li Ke's words were concise and to the point, although he didn't say much, but everyone could see what he meant, and this was probably going to give them a bad blow.

They were very clear about why Li Ke called them here, and after receiving Li Ke's words, they all found their seats and sat down cautiously.

After everyone sat down, Li Ke put down the tea bowl in his hand, looked around, and said to everyone with a flat expression: "I heard that the business of you is booming recently, and you are making a lot of money every day. May I wish you a happy birthday?" ah?"

Congratulations?

They still have some self-knowledge, Li Ke is such a character, they are nothing in Li Ke's eyes, they came all the way from Yangzhou in the heavy rain, just to congratulate them.

Everyone hurriedly said: "The villain dare not, Your Highness will stop me from waiting."

Hearing what everyone said, Li Ke sneered and asked, "Don't you dare? Why don't you dare, are you afraid to come to see this king, or dare not earn this ill-gotten gain?"

Li Ke's words were obviously angered, and they dared not answer either of the two charges.

Everyone hurriedly explained: "Your highness is serious. Your highness told us that we were honored, and it was our luck for three lives. How could we not want to, but this matter of earning ill-gotten wealth, our I really don’t know where to start.”

Li Ke looked at the people in the main hall, and said coldly: "Price salt in Huainan costs [-] renminbi a dou, and Xuyi city costs [-] renminbi. The price of cheap grain is [-] renminbi a dou, and Xuyi city costs [-] renminbi. It's not right to drive up the price so high." Ill-gotten gains?"

As soon as Li Kezhi's words came out, the hall suddenly fell silent. Although the Tang Dynasty ignored the salt administration and let the people cook and sell salt, it was not without old rules to follow. Generally speaking, the price of salt in Huainan was only 150 renminbi higher than that of food. It's no more than fifteen renminbi, which is almost an outdated rule. The price of salt and food in Xuyi City is indeed ridiculously high.

Everyone didn't know Li Ke's attitude, they looked at each other, fidgeted, and no one dared to answer first, for fear that they would make Li Ke angry and suffer disaster.

Li Ke saw that everyone in the hall was silent, so he snorted softly, pointed to the person who was closest to him, and called out by name: "Since you only deny it, but you don't say the reasons one by one, why are you there?" Tell me."

Li Ke didn't know everyone in the hall, but it was a coincidence that he just picked someone at random, and this person happened to be Sun Cong, the head of the Xuyi Salt Company.

Sun Cong is the head of the Xuyi Salt Company, and Xuyi is under Chuzhou, and the Chuzhou Salt Company once offended Li Ke, and suffered a loss because of this. For this reason, Zhou Dingfang, the owner of the Southeast Salt Company, wrote to this letter, asking the Chuzhou Salt Company to You need to be careful in the future, and don't let Li Ke catch the handle, but now that the matter has passed for more than a month, Li Ke has his eyes on them again.

As early as on the way Sun Cong came here, he already had guesses in his heart, so Li Ke suddenly pointed at him to answer, although he was surprised, but he did not lose his sense of proportion.

Sun Cong got up and cupped his hands towards Li Ke, and replied: "His Royal Highness, the price of salt in Xuyi City has indeed increased a lot in recent days, but it is not without cause and effect."

"Let's hear it." Li Ke put his arms on the table by his side, and gently stroked the teacup on the table with his fingers, asking Sun Cong unhurriedly.

Sun Cong replied: "I want His Highness to know that since Huainan has been raining for several days, the price of wood in Huainan wood shop has risen a lot, and the cost of cooking salt is also higher than before. In addition to wood, the weather is too humid. However, the storage and transportation of table salt is also much more difficult than in the past, transporting salt from the salt field to Xuyi, regardless of other things, the loss alone is as high as [-]%, so the price of salt is naturally difficult to maintain. "

Days of rain, the price of dry wood has risen, and the cost of transporting salt has also increased. These words from Sun Cong's mouth are true, and Li Ke knows this very well.

But whether it is the price increase of timber or the increase in storage and transportation losses, these things are not enough to be the reason for the sharp increase in the price of salt from [-] yuan to [-] yuan.

After listening to Sun Cong's words, Li Ke finally stopped his fingers that were still playing with the teacup, looked up at Sun Cong and asked, "In this way, it is justifiable for you to raise the price of salt and grain so far?"

Sun Cong replied: "It has been raining for days and it is inconvenient to transfer. The salt storage in Xuyi City is getting less and less, but more and more people are buying salt. This is a helpless move for the grass people. If it is not like this, I am afraid it will take less than two days. The salt storage in the line should be empty, and then everyone in the city will not be able to buy salt, and it will be a disaster."

Sun Cong's words do have two points of truth at first hearing, but in Li Ke's view, they are all nonsense.It is ridiculous to say that the price of salt is raised in order to prevent the salt from being sold out.

Li Ke said with a smile: "What is the reason for this king's way? It turns out that it is inconvenient to transfer, but this is easy to handle. The king can immediately order that if you go by land, you will use the official carriages along the way in Huainan to assist in the transfer. If you go by water, How about conscripting official ships from all over the country for the purpose of transporting salt?"

After hearing Li Ke's words, Sun Cong wanted to help him transport the salt, but he didn't feel relaxed at all.The salt company offended Li Ke, and Li Ke would not help him in a good manner, Li Ke must have a backup.

Sun Cong asked, "If that's the case, how should the price of salt in this city be determined?"

Li Ke said: "The price will be slightly higher than the normal price, and each bucket should not be higher than 180 Wen."

When Sun Cong heard this, he became anxious immediately. Now that the price of firewood is high, 180 Wen, if he really sells it at this price, he may not even be able to make a profit of [-] Wen.

Sun Cong hurriedly said: "Your Highness, if it is determined according to 180 essays, I am afraid that I will not be able to make ends meet, and I will collapse after a few days."

Li Ke's salt price of 180 texts is naturally not empty talk, but he asked about the price of wood in the wood shop earlier.Li Ke knew that the price of salt was set at 180 renminbi, and the salt shop would never lose money. Sun Cong's words were a bit exaggerated.

Li Ke listened to Sun Cong's words, the smile on his face stopped, and he looked at the people in the hall coldly, and said: "Nowadays it is raining heavily in Huainan, I know the difficulty of waiting for you, but I have also followed the rules. The price of salt and grain in Xuyi City must not rise higher than [-]% of Changping, otherwise it will be difficult for this king."

"Your Highness, it's inevitable." As soon as Li Kezhi's words came out, everyone in the hall muttered, but because of Li Kezhi's prestige, they didn't dare to speak too much and stopped for a while.

Li Ke knew what they wanted to say, so he glanced sideways at the people in the hall who were hesitant to speak, and said coldly: "This king knows that you are all powerful and powerful gentry in Xuyi City. Lin Yuantu may not be able to offend you, but this king wants to tell you that this king is different from him. I will provoke anyone he can't afford, and I will do things he dare not do. Kill first and play later. This is my father. Zhunyun, if you have any questions, you can use your necks to ask this king about Jieyue!"

(End of this chapter)