Chapter 2988 Bargaining
The convoy entered Qingzhou City in a grand manner. Bai Shan did not transport the official salt to the Governor's Mansion, but instead stayed in the post station. Their cars filled up the post station and it was not enough. County Lieutenant Dong had no choice but to run up to the second floor of the post station to find Bai Shan and said, "Sir, the post station is full."
Bai Shan looked down and said, "Take the portion that should be given to the Governor's Mansion. Let's go to the Governor's Mansion."
Mingda and Bai Erlang had already gone directly to the governor's mansion to find the prince. Bai Shan and his men had to escort the salt a little slower, so after arriving, they went directly to find Governor Guo.
Governor Guo also went to see the handover of official salt.
Originally, this was a trivial matter, not enough for Governor Guo to come in person, but this batch of official salt was somewhat special, and since the prince was living in the governor's mansion at the time, he came to see it in person.
Governor Guo stood by and watched the clerk open the bag of salt to check the quality. He marked it as top quality and then weighed it and had someone carry it into the warehouse.
Because there would be losses during transportation, Bai Shan deliberately packed more than ten pounds of salt. At the end of weighing, there were still more than nine pounds of salt left. The officials put the salt in cloth bags and returned them to the people in Beihai County.
The Beihai County yamen runners looked at Bai Shan, who nodded slightly and said to them, "Take it back and give it to Mr. Cui to record it in the account."
The bailiff responded.
Governor Guo raised his eyebrows slightly and said to Bai Shan with a smile, "County Magistrate Bai is very strict with his rules."
Bai Shan said respectfully, "This involves the salt tax, and I dare not neglect it."
Governor Guo then looked at the officers in the courtyard and said, "I heard what Magistrate Bai said. The salt tax is a serious matter and cannot be neglected. From now on, even if we are not personally monitoring it, we must keep a clear account and not make any mistakes."
The officers quickly agreed.
After they put the official salt into the warehouse, Governor Guo asked Bai Shan, "I heard that you brought a lot of official salt this time?"
"Yes," Bai Shan said, "Beihai County is poor. We need to build roads and water conservancy projects, and we also lack farmland, so we need a lot of money. The governor also knows that Beihai County has nothing else to offer except salt, so I can only make up for it by doing this."
Whether he believed it or not, Governor Guo nodded and reminded him, "The Shouguang County Magistrate has also arrived. Is he staying at the post station as well?"
Bai Shan lowered his head and smiled, "I haven't had time to visit other colleagues yet."
This is why he likes to live in the inn. Doesn’t Bai Shan have money to buy a house in Qingzhou City?
It's just because it's more convenient to do things when living in the post station.
He first went to ask for an audience with the prince, but the prince was busy and had no time to see him, so he happily went back to the post station and picked up a pot of wine on the way.
Zhou Man stared at him when he saw the wine.
Bai Shan immediately said, "I'm not going to drink it myself, I'm going to invite other county magistrates to drink it."
Apart from County Magistrate Lu, only County Magistrate Sun of Bochang had a residence in Qingzhou City. However, perhaps considering that other colleagues all lived in the post station and were more informed, County Magistrate Sun did not live in his own villa, but squeezed into the post station instead.
This is convenient for Bai Shan.
Bai Shan asked someone to bring out a bag of official salt and asked them to taste it.
The yamen runner scooped a plate of official salt and brought it up and placed it in the center of the table. The six people looked at the white salt on the table together.
Magistrate Sun rubbed the salt between his thumb and index finger. The grains were very uniform and their size was above average. He asked, "Is this the salt produced by the solar-dried salting method?"
Bai Shan nodded and asked, "The busy farming season is approaching, and it's the time to work hard. Wouldn't you gentlemen take this opportunity to import some official salt?"
Several county magistrates exchanged glances and asked, "Can your Beihai County supply so much salt? I remember that your Beihai County's output was only enough for this county, Linzi County, and Qiancheng County, right?"
Bai Shan said: "The salt field has expanded. Although it is a bit tight, if you want it, I can still squeeze it out if I squeeze."
The other five county magistrates looked at him suspiciously, and after a moment's hesitation, they asked, "Are all of them of this quality?"
Bai Shan said: "I can't guarantee that it will be the same, but I can guarantee that it will be up to standard. Even if it is low-grade salt, the quality will be better than before."
The Bochang County Magistrate pondered, "How much is it?"
Bai Shan smiled slightly and said, "The price is still the same as before."
Someone looked at the magistrate of Qiancheng and said, "This isn't right. In the past, you had to burn firewood to make salt, but now you can just dry it out in the sun."
Bai Shan said seriously, "We don't need to consume firewood now, but the manpower consumption is also higher. Moreover, we still need to cultivate salt fields and dig ditches, which consumes a lot of materials and takes up a lot of land..."
"If you offset the two, the cost is actually about the same."
At that time, Governor Guo only brought Magistrate Lu to Beihai County. Although the magistrates of other counties had heard that the salt fields in Beihai County were no longer used to boil salt but to dry it, they did not know how to operate it specifically. So when Bai Shan said this, although they had some suspicions, they could not find any evidence.
Bai Shan reminded him, "You get the same price for salt from other places, and you have to transport it yourself. We're both from Qingzhou, so the journey is shorter. Wouldn't it cost less?"
"No," said Magistrate Sun of Shouguang County. "Shouguang buys salt from Qizhou. Not only is the journey shorter, but the official road is also easier to travel."
Bai Shanlue thought about it and realized that it was true. Beihai County was close to the sea, but too remote, and seemed quite far away from Shouguang County.
Bai Shan looked conflicted. After a long silence, he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, then I'll give you a cheaper price."
Everyone sat up straight and asked him, "How much cheaper?"
Bai Shan said, "For one dou, I'll give you two cents less."
County Magistrate Sun leaned back and said, "County Magistrate Bai, you are too stingy."
The other county magistrates also paused and responded, "That's right, that's right, a dou is only two cents."
Bai Shan said, "The Governor's Office hasn't ordered a reduction in the price of salt. What you're missing now is all earned by you all."
"That's too little. It's a long way from Shouguang to Beihai County."
Bai Shan said, "A little bit adds up to a lot. Every county government office uses carts to buy salt. How many bushels are there?"
The other county magistrates insisted, "No, it's too little."
Bai Shan asked, "Then how much do you say?"
The five county magistrates looked at each other, and finally the most shameless magistrate of all, Bochang County, said, "One dou is ten cents less!"
Bai Shan: "...You are robbing me? That's not allowed. I can only give you three cents at most."
Magistrate Sun said, "Ten cents isn't much. Magistrate Bai, think about it. You used to only be able to supply salt to two counties, but now you're supplying it to six. That's a lot more money! If you eat the meat, you have to give us the soup, right?"
"You can't just watch me make money and not see me spending it," Bai Shan said. "I spent so much manpower and land to build the salt fields. I have to buy food in return. Can you afford to give me less food when the time comes?"
"Oh, grain is different from salt. Salt is government salt, but grain must be purchased from grain merchants."
"Yeah yeah."
"So, please understand me, gentlemen. Ten cents less per dou is the blood and sweat of the salt workers."
"Never mind, never mind. Let's all take a step back and reduce the price by seven cents per dou."
Bai Shan: "Five coins!"
Everyone haggled over the two cents for a long time, and finally County Magistrate Sun and his men gave in. The main reason was that Bai Shan didn't behave like a young master from a noble family when he was bargaining. It was just two cents, was there any need to waste time on it?
See you at 7pm
(End of this chapter)
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