Chapter 2080 This is just the beginning
Maintaining a private army requires a lot of money, and without money everything is just empty talk.
The fact that the prefect of Hangzhou dared to take the first action among the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River and even dared to invade other people's territory was of course because he was relatively powerful.
Confidence and courage are given by strength.
Strength is given by money!
With silver, you need to maintain soldiers, and then you need more silver.
Jiangnan is a prosperous place with countless wealthy families and abundant resources. The prefect of Hangzhou was not worried at all that his warehouse would be empty.
Zhao Shu, who came from a simple family without so many complicated clan connections and was so wealthy, was of course put on the first blacklist of blackmailers by the Hangzhou prefect.
The prefect of Hangzhou was not polite to Zhao Shu at all and asked for 500,000 taels of silver right away.
Zhao Shu knew very well that this was just the beginning.
I have given you 500,000 taels, and I don’t know how many more 500,000 taels I will have to give in the future.
But since the prefect of Hangzhou had spoken, he absolutely could not be stingy. If he dared to be stingy, the prefect would be furious and he would become the chicken that was killed to scare the monkeys.
Zhao Shu cried and cried about his poverty, saying that he didn't have that much cash and that at best he could only come up with 100,000 taels, and he really had no more.
Several other merchants secretly contacted each other and bribed a legal advisor trusted by the Hangzhou prefect. After some bargaining, Zhao Shu finally took out 150,000 taels of silver.
At that time, he wanted to leave Hangzhou.
However, he couldn't leave immediately. He had to properly settle the business in Hangzhou.
Fertile fields, shops, and 5,000 acres of tea plantations, these are not small industries. Even if he does not need to give orders and make specific arrangements in person, it will take time to set them up.
But the most important thing is not these, but the 100,000 acres of flower fields and the perfume workshop in the flower fields.
Fortunately, it was the off-season at this time, the flowers and trees had basically withered, and the perfume workshop was about to stop working.
Zhao Shu simply made a prompt decision and immediately stopped the perfume workshop. All the core workers were family members, so they all evacuated and returned to the Zhao clan to live quietly.
The other workers stayed behind to take care of the flowers and trees and lived in the village and were strictly prohibited from going out.
All the core equipment and tools in the workshop were also collected and hidden in an underground secret room in another house.
The money earned by the perfume workshop over the years is not a small amount. Relying on this item alone, he, Qiao Xuan, and Shao Yunduan each earned nearly one million a year. Moreover, this money can be earned easily, unlike Sang Tian who needs to put in so much effort.
This is because they are low-key, otherwise they can easily earn more by expanding production capacity!
Zhao Shu did not dare to touch this property which brought in money very quickly. If the black-hearted prefect of Hangzhou got to know about it, he would force him to hand it over without hesitation.
No one can resist such temptation.
After finishing all this, Zhao Shu breathed a sigh of relief and was ready to take Taotao away from Hangzhou to join Qiao Xuan and Shao Yunduan, but he found that he could not leave again.
The brother-in-law of the prefect of Hangzhou came to visit.
I also came to ask for money.
This man was just like his brother-in-law, he asked for five hundred thousand without any hesitation.
Zhao Shu was about to go crazy on the spot: How could he possibly give him 500,000 silver coins! Is he crazy?
Does this guy know that he didn’t even give it to his brother-in-law when he asked for it?
Zhao Shu had no choice but to continue pretending to be poor, roaring madly in his heart. He wanted to run away. He really couldn't stay here anymore!
(End of this chapter)
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