Chapter 51: The Pioneer (II)

Counting on the officers and soldiers of the Great Yuan not to grab grain is tantamount to counting on the wolves not to eat the sheep. Expecting the local government to dare to administer justice for the people under its rule is tantamount to expecting all the evil spirits in hell to become Buddhas and arhats.

After living in the Great Yuan Dynasty for a long time, the common people have long known that they should not have any hope for the imperial court and local officials. So the indignation returned to the indignation, and after sighing, he turned out the last few tongbao in his pocket, and turned them into brown rice, grain, and sorghum.

Other money can be saved, but you can't skip food. If you can buy more food before the price of food fully flies, the whole family will have more hope of surviving this war in the future.

After a while, the seven or eight cabinets at the front desk of the grain store were mostly empty. When Shopkeeper Sun saw it, he hurriedly sent his men to the warehouse in the backyard to carry new goods, and at the same time began to look at the people queuing up with the corner of his eye. As soon as this wave of customers buying grain ran out, they immediately went to change the water sign in front of the door, and the price of cereals continued to rise. At this juncture, but the hands are not soft. If the food of one's own family is sold lower than that of other peers in the city, not to mention the offending people, it will attract the poor people of the whole city. The food stocks were snapped up, and the price of grain in the city increased several times. The proprietor calculates the possible losses, and he, the shopkeeper, should roll up and leave.

I was in a hurry to burn the fire, when suddenly the voice of the bold guest from before came to my ears, "Shopkeeper, please fill me with fifty stone of high-quality white rice, fifty stone of fine noodles, and fifty stone of millet at this price." I'll let the guy pull the wagon later. This is Huaiyang's silver dollar, which is considered a deposit. If you count enough, if it's not enough, I'll let the guy make up for it when he gets food!" ”

As he spoke, "Dangchang! With a bang, he threw a silk bag full of Huaxia silver dollars on the counter.

"Boom!" Shopkeeper Sun only felt a thunderbolt rolling in his head, which shook his feet and his eyes were full of stars. He was really afraid of something, he was afraid that the price of grain in his store would be low, and he would be snapped up and hoarded by others. But there was a peer rival.

One hundred and fifty stone of grain, which is 20,000 catties smaller. Even fifty strong men who strike iron eat with their bellies open, which is enough to eat for more than half a year. The other party came up to buy 20,000 catties of grain, and also dropped the most sought-after Huaiyang silver dollar on the market as an order, not knowing that he wanted to force him to death, and did not give him a chance to regret it at all?

Fortunately, there has always been no shortage of "understanding" people in this world, and he didn't wait for Shopkeeper Sun to decide whether to grit his teeth and hold on to the end, or immediately surrender to the other party and beg for mercy, pay a compensation, and ask to be let go. At the counter, someone was already tearing their throats in protest. "Alas, I said that the shopkeeper is always over, you can pass it now! Although you Hanyuan Commercial Bank is not short of money, you can't buy all the rice and noodles at once, let us all drink the northwest wind? ”

"Isn't it, Brother Chang. What are you doing here? You bought all the food in store at once, didn't you really want us all to go hungry?"

"Chang shopkeeper, you have a lot of money, go elsewhere! We, the small households, really can't afford to parry with you! ”

Other neighbors in the back who had not yet bought food also spoke one after another. accuses the surnamed Chang of taking advantage of the fire to rob, deliberately letting everyone starve to death.

When Shopkeeper Sun heard this, he was originally flustered and calmed down a little. Raise your head and start to see carefully who is trying to get along with you. What caught his eye was a southern man with a white face and broad shoulders. His eyebrows were thick, and he always had a smile on his lips, as if he didn't realize that he had committed public anger.

"Who am I to be so bold? It turned out to be a stunned young man from a foreign country! Seeing this, Shopkeeper Sun became more and more stable. As an old man in the shopping mall, he knew a little bit about the identity of the other party before. It is the shopkeeper of a branch of a southern firm in Lingzhou City, mainly engaged in leather goods and cured meat business, and he is very arrogant, and he is also diligent when he moves around with the government and several local nobles. But it is by no means a peer in the grain business, so I bought more rice this time, and I should not have come to ask for trouble on purpose.

Thinking of this, he smiled and threw his hand at the other party, "Oops! Forgive the old man for being clumsy, he didn't recognize the shopkeeper before! If you know that it is the shopkeeper who is always in charge, the old man will definitely let the guy bring you into the West Chamber to serve tea, how dare you line up here! Disrespectful, disrespectful, the little old man apologized first! ”

Neither say to buy, nor immediately refuse. Circle the other party with words first, and remind him not to queue up with ordinary people to buy it. Then find a way to communicate privately in the wing room to see what the other party's intention is, and then decide how to deal with it.

He is an old fox whose head has become a fine, and Chang Fugui, who has a semicolon in Hanyuan, is obviously not a raw melon. Gently opened his body half a foot to the side, and let the shopkeeper Sun's long bow walk in the empty space. Then he returned with the same length to the ground, and at the same time said in a loud voice: "Kill, kill, you are so old, so prestigious." How dare the juniors accept your courtesy?! I really saw that you were too busy just now, and I didn't want to cause trouble to you, so I lined up with everyone. Anyway, your business is so big, even if the juniors are at the end, your account will not sit on the ground and start the price. You keep saying, don't you? ”

But there is a needle hidden in the cotton. The shopkeeper Sun, who had just relaxed a little, immediately tightened like a bowstring. Just two minutes ago, he did play the idea of waiting for this wave of people to stop, and immediately change the water sign and sit on the ground to raise the price. And the order of 20,000 catties is placed on the counter, even if he changes it now, how much loss can he recover? ! A few more waves of scattered guests, can they still buy more than 20,000?

"Folks, Chang was a little anxious just now, I didn't take into account that you are still waiting for the rice to be cooked, Chang apologized for this!" A needle pierced the crooked thoughts of the shopkeeper Sun, and Chang Fugui continued to bow his hand to the surrounding guests, "In this way, Chang Mou is the last in line with everyone, and when everyone buys it, Chang Mou will buy it again." Anyway, Shopkeeper Sun has enough stockpiling here, so it won't be short of Chang because he sold it to you! ”

When the words fell, the neighbors, who were still angry before, immediately turned red. Doing business pays attention to your love and my willingness, people often have money in the shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper Sun has goods in his hands, which is not everyone's business. Everyone was worried that the rice in the shop would be sold out and their own share would be short, so they didn't choose to say anything. And the shopkeeper not only competed with everyone, but also took the initiative to give up the front row position, what reason do you have to continue to entangle?

Immediately, someone took the lead and said, "It's okay, it's okay." We are also short-sighted, and it is the first time we have seen such a large hand, so we were taken aback. You first, or you first, a few of us and so on! ”

"Yes, the shopkeeper is always there, and everything comes first. You buy it, we go ahead and wait. Really let you wrap this round, let's go to the next one. Anyway, it's two streets away!! ”

"You're welcome, you're welcome. Chang shopkeeper, you first please! ”

“”

Everyone is here, you are humble and I am here, but the shopkeeper Sun is in a hurry. If you close your doors and close down immediately, you will definitely smash your own signboard. According to the current price on the water card, more than 20,000 catties are shipped, and the owner on his head cannot be explained. After pondering for a long time, he gritted his teeth, and said with a smile: "There are goods, there are goods, those who open grain stores are not afraid of big-bellied men, as long as you don't buy them and sell them, I will sell them openly!" But "

Suddenly retracting his smile, he quickly turned his gaze to Chang Fugui, stared at the other party's eyes and asked, "Little Lao'er just doesn't understand a little?" Aren't you from the south? How can you still worry about running out of food to eat? It stands to reason that when a war starts, you can just take your guys and leave, so why do you have to squat here and wait for death with everyone? ”

"Alas, you don't know!" Obviously hearing that there was a knife hidden in the other party's words, Chang Fugui sighed very frankly, "My guys and I came to open a semicolon on the orders of the owner, and we can't help ourselves!" Sensei said that even if there is a knife in the sky, we must be nailed here. Otherwise, we will take the owner's salary and run away in vain, even if the owner does not let us return the compensation later, at least in Chang's life, no one will dare to use it again!"

"Alas!" Someone responded with a low sigh.

In recent years, in the business field, the word "letter" has been particularly emphasized. The shopkeeper follows an owner, often for a lifetime. Even if they part ways halfway, it is usually good to get together and disperse, and each other cannot ruin each other's reputation. And once the shopkeeper betrays the trust of the owner, it is not only money that is lost. spread out, no industry will easily dare to hire this person again, and the rest of his life will be completely out of business!

"And one more thing, we outsiders are not as good as everyone!" First used a few words to make Sun's shopkeeper's sowing discord come to naught, Chang Fugui arched his hand and continued to add, "It's really the day when the fight starts, and everyone can still take their wives and children to the countryside to join their relatives." As the saying goes, relying on the mountain to eat the mountain, relying on the water to eat the water. As long as wild vegetables can be dug up in the fields and rabbits can be caught in the mountains, people will not starve to death. Where can I, the strangers, hide? To the countryside? The fathers and elders in the countryside still can't eat enough for themselves, so why should they take us in. So, ah, when I heard that there was going to be a war, I was more anxious than all of you. A dozen men brought from the south, and a dozen or so locals who had just been recruited, which was not the right time to eat. Can I, the shopkeeper, eat dry rice and give them gruel? ”

"That's just as well!" When everyone heard this, they continued to nod their heads frequently. In his heart, he secretly decided that once the price of rice in the city could not bear it, he would quickly take his wife and children to the countryside to seek refuge with relatives and friends. Although the faces of relatives and friends will definitely not look good, but for the sake of blood thicker than water, eating weeds and catching field chickens together will not make the whole family starve to death.

"And!" Chang Fugui quickly looked around, and added with a mysterious face, "We can't run because we can't live up to the owner." But you guys don't have that problem. Our host is far away in Yangzhou, and he can't feel it at all. And all of your owners are in the city. When the day of food shortage, he must have closed the shop and gone back. And all of you, as long as you bring ten days of dry food at that time, go all the way south."

Looking outside again, he lowered his voice: "Zhu Butcher is good at this, if he has something to eat, he won't watch the people starving." When Zhang Mingjian burned Yangzhou, he took out military rations to help the people. When he was dehydrated and drowned, he once again took out military rations. Therefore, as long as everyone runs to the territory of the Huai'an Army, no matter where it is, I guarantee that no one in the Huai'an Army will dare to watch everyone starve to death! ”