New Shun 1730

After carefully asking about the situation of these private salt dealers, Liu Yu took the small notebook of records, went through it himself, and calculated the cost.

Then he asked: "Do everyone in your circle know each other?"

"circle?"

The private salt dealer didn't understand what he meant, so Liu Yu smiled and said, "I'll just go with you."

"Oh... I recognize him. Anyone from Hankou will recognize him."

Liu Yu thought about it and asked again: "If I give you a chance, can the people in your circle take over the entire salt industry of the two lakes? Money is not a problem, I can lend it to you at low interest; salt is not a problem either I can lend it to you first."

"This issue is of great importance."

"When it's done, you will naturally reach the sky in one step. The loach in the gutter has crossed the dragon gate. When you see the light, you will be rid of the mud. I will clean it for you."

"If you don't do it well... If you don't do it well, then you will be a gutter loach for the rest of your life."

"So, think clearly about your answer."

These private salt dealers already knew that the people who arrested them were members of the Boy's Army, and each one of them immediately realized how serious a matter they were involved in.

The Boy's Army usually doesn't care much about civilian affairs, but if it can't stand up to an organization like Fanfan, there must be a lot of legends.

Knowing that this matter is serious and knowing that he has been involved now, naturally he can only think about what to do instead of whether to do anything.

The smarter salt seller thought for a while and said, "If according to what the Duke said, money can be loaned and salt can be borrowed, then there must be no problem."

"Salt is sold everywhere. In fact, people in our industry know that wherever official salt is sold, they bring a certain amount of private salt. Otherwise, it will be difficult to make money."

"We are not like what outsiders think, that there are people selling private salt, or people carrying two earthen baskets walking through the streets. We don't do that kind of small business."

"We transport the salt there, and the local salt sellers usually sell 60% of the official salt and keep 40% of the private salt."

"So, if we really want to do it... there is no need for the government to give us a loan. As long as the court allows us to sell it, we can push two Huai salts out of the two lakes within half a year. At least, Hankou and Huangzhou can keep one pound of Huai salt Can’t even see it.”

"only……"

The private salt dealer thought for a while and finally got to the key point.

"It's just that the production of well salt is insufficient. If we sell less, they will open fewer wells. Drilling wells cannot be done in a day or two."

Liu Yu waved his hand and said: "You don't have to worry about where the salt comes from. You don't have to worry about the salt well."

"There are specialties in the industry, do you understand? You don't produce salt, you are just the salt porters and the sales link. I only ask about this link."

When these private salt dealers heard this, they immediately patted their chests and said, "If you say so, please rest assured, my lord, there will definitely be no problem."

I guess I heard a lot of stories about the Three Kingdoms in Sichuan, and some people patted their chests and said: "How dare you issue a military order!"

Liu Yu chuckled twice and said: "Now that I have said so, I would like to congratulate you in advance. From a group of gutter loaches who can't bear to see you, you are about to become big red carps in the river."

"But before, I definitely couldn't let you go. You guys in this line of work must have your own private marks."

"You also know that my title and the general of the Boy Army next to me cannot specifically deal with you salt dealers, and you don't have to worry that these are people who are trying to catch you. If I can catch you, I can catch them, no. This is necessary.”

"After a while, those who can write will write their own letters. Whatever I say, you can tell your leader how to write. Those who can't write, leave a mark. If you really say that there is no personal mark, then I will have to strip off your clothes and chop your Make a mark with your finger or cut off your ear.”

These salt dealers hurriedly said: "Yes! Yes! Don't bother the prince and dirty your hands carefully."

"Well, that's good. In the meantime, there will be wine and meat, but you can't go anywhere. We have to send you to Tsushima to be locked up first. If you are really capable, you can swim back from Tsushima. It's not far away, so you can just swim back from Tsushima. The distance from Kuizhou to Poyang was ceded by the Chinese Empire to seek justice for the Ryukyu Kingdom."

When these private salt dealers heard this, they felt even more relaxed, thinking that if they did this, they must be serious about it. But as the Duke said, if this is done, the loach in the gutter will become a big koi.

After interrogating them for a while, Liu Yu left behind the few smugglers who were running specifically towards Xinyang, and sent the rest to the cabin for custody.

This time the question was more detailed. As he asked, he looked at the newly drawn map after the General Staff of the Privy Council took away the power of the Military Government Office.

From the perspective of river hydrology, the impact of low and high water months on salt transportation.

to how far we travel each day, the operational routes, and the logistical carrying capacity along the way.

After arriving in Xinyang, the rescuers who went to the Huaihe River had to decide which boat they used and which tributary they took.

Everything was down to the smallest detail, and many private salt dealers themselves didn't care about it. Liu Yu was also asked about the occupational disease caused by his consulting business over the years.

After asking questions clearly and looking at the dense notes, Liu Yu believed that he no longer had the ability to form a one-man staff, but after all, the organizational requirements for this kind of thing were far from those of fighting.

After calculating based on the above data, Liu Yu had an idea.

The absolute amount of salt currently being hoarded is not very large.

But firstly, there is a surplus of low-priced salt. If the Lianghuai salt merchants want to play, they can only use the tax price collection method. One million taels are enough to leverage four or five million taels, and Liu Yu estimates that the cash in the hands of the Lianghuai salt merchants will not last long. Moreover, this kind of hedging may reach a certain critical point, and the last bag of salt will cause the other party to collapse psychologically.

Secondly, as long as the court wants to do it and the administrative power is activated, the salt in Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan and Nanyang can also be quickly gathered. Because the court has an excellent navy and a new professional transportation company.

That is, there are no trains and ships in these years, otherwise there is no need to prepare in advance.

If the salt merchants want to play, they can only play this way.

In theory, the salt merchants can also sell low-priced salt here. Collecting salt is to force the court with "people's livelihood"; selling salt is to force the court with "salt taxation".

But Liu Yu understood that the salt merchants did not dare to play this way. Once the reform is implemented, if salt merchants sell private salt at low prices to disrupt the market, it will be a crime; while if they take advantage of the loopholes in the reform itself and engage in acquisitions to disrupt the market, it will only be a borderline case. There is a big difference here.

Moreover, the general contractor has the advantage of capital. They have no channels and can only play capital disruption, but not market disruption.

After considering these issues carefully, Liu Yu wrote two more letters.

One is the fifth memorial to the emperor on the reform of the salt administration.

One is a private invitation, sending people to the Shaanxi Guild Hall in Sichuan to invite the leaders of Shaanxi merchants to come to the Beijing Academy of Sciences for a chat, and it will be at the end of this year, so that they can leave as soon as possible.

…………

More than a month has passed since some goods were unloaded on Jeju Island, and several transport ships flying naval flags have arrived on Jeju Island.

The captains' military ranks are not low. The naval reform of Dashun has begun, and a large number of transport ships have been eliminated. The remaining transport ships are a very professional elite force prepared for a transoceanic operation of 5,000 to 8,000 people.

After careful selection, the captains of transport ships can actually become warship captains. Liu Yu's previous "early expansion" in Jinghai Palace has made Dashun's navy have an overabundance of talents.

Although Dashun has taken over the cypress teak in Nanyang and the oak in the northeast, and there is no so-called "hundred-year navy" tree-planting curse, the speed of Dashun's ship expansion cannot keep up with the growth of talents.

The remaining officers were selected and their salaries were increased; the retired officers who were laid off basically went to Nanyang and the merchant fleet to find jobs.

The navy is not Liu Yu's, so naturally these officers came to Jeju Island, not Liu Yu's order.

It was the emperor's order to the seventh son, and the navy was directly dispatched, not the formal channel of the Sixth Government where the news was leaked everywhere.

After the warship docked, the two sides made a handover, and the packed goods began to be loaded on the ship.

The naval officers had no idea what these packed goods were. And they were also forbidden to ask, and there were people watching the whole process.

After loading, the ship left Jeju Island and went to Songjiang Prefecture, where it happened to be in the dock of Songjiang Prefecture for maintenance to clean barnacles.

But the sailors did not take a vacation. Instead, all the sailors were ordered to go to the Lingdingyang military port for vacation after the barnacles were cleaned.

The goods were unloaded from the ship here, and the newly established shipping company did not know what these goods that were re-packed with Japanese taro bags were.

They only knew that this was an order from the court and that they had to be delivered to Hankou within a time limit. There were military supplies inside and no delays. In addition to sea-going ships, the shipping company also had many river patrols and large river ships after the canal was abolished.

This time, the materials were escorted by the Marine Corps drawn from Busan. They had the highest-level Privy Council's right of passage, which was sealed by the emperor, the commander-in-chief of the army, and they were not allowed to be inspected or seized throughout the process.

Although no one knew what was loaded on the ship, no one actually paid attention. When fighting in western Sichuan before, they also directly dispatched elite artillery troops, and the merchants didn't care what was in it.

But this news still gave Songjiang Prefecture speculators, who were increasingly sensitive to business, an opportunity. They guessed that the court would carry out a more thorough reform of the local government in Yongshun, Fenghuang and other places in western Hunan.

Forget about war materials, as they are close to the old capital of Dashun, Xiangyang. However, merchants know that Dashun's policy of reforming local government is a combination of a sword in one hand and a scripture in the other.

As the saying goes, "If you use the army to control the Miao people, they will rebel after a long time; if you use officials to control the Miao people, it will be difficult to satisfy them. The fundamental way to control the Miao people is to transform them."

This is also Dashun's policy of transforming local government in the southwest. The word "transformation" can make a lot of business.

Last time, the court bought a bunch of scriptures, and then bought a bunch of Songjiang Prefecture's newly published "Agricultural Policy Book" in the market vernacular version, which taught how to grow corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squeeze castor oil, and grow tung oil.

Obviously, there will be a big move this time, with a sword in one hand and a scripture in the other. The money from the sword must have been earned in the old capital Xiangyang; shouldn’t the money from the scripture be earned here?

Some speculators immediately followed their previous experience, printed a bunch of books, loaded them on ships and hurried to Wuhan and Xiangyang. In recent years, the printing technology in Songjiang Prefecture has also been innovated, and printing is cheaper than other places. As long as they can get government orders when they are shipped there, they will definitely make a fortune.

In addition to the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, and agricultural policies, there are also special goods in Songjiang Prefecture that are specifically aimed at soldiers’ salaries, which are also loaded on ships and headed west, ready to make a fortune.

Cigarettes, Nanyang sugarcane wine, rock sugar, tassel scarves and shawls for women that are most likely to absorb military pay, quinine, matches, stinky pancreas with strong alkalinity produced in bulk by the navy, wooden artificial legs produced in bulk by the navy, snake medicine from Nanyang that is of no use, dried meat of whales that have been squeezed dry of fat and produced by the navy, imitation pocket watches of naval officers, and mosquito-proof neck yarns for the Nanyang garrison that can be easily tied to standard felt hats, etc.

This is not available in the old capital.

If you fight, you will make money. If you can collect some raw lacquer and Xiangxi grass ash alkali after the fight, you will make a lot of money. The speculators in Songjiang Prefecture have many years of experience in dealing with the navy and have long been aware of "patchwork".