Unlike the Jingdong Guild Hall, which specializes in hosting officials with the word "imperial envoy" in the capital, and has a somewhat aura of wealth and dignity in the capital, it is quiet and elegant, Zhang Chen, whose pseudonym is Wang Shen, and the small golden jade building where he settled, it is absolutely a symbol of the nouveau riche.
That's enough.
As the most luxurious hotel in Shunde Prefecture, the cost of staying here for one night starts from the usual price, which is enough for an average person to live for a month. However, Xingtai is not on the edge of a canal, or a port near the sea, and wealthy businessmen from the south of the Yangtze River come here.
There are not many. Most of the rooms are usually empty. Now Zhang Chen is enjoying the exclusive treatment. After returning from the capital, he plays every day.
However, Mr. Zhang is also a prominent figure among the dandy boys in the capital. He has seen Twelve Rains from Tingyu Xiaozhu countless times. Now he has long forgotten the initial thought of a romantic encounter. Drinking and having fun are just pure
He listened to the music and dance, but none of the singers and dancers who threw themselves into his arms could succeed, and they had gradually become more honest.
At this moment, thinking that after the money was delivered to Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, the two of them would be overjoyed. Zhang Chen couldn't help squinting his eyes and sipping another drink, and then he tapped his fingers to the beat with great pleasure.
Desktop. At this moment, he noticed someone suddenly approaching from behind him. Just as his body tensed up, he heard a voice.
"Sir, people are already here."
Only then did Zhang Chen realize that he was not as weak as when he first came out. Regardless of what his father had in mind, the people he had given him were indeed useful. However, no matter how satisfied he was, he was now
He looked arrogant and reserved, raising his hand slightly to make a gesture, as if he was immersed in singing, dancing and music again.
Not long after, an obviously flattering voice came from outside: "Master Wang, Mr. Zheng and the others would like to see you."
"Didn't I just see them last night? Why are you here again?" Zhang Chen raised his eyebrows obviously impatiently, and then said angrily, "It's not like a beautiful lady with a beautiful country, always dazzling in front of me, dare to be affectionate
Are you reminding me that I owe them money? Tell them to come in and everyone else to get out!"
Zheng Yuanwai and the others who were waiting outside the door did not move at all when they heard these arrogant and domineering words. Having dealt with Wang Shen, who was said to be the confidant of the second prince, several times, they mostly understood his character - arrogant and perverse.
, so bold... Otherwise, how could ordinary people dare to beat up the eldest prince's people casually? But because of this, they decided to use this person to resist the imperial envoy.
After all, among the four young masters over there, two are the future prince-in-law and Yibin, and the other two are also officials' sons - one of them is related to Zheng Yuanwai himself, and no one wants to offend the four of them to the point of ruin - although they
It has gone too far.
At this moment, seeing the orchestra and a group of singing and dancing girls retreating, Zheng Yuanwai immediately entered the room first.
Not only was his elder brother a Jinshi, but he was also a disciple of Mr. Jiang Ge, the first assistant. He is now a bachelor of Hanlin, so he is also considered the number one figure among various families in Xingtai. Therefore, he smiled and said to "Wang Shen"
"After saying hello, he glanced at the two guards behind him calmly.
This confidant of the second prince went to Beijing for a trip, and when he came back, there were several more people around him. At first glance, they were all energetic masters. With such majesty and power, he naturally would not doubt the identity of the other party. At this moment,
He explained briefly and concisely what had just happened at Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu's Jingdong Club, and then lowered his voice.
"Young Master Wang, now that things have happened, we have actually received the full help from the eldest son of the Duke of Qin in the capital. What should we do?"
"What should we do? Haha, they are rich and can buy houses and land and hire people, but what about cotton?" Zhang Chen chuckled, slapped the handrail heavily and said, "If I remember correctly, except for the fact that you keep your own spare ones.
Besides, I seem to have harvested all the cotton in Shunde Prefecture, right?"
Hearing that "Wang Shen" was ready to fight Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu to the end, Zheng Yuanwai and others exchanged glances with each other, and they were all a little overjoyed. At that moment, Zheng Yuanwai said with a smile on his face: "Young Master Wang has such a
In short, we are relieved. As long as you don't sell cotton to them..."
"Why don't I sell it?" Zhang Chen glanced sideways at Mr. Zheng with a disdainful expression of "Are you an idiot?"
"As long as they are willing to pay a high price, of course I am willing to sell. If you hoard it, the one with the highest price will get it. Don't you understand this principle? The Duke of Qin is very rich, but I don't believe that the Duke of Qin's money will be wasted by them without limit.
! You must have asked, right? How much money did the eldest son of the Duke of Qin give them this time?"
He scolded himself that he had been taken advantage of. Zhang Chen was still a big girl and got on the sedan for the first time, but after cursing, he felt strangely happy - hitting people with money was a trick he often did in the capital, but he had never done it before.
Doing business, now focusing on business, makes you feel comfortable in every pore of your internal organs.
But his joy soon disappeared with a word of agreement, because Mr. Zhao, who was the subordinate of Zheng Yuanwai, immediately said with a smile on his face: "That is, no matter how rich the young master of Qin Guogong is, how can he still manage the whole situation?"
All the princes moved in to support him? That is, he exchanged 8,000 coins from Fulong Bank. Besides, even the Duke of Qin is not as noble as the second prince Tianhuang..."
Shit! Shit your bullshit! How dare you compare the second prince, a coward with little success and failure, with my father!
Zhang Chen had already put a damn label on Mr. Zhao in his heart, and then said nonchalantly: "That's right, it's better to have a strong dragon than to defeat a local snake, than to be rich... Haha, who is afraid of whom? Spread the word, I'm cotton
Let’s increase it four times first and see if those two boys can afford it!”
Zheng Yuanwai suddenly became energetic, and the others were also overjoyed, and they all poured out compliments. Not long after they returned, they soon learned the next step of the news - Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu actually accepted it.
At four times the high price, we bought a lot of cotton, and also called in a lot of small businesses with their own spinning machines and spinners who had lost their jobs.
A group of people gathered together and decided to stand still. They still persuaded the several weaving workshops that collected cotton yarn for weaving, but they still refused to accept cotton yarn. Instead, they found a few people to pretend to be poor spinners, and sent a large amount of cotton yarn to Zhang Wu.
Zhang Lu and others went there to sell, intending to further consume the funds in their hands. Seven or eight days passed, and everyone was shocked to learn that the Duke of Qin sent someone to Fulong Bank to exchange money.
This time...it's five thousand strings again!
At this point, even if Zheng's family is rich and the other families are also very wealthy, no one wants to fight with the rich and powerful Duke of Qin. However, what they see is that "Wang Shen" is actually
The price of cotton increased to six times the original price. Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu relied on the financial resources of the Duke of Qin to still accept the entire order. They suddenly lost their patience.
Who can resist the temptation of making money when such a stupid person is faced with it? Spinning? What is that? What could make more money than not hiring anyone but selling cotton directly! If I had known this, even if "King"
"Deep" is the name of the second prince, and they will never lend money to others to collect cotton just because they like to see people secretly stumbling upon Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu.
This is simply giving money to "Wang Shen"... no, giving money to the second prince!
For a while, Zheng Yuanwai quietly sent people to nearby places, especially to Cangzhou, to buy cotton in large quantities - including the ones that were still in the fields that had not yet been harvested. He also paid a deposit for all the cotton. He thought he was doing it.
They had to keep it a secret, but they didn't expect that after Mr. Zhao found out the truth, he sent people directly to Cangzhou to forcefully persuade the relatives and buy a hundred acres of cotton fields.
The two thought they were perfect, but there was no airtight wall in the world. The news spread in a moment. Everyone who had visited "Wang Shen" with them before all hated these two solitary eaters and hurriedly joined them.
As for the more intelligent ones, like Mr. Zhao, he thought that the Duke of Qin might get involved in the textile industry, so he tried hard to hoard land.
Especially when they saw that "Wang Shen" directly raised the price of cotton to ten times, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu continued to buy it, and the Duke of Qin actually sent a large sum of money, led by Zheng Yuanwai.
These local leaders in Xingtai have more than doubled their handiwork, and their reach to Cangzhou is even longer.
Therefore, on this day, when the eldest prince went to another official's invitation with great satisfaction, he received a piece of news that was completely unexpected to him.
"All the cotton on the market is gone? What a joke, how is this possible!"
"It's really gone." The person who responded was full of anxiety and said truthfully, "It's all because of something wrong with Xingtai. I heard that Zhang Chen didn't know what to do in order to support Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu.
The Duke of Qin got a large sum of money from his wife and gave it all to Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu. As a result, the two idiots got angry with the local wealthy and opened their own workshops."
The eldest prince felt that there was something wrong with his ears. He asked in disbelief: "Open a workshop by yourself? Did they think that they would marry the princess and the princess soon, so they lost their heads? This workshop is so
Is it easy to open? You need space, you need to hire spinners, you need raw materials, and in the end you need a weaver willing to accept the cotton yarn you spun!"
In contrast, he used both soft and hard tactics, using his identity as a prince to seduce the big players to join forces to squeeze out the small workshops and scattered spinners, and at the same time smooth out the weaving workshops, and then take the dry stocks and sit on the ground to extract profits. This is stupider than Zhang Chen.
The approach is much more prudent.
Did that guy bring his domineering attitude in the capital to Xingtai? People can't help Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, so they just spend money to help? Is this simply a waste of money or what?
The more the eldest prince thought about it, the more furious he became: "Why doesn't Qin Guogong Zhang Chuan care about his son? He has broken his leg and is lying on the bed, why can't he be calm? He wants to accompany Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu to go crazy, okay,
But don’t get in my way!”
Why doesn't he have friends like Zhang Chen who are stupid and rich?
After losing his temper, the eldest prince said angrily: "Since Zhang Chen wants to compete with others for financial resources, go and talk to those families, buy more cotton from Jiangnan, and sell it to
The two villains from Xingtai..."
Speaking of this, he suddenly thought of the 500 acres of Cangzhou cotton fields he had paid for the prototype and blueprints of the new textile machine he had bought from Lu Sanlang, and he felt heartbroken again. What if the 500 acres of cotton fields were still there?
In his hands, as long as Zhang Chen is still such a prodigal, when the new cotton comes on the market, he will be able to empty out a lot of money from the Duke of Qin's family, just in time for revenge!
"Since the cotton is gone, all the workshops should stop working first. One month of work now can equal three to five months in the past. Anyway, they will not lose money! What they lose now can be taken from Qin Guogong Zhang's family in the blink of an eye.
Squeeze out the oil and water from your body!"
The eldest prince took a deep breath, and seeing the entourage repeatedly agreeing to retreat, he thought of Wang Shen, the confidant of the second prince who beat up the people he sent to Xingtai before, and felt as sick as if he had swallowed a fly.
Although the second prince received a beating and is said to be unable to get out of bed now, this guy's people are still able to arrogantly leave the capital and continue to fight against him, and the father is indifferent! And the queen mother is now imprisoned in Kunning.
The palace, the majestic mother of a country is actually inferior to those concubines. And he, the majestic eldest son of the royal family, is trapped in a small place like Cangzhou!
What kind of trouble is happening in Xingtai, how come it involves Cangzhou, and why the eldest prince is so upset, all of this has nothing to do with Zhu Er. He quietly set out from Zhaoyuan, Haidian, with a few guards, and wanted to stay in bed day and night all the way——
But he was afraid of being thought of as a young man, so he finally had to put on some disguise. When he arrived in Cangzhou, it happened to be the time when people from Xingtai had bought up Cangzhou cotton.
But he didn't pay any attention to what was going on between them. When he arrived in Cangzhou, he didn't even bother to look for an inn, so he planned to go to the maritime merchant's shop. However, he was persuaded by several guards to stop. Although none of them knew the eldest lady.
He and the second young master were hiding what they were doing from the rest of the family, but in the end they were the better ones.
"Second Young Master, if you run over here in a hurry, others will immediately know that you are on a special trip to find him. If I don't tell you a bunch of lies to fool people, they will naturally sit down and raise the price for the things you like.
It would be best to find an inn to stay in first, then change our outfits, take our time and make people think that we are just passers-by wandering around."
Therefore, Zhu Er had no choice but to choose a so-called century-old store first. After taking a bath, he changed into a set of clothes that were not flashy and unrevealing, and then hurried out with a few guards. However, when he followed Ah Liu's instructions,
When he found the place on the simple map he drew, he saw that the inconspicuous little shop on Haishang Street had closed its doors and suddenly closed down.
At this moment, Second Young Master Zhu was simply shocked and angry. The huge disappointment and anger that he had rushed so slowly but still failed were mixed together, so that his whole face twitched.
Fortunately, the few guards around him were very obedient, and one of them immediately went to the surrounding area to inquire about the news. After a while, the guard came back with a smile on his face: "Second Young Master, the owner of this shop specializes in selling seafood. Obviously Tianjin to the north,
Denglai and Jiaozhou in the south are both better ports, but this guy just likes to stay in Cangzhou and slowly sell his weird things."
"I didn't open the door today, so I went to find someone to play chess. That old man fished for three days and dried his nets for two days. He was never active in business, so all the neighboring shops called him Xianyu behind his back."