Chapter 222 [Trapped]
In the evening, in the private room of Fuzhu Restaurant.
This time Jiang Lili still sat in the main seat, but the difference was that the other twelve shopkeepers no longer had the polite, nervous and eager attitude they had when they first met.
They now spoke to Jiang Lili calmly and casually, with genuine admiration and respect in their eyes, and they completely regarded Jiang Lili as one of their own.
After only a few days of spending time together, they were impressed by Jiang Lili's intelligence.
Right now, all the shopkeepers are reporting their work progress to Jiang Lili.
"Manager Jiang, our twelve major trading companies have worked together to quickly resettle the people who fled from the Haizhu River in the He family's unused farms or land."
The innkeeper was still sighing in his heart. The tents that Manager Jiang had sent over were extraordinary. They were light and easy to set up. "Everyone lives in a tent. No need to sleep in the wild anymore."
The owner of the Fuzhu Restaurant said, "We give them vegetable and fish porridge or lean meat porridge every day, and encourage the victims to work in exchange for boxed meals and clothing and bedding."
Pharmacy owner Fan Qiu said: "We have set up medicine distribution points and free clinics. People say that the medicine we distribute is very effective."
The shopkeeper who manages the craftsmen said: "Many residents' houses were damaged by this heavy rain. Our He family is also helping residents repair their houses at a very low price."
Shopkeeper Ma summarized: "Our He family's reputation among the people is rising steadily. Although other merchants are jealous of our He family's fame, they dare not follow our example. They think that doing so is a pure loss of money."
The fishmonger sneered, "What do these people know? With the government and everyone else doing nothing, our He family has stepped up. Providing timely assistance is the most important thing. Even if the government starts resettling the people, they won't remember the kindness of County Magistrate Huang. Besides, County Magistrate Huang isn't much better!"
"Okay, we got the money from County Magistrate Huang today, let's increase our efforts."
Shopkeeper Ma handed the banknotes from County Magistrate Huang to Jiang Lili, saying, "Shopkeeper Jiang, I have done everything you instructed."
Jiang Lili looked at the banknotes on the table and asked, "Old Ma, will he accept the things?"
"I've accepted it. County Magistrate Huang couldn't let it go and even said he'd move it to his study soon. He especially loves the golden birdcage timeline ornament you gave him."
This time, Shopkeeper Ma brought three treasures to County Magistrate Huang, one of which was a gold-lacquered flower and bird seasonal clock, which was given to him by Jiang Lili, asking him to make sure to bring it to County Magistrate Huang.
Because "songzhong" sounds like "songzhong" which is not auspicious, and the ancient people here had never seen Western clocks, Jiang Lili simply changed the name of the clock and called it "timeline ornament".
Ancient people could not understand the time on clocks with Arabic or Roman numerals, so Jiang Lili customized a clock face and replaced each hour with a small pattern of the corresponding zodiac animal. One hour is equivalent to two hours. A mouse head is used for the midnight hour. Eleven o'clock in the evening is the beginning of the midnight hour, so a Mickey Mouse head is drawn on the clock face. Midnight is the beginning of the midnight hour, so a mouse tail is drawn on the clock face.
As soon as Shopkeeper Ma saw this treasure, he felt it was extremely precious. Not only was it exquisitely crafted and made of unique materials, but it could also calculate time accurately, which was much clearer than a sundial and very convenient.
When Shopkeeper Ma delivered the item, his heart was bleeding, and he reluctantly explained to County Magistrate Huang how to use this ornament.
Although Huang Junshou was a corrupt official, he had seen many good things, but this was the first time he had seen such an exquisite thing.
Shopkeeper Ma saw with his own eyes that even when he left the government office, he was still holding the golden flower and bird timeline ornament in his hand.
Recalling the incomparably exquisite flower and bird timeline ornament, Shopkeeper Ma couldn't contain his curiosity: "Shopkeeper Jiang, I have a question."
"I think this timepiece you asked me to deliver is worth more than five thousand taels of silver. It's a workmanship no one else can make. If it were put up for auction, it would probably fetch tens of thousands of taels of silver. Why would you give such a good thing to that corrupt official?"
Jiang Lili smiled mysteriously when she heard that. There was a miniature camera in the clock. Although there was no Internet in ancient times and it was impossible to receive images in real time, Xiaopang asked the master to tamper with the clock when changing the dial.
In a few days, the clock will break down, and County Magistrate Huang will definitely ask Shopkeeper Ma to repair it.
When it was time to repair the camera, she would take out the memory card from the camera and give it to Xiaopang, so that Xiaopang could see whether the camera had recorded the wealth of County Magistrate Huang and how much money he had embezzled, so that she could estimate how much money she could extort from him.
"You said that clock could be worth tens of thousands of taels?"
Jiang Lili thought about it and realized that it was indeed possible. Modern mechanical clocks were introduced from the West and could not be made with ancient technology. If you buy them nowadays from a furniture store or online, they would only cost a few hundred or a thousand yuan.
What's more, this flower and bird clock was rejected by Xiaopang's grandmother because she thought it was too tacky and low-class. It was placed in the corner of the warehouse gathering dust and was brought by Xiaopang to Jiang Lili as a cover. It's hard to say whether this thing can be sold for 200 yuan in the second-hand market.
Jiang Lili fiddled with the five silver notes with the words "one thousand taels of silver" written on them. In this world, one tael of silver is less than 50 grams, probably around 35 grams. Five thousand taels of silver is 180,000 grams.
The price of one gram of silver fluctuates around 7 yuan, and 5,000 taels of silver is worth 1.26 million yuan.
One million and two hundred and sixty thousand was used to purchase supplies to help the disaster victims, but less than two hundred and sixty thousand was used.
Thinking of this, Jiang Lili couldn't help but smile: "That clock has a magical use, but I can't reveal it yet."
"If you like that clock so much, I'll give it to you after you've worked hard on it and finished this."
Jiang Lili waved her hand generously, "Everyone, work hard. Everyone will get a chance to do things for me!"
Shopkeeper Ma was so excited when he heard this that tears were about to fall!
He will work for Manager Jiang for the rest of his life!
The fishmonger couldn't help but ask, "Manager Jiang, I have a bigger question. Why did you only take five thousand taels of silver?"
Shopkeeper Ma also nodded and said, "Yes, you have such amazing abilities, why did you only accept 5,000 taels from that corrupt official?"
Jiang Lili's smile grew wider. "I only asked Old Ma to tell me that inviting the gods would cost five thousand taels. He didn't say that flood control would only cost five thousand taels."
We are all doing business, so we understood it immediately!
Great! This word game is a blast.
"But, if I play word games like this, will County Magistrate Huang be angry?"
Shopkeeper Ma continued to inquire, "What are your plans going forward? Besides praying to the gods, what other excuses can you offer that will make County Magistrate Huang unable to resist paying the money?"
Jiang Lili said in a meaningful tone, "There's an old saying that it's easy to invite a god, but hard to send him away."
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