Aoyama

Chapter 352: Seizing the Salt Bid

Chen Yue, the chief manager of Chen's Salt Shop, stood at the threshold and watched Chen Ji's back disappear into the mist.

He brushed off the non-existent dust on his brocade robe, sneered and said to his clerk: "Remember, if this guy comes again tonight, you must be polite and don't let him catch you in the open. But if he asks about the shopkeepers in the salt shop again, just follow the excuse I taught you before, saying that none of them are here."

"Yes."

Chen Yue walked towards the backyard.

In the backyard, there was an octagonal table next to a pomegranate tree, and several people were playing mahjong around the table.

An old man with gray hair touched the ivory card in his hand, thought for a moment, and flicked the ivory card onto the table with his fingers: "Eighty thousand.

Chen Yue sat back in his seat and looked at the cards in front of him: "Everyone, whether we can continue to live a good life depends on whether our group is united. If we let a brat ride on our heads, our life will be more miserable than a dog's."

On his left, a middle-aged man with a goatee played a nine-suo card and said, "Boss, that guy is at least a new boss sent by the master. Just let him alone. Don't get angry. I'm afraid we won't be able to end this."

Chen Yue squinted at the middle-aged man and said, "Mr. Ye, if I find out that you have surrendered secretly and become a fence-sitter, I will pull out your balls and feed them to the dogs."

Shopkeeper Ye Er stroked his goatee and said, "Don't try to scare me. Although your last name is Chen, my relationship with the master is closer than yours."

Chen Yue sneered: "The Second Master told me yesterday that I should delay it as long as possible and never let this kid take control of the salt company."

Shopkeeper Ye raised his eyebrows: "Did the Second Master really instruct you to do so?"

Chen Yue said mysteriously, "This matter involves a lot of things, don't mess it up. Besides, if you let this kid take over the salt company, he will definitely find out about the dirty things he did in the past after a while. Do you think you can get away with it? Remember, this time we put aside our past grudges and advance and retreat together."

At this time, the gray-haired old man at the table asked slowly, "What if we can't hold him back? I heard that this kid is very fierce."

Chen Yue sneered, "The capital is not a place where martial arts is important. Besides, he is only eighteen or nineteen years old. It is impossible for him to understand the ins and outs of the salt business overnight. Look at his behavior today. He came here without any preparations, and left in disgrace after saying a few words, like a fool."

Chen Yue stared at the ivory sign in front of him: "Wait for him to come tonight, and then let him be rejected, and see how many times he can come."

……

……

The evening drum sounded, with eight hundred beats, from slow to fast.

In the Chen family salt merchant's head office, the guys were sweeping the floor and tidying up the salt buckets, but they kept looking outside the door, absent-minded.

A young clerk whispered, "Shopkeeper Ye Er said that the master sent a new boss this time because he thought there were too many clerks in the salt shop and planned to lay off 30% of them. Is this true or false?"

"Shopkeeper Zhou Er also said so, so he should be right. Anyway, remember what the shopkeepers said. We must unite against the enemy. We don't know what the other party will ask. If he has anything to say, let him wait until the shopkeepers come back."

The young man muttered, "This is the first time I've seen the shopkeepers so friendly. Normally they would quarrel when they meet, but today they can sit together and play mahjong."

Someone warned: "Don't let it slip, and be respectful on the surface, don't let him catch anything obvious."

At this moment, the evening drum sounded.

The guys were suddenly startled and turned to look at Chen Ji stepping over the threshold.

Seeing everyone staring blankly, an older waiter coughed, and the waiters hurriedly bowed and greeted, "Boss."

The older clerk said politely, "Boss, the head manager..." Chen Ji raised his hand to stop him from talking, and walked straight to the counter to look through today's accounts: "What's your name?"

The older man replied, "My name is Chen Bin."

Chen Ji hummed: "Where is the chief manager? I told him to wait for me in the salt shop this morning."

Chen Bin hurriedly bowed and said, "My Lord, the eunuch superintendent of the Changlu Salt Field is back in Beijing today, and the chief manager wants to go and pay him a visit. This is an important matter, and it is related to whether our salt company can pay for salt from the salt field, so he asked me to apologize to you and cannot wait for you in the salt company today."

Eunuch superintendent of the salt fields?

Chen Ji asked casually, "What about the other second shopkeepers?"

Chen Bin replied, "Boss, Shopkeeper Ye Er went to discuss the salt transportation of the beginning of next month with the Cao Gang, and Shopkeeper Zhou Er was called away by the Ministry of Revenue's Qingli Division... All of them are not here."

After saying that, he looked up at Chen Ji cautiously.

He originally thought that Chen Ji, this young boy, would be furious, but he didn't expect that Chen Ji just nodded and was not angry.

Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Could it be that the shopkeepers are secretly selling the salt permits of my Chen Family Salt Shop, and now they are hiding because they are afraid that the master will track them down?"

Chen Bin smiled and said calmly, "Boss, you have misunderstood. How could the owner of our salt shop do such a thing? The salt permits that were just redeemed from the Ministry of Revenue after the New Year are in the salt shop. All the accounts are complete without any omissions. Chen Ertong, lead the people to bring out the salt permits and accounts."

This time, Chen Ji did not stop him.

He leaned against the counter, silently watching the salt shop clerk carry out more than twenty large boxes, open the lids one by one, revealing the blue-covered account books inside.

It would take a person several years to check all these accounts. After the accounts were checked, the managers of the salt shops would have new tricks to deal with him, the new boss.

Chen Bin bowed to Chen Ji and said, "Boss, please check it."

Chen Ji confirmed again: "Are all the shopkeepers not here?"

Chen Bin said confidently: "Neither of them are here."

Chen Ji turned around and shouted outside, "Come here, take these salt permits and account books away. I want to check them overnight."

As they were talking, six carriages drove in from nowhere and stopped in front of the Chen Family Salt Shop. Lin Yanchu and more than a dozen other poor Yulin soldiers rushed in, carrying boxes one by one and walked out.

Chen Bin's expression suddenly changed: "Boss, this is the lifeblood of my Chen family's salt company, you can't take it away."

He winked at the waiters, but saw more than a dozen waiters rushed forward and grabbed the box, and some of them pushed Lin Yanchu.

But Lin Yanchu held the iron ring on the box with one hand and grabbed the other's hand with the other hand. He twisted it gently, and the guy on the opposite side cried out in pain and knelt on the ground: "It hurts... It hurts... Mom!"

On the other side, the salt shop clerk who came to grab the box was dazzled when he saw the plainclothes Yulin soldier slap him in the face, making him spin on the spot.

More than ten guys rushed forward, but all of them fell to the ground in an instant. They were no match for him at all.

Chen Bin had not expected Chen Ji to be so unruly and actually came with a group of warriors to seize the account books and salt permits. In a hurry, he turned around and shouted to the backyard: "Shopkeeper..."

Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Hey, didn't you say that all the shopkeepers are away?"

Chen Bin swallowed back the words that were about to come out of his mouth!
(End of this chapter)