Fan Xian scratched the plate with his chopsticks, picked a piece of beef with sesame oil, spread it on the white rice, and slowly put it into his lips, chewing and savoring carefully, still ignoring Ming Qingda who was kneeling beside him.
Ming Qingda is not a simple character, and the meaning of this kneeling is definitely not that simple.
Fan Xian needed time to think.
After he finished thinking, he gently put down the bowl and chopsticks, and said, "Master Ming, you are much older than me, how can you afford it?"
The Imperial Envoy's hands were helpless, but Ming Qingda had to stand up.
The dialogue between officials and businessmen started very calmly and calmly. Fan Xian looked at him and said, "What is the old man going to confess?"
What kind of confession can bring back the lives of several of Fan Xian's subordinates? How could Fan Xian let the Ming family go? Ming Qingda didn't know, and didn't need to be clear. All he needed was that Fan Xian could temporarily let the Ming family go, in exchange for the necessary buffer time for the family and the capital. Now the situation is too uncertain, even if he was going to do it You need to know where the wind is coming from...
He was just begging for his posture, to make the imperial envoy let go a little bit, to make the imperial envoy believe in him, and he also had a strong desire to fall on his side.
Fan Xian didn't wait for the scheming Mr. Ming to reply, and said, "Your heart is not sincere, so it doesn't matter if you surrender."
Ming Qingda's expression was calm, but he sighed and said, "Your Imperial Envoy can't trust me."
"I can't believe you." Fan Xian lowered his head and said, "You can't believe you yourself either. You've been on that boat for too long. It's hard to get off. You should be very clear about this. If you are still on that boat On the ship, the rest of the people on the ship will always keep you safe, if you are on my ship, what will happen to the cargo you left on the original ship?"
This product is naturally not that product, and Ming Qingda knew this in his heart. Hearing Fan Xian's words, he knew that it was impossible to persuade the young imperial envoy. With a trace of fatigue, he mocked himself and begged: "Please show me the way."
Fan Xian's eyes still stayed on the delicacies on the table. After thinking for a while, he said quietly, "You have many brothers. I heard recently that... the Xia head of the fourth room is also your brother?"
Ming Qingda's complexion remained unchanged, but his heart began to feel pained. His Ming family had followed Fan Xian's enemies for too long. If Fan Xian really believed that the Ming family was willing to fall to him, unless he was able to completely control the Ming family. In his hands, and Xia Qifei was obviously a pawn that Fan Xian used to control the Ming family. Fan Xian would not accept this agreement if it were any other person.
Fan Xian's words undoubtedly gave his own conditions, but Ming Qingda could not accept this condition no matter what. Regardless of Ming Qingda's impossibility to let go of his family property, just thinking of Xia Qifei's cold eyes, and the miserable welts under his clothes, his heart began to tangle.
In the current situation, the Overwatch Council is attacking, and the Ming family is defending, and the Ming family is retreating step by step. Today's sharp rise in the price of internal warehouses is only the first link in a chain of events, and subsequent events followed one after another, making the Ming family precarious.
It wasn't until this time that Ming Qingda discovered that this seemingly young imperial envoy Ming Qian was actually so conservative, cautious, tough, and sinister in his bones, and he was unmoved when faced with such a big temptation from himself. .
It wasn't until this time that he discovered that what Fan Xian wanted was far more than what he could give, not just four hundred thousand taels, not just the secret cooperation of the Ming family in Jiangnan from now on, but a kind of arrogant, Extremely arrogant and extravagantly demanding full control over the production and sales of the internal warehouse.
"Please, sir, give me a way to survive." Ming Qingda said with a wry smile. He was talking about the way before, but now he can only talk about the way to survive. My servant, I'm afraid that the family will not be able to uncover the pot next year."
"The Ming family has no shortage of money."
Fan Xian looked at the master of the Ming family in front of him, and he became more and more appreciative of him in his heart. The words he said were obviously threatening him, but they were so gentle and humble, not harsh at all, but submissive and nourishing: "Stay a while The last four bids... just treat it as your Ming family spitting back the money they swallowed in the past few years."
He tilted his head slightly, squinted his eyes at Ming Qingda, who looked a little depressed, and kept wondering what the master of the Ming family had in mind, and said, "You should know about my past, the way you sold things in the past years. , I don’t appreciate it very much. Of course, I am not an unreasonable bandit, as long as you do things more safely, I will naturally be more safe.”
The so-called security is naturally talking about what happened last night.
Fan Xian tapped the edge of the porcelain plate with the tip of his chopsticks, making a jingling sound, and finally said: "When you hold the bowl, you need the dragon to spit out pearls, and when you place the chopsticks, you need the phoenix to nod. The meal is probably full, and if you can't finish it, take it away with you... Be a man and do things. Just like eating, your posture should be beautiful and you should know how to measure it, that's good."
Ming Qingda knew that it was impossible to make any further progress in front of this imperial envoy, and after hearing Fan Xian's last words, he felt a little relieved. Although he couldn't believe everything, he definitely believed that Fan Xian did not force the Ming family to The idea of collapse, the other party always wants to control the Ming family, not destroy it.
And to control the huge Ming family...Xia Qifei can't, mother can't, only himself, Ming Qingda has this confidence, so he will definitely vomit blood because of the last four marks later, but he knows in his heart that in the days to come, with The imperial envoy still has something to discuss.
Businessmen are the least afraid of negotiating, and bargaining is their forte.
Ming Qingda respectfully saluted Fan Xian again, and then withdrew.
Seeing the slightly hunched back of the contemporary master of the Ming family, Fan Xian gently placed his chopsticks on the table again, and squinted his eyes slightly. Until now, he still couldn't see Ming Qingda. depth.
The meaning of the previous kneeling is too rich, admit defeat? Sue? surrender? Compensation for what happened last night? If the Ming family really intends to turn to him, then today's open and aboveboard occasion like Neiku is the best place to show his heart...
The problem was that Fan Xian didn't believe that the old man would surrender willingly. He hadn't run out of cards, and the Ming family hadn't run out of water. The big tree that was used to standing on the other side of the river wanted to uproot it and transplant it to this side of the river. In the future, the painful price that must be experienced should not be what the Ming family is willing to pay at this time.
Why did the other party put on such a humble gesture? There is still an old matriarch above him, and Ming Qingda should not be able to make a decisive decision on which side the Ming family will vote for.
And this kneeling, kneeling is not secretive, someone should have seen it, and it will soon spread. Fan Xian's eyes narrowed even more. Could it be that the other party is going to play the sad card? In this world that has not yet produced a character like A-Bian, sadness may be a feasible strategy, but if you just deliberately kneel down in front of everyone, how sad can this be
If it were another official, facing Ming Qingda's inclination, he would definitely be secretly happy, but Fan Xian didn't think so, because just as Ming Qingda expected, he wanted too many things, not the Ming family. He can afford it, and he has been preparing for this matter for a long time. He has the confidence to eat up the Ming family instead of accepting the surrender of the Ming family.
Since Fan Xian could eat the Ming family at any time, why should he bargain with the Ming family to win the other party's surrender
If you don't do it, if you can't, you really disdain it.
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The breeze enters through the door, blowing away the residual food aroma in the courtyard of the Neiku mansion, and there is still a trace of firecrackers, but the dignified atmosphere is always blowing away, and the courtyard is full of tension, like a thousand years of ice , If there are huge rocks at the bottom of the river, it is difficult to melt the spring breeze in spring, and it is difficult to move the huge waves of the river.
The voice of the Transshipment Department official in charge of singing has become hoarse, not because he talked too much, not because he drank too little water, but because he was nervous.
The tycoons living along the two corridors of A and B could not sit still anymore, they stood in the high sill of the door through the hollowed-out door lattice, staring nervously outside.
In the afternoon, it was the bidding for the last four bids in Neiku. After two rounds of bidding, no one applauded, and no one even wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads. The Sun family in Quanzhou, which was scared away by the Ming family in the morning, listened to the price with a pale face, and looked outside with blank eyes, and was frightened again by those two lunatics. All the businessmen felt that today's trip was eye-opening and at the same time shocked.
That's silver, that's silver! Why would the Ming family from the first room of A and the Xia family from the fourth room of B dare to throw them out like that? Could it be that in their eyes, those thick banknotes are no different from waste paper!
Xiong Bailing from Lingnan Xiong's family looked outside with red eyes, he couldn't believe his ears, and said to the accountant beside him, "Did the ceremonial officer report a mistake just now?"
The accountant of the Xiong family wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "How could the numbers calculated by the flower hall be wrong... Today, Grandpa, Xia Dang's family had several brothers killed yesterday, and today he started to go crazy... The Ming family also went crazy... Master Ming is not a robber."
Xiong Bailing's saliva was so nervous that he didn't have time to swallow it. He choked in the middle and almost staggered. He snatched a teacup from a subordinate's hand and drank it down, cursing in a low voice: "Xia Qifei is Ming Laoqi. There's a real fire... Brothers fighting against the wall, it's really exciting, the Ming family seems to be a little crazy in their bones."
Not only the voice of the ceremonial official was trembling, but the giant merchants in the south of the Yangtze River were sweating non-stop, and even the three adults sitting in the main hall began to get nervous at this moment.
Hearing the second round of bids, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng glanced at each other, and their faces turned pale. The two of them never thought that the last four consecutive bids of Neiku's opening bid would be coaxed by Fan Xian and the Ming family to... so The point of horror!
The Ming family's four consecutive bids are definitely at a loss, and it's a big loss! For Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng, the Ming family's income decreased, and the shady money Jiangnan sent to Beijing was naturally less...too much. Thinking of this, the two stared at Fan Xian with a bit of resentment.
Although Fan Xian maintained a calm facial expression with a strong mind, if someone is careful, he can still see that the starched and stiff cuffs of the imperial envoy's purple official uniform are trembling slightly, his thin and delicate lips are tightly pursed, and that under the earlobe Slightly reddish.
After all, such a scene like today is really rare. Emperor Qing is known as the richest man in the world, but Fan Xian bets that Emperor Qing, who has never entered the treasury of the household department, has never seen so many silver bills floating in the sky with the hoarse and trembling voice of the ceremonial officer. come and go!
11.5 million taels of silver!
Ten years after the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the total taxation of the whole country would only amount to 10 million taels! Even in Qing Kingdom, which is now at its peak, such a large amount of silver is still an unbelievable amount. If this tens of millions of taels of silver were used to buy dead soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River, it would be enough to wipe out those people around Dongyi City with a wave of their hands. The princes and small countries are enough to become the hegemony of one side!
How many beauties can such a large amount of money be exchanged for? How many horse weapons can be crafted? How many miles of dykes can be built if all the money is devoted to people's livelihood? How many pots of porridge can be cooked? How many classes can be held? How many people can be saved? And... if they were all replaced with silver ingots, how many people could be crushed to death
The five million taels of silver in the morning was already the highest price ever quoted by the inner treasury, but in the afternoon it easily broke the record. Especially in the second round of bidding, the Ming family called out a price of over ten million taels, which not only broke the record, but also broke through everyone's psychological defense.
The reason for such a result is of course due to the current internal and external difficulties of the Ming family, as well as the large amount of real money that Fan Xian borrowed from the Northern Qi emperor—the Ming family must grab this bid, but Xia Qifei has the ability to hedge , All kinds of factors added together to create such a terrifying number.
Fan Xian took a sip of herbal tea, forcibly suppressed his inner emotions, and made a very secretive gesture.
All right, let's go here. Take a break, take a break.
…
…
It wasn't until this time that Fan Xian gradually understood Ming Qingda's thoughts, His Majesty's thoughts, and many people's thoughts.
When Ming Qingda won the bid, he followed Fan Xian's plan very obediently. On the one hand, he was pressured by Xinyang, and on the other hand, he had a somewhat mysterious idea. The left and right were just giving money, the price was low, and he made money Part of it has to be handed over to Xinyang. If the price is high, it is equivalent to giving the silver to the inner treasury... which is equivalent to giving it to His Majesty and Fan Xian.
Ming Qingda was very accurate in seeing things, he saw that the court needed his money, so he decided to be ruthless, wishing to give away half of his family property, in this way, he won the bid again and joined Fan Xian He meant that he didn't offend any of the people on both sides who couldn't be offended.
It's just a pity that I offended Qian, with so much real money, I don't know how many years it will take for the Ming family to recover. The so-called spending money to sell the disaster, the money that the Ming family used to sell the disaster this time is really costly.
From Fan Xian's point of view, the economic strength of the Ming family was already too terrifying. The Qing Emperor definitely would not see them as big, or they would weaken the other party, or they would be so powerful. destroy each other.
This is the real intention of the emperor to let Fan Xian go to the south of the Yangtze River.
However, Ming Qingda also clearly grasped this intention.
It's just that Shen Wansan was still dead back then, the Ming family...can they survive? This was something that happened later, and Fan Xian couldn't fully control it, but Fan Xian felt that the performance of the Ming family was very useful, so he gestured to get Xia Qifei to stop bidding.
It wasn't because of the small peasant consciousness, nor was it because of pity, but because Fan Xian knew that Mr. Ming's play must not be over yet, and 11.5 million taels of silver was enough. Too much and bring yourself too much negative evaluation.
※※※
Seeing that the robbers in the second and fourth houses stopped asking for prices, everyone, including the officials and merchants, did not feel regretful or annoyed that they hadn't watched the whole show. Instead, they all breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, feeling relieved.
The asking price this afternoon is too scary, the number is too sensitive, the businessmen are unwilling to cause some bad things to happen, and the officials do not want the situation to be drawn to the point of explosion.
The joint audit officials of the household department and internal treasury of Huating began to conduct intense audit work, and finally confirmed the bid, carefully and nervously wrote the bottom book with a Chinese ink pen, and handed it over to the front hall.
The singing official walked up to the stone steps, swallowed his saliva to moisten his hoarse and hot voice, and said in a trembling voice: "The goods on the southeast road and the sea road are in one square, with four bids, one room, the Ming family, 11.15 million taels... Got it!"
No one applauded, no one made an uproar, everyone wanted to escape from the Neiku mansion as soon as possible, the farther away from this number the better.
"Father! Father!"
At this moment, there was an exclamation in Room A, which is the closest to the main hall.
For a moment, everyone stood up from their chairs in shock, looking at that side, not knowing what happened to the Ming family.
"Father! What's wrong with you? Come on! Come on!... Hurry up and save someone!"
In Room A, Master Ming Lanshi's panicked cry for help came from the chaotic voices. The officials hurriedly opened the door and entered, only to find out that Ming Qingda, the master of the Ming family, was pale and fainted on the ground!
Regardless of officials and businessmen, they all thought that they knew what happened. Everyone thought that the master of the Ming family was oppressed by the inside and outside, and forcibly robbed the four consecutive bids, but was forced to pay a sky-high price. This sky-high price was going to decline, and old man Ming was so anxious that he fell into a coma.
Everyone knew who had forced the Ming family into such a miserable situation today, so everyone in the courtyard subconsciously turned their attention to the imperial envoy standing on the stone steps.
Fan Xian wasn't very panicked, squinting his eyes and reprimanded, "Why panic? Hurry up and seal the warehouse, deposit the silver, and when the procedure is over, hurry up and send Mr. Ming to see a doctor!"
There is a whole set of procedures for opening and closing the inner vault, and there are a lot of banknotes in the house, so it took some time before Mr. Ming, who had been in a coma, was carried out and put on Fan Xiante's permission to drive to the door. The carriage of the Ming family went straight to the medical shop.
…
…
No one expected that after setting several records and causing countless dangers, the bustling internal treasury bidding would end in such a bleak way.
Looking at the carriage of the Ming family going away, and thinking of the unknown master of the Ming family, the merchants in the south of the Yangtze River couldn't help but sigh, feeling a little bit of sadness in their hearts.
The Ming family retreated first, and the merchants also exited the inner treasury compound after being inspected, and the rest were all officials, starting the final finishing work of the inner treasury.
Since it is a business of selling money, it is natural that the work of counting 40% of the fixed bank notes is the most critical.
The three dignitaries stood in the flower hall, watching the officials of the household department and the transshipment department register and seal them.
Fan Xian looked at the Ming family's last fixed silver of up to four million taels, and at the bottom was a thick stack of bank notes issued by China Merchants Bank. He squinted his eyes slightly, knowing that the matter had finally come to fruition.
It was originally planned, but the last four consecutive bids forced the Ming family to use the cash ticket issued by China Merchants Bank. Fan Xian had to make things difficult for him. After all, China Merchants' credit was not as good as the world's. Zheng will definitely speak for the Ming family, so that Fan Xian can pick himself more cleanly.
It's just that he didn't expect Ming Qingda to act so neatly, Fan Xian was lazy and then wiped the paste on the small spots, but finally Ming Qingda passed out...
"Pretend, you continue to pretend."
Fan Xian sneered in his heart, but with sympathy on his face, he sighed to Eunuch Huang beside him, "The Ming family won the bid with great difficulty, but Mr. Ming is still old after all, so he couldn't bear such a pleasant surprise, and instead passed out. , this happy event should not turn into a funeral."
Rubbing his fingers, looking at the bank note and drooling, Eunuch Huang, who was still a little nervous, almost broke his fingers when he heard what the imperial envoy said. He wanted to scold, but he didn't Dare to scold, I thought to myself, how can there be a guy like you who still talks sarcasticly after playing with others
Eunuch Huang snorted and didn't say anything, but Guo Zheng smiled and said: "This year's internal treasury income has increased by 80% compared to previous years. If this matter is reported back to the capital, His Majesty will definitely reward Xiao Fan. It is just around the corner to become a king and a marquis in the future."
As Fan Xian, with the power he holds now, it is a certainty that he will become a king and a land lord in the future, and he doesn't want to listen to Guo Zheng's flattery. , I’d rather lose money to subsidize the internal treasury... As for my official, it’s useless in this matter.”
Guo Zheng suffocated, thinking that the Ming family is about to pawn their pants today, isn't it forced by you? How dare you say that you are useless? He snorted coldly and stopped talking, but kept cursing in his heart: "Pretend, I tell you to continue to pretend!"