The old lady left the rice shop, Zhu Niang's face turned earth-colored.
Zhu Niang called Aunt Li over and told her the rules that the old lady had set before she left. Aunt Li did not realize the seriousness of the problem: "Madam, if we only pay forty taels a month, we will have a lot of surplus in our books."
Zhu Niang said with a bitter face: "That was in the past, but now our shop's reputation is not as good as it used to be. We do less business with the neighbors, and we have offended the state and county yamen, and even made enemies with the chief minister's family... those restaurants and inns in the city
, who dares to take the huge risk of offending the government and continue to do business with us? It’s all over now..."
"Mom, you are worrying too much. If others don't do business with us, that Dongzhu Su will definitely not do it. We can just continue to trade with him."
Zhu Hao looked relaxed.
Zhu Niang looked at her son doubtfully: "Xiao Hao, what are you talking about? When Su Dongzhu was trading with us yesterday, he was caught by the government and made him very angry. Will he continue to do business with us?"
Zhu Hao said: "How will you know if you don't try? The most important thing now is to find out where he is staying so that we can visit him."
"Dongzhu Su, you should still be in jail and haven't come out, right?" Zhu Niang was not sure.
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "Grandma went to the county government in person. The second uncle was not detained, which means that Su Dongzhu chose to compromise. As long as we find out where he lives, my mother and I will go to visit... Then my mother will say
If anything is unclear, I will discuss it with him in detail."
Zhu Niang and Aunt Li looked at each other, both confused.
Zhu Hao's eyes were firm: "Mom, please relax, I'm sensible. I'm here just to discuss business...Buying and selling are not done in a righteous way, and he is not a formal official. He needs to take into account his official prestige. Businessmen put interests first... Even if it's an apology,
We must take a trip too, right?”
Zhu Niang was helpless at the moment and could only follow her son's arrangements, once again treating a dead horse as a living horse doctor.
…
…
Zhu Hao said that Su Xigui would not blame them, but how could that be possible?
When Su Xigui went to the "surprise banquet" held by Shen Li, the magistrate of Changshou County, he made a little inquiry and found out what happened yesterday.
It involves internal fighting within the Zhu family, and the elder wants to fight over the property of the widow and daughter-in-law?
If you want to fight, you can do whatever it takes, but I actually became cannon fodder? In the end, the old lady from the Zhu family came to threaten me and forced me to reconcile?
I really can't swallow this mouthful of cowardice.
Just when Su Xigui returned to the post house and was about to take a short rest and leave with the salt goods, his entourage came to inform him that Zhu Niang had come to see him.
"Does she still have the nerve to come?"
Su Xigui suddenly became furious.
The attendant asked: "Then... you haven't seen me?"
Su Xigui said: "Of course I want to see you. The old ones are tough, and the young ones should be soft, right? This woman from the Zhu family is really interesting..."
Zhu Niang, who was waiting to meet her outside the post house, did not expect that she could get her wish after a simple message.
I thought the other party would choose to avoid seeing me.
Then she took her son into the post house and came to the flower hall where Su Xigui had tea.
Su Xigui did not stand up to greet him, but held the tea bowl with a half-smile expression on his face: "Third madam, your Zhu family is really clever. When I do business with you, your family members and official officials will take over the pot... You
Could it be that you are with them and deliberately designed to trick me?"
Zhu Niang said sternly: "Dongzhu Su, please forgive me, I didn't know about it, otherwise I wouldn't have been thrown into the county jail with you... I'm here to apologize."
Su Xigui said: "Apologies? I should make good compensation. I was quite frightened this night..."
Just as he was talking, he suddenly found a young man standing behind Zhu Niang.
Su Xigui was shocked.
Zhu Hao grinned: "Dongzhu Su, my mother and I made a special trip to apologize and brought you a gift."
"you……"
Su Xigui stared at the entourage on the side, as if questioning, why did they let two people in at once?
The entourage is very helpless. It was you who asked me to let him in. Who is to blame if you didn't explain it in advance?
"There is no need to apologize, just give me a gift."
When Su Xigui said this, he suddenly realized that the problem was not that simple, and asked curiously: "What kind of etiquette?"
Zhu Hao: "A bag of salt."
Su Xigui was so angry that he almost couldn't breathe.
I am a salt seller, and you actually brought a bag of salt to apologize to me?
Sincerely make fun of me!
Su Xigui glared at Zhu Niang: "Third Madam, is this your apology attitude?"
Zhu Niang was also stunned by her son's behavior.
Zhu Hao seemed to be completely unaware of the other party's disgust towards him, and continued with a stern face: "Dongzhu Su, I have a method of sifting salt, which can turn official salt into fine snowflake salt, but we are small after all.
I am a hawker who is not very knowledgeable. I would like to ask Mr. Su whether this kind of snowflake salt is qualified to be used as tribute salt? Or if it can be sold to the provincial capital, Shuntian Prefecture or Yingtian Prefecture, can it get a good price?"
Su Xigui sneered: "People in small places really watch the sky from a well."
Zhu Hao calmly took off the small baggage he was carrying and spread it out in front of Su Xigui. He reached out and grabbed a handful of salt. Under the sunlight coming from the window, it was crystal clear and sparkling.
Let go and the white salt particles fall slowly like snowflakes.
"Dongzhu Su, it is precisely because we are sitting in a well and looking at the sky that we let a well-informed big shot like you help us take a look... This is a sample, and there is a sack outside. Don't you want to take a look?"
Su Xigui began to fiddle with the calculations in his heart.
"Master, look..."
The entourage on the side was most familiar with his style. Now he understood it and gave Su Xigui a message to step down.
Su Xigui looked unkind: "Have someone carry him in."
Then Zhu Hao walked to the door and said hello, and Yu San came in carrying a sack of salt, weighing fifty kilograms.
Su Xigui got up from his seat, walked to the salt bag, opened it himself, spread his hands, put his fingers together, and inserted it hard into the salt bag. He grabbed a handful of salt from the depths and looked at it for a long time under the sunlight.
The more surprised he became, it took him a long time to put the salt back into the bag.
"Is this really what you screened?" Su Xigui wondered.
Zhu Hao said: "Yes, we screened them."
There is a difference between the words "sieve" and "shai", and they sound similar. Zhu Hao is an honest man. Even if Su Xigui notices it later, he can't say that I lied to you.
Who told you not to think about sunbathing at all?
"The salt is good, but there is still a gap between it and the tribute salt..." At this point, Su Xigui picked up a few grains of salt and put it in his mouth, smashing it a few times, but the expression on his face did not change at all.
"If you can tell me how to sift salt, maybe I can continue to trade with you." When Su Xigui said this, his old face turned red, as if he felt that his scheming was too obvious.
"Dragon Master Su, we are the frog in the well, but you are not. You are coveting our recipe before we even make a deal... This is even more cruel than what I have done to us."
Zhu Hao said: "Let's put it this way, if Dongzhu Su is willing to cooperate with us, he will provide us with official salt. We can help you sift it and sell it to you. At that time, Dongzhu Su can use it as tribute salt."
It doesn’t matter if it’s peddling in big cities, it has nothing to do with us!”
When Su Xigui heard this, he was very angry.
Early in the morning, I met the wise-talking but ruthless veteran of the Zhu family, and now I met the younger one who was also very sharp-tongued.
"Sir, Mr. Zhu, your surname is Zhu, right? You are really good at talking. You just say a few words and you want me to listen to you?"
Su Xigui almost said these words with his upper and lower teeth gritted together.
It looks vicious, but it's just enough to scare a child.
Zhu Hao is a child?
joke!
In terms of mental age, Zhu Hao can be considered Mr. Su Xigui.
Zhu Hao's face was filled with regret: "Before I came here, I thought this business would be settled easily. Who knew that Dongzhu Su was too concerned about the gain and loss of face... In fact, there is no need for it. What is more important than making money? If Dongzhu Su
If we have no intention of cooperating, then we will have to find another salt merchant...
"Well, I told my mother before that Su Dong, the prime minister, has a lot of money, so our transaction volume will become bigger and bigger in the future, and we will make a lot of money!"
At this point, Zhu Hao pulled Zhu Niang, who was watching the whole show, and said, "Mom, let's go."
Su Xigui was angry but had nowhere to vent his anger.
Seeing that Zhu Niang and her son were about to leave, he could have forced them to stay, but he had just been "taught a lesson" by Zhu Jiashi, and now he was in trouble with the chaste woman, mother and son, and his reputation spread...
"etc!"
Su Xigui returned to his true nature as a businessman.
Zhu Hao turned around and said with a smile: "Dongzhu Su, are you thinking about it?"
Seeing Zhu Hao's smug expression, Su Xigui glared back angrily, but felt calm in his heart.
Isn't this the last resort to pull down the business if you don't cooperate? After all, you are a child...inexperienced. Even if you are proud, you can't show it after you go back?
"I bought your snowflake salt, but you don't sell it locally?" Su Xigui asked.
Zhu Haodao: "Of course, if we have a market, why sell to the locals? Besides, ordinary people can't afford snowflake salt... We get the official salt from Dongzhu Su, and part of it is sold for retail, and the good salt is screened out
Leave it all to Dongzhu Su, after all, Dongzhu Su is rich and has many connections."
"Hmph!"
Su Xigui did not comment.
Zhu Hao struck while the iron was hot: "And we have thought about it. With our abilities, we are not qualified to do this business for a long time. As long as we cooperate with Dongzhu Su for a period of time and let us prop up the family business, I can sell the secret method of screening salt to
You... In this way, Dongzhu Su will be able to monopolize the Ming Dynasty snowflake salt market in a short time."
"Dongzhu Su, you have no reason to refuse, right?"
Su Xigui is an honest businessman.
As long as it's profitable, we can negotiate anything.
Under Zhu Hao's leadership, the supply and receipt agreement was quickly negotiated, and then Zhu Hao said: "Dr. Su, before the transaction starts, we have to borrow some money from you for turnover."
Su Xigui sneered: "You want to borrow money from me? Why?"
Zhu Haodao: "To be honest, my grandmother came to the door in the morning and offered to hand over forty taels to the family every month. If she failed to pay, the shop and the recipe would be taken away by her. We didn't borrow it in vain. We used the land and house contract to mortgage it and borrowed it all at once.
Two hundred taels...should be fine, right?"
Su Xigui thought carefully for a while, then nodded: "I have inquired about your family's situation. It is not a problem to sell the land and house for one thousand eight hundred taels, and it is no problem to borrow two hundred taels... Come, I will borrow two hundred taels."
Ten taels of silver, two hundred taels is a mortgage loan, twenty taels is considered a free gift..."
"Master, is this...not good?"
The accountant who came after hearing the news raised objections.
When it comes to borrowing money, it’s very important to get it back nine times a day. How can you give it away for free like this?
Even Zhu Niang was surprised.
Before coming, Zhu Hao mentioned that the next step must be to expand the business in order to cope with the increasingly severe pressure from the family. The more capital, the better. The Zhu family will not reason with you. They have agreed to pay forty yuan a month.
Two, seeing that May is coming to an end, it is impossible not to come and demand this month.
With the land and house as collateral, it was impossible for Su Xigui not to agree to the loan, but giving more than she expected.
"If Mr. Su is still open, then we will leave the land and house deeds, take away the money, and wish you a prosperous business."