Early in the morning, the cold winter is approaching.

The flowers and trees of the Zhou Mansion are covered with a thin layer of frost.

However, no matter how cold the weather is, it can't cool Zhou Huai's disappointed heart.

Like the selection of cloth merchants, the selection of grain merchants this time is enough to disrupt the existing layout of grain merchants in Jianghuai and Huai counties.

So, this is a crisis and an opportunity.

In the face of such things, all the grain merchants in Huainan should unite and resist the grain merchants in Jiangnan together.

And the Zhou family, as the first grain merchant in Huainan, was very promising to come out on top and be elected as the imperial merchant in one fell swoop.

But this time, because of a slight accident, the existing grain of the Zhou family has dropped a lot, and I am afraid that it will not be able to match the An's, the No. 1 grain merchant in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, what can't be compared is only the existing grain stockpile, and the Zhou family can still have a slight advantage in terms of annual output.

Therefore, as the head of the Zhou family, Zhou Huai did not intend to give up this grain merchant selection just like that.

But what to do?

It's simple, borrow food!

Isn't it just the existing grain stockpile, the Zhou family doesn't have it, but there are many grain merchants in Huainan, and the rest of the grain merchants will naturally have it, so they will borrow it.

Of course, this grain cannot be borrowed indiscriminately.

Those big grain merchants who are similar to Zhou Ji also want to participate in the selection of imperial merchants, so naturally they will not borrow it.

However, there are still many hopeless small grain merchants in Huainan who are selected by the imperial merchants!

As long as they borrow all the grain in their hands, or even buy it, Zhou Ji is still very competitive in the selection of imperial merchants.

Zhou Huai thought that with the good reputation he had accumulated over the years, there should be many people who were willing to help him.

But the truth was much more than he expected.

He traveled all over Huainan and visited more than ten small grain merchants, but only three agreed to borrow grain!

And the heads of these three families already have a good relationship with him.

In other words, apart from these three old friends, none of them planned to lend him food!

Really...... Zhou Huai doesn't think that his popularity can be like this, the only possibility is that someone is secretly making trouble!

He couldn't tell who it was.

On the side, Zhou An saw that his father was so melancholy, and he couldn't be happy for a while.

Everyone in the world says that the children of rich families are very gentle.

But in reality, there are very few such people.

People have received the best quality education since childhood, how can they learn to be a gentleman with no one in their eyes?

Even if there were, it should be rare.

Most of the children of rich families will share their family's worries.

For example, Zhou An, he knows that his mother died early, and his father is alone, so he has to pull himself and run the shop, and it is really not easy to do this.

So he is very obedient and sensible when he pees, and he is someone else's child in the mouth of others.

In order to let my father worry less about himself.

And when he grew up, he was even more angry and worked hard to study. Because, gaining fame and becoming an official in the court is his father's greatest expectation for him.

His family background is very similar to Shen Liangfu, so the two can play together.

At this time, seeing his father's sad face, Zhou An was naturally anxious.

It's a pity that although he has been exposed to this business, his father has always been in charge.

Now that he can't even solve it with his father, what can he do?

Just when the father and son were staring at each other and were helpless.

There was a knock on the door of Zhou's mansion!

In addition to the Tianyuan, the largest grain merchant in the entire Huainan County except for the Zhou family.

Besides, in addition to this fielder, he also has a very good relationship with Zhou Huai.

At the beginning, the two were doing business together, and after so many years, Zhou Ji and Tian Ji grain merchants also supported each other, which was able to go through all kinds of difficulties and get to today.

Tian Yuan came out, and Zhou Huai naturally wanted to entertain him.

"An'er, go make tea."

Zhou An agreed, and went down, leaving the scene to the two old men.

"Brother Zhou, I heard that Zhou Ji couldn't get enough cash this time?"

"Alas, don't hide it from Brother Tian, my few acres of fields are full of locusts transiting, and the rice that was originally good has been completely wasted, and now, I really can't get too much cash grain."

"How's that for good? The selection of imperial merchants is imminent, if you Zhou Ji falls, how can we compare to Jiangnan An's? Tian Yuanwai said, between his eyebrows, he was full of worries.

When Zhou Huai heard this, he felt uncomfortable in his heart, and snorted coldly:

"In my opinion, the locusts are particularly strange, and eighty percent of them are people making trouble behind them!"

"Behind the scenes? Brother Zhou is saying that this locust was deliberately released by someone? ”

"Otherwise, why are only my acres of land suffering? Other fields, but intact? ”

"When you say this, I vaguely remember that some time ago, I saw a few black-clad figures in your field, acting sneakily, all wearing masks, and not showing their true faces."

"I'm afraid, it's the villain in your mouth."

"Why didn't Brother Tian tell me earlier?"

"On that day, the security officer of Jiangnan County came to me and saw it with me, and he said that he would tell you, so I didn't take it to heart, but who would have thought about ......it?"

Zhou Huai has been up and down in the business sea for so many years, and Tian Yuan's foreign words have been said about this, where can he not understand.

"What does Brother Xian mean, that's Jiangnan An's people?"

"Alas, Brother Zhou, what's the point of talking about this now. We don't have evidence, even if it's really An's doing, we can't help them if we report to the official! ”

"The top priority is to get through the current selection of imperial merchants."

"Humph! A good person surnamed An, who is commensurate with my brother on weekdays, but he does such a thing in private, which is really not a son of man. ”

"He did such things just to be elected as the imperial businessman, and I am not as good as he wants!"

"Brother Tian and I are both Huainan grain merchants, and they have a good relationship, and Zhou Ji and Tian Ji have a lot of cooperation, regardless of you and me."

"Since I can't be elected by Zhou Ji, why don't I lend all the existing grain to Brother Tian and let you be in charge?"

When Tian Yuanwai heard this, he was stunned for a while.

After coming to his senses, he hurriedly shook his head and said, "How to make this, how to make this." ”