Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 150 Blackmailing the Tatars, sausage tactics!
Altan Khan decided on the titles given to Han Naji and his grandson.

The only issue left for the cabinet to decide is the price of grain.

Although the 40 million kilograms of grain were the grain of the Shanxi merchants confiscated by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the imperial court did not have a penny of it.

However, the Shanxi merchants wanted to buy rice at the price of five cents of silver per dou, and were prepared to sell it to the Tatars at five taels of silver.

Now the Ming Dynasty has a bumper grain harvest in the two capitals and thirteen provinces. The price of five cents of silver for a dou of rice was originally raised by the emperor in order not to hurt the farmers, and the Shanxi merchants wanted to sell it to the Tatars at a "sky-high price".

However, at that time, the Shanxi merchants acted as grain transport officers for the Tatars and provided additional transportation tasks, so it was understandable that they asked for an exorbitant amount of money.

The Tatars also decided to use the grain to go south to plunder the border towns of the Ming Dynasty. No matter how high the grain price was, in the eyes of the Tatars, it was just a no-cost business.

As the situation changed, the entire Shanxi merchant group was destroyed by the Ming Dynasty, and it was the Ming Dynasty's turn to do business without any cost and demand prices from the Tatars.

The grain price of five taels of silver for one dou of rice was obviously not of reference value, but it was impossible to sell it to the Tatars at a loss at five cents of silver or less.

Even though the first batch of 40 million kilograms of grain taken out for trade was in Datong Town, the place where the Ming Dynasty and Tatar trade took place, the Ming Dynasty still had to calculate the cost of transporting grain from the inland. After all, the winter on the grassland is long, at least three months and at most four or five months.

Forty million kilograms of grain were only enough to feed the two million Tatar soldiers and civilians for one month, and the Tatars had a food shortage of at least two to three months.

Afterwards, Tatar and Altan would certainly ask the Ming Dynasty to trade the second and third batches of grain.

"Prime Minister."

Hu Zongxian spoke again, looking at Zhang Juzheng, and said slowly: "The price of grain sold to the Tatars is based on five cents of silver, and then the cost of transporting it from the farthest corner of Lingnan to Datong Town is used as the cost.

In the process, we have to cross the sea, land, rivers and streams. Fortunately, our Ming Dynasty has the canal, which can reduce the consumption of grain transportation. However, when a pound of grain is transported from the ends of the earth to Datong Town, at most four taels of grain can be left, which is a loss of 75%.

Well, one dou of grain in the Ming Dynasty is five cents of silver, so if sold to the Tatars it should be two taels of silver per dou.

Forty million catties of grain should be worth four million taels of silver. I think the Tatars will accept this price."

Fighting foreign enemies for many years.

Hu Zongxian had a very accurate grasp of the psychological bottom line of the ethnic minorities. Food shortage was a matter of life and death for any ethnic group, but the price of food was only four times the price at the place of origin.

High?

Of course it is high.

But if they do not accept it, all the people and animals in the tribe will starve to death, but if they accept it, most of the people in the tribe can survive.

The risk is definitely much smaller than fighting a battle for national and ethnic destiny with the current Ming Dynasty.

As long as the Tatars and Altan Khan accept this round of pricing, Hu Zongxian will be able to use the mutual trade, just like the Window on the World in Hangzhou Prefecture, to find out the bottom line of the Japanese pirates at that time, and in the future he will be able to slowly find out the bottom line of the Tatars, and erode the Tatars through business.

Just like "slicing sausage", you only cut a small piece at a time, but if you cut it enough times, you can swallow the whole tartare.

However, Hu Zongxian was never willing to mention military strategies to outsiders, and was even less willing to discuss them in detail before they were successfully implemented, so as not to disappoint the emperor and his colleagues.

Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin both felt that the grain price proposed by Hu Zongxian was appropriate and nodded.

Previously, when the emperor raised grain prices in the two capitals and thirteen provinces and reopened the Changping granary, causing the court to lose millions of taels of silver, the cabinet thought that the emperor had made a loss-making business.

Unexpectedly, in less than a month, the emperor and the court got back several times the money they lost to the people of the Ming Dynasty from the Tatars.

Our emperor is wise!
"This is the Marquis of Jinghai! This is great wisdom!" Zhang Juzheng could not help but sigh. But his eyes were always on Gao Gong, who was busy with his papers, wanting to hear Gao Gong's opinion on the grain price.

this moment.

Zhang Juzheng gradually showed the same cunning and scheming as Yan Song and Xu Jie.

He was already very dissatisfied with Gao Gong's various actions in the cabinet. He was not afraid of Gao Gong's seizure of power, but he did not want this kind of "rebellion" to continue in the cabinet.

He wanted to know whether Gao Gong would still raise objections to express his individuality when the cabinet was so unanimous.

Behind the pile of official documents, the sound of the wolf-hair brushes stopped, and Gao Gong's voice came out, "I agree with Ruzhen's price for the grain trade."

Zhang Juzheng could not express his disappointment, but felt a little chilly. Gao Gong, who could hide his shortcomings and work together, might be more difficult to deal with than Gao Suqing, who had a hot temper and would turn the table over when he was dissatisfied.

But at this point, the cabinet meeting was basically over. Zhang Juzheng temporarily put aside his thoughts and said, "In this case, why don't you stop the government affairs at hand and come with me to the emperor to make a report."

There are many and important things.

It was not something that Zhang Juzheng could make a report on alone in front of the emperor. If the emperor felt that there was a need for adjustment in any area, the cabinet could also make a consensus in front of him.

The ministers all stood up. Gao Gong also slowly stood up, holding on to the table. Zhang Juzheng walked over to help.

There is quite a distance from the Cabinet Residence to Yuxi Palace, so people can take a sedan chair. However, once entering the palace, cabinet ministers usually have to walk.

In the entire cabinet, only Zhang Juzheng was granted a sedan chair carried by two people. Normally, Zhang Juzheng was too frightened to accept the emperor's favor and sit in the sedan chair carried by two people.

But today, Zhang Juzheng helped Gao Gong onto his own sedan chair carried by two people, and let Gao Gong sit while being carried, while he walked with Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang, and Chen Yiqin.

Gao Gong finally enjoyed the treatment of being the prime minister of the cabinet, but he was not as happy as he had imagined.

After all, this sedan chair is not his.

Ok Hee Palace.

As the sky darkened, palace lanterns were lit.

The emperor's face was very close, wearing an exquisite gold crown and a dark yellow dragon robe. At first glance, he looked full of heroism.

The heavy burden of the Ming Dynasty fell on the wise and intelligent emperor, which was a blessing for tens of millions of Ming people.

"Start your Majesty."

Zhang Juzheng spoke first, taking out the stack of memorials from his sleeve and saying, "According to your majesty's order, the cabinet has drafted a plan for the titles and rewards of 65 Tatars including Altan Khan and Bahan Naji, as well as the details of the land and goods for the trade. Please review it!"

Huang Jin took the memorial and showed it to Zhu Houcong for his perusal. After reading it, Zhu Houcong was silent for a while.

Zhang Juzheng's cabinet was immediately worried, not knowing what had gone wrong and what had failed to satisfy the emperor.

"In the trade, let's add one more item: silk." Zhu Houcong said slowly.

Zhang Juzheng's cabinet was stunned. Li Chunfang lost his voice in front of the emperor, "Your Majesty, aren't those silks from Jiangnan sold to the West?"

Zhu Houcong immediately looked over. Although he was smiling faintly, his eyes were filled with murderous intent...

(End of this chapter)