After seeing the insidious methods of the merchants up close and looking at the improved situation in Suizhou City, Li Ling returned to the inn.

As soon as we entered the door, we saw Shu Wenqing and Boss Zhou going out in a panic expression. They happened to meet. The latter immediately shouted: "Boss Ling, you are back, we still want to find you."

"Why, is there something wrong?" Li Ling raised his eyebrows and asked hurriedly, vaguely guessing that another problem had appeared.

Sure enough, Shu Wenqing said anxiously: "Just half an hour ago, Lin, Fang, Wang, Li and other bosses received the invitation, and then they all went out. Only Lao Zhou and I had never received the invitation. I was worried, so I asked someone to go out with them, but I found that they all went to Liangyuan..."

"Are you saying that they were invited by Cai Fan and others? Are you worried that they have any plans and want to divide our alliance?" Li Ling's expression immediately became solemn and expressed his guess.

The two nodded at the same time: "This is an obvious means of differentiation and win over. We are worried that they will not be able to withstand other people's coercion and temptation, and will retreat..."

Li Ling glanced at them again and guessed in his heart that these two people were not only worried that those people would be rebellious, but also annoyed why they were not invited. In fact, this was a matter of course in his opinion, because since they had developed a differentiation strategy, they naturally needed to set a goal. It was not enough to be alone, so they divided Shu Wenqing, who went to the Shen family with him. As for Boss Zhou, it was because he had no capital, and that little food was not enough to be stuck in the gaps.

"You don't have to worry too much. After all, they had an appointment with me first, and the food was still in our hands." Li Ling hurriedly comforted the two of them, but these words were obviously useless. Shu Wenqing looked uneasy and said, "Boss Ling, you are not from our Huguang, so I don't know how powerful these companies are. If we are really targeted by ordinary merchants, I'm afraid they will not have the power to fight back at all.

"Especially this time, they called people in front of them. Just the benefits they promised were enough to make people excited, let alone put pressure on us from the government."

"Yes, Boss Ling, this matter is really hard to deal with. You are naturally not afraid of them as an imperial merchant, but we are different. After all, we are just small merchants. Once you really meet the government family or something, it will be a dead end." Boss Zhou also said.

Seeing the two of them being so frightened that they were almost confused, Li Ling's expression also became solemn: "So, do you also want to retreat?"

His stern question made the two people who wanted to nod suddenly start to sternly. Then he remembered that this person was not a good man. He didn't know how to reply for a while. He could only look at him helplessly: "Then Boss Ling, please help us with an idea..."

"What are you afraid of? After all, they are also foreign merchants here, can they still make a big fuss? Moreover, without turning back, we have already faced them. Do you think that when you stop at this time, those wealthy families will let you go?" Li Ling said, slapped his hands on the shoulders of the two, "You put your heart in your stomach. We cannot defeat this game! I have a complete plan, and all the development is within my expectations. The more they use such a secret move, the less confident they are, and the outcome may be decided soon."

Although they still don’t trust Li Ling’s words very much, the two of them have no better choice at this point. After all, as far as they are concerned, even if they want to vote on the other side, they are unwilling to accept it.

With a nervous and depressing mood, the three of them waited until the third day, and the businessmen who were invited came back drunk. Then, after seeing the three people waiting in the yard, these people bowed their heads with guilt and dared not look at them. They just said hello and wanted to go back to their rooms.

"Please go slowly, don't you have anything to say to us?" Li Ling suddenly called them, his tone seemed calm, but it was filled with a palpitations.

"Haha...what does Boss Ling mean? We come back from drinking, what can we say to you?" Boss Wang said with a forced smile. The others also stopped, and then looked at Li Ling and the other two with strange expressions, as if they were guilty and disdainful.

Li Ling's eyes swept through them one by one, making them feel panicked, and then he slowly said, "If we just go out to drink and socialize normally, we will naturally not be able to ask about it. However, if the object of your drinking today is our opponent, it will be different. Everyone, don't you tell secret words, have you just returned from Liangyuan?"

The faces of the few people changed again, and after a moment, Boss Wang spoke again: "Since you all know about Boss Ling, then I won't hide it anymore. Yes, we did go to see Cai Fanhu and the bosses of Hu today and reached a cooperation with them."

"Cooperation?" Li Ling's eyes became colder, "Does it refer to this food cooperation?"

"Not bad! We have seen that doing this transaction with you will only lose all your money. It was obviously a twelve dollar of grain bought in just over twenty yuan, but it was handed over to someone to sell it for eighteen yuan. Is there such a stupid deal in the world? You want to be good people and saints, but we are just ordinary people and just merchants who want to make some money. So please forgive me for not being able to stand with you."

"No, it's not bad. I think so too. That's 20,000 taels of silver. I earned it for years and can't be lost!"

"So too!"

"Me too!"

...For a moment, the dozen or so businessmen expressed their position, that they would part ways with Li Ling and no longer cooperate. Even if they were prepared, Shu Zhou and others still changed their faces. They were both angry and more uneasy. Once these people left, not only would half of the food in their hands be taken away, but the other party would have a lot more food in their hands. The situation was even more unfavorable to themselves.

Li Ling also had a gloomy face. After a while, he said coldly: "Don't forget, we had promised before..."

"That was just forced by the situation, and there was no evidence to do it at all!"

"That's right, the surname Ling, you and us are opponents, but they don't have much friendship. Now that we have a better way to make money, we will naturally not lose money with you!"

These people became more and more courageous as they spoke. Perhaps they thought they had relied on Fan Cai, who was both the backer of the imperial merchants, so they no longer had to worry about their "sharp" status. This face can be regarded as a complete expression of the merchant's unrighteousness and seeking profit.

Li Ling stared at them for a while, his expression changed a few times, but in the end he did not make any attacks. He only sighed: "There is different and I don't want to force it. But if you listen to me, you will soon regret your decision, because you missed the great opportunity to win both fame and fortune!"

Faced with his statement, everyone laughed disapprovingly, then stopped talking, turned around and returned to the house, leaving only Li Ling and the other two, standing alone in the yard for a long time.

...

Some people are lost and some are happy. At this time, Fan Changyue was laughing happily in Liangyuan and said to Cai Zhiyi sincerely: "Brother Cai, I am really convinced of you. I can actually take out these two tricks to remove the firewood from the bottom of the pot. It won't take long. Whether it's Chen Tian or those guys from Guang'an, they can only recognize the output bureau."

The others also nodded in expression of admiration. Cai Zhiyi himself looked calm and took two sips of sobering soup and said, "It's just a little trick. They have too many flaws, so they will naturally be accurate when they catch them. Especially the small merchants in Guang'an have their own plans. As long as we make some small profits, it will be enough for them to use for me. But the most important thing now is the guy named Ling. According to them, he has a sharp and royal merchant background, and even the magistrate of Guang'an County wants to please him."

"Imperial Merchant? I think it's probably because he's tying the tiger skin to make a big banner. As far as I know, there's no royal merchant named Ling in Huaibei. As for Wanjia in Hengzhou, it's even more unrelated to the imperial merchant." Hu Guanjue shook his head disapprovingly, "And if he really had that background, he would have revealed his identity and cooperated with us or competed with us. How could he be so sneaky? He even cooperated with such a group of small vendors with little strength?"

Cai Zhili also agreed: "I also think this person is mostly lying, and even if he really has that identity, he can still compare with our three families? Since he dares to be enemies with us, he will have to make him anyway, and the remaining few people will pay the price!"

Cai Zhiyi also agreed with this: "What you said is that no matter what backing they have, since they are our opponents, there is no need to show mercy. I will buy all the food in the Shen family within ten days. As for the food from Guang'an, half of it will fall into our hands. Since it has sequence, it will be easy to deal with..."

The few people immediately understood and smiled. The little merchants in Guang'an had been persuaded by them, and they would naturally leave all the offending things to them. As long as the food supply was not available, they would take the opportunity to attack and raise the price of grain to a higher level, and then force the people to take out all the fields, houses, etc. to mortgage them to exchange for grain.

Amid the laughter, Cai Zhiyi asked again: "How is the copper coins exchanged again?"

"There are indeed not many copper coins in Suizhou, but we have already mobilized copper coins from Xiangfan and De'an nearby. The first batch of copper coins will be delivered within two or three days. Within ten days, we will be able to buy food in Guangcheng!"
Chapter completed!