Chapter 389 Different Reactions
The news that the Ji family's business was selling affordable grain was a joyous surprise for the people of Nanyang. However, it was bad news for the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association and Che Jiuming, and a rude awakening for the grain merchants from other places who had come from thousands of miles away to transport grain.
Che Jiu Ming was stunned when he heard the news.
When he finally reacted, his face was ferocious. Ji Wuyin wanted him to die!
"Calculate how much money and grain I have in my account right now!"
"yes!"
The accountant of the Che Mansion began to count the accounts with a crackling sound.
The accountant of Che Mansion was quite diligent and had always kept the accounts in good order, so they submitted the results very quickly.
When Che Jiuming went to the Liu family bank to borrow money, he had no cash on hand, but he had 800,000 dan of grain. After borrowing the money, he spent five days eating a total of 167,000 dan of grain from Luoyang and Runan, spending about 430,000 taels.
Before he raised the price of grain to 280 wen per dou, he personally had a total of about 370,000 taels of silver and nearly 970,000 dan of grain.
The Grain Merchants Association sold grain at high prices for several days, selling a total of about 50,000 shi, of which 30,000 shi were his share, and he earned 84,000 taels.
In other words, he now has a total of 940,000 dan of grain and about 450,000 taels of silver.
Now the price of grain over there is 120 wen per dou. If he really lets the other party set the price at 120 wen, the total value of the grain in his hands will shrink by 1.5 million taels.
For a moment, his face became extremely gloomy.
The old accountant of the Che Mansion hesitated for a moment, but still reminded, "Master, we still owe Liu's Bank a sum of money."
Che Jiuming certainly remembered that the loan was due within three months. As long as he returned the 800,000 taels of silver he had borrowed, plus interest, within three months, that would be all.
But he is unwilling to pay the money back now.
Once he paid back the money, he would be at the mercy of others. Furthermore, with the Ji family's actions, grain prices were simply not selling. To pay back the money, he would have to sell 350,000 dan of grain right now to raise the money.
The old accountant was worried, "I'm afraid the price of grain will fall further..."
"Impossible!" Che Jiu Ming refused to think about this possibility.
If the Ji Chamber of Commerce does this, any grain sold will be at a loss.
If the price were to drop further, how much would they lose? And how much grain did the Ji family have to support him?
Che Jiu Ming didn't believe how much food Ji had left!
Unfortunately, the silver he had could only buy 560,000 dan of grain. It was still too little!
The old accountant shook his head and sighed, then left. "My master is so stubborn."
Che Jiuming understood what the old accountant had not said yet, and he wanted him to admit it.
But how could he accept that his wealth had suddenly shrunk by half?!
Che Jiuming gritted his teeth, "You want to kill me? Dream on!"
What the old accountant didn't know was that even if Che Jiuming was willing to lower the price, he wouldn't have the chance. Luoyang would only set the grain price lower than his.
When the news reached the Mei Mansion, Mei Zishan and Zhou Beicheng were having dinner.
After hearing the news, both of them were shocked and frightened by the Ji family business.
Oh my god, is this Ji’s back-up plan?
They actually lowered the price of grain to 120 wen per dou?
Mei Zishan and Zhou Beicheng looked at each other. If they had not bought at the price of one hundred (fifty) or sixty wen before, they would have lost more now.
You know, some time ago, although Che Jiuming's efforts had raised the price of grain to 280 wen per dou, there was almost no demand. Che Jiuming went to several grain stores under the Grain Merchants Association and tried to sell his own grain, but he didn't sell much.
If they hadn't gotten ahead of themselves, they would have suffered heavy losses now, and who knows if they would be completely wiped out in the future? The small losses now are a blessing in disguise.
Runan
The news that Ji's branch was selling large quantities of affordable grain swept across Nanyang and surrounding towns like a wave.
Xie Zhan and others also received the news quickly.
Xie Zhan and the elites he brought from the South all gathered in the conference hall.
Xie Zhan murmured, "This price is really cruel."
Xie Nan gasped, "Has Liaodong County gone mad? Selling their grain at this price, Liaodong County will lose a ton of money, right?"
"Yes, at this price, the more they sell, the more they lose." Xie Bai was also puzzled. "What is Liaodong County doing? It's completely detrimental to others and not benefiting themselves."
Xie Zhan quickly did the math in his mind.
After arriving in Nanyang, they and Liaodong County sold a total of 600,000 dan of grain. Liaodong County sold 400,000 dan, and all the 200,000 dan of grain they brought with them were sold out.
Liaodong County's move led to a sharp drop in grain prices, which directly caused the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association to suffer a loss of about 800,000 taels.
"Then Liaodong County must have a trick up its sleeve." Xie Zhan said. He was not well versed in commerce, but he was well versed in human nature.
Xie Zhan knew very well that Lu Songli was not the kind of person who would let him suffer any loss.
Gu Huaisheng, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up at this moment, "Master Xie, I roughly know what Liaodong County wants to do."
"What do they want to do?" Xie Nan asked curiously.
"Actually, they just want to provide disaster relief." Gu Huaisheng said with a complicated expression. In fact, they just want to provide disaster relief, but they are making it complicated.
"Is this really the purpose? Just like what the common people say, selling affordable grain, being a philanthropist, and helping the imperial court with disaster relief?"
Everyone present found it incredible, but they all knew that the people from Liaodong County had come to Nanyang to help Zhang Xian deal with the Nanyang disaster relief issue. But was this kind of help, regardless of the cost, really worth it?
"They need a lot of food to achieve this goal, right? Where can they get so much food from Liaodong County?" Lu Fei grasped the key point at once.
"Yeah, where do they get so much food?"
They calculated that before today, Luoyang had sold a total of 400,000 dan of grain. Now that the low-priced grain was being offered, the people were flocking to the area, so they should have a lot of food on hand.
"Liaodong County must have joined forces with the Ji clan. Both families are quite powerful."
"However, even so, Liaodong County and the Ji family need to prepare a lot of food, otherwise they will not be able to meet the food needs of the people of Nanyang."
"According to preliminary estimates, both sides will have to provide over a million dan of grain. Will they have to survive?"
At this moment, a young man next to Xie Nan cried out.
"What's wrong?" Xie Nan turned around and asked his nephew Xie Si. Xie Si was sixteen years old this year. He was brought out this time to give him some experience.
The others also looked over at them.
Xie Si looked embarrassed.
At this time, Xie Zhan said, "Just say whatever you want to say. There's no need to worry."
Xie Si then stammered, "Someone came to me a while ago and asked if I wanted any food. Now I remember that the person who asked me was the manager of a member of the Yuzhou Grain Merchants Association."
Xie Zhan asked, "About when?"
Xie Si replied, "It was when we came to Runan eight or nine days ago."
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Xie Nan asked him sternly.
Xie Si felt wronged, but he didn't understand. They were all selling grain at the time, so how could they possibly collect it?
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