[Correction, due to negligence to confuse the two generations of King Lu, the previous text has been slightly adjusted]

"There was a heavenly official in the ancestor of the Li family, but that was nearly a hundred years ago, if it was changed to the Jiajing period, it would still be able to shake twice, but now there is only such ability."

Wang Xingping and Tian Shengzhi listened to Bian Dashou's words, and their faces were noncommittal.

He is talking about the Taifu Li Shi during the Hongzhi period, the official to the Ministry of Officials, and the scholar of the Huagai Palace. During the Jiajing period, the Li family also produced a jinshi Li Wen, who was the head of the Ministry of Works, but after that, the Li family had no decent characters. In fact, when Bian Dashou was talking about this, Wang Xingping was also secretly laughing in his heart, the Li family is now lacking in the background, and the Bian family has not produced any characters in the past hundred years, and it is not as good as the scenery of the Li family, at least the Li family's Zhenmo Academy is still standing in the county seat. And when the Bian family was developed, it was a matter of the Jingtai period, and when it came to the previous generation of Bian Dashou, it was a side image, and in the end he only did Puzhou Zhizhou, if it wasn't for no one in the family, how would he let a scholar with a strong and weak crown come out to contact this matter.

It's just that now the Bian family has become a potential collaborator because of the Australian goods, and there is no right or wrong in between, and the Li family, who is against the Bian family, naturally stands on the opposite side of Wang Xingping.

…………

Li Hutchison, located in Chengguan, was the largest cloth shop in Renqiu County, and according to the practice at this time, there were also tailors in such cloth shops who sat in the shop to tailor the clothes of wealthy families near and far. On the occasion of the new national funeral, the business of white linen cloth is doing the best, and now it is just before the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are also many people who come to buy new clothes, and the store is full of people coming and going every day.

Li Ruoxu, the head of the Li family at this time, is over half a hundred years old, but every few days he will still inspect his own property accompanied by the old housekeeper, which is a habit that has been cultivated for many years. He is not as good as his father and ancestors, and even the name of all living beings has been dredged up with silver, and there seems to be no reading seeds among his own children and nephews, and it may not be easy to raise another person in the future. How to keep this property has become a major goal for the rest of Master Li's life, just as he cherishes the handwritten calligraphy and ink treasures of the World Temple that are collected in the Zhenmo Pavilion of the Academy.

For this reason, he can be said to rack his brains, and even secretly colluding with Xiangma is also a semi-open secret, of course, the big family in this county who acts as the owner of the nest for Xiangma is not his family.

The small people of Renqiu can't get into the eyes of Master Li, and only a few big clans are really a threat to the status of the Li family. He naturally didn't dare to provoke a big family like the Gao family and the Guo family, after all, there were still many officials in the two families who were still in the court, but recently even the Bian family had been bullied in front of him.

Originally, the Bian family had never done a cloth business, but in recent days, it has been fighting with their own cloth shop in a decent way, and the Australian cloth is not only better than the Songjiang goods, but also has a lot more color choices, and the price is even cheaper.

Guo Tianfeng is an old friend of Master Li, and he doesn't like this group of people Li Ruoxu very much, and even has some disgust, but it is really easy to use after so many years of dealing. In the past ten years, the leader has secretly taken care of a lot of shady things for the Li family, and the Li family has also been using the pawnshop in his hand to sell stolen goods for the Tianfeng gang.

Not long ago, when Master Li once again conveyed the meaning of cleaning up the Bian family's caravan through his tongue, Guo Tianfeng agreed without thinking about it.

Unexpectedly, this time he won the jackpot, and the Bian family's nearly ten boats of cloth were all robbed by people who passed through the wind in Mao'er Bay, which made Master Li feel happy and had some gains and losses, and he has been thinking about the disposal of this batch of goods for the past few days.

Li Ruoxu secretly calculated to himself, these cloth goods are four or five thousand horses, even if they are all the lowest grade plain white cloth, they are all cheap Australian goods, and the total price will not be less than one thousand taels, in addition to the ransom of the ships and men, these are not a few. What's more, according to the list from the wind, the lowest white cloth and linen cloth in the goods only account for a small part, less than one in ten, most of them are still high-grade fabrics with colors, and each horse can be sold more than one or two when you get outside.

He was thinking about it while walking around the store, when he heard a man with a Henan accent shouting in the store, and his words were a little anxious.

"Isn't Lee Hutchison the biggest cloth shop here? Why don't you even have five hundred white linen cloths? ”

The guy on the counter was also helpless, such a large volume of goods was difficult for a big merchant like Lee Hutchison to deal with for a while, not to mention a casual outsider who didn't know the roots.

Master Li looked fixedly, but saw that the person who came was a tall man, accompanied by a companion who was not too old and not too young. The man's temperament is quite rough, but when he looks closely, he has a bit of pampered nobility, and the docks on the Grand Canal are often visited, and the man who behaves like this feels familiar when he looks at it.

He made a secret observation, and then thoughtfully asked the old butler to invite someone into the back hall.

After a while, Master Li also sat down on the Taishi chair at the top of the room, and while holding the teacup, he looked at the words and looked at the words before he spoke.

"I don't know what to call it? Who? ”

"My surname is Yang, and I am from Weihui Mansion." The man did not hide his 'identity'.

"I just heard that the honorable driver wants to buy white linen, and it takes so much?"

"Don't you want to entertain you? If you don't have it, don't delay the master's efforts. After saying that, the man got up and wanted to leave.

The steward hurriedly dissuaded him, and Master Li also spoke out in time: "If you don't have a contempt, how can you come here?" ”

"It's good to have it, I'm still in a hurry to go back to Henan, and the price is ......?"

"The price of the car can rest assured, the disdainful number of the fine white linen these days are sold in four dollars seven one horse, the amount of the car is large, it is calculated according to two dollars, and the extra part is the right to be given by the store." In this way, the difference in price alone is nearly more than 100 taels, Li Ruoxu's words were flattering, and seeing that the other party's expression had not changed, he hurriedly added, "I will never dare to spread the word about the gift, and please protect this matter." ”

After saying this, the man nodded with satisfaction, "I will see the goods within two days, don't delay my trip." ”

"Rest assured."

"Well, I'll come to the store early tomorrow morning to look for you."

After saying this, the man and his companion left without looking back.

Seeing off this 'honored guest', Master Li retreated left and right first, leaving only the old housekeeper alone in the hall.

When the old steward saw the other subordinates retreating, he whispered, "Master, don't talk about the price, but we won't be able to get together five hundred pieces of cloth in two days." ”

At present, the price of white linen cloth of four coins and seventy-one horses is naturally inflated a lot, which is mainly because the emperor of Daxing, Bintian, is using linen cloth everywhere, and two coins and one horse will not lose, but when it comes to the number, it is probably not so easy to make up the number of five hundred horses within three days.

"It's really not enough in the store now, but I remember that there seem to be more than 200 white linen cloths in Guotianfeng, and the current inventory on the counter should be about the same, if there is still a gap, add some silver and go to the Gao family and the Guo family to borrow some."

"This ......," the old steward didn't quite understand, "forgive the villain's words, how could the master value this person so much?" This man not only has a strange tone, but he has never even given a tael of money. ”

Hearing that the old steward was unclear, Master Li said a little proudly: "You haven't seen the identity of this person yet?" ”

"Identity?"

"Let me ask you first, why is the price of white linen rising these days?"

"Naturally, it's because of the national mourning." The old steward suddenly said, "I see, it seems that this person is also here for this." But why are there so many, is it because you want to resell them for a profit? ”

Li Ruoxu laughed and said, "I originally thought so, but listening to his Henan accent and claiming to be a person from Weihui Mansion, coupled with this style of behavior, I am afraid that most of them are guests in the vassal king's mansion." ”

"The Domain King's Mansion?" The old steward was shocked when he heard this, and muttered, "Weihui Mansion...... Isn't it...... King Lu? ”

"You still have some knowledge, I'm afraid it's true, I heard that now Xiaoluwang's biological mother Yang Cifei likes to use people from the same clan, I'm afraid this person is really a guest of King Lu's mansion."

"This makes sense, with the size of the palace, it is indeed necessary to have so much linen." But the steward turned and wondered, "Although Lu Fan is far away in Henan, more than ten days have passed now, and the news should have reached Wei Hui's Mansion a long time ago, and it is not that there is no cloth over there, and it should have been prepared a long time ago." ”

"I'm afraid you think badly, how long has the emperor been in Bintian, this one is probably the eyeliner of King Lu's Mansion in Beijing, and I want to take this opportunity to make a fortune." Li Ruoxu said lightly, "There is a cloth shop over there, but there are also many eyeliner, and the palace will not be monolithic, otherwise Luwangfu has business names in Jingshi and Tongzhou, so why should he go far?" As for whether the palace will be prepared early, what does it matter, as long as the price is not too out of line, and there is no one who will open his eyes for the extra use of a few hundred taels of silver for the national funeral, and no one will come out to add to the blockage in this stall to show filial piety. ”

"But the other party did not reveal his identity, how can the lord be sure that this person is from the palace?"

Master Li was asked into the alley, and smiled again: "If he really revealed his identity, I would suspect that it was a bluff, just now I deliberately asked some matters related to the vassal king in my gossip with him, judging from this person's answer, the time to do things in the palace should not be short." ”

"I see." Stewardship.

Li Ruoxu twisted his gray beard and instructed: "I originally thought about how to get rid of the Bian family's goods, but now that they are sold to other provinces, there is nothing to worry about, although there are not many goods in this batch, but there will be nothing wrong with a good fate, if this person is really a cronie in the palace, he will not be able to deal with it in the future." I heard that the little king Lu is thirteen years old, and he should get married in two years, which is a good amount of money, and he has just ascended the throne and sent two million gold to Liaodong, and he must not be stingy with his family. ”

"Then how to do this, please ask the master to show me."

"Go tell Tianfeng that he can deliver the goods he needs to the T-shaped pier in the west of the city with reliable subordinates before the day after tomorrow."

"Don't worry, sir, the villain will do it in person, and he will leave overnight today."

Li Ruoxu thought for a while, and then said: "When the two days are over, I have to go to Tianjin, the Bian family is hurting my muscles and bones this time, but the Gao family and the Guo family may not be tempted by the business of Australian cloth, and I must also prepare in advance to negotiate with the owner over there about underwriting." ”

What he didn't say was that, so the looted Australian cloth was rightfully placed on his Lee Hutchison counter.

The old steward answered, and went down alone to prepare.

At the same time, on a remote path not far from the dock outside Renqiu County, two figures, one tall and one short, flashed into a shadow on an unmanned street corner.

The short man is Wang Xiaoliu, who has been acting as a companion and following the man, and the tall man is the man, and his real identity is the talented Niu Jinxing, who has gathered his face all the way to Beijing with Wang Xingping.

[References]

1, "Daming Huidian"

2, "Records of Emperor Mingshen Zongxian"

3, "History of the Late Ming Dynasty" Fan Shuzhi

4, "Wanli Ye Ed" Shen Defu

5, "History of the Ming Dynasty • Biography No. 8"

6, "History of the Ming Dynasty • Biography Eighty-first"

7, "History of the Ming Palace"

8, "Records of the National Dynasty" Jiao Huang

9, "Wan Department Miscellaneous" Shen Bang

10, "Shenzong's Living Note"

11. "Wanli Accounting Record" Qi Chang

12. "Research on Folk Literature in the Ming Dynasty" Zhang Bo

13, "Records of Emperor Mingguang Zongzhen"

14, "The Rest of the Tiger's Mouth" Bian Dashou