Take the warehouse back to the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 139 The Auction Begins

"Then I won't talk nonsense. The auction will start now. For every share that is offered, the highest bidder will get it." Zhao Wen sat on a chair and waved to Liu Wenzhong beside him.

Liu Wenzhong nodded understandingly, and then said: "Now the auction begins. The first share, the base price is 1 taels of silver, and each price increase must not be less than 500 taels of silver, let's start!"

Liu Wenzhong stood behind a table in the middle of the hall, holding a small wooden hammer in his hand.When he finished speaking, he knocked on the table.

"1000 taels!"

Just as Liu Wenzhong's small wooden hammer fell, a middle-aged man standing beside the hall raised his hand and said hastily.

"A man surnamed Wu wants to get a share for 1000 taels of silver? What a joke, I'll offer 5000 taels."

A middle-aged man standing opposite the middle-aged businessman and wearing a world-unifying hat said with a sneer on his face.

The Shanxi merchants sat on the chairs with indifferent faces, quietly watching them fight.

For them, it's just an appetizer.

Shanxi merchants are not ready to sell until the prices offered by those weak merchants reach their limit.

"Thirty-two thousand taels!"

The first share was quickly added to 5000 taels of silver, and the meaning of this first share was different from the subsequent shares.

What Chinese people pay attention to is a good start and taking the first place. Just this tradition, even in later generations, is also enthusiastically sought after by Chinese people.

"4 taels!"

Fan Zheng said calmly without raising his eyelids.

It seems that the 4 taels of silver are just a small amount that cannot be smaller for him.

Cao Fugui looked at Fan Zheng, smiled slightly and said, "In the past few months, shopkeeper Fan has earned a lot of money by relying on cement. The 4 taels of silver is nothing to shopkeeper Fan."

"If you want to increase the price, you can do it yourself, you don't need to disgust me." Fan Zheng glanced at Cao Fugui lightly, and said flatly.

"If that's the case, then I won't be polite. 5 taels!"

Cao Fugui bowed his hands to Fan Zheng and said with a smile.

As soon as 5 taels came out, the entire hall fell into silence.

The small merchants who joined together were so frightened by such a price that they froze there one by one, not daring to raise the price.

Kong Zhongming, the head shopkeeper of the Kong family, said with a sullen face, "Brother Cao, don't let your guard down. I offer 6 taels."

As soon as Kong Zhongming finished speaking, the whole hall was filled with the sound of gasping for air.

It is said that Shanxi merchants are rich. I didn't think of it before, but when I saw it today, it was as expected.

This isn't an auction, it's all about fighting for wealth.

Those standing in the hall looked at the Shanxi merchants sitting on the chairs in shock, and they were so shocked that they couldn't speak.

Cao Fugui looked at Kong Zhongming with hatred, gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, you're fine!"

Kong Zhongming smiled slightly and said, "I have accepted it!"

Liu Wenzhong saw that no one raised the price in the hall, so he knocked on the table and asked, "Is there any price increase? Is there?"

Liu Wenzhong asked three or four times, but no one raised the price, so he knocked the small wooden hammer on the table heavily, and said in a deep voice, "Congratulations to Kong Zhongming, the shopkeeper of the Kong family, for getting the first share of 6 taels of silver!"

Kong Zhongming stood up, clasped his fists at everyone, and said with a smile: "It's really a concession, a concession."

Zhao Wen looked at Kong Zhongming and smiled like a flower, his mouth was wide open but never closed.

These Shanxi merchants are really rich, I just drew a big cake, and I can attract so many people to snatch it, tsk tsk tsk, it's really unexpected, unexpected.

"Next is the second share and the third share. These two shares will be auctioned together. The base price is 2 taels of silver, and each price increase should not be less than 1000 taels of silver. Let's start now." Liu Wenzhong knocked on the table heavily, loudly shouted.

When Liu Wenzhong's voice fell, everyone in the hall widened their eyes and looked at Liu Wenzhong in disbelief.

Auctioning two shares at a time, if you win it this time, wouldn't it be a big profit?
For a time, the minds of countless people were mobilized.

They were short of breath, their eyes were scarlet, and they looked at Liu Wenzhong with great excitement.

The merchants in the entire hall fell into a deathly silence, and no one dared to speak first.

"Since this town is here today, we can't help but praise me, brother Zhao Wenzhao. This town will pay 3 taels of silver." Lu Daliang looked at the silent hall and said.

"5 taels!" Fan Zheng opened his eyes, looking as if he was determined to win.

"6 taels!" Cao Fugui said excitedly with a hot light shining on his face.

Qiao Liang, the shopkeeper of the Qiao family, looked at the two people who were fighting, and said, "8 taels!"

"10 taels!" Fan Zheng sat up straight and cast a cold glance at Qiao Liang.

"13 taels!" Cao Fugui gritted his teeth and hissed.

"15 taels!"

Fan Zheng directly raised the price to 15 taels.

The shopkeepers of other Shanxi merchant families all looked at Fan Zheng with resentment. If Fan Zheng and Zhao Wennai were not the chief shopkeepers of the cement factory and earned a lot of money, would he be able to offer such a high price?

15 taels, this is a sky-high price.

Lu Daliang looked at Fan Zheng resentfully, his heart was full of bitterness.

"15 taels, 15 taels, does anyone raise the price?" Liu Wenzhong looked at the crowd and shouted loudly.

Where Liu Wenzhong looked, everyone lowered their heads, not daring to look at each other.

Just kidding, who can outrank Fan Zheng's?
The auction in the hall continued non-stop, and after an hour, the auction finally ended.

Liu Wenzhong sat in front of the table, and with the help of several stewards who came to Xuanfu with him, he made a name book.

Liu Wenzhong neatly put the banknotes handed in by the merchants into the box on the table, and at the same time took out the sticker symbolizing the shares from a box next to the table and handed it to them.

Fan Zheng took the iron plate and looked through it carefully.

This iron plate is rectangular, with four arc-shaped corners. The whole is made of fine steel, with a layer of silver plated on the outside. The entire iron plate is silvery white, reflecting the cold light.

There are many complicated patterns engraved on the iron plate, and there is a crisp sound when knocked.

This iron plate was designed by Zhao Wen himself, using many anti-counterfeiting methods in later generations, so it is almost impossible for others to imitate it successfully.

"Xuanfu Town Cement Factory" is written on the front of the iron plate, and "Each iron plate is worth one share" is written on the back.

Every time Liu Wenzhong took out an iron plate and gave it to the merchants, he asked them to sign a contract.

There are two copies of the contract, one for the merchant and one for Zhao Wen.

The contract and the iron plate are double proofs of the shares.

In this auction, Fan Zheng got the most shares, and his family took nine shares.

And the other Shanxi merchants are just seven or eight shares.

In addition to Shanxi merchants, merchants from the land of Yanzhao and merchants from the land of Shaanxi also united together, and each family won about five shares.

Lu Daliang also got two shares in it.

At the end of the auction of these shares, there were still two or three shares left.

It's not that no one bids for these shares, but that Zhao Wen doesn't want to sell them.

Zhao Wen planned to let Liu Changfu bring these shares to the capital to reward the eunuchs in the palace.

Although the eunuchs of the Chongzhen Dynasty were not as powerful as the Tianqi Dynasty, their influence should not be underestimated.

The sarcastic remarks of these eggless people on the emperor's side should not be too powerful.

Sometimes, even a hundred sentences spoken by civil servants in front of the emperor may not be as good as a sentence of eunuchs.Especially the old people like Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen who came out of Chongzhen's hidden residence.

Get through them, let them say something nice in front of the emperor, and inform the court of the court's movements in time.

Especially when someone sues Zhao Wen, even if they can't stop Zhao Wen, they can delay for some time.

The above is of great significance to Zhao Wen.

As for buying civil servants, Zhao Wen never thought about it.

Civil servants in the late Ming Dynasty were not as good as eunuchs to be honest.

All of them are greedy, have no fart skills, and have a high-pitched tone.

For civil servants, people like Zhao Wen are just a bunch of warriors.In their eyes, no matter how great their abilities and merits are, warriors are just a bunch of idiots. How can they compare to people like them who have read sage books?
Civil servants look down on soldiers from the bottom of their hearts. At the beginning, Qi Jiguang and Qi Shaobao drove the Japanese pirates in the south and the Tatars in the north, but what happened?In the document to Zhang Juzheng, he also had to call himself a lackey.

This is true of Qi Jiguang who has made such great contributions, let alone other people?

To bribe them, it's better to throw the silver into the Yellow River, at least you can hear it.

Hand it over to the civil servants, and you can't even hear a sound.

Buying eunuchs, at least they will have a certain degree of respect for Zhao Wen, and their role will be much greater than that of civil servants.But what about Wenchen?Not only will he not respect him, he may not even serve Zhao Wen.

Civil servants in the late Ming Dynasty could do anything.

A few days later, after dealing with the matter in Xuanfu Town, Zhao Wen took everyone back to Longmen Fort.

After Liu Changfu and others stayed in Xuanfu Town for a period of time, they hurried back to the capital with the iron plate and contract Zhao Wen gave him.

(End of this chapter)