Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 21: The Glass Night-Shining Pearl of the Kingdom of Women
Zhu Houzhao's exaggerated cry of poverty, coupled with the secret exaggeration of Gu Dayong and others to direct the conflict onto the civil service group, made the people even more sympathetic to the royal family.

At this time, Zhu Houzhao also got to the point: "Now I am going to start exhibiting and selling royal goods. I will let them offer a low price and implement an auction system. Interested buyers can bid higher to compete. If no one bids higher after the auction price is decided three times, the transaction will be completed at this price! Now let the eunuch Liu Jin of the Bell and Drum Department preside over the auction!"

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he handed the big brass loudspeaker to Liu Jin, then sat back down with a kind smile on his face, without any sign of cunning.

Liu Jin also started to speak at this time: "Let's start the first part, the luxury goods auction! The first item to be auctioned is the glass night-shining pearl from the Kingdom of Women! This night-shining pearl can make the room bright and bright if placed in the house. It will bring prosperity to officials and wealth to businessmen. It is one foot in diameter and contains a fairy from the Yaochi Lake. The starting price is five thousand taels!"

The so-called Glass Night Pearl of the Kingdom of Women is actually a large-diameter glass bead made by casting glass liquid in a mold, and the fairy inside the glass bead is a fairy carved by a court carpenter and placed in the mold. The cost is less than one or two taels of silver, but Zhu Houzhao now auctions it at a high price of five thousand taels of silver, which is equivalent to raising the price by thousands of times based on the cost price.

Although Zhu Houzhao had a smile on his face at the moment, he was still quite nervous in his heart. He knew that the Ming Dynasty did not have the technology to manufacture such large glass products. Even Wang Xifeng's glass kang screen in Dream of Red Mansions was regarded as a treasure. Even the Ningguo Mansion did not have it, and had to borrow it from Wang Xifeng. That's why Zhu Houzhao dared to directly set the price at five thousand taels!
Five thousand taels was not a small sum in that era. Zhu Houzhao was worried whether the wealthy people of the Ming Dynasty had the purchasing power. He thought that people living in the capital were either rich or noble, just like those living within the Third Ring Road of Beijing in later generations, and should be able to afford this amount of money.

Wei Bin, who was standing behind Zhu Houzhao, was also a little unsure. He was familiar with the manufacturing process of these glass beads and knew that these things were nothing more than stones turned into glass. The emperor said that it was silicon dioxide, just like stone, and it was not worth much silver anyway. Now it was directly started at a high price of five thousand taels. He didn't know if there was anyone who could see through it.

"Your Majesty, do you think anyone would pay five thousand taels to buy it?" Wei Bin couldn't help but ask.

Zhu Houzhao did not answer. At this time, a large glass bead with a diameter of one foot was lifted up by the eunuch on a wooden tray covered with brocade. The clean and transparent glass ball shone with luster, and it further highlighted the purity of the beauty inside the glass bead. Therefore, the glass bead caused a sensation as soon as it was lifted to the front.

"Oh my god, such a big glass bead. The key is that there is actually a fairy inside it. How did it grow inside? This kind of treasure is indeed only available to the royal family. However, it is only worth 5,000 taels. In my opinion, it is worth at least 10,000 taels! I'll give you 6,000 taels!"

At this time, a rich young man wearing a brocade robe with copper coin patterns waved his fan and shouted.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh when he heard someone bid six thousand taels. At first, he was worried that the people of the Ming Dynasty did not have such great purchasing power. But he did not expect that someone would add one thousand taels as soon as he called out the auction price. It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty was indeed a country where wealth was shared among the people. Everyone in the world had money, and he, the emperor, was the poorest. Therefore, he had underestimated the purchasing power of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Wei Bin also looked back at Zhu Houzhao with a look of surprise: "Your Majesty, someone has offered 6,000 taels! It seems that there is really a fool who wants to buy it."

"They are not fools. They think that this is a royal treasure. If it is worth five thousand taels now, it means it will be worth ten thousand taels if we take it to Jiangnan!"

Zhu Houzhao said this with a smile, and at the same time he felt relieved in his heart. He believed that as long as there was a first person willing to buy, it meant that the people of the Ming Dynasty had the purchasing power, and he naturally would not worry about not being able to sell anything at this Royal Exposition.

Liu Jin was a little worried that no one would be willing to spend 5,000 taels to buy the broken stone thing made by the Royal Industrial Company, but he didn't expect someone to raise it to 6,000 taels so quickly. He thought that he had shares in the Royal Industrial Company. If he sold it for 6,000 taels, it would mean that the Royal Industrial Company made nearly 6,000 taels, and he could get more than 100 taels from it! In fact, he didn't do anything, but he could make more than 100 taels from glass beads that were less than one tael of silver. When he thought of this, Liu Jin also laughed excitedly and was about to knock on the board and say, "6,000 taels for the first time!"

But before Liu Jin could knock the gavel down, a rich man wearing a watermelon hat shouted, "I'll pay seven thousand taels!"

Before Liu Jin could react, another servant shouted, "My master wants eight thousand taels!"

"Nine thousand taels!"

"Ten thousand taels!"

Gu Dayong was a stooge arranged by Zhu Houzhao. He originally thought that no one would be willing to spend five thousand taels to buy the glass luminous pearl that cost less than one tael of silver. However, he did not expect that someone would raise the price to six thousand taels so quickly, then seven thousand taels and eight thousand taels. By the time he came to his senses, the price had been raised to ten thousand taels.

One of Gu Dayong's tasks as a shill was to drive up the price, so he hurriedly shouted, "Thirteen thousand taels!"

In this way, Gu Dayong directly raised the price by three times, but he still looked around hesitantly, fearing that no one would follow. "Fourteen thousand taels!"

"Fifteen thousand taels!"

Unexpectedly, as soon as Gu Dayong finished speaking, he had already raised the price to 15,000 taels.

Gu Dayong shouted without hesitation, "Twenty thousand taels!"

But at this time, perhaps because twenty thousand taels was indeed too high, people hesitated for a moment, but even so, perhaps because they considered that this was a royal treasure and a huge night-shining pearl that had never been seen before, some people still shouted: "Twenty-one thousand taels!"

Zhu Houzhao on the stage didn't know what to say. He tried his best to suppress his excitement and pretended to be calm as he watched the price soar to 20,000. But in fact, he knew what 20,000 taels meant. It meant that he bought a large house in the center of Beijing with a few hundred yuan!

But the auction price was still rising. Wei Bin was so dumbfounded that he was speechless, but at the same time he was so excited that he wanted to turn around and shout to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, it's 20,000 taels. Someone is actually willing to spend 20,000 taels to buy this thing!"

Liu Jin no longer wanted to knock the gavel. He was afraid that if he knocked too quickly, he would miss the opportunity to make the glass night pearl continue to rise in price, because at the current price, he could already make more than four hundred taels!

"Twenty-five thousand taels! I must bid for this thing, and no one of you can grab it. I want to sell it in Jiangnan, and then I can make five thousand taels by selling it for thirty thousand taels!"

Gu Dayong followed the method Zhu Houzhao taught him and started the last bid. On the surface, he looked like a wealthy and domineering person who wanted to buy the products, but in fact, he was deliberately luring these people to continue to raise the prices. He also directly explained the reason that he was going to Jiangnan to sell the products to make money and he was not just stupid and rich. This made some wealthy businessmen who originally had some rationality continue to raise the prices crazily.

"Twenty-six thousand taels!"

"Twenty-seven thousand taels!"

However, this time when the auction price rose to 27,000 taels, no one continued to bid down the price. After all, the current price was too high. Even in the capital, there were not many wealthy businessmen who could come up with more than 20,000 taels at once, not to mention that this was the 18th year of the Hongzhi reign when silver was not enough.

Liu Jin came back to his senses after a long time, then slammed the gavel reluctantly: "Twenty-seven thousand taels, the first time!"

After a long time, no one responded, so Liu Jin had to bid slowly for the second time. He was now looking forward to someone raising the price again: "Twenty-seven thousand taels, second time!"

Seeing that still no one came, Liu Jin just sighed and turned to look at Zhu Houzhao.

"Go ahead and knock. Be content. Twenty-seven thousand taels. You've made more than twenty thousand taels for free," Zhu Houzhao nodded and smiled.

Liu Jin nodded, thinking that after all, he had earned more than five hundred taels of silver, and he should be content. After all, the actual value of this glass bead was less than one tael of silver.

However, just when Liu Jin was about to knock for the third time, Xu Jing hurriedly shouted: "Thirty thousand taels!"

(End of this chapter)