Chapter 49 Buying Grain
"Let alone the centurions, the thousand households, and the commanders, all of us here are not without a place."

Wang An's words seemed to be full of bewitching flavor, "But to be worthy of this position, you must show your true ability! Those who are afraid of death and cowardly will never succeed in my hands."

Everyone responded in unison: "Your Majesty, just wait and see!"

"We, Goudan, are definitely not the cowardly type!"

"It's a pity that I didn't kill a few more bandits on Crescent Moon Mountain last time, so that the prince could see my skills!"

Wang An chuckled twice and nodded, "Don't worry, we have plenty of opportunities."

As the group was talking, they had already arrived at a street in Qingzhou City that specialized in selling grain by asking passers-by.

This street is not long, only about thirty meters, but it is densely packed with grain shops.

Unlike the poverty of Jizhou, Qingzhou can be regarded as the fishing and rice-producing area of ​​the Daliang court in the northern desert. The land is fertile and produces a lot of rice and wheat, and there are crisscrossing lakes and water systems of all sizes.

This resulted in Qingzhou's extremely high grain production, and its grain production spread to several surrounding states and counties.

The food provided by Jizhou itself was not enough, and the food that was lacking basically came from Qingzhou.

The bulk of it was monopolized by Lu Guancheng.

There were a few other small grain shops, but they basically also transported grain from Qingzhou and had to look at Lu Guancheng's face. Otherwise, his brother-in-law Fang Shan would just have to do some tricks in Qingzhou and none of the grain shops would be able to receive any grain.

This is why Lu Guancheng was so confident that he dared to sell three taels of grain to Wang An at a price of one stone and one tael.

But Wang An just wouldn't fall for it. He said, "Since you don't provide me with food, I will go directly to the place where the food comes from."

So what about Fangshan? After all, he is just a running dog of the royal family.

Although Wang An is a thorn in Wang Hongyuan's heart, this is a royal matter after all, and he still has to give Wan An a certain amount of respect on the surface.

Wang An walked a few steps casually on the street, then chose a store with a more impressive facade and walked in.

It was noon and there were not many customers in the store.

When several waiters saw that Wang An was so imposing and was followed by a dozen armored and knife-wielding soldiers, they immediately shrank back and dared not step forward.

Only the shop owner came out from behind the counter calmly, bowed and said with a smile: "I wonder which distinguished guest has come to visit us. It really brings honor to our small shop!"

Wang An did not put on airs and said politely: "I am the new Prince Xin of Jizhou. I came to your store this time to discuss a big business with you!"

The shopkeeper was really surprised this time, and said in shock: "It turns out that it is His Royal Highness Prince Xin who has come to visit. Please forgive me for not coming to greet you from afar!"

As he said this, he was about to kowtow to Wang An.

Wang An held his arm, waved his hand and said, "Let's talk business. Since I'm here to do business with you, let's not talk about these empty formalities."

The shopkeeper burst into laughter and gave a thumbs-up, praising him: "To be honest with you, Your Highness, I have been doing business in Qingzhou for more than 20 years. I have met many nobles, big and small, but I am the first one who is as friendly as Your Highness Prince Xin!"

"I wonder what kind of big business your Highness wants to do with me?"

The shopkeeper invited Wang An into the inner hall. After looking at the tea, Wang An held the teacup and said softly, "I want to order 10,000 dan of grain from you. I wonder if your company can afford it?"

Even though the shopkeeper was used to doing big business, he was still shocked when he heard the number of 10,000 dan.

His eyebrows immediately knitted together, and he said, "I don't know when the prince will need it. If he wants to collect 10,000 dan at once, it's not impossible, but it will take some time."

Seeing that the other party was able to take the job, Wang An immediately felt relieved. It seemed that this was a powerful grain company.

So he chuckled and said, "Boss, please gather them slowly. I don't bring many people with me this time. As long as you can give me 5,000 stones for the first batch, it will be fine."

"I just don't know what the grain price is in Qingzhou now?"

When the shopkeeper heard that only 5,000 stones were needed for the first batch, he felt relieved. If it was only 5,000, he could still get some in the warehouse.

Hearing this, he thought for a moment and said, "Now is the time when the summer grain harvest has just ended and the autumn is still far away. The original price is not high but not cheap either. The current market price is one tael of silver. But since it is your Highness Prince Xin who wants it, and you want so much again, I can make the decision and only charge your Highness nine cents of silver for one load of grain!"

Wang An appeared calm on the surface, but he was actually extremely excited. He loudly cursed Lu Guancheng as a profiteer and became even more determined to find a way to eliminate this man.

It is obvious that the grain only costs one tael of silver in Qingzhou, and if the quantity is large, the price can be bargained. However, he dared to ask for three taels of silver just to transport it to Jizhou. This is simply bullying an honest man!
Wang An pretended to think about it, hesitated for a while, and then said: "I think the shopkeeper is also an honest man. Since you have already made an offer, I will not let you suffer a loss. Nine cents is nine cents!"

"But there is one thing I have to tell the old shopkeeper first, to avoid any misunderstandings between us in the future."

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper's expression became serious.

Wang An said, "Since the old shopkeeper already knows my identity, he must have realized that this batch of grain is shipped to Jizhou. The grain industry in Jizhou is monopolized by a man named Lu Guancheng, and his brother-in-law..."

Wang An stopped talking here, intending to test the old shopkeeper's strength.

They all run grain businesses, and Jizhou is not far from Qingzhou. If he doesn't even know Lu Guancheng's background, he would be afraid of harming him.

Because it is conceivable that once he buys grain from Qingzhou, Lu Guancheng will definitely be angry and ask his brother-in-law Fang Shan to cause trouble for the person who sold the grain to him.

Unexpectedly, the old shopkeeper burst into laughter after hearing this, without any difficulty on his face.

The old shopkeeper laughed for a long time before he said, "Since Your Highness is honest and candid with me, there is no point in me hiding some things."

Wang An was slightly surprised and pretended to listen attentively.

The old shopkeeper smiled mysteriously, pointed to the ground and said, "Lu Guancheng has a background, but he is just a governor of Qingzhou. But Your Majesty, do you know that the big boss behind our Lianghao is the old Prince of Fortune, Wang Xu!"

Wang An was shocked when he heard this.

He quickly stood up and said, "So this is the property of my uncle. No wonder this is the first place I moved into. It turns out it was destined by fate! Hahaha!"

The so-called Old Prince Fu is Wang An’s great uncle.

It’s just that his fief was in Jingzhou, but for some reason he opened a grain shop in Qingzhou.

(End of this chapter)