novelSusiti Chapter 295 Handover
Chapter 295 Handover
Deeply intervening in the grain industry was actually the biggest benefit Shao Shuyi wanted to gain from eliminating Bi Si's gang.
Wuxi was an important hub for grain transport, where grains from all directions converged, and its rice market was famous far and wide, naturally resulting in a large volume of grain circulating there.
In this respect, Shao Shuyi should be grateful for the development of the times.
The overall productivity level has greatly improved, the commercialization of grain has been greatly deepened, and a large number of powerful grain merchants have emerged in society, giving him room to maneuver.
If it were a more ancient era, he wouldn't have been able to do something like this.
From August 25th until the beginning of September, he didn't go anywhere and stayed in Huangbudun.
Since a grain guild was to be established, it was necessary to take stock of one's assets.
As of early September, Shengye Trading Company had around 1000 ingots of cash remaining in its accounts, along with 450,000 catties of salt, 1081 mu of farmland, and approximately 1850 shi of grain. The company's finances were not in good shape, mainly because it had just paid for over 20,000 bolts of silk and cotton cloth at Huangtian Port, and still owed money to the Jiangyin Prefecture government for raw silk.
In addition, Kong Tie took one or two thousand ingots to Jingdezhen to buy porcelain, and he should be back by now.
These goods will be loaded onto the ships Ma Jia and Ma Yi before the end of this month, and then sail to Shanghai, where they will be handed over to the Fei family's sailors. They will set sail in October for Tuta Tongfan.
Fortunately, in the latter half of this month, Wang Bai will transport 20,000 jin of salt each to Changzhou and Changshu, which will bring in several hundred ingots, slightly alleviating the financial crisis. There's no way around it; with more money coming in, Shao the bandit also spends it extravagantly. He's currently engaged in overseas trade, venturing into the Wuxi grain market, and is also negotiating long-term supplies with the three salt fields of Xiasha and Haining Prefecture. Just ten days ago, Wu Heizi, who had just killed someone in Suzhou, fled back to Taicang, and Shao Shuyi immediately sent him to Haining Prefecture to collect salt. The 2,500 ingots needed to purchase 500,000 jin of salt were borrowed from Madam Liu.
Shao Shuyi has gone to great lengths in shorting the Da Yuanbao banknote.
On the night of the fourth day of the ninth lunar month, Shao Shuyi set off fireworks in front of the newly purchased restaurant in Huangbudun, and then had a meal with everyone. The "Wu-Yue Grain Guild" was officially in the preparatory stage.
The guild headquarters is located in this restaurant. Currently, only four grain merchants from Jiangyin and Wuxi prefectures are represented: Shao Shuyi, Madam Liu, Qian Dayong, and Zhou Siwen. Madam Liu is still at home taking care of her child and is unaware of the situation herself. In any case, Shao has already made the decision for her to become a founding member. "The new grain will be on the market in September, and the price will be lower. If you have money, you can collect and store it separately," Shao Shuyi said. "Is the granary sufficient?" "Yes," Qian Dayong nodded without hesitation.
Zhou Siwen remained silent.
He was truly running a small business; his shop had several hundred bushels of grain stored in it, and there was no extra storage space left.
Qian Dayong glanced at him and asked, "Is your shop outside the North Gate?"
"Exactly," Zhou Siwen said.
"I have over twenty old warehouses in Liedi (Chen Gaoren) Temple Lane. I'll lend them to you for now. When you have the money, I can sell them to you without hesitation," Qian Dayong said. "They're connected to the waterway, making it convenient for transporting grain."
"Thank you," Zhou Siwen said, rising to bow.
"It's nothing," Qian Dayong smiled and said, "Now that Cao She is in charge, it's not easy for others to transport grain on the canal. They'll make a profit no matter what. If you're bold enough, borrow some money from others and buy some cheap grain. In less than two years, you can buy back those old warehouses." Shao Shuyi looked at Qian Dayong with admiration. This guy had some vision, although he might be forced to put on a show because he was intimidated by his strength. After instructing Qian Dayong and Zhou Siwen to continue to persuade other grain merchants to join the guild, Shao Shuyi prepared to leave.
Before departing, Qian Dayong asked with a flicker in his eyes, "I wonder how many ships Cao She owns? If we go to other places to buy grain, will there be enough for transportation?" "Including the two ships we captured this time, that makes twenty-three ships," Shao Shuyi said without hesitation. "I will continue to look for ships in October, and perhaps I can buy a few more."
Qian Dayong put down his snacks slightly.
Twenty-odd boats, even if they were all canal boats, would still be a considerable transport capacity. Not to mention that the boats docked at Huangbudun Wharf were much larger than canal boats. He even suspected that Cao She could transport 10,000 shi of grain at a time.
"If we're transporting grain on a long journey, like to Jiangxi," Qian Dayong asked again, "it will probably require quite a few people. How many men can Cao She send?"
"Several hundred people," Shao Shuyi said with a smile.
"Are they all such elite soldiers?" Qian Dayong asked, pointing to the soldiers standing guard at the entrance of the restaurant.
"Half," Shao Shuyi replied.
Qian Dayong shuddered.
When the Changzhou Lower Ten Thousand Household Prefecture was established at the beginning of the dynasty, there were no vacancies. It had 3,000 military households, including 600 regular military households (soldiers) and 2,411 auxiliary military households (logistics and support soldiers). To be honest, Changzhou Road was equivalent to a prefecture in ancient times, so 3,000 soldiers was not a small number.
Now, sixty years have passed. There might still be a few more households registered as soldiers who farm or herd livestock, but the number of regular soldiers is probably less than three hundred. Whether these remaining two or three hundred regular soldiers are capable of fighting was a matter of opinion before, but what's the point of debate now? A bunch of useless idiots!
On the other hand, Cao Luo's so-called men were fully armored, armed with three weapons, disciplined, and seemed to have good morale. Moreover, they were good fighters. If they were placed in the Changzhou Wanhu Prefecture, they would all be regular military households.
In other words, Cao Luo already possesses military strength roughly equivalent to that of the Changzhou Wanhu Prefecture. If he wished, he could attack Changzhou City right now, and the entire Changzhou region would likely be unable to deal with him unless, like the suppression of the Huashan bandits, the Prince of Zhennan intervened and mobilized "tens of thousands of troops" for a joint operation involving three provinces, which would have been the only possibility of suppressing him.
Thinking of this, Qian Dayong felt much more at ease.
This world is realistic; without real power, even dogs won't pay you any attention. But once you have the power, others will come to you willingly.
On the fifth day of the ninth month, Li Fu returned from Kaiyuan Township with two boats and docked at Huangbudun Wharf.
Some of the cargo on the ship was returned, and the rest was sold on the spot to the highest bidder. In the end, more than 700 ingots were sold.
As for the boatload of bamboo ware, it was disposed of even earlier and wasn't actually worth much money. It was auctioned off to a local merchant for forty ingots. Shao Shuyi left it in Huangbudun to use as funds to open the second branch of Brothers Grain Shop.
The gold and silver were taken away, and were prepared to be transported back to Chong Sheng Temple for storage. Over the years, a considerable amount of gold and silver artifacts, as well as foreign gold and silver coins, had been stored there. In terms of weight, the gold weighed no more than ten catties, while the silver weighed about fifty or sixty catties.
It sounds like a lot, but it's actually only a few hundred taels of silver. It can't compare to the grand scale of the influx of silver from South America during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Of course, there wasn't much silver in total at this time, and even the national treasury in Dadu (Beijing) had very little. Historically, on the eve of the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the national treasury had only a little over 100,000 taels of silver. That afternoon, just as Shao Shuyi was personally receiving the three grain merchants introduced by Qian Dayong and preparing to have something to eat, Zhao Liangchen, the judge of Wuxi Prefecture, arrived again, accompanied by Wang Pin, the inspector of the Ganlu Patrol Office. Wuxi Prefecture is located in the hinterland, neither near the river nor the sea, so it only has four patrol offices: Ganlu (located in the suburbs), Jiaoshan, Xin'an, and Huazang.
Wang Pin had also brought ten archers and fifty able-bodied men, who were waiting on the north bank of the Grand Canal. It was clear they were there to pick up a prisoner. Shao Shuyi glanced at the several boxes placed behind Zhao Liangchen and Wang Pin and chuckled, "Judge Zhao, you're too kind. Why are you bringing gifts again?"
Zhao Liangchen was displeased, but his smile was bright. He said, "Just a little bit of money."
After saying that, he gestured with his eyes.
Wang Pin personally opened the box, revealing the gifts inside: several kilograms of fine tea, ten bolts of brocade, twenty pieces of gold and silver ware, and one hundred ingots of paper money.
Massive bleeding! Massive bleeding! These bastards are really willing to go to great lengths to gain merit.
Shao Shuyi didn't mind befriending the officials of Wuxi Prefecture. After having the Fu brothers, Fu Jian and Fu Yong, lead men to carry away the gifts, he said, "I've been here for ten days, and it's time for me to leave. Since Bi Si was captured in Kaiyuan Township, he should be handed over to the prefecture."
When Zhao Liangchen saw a group of burly men in leather armor coming over to carry the gifts, his eyelids twitched.
A few days ago, he went back and found out that if the armor on these people was of unknown origin, their helmets were definitely of the standard military style. Could they have stolen them from the armory of some garrison? Of course, making armor privately is a crime, even if it is leather armor.
The first thought that popped into Zhao Liangchen's mind was to "report to the authorities," but he was speechless, because he himself was an official, a judge in charge of the security of a prefecture.
But this matter truly weighed heavily on his mind. Cao Luo didn't even bother to avoid people; wasn't that arrogant? However, the matter was of great importance, and he dared not act on his own initiative, so he could only ask the Darughachi and the Prefect for a decision.
Darughachi Harsha did not want to cause any more trouble. He had inherited his position from his grandfather, father, and eldest brother. What good would it do him if Wuxi fell into chaos? How would he make money? And if he lost his ancestral position, how would he face his descendants?
The prefect, Hong Wentong, said that he was in his third year in office and was expected to be promoted, warning Zhao Liangchen not to act recklessly, or he would "not let him off the hook." With his superior acting like this, what could Zhao do? Even if he still disliked Cao Luo and felt that he had rebellious intentions, he couldn't find any allies within the prefecture.
After the gifts were moved, the brothers Fu Jian and Fu Yong led a group of soldiers to bring over Bi Si and nine others. They imprisoned the female tiger separately in the cabin and did not intend to hand them over to the government.
Upon seeing this, Zhao Liangchen was overjoyed. He immediately stood up, bowed, and said, "Cao She is truly a straightforward man. He released the people as soon as he said he would. In that case, I will inform the shore immediately."
"Go to the small dock for the handover," Shao Shuyi said, waving his hand.
The person was quickly taken away.
Just before leaving, Bi Si, with a rag stuffed in his mouth, struggled to turn his head, a hint of pleading in his eyes. But no one paid him any attention, and he was roughly dragged away.
Having achieved their goal, Zhao Liangchen and Wang Pin took their leave.
Shao Shuyi escorted him to the door and looked at the Grand Canal, which was gradually regaining its popularity, with great satisfaction.
He finally extended his reach to Wuxi, gradually advancing his plan.