Chapter 914: Are you selling your daughter for glory?
"Dad, this Lord Zhongwu is too unreasonable."
"How can you just donate 100 million kilograms of coal (50,000 tons) just by saying it is a donation?"
"The Chai family's annual clean coal output is only a few billion kilograms, and they still have to pay for the supply to Beijing."
Chai Mao, the direct son of the Chai family, said with some indignation.
The Chai Family has a huge business and occupies the largest and best coal mine in Fengzhou. Even if the production capacity is not expanded, there are still several billion kilograms of coal, but this does not mean that these coals belong to the Chai Family.
The Xiao family's royal family gave the coal mines to the Chai family for exclusive use in order to give them sufficient returns, allowing them to mine coal for Beijing's use, and to regularly pay sufficient funds for the royal family's enjoyment.
Therefore, giving out 100 million kilograms of coal for free is not a small burden.
"Reasonable?"
"Mao'er, why are you so naive?"
"When have the nobles in Beijing ever reasoned with you?"
"Lord Zhongwu is quite polite. Fortunately, he sent his personal guards to inform us in advance."
"In the past, when General Dou asked for money, he sent people to seal up the coal mine, saying it was smuggling ordnance."
"We still have to pay the money obediently."
Chai Song, the head of the Chai family, sneered, not at all surprised.
"General Dou, don't you show any sign? He charges us so much money every year."
"The girl from Yihongyuan can still serve you after being paid. He can't just do nothing!"
Chai Mao got angry when he thought of this. He ran the family's business and knew that the Chai family's annual income was astonishing, no less than the Qian family in Haizhou, or even more.
Firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, firewood is the first one.
But this money does not belong to the Chai family. It is not only for the royal family, but also for the local nobles.
"It's no use!"
"Master Zhang sent someone to send a message. The Queen Mother said that it is a major disaster relief matter, and everything must be under the command of Lord Zhongwu."
Chai Song sighed, after this transaction, the Chai family's vitality was greatly damaged.
Originally, they took over the food supply from the Jingang Temple not only to make a profit, but also to make friends with the Zen masters of the Jingang Temple. Unexpectedly, the situation in Fengzhou would deteriorate so quickly. Chu Zhongwu defeated the Jingang Temple without spending much effort.
The Shence Army's tacit understanding in the grain trade impressed the two major forces at the same time.
Even they knelt down, so the imperial merchants like the Chai family naturally had no choice but to kneel down.
"What about King Jing?"
"Hai'er once had a relationship with King Jing. I see that he is very generous and has not lived under others for a long time. Maybe he is willing to help the Chai family."
"There is a legend circulating in Yuzhou that King Jing is the reincarnation of Maitreya Buddha and the future lord."
Chai Mao seemed to have thought of something and said through gritted teeth.
"absurd!"
"Don't harm the whole family!"
Chai Song scolded sternly.
"King Kong Temple is not tainted with the throne. There is a gap between it and Maha Temple. If the imperial court wants to get rid of the control of the martial arts holy land, it will naturally be more tolerant of Kong Temple."
"Not to mention the Shence Army, they are relatives of the Queen Mother and are dedicated to the imperial court."
"The Chai family can be on good terms with King Jing, but they must not fall into it."
"If King Jing is the master of the future, when he becomes one, we will naturally join him."
"If he fails, do you want your whole family to be guillotined?"
Chai Song was afraid that his son would not be able to carry it properly, so he went into this muddy water. The Chai family was just a coal digger, with hundreds of thousands of miners under his command, but compared to a real army, a field army, it was not worth mentioning.
"My child understands!"
Chai Mao shouted quickly.
"I have only had a brief relationship with King Jing, and have never had a deep relationship with him."
"Is this true?"
Chai Song suddenly became suspicious. After all, his son had been trying to stock up on food to make a huge profit from this famine.
"Nature is true!"
Chai Mao nodded vigorously and prepared to destroy the contents of his cooperation with King Jing.
"I can rest assured that."
Chai Song was relatively at ease with his son. He was not too outstanding, but he was not a fool either. He had been with him since he was a child, and he never did anything stupid. He only said some innocent words occasionally.
"This time I plan to go to Zhongwu Mansion and take [Xingshu] with me."
"What?"
"Dad, how can you sell your daughter for glory!"
"How could my sister marry someone like Chu Zhongwu!"
Chai Mao was shocked and immediately stood up to object.
"Why, can't it be done?"
"The Xu Guogong Mansion can arrange for its eldest daughter to be with Lord Zhongwu."
"Others naturally followed suit."
"What's more, I have already found out a piece of top-secret information."
"Tang Ning, that shameless old man, actually arranged for Tang Wan'er, the genius of the Tang family, to be with Chu Zhongwu."
"This is simply unreasonable."
"No wonder that old fox kept saying good things to Lord Zhongwu during the meeting."
"If he climbs onto Lord Zhongwu's throne and lowers the price for the Chai family, what can you do?"
"Don't forget, the coal the Chai family gives to the Shence Army every year is free of charge."
When Chai Song thought of what the old fox had done, he immediately felt a huge crisis.
He always felt that there had been subtle changes in the Shence Army and that General Dou could no longer be relied upon. Naturally, he had to find another way out for his family.
Seriously speaking, the Chai family is one of the eight imperial merchants, and they only take orders from the royal family, but in the officialdom, there are many differences.
For the Chai family's business to continue, it must be managed by noble people from all walks of life.
It's just like Fengzhou is the territory of Shence Army. If you don't give benefits, he will definitely find a way to torment you.
"But I still don't agree!"
Chai Mao became anxious and objected quickly.
"That's weird, Xingshu didn't say anything, what are you shouting here?"
Chai Song frowned. Although they had a good relationship as brother and sister, Chai Mao's behavior was a bit abnormal.
"It doesn't matter if you disagree. If you want to be like Master Zhongwu and become a Xiantian Ji state at the age of sixteen, I will listen to you."
"Otherwise, don't talk nonsense here."
The head of the Chai family straightened his face and killed his son, leaving him speechless.
"Daddy, you will regret it."
After Chai Mao said these words, he turned around and left bitterly, while his sister [Chai Xingshu], who heard the dispute at the side, walked over with her head lowered.
"Dad, don't blame brother."
"Xingshu, daddy is not selling his daughter for glory. He will let you meet Lord Zhongwu."
"If you don't want to, dad will not force you."
…
At the same time, the heads of the Tang family and the Fan family received invitation letters from Li Mingde respectively.
Tang Ning's face was filled with joy and she almost laughed out loud.
"Brother, what happened."
"The Tang family passed the test."
"how do I say this?"
"Lord Zhongwu wants to reuse the Tang family."
"The news has been released that the Tang family will recruit another 200,000 long-term workers, including miners."
"Brother, our money is almost gone, and so many long-term workers can't afford it."
"Sold the land, sold the farm, and sold the pawn shop."
"What Lord Zhongwu wants to do, even if the Tang family loses everything, they still have to rush forward."
"As well as the family's spiritual soldiers and hidden weapons, tell the brokers that we will break the bones this time."
"Brother, yes, is this necessary?"
"We are royal merchants."
"Third brother, this is where you are inferior to sixth brother."
"We either get through or we die."
"Now that Lord Zhongwu has spoken out, we must let him see that keeping the Tang family is better than anything else."
"Brother, I listen to you and let the children of the family set an example. I will sell all the manors and villas I bought before." Mr. Tang San's expression changed and he gritted his teeth and said.
"Okay, these are the people from our Tang family."
"As long as the Tang family has passed this level, why worry about not being rich?"
Tangning held her brother's hand and said happily.
…
Fengzhou, Licheng
"Quick, prepare a car for me."
The head of the Fan family received an urgent message from the Jubao Pavilion in Peacock City.
"No, it's too late to prepare a car."
"I ran over immediately."
"Lord Zhongwu cannot be kept waiting."
"Take out the dragon and phoenix swords. I want to present them to Lord Zhongwu."
The Fan family once prepared a set of precious weapons for the royal wedding, but now there is no need to dedicate these precious weapons.
So the head of the Fan family suddenly had an idea and gave it to Chu Zhongwu as a gift.
…
Fengzhou, Peacock City, Zhongwufu
Three heads of the eight royal merchants gathered together.
"See Lord Zhongwu."
The three of them shouted in unison, and Chu Qianqiu said with a smile:
"You all came just in time. Now the disaster relief matters in Fengzhou have been arranged in an orderly manner."
“But disaster relief alone is not enough.”
"We need to provide more job opportunities and sources of income for the people to revitalize Fengzhou's economy."
"This is the development plan written by Mr. Chu."
"You guys take a good look first."
Tang Ning, Chai Song, and Fan Chengze each received the documents handed to them by Chu Qianqiu.
There are several big words written on the document, "Five-year Plan for the Development of Fengzhou".