Chapter Thirty-Four: Price Increase and Interlude

  Looking at Li Meng's tall and large stature, the clothes on his body were old but very clean, and his demeanor was also gentle and polite, which was completely different from those rough military households. This made a good impression on the two shopkeepers. The most feared thing in doing business is to encounter unreasonable people. Since he was gentle and polite, it meant that everything could be discussed.

  Li Meng stretched out his hand to invite the two shopkeepers to sit down, both of whom were chefs he had hired himself. Seeing that there was only a plate of peanuts, a dish of dried salted fish, and a jug of wine on the table, with only wine cups and chopsticks left over, they thought to themselves that this was really too simple. You've earned at least three thousand taels of silver from us, and you're still so stingy.

  "Thanks to the two bosses for taking care of me, Li Meng, I'll drink a toast first."

  The two shopkeepers hastily raised their cups, both with a smile on their faces, and after drinking a cup of wine, Li Meng smacked his lips. This wine was really too light, for someone from the military, this kind of light wine didn't have much meaning. Putting down the cup, he immediately spoke up:

  "To be honest with you two bosses, the coastal area is windy and rough, and the harvest is not good either. The brothers of the military household are having a hard time making a living. Can you two bosses consider raising the price?"

  Finally, the two shopkeepers' faces fell, thinking that things had indeed reached this point. The two of them exchanged a glance, and Wang Shopkeeper hesitated before speaking up:

  "Brother Li, the days of the salt warehouse are not easy either. Just passing through the Jiaohe River waterway, the silver money for crossing the card is doubled. I won't hide it from you, the government and the bandits all need to be bribed. We're not having an easy time either..."

  Just as they were talking, they suddenly heard some commotion outside. The two shopkeepers looked at each other in surprise. Li Meng glanced at the doors and windows, reached back to touch the short knife at his waist, and pushed his chair back slightly to give himself room to move. As they listened, footsteps sounded from outside, and a person stumbled into the room.

  Two shopkeepers turned back in surprise, Li Meng stepped back and stood up straight. The person who came in knelt down on the ground with a thud as soon as he entered the door. His movements were so fast that it made people's eyes dizzy. The three people inside the house didn't even see clearly who it was, but they heard someone say with a sob:

  "Uncle Li, I'm ashamed!"

  Li Meng only then realized that the one kneeling on the ground was Zhang Butcher. This Zhang Butcher, who had gotten up early in the morning with a proud and arrogant face, now looked completely remorseful and sorrowful. As Li Meng cast his gaze towards him, Zhang Butcher did not stand up, but instead crawled forward on his knees to Li Meng's side, wiping away tears as he spoke:

  "I was really blinded by ignorance, my mother used to teach me to be a good person, but I became muddled as I grew up. Today, your words, Mr. Li, are like a thunderclap on a clear day, waking me up! You can even spend money for others, I'm so ashamed that I could die!"

  The atmosphere in the house was very strange. The two shopkeepers didn't know what had happened, but Li Meng understood and smiled, saying:

  "Master Zhang has this heart is good, owed how much silver, I will help Ma Gang pay back."

  Zhang Tutou suddenly stood up, his face filled with anger, and said loudly:

  "Heaven is above, Mr. Li has a kind heart, why didn't I, Lao Zhang? The person is already here, the young man lost money while playing dice, we should give him another chance, right? I'll return the money to Ma Gang."

  "Two masters, you see, Master Zhang's intention is truly loyal and honest. There are too few such loyal and honest people in our great Ming dynasty, don't you think?"

  The two shopkeepers, although they didn't go to the dice house that kind of place to play, still knew what kind of person this butcher was. What a scoundrel! Where did he have any connection with loyalty and integrity? But in front of them now, it's already gotten to the point where people are being fooled, so they just smiled and nodded along.

  Li Meng and Zhang Tuhou exchanged a few more pleasantries, after which Zhang Tuhou finally assumed an air of righteousness and quickly left the house. In reality, after Li Meng finished speaking, he turned around and Zhang Tuhou went to ask around, still wanting to teach someone who liked to meddle in other people's business a lesson. However, after finding out from the local salt merchant who Li Meng was, Zhang Tuhou almost peed his pants, hastily released his horse, and then searched all over town for Li Meng.

  After the farce in the small tavern, Zhang Butou went out and found that although the weather was cold, his clothes were completely soaked with cold sweat. After returning home, Zhang Butou fell seriously ill, it is not known whether he caught a chill or was frightened, anyway he did not get out of bed for three days.

  Interrupted by this episode, Wang's words didn't know how to continue, the three people looked at each other, all with a little embarrassed smile. Li Meng rarely talked things over with others before and was not familiar with communication in business, so he simply said:

  "A catty of salt for two taels and five mace in silver, no copper coins accepted. The price at which the salt makers and salt yards sell to you is also this, I won't ask for more, what do you say?"

  Just now, Zhang Tuhou was generous and enthusiastic, but anyone who wasn't a fool could see that he was already scared to the extreme. There were many rumors and legends about Li Meng and Li Erlang in Fengmeng Town, and these two bosses also understood that the person in front of them was not easy to mess with. Kong Boss pondered for a moment, hesitated, and opened his mouth to say:

  "Isn't this price a bit high?"

  Wang the shopkeeper on the side nodded repeatedly, Li Meng smiled and sat down instead, picked up a peanut and threw it into his mouth, chewing while saying:

  "These salted fish are worth four taels of silver per load when they're shipped out, and I've heard that further south they can be sold for an even higher price... I'm thinking of shipping them down to the Jiao River..."

  As soon as the words came out, both shopkeepers were shocked and thought about how he knew these things. To say how he knew, it's actually quite simple. Hou Shan invited one of Wang's employees to have a few drinks under the guise of gratitude and gave him several hundred wen in benefits, thus becoming sworn brothers who could discuss anything.

  Now that our bottom line is known to others, we naturally become more passive when negotiating prices...

  Two shopkeepers left the small wine house with not very good faces, and the price was finally set at one or two yuan per ton. However, Li Meng also made some concessions, that is, to ensure that the salt workshop and salt field would no longer sell those inferior and expensive salts to Pingmeng Town.

  Li Meng came out a bit later than the two shopkeepers, and by this time, the bill had already been settled by Zhang Touhu. On the long bench at the entrance sat a listless young man. As Li Meng was settling the bill, the shopkeeper said in a low voice:

  "This is that Ma Ge, Zhang Tuhou abandoned him here."