Sending Li Maochun and Hu Xiancheng out of the door, Zhang Fengqi smiled and said to Yang He: "Let's go to the study to talk." ”

Yang He nodded, and the three of them came to the study.

When he entered the study, he saw that the room was full of books, and Yang He couldn't help but praise it.

Zhang Fengqi smiled and beckoned Yang He and Fan Liu to take their seats.

Waiting for the next person to bring the tea, Zhang Fengqi smiled and picked up the teacup and motioned for the two to drink tea.

Taking a sip of tea, Zhang Fengqi smiled and said: "Shopkeeper Fan, there are only three of us here, and the official will not beat around the bush with you, what business do you think is profitable, tell Lord Yang about it." ”

Fan Liu nodded, pondered for a while, and said: "There are many businesses that can make money, for example, the silk business run by the villain, the profit of a year is a lot, because the ordinary people can't afford to buy silk, and those who can afford to buy silk are rich people, as long as the villain's silk is exquisite, those rich people rarely bargain with the villain." ”

After a pause, Fan Liu smiled and continued: "Funing County is only a medium-sized county, but the villain's annual profit is more than five hundred taels of silver, and if the silk village is opened in those prosperous state capitals, it will cost more than a thousand taels of silver a year." ”

Yang He smiled: "Shopkeeper Fan is sincere. ”

Fan Liu smiled: "It's not sincerity, how can businessmen be sincere?" However, the two adults asked the villain which businesses made money, and the villain wanted to say that the business he ran was not profitable, so wasn't it clear that he was coaxing the two adults? ”

"That's right." Zhang Fengqi said with a smile.

"By the way, you just said that if you open a silk village in those prosperous state capitals, you can earn thousands of taels of silver a year, then why don't you open a shop in those state capitals, but come to a small place like Funing County?" Yang He thought for a while and asked.

Fan Liu smiled: "How can those state capitals not have silk villages? You must know that those who can afford to open a silk village are all rich people, and they all have backstage backers, and the villains will go, or they will be eaten by those people in a few days, and there will be no bones left. Although Funing County is small, the county lord is related to the villain, and the county lord takes care of him, who dares to find trouble with the villain? ”

Yang He smiled and nodded, and said in his heart: This is the collusion between officials and businessmen.

After taking a sip of tea, Fan Liu continued: "Although Silk Village is profitable, it is not the most profitable industry. The salt tea business is the real profiteering. ”

"How profitable is salt tea?" Yang He asked.

Fan Liu smiled: "A book of ten thousand profits." ”

"What's the matter? Let me listen to it. Yang He said busily.

Fan Liu said with a smile: "Let's talk about this salt first, our Ming Dynasty implements the salt system, and the imperial court divides the salt merchants who hold salt quotes in the country into ten gangs according to regions, and each gang distributes 200,000 salt guides, and each guide is 300 catties.

The price of a guide to salt is six taels and four cents of silver, the salt tax is three taels of silver, and the price of a guide to salt is six taels and six taels of silver (freight), that is, the price of a lead salt is six taels and six dollars and four cents.

A catty of salt is 300 catties, and the price of each catty of salt is a little more than two cents of silver, but do you know how much the price of salt is now? It is three coins of silver a pound, fifteen times the profit. ”

"Fifteen times the profit?" Yang He couldn't help but be taken aback when he heard this.

Fan Liu smiled: "Yes, fifteen times the profit, the villain is still calculated according to the lowest salt price." ”

"This ...... Where is this salt leading? Yang He said.

Zhang Fengqi said: "The original implementation of the imperial court was the Kaizhong Law, that is, merchants transported grain to the border gates, exchanged grain for salt, and then took the salt to the designated salt field to support salt, and then transported the salt to the designated area for sale. ”

"This back and forth, the cost is not low." Yang He said.

"Hehe, businessmen naturally have a way to reduce the cost." Fan Liu said with a smile.

Yang He hurriedly asked: "How to reduce the cost?" ”

"Merchants hire laborers to directly cultivate the fields in the border areas, and the grain collected is sent to the border gates, so that a lot of transportation costs are saved." Fan Liu said with a smile.

Yang He groaned: "The merchants are in the border pass near the tuntian, a large number of abandoned fields have been reclaimed, and the grain can be sent to the border after harvesting, the merchants save freight, and the border army has enough food, this method is good." ”

Zhang Fengqi sighed and said: "In the year of Chenghua, the imperial court stopped opening the Chinese law, and ordered the salt merchants to transport the grain to the Salt Transportation Department of the Household Department in exchange for salt. ”

Yang He frowned when he heard this: "This time, what does it mean for the salt merchant to be in Tuntian at the border pass?" I am afraid that the cost of transporting grain from the border gate to the Salt Transportation Division of the Household Department will be higher, and then the Salt Transportation Division will transport the grain to the border gate, which will cost another amount of money. How could those people in the court do such a stupid thing? ”

"Not to mention the high cost, this is tantamount to taking back the right to distribute salt. Those royal relatives and noble eunuchs saw that it was profitable to hold salt, so they begged the emperor for salt, and then sold it to salt merchants to make a profit. Zhang Fengqi sighed.

Yang He sneered: "I'm afraid that it is these imperial relatives and eunuchs who see that it is profitable to hold salt introductions, so they instigate the emperor to take back the right to issue salt quotations." ”

Zhang Fengqi sighed and continued: "In the Hongzhi period, Ye Qi, the head of the household, saw that the cost of transporting grain was too high, and asked the emperor to change the grain to silver, replace the grain with silver money, and then the imperial court sent the silver money to the border pass for payment. ”

Yang He frowned when he heard this: "Although the freight was higher in the past, after all, what I wanted was grain, and those salt merchants would continue to cultivate the land, but now as long as the money is available, who will go to the salt merchants to cultivate the land?" I'm afraid that the cultivated land will be abandoned immediately. ”

"Yes, not long after the implementation of the policy of replacing grain with silver, the salt merchants moved inward on a large scale, and those merchants were soon deserted, and then the food of the border army began to be scarce." Zhang Fengqi sighed.

Shaking his head, Zhang Fengqi continued: "In the Longqing period, the imperial court was ready to reopen the Chinese law, but many ministers in the court obstructed it, and the opening of the Chinese law has been corrupted for a long time, and it is difficult to restore it to its original state. ”

Yang He nodded silently when he heard this.

After a while, Yang He asked, "Then how are we going to get the salt now?" ”

"Transporting grain to the border can be exchanged for salt introduction, and buying it with silver money can also buy salt introduction." Fan Liudao.

"According to you, it doesn't seem that difficult to get salt leads." Yang He said.

"Salt is easy to get, but salt is not easy to get." Fan Liudao.

Yang He was puzzled when he heard this: "How can you say this, doesn't it mean that you can buy salt if you have a salt guide?" ”

Fan Liu smiled bitterly: "Originally, this was the case, but the salt introduction issued by the imperial court now far exceeds the output of salt. ”

Yang He nodded silently: "I understand what you mean, since the salt distributed far exceeds the salt production, then you have to wait for the salt, when the salt will be produced, and when will the salt be served, right?" ”

"Yes, but it has a relationship, there is a backstage, and you can still get the salt first." Fan Liudao.

Yang He waved his hand: "We can buy salt leads, but we don't have to do anything, even if we get salt leads, we can't buy salt, so this business can only be red-eyed, but we can't do it." ”

Gently and silently tapping on the table, after a while, Yang He said, "Do you want to come and sell tea?" ”

"Yes." Fan Liu responded.

"Is there any other business besides salt tea?" Yang He asked.

Fan Liu said: "There is also a huge profit in going to sea, but the imperial court has an order that it is strictly forbidden to go to sea." ”

Yang He looked at Zhang Fengqi when he heard this, and Zhang Fengqi smiled bitterly and said: "The imperial court has issued a ban on the sea, and the sails are not allowed to enter the sea." ”

Yang He shook his head, looked at Fan Liudao, and said, "I can't do these few businesses you said, is there any other business?" ”

Fan Liu smiled bitterly: "That's all the profiteering business villains know, and other businesses don't have such high profits." ”

Yang He nodded, pondered for a while, and said, "I'm going to open a casino and a brothel, what do you think?" ”

"Ahh Fan Liu couldn't help but exclaim when he heard this.

After a while, Fan Liufang said: "Casinos and brothels are also huge profits, but these two are not serious businesses, and I am afraid that it will be a loss to the reputation of adults." ”

"Reputation? If I don't come forward in person, how can I lose my reputation? Yang He smiled.

After a pause, Yang He continued: "Shopkeeper Fan, can you help me find two people?" ”

"What do you mean......" Fan Liu wondered.

Yang He smiled and nodded.

"This ......" Fan Liu hesitated for a moment and continued: "Lord Yang, I won't tell you, the people the villain knows really haven't done these two things." In addition, the adult does not want to come forward, and the person who entrusts it must be an absolute confidant. ”

"Shopkeeper Fan, otherwise, you will be the owner of Mr. Yang Qian." Zhang Fengqi said suddenly.

"That's not right, is it?" When Fan Liu heard this, his face suddenly showed embarrassment.

"Huh?" Zhang Fengqi's face sank: "Shopkeeper Fan, let you do things for Mr. Yang Qian is worthy of you, and the official will not hide it from you, if the official is not in the way of identity and can't arrange the people around him, how can this matter get your head?" ”

"Shopkeeper Fan, I won't let you bear this infamy in vain, I'll give you a benefit." Yang He said with a smile.

Seeing that Yang He and Zhang Fengqi were soft and hard, seeing that if they didn't agree, they just didn't know how to lift, Fan Liu smiled bitterly: "The villain obeys the order." ”

"Shopkeeper Fan, you calculate how much it costs to open a casino, and I'll have someone send it to you right away." Yang He said.

"Money is a trivial matter, the key is safety, you know that some people will make trouble when they lose money, and there must be people in the official face who will extort money." Fan Liu said.

Zhang Fengqi smiled when he heard this: "The people on the official face go to extort? Is it an ornament to be an official? As for you worrying about someone making trouble, hehe, who dares to make trouble in Brother Yang's business and eat the bear's heart and leopard gall? ”

Yang He waved his hand: "When you open the door to do business, harmony is precious, and what should be done is still to be done." Don't underestimate those little people, it's often these people who do bad things. Also, we open casinos to make money, but we can't ruin people's homes, and we can't let people leave the market penniless, which will damage the reputation of the casino. ”

"What if someone loses everything?" Fan Liu asked.

"If it's a foreigner, send them home, if it's a local, persuade them to stop early, tell them that they have gambled and don't lose, and let them come back later." Yang He said.

After a pause, Yang He smiled and said, "Do you think I don't like opening a casino like this?" ”

Zhang Fengqi and Fan Liu nodded at the same time.