The old lady did not stay overnight in the city. She asked Zhu Hao about his situation before leaving the city.
It was Zhu Niang who found a carriage to take her back to Zhuangzi outside the city. Obviously, including Butler Liu, she had lost the trust of the old lady. Before the spy was found, the Zhu family had to be on guard against anyone spying on the information again.
It was obviously Jin Yiwei who was investigating Prince Xing's Mansion, but he was led by others.
Zhu Hao thought for a while, maybe Lin Baihu didn't hide anything about Lu Song from the Zhu Jia family, but the Zhu Jia family strictly kept secrets internally and externally.
A bunch of cunning guys!
After seeing the old lady off, Zhu Hao unexpectedly discovered that there were quite a few people coming to buy salt that afternoon. In the past few days, there might not have been many people visiting. As a result, Zhu Hao just stayed at the shop for a while at dusk and saw no less than ten customers.
Come and buy salt.
This is almost back to the situation when the shop's business was at its peak.
After a customer left, Zhu Hao took the opportunity to ask: "Mom, has our shop's business been much better recently?"
Zhu Niang said with emotion: "I heard that it is very inconvenient to buy salt everywhere recently, and the court has increased taxes on salt. Only the salt in our shop is still sold at a fair price, so the neighbors naturally come to buy more."
Aunt Li said from the side: "I don't know why, the government is so good, why do they need to increase taxes?"
Zhu Hao understood the reason.
On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month in the ninth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, a fire broke out in the imperial palace, and many palaces including the Qianqing Palace were burned down. The emperor had a deadline of one year to complete the renovation of the palace. The imperial court not only increased taxes at various customs, but also imposed exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes on various prefectures, which made the people
There were complaints.
For a place like Huguang where the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, it takes several months for the imperial policies to have an impact. Now it is the autumn harvest, which is the time for autumn grain harvesting in various places. Governments at all levels open their mouths to harvest the wealth of the people, and official salt
As the necessities of life for the common people, it is natural to exploit them without mercy.
"Mom, not only is the tax on salt increased, I heard that the imperial court purchased stone and wood in Huguang, Sichuan and other places, and the price was much lower than usual. Most of them were transported to the capital at their own expense. It should be to build palaces and fortresses.
Well, everyone in Prince Xing’s Mansion has been talking about it recently.”
Zhu Hao gave "grapevine information" and explained the source.
Zhu Niang nodded, her expression became serious.
Aunt Li on the side asked: "Madam, shops selling salt everywhere are increasing their prices, should we follow suit?"
Zhu Niang said: "It's rare for the neighbors to give us orphans and widows a chance to start a business again. If we increase the price at this time and let the people eat expensive salt, wouldn't we be disrespecting the trust of the neighbors? We can't do this kind of thing."
Zhu Hao smiled and said: "Mom, it's right to be kind, but you can't abuse it. Dongzhu Su has a strong background. We get the goods from him, so we are not affected by the tax increase. Others are different.
"As for the trust of the neighbors... Isn't it because our salt has not been eaten by people in the past few months? The salt we sell is cheap, so they will buy it from us. If it is too cheap, it is not good. Our peers are enemies. Outside
Those selling salt will try their best to stumbling upon us, making it impossible to prevent us."
Zhu Hao just briefly analyzed the reasons why business is getting better and what to do next.
You can’t blindly keep the price the same, you still have to increase it, but you can’t increase it too much.
Aunt Li was still frightened: "Before, the salt sold in our shop was cheaper than other stores, which made our business prosperous and made a lot of income every month, so the family coveted it... Looking back now, this is not another important reason why we have attracted official trouble.
?”
Zhu Niang said: "Before, it was because of the prejudice against us in the clan, not because of pressure from our peers. We can just sell as usual and make less money...can't we make up for it elsewhere?"
Although Zhu Hao didn't say anything, he was still worried and decided to have a good talk with his stubborn mother no matter what before returning to the palace.
…
…
The next day, Zhu Hao stayed at home to help.
Zhu Niang always asked him to go to the backyard to study, but Zhu Hao moved around in the backyard on the grounds that he needed to relax his mind on his days off and help the family.
Then Yu San was called over, but it was Zhu Hao who had asked Xiaobai to notify him early in the morning, and called Yu San directly to the back alley.
"Brother Hao, what's wrong with you?"
Yu San wonders why Zhu Hao is so mysterious?
Zhu Hao said: "I want you to contact me and see if I can find a theater troupe. How boring would it be to just listen to a book? I want to find someone to act in a play. It's best to buy the theater troupe directly."
"ah?"
Yu Sanyi was astonished.
You are so ambitious, baby!
How much money did you make by opening a bookstore, but it has only been open for a few days? Now you can’t make that much, so you actually want to buy a theater company?
Who gave you the courage!
Do you know how much it costs to buy a theater company?
Zhu Hao said: "This time, I plan to let my mother invest. Anyway, you can help me find it."
Yu San asked: "Brother Hao, do you want to tell Madam about this?"
"It's up to me to tell you. You don't want my mother to know that you are also running a bookstore business while helping the shop, right? Then I'm afraid my mother will never use you again..."
Previously, Yu San warned Zhu Haoshao to listen to books, saying that Zhu Niang knew that the bookstore was doing a lot of business and planned to go and have a look.
But Yu San is obviously afraid that Zhu Niang will know that he is running the bookstore. You are working two jobs. Zhu Niang pays Yu San wages according to the standard of long-term workers, and also gives Yu San a large bonus every time he transports salt.
Unless Yu San plans to rely on bookstores to make a living from now on.
If the bookstore had just opened half a month ago and it was making a lot of money, Yu San might have put aside his work in the Zhu family and concentrated on running the bookstore.
But now he can see that the bookstore business has no future because there are too many people following the trend, and those people are rotten and dedicated to causing trouble for others.
"Go ahead, I will go to the bookstore in the evening for the next two days. If there is any news, the reporter will notify me in time. When I make up a few good plays, we will start. Let's see how those bookstores can compete with me!"
…
…
Zhu Hao wants to create a cultural one-stop service.
Talking about looking for Zhu Niang to invest is just a way to make Yu San feel at ease. Everything will be done after finding the troupe. Even if he is looking for investors, Zhu Hao prefers to look for investors in the palace. It is best...of course to look for Zhu Si.
Already.
It doesn't matter whether he makes money or not. What's important is that Zhu Si is exposed to the affairs of the market and tied to his own interests. By the way, Zhu Si knows that he is good at making money, and they can make money together after he ascends the throne in the future.
Before leaving in the afternoon, Zhu Hao pulled Zhu Niang into his room and explained the situation alone: "Mom, we can make money now, mainly because our salt is dried by ourselves. It seems to be blown by a strong wind. It looks white, but in fact
Hidden murderous intent... Isn't what we fear most is that someone has thoroughly studied the origin of our salt?"
Zhu Niang was silent for a moment.
"If we act independently and go against the market and sell salt at low prices, harming the interests of big salt merchants, they will definitely investigate us secretly and investigate our details. In the end, we will only suffer the loss... The gain is not worth the loss, mother.
."
Originally, Zhu Niang only wanted to take care of her neighbors, but after listening to Zhu Hao's words, she suddenly realized that she could run the neighborhood business, but she couldn't risk her own life and that of her children.
After finally stabilizing and making money wholesale snowflake salt, why would you put your family in danger for the sake of a dispensable retail business?
Zhu Haodao: "So we usually sell salt at a slightly lower price than the market price. Just don't always lift it higher when weighing it... What we want to do is long-term trading and understand the principles of gains and losses! In the worst case, the neighbors will be in trouble in the future. We will help each other.
In a calamity year, it’s just a matter of giving a lot of food.”
Zhu Niang was finally persuaded by her son and nodded: "Nang, I will put up the notice board tomorrow morning and the price will increase accordingly. Don't worry about your family affairs."
…
…
do not worry?
Easier said than done!
Zhu Hao knew very well that Zhu Niang was only suitable for honest neighborhood business and lacked decision-making when doing big things. At present, the salt vendor still had to make his own decisions, and only he had the ability to support himself.
Returning to the palace, Jinghong did not come back that night.
Instead, Lu Song came to Zhu Hao with some news.
"...I heard that Zhang Zhong, the imperial eunuch, will arrive in Anlu in a few days... He is coming from Jiangxi. Based on his relationship with the admiral eunuch of Dongchang, I am afraid he will interfere with the affairs of Prince Xing's Mansion."
Emperor Zhengde had many traitors, and one of them was the eunuch Zhang Zhong.
This Zhang Zhong, together with Zhang Rui, the eunuch of Dongchang, and Zhang Xiong, the eunuch of Bingbi, the eunuch of Li, were known as the "Three Zhangs". During the Zhengde period, they were the leaders among the eunuchs. Even though their status could not be compared with those of Qian Ning and Jiang Bin, they were still
It was enough to shock the officialdom.
There are thousands or hundreds of households under the command of the eunuch of Dongchang. According to the "Ming Dynasty Criminal Law Chronicles", "There are no dedicated officials in Dongchang. One person in charge of punishment is one for each thousand households, and one person for each hundred households is responsible for the punishment. It is also called post punishment, and all are guards."
.All his subordinates were given to Yu Wei..." This means that the people in charge of the governor are all from Jinyiwei. Generally speaking, the Dongchang admiral and eunuch is a parallel or even higher level existence than the Jinyiwei commander. For ordinary people,
Jin Yiwei has the right to lead.
Zhu Hao asked: "Is this what Lin Baihu told you?"
Lu Song shook his head and said: "The news came from the palace. It is said that Zhang Zhong came here to supervise the transportation of wood and stones."
The imperial palace was renovating the palace, and the imperial court allocated a large amount of money to purchase earth and stone. There was sufficient oil and water, and there were many opportunities to recruit and recruit others. The eunuchs were all competing for this lucrative position. The fact that Zhang Zhong was able to get this opportunity to go out of the capital showed that the emperor valued him. This guy went to Jiangxi first.
King Ning was extorting a lot of money. When King Ning resumed his guard in the middle of the year, a group of ministers around the emperor contributed a lot. How could they get less of the share given by Zhu Chenhao when they came to the place?
"Lu Dianzhan told me such important news because he wanted me to inform the outside world? Didn't Lu Dianzhan mention this to Lin Baihu?"
Zhu Hao asked nonchalantly.
Lu Song said: "I believe that the Jin Yiwei side will get the news soon. We don't need to pass it on. I just want to know whether your Zhu family will receive Zhang Zhong?"
Zhu Hao spread his hands: "Where can I go to find out? Besides, is this Eunuch Zhang familiar with our Zhu family...?"
Lu Song looked over with an "unspeakable" expression.
Zhu Hao could only understand: I know the current situation of your Zhu family. You are trying to maintain relationships for the sake of your eldest son who is being held hostage in the capital. Since Zhang Zhong is passing through Anlu, the Zhu family will not take the opportunity to curry favor after learning the news?
"To take a step back, even if the Zhu family really has some ideas to curry favor with this Eunuch Zhang, the question is, what impact will it have on Lu Dianzhan? Could it be that Lu Dianzhan wants to leak this news so that people know that the Zhu family and the DPRK are
The treacherous and traitorous people have been so close that they have attracted the Qing Dynasty to criticize my Zhu family, and then successfully driven the Zhu family out of Anlu?"
Zhu Hao speaks sharply.
It wasn't that he had to be direct with Lu Song, but that the other party frequently showed off his sword. If he was still timid and ignorant, I wonder what Lu Song would do to him.
Lu Song said: "I have informed you of the news. What you do is up to you... But when Zhang Zhong arrives in Anlu, Prince Xing's Mansion cannot ignore it. If you want to send information out, I may be able to help you."
Zhu Hao smiled and shook his head: "No need, my mission is to go to the palace and study honestly, other things... have nothing to do with me."