I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 236 Game
"This is the loss caused by them, and we cannot bear this loss!" Mr. Li said firmly.

The others also nodded heavily.

"Brother Shen was really decisive. We bought one million jin of salt at 20 cents and sold it at 80 cents. We made a total of 6 taels of silver. It's really a lot!" Master Li exclaimed.

Mr. Zhou was also delighted, raised his glass and said, "Come on, everyone, give a toast to Brother Shen!"

Everyone stood up and toasted Mr. Shen.

Mr. Shen accepted everyone's toast with great pride.

After drinking a glass of wine, Mr. Zhou suddenly said: "I don't know where the Royal Group got this batch of salt, and it's selling it so cheaply."

"It is probably the surplus salt from the Changlu Salt Field. That is the extra salt produced by the salt farmers after they have finished producing the regular salt. The Changlu Salt Field is so large that it is normal to have one million kilograms of surplus salt. As for why it is so cheap, I haven't figured it out. But it doesn't matter anymore. The bargain has already fallen into our hands." After saying this, Mr. Shen couldn't help laughing again. He was in a very good mood now.

Everyone started laughing. It was so easy to turn the 6 taels of silver.
When everyone stopped laughing, Mr. Li suddenly said, "If only there could be more of this salt," with a cunning gleam in his eyes.

The others present nodded knowingly.

Now everyone has come to their senses and figured out the interests involved.

This batch of salt is beneficial rather than harmful to them. Although they have been cooperating with upstream salt merchants, they are actually in a state of constant game.

To put it bluntly, they are not united, nor are they completely of one mind. They are merely in a cooperative relationship, and they would gloat when they see the salt merchants' interests being damaged.

They now realize that they are completely right in this matter, and that this matter will bring them many benefits, so their minds become active.

It’s like when we discover a money-making bug while playing a game, the game company can only fix the bug, but cannot punish the person who used the bug, nor can it take back the money that the person used the bug to make.

In this case, most people will try their best to exploit the bug to maximize their profits before the bug is fixed.

The same is true for several masters present here. They believe that the emergence of this batch of low-priced salt is entirely due to the negligence of upstream salt merchants, so they want to get more low-priced salt before the upstream salt merchants discover this loophole.

"I've thought of this too. I've already told He Kui that if there's still low-priced salt, I'd like to buy it," said Mr. Shen leisurely as he took a sip of tea.

"Brother Shen is really smart!" Everyone praised him again.

"But words alone are not enough. We have to win over He Kui and treat him to good food, drinks and entertainment." said Mr. Li.

"Brother Li is right. I didn't expect the Royal Group to have such resources. We must try to win him over. It would be best if he becomes our man." "Yes, how much money can He Kui make as the shopkeeper in a year? Let's use the money to hit him hard. I don't believe we can't win him over."

Everyone present offered suggestions.
He Kui suddenly found that he was becoming very popular in Shunde City. All the masters and officials in the city began to invite him, and he gladly went to the city after receiving the invitation.
The efforts of the masters were not in vain. Ten days later, He Kui quickly brought back good news: he intercepted a large batch of salt, which was originally to be transported to Handan Prefecture. This batch of salt totaled 2 million kilograms.
Several lords of Shunde Prefecture gathered together for a meeting and decided to consume the two million kilograms of salt.
Similar scenes appeared in various provincial capitals in the four provinces of Shanhe.

The circulation of various commercial information in the Ming Dynasty was still relatively slow. Most of the big families doing sea salt business swallowed up the suddenly low-priced salt.
Such a large-scale flow of salt could not be hidden from the salt merchants. The salt merchants were just a relatively loose business organization without a central government that actually controlled the overall situation.

So the salt merchants fell into great chaos at this time. The Royal Group's actions were too sudden and too rapid. By the time they noticed the Royal Group's actions, the Royal Group had already transported hundreds of millions of kilograms of salt to various places in the four provinces of Shanhe through railways and canals.

They also noticed the behavior of local big families buying up the low-priced salt shipped to various places by the Royal Group. They also understood that the behavior of local big families buying up low-priced salt would harm their interests, but before they figured out the problem, they remained silent about this behavior. Even when some big families took the initiative to report to them that the Royal Group was selling low-priced salt, they began to hint to those big families to buy up the low-priced salt first.

Because although the salt merchants are still in chaos, they also know that under the current circumstances, they must maintain the price of salt and prevent it from collapsing, and the purchasing behavior of local big families can indeed maintain the price of salt.

In addition, the salt merchants have not yet realized the scale of this trade war. They still believe that they can deal with the Royal Group because they are very clear about the annual output of the Changlu Salt Field over the years. Even if the Royal Group uses some salt-drying method, they do not think that the annual output of the Changlu Salt Field can increase dramatically.

By the time the Royal Group completed the second round of sales, the salt merchants had finally escaped from the initial chaos.

The salt merchants were able to artificially raise the price of salt in various parts of the Ming Dynasty. They did have some organizational ability, which could even be said to be much higher than that of other groups in the Ming Dynasty at that time.

It was this organizational ability that enabled the salt merchants to quickly set up a board of directors, and let respected people among the salt merchants serve as directors to deal with this situation.

They began to actively contact Zhu Houxun, trying to find out what Zhu Houxun wanted. At this time, they still believed that the matter could be resolved peacefully as long as they offered a sufficient price. Moreover, they still had some awe for the Royal Group, so they did not want to fall out.

On the other hand, he was spying on the situation at the Nanbao Salt Field to find out how many cards Zhu Houxuan had in his hand.

Zhu Houxuan deliberately used various reasons to delay contact with the salt merchant group.
In this eerie calm, He Kui walked leisurely through two Jinshi archways and entered the Shen Mansion.

"Brother He, how come you have time to come to my house?" Mr. Shen asked with a smile.

"That's because I have something important to discuss with you, so I came to bother you at your house." He Kui said respectfully.

"What's the matter? Please tell me clearly, brother He." Mr. Shen sat up straight. He had a bad feeling in his heart.
"The headquarters has sent another batch of salt to Shunde Prefecture for sale." He Kui paused.

"This time there are four million catties."

(End of this chapter)