After Lu Weiqi led people away, Liu Fan also secretly sneaked back to Nanjing City with dozens of personal soldiers. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info However, before leaving, Liu Fan still left Li Xiaohu, a confidant general, in the barracks, and told him to be optimistic about these "lifebloods" of hundreds of thousands of stone sea salts.

After returning to Tianfu, Liu Fan immediately sent someone to invite Xu Wenjue to ask him about his losses during this time. Originally, Liu Fan was ready for a huge loss, but when Xu Wenjue told him about the situation, Liu Fan was still distressed and gasped.

Because of the sudden intervention of the local government and the joint action, the salt merchants or families in various places had no chance to react. In just one day, nearly half of the forces were arrested by the government in the name of selling illicit salt. With the exception of relatively large cities such as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yang, Nanjing, and Taicang, the "allies" in the small cities at the prefectural and county levels have basically disappeared. A large number of people were arrested, a large number of goods were seized, and Liu Fan's side couldn't help but lose a large number of personnel, and even the goods were also lost. Liu Fan initially estimated that his own losses alone amounted to more than one million taels. Not to mention that there are still a large number of people waiting for him to rescue, if even these are counted, even if Liu Fan wins this business war, he will lose two million taels of silver. Such a tragic price almost made Liu Fan a little crazy.

The enemy's counterattack came so fast and so violently, and if he didn't make a move, he hit Liu Fan's seven inches as soon as he made a move. Although Liu Fan forced Lu Weiqi to keep the warehouse at Nanjing Wharf, he still suffered huge losses due to insufficient preparation.

Being beaten with a stick but not fighting back is not Liu Fan's character. After thinking carefully for a long time, Liu Fan finally came up with two plans to counterattack. The first is to shrink the defense, first ensure the safety of the remaining allies, and then continue to continuously release more Jiaozhou sea salt to the market to impact the market and further compress the living space of the two Huai salt merchants. Let them also feel the pain of losing a lot of wealth. Liu Fan handed over this matter to Xu Wenjue to handle it with full authority, relying on the influence of the Xu family in Jiangnan, Liu Fan believed that Xu Wenjue could do better than him.

And the second strategy has to rely on Liu Rushi's side, after a few days of preparation, Liu Rushi has also gathered a lot of friends. With Liu Bing'er's help, the preparatory work of the newspaper was basically completed. Liu Fan's strategy was to use the role of the press and periodicals in public opinion to attack the prestige of the salt merchants in the two Huai provinces from the side, so that they would become the target of hatred and hatred by the people in Jiangnan. Further reduce the living space of the two Huai salt merchants.

So, under the manipulation of Liu Fan, a traverser, and the vigorous propaganda of Liu Rushi and others, through this influential battle between Jiaozhou and the two Huai salt merchants, the first newspaper "Jiangnan Times" was freshly released.

Liu Ru took advantage of his huge influence among Jiangnan students, invited friends, and joined Dong Xiaowan, Li Xiangjun and more than ten of the most famous prostitutes in Jiangnan in Qinhuaihe to hold a very grand newspaper opening ceremony. With Liu Fan's acquiescence, Liu Ru distributed the first issue of the "Jiangnan Times" to the entire Jiangnan Shilin and the people in a free manner.

At the beginning of this newspaper, it first reported on the salt merchant dispute that affected the production and life of the people in Jiangnan, and then Liu Ru published a commentary article called "The Unjust War" in his own name.

In this article, Liu Ru narrated in a more pertinent tone. In the Ming Dynasty, the largest commercial group at present was the Lianghuai Salt Merchants in Yangzhou. Among the salt merchants, the largest number and the most powerful were the Hui merchants, who almost monopolized the entire circulation process of the salt produced by the two Huai, and spent money like dirt and became rich princes.

The economic source of sustaining its extravagant consumption is undoubtedly the huge monopoly profits it has grabbed. One of its main means is to exploit the stove households with unequal exchange and usury, and the amount of two Huai (salt) is 16.9 million yuan, which is undertaken by more than a dozen merchants, and the field price is limited to 10 wen for each quotation, and the price of silver is 3 cents, but 7 wen, and the price of transshipment to Hankou or above is 15 or 60 yuan. Calculating the field price, one pound of salt per pound, less than ten yuan, and resold everywhere, it is dozens of times the price.

They relied on their monopoly power in the distribution of salt and the huge monopoly profits they had seized by virtue of the abundant capital in their hands. And this huge monopoly profit is mainly obtained through the exploitation of stove households and the common people. The process of their profit-grabbing and extravagance, that is, the process of exploitation of the stove households and the common people in large and increasing poverty.

This is the case for the two Huai salt merchants, and the Jiaozhou salt merchants are no exception. These two salt merchants are purely the same thing, and they both take advantage of the monopoly advantage of salt prices to grab huge wealth from ordinary people. However, compared with the Lianghuai salt merchants, the situation of the Jiaozhou salt merchants is better, at least they will not use coarse salt mixed with sediment to harm the people.

As we all know, the main reason why the price of salt remains high is that it is spent on the transportation route, and the two Huai salt merchants, guarding the salt-producing land in the south of the Yangtze River, blindly only know how to raise prices, make huge profits, and harm the elders in the south of the Yangtze River, and their behavior is really outrageous. The most heart-wrenching thing is that the two Huai salt merchants grab tens of millions of taels of silver from the Jiangnan salt market every year, but the taxes paid to the imperial court are only a few hundred thousand taels. These people are so selfish and selfish, and they don't know what their family and country are, which is really a little disgraceful. As an ordinary person in Jiangnan, I am also extremely disgusted with these people, so I want to expose the ugly behavior of these people and let millions of people in Jiangnan know their true nature.

This time, Jiaozhou salt merchants came across the sea and used excellent quality Jiaozhou sea salt to impact the Jiangnan salt market, which may not be a good thing for ordinary Jiangnan people. At least from today onwards, the vast number of people in Jiangnan no longer have to endure the exploitation of the two Huai salt merchants, but they will have to eat those coarse salt mixed with sediment. And because of the impact of Jiaozhou salt merchants, the price of salt in Jiangnan has also dropped again and again. It is foreseeable that after competition in the future, the price of salt in Jiangnan is bound to drop to a very low price. For the people of Jiangnan, it is also an unprecedented gospel.

In the end, Liu Ru said in a tone full of schadenfreude that although the two sides of this battle are not good people, the fight between them has benefited millions of people in Jiangnan in another way, and I have to say that this is an extremely ironic thing. This battle is benefiting the people of Jiangnan or the Jiaozhou salt merchants who came across the river, so who is the biggest loser among them? The answer is self-explanatory. Although the local merchants lost to the salt merchants from other places, I have to say that the salt merchants in Jiaozhou are doing a good job!