Hu Guang saw that Liu Jun and Shen Man were getting more and more interesting as they played, and their eyes were squeezed together with a smile. Shen Man looked at Liu Jun and his heart was also a little flustered, feeling like a dream, and he couldn't tell whether he was deliberately acting on the spot, or whether he was a little confused. So he coughed dryly, and interrupted Hu Guang's words to continue laughing, "Master Hu, look, are you putting the wine on the table?" ”

"Let's have some more tea." Hu Guang took advantage of the good atmosphere at the moment and said with a smile, he knew that the key to talking about things was to take advantage of Liu Jun's good mood, and then it would be good to talk about things. He glanced at Liu Jun, who was smiling slightly, and pointed to a guqin placed on the side, "I heard that Miss Chu Chu plays the piano well, but Sister Li Feng dances very well." ”

"It's okay." Shen Man replied.

Hu Guang laughed and said, "Why don't you ask Miss Chu Chu to play the piano, Sister Feng to dance, and the three ladies to sing?"

Shen Man nodded, and the three of them stepped aside to prepare.

There were only two people left at the table, Hu Guang turned to Liu Jun and said, "Lord Liu, thanks to the light today, let's listen to music and dance while drinking, how about talking about something by the way?" ”

Liu Jun had a casual attitude, "Yes." ”

Chu Chu tried the piano a few times, and then began to play a tactful tune, Sister Li Feng also changed into a thin light veil at this time, and began to dance with the song, Shen Man sang with her babbling, Liu Jun listened to her singing for the first time, but she didn't expect to sing so well.

Hu Guang said cautiously, "Lord Liu, Shen Sanniang seems to be interested in you." ”

Liu Jun took a sip of tea and said, "In the happy scene, it is about acting on the spot, and talking about feelings in the Qinglou is to find the wrong place." ”

"Wow!" Hu Guang praised, "Although Lord Liu is in a gentle township, he can still remain so sober, and he is really a big husband." ”

"Steward Hu, I'm a fast-talking person, I like to say things clearly, now please tell me, what is the matter with me today?"

Compared with the attitude when he joked just now, Liu Jun at this time has already judged the two of them. Hu Guang admired Liu Jun even more at this time, he was so young, but he was not fascinated by the wine, he subconsciously raised his eyes to look at the young Lian Zong, and saw that his two sharp eyes were shooting towards him.

Hu Guang flashed that gaze, smiled slightly, and said, "Lord Liu is indeed refreshing. ”

"I really don't like to go around in circles."

"I also admire the reputation of adults."

"Needless to say, although my official is small, I have a lot of things, but I don't have much time to sit here and drink tea clouds and mountain fog." Liu Jun understated, but began to speed up the pace.

"Although I only met Lord Liu today, I have already heard of Lord Liu." Hu Guangdao, "The son of Xiucai, a member of the martial arts student, and the nephew of the four Shangshu Li Gong, Xie Yuan Gong Chunjiang Gongzi, formed a good alliance to establish the nine-headed bird horse team together, although the time is short, but it has repeatedly made great contributions, several battles, all of which have won all victories, not only appreciated by the Li family's uncles and nephews, but also valued by Mei Gong, and even Lord Zhao of the military constitution also appreciates Lord Liu very much. ”

These things are basically not a secret in Macheng, and they can be inquired about by a person, Liu Jun heard Hu Guang say this, he didn't care, just drank tea calmly.

Hu Guang continued, "I am working for the king of Andong County, and I am managing the official salt transportation and marketing of eight counties and one prefecture in Qihuang Prefecture. In this matter, there are also King Jing, King Yi and other princes in the back, and I am just an errand runner in front. Inviting Lord Liu to the banquet today is also to ask for something. ”

"If I can help Liu, I don't need to say anything."

"That's good." Hu Guang nodded, "I know that Lord Liu is an ambitious person, although he is only a practitioner now, he has the heart to do practical things." Other states and counties are also holding group exercises, but they are basically all errands, and the name of the group training is just to take the opportunity to apportionment and make money. But I've seen Lord Liu's nine-headed bird troupe, which is a real group practice, and I can see that Lord Liu is bent on doing something. But in this world, although you have noble people to help, it is not cheap to maintain a group training of hundreds of people, and it costs money, do you say? ”

"That's right." Liu Jun nodded, "In these days, you can't do anything without money." ”

"Like Lord Liu to run a group practice, the little food and salary given by the county is only a drop in the bucket, I heard that Lord Liu was recently engaged, and the woman's Lu family is also a wealthy family in Macheng, with a family fortune of hundreds of thousands, but after all, it is the money of the father-in-law, isn't it. A manly man can't use a woman's money. Speaking of this, Hu Guang paused, and then said, "Lord Liu, I know that you also need money now, but you need the help of Lord Liu and your Hydra Group Training, and we are willing to pay you a lot of money." ”

"I want to hear about it!" Liu Jun said.

"There are actually many opportunities to make money, and I now have a deal that I want to invite Lord Liu to cooperate."

Hu Guang saw that Liu Jun was very calm, so he simply stabbed through and said, "The profits of the official salt business must be known to Lord Liu, Qihuang Zhuzhou County is our prince's salt area, but now there are many salt merchants and illegal salt dealers who transport the illegal salt in and sell it at a low price, which is to grab food in our rice bowls, and the princes are very unhappy." I'm here now to ask Lord Liu and your nine-headed bird to help me crack down on the smugglers. ”

"It's not unacceptable, I'm very happy to be able to do things for the princes, but these hundreds of brothers under my command have a lot of money, I don't know how to help?"

"We will give Lord Liu five hundred taels of silver every month, and each of your brothers will be one tael per month, and if you catch a smuggler of salt, each person will be rewarded with five taels of silver, and each of you will be exchanged for one tael of silver for every steal of illicit salt." Hu Guang opened a price code, according to this price code, one person has to pay Liu Jun and the nine-headed bird at least 1,100 taels of silver per month, and if there is a harvest, there will be another reward.

He thought that the price was good, but Liu Jun disdained it.

This price code is simply looking for a thug, although Liu Jun is short of money, he is not short of this money.

"We've been very busy lately, and we must know that the east hasn't been peaceful lately, and we're brave enough to prepare for the war."

This is a refusal, but it is not a direct refusal, the words are not dead, the key is to see that Hu Guangken is unwilling to raise the price.

Hu Guang was slightly surprised, but he didn't expect Liu Jun to directly reject his price. I thought about it slightly, and didn't give up. At present, there is a flood of private salt, and if he doesn't clean it up, he won't be able to keep it. But although several princes are the bosses behind the scenes, their own people have no ability to clean up the smugglers.

Those who sell smuggled salt, the largest ones are salt merchants from other places, and all of them have armed guards and strong strength. And some of the smaller ones are all outlaws, and their subordinates are outlaws, cunning and fierce. Hu Guang could not rely on the officers and soldiers, and although the officers and men were well fed, they could only play the role of ventilating and reporting information.

And such a fierce person as Mei Zhihuan's Baosheng Baoxiang Tuan disdains to help him.

In the end, he aimed at Liu Jun, Liu Jun and the nine-headed bird could fight and was short of money, but now he felt that he had underestimated Liu Jun, and the other party didn't seem to care so much about this extra money.

"It's easy to say, Lord Liu, I wonder if you have a better way to cooperate?" Hu Guang asked with a smile.

Liu Jun put down the teacup in his hand and asked, "I don't know how much salt you have in your hands?" ”

Hu Guang heard a sound outside the strings, "Several princes and gangs sell Qihuang and one prefecture and eight counties, and 10,000 salts. ”

Liu Jun smiled, how many people were there in the Qihuang area at the end of the Ming Dynasty? More than a million. The Qihuang region is a relatively rich and developed place in Hubei, and it is close to Jiangxi, Henan, and Nanzhili, which are several wealthy and populous provinces, so it has a large population. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the population of the whole country was about 200 million, and some provinces with large populations, a province had a population of 20 or 30 million, such as Jiangxi, whose population accounted for one-ninth of the world at that time, and even Jiangxi had many people all over the world, everywhere, so that people called Jiangxi people rats.

The population of Hubei is not as good as that of Zhejiang and Jiangxi, but after the Middle and Ming Dynasty, the population of Huguang was also greatly increased. The Qihuang region in eastern Hubei has one prefecture, one prefecture and eight counties, with a population of far more than one million, not including those who are migrants.

And how much salt do more than a million people need?

It is said that in the Ming Dynasty, each person consumed an average of 15 catties of salt per year, and 1 million people were 15 million catties of salt. If you lead three hundred catties of salt, it will be at least fifty thousand leads.

King Anton and his wife held the nest and occupied this salt area, monopolizing the transportation and marketing of official salt, but there were only 10,000 salt leads. There is obviously a problem with this, and the problem is not that they have too little salt, but that they have monopolized such an area, but they only receive so little salt. But in fact, there is still a gap of at least 40,000 salt introductions.

Liu Jun knew very well what tricks they were playing, the salt led by the salt had to be purchased from the official price of the salt farm, and at the same time he had to pay a tax. And Anton Wang and they occupy the market of 50,000 salts, but they are only willing to buy 10,000 salts, the purpose is obvious, they use more entrainment of private salt to fill the blank market, with lower costs, and tax evasion to earn more profits.

50,000 salt, if you earn a tael of salt, it will be at least 50,000 taels of silver, which doesn't seem to be much, but this is an annual profit. Even, it is still the official salt price to earn one tael of salt for one introduction, and if it is sold with entrained private salt, it is five times more profitable.

And what Liu Jun calculated is still the most conservative, for example, the population of Qihuang is definitely more than one million. Therefore, if you make a bold calculation, even if it is said that King Anton and they can earn 100,000 taels of silver from this salt a year, Liu Jun is not surprised.

And if King Anton also sells salt to the salt areas of other salt merchants, they will definitely make more money.

Liu Jun knew that this was a piece of fat and wanted to take a bite.

"I want three thousand salt leads, and I will sell Macheng alone. In addition, every time the nine-headed bird helps you to fight against the smuggler of salt, you need to pay 500 taels of grain, and for each salt dealer you catch, 10 taels of silver, and the leader of the salt dealer 100 taels, and the other smuggled salt goes to me, and you can also buy it at half the official selling price. ”

Liu Jun also opened his mouth.

Macheng County has at least 200,000 permanent residents, and if you add migration, there are 300,000. This is a market of 4.5 million catties of salt a year, and if it can be monopolized, it will have at least 10,000 silver a year, and it is a continuous long-term income.

Hu Guang's mouth was open, but he didn't expect Liu Jun's requirements to be so high. Directly go to Macheng a county to sell, but also 3,000 lead of the nest list, you must know that the salt of the nest is not easy to get, although the court also issued a new salt lead, but it must be someone with the old lead. In fact, the imperial court issued more salt than the salt from the salt field every year, so that the salt introduction continued to backlog, and many salt merchants had salt introductions, but they could not receive the salt, so they could only wait, sometimes even waiting until ten years later.

Therefore, now the new salt introduction must be carried out by those who have the old salt introduction.

In this way, the old and the new are tied, and the court can always send new salt, and then keep the old and new tied up like this, and keep rolling.

So now the salt merchants are fixed in those old salt merchants, and it is difficult for new salt merchants to join.

Not to mention, the salt area has long been divided, and the salt merchants have divided the salt area of each salt field one by one, and each has a monopoly on a salt area, and there is no new salt area at all. Salt attraction is important, but it is not as important as the monopoly of salt areas.

Now Liu Jun not only wants salt, but also monopolizes the salt transportation and sales in Macheng County, which is really a big appetite.

"Steward Hu met me for the first time, and he couldn't believe me, but it was reasonable." Liu Jun smiled leisurely, and then said, "Although the price I offer seems to be very high, the price is worth it, and you get what you pay for." If I dare to offer this price, I will promise to help you get things done. It looks like you're going to give me a lot of money, but if you can curb the smuggling that is now rampant, you'll earn more than you pay me. ”

"Really?" Hu Guang moved his body and said with some hesitation.

"It's just a very simple account, I don't believe that Hu Guan doesn't understand. Now the private salt in Qihuang is very powerful, how many percent of the entire market can you occupy? I believe that probably not half of it. And if we work together, as long as we can curb and crack down on those illegal salt dealers, how much market share can be restored? ”

"Lord Liu can really curb those illicit salt dealers?"

"As long as you cooperate, and then there are nine birds, of course, it will not be a problem." Liu Jun said confidently. Although he knew that this matter was definitely not as simple as it seemed, since he wanted to tear off this piece of income benefits of tens of thousands of taels of silver a year, he must be prepared to extract his teeth.

"I can't call the shots on this matter, I have to go back and ask for instructions."

Liu Jun smiled, "Of course, I can wait for your reply." ”

When it came to this, Hu Guang knew Liu Jun's attitude, and he couldn't sit still at the moment, and he hurried back to Qizhou to see King Anton. Although Liu Junkai's conditions are high, he feels that Liu Jun really wants to cooperate, and he does feel that Liu Jun has the strength to cooperate.

After drinking two more glasses of wine, Hu Guang took his leave and left.

Before leaving, he called Shen Man aside, summoned his coachman in, and brought in a gift box.

"Thank you Shen Sanniang for your hospitality tonight, just a little gift, talk about gratitude, take a step in advance, and hope that Shen Sanniang will help me take care of Lord Liu, and I will come back in a day or two at the earliest."

The gift box was opened, and there were two hundred taels of snowflake silver inside, as well as a set of jade jewelry, a pair of jade bracelets, a pair of earrings and a necklace.

Shen Man was a little surprised, "I don't dare to accept such a valuable gift, besides, I haven't done it yet." ”

"You have done a good job, Liu Jiye is very happy today, you have made a lot of contributions. Okay, I'll go first, now you go and accompany him. ”

After accepting the silver and jade jewelry, Shen Man returned to the elegant seat, thinking about how to take Liu Jun down in one fell swoop and leave him for the night, but only Chu Chu and Li Feng were seen in the house.

"Where's Lord Liu?"

"It's gone." The two girls said a little sullenly, just now they both wanted to keep Liu Jun, and even thought that it would be better to stay with them all night, but they left with a smile without looking back, saying that they had business.

Shen Man looked at the empty seat, the joy just now was swept away, and he felt a little melancholy and grievance!