Chapter 2003

Yang Chengye's response was very frank, and he did not try to deliberately conceal his attitude. It was not that he did not think of being friendly to facilitate the deal, but he subconsciously felt that those concealment methods should not be able to deceive the rather handsome man in front of him.

Smart Boss Gong. The purpose of the other party's coming to Yangzhou was not simple, and he would definitely be wary of him. If he tried to deliberately show his kindness, he was afraid that it would be counterproductive. So Yang Chengye simply expressed his thoughts directly to see if the other party was willing to accept it.

.

Gong Shiqi didn't expect that this man who came in the middle of the night was so upright, and actually had the idea of ​​buying these two ships of salt, and then sending him out of the country. Compared with the groups of people who came in the morning, this man named Yang

The salt merchant was obviously much more kind. He was at least willing to purchase the two shipments of salt at market price, and he did not show any intention of buying or selling by force.

But from Gong Shiqi's point of view, he can't just give him the salt and walk away. The two ships of salt are just tools. Gong Shiqi needs to use these salts to achieve his own goals, and the other party

Trying to resolve potential conflicts through acquisitions, Gong Shiqi could only say that this man thought things were too simple.

"Boss Yang, I'm afraid I won't be able to meet your request." Gong Shiqi shook his head and said: "If you really want to buy a large amount of salt, then I can help you match up and supply it in sufficient quantity at a low price for a long time. The price is even better than what you get from Jianghuai.

It’s even cheaper to collect salt from local salt farms!”

Instead of agreeing to Yang Chengye's proposal, Gong Shiqi took advantage of this opportunity to persuade Yang Chengye to join the Ningbo Salt Merchant's sales system, which made Yang Chengye dumbfounded.

For salt merchants, changing the purchase channel actually means changing their own camp. It is impossible for Huizhou salt merchants to go to the salt fields controlled by Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants to collect salt. As for changing the source of goods to the salt fields in Ningbo, it is even less likely.

It's possible.

When Haihan first started building new salt fields in Ningbo, Yangzhou salt merchants tried to contact them, hoping to completely monopolize the production of these salt fields and participate in the daily production and operation of the salt fields. But it was obviously difficult for both parties to negotiate this issue.

As discussed above, Haihan has always firmly controlled the supply of goods in its own hands when operating the salt field. Even local salt merchants in Ningbo can only act as regional distributors. As for participating in the operation of the salt field, only local officials with a certain level of real power can do so.

The privileges enjoyed by Yangzhou salt merchants, no matter how rich they were, could not cross this status threshold.

Being able to only be a regional distributor means that you have to act based on the faces of the Haihan people. This is of course an unacceptable condition for the Yangzhou salt merchants. Therefore, neither the Huizhou salt merchants nor the Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants ended up with the same situation at that time.

Several Ningbo salt fields that have not yet started production have reached an agreement. In their view, even if these new salt fields can be put into operation within one or two years, their scale will be limited after all. Their production capacity will at most meet the local needs of Ningbo and will not have any impact on Yangzhou.

The traditional market of salt merchants has had too great an impact, and at worst it will only lose the market of one or two state capitals.

Of course, what happened later was completely beyond the expectations of the Yangzhou salt merchants. After the Ningbo Salt Farm was put into operation, the production capacity not only satisfied the local market, but also soon began to spread to surrounding areas. The market that was originally controlled by the Yangzhou salt merchants was very

Kuai was also hit by the low-priced and high-quality Ningbo salt, which gave them a strong sense of crisis, which led to the subsequent attacks.

Yang Chengye shook his head and said: "Forget about long-term supply, I am only interested in these two shipments of salt. If Boss Gong can give Yang this face, then this transaction can be regarded as making a friend."

Gong Shiqi said: "Then I might as well put it bluntly. If you want to use this method to mediate the conflict between Yangzhou salt merchants and Ningbo salt merchants, it will definitely not work."

Seeing that the other party had seen through his true intention, Yang Chengye simply asked directly: "Then according to Boss Gong's intention, how can we solve the current situation?"

Gong Shiqi said: "It's very simple. The Yangzhou salt merchants hand over the real culprits behind the previous attacks, and other matters can be discussed slowly. If this condition cannot be met, then don't mention other matters first.

"

Gong Shiqi believed that the other party might represent a certain camp of Yangzhou salt merchants, so he also wanted to take this opportunity to send out a signal and clearly inform the other party how to resolve the matter. Of course, his reaction to the Yangzhou salt merchants was not

If you have too many expectations and the other party is far from exhausted, you will definitely not cooperate as he requires.

As expected, Yang Chengye immediately got a headache after hearing this. He originally wanted to come here to solve the problem, but he didn't expect that the Ningbo salt merchant was so stubborn and instead raised a new problem for him. Things did not go as he expected.

As the situation develops, the situation becomes more and more complicated.

Yang Chengye shook his head repeatedly and said: "I can't understand what Boss Gong said. I have never heard of any attacks, and I don't know what you mean by the real culprit behind the scenes. Boss Gong probably has something.

Is there a misunderstanding?"

Of course, it was impossible for Yang Chengye to betray his friend Lu Kangtai to an outsider he had never met, but from this he also realized that the purpose of these Ningbo salt merchants in Yangzhou was not as simple as selling salt. They were indeed well prepared and had a clear purpose.

, obviously trying to stimulate the local salt merchants to come forward by selling salt. But the funny thing is that all the influential local salt merchants are still hiding and watching in the dark. The only one who came forward to negotiate a peace with the other party was him.

People who originally wanted to stay out of it.

Yang Chengye also knows his shortcomings and is not good at negotiating with others. Being able to muster the courage to come here to meet with the other party is the best he can do. The conditions proposed by the other party are simply unacceptable to him.

If you cannot be satisfied, you must respond carefully to avoid being taken advantage of by the other party.

"It's so difficult for me!" Yang Chengye could only lament his difficulty in his heart. Whether it was Lu Kangtai, a group of salt merchants from Huizhou, or this new Ningbo salt merchant, it seemed that everyone he met today was trying every means to make things difficult.

The questions raised by him and everyone were beyond his ability. Ever since he took over the Yang family business, he seemed to have rarely encountered such a difficult situation. As for how to solve it, he was now a little confused and couldn't find it.

Consider more issues.

"Since the conditions cannot be negotiated, I think there is no need to waste everyone's time. Boss Yang should have understood our attitude. We might as well take this news back and discuss it with others to see if there is a better solution.

Solution." Seeing that there was basically no possibility of reaching an agreement, Gong Shiqi didn't want to waste any more time on this kind of conversation.

Gong Shiqi only regarded Yang Chengye as a lobbyist sent by a certain salt merchant. He did not expect that this man was a big salt merchant with one of the seven surnames of Huizhou salt merchants. Otherwise, he probably would not have dismissed him so easily.

He left. This was also due to his habitual thinking, thinking that local salt merchants would not show up easily. How could he have expected that an outlier like Yang Chengye would sneak up in the middle of the night to negotiate peace. He felt that he could not get it out of the mouth of a lobbyist who was running errands.

There is so much valuable information that even the master behind it may not be able to find out. However, among the entire group of Yangzhou salt merchants, Yang Chengye is probably the only one who understands the situation of the two major salt merchant camps.

Of course, Yang Chengye did not dare to reveal his identity. This visit was extremely dangerous. If his identity was exposed, he might be directly detained by the other party. When it came to this aspect of the negotiation, Yang Chengye seemed to be unable to offer any other conditions.

He came to bargain with the other party, and the other party's attitude seemed to be determined to solve the attack first. This was a knot that was difficult to untie for him.

Yang Chengye left the dock with disappointment and took a boat to cross the river to go home again. This bold late-night visit did not achieve his expected purpose, but it was not nothing. At least he had confirmed the other party's special purpose from Gong Shiqi.

This may play some role in subsequent negotiations. But what he is more worried about now is that these people are staying in Yangzhou and will not leave. Lu Kangtai and the Huizhou Business Council will continue to put pressure on him. What will happen next?

What's the best way to deal with it?

"Perhaps you should have been more patient just now, so that you could get more information out of that person." After Yang Chengye left, Ji Yuanqing appeared. He had just listened in the dark to the entire meeting between the two. Regarding

He still thought that Gong Shiqi's performance was a bit too hasty.

"You are right, but don't we have another source of information? One is more hostile to us, and the other is less hostile. Of course, the more hostile person is more suspicious of the attack." Gong

Shiqiyan explained his thoughts in a concise and concise manner: "Of course, the most important thing is that I have pried open the mouth of this guy we caught earlier. Who wants to use force against us, we will know when we ask next time."

Ji Yuanqing said: "With only one source of information, it is still a bit one-sided after all. The person just now was not hostile to us, so it is more worthy of a trick. Even if it can provide us with some information with reference value, it would be good."

Gong Shiqi thought for a while and admitted that Ji Yuanqing's view was reasonable. Since the man just now was not obviously hostile, he should really chat with him for a while and learn more about the information related to the local salt merchants. It took a lot of effort to get in touch with him.

To think that such an "industry insider" was let off so easily by me was really a mistake of no small magnitude.

But now that the decision had been made, there was no turning back. The two of them went to the bottom cabin again to interrogate the person they had caught earlier. Sure enough, Gong Shiqi's previous verbal offensive worked, and the person knew that he was from this gang.

There was no hope of escaping from the ruthless man's hands. When he saw Gong Shiqi again, he took the initiative to ensure that he could leave Yangzhou Mansion and settle down somewhere else.

This small thing was naturally not difficult for Gong Qiqi. He immediately promised to send him to a very safe place and give him dozens of acres of land. From now on, he would just live a life of farming. Now.

The agricultural reclamation and development zone on the island of Taiwan is in need of a large number of laborers. Even if hundreds more people come, Gong Shiqi can arrange them with the same ease.

Although the man was dubious about Gong Qi Qi's promise, he had no choice but to believe that Gong Qi Qi would fulfill his promise and immediately told everything he knew. The master he served was the Wang family of Shanxi-Shaanxi salt merchants.

Its economic strength is considered to be one of the richest among Yangzhou salt merchants, and the purpose of coming here tonight is just to intimidate Gong Shiqi and others and force them to leave Yangzhou as soon as possible.

When these gangsters came to cause trouble, they did not bring many weapons with them, so Gong Shiqi quite agreed with this man calling his behavior "intimidation". Of course, this may also be because the other party underestimated his own strength and thought that as long as people

A large number of people can scare Ningbo salt merchants from resisting. Who would have thought that there was an experienced ruthless man like Gong Shiqi sitting here, and he took action without saying three sentences.

But no matter what, in Gong Shiqi's view, the other party has fully exposed its hostility and has chosen to use force to solve the problem. This is highly suspected to be related to the previous attack.

"Wang Yu? This name seems a bit impressive..." Gong Shiqi thought for a moment and then remembered: "He is from the Shanshan Salt Merchant."

The name given by the prisoner is also briefly recorded in the information held by the Ministry of Security. The three most powerful families of Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants are the He, Lu, and Wang families, and the contemporary head of the Wang family seems to be

This is Wang Yu. As for the reason why Wang Yu wanted to attack them, the prisoner could not tell. He only admitted that if he could drive Gong Shiqi and others away from Yangzhou, he would be able to do so.

He received a reward of three hundred taels of silver from Wang Yu, and then he kept half of it himself, and the remaining half was distributed to his subordinates.

Regarding the previous attacks that occurred in several nearby state capitals, the prisoner refused to admit it and did not know who was the real culprit behind the scenes. And according to what he said, the only thugs under Wang Yu were like them.

A bunch of gangsters, not a special team equipped with muskets. The clues Gong Shiqi was looking forward to seemed to have come to an abrupt end.

"You're right. We should have had a good chat with Boss Yang who came to buy salt. Although this guy provided a lot of information, not much of it was what we needed." He came out of the cold and stuffy bottom cabin.

Afterwards, Gong Shiqi couldn't help complaining about his previous mistakes in judgment again.

Ji Yuanqing said: "Brother Gong, there is no need to be too pessimistic. Since this low-level trick has hit a snag here, maybe they will use some more radical methods next. It's just that the enemy is hiding and we are showing.

There is no more accurate intelligence source to judge when they will launch, so we need to be more careful."

Gong Shiqi nodded and said: "Brother Ji is right. Obviously many local people don't want to see us stay here anymore. The struggle will probably escalate next!"
Chapter completed!