All Heavens Pension started from the fiery era

Chapter 700: Terrible Ambition, a Lean Camel is Bigger than a Horse
After lunch, Huang Youjin followed Yue Wenxuan and the two walked into Yue Wenxuan’s study.

Yan Liu brewed a pot of Yue Wenxuan's favorite Mingqian Longjing tea, poured a cup for each of them, and left without waiting for Yue Wenxuan's instructions.

The two of them sat down, and Yue Wenxuan asked, "In the past, our whole family lived together, and on the surface, everything seemed harmonious, so I never worried about family matters.

But now the family is about to be divided, which means that there must be a lot of problems in all aspects, especially financial problems. If it had not reached a particularly serious situation, I think it would not have come to this.

I called you over because I wanted to learn about all aspects of the family through you. Your father is the chief steward of our Yue family, and you have been following your father to learn practical matters, so I think you must be very clear about all aspects of the family. "

"Master, I wonder what aspect of the problem you would like to know first? As long as I know it, I will tell you everything I know." Huang Youjin's attitude was very sincere.

It is no secret that the eldest young master wants to know every aspect of the family situation, so Huang Youjin certainly won't feel embarrassed.

Not to mention that the young master just wanted to ask some questions that did not involve principles, even if he was asked to do something extraordinary, he would still consider the young master from his perspective.

As early as the day he became the eldest young master's attendant, his father had told him that he could only be loyal to the eldest young master. He also gave him an example and asked him: If the order given to him by the fifth master was exactly the opposite of the order of the eldest young master, what should he do?
After thinking about it, Huang Youjin gave the answer that he should obey the orders of the eldest young master.

After hearing his son's answer, the butler showed a relieved smile on his face.

He was a little worried about leaving his eldest son next to the eldest young master, but after hearing his son's answer, he was completely relieved. Even if he didn't have to teach him in the future, as long as his eldest son could remember this, his future should be stable.

Huang Youjin understood this truth when he was a teenager. Now that he is an adult, he will be more cautious in what he says and does than before.

"I have never cared about the affairs of my uncles. Just tell me what you know about them."

I don’t know if it’s because the family is too large, but the relationship between me and my uncles is not very strong. I don’t have much contact with them, and I know even less about them.

According to the current situation of the Yue family, the new head of the family after the separation can only be Yue Wenxuan's father. However, Yue Hanzhang's age is a big disadvantage. He is only the youngest legitimate son in the family. If Yue Wenxuan's eldest uncle and second uncle object, there will definitely be another storm.

Regardless of whether a storm will occur or not, Yue Wenxuan needs to be more prepared. First of all, he needs to understand the personalities of his uncles and their current basic situations.

Huang Youjin said without hesitation: "Then let me first tell you about my understanding and knowledge of the master.

The eldest master was the eldest son, and the old lady had high expectations for him. Even though the eldest master failed in business repeatedly, the old lady never completely gave up on her expectations for him.

Unfortunately, the master has contracted severe tuberculosis and can only stay in bed to recuperate. Health is everything. The doctor who has been treating the master said that the master may not be able to hold on for too long, at most a year or two.

The eldest master's health is worrying, and he has no legitimate son, and the two illegitimate sons are not very old. The eldest wife is such a smart person, she should not have any unrealistic ideas. At most, she will play the victim to the old lady and strive to get a bigger share of the family property."

Huang Youjin's opinion is exactly the same as Yue Wenxuan's.

No matter how unwilling my uncle was, his physical condition had become so serious that he had to stay in bed, so he had to give up those unrealistic ideas.

For such force majeure, everyone can only accept reality. The uncle was originally the one with the greatest hope of inheriting the family business, but his body did not allow it, and he became the least threatening person to Yue Hanzhang.

Huang Youjin went on to say: "Let me talk about the eldest master's family assets. Although the eldest master failed in business several times in recent years, all the losses were from the public treasury, and the dowry brought by the eldest wife was not touched at all.

Although some real estate in Kyoto was sold at a low price when moving, the two years when the first wife got married was a time when the family was prominent, and she was married into the family with a grand wedding dress that lasted for ten miles.

Even though there have been some losses over the years, the eldest wife's assets are still considered to be rich. According to my father, if the price is estimated, the eldest master's assets will not be less than 20,000 yuan.

And this is just the lowest estimate. Who knows, the wife may have some good things hidden away that she has never shown to anyone. I don’t know that.”

Now that the Yue family has not yet split up, the five masters of the Yue family cannot have personal assets openly, but the personal dowries brought by the five wives cannot be counted as public property and are the private property of each family.

After learning about his uncle's family background, Yue Wenxuan felt relieved.

With the Yue family now in a situation where their income is not enough to cover their expenses, apart from the ancestral home which cannot be moved, the old lady will definitely not have much wealth to share with her sons.

If his uncle became impoverished after the family division, it would definitely affect the reputation of Yue Wenxuan's father, which was something Yue Wenxuan did not want to see.

Now that he knew that his aunt had such a large fortune, he was completely relieved.

A fortune of 20,000 oceans may not be a big deal for a wealthy family, but it is a huge sum of money for ordinary people, enough for a small family to live a very wealthy life.

"Tell me more about your second uncle's situation."

Huang Youjin went on to say: "The Second Master has always been a very ambitious person, but his own abilities are still a little mediocre.

After three consecutive failures in business, the old lady was no longer willing to give him money to get back on his feet. The second master was disheartened and, with the instigation of others, he became addicted to opium.

Although Huang Youjin despised the Second Master's behavior, he was just a servant and there were some things he couldn't say. He reorganized his words and continued:

“The old lady made up her mind to split the family this time, mainly because she suffered a blow from the second master some time ago, which made her feel disheartened and finally made the painful decision.

Under the instigation of someone with ulterior motives, the second master actually wanted to open an opium den. But when the old master was alive, there was a family precept that descendants were not allowed to touch brothels, casinos and opium dens, otherwise their legs would be broken.

The second master knew that the old lady would definitely not agree, so he came up with the idea of ​​executing first and reporting later.

It was mainly because of someone behind the scenes who instigated the second master to come up with such an idea. He first signed a partnership agreement with the other party, and then borrowed a sum of money from the other party and invested it.

By the time the old lady found out about this, the opium den he and the other party had jointly run had already opened for business.

Unfortunately, this matter touched the old lady's bottom line. She would rather pay compensation according to the agreement than damage her family's reputation.

After the Fifth Master settled the matter, he paid a total of six thousand dollars in compensation.

In order to make up for the shortfall of six thousand dollars, the old lady had to reluctantly pawn several calligraphy and paintings that the old man particularly loved during his lifetime.

After this blow, the old lady was completely disappointed with the second master and finally made up her mind to divide the family.

After the division of the family, the fifth master was destined to take over as the head of the family. If it were in the past, the second master would definitely be unwilling and would definitely make a big fuss, but he had just been cheated and lost such a large sum of money, so he didn't have the face to do so. "

Yue Wenxuan had only heard about his second uncle being tricked into opening an opium den, but he had never learned the details of the whole incident. "My second uncle got addicted to opium, and my second aunt was a submissive person. How much wealth does the family have now?"

Huang Youjin replied: "The second master's family assets are really not much, probably only about five or six thousand dollars.

The second wife's dowry was not as generous as the first wife's, and she was not as good at management as the first wife, so she lost a lot over the years.

This time, the second master wanted to open an opium den, and he took a lot of money from the second wife and invested it in advance, but it all went down the drain. "

Yue Wenxuan had long guessed that his second uncle's financial situation might not be very good, but only now did he realize that the actual situation was much worse than he had imagined.

For a young man from a rich family like my second uncle, who used to live a luxurious life, it would be hard for him to accept the fact that he could only live a frugal life after the family split up. In addition, he was addicted to opium, so his life was doomed to be difficult in the future.

Yue Wenxuan had never had a good impression of people like his second uncle, so naturally he would not have any sympathy for him.

After the separation, each family will live their own life and there will be less contact, so it is just right to pretend that they don't see anything.

The only people who can influence Yue Hanzhang's succession as the head of the family are Yue Wenxuan's eldest uncle and second uncle. As long as these two people don't cause any trouble, there is nothing to worry about.

Yue Wenxuan didn't have many opportunities to meet his third and fourth uncles, so he naturally didn't know much about them. However, the original body had a good impression of them, so Yue Wenxuan asked:
"How are the financial situations of Third Uncle and Fourth Uncle? After the family division, the living conditions of the two families should not be a problem, right?"

Thinking of the current situation of the Third and Fourth Masters, Huang Youjin smiled and said:
"You really don't need to worry about the Third and Fourth Masters. They may have been looking forward to the day of separation.

Although the third and fourth masters are not as capable as the fifth master, they are still quite capable compared to the first and second masters.

They were both pragmatic people, and they had managed the dowries brought by the third and fourth wives quite well over the years. Although they were all inconspicuous businesses, the annual income was not bad.

The third master's family fortune is about four or five thousand dollars, and the fourth master's family fortune is a little more, about six or seven thousand dollars.

It’s not that the Fourth Master is more capable than the Third Master, it’s mainly because the Fourth Wife brought a larger dowry.”

Yue Wenxuan was also clear about this.

My third uncle and fourth uncle were both illegitimate sons, so they could not be compared with legitimate sons in marriage. When they got married, my third aunt's family was a small official family, while my fourth aunt's family was a wealthy merchant family. My fourth aunt's dowry was much richer than that of my third aunt.

“I know everything about my three uncles, so please tell me about the overall situation of the family.

As far as I can remember, the standard of living was much higher a few years ago, but has been declining over the years. The reason for this is nothing more than too much spending and too little income. I just don’t know how much money is lost every year.”

If Yue Wenxuan hadn't asked about this topic, Huang Youjin would have thought that the young master had never cared about these trivial matters in life.

He sighed and said, "It turns out that the young master has already discovered this problem, but I have never heard you ask about it before.

If we don't count the losses from the failed business of the eldest and second masters, the annual losses are not that much, probably only about three or four thousand dollars.

But if the losses from business failures are added, the overall loss will be an extremely shocking figure.

My father told me that since arriving in Wuzhou, the eldest master has lost about 80,000 yuan in business. The second master lost less, even if the 6,000 yuan he just lost is only about 50,000 yuan."

Yue Wenxuan knew that his two uncles had lost a lot of money over the years, but he didn't expect the amount to be such a staggering amount.

It seems that the family is quite wealthy. Most of it was lost before moving to his hometown. After returning to his hometown, his two uncles lost more than 100,000 yuan. It is not easy for him to hold on until now.

It seems that no matter what era, if the children of wealthy families are too ambitious, it is also a terrible thing. No matter how rich the family is, it will be broken if they are tossed around like this a few times.

Now the only thing left was his family's financial situation. Yue Wenxuan continued to ask:
"As far as I remember, our business has always been pretty good. We shouldn't have lost money over the years, right?"

Huang Youjin showed a very proud expression on his face, "How could the Fifth Master and Fifth Madam be such smart people who lose money?

Our business has been growing over the years. When we first moved to Wuzhou, there was only one Baicaotang pharmacy in Wuzhou. Now there are two Baicaotang pharmacy in Wuzhou, and we have also expanded our business to Jinling and Shanghai. There is one in each of these two cities. All the Baicaotang pharmacy stores now have four.

The profits from just the four Baicaotang stores alone were nearly 10,000 yuan last year."

Huang Youjin knew so much about the Fifth Madam’s dowry shop, and the relevant data naturally came from his father.

After the death of the old man of the Yue family, although the old lady was actually in charge, after arriving in their hometown of Wuzhou, the fifth master Yue Hanzhang was the one who had the final say in external affairs.

It’s not that the Fifth Master’s abilities are so outstanding. In terms of personal ability, even if Yue Hanzhang is slightly stronger than his eldest brother, it is still very limited.

Yue Hanzhang did not have any extraordinary talent in business, but he was good at interpersonal relationships, especially maintaining a good relationship with his father-in-law's family.

The Tan family is a prominent local family with deep connections in both the political and business circles. With the support of his father-in-law, Yue Hanzhang encountered fair competition whether in business or government service, which saved him a lot of trouble.

Butler Huang is a shrewd man. It is not difficult for him to judge that only the Fifth Master can become the next head of the family. After seeing this clearly, he naturally has to actively move closer to the Fifth Master.

At the same time, this is also in the interests of the old lady, and Huang Guanjia did this for the old lady's consideration. Among the three sons, the old lady will have to choose one to rely on sooner or later. As long as the old lady is not confused, Yue Hanzhang is the only choice.

As early as several years ago, Butler Huang had already become Yue Hanzhang's confidant, and Huang Youjin becoming Yue Wenxuan's permanent attendant was already the earliest sign.

Yue Wenxuan knew that Baicaotang was his mother's dowry, but he was surprised that it developed so well.

At the beginning, Baicaotang was the dowry of Yue Wenxuan's grandmother. It had not developed much and had always maintained a store. I didn't expect that it has now developed to Shanghai and Jinling, and the expansion speed is quite fast.

The most important property belonging to Yue Hanzhang's family is the Baicaotang medicine shop, which accounts for the vast majority of all the property.

In addition, Tan Bingzhen's dowry included a farm and a tea shop.

The farm is located in the suburbs of Wuzhou, with a total of 200 acres of land, all of which are top-quality paddy fields. Although the farm is not big, it is rare.

The only tea shop was also prosperous, but the Yue family did not have their own tea garden. After working hard for a year, the profit was not high. Yue Wenxuan's parents once mentioned this matter in front of him. When the profit was the highest, the annual profit would not exceed one thousand dollars.