West Lake, next to Xilin Bridge.

Haiyun Hall, which once belonged to Pu Shougeng, has now been returned to its original owner. On the first day of Pu Shougeng's return to Haiyuntang, the world's No. 1 wealthy businessman, who has always been high-profile, began to spend a lot of money.

It's just to buy food, but antiques and jade, celebrity calligraphy and paintings, beautiful concubines and concubines, as if they don't want money, they buy them in Haiyun Hall. At the same time, Pu Shougeng also held a banquet in Haiyun Hall for several days, and the family did not invite a good cook to charter Fengle Building for the time being, and let the chef of Fengle Building come to prepare wine and good food to entertain guests from all over the world.

What surprised Pu Shougeng's former business partners and officialdom friends was not his extravagant and high-profile -- with a naval force in his hands, Pu Shougeng's actions have always been high-profile, and he was particularly bold, otherwise the Pu family would not have developed to the peak in his hands, let alone almost collapsed because of his adventurous actions. But who would have thought that Pu Shougeng, who was almost wiped out, even his home was raided, and he was still wanted, is now not only making a comeback, but also has a better trend than in the past.

Because Pu Shougeng has two more reliable backers than Mount Tai - the Great Yuan Emperor Kublai Khan and the Great Song Dynasty Pingzhang Military Division, the Taishi Jia Rudao!

The former appointed him as the supervisor of military grain and equipment of the Great Yuan Army, the supervisor of treasure banknotes, and the Jiangnan visiting and purchasing envoy. This time, he was sent south by the will of Kublai Khan and the Privy Council of the Great Yuan to Liu Xiaoyuan.

The latter overrode public opinion and returned Pu Shougeng's confiscated "all family property". Although everyone knows that it is impossible to return all the family property that was copied by the Great Song Dynasty, this "full return" is actually an attitude, which shows the support of the Great Song Dynasty and Jia Yidao for the Pu family.

And the old business that has really been rolling in the mall knows it. In the business of doing business, the background is always more important than the cost. Especially big business. You can have no capital, but you definitely don't buy no background.

There is no capital and there is a backstage. You can borrow capital, you can go to credit goods. Others don't worry about him not being able to pay the account. If you have capital but no backstage, then it is best to dig a pit in your backyard and bury the money, don't do any business, let alone show your wealth, so as to save powerful officials and bullies from worrying about it......

And Pu Shougeng's current situation is obviously that he has a backstage and capital - even the Song Dynasty will not return a penny, and no one believes that Pu Shougeng will have no money. Moreover, he is now also serving as the supervisor of military food and equipment in Dayuan, the supervisor of treasure money, and the three major fat shortages in Jiangnan for visiting and purchasing. This time I came to Jiangnan for nothing else. He came to buy food and weapons for the Great Yuan Kingdom.

How can such a character have no money? And looking at his money-squandering style these days, he also knows how thick the foundation of the Pu family is.

"Haiyun, do you really have a lot of money to spend?"

Liu Xiaoyuan has been accompanying Pu Shougeng to socialize in the four places these days, and last night he chartered a banquet in Fengle Building and drank all night, until the next morning, the two of them took a carriage back to their homes. As soon as the car entered Xilin Bridge, Liu Xiaoyuan couldn't help but ask.

Pu Shougeng said: "Actually, there are not many. More than ninety percent of the savings have been gone. The 5 million guanhuizi returned by the Song Guohu Department, and the 5 million huizi borrowed by Jia Yidao...... It's already spent more than half of it. ”

"What? So how are you going to fry high grain? Liu Xiaoyuan's shocked expression. You have used up all your capital, how can you achieve this Great Khan's mission? ”

"Hey, hey, hey, hey......"

Pu Shougeng smiled and leaned back. "Brother Ming Jing shouldn't think that he will use 10 million guanzi...... At most, it is equivalent to 2 million copper coins to buy rice, and you can speculate on high grain prices, right? ”

"Isn't that so?" Although Liu Xiaoyuan is full of poetry and books, he still has a belly of tricks. But for business matters, it's also a great mallet.

Liu Xiaoyuan said: "2 million copper will be taken to Jianghuai." I can also buy 2 million stone brown rice, how much can I raise the price of grain, right? ”

Pu Shougeng waved his hand: "It's useless." ”

The Pu big profiteer pondered for a moment. "I've already asked a friend who specializes in grain trading...... Since the Lin'an Rebellion, the Jinghu, Sichuan and Jianghuai domains of the Song State have all worked hard to recruit people for reclamation. By last year, the tuntian fields in all towns had an effect, so there was a bumper harvest in various places. ”

This bumper harvest was a peace dividend after the end of the Mongol-Song War, and it was also forced out. It turned out that when those town marshals were military generals in the Southern Song Dynasty, they didn't bother to manage the territory, they just reached out to Lin'an to ask for money. But now, although the land belongs to him, Lin'an is not willing to pay money. So I can only go all out to run my own territory. And those lands were originally the land of fish and rice, and the conditions for the development of agriculture could not be better, as long as the hard work is put in to keep up, where is the reason for not having a bumper harvest?

“…… Although Jinghu, Sichuan, and Jianghuai are ripe, the people in Jiangnan will not eat an extra meal because of this. Those of mine who are engaged in grain trading estimate that the supply of rice and grain in the Great Song Dynasty is always rich in 20 or 30 million stones, and in the autumn there will be another bumper harvest. This winter, it has snowed in Jinghu, Sichuan and Jianghuai. So in the fall, food prices are likely to fall a little bit. ”

"Twenty or thirty million stones!?" Liu Xiaoyuan gasped, he could be regarded as having learned the wealth of the Southern Song Dynasty. "Isn't there enough for the whole Northland?"

Pu Shougeng smiled: "It's indeed enough, there aren't many people in the north now...... They all called the Mongols to kill them all. It is the Southern Dynasty, since the chaos at the end of the Jin Dynasty, the population has also decreased by at least more than 20 million! Now there is more food not because of the high yield, but because there are fewer people to eat. ”

This color-eyed person said with some emotion, "Not only are there fewer people eating, but there are too many poor people in the Jiangnan area, all of whom have become servants of rich families and have to save money." The consumption of this grain and rice has been reduced by at least 40% compared with before the end of the golden period. ”

Of course, this situation was also an indirect consequence of the Mongol-Song War, and a large number of peasants who had fled from all walks of life from the front line became tenants of the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River, and they lost their personal freedom. Naturally, the amount of food they consume is reduced to a minimum.

On the one hand, because of the end of the war and the efforts of the border towns, the grain production increased a lot; On the one hand, the Jiangnan market is very sluggish. This is the fundamentals of the grain market in the Song Kingdom!

Liu Xiaoyuan frowned deeply, "Brother Haiyun, how can this be good?" If the mission entrusted to you and me by the Great Khan is not completed, the consequences will be unbearable......"

"Brother Mingjing, don't worry, there is a certain family, there is always a way to increase the price of Jianghuai rice several times!"

Pu Shougeng said with a smile: "This thing is actually very easy to do, and we don't need to keep the price of grain high, just fry it until this autumn." First, the most scarce time for food in Beiming should be this summer. Second, Beiming had to buy at least two million stone brown rice to cope with the shortage of grain, which was not a small amount...... At least a thousand two-thousand-stone ships were needed to transport it. The sea transportation is about the direction of the wind, and the coastal area of Han is mostly southeast wind in summer, and northwest wind in autumn and winter. If you want to transport grain north, you have to take advantage of the southeast wind in the summer. If the northwest wind rises in autumn and winter, how will these thousand grain ships go north to Tanggu? ”

"It costs a lot of money to fry until autumn, right?" Liu Xiaoyuan still shook his head. "Brother Haiyun, how much money do you have in your hand? I'm afraid there won't be 1 million yuan in copper coins, right? ”

Pu Shougeng's smile remained unchanged, but his expression became solemn. "Don't hide it from Brother Mingjing, Pu still has 2.4 million guan in his hand, of which 1.5 million guan is saved by Pu Mou's friend in case of emergency. In addition, Pu also negotiated with a friend, and pledged Pu's two houses and the property in the name of others, and could borrow 2.6 million yuan. ”

"That's only five million ......," Liu Xiaoyuan frowned.

Pu Shougeng gave a slap and shook it: "It's not five million, but fifty million!" ”

"Fifty million!?" Liu Xiaoyuan's eyes widened.

"Five hundred thousand deposits, at least fifty million stone grains can be set!"

"Deposit?" Liu Xiaoyuan's eyes widened.

"Autumn delivery, the place of delivery is Zhenjiang rice market, each stone has always been (the Southern Song Dynasty has always been 800 Wen money), pay a deposit of 80 Wen in advance."

Zhenjiang is the confluence of the Yangtze River and the canal, and it is in the south of the Yangtze River, so it is relatively safe. Therefore, it is the location of the largest rice market in the Great Song Dynasty. Grain futures trading was very popular as early as the Tang Dynasty, and even more so in the Southern Song Dynasty, where the commodity economy was very developed. Often, the seedlings have not yet been sent, and the rice grain has already been sold.

In Zhenjiang rice market, grain futures trading is also very popular. The model is that the buyer and the seller enter into a "late contract" (according to later generations, it is a forward delivery contract), the buyer pays a deposit, and the seller enters into a "late contract". And if the "late contract" is established with a well-known large grain merchant, it can also be transferred.

Pu Shougeng made up the five million guan, if he bought the spot that was delivered at that time, he could buy up to five million stone brown rice. If you buy futures for autumn delivery, you can set 50 million stones - this is not a small number!

Liu Xiaoyuan touched his chin, "But the 50 million stone brown rice was delivered in the autumn, and that was after the autumn harvest, right?" ”

"Not bad."

Pu Shougeng said: "But if the price of rice and grain delivered in the autumn skyrockets, there will be people who hoard and store grain for delivery after the autumn." And...... Although Pu is a little down-and-out now, he used to be the world's first wealthy businessman, and in the business circles of Quanzhou, Lin'an, and Mingzhou, especially among the merchants, it is polite to say that Pu can do everything he wants. If everyone can see that there are huge profits in speculating and selling grain, and then there is a reasonable reason, such as the three kingdoms of the north to buy in large quantities, and the towns of Sichuan and Chu Domains to prepare for the war against Yunyun, there will definitely be people who follow the trend and buy!

When the time comes...... It's not Pu's 5 million, but 10 million, 20 million, 30 million! Although there is a lot of grain in the Song Kingdom, it is nothing compared to the money of the rich and wealthy merchants of the Song Kingdom! This grain price, Pu Mou will definitely be able to fry it, and the question now is whether he can transfer the 'late appointment' in his hand at a high position. (To be continued......)