Ying Jiuzhen and the others had already come over from the clipper boat at this time, and when they heard this, they didn't wait for Chen Mo to speak, they stood up first, and said proudly: "This Lord Gu is invited, it seems that you know this Young Master Li, but do you know who we are?" That girl is the song fairy Li Jiumei of the famous town Jingshi, the surname Li deceived us every nine girls, if you don't give an explanation, do you really think that our monthly fairy building is easy to bully? ”

Gu Xiancheng sneered, there was no surprise on his face, his hands were long hair, and he raised his head and said, "You are Ying Jiuzhen, the shopkeeper of Yuexian Tower, right?" To tell you the truth, don't say that every time you can't move, Gongzi Li, it's the song fairy Li Jiumei, and you have to follow the official later! ”

Ying Jiuzhen was stunned when she heard this, and her face turned red and said angrily: "What do you mean to follow you?" Aren't you just the head of the six-product household department? Calling you an adult, do you really take yourself seriously? Acquaintances hurry up and get out of the way of Lao Tzu, otherwise you will find someone to take off your black gauze hat when you go back! ”

He is Tao Baosheng's sworn brother, and he holds that the relationship between Li Jiumei and Xu Wenbi and Zhu Xixiao is extraordinary, and he really doesn't take Gu Xiancheng, the head of the six-grade household department, in his eyes.

Chen Mo was actually not interested in Gu Xiancheng, the later leader of the Donglin Party, and now he listened to Ying Jiuzhen's eyes and looked down on people, but he didn't stop it, he just watched coldly from behind, and suddenly saw Wang Shizhen winking at him, he didn't understand what he meant for a while, and was about to go over to ask, so he heard Gu Xiancheng laugh and say:

"Sure enough, he is worthy of being the shopkeeper of Yuexian Tower, listening to what you mean, the court seems to be opened by you. It seems that the official doesn't explain it to you, and you won't be convinced, so it's okay. This official will tell you clearly, this Song Immortal Nine Girl has taken a fancy to her. It's someone else, it's Cheng Baye of Huicheng. And this Li Gongzi is not an outsider. is Cheng Baye's nephew...... How is it? Do you want someone to take off your official's black gauze hat? ”

Hearing this, Chen Mo was stunned. This Cheng Baye is a well-known figure in the Ming Dynasty, he is the leader of the Hui merchants, rich and rival the country, and has a close relationship with many officials in the court. But stomping on the characters who can make officialdom tremble.

Speaking of this Cheng Baye, it is quite legendary. This duke's original name was Cheng Ba, from the most famous Cheng family among the Hui merchants, but the patriarch at that time was a distant branch, eight brothers and sisters, and the family was not wealthy.

Here I have to mention a term that makes Hui merchants rise - Kaizhong. The so-called Kaizhong is a system derived from the Hongwu period, in order to defend against the attacks of Warat and Tatar on the Central Plains, and set up nine sides for defense.

Due to the distance between the nine sides and the ruling center of the empire. In order to reduce this burden, logistical supply is difficult. Taizu reached an agreement with Shanxi merchants, and Shanxi merchants delivered grain to Datong, Juyongguan and other major border fortresses. In exchange for the salt of the imperial court, he obtained the qualification to legally sell official salt.

That is, the so-called grain exchange is the content of the open system. This is also the most fundamental reason why Jin Shang can rise rapidly. Zhang Siwei's family is one of the beneficiaries.

In fact, this system existed in the Yuan and Song dynasties, but in the Ming Dynasty. It was used in the border area to attract merchants to transport grain to the frontier. Replenish the military ration reserves on the border. In the fourth year of Hongwu, the salt regulations were formulated, and according to the distance, one to five stones of grain could be exchanged for a small introduction (200 catties) of salt to the imperial court. Since then, the price of rice has changed as the situation has changed.

However, as the ruling class became increasingly corrupt, the royal family, eunuchs, nobles, and bureaucrats, seeing that it was profitable to hold salt, begged for salt and resold it to salt merchants in order to make a profit. This phenomenon is known as "nest occupation". In the end, this situation became more and more violent, and the Kaizhong system was gradually destroyed, which also seriously affected the financial revenue of the imperial court, and it was imperative to reform the salt law to make up for the financial revenue of the state.

When Xiaozong Hongzhi, Ye Qi was the secretary of the household department, changed the old system to the merchant to replace the rice with silver, paid and transported, solved to Taicang, and then distributed to each side, resulting in more than one million taels of silver in Taicang, and the financial revenue increased sharply. This changed the law, and at the same time relaxed the restrictions, allowing merchants from all over the world to do the same as Jin merchants.

This became an opportunity for the rise of Hui merchants. Because Anhui is a salt producing area, relying on the geographical advantages and the shrewdness of Huizhou people, soon, Huizhou merchants developed rapidly and became a big merchant gang that could compete with Jin merchants, and there was a faint momentum to replace them.

Then again, Cheng is one of the biggest beneficiaries, three out of ten percent of the salt quotes issued by the imperial court every year fall into their hands, and the creator of this achievement is Cheng Baye.

In fact, the Cheng family was originally engaged in the business of the four treasures of the study, which is also the traditional trade way of Hui merchants. When he arrived in Cheng Ba, he was involved with the salt industry.

Cheng Ba's family was in trouble when he was a teenager, so like most Huizhou people, he went out to do business. Although his family is a distant branch, the Cheng family encourages the children of the family to do business, no matter how far or near, everyone who aspires to do business will be more or less supported by the family. His subsidy was twenty taels of silver, which to him was tantamount to a huge sum of money.

With a huge amount of money, the young Cheng Ba arrived in Suzhou, and soon got lost in the drunken gold, twenty taels of silver was defeated by the Qinglou in a few days, and when he woke up, there was only a penny left on his body.

Home is faceless, what can you do with a penny? Cheng Ba, who was living on the streets, regretted it to death, and slapped himself a few times, but there was nothing he could do to think about it for a while.

However, after all, he is a character who wants to glorify his ancestors, he is very comparable, and he was depressed for half a night, so he came up with an idea. He used a penny to buy flour to make paste, and picked up bamboo cages, waste paper, chicken feathers and duck feathers discarded by traders from the street, and with a pair of skillful hands, he made seventy or eighty vivid small animal models overnight, and put them on sale at the City God Temple the next day.

Because of his skill, and no one had ever thought of such an idea, how could the children have seen such a thing in the past, so they naturally clamored for adults to buy it, and soon sold it well, so that he won the victory, and recovered more than 800 copper coins in one fell swoop.

At this time, he completely let go of his heart, traveled all over the world, and started this small business with one mind, and in less than a year, he earned more than 30,000 taels of silver.

Then, he relied on the more than 30,000 taels of silver to open a cloth shop, opened a restaurant, and finally relied on his excellent communication skills to break into the officialdom, and finally achieved his reputation as Cheng Baye.

"Ninth sister, just listen to Xiao Ke's advice, since my uncle heard you sing once last year, I was shocked at that time, but I heard that you didn't even give face to Grandpa Xu and Governor Zhu, so I asked Xiao Ke to think about it......" At this time, Li Rongan, who had been coughing, also recovered, and got up and said to Li Jiumei.

Li Jiumei's pretty face flushed, and she interrupted him and said: "You think of a good way, and you can deceive this girl's feelings with clever words, but fortunately, the two of us are not as good as ...... Otherwise, how will you explain to your good uncle? You're really his nephew! ”

She was talking angrily, but who knew that Li Rongan didn't blush at all, and said with a smile: "What is this?" Uncle wants you to be a concubine, and you are not a wife, if you are not a virgin, you can ...... Let's tell you the truth, transfer the concubine, this is an elegant matter, Xiao Ke has something to do with his uncle's third aunt and fourth aunt, and his uncle also knows. So, don't be angry, go with Xiao Ke, and when your uncle gets tired of it, Xiao Ke will beg him and ask him to send you back to Xiao Ke, don't worry, Xiao Ke really loves you and won't dislike your ......" (to be continued......)