At this moment, the only person who dared to stand between the mutinous Cao army and the governor's pacesetters, shouting "peace is the most important" and not being beaten, was Lin Daguan.
And it directly attracted the attention of thousands of people, including the governor, salt merchant leaders, the governor's pacesetters, the mutinous Cao army, and the melon-eating crowd at the scene.
Zheng Zhiyan, the leader of the salt merchants, shouted angrily: "Lin Tailai, how dare you"
"Shut up, you salt merchant who smells like copper!" Lin Daguan interrupted Zheng Yuanwai arrogantly, "Go away and wait! Let me have a few words with the Cao Army brothers first!"
In just two sentences, the difference between intimacy and distance was immediately revealed.
Lin Tailai then faced the thousands of people making trouble and said loudly: "It is not an option to keep making trouble like this, and the brothers in the Cao Army will not get much practical benefit.
I guess I, Lin Tailai, still have a certain reputation among my fellow Suzhou folks. Moreover, I currently have a martial arts reputation, and I may be able to serve in a guard post in the future. I am no stranger to my brothers in the Cao Army!
Therefore, I stepped forward to act as a mediator and asked the Cao Army brothers to believe in me!"
After finishing speaking, Lin Daguan stared closely at the mutinous crowd, feeling a little nervous.
In his heart, now is the most important part! It’s time to test whether his golden brand is shining brightly!
In fact, among the thousands of so-called "mutinous Cao troops", only a small half were Cao troops under Zhao Dawu and Zhao Baihu, and the other half were under Lin Tailai's subordinates.
The others came from Suzhou Caojun after hearing the news, and came together to support their fellow Caojun brothers.
Just like what Zhao Baihu said just now, the Cao troops who go out are very united and must support each other in any situation. Otherwise, it will be difficult to survive long-distance transportation in other places.
Moreover, the Cao Army itself came from a self-defense station, so it naturally has a certain degree of organization.
Under normal circumstances, half of the people in the crowd are enough to control and dominate the movements of thousands of people. Others will generally follow the herd subconsciously.
In troubled times, a few thousand elite cronies can control tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people. This is the reason.
Immediately, dozens of people took the lead in responding: "I have heard for a long time that Mr. Lin is a righteous person, and I would like to ask Mr. Lin to make the decision for us!"
After a slight delay, the others shouted together: "Please ask Mr. Lin to make the decision for us!"
After all, in Suzhou City, whether it is a low-level person or an upper-level celebrity, Lin Daguan's reputation is too loud and his credit is very good.
This promise has two meanings. The first one is that if you say you want to do something, you will definitely do it. If you say you will destroy your whole family, you will definitely destroy your whole family. You will never break your promise.
The second level is that those who follow Lin Daguan and his people, so far, without exception, have eaten meat and drank soup. This is also a more real credit than gold.
Therefore, even if this group of Suzhou Cao soldiers did not know Lin Tailai, they were still willing to believe Lin Tailai at this time. This is the prestige and reputation in the world.
In novels, it's the kind of person who "wows" after hearing the name.
Lin Tailai was completely relieved after seeing that he had appeased the "mutinous Cao Army" and received unanimous recognition and "support" from thousands of people.
Today's plan has reached this point, the most difficult part is over, and it's basically more than half successful!
While Chief Lin was thinking, he turned to Member Zheng and said unceremoniously: "You! Come and talk!"
But Officer Zheng did not step forward. Instead, he shrank back, completely "hiding" himself among the governor's pacesetters.
So Official Lin took the initiative and took a few steps to walk over, as if there was no one around and he didn't see the governor's pacesetters at all.
Originally, between Zheng Yuanwai and Lin Daguan, there were still more than a dozen governor's pacesetters, but at this moment, as if they had received some instructions, they dispersed together in a tacit understanding.
Zheng Yuanwai, who was completely exposed in front of Official Lin, said: "."
For these governors' role models, their duty is to ensure the safety of the governor. Zheng Salt Merchant and the like are not within the scope of their duties and cannot cause trouble for this.
Lin Daguan stood in front of Member Zheng, his tall figure blocked all the sunlight, and sighed: "You and I should have faced each other face to face and had a frank talk long ago, but you think too highly of yourself, Member Wai."
Zheng Yuanwai forcibly resisted the urge to curse and said coldly: "What conditions do you want?"
Lin Daguan pointed behind him and said loudly: "It's not that I want any conditions, but that I speak for the Cao Army brothers! You need to offer conditions to calm the anger of the Cao Army brothers!"
Zheng Yuanwai swallowed his anger and said: "You draw the line first!"
He had already made up his mind that a man could bend and stretch, so if he asked for a thousand sons and eight hundred taels, or a white oiran, he would accept it.
Even if it's a few thousand taels, you can consider it, and it won't hurt your muscles and bones.
A smile like the spring breeze appeared on Lin Daguan's face, "I thought about it and it's not difficult to appease these Suzhou Caojun brothers.
From now on, the salt sent by your Zheng family to Suzhou City will be completely handed over to the Caojun brothers for transportation."
"Lin is a high-ranking official!" the mutinous Cao army cheered, which shows how popular this condition is.
Although Zheng Yuanwai had already done some mental preparation in advance, he still couldn't help but became furious after hearing the conditions offered by Lin Tailai!
Suzhou Prefecture is his salt production area, but Suzhou Prefecture and Suzhou City are two different concepts.
Suzhou Prefecture includes all prefectures and counties such as Changshu, Jiading, Kunshan, Wujiang, and Taicang, while Suzhou City generally only includes two subsidiary counties, Wu County and Changzhou.
Although each prefecture and county in Suzhou Prefecture is not as strong as usual, the amount of salt produced in Suzhou City still accounts for one-third of the total in the prefecture.
The Zheng family's salt industry originally cost 20,000 yin (the official figure), and the amount shipped to Suzhou City was almost 7,000 yin.
What Lin Tailai means by "complete transportation" means that the profits from the transportation and sales of these 7,000 tons of salt, including the remaining salt from the salt belt, which is not known to be millions of kilograms, all depend on conscience, will be taken away?
Lin Tailai just said a word and took away most of the profits from one-third of the Zheng family's nest capital? How funny is that?
Seeing that Officer Zheng didn't respond except staring, Lin Daguan said in surprise: "What's the problem?"
Zheng Zhiyan's face turned even darker and he asked: "Do you think this condition is suitable?"
Lin Daguan had a good temper today and was very patient. He explained in detail: "What's inappropriate? I didn't ask for your nest book. The seven thousand salt nest book is still your family inheritance.
It is just equivalent to the Zheng family giving up the operating rights of this part of the nest to calm the anger of the Caojun brothers.
In other words, you can think of it as renting out these 7,000 salt nests at the lowest price!
Besides, we haven’t transported all the property of your Zheng family, but only one-third of the property in Suzhou City has left a lot of room for your Zheng family!”
In fact, it's not that Lin Daguan doesn't want to eat them all, it's just that some objective conditions don't allow it.
First, in an unfamiliar industry, it is too risky to become fat in one go, and it is easy to lose control.
Second, these Suzhou garrison troops all came from Suzhou City. They could only go back to Suzhou City on their return trip and may not be able to transport salt to other counties.
Therefore, for now, we should focus on Suzhou City and first establish the channels and framework of Lin's Salt Industry Group.
Official Lin said it in an understatement, but it almost caused Zheng Zhiyan and Zheng Yuanwai to explode on the spot.
It can only be said that the gap in psychological conditions between the two sides is so great that they can't even talk about "repaying the money on the ground".
After taking a deep breath, Zheng Zhiyan forced himself to calm down again and again, because the governor was watching from behind, waiting for him to resolve the incident.
"My Zheng family has already admitted defeat, so why do you need to be aggressive?" Zheng Yuanwai said in a deep voice: "Even if my Zheng family has made some mistakes, we will not have to pay seven thousand salt coins!"
Lin Daguan replied: "Zheng Zheng, you made a mistake. The degree of fault of your Zheng family is not decided by your Zheng family."
Then Lin Tailai relied on his tall figure to look at Governor Yang who was behind the pacesetters, and asked loudly: "Dazhong Cheng, do you think so?"
Governor Yang pretended not to hear and did not respond.
Lin Tailai had no choice but to give Zheng an ultimatum: "My conditions are not excessive and I will not change them again. Please agree to it!"
Zheng Zhiyan couldn't make sense to Lin Tai, so he had no choice but to turn around and walk to Governor Yang, pleading:
"My abilities are limited and we really can't continue the discussion. Please ask Dazhong Cheng to come forward."
My face is so big, if I ask Governor Yang to come forward, I might be able to reduce the price.
Governor Yang's face was expressionless. He looked at Member Zheng and said three words: "Promise him!"
Zheng Yuanwai was shocked. He did not expect that even Governor Yang, who was regarded as the backer of the scene, would prefer the opposite conditions.
"This condition is really too much." Zheng Yuanwai explained.
Governor Yang gritted his teeth and said without any doubt: "This court made it very clear. I promise him!"
He stepped on several pitfalls and created a scandal that would surely reach the sky like "the governor of Hecao broke the law and caused a mutiny in the Cao army." Lin Tailai had nothing to do with it.
Even if this matter is settled, it will cost an unknown amount of political resources and money.
Instead of dealing with the bottomless pit afterwards, it is better to resolve the matter on the spot at a fixed price to avoid unpredictable troubles!
Only then did Zheng Zhiyan understand what Lin Tailai meant when he just said, "The Zheng family does not have the final say in the size of their faults."
I'm afraid that in Lin Tailai's heart, he did not regard him as a negotiating partner at all. His negotiating partner was actually Governor Yang!
"This court will tell him for the last time, promise him!" Governor Yang couldn't wait any longer, and hinted: "This court is still in Jianghuai, and it will be a long time to come!"
It’s not like Zheng has never dealt with officials. Who knows whether there will be any so-called “compensation” in the future?
Officials' promises often amount to nothing more than that.
But Zheng Yuanwai was at his wits end at this time. His backer, Xu Guoyuan, was in the capital and could not solve the current problem!
Not getting the results he wanted from Governor Yang, Zheng Zhiyan returned to Lin Tailai.
Lin Daguan's smile was still so warm, and he said gently: "Now the conditions have changed again. These 7,000 dens are to be leased to me permanently. My people will collect the salt in the salt field, and then hand it over to the Caojun brothers."
Carried.”
The condition just now was that the Zheng family would collect the salt at the salt farm and hand it over to the Cao Army for transportation. The Zheng family would not have to take care of it afterwards.
Now the revised condition is that the Zheng family does not even need to take care of the salt collection, which means that the Zheng family has completely lost control of the 7,000-year-old family.
Zheng Zhiyan was going crazy, "You just said that the conditions will not change again!"
Official Lin said calmly: "If you didn't turn around and go to the governor just now and agree on the spot, the conditions would not change.
Now that you have gone to see the governor, the conditions have been changed accordingly."
This was completely unreasonable, and Zheng almost wanted to turn around and go find Governor Yang again.
Seeing that Zheng was still unwilling to agree readily, Lin Tailai asked again: "Do you still want to go to the governor?"
Zheng Yuanwai felt that his situation was too difficult and he was really in a dilemma.
"Promise him!" In a daze, Officer Zheng seemed to hear Governor Yang calling from behind.
If he didn't agree, he might even offend the governor to death. Zheng Yuanwai felt hopeless and said, "That's all? Will it never change again?"
Lin Tailai nodded, "If you agree now, you won't change again!"
In the end, Zheng Yuanwai succumbed to reality, lowered his head and said, "Then I agree!"
Official Lin immediately turned his head and shouted in the other direction: "Gao Changjiang! Prepare the contract! In quadruplicate!"
Then he said to Zheng Yuanwai: "There is no proof for what you say, but the contract is for proof!"
Taking advantage of the free time to prepare the contract, Lin Daguan walked up to the thousands of "mutinous Cao troops" and said excitedly:
"Brothers of the Cao Army! I have brought you a livelihood that will last at least several generations!"
"Ziguan Gaoyi!" Those Cao soldiers were even more excited than Lin Daguan's people, and even changed their title to "Ziguan". Originally, only members of the Lin clan called Lin Tailai this way.
"From now on, the 7,000 yuan of salt shipped from Yangzhou to Suzhou City will be completely transported by you!"
"It's a good idea to sit down and be righteous!"
"According to my personal estimation, each of the Caojun brothers present here can make a profit of ten taels per year!"
"It's a good idea to sit down and be righteous!"
The interaction at the scene was very lively. Every time Lin Daguan said something, the mutinous Cao Army cheered loudly and resounded through the sky.
Ten taels of silver is really not that small, it is basically close to the annual income of an ordinary migrant worker in Suzhou.
Official Lin was very satisfied. These Cao troops were indeed very united. If they could be used to their own advantage, they would have great potential in the future.
This phenomenon of Cao army grouping seems to be an inconspicuous situation in this era, not worth mentioning, but its influence on later generations lasted for hundreds of years.
In another time and space, after the Qing Dynasty, the Cao army based on the garrison system was naturally gone, but the indispensable water transportation still relied on these people.
So these people became the Cao Gang, and then evolved into the more famous Qing Gang.
At this time, Gao Changjiang rushed over and reminded hurriedly: "Sit down! Did you forget something?"
Official Lin asked, "What did you forget?"
Gao Changjiang replied: "How come you forgot the oiran Bai Ji when you were negotiating with Zheng Salt Merchant?
Didn't you come to Yangzhou City just for Bai Ji? Who doesn't know your deep love for Bai Ji?
You can definitely put forward this condition and ask Zheng Yanshang to hand over Bai Ji!"
Lin Tailai immediately changed his face and scolded: "That's ridiculous! Am I, Lin Tailai, someone who is desperate for women?
Besides, the reason why I negotiated with Zheng Zhiyan was to seek benefits for Caojun brothers, how could I cause trouble because of my own affairs?"
"It's high justice to sit in the palace! It's high justice to sit in the palace!" The mutinous Cajun army didn't know what to say, so they could only raise their arms and chant together enthusiastically.
In the background, I saw a book friend named Zhao Laoyao rewarded 15,000 book coins. What is this? Isn’t Qidian’s Qidian coins? The book coins are from QQ?
