"You are Cao Sanxi?"

"Cao Sanxi, the grass man, please pay homage to the crown prince!"

"Hiss~~Where are you from?"

"Caomin is from Taigu, Shanxi."

"Where are you from? Oh, Da Cang, do you know Shanxi dialect?"

Since the development of soap, a lot of changes have occurred around Zhu Youdong in the past few months.

First of all, his request to live in a single palace was approved by Wanli: In the emperor's opinion, the current crown prince is unsaved. The hope for the future of the Ming Dynasty must be on the grandson. The grandson moved out early and was less poisoned by the prince with a elm-headed head. Moreover, the crown prince had the power to open a house as the crown prince. Therefore, the emperor agreed and the etiquette and law were in line with it, so Zhu Youdong naturally moved out of Ciqing Palace.

His new palace was outside the palace city, inside the imperial city. Outside the Donghua Gate, south of Guanglu Temple, and north of Chongzhi Hall. Emperor Wanli personally wrote a name for his residence according to Zhu Youdong's request: Xinghua Palace. Then Wanli assigned thirty guards, eunuchs, and palace maids to Zhu Youdong for his service.

With his own palace and the palace is outside the palace, Zhu Youdong's activities have become much more convenient. For example, now, he can meet a civilian in his palace.

At this time, the one standing beside him was Cao Huachun who returned from Jiangnan.

Although this young man, who is only sixteen years old, was as humble as Old Wei when he was young, his family was as talented and beautiful as Old Wei. Therefore, as soon as he entered the palace, he was trained to be an elite among eunuchs. This time, after being sent by Zhu Youdong to Jiangnan for a few months, his demeanor became more and more calm.

He returned to Beijing in May of this year. When he came back, he brought all the seeds of potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes and even seedlings, but also brought back various novel plants such as peppers, wolf peaches (tomatoes), chrysanthemums (sunflowers), peanuts, etc. Not only that, after heading south from Northern Zhili, all the rice seeds in various provinces along the way were collected.

So, when he came back to pay his life and handed over the remaining 200 taels of silver, Zhu Youdong was very happy to let him keep all the money himself.

The rest of the work is of course the matter between Xu Guangqi and Wei Zhongxian.

Xu Guangqi, a man in science and engineering, is not only a scientist, but also an agronomist of this era. As for Lao Wei, he was originally a farmer and was very skilled in farming. It is his duty to give it to them.

"Mr. Xu, these potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes are all high-yield crops that are not picky about the land. In fact, some places in my Ming Dynasty have already started planting. Gu prepares to use the power of the court to promote them on a unified basis and plant them on a large scale. To achieve this, you must come up with powerful data to speak. Therefore, Gu prepares 100 acres of land and ten tenant farmers for you..."

"Please rest assured that the grandson is sure to plant and count carefully. We will never let the grandson's thoughts fail."

"Old Wei, look at the rice in various places. Some of them have large grains and good taste, but low yields. Some have high yields but small grains. Gu wants to do this hybrid rice, well, that's it... In this way, there will always be a kind of advantage that rice can concentrate various rice. Well, you can pay attention to this matter if you are empty. My Ming Dynasty actually does not lack food, but what you lack is other things. Anyway, it's best to do it. Your most important task is to give Gu this workshop. Gu is about to prepare for launching new products after completing the agency auction."

At the auction held in August, Zhu Youdong identified a total of 15 provincial agents (there are no agents in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and the northern Zhili did not have one. However, there was another one, Liaodong).

Although in this case, whether it is the grandson, the chief ministers, or even the ministers such as Xiong Tingbi, it is impossible for the merchants who can enter the market to be talented: if they can mobilize the Jinyiwei to stand guard outside the auction hall, there is no need to guess who is in the backstage.

Therefore, half of it was good for goods and half was flattering the royal family. The fifteen major merchants who finally obtained the agency rights all paid a deposit of 10,000 taels and a franchise fee of 3,000 taels.

On this basis, Zhu Youdong gave them the rule: I will give you the goods at a 50% discount on the market price of Beizhili. I don’t care how much you transport them back to various places to sell. However, first, it is not allowed to sell cross-border to cause vicious internal competition. Otherwise, it is not allowed to be collected and no longer supplied. Second, it is not allowed to publicize that the goods are expensive because of the high factory price, and it is not allowed to mislead consumers openly or secretly, saying that this thing is related to the upper class of the Ming Dynasty. If you commit this, haha, the punishment in the first article is to be executed, and the Jinyiwei and other things are also coming to your house to ask for tea.

The Ming merchants of this era were able to make their business one of the best in the province, but in fact, all those standing behind them were powerful people. They were naturally very willing to accept these two requirements put forward by Shuangji Department Store. Overall, although many merchants made a real hit because of raising prices between each other during bidding, the auction ended smoothly.

In the end, Zhu Youdong not only received 200,000 taels of silver in vain, but also received nearly 200,000 taels of goods at one time - the soap that the money can buy is enough for his current small workshop for more than half a year.

However, Zhu Youdong forgot to set up an identity before the auction, which was Diaosi, who had never really entered a high-end auction before traveling through time. As a result, some people took advantage of the loopholes and sneaked into the auction.

For example, Cao Sanxi.

"Your Highness, the grass-roots people are from the mountains, west, Taigu, and the countryside people are not acquainted with official language, so please forgive me."

Alas, it’s nothing if you can’t speak Mandarin. After I was born, I listened to the “Mandarin” of this era. In fact, my forehead hurts a lot. It took me several years to get used to it.

Cao Sanxi is now a commoner, and it is not as good as a pauper, but it has nothing to do with the word "rich". After he sneaked into the auction, others did not yell when bidding, but instead found the in charge after the auction and asked to meet the owner of this Shuangji Department Store.

Isn’t the big boss of this department store the grandson? How can you, a civilian, meet him? So he was thrown out without any suspense.

But this guy's will was not very firm. After the auction, he traveled to six shops in Shuangji in Beijing and repeatedly asked to see the boss. Although he was either still rolled his eyes or driven away, he still insisted on asking for his visit. Finally, one day, Zhu Youdong, who was shaking to a shop again, was met by him. He sent someone to ask his name: Ouch! This is a business genius!

In later generations, when talking about Shanxi, it is estimated that the first thing people in other provinces think of coal. In fact, coal was developed very early in Shanxi. At least during the Western Han Dynasty, there were records of Hedong County using coal to smelter iron.

Specifically in the Ming Dynasty, coal mines in Shanxi were also very prosperous. However, coal was almost all official in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, for ordinary people in Shanxi, at least in the Ming Dynasty, coal mines could not be relied on.

However, Shanxi is also a province with mountains and rivers inside and outside. Its territory is divided into scattered by mountains, plateaus and Taiyuan, and there are few plains suitable for farming. Therefore, agriculture cannot support too many people.

Such a natural environment forced Shanxi people to go out to do business in large numbers, thus giving birth to many famous businessmen and forming a unique Shanxi business culture.

What I want to make a special note here is that there are two eight major merchants in Shanxi.

First, the eight imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty were the notorious Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, Huang Yunfa and his family. In the historical plane, these eight families smuggled grain and military supplies to the Qing rulers in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and helped the Manchu Qing Dynasty launder money. It can be said that their hands were covered with the blood of their compatriots.

Second, the eight major Jin merchants. These eight are the Qiao family in Qi County, the Chang family in Yuci, the Cao family in Taigu, the Hou family in Jiexiu, the Qu family in Qi County, the Kang family in Linfen, the Fan family in Jiexiu (one of the Imperial Merchants of the Qing Dynasty), and the Kong family in Taigu. Among these eight families, except for the Fan family in Jiexiu, the seven other families are not completely glorious. However, compared with the history of the eight major imperial merchants making their fortunes, they are much more open and honest.
Chapter completed!