Waiting for the Persian merchant Balawi to leave, Huang Jin finally couldn't help but say, "Lord Shen, why are you cheap and spicy?" Not only did he promise to reduce the price, but he also took the risk for him? ”

"Hehe......" Shen Mo smiled faintly: "If it weren't for that, then how could they agree, we will send someone to follow the ship?" ”

"With the boat?" Only then did Huang Jin and Tang Ruji know that Shen Mo also had his abacus...... This is simply an insult to Shen Mo, when did our Lord Shen not have a small abacus?

"Yes, with the boat." Shen nodded silently and said, "What was the most expensive in the sixteenth century?" Nautical technology! ”

"Pomegranate poems?" Tang Ruji asked strangely: "Whose work?" ”

Huang Jin had been in the city for a long time, and had a lot of contact with those Western merchants, so he explained to him: "According to the Western calendar, a hundred years and a century, now it is their sixteenth century. ”

"That's just over 1,600 years...... Tang Ruji said with a contemptuous expression.

"It's more than 1,500 years," Huang Jin scratched his head and said, "Yesterday Chamas told me that it's 155 AD...... How many years have you been doing? ”

"1557." Shen Mo said softly.

"That's less." Tang Ruji said with a smile: "We have a splendid civilization of 5,000 years, but they are not even one-third of us. ”

Shen Mo would not be stupid enough to argue with such people, he only believed that facts speak louder than words, so he smiled and said: "Yes, but aren't they stupid people with a lot of money?" If we want to get out of the predicament, we have to rely on doing business with those people. ”

"yes." Tang Ruji did not object this time, and said with deep sympathy: "We have no money to pay taxes, and those who have money do not pay taxes, and the government is so poor that it can only rely on those Westerners to survive the difficulties." ”

"A porcelain vase in Jingdezhen is sold for five taels of silver in Daming, which is a high price, but it may be fifty taels or one hundred taels in the West." Shen Mo said: "If we wait for people to come to the door, then we will never go to the price...... When the market is opened, it is not the past, everyone can do business, we don't sell it, but someone will always sell, so this loss is decided. ”

"yes." Huang Jin and the two nodded together, and Tang Ruji said: "It turns out that the adults want to leave them aside and do business by themselves!" ”

"The ocean is a hundred times wider than the land, and no one can eat alone." Shen Mo shook his head slightly and said, "But as long as there is a fleet that belongs to us, others have to behave in a proper manner to do business with us." ”

After the agreement with the Persians was signed, the two sides began to deliver the goods, and it took three days to make a clear distinction before the Palawians asked to depart.

After pondering silently, there was nothing wrong with it, so he allowed the sale, and at the same time let the auction house put the Persian goods up for sale...... As he expected, merchants from all over the world, who had made a lot of money in foreign trade, were reluctant to run back empty, so they snapped up these exotic luxury goods in two days, ready to be shipped back to their hometown to make another profit!

There are in and out, all of them are bought and sold, which is exactly his ideal state of trade. And in the last settlement, they earned nearly 200,000 taels of silver, which made Huang Jin and Tang Ruji regret that their intestines were green.

Until he saw Tang Ruji off, he kept shaking his head and said, "Hey, vision! It's so important! ”

Shen Mo laughed and said, "Okay, don't sigh!" See what this is. So he threw an envelope at him. Tang Ruji opened it and looked at it, obediently, it turned out to be a 50,000 taels of condescension tickets!

Tang Ruji hurriedly excused himself and said, "I said last time, we will take the full amount, you eat the goods, and now that you have made more money, naturally you shouldn't have our share." ’

Shen Mo shook his head and said, "If you say it without evidence, you can't do it...... It's true that we do business for the imperial court, but we can't really think of ourselves as businessmen, and it's boring to be mercenary. As he spoke, he pushed the envelope into his arms and said, "Just take it, I haven't thanked you for the last time, only this little bit of stuff will be put into the account of the tea and horse division." ”

Tang Ruji was very moved, holding his silent hands tightly, and he felt reluctant.

Without a trace, he withdrew his hand and smiled silently: "Please go." ”

"Brother Humble Words, take care!" Tang Ruji replied vigorously.

When Tang Ruji left, he looked at Huang Jin, who looked at him, and scolded with a silent smile: "Look at your appearance, of course you are indispensable!" Huang Jin's fat face turned into a bun, and he stretched out his thumb and flattered: "I said a long time ago, Lord Shen, you are a friend enough, and you are angry, and it is much better to mix with you than in the palace." ”

"Father-in-law, don't say that." Shen Mo smiled and said: "You are mixed with the emperor, I can't afford to lead." ”

"The emperor is my boss, you are the second ......" The two walked to the sedan chair with a smile, Huang Jin turned over and lifted the sedan curtain for Shen Mo, and said, "Where are you going?" ”

"Go home." Silently rubbed his temples and said, "During this time, the light has been soaked in the city, and all the business in the house has been wasted. ”

"Yes," Huang Jin scolded in agreement, "These Xiyi are too difficult to deal with, wasting the precious time of adults. Then he volunteered: "My lord, go back, I'll keep an eye on the city, and nothing will happen to Guan Bao." ”

Silently returned to the yamen, first went to the backyard to talk to his wife for a while, and when he returned to the signing room, he just put his butt on the chair, and before he opened the file to read it, he heard Tie Zhu say outside the door: "My lord, Gonggong Huang is here." ”

Shen Mo couldn't help but be surprised: "Which Huang Gonggong?" I saw Huang Jin's big face covered with sweat beads appear at the door, and before anyone came in, I heard him shout: "My lord, something is wrong!" ”

"What's the matter?" Shen Mo frowned.

"There's something wrong with that Persian shipment!" Huang Jin led the two merchants in and said, "When they inspected the goods, they found that the carpet was blistered!" ”

Shen Mo straightened up all of a sudden, and asked in a deep voice, "From the beginning!" ”

"Oh...... That ......" Huang Jin scratched his cheeks and said, "Let's talk about it both of you." ”

The two businessmen introduced themselves as Fujian merchants, and they had won 1,000 Persian carpets and 500 catties of spices at the Pingzhun Auction House, which were now delivered at the wharf. Then one of them said: "At first we didn't notice anything unusual, but then one of the carpets broke and turned on the ground, and we saw salt stains." ”

Huang Jin added: "I brought the carpet here. ”

"Bring it in!" He said silently, but immediately changed his mind: "I'd better go out." So he got up and went outside, and sure enough, he saw a thick roll of Persian rug.

"Let go!" A merchant gave the order, and the roll of carpet was rolled on the ground, bottom up.

"Look, sir." The merchant pointed to the obvious whitish circle and said, "You can still see small grains of salt under the sun." ”

Squatted down silently, stretched out his fingers, scratched on it a few times, and tasted it with the tip of his tongue, it was really bitter and salty, it was indeed the taste of seawater.

took the mouthwash on Huang Jin's ground, exhaled a breath of turbidity silently, and asked softly, "Have you checked other carpets?" ”

"Checked." The two businessmen said in unison.

"Is it the same for anything else?"

"I can't see most of them, and I can't feel anything unusual." The first half of the businessman's sentence made the silent heart rise slightly, but as soon as the second half of the sentence came out, his heart fell directly back to the bottom...... I just heard them say: "But they all have a salty ......"

Squatted there silently, motionless, without saying a word, like a clay sculpture, until Huang Jin couldn't wait any longer, and whispered in his ear: "My lord, are you ......okay?"

Shen Mo shook his head slowly, supported his numb thighs and got up slowly, refused Huang Jin's support, walked back to the signing room with some staggering, sat behind the big case, curled up in the chair, and fell into deep thought...... Obviously, he was tricked by the Persian annihilators...... In this era, all the wooden boats that crossed the ocean were thousands of miles away, spanning several oceans, and it was inevitable that they would encounter violent storms and huge waves, and it was very likely that the bottom of the ship would enter the water and soak the goods. This is probably the case with this batch of goods in Balawi, but the merchant did not want to suffer huge losses, so he would park the ship somewhere first, hire someone to dry and sort out the damp carpets, brush them off the salt, and then enter the port, which could not be distinguished by the naked eye and touch.

The situation is very serious! Once it is irretrievable, he will definitely not be able to escape the notoriety of 'colluding with officials and businessmen and selling fake people', so that all the career and future will be ruined...... The officials of the Ming Dynasty pay the most attention to the word 'benevolence and righteousness', even if you have a belly of male thieves and prostitutes, you have to put these two words on your lips and stick them on your face! Why did he give Huang and Tang 50,000 taels each? Isn't he afraid that people will say that he is mercenary, and his colleagues will have to calculate?

This batch of carpets is distributed throughout the country and will be spread in thousands of large households, if something goes wrong, it will offend thousands of officials and gentry! Thinking of this, Shen Mo shuddered, Huo Ran got up and said, "Seal the undelivered Persian goods!" Let the wolf smoke and stop Balawi for me! "Because the criticized river channel of the Wusong River is so narrow and shallow that large ships cannot enter or leave, any ocean-going fleet has to use small boats to transport goods to Shanghai, and then load them there; In addition, Balavi's appetite was so great that he had to fill his ocean-going fleet, so the hired fleet had to make three round-trips, and it took three days and four trips to complete it.

Therefore, although the day before yesterday had been released, Balawi only left Suzhou City with the last batch of transport ships early this morning, and it is estimated that he did not even arrive in Songjiang. If Wu Songjiang is not so narrow, it is estimated that Balawi's fleet has arrived in Zhejiang now, so he has to hang himself.

Sanchi listened to the order and released the carrier pigeons, which they had trained to fly directly to the city of Shanghai, where there was the office of the city shipping department, and would pass on his orders to the escort fleet waiting there...... This is currently the fastest way to communicate, and it is known as 'wolf smoke' to the outside world.

Shen Mo hurried to the dock warehouse, took out a large bag of carpets, spread them on the ground with the reverse side up, and carefully examined them, and found another carpet with salt, but tasted each one...... The results are all salty.

This verifies the inference of silence, obviously the salt stains on the carpet have been treated, but there are too many carpets, and it is inevitable that there will be a hundred dense and negligent places, which will be discovered. But he couldn't laugh at it, and asked the 'brick family' who was kneeling on the ground and trembling: "What's wrong with such a carpet?" ”

"The wool of the carpet is dyed with a special process, which can last for a long time and never fade." An old man replied in a whisper: "But where the sea water is immersed, it will definitely fade faster, maybe after a year or two, maybe three or five years, it will form unsightly patches." ”

"It's true...... "The so-called 'brick family' is all hindsight, and they all said: "This is all common sense." ”

Of course, Shen Mo would not praise them, and asked the warehouse ambassador beside him, "How much has been delivered?" ”

"Go back to your lordship, say a third less." The Warehouse Ambassador whispered.

Shen Mo said softly: "Before you can get it away, let's chase it all back......"

"My lord, what about our reputation?" The people around him whispered: "Anyway, what was discovered was just an example, as long as we don't say it, no one will know...... Didn't the connoisseurs say it too? It will be a few years before there will be problems, and when the time comes, we will ...... if we don't settle the bill" Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Shen Mo's cold and blade-like gaze, and only listened to Shen Mo say word by word: "Remember, my silent reputation is priceless!" "Is there a secret in this world that will never be revealed? If you always want to get by pretending to be deaf and dumb, sooner or later you will have to pay off your debts!

In the afternoon of the same day, a notice was opened in front of the city, because it was found that there was a hidden quality problem in the Persian carpet, and now unconditionally recalled all the carpets sold, refunded the full amount, and compensated for the costs incurred.

As soon as the proclamation was posted, the merchants did not react violently, but praised him for his benevolence, openness, and courage, which was something that Shen Mo had not expected.

Some people also asked the city for the spices and precious stones, but fortunately, the spices were all in clay pots and would not be flooded, not to mention the precious stones, so the questions were focused on the Persian carpets.

Shen Mo invited all those who had bought Persian carpets to a feast at noon the following day, supposedly to clarify the truth of the matter.

The next day, in the blink of an eye, the invited Chinese and foreign businessmen came to the city, sat down at the eighteen large tables of eight immortals, and waited for the prefect to appear.

Before the silence arrived, a gloomy face of Balawi appeared, followed by a tall Ming officer...... It turned out to be Yao's eldest son. The eldest son has performed very well over the years, fighting bravely and loving to use his brains, and has been promoted to the top five grades and thousands of households with his repeated military exploits. In the escort fleet sent by Yu Dayou, he was the second-in-command, and after stopping Balawi's fleet, he took the initiative to ask Ying, and the leader escorted him, so that he could meet his long-lost brother.

Of course, no one in this house knew him, and everyone didn't care about a 'small' Qianhu, so they suddenly surrounded Balawi and asked him what was wrong with those carpets.

Balawi blinked his eyes and said with an innocent face: "Promise Allah that there is no problem, and I don't know what the adults called me back for." He pretended to smile lightly and said, "Maybe it's a misunderstanding." ”

Before he finished speaking, he heard an emotionless voice say: "This official is really willing to be a misunderstanding!" Everyone followed the prestige, and saw Lord Shen, who was dressed in a crimson official robe, with a cloud goose on his chest and a plain gold belt around his waist, appeared in the hall with an expressionless face.

Seeing the silence appear, Balawi's expression changed, and he protested loudly: "My lord, you have already let me go, but you have pulled me back and delayed my trip, this is a change of day, it is difficult to convince the public!" "He decided to take the lead and pleaded not guilty to any charges.

Shen Mo was not in a hurry with him, but pulled a trace of chuckle at the corner of his mouth and said: "Mr. Balawi, everyone is hungry in order to wait for you, let's talk about it after eating." Even if he couldn't wait to eat him, Shen Mo still maintained the bearing that a Ming official should have.

Balawi punched the cotton, so he sat down and said, "It just so happens that I'm hungry too." ”

When everyone sat down again, Shen Mo ordered the food to be served, but the waiter only served the empty bowl, and put one in front of one person, so there was no intention of serving the food.

What do you think this is for? Want us to nibble on plates? I don't have that good mouth.

Seeing everyone's puzzled looks, he smiled silently and said, "Push the main dish up." "The hearts of the people said, it turned out that the rat pulled the bellows, and the big head was behind, and I don't know whether it was to eat roasted whole cows, or the kind of Arab roasted camels.

But the officials of the city department pushed out bags of Persian carpets.

"Please ask Mr. Badawi to inspect the goods and see if the seal for the delivery of the money is still there, and if the carpet is damaged." Shen Mo said lightly.

Badawi had no choice but to get up, and went over to look and look, he really wanted to say, there was damage...... But I really couldn't find fault with it, so I had to say in a muffled voice: "No problem." And signed the confirmation paper.

"Everybody hears it." Shen Mo said: "It is indeed an authentic and undamaged Persian cashmere carpet, and our chef is going to cook it on the spot." Then some cooks in white coats and white hats came out, and with sharp knives in their hands, they cut the packages and cut them decently...... It's like a cow.

(To be continued)