This time, following the crown prince along with the capital, there are the second prince, the third prince and the sixth prince.
Crown Prince and the third prince followed the emperor in his childhood to go around the tour a few times, to the scenery along the way is not very strange.
The Second Prince had been a homebody for twenty years and didn't care at all about the scenery outside of his monastic seminary, and was very calm all the way.
Therefore, the most excited person is the sixth prince.
On both sides of the canal, there were many peasants watching the vast grain ships of the imperial court.
The Sixth Prince also stood curiously at the bow of the boat, looking away from the peasants.
"How come they are all dressed so frugally?" The Sixth Prince asked Xue Yao, "Are these the peasants of the affected counties?"
Xue Yao couldn't help but laugh and cry, but now that we're in Shandong, how can the peasants dress like the people in the capital?
Moreover, these peasants wore coarse linen clothes that were not too brightly colored, and did not even have patches, which meant that the living conditions were still good.
Originally, I wanted to explain that this is the normal life of the people, but as soon as I took a look at the Sixth Prince's worried face, Xue Yao couldn't bear to break his imagination of the country's wealth and power, so she coaxed him by saying, "These peasants have to work the fields in the daytime, and if they wear silk brocade clothes on the ground, they'll be stained by mud or even rubbed through the clothes, which is a waste of the good materials, and it's more convenient than wearing burlap. "
"So that's how it is!" The Sixth Prince rejoiced.
The age of information is not circulating, no experience of the young prince, is so easy to deceive.
The Prince and his party planned to go to Zhejiang to buy grain, because the price of goods in Jinling was slightly higher than that in Hangzhou.
Xue Yao and the accompanying purchasing eunuchs advised the Crown Prince to compare prices, so the grain ship disembarked at Jinling first.
The customs of Jiangnan are very slightly different from those of the north.
Talented and graceful.
The people of the city of Jinling, the pace of life seems to be slower than the people of the capital a beat, and everywhere is permeated with the lazy atmosphere of idleness.
From time to time, pipa guqin accompaniment and women's melodious singing would come out from the restaurants lining the banks of the Qinhuai River.
The third prince listened to his eyes straight, said that he wanted to spend a few days in the city of Jinling, and negotiate the price with the local grain merchants.
But as soon as he got off the ship, he went to the most prestigious green house to negotiate the price.
The Crown Prince dispatched a purchasing eunuch to accompany Xue Yao to the grain bank to probe for information, and the Sixth Prince also positively demanded to accompany him.
For the first time since he was reborn, Xue Yao set foot on his native land of Jinling, which was his old home in Nanjing in his previous life.
The landscape of his homeland is very different from that of his time.
More is the bright and dustless blue sky, clear and visible green water, ancient and elegant restaurants and stores, less is the future of high-rise buildings.
The sounds of the countryside are still friendly.
In Xue Yao's opinion, Nanjing's dialect was not too difficult to understand, or at least not as different as Suzhou and Zhejiang, which were practically like foreign languages.
Unexpectedly, the Sixth Prince actually couldn't understand, and all along the way he curiously asked him what the people around him were saying.
The eunuch of the inner court purchasing is a native of the capital, and because of his many years of official duties, he has come into contact with a lot of local merchants, so he can understand the Jinling dialect, although the eunuch himself does not speak the Jinling dialect.
This gave Xue Yao a bit of a headache.
He led a group of capital lords, looking for Jinling grain merchants bargaining, the sixth prince from time to time curious to ask two sentences "that boss is talking about what", so it is certainly easy by the treacherous businessman pit slaughter.
Even if you provoke competition from a few grain merchants, the starting price is going to be higher, and it's natural that you'll have to spend more time soft-pedaling.
Xue Yao simply couldn't afford to spend it.
The value of security on the side of the little chubby cub, like a time bomb, blew up in his head from time to time, so it was unlikely that it would go down in a jumping manner one day.
He had to make it quick, finish the job, and hurry back to the capital to serve the insecure little wimpy Long Ao Tian fat cub.
After a moment's thought, Xue Yao smiled at the Sixth Prince and said, "Your Highness is a guest in Jinling for the first time, why don't you go to a restaurant and order a play to savor our Qin Huai charm, and leave the official business to me and Eunuch Liu."
The Sixth Prince was full of ambition, of course he didn't have the heart to have fun, but then his mind turned to the fact that he was young and inexperienced, and would probably influence Xue Yao and the others to talk business.
He guessed that Xue Yao was probably just politely advising him not to get involved in talking business.
The Sixth Prince's excitement was immediately doused, but he also knew that he really didn't have any experience in this area and might delay the main event.
So he scratched the back of his head, raised his eyebrows and laughed, "It's just as well, I also want to go to the tavern to take a look at it, then the main thing will be left to you, I'll be lazy and go to the theater first, don't tell big brother oh!"
Xue Yao keenly captured the slight shift in the Sixth Prince's face from excitement to loss to feigned delight, and immediately chided himself in his heart.
The warm baby is nothing like that rough and tumble guy, the chubby cub.
Finding an excuse to sidetrack the Sixth Prince at a time like this, he could definitely guess the reason, thinking that Xue Yao resented him being in the way.
But it's too late to back out, Xue Yao divided a team of disguised guards to accompany the sixth prince to the market to have fun, he led the experienced procurement eunuchs to the "battlefield".
Before going to the big grain bank, the group first went to the small grain store in the marketplace to test the market price.
The price of top quality rice, sold in bulk, was nine hundred Wen a stone, medium ones were six hundred and fifty Wen up and down, and lower quality rice ranged from four hundred to five hundred Wen.
Then there's the inferior stale worm rice, which is almost half-sold at that price.
When you buy ten or more stones of medium rice, you get one stone of inferior rice for free, which can be used to feed livestock and poultry.
The Prince, on this trip, is going to acquire one and a half million stones of grain.
Xue Yao's intention was to collect medium rice at the price of inferior rice.
If you really can't cut that price, you mix it proportionally and buy medium and inferior rice.
After all, the people in the affected counties are not too picky about the quality of the rice, not to starve is the most important thing, the portion of food must be put in the first place.
While on the ship, Xue Yao had already inquired about the number of commoners in the affected counties.
After acting out the draft a few times, he planned to buy medium rice for five hundred Wen.
This would be enough for the common people of the affected counties to survive a year and a half of the disaster year, which could be said to be more than enough, and it was a whole 400,000 stones more than the grain acquired by the Prince in the original story.
With this goal in mind, Xue Yao paid a visit to the third largest grain house in Jinling, intending to practice his tongue before going to talk business with the largest grain house.
Before negotiating a big deal with a grain company, you usually need a local agent to help bridge the gap.
Agents have to get a commission according to their share of the business, so they will actively stand on the side of the merchants to prevent unscrupulous merchants from cheating outsiders.
But this Prince business is so big that the commission to the middleman is a huge amount of money.
Thinking that purchasing eunuchs have experience anyway, it saves the step of looking for an intermediary, Xue Yao's own first-born calf is not afraid of tigers, so he went it alone.
Walking into the grain store with a group of people, the fellow immediately greeted him with a smile on his face.
Just as Xue Yao was about to open his mouth, the experienced Eunuch Liu instructed the fellow with a stern face, "Our master has a big deal to discuss with your bank, so please ask your proprietor to come out."
The fellow was overwhelmed by Eunuch Liu's aura, and nodded his head and returned, "Our proprietor is not in the store, I'll ask the shopkeeper to come for you!"
"Hm--" Eunuch Liu answered at length with an expressionless face.
Xue Yao somewhat admired the fat eunuch's aura.
In the end is a serious dry procurement of the old eunuch, this faction, a mouthful of Beijing accent, but half do not show the foreign guest of the Bureau, quite a guest of the momentum of the host.
When talking about business, the pose should still be set, and the humble and courteous gentleman's demeanor is not suitable for all occasions.
The Grain Bank's shopkeeper quickly came to the first floor hall and invited the crowd to sit down.
Hearing that it was a merchant with a capital accent, the shopkeeper guessed that he had come to a big deal, otherwise he wouldn't have traveled so far to do business.
To Xue Yao's surprise, the shopkeeper's hospitality, though polite, was not particularly active, just smiling warmly and inviting them to tea, chatting about the minutiae of the grain store, and waiting for them to open their mouths and speak up about their business.
Xue Yao also did not delay, half a cup of tea down, on the ground with the authentic Jinling accent with the shopkeeper said, "My residence is receiving a noble guest from the capital, to come to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to talk about a big business."
The shopkeeper laughed: "I have already seen it, thanks to all the masters to take care of our Ming Fang Grain Bank's business, not to avoid delaying the masters' time, I'll tell the truth."
"Some days ago, zhejiang came a group of grain merchants, to our suzhou warehouse grain take away half! Look at you all Master Tai body style, to talk about the business I'm afraid than the Zhejiang merchants bigger, I'm afraid that our grain bank inventory is insufficient."
Xue Yao's heart thumped with a sense of foreboding.
Zheshang collects grain?
No wonder in the original, all the Prince's grain is purchased from Hangzhou, the original Jiangsu grain bank was Zheshang first step "ransacked".
The two places are fish and rice towns, more or less competitive relationship, Zhejiang merchants, as a matter of fact, it is impossible to come to take care of Jiangsu merchants business.
If you collect so much grain and can't sell it all, after the deadline, it will all be inferior rice.
Then why did the Zhejiang merchants come to Jiangsu to collect grain?
Xue Yao intuited that there was something fishy about this, but still calmly inquired, "How much grain can your bank take out in total today?"
The shopkeeper didn't drag his feet, and directly gave Xue Yao an account: "The stock in our granary is just enough for a year's worth of bulk sales, and I'm sure you've already inquired about the market price for selling to the common people. If you have the need, we can provide up to 50,000 stones of grain - 20% of top grade rice, 80% of middle grade rice, all at the price of 570 Wen to you! I only hope that if you gentlemen want to purchase more grain next year, you will take care of our Ming Fang's business."
This is said to be very real, the grain bank's stock is only enough for this year's business, according to the theory can be sold in real terms according to the market price.
Being willing to take out 50,000 stones of grain and sell it to them at the price of inferior rice was indeed quite enough.
However, Eunuch Liu didn't appreciate this favor, and sneered unenthusiastically, "Fifty thousand stones? You are also underestimating our business! Since your bank can't take too much grain, let's go to another house first."
"Mister--" Xue Yao hurriedly got up and asked Eunuch Liu to take a step to speak.
It might seem strange that the original ended up overpaying for a million and two hundred thousand stones of grain, but Xue Yao had fully realized it at this moment!
Eunuch Liu has not yet realized the seriousness of the matter, the original, he must have offended the proprietors of the various grain houses in Jinling, thinking that since Zhejiang has collected so much grain, he is not afraid of not being able to buy it.
The result is that the narrower the walk, and ultimately dragged the Prince by the Zhejiang grain merchants ruthlessly slaughtered.
Xue Yao had mixed feelings, originally he had thought that this procurement eunuch had experience and faction, but now he realized that experience and faction, I'm afraid, had affected his judgment.
In the current situation, the grain hoarded by Jiangsu Grain Bank has been taken away by half, and the local merchants will naturally not sell the grain below the market price again.
And this shopkeeper is willing to give such a favorable price, which can be said to be a big loss, completely for the sake of long-term business in the future.
In the original, the Prince purchased grain at a price of nearly six hundred and seventy Wen a stone, and most of it was inferior rice.
That is, the Prince received a bunch of inferior rice at the price of medium rice.
And this grain storekeeper, with the price of inferior rice to sell them medium and superior rice, is really righteous enough, only the stock is limited, the portion is a little less.
Eunuch Liu was so cynical at the moment, it was too much to think about.
Xue Yao pulled him aside and analyzed the situation, stating, "Five hundred and seventy wen, definitely a price of conscience, we have to befriend this shopkeeper, and we must buy the fifty thousand stones of grain."
Eunuch Liu, however, waved his hand with a disdainful smile and said: ''Your Excellency, don't be bluffed by these treacherous merchants! How big is our business? I'm not afraid that we can't get a good price. Our family is not the first time for the court to buy grain and rice, one and a half million stones of grain, we go to the well-stocked grain bank to get goods, medium rice, at most 500 wen, why should he receive this skin of love?"
Xue Yao knew that he was looking at his young age and inexperience, so he patiently advised, "Eunuch, we're not sure if the other families have sufficient provisions right now, so it's best if there's grain at a decent price, so we'll just take it all in, just in case."
Eunuch Liu smiled more Maitreya Buddha like: "Aiya I say small son ah, you this is too afraid of things, the emperor blessed million square, all over the harvest, where can be short of His Highness the Crown Prince of this area of one and a half million stone grain? You just look good!"
Xue Yao simply wanted to slap this fat eunuch to wake him up, I guess it was because of the blind arrogance of this procuring eunuch in the original story that the Crown Prince ended up losing more than 400,000 stones of grain!