In the afternoon, Qingyan rested and prepared to reorganize the Yuelai Inn.
Yin noticed that she had been staying in her study for the past few days, rarely venturing out. Even when he was out gathering information, she wouldn't make a fuss about going out.
His little face was so thin from staying up so much, and seeing the little girl like this made him feel very sad.
"Sweetie, let's relax a bit today, okay?" She'll definitely be exhausted from working so hard every day; her little body will break down sooner or later.
"No, I want to finish this as soon as possible." She always finishes her work on the same day and never puts it off until tomorrow.
He hoped that Xiao Guai could rest for a few days. They would pack up one last time after leaving the county. If she started early, it would give the other party a chance to prepare.
“I also hope that we can resolve this matter soon and keep an eye on them for a while. In addition, if any of these people turn out to be cunning, we can replace them as soon as possible.” Qingyan sighed and said, “Sisi, I don’t trust those investigations anymore. The staff of Yuelai Inn and Linglong Pavilion have basically all been investigated by Fei Yanggu and his two sons and Yin, but they were still bribed.”
“Little darling, those who have been bribed must be dealt with. If they have been bribed by Father Emperor, not only can we not touch them, but we must also put them in important positions,” Yin explained helplessly.
She stared at him in surprise. Could he even bribe Emperor Kangxi?
That's incredible...
"Surprised?!" Yin looked at her; many things had unexpectedly become reality.
She nodded. Even the foreign officials didn't know who the royal spies were. There were things they knew, but they had no way to investigate. Even around Fei Yanggu and his two sons, there were traces of these people hiding.
Adhering to the principle of not offending those around them and taking the overall situation into consideration, Fei Yanggu and his group would never use the royal family's secret forces for their own selfish interests.
Fei Yanggu and Gao Bin, whom he chose, formed the strongest contrast.
"Your Majesty, the situation is quite bad. The Ulanara clan may suffer a considerable loss of silver. The Mongol princes are planning to use the Yuelai Inn to pressure His Majesty," Erlu reported.
He disguised himself as a Mongolian merchant and dealt with these people, who all advised Erlun to use this method to make more profit.
"Really? Who came up with this idea?" Qingyan hoped it wasn't someone from Linglong Pavilion who came up with this underhanded trick.
Erlu fell silent. Initially, the Mongol leader wanted to ask how to extract more silver. Those managers were all carefully selected, and if they hadn't been in Mongolia all this time, they would all be loyal.
Doing business in Mongolia is certainly not as lucrative as doing business in the Jiangnan region. These shopkeepers have been working in the southern market for many years; they not only have considerable experience but are also adept at handling difficult problems.
"Eru, you still haven't told me who came up with this idea?" Qingyan was furious and insisted on finding out who it was.
"It must have been Manager Fu of the Yuelai Inn. He received hundreds of thousands of taels of silver from the Khorchin before he revealed this method."
Her face instantly darkened. Manager Fu was a pillar of Jiangnan. In order to better trade with this region, Qingyan had reluctantly sent Manager Fu and his entire family here.
"Manager Fu's wife is an excellent Suzhou embroidery artist. I invited the couple here so that Yuelai Inn and Linglong Pavilion could reach new heights. Who would have thought that the two people I trusted most would make a mistake?" Qingyan's face was very bad. The people she had chosen had directly caused a blunder.
"Where is the embroidery room?" Yin asked Erlu.
Xiufang was opened by the wife of Manager Fu. Qingyan hoped that the cloth would not be transported from Jiangnan, so that the finished products of Linglong Pavilion could reduce a lot of costs.
"No problems have been found yet," Erlu said directly.
She hadn't quite recovered yet. Only half of Linglong Pavilion was operating normally; the other half had already caused Linglong Pavilion considerable losses this year. If there were any more problems with the ready-made clothes here, they wouldn't be able to open the store at all.
"The embroidery shop doesn't have many orders. Many of our regular customers still prefer to choose from fabrics sourced from Jiangnan," Yin said, describing the situation at the embroidery shop.
The embroidery cloth in the embroidery room was mostly bought by slightly wealthier families, so the embroiderers didn't earn much.
“Many girls come here to learn embroidery in order to acquire a skill. They start much later, so their finished products are naturally much inferior to those of the embroiderers in Jiangnan.” Qingyan had seen the embroiderers’ work, and none of their embroidery could compare to that of the women in Jiangnan. The women of the Mongol tribes were mostly attracted to the exquisite fabrics in the capital and certainly wouldn’t care about New Year’s gifts.
"Is there really no way to do it?" He also heard that the number of apprentices in the embroidery workshop was slowly decreasing.
She nodded helplessly. Recently, she had thought of many incentive policies, but the shopkeepers outside said that they had little effect on the areas surrounding Mongolia.
This trip to Qiu Mi is not only to accompany Yin, but also to conduct on-site surveys to see if there is a way to revive the embroidery workshop.
Reality is often the cruelest thing. She couldn't bear to see those girls who only learned embroidery to make a living by appliqué.
They can learn embroidery, and if they can earn more money, they can continue to work even after they get married.
"Si Si, could we open embroidery workshops in the surrounding area so that the embroiderers can be self-sufficient? At least they won't have to go through all the trouble of buying embroidery fabric from Jiangnan." Qing Yan didn't particularly like the embroidery fabric from Jiangnan. Although the craftsmanship was exquisite, the patterns were somewhat shabby, like a girl from a modest family.
This stands in stark contrast to the grandeur and luxury of the capital.
"Little darling, these embroidered fabrics should ideally be the same as those from Jiangnan. Even if someone discovers that they weren't transported from Jiangnan, at the very least, the patterns and the quality of the fabrics should be acceptable," Yin said, expressing his thoughts.
After all, outsiders know that Linglong Pavilion hopes to reduce the cost of ready-made clothing to the lowest possible level, and those people are probably figuring out what methods they can use to get the best deal.
Those who altered the prices of the collected books, the places where many people tampered with the materials, were the fabrics transported from Jiangnan. No wonder Qingyan planned to open an embroidery workshop here.
The transportation costs and the expenses for surrounding arrangements have increased considerably.
"The transportation costs aren't much, but the key is that there are many checkpoints along the way, and each place has to send several hundred taels of silver. If all of this is included in the price of the cloth, the price will definitely go up." Qingyan felt a terrible headache coming on. He had put in a lot of effort to prevent the accounts from being altered.
"Alright, let's think about how to resolve this. Let's settle all the issues these next few days, and then explain everything to Father Emperor when we get back," Yin Quan said. (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it on Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
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