A hidden place in the capital.

"God really help me to wait, there is a famine at this time, it is difficult to get rich."

A middle-aged man with a big belly said with a smile that the favorite thing for those who do grain trading is famine, because once there is a famine, it means that the grain in their hands will be more expensive than gold.

At that time, they can use grain to reach the sky, and if they want a good reputation, this grain will be sold cheaply to the imperial court, and it is indispensable to gain the reputation of a great good man.

You can use the grain to harvest the people's wealth, usually a few pennies a pound of grain, in times of famine to sell dozens of pennies a catty, how big the profit is, only these grain merchants can know.

"It's not difficult to make a fortune, the buying and selling of ancient and modern buildings are all known, this ancient and modern building has opened until now, and their income has exceeded five million taels of silver, which is how to get rich overnight."

"It is said that some time ago, every dividend in the East Palace was divided into one million taels of silver."

"Compared with them, we who are engaged in grain trading are simply a small thing, we can't get on the stage, and we make hard-earned money."

A young man with a fan in his hand who looked like a scholar said chatteringly.

"What Hu Gongzi said is that we just make some hard-earned money, hard-earned money!"

When the pot-bellied middle-aged man heard this Hu Gongzi's words, he also quickly nodded and bowed, looking like he was stammering.

This Hu Gongzi is not an ordinary person, his name is Hu Wan'an, the eldest son of the Hu family of Hui merchants, and the future successor.

Hui merchants are definitely synonymous with wealth in this era, and Hui merchants are not general merchants from Anhui, but include the Huaiyang area of Jiangsu.

Because of the salt in the Huaiyang area, countless large salt merchants were born, and the salt merchants were the richest representatives of this era.

At the same time, because of the special salt industry policy of the Ming Dynasty, if you want to obtain salt introduction, you must transport grain to the important town of Jiubian to obtain salt introduction, of course, this policy was changed in the fifth year of Hongzhi, the reason is that because of the prevalence of private salt, coupled with the imperial court magnates and other arbitrary to the emperor to occupy the nest and monopolize the opening of the middle, resulting in the distribution of salt greatly beyond the allowable range of salt production capacity.

This forced a large number of border merchants to have no salt to lead, but no salt to receive, can only wait for the output of new salt in the salt field, and some need to wait for the situation of defending for decades, which greatly hits the enthusiasm of the border merchants to transport grain to the border, resulting in the implementation of the Kaizhong Law has become difficult, and it is difficult to run as well as in the Hongwu and Yongle years.

Therefore, in the fifth year of Hongzhi, Ye Qi, who was the head of the Hongzhi Emperor's household department, proposed the method of receiving salt quotations by accepting silver, that is, the folding color method, which stipulated that merchants did not need to transport the military to the border towns in the future, and as long as they paid silver taels to the treasury, they could obtain salt quotations.

Therefore, in the past, if these salt merchants wanted to buy and sell salt, they had to transport grain to the border towns in exchange for salt, and these Hui merchants were naturally the best among them.

Because it is located in the richest Jiangnan region, which has been the most important grain producing area since ancient times, it is difficult to separate these salt merchants and grain merchants from each other, and the same is true for Hui merchants, who are both big salt merchants and big grain merchants.

The Hu family is a representative family among the Hui merchants, and it is also the most powerful family, the family power is extremely huge, and it has an extremely huge influence in the entire Ming Dynasty.

"It's not good to be too rich in this."

Hu Wanan looked at this person, and then said lightly: "The word has already come out from the DPRK, and this time, we will take this opportunity to sweep all the wool on it." ”

"Today's son is very benevolent, and he is a benevolent and virtuous king, diligent and loving the people, very sympathetic to the people, and now there is a famine in Beizhili, Shanxi, and Shandong, he will inevitably do his best to provide disaster relief."

"But the treasury is empty, and when the time comes, the princes of the court will definitely let the Son of Heaven use his own internal funds, and then we will be able to suck up all the emperor's internal funds at one time, but we can't look down on the millions of taels of silver at all."

Hu Wanan's tone was very loud, and he couldn't look down on a million taels of silver at all.

Of course, this is not because he is angry, but because these big salt merchants and big grain merchants are all rich and rival the country, and the Ming court and the Ming emperor are poor compared to them.

"This time, it's mainly aimed at which one in the East Palace, his ancient and modern buildings are too profitable, and this industry must be in our hands."

"There is too much money on it, and many things are beyond the control of the princes of the DPRK and China, and there is a faint meaning of opening the sea ban, which is absolutely not allowed."

"That Liu Jin of Xishan Coal Industry, he is so capable of tossing, he doesn't do it if he puts a good show, he has to say something like Golden Continent."

"There is also a word from the DPRK and China, this time, this Liu Jin must be completely killed, and such a person must not be kept continuously, especially if he is too close to the East Palace."

While Hu Wanan explained, the people around him also nodded one after another, once again clarifying that as long as the goal this time is reached, this action will be more targeted, and they will know how to do it.

"Master Hu, how should we do it, please give me an instruct."

Someone thought about it and said.

"The first thing we need to do is to hoard grain, the grain in our hands is not enough, this winter wheat harvest is out, and in the next few months, the grain in the three provinces of Beizhili, Shanxi and Shandong will become more and more expensive."

"Next, in Tianjin and Beijing, we will restrict the sale of Liu Jin, don't get too tight at first, they can also buy some food, and when we wait until later, we will suddenly tighten the rope and strangle him at once......"

……

Here in Tianjin, Tong Yuan hurriedly found Liu Jin again.

"Teacher, the people sent to the capital to buy grain have all returned, and the grain in the capital has also begun to skyrocket, and at the same time, it is also difficult for us to buy grain in Xishan Coal Industry."

"I have let people get some news, because the winter wheat harvest in the three northern provinces has failed, and the price of grain shipped to the north in Shaanxi, Henan, Jiangnan, Huguang and other places has also begun to rise sharply, and I estimate that it will be difficult for us to buy grain."

Tong Yuan seemed very anxious, and things were as Liu Jin expected, as if someone was targeting him, or Emperor Hongzhi behind him, and Zhu Houzhao, the prince of the East Palace.

"It seems that the cadets of our maritime academy need to go to sea in advance for training."

After listening to this, Liu Jin groaned, and then said with a smile.

"Train in the sea ahead of time?"

When Tong Yuan heard this, he was immediately confused, and he really couldn't figure out what medicine was sold in Liu Jin's gourd.

"Teacher, should we take any measures to find a way to raise food as soon as possible?"

"I'm not trying to figure out a way, you can rest assured, there will be food, and we can eat meat at a time in the future, until we want to vomit."

Liu Jin smiled, looking mysterious, then thought about it and told Tong Yuan: "You sent people to keep an eye on the news of grain transportation from all over the country to the north, and I want to know the price of grain in this place every day." ”

"Eating meat all at once?"

"Eat until you want to throw up?"

When Tong Yuan heard this, he was immediately even more confused, he really wondered what Liu Jin could do to make everyone eat meat at once, and eat until they wanted to vomit?