In the cold winter, the north wind is howling, the sky is covered with small snowflakes, and the temperature is very low.

Generally at this time, everyone likes to nest at home, commonly known as Maodong, and few people will go outside to walk around, but at this time, from Tianjin, Beijing, Yongping Mansion and other places to Tanggu on the official road, a four-wheeled carriage is rotating rapidly, and there are businessmen in extraordinary clothes sitting in the carriage.

Some of these merchants are engaged in the cloth business, some are engaged in the marine fish business, some are engaged in the grain business, and some are engaged in the cement business, in short, there are all walks of life, and most of them are businessmen who have dealings with many industries under Liu Jin's command.

Nowadays, many industries under Liu Jin are getting bigger and bigger, and naturally they have brought up many suppliers, sellers, etc., Liu Jin has made a lot of money here, and these people who do business with Liu Jin have also made a lot of money.

Among them, the most profitable ones are naturally engaged in the trading of marine fish and cement.

Tianjin port every day a boatload of sea fish back to the port, every time there is a fishing boat back, immediately will set off a cheer, sometimes if the whale comes back, it is even more exciting, just simply sell the sea fish here in Tianjin port to the capital do not know how many businessmen to feed, how many people who are traveling in cars.

As for the hot cement now, not to mention, cement this building artifact, more and more demand, as the seller of Tianjin cement plant, the hot sale of cement is also to make these sellers make a lot of money, the only trouble is that the output can not keep up, so that everyone does the most things to urge.

At this time, everyone braved the severe cold, bid farewell to the small stove at home and the delicate beauty and rushed to Tanggu, because of Liu Jin's invitation, Liu Jin invited everyone to go to Tanggu to take a look at the Changlu Salt Farm, and by the way, see if everyone is interested in operating the salt produced by the Changlu Salt Farm.

Among the many carriages, Zhang Tianhao's figure is also impressively listed, he is a smuggler of salt, and he is also the leader of a salt gang, who used to buy and sell illicit salt in the area of Changli County, Yongping Prefecture.

The snow salt that Liu Jin made was sold to Zhang Tianhao at the beginning, and it was with this that Liu Jin got the first pot of gold.

"At the beginning, I thought that this Liu Jin was not a thing in the pool, it was only a little more than a year, and he soared into the sky, and he will be named on the gold list in the spring of next year, and he will become an official in the court, and it is estimated that he will be able to really soar soon."

Zhang Tianhao sat in the carriage, full of thoughts, and remembered the first time he saw Liu Jin last autumn, when Liu Jin was still a small talent, and it is said that he was almost killed by Tang Laohu in the town.

Who would have thought that now, Liu Jin is not only a high school person, but also has laid a huge industry here in the Beijing-Tianjin area, and also has a connection with today's son and His Royal Highness the Prince, and the matter about Liu Jin has long been spread here in Changli County, Yongping Prefecture, and has become something that countless people talk about.

Zhang Tianhao thought that Liu Jin and Liu Gongzi should have forgotten about themselves as a little person, after all, he, Zhang Tianhao, was a smuggler who couldn't get on the table.

Selling illicit salt is a big crime, once caught by the government, there is basically only a dead end, although he has always had a lot of points, but after all, he can't get on the stage.

Unexpectedly, this time he received an invitation from Liu Jin and invited him to come over to visit the Changlu Salt Farm.

Of course he Zhang Tianhao knew about the new private opening of the salt farm on the imperial court's side, but he didn't think that it would change the current situation, after all, he needed to pay a huge tax of two million taels of silver a year, which was not something that ordinary people could do at all, and even if it did, he also felt that such a salt farm would definitely be a blood loss.

But he didn't expect Liu Jin to go to the salt farm.

"I don't know what Liu Gongzi's salt farm is, this has paid a tax of two million taels of silver, if you want to make money, I am afraid that the salt produced will have to be piled up into a high mountain."

Zhang Tianhao couldn't help but shake his head when he thought of this, although he also knew Liu Jin and Liu Gongzi's ability, but he still felt that Liu Jin might lose money by setting up a salt farm.

"I hope that Liu Gongzi can do it, and then I can take salt from the salt field openly, and I don't have to be that sneaky smuggler anymore."

As a smuggler of salt, his greatest wish is that one day he will be able to take salt from the salt works in the same way as the salt merchants in the Jianghuai area, and the amount of silver he earns just by one hand is enough for ordinary people to dare not dare to do in a lifetime.

For this reason, he has been working hard, vigorously cultivating his own clansmen, running private schools, and sending all the children in the clan to study, hoping that in the future, there will be one or two capable officials, who can shade the sun for the Zhang family, so that the Zhang family can also interfere in the salt of the salt farm.

As a smuggler of salt, he knows too well how profitable the sale of salt is, and he buys and sells smuggled salt, and he collects a few pennies a pound, and his hard work is already a huge profit.

Those salt merchants who took the goods from the salt farm, the cost was almost zero, and they were open-minded, and they sold salt on a large scale, and in a very short period of time, all the salt merchants were rich and rivaled the country, and they became the famous Hui merchants who are now famous all over the world.

Now Liu Jin invited himself to come over, undoubtedly for the sale of salt, which was a business he had always dreamed of getting involved in, so he received the invitation and came non-stop almost immediately.

When Zhang Tianhao came to Tanggu, he immediately found that hundreds of merchants had gathered here, and the hall used for hospitality in Changlu Salt Farm was crowded, and he even found some acquaintances from it.

"Everyone, everyone~"

Everyone didn't wait too long, and Liu Jin, who was full of smiles, walked out with Tong Yuan, Li Jiye and other stewards of Changlu Salt Farm.

As the person in charge of the Changlu Salt Farm, Li Jiye also stood up with a smile and said to everyone.

As Li Jiye's words fell, everyone immediately quieted down, sat down in their positions one by one, and quietly waited for Li Jiye's next words.

Zhang Tianhao saw Liu Jin at once, it was still the same as last year, Wenwen was a quiet scholar, with a faint smile on his face, and Liu Jin also recognized Zhang Tianhao at once, smiled at Zhang Tianhao and nodded.

"Everyone~ Thank you very much for braving the cold in your busy schedule to come to our Changlu Salt Farm and participate in the dealer bidding meeting of our Changlu Salt Farm."

Li Jiye's voice was loud, and he had no intention of wasting time.

"Presumably many friends already know the background of our Changlu Salt Farm, our Changlu Salt Farm is the first private salt farm in the Ming Dynasty officially approved by the imperial court, so the salt that goes out of our Changlu Salt Farm, although it is private salt, but it is the salt protected by all parties in the imperial court, everyone can rest assured of this."

"In addition, I would like to reveal one thing here, among the shareholders of the Changlu Salt Farm, there are not only Liu Jin and Liu Gongzi, but also several of today's princes, as well as the shares of today's prince and His Royal Highness the Prince, so you can be absolutely assured that you will not violate the national law by selling the salt from our Changlu Salt Farm."

Li Jiye introduced the background of the Changlu Salt Farm very sonorously and forcefully, and when he talked about Emperor Hongzhi and Zhu Houzhao, he respectfully bowed in the direction of Jingshi, in order to show respect for Emperor Hongzhi and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Hearing this, many people who had not yet figured out the situation suddenly came to their senses, and then nodded their heads one after another.

Everyone wants to do it, everyone wants to get involved, because the profits in it are so amazing.

However, the salt of the entire Ming Dynasty was basically monopolized by the Hui merchants and the big merchants in the Jiangnan region, and a few of the pond salt in Shanxi, the well salt in Sichuan, etc., the output was low, far from being comparable with the salt in the Jianghuai region.

It is difficult for these merchants in the northern region to get involved in the salt trade, because for a long time, the power of the southern Shilin in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty is very huge, and if you want to get involved in the salt trade, you must first fight the southerners in the officialdom.

Of course, there is also a very important reason that most of the salt farms run by the imperial court are concentrated in the Jianghuai area.

Although Beizhili and Shandong in the north are also close to the sea, because these areas are endless plains and developed early, there are not a large number of forests and trees, and in the era of boiling salt, the cost of opening a salt field is too great, so naturally there is no salt field.

This phenomenon also continued until the Jiajing period, with the emergence of the salt drying method, some private salt farms slowly appeared in Beizhili and Shandong.

Therefore, the merchants, gentry, and so on in the north wanted to meddle in the salt trade, but they never did.

Now hearing Li Jiye's words, everyone immediately put their hearts at ease one by one, feeling that the background of this Changlu Salt Farm is so big, what else is terrible, there is the approval of the imperial court, after all, two million taels of silver are not for nothing, and the background is amazing, who dares to come to trouble the Changlu Salt Farm?

This is the industry of the Son of Heaven today and in the future, unless he is tired of being alive and does not want to mix in Daming, no one will come to trouble the Changlu Salt Farm.

"The only thing we need to worry about now is the output of this Changlu salt farm, if the output is not good, so many people will share it, and there will not be many people who can get it."

Zhang Tianhao was also relieved at this time, with such a hard background and a salt farm recognized by the imperial court, he could rest assured to sell the salt from this Changlu salt field.

Then he looked at the hundreds of merchants present, and immediately felt that the pressure of this competition was still very great, the salt production of a salt farm was very limited, and the more people there were, the less cake they could share.

Not only Zhang Tianhao thought so, but also the other businessmen present thought so, and soon someone stood up and said, "I don't know how big the output of your salt farm is?" How many of us are enough? ”