Water Margin people

Chapter 1416: Salt Merchants’ Counterattack

There are still many tourists on the canal late at night.

“I didn’t expect Yangzhou to be so lively at night!”

Li Shishi was no longer sleepy at this time. She leaned on Sun Lei and looked at the beautiful night scenery with a smile.

Sun Lei was looking at the freight terminals. Even at night, the terminals were brightly lit and many people were busy unloading cargo.

At dawn, in a large mansion.

"Master, there is an order from the Tea and Salt Bureau stipulating that the price of medium-quality salt cannot be higher than 25 cents per catty!"

A servant hurriedly ran into the lobby of the luxurious mansion and said.

"what!"

In the lobby, a middle-aged man in elegant clothes was having morning tea. Hearing the servant's words, he instantly became furious and smashed the teacup in his hand directly to the ground, breaking it into pieces.

This man is Hu Feng, the largest salt merchant in Yangzhou.

"This is too much! Go and ask the heads of the various families to come!"

The middle-aged man yelled at the servants.

When the sun just rose, there were already quite a few people sitting in the lobby. They were all dressed in silk and satin, wearing jade and gold, and holding expensive folding fans, showing their wealth everywhere.

"You all know, right? Liu Dong actually stipulated that the price of our medium-grade salt must be reduced to less than 25 cents."

Wasp looked at everyone and said.

"Boss Hu, this Liu Dong wants to kill us. Twenty-five cents is not even enough to cover our costs!"

"Yes, the Qi State started to lower the price as soon as they arrived. They lowered it from 100 coins per pound to 40 coins, but they were still not satisfied. Now they want 25 coins!"

"Fight with them, and I'll see if Sun Lei can sit firmly on the dragon throne!"

All the salt merchants were filled with righteous indignation and were so angry that they looked like they wanted to find Sun Lei and fight him to the death.

Salt has been a highly profitable business since ancient times. These salt merchants originally wanted to make a fortune by taking advantage of the chaos in the world. However, who knew that the Song Dynasty was like a piece of paper and disappeared in an instant. The State of Qi quickly controlled the entire country and put pressure on their salt merchants.

The salt merchants had originally wanted to reduce the price from 100 wen per catty to 60 or 70 wen per catty and still make money "honestly". However, Liu Dong, the head of the Tea and Salt Bureau sent by Qi State, met with them as soon as they arrived and ordered that the price of salt should not exceed 40 wen.

This is a matter of life and death for the salt merchants. Their profits have been cut in half in an instant. Who would feel good about this?

But Liu Dong came from the army and was full of murderous intent. He used both coaxing and intimidation. The salt merchants were unwilling to turn against the new court, so they could only endure it. At forty cents a pound, they still had a profit of more than twenty cents.

But it is different now. If the price of salt is reduced to 25 cents per catty, the profit will be too thin. Salt merchants are big businesses and employ a large number of workers. Boiling salt, transporting and selling are all costs.

"Everyone, Qi State is trying to kill our Yangzhou salt merchants!"

An old man said solemnly while tapping the stone slab on the ground with his walking stick.

"Mr. Liu, we can't stand this any longer. Let's go on strike. I wonder how long Qi can hold out. By then, Jiangnan will be in chaos and they will have time to ask us for help!"

Someone immediately spoke.

"Strike!"

When everyone heard this word, they all hesitated. A strike could be big or small. Everyone in Qi was born a bandit. If they were really killed, they would all die.

"What are you afraid of? Does Sun Lei really dare to kill us? We just close the store and stop selling. It's not against the law! They claim that they will rule the country according to the law. Do they dare to break their promise?"

The man who was shouting saw that everyone was afraid and immediately started roaring.

"You have to find a good reason to strike. Simply closing the store is definitely not an option."

Hu Feng shook his head. "Boss Hu, do you have any good ideas?"

Everyone looked at Hu Feng. The reason why the Yangzhou salt merchants were able to grow big was because of their unity. Now that the price of salt was suppressed so severely, it was tantamount to asking for their lives.

“Work with others!”

Wasp spoke slowly.

"Start with coins?"

Everyone was shocked. Merchants from all walks of life in Jiangnan were now secretly uniting to fight against Qi's new currency and try to seize some benefits from Qi.

"That's right. We are no match for Qi alone. We must unite with others. If Qi wants to issue new coins, we will prevent them from doing so. We will take whatever money they mint!"

Wasp spoke up.

"What if it hits my hand?"

A fat fool asked.

"You are stupid. Those are not all money. How can gold and silver be a waste of money? Look at those Shanxi merchants. They have buried all their gold and silver in the cellar!"

Someone immediately pointed at the fat man and said that if it were goods, it might be a waste of money, but gold and silver are the eternal hard currencies.

"Qi State has just unified the world and it is in a hurry to issue new coins. The minting is so exquisite and the craftsmanship is complicated. The production volume must be low. As long as we hold on, he won't be able to see the coins circulating in the market within ten years!"

Hu Feng smiled and said, looking back at history, new coins would be issued after each dynasty changed, but most of them were copper coins, and there was no fixed pattern for gold and silver.

But the State of Qi insisted on unifying all currencies and had to mint them extremely finely, which gave merchants an opportunity. Fine things are not easy to mint, and merchants know this best.

"Sun Lei has just taken over the world. If the currency cannot be promoted, it will be a huge loss of face. He will come to us for help!"

Wasp looked at everyone and added with a smile.

"Ha ha!"

Everyone burst out laughing.

"But what about the salt? Are you really going to sell it for twenty-five cents?"

After laughing, everyone started asking about salt. Yangzhou controlled the salt industry in the entire Jiangnan and Jinghu regions, and shipped out hundreds of thousands of kilograms of salt every day. If it was sold at 25 cents, the loss would be tens of thousands of strings of cash a day. If the losses in other places were included, the total would probably be more than 50,000 strings of cash a day.

“Of course you can’t sell it like this!”

Wasp spoke up.

"What should we do? If we fight, we won't win!"

Although everyone wanted to confront the court, they did not dare to do anything openly.

"No need to do anything, we'll take whatever salt he has! Twenty-five cents, we'll take it back!"

Hu Feng said that twenty-five cents for the salt was definitely a bargain, and they would not lose money if they sold it at a slightly higher price.

"This is a good idea. We can't sell it in Yangzhou, so we can go to Jianzhou, Nanjianzhou, Yuzhou, and Jinghu South Road to sell it. Those places are all mountainous areas, and we can sell it for 50 cents! We can just treat it as buying goods at a high price!"

Someone immediately came up with an idea. It would be impossible to sell salt in areas with developed transportation, but it was different in mountainous areas. There was a shortage of salt and transportation was inconvenient. Salt was hard currency there and there was no worry about not being able to sell it.

"Then it's settled. If they dare to sell cheap salt, we'll have our men pretend to be ordinary people and sell a lot of it. I want to see how much salt they have!"

Hu Feng smiled and said that half of the salt of the Song Dynasty was produced in Lianghuai, so they controlled the salt industry in Lianghuai. In the past, they were all royal merchants of the Song Dynasty, and both sides won by relying on huge profits. Now that Qi wants to exploit them, they must rise up to resist.

A notice was posted in Yangzhou City, announcing that the price of salt would be reduced to 25 wen per catty starting that day.

The people shouted "Long live the salt". Salt is an indispensable item and the low price is very friendly to ordinary people. It is not easy for anyone to make money.