He Qizhou secretly laughed in his heart. The Liu family in Jiangjun County had more than 10,000 acres of rice fields. No matter how bad the harvest was, 20,000 dan was still more than enough. He then said: "Jiangjun County has a high terrain, so it is indeed not affected much. As long as there is nothing unusual within half a month, two
Wanshi is really not a problem, but we have agreed to go back within ten days to answer our orders, and we will leave tomorrow. For such an important matter, we can't just say it, but Mr. Chen can just lend us food without any worries?
"
Xiang Chen said hurriedly: "Of course not, brothers have to settle accounts openly. It would be fine if Mr. Cheng can temporarily store the family token and the jade pendant here, or use the land deed of the second master of the Liu family as security."
He Qizhou said: "Don't even think about the token and the jade pendant. I was in a daze that day, and Mr. Liu was not at home. It would be easier to borrow the land deed from him than to borrow money directly. Anyway, our family's food supply
In the end, I will sell it to you and the Navy, why don't we agree on a price and we will feel more comfortable buying the food you have."
Chen Yan said: "That's fine, but I don't know how much money you two can borrow?"
He Qizhou said: "How about this? Let's go to the dock first to see if the navy can be accommodating. Then we go to Liu Xizhou's house and ask how much we can borrow. How about you two come back in an hour?
"
Chen Yan frowned and said, "I'm afraid the navy doesn't wait for the ship's schedule, right?"
He Qizhou said: "They are already leaving a day late, so what if they stay for an extra hour or two? Don't worry, we can't let our old neighbors suffer too much."
Chen Yan said: "Okay, let's wait for good news and come back in an hour." After saying that, the two of them left Dangui Residence and did not go back to Xiang Chen. They went directly to the secluded small building in Taohua Pavilion not far away.
The hospital called Chen Su again, and the three of them calculated again. They bought a total of 8,000 stones from the navy, and bought about 8,000 more stones in the city in two days. A total of 400 taels of gold and 88,000 silver were used.
One thousand taels, equivalent to one hundred and four thousand taels of silver, of which the three of them paid 19,000 taels out of their own pockets, Chen Yan paid out 5,000 taels, and the other two each paid 7,000 taels, with a total of 26,000 shi in hand. If
In the future, if we sell the newly purchased 16,000 taels at the market price of 2.24 per stone, we will lose a total of more than 65,000 taels. Even if we deduct the more than 5,000 taels of unscrupulous money earned from selling grain at high prices, we will still lose more than 65,000 taels.
It's a loss of 60,000 taels.
The three of them were sweating coldly. The Chen family had a great business, and the biggest loss was that they were beaten a lot by their own family, but all the money they had spent was in vain.
Chen Su complained: "Boss Xiang, I have told you not to act recklessly. What should we do now? Even if we can take action on Zhang Luyao and the Navy in the future, how many years will it take to recover our losses?"
Xiang Chen said: "Chen Su, why didn't I see you say that when we wanted to divide the money? Besides, I didn't expect Zhang Luyao to be so willing to risk it. Moreover, I am not the one who made the final decision, and I never thought of letting our family
How can you blame me for the advance money?"
Chen Yan said with a dark face: "Stop arguing, I am the most responsible, but there is still a way to remedy it now. How can we fight on our own first? Brother Su, please do the math again. If the Navy takes back the original price of the food,
Go, if we sell the remaining grain reserves to the Liu family at thirty taels per stone, how much will we lose?"
Chen Su said: "This is easy to calculate. The loss is the eight thousand taels purchased in the city later. The loss is three taels per stone, a total of twenty-four thousand taels. If the old rice can be sold to the Liu family, they will earn back fifteen thousand taels."
Two, plus the profit of 5,000 taels from the previous high-priced grain sales, we only lost 4,000 taels. If that can happen, it should be the best result. However, the Navy and the Liu family will not be so stupid and will definitely have to bargain. We
You still have to be prepared to make concessions.”
"Of course I know this. Don't worry, I will always be responsible for paying back the money you gave me!" Chen said.
Xiang Chen said: "What about the hundreds of brothers under my command who are running around? Not to mention giving out silver rewards, there are dozens of people who were injured and imprisoned! You have to show how many they have."
Chen Yan thought to himself, he is indeed a money addict. At this moment, he is still thinking about getting more money back. If you take more money, won't it be a loss to me and Chen Su? He said lightly: "I will lock you in."
I’ll fish it out as much as I can. As for the rest, I don’t have time to worry about so much now. Let’s get rid of the food reserves in our hands first.”
According to the agreement, He Qizhou and the others should have come to see Huo Yan and the others half an hour ago. When they finally saw Xu Mu and He Qizhou, the three of them had angry faces. In the cabin of the navy ship, Huo Yan said angrily:
"Didn't we agree to borrow the grain? Why did Zhang Luyao transport the grain further and further, either to provide disaster relief or to sell it? Is he dragging us to die together? I am alone and it is not a pity to die, but the four men under him
Why do more than ten brothers have to endure this unreasonable disaster!"
Xu Mu pressed down his palm gently and said: "General Huo, please be patient. Things will turn around soon. Just listen to what I have to say."
Huo Yan said angrily: "What else can I do? Tell me!"
Xu Mu said: "Chen Yan came to see us just now. They did have 10,000 shi of old grain. This time, he ate most of the official grain sold in the city. However, now that the price of grain has been falling all the way, he can no longer sit still.
We need to sell the food as soon as possible. Now he wants us to persuade the Navy to take back the original price of the food that was previously sold to him. There is also a vague threat. If you are unwilling to take it back, firstly, he will report you for borrowing official food without permission. Secondly,
I’m here to report on the official ship’s involvement in selling private grain.”
The deputy navy envoy said anxiously: "What should we do? Mr. Huo, why don't we give back the money? Heads are at a premium!"
Huo Yan said: "Chen Yan? Damn it, which official ship carrying grain does not carry private goods? Most of the official ships taking the Eastern Canal heading north carry goods from the Chen family in Yangzhou. He dares to report privately
?As for borrowing official grain privately, I don’t care, there is still more than half an hour, you have to be responsible for returning the fifteen thousand dan to me!"
Xu Mu said: "I'm talking to you about this. Anyway, you just need to remember that you just brought five thousand shi of grain to Huguang Province and sold it to Jiangling Mansion at a fair price because you heard about the disaster.
It's urgent. Zhang Luyao borrowed another 20,000 shi from you one after another, and just delayed your shipping schedule for another day. We were also sent by Zhang Luyao. You don't know anything else. Someone will send the 20,000 shi to the dock warehouse.
, then you send a team of officers and soldiers to guard the dock. In name, Zhang Luyao will return the money to you. You can use the money to buy food locally. If you have enough, you can just load it on the ship. It will only delay you for another hour or two.
Moreover, nearly 10,000 shi of rice returned is old rice, we can only do so much, what do you think?"
Huo Yan said: "Can the rice really arrive right away? If that's the case, let the old rice be old. It's better than losing money."
Xu Mu said: "Then we would like to thank you, sir, and please wait two more hours for the ship to depart. As for the Chen family, no one has been seen and we have to say goodbye."
After leaving the dock, the two took a carriage back to the city and went straight to Liu Xizhou's house. Liu Xizhou's house was a first-class mansion in Jiangling City, covering an area of more than sixty acres. The two showed the Liu family to the steward.
After the token, the general manager of the Liu Mansion took him through twists and turns for about half a stick of incense. He came to the living room of the big house and said, "I know that Mr. Chen once brought this token to the villain. It turns out that
It belongs to Mr. Cheng from my uncle's family. I don't know that Mr. Cheng is really neglecting to come to this place."
He Qizhou said: "Old sir, there is no need to be polite. Who is in charge of the house now? Who can make the decision?"
The old steward said: "Back to the young master, the master and his wife are at the official residence in Shanxi. The young lady doesn't like the cold weather in the north, so she comes back every year at the end of summer. Now the young lady makes the decision."
He Qizhou said: "Can you please come over, Miss? We have something to discuss."
The old steward immediately called Liu Zhen. Since Zhang Qingrou once said that Liu Zhen was kind-hearted, and the Jiangling Liu family did donate a lot of food stored in the family to Zhang Luyao at the beginning of the disaster, it must have been Liu Zhen's idea.
Therefore, He Qizhou and Xu Mu decided not to hide their identities from Liu Zhen. After meeting Liu Zhen, the three of them dismissed the old steward. He Qizhou said: "Hello, Miss Liu, you should have seen that token, right?"
Liu Zhen said: "Well, it belongs to our Liu family. My father also has one. Are you two sent by grandpa?"
He Qizhou said: "We are here to help the people who were affected by the disaster. I heard from Zhang Qingrou that you have the same idea, so we want to tell you the truth, but we just need you to keep it a secret for us. I wonder if you are willing?"
Liu Zhen blinked his big eyes and said: "If it is really a righteous act, don't worry, I will keep it a secret for you."
He Qizhou looked at Xu Mu, saw Xu Mu nodded and said: "To tell you the truth, I am the countryman who had an argument with Chen Qi outside Jianghu Tower that day. My name is He Qizhou, and this is Xu Mu. We
Everything has changed."
Liu Zhen could hardly cover his mouth, which was open as wide as possible with his little hands, and his eyes were a little strange, and he said in a trembling voice: "Are you really Mr. Xu? Tell me, I will help you in any way I can."
He Qizhou raised the token in his hand and said: "Remember the murder case in Jiangjun County? The government convicted Liu Lin, who seems to be someone from your family. Your wife gave me this token to express her apology.
He said he could do something for me, and now I’m going to use it to ask you for a favor.”
Liu Zhen said: "Liu Lin? It seems that he manages some properties for my family and my uncle's family. I can't help you on his behalf. How can you help?"
He Qizhou said: "The Chen family in the city has hoarded a large amount of grain, thinking that they can live in the rare goods and make huge profits. We borrowed a large amount of official grain from the Navy and brought down the price of grain. The Chen family is now a little anxious and is anxious to sell the grain they have.
We want to buy his food in Yushi Liu's name and return it to the navy. The Chen family has always thought that we are people sent by Yushi Liu, so we are here to borrow money from you."
"How much do you want to borrow?"
He Qizhou said: "Borrow as much as you want, preferably the banknotes from the Chen Family Bank. Don't worry, it's just a pretense. We will use the money from selling the official grain to give it to you on the spot. You can just cash in the banknotes."
Give it to us. Moreover, what you told everyone is that your grandfather’s family sent someone over today, saying that it was inconvenient to carry a large amount of silver, so they exchanged some silver notes with your family and went back, and you didn’t know anything else.”