Seeing that Hou Shikai refused to tell where the sugar came from, Su Songbo became unhappy again.
But this time, Su Songbo did not show it.
"My dear nephew, how much did you spend on this sugar?"
Su Songbo looked at the sugar that had been repackaged by Hou Shikai with envy.
"Well... five hundred taels of silver!"
Hou Shikai said with a smile.
Five hundred taels of silver?
How is that possible!
If this little bit of sugar cost him five hundred taels of silver, would he dare to pay such a high interest?
It is estimated that Hou Shikai deliberately quoted a high purchase price!
...
...
Maybe it’s less than three hundred taels of silver!
But if this little bit of sugar is sold, it might be worth seven or eight taels of gold!
Huge profits!
This is definitely real profiteering!
No wonder Hou Shikai dared to give himself a 20% profit!
In an instant, Su Songbo's mind became active.
They could obviously earn more money, so why should they lend the money to Hou Shikai, letting Hou Shikai make the most money and they just get a little interest?
Although a 20% profit is already extremely high, it is far less than Hou Shikai's profit.
Who doesn’t want to make more money?
"My dear nephew, there is something I don't understand."
Su Songbo smiled again, "It's just selling sugar, why should I lose my head? The court has not issued an express decree to prohibit the sale of sugar."
How many people will never see what white sugar looks like in their entire life.
There is no point in the imperial court prohibiting the private sale of sugar!
As long as the imperial court doesn’t prohibit it, you can sell it with confidence!
Moreover, as long as the profit is big enough, it can be sold privately even if the imperial court has banned it.
"this……"
Hou Shikai laughed dryly and explained, "It's definitely okay to sell sugar, but if my nephew tells the source of the sugar, he might lose his head..."
"My dear nephew, you are very cautious!"
Su Songbo thought silently for a while, then asked, "Nephew, how much sugar can you get?"
"this……"
Hou Shizhi hesitated and said bitterly: "Uncle, please don't ask this. It's really inconvenient for me to talk about it!"
Hou Shikai kept Yun Zheng's words in mind.
Let the fish take the initiative to take the bait.
The more he tried to hide the truth, the less vigilant Su Songbo became.
Everyone is curious.
The less he said, the more Su Songbo wanted to know.
Sure enough, after hearing what he said, Su Songbo's face fell again, "Can't I even tell you this? Nephew, you don't trust me at all!"
"No, this..."
Hou Shikai looked at Su Songbo bitterly, "Uncle, you know this doesn't mean much, right? This sugar is very expensive. It's not about how much I can get, but how much I can afford!"
"My dear nephew, you can't earn all the money in the world by yourself, right?"
Su Songbo stopped pretending and said, "If my nephew can get enough sugar, I would also like to get involved."
“No, no…”
Hou Shikai laughed in his heart, but waved his hands to refuse: "My nephew is risking his life to make money, and he cannot bring trouble to his uncle. Besides, the Su family is big and powerful, there is really no need for him to take such a risk like my nephew..."
The prince is indeed very good at predicting things!
Su Songbo has indeed set his sights on the sugar business!
Listening to Hou Shikai's words, Su Songbo couldn't help but curse in his heart.
Hou Shikai's words sounded nice, but he didn't want to implicate him.
Hou Shikai clearly wants to monopolize the sugar business!
Afraid that someone would take a piece of the pie from him!
This kid is quite a smart guy!
He wants to borrow money, but also wants to monopolize the benefits!
How could such a good thing exist in the world?
Seeing that he could not pry Hou Shikai's mouth open, Su Songbo stopped asking questions and just asked Hou Shikai to stay for dinner.
During the dinner, Su Songbo and his family took turns drinking with Hou Shikai. They wanted to get Hou Shikai to speak his mind, but Hou Shikai said he had important things to do in the afternoon and only drank a little symbolically.
After leaving the Su family, Hou Shikai went to Sifang County to purchase brown sugar.
Sifang County can almost be said to be the territory of the Su family, so Hou Shikai's actions naturally could not escape the eyes and ears of the Su family.
They also judged from Hou Shikai's actions that the white sugar was refined from brown sugar.
Thinking about the huge profits from sugar, Su Songbo immediately called the other six elders of the Su family to discuss countermeasures and see how he could get involved in the sugar business.
The opportunity is already in front of them!
If you don’t make money when you have it, you’re a bastard!
However, Hou Shikai was too tight-lipped.
Moreover, Hou Shikai obviously did not want the Su family to have a share of the profits.
If you want to participate in the sugar business, you must find a way to pry Hou Shikai's mouth.
Just as everyone was discussing how to pry open Hou Shikai's mouth, someone from Su Henian's mansion hurried over and whispered in Su Henian's ear.
"What?"
Su Henian stood up suddenly, pulled the butler aside, and asked in a low voice: "Are you sure it was someone sent by the prince?"
"this……"
The visitor looked embarrassed. "I really don't dare to ask more questions, but judging from his posture, he should be right. Sir, please return home quickly..."
He was just a servant, how could he dare to verify the identity of the person sent by the prince!
Su Henian hesitated for a moment, then immediately said to the other six elders, "I'm really sorry, something urgent happened at home, I have to go back right away!"
Without waiting for anyone to ask any more questions, Su Henian left in a hurry.
When Su Henian returned home, Su Huaimin had already confirmed Yang Huizhou's identity.
The Junior Secretary of the Prince’s Palace!
Although its rank is the same as Su Huaimin's younger brother Su Huaiyuan, just based on the three words "Prince's Mansion", its status is not comparable to Su Huaiyuan.
Yang Huizhou didn't waste any time talking to Su Henian and the others. He directly told them what Yun Li had instructed him to do and also promised them some benefits.
After listening to Yang Huizhou's words, Su Henian fell into deep thought.
He didn't want to get involved in the fight between Yun Li and Yun Zheng!
But now, Yun Li has sent people to his house, and even if he doesn't want to get involved, he's afraid it's impossible.
This is the Junior Secretary of the Prince’s Mansion!
Just for this matter, Yun Li sent even the Junior Secretary of the Prince's Mansion, which shows how much importance Yun Li attached to this matter.
Moreover, because of the issue of dividing the land tax by land, Yun Zheng might have hated the Su family.
In this situation, it seems that the Su family can only side with the prince!
After thinking for a while, Su Henian smiled and said, "Lord Yang has come from afar, and you haven't had your meal yet, right? Why don't I order someone to prepare a banquet to welcome Lord Yang?"
"There's no need for a welcoming ceremony."
Yang Huizhou waved his hand casually, "I am a little tired after traveling all the way here, just get something to eat!"
"well!"
Su Henian immediately ordered people to prepare meals.
Although Yang Huizhou said that it would be fine to just have something to eat, he couldn't really do that!
While waiting for the people in the mansion to serve the meal, Su Henian talked to Yang Huizhou about Hou Shikai again.
"Sugar?"
Yang Huizhou was shocked: "How can he, a small grain merchant, get sugar?"
The powerful people in the imperial city had no way to get some sugar and had to rely on Emperor Wen's reward.
Yang Huizhou is a fourth-rank official, and he has never eaten sugar!
How could Hou Shikai get sugar?
"Could it be that someone in the court sold it to him?"
Su Henian asked tentatively.
"impossible!"
Yang Huizhou rejected it without a second thought, "I can't even get sugar! There's no way anyone in the court can sell him sugar!"
"Then where did he get this sugar?" Su Henian was really confused now.
Yang Huizhou was also thinking about it.
As he thought about it, Yang Huizhou seemed to understand a little bit!
Shuobei!
Those white sugars are likely from Shuobei!
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