The Great Ming in the Box

Chapter 402: Give Me a Price

Iron Bird Flies spread his hands: “Boss Xing, rest assured. I only transcribed that memorial. I didn’t dare alter the original, and I had it delivered to the court. I, Iron Bird Flies of Hedong, am also a Shanxi man. I don’t want to cut off the lifeline for the people of Shanxi.”

The fist Xing Honglang had raised slowly lowered. She sighed: “Forget it. Even if that memorial gets sent up, the court is unlikely to send aid and food to Shanxi. Shaanxi has been in turmoil for so many years, yet we’ve seen no aid from the court. Shanxi, then, is out of the question.”

Iron Bird Flies frowned: “If the court doesn’t rescue us… then…”

Xing Honglang cut in: “If the court won’t save us, then we save ourselves! You’re a damn salt smuggler! How many days have you ever followed the rules set by the court? Why are you suddenly hoping for the court now?”

Iron Bird Flies was both amused and exasperated: “Boss Xing, this concerns millions of people in Shanxi! How could I, Iron Bird Flies, possibly save them? Look, just now before you arrived, I was nearly hacked to death by those bandits right on this dock. With my strength, who can I save? Matters like this can only rely on the court.”

“So, if you lack strength, you don’t exert any effort at all?” Xing Honglang snorted. “One person isn’t enough? Then get two people. Two aren’t enough? Find even more! As long as there are enough people willing to put in even a shred of effort for our homeland, Shanxi can naturally be saved.”

Iron Bird Flies: “That sounds pleasing to the ear, but actually doing it—”

Xing Honglang turned and shouted loudly to her forty-two subordinates: “Go to the ship. Push the grain carts down!”

Iron Bird Flies: “Huh? Grain?”

The moment he heard the word “grain,” Iron Bird Flies’s eyes lit up with a glow almost shaped like copper coins.Xing Honglang’s subordinates returned to the ship, laid out a long plank, and pushed down over a dozen carts of grain onto the riverbank.

As soon as these grain carts appeared, well now, wasn’t that something! Everyone on the dock looked over, eyes fixed, their gazes practically reaching out hands.

Xing Honglang declared: “This Shanxi… this old lady has decided to save it!”

Iron Bird Flies quickly asked: “This grain… what’s the price?”

Xing Honglang kicked him straight into the water: “Damn it! Your first words are just about asking the price!”

Iron Bird Flies emerged from the water, sputtering: “Boss Xing, beating me this time was completely unwarranted! Don’t tell me you’re giving this to me for free. I wouldn’t dare accept it. You’ve got to give me a price! Only then, brother, can I dare take it over.”

Saying this, he turned to the large group of merchants on the dock—old acquaintances of Xing Honglang—and asked: “Everyone, what do you say?”

Strangely, their opinions were surprisingly unanimous. They nodded together: “Yes!”

Xing Honglang thought carefully. Indeed, there were many more benefits to charging money than not: “Iron Bird Flies, you give the price.”

Iron Bird Flies offered: “Four hundred coins per dou! How about that?”

A dan was a bit over one hundred catties. One dan equaled ten dou, meaning one dou was roughly over ten catties. Iron Bird Flies’s quote roughly translated to over thirty coins per catty.

Xing Honglang started rapidly pondering in her mind. Iron Bird Flies dared to offer this price to take over the grain, meaning the grain price in Shanxi had already risen to at least seven or eight hundred coins per dou. Though still a bit short of Shaanxi’s thousand coins per dou, it wasn’t far off. Clearly, the drought in Shanxi was also severe.

Coupled with the court’s consistent ostrich policy – when bandits caused trouble in Shaanxi, they banned transporting grain into Shaanxi. Now that bandits were causing trouble in Shanxi, the authorities would surely ban grain shipments into Shanxi too. If this continued, grain prices were bound to rise even more.

The people of Shanxi, on the road of comparing misery, were fast catching up with the people of Shaanxi!

The current retail grain price in Gaojia Village was seven coins per catty. Compared to the people of Shanxi, they were truly several times happier.

Xing Honglang rolled her eyes: “Iron Bird Flies, at a crucial time like this, can’t you do business making a little less profit?”

“I can! Of course, I can!” Iron Bird Flies said promptly. “Boss Xing just saved my life. Taking a smaller profit is no problem at all. How about this? I’ll offer six hundred coins per dou to buy it from you!”

Xing Honglang’s voice rose sharply: “When I said less profit, I didn’t mean raise the price you give me! I meant lower the price you charge the common people!”

Iron Bird Flies was momentarily stunned. Finally, he understood. He sighed deeply and bowed respectfully to Xing Honglang: “Boss Xing, we are both salt smugglers. But my character is far inferior to yours. I understand. The goods you supply me, I will sell to the common people for six hundred coins per dou.”

“That’s more like it.” Xing Honglang knew six hundred coins per dou was still very expensive, roughly equivalent to a retail price of about fifty coins per catty. Eating grain at that price would still be immensely difficult for commoners. But she couldn’t sell at the Gaojia Village price right now either.

Selling it too cheaply would only lead to one person buying up huge quantities, hoarding it, or reselling it countless times. Eventually, it would still end up in the common people’s hands at an astronomical price.

Only by pricing it slightly below the market price could she ensure no one hoarded it or flipped it too many times. That way, more people could actually buy it.

Xing Honglang asked: “Do you know why I’m handing these goods over to you?”

Iron Bird Flies blinked, thought for a moment, and suddenly understood: “I have the ability to move goods around safely while guarding them.”

Xing Honglang: “Exactly! Since it’s chaotic outside and ordinary merchants can’t transport goods anymore, now we can only rely on people like you. Avoid the main forces of the bandits, and you can get these goods to villages and towns, sold directly into the hands of the common people. You can earn some, but don’t earn too much. Consider it your share of effort, saving our homeland.”

An awkward expression spread across Iron Bird Flies’s face: “Back then, we hid from officials to sell salt. Now, we have to hide from bandits to sell grain. Really… sigh…”

Xing Honglang took two carts of grain and sold them on the spot to the merchants, fishermen, and farmers on the dock. The remaining grain, she handed entirely to Iron Bird Flies: “Come back to the dock as quickly as you can once it’s sold. I’ll find a way to get more grain. From now on, we’ll meet at this dock for deliveries. We need to get as much grain into Shanxi as possible. Since the court won’t relieve the poor, we have to save them.”

Iron Bird Flies cupped his fist: “Good!”

Seeing Xing Honglang’s group preparing to return to the ship, his gaze followed that large vessel. He looked left, then right. The more he looked, the more he liked it: “Boss Xing… about this ship of yours… give me a price quote?”

Xing Honglang raised her bowl-sized fist.

The bow main gun of the ship even turned soundlessly to aim directly at him.

Iron Bird Flies jumped in fright, hurriedly shrinking back to avoid it.

Just as the ship was about to set sail, Xing Honglang seemed to remember something. She turned around and called back to Iron Bird Flies:

“Next time we meet, bring a lot more salt! I need salt. A large amount of salt!”

It turned out, before this trip, Thirty-Two had personally come to find her specifically asking her to help acquire some salt to bring back. Salt was one of the essential raw materials for alkali production. Since Puzhou, Shanxi was the home territory of salt smugglers, Xing Honglang also carried the important task of establishing a purchasing channel for chemical raw materials on this journey.

Iron Bird Flies grinned: “Ah, now this is more like it! We should be selling salt! That fits our true identities. Just selling grain? What kind of salt smuggler does that? It nearly made me think I was about to go straight!”

As he finished speaking, he suddenly remembered something else. Cupping his hands as if shouting across water, he bellowed at the departing large ship:

“Boss Xing! About that salt you want… at least quote a price!”