From mid-February until the end of February.

In just half a month.

The number of workers recruited in Harbour City has exceeded 30,000, 50,000 or even more than 100,000, with an average of nearly 10,000 workers recruited every day.

Farmers, fishermen, salt workers, and craftsmen within a radius of fifty miles came to Harbour City and became workers on this large construction site.

There are men and women among them.

The oldest were forty or fifty years old, and the youngest was only two or three years old.

Some are young and strong, some are not capable of working, and some have fled with their families.

The situation and composition are very complex.

But whatever the case may be.

As long as you have hands and feet and have a certain ability to work, Harbour City will arrange a job for you, whether it is helping to wash vegetables in the kitchen, or go to the beach to pick up some seashells and seafood, and be responsible for sweeping the floor and toilet.

If they really have no ability to work, as long as they prove that they are the workers' family members, they will also be in charge of one meal at noon every day.

Therefore, for the surrounding population, Harbour City can almost be described as "those who come do not refuse", as long as they come, they will be arranged.

Just recruiting more than 100,000 workers, attracting all the young and strong people within a radius of 50 miles in the vicinity, I don't know how much food is consumed for just three meals a day, and the wages to be paid every day are more than 10 million wen, equivalent to tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Combined with other expenses, the average daily consumption is at least 30,000 taels of silver.

This does not include all kinds of materials purchased by Xu Yuan from Hyundai, of which diesel alone consumes hundreds of tons per day, worth nearly one million.

It is said that Xujiazhuang has hundreds of construction machinery, more than 30,000 young and strong, plus a variety of advanced modern style tools, to build a harbor city, there is no problem at all, it can be completed in about a year, why do you want to recruit a large number of workers, and attract more than 100,000 people from the surrounding area?

The role of these people in improving the progress of the project is limited, at most it is equivalent to a hundred or so construction machinery, but the additional expenses brought are not small, why did Xu Jiazhuang do this?

"As long as we provide a large number of jobs and attract the population that was originally controlled by the landlords and gentry and the salt merchants and salt lords to our side, when we have a fierce conflict of interest with the salt merchant interest groups, even if they want to find trouble in Harbour City, at least within fifty miles of the surrounding area, they will not be able to find a large number of manpower available, so they can only fight with us in person."

"But our harbor city, there are more than 30,000 well-trained young people, and more than 100,000 workers available, the number of more than 100,000, with a shovel and steel pickaxe that is usually used for work, it is a very good combat effectiveness, plus 1,000 elite village guards, the salt merchants and salt lords not say that they are on it personally, even if they instigate the imperial court to send 100,000 elite troops, it is impossible to take our harbor city, because we occupy many advantages."

"Public-oriented, the majority of the poor people, is the overwhelming majority of the number of the party, as long as they can win them to our side, no matter how powerful the interest group, will quickly collapse, reduced to a lonely family, although we pay more than tens of thousands of taels of costs a day, but seriously weakened the opponent, so that their own invincible position, compared to let these poor people become the opponent's cannon fodder, to attack us, I don't know how much trouble saved."

"Engaging in fewer potential opponents and more of our own people is a strategy for the opponent to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle, and it is our own strategy to win and be invincible."

As for the silver, it is too easy to earn, and there is no need to feel the pain at all compared to the most important person.

In a conference room on the upper floor.

For Xu Yuan's theories and views, he naturally agrees with and applauds.

"Wonderful, wonderful, as long as you win the hearts of the majority of the people, you will be invincible, and this has been the case since ancient times."

"That's right, now almost all the salt workers and salt farmers near the sea in Rugao County have gone to our harbor city to work, and when our salt factory is set up, the salt merchants will not be able to incite many salt workers if they want to use force."

"The salt workers are just trying to support their families, how can they work for the salt merchants and salt lords who oppress them, even if they are instigated, as long as we give them higher treatment, they may turn against us on the spot."

"Yes, the owner of the village said, all the problems in this world, in fact, are economic problems, this can not be more reasonable, as long as one day, we have mastered millions of villagers, recruited countless workers to work for us, and created more wealth, even if the emperor is high in this world, but it is also us who speaks, because the most important thing is ' No matter how hostile others are to us, but they are inferior in numbers, financial and material resources, and far inferior in productivity, how can they help us? ”

"Don't worry about it anymore, the salt merchants can't turn the sky! In addition, the population under the control of Xujiazhuang is about to exceed 300,000, and there may be a shortage of grain, so as a precaution, we must stop selling grain to the outside world and find a way to purchase some grain. ”

Xu Yuan finally said.

……

March 1.

Yangzhou City, Salt Chamber of Commerce.

In a hall on the second floor, all the salt merchants in Yangzhou City gathered today to discuss a major event that made them feel anxious.

There are many businessmen engaged in the salt industry in Yangzhou, and each link of salt production, transportation, and sales has fed countless merchants.

Among them, the largest scale of operation is the six major salt merchants of Ma, Wang, Xiao, Wang, Zhou, and Luo, the scale of these six of them occupies at least more than 70% of the market share of Huaiyan, and the other merchants divide the remaining soup and water, and most of them are affiliated with these six salt merchants to survive.

But today!

In the conference hall on the second floor of the guild hall, all the six major salt merchants were present, sitting in the six positions in the middle of the head, and each of them had extremely solemn faces.

"What does Xu Jiazhuang want to do? Suddenly ran to the beach to build a city, suddenly recruited a large number of workers, and abducted all our stove households, the output of each salt village, less plummeted fifty percent, more plummeted ninety percent, even from the harbor city hundred miles away from the salt village, there are thirty percent of the stove households fled, and if this continues, we will have no salt to sell, and all of them will go bankrupt and fall in a few days! ”

Ma Jiliang, the No. 1 salt merchant in Yangzhou, who sat at the top, slapped the handle of the official hat and chair with a blue face, and said angrily: "What does Xujiazhuang want?!" ”

"This is digging our roots, not only to cut off our roots, I sent to the harbor city to patrol the salt, found that Xujiazhuang is in the harbor city, built a salt field of tens of thousands of acres, the progress is amazing, it will be opened in a few days, Xujiazhuang, plan to meddle in the business of our salt merchants!"

Wang Sheng, the head of the Wang family, also broke the news of an astonishing news, which caused the salt merchants present to change their faces and be in an uproar, and they couldn't sit still.

Xujiazhuang wants to build a salt drying plant?

It covers an area of 10,000 acres.

Doesn't this mean that they want their lives?

In fact, the method of drying salt is not a new technology, but has existed in ancient times, in the Song Dynasty there were a lot of salt drying fields, output, efficiency significantly more than the backward salt cooking method, but such an advanced technology, did not occupy the mainstream, but was eliminated by the stove to cook salt.

The main reason is that the construction cost of the salt drying plant is relatively high, it is necessary to build a dam to the sea, it is necessary to recruit a large number of people for a long time, and there are often Haikou and Japanese bandits ashore to attack and harass, and it is impossible for salt merchants to invest huge sums of money to strengthen security, coupled with the destructive effect of typhoons and waves, few salt drying plants can continue to operate for a long time, and various risks are still very high.

It is better to let the stove households cook salt for them, the investment cost is almost nothing, and the risk is all borne by the stove households, and the purchase is constantly lowering the price, crazy exploitation and squeezing, over time, the cost of salt collection is estimated to be lower than the salt drying method, and there is no need to build any salt drying farm.

After all, isn't it more fragrant to make money lying down, so why bother?

It's just that I didn't expect the rich Xujiazhuang to come in, and as soon as it was shot, it was a 10,000-mu salt drying field, with the scale and efficiency of this salt drying field, how much salt can be produced in a day?

The stove households and salt households they controlled also went to Harbour City countless times, resulting in a cliff-like decline in sea salt production.

If you continue to sit idly by......

Bang!

Xiao Changwan, the head of the Xiao family, slapped the table and said: "The ban on the Ming Sea is a national policy, and Xu Jiazhuang built a city without authorization, violating the national law, which is simply a big rebellion!" We must report this matter to the imperial court and immediately get rid of this great rebellion! However, if Xu Jiazhuang is willing to heed our admonition, cancel the construction of the harbor city, repatriate all the stove households, and compensate us for the loss of several million taels, the matter will be stopped. ”

"Yes, Xu Jiazhuang built a city without authorization, which is equivalent to a blatant rebellion, and the court will definitely not tolerate it, and its destruction is just around the corner." Immediately the merchant chimed in.

"But the court has no money, and Xujiazhuang has not openly rebelled, more things are better than less things, the court is likely to settle things and choose to ignore them, unless someone is willing to pay, they will send an army."

"If you pay money, you will pay money, and each of us will pay 100,000 taels of silver, even if ten Xujiazhuang can be destroyed!" A salt merchant shouted.

"We also have a lot of business dealings with Xujiazhuang, and if we destroy Xujiazhuang and cut off the supply of overseas strange goods, our loss is not necessarily less than selling salt."

Hearing these radical and tough voices, Luo Houping, the representative of the Luo family, couldn't sit still, so he had to stand up and say: "Doing business pays attention to harmony and making money, how can you talk about swordsmen and soldiers?" Besides, we Yangzhou salt merchants united, how can we be afraid of Xujiazhuang's small actions, in this way, first salute and then soldiers, we send a few representatives to Xujiazhuang, first negotiate with them one or two, if not, and then use strong means, it is the next policy to fight and kill at the beginning. ”

Luo Houping's words came out.

immediately attracted countless ridicule, saying that he was "cowardly", "his bones are soft, he is afraid", "the shame of the salt merchant, ashamed to be with him" and so on, and scolded him for being a dog, but there are also several heavyweight salt merchants who speak out to support his point of view, and also think that it is better to talk to Xujiazhuang first.

Because in Yangzhou City, there are too many businessmen who have cooperative relations with Xujiazhuang.

Xujiazhuang specialty - the distribution agent of overseas strange goods, Yangzhou merchants are the most, accounting for at least more than 30%, all through the sale of Xujiazhuang's 'overseas strange goods', making countless silver, definitely not less than the salt business.

Therefore, their positions are relatively moderate, advocating negotiations, and they are not very willing to fight and kill.

And Luo Houping is actually not Xujiazhuang's agent, but has been eager to obtain the qualification of the agent, several times before bad luck, was blocked by Qian Renyi, if this time can take the opportunity to have a good relationship with Xujiazhuang, overseas odd goods agent qualifications, maybe you can get it.

So after some heated discussions, the tough voice of Xujiazhuang always prevailed, but before taking tough measures, they also agreed to send a delegation of salt merchants to Xujiazhuang to negotiate and try to see if the problem could be solved through negotiation.

Luo Houping fought hard and obtained the qualification of a negotiator, and he will set off in the near future.