The seventh day of the eleventh month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, sunny and gentle breeze
At the entrance to the Hangzhou Pier, there is a huge Fortune Ship moored, and nine other Fortune Ships of the same model are floating around it like stars over the moon.
On the anchored fortune ship, today more than a dozen very wealthy guests came. They are all the most famous grain merchants in Hangzhou City and the entire Zhejiang Province.
Pang Gang, who was wearing casual clothes, was chatting with the grain merchants with a smile, and there was no trace of him being a decisive general.
"Come on, come on, come and try this dish. This is Mrs. Song's fish soup made by Liu Yidao, a famous man in Hangzhou. Please try it. It's not very authentic."
Pang Gang raised his chopsticks and made a half circle, pointing to the food and wine on the table and constantly urging everyone to drink and eat. Although the dishes on the table were indeed cooked very authentically, few people used their chopsticks. That's right, we are boarding the ship today.
None of these people are worth millions. Is there something they haven’t eaten before? Besides, they are not here to eat today.
Pang Gang persuaded everyone for a while, but when he saw that his persuasion seemed to have no effect, he was not angry, put down his chopsticks, smiled slightly, and stopped persuading everyone.
Pang Gang saw everyone put down their chopsticks and knew that their minds were no longer on the food and wine, so he put down his chopsticks and the smile on his face softened and he said seriously: "Everyone, I think everyone already knows the purpose of Pang's invitation today.
, I am a military man, I like to be straightforward when speaking, and I don’t want to talk in circles with everyone. Today Pang invited everyone here to buy food from you.”
Pang Gang's voice was not loud, but it was very clear. There was no other sound except Pang Gang's voice echoing in the small living room.
These grain merchants in Hangzhou are here today to attend the party held by Pang Gang. Rather than being invited, it is better to say that they are here under coercion. On the one hand, this coercion comes from the pressure of official uniforms, and on the other hand,
It came from the black muzzles of the ten warships outside the dock.
Since he was under coercion, he would inevitably have resentment in his heart, so he didn't really buy into Pang Gang's persuasion to drink.
Pang Gang looked around and said in a deep voice: "Okay, since everyone has come to the banquet with enough food, I won't dissuade everyone, let's get down to business!"
Although Pang Gang, who had suppressed a smile, was not wearing official uniform at the moment, he still had the majesty of being calm and dignified. Everyone couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts. They put aside the dissatisfaction and resentment in their hearts and said in unison: "Sir, please speak.
"
Pang Gang nodded, cleared his throat and said: "Everyone, I believe you know even if I don't tell you, I came to you today just to buy food, and the more the quantity, the better, how about you guys give me one?
To save face, why don’t you sell the surplus grain to me at the current market price?”
Everyone was silent for a while, and more than a dozen grain merchants looked at each other. They had long understood that Pang Gang came to them to buy grain, but they didn't expect that he would buy so much, and he wanted to buy all the inventory they had on hand.
It’s a bit hard for them to accept. If we sell all the grain to you at market price, what will we sell in winter? Isn’t this cutting off their financial resources? As the saying goes, short-term financial resources are like murdering parents. If it weren’t for this
General Pang had a vicious reputation, and they had already begun to curse him.
A grain merchant couldn't help but said: "General Pang, we are all in the grain business. We are naturally very happy when someone buys grain, but you have to buy all the surplus grain in our hands at the market price. To be honest
Our losses are huge."
Pang Gang nodded: "Of course I know that I always do things fairly. Since I bought your grain at the market price, I can also sell you a batch of refined salt at the market price. I don't know what you think."
"Refined salt!" The grain merchants' eyes suddenly lit up. There are not many things that can be kept secret in this world. Now who doesn't know that the owner in front of them is the largest supplier of refined salt in Hangzhou, and that Pang Gang can extract it from coarse salt?
Refined salt is no longer a secret. Everyone knows that with this technology of turning coarse salt into refined salt, the entire salt industry in Jiangnan will be controlled by the general in front of him.
Now General Pang is going to sell them a batch of refined salt at a low price. What does this mean? This means that they can use this batch of refined salt to make a considerable amount of money through their own channels. Everyone knows about refined salt.
The profits are much greater than the food, and in this case none of them would mind being a salt seller.
"I wonder how much refined salt you can sell to us?" Soon, a grain merchant couldn't help but ask. Businessmen always put "profit" first, and when they got benefits, these businessmen immediately put aside their hesitation and dissatisfaction.
The back of the head.
"Whoever gives me more grain, I will naturally sell more refined salt to him." Pang Gang said with a smile: "Let's put it this way, I plan to take out 100,000 kilograms of refined salt this time, and then sell it to him according to your instructions.
The quota will be allocated according to the amount of grain I have. If you sell more grain to me, the quota will naturally be larger, and vice versa, the quota will be smaller. Do you understand what I say?"
"Twenty thousand kilograms of refined salt!" Everyone's eyes lit up at once. These refined salts would be worth nothing once they changed hands.
Which of the grain merchants here is not a good person? As soon as Pang Gang's words came out, they understood that this is not to let them compete with each other. Well, competition is competition. Who doesn't compete in this business field?
Soon someone among the crowd spoke up, "Sir, I still have eight thousand shi of grain in my warehouse, and I am willing to sell it to you at a fair price."
"The villain still has fifteen thousand stones of grain in his warehouse, and he has sold them all to the adults."
"The villain has thirty thousand shi of food."
"The villain has twenty thousand stones of food."
With the person taking the lead, the remaining people were naturally unwilling to be left behind and began to report their numbers one by one.
Seeing everyone so excited, Pang Gang pressed his hands with a smile and said to Lin Feng, who was sitting behind him: "Okay, please wait a moment, Governor Lin, you are here to record the amount everyone sold to us."
Finally, Lin Feng did some statistics and found that the grain reported by these grain merchants was as much as 260,000 shi. When Pang Gang heard this amount, the smile on his face became even bigger. This made his purpose of coming to Hangzhou this time clear.
Even if it is completed, with some of this food and Qingzhou's original food reserves, it will be able to cope with the wave of refugees arriving at the end of this year.
With the grain matter settled, Pang Gang suddenly felt happy. Also feeling happy like him were the grain merchants. Although they sold most of their grain stocks, they could exchange for a large amount of refined salt.
It's a huge amount of money changing hands.
After settling the matter, the atmosphere in the small living room was naturally completely different from before. Pang Gang and the grain merchants began to exchange cups and drinks until the afternoon. Pang Gang sent these drunken grain merchants back.