The wife of Duke Pingguo felt a little sad. When she returned to the capital a few years ago, Su Yao was just an unknown young lady in the Bo's Mansion. At that time, she had wanted to invite Su Yao to a banquet, but the banquet had never come true. She didn't expect that a few years later, Su Yao had already become the Crown Princess.
Su Yao's mentality became even calmer. After all, even if she had any grudges with the Pang family before, they were just small matters. Besides, Pang Youde's matter didn't seem to be a big deal now.
She smiled and said to Lady Pingguo: "I am new here and I am not familiar with all the ladies. Please teach me, Lady."
The word "teach" is enough to reflect Su Yao's attitude.
Lady Pingguogong hurriedly said she didn't dare, and then she explained to Su Yao in a soft voice: "The largest family in Hangzhou now is the Xu family, which was the Xu family that served as the prime minister in Beijing before. There are about 30,000 to 40,000 Xu family members, most of whom came to the city to seek refuge, but they are connected. They are mainly engaged in the silk weaving business. You have hired weavers from the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau and bought looms to Yunnan before, which were theirs."
She had been in Zhejiang for many years and knew all these things by heart. She told Su Yao about them bit by bit and then continued, "People say there are four great families in Hangzhou. Among them, the Xu family has already been told to you. The rest are the Bai family, the Yan family and the Guan family. These families are of the same blood and are related by marriage. They are very powerful. Even our governor has to give them some face. Therefore, if Your Highness wants money, you have to get it from these families first. As long as you can get money from them, the people below will naturally know what to do."
Su Yao seemed to be thinking about something.
Soon, the wife of Duke Pingguo sent invitations to the ladies of these families.
Xiao Heng also began to contact these aristocratic families in the front.
When Su Yao first met these noble ladies from aristocratic families, he did not feel that they were any different from other noble ladies. However, among the girls, there was one who was different.
Because Su Yao met these ladies this time with the intention of raising money, she originally had no intention of meeting the noble ladies of these families. When she saw that these ladies brought their daughters or girls from their families, although she was not angry, she did not intend to honor them, so she simply sent these girls to watch the show.
Lady Pingguo also smiled and said, "There is a lake in the back garden, which is quite worth seeing. It is not frozen yet. You can go to the flower garden in the middle of the lake to play."
Although it is unknown why these ladies brought the girls along, since they are discussing cooperation, it would never go wrong to be kind to these girls.
However, when the girls of Dashu came across such an arrangement, they all obeyed without hesitation. However, one girl stood out from the crowd and said unwillingly, "Let us go and play. I wonder what the Crown Princess is going to say to my mother?"
Su Yao didn't take these girls seriously at first. After all, they were all about twelve, thirteen or fourteen years old and carefree. But she didn't expect someone to say that. She looked at the girl deeply and said, "I have something important to discuss with you ladies."
Mrs. Zhou on the other side also hurriedly scolded: "Xiaowei, stop messing around!"
Zhou Wei sneered silently: "I'm not kidding, but the Crown Prince's Consort is just a woman. What is so important that she has to avoid us to discuss it? We also want to listen."
The smile on Lady Pingguo's face froze. She frowned and looked at the girl below with some dissatisfaction.
It was obvious that there was something going on between the adults. The other girls knew how to read people's expressions, but this girl didn't know what was wrong with her and was so rude!
What do you mean by "what's the big deal for a woman?" This is too provocative!
Su Yao was also a little angry. She originally wanted to find these ladies to tell them about the request for money, but she didn't care what these girls were thinking.
Since someone was so proactive in bumping into her and looking for trouble, she simply said in a deep voice: "What's the matter? What qualifications do you have to ask me?! Back off!"
It's totally incomprehensible!
Zhou Wei didn't expect Su Yao to scold him so directly, and he couldn't help but widen his eyes for a moment.
Fortunately, Mrs. Zhou came down very angrily and glared at her coldly, then apologized to Su Qing.
Su Yao frowned, but didn't say anything in the end. He just followed the wife of Duke Pingguo and several other ladies to the water pavilion.
The stove was already lit in the water pavilion, and the coldness disappeared as soon as she entered the room. Madam Zhou hurried over to apologize: "She has been spoiled by her family. I don't know what happened to her today. She was so rude and disrespectful to the Crown Prince's Consort. Please forgive her, Crown Prince's Consort."
Some of the guests invited today are from wealthy families in Hangzhou, while others are family members of famous military generals.
Mrs. Zhou was a member of a military general's family.
Naturally, Su Yao would not have any conflicts with the families of these generals. He just smiled and passed it off without pursuing the matter further. Instead, he talked about the main point of today.
When they heard Su Yao talking about resuming maritime trade and setting up Maritime Customs Offices in Ningbo and Fujian, all the ladies pricked up their ears without exception. They knew very well that once the maritime ban was lifted, the huge profits would be enough to drive anyone crazy.
Su Yao took a sip of tea and said softly, "Of course, you all must know that even if we want to set up a Maritime Customs Office, we must first eliminate these pirates and pirates, so that the ships can go out to sea with confidence... Now, His Highness means that he wants to select a few people among you who are highly respected and can truly benefit the people, to jointly maintain the development of the Maritime Customs Office..."
All the ladies present here are the wives of the families, and they are all very smart people. When Su Yao said this, they knew what he meant. His meaning was that they wanted to see who could show the greatest sincerity, and the court would select a few of them to hold positions in the Maritime Customs.
However, as long as they were employed by the Maritime Customs, it would be a huge benefit! In this way, they would definitely have the best advantage in terms of qualifications for going to sea!
For a moment, everyone forgot what they were thinking before they brought their daughter here, and instead focused all their attention on this matter.
Madam Bai couldn't wait to say, "Our Bai family has always intended to help the court and the people. If His Highness has any orders, we will certainly do our best to help!"
Mrs. Zhou was absent-minded and did not hear what Su Yao and the others said for a while. She only came to her senses when she heard the constant discussions around her.