The commander-in-chief of the grain transport system at that time was Zhenyuan Marquis Gu Huan.

The newly appointed Lord Gu admired Song Xiaoming very much and agreed to his three conditions against all odds. He also kept his promise for 30 years and gave strong support to the shopkeeper Song.

Song Xiaoming did not let down the Marquis of Zhenyuan. After taking office, he carried out drastic reforms, replaced Hengtongji inside and out, and formulated strict rules and regulations, imposing the most severe punishments on violators... At the very least, they would be sent to the canal to pull boats, and at the worst, they would be directly killed.

The Canal Transport Office has independent judicial power. Even if it kills a few people, it can be resolved by going to the Governor's Office to complete the procedures.

Hengtongji already had the best innate conditions, and Manager Song managed the business well, so its image improved greatly and it quickly turned losses into profits.

Over the past thirty years, Song Xiaoming has continuously expanded his territory by relying on the canal, acquiring hundreds of banks and pawnshops of all sizes, and using more branches to continuously win the favor of merchants and wealthy families. Hengtongji has become the largest bank in the Ming Dynasty, even overshadowing the long-time leader "Wanyuanhao" backed by salt merchants.

Hengtongji was a huge success, bringing rich returns to shareholders and also making Mr. Song's status in the Caoyun Group rise rapidly, making him the leader of all the "Caobao".

But officials and "caobao" are still unaware that Hengtongji's position as the leader, which has not yet been warmed up, is facing severe challenges!

Moreover, the one challenging Hengtongji was not the former leader Wanyuanhao, but Wuji Money House, which was not even in the top ten before.

Oh, by the way, it has now changed its name to "Jiangnan Bank".

At the same time as changing its name, Jiangnan Bank also launched three fatal arrows. First, it asked all prefectures and counties in Suzhou to announce that they would only accept silver certificates issued by Jiangnan Bank from now on. If ordinary people wanted to pay taxes, they had to take cash to Jiangnan Bank to exchange for silver certificates.

The common people were very supportive of this, because Jiangnan Bank only charged half of the fire tax, which was much lower than handing the silver directly to the officials. As for the extra procedure, as long as it could save money, the common people were not afraid of the trouble.

But for colleagues, this is very disgusting. Because Suzhou is not only the most prosperous city in the world, but also the economic and financial center of the entire Jiangnan region. Any changes in Suzhou Prefecture will be amplified and transmitted to the coast of Taihu Lake and even the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang, causing serious impacts.

Even more devastating was that this year, Hai Rui actually implemented the "One Whip Law" in Jiangnan, where all taxes were levied in silver! This increased the amount of silver the government received by dozens of times! The government's rule of only accepting silver coupons was not abolished, but new counties and prefectures continued to join in.

This made other banks very uncomfortable, because many customers would ask if they had silver certificates when withdrawing money. This forced them to pinch their noses and take out a large amount of cash to exchange for Jiangnan Bank's silver certificates, otherwise they would lose a large number of depositors.

~~

If that was the case, the banks would at most be disgusted. Moreover, big banks like Hengtongji have done similar things before, so naturally the eldest brother shouldn't laugh at the second brother.

But Jiangnan Bank's next two moves completely changed the rules of the game - they announced that deposits in their bank were free, and they would also pay interest on time deposits!

In addition, the handling fee for inter-regional remittances is only 0.5%, which is only one-tenth of the industry practice!

This was a dimensionality reduction attack, which stunned all the banks, including Hengtongji.

There is a fee for depositing money in their house, and the larger the amount, the more they charge. This is also the most stable source of income for the money house business! It is much more stable than lending money and collecting interest.

As for the "remittance exchange" part, it is even more of a problem for money houses. In this era, why would the rich prefer to pay to deposit their money in money houses? Isn't it because it is inconvenient to carry a large amount of silver and it is easy to be robbed on the road? Therefore, "remittance exchange" is actually the meaning of the existence of traditional money houses.

Moreover, the interest rate is higher than that of deposits and it is not as unreliable as lending. It has always been the favorite business of money houses, without a doubt.

Now Jiangnan Bank has suddenly reduced its service fee to one tenth of theirs. This is like forcing them to death!

Even Hengtongji felt the danger of suffocation. From the opening of Jiangnan Bank on October 8 last year to now, in just half a year, the amount of deposits of Hengtong depositors has dropped by 30%, and the most sensitive exchange income has plummeted by 50%!

This is still a mandatory regulation of the Canal Transport Office. All canal-related businesses must be handled through Hengtongji's account. Otherwise, this income may drop to zero.

After all, no matter how rich the client is, it is impossible for him to ignore the 0.5% handling fee and use the 5% one. Even the "Caobao" secretly opened an account at Jiangnan Bank, and most of the money transactions no longer went through Hengtong...

Song Xiaoming finally realized the despair of those small banks that he had destroyed. Jiangnan Bank didn't even target him specifically, but it had already pushed Hengtongji, which had just become the number one bank in Ming Dynasty, into a dead end.

This is what it means: destroying you is none of your business.

But for the party that is about to be destroyed, this feeling is really terrible. The deep despair and frustration are even worse than failure itself.

Song Xiaoming has the support of the Canal Transport Office and has been in the business world for thirty years. How could he have suffered such a big loss? Of course, he had to hit Jiangnan Bank hard, otherwise the tiger would think he was a "hello little kitty" if he didn't show his power.

But Jiangnan Bank has a strong background and its business is mainly in Jiangnan. Song Xiaoming's background is mainly in Jiangbei. It is not wise to be brave and fierce when a fierce dragon crosses the river.

Although Jiangnan Bank also had branches along the canal... basically they were directly converted from Wuji Money House. But the shopkeeper Song did not dare to use the power of the government to do bad things. Because Hengtongji also had branches in Jiangnan, and the number was many times that of the other party. If he knocked down one of them, they could knock down five of his, which was really a huge loss.

Song Xiaoming had no choice but to calm down and carefully study the characteristics and weaknesses of Jiangnan Bank and Jiangnan Group. He found that this was an unprecedented business that completely overturned his existing business common sense!

He thought he was radical enough, but compared with the Jiangnan Group, he was as conservative as a chaste and heroic woman.

What's even more frightening is that every step taken by Jiangnan Group was upright and solid, without any desire for quick success. They didn't even care what their competitors did or thought, they just followed their own pace, expanding their business step by step, and in the blink of an eye, they were all over Jiangnan.

The unprecedentedly powerful opponent, on the contrary, aroused the strong competitive spirit of Manager Song.

After all, not everyone in this world is like Mr. Du... Oh no, Mr. Liu, who will join the other side when they can't beat them.

There are always some people who, when they encounter a strong enemy, just want to fight to the death. They either win the battle or be killed, and they never think about anything else.

The proud shopkeeper Song was such a die-hard. After all, he was the top business genius of the Ming Dynasty, with a sharp vision that could be called first-class in the world. As a result, he really found the biggest weakness of Jiangnan Bank and even Jiangnan Group!

In fact, he had already begun to make secret plans before the Yellow River burst its banks. But at that time, Song Xiaoming only wanted to use force to promote negotiations, and had no intention or ability to kill Jiangnan Bank with one blow.

But in the past two months, the situation has changed suddenly. Zhao Hao openly proposed to take over the shipping of grain and has already put it into practice. The interests of the Canal Transport Group have been severely challenged, which has given Song Xiaoming a golden opportunity to mobilize the full strength of the group to destroy Jiangnan Bank in one fell swoop, and then let the large and incompetent Jiangnan Group collapse!

He secretly shouted that God was helping him.

That's why he worked so hard to convene this meeting of the Caoyun Group, and vigorously sold the anxiety about the future, and desperately promoted the threat theory of the Jiangnan Group. The purpose was to tie the Caoyun Group to his chariot, so that he could fight to the death with the Jiangnan Group and that Mr. Zhao!

~~

In the meeting hall of the Grand Canal General’s Mansion.

Everyone shouted angrily for a long time, cursing Zhao Hao and his ancestors for eighteen generations, and then they stopped to drink tea with dry mouths.

Suddenly, the sincere Marquis Liu Shiyan said in a sarcastic tone, "Everyone, no matter how much you curse, not only will the kid surnamed Zhao not lose a piece of meat, I don't think we can stop the grain from being transported by sea."

Liu Shiyan was a descendant of Liu Bowen. He knew some physiognomy and always compared himself to his ancestor. He thought there was no one in the world smarter than himself, so he was extremely arrogant.

Moreover, his family had lost their titles for many generations. After Jiajing ascended the throne, in order to create a group of nobles loyal to him, he specially restored the hereditary titles of a number of marquises and earls, so that his father became the Earl of Chengyi again. But it was too late after all, and he did not catch up with the time when the nobles divided up the benefits of the canal transportation. Therefore, Liu Shiyan was considered a marginal person in the canal transportation group, so naturally he had no worries when he stood and spoke.

"Who made you so unpromising? There is a saying that goes, 'The grain transport is the lifeline of the country. If it doesn't arrive in three months, the emperor and his ministers will be worried; if it doesn't arrive in six months, the people in the capital will cry; if it doesn't arrive in a year, the country will be in trouble.'" Liu Shiyan said, crossing his legs, glancing at the grain transport officials with gloating faces, and said:

"Now it's just a matter of 'the king and the prime minister are worried', the court can still keep its composure. When 'the people of the capital are crying', who will dare to stop the sea transport? It's good to have a lifeline to grab."

"You!" Everyone was annoyed, but they just blamed him for telling the truth, which boosted other people's morale and destroyed his own prestige.

"What the Earl of Chengyi said is right. The grain transport will be over in a few years." The Marquis of Zhenyuan, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up. "The Ministry of Revenue is going crazy, and we can't stop the sea transport."

He looked at everyone and said, "Don't waste your words, just think about how to deal with it."

"Your Majesty is right." Pingjiang Earl Chen Wangmo continued, "Since sea transportation is inevitable, we should see what is most beneficial to us."

"Of course they took over the sea transport!" Someone immediately said, "When Pingjiang Bo's ancestor, Pingjiang Hou, was the first commander-in-chief of the grain transport, he was in charge of both the sea and the grain transport. Jiading County still has the treasure mountain built by him!"

ps. Only two updates today.