Chapter 64 Harvest by the River

  There are already local merchants in Jining complaining that the Chamber of Commerce gave too many shares to outsiders on that day, but did not take care of the locals. The clever businessmen all think that this business is perfect, and it's hard to tell what's real or fake. However, every link in the chain, from creating momentum to influencing, promoting, and expanding several links, was done perfectly.

  The other side has reached this point, even if the jar is filled with stones, it can still be sold at a high price. The efficacy of Qingyan in Jining City is currently spreading more mysteriously than before. A divine doctor who has been practicing medicine for many years came out and said that the good or bad effects of Qingyan depend on its storage time.

  Some scholars have verified that during the Han Dynasty, there were records of using Qingyan in medicine in Chang'an. There is also a rumor that a certain lady got a strange illness and recovered after taking Qingyan for several days.

  They say three people can make a tiger, and when many people say it, one has no choice but to believe! After the 10th of the last month of the lunar year, the so-called Shaanxi Laoqingyan salt in Jining City was already priced at 20 taels per jar. Moreover, merchants from South Zhili had hastened to Jining on fast horses to buy it up at high prices. Nanjing and Suzhou were even more affluent and particular about their quality of life.

  It is said that once the green salt arrived there, along with the explanation, clever businessmen immediately understood the reasoning and began to voluntarily promote it.

  Wealthy people are particular about using Qingyan salt to show their difference from others who use refined salt for rinsing, authentic Qingyan salt is in short supply due to war, but now there's a new shipment and it's just in time for the upcoming Spring Festival, everyone's shopping enthusiasm is extremely high, this salt also comes with a salt certificate and an origin statement.

  Although I also dare not judge whether this salt is true or false, it looks more like the real thing compared to others, and there are so many rich materials available for speculation.

  Jiangnan businessman Jia is the best in the world, extremely clever and naturally understands the subtleties of the situation. He pretends to be true when he is false, and follows along with the hype.

  Such a large profit, naturally, many people are moved. Old ceramic jars with refined salt and then sealed with wax, this craftsmanship and means are really too simple, anyone can do it.

  However, on the twenty-first day of the twelfth lunar month, a warehouse in Jining City that specialized in Qinglou business was blocked by several managers of Qinglou, saying that they were selling fake Qingyan salt. Now, with 22 taels of silver per jar of Qingyan salt, how can you still counterfeit it? Isn't this too unscrupulous?

  How can you tell it's fake? It turns out that the ceramic jar with the so-called "old green salt" has a seal on the bottom, which is obviously covered before firing. The seal looks complicated and mysterious, like a Taoist talisman. However, the fake shop's own ceramic jars, although similar in shape and appearance, have seals that are clearly different. When confronted, they could only admit defeat. As a result, the people who witnessed this commotion all learned a lesson and asked the manager of the Qinglou to take an impression of the seal below.

  No day's work, the households and merchants who came to buy this old green salt all took out the seal to verify its authenticity. This time it was a hit on the seven-inch snake, even if it was made of ceramic jars, it would take some time to make fake ones in a hurry. As a result, the price of those "authentic green salts" has risen to another level.

  The old green salt was sold so hot that large-scale merchants were thinking about how to gather existing goods. Although the profit from local sales is rich, the news brought by those businessmen who came from outside makes them feel that if they can sell these green salts in Beijing and Southern Zhili before the Spring Festival, it will be more cost-effective.

  If someone pays attention to this matter, they will be surprised. The so-called ceramic jars of Laoqing salt sold in Jining City and elsewhere have exceeded 4,000 jars. They are all genuine products, identical to those unloaded from the ship that day, whether in appearance or the mark on the bottom of the jar.

  Those who buy this green salt are all foreign merchants from the north and south, they know that the salt may not be real, but they also know that those buyers hundreds of miles away do not know, so they also purchase with abandon.

  After the 25th of the twelfth lunar month, most shops and warehouses were closed for business. The craze about Lao Qing Yan also gradually subsided, but many businessmen felt that they had learned a lot from this experience. Many people were rubbing their fists and wiping their palms, preparing to make a big move after the New Year by imitating the success of others.

  Change into the uniform of a thousand households, wear a merchant's long gown, put on a large cape, and comb your hair and beard well. No one can see that Li Meng is the same as the one standing at the bow of the ship. There are more than a dozen salt workers in servant clothes following him, carrying short weapons to guard behind him.

  Anyone who sees Li Meng now thinks that he is a big shot going out for a stroll, and no one would have thought that he was the initiator of this so-called Lao Qing Yan incident.

  The entire Lingshan Salt Field and Xuejia Island salt pans have stopped their remaining salt shipments, and started producing refined salt at a cost lower than manual labor. The refined salt is packed in old ceramic jars on Li Meng's farm, sealed with wax, and the two cargo ships of Wang Kung are rented to transport them to Jining.

  A month of intense hype successfully stirred up the trend of this so-called Shaanxi old green salt, and Li Meng walked on the street with a smile at the corner of his mouth, looking very pleased.

  Li Meng indeed had the capital to be proud of, these tactics were nothing more than the annoying advertisements that came out of the radio when taking a modern taxi, such as the magical water that cures all diseases and special tea leaves. At that time, listening to this kind of advertisement would only make people feel extremely impatient and ridiculous, but using it in this era has become an extremely clever move, after all, people in this era have not experienced such shameless and subtle influences.

  "Meng Zhanggui's side spent 5,000 taels, the manager of Yue Mei Lou's side spent 2,000 taels, and various other people spent a total of 3,500 taels."

  The accountant who followed Li Meng's body was reporting in a low voice, the accountant's voice was pressed very low, but still trembling, a year ago he calculated that the most contact was only ten or twenty taels of silver, but today the unit was counted in thousands and tens of thousands.

  Although the sky was already dark and it was approaching New Year's Eve, all outsiders who could return home had already done so. However, the cold Jining City at night was still much more lively than the daytime in Jiaozhou City. Li Meng liked this atmosphere very much. As he watched the pedestrians on the side of the road, he asked in a low voice:

  "Have they all paid?"

  "We've all been beaten, our people have suffered more losses, these people are quite sensible."

  Li Meng nodded, and the accountant behind him cleared his throat and said in an even softer voice:

  "Sir, after deducting all expenses, we have a total of 95,000 taels of silver."

  This figure Li Meng had already conceived, but after hearing others confirm it with himself once again, he couldn't help feeling excited in his heart. If converted to RMB, he should be a rich man by now.