Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 54
In addition to handling the confessions of officials from various places, Zhu Tianqi was also paying close attention to the news about Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua who were going south.

Although Zhu Tianqi knew every move of Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua through the secret letters sent by Jin Yiwei regularly to the capital, Zhu Tianqi still trusted Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua enough and would not just rely on the contents of Jin Yiwei's secret letters.

According to the report from Jin Yiwei's secret letter, the two have now traveled down the river from Yangzhou Prefecture to Yingtian Prefecture. They have established connections through local officials and are in contact with several wealthy local businessmen to discuss transactions.

In addition to these normal contents, Jin Yiwei's secret letter also focused on reporting a special situation, that is, Shen Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua colluded with Yingtian's wealthy businessmen to embezzle the imperial property and commit corruption and pervert the law!

Although Yingtian was the founding capital of the Ming Dynasty, it did not seem to be favored by the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's mind had always been on Fengyang. Although the construction of Fengyang ended in vain, Zhu Yuanzhang was already determined. He was determined to move the capital away from Yingtian.

What Zhu Yuanzhang failed to accomplish was finally accomplished by Zhu Di, the founder of the Yan Dynasty. Zhu Di moved the capital of the Ming Dynasty to Peiping, the former capital of the Yuan Dynasty, and established Shuntian Mansion.

After the capital was moved, Yingtian's political influence became smaller and smaller. Being an official in Yingtian was like a pension. Therefore, once being sent to Yingtian to be an official, it often meant the end of a person's political future. Demoted.

It is precisely because of this that officials in Yingtian have started to behave badly in a grand manner. However, being a poor official does not mean that they have to behave badly in making money. After all, relying on the small salary from the court, in Yingtian, It is very difficult to live in a prosperous city, so most officials have begun to embark on the road of business.

Although most of them are not qualified for business, they still have official status and still have power and status. They can easily mingle with the local wealthy businessmen and gentry, and they can also make a lot of money by investing in shares!

This situation has become an open secret among the officials of the Ming Dynasty. After all, not to mention the officials in Yingtian, even the officials in the capital, how many of them have no business in Jiangnan?

Therefore, Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua had just arrived and were not familiar with the place. If they wanted to quickly sell what they had, the best way was to use Yingtian officials to directly contact the local wealthy businessmen and gentry. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, they called themselves He is a wealthy businessman from Shuntian Mansion.

Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua's appeal is very simple. The price can be lowered, but the silver must be settled.

Although the requirement of "paying cash in silver" is not in line with the business practices of this era, because large-scale transactions between merchants in the Ming Dynasty, especially wholesale purchases, were generally made with IOUs, and then during the three festivals (Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival) Settlement, this is also related to the fact that currency such as silver is not very convenient to circulate.

The general environment is such that everyone is suppressing each other's payment, resulting in no one having a lot of cash in hand. When facing large transactions, few people can take out a large amount of cash for settlement at one time.

But after all, the "goods" in the hands of Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua are still very hard, they are all high-quality treasures, and the two of them are not very keen on the price. If they can accept these goods in their hands, they will definitely make a lot of money. Pens, so there are still many rich businessmen who are interested and capable of cashing in silver.These wealthy businessmen and gentry are all talented people. They are keenly aware that the identity of the two of them is not the wealthy businessmen of Shuntian Mansion at all. They must be officials of the imperial court, and they have their own unique way of doing business with the imperial officials. Unspoken rules, but neither Zhang Guoji nor Sun Yuanhua knew about this rule.

The problem lies in the unspoken trading rules that neither Zhang Guoji nor Sun Yuanhua knew.

These days, there are very few officials who are not corrupt. They help the court sell things. Who is willing to let go of such a ready-made opportunity to make money?
Therefore, when these wealthy businessmen negotiated prices with court officials, they would usually give an extra [-]% of the silver by default as a kickback to the officials.

This also means that the money that the wealthy businessmen have to pay in the end will be [-]% more than the price agreed on the books between the two parties. For Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua who do not know this unspoken rule, they are definitely not willing to give it to them. The price has been reduced to [-]% lower than the market average price.

This also led the wealthy businessmen to think that the two of them were not sincere and were too greedy. Therefore, after several meetings with no results, the wealthy businessmen all retreated. After all, there was not enough profit, and who was willing to take the risk to embezzle a large amount of cash? Woolen cloth?

Faced with such a situation, Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua were speechless. They even scolded these wealthy businessmen for being too treacherous and greedy. Their asking price was already lower than the market average price, and these wealthy businessmen even asked them to lower it by [-]% , which made them feel that it was too much. After all, they were selling things for the emperor, and the price was too low. There was no way they could make a deal when they went back!

However, they complained, and the errands still had to be done. The two had no choice but to find the officials who had pulled the strings again. They paid for themselves and humbly "asked for advice." When people saw that they were indeed sincere, they told the truth and advised them not to be too greedy. .

The two people were told something incomprehensible, so they had to continue to ask. The other party saw the confused look on their faces, and then they realized that these two people really "didn't understand the rules", so they had to tell them the unspoken rules. clear.

Only then did Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua figure out what the problem was, and they immediately said that they were running errands for the imperial court and did not want any kickbacks. They just wanted to exchange the things in their hands for cash at the previously negotiated price.

However, in response to their request, the officials in Yingtian expressed their reluctance to help. There are two reasons for this. One is that the formation of this square is not just a day or two, and many people point to this for eating. No one is willing to step forward and help them break this rule.

The second is that even if they are willing to act as lobbyists, I am afraid that the wealthy businessmen will not be willing to make exceptions easily, because when dealing with officials, they have to be more careful, even if they spend more money, let the officials After taking the benefits, they were also happy to buy peace of mind. After all, when the official received the money, he was considered to be in trouble.

Zhang Guoji and Sun Yuanhua were strangers to each other. The wealthy businessmen were only willing to do this deal with them through matchmaking with local officials. This was also the first time for both parties to deal with each other. There was no basis for trust in each other. It would be fine if they followed the previous rules. It's an exception based on their one-sided words. Who knows whether these two people are full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, but are they holding back evil in their hearts?
(End of this chapter)