Wu Zhaohui felt a sharp blow to his heart, but he remained calm on the surface: "Where exactly?"
"It's near the capital. Originally, it was intended to be sent to Mozhou and Zhuozhou in the north, but there's been fighting in the north, and my master doesn't dare to take the risk, so he wants to get rid of it in a big way."
The servant said, "If we can make money here, why go to all this trouble? Isn't that right?"
This time, Wu Zhaohui dared not miss the opportunity again and asked, "What about the grain price?"
The servant said, "Master Fang offered thirty-three and a half strings of cash per shi. If you offer the same price, then we'll go with yours first."
Four hundred thousand shi of grain, my goodness! The Meng family truly deserves to be the number one family in the Nanzhao Kingdom.
However, 400,000 shi of grain, at the current grain price, is equivalent to 13.4 million guan.
This is no small amount; it's equivalent to half a year's revenue for the national treasury.
Wu Zhaohui quickly racked his brains. The Wu family had accumulated wealth over generations, which was more abundant than draining the national treasury. It wasn't that they couldn't come up with 13.4 million strings of cash, but to do so would basically empty the Wu family's coffers.
At least all the working capital has been withdrawn.
However, if he doesn't intervene, the grain will be eaten by Prince Qi's men.
Right now, the earthquake has subsided, floods are raging, and a plague has broken out in the Central Plains, making it impossible to recover even after several years of hard work.
Grain is the hard currency. It's the key to making money, building connections, and supporting your army. Whoever has grain wins.
He said to Meng Yan's servant, "Go back and tell Master Meng that I want all this grain and don't want it offered to another family. However, I need to raise the money, which will take some time."
The servant said, "That's alright. My master said that if you can raise the money within seven days, you must pay at least 500,000 strings of cash every day. We'll wait for you for seven days. If it's after seven days, then we're sorry, we won't be able to wait any longer."
Wu Zhaohui wanted to ask about the address of the grain warehouse, but the servant's face darkened and he said, "Master Wu, you are an expert and you know the value of rice these days. We won't tell you the location of the rice warehouse until we receive the silver."
Wu Zhaohui is the Crown Prince's man. If Wu Zhaohui does something bad, the Crown Prince's men will dare to steal all the grain.
After the servant left, Wu Zhaohui quickly took stock of his family's funds. Finally, the whole clan discussed and decided that the grain would be shared with the Cheng'en Duke's Mansion and the Crown Prince's Mansion.
The Wu family contributed five million strings of cash, and the remaining eight million four hundred thousand strings of cash were to be raised by the Crown Prince and the Duke of Cheng'en's mansion.
We'll make money together, and we'll share the risks together.
This risk mainly refers to the risk of hoarding grain, profiting from disasters, and being beheaded and having one's property confiscated by the imperial court in the aftermath of the disaster.
Wu Zhaohui believed that as long as Meng Yan didn't give him any old or spoiled grain, the business was guaranteed to be profitable.
With the Duke of Cheng'en's mansion and the Crown Prince involved, his head is safe.
As long as there's grain in hand, there's bound to be profit. Ordinary people can eat dirt, but can the army? Even the slightest friction on the border forces the imperial court to obediently hand over silver.
The Crown Prince was in Zhongzhou providing disaster relief, while Wei Shixun was busy on the Grand Canal side. Wu Zhaohui quickly contacted them.
Both the Crown Prince and Wei Shixun felt that as long as the quality of the grain was not a problem, they should take it all; if they could plunder it, they should.
Four hundred thousand shi of grain is no ordinary thing; it's something that can sustain life.
The crown prince's advisors felt that grain prices were too high, but everything else was within control.
However, it would be a real problem for Prince Qi and Prince Jin, who both want to seize the throne, to get their hands on this batch of grain.
Ultimately, the Wu family, the Wei family, and the Crown Prince's residence jointly purchased 400,000 shi of grain for 13.4 million guan.
After receiving the silver, Meng Yan led Wu Zhaohui, Shi Xiu, and the Wei family to the temporary warehouse at Yejiancheng Wharf, where they saw the grain stored in six warehouses.
These six warehouses are not in the same place, and each contains only 200,000 shi of grain.
The remaining 200,000 shi (a unit of dry measure) were stored in county towns on the outskirts of
Meng Yan is a real shrewd person.
The Crown Prince's residence, the Wei family, and the Wu family jointly inspected the grain, and found no problems with either the quantity or the quality.
According to the contract, the three families gave Meng Yan 13.4 million strings of cash in silver notes, and the silver notes alone filled a whole box.
Meng Yan was very shrewd and demanded that the banknotes be issued by more than one bank, especially those issued by Tongyuan Bank, which were the most popular.
Tongyuan Bank is extremely secretive; no one can find out its details, not even who its owner is.
It can be said that Meng Yan had considered every step carefully.
After the money was exchanged, Meng Yan left safely under the protection of fifty masked guards.
The Crown Prince's Mansion and the Duke of Cheng'en's Mansion's plan to steal their goods and silver notes failed.
Those fifty-odd people all looked like they had countless lives on their hands, and they exuded a strong murderous aura.
Fortunately, the grain was of very high quality, all good quality, with not a single bag of stale grain.
Meng Yan and his servant, along with fifty guards, took the silver notes and left the inn empty.
The court usually ended at the end of noon, but Grand Secretary Gu usually did so at the end of 1-3 pm.
At the beginning of noon, Yuanyuan was feeding Jiaofeng under the eaves when a gray robin flew over and landed on the birdcage under the eaves.
Yuanyuan immediately grabbed it and took the note off its foot.
She glanced at the courtyard gate, said nothing, and casually took the paper tube into the inner room.
The note contained only four words: Everything goes well.
Xie Zhaozhao smiled and burned the note.
Yuanyuan whispered, "Beichen should have seen the robin fly over."
"It's alright, I didn't intend to hide it from Grand Secretary Gu—I meant the 100,000 shi of grain on the estate."
She would hide the 100,000 shi of rice and grain harvested during the flood season in the dowry estate, and then ask Grand Secretary Gu to present it to the imperial court.
Of the 1.1 million shi of grain she hoarded, 100,000 shi were given away for free, 100,000 shi were sold to Prince Qi's people, 400,000 shi were sold to the Crown Prince's people, and the remaining 500,000 shi were intended to drive down the price of grain.
She wanted to ensure that the Crown Prince and the Duke of Cheng'en would lose all 400,000 shi of grain.
In their previous life, Gu Chengyan and Guan Yingying were able to succeed because their biggest backer was the Crown Prince.
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