Ouchi Taming the Cat, starting with the Ten Tiger Forms!

Chapter 495 Chain Reaction
"Your Majesty, Miss Hongyu is in trouble!"

Inside Prince Zheng's mansion, Prince Zheng couldn't help but frown when he heard the report from his subordinates.

"What happened to Hongyu?"

Although Hongyu has an eccentric personality, she is always reliable in her work. Over the years, she has managed the finances for the royal palace and made a lot of money for King Zheng through various channels.

Hongyu was no longer at the age to act impulsively, and King Zheng could not imagine what kind of trouble she could cause.

"Miss Hongyu has lost a lot of money in the mansion these days."

The person who reported this was the old butler who had followed King Zheng all his life.

Upon hearing that Hongyu had only lost some money, King Zheng's nervousness immediately subsided.

"Lao Fang, I thought it was something else."

"There is no business without losing money."

"It just so happens that Hongyu always thinks highly of herself. She should be taught a lesson."

King Zheng said casually.

There were only the master and his servant in the study.

Lao Fang was originally Prince Zheng's servant when he was a child. Now he has followed Prince Zheng step by step and risen to the position of steward of the palace.

It can be said that the two have been together from childhood to old age.

Compared to King Zheng, Lao Fang looked much older, with gray hair and beard, and wrinkles on his face as deep as ravines.

Although King Zheng's hair was gray, he looked to be no more than forty or fifty years old.

But the housekeeper, Lao Fang, looked to be in his seventies or eighties.

It’s hard to imagine that they are the same age.

Seeing that Prince Zheng didn't take Hongyu's matter seriously, Lao Fang had no choice but to tell him what happened.

"Your Highness, Miss Hongyu has wasted all the money in the mansion, and only 100,000 taels are left."

King Zheng put down the secret report in his hand and silently turned to look at Lao Fang, wondering if he had heard it wrong.

The daily expenses of Prince Zheng’s Mansion are not small.

In order to maintain his power and make friends with talented people, King Zheng always had to incur various expenses.

He can't save on this part of the expenses now, even if he wants to.

How did he get all that good reputation?

Aren’t they all just like timely rain?

He makes it rain wherever it is needed.

But praying for rain is not an easy thing, and it always costs some money to arrange things.

King Zheng is powerful and has face.

But if he uses all of it for trivial matters, it will only make his power and face less and less valuable.

Always give enough benefits to those who do things for you.

Otherwise, who will work for him in the future?

It's not easy to be a good leader.

It is especially difficult when it comes to a good leader who wants to rebel.

There were only 100,000 taels of silver left in Prince Zheng's Mansion, which was no different from bankruptcy to them.

King Zheng trusted Lao Fang very much and had no doubt about his loyalty.

If it were someone else, they would probably have to first consider whether it was their own housekeeper who was enriching themselves.

But King Zheng did not have such an idea. He directly believed what Lao Fang said and began to think about it.

"She seemed to have mentioned something about antiques to me a few days ago?"

"Your Highness, this is it." Lao Fang confirmed.

"How much money has Hongyu lost in total?" asked King Zheng.

"Originally there were 6.7 million taels of silver and banknotes in the account, but now after adding up the scattered pieces, there are only 100,000 taels left in total."

"In less than half a month, Miss Hongyu lost a total of 6.6 million taels of silver."

Lao Fang's answer stunned King Zheng.

"In such a short period of time, Hongyu was able to lose so much money."

"Have you found out who the other party is?"

Rather than feeling bad about the loss of silver, King Zheng was more interested in the person who could make Hongyu indebted to him.

Hongyu's business ability has been witnessed by everyone in the Zheng Palace over the years.

Although 6.6 million taels of silver is not a small amount, considering Hongyu's previous achievements, she is qualified and able to lose this money.

Moreover, King Zheng has always been eager to seek talented people, and whenever he encounters available talents, he always tries his best to recruit them.

Logically speaking, in this peaceful and prosperous era, talented people would be loyal to the court in exchange for fame and fortune.

But in today's Daxing, there is a vague feeling that King Zheng is the "authentic" court.

Otherwise, Emperor Yongyuan would not have only eunuchs at his disposal, and would be powerless in the court.

This phenomenon is closely related to King Zheng's active attitude in seeking talents.

Of course, the most important thing is that King Zheng can also offer enough prices to talents.

"Your Majesty, I have checked."

"It seems to have something to do with the Money Gang."

It is obvious that Lao Fang is not only in charge of Prince Zheng’s Palace, but is also involved in matters outside of Prince Zheng’s Palace.

"Money Gang?"

Upon hearing this name, King Zheng seemed a little surprised, then laughed at himself:
"It seems that Gang Leader Chen really doesn't like me."

"I just didn't expect that he would dare to scheme to harm Hongyu."

"It seems that this person is not as easy to talk to as the outside world says."

King Zheng fumbled with the jade ring on his hand, looking thoughtful.

At this time, Lao Fang on the side said:
"Your Majesty, we have already taken control of most of the Money Gang."

"After all, Chen Tan is the founder of the Money Gang. Now that his life's work is going to fall into the hands of others, he is naturally unwilling to accept it."

"At the moment, it seems that we need to make a decision about this person early."

As for how to decide, that is up to King Zheng himself.

If you can't attract this kind of talent, you can only get rid of him as soon as possible.

Otherwise, it will inevitably hinder King Zheng's great cause in the future.

Anyway, Lao Fang doesn't like the dissolute leader of the Money Gang.

"I have heard people say before that this Boss Chen is good at networking and managing relationships, but I have never heard that he is also so talented in business."

"Call Hongyu here, and I'll ask her some questions."

King Zheng ordered.

"Miss Hongyu is waiting outside the door for the prince's decision."

After saying that, Lao Fang went out to call for help.

Seeing that Hongyu had already prepared to apologize, King Zheng couldn't help but shake his head and laugh.

After a while, Hongyu walked in with her head lowered and her face submissively glanced at King Zheng from time to time.

King Zheng deliberately put on a stern face and looked at Hongyu with an unfriendly look.

When Hongyu saw this, she knelt down on the ground and cried, asking for forgiveness:

"My Lord, Hongyu is sorry for you~"

Hongyu's crying voice was long and soft, like sobbing and complaining, as exaggerated as singing in an opera.

King Zheng couldn't stand it after listening for a moment and quickly asked her to stop.

"Stop, stop trying to play that on me!"

"Tell me what's going on?"

Hongyu still sobbed and asked:
"Your Majesty, you don't blame me anymore?"

Although he knew that all this was a routine, King Zheng could only follow Hongyu's words and said:

"I don't blame you. It's just some money. You can earn it back to me double in the future."

For King Zheng, more than six million taels of silver were really just some silver.

Unlike some emperors who were stingy, Prince Zheng was a magnanimous prince.

King Zheng didn't even blink an eye when Hongyu lost so much money.

Otherwise, without some money in his pocket, would King Zheng dare to think about how to rebel?
"I knew that the prince loves Hongyu the most!" Hongyu knelt on the ground with tears in her eyes and grinned foolishly.

You know what, her acting skills are much better than others. At least her tears are real.

"You little girl, everyone knows that you have the most tricks."

Even though Hongyu is now in her thirties and girls of her age are about to become grandmothers, in King Zheng's eyes, she is still that lovable little girl.

King Zheng stepped forward, helped Hongyu up, and brushed the dust off her knees.

"Tell me, how did you, who claim to be smart, get tricked?"

King Zheng didn't believe that there was no trick involved as Hongyu, a veteran in the business world, suffered such a heavy loss.

When doing business in Daxing, as long as there are people in the market who are dumber than you, there is always a way to get out.

But if Hongyu could suffer such a loss, I'm afraid this is not an ordinary business activity.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for Hongyu, who has always been one of the smart few, to suffer such a huge loss without even a chance to escape.

Although King Zheng did not engage in business personally, he understood the logic behind it.

Many times, you don't need to be the best, just doing better than most people is enough for you to make money.

Whenever this matter was mentioned, Hongyu felt full of grievances.

"My Lord, you must make the decision for me this time!"

"This is not a fair deal at all, but an elaborate scam."

Upon hearing this, King Zheng teased, "The fact that he was able to trick a little devil like you shows that he has some skills."

"Oh, what are you saying, my Lord?"

Hongyu naturally refused.

Then, she suddenly thought of something and asked:

"Yes, my Lord."

"Is this antique speculation a trick that the Thirteenth Princess in the palace came up with?"

King Zheng was stunned. He had never told Hongyu about this, but he didn't expect that Hongyu had guessed it.

"According to the information I received, I'm afraid that's the case."

"In the Imperial Garden competition last month, Princess Ankang won with an absolute advantage, but the competition records actually stated that she won so much money at the gambling house on the last day."

"This must be false."

"The gambling house where she won the money was the Sihai Gambling House under the name of the Money Gang. The Sihai Gambling House also launched a special mortgage loan method during that period. There must be collusion."

After listening to this, Hongyu blinked her eyes with a look of disbelief.

"I heard that Princess Ankang is only a twelve-year-old child."

Hearing this, King Zheng shook his head:
"Hongyu, you haven't seen that child, but don't underestimate her."

"To be able to endure alone in the cold palace for so many years and rise to prominence overnight, he can't be an ordinary child."

"Besides, she is Concubine Xiao's daughter."

"Hongyu, you should still remember Concubine Xiao, right?"

Hongyu lowered her head and stopped arguing.

"That being said, it's not impossible."

Hongyu said this, but she still found it hard to accept it in her heart.

When Hongyu thought that a twelve-year-old girl could think of such a brilliant way to make money from the market, she felt that her previous self was ridiculous.

She works hard all year round, but it is likely that she does not earn as much as a twelve-year-old child in a month.

If Princess Ankang did not have limited funds, the money she could earn this time would be beyond everyone's imagination.

Hongyu, who possesses extraordinary business talent, can fully determine this.

What made her even more unacceptable was that this was a good idea that Princess Ankang only came up with temporarily in order to cope with the monthly competitions.

Hongyu used to pride herself on being a business genius, but this incident made her feel a little ridiculous.

On the one hand, she got involved in the speculation of antiques this time because she thought it was a good opportunity to make money.

On the other hand, I also heard some rumors and knew that there was a little girl behind this.

But she never expected that this would be the outcome after she joined the game.

Hongyu joined the game to prove that she has abilities that are no less than others, not to prove that she is a clown.

But now the facts before us prove...

"Hongyu, don't think too much about what has already happened. Tell us exactly what the process was."

Since King Zheng had spoken, Hongyu had no choice but to nod obediently.

Next, Hongyu told King Zheng everything that had happened in the market in the past few days, and also told him the details of her own operations without revealing a single detail.

From how he imitated the other party's antiques to how the other party responded, and how they reached an agreement after several rounds of probing, they jointly pushed up the price.

Everything was developing well at the beginning.

As the number of dealers increased and their strength became much stronger than when there was only Princess Ankang, the price of antiques from the Jinpeng Dynasty quickly reached 10,000 taels of silver.

Coupled with the continuous spread of various favorable rumors by the dealers, the entire capital city was mobilized.

Even people outside the capital heard the news and followed suit, bringing silver bills with them.

This joyful prospect made Hongyu realize that they were going to make a fortune this time.

Because at this price, even if other dealers have different ideas and want to have the best deal alone, they cannot bring the price down quickly by themselves.

Even more, because of the existence of other dealers, the goods sold will be taken over immediately, and then you can only leave the market with profits in advance, losing the initiative in the future.

Hongyu thought so, and naturally the other dealers thought so too. After all, there were very powerful families behind them, and those who could be responsible for such affairs would definitely not be mediocre.

Although the dealers control the game, they are only preventing others from overturning the table.

Now they looked at the plate of meat on the table which was getting bigger and bigger, and no one dared to pick up the chopsticks first.

After all, everyone only has one chance to pick up the chopsticks.

But no one expected that before anyone could even pick up their chopsticks, a wicked person would just move the table away.

These self-proclaimed smart dealers all held a pair of chopsticks and stared into the air in a daze.

"Where's the table?"

"What about my big table?"

They didn't even bother to find the meat on the table, they just wanted to get the table back first.

Sadly, their table has been destroyed.

A massive amount of counterfeit and shoddy products suddenly flooded the market, ranging from crudely made to finely made ones, all claiming to be antiques from the Jinpeng Dynasty. However, the number directly overwhelmed the market, and people realized something was wrong in less than a day.

In the black market, all trading venues immediately stopped trading and the market was closed.

For a moment, people were in panic, thinking it was another shocking scam.

That day, the black market was filled with people smashing the antiques in their hands, and it almost caused a riot.

At night, the ground of the black market was littered with antique fragments, and the garbage has not been cleaned up until now.

And on the second day after the market was closed, someone proposed a solution, and it was also possible to guarantee that the Jinpeng Dynasty antiques being traded were genuine.

"The mortgage note replaces the Jinpeng Dynasty antiques."

“A mortgage note is an antique.”

“The more reliable the mortgage note, the more sought after it is.”

"Among them, the notes of the Money Gang are the most valuable and the most trusted!"

Hongyu's voice fell slowly, and she looked much more depressed than when she had been crying and apologizing before.

When King Zheng heard this, he couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

Hongyu alone lost 6.6 million taels of silver, so what about the others combined?

This number made King Zheng excited.

And he must not miss such talents.

"As for Hongyu, she can actually match up with Lao Fang."

"The Money Gang initially worked with Ankang to help her cope with the competition."

"After Ankang returns to the palace, continue to use this situation and make improvements."

"But if this happens, the Money Gang will definitely offend a lot of people."

"Chen Tan is acting in a high-profile manner in order to prevent me from taking over the Money Gang."

"But through this incident, perhaps I can subdue this person as well."

King Zheng's eyes flashed with brilliance, and he already had a plan.

(End of this chapter)