The banquet presided over by Zhang Kuo almost ended hastily, and the only people who could stay to sign the contract were Zhang Kuo, Suo Tong, and Xue Yong, the great man in Shu. Until now, what they are most worried about is whether Dai Wang can maintain his monopoly on India's trade routes, and if others can get goods from India, the restrictions on them in the contract will become a shackle.

After the contract is signed, the three of them will receive the goods delivered from India in Yangguan and buy them at a price of 600 yuan per bucket, which is the assessment given by the average price of the comprehensive market. Because pepper in Chang'an and other places in the Kaiyuan Tianbao years of the most expensive time to maintain a bucket of about 960, the cheapest also has 700 to 800 yuan, fully take into account the law of price fluctuations, to ensure that customers have room to make money.

During this period, Li Siye did not speak during the whole process, and did not participate in the slightest. In doing so, he wanted to establish Dai Wang's dominance and prestige, so that everyone understood that he was just a protector, and that he was not involved in all parts of the business, and that Dai Wang would set the price.

At the end of the banquet, when the hall was full of cups and plates, Zhang Kuo invited them to move to the tearoom of the Green Pavilion to discuss the corners of the business.

The five of them knelt on the carpet, each with a woman dressed in plain white clothes making tea and serving. They are elegant and demure, blending in with the current occasion, and Dao Rou, who is standing outside the door dressed as a woman, has a sense of jealousy.

Zhang Kuo had some opinions about Dai Wang's performance tonight, so he had to express it euphemistically: "Liulang, I don't think we need to be so rigid in doing business, and there is no need to be so stiff. There is no need to be too clear about your conditions, which is why it caused a backlash. You can ignore it first, just put them in as a set, and then explain the conditions clearly when they enter the urn, so that they will not only understand the great lesson, but also appear less rigid. ”

Dai Wang picked up the tea bowl in front of him, lifted the corner of the mask when he reached his mouth, and took a sip gently. The tea maid noticed the scar on his chin and hurriedly lowered her head and did not dare to show her expression.

He smiled indifferently: "Zhang Jialang, what you said is tempting and conspiring, although it doesn't seem so intense on the surface, but they will hate it afterwards." What Dai someone is doing is a conspiracy, letting them know the conditions, knowing the depths, knowing all our purposes, and then correcting their posture and cooperating with us willingly, so that even if they complain, they will be convinced afterwards. ”

Smack, smack, smack.

Zhang Kuo clasped his palms together and praised: "Dai Liulang's words are reasonable, what he said is true, but you need to know that no matter how yang conspiracy is, it varies from person to person, and using yang conspiracy on an open-minded person can make it subdued, but using yang conspiracy on a dark-minded person will only make it darker." ”

Li Siye picked up a bowl of tea and turned a deaf ear to their words, but Zhang Kuo's two sentences sounded reasonable, perhaps implying that the two businessmen who quit were not fuel-efficient lamps.

He nodded implicitly, Speaking of the dark history, who can compare to Dai Wang's past, who of you dares to try, who dares to imagine. A man with great ambitions and profound learning hid among the small officials of the household, and the idea of doing great evil was bred in his heart for many years, and a small person manipulated the entire Chang'an City, brewing a shocking conspiracy, and finally could only be buried with regrets.

Dai Liulang wore a mask and lowered his head to drink tea, without the slightest fluctuation in his expression, and really didn't pay attention to these things. He suddenly raised his head and said to Zhang Kuo and Suo Tong and the other three: "At the beginning of April this year, the first batch of goods will arrive one after another, since there are only three of you for the time being, the initial share will be divided by you, and it will be divided into three, and there will be no restrictions on the area for the time being, only not to enter Luoyang, Chang'an." I hope that the three of them can cherish such an opportunity, I am afraid that there will be no one-third of a good opportunity in the future, after all, business is business. ”

Zhang Kuo and the other three listened disapprovingly, really when we haven't seen the world, we have already prepared the money and waited here, if you have the real ability, use a bunch of goods to collect all our money.

They drank all the tea, and there was already the sound of roosters crowing in the sky, and the sky was slightly brightened.

Li Siye took Dai Wang and Daorou out of the brothel Muzhuang, Zhang Kuo and others gave them off behind, they didn't go to the mansion to rest, and went directly to the stable to lead the horse to the city gate. After waiting for the city gate to open, the longitudinal horse went along the edge of the Gobi Desert towards Yangguan.

They came to the top of a bare mountain, where the loess was peeled off after the wind and the sun had eclipse, and the three of them rode up the mountain. Dai Wang and Li Siye stood side by side, looking at the thin morning fog on the horizon.

Dai Wang suddenly said: "When we do this kind of thing that cuts off people's money, there will always be a backlog of complaints, and there must be people who are unwilling to be satisfied with the current status quo and want to challenge us. ”

"Of course, monopoly is about competing with the people. When doing things, you have to grasp this degree, it is said that the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and if there is anything to solve, try to solve it in a distant place. Out of the territory of Datang, there is no law of Datang, even if you kill people and set fires, as long as you can hold it. ”

After the two of them said this, they turned their horses' heads and went straight down the mountain and went straight to Yangguan.

Li Siye and the others arrived at the merchant camp in Yangguan, which consisted of four rows of wooden walls and several military tents. The locals realised that the firm had been unusual from the very beginning. It is almost the same as a barracks, and even the construction process is assisted by the Doulu Army, who are guarding the gate.

Dai Wang personally designed a flag with the logo of a trading house, it was light blue, and a black line like a fold was painted on the flag, and the rest was empty. The meaning of this design is that this black line is actually the route from India to Yangguan, which looks like an irregular few words, and this route has been optimized after their continuous exploration.

As for why the flag chose to use light blue, because the traditional orthodox colors are not allowed to be used by the folk, such as the sun, moon and stars, the three colors cannot be used, and the five elements and five virtues cannot be used, so the general folk use white cloth to pull the flag, so Dai Wang can use light blue.

After Li Siye returned to the camp, he immediately wrote a letter to Michagan, who was far away in Chang'an, asking him to come to Yangguan with a prepared camel caravan and bring a batch of gold as funds for the infrastructure of the commercial bank. Although Li Siye made everything simple for Dai Wang, the terminal of the trade route should not be too general, otherwise I would be sorry for those heavy peppers.

……

In the spring of the eighth year of Tianbao, in March, Mi Chagan of the Mi Ji Trading Company could not get out of the business, so he specially sent the second owner Sha Li to rush to Yangguan with a caravan of thousands of miles, and they brought a few boxes of gold for the infrastructure of the trading house.

In ancient times, building a house was the least expensive, the only thing that required a large investment was wood, and wood was scarce in sandbanks and other places, so the price was also expensive, and the most economical way to save wood was to ram earth to build walls and thatch roofs. The only thing that is needed to build a rammed earth wall is a lot of manpower, which is naturally not valuable.

Whether it is built by the people or by the government, only craftsmen have wages, and it is good for the people at the bottom to exchange some food for their families. After the gold arrived, it had to go to the market in Dunhuang to exchange for plain silk and grain, which were hard currency. As long as there is food, there are idlers waiting to eat it everywhere.

Before the trading house was built, the first batch of goods was passed from the Crescent River Post Station outside Yangguan, and the number of goods was not much, only the amount of three stones, but this was of extraordinary significance to them.