Chapter 117: Running a newspaper and competing in the arena

Author: Fat Bird Goes First

Chapter 117: Running a newspaper and competing in the arena

The boy immediately reported the matter of corruption, and the bookstore owner Yu Dong's face turned pale.

Then Su Ze recorded everything the boy confessed and asked him to sign it.

Now Yu Dong could no longer stand. He knelt down in front of Yu Zongyuan and cried: "My boss, spare my life!"

Yu Zongyuan also didn't expect that Yu Dong would steal so much money from their Yu family, and his face was also very ugly.

Yu Dong was trembling with fear. He kept kowtowing to Yu Zongyuan, cursing and vowing to make up for the shortfall.

Su Zela said to Zongyuan: "Brother Yu, I think we should let the shopkeeper make up for the shortfall."

Yu Zongyuan said angrily: "That old thief stole so much money from my family!"

Su Ze said, "What he is greedy for is the Yu family's money, and what he wants to make up for is your shortfall."

This reminded Yu Zongyuan, and he immediately stopped making trouble.

Yes, if Yu Dong is sent to the Yu family, the compensation money will definitely not be given to him.

It's better to just extort money and money from this old guy.

Yu Zongyuan immediately said: "Thank you, Brother Su, for your advice!"

Su Ze added: "Let him make up for the shortfall, and then what do you think of Brother Yu?"

"idea?"

Su Ze nodded and said, "Does Brother Yu still want to use such a person?"

Yu Zongyuan frowned and said, "I don't want to use him either, but I don't have any capable people in my room. Who can I use if I don't need him?"

Su Ze immediately said: "I, Commander Ning Wei, have a few trustworthy brothers who are honest and do their duty. If Brother Yu doesn't dislike them?"

Yu Zongyuan immediately said: "I don't dislike him, I don't dislike him! Brother Su's brother is my brother!"

Su Ze added, "But the shopkeeper can be replaced, but the clerk cannot. The clerk has only earned dozens of taels of silver these years. He is a son of a family and is familiar with the bookstore. Brother Yu can continue to use it."

Yu Zongyuan immediately nodded and said: "Brother Su is right, I'm afraid he won't dare to continue being greedy!"

The number one angel investor, Yu Zongyuan, followed the good example and did not try to force the shopkeeper to send him to the government, but asked him to send the corrupt money to his house within a time limit.

The clerk was free because of the report, so Yu Zongyuan exempted him from punishment and ordered him to continue working in the bookstore.

The waiter kept kowtowing and thanking him profusely, while Yu Dong's face was ashen. His life was saved, but he had to spit out the nearly a thousand taels of money he had spent on corruption over the years.

Yu Zongyuan struck while the iron was hot and took Su Ze to the pickle shop, rouge shop and dyeing shop. As expected, problems were found in the accounts.

Yu Zongyuan and Su Ze, one with a pale face and the other with a red face, asked the shopkeeper and the waiter to sign and pledge their money to recover the money that the shopkeeper had stolen.

By the evening, the amount of silver recovered from the account had exceeded one thousand taels. Yu Zongyuan's face was glowing red and he was walking a little dizzy!

He excitedly took Su Ze's hand and said, "Brother Su! You are truly my noble man!"

Su Ze smiled and said secretly: "Brother Yu, you are my noble person."

According to Su Ze's suggestion, all four shops retained their clerks, and all the vacant shopkeeper positions were filled by people from the Changning Weilin clan recommended by Su Ze.

Su Ze had already made plans in his mind. The bookstore was the most profitable shop in the Yu family. Lin Xianyang was good at writing, calculating, and smart in doing things, so he was asked to be the shopkeeper of the bookstore.

However, there is still a quota for Changning Wei to be recommended to the county government as an official. At that time, it is better to go back and see Lin Xianyang's own choice.

Alas, Changning Guard still has too few talents! Now there are not enough talents!

Yu Zongyuan was also very generous. The bride price offered was twenty-five taels of silver a year, which was much more profitable than farming in Changningwei!

As long as someone from the Lin clan is the shopkeeper, it will be much easier for Su Ze to sell books printed by Changning Wei.

Lin Deqing has an introverted temper, but is reliable and steady in his work. He can be the shopkeeper of a pickle shop.

The Rouge Shop and Dyeing House then found two smart people from Changning Guard to recommend to Yu Zongyuan, and Changning Guard suddenly had four more shopkeepers.

With the character of Second Young Master Yu, the number one angel investor, he will definitely not give any advice on business operations. Doesn’t this mean that Changning Wei has four more shops in the county?

Both Su Ze and Yu Zongyuan felt that the other person was their noble person. Yu Zongyuan pulled Su Ze to go to Yueyue upstairs for a drink. Su Ze thought about it but refused. Chang Ning Wei still had many things to do, and Su Ze was getting ready for the night.

I was on my way back before.

After saying goodbye to Yu Zongyuan, Su Ze promised that Chang Ningwei's new shopkeeper would report to his house in two days, and Su Ze returned to the county school to pick up his luggage.

One time, Su Ze, Chen Chaoyuan and Lin Qingcai hadn't returned yet. They sat on the ground and sighed, their faces full of sadness.

Su Ze quickly asked: "Brother Lin, Brother Chen, what's going on?"

Chen Chaoyuan was still sighing, and then Lin Qingcai said: "Today we went to submit an article for Huang Shixing's new tabloid, but we were humiliated by Huang Shixing."

"Then how did Huang Shixing humiliate you?"

Lin Qingcai said: "Brother Chen and I went to submit articles, but Huang Shixing said that Mr. Tuohu's essay competition was the golden age for scholars in Yanping Prefecture, that we didn't even have the honor of being scholars and still wanted to participate, that we were not qualified to submit articles, and humiliated us in public.

Ichiban.”

Su Ze held back his anger and said, "Mr. Tuohu himself didn't say that he must be a scholar to participate in the essay competition. Why did Huang Shixing say that?"

The circle of scholars in Yanping Prefecture is so large. The humiliation of Lin Qingcai and Chen Chaoyuan can be discussed for a long time in the entire circle of scholars in Yanping Prefecture, and this insult will stay with them for a long time.

Even Huang Shixing not only insulted the two people, but also insulted Su Ze, who also had no fame.

It is said that a scholar can be killed but not humiliated. In ancient times, when reputation was attached great importance to, being humiliated was a very low-status thing. But a scholar like Chen Chaoyuan, who makes a living by writing pleadings and deeds, would not even be able to get business once his reputation was bad.

.

Lin Qingcai sighed again. The tabloid was run by Huang Shixing, so he naturally set the standards.

Lin Qingcai also regretted it at this time. He could have submitted his article directly to Mr. Tuohu. Why should he submit his article to Huang Shixing's tabloid?

Su Ze thought about it and realized that it was true that Huang Shixing funded the tabloid himself, and even if he tried to reason with him, he would be humiliated.

Su Ze thought for a moment and said, "Brothers, can you give me the play you wrote?"

Lin Qingcai asked doubtfully, "Brother Su, I'll give it to you naturally, but why does Brother Su want drama?"

Su Ze said: "To be honest with you two, I have actually wanted to apply for a newspaper for a long time."

Lin Qingcai and Chen Chaoyuan looked at Su Ze in surprise: "Brother Su also wants to file a newspaper?"

Chen Chaoyuan immediately said: "Brother Su, you can't do it! It costs a lot of money to file a newspaper. It's not worth spending this money just to relieve your anger!"

Chen Chaoyuan was worried that it was because they were humiliated, so Su Ze wanted to file a newspaper and compete with Huang Shixing, so he persuaded him.

Su Ze started printing books with movable type for the purpose of publishing newspapers. Now that the Yu family's bookstore has been acquired, they also have a place to sell newspapers.

As for Huang Shixing's reporting, he hit Su Ze's gun.

Su Ze sneered, since Huang Shixing won't accept Lin and Chen's manuscript, then I will publish it in my own newspaper.

Let’s see whose newspaper sells best then!

Su Ze said to the two of them: "Running a newspaper is not a temporary thing. After I met the Fuzhou tabloid from Haijiao last time, I wanted to run a newspaper. It has nothing to do with Huang Shixing."

"If you two brothers don't mind it, how about publishing the play in my newspaper?"

Although the plays written by Lin and Chen were clichéd, Su Ze went to the bookstore today and found that the level of the story novels was similar to the plays they wrote.

The dramas of the two are also relatively vernacular and in line with the mainstream aesthetics of today's people.

Su Ze was already worried about the content of the first newspaper, so he could just use their drama to make up the word count.

Lin and Chen were still hesitant, but they still handed the play to Su Ze.

However, last time Chen Chaoyuan accompanied Su Ze to buy an engraving house slave, he was really not angry at the thought of Su Ze wanting to run a newspaper.

I am just an engraving craftsman, when will I be able to produce a newspaper?

Just the engraving of these two plays will take more than a month. I am afraid that by then the essay writing competition will have ended and Mr. Tuohu will have traveled to other counties.

However, Su Ze also had good intentions. Although the two of them were not optimistic about his newspaper operation, they were still full of gratitude to Su Ze.

After bidding farewell to his two classmates, Su Ze contacted Xiao Qi, who had escorted him to the county, and set foot on the road back to Changning Guard under the escort of his soldiers.

At the same time, in a printing shop in Nanping City, Mr. Huang Shixing, the man we just talked about, was inspecting his newly purchased printing shop.

This was originally a printing house for printing books, but in recent years, the booksellers in Jianyang have been engaged in price wars, and Nanping County is close to Jianyang, which has squeezed the printing house out of business.

However, Huang Shixing still spent a full five hundred taels of silver to buy this printing shop.

In addition to the land and various printing equipment, the printing shop also supports ten engraving masters, whose annual salary is two hundred taels of silver.

Naturally, Huang Shixing could not afford such a large amount of money. This money was all paid by the Huang family's father-in-law, and the purpose was naturally to make Huang Shixing famous.

This is how the wealthy gentry played. In the Ming Dynasty, there were so many scholars who became famous at a young age. Except for those who were truly talented and talented, the rest were "packaged" by families like Huang Shixing who spent a lot of effort.

Organizing poetry societies and poetry societies, running newspapers and printing anthologies, none of these things cost money.

To become famous in Shilin, it is absolutely impossible without money.

At this time, many young scholars gathered around Huang Shixing, and they were all invited to visit the printing shop.

Seeing that Huang Shixing bought such a large workshop just to publish newspapers and become famous, the scholars present were full of awe for Huang Shixing.
To be continued...