The wheel of time quickly rolled to November 16th.
Since tomorrow is the day for buying official positions, the salt merchants from Lianghuai have arrived in Nanjing in advance to make final preparations.
On the one hand, they used their connections to inquire about the number of positions available for donation as officials from the government and the Salt Inspector Song Quan himself.
On the other hand, he drank wine and tea with other salt merchants to find out their bottom line for the price they offered.
The key to winning an auction is to understand your opponent's background.
The salt merchants understood this principle, and Song Quan also understood it.
But his method is different from that of the salt merchants.
Because the salt merchant is the buyer and he is the seller.
The buyer's purpose in gathering information is to purchase the official position at the lowest possible price.
Song Quan's goal was to sell at the highest possible price.
How can you sell an item at a high price at an auction?
Of course...find someone to help you!
"Come here," Song Quan shouted to the servants outside the post station, "Please ask Captain Wang Zhong from the Northern Pacification Office to come here."
When Wang Zhong arrived, he asked Song Quan, "Sir Song, are you going out?"
"Yes," Song Quan nodded, "For tomorrow's donation, I have to meet a few people quietly. In order not to reveal my whereabouts, I need to go out in disguise. I have always heard that the Jinyiwei are good at disguises, so I'd like to trouble Captain Wang to help me disguise myself."
"No problem." Wang Zhong agreed immediately.
After some disguise, Song Quan took five Jinyiwei and left the post station disguised as handymen of the post station.
There were spies of the merchants everywhere outside. Although they didn't take Song Quan seriously after seeing him, they still sent people to follow him.
Getting rid of tracking is the most basic skill of the Jinyiwei.
They took advantage of the crowd and the commotion and quickly shook off their tail.
After wandering around, they came to a very small teahouse.
After entering the private room, Song Quan asked the Jinyiwei to deliver a letter to the two salt merchants.
More than half an hour later, the two salt merchants appeared at the back door of the teahouse.
After making sure that no one was following them, the two of them carefully entered the private room.
At this time, Song Quan had taken off his disguise and was sitting on a chair at the tea table in casual clothes.
When the two salt merchants saw Song Quan, they immediately bowed and saluted:
"Commoner Li Ji."
"Commoner Wang Li."
"Greetings, Mr. Censor."
"Sit down," Song Quan said, pointing to the two chairs next to the tea table.
The two exchanged pleasantries and sat down.
"Have tea." Song Quan personally poured a cup of tea for each of them.
The two of them gratefully drank their tea slowly.
After tasting the wine for a while, the salt merchant Li Ji asked first, "Why did Lord Song summon us here?"
"Tomorrow is the day to donate an official position," Song Quan put down his teacup with a smile and stared at the two of them, "It was all about donating an official position at that time!"
Li Ji felt uneasy when being stared at, and asked hurriedly: "I wonder what we can do for Lord Song?"
"Haha," Song Quan smiled but said nothing.
Some things can be said explicitly, while some things can only be understood but not expressed in words.
Li Ji and Wang Li looked at each other and quickly understood what Song Quan was thinking.
Li Ji coughed lightly and asked in a low voice: "Does Lord Song want us to raise the price of donating an official position?"
"The court is difficult!" Song Quan did not answer, but sighed.
Seeing that Song Quan still didn't say anything, Li Ji looked embarrassed: "If you don't say it, we have no clue."
"Uh..." Song Quan hesitated for a moment and then said, "In order to participate in the donation of officials, many salt merchants paid the salt tax for next year in advance. I roughly calculated that the total amount is more than one million taels. However, the court still has a deficit of several hundred thousand taels, so it has to rely on donations to solve it."
"Mr. Song, could you please tell us the specific amount of the deficit?" Li Ji asked.
If he knew the specific deficit, he could guess the approximate price of donating an official position in advance and thus seize the initiative.
Song Quan would not tell him, of course, so he said, "This is a secret of the court, and I can't tell you for now."
"Then...what should we do?" Li Ji continued to ask.
“Just raise the price.”
"How high is the appropriate height?"
“During the auction, you must raise the price of a seventh-rank official position to more than 10,000 taels of silver, and the price of a sixth-rank official position to more than 15,000 taels of silver,” Song Quan replied.
"Sir Song," Li Ji asked, "what if no one bids?"
"So what?" Song Quan stared at him with cold eyes, "What do you think?"
Li Ji was frightened by Song Quan's gaze and took a half step back. He said hurriedly: "Don't worry, sir. If no one bids, we will buy the official position."
"That's more like it!" Song Quan sneered, "When I was inspecting the salt, I showed mercy and hardly asked you to pay. Now that I'm in trouble, you should repay me."
"Yes, yes, yes," Li Ji and Wang Li nodded at the same time, "This is what we should do."
"Don't worry, there must be a lot of people asking for the same price. I'm doing this to ensure that everything goes well." Song Quan began to comfort the two again.
Under Song Quan's combination of kindness and force, the two salt merchants left feeling both afraid and grateful.
After arranging the entrustment, Song Quan returned to the post station and waited for the next day.
Before the next day arrived, Song Quan was the first to receive news from the capital.
"Sir, Concubine Zhao faked her pregnancy to deceive the emperor and was banished to the cold palace by His Majesty." The servant said to Song Quan.
"Oh, I see." Song Quan didn't take it to heart.
In the Ming Dynasty, unless the emperor was young, the harem had almost no presence.
In his eyes, this was just an ordinary case of concubines competing for favor.
When the news was delivered to Chunhe Palace, Crown Prince Zhu Cilang was reading.
He put down the book and looked at Fang Yuegong.
Fang Yuegong has gained Zhu Cilang's recognition and has become his teacher.
He and Ni Yuanlu took turns giving lectures to Zhu Cilang.
Fang Yuegong is on duty today.
After the eunuch who delivered the message left, Fang Yuegong asked Zhu Cilang directly: "What does His Royal Highness the Crown Prince think of this matter?"
"This... this is a matter between father and queen. Although I am the crown prince, it is not appropriate for me to say more, right?"
"This is a test from your teacher, and you need to answer it." Fang Yuegong continued to ask.
"Hmm..." Zhu Cilang thought for a moment, and the image of Concubine Zhao appeared in his mind.
She has a dignified and beautiful appearance, and a gentle and kind smile.
So he said, "According to what I know, Concubine Zhao is a kind person with no desires or requests. She has a very good reputation in the harem. It is hard to imagine that she would fake a pregnancy to deceive the emperor."
"Do you think there's something fishy?" Fang Yuegong asked.
“Somewhat.”
"Pay more attention in the future. This matter is not over yet." Fang Yuegong said firmly.
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