Kou's tooth shop.

"Virtuous nephew, they really deceive people too much, deceive people too much!"

Chen Ping paced back and forth in the office, constantly roaring in his mouth, "They are now at this price, Lao Tzu just doesn't make money, and he can't afford it!" It can be seen that they are not only trying to take advantage of the opportunity to make money, but they are trying to force me to death. ”

Guo Dan sat on the chair, his eyes kept swaying back and forth with Chen Ping's chubby figure, and suddenly blinked and rubbed his eyes: "They don't want to force you to die, but they want me to take more money out." ”

Chen Ping immediately stopped, then sat down, and said: "Virtuous nephew, this matter must not be agreed, I think it is because you were too anxious that they dared to increase the price unscrupulously, and we must not agree to them this time." ”

Guo Dan said with an angry face: "What the staff said is that they are really too deceitful, you go and talk to them and reduce the price to twice as much." ”

"I'm just waiting for the words of the virtuous nephew, we can't be led by their noses all the time, okay, I'll go back to their price."

"Okay."

Chen Ping walked out with a resentful look and hung Guo Dan, who was about to get up to see him off.

"Look at you, what kind of person you have forced this person to be."

Kou Zhuan Sha pushed the door into the house.

Guo Dan sat down, dragged his cheeks with one hand, looked at Kou Zhuansha and said with a smile: "Madam, he is the No. 1 timber merchant in the capital, and he is not a very affectionate little uncle, how can he be so impulsive." ”

Kou Liansha raised her eyebrows and said, "Yes! Even if you are willing to accept this price, he doesn't want to, this price, he doesn't have much profit, and he doesn't want you to agree to it. As she spoke, her eyes fluttered, "But that's what you want." ”

Guo smiled lightly: "Madame seems to see some doorways. Come on, come on, sit down and talk to your husband. ”

He patted his thigh.

Kou Lian glanced at him, walked to the opposite side and sat down, and said, "The husband deliberately shouted out the sky-high price of 100,000 taels, and deliberately pretended that the money was from the Taifu Temple, and its purpose was to lure the four official teeth to take the bait. With so much timber, such a huge project, and Marseille making money every day, can they not be blushing?

And in this first phase of the project, the husband was very happy to allocate funds to Chen Ping, and kept urging him to hurry up, the purpose was to create a false impression that the four official teeth thought that you urgently needed to build a good pasture, but in fact, the husband was not so anxious, and if it continued like this, they would not be able to hold it up sooner or later. ”

Guo Dan shook his head and said: "You are only right about one of the points, that is, I did deliberately shout out that price to lure them to take the bait, but I am not in a hurry, I am actually very anxious, if this project is not completed, then the interests of the racecourse will not be able to spread, and one day later, I will lose one more day." If it is consumed, it will only hurt the enemy by 1,000 and lose 800 by itself. ”

Kou Zhuansha frowned and groaned a little, and said, "Silk? ”

Guo Dan nodded.

Kou Liansha thought for a while, and said, "But I still don't understand how this silk is connected to wood?" ”

Guo smiled lightly: "Greedy, why do the four official teeth hoard wood, not to kill me, but because of greed, wood is so, so is silk." ”

.....．

East Pavilion.

"Recently, the price of which wood in the market has risen a bit outrageously! It's already four times the original price. Wang Xijue said.

Yu Youding stroked his beard and said: "I have also heard a little about this matter, it seems that those officials saw that the ranch contracted by Guo Dan needed a lot of timber to build, so they hoarded timber." ”

Wang Xijue nodded and said: "The court gave them tooth stickers in order to let them balance prices, but they used the power given by the court to be powerful and good, buying and selling, it is really easy to change, and their nature is difficult to change, should we teach them a lesson." ”

Shen Shixing shook his head and said: "The rise in the price of this wood will not affect the lives of the people. And they are targeting Guo Dan's Marseille, and there have been people in the court who have been asking the court to close Guo Dan's Marseille, if we target those officials, then there will definitely be people who accuse us of colluding with Guo Dan's officials and businessmen. ”

His strategy, as always, is to make peace with the mud and try not to offend either side.

In just a few days, the price of timber has risen exponentially, and it is impossible for the DPRK and China not to notice it, and the ministers are aware of it, but almost no one is talking about it, and everyone has a very tacit understanding not to talk about it, and there are few people talking about it, so they will talk about Marseille and find out the various drawbacks of Marseille to discuss.

This is because public opinion is controlled by them.

Betting on horses is a very special business, and it is difficult to stop unless it is stopped by strong means.

They are obviously double standards, that is, they are biased towards the four official teeth, encourage the four official teeth, and make it light, and make it lightly relentless.

This is also the reason why Jiang Shiyou and the others dare to openly raise the price of wood, because there are people behind them who support them.

But they never expected that the emperor who lived in the palace paid more attention to this matter than them, and people had always been staring at this matter, and they were quite angry about it.

Quadruple.

You're slaughtering me like a pig!

Today's weather is good, Wanli is also difficult to get out of the palace, came to a grass in front of the Qianqing Palace, basking in the warm sunshine, and he was followed by a young man in a flying fish suit, it was Guo Dan.

Let Guo Dan be the Jinyi guard, just this is good, you can directly summon Guo Dan to the Qianqing Palace.

In the Qianqing Palace, Wanli is a well-deserved master, in those places in the Wuying Palace, are places to talk about official business, Wanli prefers to see Guo Dan in the Qianqing Palace, because he sees Guo Dan is talking about private affairs, talking in the private realm, he is more comfortable.

He first praised Guo Dan, and according to the process, when it was time to reward meritorious deeds, he suddenly changed his words and asked, "I heard that the price of wood has been rising recently. ”

Guo Dan nodded and said, "Back to Your Majesty, it has risen four times." ”

Wanli frowned and said, "Will that affect the racecourse?" ”

Now the racetrack is his little coffer, preventing people from getting rich, like killing his parents.

Guo Dan said truthfully: "Back to Your Majesty's words, in fact, it has already affected, at present, the construction of the racecourse has been suspended, and the construction of the ranch is also postponed indefinitely. ”

Wanli suddenly said anxiously: "In that case, shouldn't you do something?" ”

Guo Dan was embarrassed: "Your Majesty, it is those official teeth who are manipulating this matter, and the grass people are just private teeth, and they are naturally pressed by them." ”

Wanli frowned and thought for a while, and said: "Those ministers are not playing this matter again, they obviously want to use this to attack Marseille, which is really unreasonable." ”

After that, he looked at Guo Dan again and said, "Do you want me to help you?" ”

Guo Dan asked rhetorically: "Is it easy for Your Majesty to help you?" ”

"I am the Son of Heaven, what is there to help." Wanli's eyes flicked, and then he changed his words, and said: "It's just that this matter is too small, and no one is playing, if I speak first, I'm afraid it will lead people to speculate." ”

That's not going to help! Depend on! Guo Dan muttered to himself, and said: "I understand Your Majesty's difficulties, and this difficulty will always exist, the official teeth have the responsibility of assessing prices and trade, and this commercial tax and trade are in their hands, and in the future, Marseille will definitely go to Jiangnan and other places, they have the opportunity to make stumbling blocks, and every time the situation will be like now, so that Your Majesty is in a dilemma." ”

Wanli glanced at Guo Dan and said, "Then what do you mean?" ”

Guo Dan said: "I think that even if the commercial tax is thirty taxes and one, the commercial tax obtained by the imperial court should not be such a little, this is because those officials have selfish intentions, often for personal gain, exploit other businessmen, and use this method to collect the taxes that should have been handed over to the imperial court into their own pockets, of course, they may not be able to do this alone, it can be seen that there must be corruption and bribery." ”

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "It's not unreasonable that everyone hates tooth merchants. ”

In fact, he used to hate merchants very much, especially tooth merchants, but now they also do business themselves, and they have begun to have some affection for merchants.

As a dental merchant, Guo Dan smiled awkwardly.

Wanli laughed and pointed at Guo Dan horizontally: "You continue." ”

"Yes."

Guo Dan said: "The meaning of the humble position, since they have earned this money and the matter has not been done yet, it is better for Your Majesty to contract it yourself." ”

"I'm going to contract?"

Wanli looked at Guo Dan in surprise.

Guo Dan said: "Contracted by His Majesty, on the surface by the lowly position to operate, rather than those money for them to earn, it is better Your Majesty to earn it yourself, if we can control the entire market, even if Your Majesty and the imperial court split the account, the humble guarantee that the imperial court income tax is much more than now." ”

"Is that true?"

Wanli said excitedly.

Guo Dan nodded and said: "Under the governance of Your Majesty, my Daming has unlimited potential, and the commercial tax should have been several times higher than it is now, and it is because they have failed His Majesty's good intentions that the commercial tax has not increased but decreased." ”

"It makes sense."

Wanli nodded, but his face was embarrassed: "But it is impossible for me to designate you as the only official tooth." ”

Guo Dan said: "As long as Your Majesty agrees, the humble position has its own way to deal with the four official teeth." ”

Wanli turned his head to look at Guo Dan and said, "It turns out that you already have a plan to deal with it?" ”

Guo Dan nodded and said: "But the lowly position is more ruthless, if you make a move, the four official teeth are afraid that all of them will have to close the door, so the lowly position is a little undaring." ”

"Don't you dare, or are you prepared, just wait for me to nod."

Wanli said with a smile.

Guo Dan smiled and said: "I really can't hide anything from Your Majesty, in fact, the humble position has long been preventing them from reselling timber, so I still have a hand." However, the humble position really thinks that those officials have selfish interests, and many officials look down on businessmen in their hearts, and often blackmail businessmen, which seriously hinders the circulation of goods, and it is not beneficial to me at all, and it is not beneficial for me to supervise it personally, for Your Majesty, for Ming, and for the people. ”

Wanli was silent for a while, and suddenly asked, "Are you really sure to let those official teeth close the door?" ”

Guo Dan said: "The plan of the lowly position is actually to make them bankrupt. ”

Wanli narrowed his eyes and coughed lightly: "It's because they are unkind first, so naturally they can't complain about you." ”

"Humble duty understands."

After Guo Dan retired, Li Gui on the side couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, this official tooth also represents the imperial court." ”

He felt as if he was tearing down his own door.

In fact, the official teeth are also a part of the Ming system, and to kill them is not to destroy the system.

No emperor had ever done this, colluding with businessmen and then targeting the imperial system.

Li Gui really felt that Wanli was taken to the ditch by Guo Dan.

"You're right, the official teeth do represent the imperial court, but they don't represent me. If Guo Dan can succeed, then I can directly control the commercial tax, and there is no need to discuss it with the minister. ”

An evil smile appeared on Wanli's chubby face.

Li Gui nodded, and said, "But Your Majesty, the slave maid looks at Guo Dan, this person is quite cunning, whether he is trustworthy or not, it is really not certain." ”

"I believe he must be faithful to me." Wanli smiled confidently: "Because no matter how cunning he is, he is just a humble businessman, he can only rely on me, otherwise, he may not live tomorrow, compared to those ministers in the court, I am more willing to trust him." ”

When he spoke, Wanli's face bloomed with brilliance, as if he had returned to the tenth year of Wanli, the moment when he had just been in power.

In fact, when Wanli first started to be in power, in the face of a Zhongxing Ming, it was really ambitious, very hard-working, every day to meet with ministers to discuss state affairs, review and review, he thought at the time, if it wasn't for Zhang Juzheng's old man to press me, I would have gone to heaven a long time ago.

But. Later, he gradually realized that this was not the case.

To govern state affairs, you must not only have extremely high talent, but also have a good body.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't do better than his teacher, which made him very frustrated and painful at the same time. Because it was very tiring to be the emperor in the Ming Dynasty, Taizu set the emperor a highly centralized system, and the cabinet was just a group of secretaries, some people said that the cabinet was the prime minister, which was definitely wrong, the secretary was the secretary, and the prime minister was essentially different, and it must not be generalized.

Although Zhang Juzheng is also the first assistant of the cabinet, he is actually the prime minister, the only prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, and the last prime minister and the last politician in the Han dynasty, and the rest are just bureaucrats.

Except for Zhang Juzheng, Daming can no longer find a person like Guan Zhong, Huo Guang, Zhuge Liang, Fang Xuanling, Zhao Pu, and Kou Zhun.

Why did Zhang Juzheng bring Zhongxing to Daming, it is because he has power, how great this power is, how great the responsibility, if you don't give power, then others will naturally not bear this responsibility, and if you encounter a little obstacle, then even if you are a bird, Shen Shixing is a representative task.

Wanli is now facing such a dilemma, do it yourself, too tired, not pleasing yet, and can't see any hope of surpassing Zhang Juzheng, but he is unwilling to distribute the hard-won power to others, and even the eunuchs around him, he has not been in court for thirty years, but no eunuch is in power, let alone Wei Zhongxian, even Liu Jin has not appeared, it can be seen that he cares about his power very much.

Since the beginning of this year, he has gradually become negative, often does not go to court, and likes to stay with his female dependents.

But Guo Dan's appearance brought him a glimmer of alternative hope, that is, to bypass the complex bureaucracy, not to talk nonsense with them, and to play by himself, after all, he has a habit of accumulating money, and he likes to do this kind of thing very much and is motivated.