readx; At the turn of spring and summer, the green and yellow are not connected, and it is the time of the year when the price of rice is the most expensive in Beijing. This year www.biquge.info due to the recruitment of a large number of displaced people for the expansion of the outer city of Beijing and the rebuilding of the Tonghui River, the grain in Beijing is even more scarce, and the price of rice has climbed to seven taels and one stone.

Jingshi itself is not a grain-producing area, and most of the grain and rice are transferred from the south of the Yangtze River. At this time, it is the time to show the strength of the merchants, whether it is the Jin merchants, the Hui merchants or the Zhejiang merchants, they all have a large amount of grain and rice in Beijing, and they usually do not sell it, waiting for this moment. The price of rice they bought in Jiangnan was less than one tael, but now it is sold for seven taels or even higher.

In this seemingly indistinguishable atmosphere, a mysterious emerging business gang began to lay out in secret, and entered the fiercely competitive Jingshi business district in a very special way.

As if overnight, the people of Beijing suddenly discovered that a kind of shop they had never seen before appeared on the street: a coal store.

And there is only one product that is sold in this kind of shop: honeycomb coal.

In fact, coal is not a new thing in this day and age. However, because it is not easy to mine and the output is not high, it is expensive, and only government-run brick kilns and porcelain kilns can afford it. The residents of Jingshi, whether they are high-ranking officials or ordinary people, still use firewood as fuel.

As the saying goes, "seven things to open the door, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea", firewood ranks first, which shows its importance in daily life. With a population of more than one million, the consumption of firewood is so huge that after more than 200 years of indiscriminate logging, the originally lush forests in the nearby mountains are now almost cut down, and the price of firewood is becoming more and more expensive. The so-called "rice bead salary" is a vivid portrayal of the high price of firewood in Beijing.

However, these coal shops do not know where to get the coal, and the price is cheaper than firewood. And they don't sell coal directly, but crush the coal and water to make slime, and then use special tools to buckle it into a honeycomb shape, and after drying, it becomes honeycomb coal.

Compared with firewood, honeycomb coal is not only cheaper, but also more efficient in heating and easy to use, so it was welcomed by the residents of Kyoshi as soon as it was introduced. From the Forbidden City to ordinary people, they quickly switched to honeycomb coal as fuel, and those coal stores were naturally full of people.

The major merchants in Jingshi quickly noticed these coal shops, because they all played a unified name: Wuzhou Trading Company.

As the capital of the Ming Empire and the country's premier metropolis, Jingshi is naturally a gathering of businessmen and fierce competition. After more than 200 years of open and secret struggle, it has now formed a situation in which the three strong Jin merchants, Hui merchants, and Zhejiang merchants are in power, and the Cantonese merchants, Fujian merchants, Hubei merchants, and Shaanxi merchants are close behind to get a piece of the pie. In order to keep warm in groups, these merchants formed powerful merchant gangs according to their respective regions. The members of the merchant gang cover all walks of life, and they have also formed a relatively tight organization. If a foreign businessman wants to do business in Beijing, he must join a certain merchant gang, otherwise it will be difficult to move an inch.

But this "Wuzhou Trading Company" seems to have appeared out of thin air, and no one knows where he came from, or even who the boss is, and it is even more difficult to guess what the meaning of "Wuzhou" is. However, by opening a coal shop in a unique way, breaking into the "vacuum zone" of Jingshi Commerce, and opening dozens of coal shops at the same time, Wuzhou Trading Company has aroused the vigilance of the leaders of the major business gangs with a keen sense of smell.

This day coincides with the tenth day of the new year, and the largest "Mantingfang" restaurant in Beijing is full of friends as always. The leaders of the major business gangs meet here according to the old rules, taking the opportunity to exchange business opportunities and coordinate disputes, and any decision they make at the table is enough to shock the business community in Beijing, and even have an impact on the business of the whole country.

After three rounds of drinking, Zhou Shaoning, the leader of the Longyou Merchants Gang composed of Zhejiang businessmen, took the lead and said: "What do you think of the Wuzhou Trading Company that has appeared recently? Gang Leader Qiao, you all know that you produce coal in Shanxi, is this Wuzhou trading company from Shanxi...? ”

The one who is called "Qiao Gang Leader" is Qiao Yuliang, the number one person of the Jin Merchants in Beijing and the leader of the Luliang Shang Gang. He immediately replied dissatisfiedly: "Gang Master Zhou, what do you mean by this?" We Luliang merchants help with grain, tea, salt, iron, ticket numbers, antiques, all kinds of businesses are involved, but we don't sell coal! It is true that Shanxi is a coal producer, but everyone thinks about it, it takes a lot of effort to transport coal from Shanxi to Beijing, and it is sold so cheaply like Wuzhou Trading Company, and it is not necessary to lose money! ”

Because of the fierce competition, the relationship between the Longyou Merchant Gang and the Luliang Merchant Gang is not very good. Seeing that Zhou Shaoning and Qiao Yuliang were about to quarrel again, Xu Yousan, the leader of the Huizhou Merchant Gang, the largest merchant gang in Beijing and the organization of Huizhou merchants, said slowly: "There is no need for the two to argue, the old man has already sent someone to secretly check the Wuzhou Trading Company, and their newly opened coal mine is in Fangshan." Fangshan is only a few dozen miles away from Jingshi, and the amount of coal mining is still very large, so it is not surprising that he sells it cheaply. Our major merchant gangs have been operating in Beijing for so many years, but no one knows that Fangshan still produces coal. Based on this alone, this Gosu trading company is not simple. ”

Zhou Shaoning snorted coldly and said: "It doesn't matter if he's simple or not, this Wuzhou trading company doesn't understand the rules too much!" How many years have our seven major merchants been doing business in Beijing? He Wuzhou Trading Company said that he would open a store when he opened a store, and he didn't know to say goodbye to the dock first, which obviously didn't take you seriously! ”

Wu Guorui, the leader of the Cantonese merchants' organization, said: "Contemptible people think that Wuzhou Trading Company is very smart. He was able to open dozens of stores in one go, which shows that he has strong funds and can compete with us head-on. But he chose coal, which we didn't even notice, as if to deliberately avoid conflict with us. ”

This Wu Guorui is extremely shrewd. Cantonese businessmen came to Beijing late, and were quite suppressed by Jin merchants, Hui merchants and Zhejiang merchants, and he was also dissatisfied with the business pattern of Beijing. Therefore, from the bottom of his heart, he still hopes that this Wuzhou trading company will disrupt the Beijing Division, so that Cantonese businessmen can take advantage of it. Therefore, his remarks were only stating the facts on the surface, but secretly revealing that he did not approve of the suppression of Wuzhou Trading Company.

Xu Yousan shook his head slowly and said, "Gang Master Wu, I'm afraid that this Wuzhou Trading Company is not small!" Who can guarantee that after he opens a coal shop, he will not open another shop? ”

"The top priority is to find out who is in charge of this Wuzhou trading company!" Qiao Yuliang said angrily, "Let's all ask him out to talk together." If he only opened a coal shop, it would be fine, if he still wanted to get involved in other industries, hum! ”

The meal was drunk until late at night. One of the attendees got drunkenly on the sedan chair, but ordered the sedan chair driver to walk around the alleys of the capital and finally enter a secluded courtyard.

The courtyard was heavily guarded, but a familiar voice came from the room: "Gongzi Li, how is this Hongmen banquet?" ”

This person hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed: "Grass people Li Zicheng, long live my emperor, long live my emperor, long live Li Concubine Niangniang thousand years old!" ”

Book friends 321669195, welcome to join the interaction~