Beginning in mid-August of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the grain shortage in the canal and Jingshi began to ease, and grain merchants with backgrounds began to release grain, and the price slowly fell, from seven to ten taels of silver to more than five taels.

In August, when the cotton was ripe in Shandong, cotton farmers in Dongchang and Gunzhou provinces harvested their cotton with great interest and sold it to the big and small traders who came to harvest. Because the price of cotton has skyrocketed this year, all

A large number of cotton cloth appeared in the market to sell, the price suddenly plummeted, all kinds of rumors spread, and the merchants who were enthusiastic about harvesting high-priced cotton beat their chests. But the price still hasn't changed, and it is falling rapidly towards three cents per horse.

This was especially evident in Tianjin, where a steady stream of ships came from Denglai, and the trading companies of the four seas and other large merchants sold them through the four seas, and the trading companies throughout the canal also sold them in large quantities, and batches of cotton cloth were shipped out of the warehouses.

The price of finished products plummeted, the newly harvested cotton suddenly became unwanted, some areas where the harvest was a little late, cotton farmers wanted to cry without tears, and no one bought half of the price in the past, and the price of grain continued to rise, there was a group of yeoman farmers became homeless, these farmers in Dongchang and Gunzhou were helpless, and moved to the legendary Qingzhou Mansion that could collect the displaced people, and there were a lot of Zhou sheds along the way, and the homeless people were grateful to those Dengzhou people who provided porridge and rice......

By the canal in Tianjin, Deng Keshan shook his head and walked by the river, followed by a few green skins, he now belongs to the peripheral people of the Four Seas Trading Company, he runs some tobacco shops, and there are two cotton cloth and southern goods stores in Hejian Province, and his life is very comfortable.

Recently, when the grain shortage came, he could still buy it at a low price, but this time the price of cotton cloth was greatly reduced, so he also lost a fortune, because because of a small merchant like him, the Four Seas Trading Company would not discuss with him, nor would it inform him when the price would be reduced. So he though

A green skin next to him leaned over and said, "Big cabinet, what are we going to do today?" ”

"What are you going to do?" Deng Keshan snorted. "Look how much the cotton has dropped."

The riverside was still lively, and there was an endless stream of merchants who came to buy all kinds of goods, bargaining with the shops in the various shops, and when they arrived at the place where they bought cotton cloth, they saw a shopkeeper selling cotton cloth howling at the door, two women pulling him, and three of them crying together. Deng Keshan pointed at the man and said to Qingpi: "See, this family is full of cotton goods on its hands, and this time it will be a loss." ”

Qingpi swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said: "I said that someone was going to hang himself yesterday, and I heard that it was Jiangnan cloth bought for five dollars." Now it's all three dollars, and no one has bought it. ”

Deng Keshan bypassed the distressed people, and a person in front of him was sitting at the door of the store eating soybeans boringly, Deng Keshan recognized this person. It was a merchant from the south, named Bai Wa, who leaned over and asked, "Brother Bai, how is the business lately?" ”

"Business?" Bai Watou cried with a sad face, "That." You see, there are not many people, where does the business come from. ”

"They still don't buy it after so much dropping?"

"This cotton cloth is not food, seeing that the price is dropping one day a day, who is willing to buy it now, those foreign cotton merchants would rather find an inn and wait. Then come and see the price every day, and you won't start until you reach the bottom. ”

Deng Keshan frowned and touched his head, he still had more than five thousand taels of silver. This time it was at least more than 2,000 taels.

Walking all the way forward, the green skin next to him came over and asked: "Brother Deng, I heard that the Sihai Trading Company is hoarding grain with several grain merchants, but this cotton cloth is almost the Sihai family tossing, and they have been releasing the goods fiercely recently." The price is reduced every day, and there is a lot of inventory. Some merchants who can't wait are going to them to buy, and the amount continues to fall, and all the Jiangnan cloth they used to hoard has been pressed to the minimum, but Dengzhou cloth is still expensive. ”

"Of course it's more expensive." Deng Keshan said listlessly: "Dengzhou cloth is more dense and solid than Jiangnan cloth, it is comfortable to touch, and it is not worried about selling, of course they go out of Jiangnan cloth first." ”

"Then Brother Deng, you have a miserable loss, most of the cloth you bought is Jiangnan cloth, and now the Four Seas Trading Company is desperately out of Jiangnan cloth, our will definitely not be able to sell it, we will not engage in this thing next year, just sell some cigarettes."

Deng Keshan gritted his teeth, "Wang Erya, the dead lady, didn't say that she wanted to release the goods first, and Lao Tzu didn't want to give her gifts. ”

The green skin rolled up his sleeves, "Brother Deng, let's take a few brothers to teach her a lesson, and catch them to give you a warm kang head." ”

Deng Keshan slapped Qingpi's head for a while, "Teach your mother, you dare to hit the shopkeeper of the Four Seas Trading Company, don't kill you." Do you know that Wang Erya is in Linqing...... Forget it, Lao Tzu won't come to tell you. ”

Qingpi touched his head, "Then Brother Deng, will we still sell cotton cloth next year?" ”

"Sell, how not to sell, Lao Tzu will only buy Dengzhou cloth next year, let's not toss in the canal, sell it in Hejian Mansion, not to earn back this year's loss, go back in a while, we will sell the cotton cloth at a low price, Wang Erya, this dog thing still doesn't know what to reduce the cotton cloth to, and the loss will be sold at a loss."

While a few people were talking, they arrived at the place where cotton was sold, and countless burdens full of cotton were piled up along the street, but many cotton collecting shops were closed, and many small shops here were opened by locals, and the Four Seas Trading Company took a fancy to the place where they had a place to store it, so that they could help the trading company collect cotton on weekdays, and they could also make some profits in the middle.

Now the Shikai Trading Company suddenly stopped buying cotton, and it is said that the cotton cloth could not be sold, and these small shops also stopped buying it. The merchants who had just harvested the new cotton from the early morning of the morning had lost all their money, and there was nowhere to put the cotton.

Some of the merchants on the street beat their chests, some cried loudly, and some stared blankly at the sky.

Suddenly there was a shout from the front, "Someone jumped into the river!" ”

Deng Keshan and the others hurriedly ran to the river, only to see a person in the water fluttering, several boatmen were rowing over to save people, and the green skin next to him whispered to Deng Keshan: "Brother Deng, this guy from the Four Seas Trading Company has harmed so many people, do you think these people will go to them desperately?" ”

Deng Keshan was relieved to see that the man was rescued, turned his head to look at Qingpi and said: "Doing business is to make money and lose money, people don't steal or rob, what are they fighting for, really want to say desperate, there are more than 1,000 Dengzhou soldiers on the edge of the Zhenhai camp, do you think it's in the cat winter there?" ”

Qingpi nodded with a flat mouth, Deng Keshan looked at the person who was scooped up again, and muttered in his mouth: "It's really too much for this Four Seas Trading Company to make this trouble, isn't it good for everyone to make money." ”……

"Zu Shuai, what can we do?"

In the mansion of the chief soldier of Jinzhou, Wu Xiang, the chief soldier of the Liaozhen regiment, was like a frosted eggplant, looking at the mighty Zu Dashou in front of him and talking.

Zu Dashou has aged a lot in the past two years. After the Battle of Dalinghe, his evil deeds of surrendering and killing He Kegang were revealed, and he did not dare to enter the customs again, not even Ning Yuan, relying on the place of Jinzhou to contain the imperial court, so whoever in the court wants to say that he will give up Jinzhou, that is to cut off the retreat of the ancestral army, and the Guan Ning army is going to fight with him.

Wu Xiang, Zu Kuan, Zu Dale and others are the cadres of Liaozhen, all of whom are from the ancestral family, maintaining the status of the ancestral army in western Liaoning. Chongzhen has no way to take the ancestral birthday. Huang Taiji can't do anything about him for a while, but after all, it's a tightrope business, and once the balance is not good, it is easy to fall into the abyss.

Chongzhen's dislike for Zu Dashou is not to be thought about. Now it is just forced to form shì, if the court is forced to be urgent, and the true colors and Liao pay are broken, Liaoxi will be the place of death, and Zu Dashou can only surrender to Jiannu. That kind of day is naturally not what Zu Dashou thought, but Houjin can't be forced to hurry, in case Huang Taiji besieges Jinzhou again, Zu Dashou is a high-level minion, and his power is gone, and the good days will come to an end. Therefore, the imperial court wants to transfer the Guan Ning army into the king of Guan Qin and the like. The ancestral army still has to listen to the tune, and the rules that should be talked about by the powerful people in the DPRK and China must also be explained, but they also don't take the initiative to build slaves or continue to build fortresses.

Four years after Chongzhen. There is another Dengzhou town playing chess on the chessboard in Liaodong, and the chess game is even more complicated for Zu Dashou. After Dengzhou Town occupied Lushun, Zu Dashou was not very happy with them at first to share the Liao's salary, but later found that they could indeed contain Jiannu, and he also understood Chongzhen's strategy of using Denglai to contain Liaoxi. endured it, and sent Wu Xiang to establish a relationship with Dengzhou Town. After the passage guò temptation. Wu Xiang thought that Chen Xin also wanted to be a warlord like the Guanning army, and the only way for the Ming army to defeat the Guanning army was Dengzhou Town, so Zu Dashou agreed to trade war horses with Dengzhou to ease the relationship with Chen Xin.

But Dengzhou town expansion speed is amazing, soon dominate the Jinzhou Isthmus, now even occupy Fuzhou, cavalry all day in Gaizhou and Jiannu to fight around, has approached the core of Jiannu Liaozhong Plain, Denglai's power is more powerful, according to Wu Xiang's estimates, Chen Xin's military household will exceed 1.5 million this year, between 30,000 and 40,000 soldiers, there are a large number of people's bravery, and the military salary is rich, the overall strength is close to Jiannu, if the war is fought in Denglai, Wu Xiang estimates that Jiannu may not be the opponent of Dengzhou Town, but it is not easy to send people and materials to Liaodong, It has temporarily shrunk in southern Liaoning, but its strength has been expanding.

Zu Dashou is hesitant now, the three main forces in Liaodong are already close to the scope of Liaoxi, the imperial court, Jiannu, and Dengzhou Town have their own advantages, and the Guanning army has interests entanglement, and it may turn around at any time to become a mortal enemy, the Zujia army is caught in the middle, and it is really not easy to maintain their position.

Now Chen Xin came out again to stir up the mix, which made him gray in his hair. If you change to a local old wealth in other places and dare to fry grain in Liaoxi, Zu Dashou will be cut with a knife, but now the power of Dengzhou Town is rising, and power is diplomacy, Zu Dashou has to consider whether he will be cut by Chen Xin in the future, so he can only watch the Four Seas Trading Company, so as not to break the road with Dengzhou. Other powerful people in the DPRK and the prince's grain stores fried grain, and he also did not dare to be rude.

Under such cramped conditions, Zu Dashou used his brain all day long, and stayed in Jinzhou, the front line facing the powerful threat of Jiannu, Zu Dashou's psychological pressure was also very great, and he had aged a lot in the past two years.

Wu Xiang was still there and said: "Denglai suddenly came a lot of ships, carrying a lot of grain, and Tianjin also came a lot, most of them were grain from the Four Seas Trading Company, and suddenly the grain dropped. ”

Zu Dashou waved his hand a little impatiently, "Lao Tzu knows, how much have they dropped now?" ”

"They bought fifteen taels for two days, the people of Karaqin bought desperately in Ningyuan, the silver was piled up like a mountain at the gate of the four seas, I couldn't help but start selling it, but suddenly it plummeted, the day before yesterday was twelve taels and one stone, and yesterday it was seven taels, I heard that tomorrow it will be three taels, and the people of Karaqin are also smart, and they are still waiting to lower the price."

Zu Dashou's eyes widened: "Then you will quickly get our goods out." ”

"I've also figured this out, but half of the goods in Tianjin haven't arrived."

Zu Dashou slowly earns a circle in the house, he can still make a lot of money by trading with Mongolia every year, but the grain he bought in Tianjin is seven taels and five dollars a stone, half of which is purchased from the Four Seas Trading Company, Wu Xiang also begged for the door of that Lu You at that time, and he owed a favor to get this price, and now it seems that he was deceived. originally planned to make a lot of Karaqin silver in Ningyuan, but now he can't even get it back.

Wu Xiang said anxiously: "A few days ago, Guanning was mourning all over the wilderness, many people starved to death, and he didn't come to sell the grain when the price of grain was so high, but now we just bought the grain, and he came to lower the price, the merchants who came to sell grain in the past are all finished this time, including the business of many gentry and civil officials, what is Chen Xin going to do?" ”

Zu Dashou gritted his teeth, "What else can he do besides harming us." He took a few breaths and said slowly: "Forget it, Lao Tzu can't afford to mess with him, follow him to reduce the price, and he will be treated as beating a hungry dog with silver." ”

"But if he wants to harm us, and he also supplies us with cigarettes, southern goods, and illegal salt, we can still earn money."

Zu Dashou didn't know what Chen Xin meant for a while, so he turned his head for a while and shook his head and said: "Anyway, we can't sell the grain anymore, let's see the limelight next year, what is Chen Xin doing, he sent it to Guanning at a low price, so he is not afraid that the Mongols will resell it to Jiannu?" ”

Wu Xiang said fiercely: "But Karaqin may not be able to sell to Jiannu, the price of grain in Jingshi has not dropped, it is still around seven taels, but it can be bought, if Karaqin buys two taels of grain from Liaoxi, it would rather be sold to the border of Jizhen, and you can earn silver as soon as you change hands, anyway, the Mongols have it, they have abundant horses, and they are not afraid to walk more." The merchants in the customs were not done, and as soon as the cards were taxed along the way, they still didn't make a profit, so the Jiannu wanted to come to buy grain, and they still got a higher price. ”

Wu Xiang turned his head to look at Zu Dashou, "The last time Kefa sent a letter saying that the Tartars were starving all over the country, and there were hundreds of ox carts in Shenyang City that dragged corpses out of the city every day, and the countryside was even more miserable. Then if we don't send a letter to Runze and Kefa, and let them come directly to buy grain near Yiju, we can still make some money. ”

Zu Dashou looked at the ground and said: "Well, it's okay to wait for the grain to be collected...... Zu Dashou suddenly stopped and patted his thigh, "Liaoxi and Liaodong are going to harvest in autumn, Chen Xin is holding back this point to release grain, first raise the price in Guanning, so that the grain merchants will not sell grain, the price of grain will rise to the sky, and Jiannu will starve to death. Why is this bastard so shameless? ”

Wu Xiang took a breath, "Then Jiannu starved to death this year, will he come to Liaoxi to rob in winter?" ”

Zu Dashou's eyes turned and he thought for a moment and said: "You should not be afraid, Chen Xin and Dongjiang Town are squatting in southern Liaoning, and there are cavalry battles every day in Gaizhou, and the white flag and the red flag are exhausted for days, and Jiannu can't besiege the city even if they fight." We don't care how Dengzhou and Jiannu fight, we will guard Liaoxi and wait for them to divide the victory. Chen Xin stared at Jiannu as soon as he came out, others thought he was taking revenge for blood, but Lao Tzu thought that he was going to drive away Jiannu and occupy Liaodong by himself, and then ......"

Wu Xiang said in a low voice: "Then ......"

After the two looked at each other, Zu Dashou nodded slightly and said: "He is so strong in Dengzhou Town, and he can toss the price of food so much, we can't offend this person, the loss of some silver is a small matter, and it is a big deal to leave a face to speak in the future." ”