Jinyi champion

Chapter 86
The old lady didn't spend the night in the city, and she was going out of the city after asking about Zhu Hao's situation.

It was Zhu Niang who found a carriage to take her back to Zhuangzi outside the city. Obviously, including Butler Liu, she was no longer trusted by the old lady. Obviously it was Jin Yiwei who investigated Xing Wang's mansion, but he was led by the nose.

Zhu Hao thought about it, maybe Lin Baihu didn't hide anything from Zhu Jiashi about Lu Song's issue, but Zhu Jiashi strictly kept the secret from inside and outside.

A group of old and cunning guys!
After sending the old lady away, Zhu Hao unexpectedly discovered that there were quite a few people who came to buy salt that afternoon. Usually, there might not be any people visiting the shop for a few days. As a result, Zhu Hao just watched the shop for a while at dusk, and saw no less than ten customers Come buy salt.

This has almost returned to the situation at the peak of the store's business.

After a customer left, Zhu Hao took the opportunity to ask, "Mother, has the business of our shop improved a lot recently?"

Zhu Niang had a look of emotion on her face: "I heard that it is very inconvenient to sell salt everywhere recently, and the imperial court has increased taxes on salt. Only the salt in our shop is still sold at a par price. Naturally, more neighbors come to buy it."

Aunt Li said from the side: "I don't know why, why should the government raise taxes?"

But Zhu Hao understood the reason.

In the ninth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, the imperial palace was on fire, and many palaces including the Qianqing Palace were burned down. The emperor completed the repair of the palace within one year. Complaints abound.

For a place like Huguang, where the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, it takes several months for the imperial government's policies to have an impact. Now it is the autumn harvest, which is the time for autumn grain harvest in various places. Governments at all levels open their mouths to harvest private wealth, and officials As the necessities of life of the common people, it is natural to be merciless in exploitation.

"Mother, it's not just salt and tax. I heard that the imperial court bought stone and wood in Huguang, Sichuan and other places. The price is much lower than usual. Almost all of them are transported to the capital at their own expense. It should be to repair palaces and fortifications. Well, people in Prince Xing's mansion are talking about it recently."

Zhu Hao gave "gossip" and explained the source.

Zhu Niang nodded, her complexion became heavy.

Aunt Li on the side asked: "Ma'am, the salt shops everywhere are increasing their prices, should we follow suit?"

Zhu Niang said: "It's rare for the neighbors to give us orphans and widows a chance to start a new business. If we increase the price at this time and let the people eat expensive salt, wouldn't it be a shame for the trust of the neighbors? We can't do this kind of thing."

Zhu Hao smiled and said, "Mother, it's right to be kind, but you can't abuse it. Su Dongzhu has a strong background, and we get goods from him, so we are not affected by the tax increase. Others are different.

"As for the trust of neighbors... Isn't it because our salt has not caused any problems in the past few months? The salt we sell is cheap, so they will come to us to buy it. If it is too cheap, it is not good. People in the same industry are enemies. Those who sell salt will try their best to trip us up, and it is impossible to guard against."

Zhu Hao just briefly analyzed the reasons for the better business and what to do next.

You can't blindly pay the price, you still have to add it, but you can't add it too much.

Aunt Li has lingering fears: "Before, the salt sold in our shop was cheaper than other shops, which made our business prosperous, and we earned a lot of income every month, so the family would covet it... Now that I think about it, this is another important reason for us to provoke officials. ?”

Zhu Niang said: "Before, it was because the clan was prejudiced against us, not because our peers suppressed us. We just sell it in the usual way, earning a little less...can't we find compensation elsewhere?"

Although Zhu Hao didn't say anything, he was still very worried and decided to have a good talk with his stubborn mother no matter what before returning to the palace.

……

……

The next day, Zhu Hao stayed at home to help.

Zhu Niang kept asking him to study in the backyard, but Zhu Hao moved around in the backyard on the grounds that he wanted to relax his mind on the day off and could help the family with some errands.

Then Yu San was called over, but it was Zhu Hao who asked Xiaobai to notify him early in the morning, and called Yu San directly to the back alley.

"Brother Hao, what's the matter?"

Yu San was puzzled, why Zhu Hao was so mysterious?
Zhu Hao said: "I want you to contact me to see if I can find a theater troupe. How boring is it to just listen to books? I want to find someone to act in a play. It's best to buy the theater troupe directly."

"what?"

Yu Sanyi was shocked.

You baby is very ambitious!
You made some money by opening the bookstore, but it's only been open for a few days?You can't earn that much now, and you actually want to buy a theater troupe?

Who gave you the courage!

Do you know how much it costs to buy a troupe?
Zhu Hao said: "This time, I'm going to let my mother invest. Anyway, you can help me find it."

Yu San asked: "Brother Hao, do you want to tell Madam about this?"

"If you want to say it, I will say it. You don't want my mother to know that you are also running a bookstore business while helping the shop, right? I'm afraid my mother will never use you again..."

Before that, Yu San warned Zhu Haoshao to listen to books, saying that Zhu Niang knew that the bookstore was booming and planned to go and have a look.

But Yu San is obviously afraid that Zhu Niang will know that he is running the bookstore. You are working two jobs. Zhu Niang pays Yu San according to the standard of long-term workers, and will give you three big bonuses every time you transport salt. Unless after the third plan, I will rely on the bookstore to make a living.

If the bookstore had just opened half a month ago, when there was a lot of money, Yu San might have put down the work of the Zhu family and concentrated on running the bookstore.

But now he can see that the business of the bookstore has no future, because there are too many people following the trend, and those people are rotten, and they only make trouble for others.

"Go, I will go to the bookstores to have a look in the evening these two days, and let me know in time if I have any news. I will start when I make up a few good plays. Let's see how those bookstores compete with me!"

……

……

Zhu Hao wants to create a one-stop culture.

It is said to seek investment from Zhu Niang, but it is just a way to make Yu San feel at ease. Everything will be discussed after finding an opera troupe. Even if he is looking for an investor, Zhu Hao is more inclined to find an investor in the palace. It is best... of course to find Zhu Si up.

It doesn't matter whether you make money or not. The important thing is to let Zhu Si get in touch with the affairs of the market and tie it up with his own interests. By the way, let Zhu Si know that he is good at making money.

Before leaving in the afternoon, Zhu Hao took Zhu Niang to his room and explained the situation alone: ​​"Mother, we can make money now, mainly because our salt is dried by ourselves. Hiding murderous intentions... what we are most afraid of is that our salt has been thoroughly researched, isn't it?"

Zhu Niang was silent for a while.

"If we act independently and sell low-priced salt against the market and harm the interests of the big salt merchants, they will definitely investigate us secretly and check our details to the bottom. In the end, we will only suffer losses... The gain outweighs the loss, mother .”

Originally, Zhu Niang was focused on taking care of her neighbors, but after hearing Zhu Hao's words, she suddenly realized that she could do business with her neighbors, but she couldn't put her own and her children's lives on it.

After finally stabilizing, the wholesale snowflake salt makes a lot of money, so why put the family in danger for the dispensable retail business?

Zhu Haodao: "So we usually sell salt a little lower than the market price, and don't always raise the price when weighing... What we want to do is long-term trading, and understand the principle of gains and losses! At worst, when the neighbors are in trouble, we will extend our hands to help each other. It’s Bushe in many disaster years.”

Zhu Niang was finally persuaded by her son, she nodded and said: "That mother will post the notice board tomorrow morning, and the price will increase accordingly, don't worry about family affairs."

……

……

do not worry?
Easy to say!

Zhu Hao knew very well that Zhu Niang was only suitable for honest neighborhood business, and she lacked decisiveness in doing big things. Right now, the salt vendor still has to make up his own mind, and only he has the ability to support it.

Back at the palace, Jinghong didn't come back that night.

It was Lu Song who came to Zhu Hao and brought some news.

"...I heard that Zhang Zhong, the eunuch of the Yuma Supervisor, will arrive in Anlu in a few days... He came from Jianggan. Given his relationship with the eunuch of the East Factory, I am afraid that he will intervene in the affairs of Prince Xing's residence."

Emperor Zhengde had many traitors under his command, and Zhang Zhong, the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, was one of them.

This Zhang Zhong and the eunuch Zhang Rui, the admiral of Dongchang, and Zhang Xiong, the eunuch of Bingbi, the supervisor of rites, are known as the "three Zhangs". It is also enough to shake the officialdom.

The admiral and eunuch of Dongchang had thousands or hundreds of households. According to the "Ming History Criminal Law Records", "There is no official in Dongchang, one thousand households is in charge of punishment, and one hundred households is punished. It is also called post punishment. All guards The servants are taken from Yuwei..." It means that the people in charge of the governor are all from Jinyiwei. Generally speaking, the admiral and eunuch of the East Factory are parallel or even higher than the commander of Jinyiwei. Jin Yiwei has the leadership.

Zhu Hao asked, "Is this what Lin Baihu told you?"

Lu Song shook his head and said: "The news comes from the palace. It is said that Zhang Zhong came to supervise the transportation of wood and stone."

The palace is being repaired, and the imperial court allocates a large amount of money to buy earth and rocks. There are plenty of oil and water, and there are many opportunities to help. The eunuchs are all competing for this fat job. Zhang Zhong can get this opportunity to go out of the capital, which shows that the emperor attaches great importance to him. This guy will go to Jiangxi first. King Ning extorted a sum of money, and when King Ning resumed his guard in the middle of the year, a group of courtiers around the emperor contributed a lot. How could they get the share that Zhu Chenhao gave when they came to the place?
"Lu Dianzhan told me such important news because he wanted me to inform the outside world? Didn't Lu Dianzhan mention this to Lin Baihu?"

Zhu Hao asked indifferently.

Lu Song said: "I believe Jin Yiwei will get the news soon, there is no need for us to pass it on. I just want to know, will your Zhu family accept Zhang Zhong?"

Zhu Hao spread his hands: "Where should I go to find out? Besides, is this Eunuch Zhang... familiar with our Zhu family?"

Lu Song looked over with an "unspeakable" expression.

Zhu Hao can only understand it as: I know the current situation of your Zhu family. For the sake of the eldest son who is being held hostage in the capital, you are making connections everywhere. Since Zhang Zhong is in Anlu, why doesn't the Zhu family take the opportunity to curry favor after hearing the news?

"Taking a step back, even if the Zhu family really wants to curry favor with this Eunuch Zhang, the question is how will it affect Lu Dianzhan? Could it be that Lu Dianzhan wants to leak this news so that people know that the Zhu family and the court The treacherous and sycophantic friends are very close, which attracted the Qingliu from the court to criticize my Zhu family, and then successfully drove the Zhu family out of Anlu?"

Zhu Hao's words were sharp.

It's not that he insists on going straight with Lu Song, but that the other party shows his blade frequently. If he still looks timid and ignorant, I don't know how Lu Song will attack him.

Lu Song said: "The news has been told to you. What you do is up to you... But when Zhang Zhong arrives in Anlu, Prince Xing's Mansion can't ignore it. If you want to send information, I may help you."

Zhu Hao smiled and shook his head: "No need, my task is to enter the palace and study honestly, other things...have nothing to do with me."

(End of this chapter)