Gaojiazhuang, blue bricks, white seams, black tiles and green trees.

In the courtyard where guests live, there are dense shades and cicadas chirping.

The spacious study is clean and bright, with only a desk, bookshelf, musical instrument table and incense burner. There is also a freehand landscape painting by Shen Zhou hanging on the wall. The furnishings are simple yet elegant.

Ma Xianglan lit a burner of sandalwood incense, placed the cushion she brought with her on the chair, and tied her hair up high. Then she sat down upright and put on her gold-rimmed glasses.

She gracefully took a spoonful of water from the water bowl and gently dripped it onto the inkstone. Then she picked out a piece of Huangshan pine smoke ink with gold lines from the ink box, twisted it with her slender jade fingers, and slowly ground the ink.

The afternoon light shines through the raised windows onto the desk, seeming to give the work a sacred quality.

Ma Xianglan was grinding ink while planning the content of the book and thinking over it repeatedly. Her literary talent was naturally sufficient, even better than many scholars. But the "newsletter" that the master asked her to write was aimed at the managers within the group who were roughly literate, or even employees who had just completed literacy. Obviously, it was necessary to use popular vernacular to achieve the best communication effect.

Although she still loves beautiful poems and songs, Sister Ma is happy with it. A smart woman like her naturally doesn't want to be just a beautiful vase, she also wants to occupy a place in the great career of the young master.

"Let me add glory to your career!"

Sister Ma took a deep breath, stretched out her wrist as white as snow and frost, picked up the purple-hair brush, and wrote lines of beautiful small characters on the gold-sprinkled Xue Tao paper.

"Jiangnan News" 'Long 306' headline newsletter:

'On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month in the third year of Longqing's reign, the Sheep Festival, the former Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing, Zhao Gongliben, accompanied by the Hanlin Reviewer and the founder of Jiangnan Group, Zhao Gongzi, traveled thousands of miles to Gaojiazhuang to bring holiday blessings and good wishes to the retired former Cabinet Vice Assistant Gao Gong and the former Jiangdu Censor Gao Jie, and participated in traditional festival activities such as fishing and military training with great interest.'

'The next morning, Mr. Zhao also participated in the morning exercise organized by Senior High School Chancellor, and was highly praised by the seniors. Senior High School Chancellor shook Mr. Zhao's hand and said excitedly, "Good, very energetic!"

'At noon on the seventh day, Gao met Mr. Zhao in his main room under the grape trellis. The two sides had a cordial and friendly talk. Gao highly praised Mr. Zhao's series of initiatives that benefited the country and the people, such as building water conservancy projects and transporting grain by sea, and expressed his appreciation for him and the Jiangnan Group's consistent adherence to the principle of "loyalty to the emperor and patriotism."'

'Our Mr. Zhao modestly said that he and Jiangnan Group were still very young and needed the help of seniors. He also urged Mr. Gao to obey the will of heaven and the people and return to work as soon as possible to make further contributions to the Ming Dynasty.'

"Gao said that he was in good health and was willing to serve the emperor at any time if the emperor and the country needed him. The meeting ended in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Gao even cooked chive dumplings himself to entertain Mr. Zhao."

'Ma Lan, a reporter at the front line.'

After finishing the press release for the Jiangnan Group's public release, Ma Xianglan changed another piece of paper, rubbed her wrist, and continued writing:

'"Internal Reference" "Long San Yao Er" issue (confidential: only communicated to group management cadres):'

'The talks were positive and fruitful. During the talks, the two sides exchanged views candidly and agreed to focus on the future, put aside burdens, seek common ground while reserving differences, and jointly build a strategic partnership of win-win cooperation. The two sides should rely on the partnership, uphold the concept of win-win, strengthen practical cooperation in various fields, establish an effective coordination mechanism, prevent misjudgments, strengthen communication and coordination on major issues, and work together to achieve peace, stability and prosperity in the Ming Dynasty.'

"Correspondent Shouzhen." Ma Xianglan used her real name as her correspondence pen name this time.

Then she changed to the third piece of paper and drafted it for Mr. Zhao as a secretary:

'Submitted to the Group Board of Directors and Strategic Decision Committee:'

'I have basically reached an understanding with Mr. Xuan on this trip, and both parties have three rules:'

'First, put down the historical baggage and move forward lightly. Jiangnan Group and Xishan Company fully support Xuan Weng's reinstatement. And fully cooperate with Xuan Weng's future policy reforms (excluding the ten prefectures in Jiangnan).'

'Second, Xuan Weng promised that after his reinstatement, he would immediately start to promote the transportation of grain by sea, and do his best to safeguard the interests of the group in Jiangnan and overseas. He would not interfere with the administration and reform of the ten prefectures in Jiangnan, but on the premise that such administration and reform would not harm the interests of the court.'

'Third, the appointment and removal of local officials in the ten prefectures of Jiangnan must first be consulted with our group. Our group has a veto over the appointment of the governor of Yingtian. However, for the appointment and removal of officials outside the ten prefectures of Jiangnan, our group should be consistent with Xuan Weng.'

'Zhao Hao'

'June 8, the third year of the Longqing reign.'

After writing three different articles on the same thing, Ma Xianglan put down her pen, thought for a while, put the three manuscripts into a folder, and walked briskly to the outer room to ask the young master to review them.

~~

Zhao Hao had just returned from being injured by Gao Jie. He weakly put his foot on Qiaoqiao's leg and asked her to apply medicine on his toes.

While Qiaoqiao was carefully applying medicine between his toenails, she complained to Gao Wu for not taking good care of the young master.

Brother Gao was so sad that he almost cried and became more and more speechless.

"Don't blame Brother Gao for this. I was the one who hit me with my sword." Zhao Hao came to Gao Wu's rescue and said, "Luckily it was the handle of the sword that hit his foot. If it was the other end, at least two toes would have been cut off."

"Sir, how long are you going to accompany that old man in his madness?" Qiaoqiao shed tears. It was a journey of 1,500 miles from Beijing to Xinzheng, and she had taken care of Zhao Hao until he was fair and tender. But after only three days in Gaojiazhuang, he was already tanned into a black skin.

"Almost done." Zhao Hao smiled happily, "If I'm not injured, how can I train?"

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, thinking that the young master would not deliberately fake an injury to avoid training, right? Of course, no one dared to ask this question.

At this time, Ma Xianglan came over from the study and saw Zhao Hao's appearance. Naturally, she felt distressed again.

Seeing Sister Ma about to cry, Zhao Hao quickly took the clip from her hand, diverted Ma Xianglan's attention and said, "Come, let me see how it's written."

Sister Ma really didn't care about feeling sorry for you. She grabbed the hem of her skirt and said awkwardly, "I'm not used to the first two styles of writing, especially the first one. I feel like it's too colloquial this time."

"Plain language is good, it should be understandable to everyone." Zhao Hao was very satisfied after reading it and said, "Not bad, not bad, just send it back."

Qiaoqiao looked at Secretary Ma with envy as he had gained the identity of a reporter, thinking that it was good to be educated...

"Yes." Ma Xianglan breathed a sigh of relief, took back the three pieces of letter paper, and pulled out two translated ciphertexts from the folder, handed them to Zhao Hao and said, "Sir, this is the urgent report I just received."

"Oh?" Zhao Hao took it and looked at it. It was a message sent by Jiang Xueying from Suzhou, reporting the outcome of the financial war with Hengtongji.

Mr. Zhao had received a report half a month ago that Hengtongji had maliciously run on the Xuzhou branch of Jiangnan Bank. However, he was not too worried. He had already established a super-modern defense system for Jiangnan Bank and arranged elite soldiers to sit in the rear. It didn't make much difference whether he was there or not.

The only thing he cared about was whether he could get rid of that damn Hengtongji in one fell swoop.

In the secret letter, Jiang Xueying told him that with the help of Pan Zhongcheng, Jiangnan Bank transported the 7.5 million taels of silver that had been deposited in Linqing in advance to Xuzhou and successfully survived the bank run.

At the same time, in order to retaliate against Hengtongji, she announced that all Hengtongji depositors would receive triple interest if they transferred their money to Jiangnan Bank within five days.

As a result, within three days, Hengtongji in Wuxi, Songjiang, Jiaxing and other places were forced to close down one after another. It turned out that the money in these banks had been misappropriated by Song Xiaoming and deposited in Jiangnan Bank as a position to attack the Xuzhou branch.

Heng Tongji mobilized silver ships from the Huai'an base camp at night and headed south, but the Yangtze River Navy happened to be conducting exercises in the Guazhou waters and was unable to go south for a while.

As a result, all Hengtongji restaurants in Jiangnan had to close down one after another.

Seeing that Hengtongji was going to default on their money, the angry depositors surrounded Hengtongji's money shop, captured the shopkeeper Chaofeng, and forced them to pay back the money, otherwise they would burn the shop and bring them to justice!

The bank run plan conceived by Manager Song was perfectly staged in Jiangnan, but the victim became his own Hengtongji.

The government had to intervene and finally, under the mediation of Cai Guoxi and others, Hengtongji borrowed 5 million taels from Jiangnan Bank to settle accounts with depositors. As a price, Hengtongji not only had to pay high loan interest to Jiangnan Bank, but also had to close Hengtongji's branches south of the Yangtze River after settling all debts and was never allowed to set foot in the ten prefectures of Jiangnan.

To Manager Song, the conditions offered by Jiang Xueying were not only extremely humiliating, but also extremely deadly!

Jiangnan was the economic center of the Ming Dynasty. If Hengtongji's bills could not be used in Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou, Yangzhou, Taiping, and Yingtian, which other businesses would use them? Apart from the canal transportation system, who else would keep money in Hengtongji?

What's worse is that when shipping becomes popular in the future, canal transportation will not be the only option for north-south freight. The canal transportation office should beg those merchants not to abandon the canal and go to sea. What right do they have to require them to keep accounts through Hengtong?

With Song Xiaoming's vision, he could certainly understand how serious harm these seemingly fair conditions would cause to Hengtongji.

But if he doesn't agree, dozens of Hengtongji stores in Jiangnan will be closed down by the government at the same time, and all the shopkeepers and court officials will be sent to jail.

Moreover, the head office in Jiangbei also bears unlimited joint and several liability. The government in Jiangnan will definitely petition the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice in Nanjing to seal up Hengtongji in Jiangbei and bring the head manager to justice.

Although the other party might not succeed, if things got out of hand, an unstoppable run on Hengtongji in Jiangbei and even in Shandong and Beijing would break out. He and Hengtongji would soon be doomed!

Between quick death and slow death, of course I would choose the latter...

After all, as long as you are alive, there is still hope for a comeback. Maybe if Jiangnan Group suddenly dies, Hengtong will be resurrected?

So Song Xiaoming agreed painfully. He made a heroic move to save Hengtongji north of the Yangtze River.

ps. The first of three consecutive updates, please vote for me!!!