The two of them chatted for a while, and then they saw several horsemen coming out of the city, led by a thin man, riding a red horse, followed by several people who looked like guards. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Before this person arrived, he shouted: "Xie Er, you are still fucking fifty pounds of pig iron!" ”

Xie Lao Er stood up, smiled and said loudly: "Cao Da, look, didn't the brother bring you this time?" Last time, I was chased by the officers and soldiers of Dog Day and lost it, so I made up for it this time. Our brothers, it's hard to say what's wrong. ”

This Cao Da is a close confidant of Yuan Zongdi, and is responsible for helping him deal with some business matters.

At this time, those cavalry had already arrived, several people dismounted, and Xie Lao Er hurriedly greeted him.

"What about your goods, show me." Cao Da didn't say much to Xie Lao Er when he saw him, and asked directly.

"It's all here. Take a look. Xie Lao Er hurriedly asked him to see the sample.

Cao Da looked at it carefully, and then said: "Everything is good, but when we buy it, it can't be much worse than this." ”

"Look at what you said, we are fellow countrymen, and no one can pit you, right? How, do you want these things? Xie Lao Er laughed as he took out a pack of cigarettes from inside his clothes. This is also one of the new goods of the Zheng family over the years. Since tobacco came from the Americas, it has become popular rapidly in my Ming Dynasty. Because Chinese medicine believes that smoking can remove moisture, it is particularly popular in the south. Although because the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were all from the Yan Dynasty, "eating tobacco" and "eating Yan" are homophonic. Therefore, the Ming government has always strictly banned smoking. However, the execution of the Ming court has always been not very good, so tobacco or something is still proliferating, and in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, even the north began to become popular. The result of the Ming Dynasty's ban on these things is probably that my Ming Dynasty has a lot less taxes than later generations. The Zheng family naturally wouldn't let go of this kind of money-making thing, so they came up with this kind of carton with a big rooster painted on it.

It's just that matches have not yet been made, so smoking in this era can only be smoked with a sickle.

"What is this?" Obviously, the people who broke into the army with this kind of cigarette have not seen much of it.

"Cigarettes. It's rolled with shredded tobacco. Tastes good. Wang Qi, borrow the fire sickle! Well, Brother Yuan, do you eat cigarettes? Got one? Xie Lao Er explained.

"Eat cigarettes, why don't you eat!" The man surnamed Yuan replied.

"Wait a minute." Wang Qi said as he entered the cabin, and after a while, he found a fire sickle from the cabin. Xie Lao Er took out three cigarettes, took the fire sickle, struck it, lit the three cigarettes, and then handed one of them to Cao Da, one to the one surnamed Yuan, and the remaining one in his mouth. A few people sat down.

"It tastes good. It's much stronger than the average loose tobacco leaf. Cao Da took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, "What's the price of this product?" ”

"This thing? Do you want it too? Xie Lao Er said, "You have made a fortune?" I used to buy loose tobacco leaves for you, but you didn't want them. ”

"It's not us, it's me." Cao Dadao, "How can we possibly buy this thing." ”

"You, I'll give you all this bag. As for this goods, two taels of silver a pack on the street! Xie Lao Er said.

"Two taels of silver? You're robbing! Cao Da took the big rooster and looked at it carefully, "It's a lot better than the average, but where can it be so expensive?" ”

"Normal, normal." Xie Lao Er said, "Brother Cao, do you think that the tobacco in this is to select the best tobacco leaves from the best tobacco leaves, and this step costs money, right?" Then, it has to be finely shredded and baked...... If something goes wrong with this, the good thing is scrapped. In this way, the price is naturally not comparable to that of coarse tobacco. ”

"If that's the case, I can't even afford it." Cao laughed and said, "Are your goods still the same price as before?" ”

"That can't be done." Xie Lao Er shook his head and said, "First, you can inquire now, in the past six months, the price of pig iron has risen wildly, compared with the last time, it has doubled, how can it be that it is still the same price as before." As for Yanba, this time is different, the last time you came suddenly, the nearby officers and soldiers all ran away. As long as I don't meet those little thieves or something, no one will have the idea of fighting the goods, even if they meet the little thieves and play the banner of General Yuan, they don't dare to make a mistake, right? This time it was different, these goods came along the waterway, and there were officers and soldiers everywhere along the way, and they had to be inspected, and every place cost money. Let's put it this way, if you only need a hundred or ten catties, surnamed Xie takes a risk, and brings it over, you can bring it at the original price, but it will be more, and if it reaches hundreds of catties or thousands of catties, then it will not be able to be entrained, and you will have to pay for the ambassador's silver. The risk and expense are not small, is it? Then the price will not be able to do as before, and it will naturally go up a little. You say, don't you? ”

"So how much does this increase be?" Cao Da asked with wide eyes.

"Depends on how much you want. Whether it is pig iron or salt, if you want 1,000 catties to 3,000 catties, it will be one and a half times the price of Wuchang in the world, if it is more than 3,000, it will be one and a half times, and if it is 5,000 catties or more, it will be double the price. To be honest, my brother did business with you, and he did it with his head tied to the waistband of his pants. If you make less money, you might as well not do it. Xie Lao Er said.

"Forget about the salt, Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan and grabbed a lot of salt, although the things are not as good as yours, but the price is half cheaper than the one you sold to us last time. Aren't they all eaten anyway? As for pig iron, you're too expensive. Can't it be cheaper? "Cao Dadao.

Nowadays, the army is in great need of pig iron, but this thing is really difficult to buy, so now someone comes to the door to sell pig iron, although the asking price is higher, but listening to his meaning, he can get a lot of it, so although Cao Da thinks that this person is too greedy, he is still willing to talk to him.

"Let's not talk about the price, how much do you want? There's a number that makes me talk. Xie Lao Er said.

"50,000 catties, can you get it?" Cao Da thought for a moment and said a number.

"What?" Xie Lao Er stood up suddenly, "Fifty thousand catties? Big brother, my big brother, don't talk about me, you just say that in the whole Wuchang, the whole Huguang world, there are not necessarily so many. Not necessarily, it's certainly not so much! 50,000 catties, no, no! ”

"And how many can you have?" Cao asked with a smile.

"* Six thousand at most, and if you can wait two months, you can have six thousand. If there is more, it will be gone. Xie Lao Er said.

"If I can wait another two months, will there still be six thousand?" Cao Da asked.

Xie Lao Er heard it and said: "This is not necessarily, it stands to reason that there can be, but it has been too long, and after this long time, many things are not easy to say, for example, who knows where you all went at that time?" ”

"Don't worry, we won't leave easily." Cao Dadao, "Why don't we need so much pig iron?" Isn't it just to ask for farm tools for tuntian? ”

The people of this era, even the imperial court, were crude in terms of secrecy. Not to mention that there is no resistance to the espionage intelligence of later generations to judge possible political and military actions by studying the price and supply and demand of various items, and the rogues are even worse in this regard, and even in the process of discussing business, a lot of information will flow out unconsciously.

Xie Lao Er smiled slightly: "If that's the case, I don't think it's a big problem." ”

"How about it, we buy so much, do you want to re-activate the price of the event?" Cao Da said again.

"You make me think." Xie Lao Er said. He sat down again, took a few puffs of his cigarette, and said, "Otherwise, I can take not only the money, but also the other things you get, and convert them into silver." Even, you can use Zhang Xianzhong's salt to pay the bill, listen to your statement, Zhang Xianzhong's salt is sold cheaper than Wuchang, I will bring it when I go back. ”

"We have to use the salt slowly." Cao Da said, "Other things can be discounted to you, but you shouldn't be too black-hearted." ”

"How can that? Our brother Tong Su is notoriously bullied. Xie Lao Er said with a smile.

"It's a big deal, after all." Cao Da said, "It's not something that can be decided in two or three sentences. On my side, I also want General Yuan or even King Chuang to take ideas. I guess Xie Er, you can't just say it on your side. Let's go to the city first, I'll treat you and pick you up. ”

A few people got up, someone pulled a horse over, Xie Lao Er got on the horse, and followed Cao Da and his party to the direction of Zhongxiang County.

……

Six days later, Xie Lao Er and Chuang Jun made a business of selling 6,000 catties of pig iron, and the two sides agreed to conduct the same second round of transactions two months later, and the amount was also 6,000 catties.

In fact, it is not only Xie Lao Er who trades with the Chuang Army, but also the items traded are not only pig iron, but also other people, who will trade with other Chuang Jun Ministries, including cotton, leather, wood and many other things. Through these trades, all kinds of information were collected and gathered, and finally placed in front of Zheng Sen's desk.

"Major General, almost all the traders have confirmed that a large-scale cantonment is going on in the area controlled by the Chuang army. Judging from the materials that the Chuang army purchased from us, the Chuang army did invest a lot in Tuntian, and they even bought some struvite from us. Therefore, the staff department believes that until the summer harvest, the intrusive army should not have much action. However, after the summer harvest, if the harvest is good, the action of the invading army will be significantly strengthened. Liu De said to Zheng Sen.