The merchants immediately exclaimed:

"We don't care what's happening in Europe! We just want to sell our excess raw silk now and get our money back!"

"Yes! We want silver! We want to sell raw silk!"

"Selling raw silk!"

"Remove the president!"

"Remove the president!"

"..."

Shen Qing coldly looked at everyone.

These people are blackmailing her by selling raw silk at low prices; it's a win-win situation for them.

If she disagrees, she will be removed from her position as president, and the new president will immediately sell the stock of raw silk to foreigners at a low price.

Besides changing the chairman, they can also quickly recover the 500,000 taels they previously invested.

Most importantly, the initiative in the raw silk industry that she had worked so hard to regain will now fall into their hands!

If she agrees to sell the raw silk at a low price, then everything she has done before will have been in vain!

She had worked so hard and planned so carefully for so long, only to get a little bit of raw silk for the Gao family's own use!

That's not enough!

She wanted more than just raw silk!

The position of president must be hers!

The merchants were still loudly demanding Shen Qing's removal, but Shen Qing remained silent, sitting in his seat and letting them vent their emotions.

The noise attracted Qi Zhenheng.

He strode into the accounting room and took his seat in the secondary seat opposite Shen Qing.

He looked at everyone with a serious expression: "What's all the commotion about?"

Boss Li pointed at Shen Qing and protested, "Lord Qi, there are three or four thousand bales of raw silk stockpiled in the Nanxun warehouse. If they can stockpile that much in a month, that's thirty or forty thousand bales a year! But the chairman refuses to sell the raw silk to foreigners! This is wasting our hard-earned money!"

He spoke with such deep sorrow and grief that he almost burst into tears.

Boss Liu also played the victim, saying that his 500,000 taels of investment was borrowed from loan sharks. Now, because Shen Qing was unwilling to sell raw silk, all the money was tied up in inventory, causing his cash flow to run into trouble. The loan sharks were even threatening to come and kill him.

In short, they deliberately exaggerated the various impacts of the raw silk inventory on everyone in order to blackmail Qi Zhenheng and force him to order Shen Qing to sell the raw silk inventory as soon as possible.

Qi Zhenheng looked at Shen Qing with a troubled expression, finding himself in a difficult position.

He believed in Shen Qing and could support him on his own, but if his support caused any trouble for these merchants and they complained to the Imperial Household Department, then Shen Qing's position as chairman and the stock of raw silk would still be lost.

This is a dead end. No matter what choice we make, the inevitable outcome is that we will sell off our inventory of raw silk at a low price.

“Boss Shen,” Qi Zhenheng said to Shen Qing, “come out with me.”

"Okay." Shen Qing stood up.

The two went to the study.

As soon as the door closed, Qi Zhenheng immediately advised, "This is a dead end. You can only resolve this crisis and keep your position as chairman by selling those raw silks!"

Seeing that Shen Qing did not speak, he continued, "Initially, we will sell these raw silks to foreigners at a lower price. Once everyone has recovered their funds, we will raise the price."

"No way!" Shen Qing insisted. "If we sell cheap now, it'll be hard to raise the price later! Right now, there's no raw silk in Europe, and those foreigners will have to come to us again! Just wait and see!"

Qi Zhenheng shook his head, also at a loss for what to do.

Shen Qing suddenly sneered: "I suspect these people have been infiltrated by foreigners, which is why they started this forced action! Each of these people has millions of taels of silver in hand, how could they not survive because of 500,000 taels? They just want to bring me down so they can use raw silk to get benefits from the foreigners!"

She told Qi Zhenheng about how the Englishman had recently offered her kickbacks and asked her to cooperate with him in smuggling.

Upon hearing this, Qi Zhenheng slammed his fist on the table in a fit of rage: "This is outrageous!"

"So you see, if I lose the chairmanship and someone else becomes chairman, and if the foreigners infiltrate the association, it won't just be a matter of selling raw silk at a low price."

Qi Zhenheng pondered for a while and then asked, "Are you confident that you can get foreigners to buy raw silk?"

Shen Qing nodded: "Europe has almost no raw silk now, so foreigners will definitely still have to come to us!"

How long will it take you to process this batch of raw silk?

Shen Qing quickly calculated in her mind: "One month, give me one month."

"OK!"

Qi Zhenheng got up, opened the study door, and strode out.

Shen Qing followed him to the accounting office.

Qi Zhenheng strode to the long table and announced with an iron face, "If Mr. Shen is unable to sell the raw silk in a month, I agree that the Chamber of Commerce will elect another president!"

The merchants exchanged glances, shared information, and nodded in agreement.

Everyone quickly left the accounting room, leaving only Shen Qing and Qi Zhenheng.

Qi Zhenheng suddenly remembered something and exclaimed in alarm, "What if some of these merchants are really colluding with that foreigner and give him a one-month deadline? If the foreigner refrains from buying raw silk within a month, then a new chairman will have to be elected after that month. Wouldn't this deadline be completely meaningless?"

Shen Qing smiled: "Your logic is correct."

Qi Zhenheng was so anxious that he couldn't speak for a moment.

Shen Qing stood up, walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, and said unhurriedly, "It makes sense. A month is enough time for me to do a lot of things."

She didn't reveal any of her plans to Qi Zhenheng, said goodbye, and left the Imperial Textile Bureau.

Shen Qing did not return to Jiangzhou immediately, but instead went to Shanghai.

...

A few days later, all the raw silk stored in the Nanxun warehouse was transported to Shanghai and loaded onto a cargo ship bound for France.

The Nanxun warehouse suddenly became empty.

Shen Qing returned to the Imperial Textile Bureau.

No sooner had the person settled down in the accounting office than the other merchants rushed over in a great hurry.

As soon as Mr. Li entered, he demanded, "The Nanxun warehouse is completely empty! Where's the raw silk?!"

Shen Qing feigned surprise: "Raw silk? Sold it! Didn't you tell me to sell all the raw silk I had stockpiled within a month?"

"Sold it? Who are you trying to fool?" Boss Liu pointed at her nose. "You didn't steal all the raw silk just to fool us, did you?"

Shen Qing laughed: "The silk farmers keep records of how many bales of raw silk they bring into the warehouse each day and how many bales are left. Even if I steal all the remaining raw silk, I still have to settle accounts with you in silver."

Boss Liu choked, waved his sleeve, and turned his back: "So you really took it away? Let me tell you, we originally agreed that if we sold those raw silks and they weren't sold, we would re-elect the chairman! Now you've taken the raw silks away yourself, that's stealing, not selling! We still have to re-elect the chairman!"

Shen Qing burst into laughter.

Everyone stared at her in astonishment.

It seemed that she didn't panic at all about not being able to sell any silk and about to lose her president title.

Mr. Wu, who had remained silent throughout, watched quietly for a while before stepping forward.

"Previously, everyone decided whether to re-elect the chairman based on the condition that the inventory be sold within a month. The purpose was to test whether the current chairman had the ability to clear the inventory. Although the inventory has been cleared now, it was Mr. Shen who absorbed it himself. This also shows that Mr. Shen does not have the ability to clear the inventory. Therefore, it is still necessary to re-elect the chairman."