"I will make the Wang family regret it, I will make them cry bitterly, and I will make them lose all their wealth!" Yuan Zhao was filled with indignation, like a fool.
However, Li Xian was already somewhat wary of Yuan Zhao.
Li Xian turned to look at Zhang Quan, "Brother Zhang, I know you are the most careful in doing things. What is the situation of the Wang family now?"
Zhang Quan thought for a moment, "Noble Concubine Hua is still Noble Concubine Hua. His Majesty still cares for the Wang family. In addition, the Wang family's lantern imitation incident has the shadow of the royal family behind it. This is one of the reasons why I didn't tell you before. After I investigated part of the situation, I didn't dare to continue investigating."
"Evidence?" Li Xian's eyes sparkled. If the matter involved the royal family, it would be much more difficult.
"There is only one piece of circumstantial evidence, which is the night running lights. The Wang family's shop doesn't sell night running lights! Even when we secretly sent someone to contact them, the Wang family didn't respond."
"Circumstantial evidence?" Li Xian rubbed his fingers and pondered for a long time. "The circumstantial evidence is enough. It is understandable that the royal family was involved in this matter. I heard that His Majesty the Emperor has gone crazy with poverty."
Yuan Zhao immediately said, "Yes, yes, the poor have started to sell their positions. With only 5,000 taels of gold, you can become a third-rank official; with 10,000 taels of gold, you can become a second-rank official. I heard that the Wang family is already planning to use 20,000 taels of gold to buy a first-rank official position."
"Yeah." Li Xian nodded. Yuan Zhao's seemingly joking words revealed a very important piece of information and also very important evidence—the emperor was really crazy because of poverty! And the Wang family was also making constant moves!
Li Xian thought for a while before speaking: "Well, since this matter involves the shadow of the royal family, we will give up the low-end market and occupy the mid-end and high-end markets for colored lanterns. At the same time, we will adopt a price war and raise the price of colored lanterns."
"Puff..." Shangguan Yong spat out a mouthful of tea, "Brother, did I hear you right? You said price war, you want to raise the price?"
"Yeah, is there a problem?"
"Of course there are problems, big problems. Isn't it necessary to lower prices in a price war?"
Li Xian smiled confidently, "What do you think if our lanterns can last five years? And if we only produce mid-range and high-end lanterns, our workload will be much reduced, and we can then work more meticulously to make the lanterns more colorful."
Zhang Quan thought for a while, "This can also reduce the cost of protection and transportation, and implicitly show concessions to the royal family. But this will affect our reputation. Others will see us retreating and think we are weak and can be bullied."
Li Xian chuckled, "Didn't you just say that there might be a royal family behind the lanterns? Let's make concessions for now and let the royal family appreciate it. But we can't let the Wang family go. Find out the locations of all the Wang family's 'cloth shops', and we will open a 'Brilliant Star Cloth Shop' chain store opposite their cloth shops. The price will be 10% lower than the price of all the cloth in the Wang family's cloth shops. Anyway, we use machines to weave a lot, so we can leave the Wang family far behind in terms of both quantity and cost. In terms of quantity, we can say that we are endless. As long as there are enough raw materials, we have plenty of cloth. In terms of cost, machine weaving is 20% to 30% lower than hand weaving, and machine-woven cloth is more uniform and delicate."