In the past six months, the local salt merchants in Nanyang County, led by the Cao family and the Zhuo family, have borrowed from all over the place, and purchased nearly 10 million Shihai salt dumped by the Qidi salt merchants in the surrounding counties with an astonishing amount of more than one billion dollars.

At the same time, in order to stabilize the price of salt and prevent it from depreciating excessively, salt merchants have united to hoard sea salt and mineral salt, so that many of their salt shops will close their doors and not give the people any salt.

However, this kind of helpless move of only entering but not leaving, although it temporarily maintained the stability of local salt prices, and even caused a little panic and panic buying among the people, making the price of salt rise slightly, but it could not last.

After the autumn, many weak small and medium-sized salt merchants can no longer continue, can no longer care about the threat of the big salt merchants, reopen their salt shops, and do not hesitate to lose money to the outside world to cheap sea salt, in order to recover as much as possible some of the capital, broken tail survival. The price of salt, which was originally maintained at more than 100 yuan per stone, suddenly fell in response, and it could fall to 80 yuan per stone, which was the same as the purchase price of sea salt.

In the face of such a "betrayal", although the big salt merchants hated itchy, they could only watch it with their eyes blank and did not dare to make a slight move. Only from the big farmer Chengdong Guo Xianyang was ordered to sit in Nanyang County to govern Wancheng, and the officialdom of Nanyang County and many surrounding counties was specially purged by the imperial court, and the bureaucratic power of the big salt merchants who had been operating for many years was almost wiped out. Even a few small fish and shrimp that were lucky enough to slip through the net are now trembling every time, walking on thin ice, for fear of having anything to do with the local wealthy businessmen and tycoons.

Seeing this situation, the big salt merchants gathered at the Cao family's mansion one after another, trying to discuss a way to deal with it.

"Master Cao, now that the major salt stores and warehouses under our umbrella are almost full, there is no place for the sea salt that we have purchased today." A salt merchant with a sad face avoided, got up and complained to Cao Jian, the contemporary head of the Cao family.

Cao Jian sat on the chairman, his face gloomy and silent, as if he had not heard it.

The salt merchant who complained couldn't help but look embarrassed, and was faintly embarrassed, but it was not easy to attack, so he had to pretend that nothing happened, and sat back on the mat.

However, Zhuo Yun, the contemporary head of the Zhuo family, saw that the atmosphere was a little solemn, and couldn't help but say softly: "You don't need to worry too much, I have also discussed this matter with the head of the Cao family before. Seeing that the weather is getting colder, the amount of water in the upper reaches of the river has decreased, and it has entered the dry season, the river channel is getting narrower, and the water depth has been reduced a lot. ”

When the salt merchants present heard this, they couldn't help but agree. Now that the river has entered a dry season, the difficulty of transporting it has increased. In winter, the rivers freeze over, and during months-long ice periods, it is impossible for sea salt to be transported through the rivers.

"It's just that even if the salt merchants in Qidi can't transport sea salt through the big river, they can still transport it through Huaishui, although the transportation capacity is reduced a lot, but it is enough to supply Nanyang and the surrounding counties." A nimble-minded salt merchant pondered for a moment and questioned, "According to the situation in previous years, even in the coldest years, the ice age of Huaishui will not exceed half a month. ”

All the salt merchants were stunned, but they had to admit that their words were reasonable. Now that the salt merchants here are at the end of their power, if the Qidi salt merchants continue to dump cheap sea salt in Nanyang and its surroundings through Huaishui, I am afraid they will not be able to support it for long.

Besides, even if you can grit your teeth and support it until the beginning of spring next year, what will it do? Nowadays, the Qidi salt merchants have the behemoth of the Royal Industrial Group as the back end, and with the support of a large number of manpower and material resources, the Haiyan will always arrive in a steady stream, and the Nanyang salt merchants can not see the slightest turnaround, even if the financial resources have not been exhausted, but they have long been physically and mentally exhausted.

Seeing this, Zhuo Yun couldn't help but open his mouth, as if he wanted to explain something, but he only heard Cao Jian cough a few times, and then stopped squeaking.

The big salt merchants here are all extremely shrewd people, and they can't help but look at Cao Jian suspiciously, with a look of suspicion in their eyes.

There was even a salt merchant who couldn't bear the surname, and complained directly: "Now that we are all in a catastrophe, we should be in the same boat." If the head of the Cao family has a good plan, he might as well say it and let me wait for a detailed one, so secretive, it seems to be guarding against me, and it is chilling for no reason. ”

Cao Jian glanced at him coldly and said, "The matter is confidential, and it is inconvenient to announce it to the public." If you can trust Cao, you just need to wait for good news. If you want to find another way out, Cao will never stop it. But if there is a stumbling block for Cao in secret, playing tricks, and waiting for my Cao family to free up his hands, I need to spare him! ”

The salt merchants couldn't help but be shocked when they saw that the head of the Cao family had torn his face, and even made a clear threat. Even if it is a person who complains at the right time, he is not a little overwhelmed at this time. Although Cao's seems to be in difficulty now, the so-called hundred-legged insect is dead but not stiff, and Cao's has been operating hard in Nanyang County for nearly a hundred years, with a profound heritage. If you really annoy Cao Jian, I'm afraid that you won't be able to stay in Nanyang's realm.

The power of the Zhuo family is on par with the Cao family, but because the two families can marry each other for many years, the two families have long been like a family, and they have supported each other for a long time, relying on each other, and working together to control most of the salt industry in Nanyang and the surrounding counties. Zhuo Yun, the contemporary head of the Zhuo family, is also Cao Jian's nephew, so he has no intention of refuting Cao Jian's strong words.

Seeing that the atmosphere was becoming more and more tense, the salt merchants were a little breathless, and they knew that they might not be able to learn more details from Cao Jian's mouth today, so they had to reluctantly get up and leave.

Looking at the backs of everyone leaving, Zhuo Yun sighed slightly, and said slowly: "I only hope that Old Man Cheng can keep his promise and help my Cao Zhuo family overcome this difficulty." ”

Cao Jian's face became more and more gloomy, and he snorted coldly: "Cheng Fang, that old fox, has been coveting the salt mine in our hands, but he has been suffering from not having a chance to start. Now that I see that you and I are in trouble, I naturally want the lion to open my mouth. When this is over, the old man will definitely let him spit out the benefits of swallowing to me again! ”

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At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, there was no diversion of the Yellow River to seize the Huai into the sea, so the Huaishui was a river that flowed into the sea alone, with a wide river channel and smooth water flow. The hills on both sides of the upper reaches of the Huaishui Basin are undulating, the water system is the first, and there are many tributaries; The midstream terrain is gentle. multi-lake depressions; The downstream is low-lying, dotted with large and small lakes, staggered water networks, and vertical and horizontal channels.

There is a large amount of cultivated land along the Huaihe River Basin, and there are nearly 10 million acres of tidal flats along the coast that can be reclaimed. Especially in the middle and lower reaches of the region, the long period of sunshine, the mild climate, and the excellent conditions for the development of agriculture are extremely important grain producing areas in the Central Plains of the Han Dynasty. In addition to a large number of fish and shrimp resources, the river along the river also grows a large number of willow, wattle, Huai grass, reeds and other waterlogging resistant plants, is a river with extremely rich products.

Although the Guanzhong Plain was fertile and conducive to farming, it was overpopulated due to the location of Gyeonggi, and the city of Chang'an and many of the northwestern border counties were heavily armed, so large quantities of grain had to be transported from the Kanto region every year to meet the needs of the nobles, officials, and armies in the Guanzhong region.

Every year, there are millions of stones of grain in the basin of the big river (Yellow River) loaded on the boats and go upstream, and on the way, they have to pass through the danger of the Sanmenxia pillar under the jurisdiction of Hongnong County, and the grain loss is very large.

Therefore, the grain in the large river basin is not enough to supply Guanzhong, and it is necessary to supply the grain produced in the Huaishui and the large river basin. The grain transported to Guanzhong through the Huai Shui is mostly transported to Yingchuan and Huaiyang along the Huai River by Cao boat, supplemented by land transportation in the impassable place of the waterway, and mostly used vehicles (mountain roads or transported by people and animals), so it is also collectively called "Zhuan Cao" or "Cao Yuan". When the grain truck arrived in Henan County, it was loaded onto the Cao boat in the Great River Basin and transferred to Guanzhong. It can be described as a huge cost, it takes a long time, and a lot of manpower is mobilized.

It can be seen that the construction of the eastern capital Luoyang and the digging of the Grand Canal by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty in later generations are really great achievements in the future, but because of the eagerness for quick success and quick success, he finally ended miserably.

However, the purpose of transporting grain can only ensure the payment of court consumption, hundreds of officials, and military salaries. As for the people's food, they have to solve their own problems, which becomes a huge business opportunity. Many large grain merchants have traveled thousands of miles to transport cheap grain from Huaishui and the middle and lower reaches of the river to Guanzhong for storage, and when the summer and autumn come, the new grain of the people in Guanzhong has not been harvested, and the old grain will be exhausted, and the price will be raised to earn high profits.

Cheng of Nanyang County is a typical representative of the grain merchants of the Central Plains, a family of merchants who not only owned a large number of cargo ships themselves, but also had close cooperative relations with many boat gangs along the Huaishui coast. Even the most ferocious water pirate villages in the Huaishui Valley, when they saw a grain ship flying the banner of the Cheng family from a distance, they had to weigh it carefully, and they didn't dare to provoke it at will.

The climate in the lower reaches of the Huaishui basin is mild, so the autumn harvest is much earlier than that of Guanzhong, most of the farmland has been harvested, and the imperial court's transportation has also begun.

According to the practice of previous years, when Cheng and other large grain merchants want to transport grain, they often stagger with the busiest season of the imperial court. After all, the purpose of their grain is to hoard, and there is enough time to wait, and there is no need to rush it. What's more, the fortune of the imperial court is big, and there is no room for the slightest delay, and the ships along the river will be whipped a hundred according to the law if they do not let the boats. If the circumstances are serious, it is possible that the capital will be raided.

This year, however, the situation is a little weird. Different from previous years, several large grain merchants led by Cheng not only began to transport grain in the busiest season of Caoyun, but also specially summoned the leaders of the coastal ship gang and demanded that all their cargo ships be chartered to transport grain on a large scale.

Of course, they still didn't dare to affect Cao Yun, but let a large number of ships, following the Cao boats of the imperial court, slowly go upstream. These huge fleets only leave a wide channel in the middle of the river at any time, so that the boats can flow unimpeded, but they will not avoid the rest of the cargo ships at all, but always follow the boats, blocking the rivers on both sides of the coast.

As a result, no matter how wide the Huaishui River is, it cannot accommodate a huge fleet of hundreds or thousands of ships. In addition, the Caoyun fleet, which has always been rampant, occupies the most central and vast river, and no one dares to sail into the Caoyun waterway, and the entire Huaishui suddenly seems congested.

For more than a month, except for the Cao boats, which were not affected at all, few merchant ships were able to reach Huaiyang and Yingchuan counties from the mouth of the Huai River. (To be continued.) )