Chapter 24 Negotiation with Shanxi merchants

A few days later, more than a dozen Shanxi merchants entered the governor's yamen.

Xu Wei led them to the side hall to sit and drink tea. After a while, Zhou Mengchen came over in a big red official robe.

Zhou Mengchen arrived. The Shanxi merchants and their group stood up and bowed without mentioning them.

Zhou Mengchen exchanged a few greetings and got to the point and said: "Today, Shuozhou won a great victory, and the soldiers fought bravely to kill the enemy. Beheaded more than 10,000 Tartars and captured thousands of them. This was the first victory since His Majesty ascended the throne. It was just that the reward was insufficient. Fortunately, you and other righteous people generously donated hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to Datong Town. This was considered to overcome this difficulty. I am here to express my gratitude to you on behalf of the soldiers."

Then he picked up the tea cup and said, "Please use tea instead of wine."

Zhou Mengchen took a sip of tea lightly. The Shanxi merchants below raised their glasses one after another.

Although they did not like the tea from the governor's yamen, after all, every Shanxi merchant who has arrived now has hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. They are extremely luxurious in their lives. In their opinion, the tea that Zhou Mengchen drank is no different from the water used to wash pots.

But at this moment I dare not express it.

Zhou Mengchen put down the teacup and said, "Now I am responsible for discussing the tribute with the Tartars. You all know it too."

The people below nodded one after another.

After all, negotiating with the Tartars is a major event that the entire Datong and the entire north are concerned about.

Yin Zhengmao and Zhao Quan had been tug-of-war several times, and had already agreed on the terms of the King, the White Lotus Sect and other issues. For the Tartars' dispatch of protons, they also had to love to pay homage. Yin Zhengmao forced Zhao Quan to jump, but had to give in. In the end, the focus was on Tonggong.

The Tartars wanted to go directly to Beijing with tributes as before, and the court would give back part of it and the other part would be sold in Beijing. But Yin Zhengmao refused to allow it.

Now the two sides are in a stalemate.

Zhou Mengchen said: "You are helpful to state affairs, and the court must not be rewarded. I am going to choose a switch on the side wall and trade it directly with the Tartars. As long as the war horses, iron tools, and food are controlled by the government. The rest of the things will be traded directly with the Tartars. However, the court collects taxes uniformly at the border. One ten draws. What do you think?"

"Sir," said a businessman: "Are all kinds of goods sold separately or-----"

Zhou Mengchen said: "There is no monopoly, and each company can operate it, but what do you do specifically? The court doesn't care. The court controls businesses that do not have enough strength and cannot join it."

The reason why Zhou Mengchen did this was actually to collect taxes.

Zhou Mengchen was not in enough staff. If he let all merchants participate, the tax collection cost increased significantly. And dozens of companies were determined. Even if each company sent people to collect taxes, there would not be many people. In addition, it was also for the purpose of blockade of intelligence. After all, he could confirm that after the switch was turned on, this level was the key to the exchange of intelligence.

If he did not restrict it, maybe a certain business would be the spy of the Tartars. Although Xiao Qin was dead, Zhou Mengchen was worried that the Tartars intelligence system would not exist because of Xiao Qin's death.

But those who put them in are all big businesses with a net worth of hundreds of thousands or millions. These people were kicked by donkeys and became spies for the Tartars.

You should know that in this era, the only government that could accommodate them with hundreds of thousands or millions of twelve families was the Ming Dynasty. If such a business was with the Tartars, it would have been robbed.

As for the lack of restrictions on monopoly, Zhou Mengchen didn't think much about it. Zhou Mengchen was just not used to it.

"Sir, what do you mean by tea?" a businessman said again.

"Tea---?" Zhou Mengchen fell into deep thought for a moment.

This is also a loophole in Zhou Mengchen's thinking. There are two things on the grassland that are indispensable, namely tea and rhubarb. These two things are the flagship products exported by the Ming Dynasty. Tea can relieve greasiness. It is of great help to the nomadic people's living habits of eating meat all year round. Rhubarb is a medicinal herb and a laxative.

Because the staple food on the grassland is meat, it can easily cause constipation, which can cause various complications, which will kill people.

Rhubarb is the best among laxatives. Almost those who go to the grassland get sick, use rhubarb to clear the belly. Most of them can survive. Most of them cannot survive. For people on the grassland, it is not blessed by immortality, and it is good to save most of them.

Even in modern times, rhubarb still had a large proportion of exports.

Zhou Mengchen said: "After the tea is paid, it can be traded normally." Zhou Mengchen decided to increase the income of tea with surcharge. Anyway, he has almost fallen into the eyes of money. As long as he can get money and does not harm people's livelihood, he will be very vicious.

All kinds of questions were asked by ancient brains.

Most of Zhou Mengchen can answer, but he can't answer it, but he is just a few minor questions.

Zhou Mengchen coughed twice and said, "But there are some things that need to be mentioned in front. How important is it to trade with the Tartars? If something goes wrong, even I will be involved. So when it comes to the ugly words, everyone who wants to enter the clearance business must pay a deposit. This amount is paid by themselves according to the size of each transaction. However, the matter must be mentioned in front. For this time, I am going to repair the Guancheng where Tonggong is located. This amount is probably the case. If the payment is not enough, I will increase the merchant."

Zhou Mengchen said as he stretched out his hand, spread his five fingers and shook them for a moment.

Zhou Mengchen loves money so much, and he has no choice but to do so.

After several calculations, he found that Datong's finances could only be maintained and could not do anything. Even if Zhou Mengchen wanted to make money, he still needed capital. He wanted to do whatever he wanted to do.

So Zhou Mengchen planned to use a deposit to scrape a sum of money from the Shanxi merchants.

Zhou Mengchen thought to himself: "The textile industry is the most profitable. But whether it is good to grow cotton on a large scale in Datong needs to be proved. But wool textiles may not be bad. Even if these wools are not good, you can make some coarse cloth things, which may not be bad if you don't wear them close to your body. Moreover, wool is the economic chain that I control the grassland. 50,000 taels can probably set up a stall."

Zhou Mengchen thought so.

But Datong merchants don't think so.

They looked at each other and saw the idea of ​​dealing with each other. It was probably: "Here, here. Where are the officials who don't like money? This is such a big appetite. It costs 500,000 taels at once. Should we give it or not?"

Everyone has their own ideas about this issue.

Zhang Yunling made a slap in his mind and said to himself: "The sheep can be replaced with a few bags of millet on the grassland. But in Beijing, it is necessary to spend a few taels of silver. Even if the cost is reduced, it will be a profit of two or three hundred percent. This is the only thing. It can be said that pots and pans are short of pots and pans on the grassland. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty and the Tartars have been cut off for several years, and the good prices of Central Plains objects on the grassland have reached the sky."

"However, this is a one-time transaction. After all, after the clearance period is long, the Tartars will not have that much money, and the price will return to normal. At that time, there will be two or three percent profits. Although it is a lot, the transaction can be done. If 500,000 taels are distributed to my family, it will only be around 40,000 taels or 50,000 taels. I now have 100,000 taels of cash. I will be able to organize the first batch of transactions in the spring of next year. I will make money before next autumn, and even more."

"And Ziwei also said that Zhou Mengchen has a long future this year. I also need to leave a good impression on him."

In a moment, Zhang Yunling thought about it and immediately said, "Sir, my Zhang family will pay 50,000 taels of deposit."

When Zhou Mengchen heard this, he thought to himself: "No, this market cannot be guaranteed by the Zhang family." Zhou Mengchen naturally knew what the situation was that the merchant monopolized and was about to speak.

But I heard the merchants below start quoting one by one. Within a few words, the quota of 500,000 was already reached.

Only then did Zhou Mengchen realize that he had far underestimated the wealth of the people below. It would be impossible to let them pay 5 million taels in one breath. But it was not too much to get 500,000 taels.

Zhou Meng immediately felt confident that the 500,000 taels were in hand. Zhou Mengchen had a lot of things to do. Of course, the 500,000 taels could not be obtained immediately. There is no bank transfer these days. It will be the New Year when the 500,000 taels of silver arrived.
Chapter completed!