In the eighth year of Chongzhen, in mid-August.

It's another year of agricultural harvest season.

Nanzhili, in the territory of Fengyang Province.

Zheng Shiqi, a businessman, appeared on the edge of a wheat field outside a village called Dingzhuang in the north of Suzhou City, looking at the patches of golden wheat that was growing well and about to ripen, and the breeze blew the waves of wheat rolling, which made people feel refreshed and happy.

And then look at the long, full-grained ears of wheat.

This year is sure to be a big harvest.

The yield per mu will not be less than 1,000 catties.

And Zheng Shiqi from Yangzhou to here, all the way to see the rice field, wheat field golden scene, some have been harvested, the yield is very considerable, the yield per mu is less than 500 catties are very few.

In fact, the weather is still not good this year.

The drought continues in the north, and the rainfall is still severely low, but it is only slightly better than last year.

As for Henan, the hardest-hit area, many places are now uninhabited for 500 miles and 800 miles, and many county courts have not sent officials to the past.

Under normal circumstances, grain production will be reduced by three to fifty percent, but drought-resistant wheat from Xujiazhuang, coupled with the Longwang pump, is really not good, so find a loan from the Tianxia Bank, dig one or two deep wells, and draw water from deep underground.

Adopting various methods, this has led to a bumper harvest in front of us, and a completely different scene from Henan, which is 200 miles away.

So the wheat is about to ripen, what is the purpose of the businessman Zheng Shiqi coming here?

Naturally, it is to buy these wheat.

The price of grain in the north is very high, and after purchasing these wheat, whether it is sold to Beizhili, or to Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan, it can be sold at a high price, and there is a very good profit margin, even if it is necessary to ask a transport caravan to transport grain for thousands of miles.

But the wheat in these fields, the villagers of Dingzhuang, have signed an agreement with Xujiazhuang, and after the harvest to sell all to Xujiazhuang, because the improved seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation are all solved by Xujiazhuang, Tianxiatong Bank also provides a loan with almost zero interest, the only requirement is to sell the grain to Xujiazhuang after the harvest, and ensure that the purchase price is not less than 3 yuan per catty.

Now Zheng Shiqi wants to come over and cut off his beard, is this possible? Is he the opponent of the behemoth of Xujiazhuang?

Zheng Shiqi smiled slightly, he wouldn't do anything he wasn't sure about, and the rules of the mall were that the highest price would be the winner, and the benefits would be above all else, as long as the villagers were given enough benefits, there would always be those who couldn't resist the temptation and broke the contract to sell the grain to others.

What's more, Zheng Shiqi has a set of methods to persuade the villagers, and he has a considerable grasp of it.

So after looking at the wheat fields, he found the patriarch of Dingzhuang and the villagers, saying that he was a grain merchant and wanted to buy wheat from their fields.

Not surprisingly, he was rejected by the villagers:

"Don't sell it, don't sell it, these grains have promised to be sold to Xujiazhuang, and they won't be sold to other grain merchants."

"No matter how high the price is, it won't be sold!"

"Without Xujiazhuang, how could we grow so much grain in the field, and we can't be ungrateful."

"What if we sell grain to you at a high price this year, what if Xujiazhuang doesn't cooperate with us next year? Without improved seeds and pesticides, how can you feed a large family with a yield of two or three hundred catties per mu? Just to make more money this year, the days after next year are over? ”

“……”

Listened to these words of the villagers.

Zheng Shiqi felt quite relieved, who said that the farmers were short-sighted? At least these villagers in Dingzhuang are all very conscious, even honest and honest.

"Villagers, uncles, in fact, I am not an ordinary grain merchant, but a grain merchant who has a cooperative relationship with Xujiazhuang, so to speak, I am also a person from Xujiazhuang."

Zheng Shiqi looked mysterious, and said to these villagers in a low voice: "I dare to guarantee that as long as you sell the grain to Zheng, Xujiazhuang will never find trouble with you, nor will you cancel the cooperation, if something goes wrong, you can come to me at any time...... This is my name. ”

Handing over the name with his home address written on it, Zheng Shiqi said again: "Xu Jiazhuang promised to buy your grain, the price is 3 wen a catty, no more than 4 wen, but I pay 5 wen to buy your grain, the wheat yield per mu in this field is about 1,000 catties, the price difference is one penny, one acre of land is one silver dollar, and two pennies is two silver dollars, and you have more or less borrowed a loan from Tianxiatong Bank, and there are taxes to pay from the government, and you have to leave enough rations for the family to eat, and you have worked hard to plant more than a dozen acres of land, and finally how much money can you have left?" ”

"If you sell me grain, you can pay off the bank loan, pay the taxes, keep enough rations, and save two silver dollars per acre of wheat land, and you can pull two more clothes for your children, buy five catties of meat and three catties of sugar for the New Year, and when you build a house at home, you can build one or two more houses - this life is obviously much better, why don't you agree to sell me grain?"

Listened to this.

The villagers were moved, and most of them were shaken.

Because the price of 5 wen a catty is indeed much higher than that of 3 wen a catty.

Moreover, this person said that there is a cooperative relationship with Xujiazhuang, which is actually one-sided, and will not lead to the problem of breach of contract, which makes the villagers suspicious, if this is true, it is completely possible to sell grain to this person; If it's fake, it's not that it can't be sold.

A shrewd villager said: "If Xujiazhuang wants to blame it, he will say that we were deceived and deceived, it was an unintentional mistake, and it was not intentionally sold to others, it was all the fault of the profiteers, and we were also victims, so we could only be sent to Xujiazhuang for treatment next time we encountered such profiteers." ”

"But why don't we go and ask the people of Xujiazhuang in advance if there are some merchants who cooperate with them and can sell grain to these merchants?" Another villager asked.

"You are stupid, if you ask in the past, and the people in Xujiazhuang say that there is no such partner, what should we do? Can only sell grain to Xujiazhuang at a low price? Don't you want to make more money and don't do it, don't you want to live a better life at home? The shrewd villager said.

"This ...... Not so good. ”

"Anyway, my family's grain will be sold to this merchant, and you will all sell it to him, do you know the truth that the law does not blame the public? In addition, we have all been deceived by profiteers, Xujiazhuang will not trouble us, the big deal is that next year's grain will continue to be sold to Xujiazhuang, and we will make such a profit. "Savvy villagers.

"Makes sense."

After some discussion, the villagers of Dingzhuang finally took advantage of the mentality, and finally agreed to sell the wheat in the field to Zheng Shiqi, Xujiazhuang's 'partner', at a price of 5 wen per catty.

So.

An entire village, thousands of acres of land, and at least 500,000 catties of wheat were successfully bought by Zheng Shiqi.

And he didn't stay, and then went to a lot of villages, using the same set of words, increasing the price to buy the farmers' grain, some villages were successful, some were rejected, and in some villages, met competitors, and also claimed to be a cooperative grain merchant in Xujiazhuang, bidding with him to buy grain, Zheng Shiqi increased the price to 6 Wen, the other party increased the price to 6 Wen and a half, Zheng Shiqi increased the price to 7 Wen, the other party added 7 Wen and a half or even 8 Wen, Zheng Shiqi had to give up.

……

The other side.

After entering the autumn harvest season.

Xujiazhuang's Oriental Times, on the grain front, has recently released a lot of information about its intention to relax control.

On August 10, the front page news said: This year, the waterlogging in the south has been reduced, the grain output has increased by about 15%, and the drought in the north continues, but many places have increased drought control measures, and after the promotion of the 'life-saving field' model (that is, a family tries their best to serve an acre of sweet potato or potato field to ensure that a piece of land can grow food and use it to save life), coupled with the reduction of the population in the north by tens of millions, the grain self-sufficiency rate will increase to 60%!

On the 13th, he published an editorial: Daming will not be short of grain this year, don't speculate on high grain prices! Tianxiatong Bank has officially launched the 'Overseas Development Bonds', with a three-year interest rate of 10% and a five-year interest rate of 15%, and the purchase of overseas development bonds is far more profitable than hoarding and speculating on grain.

On the 16th, the headline on the front page was "Nanzhili has achieved an unprecedented bumper harvest, Xujiazhuang's grain hoarding has reached 500 million stones, which basically meets the needs, and cooperative farmers can sell grain freely], that is, even if the farmers who cooperate with Xujiazhuang sell grain to other grain merchants, it is not a breach of contract, and no punitive measures will be taken against them.

On the 19th, on the grain aspect, the "Oriental Times" published another report [In order to curb the suppression of grain speculation, the Xujiazhuang transport fleet will transport 80 million stones of grain from Huguang and 50 million stones of grain from Liangguang, which is enough to solve the grain gap in the north]

After releasing so much information in a row.

Harbour City, White Castle.

In the high-rise conference room.

"Speaking of the territory of Daming, no one should dare to hoard grain and fry grain now, right?"

Xu Yuandao, who sat at the top, said: "I have done my best to them, told them about the grain production of Daming this year, and provided high-interest investment channels such as 'overseas development bonds', and the south has also achieved a bumper harvest this year, with hundreds of millions of stone of grain. ”

"Owner, you overestimate their lower limit, they not only have to fry grain and hoard grain this year, but also have to do a lot of work!"

Li Jin, who is in charge of agricultural work, shook his head again and again and said: "Although we have released a large amount of information hoping that grain will not be speculated, those dead ghosts will not listen to persuasion, but have found three reasons why this year's grain can rise sharply. ”

"First, the animal husbandry industry in the south of the Yangtze River has developed too fast this year, a large amount of grain has been used for feed, breeding pigs, cattle and sheep are immediately 100 million heads, chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits are innumerable, and the consumption of feed grain is more than 600 million stones, resulting in the grain that can be vacated this year does not exceed 200 million stones, even less than last year."

"Secondly, the biodiesel production plant in Xujiazhuang Industrial Zone has increased to four, with a daily output of 2,000 tons of diesel, which has also led to an increase in grain consumption, as well as wine grain, industrial grain, etc., which consumes more than 150 million stone of grain a year, which also makes the available surplus grain continue to decrease."

"In the end, although the grain in the south can make up for the shortage, but the road is long, and there is only 130 million stones, with their financial resources and capital, even 300 million stones of grain, they can swallow it all, but it only costs 3.5 billion silver dollars, hoarding it, and then selling it at a price increase of two or three times or even four or five times, I don't know how much profit can be made, which is much higher than the 10% interest return on overseas development bonds."

"So we expect that this time, in terms of food, the merchants, nobles, gentry, landlords, and vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty will never let go of this opportunity, and they must eat a bowl full of money and squeeze the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty to a clean finish."

Hear this.

Xu Yuan's eyes burst out with a trace of murderous aura, and said: "Since they don't listen to good advice and insist on looking for death, then I can only fulfill them, just use this wave to take them all away!" ”