Chapter 376: Squeezing Out Positions
Yuzhou, Luoyang
The next day, Ji Wuyin ordered the sale of 20,000 dan of grain to Nanyang, and the price was still 240 wen per dou.
The Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association will continue to buy.
Xie Zhan, who was in Runan, heard about this and ordered, "Follow up! We will sell 10,000 dan of grain to Nanyang at the same price."
The Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association reacted a little slowly, but also bought in the profits.
Liu Xiaohuai: "Some people in Runan are selling grain with us."
Ji Wuyin said, "It should be Xie Zhan, Gu Huaisheng, Lu Fei and others. Don't worry about him."
It was impossible for Xie Zhan, Gu Huaisheng, Lu Fei and others to leave the Southland quietly, not to mention that they were carrying so much money and food.
The people from the Ji family who stayed in the south had already reported their unusual movements.
Xie Zhan and others' actions will accelerate the achievement of their goal.
On the third day, Luoyang sold 30,000 stones.
Xie Zhan sold 20,000 shi of silver in Runan.
The Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association took advantage of both sides.
Ji Wuyin looked towards Xuchang and said, "It's already 90,000 dan. How much more can the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association take in?"
Yuzhou, Xuchang
In the Grain Merchants Association, Che Jiu Ming had a grim expression on his face, "How come so much grain came out all of a sudden?" And from two places!
The others also looked at each other in bewilderment. In three days, they had consumed a total of 90,000 dan of grain.
For every ten thousand dan of grain they needed to eat, they needed to spend twenty-four thousand taels. In just three days, they had already spent two hundred and sixteen thousand taels.
"President, if there's more food being dumped from Luoyang and Runan tomorrow, what should we do?"
A member of the Chamber of Commerce raised their biggest headache: In their quest to acquire land in Nanyang, they were starved of grain and had little capital. They were counting on high prices to cash in on their grain. Now, they've driven up grain prices, leaving others to cash in.
"Eat it!" Che Jiuming said coldly.
The others looked at each other and agreed, because they knew that if they didn't eat the food, the price would drop and all their efforts would be wasted.
Liaodong Commandery, Pingguo County
Lu Songli learned that Ji Wuyin had already begun to implement the plan.
Her operation plan was formulated based on the situation in Nanyang.
In the business wars of later generations, Fan Zhongyan's eternal conspiracy and China National Grain and Oils Corporation's famous battle are both classics.
The former tells the story of Fan Zhongyan, who was in charge of Hangzhou during a disaster. The local wealthy merchants united to raise the price of grain. He had little grain to provide for the disaster relief, and his predicament was similar to Zhang Xian's current one.
He then thought of a way to purchase large quantities of grain directly from grain merchants at a price higher than the set price set by the grain merchants. The wealthy merchants happily sold the grain to Fan Zhongyan at a higher price.
Fan Zhongyan's move drew criticism from the people, but he did not make any excuses and continued to buy grain at a high price.
Because of his actions, the news that Hangzhou's grain prices were the highest spread like wildfire. Over the next month, grain merchants from all over the country brought in grain, and Hangzhou's docks and post stations were filled with grain-carrying ships and vehicles, hoping to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.
Fan Zhongyan immediately recognized the opportunity and decided to stop purchasing grain at high prices. Instead, he opened warehouses and released a large amount of free grain, causing grain prices in Hangzhou to plummet. Grain merchants would suffer even greater losses if they shipped the grain back, so they had no choice but to sell it at a low price. This stabilized grain prices in Hangzhou.
Lu Songli discovered that Che Jiu Ming, the president of Yuzhou's Grain Merchants Association, was smart and resourceful.
Today, the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association has raised the price of grain, but it has not triggered grain merchants from many places to rush in with grain to compete with them for food.
All this was because he set the price of a dou of rice at two hundred and sixty wen.
This price allowed the members of the Grain Merchants Guild, led by Che Jiuming, to maximize their profits without overwhelming other merchants. After all, transporting grain to Nanyang would increase their costs and incur losses. A price of 260 wen per dou wasn't attractive enough for foreign merchants, as grain prices were high everywhere.
After talking about Fan Zhongyan’s eternal conspiracy, we have to mention the famous battle of China National Grain and Oils Corporation.
In fact, the battle that made China National Grain and Oils Corporation even more exciting was the battle that led to its rise to fame. In 2008, foreign companies were trying to control the Chinese grain market and dump grain at high prices. This led to a game of tactical play: China, hoping to stabilize grain prices, continuously dumped its grain reserves, while foreign companies continued to buy up Chinese grain.
Foreign businessmen thought that once they had consumed all of China's grain reserves, they would be able to decide the price of grain in China.
But China National Grain and Oils Corporation's reserves were so unpredictable that foreign investors could never fully acquire them. Even in the later stages of the game, China National Grain and Oils Corporation's aggressive selling of grain remained unabated. Foreign investors, fearful, were reluctant to purchase more grain.
After the foreign merchants' plan failed, they had to sell their grain at a low price as quickly as possible to avoid greater losses. This was because China National Grain and Oils Corporation had been selling off grain and continuously lowering prices. If they did not sell, they would lose more.
Foreign merchants continued to sell off their grain, and China National Grain and Oils Reserves Corporation bought it back at low prices. This inflow and outflow made China National Grain and Oils Reserves Corporation a huge profit, fought a brilliant defensive battle, and became famous for it.
Now on the battlefield in Nanyang, if they did what Fan Zhongyan did, they could certainly solve the Nanyang problem, but wouldn't that be a bargain for those people in the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association? Let those people in the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association sell the grain at a high price as they wished.
The final victims were grain merchants across the country.
People saw a business opportunity and transported grain all the way to Nanyang, hoping to sell it at a high price. What's wrong with that?
The operation plan formulated by Lu Songli this time actually combined the essence of the two battles.
Since the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association has begun to significantly raise grain prices, it means that the other party has completed the task of absorbing funds.
They must have hoarded a lot of food, waiting to be cashed in, so it can be inferred that they did not have much silver.
Ji Wuyin sold the grain in order to force the other party to buy it, cash out their cash, and squeeze out their positions.
When all the members of the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association had only grain in their hands and no cash, and Nanyang was still stubbornly holding on, not meeting their expectations, were they worried? If there was any disturbance later, they would be in a panic.
Moreover, the wealthy businessmen in the Grain Merchants Association are not a monolithic entity. As long as the right methods are used, a crack can always be made.
Even if the operation failed and the plan did not go as planned, the silver they earned from selling the grain at the high price of 240 coins must be real, right? At worst, they could use the silver to buy grain from elsewhere and transport it to Nanyang, and the lives of the disaster victims would be saved.
With the premise of being able to provide a safety net, all you have to do is get on with it.
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