After Cheng Yusheng sent Xiao Zhenlei's instructions in the form of a telegram, Xiao Zhenlei has been sitting in the study and waiting, he smoked a cigarette and thought about what might happen next, after the purchase price was doubled, cotton farmers and cotton merchants should immediately stop selling cotton to foreigners when they saw this situation.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the difference between five yuan and ten yuan is not big, but the difference between five hundred yuan and one thousand yuan is big, which has nothing to do with the fact that one thousand yuan is only twice as much as five hundred yuan.

Although there were notices posted by the government asking them to sell cotton to foreigners, and in the case of a small price difference, cotton farmers and cotton merchants did not want to offend the government and might sell cotton to foreigners one after another, but when the price per stone was doubled, cotton farmers and cotton merchants did not necessarily buy the government's accounts, and the government only built a job, not to stipulate that cotton must be sold to foreigners.

What would happen to the foreigners if the cotton farmers and the cotton merchants stopped selling cotton to foreigners because the price difference was too big and they didn't want to suffer a loss? The government's construction does not work, now it is the level of the purchase price that determines the market, and the foreigners want to prevent cotton farmers and cotton merchants from selling cotton to the purchase point set up by Xiao Zhenlei, and the only way is to fight a price war with Xiao Zhenlei again, and raise the purchase price.

An hour later, Cheng Yusheng received a telegram from all over the country, and he reported to Xiao Zhenlei: "President. This doubling of the purchase price really had an effect, and cotton farmers and cotton merchants began to stop buying the face of the government. The cotton farmers and cotton merchants who were about to sell cotton to foreigners came to our purchase point with cotton after knowing that the price of our purchase point was twice as high as that of foreigners, and now it is the turn of the foreigners to be anxious! ”

Xiao Zhenlei took a puff of his cigarette. smiled: "Each stone is enough to raise five taels of silver, which is absolutely impossible in the past, what can five taels of silver do, do you know?" If you go to the wharf, those coolies can only earn two or three hundred dollars a day, almost three or four days to earn an ocean, and more than half a month to earn five taels of silver. Hmph, does it work if the government comes forward? This is equivalent to preventing the people from making money and robbing the people of their jobs. Is it true that ordinary people are good-tempered and honest? If you don't let them live, they won't make you feel better! Now it's the turn of the foreigners to have a headache, and I'm going to see what they do to raise the purchase price like us. They're going to make a move, okay, you go keep watching, and report it if there's a situation! ”

"Yes, President!" After Cheng Yusheng finished speaking, he retreated.

Xiao Zhenlei smoked a cigarette and thought that Shanghai Beach was too far away from all places. Even if there were telegrams to transmit messages to each other, it would still take a certain amount of time to carry them out, and the reception and reception of telegrams could only be sent to the Great Northern Telegraph Company, and it would take a lot of time just to send someone to get the telegram and send the telegram. If there are a lot of people who send and receive telegrams, they have to wait in line, and it takes too long to get feedback from all over the country. This will undoubtedly delay too much time, how can this time be shortened? Xiao Zhenlei fell into deep thought.

Thinking about it. Xiao Zhenlei had a flash of inspiration in his mind, aren't those foreigners in Shanghai Beach now? It takes a long time to get feedback from all over the world. If you can get relevant information directly from these foreigners, you can save a lot of time, and before the foreigners issue instructions, the acquisition points of the foreigners in various places have not had time to implement the countermeasures, which is undoubtedly equivalent to knowing the information in advance and making timely deployments, so the foreigners' every move will be mastered, so what are you afraid of?

Thinking of this, Xiao Zhenlei's eyes flashed, he immediately turned around and walked to the desk to pick up the phone and dialed Wang Yaqiao, the phone was quickly connected, when Wang Yaqiao's voice came, Xiao Zhenlei was glad that Wang Yaqiao did not go out, he immediately said: "Brother Jiuguang, it's me!" One thing is very important, if you don't talk on the phone, you should come to Huade Road immediately! ”

"Okay, I'll be right over!"

In less than a quarter of an hour, Wang Yaqiao drove a car produced by Zhenhua Company to rush over, Xiao Zhenlei saw Wang Yaqiao coming and immediately told him the relevant situation in detail, and finally he said: "?????? This is the general situation of the matter, this is a battle without gunpowder, it is very important, it is related to the development and growth of our iron-blooded national salvation society, and it is related to whether our China can regain the right to price cotton exports, if we win, not only do we benefit ourselves, but also can fight for the interests of the vast number of cotton farmers, so far I have invested more than 12 million taels, although those foreigners add up to not as much as me, but it will not be less than 5 million taels, if we lose this battle, In order to recoup the funds, we can only deal with the cotton at a low price to those foreign businessmen, and we will lose all our money! ”

Wang Yaqiao not only understands intelligence and assassination, he also understands that this matter is a life-and-death business war after listening to Xiao Zhenlei tell him about the situation, it doesn't matter if the foreigners fail, they will lose some benefits at most, and they will not lose all their money, if Xiao Zhenlei loses, Zhenhua Company will collapse, and the Iron and Blood National Salvation Society will lose huge financial support and fall into a state of stagnation in development.

He said with a stern face: "I understand, what can I do?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei nodded and said: "If those foreigners have our people around them, or the Great Northern Telegraph Company has our people, so that we can know every move of the foreigners at any time, I think this battle will be much better!" ”

Wang Yaqiao thought about it, if you want to know the every move of foreigners at any time, there are three ways, first, install your own people around those foreign businessmen, but this method takes too long and is too late! The second method is to directly buy or coerce those people around the foreigners, and turn someone around them into their own people, which is the simplest and time-consuming, and if it is in order, it can receive the effect in one day, and third, the people who have installed themselves in the Great Northern Telegraph Company will monitor the incoming and outgoing telegrams at any time, and as long as there are telegrams related to those foreign merchants, they will be intercepted.

After thinking about it for two minutes, Wang Yaqiao decided to do these methods at the same time. This matter is too important, and the amount of money involved is too large. Nothing goes wrong, he got up and said, "Okay." I'll go back and immediately arrange for a special intelligence team to be set up to take charge of this matter, and if it goes well, I can get the effect by this time tomorrow! ”

??????

French Concession, a residential area for foreigners' wealthy villas.

There have been great changes in the market in various places, because Xiao Zhenlei's side suddenly doubled the purchase price, which made those cotton farmers and cotton merchants ignore the authority of the government and no longer sell cotton to the purchase points set up by foreigners. Immediately all rushed to the villa of the Frenchman Xavier for urgent consultations.

Kenji Matsushita, the manager of the Japanese Tomian & Co., said angrily: "Since he wants to fight a price war with us, we will fight a price war with him, I don't believe that so many of our companies are not as rich as his Xiao Zhenlei family?" Fight a price war with him, I wanted to fight with him when he raised the price without authorization a few days ago, if it wasn't for Mr. Ralph to stop me, I must let him see, who is rich, I want him to know that his Zhenhua company is just a fart in the eyes of our foreign companies! ”

When everyone saw Kenji Matsushita looking stunned, they couldn't help but be a little funny. The Englishman Ralph waved his hand and smiled: "Mr. Matsushita, don't worry, although the end of the cotton purchase season is not much, but we can't be impatient, impatience can only make us mess up." The price war can be fought with him, the key is how to fight, we can't be led by the nose by him all the time! ”

Xavier continued: "That being said. But time is pressing, and the French side has urged me to do everything I can to get the cotton back. The factory over there is running out of raw materials, if the time passes. Summer is coming, even if we buy more cotton is useless, to make a lot of money, now is the critical period, as far as the cotton back, the sooner you earn more, but until now, we have not even bought a third, now the cotton farmers have only a small part of the cotton, most of the cotton is hoarded in the hands of those cotton merchants, they are the key to the key, they are not more timid than those cotton farmers, the government will be scared and obedient, those cotton merchants are more greedy than us, It's all guys who don't see rabbits and don't scatter eagles! ”

Ralph nodded and said: "Yes, the battle in the past few days is the most important, and now Xiao Zhenlei has suddenly doubled the purchase price, which makes all the measures we just arranged invalid, under the double price difference, those cotton farmers and cotton merchants completely ignore the threat of the local government, but the role of the government is still there, as long as we raise the purchase price to the same price as Xiao Zhenlei, we can still pull the cotton farmers and cotton merchants over, or it doesn't matter if it is slightly lower, As long as the price is not much lower than the price given by Xiao Zhenlei, there is no big problem, I thought about it carefully before I came just now, there is no other way now, only to raise the price to save the situation, otherwise as long as we have no countermeasures for more than two days, we will lose everything! ”

Kenji Matsushita asked, "Then we will issue an order to increase the price now?" How much to raise the price? Same as Xiao Zhenlei's, ten taels? ”

"Yes!" Xavier nodded and said: "Raise it to the price of ten taels of silver and one stone, you all send someone to carry it out, in order to facilitate the timely handling of emergencies in the past two days, I will send someone to arrange your living and eating, and then you will go back after this big battle, then it will be time for us to share the fruits of victory!" ”

“ok！” The Italian snapped his fingers, "Then it's decided!" ”

Less than two hours have passed, Xiao Zhenlei got the news that the foreigners have also increased the purchase price, Xiao Zhenlei learned that after some thought, he immediately instructed Cheng Yusheng to send a report to the acquisition points in various places, and immediately raised the purchase price to eleven taels, an increase of one tael on the original basis.

After Xiao Zhenlei raised the price again, the foreigners also quickly got the news, after some urgent discussion, the foreigners also raised the price again, and also raised the price to eleven taels, they are reluctant to raise too much, you must know that each stone is raised by a penny of silver, which adds up to more, with the support of the local government to support this card, as long as the price they give is too much lower than Xiao Zhenlei's price, they can move back to the situation.

At noon, the price of both sides was raised to twelve taels per stone, and everyone was not idle at noon, but cotton farmers and cotton merchants around the country saw that the two forces that bought cotton were now fighting a price war, which made cotton farmers and cotton merchants extremely excited. Isn't it a loss, so they clenched the cotton in their hands tightly, wanting to wait until the situation stabilized before selling the cotton in their hands.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the purchase price rose again, rising to thirteen taels per stone, Xiao Zhenlei doesn't care about this, the funds in his hands are absolutely sufficient, although the country has a bumper cotton harvest this year, but he and those foreigners can't collect all the cotton, the people always have to keep some for their own use, otherwise what to wear in winter? He estimated that it would be good to be able to harvest half of it at the right time, and you must know that the colder places in northern China also have a large population, and they also need a lot of cotton.

Xiao Zhenlei is not worried about the problem of funds, but the foreigners are a little unbearable, they are very distressed every time they raise the price, they are businessmen, capitalists, every copper plate in the hands of every capitalist is stained with blood, if there is no need, they are reluctant to spend an extra copper plate!

It's just that now they don't want to raise the price, it's impossible, Xiao Zhenlei is pressing them step by step, if they don't raise the price, once Xiao Zhenlei's price continues to change for a period of time, and they don't accept it, those cotton farmers and cotton merchants are worried that the price will fall and they will definitely sell the cotton to Xiao Zhenlei, so they can only follow the price increase immediately after Xiao Zhenlei raises the price, and never let Xiao Zhenlei snatch the momentum away.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was getting dark, and today's price and purchase war came to an end, and the price of both sides stayed at the price of fifteen taels per stone, compared with the price of five taels and three dollars per stone in the morning, the price of cotton tripled per stone in one day, and this price was really terrifying.

Cheng Yusheng reported to Xiao Zhenlei: "Although we have a price war with foreigners today, we still collected 320,000 stones, and spent a total of 4.2 million taels of silver, and although the foreigners did not collect as much as us, it was not very different, I estimate that there are about 2780,000 stones, and the funds used are less than ours!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei nodded and said, "Very good!" Report the situation immediately! ”

"Good!" (To be continued......) R1292