The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 777 Economic Warfare

The lower reaches of the Liaohe River.Quanyangou.

It is located more than 200 miles north of Shenyang, which is the area around Liaoyuan City, Jilin Province in later generations, but it is still an extremely desolate place, with a population of less than a thousand households.

In the courtyard of a two-entry earthen house, more than a dozen people sat on stools and kangs, with hot wine and salted beans in front of them, but no one ate or drank, and did not talk to each other, as if they were waiting for someone.

After a while, a woman wearing a thick padded jacket and a coarse cloth head came into the room, and everyone immediately stood up and cupped their hands, "Qi shopkeeper."

"The treasurer Qi is here."

Some people also called it differently, "I have seen the little patriarch."

The woman took off her turban, revealing her long braided hair. It was Aruna who visited Zhu Linmi in Songshan more than half a month ago.

She clapped her hands in return, first winked at Jill behind her, and said in a low voice, "Start from three miles away."

Although this was already the fringe of the Manchu Qing rule, it was farther away from the sphere of influence of the East China Sea, so she had to be extremely cautious.

"Whoo."

Ji Lezhan led the people away, Aruna closed the door, and then turned around and greeted: "It's not easy for you to come here from a long distance, so I'll get straight to the point. This time, I invite you to come here to collect some money on behalf of others." Batches of grain and pig iron. The plate is very large, so everyone can make a profit."

Unexpectedly, as soon as she finished speaking, the look of anticipation on the faces of everyone in the room disappeared immediately, and some even got up and were about to leave.

A black-faced strong man said in a rough voice: "Little patriarch, don't you know how many people who went to the pass a while ago came back? The southerners are very strict in investigation. It is said that if they are caught, their things will be confiscated and sent to prison. How many people run this line? Decades of old tricks have been lost, who would dare to smuggle forbidden things now?"

His words immediately aroused a voice of agreement.

Hauge mobilized profiteers inside and outside the pass to Daming to smuggle military supplies such as grain, copper and iron, weapons and even gunpowder half a year ago.Unexpectedly, Daming sent tens of thousands of police officers to patrol the border, and mobilized local people to fight smuggling, promising to catch smugglers and profiteers and reward [-]% of the goods and money seized!

For a while, the crowd was passionate, they could serve the country and make a fortune, all the border residents actively participated, and hundreds of profiteers, big and small, were arrested.

Hauge has a large amount of property looted from the Central Plains, but he still can't exchange it for the desired materials.

Therefore, when Aruna mentioned collecting grain and pig iron, these profiteers all shook their heads.

"Don't leave, Shopkeeper Bai." Aruna held back an old man who was about to push the door, "I want to collect these things, but I don't ask the source, I want as much as I have."

Shopkeeper Bai turned around and laughed dryly, "Grain, copper and iron are only available inside the gate, I don't have the ability to get them..."

Aruna said slowly, "Brown rice is ten taels a stone, rough wheat is eight taels a stone, and iron is two taels a catty."

The profiteers who seemed absent-minded just now looked at her instantly, and said in unison: "Really?!"

Although Aruna didn't know why Da Tian asked her to buy these things in Liaodong, and gave such a high price - the price she just said was five times higher than the market price!It is still far from the upper limit given in the secret decree.

Everyone in the room immediately gathered together, "I have four hundred shi of brown rice!"

"I have six hundred shi wheat and four hundred catties of iron!"

"I still have five hundred shi of coarse wheat in my treasury, and I'll give it to you..."

Aruna shook her head and smiled, "It's too little, not enough for me to make a trip. Five thousand stones for grain, and two thousand catties for pig iron."

The profiteers were stunned, and someone yelled: "Shopkeeper Qi, the grain in Liaodong was confiscated by the imperial court long ago, and the commercial roads in the pass are blocked. How can we get so much?"

Aruna didn't answer him, but said: "Brown rice is 13 taels for a stone, rough wheat is 11 taels for a catty, and iron is three taels for a catty." Even this quotation is [-]% lower than what Da Tianzi gave her.

The eyes of the profiteers were so wide that they were about to bleed. With such a high price, it was like giving money away!

"Delivery within one month, the price can be increased by another [-]%. It will be the same price for one and a half months. After that, it will be reduced by [-]% every half month." Aruna took a breath and raised her voice, "How much, How much do you want!"

When even two people chatted in a low voice, "Treasurer Wang, you and Mr. Hubu Sacha have a deep friendship, and I can go through the way of the Ministry of War. Why don't we join hands."

"You mean?"

"I know that Yizhou City has tens of thousands of stone grain and grass."

"Are you crazy?! The crime of losing your head!"

"What are you afraid of? I see that the Qing Dynasty is about to die, and it's not a problem for us to continue to stay here. After doing this together, we took money to North Korea, or went south. Anyway, we are all Han Chinese. Attaching shouldn't be a problem."

Shopkeeper Wang's eyes flickered, and after a long while, he nodded slightly, "Okay, we are seeking wealth and wealth, it's done!"

The other profiteers probably had the same idea, and even if seven of them reported the numbers to Aruna and asked her to prepare cash, the least of them was eight thousand shi for grain, and the most were even twenty or thirty thousand shi.

Aruna was also very generous, paying a few hundred taels per person and seeing off the guests with a smile.

The few unconnected profiteers felt like cats' paws, secretly determined to collect all the grain from ten miles and eight villages at high prices after returning home, and strive to collect the "threshold point" of five thousand shi!
When the crowd dispersed, Aruna left the two of them here to meet up, and she immediately rushed to Phoenix City, which is Dandong in later generations.

In fact, she has held three similar secret meetings recently, mobilizing nearly thirty profiteers.

In Phoenix City, she met Ruan Jin, the navy general who had been waiting here, and reported the purchase of grain and pig iron. The latter asked people to unload the silver from the ship and load it into the car, and Jin Yiwei's people drove the car into Liaodong.

With the East China Sea Department operating from it, the money passed through the customs all the way, and no one checked it at all.

After Ruan Jin handed over the "escort" task, he rushed back to Phi Island.As soon as he boarded the pier, a soldier stationed on the island reported to him, "General, Zheng Wancheng, the North Korean navy, is waiting for you in the camp."

Ruan Jinxian shook his head and muttered softly, "The admiral is eccentric. Others are either going to guard Europa, or galloping in Nanyang, or at worst also supervising the war in Japan, but I can only fight a few fishing boats here..."

When he arrived at the camp, Zheng Wancheng greeted him with a smile on his face, and then took out a list and began to claim credit, "General, in the past ten days, we have destroyed and captured more than 260 fishing boats along the coast of Liaodong, and captured more than [-] Hu captives who went to sea."

Ruan Jin took the list and glanced at it, "Well, the fishing boat was given to Mr. Ren Xing. By the way, how many Han and Korean slaves are there among the captured fishermen? If you want to count them as Jianlu to ask for credit, hehe snort……"

Cold sweat broke out on Zheng Wancheng's head, "Mo, I don't dare, I will go to check carefully, and then I will report to the general."

"Okay, let's go. Seriously inspect, uninterrupted day and night, don't teach me to find you lazy."

"Don't dare, don't dare."

(End of this chapter)