Chapter 218
Preparation to Fight to The Death!
After another day, the issue of exchanging sand for salt became more and more heated and even began to have a story to lead the matter to the salt merchants . Wu Minzhi could no longer sit still and asked people to buy salt everywhere in order to shift the blame to someone else as soon as possible .
Qi Ming had already sent someone to urge them on two or three times, but the other salt merchants had also heard the news . At this time, they would like to see Wu Minzhi and others fall down and naturally refuse to help . Even if they are willing to sell salt to them, the price is notably high .
Wu Minzhi angrily slammed the teacup in his hand, “These treacherous villains . Once I have safely survived this crisis, I will definitely let them have a taste of my abilities . ”
The other salt merchants sat in silence . “Even if we have to settle accounts, we will have to survive this crisis first . . . ” But this time, there was a high chance that they wouldn’t be able to make it through .
Just as everyone was about to lose all hope, another piece of news came from the person who had sent a letter saying that he had salt in his hand .
Seeing the servant deliver the letter, the salt merchants were so excited . “Chief Wu, quickly take a look . Is it possible that the salt merchant is willing to sell us?”
Wu Minzhi hurriedly opened the letter . Tand the contents of the envelope were also concise, “15 million taels of silver!”
“What?”
“What does that mean?”
“The other party offered 15 million silver taels? It is no longer a big deal . It is to clean up our family!”
The corners of Wu Min’s eyes twitched as he read the contents of the letter . “Don’t you find this letter very strange?”
“Strange?”
“The other party only offered 15 million silver taels but didn’t say how much salt he wanted to sell us . Furthermore, the timing of the two messages was too coincidental . Didn’t you guys think of something?”None of the salt merchants present were stupid . After hearing Wu Minzhi’s words, their faces turned ugly, “Chief Wu, are you saying that the person who sent the letter to us is the person who robbed our salt boat?”
Wu Minzhi nodded, “It’s quite possible!”
In the hall, it was as if water had poured into a hot pan as it exploded into a ball, “That’s what I thought . The person who robbed our salt boat obviously wanted us to purchase our things back at a price that was 50% higher than the market price!”
“That batch of salt originally belonged to us . Not to mention the fact that it stole from us, even wants us to use such a high price to purchase it back . Isn’t that purposely squeezing us out?”
“What a nuisance!”
“Chief Wu, do you have any way of dealing with this?”
Wu Minzhi closed his eyes slightly and sighed, “Even if you and I know that this person is purposely trying to squeeze us, from the looks of it, there’s really no other way but to admit defeat . ” The salt merchants’ faces turned red from anger and gradually calmed down . “That’s right, even if you know that the other party is doing this on purpose, is there any way to resist?” If we didn’t buy this batch of salt, with the current speed at which the rumors spread, it wouldn’t take long for the imperial guards will be able to bring this matter to the Emperor . When the Emperor heard this, he would definitely be furious . When the time came, he would send people down to investigate, and they might not even be able to keep their heads!
“Chief Wu, then according to your meaning, we’ll accept it just like that?”
“What can we do if we don’t admit it?”
“But the problem now is that we don’t have that much silver on us!” They did have money, but there was also a limit to how much money they had . The holes in the previous salt tax were too big . They filled a part of it first, but they could not fill it up, then they used the name of buying official salt to redeem it . After that, he spent a lot of money to open up the joints in succession, giving Qi Ming over 10 million taels of silver . He didn’t have much left on hand right now . How could he have the ability to gather another fifteen million taels? Wu Minzhi was silent for a moment before deciding, “After surviving this crisis, we will have a chance to rise again . If we can’t get through it, our lives will take into account . Which is more important, you will be able to weigh it yourself? According to what we discussed earlier, the Wu, Wei, and Cao families each contributed 20%, and you can find a way to make up for the rest . I want to advise you to stop looking at some of your current belongings . What to sell and what to discount should be put into concerted efforts to overcome the current crisis . ”
The other salt merchants nodded in agreement . At this time, even if they did not admit it, what could they do?
After the others had left, Wei Qi, the head of the Wei family, and Cao Bing, the head of the Cao family, stayed behind . Previously, some words were not convenient to say out loud, so the three of them were the only ones left now .
“Chief Wu, I a.s.sume you have already seen through the problem?”
Wu Minzhi clenched his hands into fists and slammed them on the table, “How can I no see it clearly! It’s clear that all of this was orchestrated by that Qi Ming, or in other words, the First Prince is manipulating it!”
Cao family’s Cao Bing said, “Sigh, such a method is quite scary! First, they sent Qi Ming to infiltrate our salt merchant and seize the opportunity to investigate the news . Then, they stole our salt ships on the Xijiang River, according to the report . After that, they deliberately used this news to threaten us and causing us to panic . Without thinking clearly, we directly agreed to his previous proposal to pay the salt tax and then made a scene like today . These steps are intertwined, obviously wanting to squeeze out all the oil and water from our bodies!”
Wei Qi’s expression looked heavy, “The point is that even if we knew that this was a trap set up by the First Prince, we could only silently walk inside without having the ability to resist!”Wu Minzhi sighed, “We lost the bet with just a single step . We can only blame ourselves for being careless . If we had used silver taels to fill the hole in the salt tax from the start, we might not have met with any calamity . ”
Wei Qi shook her head . “Don’t be too upset, Chief Wu . Speaking of which, we have a lot of power in Jiangnan, but if we want to fight against someone like the First Prince, it’s no different from an ant trying to shake a tree! What I’m worried about now is that after the First Prince has squeezed us out all over, he will immediately eradicate us and then recultivate the salt merchants to have control of Jiangnan’s salt policy . In this way, maybe Jiangnan will absolutely become the First Prince’s money bag!”
“We can’t just sit and wait for death . The First Prince wants to devour us all, and we need to be prepared to fight to the death!”
Wu Min Zhi nodded his head, “What the two of you said makes sense . I have kept the post that Li Yuanyi sent to us along with the promised letter . We salt merchants have joined hands to write down the whole story of the matter, press their fingerprints, attach the account books of each family and the invitation card with seal . Then I sent these things to the Capital overnight . If the First Prince is lenient, it would be nothing more than seeking money, but if he is ruthless enough to want to kill us and rebuild our forces, then we can merely throw the evidence in front of the Emperor and definitely not let him off easy!”