In the incense room, the atmosphere of the conversation became increasingly tense.

"But my dear grandfather, even if the weavers produce silk, what will happen? In the end, they still have to sell it to us, right?" Vice President Xu and others said with bitter faces, "We really don't have the money to buy it."

"Can't you think of a solution?!" Cai Guoxi said gritting his teeth.

"We have tried every possible method." Chairman Weng said with a sad face, "Except selling the silk in stock."

"I just don't understand. They could be sold before, so why can't they be sold this year? What's the problem?!" Magistrate Cai finally couldn't help but slammed the table.

"Alas..." President Weng sighed and said, "We don't know why the products suddenly lost their market share."

Mr. Zhao, who was leisurely drinking tea, smiled secretly when he heard this. How could the Dongting Chamber of Commerce not know why? They knew it better than anyone else.

It’s a pity that no one dares to say it.

And Prefect Cai probably knew it too, but unfortunately he didn't dare to ask.

So both sides fell into an awkward silence for a long time.

Finally, Cai Guoxi had no choice but to give an order: "I don't care, you must come up with a solution for me tonight! Otherwise, I won't be able to get well, and I won't let you get well either!"

After saying that, he walked away angrily.

Weng Yu and his son and the two vice presidents were stunned, thinking, didn't they ask us for help? Why did they put the blame on us in the end?

It turns out this is the Hongmen Banquet.

~~

The banquet ended unhappily. The people from the Dongting Chamber of Commerce wanted to return to Dongshan overnight, but they were stopped by Zhang Tongpan and his men.

"I'm sorry everyone, the Lord of the Palace has ordered that no one can leave Guanyin Temple unless we can find a solution."

"Ah?" Chairman Weng and the other three all leaned back. How come the Hongmen Banquet wasn't enough and they had to go to jail again?

"What crime have we committed?" Vice President Xu said angrily, "Isn't your Excellency afraid of chilling people's hearts by doing this?!"

"Yes, why don't we tell you if we have a solution?" Weng Fan said, sharing the same hatred with him: "If the Lord wants to solve the problem, it's simple. Just take out the silver and buy our silk. I guarantee that we will start working tomorrow!"

"You should stop complaining and think of solutions." Zhang Jiong, the judge, who had received many favors from them, lowered his voice and said, "Mr. Zhongcheng will be back tomorrow morning. If there is no plan by then, the governor will definitely push you out to take the blame."

As he said this, he glanced at the four people and said sarcastically, "If you really have the guts, you can yell at him like this in front of the Minister tomorrow. That would be a real hero."

“We wouldn’t dare…” The four big businessmen immediately lost their arrogance. Lin Run was cruel and had a bad temper. Anyone who dared to talk nonsense to him would have his property confiscated.

"If you don't dare, then find a solution quickly." Zhang Jiong waved his hand and asked someone to take them to the guest room.

“Oh, well, I want to, I want to…” The four of them turned around depressedly, tears streaming down their faces, “I want to die so badly.”

~~

If we could think of a solution carefully, there wouldn't be so many people hanging themselves in this world.

The four of them discussed in the room of the Weng father and son for half the night, but still could not come to a solution.

But he was clear about one thing, that is, Cai Guoxi had some bad intentions - this bastard probably wanted to use them as scapegoats!

In this way, they could deal with Lin Zhongcheng and give an explanation to the citizens who caused the trouble. Then they could raid their houses to feed the hungry citizens.

Kill three birds with one stone, why not do it?

Although doing so will inevitably leave him with a bad reputation as a cruel official, it is also a reflection of his ability.

After all, the Dongting Merchants' Guild was just a group of merchants, and was far from being as powerful as the Xu, Wang, and Hua families, who could make the prefect obedient and even the governor helpless.

Cai Guoxi was pushed into a corner, and there weren't many options left for him to resort to against them.

Elderly people are not very energetic, and President Weng was already exhausted and his eyelids were drooping. But after thinking about this section, he was no longer sleepy.

"How about we expose the Lu and Gu families?" Vice President Xu suggested, "If the sky falls, the big ones will hold it up. There's no reason to let the short guys like us hold it up."

"What do you want to do?" Liu Zhengqi had been irritated by Xu several times tonight, and now he finally had the chance to vent his anger.

"Do you think the Lord doesn't know that half of our silk is sold to the Lu and Gu families? Why is he pretending to be ignorant when he knows the truth? Isn't it because he is afraid that the matter will get out of hand, and the court and the people of the world will ask them why they consume so much silk every year? And why they suddenly don't want it this year?!"

"Uh..." Xu Zhixiang was stunned by the rebuke, but he always looked down on this guy, so he fought back with last year's incident:

"Isn't it because you caused too much damage last year? Otherwise, if you grit your teeth this year, you can always get through it?"

"What about next year? What about the year after?" Liu Zhengqi hated the fact that he kept holding on to his weakness. He stood up and said angrily, "Besides, if we offend the prefect, at most we will lose money. If we offend the nine great families, will there be any place for you and me in Jiangnan?!"

"This boy is not worthy of being my advisor!" After saying this, he turned around and strode out the door.

"Vice President Liu, where are you going?" Weng Fan asked hurriedly.

"Shit!" Liu Zhengqi yelled and slammed the door.

"President, look at this guy." Xu Zhixiang said embarrassedly, "You can't touch a tiger's butt."

"Forget about it." Weng Yu looked at him helplessly and said, "Vice President Liu can no longer compete with you. There is no need to oppose him in every way."

"We are in the same boat, let's work together." Weng Fan also echoed. In fact, the harder Xu Zhixiang stepped on Liu Zhengqi, the better it would be for him.

~~

On the other side, Liu Zhengqi did not go to the toilet, but ran to a small courtyard not far away.

"Who is it?!" Immediately, a secret sentry flashed out from the shadows.

"Please tell this brother that our lackey Liu Zhengqi wants to see the young master." Liu Zhengqi felt much more at ease when he saw the lights were still on in the courtyard.

"Oh, it's Mr. Liu." The guards around Zhao Hao had all seen Liu Zhengqi, so they went in to report on his behalf.

In the study room in the courtyard, Master Zhao was sitting on a recliner, concentrating and dictating with his eyes closed.

Secretary Ma sat at the table, holding a thin pen in his hand, taking notes quickly.

Qiaoqiao sat on the recliner and massaged Zhao Hao's temples with her soft hands. She also fed him a mouthful of loquat paste from time to time to moisten his throat, so that Mr. Zhao, who was in the voice change period, would not talk too much and hurt his precious throat.

With the help of two capable assistants, Mr. Zhao can write several thousand words in one night...

I only heard him say... oh no, he said:

"Logic is not only the upper and lower limits of our daily thinking; but also, most importantly, it provides the cornerstone for building scientific theories and gives us methods and tools for scientific testing."

"Scientists should all use logic and try to avoid arguing with illogical people, so as not to waste our precious lives. In fact, scientists should not seek to defeat the other party in arguments, but to conquer nature in action. For this reason, in this book "A Brief Introduction to Logic", in addition to deductive logic, another logical method, "induction", will be elaborated in detail..."

ps. I’ll post one more chapter for you to read first, the rest is not finished yet.