Chapter 55 Salt Case Storm

Hu Chuyuan and Tan Zhonglin were discussing, and other people's voices came from the courtyard. After a while, a very beautiful girl hurried in and smiled when she saw Hu Chuyuan, "Young master, everything has been done."

The person who came was Pan Limei, who was sent to Japan by Hu Chuyuan.

Hearing what she said, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help laughing and said, "Oh, it's all done?"

"Yes!"

Pan Limei also took out a letter with a smile and gave it to Hu Chuyuan, saying, "This is a letter from Manager Tan to you. He will not come back in a few days, but the salt he should have bought has been put on board!"

Hu Chuyuan pulled out the letter and took a look. He saw that the letter was written by Tan Yiyun himself. He had bought 40 million catties of salt in Japan at a price of 45 cents per catty, and 16 million catties of salt from North Korea at a price of 52 cents per catty.

In addition to the tariff, the price is not cheap.

Hu Chuyuan forwarded the letter to Tan Zhonglin and said, "Your Excellency, you can almost collect the net."

Tan Zhonglin glanced at it and sneered, "Just waiting for this day... Well, Captain Hu, I'll leave first and go back to the governor's office to do business!"

"My lord!"

Hu Chuyuan got up to see him off. When he sent Tan Zhonglin out of the Humble Administrator's Garden, he came back and wrote a letter, asking Hu Rong to send it to Shanghai overnight and give it to Liu Chengxiang.

......

Stir-frying salt is an easy thing.

The profit of the salt industry is very high, but the actual price and total amount are not high. The annual salt consumption in the five provinces of Jiangnan is only 400 million catties to 450 million catties, while the normal price of 100 million catties of salt is only 2.3 million taels of silver.

Tang Yanshu and others did not actually invest much money in the salt market. Even if Hu Chuyuan sold another 200 million catties of salt, they could eat it.

Of course, Hu Chuyuan understands this truth, so he has always followed the market price. He will wholesale it to the middleman according to how much money the takeaway is.

With the salt purchased by Tan Yiyun and the salt hoarded by Tan Zhonglin and Mei Qizhao, Hu Chuyuan began to magnify his courage and quickly let the shops in various places open for wholesale, 600 cents per catty, all of which were resold through middlemen.

In more than ten days, he sold out of 60 million catties of salt again.

While he returned the funds, the governor of Liangjiang approved an official document. In order to stop the market from selling salt, the salt industry control was implemented, and Jiangnan Commercial Bank issued a "salt sales notary" to wholesale salt from Jiangnan Commercial Bank for retail. However, anyone without a license is not allowed to engage in the transportation of salt sales.

This is the ban on sales and embargo.

It doesn't matter. The embargo is terrible, which means that all merchants must continue to hide in the warehouse for how much salt they fry.

As soon as this official document was issued, Hu Chuyuan published the news in the Declaration, stating that he had purchased 70 million catties of salt from overseas, and another warehouse had hoarded 60 million catties of salt, which was enough for winter expenses.

The notarization of salt sales has already been printed, and the branches of the commercial banks quickly issue certificates to local grocers. Each certificate is valid for three years, and 100,000 catties of salt can be entered every year.

In Zhejiang, Mei Qizhao has taken action first to inspect fried salt in Huzhou.

In Shanghai, Yang Changjun finally got the official title of Shanghai Daotai and began to inspect and stir-fry salt in Shanghai. However, anyone who hoarded more than 3,000 catties of salt at home and did not sell salt was notarized, he would be investigated and investigated on the charge of stir-frying salt.

Under the high-pressure policy, local magistrates have sent people to investigate salt merchants.

People fight with officials.

This is never the best choice.

Generally speaking, the response of the local government axe in the late Qing Dynasty was extremely slow, or even indifferent, but that requires a premise - the superior officials don't care. If the governor and the governor care, things will be as fast as good as the wind.

Tan Zhonglin soon arrested more than a dozen merchants who participated in salt frying and asked them to explain that everything was planned. Everything was planned by Tang Yanshu, Zhang Songxian and others behind the scenes. He also discussed with foreigners. Even foreigners also invested in stir-frying salt and refused to sell salt to Jiangnan merchants.

The goal is to crush Jiangnan Commercial Bank.

Maybe those businessmen have confessed to Tan Zhonglin for a long time, so they arrested on the same day and explained on the same day. Maybe these people are Tan Zhonglin's buried eyeliners.

The officialdom is always cruel. Tan Zhonglin personally went to Shanghai to arrest people, and Tang Yanshu had already got the news and hid in the concession and refused to come out.

Zhang Songxian was arrested at home.

It was not until this time that Zuo Zongtang officially gave up his son, and sentenced Tang Yanshu and Zhang Songxian to "miscubusing foreign countries, harming the country and benefiting themselves", and believed that they were extremely guilty and colluded with foreigners to cause the country to lose its territory by plotting chaos in Jiangdong and harm to Xinjiang.

As soon as this fold is on, Tang Yanshu and Zhang Songxian must be guilty of death.

Even if you don't die, at least you will be exiled.

The matter is not that simple. After Zhang Songxian's arrest, he successively confessed others for self-protection. Gu Shousong, who served as a buyer in Yihe Foreign Bank, was also on the list of "fornication with foreign countries", and Liu Yong and others were on the list of "conspiring to disturb Jiangdong and harm Xinjiang Province".

In just one and a half months, Zhang Songxian and other Nanxun four elephants hoarded 40 million catties of salt, Tang Yanshu hoarded more than 20 million catties of salt, and the amount of salt hoarded by merchants from other places was not low.

This is the "salt disaster".

The late Qing Dynasty was a dynasty with many mysteries. The salt disaster case was a typical example. No one could explain whether Zuo Zongtang intended to blame or the merchant intended to collude with foreigners.

Because of the wide range of involvement, the court urgently transferred Zeng Guoquan, the governor of Shanxi Province, to serve as the secretary and imperial minister of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, and jointly investigated the case with Ronglu, the governor of Anhui Province.

I'm afraid it will take some time to know what the result will be.

However, one thing is certain, that is, the salt price soon stabilized. More than 60 million catties of salt were inspected in Huzhou alone. Because it has not been finalized, these salts cannot be checked immediately, but it is allocated to Jiangnan Commercial Bank to suppress the salt price.

As for how to settle the salt in the end, that is, what will happen in the future. At worst, Jiangnan Commercial Bank will give people more than 60 million catties in the future.

When the two governors, Tan Zhonglin and Mei Qizhao, were personally responsible for the case, and Zeng Guoquan and Ronglu were responsible for the trial, Hu Chuyuan, to some extent, one of the culprits of the soaring salt prices, rest assured.

But he did not return to Hangzhou immediately, nor did he go to Shanghai, so he stayed in the Humble East Garden in Suzhou.

Yan Shizhang is not there, Wang Yirong is not there, Liu Chengxiang and Tan Yiyun are both in Shanghai. Hu Chuyuan and Pan Limei played chess to kill time, waiting for the final trial.

It's pitiful to say that his Go skills are not as good as Pan Limei.

In the evening, the two of them lit kerosene lamps and continued to sit on the couch and play chess.

There were bursts of noise outside the door. After a while, Hu Rong led a group of rich gentry in. Hu Chuyuan didn't have to ask much about what they were for.