In April, the weather becomes hot after summer, but it is not yet considered hot.

Chen He and several wealthy merchants were anxious at this time, and their hearts seemed to be hotter than the sun.

As April begins, the price of Jiankang grain has risen to more than 2,000 ci per bull, but no one takes it seriously because many officials are waiting to see jokes.

The porridge shop that the government has given the lives of those "poor ghosts" is still trying hard to maintain.

There are more and more officials asking for "suspended" tax system reform in the above table. Various signs indicate that the new tax system reform, which has just been prepared for the preparation, is about to die.

However, the "fetal" did not die, and their troubles came first.

Summer is here and spring is over, but there are not enough important goods. Several people are drinking to drown their sorrows, but the more they drank, the more they drank, the more they became.

"How could this happen? How could this happen!"

As one of them said, put down the wine glass and held his head with his hands, his fingers penetrated into his hair, and pinched his scalp hard: "This is not, this is not not!"

"Where have the goods gone? Why are there so many fewer than in previous years!"

Chen He could only smile helplessly when he heard the complaint.

"Care" refers to incense medicine. Incense medicine has many uses, such as making sachets, incense for clothes and bedding, or incense for incense burners, incense for rooms, etc.

Although fragrant medicine is very expensive, wealthy people cannot do without fragrant medicine, so it is impossible not to use it for one day without it.

This is especially true in Jiankang, where the powerful, royal family and gentry gather.

However, Liang State does not produce much fragrant medicine in China. The large amount of fragrant medicine consumed in various places is mainly two sources: the Western Regions and overseas.

When Shu was still in the territory of Liang State, Hu merchants from the Western Regions entered Shu by land through Tuyuhun and brought a large number of Western Regions incense medicines. These incense medicines were taken by the Yangtze River, arrived in Jiankang, or sold to various places.

In addition, every spring, when the southeast wind blows, overseas merchants arrive on a boat to Longbing, Guangzhou and Panyu, Guangzhou, and a large number of overseas incense medicines are imported.

These incense medicines were either taken by caravan by land, set out from Panyu to head north, and "forked" in Hengzhou, and sold to various places through Jiangzhou and Xiangzhou.

Either it is directly loaded by a sea ship, travels north by the southeast wind, arrives in Kuaiji and sells to Sanwu, or enters the Yangtze River, arrives at Guangling (Jingkou) or Jiankang.

Since the fall of Shu, the main source of incense medicine in Liang State has been the south: every spring, imported incense medicine poured into Sanwu through Panyu, Guangzhou, and then distributed to various places.

In addition to Kuaiji, Guangling, and Jiankang, its distribution centers are mainly Jiangzhou Nanchang and Xiangzhou Linxiang.

Therefore, spring is the "season" of incense medicine. Merchants will prepare enough funds in advance and purchase a large amount of incense medicine in Kuaiji, Jiankang, Guangling, Nanchang and Linxiang in spring.

It will take a year before you have the opportunity to buy in large quantities again.

For Chen He and other wealthy merchants who are "shopkeepers" for the powerful, buying incense medicine on a large scale at the beginning of the year, and ensuring the supply of incense medicine in Kuangshan Mansion was the most important thing.

Because there are sufficient incense medicines entering Jiankang every year, and this has been the case for decades, the powerful and wealthy families generally do not overstock the incense medicines, and must use "new goods" every year.

Otherwise, it will be compared.

Because the demand for incense and medicine is very large, the purchase volume is also very large. Of course, it is impossible for Chen and others to pay full commercial tax for this.

Incense medicine is a good thing. In addition to the capital, there is also a great demand for incense medicine in various places.

However, since the beginning of spring this year, and now, several months have passed, and there are particularly few "new overseas incense medicines" on Kuaiji, Guangling and Jiankang markets.

It's much less than in the past few years.

Some well-informed people found out that the incense medicines that "reached the shore" in Panyu, Guangzhou also dropped significantly, and the specific reason is unclear.

Although merchants everywhere have inventories of incense and medicine, and wealthy families also have inventories, the huge consumption per year is far from enough.

It is precisely because of the extreme shortage of supply that the prices of Jiankang's incense medicine soared.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the more time goes by, the higher the price of fragrant medicines will be, so merchants with fragrant medicines in their hands will start to "cover" the goods and will no longer be sold.

If you keep it until autumn and sell it, your profit will inevitably increase many times. People who don’t do this are fools.

Merchants hold on to the goods, and wealthy families will not sell in stock incense medicine. Merchants who miss the incense medicine season are looking for sources of goods everywhere, and are willing to spend a lot of money for this.

The price is several times higher than in previous years.

However, if there is no goods, there is no goods. Linxiang, Nanchang, Jiankang, Guangling, Kuaiji, the new overseas incense medicines did not come much, and no one sold the old (inventory) incense medicines. Therefore, incense medicines everywhere were priced but not marketed.

In the backing mansion of Chen He and others, the incense medicine could not last for several months.

So many female family members, so many children, and even servants need to use sachets and incense-filled clothes to cover the odor on their bodies in the hot summer, and use incense to cover the odor in the room.

As a result, you told me that I couldn’t get the incense medicine?

No matter what your difficulties are, raising a dog is useless at critical moments, so what is the use of this dog?

There is no shortage of people who are willing to be dogs and help manage the industry. Chen He and others do not want to lose the trust of their backers and do not want to be replaced by others. They can only rack their brains to find ways to get fragrant medicine.

At present, you can mobilize inventory of incense medicine to help you with emergency treatment for a while through various connections and friendships.

But what after that? It's been a whole year!

People waiting to be dogs have already lined up!

So you still have to buy more to ensure the quantity so that you can keep your trust. Otherwise, if others can get a lot of incense medicine to invite favor, they will be in trouble.

However, now everyone is holding on to goods. If there is no goods on the market, there is no goods. Chen He and others can only use their connections and friendship to open up new channels as much as possible, such as getting incense medicine from Zhou State.

Now that Liang and Zhou Jiao are in good condition, it may not be possible to get a lot of incense and medicine from Shu in the second half of the year.

"The situation is wrong, it must be someone..." a man murmured, his eyes slowly widening: "Someone must have taken all the overseas incense medicine."

"Someone must have taken all the imported incense medicine in Jiaozhou or Guangzhou, so there are not many newly arrived overseas incense medicines in Linxiang, Nanchang, Kuaiji, and Jiankang!"

Chen He only felt absurd: "How is this possible? Who has such great financial resources to take most of the overseas incense medicines that have arrived on the shore this year!"

He thought it was another possibility: "In my opinion, it must be that some war in overseas places, which led to the blockage of trade routes, so the sea ships could not pass, resulting in the small number of imported incense medicines."

This speculation is the most convincing, and everyone nodded silently and continued to drown their sorrows by drinking.

After a while, a servant came to report that today there were grain ships coming from the upstream unloading goods at the wharf outside the city and that they would sell grain at a low price (relatively speaking).

The purpose of this move is of course to stabilize food prices.

Chen He was a little impatient: "I have said it many times and buy as much as I have. Don't ask specifically!"

"Master Lang, this batch of grain ships came, and there was no news of the wind in advance." The servant reminded.

Chen He raised his eyebrows: "So what, just buy it."

The servant nodded and said yes, and said, "It's really good. Now we can find some food to transport it to Jiankang, so what? We can buy all the best he ships to you!"

"When he couldn't hold on, the court suspended the implementation of the new tax system, and then released the grain to return the capital, and paid back the principal and interest of the borrowing, and made a lot of money, just to fill in the expenses of incense and medicine."

Because of the topic of grain prices, the atmosphere became lively during the meal. Chen He and others were well-informed. The court wanted to transfer grain from other places to Beijing to rescue emergency services. They could receive the news as soon as the grain was loaded on the ship.

Therefore, they know the amount of grain entering Jiankang, and have been buying grain sold at low prices in the past few months to ensure that the grain prices only rise but not fall.

Even if you have to borrow money to raise enough funds to buy grain now, you are full of confidence.

Anyway, if you persist for a while, you can make a big profit, and this risk is worth taking.

......

In the early morning, Chen Hezheng and his newly acquired concubine were entangled, but the servant who was rushed to the scene was distracted. He came out of the dormitory with a stern face and asked, "Why are you so panicked!"

The servant looked frightened: "Master! It's amazing, a lot of food is transported to Jiankang, a lot, a lot of it!!"

"More? How much can you get! Buy the goods immediately, buy as much as you like, and I'll say how many times you need!"

Chen He looked unhappy. In the past two days, grain that "suddenly emerged" arrived in Jiankang, but most of it was bought by him and other wealthy merchants.

"Master Lang, this time it's different, so many, so many!"

The servant was a little incoherent and kept repeating "So many, so many". After being slapped by Chen He, he actually came to "wake up".

"Master Lang! Many big ships came up on the river, and they were docked one after another, and they were unloaded all of them!"

"There is not enough coolies to unload goods, and the government has also transferred soldiers to help unload goods!"

"The grain trucks walked into the city one by one, just parked on the side of the road, and in Changgan, connecting the head and tail, from east to west, all grain trucks..."

"There are also small boats to transport grain and come over the Qinhuai River."

"Those people...those soldiers sold grain directly on the roadside, the price was a dou of forty cents!"

When Chen He heard this, his head exploded with a buzzing sound.

Before the curfew last night, the price of grain (average price) was 2,000 yuan per bull. The price of grain used by the government to stabilize prices was 1,000 yuan per bull.

Now, it only sells forty cents.

Forty cents per bucket is the normal average price of food at this season (normal season).

The government dared to sell grain at this price, but I thought that there were countless grains in my hands, which were enough to defeat the price of grain, so that I dared to act like this.

Chen He couldn't believe that the news was true, so he went out in a panic, got on the ox cart, and went into Changgan.

Changganli is south of the Qinhuai River, that is, the south of Jiankang City. His private fortune is near Qingxi where nobles gather, that is, the northeast of Jiankang. He has to go to Changganli, and there is a way to go.

Chen He wanted to run over directly, but he was fat and could not run, so he could only ride a ox cart patiently.

While the ox cart was walking, he heard the noise outside. When he opened the curtains, he saw that there were ox carts on the street "rushing" to the road.

After looking carefully, I realized that it was an old acquaintance car.

They were still depressed the shortage of incense medicine the day before yesterday. Now, they were traveling together early in the morning, probably because they received the news...
To be continued...