Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 397 The Money is for Him to See
Merchants have always believed that money flows like water, so they would never let goods sit in their hands.

As a result, they urgently sent people to the city where 90% of the asking price was offered, but they didn't expect that the prices there had also been affected and had fallen sharply.

There was even a panic-induced second drop in soybean prices as local merchants discovered that the caravans that had visited there had returned.

This sudden drop in prices directly prompted local soybean traders to follow suit and dump their stocks.

You have to know that soybeans, as a crop, are completely different from other commodities.

If the prices of other commodities are low, then as long as you hold on and stock up, the prices will eventually go back up.

But the same cannot be said for agricultural crops. When you hoard soybeans, not only do you have to waste energy and money on storing and preserving them, but you also have to endure the damage caused by moisture, rot, and insects.

After waiting for two or three years with great effort, the soybean price has finally recovered and we will finally be able to make a comeback.

But this is a fucking crop.

Just throw it into the ground and it will grow twenty to thirty times as much as crops in a year!

In other words, while soybean traders are working hard and taking great pains to hoard soybeans, others are growing new beans at a very small cost while you are waiting for the market to recover!
Firmer, fuller, and cheaper to stockpile than new beans.

If the hoarding cycle is one year, then if you throw a bean into the soil now, within a year, this bean will become twenty or thirty beans.

If the hoarding cycle is two years, then the bean thrown into the soil now will become twenty or thirty times its value in two years.

Although there is land occupation and labor involved, does the money accumulated on soybeans count as occupation? Would the manpower and money consumed for storage be less than the labor?
Therefore, the sharp drop in soybean prices suddenly broke the psychological bottom line of many people.

This made the merchants who went to Huguang to buy beans feel a little nervous.

In order to get enough shares of cheap beans in this auction, many of them paid money to Lu Ting.

Seeing the soybean price plummeting day by day, it was almost impossible to earn enough money to hire mules, horses and porters.

After several businessmen discussed it, they decisively decided to cut their losses.

Soon they split into several groups and headed to nearby prefectures and counties and began selling stocks frantically.

When Tianfu used the tax as an inducement to sell soybeans, they were still somewhat restrained. In the early stage, they only offered a price slightly lower than the market price. Only when the market in a certain place was close to saturation did they start to sell at a high price.

Although his quotes were getting lower and lower, the local market was simply unable to keep up, and not many low-priced soybeans were actually sold.

Basically, every time, it only takes a small loss to destroy the market.

But Tian Fu deliberately did this before the other merchants and on their way back.

As a result, other merchants' operations of cutting their losses completely destroyed the soybean market in Henan.

It just so happened that because Pei Yuan's face alone did not get all the soybean shares, he still had 60,000 taels of land tax left, so he and Chen Toutie split up.

A man led a team in the front and sold off the stocks crazily.

One of them takes the money and waits for other competitors to sweep the market, then runs out and secretly buys up the goods.

As a result, when Chen Toutie, who was ahead of him, took the silver from selling beans and left Henan, he only sold 60,000 taels of soybeans out of 80,000 taels of silver.

Later, he paid 60,000 taels of land tax to buy three times as much soybeans as before.

In the end, thanks to the flexible operation of Tianfu, they not only took advantage of their peers' selling at a loss, but also destroyed the soybean market in Henan and caused the locals to give up growing soybeans.

It also absorbed a large amount of local soybean stocks and expanded the scale of soybean storage.

Pei Yuan was amazed after hearing these details.

Then he asked the two people again, "Since you have harvested so many soybeans, transportation must be a problem. Why did you come so quickly?"

Tian Fu explained, "Because the soybeans we bought far exceeded our expectations, the students boldly used the letters given by the thousand households to disperse and store those beans in the county treasuries."

"The amount stored in each county is not large enough for them to risk embezzlement, and the students have left written evidence."

Pei Yuan then asked, "Since you did this, I think you have some considerations. What are your plans for the future?"

Tian Fu replied, "I have discussed this matter with the captain before, and I know that the captain plans to transport these soybeans to the south and use them to press oil or make sauce."

"If that's the case, there's absolutely no need to ship it to Shandong."

"If we want to transport it to Shandong, not only will it cost a lot of money along the way, but we will also have to prepare a place to store it. We can just go directly by water from Henan and transport it to Huai'an."

“From Henan, you can take the Huai River, then pass through Hongze Lake, converge with the Grand Canal, and then enter Huai’an.”

"Another advantage of taking this route is that we can pass through the Jianxi River in Xuyi and transport the beans to Chaheji."

"By switching to land transport from Chaheji, and then using cargo ships to pass through Baoying Lake and then transport it to the south, we can avoid the Huai'an customs, which will kill two birds with one stone and reduce the hassle of traveling."

After Tian Fu finished speaking, he looked at Pei Yuan with confidence, waiting for Pei Yuan's reaction to this matter.

Unexpectedly, Pei Yuan's expression became strange after listening to it.

Chaheji...

That was where Pei Yuan and Han Qianhu made their first pot of gold!
I heard that because they took away so much silver, the trade in the entire Huai'an area fell into a slump for a long time.

But what does this have to do with Pei Yuan?
This is his lucky place where he makes a lot of money!

Pei Yuan was more and more satisfied with the arrangement of the land tax. "Very good! I will organize a caravan later to transport the soybeans to Chaheji."

Seeing that Pei Yuan agreed with his approach, Tian Fu took the initiative to say, "The location of Chaheji is very critical. Should we purchase some warehouses there to be responsible for cargo transportation?"

Pei Yuan nodded subconsciously, but suddenly shook his head halfway through.

Tian Fu was stunned. What does this mean?
Pei Yuan's face showed a tangled look, and after a while he said, "There is a Sanyuan Palace in Chaheji. Ask someone to go and ask around to see what's going on there."

Last time, Captain Han said that Yu Zhenzi had been imprisoned in the Nanjing Imperial Prison. I don’t know if the Sanyuan Palace has been abandoned.

If it weren't for the trouble caused by Yu Zhenzi, Sanyuan Palace would be a good stronghold.

Now that we have soybeans, it’s time to set up “Nanyou” as soon as possible.

By the time "Southern Oil" has digested this batch of raw materials, "Northern Oil" should have formed a stable planting scale and transportation routes.

At that time, we can supply "Nanyou" directly from Shandong.

Pei Yuan pondered for a while and temporarily gave up on Ouyang Bijin as a candidate.

Although the fat brother is a chosen one, he is not yet capable of doing such a demanding job. Speaking of such a demanding job, the best talent under Pei Yuan is naturally Kong Xu, who is currently serving as the pacification officer in the Qianhu Suo.

Kong Xu was promoted by Pei Yuan himself. He had no connection with the original Qianhu Suo and was considered to be Pei Yuan's own system.

That guy could even kidnap the Portuguese centipede ship and foreign sailors, let alone this matter.

In addition, when Kong Xu was still He Ru, he served as the chief clerk of Shangyuan County in Yingtian Prefecture. He knew the inside story of the Jiangnan officialdom and could find a government office that could help him when he needed to give money. As for the candidate to replace Kong Xu, Zhang Song, the judge of the Dali Temple, could be asked to try first.

Pei Yuan had not paid attention to the news from the court in the past few days, and he did not know whether the vigorous campaign to eliminate redundant officials had begun.

When Chen Toutie saw that Tian Fu had finished speaking, he quickly added, "I have already sent the 60,000 taels earned from selling beans to the capital. General Song will bring people to pick them up and transport the silver back to the previous place."

Pei Yuan hummed.

When he first entered the capital, he brought 60,000 taels with him. Later, he gave 20,000 taels to Cheng Leixiang to help him replenish his troops. Afterwards, he received 100,000 taels worth of gold and pearls from the Bazhou Army. Unexpectedly, after going around in circles, he saved up another 60,000 taels.

By the way, there is also the 20,000 taels sent by Li Shishi.

That was the money Pei Yuan earned from selling the Bazhou Army.

If this money is regarded as the final payment, theoretically Han Qianhu still has a share.

Pei Yuan plundered many large families in Yanggu this time. Although he has not yet come up with a rough estimate, Pei Yuan believes that it must be a considerable amount.

Pei Yuan planned to use a part of it to develop Luojiao, and reserve the other part to warm up for the subsequent hype of Ming Baochao.

Pei Yuan was just about to continue encouraging the two of them when he saw Chen Xinjian approaching in a hurry.

Pei Yuan looked over and saw Chen Xinjian answering with a strange expression, "Captain, the eunuch Bi Zhen has taken action."

"Oh?" Pei Yuan became interested. "Go ahead."

He wanted to take a look at Bi Zhen's "old knife" and planned to teach his "new knife" something.

Chen Xinjian continued with a strange look on his face, "Bi Zhen had someone report to the Censorate, saying that Yanggu County Magistrate Chen Lang was assassinated by Luo Cult members in broad daylight. He saw it with his own eyes..."

what? !

Pei Yuan was furious when he heard this. His careful plan was actually discovered by Bi Zhen? !

Then Chen Xinjian continued, "He also said that Captain Pei was also present at the time and was almost assassinated by Luo Jiao's people. You can also testify to this."

The expression on Pei Yuan's face suddenly changed. Okay, it's okay.

What the fuck? That’s it?

When I just left the Novice Village, I already knew how to use the White Lotus Sect’s vest. Do I need you to teach me?

What's more, you actually framed Luo Jiao.

Pei Yuan glanced at Master Chen and said, "I heard you were going to assassinate me?"

Chen Toutie was almost crying with anger, and he cursed loudly, "Bi Zhen, that bastard, actually dared to alienate the emperor and his ministers! I'm going to have someone kill him right now!"

The chief priest Tian Fu who was standing next to him understood that Bi Zhen was just looking for an excuse. It just so happened that the Luo sect was doing very well in Shandong recently, so he took the blame.

I guess Bi Zhen didn't expect that this incident would turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

So Tian Dajiu advised, "Master, forget it."

Pei Yuan laughed for a while, then remembered that the matter of Luo Sect should be fully unfolded.

So he asked Chen Xinjian, "Have the people from the West Factory arrived in Shandong?"

Chen Xinjian quickly replied, "Qiu Ju has arrived, and Gu Dayong is still on the way. They set up the West Factory Office directly in Jinan. I guess they listened to the advice of Qian Hu and planned to stay here for a while."

Pei Yuan thought it was just right, so he instructed Chen Xinjian, "Go and send a message to Wang Chang. Ask him to take half of the Luojiao believers brought in from various prefectures and counties and detain them in the West Factory Office."

Chen Xinjian agreed, and Pei Yuan added, "Don't just pick people randomly. We need to take some people sent by each prefecture and county."

This is the preparation for Chen Toutie to rescue people.

Once Chen Toutie "demonstrates his strength" and drags people out of the Governor's Office and the Western Factory Office in a swaggering manner, those pseudo-cultists will become real cultists.

Seeing that Pei Yuan had no other instructions, Chen Xinjian left and arranged for the Jinyiwei to deliver a letter to Wang Chang.

Pei Yuan took the opportunity to say to Chen Toutie and Tian Fu, "You may not know much about Bi Zhen. He is a remnant of Liu Jin and is now the eunuch guarding Shandong."

"This guy is somewhat dissatisfied with Yang Yiqing and the current emperor. He is someone who can be used."

"There are two more people behind him..."

Pei Yuan told the two what had happened in the past few days, as well as some information about the "Three Avengers".

Of course, it is mainly about land tax.

Bi Zhen can still serve as the governor of Shandong for a while, and the land tax will inevitably have to deal with Bi Zhen. If it were Chen Toutie, a simple man, facing the cunning Bi Zhen, he might suffer a loss.

Tian Fu was thoughtful after hearing this and asked Pei Yuan, "So, this eunuch is willing to contact us? This is a good thing."

Pei Yuan shook his head and said, "It's hard to say. It's just that a county magistrate died. Now Bi Zhen can attack or defend. His sincerity is limited. We still can't reveal too much, so as not to give him a handle."

Tian Fu asked again, "What about this incident?"

Pei Yuan was also somewhat helpless, "Just accept it. Anyway, if Luo Sect is to be established, it must also make a name for itself."

Tian Fu nodded slightly after hearing this, but did not raise any objections.

I just wonder what the garrison eunuch Bi Zhen would think if Luo Jiao took the initiative to admit this.

Pei Yuan thought highly of Tian Fu, and asked him by the way, "Bi Zhen is willing to help me take over this matter, which has shown some of his sincerity. When I plan to deal with Zhang Feng, I will take him with me. What do you think?"

Tian Fu thought for a while before saying, "Not appropriate. The captain just said that Bi Zhen is a greedy person. If he is involved in this matter, it may backfire."

Pei Yuanqi asked, "How could that be? Xiao Yan and I dealt with the Governor of the River Channel mostly for the sake of money. It's not a bad thing to let Bi Zhen get involved."

“Only when our interests are the same can we bind each other more firmly.”

Tian Fu shook his head after hearing this, "No, no, no. For people like Bi Zhen who are clearly after money, the money is for him to see, not for him to share."

Pei Yuan heard this and questioned directly, "What kind of straight man's statement is this?"

Tian Fu didn't understand what Pei Yuan meant, but he explained patiently.

"Having Bi Zhen join us will certainly make it easier to defeat Zhang Feng, and it will also be easier to consolidate the results that will follow."

"But have you ever thought about it? He came here for money, and your main purpose in dealing with Zhang Feng is also for money."

"When you defeat Zhang Feng, his opponent... will become you!"

Pei Yuan was startled when he heard this, and then he couldn't help but take a breath, "That makes sense!"

(End of this chapter)