Li Qin fights against unscrupulous grain merchants in Gu Pingyuan
Li Wantang withdrew a large amount of money from banks in the capital and went to various cities in the south to buy salt shops, preparing to dominate the salt business in Lianghuai.When he learned that Ruilin asked Li Qin to build the seawall and that the salt store had not yet been implemented, he was very angry and took the initiative to negotiate with Ruilin.Li Wantang is well aware that Ruilin is currently in dire straits. Soldiers in the army have not been able to receive military pay for a long time. The surrounding cities have been severely affected by disasters and there are many places that need money. Therefore, he proposed that he can support Ruilin, but he hopes Ruilin will not stop him regarding the salt farm.
Ruilin just wanted Li Wantang to keep the money in Lianghuai, but Li Wantang ignored Ruilin's request because he had Prince Gong behind him.After Gu Pingyuan returned home to Nanjing, Su Yuhua, the magistrate of Nantong County, suddenly asked for a meeting and wanted to ask Gu Pingyuan to help hand over a handbook to Ruilin to send troops to prohibit Nantong rice merchants from hoarding.It turned out that because of the collapse of the Nantong seawall, the whole city was without food. Rice merchants were hoarding rice and selling it at high prices, making the people miserable.
Ruilin had no time to take care of the situation in Nantong at this time and let Gu Pingyuan take care of it himself.Gu Pingyuan joined forces with Li Qin to use air-to-air methods to deal with Nantong grain merchants, forcing them to reduce prices.The two also worked together to mobilize people around them, such as Fourth Master Chang, Master Liao and others, to disguise themselves as rice merchants to deceive Yang Wanwan into transactions, thereby making Yang Wanwan's money.As Gu Pingyuan expected, Yang Wanwan was a greedy person, and Chang Siye successfully made Yang Wanwan's money.Chang Yu'er wondered how he could make money if he didn't ask Gu Pingyuan to save people.
