Traveling through the Ming Dynasty, as soon as you open your eyes, you will die

Chapter 216 Negotiation Full of Sincerity

Facing Li Shoushan, the leader of the salt merchants, he ambitiously shouted for rebellion, but the other nine companies in the Friendship Alliance left him alone on the top of the mountain, leaving him alone and messy in the cold wind of history.

Don’t you have any idea about the current general environmental trend?

Today's Ming Dynasty, as everyone can see, has come back to life under the rectification and operation of that young prince.

I think back then, Li Chuang's millions of troops were forced to retreat and had to flee to the south of the Yangtze River. Even the northwest could not be protected. Now, just because of my group of businessmen and these disengaged soldiers, I want to rebel and go against the prosperous Ming Dynasty. Is it possible?
The answer is clear, death is inevitable.

Wang Shoushan, who ranked second, retorted with a guilty conscience: "Let's not say that the Ming Dynasty still has a certain prestige in the hearts of the people in the world. Just because we, a group of people regarded as despicable by the world, want to rebel and dominate the world, it is probably Not many people respond to us. In the end, we will only be punished and our future will be slim.”

Li Shoushan asked impatiently: "Then what do you think we should do?"

"Can you send someone as a representative to negotiate with them? We accept the court's new legal policy and only ask them to keep our property and lives."

As soon as this point of view was raised, almost everyone nodded in agreement: "Yes, yes, although we have been cut off by the court, our current wealth has ensured that our descendants for more than ten generations will have enough food and clothing. What else should we fight for? Facing the increasingly powerful Ming Dynasty, it would be better for us to keep our abundant wealth and enjoy the wealth before us than to die without spending all our money."

Li Shoushan retorted: "This time, that bullshit prince will never give up on us. And he is famous in the world for wanting money. I think we will show up by then. People are not dead, but money is gone." The most painful thing.”

Everyone fell silent together.

Li Shoushan's analysis was right. The regent was famous for driving nails into the butts of ministers and strangling his own uncle for money. Would he not be indifferent to fat sheep like himself who were as rich as the enemy?

In order to cut off everyone's luck, Li Shoushan said leisurely: "At this time, I finally figured out why the official he sent repeatedly asked us to beat him in Huixian Building. We didn't follow his wishes. , Why did the dog officer crash on our city wall? "

Everyone looked confused: "Why?"

"Because when he came, he must have been guided by that little brat. He wanted us to beat him up, and then he would have an excuse to destroy us and plunder all our property."

After hearing this explanation, the more everyone thought about it, the more reasonable it became. As a result, everyone gasped together, and the entire hall was filled with despair.

Wang Shoushan suddenly stood up and gritted his teeth in despair: "Since he is destined not to let us live, then we will fight him to the death."

Everyone else also expressed their intention to fight to the end.

Li Shoushan achieved his goal and immediately announced: "While the salt soldiers are not completely bewitched, we will pay a heavy reward, plus the three thousand salt soldiers we raised, plus our servants and children from various families, to form a large army. , go out of the city, fight the Ming army, open the door, go outside, recruit troops and rebel. "

The city gate opened, and a man with a white flag shouted: "Your Majesty, don't shoot, I am one of our own." He walked toward Lu Mou.

Lu Mou was very different. Why, the salt merchants were no longer arrogant and surrendered?
But if you surrender, how can I kill people and buy goods in a high-sounding way?

This man with a white flag walked up to Lu Mou and knelt down and kowtowed: "Yancheng Salt Patrol Censor, I, Chen Hongbo, pay my respects to the prince."

Not to mention, he is really one of his own.

Lu Mou helped the old salt clerk up with both hands: "Master Chen, please rise. How did you survive the bandits' rebellion for twenty years?"

Chen Hongbo burst into tears: "Li Chuang was wreaking havoc, attacking the city and killing officials. Thanks to the protection of Yancheng salt merchants, the old ministers survived. But the rogue bandits were raging everywhere, and I did not dare to return to Beijing, so I had to live in Yancheng to survive. Master Wang returned today, It’s a great blessing to have the old minister come back to Ming Dynasty.”

"It'll be good to come back and be safe. Then why did you come today?"

"Your Majesty, the salt merchant has a message for you. The salt merchant has said that they are willing to lay down their weapons and surrender to the king."

"Is that all? There are no conditions for their surrender?"

"Nope."

"No one wants to surrender without conditions. You are an old minister, so tell the truth to me."

"If you say no, it's not true. The salt merchants said that as long as their family's lives are saved, they are willing to hand over the salt pond." "That's it?"

"That's it."

"On this point, who will accept their surrender? Are my officials beaten in vain?"

"Then what the prince means-"

"As long as they hand over their guns and surrender, I guarantee that all of them will be innocent, but I will compensate my ministers for the medical expenses they received from being beaten. At the same time, I have spent a lot of money on the expedition, and I need them to compensate me. Let's do this. Go back and tell them "The compensation is not much, just ten million taels of silver."

"I will return to the city immediately and tell them the prince's conditions."

"Thank you for your hard work, dear sir."

"It's all for national affairs. I don't dare to tell you how hard it is. I will resign."

After seeing off Chen Yushi, Lu Mou faced everyone: "Let's talk about whether they can agree to my conditions."

Faced with the surrender of the salt merchants, no one doubted it.

The reason is that under the pressure of his own troops and when all of Shanxi has been recovered, Yancheng is actually just a lonely boat in the sea, precarious and likely to capsize at any time. Their resistance was futile. What's more, under the powerful ideological offensive of their own side against the salt soldiers, the salt soldiers dared to fight with them at the top of the city, leaving them even less dependent.

If they don't surrender, Bi will suffer an outcome they cannot bear.

Only surrendering obediently is their only way out.

Zhang Huangyan replied: "Although such conditions are relatively harsh, I think they will choose to accept them wisely. Because money is something external to the body, and it must be lived and spent. Hundreds of years of violent monopoly by salt merchants The accumulation has already made them a lot of money, so there is no need to care about these tens of millions of silver. I think the prince will just wait for the increase in raw materials for the mint."

Everyone expressed optimism and agreed with this statement.

There is only one outlier here, and that is Xu Jie, who has always had a somewhat gloomy mentality. He raised his concerns with concern: "They were so arrogant at the beginning, with an attitude of wanting money rather than their lives. Why did they suddenly... Has the time changed? There should be no deceit here."

Lu Mou looked calm and calm: "I should be the one who wants money more than life in the world. However, in the end, when I make a choice, between money and life, I will give up money and survive. So they There is nothing surprising about the change.

What's more, he gave me 10 million silver and gave up the ownership of the salt pond, but their remaining property can still make them rich until their old age.

Besides, in our policy, doesn’t it mean that the salt farm should be run by the government and commercial enterprises? So in this area, who else has more advantages than them in operating salt farms? They can still continue to make profits in accordance with the policies we just formulated.

So I think they are all smart people who have been in business for many years, and they will think of this. "

Then I thought for a moment: "If Mr. Chen comes back again, and if the salt merchants do not put forward the conditions for the priority contracting of the salt field, then I will have to consider their motive for surrender. We will wait to hear the news about this matter."

There was no need to wait long, Chen Hongbo came back: "My lord, the salt merchants have proposed to you a compensation of 10 million. Although it is said that they cannot afford that much cash at the moment, they are willing to pay for the 10 million yuan they have paid for generations." The land they have saved will be used as compensation. Of course, they also have a merciless request and please consider it."

"What kind of unkind invitation is this?"

"They said that they have been selling salt for generations and have not had any contact with other livelihoods. Since the prince has announced a new salt law, which allows merchants to contract and operate under the supervision of the government. So they asked the prince for permission to let them surrender after they surrendered. They have always relied on you. Please contract the salt pool to 10 of them according to your new regulations. They promise to strictly abide by the law and pay taxes according to the regulations. If the prince can agree to this condition, they will immediately lead all their troops out of the city and surrender. "

Lu Mou glanced at Xu Jie and saw that this condition was more real than he expected.

They did not offer priority in contracting the salt pond, but insisted on getting it in exchange. This is the real negotiation.

He turned back to the old minister and said: "I agree to their conditions. I agree to contract the salt pond to them and operate it legally under the supervision of my officials."

With this promise, Chen Hongbo happily returned to Yancheng to report.

(End of this chapter)