After saying goodbye to Heifu's mansion, Ba Zhong couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
"I never thought that even if I tried to lure him with millions of dollars in profit, I still wouldn't be able to do it."
Just now, Bazhong proposed that Heifu share the brown sugar production method with Bashi, plant a large amount of sugar cane in the middle of Shu, crush the sugar and sell it to the four corners of the country, and split the profits in half.
This is a temptation that ordinary people cannot refuse. The king of thousands of chariots, the prince of thousands of families, and the king of hundreds of houses are still suffering from poverty. People's desire for money is never enough.
But after Heifu thought for a moment, he poured two glasses of water himself, one was bland boiled water and the other was sweet honey water, and sent them to the Bazhong case.
"I wonder if Brother Ba has ever discovered that honey mixed with water is indeed sweet and delicious, but if you drink too much, you will get bored easily."
"White water is not the same. Although it is bland, you can drink it every day and you will not feel bored until you die."
"Therefore, the ancients said that the friendship between gentlemen is as light as water, while the friendship between villains is as sweet as sweet wine (li); a gentleman is indifferent to friendship, but a villain is willing to reject it. If friends simply share interests and encounter poverty, misfortune, they will
Abandoning each other. People who interact by nature can tolerate each other even in times of poverty and disaster.”
"Three years ago, Brother Ba and I crossed the same boat, ate the same portion of salt from the earthen jar, were trapped in the isolated city of Yidao, and ventured to Wuluo Zhongli Mountain. We were in trouble together. Therefore, Mr. Hei hopes that you
Between us, we can have more sincere feelings and less entanglements of interests! It would be better if the friendship between gentlemen is as light as water!"
Ba Zhong was a little disappointed with Hei Fu's decisive attitude. He thought Hei Fu was stingy and unwilling to share. He suddenly felt a sense of humiliation, like a hot face against a cold butt. Unexpectedly, Hei Fu said again:
"But then again, the world is so big and there are so many living things, how can one person take advantage of it all?"
"Since you and your mother want to get the method of making brown sugar, how can I keep it secret? I will write back now and ask Anlu Sugar Pressing Workshop to send a craftsman to Ba County to pass on this method to Ba Shi."
"Ba Shi can plant sugar cane in a suitable place in Sichuan, boil sugar and sell it, and the profits won't need to be shared with me. It will all be treated as a birthday gift from me to your mother-in-law!"
The turning point came so fast that Ba Zhong didn't expect it and couldn't help but froze on the spot.
He has been doing business for ten years, but he knows that all the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit, and everyone is running around for their own interests.
But there is no one like Heifu who pushes away the fat around his mouth and threatens to share business secrets without any secret!
Is it true, as he said, that money is an external possession and only friendship is valued?
He made only one request.
"The sweets from Bashu cannot come out of Bashu and Dongting counties!"
Thinking back to what happened just now, Ba Zhong sighed, shook his head and sighed.
"Heifu, Heifu, I never thought that you could be so generous and so careful at the same time!"
Although it seemed that their family got what they wanted without paying any price, the joys and sorrows involved were only understood by Ba Zhong himself.
What he drank was sweet sugar water, but his mouth was extremely bitter because he didn't get what he really wanted.
Although the Ba family seemed to be honorable, in fact, under the background of the emperor's emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business, he was still a despised merchant and a barbarian discriminated against by the people in Guanzhong. It was one thing to be the lord in Ba County, but when he arrived in Xianyang, he was still a despised merchant.
You must keep your head down and behave like a human being.
Coupled with the urgent matter, Bashi urgently needed to become friends with the emperor's ministers so that he could speak for his family in times of crisis.
But Heifu pushed for a huge profit and made Ba Shi owe him a big favor first.
"It doesn't matter."
Ba Zhong could only helplessly mutter to himself: "No matter how hard I struggle, I can't change that thing. Since I can't achieve friendship with villains, I can only try my best to maintain this 'light as water' friendship." !”
…
"Chief Zuo, why did you teach the Ba people how to make sugar in vain?"
Yan woke up a long time ago, but Heifu ordered him not to show his face and just stay indoors. He also listened to the general idea. As soon as Ba Zhong left, Yan came out. Thinking of the profits that Heifu had turned away, An, who suddenly became rich, Vendor Lu was so distressed that he stamped his feet.
"According to his statement, the profit earned every year is no less than one million, which is much more cost-effective than Chief Zuo Shu sending people to Nanchang to plant sugar cane and open a workshop!"
But Hei Fu touched his chin, thinking about the problem, and asked him: "Cousin, let me ask you, how much money can Ba Shi earn from cinnabar, well salt, and Botong in a year?"
Yan was stunned for a moment, then thought for a while and said: "People in the world often make guesses, and they all think that the profit will be no less than tens of millions every year."
"Of course, in this case, the profit from brown sugar is only a drop in the bucket, how can Ba Widow Qing be so interested in it?"
Yan was puzzled: "Didn't Chief Zuo say that brown sugar might be comparable to salt, iron, grain, etc., and become a large-scale trade in the future?"
"That will happen a long time ago. Even if Ba Widow Qing and her son have a long-term vision and want to occupy a corner of the brown sugar market in advance, they can just contact me slowly. Why are they so impatient? Ba Zhong's proposal is not about selling brown sugar at all. Instead, they tried different ways to bribe me with money!"
Ba Zhong seemed to be hiding something and acted anxiously. Ever since Yan got into the lawsuit, he had been trying to help and make Heifu owe his family favors. He seemed to have other agendas.
Heifu would rather not get the patent money than get involved in something beyond his control.
Yan still couldn't figure it out: "Didn't Zuo Shuzhang have reached an agreement with Wu Shiyan and sell him two thousand kilograms of brown sugar next year? What's the difference between Wu Shiyan and Ba Shi?"
Of course it was different. Wushi was located in Guanzhong, and every move was under the control of the government. They were official merchants authorized by Qin Shihuang. Heifu wholesaled brown sugar to them and sold it abroad in exchange for livestock, which was equivalent to making a contribution to the country.
Ba Shi, on the other hand, still makes money for his own family and is not under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, and his power is growing. According to Heifu's understanding of the emperor, he will not tolerate such a wealthy and powerful industrial and commercial owner staying in a border county for a long time. Yes, Pap's good days may be coming to an end soon.
"Besides, can one person take advantage of all the benefits in the world? Don't be too greedy. When doing business, you must consider the long term."
Heifu doesn't feel like he's at a loss at all: "For things that seem to be profitable, I might have to pay the price tomorrow. And I seem to be at a loss, but after a few years or ten years, I will definitely make a profit!"
It takes a year to plant sugar cane and a year to make brown sugar. When Ba's completes these tasks and really starts to make a profit, Heifu may even be able to make white sugar and rock sugar. By then, the sugar cane and brown sugar produced in Shu County will not only not constitute competition, but It has become a constant source of material for Heifu to optimize his products, and it can cultivate the habit of eating sweets among Bashu people. Why not?
Thinking of this, Heifu couldn't help but yawned, and that was the end of the matter. He asked Yan to return to Nanshi quickly, and asked Sang Mu to close the door...
What they didn't know was that from the afternoon when Wu Shiyan brought Mai and Shi Ershi to visit, to when Bazhong left the place with regrets on his face, and then when Yan rushed to Nanshi, someone had been secretly spying on Heifu's door during the entire process. !
…
Early the next morning, in Zhangtai Palace, the emperor, who had gotten up early to go to work, quietly listened to Dianke's subordinate "Xingren" reporting on the recent behavior of Ba Zhong, the son of Ba Widow Qing, and only said three words lightly.
"I know it."
Next, the emperor asked Zhao Gao, who was waiting outside and listening carefully to the emperor's attitude, to come in and ask him to draft the edict on his behalf.
"During the time of Duke Xiao, Shang Jun had the method of "leaving the people", and during the time of King Zhao, Fan Ju had the method of "attacking people". All of them immigrated to Qin to strengthen Guanzhong."
"Today, the world has been unified. However, there are few people in Guanzhong and Bashu. The Shanglin Garden is a hundred miles wide, but the fields are less than twelve acres and the number of fields is less than 100,000. The land of Bashu, Zeze, famous mountains, and rivers are rich in materials. It’s a treasure, but you can’t put it to good use.”
"However, the counties in Shandong have a narrow land and a small population. The rich are connected to each other, the poor have no place to stand, and the merchants rely on treachery to do their jobs. The land is not enough to support the people!"
"Today, I want to destroy the surplus and continue the shortage, so that 120,000 wealthy families in Shandong will move to Xianyang, Guanzhong, and Bashu! In this way, Shandong and Guizhou will have cultivated fields, and they will also be able to fill the fields in Guanzhong and Bashu. The stems will be strong but the branches and leaves will be weak. , the superiority and inferiority are clear, and everything is in its proper place!"
This was the great migration that the emperor had planned for a long time. As the edict said, moving the wealthy households from the six kingdoms' hometowns to the capital and keeping them under surveillance with the Qin people would not only reduce the resistance of the six kingdoms, but also develop the vast land and sparsely populated areas. Bashu is a wonderful way to strengthen stems and weak branches!
120,000 selected wealthy families and 600,000 remnants of the Six Kingdoms will soon leave their homes and come to a strange land after the emperor's edict is issued. They will lose the wealth and social relations of the past ten or dozens of generations and start everything again...
But people from the Six Kingdoms were not the only ones who were forcibly relocated.
Zhao Gao noticed that on the long list, the name of Bajun Ba's family suddenly appeared.
"The widow of Bajun moved her mother and son to live in Xianyang!"
Although the emperor praised the widow Qing greatly and made her a virgin, the widow Qing also reciprocated the favor and contributed a lot of money and silk to help the emperor complete the unification project, but this did not prevent him from taking action against the family.
At this moment, the emperor no longer needed to rely on Ba Shi to stabilize Bazhong. In his opinion, Ba County without a widow Qing was more convenient for the imperial court to rule than one with a widow Qing!
"what a pity!"
After being ordered to draft the edict and walk out of the emperor's palace, Zhao Gao put his hands behind his back and looked at Zhonglang Hu Ling Heifu, who was standing straight outside the palace and knew nothing about it, and secretly said:
"You are just one step away from disobeying the Emperor's heart!"