Chapter 648: Bad news
At first, there were 20 or 30 people who wanted to ask the government for an explanation.
But as they walked along, passers-by curiously asked them what they were going to do. Everyone didn't hide it, and the passers-by decided to follow them to see.
So, more and more people were forced along the way.
Finally, they came to the Zhuozhou government office in groups, and then they were stopped outside the door by the soldiers.
This matter was reported to Zhao Minglou, but he chose to avoid seeing them.
With the soldiers stopping them, the common people didn't dare to act too much at this time. In the end, they could only change their ways and go to make trouble with the donkey owners such as the Cai family and the Lu family.
Wang Dong watched from a hidden place in the back, thinking that this was just the beginning.
The situation has not yet reached the worst time, and the common people can still maintain their rationality and retreat after being intimidated. Later, it will be difficult for the deterrence of force to work, and it may have the opposite effect.
Here, Cai Guang is still trying to save himself.
Cai Guang tried to contact the big customers he had cooperated with before in the vicinity of Zhuozhou, hoping to sell the donkeys of the Cai family to them at a low price. It was also a coincidence that one of the companies he found was Anhe Pharmacy.
When he went to contact them, the other party gave him a bottom line. They signed a contract with someone and could buy 100,000 donkeys for 600,000 taels, which was equivalent to 6 taels of silver per donkey.
When Cai Guang heard the news, he was stunned. In other words, it was difficult to sell their donkeys for more than 6 taels of silver.
The surrounding roads were blocked, and they couldn't sell their donkeys without losing money!
But if a donkey was less than 6 taels of silver, it would be a real loss.
Zhuozhou was finished!
As the saying goes, a leaky house is in trouble when it rains all night, and a hemp rope breaks at the thinnest part.
Not long after the donkey price plummeted, Pingzhou made another move.
After Pingzhou announced that it would no longer buy Zhuozhou donkeys, Pingzhou began to tighten its food purse and raise food prices.
This bad news came one after another.
As if in response to Pingzhou's order to raise food prices, food prices in various parts of Dali also rose one after another, among which the food prices in Zhuozhou and nearby areas rose more rapidly.
In fact, the grain price in Dali has also risen recently. After all, March and April every year are the lean seasons, and the grain price will rise a little at this time. Moreover, because the merchants in Pingzhou kept buying and buying in Dali last year, and exchanged goods for grain, the people had less grain in their hands, and the grain price in Dali rose more than before.
The grain price in Pingzhou has always been maintained at a relatively low price range. Now that the grain price in Pingzhou has risen, the grain merchants in Dali have raised the price, and the increase is justified.
As the grain price in Dali rose, the people in Zhuozhou complained.
There is nothing left at home, no grain, no money, only a few donkeys left.
The key is that the donkeys of the people are one month later than those of the Cai family, and they have not been slaughtered yet.
Their donkeys take a year to become donkeys. Before the age of one, donkeys are in their golden growth period and are still in the peak period of growth and development. The consumption of grain and grass is huge. If the grain and grass are cut off, they will lose weight quickly.
In other words, the grain and grass cannot be cut off.
It's really bad. The price of donkeys has been falling, and the price of grain has risen to the sky. God has left no way for people to live.
Some people say that if donkeys can't be sold at a high price, they can just kill them and eat the meat.
But the common people are thrifty and they know that it is not cost-effective to kill them and eat the meat. After all, even if a donkey can only be sold for five or six taels of silver, the grain bought with five or six taels of silver can be eaten by the family for a long time if they save some. And how many meals can they eat by killing donkeys for meat? In addition, most of them are still hungry.
In short, Zhuozhou is now shrouded in a cloud of sorrow.
Pingzhou, Changli
Lu Songli and others are also paying attention to the situation in Zhuozhou.
Now the donkey market in Zhuozhou is in a stage of mutual trampling and market crashing.
Pingzhou has posed a difficult problem to the Dali court. Should the court accept this hot potato of Zhuozhou or not?
Will the court save the market in Zhuozhou or not?
If the court does not take action, Pingzhou's wealth disappearance trick will directly cause Zhuozhou's wealth to evaporate by half, and Zhuozhou's people's livelihood and economy will be destroyed by half.
Now it depends on whether the court is willing to fill this hole? Or ignore it or choose to add insult to injury.
Anyway, they in Pingzhou have made two preparations, and boxes of silver are ready.
…
Xie Zhan and Liao Xuewang in Qingzhou have been secretly paying attention to the situation in Zhuozhou.
The changes in the situation in Zhuozhou are frightening.
Liao Xuewang said, "Grand Commander, the situation in Zhuozhou is not good."
Qiao Xitong, a timber merchant in Bingzhou, and Hu Jiangyi, a porcelain merchant in Xin'an, also looked solemn.
Qiao Xitong and Hu Jiangyi came to Qingzhou secretly after receiving Xie Zhan's summons.
Xie Zhan did not speak, but fiddled with the information in his hand.
Cai Guangneng got the news about Anhe Pharmacy, and Xie Zhan also got the news. He intuitively felt that the contract of Anhe Pharmacy was related to Pingzhou.
He placed the contract between Ding Jun and the Cai family, and the contract between Anhe Pharmacy and Zhou Yi in front of him.
Xie Zhan called Liao Xuewang and others, "Come and take a look at these two contracts."
Xie Zhan compared the two contracts and vaguely saw the thread of the trap set by Pingzhou.
If he had intervened and suppressed the donkey price when he realized that Pingzhou had set up the trap of buying deer to control Chu, Pingzhou's loss would not be great.
It should be said that if he had intervened at the beginning, under the price control of the court, Pingzhou would have made trouble, and no matter whether the donkey price rose or fell, Pingzhou would not have suffered a big loss.
Liao Xuewang, Qiao Xitong and Hu Jiangyi were all big businessmen. They looked at each other and understood that Pingzhou had completely transferred the risk.
What a superb method of cultivating goods!
They looked at the two-point contract with burning eyes.
Xie Zhan pointed out calmly, "The price of donkeys in Zhuozhou will continue to fall, and it is estimated that it will fall below five or six taels."
For big buyers and customers like Anhe Pharmacy, even if there is no contract, they will hope that the price of the donkey is as low as possible.
Liao Xuewang took a breath of cold air, so cruel.
Qiao Xitong said attentively, "In this situation, it depends on whether the imperial court can take action. If the imperial court takes action to save Zhuozhou Donkey City, the people of Zhuozhou will not be too miserable."
Hu Jiangyi shook his head, "This is right or wrong. If the court is willing to take action, it depends on the strength of the court's action."
"If it is strong, the people of Zhuozhou can still make a little profit."
"If your efforts are average, you will work in vain for a year! Or you will suffer a small loss."
"If it's not strong enough, haha."
Liao Xuewang also said, "Yes, Old Qiao, what good thing are you thinking of? If you want to give the people of Zhuozhou the truth, the court will have to pay a heavy price."
"Grand Governor, what do you think?" Qiao Xi asked Xie Zhan.
"The imperial court probably won't take action. The cost of taking action is too high." Xie Zhan replied.
"From last year to this year, the cost of raising donkeys in Zhuozhou was very high. The cost of each donkey was as high as seven or eight taels of silver. How many donkeys are there in Zhuozhou now?"
"A conservative estimate should be more than one million, maybe more than two million."
Many people who originally lived in Daijun, Yanmen, Xinxing and other places flocked to Zhuozhou, Changshan, Taiyuan and Leping.
Because of Zhuozhou's special geographical location, many people flocked to it. According to statistics, there are 50,000 households, and almost every household raises donkeys.
The total number of donkeys in Zhuozhou must be sold for eight taels of silver each, so that the people can barely avoid losing money. This also means that the imperial court must spend at least 8 million taels of silver, or even 16 million taels of silver, in order to stabilize the donkey market in Zhuozhou.
Moreover, once they choose to take over Zhuozhou, it means that Pingzhou will compete with Pingzhou in the area of commodity colonial economy, so they must be on guard against Pingzhou, so they have to make more preparations in terms of money and food.
Xie Zhan is very aware of the current financial situation of the Dali court, and Xie Zhan also knows Song Mo very well. For a small Zhuozhou far away, the crisis in Zhuozhou did not threaten Song Mo. It was impossible for him to spend tens of millions of silver for the people here in Zhuozhou.
Qiao Xi and Liao Xuewang looked at each other. If the court didn't take action, Zhuozhou's people's livelihood and economy would really be ruined.
"What about Mr. Zhao from Zhao Minglou?" Liao Xuewang asked hesitantly.
Now Zhao Minglou is the chief official of Zhuozhou, and Zhuozhou's economy was destroyed by Pingzhou, and he cannot escape the blame.
"Now that public dissatisfaction is boiling, someone must take responsibility." Xie Zhan said coldly, who made the Zhao family insist on diving in in the first place.
"Ignore this, what do you think will happen next for Pingzhou?" Xie Zhan asked Liao Xuewang and the others.
Qiao Xi and Liao Xuewang looked at each other. The Governor was too calm and would never fight once he found something impossible to do.
Xie Zhan ignored the quarrel between them, and Zhuozhou was considered useless. In this battle, when Pingzhou successfully set up this game against Zhuozhou, Zhuozhou was destined to suffer such a disaster.
Along the way, he and Lu Songli fought against each other, winning and losing.
He lost this round, so he focused on the next round and tried to snipe the opponent from the front.
