"The reason why the imperial court wanted to delegate the commercial franchise and mining rights of Jiaozhi was mainly to raise military funds for the counterinsurgency army, and secondly, to rebuild Jiaozhi after the war."

To everyone's surprise, in the face of Zheng Boxin's untimely question, Li Yuntian did not get angry, but smiled slightly and said in an orderly manner:

"In other words, the commercial franchise and mining rights of Jiaozhi are equivalent to an 'option', if the rebellion of Jiaozhi is successfully quelled, then the commercial franchise and mining rights of Jiaozhi can naturally be cashed, but if the counterinsurgency fails, then there is no way to talk about any rights and interests in Jiaozhi."

"Options?"

The businessmen present couldn't help but look at each other when they heard this, it was the first time they had heard such a term, but after Li Yuntian's explanation just now, they all understood what it meant: If the counterinsurgency fails, the money invested in it will be wasted.

"Come, this official respects all of you, thank you for coming to the banquet in your busy schedule." At this time, the subordinates had already served the wine and food, so Li Yuntian picked up the wine glass in front of him and said with a smile.

"To the Earl." Hearing this, everyone present hurriedly raised their wine glasses and toasted Li Yuntian in unison, and the banquet officially began.

Although you are the general of Zhenwubo and Dingnan, Li Yuntian did not put on an official show and had a kind attitude towards people, which made the atmosphere of the scene warm, everyone was staggered, talking and laughing, and many people had an inexplicable good impression of him.

In addition to the previous questions, the businessmen asked Li Yuntian a lot of detailed questions, some of which Li Yuntian did not even expect, so he not only answered those questions patiently and meticulously, but also had them recorded, in case he could improve the rules and regulations of the Department of Commerce.

Although the questions of the businessmen were a bit cumbersome, Li Yuntian was happy to answer them, which showed that his businessmen were very interested in investing in Jiaozhi, otherwise they would not have paid so much attention to this matter.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Li Yuntian got up and went back to the bedroom to rest.

The businessmen present got up one after another to see each other, and then left in groups, discussing with great interest the commercial monopoly and mining rights of Jiaozhi as they walked, and they had a deeper understanding of the affairs of Jiaozhi through tonight's banquet.

For Li Yuntian, he has done everything he can do, and the rest depends on the choices of those businessmen in Yangzhou City.

Although the commercial franchise and mining rights in Cochin are options, buying them now carries a lot of risk, and if the counterinsurgency fails, there will be nothing to gain.

But then again, as long as it's a business, there are risks, but the size of the risks is different.

Moreover, the greater the risk of the business, the greater the reward, which is why the salt lords who sell illicit salt are repeatedly banned, and they would rather be killed by the government than smuggle the lucrative illegal salt.

Early the next morning, the Fushun teahouse in the south of Yangzhou City was surrounded by the soldiers of Yangzhou Wei, and there were three steps, one post, five steps and one sentry on the street, and the guard was tight.

In order to ensure that the sale of the Jiaozhi commercial franchise and mining rights could be carried out smoothly, and also for safety reasons, the street where the Fushun Tea House was located was sealed off by the soldiers of the Yangzhou Prefecture and the soldiers of the Yangzhou Guard, and only those with admission tickets were allowed to enter.

The so-called admission ticket refers to a red paper ticket issued by Jiangwutang, and the holder of the ticket can bring one person into the Fushun Tea House.

The rules for the issuance of admission tickets are very simple, 10,000 taels of silver each, and after the commercial franchise and mining rights of Cochin are sold, the 10,000 taels of silver can be refunded with the tickets.

This 10,000 taels of silver is equivalent to the threshold fee, because the selling price of the lowest commodity in the Jiaozhi commercial franchise is 10,000 taels, and if there is no 10,000 taels of silver, naturally you will not be eligible to enter the door of Fushun Restaurant.

At two o'clock, Li Yuntian and Zhang Ben walked into Fushun Restaurant surrounded by Zhou Hao and other Yangzhou officials.

The lobby on the first floor was already full of businessmen at this time, and even the corridor on the second floor was arranged with many people, who got up to greet them when they saw this.

What happened in Fushun Building today can be described as a rare event in the business community of Yangzhou City, so all the famous businessmen in the city are here, which does not mean that these people are interested in the affairs of Jiaozhi, but just take this opportunity to show their identity and status.

There is a platform in front of the lobby on the first floor of Fushun Tea House, which is specially used for folk artists to perform programs.

Li Yuntian is the commander of the army to quell the rebellion, and he also shoulders the responsibility of the governor of Jiaozhi, so he naturally has to sit in the middle of this kind of public place.

Zhang Ben, Zhou Hao and other officials sat on either side of him according to their official ranks, and became witnesses to the commercial franchise and mining rights in Jiaozhi.

With the arrival of Li Yuntian and others, this eye-catching business event finally kicked off in the expectation of the businessmen on the scene.

A major dressed in the black military uniform of the lecture hall served as the master of ceremonies to preside over the grand event, holding a small red flag in his hand, first welcoming all the businessmen, and then announcing a new specification formulated by Li Yuntian: when there are many people vying for the franchise of a business, there will be a bid, and the highest bidder will win.

With the announcement of this bidding principle, the merchants on the scene couldn't help but feel a commotion, which means that if someone takes a fancy to a business in Jiaozhi, the cost of winning it is likely to exceed the reserve price set by Li Yuntian.

But then again, this is also the most fair and reasonable way, if there are many people vying for the franchise of a business, then it will become a thorny question of who should not be given to whom, rather than let the officials of the court designate, it is better to bid to determine the level, so as not to have an unknown trick in it.

According to the process, the first franchise to be introduced by the master of ceremonies came from ordinary goods such as cloth and grain, followed by government goods such as salt and tea, and finally ore.

Many people here are holding a number plate with Arabic numerals written on it, and when entering the Fushun Teahouse, an admission ticket is exchanged for a number plate, and each number plate corresponds to the identity of the brokerage Jia who holds the entrance brokerage.

To put it bluntly, the sale of the Jiaozhi commercial franchise and mining rights is actually an auction, and Li Yuntian figured out this way to get more money.

The first of the master of ceremonies to launch was the franchise of Cochin porcelain, and the number of places in the franchise was three, and the reserve price was 10,000 taels.

This means that once someone has auctioned off two places for the Jiaozhi porcelain franchise, then the porcelain trading between the two capitals and the thirteen provinces and Jiaozhi can only be completed through these three people, and the local porcelain merchants in Jiaozhi can only take goods from them, and only these two people can open a kiln factory in Jiaozhi, which can be said to have monopolized the porcelain industry in Jiaozhi.

In this way, in addition to themselves, the only ones who can compete with the three of them in the market are the local porcelain firing workshop in Jiaozhi and the official kiln in Jiaozhi.

In order to stabilize the situation in Jiaozhi, Li Yuntian certainly would not take forced measures to close down those local porcelain firing workshops.

However, due to the backward craftsmanship and lack of financial resources of the local porcelain firing workshops in Jiaozhi, they were not the opponents of those three people at all, and they would soon be crushed in the business war and naturally eliminated.

As for the official kiln, the soil quality of Jiaozhi is not suitable for firing porcelain, so the imperial court will not set up an official kiln here, otherwise it will only lose money.

After the master of ceremonies announced the sale of the Cochin porcelain franchise, there was silence and silence, because this was the first franchise to be sold, so even those who were interested in Cochin affairs took a wait-and-see attitude, and no one wanted to be the first bird.

Facing the scene in front of him, the master of ceremonies was slightly stunned at first, and then introduced the benefits of the Jiaozhi porcelain franchise in a mouthful of words, and tried his best to mobilize the atmosphere of the scene.

It's a pity that no matter how hard the emcee tries, the scene was still quiet, and no one raised the number plate in their hands, which made the teahouse cold for a while.

Li Yuntian had already expected this situation, except that no one on the scene wanted to be a bird, and investing in the Jiaozhi porcelain franchise was not a good business.

In the eyes of everyone, Jiaozhi is a remote and wild place, and there are not many people who can use medium and high-end porcelain, plus there are three more to compete, where can you still make money?

Just when the scene was getting colder and colder, a middle-aged man sitting at a round table in the front row of the stage slowly raised the number plate in his hand, and the number on the number plate was "No. 1", which looked eye-catching.

Therefore, although the number "1" was largely unknown to those present, it still managed to attract everyone's attention.

Immediately afterwards, a middle-aged man at the next table also raised the number plate in his hand, and the number on the number plate was "No. 2", which made the scene commotion.

Seeing this, the corners of Li Yuntian's mouth couldn't help but show a hint of a smile, and he looked at the two middle-aged people sitting next to them, one was Zheng Boxin, and the other was a tall and thin man in a brocade robe about thirty years old.

The tall and thin man is Chen Ningning's cousin Wang Yu, who represented the Chen family to participate in the competition for the commercial franchise and mining rights of Jiaozhi.

As for the No. 1 number plate and the No. 2 number plate, it was not specially left by Li Yuntian to Zheng Boxin and Wang Yu, the rules for issuing number plates are first-come, first-served, Zheng Boxin and Wang Yu are the first to arrive, so Zheng Boxin got the No. 1 number plate and Wang Yu got the No. 2 number plate.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is still one last place, if this opportunity is lost, then it will only be possible to enter the porcelain business in Cochin for twenty years!" The master of ceremonies immediately came to his senses and shouted loudly to the people on the scene.

As soon as his words fell, the audience held up another number plate, and the number on the number plate was "23".

Li Yuntian couldn't help but look over, and when he saw the middle-aged man sitting next to the No. 23 number plate, he was slightly stunned.

If he remembers correctly, this person is Lu Dezhong, vice president of the Salt Merchants Association, he had dealt with Lu Dezhong when he came to Suzhou last time, but he didn't expect Lu Dezhong to be so supportive that he threw 10,000 taels to the porcelain franchise of Jiaozhi, clearly trying to please him.

Obviously, Li Yuntian didn't think that a salt chamber would be interested in going thousands of miles to a poor country like Jiaozhi to do porcelain business.!^!