Jinyi champion

Chapter 248
Xingwang Mansion, study room.

Zhang Zuo routinely reported to Xing Wang Zhu Youzhao about the purchase of the palace and future suppliers, emphatically explaining the main shipping and purchase channels of the palace, from Su Xigui who had just signed a contract, to Zhu Niang's mother and son. When he reported, Yuan Zonggao attended listen in.

After Zhang Zuo finished speaking, Yuan Zonggao questioned cautiously: "The one surnamed Su is one of the top merchants in Huguang. It is understandable to do business with him. Why do you have business with the local Zhu family? Isn't it controlled by others? "

In Yuan Zonggao's view, no matter how close the relationship between Zhu Niang's mother and son is with the palace, they are always from Jinyiwei.

The prince's mansion's invitation of Zhu Hao to study in the prince's mansion is already giving enough face regardless of previous suspicions, but if the economic lifeline of the prince's mansion is firmly tied to the Zhu family, he, Yuan Zonggao, is not in favor of it.

Zhang Zuo smiled and said: "Yuan Changshi is overthinking. In name, the palace is doing business with the third wife of the Zhu family. In fact, it is still Su Dangjia who is doing business with us... The Huang Fantai behind him will enter the court next year as the right servant of the household department. It’s just to avoid suspicion at such a critical time.”

Yuan Zonggao shook his head: "Since we want to avoid suspicion, why did he come to Anlu specially to discuss cooperation with the palace?"

When Zhang Zuo heard this, his face suddenly became ugly, and his smile froze.

Seeing that his right and left men tended to fight, Zhu Youtang hurriedly raised his hand to interrupt the conversation between the two.

Zhu Youzhao said: "This brother-in-law of Huang Fantai has some other purpose?"

Zhang Zuo said: "My lord, Su Dang's business has become more and more frequent with the local merchants in Anlu. He has been purchasing the glazed mirrors made by Mrs. Zhu's third wife's workshop. This time, the palace is not enough to transport the nine borders. The prices are all supplied at the lowest price in the market, and the Wangfu did not suffer any losses when doing business with it, and even made a lot of money for nothing..."

These words of his seemed to be for Zhu Youzhao, but rather to refute Yuan Zonggao's point of view.

In the business dealings between Wang Fu and Su Xigui, what he did was not a loss-making business, but a huge profit.

With such a good partner, it is natural to maintain it, even if there are multiple middlemen on the surface, it is no big deal.

Yuan Zonggao said: "Xing Wang's Mansion has a special status in the court now, if it is attacked at this time and has secretly communicated with the Huguang Fantai, I'm afraid it will be detrimental to Xing Wang's Mansion."

Zhang Zuo said eagerly: "Yuan Changshi, the status of our palace in the court is well known by the officials and the people, isn't it because His Majesty has no heirs yet?
"You want to say that Master Su's family has ulterior motives, and our family has no objection, but even if there is, the palace has not lost money, on the contrary, it has thought carefully, fearing that there will be a direct connection between the palace and Huang Fantai, and specially entrusted the business to those who have business dealings with him. Mrs. Zhu's third wife, such a person...you declined, who would dare to approach the palace after that?"

The two were just arguing before, but now they are facing each other and not giving in to each other.

Yuan Zonggao sighed lightly.

At such times, Zhang Zuo refused to give an inch, and Yuan Zonggao, as an official of the royal family, could only choose to actively avoid the quarrel.

Zhu Youzhu thought for a while and said, "As Yuan Changshi said, it is indeed inappropriate for the Wangfu's position to have contacts with the local vassal. But since the people who have business dealings with the Wangfu now are members of the Jinyiwei Qianhu Zhu family, it should be no big deal. If you really need to avoid suspicion, you should reduce the transaction amount with him as much as possible."

Each played [-] big boards, and each adopted part of the opinions.

But in the end, Zhu Youzhu still tended to support Zhang Zuo's point of view.

It's not that Zhu Youzhao is biased, but in his opinion, Zhang Zuo's opinion is more tricky and easier to accept.

You, Yuan Zonggao, said that Huang Zan and Su Xigui had ulterior motives and wanted to use trade means to take advantage of the opportunity to get close to King Xing's Mansion. This is no problem. People know that there may be real dragons coming out of King Xing's Mansion to flatter you. That's their business.

If it were any other official, the palace might not accept it, but just treat him coldly and ignore him.

But the problem is that now the other party is the local political envoy, a provincial parent official, and in the future he will be the right servant of the household department, a new rich man in the court...

Such a person, who took the initiative to send tangible benefits, and thought carefully about finding a middleman to supply the goods on his behalf, so that if he wanted to avoid the palace, then the palace would simply close its doors to thank guests and ignore world affairs!
It's not that Huang Zan came to visit in person, or left any evidence of collusion between the palace and the local government.

Yuan Zonggao saw the tendency of King Xing, so he stopped arguing.

This involves the question of who is more highly valued by the master, Xibin or a house slave. No matter how you say it, Zhang Zuo is a house slave of the palace, and Yuan Zonggao is just an official appointed by the court to the palace.

In the past, Yuan Zonggao's advice to Xing Wangfu was indispensable, but now that there are "capable people" in the palace, he is no longer irreplaceable, and Xing Wang will not hurt Zhang Zuo's heart for his face at this time .

……

……

Zhu Niang took over the import and export business of the palace, and even King Xing himself agreed, and with the help of Su Xigui's treasurer Ma and others, the handover went very smoothly.

Zhang Zuo came to see Zhu Niang in person when the king's mansion purchased goods.

Explain in detail the products that the palace needs to purchase recently, and give the list to Zhu Niang. In addition to giving Zhu Niang a certain amount of time to prepare, she also needs to get a quotation from Zhu Niang.

"Third Madam, you are a chaste woman bestowed by the imperial court. If you have anything to do in the future, let the people below do it, so as not to attract criticism. Our family usually does not come here in person. If there is something urgent to do, we will directly contact you. Your son said, do you like it?" Zhang Zuo asked politely.

Speaking of which, Zhang Zuo is a real person, and has no personal interests with him. I laugh with you haha, but it is absolutely impossible to get close; if you are a friend of interests, you will still smile when you give me benefits, and you will give them in every way. take care of.

In short, I don't offend others, let alone take the initiative to tear my face.

Zhu Niang was a little uneasy when dealing with Zhang Zuo, but when she got to know Zhang Zuo a lot, she found out that Zhang Zuo was a very easy-going person, and then she thought about whether she had treated Zhang Zuo badly, and in what ways she needed to make compensation.

Zhu Niang didn't answer yet, Zhu Hao who was listening on the side smiled and reminded: "Mother, Zhang Fengzheng is asking you something."

"Row."

Zhu Niang answered quickly.

Zhang Zuo smiled and looked at Zhu Hao, with admiration in his eyes: "Young Master Zhu, you must study hard recently, and pass the county and government examinations in the next year, so that your mother will have a good time, and I will also give to the prince and the princess. Set an example...Young talent, where can I find such a good kid?"

After some compliments, Zhu Hao felt a little embarrassed, but he knew that Zhang Zuo's words contained deep meaning.

What is the standard of a good boy?It is not a talent, but to be good at adapting to the situation, knowing how to assess the situation, and knowing the purpose of our family coming here.

Since our family will not go out easily, whenever you come in person, you should know that it is best to put money in our arms.

After Zhang Zuo finished speaking and wanted to leave, Zhu Niang hurriedly handed the prepared wooden box to Zhu Hao, meaning to ask Zhu Hao to see off the guests.

Zhu Hao chased to the door with the wooden box in his arms and handed it to Zhang Zuo: "Zhang Fengzheng, my mother asked me to give it to you."

"Oh, what's the point of this?"

He said he was embarrassed, but he didn't evade it at all, and opened the wooden box to look at it on the spot.

Seeing that there were ten official silver ingots weighing five taels inside, Zhang Zuo smiled happily.

For him, naturally he dare not ask for too much at once, fifty taels is not a small number.

Zhang Zuo sighed: "Zhu Hao, tell your mother that if you quote the price correctly, our family will not let you suffer, but the palace can't suffer any losses either. This year, the palace will contribute money and efforts to the court. Sad."

The implication is that you don't have to hold down the price like Su Xigui, you can raise the price a little bit.

I took your money, so I can turn a blind eye.

But you can't go too far, the palace has lost money, and even I can't afford it, and it's both of us who will suffer.

……

……

Zhang Zuo took fifty taels of silver as a benefit fee, which was equivalent to eating at both ends, Su Xigui got one piece, Zhu Niang got one piece here, and he took all the benefits.

Seeing off Zhang Zuo, Zhu Niang felt uneasy.

"Xiaohao, I will give fifty taels of silver when you come up, can we... earn it back?" Zhu Niang looked puzzled.

It's not good not to give, and it's not good to give less. We all know that Zhang Zuo loves money. Don't you want to do business with him?

Even if it is for her son not to be bullied in the palace, she will pay the money.

Zhu Hao smiled and said, "Mother, do you know how many goods the palace buys from outside every year, and how much is it worth?"

Zhu Niang thought about it and asked tentatively, "Worth... tens of thousands of taels?"

"It's not that much, but the annual expenditure of the palace is seven or eight thousand taels of silver. These expenses are mainly allocated by the imperial court, and there are also farmland rent taxes collected by the palace itself. There are hundreds of officials and guards in the palace alone. People need to support... In terms of food, the palace can basically be self-sufficient, but the palace doesn't produce other things, so they can only buy them from outside."

Zhu Hao told Zhu Niang about the situation of doing business with the palace.

Zhu Niang frowned and said, "There is only seven or eight thousand taels of business a year, so how much can you earn?"

Zhu Hao said: "Maybe you don't earn a penny, maybe you can earn a hundred and eighty taels!"

"what?"

Zhu Niang was very surprised.

Giving Zhang Zuosai money is just to make him more flexible, so that he can make money from the palace, but his son said that he will not make money or make less money, so why take over this business?

Zhu Hao smiled and said: "Mother, what we have to do is to let the palace leave us... the palace has to rely on us for food, clothing, shelter and transportation everywhere. If they buy from outside, it will cost them more money. Slowly they It will cut off the supply chain of other merchants. If this continues, as long as we don't supply, the daily expenses of the Palace will be difficult to maintain... Of course, the final cost will not be borne by us, but Su Dongzhu, who is behind the scenes. cargo man."

"That's right, we are only helping Su Dongzhu to do business with the palace, and the only way to make money is through other merchants."

Only now did Zhu Niang react.

As a middleman, what are you doing with the leisure of both sides of the trade?

Zhu Haodao: "When the Wangfu cannot do without us, the economic lifeline of the Wangfu will be in the hands of the mother... Not only the Wangfu will rely on our mother and son, but the grandmother will also have to act according to our face... Controlling the economic lifeline of the Wangfu is tantamount to doing things for the family. My future is paved, mother."

Zhu Niang was very surprised.

It's just doing business with the palace, and there is such a miraculous effect?
It not only made the palace rely heavily on it, made the Zhu family dare not take action against the Sanfang people, but also made the son take the imperial examination and even inherit the family's Jinyiwei position as a pavement...

One day to reach such a state, whether to make money or not, seems to be a secondary issue.

(End of this chapter)