The tragedy has actually begun!

On the eighth day of the fourth month of the third year of the Great Song Dynasty, the major late dating halls represented by Fengle Lou were full of people, jubilant, everyone made money, and everyone was happy. There are already people who want to jump off the building because they have lost.

The first victims of this "late storm", which later generations called the first financial turmoil in history, were the issuers of these late appointments! It is the major rice merchants and rice shops in the south of the Yangtze River. The shopkeepers of these rice shops were happy in February, thinking that they had encountered a pie in the sky, and the market price (Zhenjiang rice market) was not the same brown rice, and some people were willing to buy the rice at the lowest price every year after the autumn harvest! Isn't this the number one big fool in the sky?

However, the subsequent trend of rice prices bottoming out and rebounding made these rice shop shopkeepers shocked, and those shopkeepers who were late to send out more money were all criticized by the owner. However, at that time, it was not a big problem, but it was a few hundred wen per stone of rice...... For rice merchants, such a price of rice will not be at a loss. Because they go to the countryside to collect rice, the price will not be so high. Moreover, each rice bank has a lot of inventory in its hands, and the price of rice in the past two years has been low and the supply is sufficient, so the rice stores have a lot of inventory in their hands.

However, the news that came today made every rice merchant who sent out a large number of late appointments fall into an ice cave - the Great Song Dynasty court actually wanted to start a war against Song Yingxiong, who was the commander of the envoy who asked for the seal!

And this Song Yingxiong's territory is Chizhou, which is stuck in the throat of the Yangtze River! Once the war broke out, Jinghu, Sichuan, and Huaixi. Even rice from the northern part of Jiangnan West Road is difficult to transport to Jiangnan East Road, Liangzhejiang Road and Fujian Road, which need rice and grain.

This didn't matter in the first place, because the inventory in the hands of the rice merchants in Jiangnan was sufficient. The Chang Ping Meter Warehouses in the state capitals in the south of the Yangtze River are also full of grain, and the rice grain from Huaidong can also be transported to the south of the Yangtze River in a steady stream. The temporary suspension of the Yangtze River waterway will not cause a shortage of grain supply in the south of the Yangtze River at all.

After all, it is the 13th century, and there is no Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. The population of the cities and towns in the south of the Yangtze River in need of food supply is only seven or eight million at the top. The average person consumes three stone of brown rice a year, which is 24 million stone. Jiangnan itself is also a land of fish and rice, which can provide most of what is needed. Every year, the rice grain that needs to be imported from other places is at most about 10 million stones. Real consumer demand, in fact, is not much. Even if the rice grain from the upstream cannot be transported to Jiangnan on time. It will not cause a shortage of grain in Jiangnan. If it weren't for the fact that there was enough food in his hands, Jia Rudao would not have attacked Chizhou.

However, who would have thought that there were still a bunch of honest profiteers in the Song Dynasty in the thirteenth century! They are really ready to buy rice from Jinghu and Sichuan to pay off the late contract - just like a hedge fund that shorts oil in the futures market goes to Saudi Arabia and Russia to buy crude oil with a short position in hand! In the 21st century, this is an inconceivably stupid thing. But that's what happened in the 13th century.

To put it more bluntly, it was originally just a "late appointment" for grain bullish options, but in the Song Dynasty, it was a real demand for zài.

Now, the rice and grain ordered by grain merchants from Jinghu, Sichuan and Huaixi cannot be delivered on time. They can't make good on the late promise they let out! Such a situation is for the rice merchants of the entire Jiangnan. It's nothing short of a catastrophe!

"It's over! It's all over...... Poof! ”

Someone committed suicide by throwing themselves into the water!

Lin'an. Lincao Town, the former commander of the Sanya Army, and now there is a big grain merchant Sun Shichen with the empty title of Doctor Zuowu, who threw himself into the water. After confirming that the imperial court was going to crusade against Chizhou, this big fat man with more than 200 pounds wandered all the way from his mansion to the edge of the canal in despair, and then a fierce man stabbed down.

As the big boss of Feng Lexing, he may be the biggest victim in this late appointment turmoil, there is no one! Relying on his relationship with King Rong - in fact, a cousin is the favorite concubine of King Rong - Feng Lexing is now the largest rice merchant in Jiangnan, and naturally he has released the most late appointments.

That's 33,800 sheets! Half of it was released in the low position. The rest is the plate that was released when food prices peaked and fell a while ago. If Sun Da Fat Man wants to fully fulfill these late contracts, he must come up with 3,380,000 stone brown rice. On September 15 of the third year of the Great Song Dynasty!

This is not a problem, although 3.38 million stone rice is a lot, but the Great Song Dynasty has had a bumper harvest for several years, and there is no shortage of rice at all.

The Sichuan Basin, the Jianghu Plain and the Jianghuai Plain in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River have all been in good weather this year, and the crops in the fields are growing gratifyingly, and it is another bumper year. And Sun Shichen is also an honest profiteer, and he doesn't dare to empty the plate without goods in his hand. Therefore, at the same time as he made the contract, he sent the steward of the grain bank to order brown rice from the Tuntian Division in several towns upstream with cash - of course, this is not a problem, on the one hand, there is a force behind Fengle Xing; On the other hand, tuntian farming is also the largest financial road in the upstream town. There is so much rice and grain in the hands of the upstream town that even the treasury can't be piled up, and it is almost rotten in the ground, there is no reason not to sell it, and the price is not very high, which will definitely make Sun Shichen's late contract profitable.

But now, a sudden risk has come, the Yangtze River channel will be broken, and the meters upstream will ...... I can't get it!

The rice upstream can't be transported, but the late appointment has to be fulfilled! The documents have been set up, the deposit has been collected, and there will be no rice for others at that time...... This is why His Royal Highness King Rong can't come forward! These late appointments are not all given to Pu Shougeng alone, and at least half of the characters in the entire Jiangnan officialdom and shopping malls have bought late appointments. How is this possible? At that time, even if there is no rice to pay, you will have to pay the difference.

And the difference ...... Now one stone of rice is only a few tens of Wen, and three million and three hundred and eighty thousand stones is more than three hundred thousand yuan, and the Sun family can afford it. However, once the news of the interruption of the Yangtze River waterway spreads, the price of rice will definitely skyrocket!

The reason is very simple, most of the rice merchants in the south of the Yangtze River are the same as Feng Lexing, releasing a large number of late appointments, and at the same time buying rice from Fangzhen upstream! Now that the upstream rice can't come, who would dare to put the inventory in their hands out? Not only could they not sell their stock, but they also had to find a way to stock up on rice to cope with the catastrophe in September!

If most rice merchants don't sell rice to the sky, won't the price of rice rise to the sky? These 33,800 late contracts are the noose around the neck of the Lincao Sun family! If the price of rice rises by one penny per stone, Feng Le Xing will lose 4,225 copper yuan, and if it rises to the same price, Feng Le Xing and the Lincao Sun family will go bankrupt! When the time comes, His Royal Highness King Rong, who holds dark shares in Fengle Xing, can let go of the Sun family?

Sun Shichen understood this truth after a little thought, and after thinking about it, he jumped into the canal.

……

"Ouch, ouch! I can't live, I can't live, let me die, I'll die......"

Sun Shichen, who jumped into the river, did not die, because the common people of the Song Dynasty were all educated by the teachings of the saints. Although it is useless against all kinds of tartars, it will not be unsaved. The boatmen and sailors on the boats passing by on the canal jumped into the water and salvaged a big fat man of more than 200 pounds with seven hands and feet. It was returned to the Sun family who came later, and there was no reward for it.

After being picked up, Sun Shichen didn't have a chance to be quiet, so he directly dried and changed into clean clothes, stuffed into a large four-wheeled carriage, and went straight to Fengle Building. In addition to a few big-shouldered and round-waisted sons and nephews who were in the same car with him - to prevent him from committing suicide again - was his younger brother, Sun Meichen, the treasurer of Fengle Building. is different from Sun Shichen's obese appearance, Sun Meichen is born capable, with an eagle and a wolf look. He was originally a member of the palace in front of the palace, but after Jia Rudao held a group training, the future of the military attache of the imperial court was even more bleak, so he abandoned the official and entered business.

"What's the big deal? Isn't it just 30,000 or thousands of late appointments? Seeing his eldest brother, who was more fat and almost like a pig, crying to death or live, Sun Meichen suddenly became a little annoyed. It's not a hurdle that can't be overcome! ”

"Of course not! If the price of rice rises by a penny, it will lose more than 4,000 yuan, and if it rises consistently, it will lose more than 3 million...... The savings of six generations of our old grandson family are all going to be ruined in my hands. ”

"Then don't let the price of rice rise! Now the major grain merchants have rice in their hands, and there are still Chang square meters in the imperial court, and they can't eat it at all, how can it rise? ”

"It's going to go up! There's a late appointment! The major rice merchants released hundreds of thousands of sheets late...... That's tens of millions of stone meters! Where are there so many meters in Jiangnan and Huaidong? If the rice upstream can't come, won't the price of rice rise to the sky? ”

"Then hurry up and buy brown rice, no, hurry up and buy late appointments!"

"What? Late buying? Sun Fatzi was stunned, "We are rice merchants......"

Sun Meichen glanced at his brother, "Since the price of rice has risen, then the late appointment will definitely rise, the price of rice has risen, and the late appointment will rise by 100 guan, as long as we buy 30,000 late contracts, we will have 3 million guan, and it will be a big deal to lose money when the time comes...... Won't our Sun family be able to survive it? ”

Sun Shichen slapped his forehead with a slap, "It's better to keep your mind alive, brother, I'm a fool, I didn't think of such a simple way." Hurry up, don't go to Fengle Building, hurry up and go to Tonghui Money Village to borrow money......"

"It's too late, let's go to Fengle Store to buy it first!" Sun Meichen interrupted, "Fengle Building is in my charge, and the customer has tens of millions of dollars in the account of Fengle Building, and there is no problem in embezzling a few million...... Let's buy it first, and then use the late appointment to mortgage and lend the money back to the account! ”

Sun Shichen nodded again and again: "Yes, yes, yes, you still have a flexible brain, that's it...... It's also good to be one step early, be sure to buy late before others understand, the more the better! The survival of our Lincao Sun family depends on this time! (To be continued......)