Chapter 1998

Of course, Dai Yingda has not publicly explained these considerations to the other heads of the seven surnames. Now that the Yang family has shown signs of instability, Dai Yingda is also worried that if he shows all his cards, he will be betrayed by the people inside.

If it is leaked to the salt merchants in Shanxi and Shaanxi, they will be passive when the time comes.

He originally planned to make some adjustments to the composition of the seven major surnames to eliminate unstable factors, but this required a suitable timing, otherwise it would easily cause internal turmoil among the Huizhou salt merchants. And this group of Ningbo salt merchants

The sudden appearance of the salt merchants allowed Dai Yingda to see an opportunity to realize his own ideas. He even had the opportunity to eliminate and destroy the salt merchants, which incidentally also caused some trouble for the Shanxi and Shaanxi salt merchants.

However, there are too many uncertain factors in his plan, and the corresponding risks are also very high. Even if he finally completes his plan in the most ideal state, he still has to face the trend of Ningbo salt merchants entering the Jianghuai market. In contrast,

Compared with the Shanshan Salt Merchant, whose strength is declining day by day, the background and backing of the new opponent are obviously more troublesome, and he has not yet thought about whether he can coexist peacefully with him in the future.

Since the arrival of Ningbo salt merchants is only a matter of time, then trying to use this matter to maximize one's own interests is the most correct way for Dai Yingda. If he can kill with a borrowed knife, he will severely attack the Shanxi salt merchants.

With the establishment of an armed organization, Huizhou salt merchants will have more confidence in their actions in the future.

But what Dai Yingda didn't know was that Haihan's interest in the musketry team of the Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants at this time was even far greater than their interest in the Jianghuai salt market. Otherwise, he would not have intervened among the salt merchants.

The struggle for interests. If he could grasp this key information, he might be able to think of a more effective way to use the power of Haihan to attack the salt merchants of Shanxi and Shaanxi.

When the sun went down in the afternoon of that day, there were no more troublemakers at the pier. In half a day, nearly three thousand kilograms of salt were successfully sold. People who came to buy salt after hearing the news even formed a long queue at the pier.

But this harmonious and peaceful scene made Gong Qiqi and Ji Yuanqing feel a little uneasy in addition to disappointment. They knew that there must be many local salt merchants' eyes and ears watching them nearby, but the other party only monitored them and did not take any action.

This leaves them unable to cope.

Transporting a large amount of salt from Ningbo to Yangzhou Prefecture for sale is itself an act of door-to-door provocation. One of the purposes of Gong Qiqi's risky move was to use this method to anger Yangzhou salt merchants and induce them to use the salt merchants.

A team of musketeers attacked.

Although the risk of doing this is huge, if it can succeed, it will be an extremely efficient investigation method. Otherwise, it will be up to a group of outsiders who are unfamiliar with the place to try to capture the musketry team that came and went without a trace in Yangzhou.

When you translate it, you can imagine how difficult it is.

"These Yangzhou salt merchants... came to cause trouble in the morning and then disappeared in the afternoon. What kind of strategy is this? Could it be that they noticed something?" Gong Shiqi was also a little confused about this less than ideal situation.

Ji Yuanqing said: "Brother Gong, don't be anxious. Maybe the other party just wants to observe our actions deliberately to see if they can find our loopholes."

"Maybe they plan to wait until dark before taking action." Gong Shiqi looked up at the sky, shook his head and said, "Eat first, fill your stomach, and even if there is something wrong at night, you will still have the energy to play with them!"

The enemy is in the dark and we are in the light. Gong Shiqi's team has been on alert since they arrived in Yangzhou. Everyone is nervous and ready to deal with various situations that may arise. But in this situation, it took a long time.

Their mental condition will undoubtedly become very tired, which will affect their combat effectiveness.

Gong Shiqi had no way of judging the opponent's real strategy, nor could he predict under what circumstances the Musketeers would appear. He could only try his best to ensure that the physical and mental strength of his subordinates were in a better state, so that

The position constructed by our side with these two ships has fewer defensive holes.

Starting today, they have stopped purchasing cooked food from local restaurants. They only buy some ingredients from nearby markets and let the cooks on the ship cook them themselves. This is why Gong Shiqi is worried that the local salt merchants will try to purchase them because of their power.

The food is drugged, so this arrangement was specially made. Although it is a little more troublesome, it can effectively reduce the risks during their stay in Yangzhou. This is also a necessary safety measure.

Although the sky is getting dark, people are still coming here to buy salt after hearing the news. But they are all bought in pieces, three to five kilograms is considered a lot, and the overall quantity is not large.

"Strange to say, not even a big deal was completed today." Ji Yuanqing said: "Our salt price should be considered very low, and there are discounts for buying more, but there are still only sporadic businesses."

"Are you trying to say that the local shops that sell oil, salt, sauce and vinegar have not come to purchase from us? In fact, the reason is very simple. If these shops want to continue to operate in Yangzhou for a long time, they cannot offend the local salt merchants. So even if they know that there are comparable products on the market

They are selling salt at a cheaper price, and they don’t dare to come here to buy it. After all, there must be a lot of salt merchants watching here. If they are discovered, the salt merchants will definitely make trouble for them later.”

Gong Shiqi smiled and said: "But he is still a little bold... If you pay attention, you will find that many of those who buy five kilograms of salt at a time have come and queued many times."

Ji Yuanqing said suddenly: "If you find a few more people and make more trips, you won't attract attention, and you can still buy hundreds of kilograms of salt and stockpile it. Such a purchase amount is enough for a small businessman. Brother Gong is indeed a master.

I have always paid attention to these details.”

Gong Shiqi smiled. In fact, he didn't feel anything special about Ji Yuanqing's praise. Although they were all under the supervision of the local salt merchants throughout the day, he was also doing some research on the environment and people here.

With careful observation, he has been constantly observing which of the people who come to buy salt are real ordinary people, which of them are small businessmen who stock up on goods like ants moving, and which of them may be the eyes and ears sent by local salt merchants.

Silently conducting the assessment. This monitoring method was not something he did deliberately, it was simply a work habit he had developed over the years in field missions.

After nightfall, Gong Shiqi arranged for more than ten people to set up tents on the pier and lit two bonfires for lighting. Although this was not a fortification, it could be regarded as a barrier on the pier. If anyone wanted to

It is not so easy to approach these two ships at night.

Gong Shiqi was not afraid of the other party knocking on the door with open fire and a stick, but if the other party launched a sneak attack at night, he would have to guard against it. But in fact, he had some expectations in his heart, hoping that the Yangzhou salt merchants would take action instead of always doing this.

Staying in the dark makes it impossible for you to catch them. The longer this matter drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be to the operators fighting on the road. If you leave Yangzhou with nothing in the end, it will be a failure.

The window seats on the second floor of a restaurant not far from the pier were just in time to see the two eye-catching ships. A fat man ate the food while wiping the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

After swallowing the food in his mouth, he said to another man at the same table: "Brother Yang, tell me honestly, are these two boats a trick played by your Huizhou merchants? Old man Dai is very cunning and got them here on purpose.

The two boats pretended to be Ningbo salt merchants, but in fact they wanted to lure us into a fight in Yangzhou City so that the government would punish us, isn't that right?"

The middle-aged man sitting at the same table with him was probably half thinner than him, and his face looked sluggish, but the fine leather jacket on his body and the jade pendant with a diameter of two inches around his waist showed his wealth.

Not bad. When the thin man heard this, he stopped his chopsticks and said, "Brother Lu, where did you start talking about this? I have never heard of such an arrangement. These Ningbo salt merchants have nothing to do with us Hui merchants."

"Really? Why do I feel that these people are weird inside and out? They don't look like ordinary businessmen!" Fatty said suspiciously, as if he still didn't fully believe the other party's excuse: "I, Lu Kangtai, work in this industry

I have been working for more than 20 years, but I have never seen anyone dare to seize territory in such a straightforward way!"

"Brother Lu, don't say you haven't seen it, I haven't seen it either!" The thin man said with an innocent face: "But this doesn't prove that these Ningbo salt merchants have any relationship with our Huizhou merchants, right? We are familiar with each other.

Familiar, don’t accuse a good person unjustly!”

This fat man Lu Kangtai was the fat man Lu who had always been remembered by Huizhou salt merchants, and the person sitting at the same table with him for dinner was Yang Chengye, who was regarded by Dai Yingda as "colluding with outsiders". Both of them looked ugly.

Astonishing, but they all play important roles in their respective camps.

Lu Kangtai has a newly formed musketeer team with a very complicated background. However, because he is the major financial backer who funded the formation of this team, the current musketeer team is also serving him. And the previous few years

During each dispatch, the musketeers successfully completed their missions and proved their outstanding combat effectiveness, which gave Lu Kangtai a higher prestige and voice among the Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants.

However, Lu Kangtai was still very careful and would not easily use the big killer at his doorstep, so even though He Huan, the leader of the Shanxi and Shaanxi salt merchants, had made his attitude clear and asked them to give these foreign salt merchants some color as soon as possible.

Look, Lu Kangtai was not in a hurry to grab the top spot. Instead, he first made an appointment with Yang Chengye, a salt merchant from Huizhou who was familiar with him, and wanted to get some relevant information from him.

Although Yang Chengye is regarded as a loser by Dai Yingda, and is even in danger of being eliminated from the top seven Huizhou salt merchants, the industry he controls can actually rank among the top seven Huizhou salt merchants. In fact, since then

There are two generations above him. The Yang family was once one of the largest families among Huizhou salt merchants. However, after Yang Chengye's generation, it was obviously on the decline. Dai Yingda's comments about him were not that good.

Pointless.

Yang Chengye was despised and belittled among the Huizhou salt merchants. There was only one Ma Zhengping who cared about him because of his old friendship with his father. This also made Yang Chengye unwilling to integrate into the group of Huizhou salt merchants. On the contrary,

They met Lu Kangtai by chance. Although the Shanshan salt merchants to which Lu Kangtai belongs and the Huizhou salt merchants to which Yang Chengye belongs are mortal enemies in the business world, the relationship between the two transcends the opposing camps.

Friends may also use each other, but they themselves feel that they get along well.

Yang Chengye said: "If you hadn't dragged me out from the Chunfeng Lane Xiaohuan in the afternoon, I would have stayed there for one night today. Although this girl only recognizes money and not people, she is indeed a lovely person who is loved by others.

... I'm off topic. If you hadn't come to see me, I wouldn't have known that such a group of Ningbo salt merchants came to Yangzhou City. I guess Old Man Dai convened various meetings again today. I don't know how many times I have been absent.

Next time I see Old Man Dai, I will inevitably get scolded!"

When Lu Kangtai heard this, he finally believed it a little. He knew that Yang Chengye was not good at lying, and the credibility of his statement was still very high. But he was still a little worried that Yang Chengye's status among the Huizhou businessmen group was not enough.

For relatively confidential matters, the group of old foxes headed by Dai Yingda may not inform Yang Chengye in advance.

"Then try to find out tonight whether you have more information about these Ningbo salt merchants, what is Old Man Dai's attitude towards this matter, and whether he will take measures to deal with them." Lu Kangtai refused.

He gave up on this and immediately encouraged Yang Chengye to try to collect information.

Although Yang Chengye was suspected of being a prodigal, he was not an idiot. He smiled and said: "Brother Lu, if I go to find out this information for you, wouldn't it be tantamount to betraying my fellow villagers? If Old Man Dai finds out, I will

Even if you don’t die, you still have to shed your skin!”

Lu Kangtai threw the soaked handkerchief aside, took out a dry handkerchief from his arms and continued to wipe the sweat on his face. While wiping, he persuaded Yang Chengye: "How can it be as serious as you think! This Ningbo salt merchant

Since you have nothing to do with Huizhou merchants, how can inquiring about their information make you betray your fellow villagers? Besides, if Ningbo salt merchants come to Yangzhou to sell salt, it will also affect your interests. Speaking of which, we all have something to deal with them.

Good reason, isn't it?"

"What you said seems to make sense..." Yang Chengye couldn't help but hesitate a little after hearing what he said: "But why do we have to deal with them? It's just two ships of salt. If they sell out, don't they have to leave?

"

"You are only weak because of your non-fighting nature!" Lu Kangtai shook his head and said: "They sold out two ships of salt this time. Next time they come back, there may be four ships or eight ships. There will be more and more ships.

So much Ningbo salt enters Yangzhou that we can’t sell a single grain of salt! Brother Yang, if this gap is opened, business will only become more and more difficult for our Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants and your Huizhou merchants in the future.

!”
Chapter completed!