The bear child of the Red Chamber, Jia Cong

Jia Cong and his wife hid in the yard and guessed that the Mei family in the capital was probably behind Changfeng Tower, so they were not caught blind.Jia Cong felt relieved: the outsiders were the ones who lost.It would be a headache if a traitor appeared in his den.The two had a solid lunch before they thought about taking a nap when someone came outside.Su Tao sent a confidant to invite Jia Cong over.Jia Cong was slightly taken aback.That guy Su Tao is thin-skinned, he usually goes up to help by himself, he never comes over to shout.Jia Cong was the most prone to food difficulties, and now it was difficult to open his eyelids, so he poured a cup of tea with his neck up, and went to the yamen.

When I arrived at Su Tao's study, I saw three or four newly recruited pawns standing on the ground, with a pile of account books spread out on the desk, and the magistrate's face was as dark as ink.Ask why.His master breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jia Cong, stepped forward to make a bow, and explained the reason in a low voice.

It turned out that a grain pressing officer from the Yan army came yesterday.Most of the Yan army who suppressed the bandits opened warehouses on the spot to get food.Due to many years of banditry in Jiangxi, many public warehouses were empty, so they came to Su Tao to ask for food.When Su Tao first took office, all the officials from the six departments of the original government office ran away, and he didn't have the manpower and time to check the granaries.A few times ago, when people came to ask for military rations, Su Tao only temporarily ordered his master to lead them to open a warehouse to collect rations and make a simple account.This morning, Su Tao ordered the new pawns to go to the granary to fetch grain.When I got there, I took all the surplus grain in one warehouse, and opened a new warehouse because it was not enough.The new warehouse was actually empty.Talk about food, not even chaff.After opening more than a dozen granaries, they were all empty.Ask the granary guard, and the man said as if nothing happened: "Those granaries at the back have been empty for many years, only the front ones are just pretending."

Jia Cong thought for a while: "Since Xie Jing looks like he was in office, it is not uncommon for the official warehouse to be empty. How urgent are they for food? Jiangxi is a grain-producing area, so it is not difficult to get food."

Su Tao said: "Now it's the spring plowing season, and the people's families don't have much food left."

Jia Cong smiled and said: "There are no ordinary families, but there are still rich families. Brother, anyway, we are not short of money now, so what are we afraid of?"

A pawn hurriedly said: "Mr. Jia made a mistake? The storeroom is empty and full of false accounts. There is nothing!"

"Who said there is no?" Jia Cong said, "Aren't the more than 40 shops that were seized on Zhuzi Street a few days ago not money?"

The master laughed when he heard this: "Mr. Jia is right!"

Jia Cong spread his hands and said: "Money is not everything, but at least eight thousand can do it."

Su Tao hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Forget it, that's the only way! Otherwise, we won't be able to get food tax money right now." Nai ordered to post a notice.One is to auction the shops on Zhuzi Street in the future, and the other is to buy grain from the people.Jia Cong caught a glimpse of the master who couldn't help the corners of his mouth upturned, so he guessed that the wooden brother probably committed some tricks again, quietly looked up at the sky and twitched the corners of his mouth.

In the afternoon, Jia Cong and Chen Ruijin surrounded the old Hutou for half a day, but the old guy refused to speak.Jia Cong was irritable, so he went out.Just thinking about taking a walk around to calm down, Yang Guotai walked over.Jia Cong greeted him with a smile.Yang Guotai said: "Third Lord..."

Jia Cong hurriedly said, "No! General Shi is my grandmother's nephew, so don't be so polite. By the way, have you met my uncle?"

Yang Guotai hurriedly said: "That old gentleman? His old man can see the beginning and the end, but I have never met him."

Jia Cong rubbed his nose: "I know he is in this government office, I don't know where he is hiding. His surname is also Shi, and he is the uncle of General Shi's family. After calculation, everyone is either relatives or friends. This fate hey-hey……"

Yang Guotai said happily: "Really?"

"It's true! And his only daughter is my sister-in-law. Hey~~ Second sister-in-law Bao now has someone to support her."

Yang Guotai's complexion turned dark: "Your brother treats our general's daughter badly?"

"How is it possible!" Jia Cong explained, "Our waiter Shenying treats women the best."

Yang Guotai just raised his eyebrows after listening to the first half of the sentence, and then raised his eyebrows after hearing the second half of the sentence: "It's best for women? Is it good for the women next to me?"

"Uh... not as good as you thought."

Yang Guotai turned cold: "Which one is better?"

"It's better to be more equal... Oh, I don't understand, anyway, he has no concubine at home and no concubine outside." Jia Cong hurriedly changed the subject, "By the way, what did you want to say to me just now?"

Yang Guotai was stunned for a moment, then glared at him and said, "You're talking nonsense, I almost forgot the important thing!"

Jia Cong whispered: "I'm not talking nonsense, I'm telling the truth..."

Yang Guotai said sternly: "I just saw someone posted a notice outside that Mr. Su wants to buy food?"

Jia Cong nodded: "The price is higher than the market price, in order not to disturb the people's daily purchase of grain, and I want to buy it directly from rich families."

Yang Guotai shook his head and said, "I'm afraid I'm going to miscalculate."

"what?"

"Third Lord, think about it. Since the rice and grain store can be sold to the government or at a high price, how can it be sold to the common people? Besides, these rich households in Nanchang Mansion are all friendly or related to the Xie family. Ordinary Merchants are not worthy of the word 'rich'. Mr. Su's rectification of Xie's family has also hurt their property. I'm afraid they are already discussing how to deal with Mr. Su."

Jia Congqi asked: "Can they deal with the government? How?"

Yang Guotai snorted and said, "I'm just saying the same thing. Now the several big weaving workshops in Nanchang Mansion are all opened by the grandma's natal family in Dingcheng Hou Mansion, and the other houses are either closed or very small. Whenever their family stops working, everyone The drapers in the city have to close down, and the weavers they employ have nothing to eat."

Jia Cong opened his mouth: "Then... So, Wu Buyanbu and so on didn't enter the Jiangxi market?"

"Not much. Anyway, whatever Xie Jing decides is his Yue family's cloth."

Jia Cong bared his teeth and said with a grin: "Co-author, he engaged in commercial monopoly before anyone else! He is ahead of the times. Now that this is the case, people will go to Wu to buy cloth, and the workshop of his father-in-law's family will be seized by the way. Think about it with your toes." You know, such a workshop is not sure how far tax evasion has gone.”

"Not only the cloth, but many industries are in the hands of Mr. Xie and his relatives and friends." Yang Guotai said, "When Mr. Su first came here, he didn't look at people less. Later, Mr. Su rearranged the mansion to make it rich and luxurious. It will be better if you can do it.”

"No wonder the old man is willing to use Kesi satin to hang the door curtain." Jia Cong thought, "It doesn't matter. Once these industries are not supported by Xie Jing, the market will be eliminated in the blink of an eye."

Yang Guotai frowned: "How can you blink so fast? At least it will take a year and a half. How about a year and a half?"

Jia Cong rubbed his chin: "That's right..." Nai looked up at Yang Guotai, "General Yang, you know more than just fighting!"

Yang Guotai glared at him and said, "It's serious business. Hurry up and ask Mr. Su to take down the notice, otherwise the price of rice on the street will skyrocket immediately."

"Understood!" Jia Cong said, "The notice can't be removed now, or else it will be tricked? You have to wait until it is revealed. Let's think about it...they still have a lot of people, right?"

"good."

"Then you can only compare whose voice is louder. Thank you for reminding me!"

Jia Cong ran to the front of the yamen lobby with his arms behind his back, and Su Tao started asking questions again.Jia Cong beckoned the yamen servant with a loud and bright voice over.The yamen servant knew that he was an uncle from Beijing, so he jumped over happily: "Mr. Jia, what can I do for you?"

Jia Cong said: "I've assigned you an errand, and it will take a few days of hard work. I will reward you a lot after the job is done!"

The yamen servant said with a smile: "You always just give orders, and don't offer any rewards."

Jia Cong snorted, "Don't open your eyes and talk nonsense! Who doesn't like money?" Then he pulled him and talked a lot.

The yamen servant was shocked: "So it is!"

Jia Cong said: "If you don't have enough manpower, please go yourself. Money is not a problem. This is a big project for our family, and it can make a lot of money. I don't care about a few wages and rewards." He took five taels of silver from his arms to reward him.

The yamen servant suddenly smiled, his eyebrows and eyes bent in one place: "Don't worry, Mr. Jia! The villain will take care of you properly!"

"Also." Jia Cong said in a low voice, "On this trip, someone must ask you who Master Su is."

The yamen servant immediately read like singing: "Lord Su is a very upright official who is rare in heaven and earth, and Bao Zheng is reincarnated and Hai Rui is reborn!"

"Shut up!" Jia Cong rolled his eyes, "Hai Rui is a big idiot! What's the use of being honest? Can honesty make the people live a better life?"

The yamen servant hurriedly bent over: "Say what you say, little man, listen."

"Just say, Mr. Su is very ambitious. He plans to make the wealth of Jiangxi catch up with that of Guangdong and Guangxi within three years. Now he is trying to figure out how to make ordinary people rich. If someone asks you, Mr. Su, But Qinglian, you just say—" Jia Cong shook his head, "Master Su's family is richer than ordinary princes, so is there any need to be greedy for ink? How much money has Mr. Xie earned after being greedy for ink for so many years?"

The yamen servant opened his eyes wide in shock: "Master Su is so rich?"

Jia Cong said calmly: "Have you heard of Kesi brocade? One inch of Kesi is one inch of gold, Mr. Su uses the door curtain."

The yamen servant's eyes widened: "Then... where did Mr. Su come from... that... hehe, it's nothing."

Jia Cong glanced at him and said, "What are you thinking? Does Ke Kecha know?"

"I know, I know! We can't even smell what the nobles eat."

"The Su family holds the supply of cocoa tea from the Malay country in Nanyang. Westerners call it brown gold. Half of the cocoa tea merchants in the country get their goods from the Su family, and the other half of the Java country's supply comes from the Lingnan Wang family. Jia Cong smiled, "Otherwise, why does he miss Lingnan so much? He wants Jiangxi to be as prosperous as Lingnan?"

Yamen servant suddenly.After a while, sparks appeared in his eyes: "Mr. Jia is saying... half of the supply of cocoa tea is in the hands of our master?"

Jia Cong snorted and said, "Hey, did you become 'Your Master'?" Nai turned around and said, "It's better to follow your master than to follow that vampire Xie Jing. Not only can I lead you to get rich, but I can also make a fortune with integrity. Clean money, isn't it better to follow Xie Jing to make black money with him?"

He went all the way, and the yamen servant shouted from behind: "Thank you, Mr. Jia, for calling me! The villain will remember it!"

"Go quickly!"

"The villain obeys!" Not long after, the yamen servant led a few brothers, turned the corners of the back of the head and turned the horns on both sides, and set out on the road in a show of strength.

There are already many idlers gossiping in the streets and alleys.That's right, the official storehouses are all empty, King Yan's soldiers and horses came to ask for military rations, Master Su couldn't get them out, so he had to buy food at a high price to make up for it, and now there is a notice posted at the gate of the yamen.After getting the news, the rice shops all over the street began to close their doors and stop selling rice.Ordinary people heard this, fearing that the government would buy the rice, so they lined up at the rice shop to buy rice.In just half an afternoon, the price of rice has turned around.

Suddenly, I saw a group of yamen servants walking up the street, all of them with their chests outstretched, and the leader knocked on the gong and shouted: "Fathers and folks—Master Su, the prefect, recently bought a steam grinding machine, which can grind one stone of rice at a time—the next machine It will be delivered in the next month—all folks and folks will come to see it—if this disc grinding machine is cheap and easy to use, Mr. Su will buy another [-] in the future—rent it to the common people at a very low price—in the future grind There is no need for people or livestock for rice—from now on, it will save effort to grind rice—”

An idler shouted loudly: "Still grinding rice? Isn't the granary empty, so you can't get the army rations?"

The yamen servant said: "How can there be such a thing? When did the granary become empty? This mill was bought by our master himself, and has nothing to do with the public. Our master is a person who does great things, and he refuses to use the rice from the public to test the machine, which is why the price is high." To buy rice."

Another idler sneered and said, "Why bother to tell such a lie. If there is no rice, there will be no rice. If there is rice, post a notice to buy it?"

The yamen servant twisted his lips, twisted his nose, put his chin on his hips and looked at the man, saying: "You poor muddy legs, how can you know what the master is thinking! Even if there is no rice, Wu Guo is very close and has a lot of rice, so just buy it with money. ? Do you know that the processing industry is more advanced than agriculture?" This was said by Jia Cong, who had a good memory and read it out.

The idle man was stunned for a moment and said: "It's easy to say, Mr. Su is an upright official, where did he get the money?"

The yamen servant was so hung up that he wanted to look up at the sky with his chin: "Master Su's door curtain is silk brocade! Do you know what is brocade silk? An inch of silk is an inch of gold! Much richer than that local leopard Xie Jing."

A little brother following behind him asked, "Brother, what is silk brocade?"

Where does this person know? "It's satin made of gold."

A young man with the appearance of a merchant broke through the crowd and came in, bowing his hands to the yamen servant: "Master, you said Master Su bought a steam mill?"

The yamen servant nodded: "Not bad."

"When will it arrive?"

The yamen servant rolled his eyes at him: "Didn't I just tell you next month? Are you deaf?"

The young man was not annoyed at all, and cupped his hands again and said: "I am from the capital city, and my family was in the milling business. This time I came to Jiangxi to buy rice, and I happened to hear what the official said. As far as I know, steam mills are not only expensive It is scary, and it is extremely difficult to buy. If Mr. Su can tell me the source of the steam mill, I am willing to pay [-]% lower than the market price..." He thought for a while, and stretched out three fingers, "The price of [-]% will be less than Su Sell ​​him the rice grains your lord needs. Anyway, lord Su doesn't want rice at this moment, and he will definitely deliver it all before the end of the month."

The yamen servant looked at him: "Thirty percent?"

The young man said with a smile: "I know that the Su family is rich, so I don't care about [-]% of the profit. This [-]% is just a little show of sincerity." After speaking, he bowed to the yamen servant.