Chapter 623: It's Coming
Gu Huaisheng reported Wan Rendong's abnormality to Lu Songli.
After listening to this, Lu Songli said that he understood and gestured to Xue Xu who was standing beside him.
Xue Xu nodded.
After Gu Huaisheng finished his report, Xue Xu accompanied him when he went out.
Gu Huaisheng couldn't help but ask Xue Xu, "Mr. Xue, aren't you going to deal with this person?"
Xue Xu stroked his beard and said, "What the governor meant is that we should mark them and deal with them, but the means should not be harsh, or we can raise them and fatten them up before slaughtering them."
Gu Huaisheng nodded, "I see." Pingzhou's way of doing things is really like the gentle rain that moistens everything silently.
Xue Xu gestured for him to learn from this. "We have so many people in Pingzhou, so it's inevitable that there will be spies and spies." He recorded all these people in his little notebook. "We can only mark them first, investigate thoroughly, and then slowly eliminate them."
Zhuozhou, Cai Family
Faced with the situation of being forced to acquire shares, both the Cai family father and son looked unhappy.
After all, Cai Guang was worldly-wise and had experienced a lot, so he gave his son a look that told him to be patient.
Zhao Song leisurely drank the tea offered by the Cai family. He ignored the quarrel between the father and son.
He is from the side branch of the Zhao family and nominally is the uncle of Zhao Minglou and Zhao Yutan.
He sat here, representing not only himself, but also the forces behind him. Since ancient times, the people have never fought against the officials. This matter is bound to succeed, sooner or later.
Cai Guang waited until his son calmed down before he said to the visitor, "Manager Zhao, it's not impossible for you to buy shares."
Standing behind Zhao Song was Zhao Minglou, the prefect of Zhuozhou County, and Zhao Minglou was the brother-in-law of Xie Zhan, the current commander-in-chief of the Dali Army. Cai Guang decided to obey. As the saying goes, he who knows the times is a hero.
Cai Guang relented, and Zhao Song smiled. "Boss Cai, that's right. Harmony brings wealth, and we can make money together. It's good for you, it's good for me, and it's good for everyone."
Cai Guang forced a smile and asked, "I wonder how Manager Zhao plans to acquire shares in the Cai family?"
Zhao Song said bluntly, "I will invest 500,000 taels and enjoy half of the profits from Cai's donkey farm."
The Zhao family followed their brother-in-law back to Chang'an from the south. All the rewards from the emperor were given to the brother-in-law's family, and the Zhao family received nothing.
When the Zhao family was confiscated and exiled, they didn't have time to hide their property.
Although Zhao Yutan, the aunt, and her brother-in-law helped the Zhao family after returning to Chang'an, the Zhao family was still short of money.
This time, Zhao Minglou was appointed as the prefect of Zhuozhou County, which was also an opportunity for the Zhao family, an opportunity to make money.
In order to reap as much profit as possible and make up for the financial shortage of the Zhao family, Aunt Zhao Yutan privately raised 300,000 taels of silver, and her family raised another 200,000 taels.
In order to raise the 200,000 taels, the Zhao family really tried their best. They almost cashed out all the money that their uncles and aunts gave them after they returned to Chang'an, as well as all the money that others gave them under certain pretexts.
He carefully selected the Cai family. They are strong, well-managed, and have a good reputation in Zhuozhou. They are a very good partner.
Cai Qin was young and hot-tempered, and he was very angry when he heard this.
The Cai family's breeding farm and related assets are worth two to three million taels of silver in total. Zhao Song only invested 500,000 taels, and he wants half of the Cai family's profits?
What’s the difference between this and robbery?
Cai Guang also looked embarrassed, "This——"
"Mr. Cai, you should know that my five hundred thousand taels are not just five hundred thousand taels of silver. You know the benefits of me investing in your Cai family."
Cai Guang certainly knew this, but 500,000 taels of silver would take up half of the Cai family's shares...
Zhao Song glanced at the father and son and snorted coldly, "Don't worry, I'll only invest half of your Cai family's profits for one year. When the profits are settled, I will withdraw the 500,000 yuan capital. From now on, your Cai family's profits have nothing to do with me."
Cai Guang understood that Zhao Song was optimistic about the good donkey market price in Zhuozhou this year and wanted to make a fortune.
Cai Qin also understood that the other party did not want to seize their Cai family's property, but wanted to share this year's profits.
Although this is also very unpleasant, it is not as unacceptable as the former.
"And I don't participate in the management." Zhao Song added.
Cai Guang heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this, "That's good, that's good." It's better not to interfere in the management. There are still some tricks to raising donkeys. The most feared thing is that laymen guide experts and interfere recklessly.
Now he had accepted his fate and was going to give away half of the profits he had made this year. His biggest worry just now was that the other party would try to interfere with the business, ultimately leading to no profit or even losses, and then causing trouble for the Cai family.
In the end, the Cai family and Zhao Song reached an agreement.
Zhao Song ordered the delivery of gold worth 500,000 taels of silver and took the contract away.
When Zhao Song left, Cai Guang and his son stood up to see him off.
After sending the person away, Cai Qin couldn't help but ask, "Dad, are we going to accept this? Will we accept it in the future?"
Cai Guang patted his son's shoulder to comfort him. There was nothing he could do. When you are under someone's roof, you have to bow your head. It was their fault that the Cai family was being targeted.
"Actually, Zhao Song was quite honest this time." He only took half of the profit.
Cai Qin snorted in dissatisfaction.
They didn't know that Zhao Song didn't want to take more, but he was worried that if he took more, the Cai family would quit, so he left half for them.
Cai Guang and his son both thought that Zhao Song acted this way at the suggestion of Zhao Minglou.
In fact, Zhao Minglou didn't know about this.
…
After Zhao Minglou took office, he actively visited the people and found that almost every household in Zhuozhou either raised donkeys, was preparing to raise one, or was engaged in donkey-related businesses.
During the visit, everyone was happy when talking about the donkeys they raised. They all hoped to raise their donkeys and sell them for a good price.
Zhao Minglou didn't understand why these civilians were so obsessed with raising donkeys.
He doesn't know that ordinary people have few opportunities to make money and it's too difficult to make money. But once there is an opportunity, and this opportunity is in a business they are familiar with, they will work hard to seize it.
Zhao Minglou reminded them explicitly and implicitly that what if the price of donkeys dropped after they raised them?
The common people were surprised. How could the price of donkeys drop? With so many soldiers in Pingzhou, donkey meat hot bread had become a military supply. As long as General Qin Sheng continued to enjoy donkey meat hot bread, the Pingzhou governor would surely be happy to pamper him.
Zhao Minglou told them that the price of grain would rise this year and asked them to take good care of the crops in the fields.
They would smile and reply vaguely, probably, perhaps.
Obviously, they did not believe that food prices would rise, but they just wanted to please him as their superior official.
Zhao Minglou felt powerless.
There is no way. Zhuozhou and Pingzhou are adjacent to each other, and the grain price in Pingzhou has always been stable, which has affected Zhuozhou to a certain extent.
Zhao Minglou said that grain prices will rise by the end of the year, but how can that be more true than seeing the steady increase in donkey prices?
Until one day, when he was leaving, just as he stepped out of the courtyard, he heard the youngest son of that family grumble in dissatisfaction, "Zhao Jun Shou is really something, his family won't eat the cakes he painted, and yet he wants us to eat them."
Zhao Minglou paused and heard another voice reply, "Exactly. He's obviously also optimistic about the donkey market. Otherwise, why would he invest in the Cai family?"
Zhao Minglou: ???
What does this mean?
Zhao Minglou had a hunch that something was wrong, so he went back and asked someone to investigate, and the investigation led them to Zhao Song.
He couldn't believe that Zhao Song had done such a big thing behind his back.
He called someone over and asked, "Uncle, you invested 500,000 taels in the Cai family?"
"Yes." Zhao Song admitted.
"Where did you get this money?"
"Your father collected 200,000 yuan, and the 300,000 yuan was taken by that girl Yu Tan."
Zhao Minglou: His family and my younger sister really spent all their money on this bet.
He knew very well that it was not easy to get such a large sum of money, especially considering his younger sister was at home.
"Uncle, why didn't you discuss this with me?"
"Your father and that girl Yu Tan both think it's best if you don't get involved in this matter."
Zhao Minglou's forehead throbbed. How could this situation be considered uninvolved?
"Did you know that Pingzhou used the same strategy of buying deer to control Chu in an attempt to seize Zhuozhou?"
"The donkeys of Zhuozhou are like the deer of Chu. When Lü Songli of Pingzhou removes donkey meat from the military supply list, it will inevitably cause the price of donkeys to fall. Zhuozhou currently has so many donkeys, and if they can't be sold, the price will fall even further..."
"You're still rushing in now. Have you thought about the consequences?"
Zhao Song talked about their plan, "Minglou, you are talking about the stage of closing the net in Pingzhou. But before the closing of the net in Pingzhou, the price of donkeys will definitely rise, right? As long as we clear out all the donkeys before the closing of the net in Pingzhou, won't everything be fine?" And they can make a lot of money.
"I carefully selected the Cai family. I've checked and found that their youngest donkeys are almost three months old. We can definitely harvest them before the other donkeys enter the market in large numbers."
Zhao Song always felt that if they started early, they would not be able to take over the last baton.
Most importantly, Zhao Song was optimistic about Zhuozhou's future. His uncle, General Xie Zhan, was already actively responding, wasn't he? The imperial court certainly couldn't let Pingzhou easily take over Zhuozhou.
Even if the situation turns out to be very bad, they can still maintain stability with the help of the imperial court.
Zhao Song didn't think there was anything wrong with them doing this to enrich themselves at the expense of the public interest. Besides, if the Zhao family didn't earn the money, someone else would have.
Zhao Minglou didn't say anything. Although Zhao Song's words sounded reasonable, Zhao Minglou still felt it was too dangerous.
Zhao Song whispered, "Minglou, do you know? If our family wins just this one round, we can get back all our wealth."
Zhao Minglou paused, he knew very well that if he forced Zhao Song to take back the 500,000 taels of silver that he had invested in the Cai family, this move would be like a basin of cold water, which would effectively cool down the increasingly hot donkey market in Zhuozhou.
But Zhao Song's words made him hesitate. Their Zhao family was indeed short of money, and this was indeed an opportunity.
The Zhao family had a great plan. But what they didn't know was that Pingzhou had the autonomy to close the loop. If they wanted to escape and reap a wave of profits before Pingzhou closed the loop, they would need Pingzhou to give them the opportunity.
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