"After three days of traveling, let's go to the city and have a good rest. We have already arrived in Hangzhou City, so we don't have to worry too much. Today we will go to Hangzhou City to have a look and ask about the price of salt in the city. We will wait until we understand the market before talking about anything!"

Su Ming said.

The eight people arrived outside the north gate of the city, and a group of soldiers blocked their way.

Su Qingping and others were worried that the other party would check their identity tags, so they hurriedly stepped forward to negotiate with them for money. They did not expect that the other party would just ask them to dismount. In Hangzhou City, no one except military generals and officials of seventh rank or above were allowed to ride horses.

Entering Hangzhou City like this, the eight people were stunned by the prosperous scene in front of them.

The streets of Hangzhou City were full of merchants. Some beautifully dressed girls were wandering the streets surrounded by maids and guards. The sounds of various sales were endless. When Su Ming entered Hangzhou City, he felt the atmosphere of the city for the first time.

The inns in the east of the city were almost full. Su Ming finally found one with guest rooms, but it was a small independent house and cost two taels of silver a day.

"Let's just live in this small courtyard! It's easy for eight people to live here. It's free to feed the horses here. If we go to other places to look for a place to stay in the dark, we might not be able to find a place to stay."

This place is not far from Fengming Alley. After a while, everyone will put down their things, wash their faces and go to Fengming Alley separately. Pay attention to the price of salt. After asking clearly, we will go to Ronglin Port tomorrow morning. If there is a suitable place to make a move, we will

Where to trade, when we have money, we will buy food and go home as soon as possible." Su Ming entered the courtyard, closed the door and said to everyone.

"This courtyard is too expensive! Two taels of silver are enough for us to buy a big fat pig!" Su Zhe was still feeling sorry for Su Ming's choice to live in a private courtyard.

"We traveled for three days, and here we have hot water at all times. As long as we can use salt, this little money is nothing.

If we look for some small inns, there are many rangers there and we may still encounter trouble. Don’t think too much if you have already stayed here. Now we divide the tasks. If someone goes to Fengming Lane’s house, someone will definitely stay behind..."

Su Ming is the person in charge, he assigns tasks to everyone, and everyone obeys.

The five taels of silver Su Ren gave only left over one tael. If they couldn't sell the salt tomorrow, they wouldn't have money to stay here, and eating at the inn would also cost the eight of them money.

Therefore, no one dared to waste time. They set up shop in the small courtyard of the inn and saluted. Su Ming took Fifth Brother and others out of the inn.

Fengming Alley is not as prosperous as Su Ming imagined, but instead looks very shabby. Many shops are low-rise wooden houses. People in various clothes come and go, many wearing coarse cloth and short sleeves, holding big knives in their hands.

The guests knew at first glance that he was not an ordinary character, but the patrolmen ignored him when they saw him wandering around.

Su Ming and others dispersed and asked about the price of salt here, which was about 40% higher than that in Jinshanwei Town, while the price of cloth and grain was more than 30% cheaper than in Jinshanwei Town.

"Myna, I asked about three salt shops that sell snowflake salt. They all sell it by the tael, and one tael costs about 230 Wen. I asked them about the purchase price, but they only offered 800 Wen per pound. It's so shameless!"

It was getting dark, and the shops in Fengming Lane had begun to close one after another. Su Ming and Su Qingping were rounding up. Su Zhe saw Su Ming and couldn't help but said directly.

"People must make money when doing business, but the several companies I asked are similar. Those who can open salt shops here are very powerful. The salt they produce in March, April and February every year is more than ours.

Zhuangbao produces more every year.

Wang Zhi, a ship merchant in Fuzhou, is known as the Wufu Ship Owner and is very powerful. He buys more than 10,000 shi of salt from Hangzhou every year. The prices in salt shops here are about the same, so our salt can only be sold at this price."

Su Qingping said.

"This means that these salt shops must be related to the major salt farms in Zhejiang and Zhejiang. The ability to trade private salt on a large scale in Hangzhou and control the market salt price is definitely beyond our imagination.

Although we don’t have much snowflake salt, there are very few in Fengming Alley. It’s best to sell it separately so that we can attract less attention.” After talking, the few of them returned to the inn and had dinner.

Su Ming called everyone together.

Smuggling salt is a serious crime. Although no one here will blame them, but if people remember that Er Weibao is involved, the elder brother may be in trouble by then, so either sell it separately in Fengming Lane, or sell it in Ronglin tomorrow morning

For sale in port.

After writing down the stores with the highest prices, eight people closed the gate of the courtyard in the evening, assigned rooms, and went to rest.

Su Ming slept soundly, but was woken up by Su Qingping in the middle of the night.

They carried their packages out of Hangzhou City in the dark night and arrived at Ronglin Port. They saw that there were already many people here.

"Bago, where are those people setting up stalls? Do we want to set up stalls too?" Su Zhe came to Ronglin Port and looked at many people setting up stalls in the dark night and asked Su Ming.

No one is in charge here. Some ships arrive at the port, and some ships leave. Su Ming sees that there are also many ships transporting food. Many big businesses are doing business on the docks, and some ships even exchange goods. Su Ming sees

Come here and walk towards the pier.

The most traded items at this wharf are cloth, porcelain, tea, wood, livestock, and ironware. Su Ming also saw someone selling armor. It seemed that the seal on it should be armor issued by the imperial court, and they were all sold here.

Su Ming asked the seller about the price of the armor, but the ship owner said that he would not sell it. It was an item ordered by someone else and someone had already bought it.

Seeing a large ship that seemed to sell salt, Su Ming and Su Qingping walked over. The guards on the ship were busy. When they saw them coming, a middle-aged man wearing brocade came over.

"The ship owner is in the salt business. I have some salt that I want to sell. I wonder if you will accept it?" Doing business with these people is much safer than the salt shops in the city. Su Ming stepped forward to ask.

"You want to sell salt? How much?" The fat man looked at Su Ming and asked.

"Snowflake salt, do you want it?" Su Ming did not say how much.

"Snowflake salt? How is the quality?" the fat man asked. Many salt sellers say that their salt is snowflake salt, but its quality is far inferior to that of snowflake salt. Even if it looks white and tastes like a little impurity, it is not considered snowflake.

salty.

Su Ming took out a paper bag from his pocket, opened it and the fat man moved closer to the torch next to him. He took some salt grains and put them into his mouth to taste them carefully, and then carefully checked the color of the salt.

"The quality of your salt is very good. I can give you... 920 yuan per pound. What do you think?" The fat man looked at Su Ming and asked.

"I have more than 100 kilograms here. Can the price be higher?" Su Ming asked.

"The maximum price of snowflake salt per catty in the city is 900 taels of silver. My price is already high. I will give you 95 taels of silver for 100 jins. What do you think?" the fat man asked.

Su Ming thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. Although he knew that the price of his salt must be more than this, Su Ming had no way to sell salt, so he could only hand it over to them. Selling salt in the city was risky, so he quickly took the money to buy grain back.

Home is the key.

Su Ming told Fifth Brother about the price of snowflake salt here. Su Qingping took five people to the inn in the city to get salt. During this period, the city gates of Hangzhou were half-open at night, and everyone took all the salt in a short time.

Fatty Pie accepted all the snowflake salt and carefully inspected it. When he saw that there was no problem with the quality of the salt, he weighed it. 124 kilograms of snowflake salt was sold for 118 taels of silver. Su Ming saw that the quality of the silver was pretty good, and they were all large silver-white silver ingots of 10 taels.

Fatty is pretty good.

"Brother, you are so young and promising when you start doing business at such a young age! I am from Guanhaiwei. My surname is Ding. I am the third eldest child in my family. I have been given the title of Third Master Ding by the public.

I don’t know where your snowflake salt comes from, little brothers. If you still have it in the future, I will definitely give you a satisfactory price.” Ding Laosan looked at Su Ming’s fat face and smiled tremblingly.

Guanhaiwei belongs to Ningbo Prefecture, and there are many islands to the east. Among them, the famous Chaolie Port is located in Dinghaiwei in the east of Guanhaiwei. It is a place that even the navy of the Ming Dynasty dare not easily provoke. This fat man is from Guanhaiwei, and he must be separated from Fujian and Zhejiang maritime merchants.

It doesn't matter.

Everyone who did business at sea in the Ming Dynasty knew that every businessman said in front of him that he would be loyal to the country, and his actions behind the scenes were all for profit. Whether he was a merchant or a bandit when he went to sea was completely determined by his thoughts.

The city of Hangzhou can be so prosperous, not thanks to those maritime merchants, otherwise how could the courtesans in famous houses be sold at sky-high prices?

On TV, children from aristocratic families go to brothels and spend a lot of money for the woman they love. In reality, it is basically rare. Most of the people who frequent those places are merchants and knights. After leaving their hometown, they make money and have fun outside. Who will be there after returning home?

He would be so messy in his hometown.

Although there were many famous women in the brothels of the Ming Dynasty, and they were even related to many famous historical figures. But this was also due to the improvement in the status of businessmen and the close relationship between government and business. Most children from aristocratic families did not dare to enter brothels at will, and

Most of the stories about historical celebrities' romances in brothels are spread among the people.

"Master Ding! There are very few good salt wells in the south of the Yangtze River. Our brothers brought this snowflake salt from Sichuan. We don't have enough capital to do big business. I don't know when we will go there next time."

The main reason we came out to sell salt this time is because our guard station is about to run out of food. I wonder if Mr. Ding knows where there is a ship that can take the sea route. We plan to buy some food and send it back." Su Ming knew that this kind of person has a good reputation, so he and the other party

It will not hurt him to have a good relationship. The ships he can find will definitely be more reliable than his own.

"If you want to buy food, where can you go by water?" Ding San asked.

"Songjiang Mansion, Jinshan Guard, Salt Factory!" Su Ming said.

When Ding San heard this, he glanced at Su Ming. He was in the private salt business. How could he not know about Jinshanwei Salt Factory? It was also very important for him to have a relationship with Su Ming.

"It turns out that brother, you are from Jinshanwei. Brother, I am also in the salt business. The green salt from your salt factory is really good. If you have time in the future, I will treat you to a drink at Guanhaiwei Longshan Institute.

Brother, if you want to buy grain, ask me if I have found the right person. Walk eastward along the river bank, look for the boat with the [Yu] flag, and say that you were introduced by me, Mr. Ding, and I will definitely give you a good price when buying grain.

"Ding San said, patting his chest.

After selling the salt and getting the silver, Su Qingping and others were very happy. This much silver was almost enough for Fort Wei for one year. They could definitely buy enough food to go back this time.

Su Ming walked eastward and found the [Yu] flag fleet that Ding San mentioned. He stepped forward and saw many workers carrying grain from the ship. Su Ming stepped forward and asked the workers to find their ship owner.

"I was introduced by Mr. Ding. I want to buy some grain to send to Jinshanwei. I wonder what the price of your grain is?" Su Ming found a tall man with dark skin who did not look like he came from a big family and said to him.

"Master Ding San? It's Fatty Ding San, right? You want to buy grain, how much?" The man sat casually on the grain bag and looked at Su Mingdao.

"Five hundred stones! We still have eight horses and we need to take the boat back," Su Ming said.

"Eighth brother, you should go back by boat with your thirteenth brother! Horses can't enter the green grass on the sea. It will definitely be faster for me to take three people and two horses back than you!" Su Qingping said at this time.

The boat was so big and crowded with people, and the horse was more valuable than human life in Erwei Fort. Su Ming knew that Fifth Brother was afraid that the horse would become so sophisticated on the boat, so he thought about it and nodded.

"Only four more people! The Canghai ship has just arrived at the port. It contains 340 shi of coarse grains, 200 shi of wheat, and 100 shi of rice. It can be slower at sea, but at this time, the Donghai Navy will not cause trouble at sea. If you want

You give 52 taels of silver for 640 shi of grain, and I will send the grain to you to Jinshan Guard," the man said.

This price is already very good, 640 shi of grain is only 52 taels of silver, and it is delivered to your doorstep. The price is much cheaper than buying it in Jinshanwei Town.

"How long does it take for this ship to arrive at Jinshanwei Salt Factory?" Su Ming asked.

"About ten days! If nothing unexpected happens, it might be a day or two faster!" the man replied.

"Then it may be too late. Can we find a faster boat?" Su Ming asked.

"Hurry up! That big ship is fast. It only takes three or four days to reach Jinshan Guard. The navy officers and soldiers find it difficult to catch up, but these days are the time to use the ship... Since it was introduced by Ding Sanpang, 75

Two silver coins! There is no wind on the sea at this time. If you are willing to help paddle, I will let the boat go. Usually my boat will not go to sea at this time." The man thought for a moment and said.

Su Ming saw that the boat was more than twice as big as the Canghai boat just now, and there should be a lot of people rowing it. With 23 more taels of silver, we can go back 6 days earlier, and the road will be much safer.
Chapter completed!