Li Wenhe left with fear and anxiety, Song Yingxing looked at Yang Hongzhang and asked puzzledly, "Dashuai, are you ready?" ”

"I haven't thought about it yet, let Li Wenhe go back and bear it first, I hope it's still too late. Sir, this time I have to trouble you to go to Jinghai to supervise the war in person, and buy the grain as soon as possible, the more the better, why should the price be appropriately higher, it is acceptable to be less than three taels, but no matter how much grain is purchased, you must rush back within three days. Three days later, I personally went to Cangzhou to meet the so-called grain merchants. ”

"What is the big handsome going to do, can't you tell the old man to the bottom?" Seeing that Yang Hongzhang was mysterious, Song Yingxing complained a little dissatisfied.

Yang Hongzhang said with a smile: "Sir, since some people hope to affect the development and construction of Tianjin Wei by speculating on the price of grain, then I naturally want to fight with my teeth, this is also a science, I call him economics, I don't know if Mr. has studied before, this time these people must be not small, it is estimated that there is a lot of funds used, we Tianjin just lack construction funds, so Hongzhang intends to come and do not refuse." ”

Song Yingxing shook his head and said very seriously: "Dashuai, the food problem is related to the future of Tianjin, and we still need to be cautious. ”

"That's the last and worst plan, then we will talk about it, this battle will be over before the food shortage in Tianjin Wei, sir, you just wait for the good news, maybe this war for food will become a classic case of economics for many years to come." Hongzhang wants to let these people learn a lesson, otherwise everyone will come to Tianjin to make trouble, can you and I build a good heavenly machine? Yang Hongzhang is full of confidence, since someone maliciously speculates on the price of grain, it is no wonder that he uses some special means, he is the chief soldier of Tianjin, the prefect of Tianjin, representing the power and the official, someone actually tries to hit himself through businessmen, if he doesn't let the other party hurt into the bone marrow, wouldn't it be too kind.

Because of the matter of food, Song Yingxing did not dare to slack off, and immediately prepared to take people to Jinghai, he also understood what Yang Hongzhang meant, Jinghai is still a little far away from Tianjin, if the other party did not start speculating from six counties and one state at the same time, then Jinghai could also buy a large amount of grain at the original price a little higher.

To say that Song Yingxing should be the best in scientific research, but when it comes to fighting a war or comparing financial resources, Song Yingxing is ashamed of himself, he built Yang Hongzhang and didn't want to make it clear that he had to go down to prepare to buy grain, after Song Yingxing left, Yang Hongzhang immediately invited the Xia family to stay in Tianjin, Xia Chunwei, the deacon of Jiangnan Trading Company, and now Xia Chunwei is also a spring breeze, at this time last year, the Xia family was still struggling with whether to marry Xia Yan to Yang Hongzhang, It was only because of the friendship between the two families for many years that the marriage contract was not dissolved without the exact news of Yang Hongzhang. I didn't expect this brother-in-law to be really good, and his steady progress can no longer fully explain Yang Hongzhang's rise speed, a third-rank military general in his early twenties, the chief soldier of one side, and also the prefect, has faintly surpassed Lu Xiangsheng, the biggest backer of the Xia family.

After Yang Hongzhang launched Tianjin's development plan and proposed the establishment of Jiangnan Trading Company, Xia's father was elected as the executive director, and Xia Chunwei became the deacon of the Tianjin office, responsible for the purchase and sale of goods in the Tianjin office and the provision of building materials for the Tianjin government.

"Big brother, there are two things that you need to do personally." Yang Hongzhang didn't care about being polite when he saw his brother-in-law, and said directly, "The first thing is to immediately collect the ships that can be used near Tianjin Wei and assemble them at the canal wharf, which I can use at any time." The second thing is to immediately inform the Hangzhou side to prepare 10,000 stone of grain and transport it to Cangzhou by the fastest sea ship, and wait for my news there after arriving in Cangzhou. ”

"Shi Lin, what do you want?" Xia Chunwei asked puzzled.

Yang Hongzhang then told the grain merchants who rushed to buy grain in Cangzhou.

"In this way, how can 10,000 stones be enough, it is better to get more and prepare 30,000 or 40,000 stones, so that Tianjin Mansion will not be short of food for the time being."

"The grain can be purchased first, but it doesn't have to be transported all, because the cost is too great, and it is easy to delay time by finding so many sea ships at once, so there is no need. The decisive role in this battlefield is not how much food is in the hands of both sides, but off-site factors. But big brother, the ships near Tianjin are collected as much as possible, and it doesn't matter if the rent is a little higher. In addition, you go to discuss with Lord Tian Hongyu to see how much treasury money the trading company can use now, and I need to take a large amount of money to Cangzhou in three days. ”

"Are you going to invest money in the scramble or?"

"No matter how much money we have, we can't waste it on it, but if some people want to find death, we will fulfill him, but if we don't get a little silver, the fish won't be baited."

Xia Chunwei was a shrewd businessman, and after asking the reason for his name concisely, he immediately went down to prepare. And Tian Hongyu, who got the news, quickly ran over.

"Lord Yang, I heard Deacon Xia say that someone is going to target us, who is it, isn't it more than money, smash them hard, smash them to death!" As soon as Tian Hongyu entered the door, the voice came out. He listened to Yang Hongzhang's words and invested part of his property in the Jiangnan Trading Company, and now the company is responsible for providing a large number of building materials in Tianjin, which can be described as making money every day, and the chamber of commerce he himself formed with people in the capital began to develop streets in the city, and some of them have been sold, but they have made a lot of money. He finally discovered that there was a more lucrative business than Linlang Pavilion, and it was really right to follow Yang Hongzhang. He still regrets a little bit that Jiangnan Trading Company gave too little when he subscribed for shares.

"Lord Tian, we have to prepare some silver, but this battle just shows that we are too poor in terms of who has more money. What's more, what if people have more money than us? Don't forget that most of our money is to be used for overseas trade, and even if the rest is basically intended for the development of Tianjin, it is definitely not possible to fight for money. ”

"Hehe, listening to your tone, it seems that you are confident, so I can rest assured, say, brother, what should we do?" Tian Hongyu asked with oily eyes.

"There is really your role this time, but it is not your turn to appear for the time being, so come with me to Cangzhou when the time comes. But before that, you can spread the news and go back to the capital to say that you have lost money in Tianjin, and you have lost a lot of money, how miserable it is, you can play it yourself. ”

"Brother, no, don't you say that you have been asking me to release news in the capital that Tianjin is a good place to make money, so as to attract more businessmen to invest? And it's really very profitable, oh, I see, is there too many people looking for you, you are too troublesome, you don't want to deal with them, it's okay for someone to look for you again, you give them to me, and I promise to help you do it properly. ”

"Lord Tian, don't forget, this time you must describe yourself as miserable, it is best to describe the two of us as incompatible with water and fire and may break up at any time, and even if you want to go to the emperor to sue me and ask the emperor to administer justice, anyway, it is just a sentence, you have suffered a big loss, you hate me to death, say anything and do it in Tianjin, it is even more impossible to help me, and also remind other nobles in the capital not to be pitted by me. There is also the Jiangnan Trading Company that has suffered heavy losses like you, and the Jiangnan businessmen are full of complaints...... Finally, you can be a little presumptuous and prepare to take revenge on me! ”

"This ...... This...... What the hell are you going to do? Tian Hongyu was completely dumbfounded when he heard this.

"Of course, this fake news is useful, when you send someone to spread these news, your lord, you yourself will go to Cangzhou to hide for a while, don't see anyone, create a kind of truth, and when it is critical, you will come out and wave your arms, you will be the key to turning the tide!" I promise to make more money this time than Linlang Pavilion in a year, haha......"

"Uh, well, I'll listen to you!" Tian Hongyu still wanted to ask more, and found that he didn't seem to be able to ask anything, so he had to give up, he also completely admired Yang Hongzhang, a young man, just the idea of Jiangnan Trading Company made Tian Hongyu excited for a long time, he was also worried that once he was excluded in the capital, Linlang Pavilion was snatched away, and now he has a stake in Jiangnan Trading Company, and develops the city in Tianjin, which is considered to have greater strength, if he can make a lot of money this time, he may be able to expand his business to Jiangnan District.

Next, Yang Hongzhang also did one thing, that is, he summoned the lieutenants of the various squares in the Tianjin Acropolis to inspect the warehouses in the city on the spot, and told them that the task was that there would be people in the city to spread rumors about the shortage of food in the city for a period of time in the future, hoping that they would do a good job of appeasing them, support the General Military Office, and support the prefect. These invited people are full of sewage, how come this chief soldier seems to know that someone is targeting Tianjin, in this case, why don't you directly arrest those spies who spread rumors? However, the commander-in-chief has always been mysterious, and they just need to tell the real situation at a critical moment.

In fact, in the eyes of these people, even if it is true that there is no food in the Tianjin Acropolis, as long as Yang Dashuai is in Tianjin, it will be fine, who will believe those nonsense rumors.

Later, Yang Hongzhang summoned the main generals of the three infantry battalions and the engineer battalion and told their colleagues to be ready to fight tough battles at any time when they were strengthening their training. Several battalion officers were taken to the granary to inspect the site, and informed them that the General Military Office was preparing to start a battle with the foreign grain merchants in Cangzhou, and that some rumors might be spread as needed at critical moments, and asked them to keep it secret for the time being, and inform the junior officers of the real situation as soon as the rumors appeared.

Yang Hongzhang finally came to the elite battalion camp, gathered all the five hundred elites and arranged the first mission of the elite battalion, and after everyone got enough silver, they were required to disperse to the prefectures and counties, as well as the capital and Baoding Mansion to carry out the mission, while Cangzhou sent a hundred people.

This was the first mission of the elite battalion in nearly half a year since its establishment, and everyone was very excited, and Yang Hongzhang repeatedly warned them to pay attention to hiding their identities and passing on the information back in time.

Soon, Xia Dongwei and Yang Sheng gathered almost all the cavalry of Tianjin Wei and stood by in the General Military Mansion. Now the 2,000 cavalry battalions of Tianjin Wei and the 1,000 people in the pro-soldier battalion are all cavalry, and Yang Hongzhang just hopes that the other party will not act in six counties and one state in Tianjin at the same time.