Joy of Life: I'm really not a saint

"I guess it's because Li An joined Northern Qi that he changed his original plan. But since he doesn't value the previous benefits, he must have greater benefits to seek!"

"Forgive my rudeness." Wang Qinian apologized first, then said, "But more than two years ago, you were just an illegitimate child from Danzhou? Has the little emperor been so far away since then?"

"He went to great lengths to transfer the money to Jiangnan. He's not afraid of losing it all!"

"Yes, no wonder it was so easy to deal with the Cui family before. Fortunately, you noticed it. Otherwise, wouldn't we be led by Beiqi in the future?"

"Too smart is like a demon!" Fan Xian frowned and said, "It's not that I noticed all this, but I have been on guard against Li An. Since last year, Northern Qi has been very close to Dongyi City, and this Taiping Money House is so eye-catching. If it weren't for the help of the Supervisory Council and the Ministry of Revenue, I would not have noticed how this money got to Jiangnan."

Fan Xian admitted that he had underestimated the little emperor.

It seemed that the smuggling cooperation that he had proposed during his previous mission to Northern Qi must have been exactly what Northern Qi wanted.

Even if I don't agree, I'm sure that little emperor will use Li Ang or someone else to change his appearance to make me agree!

There are so many smart people in this world. Sometimes when you are playing tricks, you are actually falling into the tricks of others.

"Go and take them all out!"

This amount of money is huge, and once it is transferred to China Merchants Bank, we can close the deal.

"Get the boats ready, let's go by water!"

······

At this time, the city of Suzhou entered the busiest time of the year.

The Suzhou City Wharf was full of people in a hurry. Not only the shops on both sides, but also the officials from the South City had come here.

The wealthy businessmen from West City and the girls with red sleeves from East City would joke around from time to time to pass the difficult time.

This area is all the Ming family’s property.

The people here and the floating population are all porters and coolies who rely on the Ming family for their livelihood. Although their lives are hard, thanks to the large amount of goods coming in and out of the entire port, they also make money.

Once one has money, he or she will naturally pursue selfish desires and foster ambitions.

Gangs also emerged on the docks, not only dealing with wealthy businessmen, but also having contacts with government officials.

This also gave Xia Qifei, the leader of the water stronghold, an opportunity to take advantage of!

What was strange was that today, not only did the gang leaders pass on the message, but the Ming family's manager also came with a message: tell them to be quiet and honest in the near future, otherwise if they caused any trouble, they would be thrown into the river to feed the fish!

After the managers left, the coolies couldn't help but talk and whisper among themselves.

Who is this big shot coming to Suzhou?

Are you a little afraid of the Ming family's arrogance and the power of the water stronghold?

Until a big ship that looked like it was not easy to deal with sailed into the port.

Chapter 252 The Ming family’s helplessness.

No wonder the high-ranking officials of the Water Fort and the young masters of the Ming Mansion were so afraid of the newcomer.

It turned out to be the unreliable and unyielding Imperial Envoy from Jiangnan, Lord Fan!

When Fan Xian walked onto the deck, countless wealthy businessmen and Suzhou officials came to greet him. For a moment, there was singing and dancing, and the atmosphere was filled with people and joy.

······

"It's not that I'm afraid of him!" Ming Lanshi said with a gloomy face as he sat on a stone bench in the garden.

Opposite him was Zou Lei, the censor of the Jiangnan Censorate.

Behind him, walking slowly was Ming Qingda, the current head of the Ming family, and the actual owner, the old lady of the Ming family.

Zou Lei had some contact with Fan Xian during the previous bidding for the inner treasury, but he did not expect that he was so deeply involved with the Ming family.

Seeing Ming Lanshi speak frankly without any reservation, it can be seen that Zou Lei and Ming Fu have great trust in each other.

"I have met my cousin Lanshi, my uncle Qingda, and the old lady."

It turned out that Zou Lei was actually a cousin of the Ming family. He asked in confusion, "Did this imperial envoy come here just to celebrate the birthday?"

It should be noted that Fan Xian had passed by Suzhou City three times before without entering it. Even when he returned to Suzhou, he only stayed temporarily on the border and had never gone deep into the core sphere of influence of the Ming family. Everyone knows that he is on guard against the Ming family!

"I'm afraid this person has bad intentions this time!"

Old Lady Ming glanced at Zou Lei coldly. She naturally knew that Junshan had attacked Fan Xian before, but Fan Xian was not only fine, he did not return to Kyoto, but turned back instead.

"Grandma, why should we be afraid of him?" Ming Lanshi sneered, "Fan Xian is so young but he holds great power. Now he is going to Jiangnan as an imperial envoy. He wants to renovate the inner treasury, and he does things as he pleases without any scruples!"

"He is certainly ruthless and confident."

"But his biggest failure was that he did not take any of the inner treasury output into his own hands. The nearly 20 bids were all won by my Ming family and Xia Qifei of the Water Stronghold. As long as we make peace with Xia Qifei, Fan Xian's desire to operate the inner treasury without a steady stream of financial support will undoubtedly be a pipe dream!"

From his words, it was clear that the eldest grandson of the Ming family did not take Fan Xian seriously.

Put yourself in his shoes. If Ming Lanshi had the resources and power that Fan Xian had, he would have accomplished much more than what is shown here!

"But Xia Qifei is not our kindred spirit after all. If our clan wants to tamper with the inner treasury again in the future, it won't be so easy!" Zou Lei said with some concern.

"You have been an official for a long time, and your thinking is different from ours!" Ming Lanshi's character is not against a certain person, but he looks down on everyone. He looked at Zou Lei, smiled contemptuously, and said sarcastically: "You are really confused as an official! What we need to think about now is how to deal with Fan Xian who came with bad intentions, and send him away and drive him out of Jiangnan!"

Zou Lei smiled apologetically and did not refute. Instead, he nodded sincerely, as if he understood his mistake.

The old lady felt inexplicably uneasy, frowned, and tightened the cane in her right hand.

Ming Qingda said: "I have never heard of an official who is not greedy!"

"My father!" Ming Lanshi said with a bitter smile, "As early as when Fan Xian first came to Suzhou, my son sent people to contact him and even prepared a full 400,000 taels of silver! This is the most vulgar method, but also the most efficient and direct method. But Fan Xian is like a piece of wood, and he won't listen to anything!"

"Four hundred thousand taels?"

Ming Qingda couldn't help but exclaimed, "Where did you get so much money!?"

Ming Lanshi's eyes were filled with murderous intent as he said, "I kept the tribute money that I had sent to Kyoto in the past six months, thinking that I would use it to pay off Fan Xian first and then get more money from other places. But Fan Xian didn't accept it, so I had no choice but to send it back to Kyoto intact."

"My grandson handled it correctly!" The old lady, who had been silent for a long time, spoke to finalize the matter.

Ming Lanshi easily avoided the crime of embezzling tribute money.

"That's four hundred thousand taels! It's enough to raise an army, and yet it still can't impress Fan Xian? He really has a big appetite!"

Ming Qingda gritted his teeth.

Ming Lanshi shook his head and gritted his teeth and said, "There is still 20% of the dry shares!"

"Bastard!"

Ming Qingda cursed: "You bastard, do you understand what a 20% stake means?"

The old lady's lips moved, but she couldn't say that this was her instruction.

To put it nicely, this is called cutting off one's own flesh to ensure safety.

If you look closely, this is admitting defeat.

But they had to admit defeat. After a bidding for the inner treasury, the clan had no cash left. As a last resort, they mortgaged part of their land and properties and borrowed money from the China Merchants Bank for an emergency.

How could Ming Lanshi not know that 20% of the shares were actually more valuable than 400,000 taels?

He slowly closed his eyes, his expression changing from time to time, showing his inner restlessness. After a moment, he suppressed his unhappiness, opened his eyes and slowly said, "That's why I said that Fan Xian can never be bribed!"

"It would have been easiest to just kill him. Even if he was the emperor's illegitimate son, so what? If he died suddenly from acclimatization problems, we would always have an excuse once we enter Jiangnan!"

"But he came to Suzhou City openly and in public, and we missed the opportunity!"

Ming Lanshi didn't know that the Junshan Society had already gathered forces to assassinate Fan Xian.

"What's the situation with the princess now?" Zou Lei thought of Li Yunrui, the most powerful person in Jiangnan and the biggest backer of the Ming family. "Our Ming family has made so much effort, the princess will not remain indifferent!"

"The eldest princess is not in Jiangnan now!" the old lady told the truth.

No one was surprised, as they had already guessed this situation.

If the eldest princess were still in Jiangnan, many things would not have developed this way.

Zou Lei thought for a moment and said, "Fan Xian is now an imperial envoy, and he is in Jiangnan. The emperor is far away, so we might as well make some trouble to expand the impact. Maybe His Majesty will recall Fan Xian for the sake of stability?"

Ming Lanshi taunted, "That's why I said you've been an official for too long and have become confused!"

"Even if a legitimate prince went to Jiangnan, our Ming family would have a way to make him return in disgrace. But can the same be said for Fan Xian, the illegitimate son of His Majesty? It's OK that he has money and power, but the most important thing is that he has military power!"

"Imperial envoy, imperial envoy! Your Majesty is here in person!"

“If he really did what you thought and incited the people to cause trouble, it would be fine if he was not caught. But if there was any evidence, do you believe that he would immediately dispatch the Black Cavalry to wipe out my entire Ming family? By then, even the Jiangnan Governor Xue Qing would not help us. He would only cooperate and dispatch troops to surround us as soon as possible!”

Zou Lei was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. He took a breath and said doubtfully, "No way? Acting this way will only make outsiders think that he is incompetent and can only rely on the Black Cavalry to deal with the incident. Then he will not be able to explain to His Majesty!"

"hehe!"

Ming Lanshi gritted her teeth and said, "Fan Xian has a reputation, but he is a ruthless madman! Unless you can hit him with one strike, you must never provoke such a person."

"This is also the reason why I tried so hard to win him over, even at the cost of my own life!"

No one mentioned that Fan Xian was also a ninth-rank master who was proficient in the use of poison. This time, he was accompanied by six swordsmen from the Overwatch Council who specialized in assassination.

Chapter 253: Different Thoughts.

As Ming Lanshi finished speaking, Ming Garden fell into an eerie silence.

In today's Qing Kingdom, Fan Xian can be said to be one of the richest people. Just like what they say in jokes, he sings the best among all actors, and he is the most professional actor among all singers.

This is what Fan Xian is like.

Those who are richer than him are definitely not as powerful as him. Those who are more powerful than him are not as good at martial arts as him, and those who are better at martial arts than him are definitely not as ruthless as him. When someone more ruthless than him appears, Fan Xian has to compete with him to see who has the strongest backing.

He is Emperor Qing's illegitimate son!

After analyzing it over and over again, it seems that the Ming family has no way to deal with Fan Xian.

Ming Qingda's face turned pale and blue when he heard this. After a while, he said, "Now we have no choice but to be tolerant. Don't worry about the rest. As long as we handle it cleanly, he won't force us. Now, we should prepare the old lady's birthday banquet properly, which is the right thing to do!"

"Dad is right. We just need to be on guard."

Ming Lanshi said thoughtfully, "The people who can really influence Fan Xian are still in Kyoto. Fan Xian has been so arrogant and domineering before. I think His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the Second Prince in Kyoto are also unhappy. Perhaps we can write to them and ask them and the Princess to take action!"

"I will handle this matter properly!" Zou Lei bowed and said in a deep voice.

Sighing, Ming Qingda, the current head of the family, said a little tiredly, "As long as we can survive another year, we'll be fine. Tell the boys in the family to keep a low profile and not let outsiders get hold of any evidence against them."

"Please arrange for me to meet Xia Qifei before the birthday banquet."

Ming Lanshi bowed respectfully and nodded in response.

"By the way, Minglan, how much silver do we need now?"

All the remaining liquid funds were sent to Kyoto as tribute to feed the group of vampires. Now, although all the funds have been returned, the Ming family is also in a penniless situation.

"It will probably take more than two million taels."

This money is used to start several recent projects, and the profits from the previous projects will be used to promote the subsequent internal treasury projects.

"Then let's borrow another three million taels of silver from the Merchants Bank!"

"Yes, father!"

Ming Lanshi glanced at Zou Lei after he finished speaking. Zou Lei understood and bowed, saying, "Then Zou Lei will go down to work first."

After saying this, he greeted Ming Qingda and the old lady, then said goodbye and left.

After Zou Lei left Ming Garden, he straightened his back and was no longer as humble as before. Even his sincere expression changed.

With a sneer, he got on the carriage without looking back and drove away from the Ming Garden with decades of history.

What eldest princess, what the richest family in Jiangnan? From now on, who can say for sure who will be the emperor?

No matter how powerful the Ming family is, they are just merchants!

Do you look down on yourself because you are an official?

The carriage is moving away

In Ming Garden, after Zou Lei left, Ming Lanshi frowned slightly and said, "Do we really have to rely on the eldest princess?"

"Why do you take it so seriously?" Ming Qingda smiled faintly. "We did have some misunderstandings with Fan Xian before. Although that young Master Fan holds a grudge, everything has been settled now. As long as he can't find any evidence against us, and we give him enough face, Fan Xian will be afraid of the backlash from the Jiangnan family and won't make things too difficult for us."

"I have already issued an order that as long as Fan Xian stays in Jiangnan for one day, all members of the Ming family will be asked to be low-key and tolerant for one day." Ming Lanshi said with a wry smile, "But my son thinks that this is not a solution."

"We are businessmen, and making money is our top priority. However, the identity of a businessman is not worthy of being accepted in a high-class society." Ming Qingda laughed at himself, "Let the princess and the two princes in Kyoto worry about these embarrassing things!"

Ming Lanshi felt inexplicably depressed. As he grew older and understood more things, the image of his father as an omnipotent and wise man became increasingly vague.