Tang Dynasty Little Godfather

Chapter 290: Pressure.
Objectively speaking, in the Nameless Academy, the most petty person isn't actually Wang Xi. He has a purpose behind everything he does, rather than being truly vindictive. If it doesn't involve his interests, he won't be too concerned about it—well, women are an exception.

The one who is truly petty is Huangfu Sengnian.

He had always disliked these elders since he was a child, because they had a condescending and arrogant attitude.

That's why he often argued with his teachers when he was at the Imperial Academy; he was very unhappy with this traditional view.

However, this is not unusual, because during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a group of people who specifically opposed Confucian traditions and sought new ideas, which is also a kind of ideology left over from that time.

Although Lady Zixia was very young and beautiful, she was still of a higher generation, and in Huangfu Sengnian's eyes, she was definitely an elder. Therefore, Huangfu Sengnian was truly disgusted by Lady Zixia's attitude at the time, and he kept urging Wang Xi to take revenge, not to forget this incident, that humiliation should not be forgotten, and that revenge should be taken on the same day, never overnight.

Of course, he may be petty, but he's definitely not in the wrong, no matter how crazy they are.

You, Lady Zixia, may be as beautiful as an angel, but that doesn't mean this Beauty Wine is yours. What makes you so determined to have it?
This is basically bullying someone.

Although Madam Zixia offered the Nameless Academy very favorable conditions during the cooperation, which were indeed a hundred times better than cooperating with the Bai family.

But even if you are ten thousand times stronger, it doesn't change the essence of the matter. The essence is that if you are powerful and influential, you can force others to do things they don't want to do.

There is no other explanation.

If an ordinary person were bullied like this, they might just accept it, but Huangfu Sennian and Wang Xi wouldn't tolerate her personality.

For Wang Xi, when Madam Zixia used Hongxiu to threaten him, this struggle was inevitable.

He will definitely take revenge.

This is indeed a major flaw of Lady Zixia.

Perhaps because success came too quickly, she became somewhat arrogant and didn't take others seriously. Moreover, she hadn't learned her lesson from her previous struggle with Wang Xi, which foreshadowed the later events involving the Linghu family.

If she had learned something from the Beauty Wine incident, she wouldn't have resorted to those tricks to force the Linghu family to accept the Yuan family's demands, and she wouldn't have fallen into their trap.

Unfortunately, she was full of vigor at the time and only thought about going further, so she didn't care at all, which put her in an extremely passive situation.

Although it hasn't fundamentally damaged her position—after all, the coal mine was only recently acquired—it has significantly impacted her status.

The important matter will not end here.

What was Wang Xi and his gang's famous saying? It was to kick the cripple's bad leg hard and take advantage of his weakness to kill him.

After acquiring all the private coal mines, Wang Xi believed he would be in absolute dominance.

Because in the future, many commodities will require coal as fuel.

“Now we must turn the tide. It’s still a case of Mount Tai crushing an egg, but this time we are Mount Tai, and they are the egg,” Wang Xi said with high spirits. “We must not let them recover.”

Li Jieman asked excitedly, "What do you plan to do?"

Wang Xi smiled easily and said, "First, lift the special status of our Wuming Academy and let everyone focus on their studies in the name of the teacher. For example, let Linghu Baodi and Xue Jun continue to research some kind of flying wing. We will even hold a flying wing competition."

This is to let them know that we're only dealing with them during our free time, and we haven't used our full strength yet, thus making them feel fear and pressure.

Huangfu Sengnian questioned, "But won't that make people think we're giving up?"

Wang Xi laughed and said, "If we can maintain our attack on her at the same time, then people won't think that way. So, we also need to send someone to spread the word that we are willing to give the nameless winery to my aunt and cancel our cooperation with her, because we plan to make our own wine using non-toxic coal."

Wang Shuang scratched his head and said, "But our cooperation agreement with my aunt seems to have a clause that ensures we cannot cancel the cooperation."

Lady Zixia was afraid they would escape, so when the contract was signed, there was a clause guaranteeing that they could not cancel the cooperation.

Wang Xi laughed and said, "It's just a rumor, it's not like we said it. We'll just continue to fulfill the contract."

Huangfu Sengnian chuckled and said, "Although it's just a rumor, if that's the case, many families will definitely try to force my aunt to hand over the secret recipe for brewing wine."

Wang Xi said, "But at this moment, my aunt will definitely not hand it over, because once she hands over the secret recipe, she will no longer be able to command other families."

This will cause them to split, and those families closely related to us will gradually turn to us, leaving only their powerful Xianbei clan. Once this step is completed, I can unleash my ultimate weapon and wipe them out with all my might, without fear of collateral damage or the nagging of my elders.”

Li Jie exclaimed, "Brother Que, your move is truly vicious!"

Wang Xi chuckled and said, "Don't praise me! The worst is yet to come."

No sooner had one wave subsided than another arose.

While Lady Zixia was still furious about losing all her coal mines, rumors began to circulate that the Nameless Academy intended to completely sever ties with her and was even willing to hand over the winery to her, since they owned coal and could make wine better and cheaper.

Even if the same brewing method is used, it will definitely beat the other.

When Madam Zixia learned of this, she was furious. "We made a promise that we would not separate the family. Now that the Bai family has found our mother, you want to go back on your word?"
This is absolutely outrageous!

Today I can reunite them as a family, but tomorrow I can also separate them. And Hongxiu, do you want her to come back?
Immediately send Guang Sheng to find out what's going on.

As a result, Guang Sheng was gone for a whole day and didn't return until evening, which made Lady Zixia think that he had been hung up and beaten by Wang Xi and the others.

"Why did you take so long?" Lady Zixia asked in surprise.

Guang Sheng, panting, said, "They all go to the suburbs to play with those flying wings. It takes quite a while to go back and forth."

Lady Zixia asked incredulously, "Are they playing with flying wings?"

Guang Sheng nodded and said, "They also said they were going to hold some kind of flight competition."

His tone was extremely frustrated; the fact that the other side was doing this meant they had already secured victory.

Madam Zixia frowned slightly, but she had no time to worry about that now. She asked again, "What did they say about the wine?"

Guang Sheng replied, "They said they've been playing with flying wings lately and don't know anything about this. Wang Shaolang also said he would keep his promise and would never break it, and his master wouldn't allow them to do this." He paused slightly and then said, "Madam, will they just give up? Maybe those rumors are just a misunderstanding."

Lady Zixia shook her head and said, "Absolutely not."

Guang Sheng asked curiously, "Why are you so sure, Madam?"

Madam Zixia said, "Because when Monk Nian was in the Ministry of Works, he said he wanted to settle accounts with me, so this news must have been spread by them."

Guang Sheng asked again, puzzled, "But what's the point of them doing this?"

soon.

Very quickly, they realized the significance of what Wang Xi and his group were doing.

Wang Xi claimed he knew nothing, but in reality, he was dropping bombshells every day, implying that Madam Zixia knew the secret recipe. She had previously been in charge of the raw materials and fuel for brewing, and her people could freely enter the winery. How could she not know the secret of the Beauty Wine?

That's impossible. Can you use your brains?

The speaker meant something, but the listener took it even more to heart!
After these messages spread.

This made many families realize, "Yes, what's going on between you two families? You've already fought like this, yet you're still cooperating on brewing wine?"
They just won't let us cooperate with them. Do they really think we're stupid?

But that's not actually the case. Madam Zixia didn't say that cooperation with Wuming Academy was forbidden. It was Wuming Academy that refused to cooperate with them in order to support the Linghu family.

But since things have come to this point, let's just selectively remember what we hear.

Judging from the current situation, the Nameless Academy has already taken the initiative, and their encirclement and suppression efforts have long since failed.

Now that the nameless academy has taken control of the fertilizer factory and coal mine, coupled with the successive betrayals of the Guo and Dou families, many families have begun to waver. It would be a huge loss to withdraw now after investing so much.

But if there's the secret recipe for the Beauty Wine as compensation, then it's definitely worth it.

Therefore, they sent people, hoping that Madam Zixia would take this opportunity to quickly buy the nameless winery and then cooperate directly with them, so that the grapes and other raw materials would still be in our hands.

This not only reduces the other party's profits but also makes up for our losses, achieving two goals at once.

Wonderful! Wonderful!
But what does this sentence mean?
Simply put, it was about forcing Madam Zixia to hand over the secret recipe for the wine.

Lady Zixia wasn't stupid. The main reason everyone could stay in this room was because of the profits from this wine, since Beauty Wine had already monopolized the wine industry in Guanzhong.

If she were to hand over this secret recipe, who would listen to her?

That's why, even though Wang Xi had opened the winery to her and allowed her to see everything inside, she pretended not to see anything.

Furthermore, the contract stipulated that the Wuming Academy would be fully responsible for the winery's winemaking operations, while she would only be in charge of sales.

At that time, she was already bound to the Nameless Academy, which meant that she controlled the Nameless Winery. The secret recipe was not very meaningful to her, and would only cause trouble, because if the secret recipe fell into her hands, the Yuan family and others would come to ask for it.

Let's all make money together.

Whether to give it or not is a big question.

If everyone knew this secret recipe, she would lose a very important bargaining chip.

Of course, she wouldn't easily hand over the secret recipe. She tried her best to explain that these were all rumors, and that the Nameless Academy had never said it would give her the winery. She told everyone not to believe it.

Don't believe it?

Weird.

You, Lady Zixia, are in charge of the raw materials and fuel for brewing wine. How could you not know the secret recipe?
I don't believe you.

Since being tactful didn't work, let's be direct and force Madam Zixia to cancel her cooperation with the nameless winery. Otherwise, they will no longer trust Madam Zixia.

You're all still cooperating, so why should we go after them?

But in reality, they were still forcing Madam Zixia to hand over the secret recipe for the Beauty Wine.

This also gives me a reason to retreat.

They felt there was little benefit to be gained from staying here, so they might as well cooperate with Wuming Academy, where their son and nephew were located, and they were closer to them.

Anchangfang.

"Auntie, I really don't know the secret recipe for the wine." Madam Zixia explained immediately upon seeing Madam Zhang's arrival, without the latter even asking.

Yuan said, "Even if we know, we can't hand them over. Those people aren't on our side."

But after saying that, she changed the subject and continued, "But now that we're fighting so hard with the Nameless Academy, you have to find a way to get that secret formula, so that it won't all be taken away by them like we did with coal mining. Otherwise, all our efforts will have been in vain."

Madam Zixia smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes, I will make the necessary arrangements."

But she knew in her heart that the tide had turned. If those families didn't get the secret recipe, they would surely abandon her. Now she was a wounded lamb, surrounded by hungry wolves, eager to devour her.

It's obvious that the Xianbei powerful clans supported Lady Zixia's refusal to hand over the secret recipe for only one reason: they wanted to keep it all for themselves. The Yuan family, in particular, controlled a large number of orchards. While most people had more farmland, the Yuan family had more orchards than farmland.

This also means that their family values ​​commerce more than agriculture. It's not that they're purely after wealth, but they believe that commerce emphasizes relationships, while agriculture is just about minding one's own business. Commerce is more beneficial to their family's development, as it is their advantage.

In fact, Madam Zixia shared the same ideals as them, so she was certainly aware of the consequences.

Being adept at social maneuvering requires a foundation of real ability, not just empty words; otherwise, one is merely a clown.

(End of this chapter)