Yuegang has a marine climate, and the four seasons are not very clear, while Beijing is different. The autumn wind swept away and the leaves withered. Compared with summer, it is like a whole city changing into clothes.

Beijing City, this is not the first time Li Yanzhi has come. But the last time he came is not a matter of his life, and is that Beijing and this Beijing really the same city?

For five or six hundred years, perhaps only a few buildings such as the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven could arouse Li Yanzhi's memory, and the rest were completely different from things and people.

"Which Beijing is better six hundred years ago or six hundred years later?"

This question is difficult for Li Yanzhi to answer.

"Three Young Master! You are finally here!"

A ox cart hurried out of the city, and Feng Qi and Jiang Yifan jumped out of the car together. The two came to welcome Li Yanzhi - they were the only ones, no one else, no welcome ceremony, and even didn't hire a sedan chair, but they just hired a ox cart. If this scene was placed in Fuzhou, it would be laughed at by the merchants in the same industry, Li Yanzhi was so sad, but it must be like this in the capital.

"Third Young Master, this is the only one here, let's feel wronged." Jiang Yifan pointed to the ox cart and said.

In the Ming Dynasty, people of any status could only sit in sedan chairs and any sedan chairs were rules. This rule was useless in Fujian, but when they arrived in the capital, they had to be treated with caution.

Li Yan looked at the ox cart directly, but said, "I won't sit anymore, I'll hike into the city, so I can also take a look at the streets of Beijing."

The master and apprentice separated for nearly a year, but they all had their own busy things since they were separated and often wrote letters to each other. At this time, they met, as if they had only been separated for a few days.

As the first disciple, Feng Qi's ability to do things is obviously trustworthy. In just a few months after he came to Beijing, he had already established relationships with grassroots yamen such as Shuntian Mansion. With his promotion, Tongli's spice business in the capital also flourished.

As the blessing of banned by the sea, spices in Nanyang are short of one day, and the supply of goods is in short supply, so the prices are rising every day. Beijing was probably one of the largest spice consumption places in the world at that time (maybe even one can be removed!). In this super city built by high-ranking officials, the consumption of spices is amazing! Which one of the high-ranking officials and great officials should not use a few taels every day? And how many high-ranking officials and big-name households in Beijing who can afford spices? I'm afraid even the Ministry of Revenue does not have the ability to count clearly.

Not only officials and wealthy businessmen need to use it, but the royal family must use it even more!

However, after the maritime ban, the official Maritime Warehouse received fewer and fewer spice tributes, which could not meet the needs of the palace at all. The eunuch in charge could not do so, so he had to buy spices from smuggling maritime merchants through various relationships. So Feng Qi discovered a very ironic thing: the emperor ordered the ban on the sea, but he himself was one of the biggest customers of private merchants!

Even the emperor was like this, and other officials could imagine it. Not only did they buy spices, but all the strange goods overseas, from the strange skills of the Folangji to the famous swords and folding fans in Japan, were all the objects of their purchase and collection. The eunuchs in charge knew that the emperor did not like Japan at that time, so they did not present any tribute from Japan. However, the kings, princes and gentry who were full in the capital did not care about these things, and still secretly bought these prohibited items. The stricter the sea ban, the higher the black market price of these strange goods. They bought them and hid them at home. As long as they were not taken to the Golden Palace to show off, no one would care about you - anyway, everyone knows that many national policies in this country are actually just covering up the bell.

In such a market environment, you can imagine how easy Tongli's business is to do. Before Fengqi arrived, the shopkeeper was a little timid, afraid of doing something wrong, because the most direct reason for this store was to collect information rather than make money. However, after Fengqi arrived, this situation changed because he knew how to grasp the measure and know what can be done and what cannot be done, so he was able to let go of his hands and feet.

Under his leadership, the seafood from the Tongli Jingshi branch began to directly enter the back doors of some dignitaries, and Feng Qi's people also went in with the goods. At the beginning, they were discussing business and giving discounts, and gradually became familiar with each other. Since Feng Qi gave officials face and gave discounts to be extremely refreshed, the families of high-ranking officials liked this "easy to bully" businessman. After being recognized by the first customer, the customer would soon introduce him to the second customer, the third customer, and the customer would introduce him to the guests - all of them were officials!

In less than a few months, Feng Qi had a reputation in the high-rise courtyards in Beijing! Many wives and housekeepers of officials knew that there was such a good businessman with a large supply of goods and low prices in the capital. Even the eunuchs in the palace came to Feng Qi to get goods.

It was through this way that Feng Qi quickly established his network of relationships in Beijing. In the first half of the month after Li Yan arrived, people from the Yan family also came to him.

For Xia Yan, Feng Qi had heard of the prime minister's temper after he arrived in Beijing and did not dare to mess with him, but if he could make friends with another Grand Secretary in the cabinet, Feng Qi would be overjoyed!

"Did you see Yan Fenyi?" Li Yanzhi asked. This is a very recent thing. Feng Qi wrote him a letter more than half a month ago, so Li Yanzhi didn't know about this.

They don't walk fast and don't speak loudly. Whenever someone gets close on the road, they shut up and wait for someone to stay away. Sometimes, chatting on the street may be more confidential than talking in a secret room.

"No." Feng Qi said: "What I saw was Yan Xiang's son, Yan Shifan. This person is very difficult to deal with!"

Yan Shifan is a yamen, but Feng Qi was sure that he was not an ordinary yamen when he saw him at first! He was playing with the famous sword that Feng Qi brought to him to "appreciate" and asked, "What's the price?"

"One hundred taels!" Feng Qi offered the price.

The value of silver in the 25th year of Jiajing was incomparable to the value of silver during the Kangxi and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty! At that time, the annual fiscal revenue of the imperial court was only a few million taels of silver, and buying a knife for one hundred taels of silver was already a very high price at that time!

"You really dare to open it!" Li Yan laughed. However, he knew that Feng Qi was bargaining everywhere, waiting for Yan Shifan to pay back the money locally, giving discounts in bargaining, selling friendships - the higher the price, the lower the discount, and the more this transaction will bring deeper friendship to both parties.

In the past few months, Feng Qi has touched countless senior officials' backyards in this way, but unfortunately he met Yan Shifan this time!

"One hundred taels..." Yan Shifan smiled, and the subsequent dialogue was completely beyond Feng Qi's expectations, and even exceeded Feng Qi's control: "Too few!"

Feng Qi was a little surprised at that time. He had done his homework before he came. He found out that the young master in Yan's mansion was definitely not a sucker. Why did he say the sucker at this time? Or did he mean something else? Before he figured it out, Feng Qi pretended to be confused and said in a kind businessman tone: "Young Master really knows the goods! This knife was born from the hands of famous masters and came across the ocean thousands of miles. The price of one hundred taels is as high as one hundred taels..."

"Bad!" Yan Shifan sneered before he could finish his words: "This knife is worth thirty taels at most! What I'm talking about with you is not the price of this knife!"

Feng Qi felt a stern, but he smiled in his mouth, looking puzzled: "It's not the price of a knife, it's..."

"Stop pretending to be confused!" Yan Shifan put the knife away, put it on the table, and patted the scabbard with his hand: "What I told you is to ask me to accept the price of this knife!"

Li Yan heard this and stopped suddenly, stopped, and continued to walk, saying, "He is blackmailing!"

"Yes." Feng Qi replied. He woke up immediately when he was in front of Yan Shifan, but he continued to pretend to be stupid at that time: "Young Master Yan, the villain really doesn't understand what you mean."

Yan Shifan laughed: "I know what business you Tongli is doing! I can also figure out how much you can make in a year! Go back and tell your boss, how much you can make in a year, and you will be given 70% of it, and I will keep you safe. If you dare to say no, I dare to assure you that there is Tongli, a business in Fujian this year, and it will be gone next year! Don't expect to leak my success! There will be no drop of oil under my eyes!"

Li Yanzhi's steps stopped again, and this time it took him longer.

Jiang Yifan didn't know Yan Shifan's demands just now, but when he heard this, he couldn't help but say angrily: "70%! 70%! He really dared to speak! Do you think we can get money by sitting at home like him? This money was earned by many brothers who fought hard to risk their burial in the sea. He sat at home and suddenly it cost 70%! It's a pity that he dared to speak!"

But Li Yanzhi suddenly laughed, not a bitter smile, not a helpless smile, nor anger, but a smile that contained joy!

Jiang Yifan couldn't understand, why was Li Yan laughing at?

Feng Qi didn't understand either. Li Yan smiled for a while, and saw that there was no one around, then whispered: "This is the first good news I heard since I arrived in Beijing!"

“Good news?”

"Yeah!" Li Yan said straight: "I was a little worried before, but now it seems that there is no news about what we are doing overseas! Yan Shifan is very good at hearing, but even he only knows that we sell goods online, and he doesn't know what we have done overseas."

Feng Qi suddenly realized, but Jiang Yifan still couldn't explain it: "How did the third young master know that he doesn't know?"

"If he knew..." Li Yanzhi said, "I'm afraid I won't dare to take my money!"

———————

There is good news to report to everyone: If you are going to be flattened, let the plot start to be in a grand manner!
Chapter completed!