Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 136: The food and clothing of millions of laborers

"The texture is really beautiful."

"Standard tiger-skin gold thread pattern."

Experts with flashlights are carefully examining the Phoebe zhennan wood brought back from the forest road.

The light from the flashlight fell on the golden nanmu wood, revealing the three-dimensional texture and illusionary effect.

"At least a high-quality product."

The expert sniffed the air and said, "It has a light medicinal aroma; this is old material, definitely not dark and murky."

Submerged Phoebe zhennan wood typically has the aroma of agarwood and floral and fruity notes.

It's really hard to tell unless you're an expert.

Reaching out to touch it, it was "smooth as silk and of moderate density."

"A bright golden yellow color, indicating it's made from materials that are at least 300 years old."

Several experts stood up and gestured to their respective bosses.

"Genuine, absolutely genuine, and all made from materials over three hundred years old."

One expert was perhaps too excited to see so much Phoebe zhennan wood at once.

He casually remarked, "Many of these are beams, pillars, doors, and windows; they were just taken down less than a month ago."

The surroundings fell silent.

Immediately, everyone seemed not to have heard anything and went about their own business.

Several business owners gathered around Lin Dao, their smiles warm and sincere.

"Mr. Lin, I'll take the whole batch of materials!"

"Screw you, do you even know how many square meters this is? You could sell all your houses (three, four, five, and six) and still not be able to raise the money for this."

"Mr. Lin, I'll take fifty cubic meters!"

"Mr. Lin, it's almost lunchtime, let's go grab a bite to eat."

"Mr. Lin, I know a great place; their techniques are absolutely amazing!"

High-quality Phoebe zhennan wood of excellent age is a rare commodity.

The timber dealers were all desperate, hoping to acquire as much stock as possible.

Once you get the goods, process them, and then sell them, you can make double the profit.

When it comes to profitable business, the bosses are incredibly enthusiastic.

"This batch of Phoebe zhennan wood from South Africa is hard-won. As for the price, please be reasonable." Lin Dao said with a smile.

Does South Africa have Phoebe zhennan?
South Africa is also Nan!
If the owner says yes, then yes.

"This batch of Nanfei goods is worth 200,000 yuan per cubic meter."

"That's right, 200,000 per square meter is a good price."

"Don't worry, Mr. Lin, the price we offer is absolutely the market price."

Market price my ass!

Lin Dao is no longer a young newcomer to the industry.

He has sold countless valuable items and encountered all sorts of scams.

I've never met someone I didn't want to take advantage of!

These timber merchants were united in their attempt to lower the price, but Lin Dao wouldn't have any of it.

"There's no need to say anything else."

Lin Dao simply waved his hand and said, "Two hundred and fifty thousand per square meter."

"If you're willing to take it, then go sign the contract and make the payment."

"If you're not willing, we can still have opportunities to cooperate in the future."

That's how a seller's market works.

I have good stuff, but if you don't want it, plenty of people will be scrambling to get it.

As for the price, of course I get to decide.

These Phoebe zhennan wood pieces, salvaged from various residences during the Chongzhen era, were eventually sold for 250,000 yuan per square meter.

Lin Dao earned a large sum of money, and his pockets became even fuller.

Of course, with such a large influx of goods, market prices will drop in the short term.

The next large-scale sale will take some time to recover.

Lin Dao instructed the finance department, "Remember to pay the taxes."

As a qualified time-traveling merchant, you absolutely cannot make a mistake when it comes to paying taxes.

With the money, Lin Dao continued his procurement efforts.

First, we imported grain on a large scale from India, purchased potatoes in large quantities from Tengzhou and other places, and also purchased feed from feed mills.

The demand for grain in Yonghe Time and Space is decreasing, and the beans, radishes, and other crops there are gradually being harvested.

However, the demand for food in the Chongzhen era was rapidly increasing.

Although the grain production in the Chongzhen era far exceeded that in the Yonghe era.

However, its population base is too large.

Moreover, most of the land in Jiangnan was used to grow cash crops for export, and grain mainly relied on imports from Hubei and Hunan.

Now that the supply channels have been cut off, the grain shortage will have to be filled by forest roads.

He didn't want to be a bandit; once he occupied a place, he wanted to hold onto it firmly.

The most important resource for stabilizing public morale is food.

In any world, food has always been a major source of imports.

Besides grain, there's chemical fertilizer.

This is a supplement to our food supply, and we hope to reduce food imports in the future.

Fertilizer is a hard currency needed in both times and places.

Then came various industrial products.

Iron nails, glass products, various tools, cement, vehicle frames, fabrics, dyed textiles, pressing equipment, etc.

These primary industrial products have low added value but high demand.

Lin Dao's import and export company has gradually gained some fame.

The Chongzhen era, Yangzhou.

Looking at Yangzhou City before him, Lin Dao's first thought was of the Yangzhou Massacre three years later.

A massacre transformed this once-prosperous city into a ghost town.

There are far too many cases of this kind of slaughter, made from wild boar hides.

There are too many to count.

The thought of so many people with queues in later generations trying to whitewash their past made Lin Dao feel nauseous.

At this time, the area outside the city gates of Yangzhou was packed with people.

The prefect, the county magistrate, the salt transport commissioner of Lianghuai, local gentry, and salt merchants' guilds all came.

Lin Dao started from Jinling City and traveled eastward along the Yangtze River.

The prefectures and counties along the way basically used silver to bribe the defending troops and open the city gates.

Those few who chose to hold out also lost in the first battle.

The situation in Yangzhou is somewhat unique.

The salt merchants spent money to mobilize local militia and salt workers to defend the city. However, Lin Dao occupied the docks and warehouses outside the city and captured their salt-trading fleet.

These were the true foundations of the salt merchants.

If the goods can't be shipped out, the supply lines to various places will eventually be cut off.

Smugglers from various regions would seize trade routes and market share.

If they want to break in again later, the cost will be extremely high.

After discussing it, the salt merchants decided to negotiate with Lin Dao and surrender the city.

There is only one condition: to acknowledge their status in the salt industry, just as it was under the Ming Dynasty.

Lin Dao agreed and had already prepared a backup plan to deal with the salt merchants.

Upon entering the city and arriving at the Salt Administration Office, Lin Dao asked the people who had followed him, "Where are your reinforcements?"

Yangzhou is an important city.

An important entrance to the Grand Canal for grain transport and the core area of ​​the Lianghuai salt industry.

Faced with Lin Dao's offensive, why didn't the surrounding Ming troops come to his aid?

This is not reasonable.

Well-informed salt merchants helped Lin Dao understand the situation.

"The peace talks between the imperial court and the Jurchens have failed."

"The slave chieftain mobilized a large army and launched a two-pronged attack to breach the passes and harass the capital region."

"The Grand Canal Transport Commissioner Shi Kefa and the Eunuch Lu Jiude, who was in charge of the Brave Guard Battalion, led troops from Lufeng and other places northward to defend the emperor."

This was also an important reason why Yangzhou was forced to surrender; they could not get reinforcements in a short period of time.

Lin Dao suddenly realized.

No wonder we haven't encountered any troops heading south along the way.

After the Battle of Songshan, Huang Taiji wanted to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty performed poorly in other aspects, but it still had backbone, and ultimately the peace negotiations failed.

Huang Taiji quickly launched his fifth invasion of the pass, plundering to make up for the severe material losses incurred in the Battle of Songshan.

Almost all the troops that could be mobilized in Jiangbei went to the capital region to defend the emperor.

The troops from the Hubei and Hunan regions went to Kaifeng to rescue Prince Zhou and are currently facing off against Li Zicheng's army.

In comparison, the fact that the exact news had not yet reached the capital was a trivial matter.

"I see."

His gaze swept over the group of salt merchants. "With the army entering the city, do you gentlemen have nothing to say?"

"We have prepared a banquet at Slender West Lake and would like to invite the commander to grace us with his presence."

Lin Dao wore a pleased expression, but inwardly he was complaining.

It's the same old routine again. Why do you all think I've never seen a beautiful woman before?

I'm not a wild boar!
He responded gently, "I won't go."

He'd be crazy to go drinking on the lake; he's just asking for trouble.

Seeing that the salt merchants were not following the rules, or rather, that they wanted to get away with it at the lowest possible cost.

Lin Dao didn't waste any more words and went straight to calling out names.

"The Salt Industry Guild donated one million taels of silver, 500,000 shi of grain, and 10,000 shi of salt."

"Three days from now, I will see the things you have donated."

"If not, the soldiers will go to your residences and fetch them themselves."

Having said that, before the salt merchants could complain or beg for mercy, he simply waved his hand.

"I haven't prepared any food here, please go back."

Yangzhou is different from Zhenjiang and other places that were captured earlier.

This is a commercial city primarily based on the salt industry and canal transport.

The old tricks of forcibly seizing land and distributing it to local people (for rent) won't work here.

Not to mention the salt workers, their income is high, their treatment is good, and they are very difficult to bribe.

Lin Dao's gaze fell upon the canal transport.

There is a famous saying: "The livelihood of millions of canal workers depends on them."

The claim of a million canal workers is definitely an exaggeration, but there were definitely several hundred thousand.

These people, who spend years traveling on the Grand Canal, are physically fit and are excellent recruits for pulling boats and transporting goods.

Nowadays, the canal transport during the Ming Dynasty is intermittent, and many canal workers are destitute and struggling to make ends meet.

Lin Dao decided to select a group of them to form an army.

The method is simple and crude.

They set up recruitment points directly, and the scene was filled with boxes full of silver dollars and piles of grain sacks.

Those willing to recruit soldiers will be given resettlement allowances immediately, and money and food will be distributed on the spot.

As for whether the full pay will be paid in the future, we'll have to wait until the pay is issued to find out.

To put it bluntly, the affairs of the Ming Dynasty were all about money and grain.

With gleaming silver and bags full of grain laid out before them, the canal workers, already starving and with their entire families ravenously waiting to be fed, were incredibly enthusiastic about signing up.

Within three days, several thousand young men were recruited.

"Commander."

On the fourth day, when Lin Dao, who was transporting supplies, came out of the warehouse, his guards came forward to report.

"Our recruitment site was smashed."

Lin Dao asked in surprise, "Who's tired of living?"

Although they were rebelling troops, they were still an army.

To dare to disrupt military operations is incredibly audacious.

"It's the Grand Canal Gang."

"They said we stole their people."

Lin Dao laughed and said, "You've lost your mind."

Even the most powerful gangs in the martial arts world are still just gangs.

How dare they provoke the army? What else could it be but a complete idiot?

"The 1,000th headquarters of the Bingzi Battalion dispatched troops, leaving no one alive from the Caobang."

The canal gang was not a gang that advocated for the interests of the canal workers.

Their existence serves only one purpose: to collect the money from the canal workers.

Manipulating the market, exploiting the canal workers, profiting from both upstream and downstream suppliers—they are nothing short of a bullying and monopolistic entity.

In the past, in order to complete the canal transport, all parties had been tolerant of them, which gradually made the canal gangs feel that they were someone important.

This time, the recruitment of soldiers in the forest area has taken away the canal workers who paid for their services, cutting off their source of income, which is something they cannot tolerate.

They were still celebrating on Slender West Lake after they finished smashing everything when Lin Dao's navy sailed directly into the lake.

If you capsize a boat, grab what you can, and sink what you can't grab.

The headquarters and branches of the Canal Gang were attacked, and none of the people inside survived.

The next morning, rows of severed heads hung along both sides of the official road outside Yangzhou!

(End of this chapter)