Seeing Luan'er go, Huo Guang still felt it was a pity. Luan'er was fair-skinned, beautiful and had a good personality. She had a soft voice and a soft body and was easy to push down. It was a pity, a pity.
In the next few days, the salt company gradually got back on track. In fact, the business was not complicated. It just imported salt, distributed it, and collected money. The more troublesome part was coordinating the tax inspection with the four Shaofuyuan in the county.
matter.
But because of the visible increase in income, Shaofuyuan is very active from top to bottom.
Thinking that things were almost done, Huo Guang got ready to set off early in the morning to find Gan Fu to learn the way of life.
But as soon as he opened the door, Zhang Jiaqi rushed over in a panic: "Brother Guang, it's not good, Brother Guang."
"What's wrong? Don't worry and tell me slowly."
Zhang Jiaqi stretched out his hand and opened it. There was pearl salt inside, but it looked fine.
"Brother Guang, this is sold in the county next door. A friend of mine happened to come over and brought it to me. Pearl salt is also available in the county next door."
Huo Guang frowned: "Is the quantity large?"
"It is said that the amount is two stones a day these days."
"Let's go to the company."
The emergence of an emergency forced Huo Guang to deal with it first, and the two of them rushed to the company quickly.
Huo Guang doesn’t think that the technology of pearl salt has leaked out. First of all, theoretically, it can’t be so fast, and the salt field is in Jiaodong. If the technology has leaked out, the pearl salt must first flow into the market in the area around Jiaodong.
.
Second, there are only two stones per day. If it is really a technology outflow, it should not be just that.
Then there is only one possibility, which is that it leaked from the hands of these salt merchants in Hedong County.
I have given a serious warning, but someone is still doing things behind my back, and it is obvious that they do not take me seriously.
The current daily supply of pearl salt to each salt merchant is between half a stone and one stone, and is distributed according to the arrival of the goods. If the neighboring county can supply two stones a day, it means there may be more than one.
Huo Guang took Zhang Jiaqi to the county governor's house with the import and export data of the past few days.
Chu Yuxiong greeted Huo Guang with a smile and exchanged a few pleasantries before Huo Guang got to the point: "Chief Chu, now there is pearl salt in the county next door, and the quantity is not small. For the market, this is nothing.
It’s just for circulation, but one of the purposes of setting up our company is to use government policies, so distributing it to other counties and cities would not be a good thing for us.”
Chu Yuxiong also understood what Huo Guang said: "However, it may be too difficult to completely stop the circulation."
"Of course, catch the big ones and let go the small ones. If you circulate a little every day, you can treat it as invisible. The current volume obviously means that we did not take our previous warnings to heart. These people will ruin big things. I plan to catch them and cut off the supply.
"
Chu Yuxiong was a little melancholy: "Aguang, will this cause a bad reaction?"
"Let's check first. If there are too many shops involved, we will find a way. If there are not many, we will kill the chicken to scare the monkeys."
Chu Yuxiong weighed the pros and cons: "Ask Zhang Tai, the county lieutenant of Xiahe County, to cooperate with you. Let's check it out first. Don't just alert the enemy easily."
Huo Guang found Zhang Tai immediately and explained clearly what happened. Zhang Tai also cooperated and asked: "What should we do?"
"Excuse me, Lieutenant Zhang, please send county officials to secretly observe the whereabouts of salt from various salt shops after the salt was taken away from our company today."
"Okay, okay."
Zhang Tai was very capable and started making arrangements immediately. Huo Guang returned to the salt company and started dividing the newly arrived pearl salt. Today it was still divided into half a stone, but after ten salt shops took it together, five stones of salt were put on the market together.
Now that there is enough pearl salt in Hedong County, the price has begun to drop. After all, the price of pearl salt is high and it is difficult for ordinary people to buy it for long-term use.
The luxuries of the aristocratic class are now slowly reducing in price and becoming daily necessities of the middle class. At that time, the salt shop can still make a huge profit difference, and for the salt shop, the salt tax charged for ordinary salt is 15 tax.
, pearl salt is taxed 1/20, but the tax paid is less.
As the salt went down, Huo Guang waited. In the evening, someone from the county captain's office came with news.
"Master Huo, today we are tracking all the salt merchants. Four of them did not sell the salt in their own salt shops after taking it. Instead, they transported it to the salt shop, disguised themselves, and transported it to the dock through the stick gang's shipping.
After leaving, the tracking was interrupted, but the salt was transported out of Hedong County."
As he said that, the man handed Huo Guang the bamboo pieces with the names of the four salt shops written on them.
Huo Guang's eyes turned cold as he stared at the names of these four salt shops and said calmly: "From tomorrow on, these four salt shops will be directly kicked out of the qualifications to purchase pearl salt."
"Brother Guang, isn't it good to be so arbitrary?" Zhang Jiaqi hurriedly persuaded.
"Jia Qi, do you know why it took only one day for the county officials to find out the ins and outs of this matter?"
Zhang Jiaqi was puzzled.
"It shows that they don't take me seriously at all. They don't even bother to cover it up and just put on a facade. Do you think these four companies are the only ones that leak out to the outside world?"
"Brother Guang, are there others too?"
"You don't have to think about it to know that there must be it. Now the price of pearl salt in Hedong County has dropped, but it is hard to find pearl salt in the surrounding counties. These shops have a wide range of routes and sell some at a high price to the rich and powerful in other counties that they are familiar with.
There must be some customers, and the high profits are enough for them to break the rules, but they don't care about how much they do, but they still care about face. These four companies put it on the market without any scruples, and they slapped us in the face."
Huo Guang continued: "He slapped us in the face, and he was also prepared to make false accounts to deceive the various county governors. Jiaqi, don't forget that our original intention of establishing the salt company was to control the salt tax. If it cannot be controlled,
What's the use of leaving them to be the same as before."
Zhang Jiaqi is still a little worried: "But Brother Guang, I'm afraid of causing a bad reaction."
"What are you afraid of? When soldiers come, the water will be covered by the earth. If others bully you and you don't fight back, they will bully you harder. Those who are watching may come to bully you. We are young, and these merchants don't put us in the first place.
In my eyes, men are most afraid of being soft. If you are soft, you will be weak. If you are weak, you will be bullied."
"Today there are four salt merchants. In a few days, other salt merchants will join in seeing that there are no punitive measures. It is really chaos. The county governor and county magistrate handed over the matter to me. I am the errand
It’s all my fault.”
Zhang Jiaqi looked at Huo Guang with keen eyes. He found that Huo Guang had the temperament that he said he desired most but did not have, the aura of always being responsible for his own decisions.
"Brother Guang, do you want to send someone to notify us, or should we just stop?"
"Stop it directly, there is no need to waste words. Pearl salt is our exclusive product. They have to figure out whether it is a buyer's market or a seller's market. Other salt merchants will not object. Less competition will give them more competition.
Some profit margins.”
"And that Zhu Youcai, the little stick gang, is always at odds with me. It's time to clean up. Jiaqi, I heard you have a lot of friends."