Four hundred and thirtieth IX open and secret struggle
Although His Majesty Li Er was depressed about Yang Fan's behavior that deserved a beating, there was nothing he could do about it.
Fang Xuanling on the side did not dare to sit and watch. These two were enemies, and they were always at odds with each other every time they met.
Although Li Er is the emperor, Yang Fan is not a vegetarian.
As long as Li Er does not appear as the emperor, Yang Fan will not treat Li Er as the emperor.
In order to ease the antagonism between the two, Fang Xuanling quickly smoothed things over and said: "Ahem... you two, we still have something to do, should we talk about business first?"
Yang Fan waved his hand for the two of them to sit down and said jokingly: "Old Fang! You are such a good prime minister... you run to my house whenever something happens. Who is the prime minister? Why don't you abdicate and let me be the prime minister?"
never mind!"
Fang Xuanling didn't mind, and immediately counterattacked: "Anyway, I am getting old, and I am preparing to retire and return to my hometown. Since my nephew is so interested, and I am also thinking of taking a break, why don't I write a memorial to resign when I get back?"
After saying that, Fang Xuanling looked at His Majesty Li Er with a smile.
Unexpectedly, Fang Xuanling, who has always been upright, actually made a joke. Yang Fan waved his hands and smiled bitterly: "No... I want to have a few more years of leisure. Besides, my shoulders are not broad enough to carry such a heavy responsibility."
Seeing Yang Fan's disgusted look, His Majesty Li Er felt a little depressed!
What does this guy think of being the Prime Minister? Does he really think he can do it with a little talent?
A person who can become a prime minister must have strict requirements on his personal words and deeds in addition to his ability.
People like Yang Fan who get into trouble every day have no chance of becoming prime minister!
What's even more ridiculous is that Yang Fan also showed his disgust, which immediately made His Majesty Li Er very angry. He snorted and said displeasedly: "You kid, don't raise your tail, although your talent and ability are among the top among the younger generation.
, but if you want to take on the important responsibilities of the imperial court, you still need a few more years of training."
"What's more, you need to take care of yourself first. It's still too early to take charge of the entire court affairs! But you have a lot of weird ideas."
"Now there is a problem with the imperial examination books and school supplies we sell."
"People from the aristocratic family mobilized ordinary people to rush to buy them. All kinds of books and school supplies that were distributed every day were sold out in almost an hour."
"Almost all of the people rushing to buy school supplies are not scholars, but the scholars who really need to take the imperial examination cannot buy them."
"Although I know that the aristocratic family is causing trouble, I can't find any conclusive evidence. Do you have any way to solve it?"
"In addition, the speed at which we print books can fully meet the demand. Now that the imperial examination is getting closer, should we start to increase sales to meet the needs of poor students?"
Hearing this, Yang Fan was not surprised, because he had already expected that the family would not stand idly by.
But the power of these aristocratic families still made him a little stunned.
It's really scary to be able to use his power to prevent poor students from buying books.
No wonder His Majesty Li Er has been thinking of weakening the power of the family. These people are so arrogant!
How dare you blatantly challenge the imperial power? As long as you are a capable king, no one can let him go.
After pondering for a moment, Yang Fan asked: "How many sets of imperial examination books have been sold so far? How many are still in stock?"
Fang Xuanling immediately replied: "According to the plan, a total of 10,000 sets of imperial examination books will be distributed to all states in the Tang Dynasty every day. A total of 150,000 sets have been sold, and there are still about 100,000 sets left. Various
School supplies are also distributed according to quantity, and there is still a lot of stock."
"These aristocratic families are really rich." Yang Fan muttered to himself, but he said: "Starting from tomorrow, the number of imperial examination books distributed by the imperial court to various states will be reduced by 1,000 sets every day until it is reduced to 5,000 sets.
Other school supplies will be half off starting tomorrow.”
Hearing Yang Fan's words of not increasing but decreasing, His Majesty Li Er and Fang Xuan looked at each other, feeling a little confused.
What's happening here?
If they were not sure that Yang Fan would not collude with the aristocratic family, they would really think that Yang Fan was bribed by the aristocratic family.
Even so, His Majesty Li Er still asked displeasedly: "You'd better give me a reason, otherwise... hum!"
Fang Xuanling also looked at Yang Fan with confusion, obviously wanting to find out.
Looking at His Majesty Li Er, who was praised as wise and powerful by the history books, and then at the extremely smart Fang Xuanling, Yang Fan was speechless.
These two people also claimed to be the top talents in the Tang Dynasty, but they were too stupid.
I really want to breathe over their heads and make them enlightened.
But Yang Fan also knew that this was not feasible, so he had no choice but to look at the two of them as if they were looking at fools.
Seeing Yang Fan's expression, His Majesty Li Er became a little angry and asked angrily: "What's your expression like? If you can't tell me one, two, three, I'll kill you if I don't."
"I think you are hopelessly stupid!" Yang Fan shook his head and explained: "These aristocratic families are willing to spend money to buy these imperial examination books and school supplies because they assume that our production capacity is limited and the production cost is high.
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"If we increase the distribution of books, they will definitely find out the clues and throw out the books in their hands. Wouldn't this be an advantage for them?"
"You know, these aristocratic families are very good people. Now they spend a lot of money to buy our low-cost things. If we don't cooperate, wouldn't we be sorry to them?"
These words immediately confused His Majesty Li Er, and his mind was still a little confused.
On the contrary, Fang Xuanling's eyes lit up, as if he thought of something, but he didn't fully understand it, so he asked impatiently: "My dear nephew, please stop playing riddles and explain it quickly."
Yang Fan stopped trying to be pretentious and analyzed: "In my estimation, the total number of scholars in the Tang Dynasty is only 30,000 to 400,000, and those who took the imperial examination are only tens of thousands. Adding in some who are preparing to take the exam, there are only tens of thousands at most."
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"If we only rely on the purchasing power of these people, how many sets of imperial examination books and various school supplies can we sell?"
"But now, in order to prevent poor people from buying books, those aristocratic families actually mobilize the people to buy books and school supplies. Isn't this just giving us money?"
"The cost of printing our books and various school supplies is so low. If we sell more, it will not only increase our income, but also take a piece of meat out of the mouths of aristocratic families. Why not?"
"Only if we make them believe that our production capacity is at the end of its rope, will the family go crazy to monopolize it."
With this explanation, His Majesty Li Er thought about it again and it seems that this is really what happened.
Nowadays, the aristocratic family has a monopoly on these books, and the purpose is self-evident, which is to prevent the progress of the imperial examination reform and to see Li Er's jokes.
This time, not only did Yang Fan make more money, but the imperial court also made a lot more money from the wealthy family's pockets.
Nowadays, the profit from a book is more than four thousand yuan, which is simply a huge profit, not to mention the income from school supplies such as paper, pen, inkstone and so on.
It's a great thing to be able to get a large amount of money from aristocratic families this time.
If you want to prevent the aristocratic family from discovering Duan Sui, you have to act like Yang Fan said, and you must look like you are about to be overwhelmed.
This kid's mind really moves very fast, and many of his ideas are so wild and unconstrained that people can fall into them without even realizing it.
It seems that I came to the right place to ask for advice this time!
If they follow their own nature and directly increase sales, these aristocratic families may soon find out that they have fallen into the trap.
But His Majesty Li Er always felt that something was wrong. After pondering for a long time, he asked: "If, as you said, those children from poor families who really want to buy books will not be able to buy books, won't this delay their future?
You must know that the Spring Wei Imperial Examination is only over three months away."
Yang Fan smiled and said: "Actually, those who bought the imperial examination books this year are actually for the imperial examination the year after next, and they will not have a big impact on this year's imperial examination."
"Therefore, real talents can get good grades without these reference books."
"Besides, most of the interpretations and translations of the imperial examination books we sell have not changed. The students who took the imperial examination this year have learned everything they should learn."
"What's more, with our printing speed and inventory, and based on the current number of scholars in Datang, we can print enough books in less than a month, even if it's a set for each household."
"Since the aristocratic family wants to monopolize books, we will use their money to increase production."
"I just want to whet their appetite and let them buy more books. I want to see how many more books they can eat. Besides, what's the harm if they eat them all?"
"After one month at most, we will deliver the packages directly to the students who are studying. Anyway, the money used is raised from the aristocratic family."
"Moreover, the more the family buys now, the more we will earn and the more funds we will spend on the reform of the imperial examination. Are we still afraid that money will bite us?"
"Besides, isn't the purpose of the imperial court to suppress the arrogance of the aristocratic family? Let them lose more money, which can not only improve the situation of the poor students, but also cause the aristocratic family a lot of pain."
After listening to Yang Fan's explanation, His Majesty Li Er blinked his eyes. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that what Yang Fan said made sense.
Only by whetting the appetite of aristocratic families can these families invest enough money to purchase books and school supplies.
The more aristocratic families buy, the more money the court will make?
In this way, the aristocratic family was weakened in disguise, and the court made a huge fortune, so why not?
When aristocratic families cannot resist, the imperial court can take a strike and reduce prices again or give away free books to students who cannot afford them.
The imperial court only needs to increase production, and it will use the money earned from these aristocratic families anyway.
In this way, the court can not only gain a good reputation, but also harm the aristocratic family. It is simply killing two birds with one stone.
After thinking about it for a long time, His Majesty Li Er asked excitedly: "Then what should we pay attention to now? How can we get as much money as possible from the aristocratic family?"
Yang Fan chuckled: "Then it all depends on your Majesty's acting skills! See how you raise money and borrow money from the ministers of the DPRK. The national treasury will suffer a lot from printing books."
"The treasury did not lose money printing books, so why did it need to borrow money from the ministers?" His Majesty Li Er was slightly stunned, his face full of doubts.
Fang Xuanling asked with some uncertainty: "Xiannephew, do you mean to create an illusion for the aristocratic family, making them think that the imperial court emptied the treasury to print books?"
Yang Fan showed a teachable expression and said: "Yes, the reason why these aristocratic families buy books in large quantities is probably because they saw that the imperial examination books we printed are extremely beautiful, so they thought that our production cost was much higher than the selling price.
"
"They should use their manufacturing costs to calculate our costs, thinking that we are trading at a loss, and want to use this method to defeat us and prevent the imperial examination reform from being implemented."
After listening to Yang Fan's words, His Majesty Li Er murmured to himself: "Aren't the people from these aristocratic families too self-righteous?"
Yang Fan did not reply, but Fang Xuanling seemed to have figured out the key to all the problems and explained:
"Your Majesty, this is actually easy to understand. Papermaking, printing and various school supplies were all produced and sold by the family in the past. These are the areas in which they are extremely good at."
"In the field that a person is good at, there is always an indelible confidence. These aristocratic families will never believe that our rain manufacturing technology can surpass them, and surpass them by so much all at once."
"If we calculate based on their previous manufacturing costs, our current selling price must be a loss-making transaction."
After hearing Fang Xuanling's explanation, His Majesty Li Er finally came to his senses.
No wonder the aristocratic family worked so hard to mobilize people to buy these books.
The fact should be that as Yang Fan said, these aristocratic families misjudged the situation.
Of course, this is not because these aristocratic families are too stupid, it can only be said that these aristocratic families are used to being aloof and are too conceited!
Throughout the ages, aristocratic families have been the inheritors and controllers of knowledge. Various crafts related to reading and the most advanced technologies are in the hands of aristocratic families.
Of course they would not believe that anyone could reduce the cost of papermaking and printing by nearly one percent.
If he had not seen it with his own eyes, His Majesty Li Er would not believe such a ridiculous thing.
I think when Yang Fan told her, His Majesty Li Er didn't believe it and even lost a daughter to Yang Fan to "marry" Princess Gaoyang.
It seems that these aristocratic families will also fall into Yang Fan's hands.
However, His Majesty Li Er was happy to see it this time.
It can only be said that Yang Fan is too evil.
Who would have thought that this kid Yang Fan could do so much, he would be able to reach heaven!
After thinking about this, His Majesty Li Er was completely relieved.
If this is true, they really have to pretend again and let those aristocratic families continue to rush to buy all kinds of school supplies.
Not only is this not a bad thing, but it is a good opportunity to weaken the family.
Unexpectedly, Yang Fan grinned, showing his big white teeth, and said: "Actually, I think we can use some small tricks to make these families believe in it, and even lose all their money."
After saying that, Yang Fan smiled happily, but Fang Xuanling felt his hair standing on end.
Because every time I see Yang Fan’s smile, someone is going to be in trouble!
Obviously, the unlucky target this time is a noble family.
His Majesty Li Er disapproved of Yang Fan's slightly sinister smile, and even liked it quite a bit.
Who makes him the most eager to see the decline of the family...
Seeing His Majesty Li Er's eager expression, Fang Xuanling hurriedly asked: "My dear nephew, just tell us how we can cooperate."
Yang Fan smiled and said: "We must do a few things well, but we still need everyone's full cooperation."
His Majesty Li Er waved his hand and said proudly: "You just need to come in. If it can be solved, we will solve it for you on the spot. If it can't be solved, we will find a way to help you solve it."
Yang Fan narrowed his eyes and said loudly:
"Your Majesty can post the imperial list and say that the imperial court has mastered advanced papermaking and printing technology. The cost of books is very low. People who are not in a hurry to take the imperial examination should not rush to buy books. In the future, if conditions permit, the imperial court will lower the price again. Don't blindly buy books.
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"At the same time, the gentry and merchants in Chang'an City were asked to raise funds, saying that it was to make all school-age children in the Tang Dynasty literate, and the money was used to open schools in various states..."
"As long as you do what you just said and these points, what do you think the family will think?"
His Majesty Li Er clapped his hands and chuckled: "Let's put it this way, these aristocratic families will definitely think that the imperial court is bluffing. They will only think that the imperial court is out of money, and instead they will intensify their efforts to buy books and school supplies."
Fang Xuanling took it seriously, stroked his beard and nodded:
"Your Majesty is right, the aristocratic family will definitely fall into trouble, but this is exactly the trap set by Marquis Zhongyi!"
"Well, luckily we are friends on the same front. If we were enemies, I can't imagine the consequences. This plan is too insidious!"
His Majesty Li Er also nodded in agreement: "Although your boy is not very good at doing business, his crooked ways are not humorous at all. He is simply bad, but I like it..."
The words of the two people made Yang Fan extremely depressed. Is this a compliment or a detriment?
His Majesty Li Er works very efficiently!
Early the next morning, it was announced that the imperial court had mastered the new printing technology, and at the same time warned the people not to rush to buy imperial examination books.
Fang Xuanling even suggested that everyone donate money and materials to build schools in various places so that school-age children can learn literacy.
This operation seems to be a deception.
Yang Fan, on his side, asked the Information Department to explain why he wanted to reduce the sale of imperial examination books. The reason was of course high-sounding.
These measures taken by the imperial court gave rise to different interpretations from all walks of life.
The people who really wanted to study were overjoyed and rushed to tell each other.
Some nobles and noble families who remained neutral were confused.
But inside the Cui Mansion, it was very lively at this time. The children of various aristocratic families were drinking and having fun, and the tense atmosphere of the previous two gatherings was completely gone.
Cui Yonghui put down his wine glass and said with a smug smile: "His Majesty Li Er seems to have reached the end of his rope. He actually wants to use a deception method to ask everyone to raise funds to protect the high cost of printing books. Unfortunately, he takes it for granted."
"According to internal information, Li Er is so anxious now that he secretly started borrowing money from the ministers' mansions in order to fool us. How can it be so easy?"
Zheng Kai's face was already red at this time, and he echoed: "Brother Cui Yong is right. Li Er is so pretentious, which further confirms our guess and shows that what we did is right."
"The imperial court's finances are obviously almost unsustainable. There is still a long way to go to fight us. Please work harder!"
Cui Yonghui turned to Lu Shanchen and said: "Brother Lu, when the national treasury cannot support it, the imperial examination books will still have to be printed."
"His Majesty Li Er will definitely be asking for help from the Lu family. Has Brother Lu figured out what to do?"
These aristocratic families unite mainly to regain control of their voice.
In Cui Yonghui's view, the overall situation has been decided and victory is in sight.
Lu Shanchen took a sip of wine and said happily: "After our Lu family takes over, we will still follow the old routine. As long as students who have good relations with our family, the price will be restored to the original price, and the price of other mud legs will be doubled. This still requires everyone's support."
Cooperate!"
After he finished speaking, the other people couldn't help but echoed in agreement.
After a while, Wang Lun said with a gloomy face: "Everyone, we must not take it lightly this time, especially Marquis Zhongyi, that boy cannot be underestimated."
"However, as long as we work together and bring down the imperial treasury, Li Er will have to compromise with us. Even a small minister of the Ministry of Rites can't do anything about it."
Zheng Kai nodded and said: "Yes, we have to work harder and continue to send more manpower to purchase various school supplies in large quantities. Let's see how long Li Er can sustain it!"
Everyone was talking to each other, as if they were sure of victory, but they didn't know they had become prey.