Shen Baozhen was confused, he was a pro-people official, so he naturally heard about these things, but he didn't understand how important these things were, so that Li Xian, the bandit leader who was very likely to rebel, spent so much energy to describe them carefully. 23us. fastest

"Are you saying that the xenophobia of outsiders by the locals is more serious, so it will lead to high food prices?" Shen Baozhen tried to understand Li Xian's words in his own way, but Li Xian was stunned after hearing it, and after talking for a long time, the other party actually realized such a truth.

"It's not entirely wrong for you to understand it that way, but it's not going to be that simple. Li Xian knew that Shen Baozhen was not stupid, but he had never worried about oil, salt, sauce and vinegar since he was a child, and when he grew up, he became an official directly, so he would not understand these things, so he could only give up explaining.

"I mean that if you want to keep the price of food and prices down in Canton, especially in the face of frequent wars, you have to create a free trade zone outside the city, otherwise a few price fluctuations alone will be enough to tear the city apart. Li Xian could only explain it like this.

Shen Baozhen understood this time, but the doubts in his heart were even worse: "Guangzhou City is falling apart, what does it have to do with you, the rebel leader?"

As a rebel leader, you should hope that Guangzhou will be as chaotic as possible, okay?

Besides, building a big bazaar outside the city of Guangzhou can lower grain prices, who are you fooling? I have never heard of such a method. ”

Li Xian understood that Shen Baozhen just couldn't understand, but he still advised: "We are now working together to resist the British, and if we want to win this battle, we must ensure the stability of Guangzhou."

Besides, we are all compatriots, and we will not watch the people of Guangzhou starve. ”

At this time, Shen Baozhen understood a little, Li Xian said that at least he would not attack Guangzhou in the near future, and there was such a sentence that could also explain to those big people in Guangzhou.

Shen Baozhen thanked Li Xian, and then took the officials who went with him to say goodbye.

During this negotiation, Song Mingda and Song Dagongzi were originally pretending to be low-level officials in the negotiation team to monitor the direction of the negotiation, but at this time they couldn't help but come to Shen Baozhen and ask.

"I see that Li Xian, this person has been talking for a long time, but he hasn't said a word of truth, does he want to fool us?"

Song Mingda has been worshipping the masters of the Yiren Hall since he was a child to learn martial arts, and he has not experienced any civil hardships in ordinary times, and naturally he does not understand the way of economic operation, and his knowledge in this area is much worse than Shen Baozhen.

"Li Xian has knowledge, but it is not used in the right path, and what he said just now should also have his own reasoning, but we can't refer to it for a while. Shen Baozhen frowned and said.

"I think Li Xian is messing around, and after doing so, it will inevitably lead to people's backs, everyone in Guangzhou City hates him, and he will have to suffer for it in the future. Song Mingda said disapprerovingly.

"How do you say that?" Shen Baozhen couldn't help but be stunned.

"He just said very clearly, when foreign grain merchants send grain to Guangzhou, they are exploited by local grain stores, tooth shops, yamen and foot shops.

What kind of bazaar he set up outside the city would make these people unable to make money and lose a lot of income, so these people would naturally hate Li Xian to the bone and want to eat his flesh.

In this way, at least four people from the line oppose him, and the rest do not know how many people oppose him, Li Xian will definitely get twice the result if he wants to attack Guangzhou in the future, which should be a good thing for us. Song Mingda consciously saw through the current situation and talked eloquently.

"Well, that's a good thing. Shen Baozhen responded perfunctorily, but he wondered in his heart, could this matter really develop according to the idea of this Song eldest prince.

In any case, the negotiations between Guangzhou and Sanyuanli have come to an end, and the establishment of a free trade zone ten miles away from the northwest corner of Guangzhou has been decided.

Li Xian has always been quick in doing things, and he sent 500 soldiers and horses to surround hundreds of acres of wasteland on the spot, and hired people to build a large number of temporary warehouses to set up this bazaar.

This so-called free trade zone is actually more like a large wholesale market in later generations, where foreign grain merchants transport their goods to the warehouses of this free trade zone and store them, and people in Guangzhou can come and buy grain at a relatively low price, and then pull it back to the city.

Among the people who came to buy grain were big businessmen, as well as housekeepers of eunuchs' families, and ordinary people from small households, who could come and buy grain directly.

There are grain merchants with deep pockets who go directly to the warehouse area to contact grain merchants from other places and buy grain worth thousands to tens of thousands of stones at once; large households that are not engaged in grain business can also buy hundreds of loads of grain by themselves and take them back to the cellar; even small households can go to special markets to buy grain from several dozen to several hundred catties and carry it back by themselves.

There are soldiers of the Sanyuanli coalition army to maintain law and order, but they do not collect any taxes, and they do not interfere in the transactions between the two sides, and the merchants do their own business.

The people of Guangzhou knew that the war would inevitably lead to a shortage of food, and almost every household mobilized to buy food, and then after coming a few times, they found out the benefits here.

First of all, the grain purchased directly from the grain merchants from other places here is close to the wholesale price, which must be much lower than the price of grain in the city.

Secondly, there are many foreign grain merchants who come here to sell grain, and even if there are occasionally one or two who want to hoard Juqi, most of them still want to hurry up and leave this place where war may break out at any time, so that the supply here is very sufficient;

Third, if there is no yamen to get up and down and do not participate in the transaction, a lot of trouble will be saved.

For foreign grain merchants, it can be shipped quickly, and although the price of grain is cheaper than in Guangzhou, it is also much higher than before the war, and there are not many intermediate links and people with commissions, so it is very profitable to do business, and the profits are much higher.

After ten consecutive days of huge transactions, the trading volume of this bazaar gradually decreased, and the people of Guangzhou saw that the goods here were sufficient, and it was a long-term maintenance posture, so they were relieved, and their eagerness to hoard grain was slightly lightened.

However, even so, the daily trading volume here is extremely impressive.

The Sanyuanli coalition forces led by Li Xian also made a lot of money during this period.

Although Li Xian insisted on not collecting any taxes here, it was much more meaningful to take this opportunity to do business than to collect a few percent of the tax.

Before the launch of this market, many foreign businessmen were not very optimistic about the prospects of this market, and there were many businessmen in Foshan who wanted to clear all the food and materials on hand, and then leave this place of right and wrong and return to their hometown.

Li Xian and Wang Jiuxuan didn't care either, they took over these goods at a relatively low price, and then resold them through this market, earning at least more than fifty percent of the profits from one after another, which was much faster than collecting taxes.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, it is inevitable that Li Xian will empty all the backlog of whale oil, soap, salted fish and other goods in Leizhou.