Wei Bao contained two thousand taels of silver in a delicate gift box, the Yang family is not dealing with ordinary officials, this kind of local garrison commander level is definitely a powerful faction, and he can't just come up and take out the silver.

Setting off with a dozen or so followers, Wei Bao's steps were a little heavy and a little weak.

He had already sent someone to investigate in advance, and he had gone to find Yang Hongyi first.

Today, Yang Hongyi has not gone to Yihong Courtyard, but rarely stays at home, Wei Bao originally wanted to invite Yang Hongyi to meet alone first, but Yang Hongyi said to Wei Bao's entourage, let Wei Bao go directly to their house to talk about something.

This is the reason why Wei Bao's heart is weak, his mind is not agile, but he still has some social experience, after a little thought, he understands what Yang Hongyi means, this is to let him face Yang Qi directly!

Wei Bao also 'saved' seven or eight thousand taels of silver from Yang Hongyi, which Yang Hongyi owed him after selling viagra last time, but for Yang Qi, he must re-prepare a generous gift.

Wei Bao will not take out the relationship between Jingshi and Wang Tiqian as a last resort, he understands that it is used to save his life, and he can only take it out at a critical and appropriate time, which requires superb timing ability.

Taking it out at ordinary times will only greatly reduce the power of this relationship and make it mediocre.

Therefore, when Wei Bao went to the Yang family, he didn't even let a few people from Jinyiwei accompany him, lest the Yang family have other ideas, this kind of big family will never be frightened by a few Jinyiwei who have no official body. What's more, the Yang family is still from the background of the military, and the administrative officials are afraid of intelligence institutions like Jinyiwei, but the military is not very afraid, because they have military power in their hands, and most of them are from the army, so they are not afraid of being rude.

Originally, Wei Bao thought that this was the first time he went to visit Yang's mansion, and he wanted Yang Qi to personally support the opening ceremony of the Shanhaiguan branch of his Tiandi firm.

What Wei Bao didn't expect was that after the report entered the Yang Mansion, Yang Hongyi was already waiting for him in the front yard. It seems that Yang Hongyi is quite easy-going.

"Young Master Yang!" Wei Bao saluted respectfully.

Yang Hongyi smiled slightly, a pale face like a dead man's excessive lust was a little scary, as if he had big black circles under his eyes all the time, like a giant panda: "How is it?" It's okay to do business in Shimonoseki this time, right? Otherwise, they would not have opened a business in Shanhaiguan. ”

"Thanks to Young Master Yang's blessing, it's going well." Wei Bao smiled.

"I talked about you in front of my father, and I didn't say anything good about you, so let me come." Yang Hongyi didn't greet Wei Bao, and took Wei Bao directly to the backyard.

He came to the front, just to take a look at Wei Bao's state, to see if Wei Bao could be on the stage, after all, Wei Bao is only a teenager, if it doesn't look like that, he is worried that his father will say that he is not, that he will give people a guide. Seeing that Wei Bao was radiant and still like that, he was relieved.

Wei Bao couldn't help but be grateful to Yang Gongzi as he followed, and said some kind words, saying that a humble person like him could not use someone of Yang Gongzi's status to greet him in person.

Yang Hongyi said very graciously that there was nothing, and vaguely asked Wei Bao when he would be able to get the 'elixir' again, it had only been a few days, and this guy had already used up a small half.

"I'm afraid I'll get summer as soon as possible." Wei Bao replied with a smile.

Yang Hongyi frowned, "The elixir is so difficult to make? ”

"Well, otherwise it's still called an elixir?" Wei Bao Road.

"When will you lead me to meet the worldly master who makes the elixir?" Yang Hongyi was rejected by Wei Bao last time, and now he still does not give up, knowing that Wei Bao wants to ask his father to go out to support the façade of his upcoming business, so he proposes it again at this moment.

Wei Bao was embarrassed: "Young Master Yang, the world's masters don't say that they can be seen when they see them, such masters don't touch the world's atmosphere, and I was able to meet by chance." It's not that I don't take Yang Gongzi there, but I'm afraid that if I take Yang Gongzi there, the master won't even see me. ”

Yang Hongyi didn't know if what Wei Bao said was true or false, so he didn't dare to force each other anymore, "With your mouth, you can say alive if you die, and you can say dead if you live." ”

Wei Bao said aggrievedly: "It's all the truth, I rarely lie, if I have to cover up something, it must be out of good intentions." I didn't dare to say any lies to Yang Gongzi. ”

Yang Hongyi sneered, thinking that Wei Bao was fun, no matter how simple things were, Wei Bao could say them in a cloudy and misty way, as if he had answered someone else's words, but as if he had never said anything, not to mention, there was really some atmosphere of an old oilman in officialdom.

The furnishings of the Yang Mansion are not as luxurious as Wei Bao imagined, and they are not much stronger than Zhao Kehu's house in Jinshan.

"Sit down, my family doesn't have so many rules, my father is a martial artist." Yang Hongyi smiled: "I'm going to invite my father over." ”

Wei Bao sighed and hurriedly thanked him, but he didn't dare to sit down casually.

People are polite, he can't be illiterate. Wei Bao's impression of Yang Hongyi is still very good, the second generation of various black officials in film and television in later generations is the second generation of rich, in fact, the real second generation is mostly more powerful than ordinary people, more rigorous, and more knowledgeable, even if they can't catch up with the generation, it's not much worse, after all, how did the fathers rise step by step, they have been exposed to it since childhood.

If you want to talk about it, the vast majority of it is from the three generations. The second generation like Yang Hongyi is very capable and personable, if it weren't for the little thing in bed, Wei Bao would even have to use Yang Hongyi as a template for his own learning, I feel that Yang Hongyi's treatment of people is very old-fashioned, which invisibly makes people feel comfortable and fearful. His father can be a member of the level of the general soldier, and he will never be far behind in the future.

After waiting for a stick of incense, during this period, an attendant came to serve tea, and Wei Bao still did not sit down, standing in a proper manner and waiting for Yang Qi to arrive.

Wei Bao saw a man in his forties and fifties who looked like a burly man walking forward, and Yang Hongyi followed closely behind, so he knew that it was Yang Qi who had arrived, and hurriedly stepped forward and respectfully saluted: "Wei Bao, the grass people, I have seen the commander!" ”

Yang Qi glanced at Wei Bao, and then paced to the first seat in the center and sat down, "Sit down, don't be formal." ”

"Yes, Master Xie." Wei Bao agreed, sat down at the bottom, and only dared to sit on half of the chair, his waist was straight, his demeanor was respectful, and his expression was not panicked.

Yang Qi took a sip of tea, was not in a hurry to speak, and secretly looked at Wei Bao, only to see that Wei Baosheng's eyebrows were clear, his appearance was handsome, and he was very young, it was difficult to combine Wei Bao's image with the image of Wei Bao that Yang Hongyi had described to him, and secretly wondered that such a big boy had the ability to rob the Wu family's business? Dare to risk confronting the Wu family and go to the gate to do business?

"I heard that you issued a road guide and did business in Shangguan, how is this business?" Yang Qi asked directly.

Wei Baoxin said that this person didn't speak for a long time, but when he spoke, he was very direct, and replied: "It's considered smooth, thanks to the blessing of Yang Gongzi and the commander." ”

"All the furs were sold?" Yang Qi couldn't believe it.

"Yes, I also opened a shop in the capital, and it is now the largest store on Shiwangfu Street." Wei Bao said, and directly presented the gift box: "This is a little special product brought back from the Jingshi, I respectfully ask the commander to make the Lord smile and accept it." ”

Yang Qi and Yang Hongyi glanced at each other, Wei Bao didn't say anything about opening a business in the capital just now, so Yang Hongyi also learned about it. can do business in the capital, and make such a large scale as soon as you do it, Wei Bao's words have secretly shown his strength!

From Yang Qi came to see him, Wei Bao has seen the current situation very clearly, Yang Hongyi wants viagra and money, Yang Qi can see him, and he also wants money, otherwise why would he see him as an ordinary person?

Wei Bao is not afraid of others calculating him, but he is afraid that he is useless and has no value to be used, in that case, he can't even speak, and can only be a scum at the bottom of society.

The Yang family needs to benefit from him, and has treated him as a big businessman, and he needs to use power from the Yang family to operate, gain a firm foothold in Shanhaiguan and the entire Yongping Mansion, this is the situation where both sides want each other.

Therefore, Wei Bao is not worried about meeting Yang Qi this time, the only thing he is worried about is not knowing Yang Qi's temperament, and he doesn't know if the other party will be too little of the two thousand taels of silver he prepared in advance. In fact, it is already a very heavy gift, and Wei Bao's meeting gift to super bigwigs such as Kebaba, Wang Tiqian and Wei Zhongxian is nothing more than that. And I don't know how much support Yang Qi will give him?

Wei Bao prejudged that Yang Qi would definitely accept this money, otherwise he would not meet in person, as for how much help he would have, there were roughly three situations, and the best situation was that Yang Qi personally drove to the opening ceremony of the Shanhaiguan branch of the Heaven and Earth Firm! In that case, it is equivalent to showing everyone that they have a great relationship with themselves and that they clearly support themselves. If the Wu family dares to 'make a move' again, it will be a move against Yang Qi.

In the middle case, Yang Qi sent his son Yang Hongyi to attend on his behalf, and the relationship was weaker, just to show people that he was just a related household of the Yang family, not very hot, and not completely irrelevant.

In the inferior situation, it is to send a subordinate to send some congratulatory rites, and the relationship is weaker, at most, the Yang family recognizes that this business is operating in Shanhaiguan, but the relationship between the business and the Yang family is very ordinary.

Yang Qi guessed that the gift box was gold and silver, opened it casually and glanced at it, and saw that it was a stack of large silver tickets, and at least two thousand taels of silver were visually inspected, and he was immediately overjoyed, and his face was a lot kinder, but he didn't say anything.

"Wei Gongzi is young and smart, and he is a talent for business." Yang Hongyi spoke for Wei Bao from the side.

Yang Qi nodded and said, "He is indeed an extremely shrewd young man. It's not a simple matter to be able to open a big deal in Beijing, I don't know if Wei Gongzi has any prominent relatives and friends in Beijing? ”

Wei Bao was secretly amused, thinking that Wufu was a martial artist in the end, did he ask so directly? replied: "Concubine Zhuang Niangniang's younger brother Li Chengnei is my brother-in-law, in Dongchang and Jinyiwei, I know some friends, but the time is short, except for my brother-in-law, others are not deep friends, and I can't catch up with Yang Gongzi's support for me." ”

Yang Qi was familiar with the situation in Beijing, and when he heard Wei Bao say this, he didn't know how far Wei Bao had gotten acquainted with the upper-level figures, but he immediately understood that he had climbed into Wei Zhongxian's faction. secretly thought that the boy was so cunning, and talked a lot about relationships, but he didn't say who was behind him, but he wouldn't underestimate this young man anymore.

"These are all the acquaintances of Wei Gongzi on this trip?" Yang Qi then asked. He knew that Wei Bao was originally just a teenager in the township.

"Yes, luckily, since I got Yang Gongzi's support, business has been going well, maybe my life and Yang Gongzi's fate coincide." Wei Bao replied.

Yang Qi and Yang Hongyi couldn't help but glance at each other again, Wei Bao was right, his answers were very concise, but they were very exquisite! can speak clearly in one sentence, go back, and return all the credit to Yang Hongyi, all of which are extremely clever words.

"Will Wei Gongzi still look at fate?" Yang Qi had already figured out Wei Bao's situation, and said casually.

Wei Bao said with a smile: "I know a master outside the world, the master has enlightened me a little bit, I just know how to look at my life, I don't dare to say that I can look at fate." ”

"No wonder Wei Gongzi is so good at business, it seems that our eight characters are indeed compatible." Yang Hongyi smiled and helped Wei Bao speak.

Yang Qi nodded and said: "Hongyi rarely speaks for guests like this, it seems that he is indeed in love with Wei Gongzi, since this is the case, the celebration of Wei Gongzi's new business, let Hongyi go for the old man." ”

Wei Bao sweated, and secretly thought that Lao Tzu spent 2,000 taels of silver, but he couldn't move you? Just show your face! The old thing is too cunning.

He is now a 'knowledgeable person', according to Yang Qi's level and the things to be done, just to attend the celebration, where to ask for 2,000 taels of silver? Two or three hundred taels of silver is already very decent.

Wei Bao spent nearly ten times more cost, but only achieved a moderate effect, very dissatisfied.

But Wei Bao didn't dare to say these words, so he had to say respectfully: "Commander Xie makes the Lord show love, and it is a great honor to have Yang Gongzi come to the opening ceremony of the trumpet." ”

Yang Qi smiled, took the gift box in one hand, and stood up, "Then you can talk, the old man still has some things." ”

"Commanding to keep your lordship busy is a very important matter, and I would like to send you off." Wei Bao hurriedly stood up and bowed.

Yang Qi didn't say anything, and walked out again. It took less than ten minutes to come and go, and it was an extremely short meeting.

Wei Bao was angry in his heart, secretly thinking that your old boy is more powerful than Wei Zhongxian and Wang Tiqian? Bigger than their shelves? What's that? didn't show it at all on his face, and after Yang Qi left, he chatted with Yang Hongyi for a while before leaving Yang's mansion.

Wei Bao returned to the Shanhaiguan branch of the Heaven and Earth Firm, and his exclusive upper room was not very interested.

Fan Xiaolin, Xu Rui and Wang Qiuya didn't dare to ask when they saw Wei Bao like this, and they were secretly worried.

When Wei Bao saw the three goddesses, he returned to his previous smiling appearance, and told Yang Hongyi that he would come to participate in the opening ceremony.

"Aren't you happy?" Fan Xiaolin breathed a sigh of relief and said, "With Yang Gongzi coming, he already has a lot of face, right?" Other officials and merchants from Shanhaiguan will definitely come to a lot of people, right? ”

Wei Bao shook his head and said: "It's far away, I originally wanted to invite Yang Qi here, and then go to Wu's house to invite Wu Xiang to come too, Wu Xiang knew that Yang Qi would go in person, and when I invited, I would say something." If Wu Xiang knew that Yang Qi would not come to our opening ceremony, the Wu family would have a dislike for us, and Wu Xiang would not have come. Wu Xiang is a local wealthy family, and Yang Qi is a foreign official. Wu Xiang's influence in the local area is far above Yang Qi! If Wu Xiang doesn't come, even if our business starts, it will be very difficult, and we will encounter many obstacles, and few merchants in Shanhaiguan, and even in the entire Yongping Mansion, will do business with us. To do business is to have a wide range of contacts, and no one else will be close to you, and it is not easy to sing a one-man show. ”

When the three girls heard Wei Bao say this, they understood the joints, and they were silently worried about Wei Bao, but they couldn't think of a way.

Wei Bao smiled slightly: "But this is also decent, I don't know how much better it is than when I was in the capital!" I almost sold the fur worth 10,000 taels for 200,000 taels of silver! ”

Wei Bao didn't say these things to anyone, and now I feel scared when I think about it, but after a period of extremely mentally challenging experience in the capital, Wei Bao is also more confident in his career in Daming.

Only then did the three girls know that Wei Bao entered the customs and went to Beijing to do business, and when it was so difficult, although Wei Bao said it lightly, as if they didn't take it to heart, they were still shocked when they heard it, and they admired Wei Bao even more.

"The Wu family is famous for its wealth and strength in the entire Yongping Mansion and in the entire Liaoxi and Liaodong, and it is difficult to impress with silver, not to mention, we do business, and the Wu family also does business, this is a matter of grabbing food, and it is not easy to do." Wang Qiuya said: "That's not bad, you can't force it to do business, you can keep it and don't lose money, it's fine, you don't have to rush to become bigger." ”

Wei Bao glanced at Wang Qiuya appreciatively, and secretly thought that Wang Qiuya, Fan Xiaolin, and Xu Rui were all good, they were all very smart, they learned things quickly, and they followed themselves, and they didn't worry that their knowledge could not be improved.

"Can we fight the Wu family?" Fan Xiaolin looked at Wei Bao and asked, she knew that she couldn't fight, this was reminding Wei Bao in the form of a question sentence, so that it could be tactful.

Wei Bao knew that Fan Xiaolin was worried about messing around, and said with a smile: "I can't fight, it should be said that no one can fight with the Wu family on the ground in western Liaoning, and fighting with the ancestral family of the Wu family is equivalent to fighting with all the wealthy families in Liaodong and Liaodong, they are an alliance formed from generation to generation." For the sake of interests combined, after more than two hundred years of tempering, this alliance is unbreakable! ”

Fan Xiaolin was a little relieved when she heard Wei Bao say this, snorted, and asked, "Then what are you doing business here?" Since we can't fight, and the Wu family refuses to let us do business in Ansheng, it is better to put the business in the customs. ”

"It's the same in Kannai, there are local forces everywhere, the world is made up of all kinds of forces, if you care about the strong, then you can only be a weak person forever, don't do anything." Wei Bao Road.

"Childe is right, where there are people, there is competition, and doing business is directly dealing with silver, Ci does not lead soldiers and does not raise wealth, if you want to make money, you can't take too much care." Xu Rui said: "But can the son try to resolve the festival with the Wu family again?" After all, business can't be done, Shanhaiguan and Yongping Mansion, in addition to the Wu family's largest business, there are still many other merchants, and they don't care about Duogongzi's family, right? ”

Wei Bao glanced at Xu Rui appreciatively, Xu Rui's knowledge was slightly higher than Wang Qiuya and Fan Xiaolin, and nodded: "Although it is difficult, I will not give up this possibility, to be able to cooperate with the Wu family, in fact, it is a win-win situation for me and the Wu family, I have opened the way to sell goods in Beizhili, and the Wu family controls the channel of purchasing goods from outside the customs to inside the customs, and there is the possibility of cooperation between the two sides!" ”

"Then, do you want to go to the Wu family later?" Fan Xiaolin asked.

"Yes." Wei Bao smiled: "You guys go play, I'll go over after a while." "At this time, it is half of the afternoon, there is still plenty of time, after returning from the Yang family, Wei Bao is a little tired, Shanhaiguan is not much older, not that people are tired, but the heart is a little tired, has been doing unpredictable things, is the most tired, this is the suffering of people who run business.

The three girls hurriedly agreed to go out, not daring to disturb Wei Bao's rest, and they were all waiting outside.

Wei Bao thought carefully about the possibility of turning himself and the Wu family into a jade silk, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was very likely, as long as Wu Xiang was not a person who was stubborn and self-serving, and he was not a person who couldn't wipe his face, he could do it, and no one saw how he got the goods.

Wei Bao knows the things in the world, and the paper can't contain the fire, even if he can't restore the truth completely, but how did he get the goods, whether it is the Wu family or Jiannu's side, he can probably guess that he killed people and took away the goods.

But he didn't take it directly from the Wu family, at most, it made the Wu family lose their business reputation and time to make money, lost money, and didn't lose much face.

In fact, the rift is very small, almost non-existent.

But if the two sides cooperate, the benefits are too many.

Now he has obtained the umbrella of selling goods in the capital, in the whole Beizhili, and is actively developing the sales terminal network, if the Wu family cooperates with him, his own emerging trade force will definitely be much more preferential than the Jin merchants can give the Wu family, this is one of them.

The Wu family is now mainly developing in officialdom, without much energy, and it is impossible to expand trade routes in the customs in a high-profile manner.

Even if the Wu family is willing to spend a lot of energy, they don't care about others saying that they are also officials and businessmen, they don't care about the reputation of officialdom, and vigorously expand business routes.

As far as Wei Bao's current understanding of commerce and trade in the late Ming Dynasty is concerned, it is difficult to smooth the trade routes from Yongping Mansion to Hejian Mansion, two areas so close to each other, not to mention weaving a commercial network on a larger scale, which is even more difficult, requiring great perseverance and superb means, there is no such wind direction in the court, and the people do not have this kind of soil, so it is difficult to raise red-topped businessmen like Sheng Xuanhuai and Hu Xueyan in the late Qing Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Sheng Xuanhuai has Li Hongzhang and Huai Jun behind him, and Hu Xueyan has Zuo Zongtang and Chu Jun behind him. This is very different from the situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the bureaucratic class controlled the state policy, resulting in the inability to collect commercial taxes, and naturally unable to do anything without money. Officials from the landlord class annexed a large amount of land, used their official status to legally not pay taxes, and their own small-scale peasant economic businesses were also sheltered by them under the slogan of loving the people like children.

The system of guards collapsed, and ordinary armies lost their combat effectiveness.

Although the border army had a little combat effectiveness, it was seriously eaten by the officers, and the border army had actually become warlordized.

The Jin merchants bought the border army, smuggled grain and ordnance to the Manchus, delivered news, and were responsible for selling the looted goods by the way.

This bureaucratic class, completely corrupted from top to bottom, was the main reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, these are the concrete manifestations of the deterioration of the system in business.

Wei Bao is now only a small and medium-level businessman, so he can only look at the overall situation from the business level, and he can't look at the problem from a higher level.

Wei Bao felt that the Wanli Emperor still had to carry this pot, the Ming Dynasty was played bad by this guy, in the early and middle Ming Dynasty, the whole system could barely operate, in the early days of the Wanli Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng reformed, if these drawbacks were changed, the old and the new, the whole empire will be rejuvenated, but unfortunately the Wanli Emperor because of personal reasons, after Zhang Juzheng's death, all the achievements of the reform were overturned, and even made great strides backwards, resulting in further deterioration of the policy level.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the guard system and the soldier household system were very perfect, and the troops that could be mobilized on a large scale at a low cost in a short period of time were corrupted, and even the guards on the northern border were corrupted.

Feudal taxation is very nonsense, the population at the end of the Ming Dynasty must be more than at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, but after the local corruption, the central government will see that the national household registration will be reduced, part of it will be merged by the local large households, and the other part will simply be hidden households.

In the early Ming Dynasty, taxes were lighter, and the people had the same goal, and they were better fed and clothed than the previous imperial court, and the people themselves could save a few money.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, taxes were heavy, there was not enough food and clothing, no money could be saved, the imperial court policy was perverted, the people were not able to make a living, and the party struggle became more and more intense. In the final analysis, it is the people who can't eat, wear, or warm, save money, and look down on the sick. It's better to rebel.

Therefore, Wei Bao feels that the root of everything is the economic problem of the common people.

If these things are to be changed, it is a complicated and difficult operation, and it cannot be changed by making two new agricultural products and a bunch of new industrial products.

Now the whole Ming Dynasty is corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes these high-yield crops, everywhere is three-season rice, miscellaneous rice, everywhere is a big fat boy as big agricultural products and fruits, everywhere chimneys are lined up, industrial development, if the fundamental economic problems are not solved, it can only lead to the upper imperial power is more powerless to control, the bottom of the common people are more aggravated by exploitation, and the big landlords and big bureaucrats in the middle eat more fat, which will only accelerate the speed of the collapse of the entire empire and accelerate the realization of the historical process of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, Wei Bao's current mentality is very correct, he is not a five-mao angry youth, he only cares about one thing, that is, his life is happy, enjoy the quality of life of the upper class, he has actually done it, and can even live more luxuriously than the royal family, more luxurious than most of the dignitaries and nobles in this era, if you want to change the difficulties of the whole country, now Wei Bao has more than 100,000 taels of silver in his hands alone, converted into modern money value, he is already a rich man of 50 million level, There is no difficulty in satisfying one's desire for a luxurious life.

If you want to say that Wei Bao in addition to the quality of personal life, add another thing to care about, that is, I hope for peace in the world, hope for world peace, and hope that the people of Daming can live and work in peace and contentment, otherwise it is too narrow to take care of their own personal luxury needs, and people will also degenerate and become moths full of brains, no different from the dignitaries and nobles of this era, landlords and bullies.

Wei Bao's requirement for himself is to be a hard-working, intelligent and socially responsible person.

Although he knows that this is difficult for him to do, he will work hard in this direction, and after he has a good life, he will find a way to make the life of the people who reach his ability to live, and then improve the quality of life to the level of food and clothing, which is Weibao's requirements for personal development.

After thinking about it in bed for a while, I sorted out my thoughts, and I also cheered for Wei Bao's final decision to go to Wu's house.

Otherwise, he didn't have the determination to go on this trip, not because he was afraid of danger, in broad daylight, he believed that the Wu family would not kill a visitor casually, mainly because he was worried that he would probably not even be able to enter the door, and he would be blasted out.