Chapter 29 Pingyang Liu Family
Chapter 29 Pingyang Liu Family
Wang Rong and others were slightly surprised as they listened to Zhu Shenzui telling about the origins of Zhang Xijun and Li You, including the situation at Yangtou Mountain. They had never expected that they would encounter such a thing at Yangtou Mountain during their salt transport this time.
"Sixth Master, these people from Yangtou Mountain..." Xia Dong frowned and was about to say something, but before he could say anything, Zhu Shenzhui waved his hand.
"I have great use for the people of Yangtou Mountain. This has been decided. In a few days, two people from the village will go to Yangtou Mountain. Starting next year, Yangtou Mountain will be our transit station for salt. By the way, part of the salt stored in Wangjia Village will be placed in Yangtou Mountain. If everything goes smoothly, Wangjia Village will not need too much salt in the future, and all of it will be transferred to Yangtou Mountain."
"What do you mean...?" Wang Rong asked, making a covering gesture with his hands.
Zhu Shenzhui nodded and said, "Uncle is right, that's what I meant. You know, Wangjia Village is our foundation, and it's too risky to store salt in Wangjia Village. It would be different if we changed to Yangtou Mountain, which is more secretive. Besides, Li Hu and his people have received our favor, and the location of Yangtou Mountain is also very advantageous. This arrangement will be more convenient for transporting salt in the future."
"It's not impossible to do so..." Wang Rong nodded, admitting that Zhu Shencui's consideration was correct, but he was still a little worried about Li Hu and others. These people killed the miners and the manager and fled to Yangtou Mountain. Although they received Zhu Shencui's kindness, they were not his own people after all.
Zhu Shenzhui immediately laughed and said, "That's why I brought Zhang Xijun and Li You to Wangjia Village. Let's not talk about Zhang Xijun for now, but Li You is Li Hu's only son. You can rest assured with Li You in your hands."
As for the rest, including the news he got from his brother-in-law Zhou Anmin, Zhu Shenzhui did not tell them. It was not because he did not trust Wang Rong, but because Zhu Shenzhui had other plans.
Besides, Zhu Shenzhui had already made the decision on this matter, and telling Wang Rong and the others was just a warning to prevent them from thinking too much.
Wangjiacun was involved in the salt trade under the guidance of Zhu Shencui. Zhu Shencui was the real boss. Moreover, Wang Rong was Zhu Shencui's uncle. Not to mention Wang Jinwu, who obeyed Zhu Shencui's orders and naturally could not object.
Besides, Wang Jinwu and Li Hu had fought each other last time, and they already had some sympathy for each other. Both Wang Jinwu and Li Hu were straightforward people, and they got along well because of their similar temperaments. Zhu Shenzhui accepted Li Hu and others, and Wang Jinwu agreed with both hands. Wang Chuer and others also had no objection to this. Only Xia Dong was still a little worried, but seeing that everyone had the same attitude, he didn't say anything.
After talking about what happened at Yangtou Mountain, Zhu Shenzui checked the profit accounts of this salt transport with everyone.
According to the distribution ratio, after deducting the cost and the share of Wang Rong and his son, the children of Wangjia Village and several leaders, Zhu Shenzui can get nearly half.
However, Zhu Shenzhui suggested that since he was the one who decided to recruit the people from Yangtou Mountain, the money spent should be deducted from his share. As soon as he said this, Wang Rong objected. Since the salt transportation was everyone's business, it was unreasonable for Zhu Shenzhui to bear it alone. Moreover, as Zhu Shenzhui said just now, Yangtou Mountain would be the foothold for Wangjia Village to store and transport salt in the future, which would be beneficial to everyone.
After some argument, Zhu Shenzhui reluctantly agreed to deduct the money from the public fund. After recalculating, Zhu Shenzhui finally took his own share, and the rest was distributed by Wang Rong according to the proportion.
After dealing with these, the salt removal is completely completed and this year's work is over. We will continue next year after the cold winter is over.
After the money was distributed, smiles appeared on everyone's faces. The harvest from the salt trade was good this time. With this money, the whole Wangjia Village could have a good year.
Before leaving, Xia Dong quietly told Zhu Shenzhui that when they were transporting salt, he took people to Liezhou and brought back a batch of salt according to Zhu Shenzhui's instructions, which had been hidden in Wangjia Village.
After listening to Xia Dong's report and asking about the amount, Zhu Shenzhui was quite satisfied. However, Xia Dong told Zhu Shenzhui that he had inquired in Jiezhou and that the salt road might be a bit difficult next year. Xia Dong had reminded of this before the salt trip. It seemed that the problem was not solved on this trip to Jiezhou.
"What's going on?" Zhu Shenzhui asked Xia Dong.
"Before, they said it was a military demand. This time, I went over and inquired carefully. It's not a military demand at all. It's clearly someone bribed the mine supervisor to find an excuse."
"who?"
"The Liu family of Pingyang Prefecture!"
"Liu family?"
Zhu Shenzhui frowned immediately. He knew that the Liu family was a famous big merchant in Pingyang Prefecture. Although they were merchants, the Liu family also engaged in private salt trading. However, compared with Zhu Shenzhui's small-scale operations, the Liu family's private salt was much larger. All along, Liu had been privately selling private salt while transporting salt for the court, and the amount was huge.
Compared with Zhu Shenzhui and Wangjiacun, the Liu family was not comparable in terms of financial resources or the scale of their salt trafficking. In theory, everyone kept to themselves. The Liu family used the Kaizhongfa to privately hoard salt and sell it with salt permits, while Zhu Shenzhui and his people only used their connections at the salt wells to make a little money by getting some "unplanned" surplus salt.
Everyone has different approaches and sales channels, and they have never had any dealings with each other.
But this time, the Liu family actually bribed the mine supervisor and directly monopolized the amount of surplus salt in Jiezhou next year, which was equivalent to cutting off Zhu Shenzhui's supply of salt. If all the surplus salt there was taken away by the Liu family, then where would Zhu Shenzhui's salt come from?
Without the supply, the salt business will simply not be able to continue. This is a big deal.
There are only a few places in Shanxi that produce salt, among which Jiezhou is the largest and has the most stable production. It is also not far from Pingyang Prefecture and Wangjia Village, making it very convenient to purchase and transport salt.
If the salt road in Jiezhou was cut off, they would not be able to carry on their private salt business.
You have to know that getting salt from other places is not only a long journey, but also requires new connections and channels. In addition, shipping salt is extremely risky, and there is no guarantee that it will be as stable as it is now after changing the channel. Moreover, there are cost and transportation issues, which makes it unrealistic.
But now, the Liu family suddenly monopolized the salt road in Lizhou, which was no small matter. What exactly did the Liu family want to do by doing this? Zhu Shenzhui didn't know for the time being, but cutting off someone's financial resources was tantamount to killing their parents. Zhu Shenzhui would never watch his salt road being cut off.
After carefully asking Xia Dong about the information he had learned in Jiezhou, Zhu Shenzhui secretly thought about how to solve this problem. But for a while, Zhu Shenzhui had no good solution, not to mention that this matter was not a trivial matter, so he had to think about it carefully.
Fortunately, Xia Dong brought a batch of salt back from Jiezhou this time, which was enough to last two or three trips until the beginning of next spring. So it was not urgent in terms of time, and he planned to find someone to inquire about it carefully before making a decision after returning to Pingyang Prefecture.
Putting this matter aside for the moment, that night Zhu Shenzhui had a good drink with his uncle Wang Rong and Wang Jinwu, and the uncle and nephew and cousin talked a lot.
After waking up the next day, Zhu Shenzhui washed up and prepared to leave Wangjia Village. Before leaving, he did not go to see Zhang Xijun and Li You who had settled down yesterday. He had already communicated with Wang Rong last night about how to settle these two people and what to do next. Wang Rong would do everything according to his wishes, so Zhu Shenzhui didn't have to worry about it at all.
Just like when he came, Zhu Shenzui held his jujube wood stick in his hand, carried a bundle on his shoulder, and held the musket and the silver earned from the salt trafficking in his arms. After bidding farewell to Wang Rong, he returned to Pingyang Prefecture alone.
In the afternoon, Zhu Shenzhui returned safely to Pingyang Prefecture. It had been nearly a month since he left Pingyang Prefecture. After entering the city and looking at the familiar streets, thinking of his sister-in-law Zhang and niece Qiaoer whom he had not seen for a long time, Zhu Shenzhui quickened his pace.
After a while, he finally got home and pushed the door. It was locked, which made Zhu Shenzhui slightly relieved. It seemed that his sister-in-law Zhang and niece should be at home. Every time Zhu Shenzhui left home, he carefully told Zhang to remember to lock the door when he was not at home, so as to avoid any accidents when there was no man at home.
After knocking twice, footsteps were heard from inside, and soon Zhang's vigilant voice was heard.
"Who is it?"
"Sister-in-law, I'm back!" Zhu Shenzhui responded quickly.
"Uncle?" Zhang's surprised voice was heard, and then the bolt was removed, and the door creaked open from the inside.
"Uncle is really back!" When Zhang opened the door and saw Zhu Shenzui standing outside the door, looking at her with a smile on his face, her face was full of joy.
(End of this chapter)