Everyone's faces were extremely embarrassed, these people had already agreed in advance, to invite the governor of Liangguang to come, as long as it was about donations, it was Chen Zizhuang who took the lead, how much money this Shilin leader contributed, it was their upper limit, and the rest of the people followed up, so many people worked together, and they could always prevaricate this matter.

Although Shen Youlong took the initiative to propose the clean-up of the military tun, which disrupted the rhythm, as long as Chen Zizhuang took the lead and everyone followed, Shen Youlong had no better way, who knew that he would kill a Li Zhaoji halfway and directly raise the price to two thousand taels.

Just imagine, if you are a businessman engaged in a lowly industry and donate so much money, how can these gentry who have received the grace of the country be less powerful in the local area?

And the timing chosen by Li Zhaoji was also unexpected, if he participated in it at the beginning and raised the tone, these guys who read poetry and books did not want to refute him by quoting scriptures, and even directly expelled him from Nanyuan, but Li Zhaoji did not say a word, and inserted a pole at a critical time, if everyone refuted him, it would be a slap in the face, how to get off the stage.

Li Zhaoji held his head high, not caring about other people's eyes at all, and Hai Shuzu peeked at everyone and found that the eyes of these gentry were on fire, if their eyes could kill, he would have been cut by a thousand knives, so he lowered his head and did not dare to speak.

Shen Youlong didn't speak at this time, picked up the chopsticks again, grabbed the dishes on the table for a while, and put them into his bowl.

He has already seen that Li Zhaoji is not just forced to participate in the market, but takes the initiative to do it, since someone is willing to be this bad guy, then why should he provoke right and wrong again, anyway, the money in the pockets of these gentry is the same as these wine and food, and it is already in his own hands.

Li Zhaoji squinted and saw that the scene was silent, he struck while the iron was hot, and said: "Mr. Chen, you are a Lingnan family, the leader of Shilin, I want everyone to see you continue to lead the group." ”

"yes, yes." The gentry spoke out one after another.

At this time, they didn't want to lose face, nor did they want to offend Shen Youlong, the governor of Liangguang, they had to have both face and lining, and the only way was for Chen Zizhuang to take the initiative to stand up against it, and then they echoed it.

But when Zhao Wenhe proposed to 'participate in the market' a few days ago, he was already sure that Chen Zizhuang would not abandon his face, if he didn't have this certainty, where would he arrange it like this?

Chen Zizhuang was roasted on the fire at this time, with the popularity of the Guangdong gentry on the one hand, and the reputation of his family on the other, he had a hard choice.

And Li Zhaoji saw that he didn't immediately jump out to oppose it, so he knew that he could only comply.

The reason is very simple, for the scholars of the Ming Dynasty, whether it is net worth or life, it is not as important as reputation, especially Chen Zizhuang, who has been labeled as a loyal and lonely minister. People who don't even want their lives for the sake of fame, where do they care about money?

Chen Zizhuang held a glass of wine, was stunned for a while, laughed dryly, and said: "It's rare for a businessman to have such a public heart, it's really rare." How can my gentry be left behind? ”

As he spoke, he took a pen and wrote a series of words on the blank account book, and said: "My Chen family is a family heirloom, and I don't have so much cash, and there are only two thousand taels of silver, but I am also willing to help the imperial court with 800 stones of new rice and 300 catties of iron ........" ”

Obviously, Chen Zizhuang is still burdened by his reputation, even if he can't get that much cash, he has to scrape together some grain and rice materials, and he is determined to surpass Li Zhaoji.

The rest of the gentry can only keep up, more are willing to pay 1,500 taels, less only 700 taels, but there are also examples, donated a lot of grain, rice, iron, lead and tin, cloth and other materials needed in the army, Shen Youlong saw that the blank account book was written more and more, nodded with satisfaction, and when the last person finished writing, he took the initiative to pick up the wine glass and toast to everyone.

But the gentry were all cut flesh, where was they still in the mood to drink, after one by one raised a glass to drink, someone retired, and soon, the banquet was dispersed, and the field was cold.

"Zhaoji, Zhaoji." Shen Youlong was in a happy mood, drank a few more glasses, shouted Li Zhaoji's name, and said: "You are a descendant, you have no eyesight, hurry up and help the old man go home, don't bother Master Chen's family again." ”

Li Zhaoji smiled, how to improve the relationship with the governor of Liangguang, there is nothing wrong with it, he helped Shen Youlong up, just like his nephew treats his uncle, and gets into the carriage with a smile.

Zhao Wenji also immediately followed and went up together, Li Zhaoji settled Shen Youlong, and was originally going to go back to the Haijia carriage, but was stopped by Shen Youlong: "You kid, where are you going, get in the car quickly." ”

Li Zhaoji got into the car with a smile, leaving Hai Shuzu alone, full of chicken feathers, and he didn't know what his fate was.

On the carriage back to the city, Zhao Wenji took the account book, pinched his fingers, and said: "Oh, Dong Weng, this time is really good, the things they donated, roughly calculated, are 28,000 taels of silver, 5,400 stones of rice, and all kinds of iron and cloth."

In this way, the army can support it for a while. ”

Shen Youlong laughed, grabbed Li Zhaoji's hand, and was full of wine: "If there is no Zhaoji, I'm afraid you won't even be able to get five thousand taels of silver, Zhaoji, although you are a cloth merchant, you have just met the old man, and you have already made great contributions to the old man!" ”

Li Zhaoji said: "I should be loyal to the court and contribute to the adults." ”

"See, Zhaoji can not only do things, but also speak properly, it's a pity that you don't have a reputation, otherwise you will be a big help to the old man in the officialdom." Shen Youlong said regretfully.

As soon as Zhao Wenji met Li Zhaoji, he admired him a lot, and said at this time: "Zhaoji, although you are for the public and righteous, you must be careful next, you have offended many people today." ”

Li Zhaoji nodded slightly: "Mr. is concerned, Zhaoji has thanked me here." As the saying goes, if you are not afraid of shadows, and if you don't do illegal things in the future, what can they do to me? ”

Shen Youlong nodded: "That's right, let's not talk about it in the future, in the matter of the outer sea, the official still needs to use you, this time I will go back to the house with the official, I will listen to Mr. Zhao first, and let the old man arrange it slowly." ”

There are two reasons why Li Zhaoji is not afraid of offending these gentry, one is that as a traverser, he already looks down on these gentry.

Why did the Ming Dynasty die, he died from the Hulu thieves, he died from the nobles of the clan, but he also died from the gentry Donglin. Today, Li Zhaoji can be regarded as seeing with his own eyes, the South Garden, which is extremely prosperous, the banquets, and the extreme desire for poverty and luxury, but these are all exchanged for the privileges of the gentry and the exploitation of the people.

Now that the affairs of the Ming Dynasty are difficult, these people do not want to repay, but engage in some things that are really ridiculous and hateful.

And another reason is that Li Zhaoji feels that he is not afraid of offending them.

He is not a local tycoon, doing business in the open sea, the gentry are all mouthful, but when it is profitable, they will pounce on it, and they will be extremely embarrassed, if they can bring benefits to them in the future, they will ignore the previous suspicions, if not, it does not matter whether they have this previous suspicions.

What's more, next Li Zhaoji will follow Shen Youlong to assist in the foreign ship affairs, the gentry are not good at him, no matter how bad it is, there is also a guy Hai Shuzu to attract a period of firepower.

The carriage swayed, Zhao Wenji took the account book and looked at it, and soon felt a pain in his eyes, Li Zhaoji took it, calculated according to the four rules, and calculated in his heart, that is, he wrote down the total number, and the two of them were amazed.

"These money and food are enough for the front-line officers and soldiers to spend for one month, and once they are in urgent need, this officer's visit to Guangzhou is worth it." Shen Youlong nodded with his beard, very satisfied.

Zhao Wenji also echoed the words, but Li Zhaoji's words surprised both of them, Li Zhaoji said: "The left is less than 30,000 taels of silver, if the matter of the foreign ship is handled properly, you can get another 100,000 taels, and then it will not only solve the urgent need." ”

"One hundred thousand taels, why do you say this?" Shen Youlong only has money in his eyes now, and when he heard that he could get 100,000 taels for handling foreign ships, he suddenly became interested, and most of the wine was sober.

Li Zhaoji pretended to be puzzled and said: "Don't adults know that Yangyi is very rich, and there is a lot of room for manipulation in this matter." Zhao Ji is willing to make a military order here, if the Lord is willing to accept Zhao Ji's suggestion, Zhao Ji will definitely be able to obtain 100,000 taels of silver from Yangyi as military funds. ”

"Are you serious?" Shen Youlong's beard trembled when he was shocked, he felt that Li Zhaoji was definitely not talking big, and if he had met this person earlier, he would really be able to get 100,000 taels of silver, why should he play tricks and offend the local Shilin?

Li Zhaoji said: "The military order is established, if it can't be done, I am willing to atone for my sins with my head." ”

Shen Youlong was already shocked at this time, and looked at Zhao Wenji, as if asking his opinion, Zhao Wenji said: "Dong Weng, Zhaoji is sure to say so, and wait for us to go back to the house and discuss it seriously, today you are drunk, it is better to rest." ”

"Well, that's exactly what the gentleman said."

Li Zhaoji saw that the two of them were shocked just now, but now they have become understated, and he is really a little confused, I don't know if he was frightened by his own assurance, or if he didn't believe in himself at all.

In fact, Li Zhaoji guessed wrong, the reason why the two are like this is only because they don't know much about foreign ships.

As the governor of Liangguang, Shen Youlong has been presiding over the clean-up of Bapai Yao, that is, dealing with the four surnamed pirates, all of which are entrusted to Lin Cha, and Zhao Wenhe is also busy with the military aircraft and the money and food by his side, especially recently, in order to lack of salary, the two of them racked their brains and were anxious, how could they still take care of other things.

Regarding the foreign ships that appeared in the Humen area, Shen Youlong also knew that there was such a thing, as for how many foreign ships there were, which force they belonged to, and what their demands were, Shen Youlong didn't know anything.

He also entrusted this matter to Lincha, who sent people to Macao to inquire about the Portuguese in Macao.

Therefore, the two of them did not understand the matter of the foreign ship, nor did they have the regulations, so naturally they could not discuss anything with Li Zhaoji, so they had to go back and ask carefully and know the whole situation before they could make a decision.