Chengdu.

Lu Huan, one of the five major salt merchants, was working in the fields with his bare back, his salt shop had long since lost his wages, and not long ago Lu Huan dismissed all the workers he didn't need, leaving only a few people to guard his tools and workshops. As for the brine wells that belonged to Lu Huan's trading house, he didn't even send people to guard them, because Chengdu was undoubtedly in an extreme salt surplus now, and no one would steal his well salt.

The reason why the situation has become so bad has a lot to do with the reform of the capital bank, Lu Huan was able to barely survive with Xiong Lan's relief in the past, but now the bank in charge of Xiong Lan is no longer engaged in the business of lending to private individuals, and several private banks that have just been established have taken over this work - the operators have more or less come into contact with the money bank, and they soon found that the five major salt banks in Chengdu are all in a state of strict insolvency, for example, Lu Huan owes more than twice the current value of his commercial bank.

Of course, private banks are reluctant to lend money to such a commercial bank, and Lu Huan and they don't have any collateral, and all their property has already been mortgaged to Xiong Lan. After losing the loan, the five major salt banks could no longer support it and stopped production one after another, but the salt they stockpiled was enough to eat here in Chengdu for one or two years, and there was no need for any production in the short term. Lu Huan found his former auxiliary companions and worked in their fields to earn some food to make ends meet. Lu Huan had never participated in agricultural production in the army before, so now he is learning from scratch, and his friends did not dislike him for this, but taught him how to farm hand in hand.

"I'm going to reclaim a piece of land next year, just like you." While resting on the ridges, Lu Huan said to his old friend who hired him: "I'm not the one who does business. ”

"It's okay, if you are short of anything, come to me." The former auxiliary soldier said that after he was discharged from the army this year, he reclaimed fifteen acres of wasteland, and the harvest in the first season was okay, and the second season must be more objective, even if he wanted to reclaim more land next year, it would be no problem to get some together to help Lu Huan, after all, everyone is a comrade who has suffered together.

"I thank you first." Lu Huan said gratefully, at this time, he will not be strong for the sake of face, he needs the help of his friends very much, and when that time comes, Lu Huan will not borrow money from just one person, but will ask many people for help.

The two chatted a few more words, and suddenly there was a chant in the distance, calling Lu Huan's name one after another.

Soon a person ran towards them along the ridge, and Lu Huan recognized that this was the manager of a private bank, and not long ago when Lu Huan borrowed money, he ran into a wall in all private banks, and this one was naturally no exception.

"Boss Lu, congratulations, congratulations." After the manager arrived, he smiled at Lu Huan and said, "There are people coming back from Wuchang this morning......

"What?" Lu Huanteng stood up suddenly, so excited that he couldn't speak, for the salt merchants in Chengdu, opening the Huguang market was their last hope, and they also had a strong demand for time, if Deng Ming did not act quickly enough, it would also bring them the impact of ruin.

Although it was not known whether Deng Ming had already sold the goods, Lu Huan saw the smile on the face of this bank guy and immediately guessed that the news transmitted back must be very ideal.

"The Admiral is victorious." The bank manager confirmed Lu Huan's speculation, and told him: "Governor Liu has summoned all the bosses to discuss the matter, and tomorrow there will be a banquet to entertain the people of the five salt stores." ”

"Great." When Lu Huan's friend heard this, he shouted happily, he knew that the salt store was Lu Huan's hard work, and the Han water invested in it was no less than half of the peasants, or even more.

"Well, thank you." Lu Huan greeted the bank manager with a fist.

"Boss Lu is polite, after my host heard the good news, he asked me to report to Boss Lu, if Boss Lu is fine, I will accompany Boss Lu back to the city." Now Chengdu's private banks are also in an awkward position, and most of the city's industrial and commercial enterprises owe Chengdu a huge debt, and lending to them is extremely risky. At present, the favorite customers of private banks are still farmers who have cultivated their land, lending to them with the least risk and the most guaranteed income. Although the amount of loans needed by the peasants is relatively small, the strength of the private banks in Chengdu is also very weak, and most of their funds are borrowed from the metropolitan banks, and the large number of people who need loans can also meet some of the needs of the private banks.

According to the experience of the previous time in the money farm, the peasants borrowed money for rations and seeds, and when they were not in cash, they often owed huge debts, large enough to allow them to repay them for almost a year. In the second year, in order to obtain salt, seed grain, and rations when the crops are scarce, the new money borrowed is even larger than that of the previous year, and the interest to be repaid at the end of the year is more than that of the previous year. The shopkeeper of a money bank once worked as an apprentice bookkeeper in the family of a gentleman, and as far as he knew, this kind of indebted peasant was more popular with the landlord than the thrifty peasant. For as long as there is no disaster year, the ordinary peasant will sooner or later pay off his debts, and the only profit he can get from them is land rent, and if he is a yeoman farmer, he can no longer benefit from them; The latter type of peasant is almost a serf, and in addition to maintaining his own survival, he will contribute all his output, and for such a peasant, the gentry and landlords will not drive them to a dead end, and if his life is too hard, some debts will be duly forgiven, so as to ensure that he can work in good health.

If the capital is heavily taxed, private banks can also consider cultivating some of these customers, and if an industrious but generous farmer falls into such a debt trap, then whether he is a yeoman farmer or a tenant, will be a gold mine for creditors. However, Chengdu's taxes were very light, and the government also intervened in the lending relationship as never before, stipulating the upper limit of interest in Chengdu's jurisdiction in the future, instead of ignoring it as in the past. In this way, the peasants were less likely to be bent over by the heavy interest rates, and even a Guizhou captive who had just arrived and did not enjoy any preferential policies could hope to pay off all their debts with a year's harvest - since the capital imposed a cap on the interest rate of private banks, a large number of Guizhou people have asked for loans from private banks, and used the money borrowed from banks to pay off the high-interest loans they had borrowed.

Based on past experience, several private banks believe that farmers will not borrow another piece of money after they are not under pressure to survive. Some of them had been peasants, and knew that the normal dream of a peasant was to be thrifty and thrifty, to leave his son as little debt as possible, and that if he could pay off all his debts, it would be the best life, and that he would be able to enjoy all the surplus output after paying the imperial grain -- in which case the peasants would not have any demand for borrowing.

Therefore, the banks believe that the peasants in the capital will no longer be customers of the bank in one or two years, and even if there are farmers who borrow money from the banks, they can only be landless newcomers who have just arrived here, and these people will not be long-term customers. If the money bank here in Chengdu wants to survive, it needs to find suitable long-term customers.

Although Deng Ming had previously instructed Liu Jinge and Xiong Lan to support the city's industry and commerce, the two of them were unable to negotiate a proper support charter - they could not fully fund and support every industry like Ma Xing, nor did they directly come forward to guarantee other industries. Without guaranteeing these industries and recognizing exorbitant interest rates, private banks were careful to lend to slightly better industries such as ironware firms.

For example, the bank boss who sent his guys to Lu Huan today, his main customers are also farmers and those industries with slightly better conditions, and due to the competition of several banks, the profits that his bank can obtain are very small. After calculations, the profit by the end of the year was probably only slightly more than the expenditure, and the bank owner, when his voice was light, was doing odd jobs in a blacksmith shop on Chūn Xi Road—the income from the blacksmith's part-time work at the furnace was on the same order of magnitude as the income from the bank's owner, after the men's wages, the taxes in Chengdu, and the rent of the shop.

After hearing the news from the yamen today, the bank boss immediately realized that this was an opportunity. The prefectural government's restrictions on interest rates are mainly aimed at personal loans, with the aim of protecting farmers' waists from being bent. Deng Ming had heard the term "venture capital" in his previous life, but he did not know the specific rules, because he understood that banks were allowed to negotiate their own loan rates with those commercial banks that were in dire need of loans, and the Chengdu government did not interfere too much with this.

In the past, the bosses of the salt bank did not consider borrowing usury, but neither they nor the bank bosses dared to say that Deng Ming would be able to open the market quickly, which was extremely risky for both sides, so they could not negotiate on the issue of profit. Both sides have very little capital, and no one dares to gamble, so they give up.

Now there is huge good news in the salt industry, and the bank boss feels that he can reduce the interest rate to lend, and presumably the bosses of the salt bank will dare to borrow money after learning the news. Thinking of this, the boss of the bank hurriedly asked for an hour's leave from the blacksmith shop where he worked, and hurried back to his bank, so that the managers and men inside could quickly go out to find and report the good news to the owners of the five major salt shops, and sell their banking business on their way back to the capital.

Shut down

"Let's go to the capital," Lu Huan's friend shouted to him, "If it's true, you're going to have a treat." ”

"How?" Lu Huan refused without thinking: "I said that I would do a day's work today, and you gave me today's salary yesterday." ”

Then Lu Huan complained to the bank manager, who waved his hand and said, "It's okay, it's okay, then I'll wait for Boss Lu here." ”

So Lu Huan and his friends got up and began to work, and the bank manager watched coldly from the side for a moment, and suddenly opened his mouth and asked: "If you work for half a day, how will the salary be calculated?" ”

"How about giving you two more yuan for dinner?" Lu Huan's friend asked.

"Okay." The bank manager immediately rolled up his sleeves and trouser legs, picked up the flat pole to carry water, his task was to accompany Lu Huan back to the city, anyway, he was idle, it was better to do some short-term work to earn a few yuan.

The three of them were busy in the field for a while, and someone shouted Lu Huan's name to arrive, this is someone from another bank, who also rushed to report the good news to Lu Huan.

"You're late." The bank manager who arrived first ran back and forth with a bucket of water, shouting at the newcomers, "I'll come first." ”

Seeing that he was a step late, the second person could only admit that he was unlucky, and turned around after congratulating Lu Huan again.

Soon after, a third man came, this time it was Lu Huan who answered, he pointed to the bank manager who was busy and sweating profusely, and told him that he had received good news.

That night, the owner of the salt store and the bank manager lived in the owner's house, and the next day, just after dawn, the two got up to chop firewood for the owner, and Lu Huan's friend made two bowls of noodle soup for them, in addition to jīng's breakfast, the friend also gave the bank manager one yuan for Lu Huan, and the latter happily accepted it.

On the way back to Chengdu, Lu Huan and the bank manager discussed a lot of interest on loans.

In Liu Jinge's yamen, Lu Huan met Ye Tianming, who accompanied Deng Ming on the expedition, and the other three salt shop owners who stayed in Chengdu also arrived at two. Liu Jinge told the four bosses present that their last colleague was still herding cattle, and he said that he had advanced the wages of the owner for several days, and it was not good to take a leave of absence during this busy time.

Liu Jinge said these words in a natural tone, and the other four people also expressed their understanding - since they took the salary and agreed to the owner, of course they must be diligent and not lazy - in Lu Huan's opinion, this is an axiom that does not need to be proven.

After the first battle of Wuchang, Deng Ming had already told Liu Jinge in the letter, and now Ye Tianming would narrate the consequences of the battle to the other three.

"Fifty thousand catties of salt? One day! ”

After hearing Ye Tianming's number, Lu Huan and the others opened their mouths in surprise, and they couldn't close them anymore.

"Yes, the Admiral also told me about this number, and Boss Ye is not mistaken." Liu Jinge, in the middle of the table, confirmed Ye Tianming's account: "Distributed to the five bosses, that is, each of you will produce 10,000 catties of salt every day, how long will it take for you to reach this number?" ”

Two months before Deng Ming's army, he had organized a surprise production of salt, and at that time Chengdu's salt production had almost reached this rì output, but tens of thousands of newly disbanded soldiers were ordered to participate in it, and Deng Ming's personal prestige also played a large role in this. The five salt shop bosses relied on their own strength, not to mention 10,000 catties of salt a day, even a thousand catties could not be produced.

"At that time, the Admiral also made some salt in Xuzhou, and although the salt was also distributed to us according to our production here in the capital, it actually had nothing to do with us at all." Lu Huan said honestly: "If there is no brine well in Xuzhou, even if there are enough manpower, tools and firewood here in the capital, it may not be able to produce so much salt." ”

"If you think it's necessary to go to Xuzhou to make salt, the capital won't stop you." Liu Jinge said slowly: "You are all the same talents, you have meritorious fame, and the capital will not restrict your entry and exit." If you hire people to go to Xuzhou, as long as the workers have the status of the same showman, the capital will not interfere, but how much wages it will cost, the capital will not be able to control it, and it must be much more expensive than the capital here, right? ”

Now there are only a small number of post station personnel in Xuzhou, and some of the people there have come to Chengdu, and some are still hiding around to watch the situation. This Liu Jinge didn't plan to care, Deng Ming also said that the commercial houses in Chengdu should not be allowed to rely on zhèngfǔ for everything, and they should also be allowed to walk on their own as soon as possible, only if they really can't solve the problem, and the problem will lead to the collapse of an industry, Chengdu zhèngfǔ should intervene. When the salt store was closed before, Liu Jinge was hesitant, not knowing whether he should intervene; But now Liu Jinge thinks that the problem of Xuzhou is not a matter of life and death for the salt store, and he has already thought about it at this time, if the salt store really goes to Xuzhou to make salt, he will ask Pu Fu to send a few tax jǐng to follow him to get first-hand information about their output.

"Even if you can rì 10,000 catties, can you sell it in Wuchang? Zhang Changgeng won't regret it, right? Another salt shop owner asked with some doubts.

"No, he wouldn't dare, the Admiral's sword is not vegetarian." Ye Tianming said majestically, and told several colleagues that Deng Ming had already marched to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River at his request to fight against Sichuan Yan's competitors.

After leaving the prefect's yamen, three salt merchants surrounded Ye Tianming and went to the best restaurant on Xi Chūn Road, asking him to tell everyone how Deng Ming mobilized an army for the benefit of the salt merchants.

The three salt merchants originally planned to eat coarse grain cakes by themselves, and pooled money to invite Ye Tianming, who had returned, to eat a bowl of white noodles.

But Ye Tianming refused, and he suddenly took out a stack of IOUs from his arms, which he asked for from Liu Jinge just now: "See, this is a thousand yuan!" Our three million catties of salt, with a total price of six million yuan, have already written to Governor Liu and asked him to give us money. ”

When he saw Liu Jinge just now, he told Ye Tianming that such a large sum of money needed time to prepare, and knew that it would be difficult to move an inch in Chengdu without an IOU, so Liu Jinge gave him 1,000 first.

"Two hundred for one person." Ye Tianming counted out 600 IOUs and distributed them to Lu Huan and the three of them: "After that, we will have 10,000 catties of salt a day, which is 20,000 yuan, and 10,000 after paying taxes." ”

The three of them touched the IOU in their hands, and after recalling Ye Tianming's words for a while, Lu Huan, who was the first to react, suddenly turned around and shouted at Xiao Er: "Xiao Er, rice!" ”

"I'm rice, too," shouted another salt merchant, his face full of happiness: "Put more dogwood." ”

"Great!"

Xiao Er agreed, and walked over to Lu Huan and them, Chengdu here is getting better and better, and sometimes people are willing to spend money to eat in a restaurant. Good rice, sprinkled with dogwood and salt, can make people sweat profusely.

"I want a plate of salted fish." The third salt merchant, after careful consideration, said his request, dogwood is now a cash crop in Chengdu, the price is on the high side, but the better food must be salted fish, if there is nothing but dogwood and salted fish shreds in the rice, it is really fragrant.

"I want it too!" The second salt merchant who spoke awoke from a dream and shouted along.

Lu Huan hesitated for a moment, he gently pinched the IOU hidden in his arms, and finally shouted with an open-minded spirit: "Bring me a few too." ”

Three high-rollers came at once, and the guys in the hotel were a little uncomfortable, and he agreed while looking at Ye Tianming, who had never spoken.

"What do you want?" Ye Tianming laughed: "Come on a whole salted fish, I'll treat you!" ”

……

Fresh wild vegetables, spicy dogwood, and salted fish eaten casually, Lu Huan and they held their rice bowls and stuffed their heads to pick up rice, and the last one held their full stomachs, leaning on the back of the chair and sighing with satisfaction.

"It's good to be a salt merchant!" The exclamation of one person resonated.

"Of course it's good to be a salt merchant," Ye Tianming's demeanor was maintained very well today, and he didn't have red eyes when he saw the salted fish like the other three: "But the good rìzi is still behind." ”

"How good could it be?" Lu Huan asked with some confusion: "Do you only eat salted fish and don't eat?" ”

"Hmph, what's that?" The well-informed Ye Tianming sneered: "Of course, the chicken can be eaten casually." ”