Early September.

Yuan Xi's economic battle to suppress Sun Quan has reached a white-hot stage.

All of Sun Quan's funds were swept up.

He was supposed to build a steam engine warship, but he was also forced to stop.

All the industries and shops in Jiangdong were paralyzed, and even Sun Quan had to borrow money from the family to pay salaries to the army.

In comparison, Yuan Xi's situation is much better. Although it also paid the price and lost more than 100 million, with the strength of Hebei, it can completely bear it.

Zhen Yan is controlling prices and reducing the speed of goods sales, so as to achieve the goal of keeping paper and salt low prices for a long time and reducing losses.

At the same time, more than 100 million reserves were used, as well as 50 million worth of goods.

As long as Sun Quan wants to resist, suppress it immediately.

That's it...

Sun Quan couldn't do anything when he was suppressed, and in the face of the dissatisfaction of his soldiers and families, he could only try his best to appease. But this is a real world, without money, who listens to you?

Including the Wenchen under Sun Quan, seeing that they were going to be in arrears, they also had a bad mood.

Sun Quan gradually couldn't be appeased, and discussed with Zhang Zhao, Zhuge Jin and others, and sent people to Jizhou to meet Yuan Xi, one of them showed weakness and reduced losses. The two persuaded each other with family affection to maintain the relationship of the alliance.

The most important thing is to meet Sun Shangxiang, hoping to get Sun Shangxiang's support.

After all, Yuan Xi and Sun Shangxiang got married, and they had husband and wife affection, and Yuan Xi attached great importance to affection, and sometimes Sun Shangxiang's words might be better than a thousand words from the messenger.

Half a month later.

Zhuge Jin once again came to Yecheng, Jizhou.

He asked to see Yuan Xi as an envoy, but Yuan Xi shirked for various reasons and did not see him.

In the end, Zhen Yan met with him to discuss the matter of paper and salt.

Yecheng Chamber of Commerce.

After the people on both sides sat down.

Zhen Yan pretended to be angry and said: "During this time, your Jiangdong is a little unauthentic, and the prices of salt and paper have been repeatedly reduced, which has caused us heavy losses in Hebei. How should this account be calculated? ”

As soon as Zhen Yan opened his mouth, he put the responsibility on Sun Quan and took the initiative in this conversation.

This is the most important point of the negotiation between the two sides, and whoever has the initiative is likely to overwhelm the other side.

"Lord Zhen, this... How do we cut the price? We've lost a lot of money too. Zhuge Jin said.

"If it's not you, who would it be? Don't think I don't know, this matter started in Wu County and then spread to the Central Plains. Now that we've lost hundreds of millions, do you know the consequences of this? Are you doing this in an alliance with us? Zhen Yan asked.

Zhuge Jin stood up, his expression a little annoyed, but after only a few seconds, he thought of the purpose of this trip, and forcibly suppressed this annoyance: "Lord Zhen, we really don't know about this matter. Maybe Cao Cao did it. ”

"It's possible."

Zhen Yan did not take advantage of the victory to pursue, but followed Zhuge Jin's words and took a step back.

Then Zhuge Jin sat down and said, "Because of this incident, the situation in our Jiangdong is very bad. I came here on this trip on the orders of my lord, hoping that General Yuan could help to solve Jiangdong's urgent needs. ”

Zhen Yan said: "I'm sorry Mr. Zhuge , I can only decide on business matters, I can't answer you about whether to help Jiangdong or not, otherwise you go to see the lord." If the lord agrees to help, the Sixth Ministry and the Military Administration Department will not object. ”

"Then where is General Yuan?"

"I don't know. The lord's whereabouts have always been erratic, Mr. Zhuge can stay in the post house, and when the lord has time, he will definitely summon Mr. ”

Zhen Yan slowly got up and said, "Mr. Zhuge , you better go back first." ”

"You... Okay, I'll go back first. ”

Zhuge Jin left in a huff.

He came from thousands of miles, waited in Yecheng for a few days, and didn't see Yuan Xi, and now he sent such a person who couldn't be the master, and sent him away. What exactly does Yuan Xi mean?

At this time, in the first restaurant, Yuan Xi was still waiting for Zhen Yan to reply.

When Zhuge Jin left, Zhen Yan came and reported the process of talking to Zhuge Jin to Yuan Xi.

"Zhuge Jin is here to be soft, shouldn't we stop?" Yuan Xi said with a smile.

"Then what kind of conditions does the lord want to propose?"

"I won't allow Jiangdong to have steam engine warships, you know that. Nothing else matters. Yuan Xi instructed: "You go to see Zhuge Jin tomorrow, this time on my behalf and negotiate with him." As long as this goal is achieved, it is done. ”

"Yes."

Zhen Yan said thoughtfully: "But Sun Quan already knows the skills of making warships, as long as he has money, he can make them at any time." Even if Zhuge Jin was forced by the situation and agreed not to build a ship for the time being, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not build it quietly in the future. ”

"We have to find a way to do it once and for all, otherwise we will lose too much this operation." Yuan Xi walked to the window and looked at the street outside with deep eyes.

Prior to this, Yuan Xi only regarded Cao Cao as his strongest opponent, and also formulated a series of plans to compete against Cao Cao. However, Sun Quan's construction of a steam engine warship, although it does not threaten Hebei at present, is a potential opponent. Once Sun Quan grows up and forms a huge new water army, the consequences will be very serious.

In order to avoid being at a disadvantage in future wars.

Yuan Xi had to check and balance Sun Quan.

Zhen Yan helped think for a while, and suddenly said with an idea: "Lord, the minister has a way." Why don't we take the opportunity to ask him to agree to us to set up a chamber of commerce in Jiangdong to govern many industries under Sun Quan's rule, in the name of convenient wholesale goods for him, but in fact to control prices. As long as Sun Quan can't make money, it is impossible to create a new water army with his taxes. ”

Yuan Xi smiled after hearing this: "This method is good. Zhen Yan, you gave me another great idea. ”

"It's all as it should be, but... I don't know if Zhuge Jin will agree, and if he asks us to recycle those tens of millions of goods, how should we answer? ”

Yuan Xi said: "Isn't this easy to answer?" Let's just say that we are financially constrained and cannot be recycled. In order to facilitate negotiations with him, we can promise to write a loan, and we will buy the goods at half price, and then pay him after two years. Or we will exchange it with him in the future. ”

"My lord's idea is not bad."

In fact, Zhen Yan had already thought of a way to deal with Zhuge Jin, just to show Yuan Xi's wisdom, he deliberately said that he couldn't deal with it, and let Yuan Xi think of a way.

The horse was photographed, and Yuan Xi felt comfortable and didn't notice it.

"You can do it."

"Yes."

After instructing Zhen Yan, Yuan Xi returned to the Assassin's Mansion.

As soon as I entered the courtyard in front of the hall, I saw Wen Chou coming over and said, "Lord, Zhuge Jin is in the living room." ”

"Huh?"

Yuan Xi was about to leave, but said: "No, what is he doing here, isn't the conversation with Zhen Yan over." ”

"He was talking to his grandmother, probably for the sake of reducing the price of paper and salt."

"Hmph. I knew he was going to do it. Yuan Xi knew that he couldn't hide. Even if you don't see Zhuge Jin now, when Sun Shangxiang comes, you still have to face it.

simply don't hide, it's good to see Zhuge Jin.