I'm really not the carpenter emperor

Hearing this, and looking at the closed door of the hut, the corner of the man's mouth twitched, am I just so unwelcome...

In the time of a bag of cigarettes, the door bolt rang, and it was the servant who had been rescued by Xu Weijing and the other on the official road who came out.

He opened his mouth in surprise and his eyes widened.

"My, my lord...?"

The person who came was Hu Shiguang, a scholar of Dongge, who was on the official road that day.

He was born in a scholarly family, and this is the first time in his life that he has truly entered an ordinary house. Along the way, the dirt road thatched house, low wall and gutter made him very unforgettable.

"Why do you want to meddle in this business?"

Hu Shiguang was taken aback for a moment, but he didn't expect the helper to react like this, and walked into the doorway:

"I saved you, shouldn't you be grateful to me?"

The helper protected his daughter and wife and stood aside, the color on his face was more serious than a few days ago:

"My lord saved me, but I lost my livelihood. Now there is no rice shop in Taiyuan City that wants me."

"My lord wants my family of three, how will I live?"

Hu Shiguang's expression changed. Indeed, this was something he hadn't considered.

From childhood to adulthood, I have been living with enough food and clothing. As an official, who is not greedy for a little bit, and the hard life is not even a little bit.

But I didn't expect that the people at the bottom were so miserable.

Suddenly, he raised his head, looked at the girl and asked with a smile:

"Are you hungry?"

"Hungry..." The girl replied crisply, and was pulled behind by the woman behind the helper, "Tweety, these officials and those businessmen don't have any good things."

Hearing this, to be honest, Hu Shiguang didn't feel annoyed at all, on the contrary, he understood why the person in the Forbidden City did this in an instant.

Seeing that the girl gradually turned into a hostile expression, Hu Shiguang stood up and was about to leave. After walking a few steps, he turned his head:

"If I can kill those Shanxi merchants who eat human blood, then am I still a bad person?"

"What did the lord say?"

"Nothing to say..."

Hu Shiguang laughed at himself, and left without looking back.

This trip was in vain again, but it was not completely in vain. At least, Hu Shiguang knew why he insisted on running these Shanxi merchants.

If you don't come down in person, you really don't know what the place has become.

The progress here was slow, and Hu Shiguang, who had just returned to the station not long ago, saw Xu Weijing who came back humming a ditty.

Xu Weijing usually has a yellow and white face, but now it looks like a layer of water rouge used by women has been applied, making him radiant and smooth, and walking like flying.

"Seeing brother Xu like this, is there any good news?"

Xu Weijing originally thought that Hu Shiguang would not come back for a while, that's why he was so unrestrained, but he didn't expect that he would come back first.

He settled down, sat down and laughed:

"Today's situation, although difficult, is not impossible to deal with." After speaking, he stretched out his hand and patted Hu Shiguang on the shoulder, and said in an old friend's tone:

"Mr. Hu Ge, there are good things waiting for us!"

"What good thing?"

"Look at you, you can't hold back anymore, I knew you wanted to ask!" Xu Weijing laughed loudly, and said impatiently:

"I went to the Cao's house today. I thought the Cao's house would follow the example of others and stay behind closed doors. But I didn't expect that Cao Sanxi not only met me, but also said to host a banquet for you and me!"

"Do you think this is good news?"

Now, Hu Shiguang was really surprised:

"The Cao family?"

Chapter 586 Cao Sanxi's Meeting Ceremony

Taigu Cao's family, the future richest man in the country.

It's just that at this time, the Cao family is still struggling in the quagmire of Taigu County, far from the level it was in the later Qing Dynasty.

Now Cao Sanxi is only in his twenties, he has just taken over the family property, he is very young, at the time when he is full of energy and wants to show his talents.

If someone told him now that 20 years later, the Cao family would follow him to "go to the Guandong", I'm afraid he would be laughed out of his teeth.

But Hu Shiguang was still very surprised. Although the Cao family is not very capable now, they are still well-known wealthy businessmen after all.

The Cao family originated in the early Ming Dynasty, and so far it has a size of three to four million taels. I am afraid that it has ulterior motives to be able to host a banquet to entertain myself in the limelight.

"What did he mean by not saying?"

"Whatever his intentions are, Mr. Hu Ge, the main problem now is that no one is willing to entertain you and me, you have to be aware of the situation!"

Xu Weijing glanced at him and said contemptuously, "You think I don't know that Cao Sanxi has ulterior motives? But do we have a choice now?"

"There are many merchants in Taigu County, and merchant gangs are everywhere. We went this time, firstly, to find out what the Cao family has to say, and secondly, we can talk to a few merchant gangs, and maybe we can open the way."

"After all, although Shanxi merchants are large in size, not all merchants in Jinzhong will follow them. As long as they are doing business, there will always be conflicts of interest."

"How about going to try it?"

Sure enough, none of the people who could stand in the courtroom were political rookies, and those who could get into the cabinet were even the old slickers among the old slickers.

Don't look at the unreliable appearance of this surname Xu, but Hu Shiguang knows that this is just for you to see.

In fact, this guy is very careful. He is afraid that he has even inquired about the news of the Taigu County Business Gang, but he has never told himself.

In the same way, Hu Shiguang was also hiding and refusing to exert all his strength.

The current situation is that whoever exerts more strength will expose more weaknesses and cards in the political struggle in the future, and only fools will make direct moves.

Although the two are now grasshoppers in the same boat, after the incident on the official road, the person above should have seen their attitude.

In other words, if Zhu Youxiao was really in a hurry to set up Shanxi Merchants, he would have sent people down to force him, or he could directly use the local garrison, and you two are still needed here?

There is no new news until today, which shows that Zhu Youxiao is very satisfied with the current progress.

In addition, I am also very interested in the fact that the two of them have to fight each other secretly and have to get together to fight against Shanxi merchants.

Hu Shiguang and Xu Weijing both knew that running Shanxi merchants could not be accomplished overnight.

After the Shanxi Merchants are eliminated, there will be a short-term vacuum in the Shanxi Commercial Bureau. The emperor will not want to see another disobedient thing happen, so he must choose a successor.

This person has to be obedient, and he has to take the initiative to join the Royal Chamber of Commerce.

In the end, you have to have a cooperative relationship with them, otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste of time this time?

The two of them are well aware of this, recently they seem to be helpless, wandering around, in fact, this is what they are busy with.

Everyone in the cabinet is not the only one.

Both Hu Shiguang and Xu Weijing are supported by a force behind them. For Shanxi merchants, the two of them actually have a lot of means, and there is no need for Zhu Youxiao to appear in person.

For them, they are just looking for one that can share the benefits equally and make the person in the Forbidden City happy.

Since the surname Xu has already played a card first, I should really do something to show him because I am emotional and reasonable.

So Hu Shiguang said:

"Okay, let's go!"

……

The next day, the two arrived at the Cao Mansion in Taigu County as promised.

There are many business gangs in Taigu County, and the He Gang where the Cao family is located is just one of the more famous ones, but it has a solid background and the capital to rule the roost.

An exquisite and dense small flower hall in the back hall of Cao Mansion, clean and fragrant, Cao Sanxi is receiving his two distinguished guests here.

"Second elders, please!" Cao Sanxi's expression was full of joy, and he held up the tea ceremony:

"Drinking alcohol is a mistake. As a merchant, Tian replaced wine with tea!"

While talking, two maidservants came in, and beside Hu Shiguang and Xu Weijing, small round tables with fragrant tea, plum soup, and refreshments were placed.

But neither of them had much interest in touching those things, Hu Shiguang raised his glass and said:

"Master Cao kindly invites you, I dare not refuse to come!"

"Yes, we have been in Taiyuan for many days, and Cao's family was the first to invite us. You can see how popular people are!" Xu Weijing also said.

Cao Sanxi put down the tea, thinking about it.

Of course he wanted to take the Cao family one step further through these two elders.

You must know that Xu Weijing, a scholar of the Wenhuadian University, and Hu Shiguang, a scholar of the Dongge University, are both from Shanxi.

This time it was the two of them who came down to undertake the Shanxi merchants. I am afraid that the remaining eleven Shanxi merchants are now quarreling, because now their interest group has been broken.

Hu Shiguang and Xu Weijing seemed to be isolated, but Cao Sanxi knew that it was not as simple as it appeared on the surface, and this was probably done deliberately by them.

Judging from things in Shandong and other places, every time the imperial court wants to run a businessman, it will definitely launch a businessman as a supervisor.

That is to say, the establishment and leader of the local Imperial Chamber of Commerce, Cao Sanxi wants to earn a future for the Cao family, although it may be suppressed by eleven rich merchants.

But once it succeeds, the benefits it brings will definitely be immeasurable.

Cao Sanxi was born with such a person, he decided to launch a huge gamble, he bet that the eleven families of Shanxi merchants would be completely wiped out by the court!

"I heard that the imperial court is going to run the Eleven Shanxi Merchants..."

While saying this, Cao Sanxi was secretly paying attention to the expressions of the two, but unfortunately, he didn't see any fluctuations, so he could only continue:

"The villain is the head of the Cao family, and he has always followed the right path as a businessman. Like the Yuci Chang family, he hoarded grain and rice to raise the market price. To be honest, who wouldn't!"

"But if you do that, what's the difference with Xilu?"

Hearing this, both of them understood that Cao Sanxi wanted to follow the imperial court and asked them two to test him out.

However, although the Cao family has intentions, they are still not sure whether the other party has this ability.

Xu Weijing laughed and said: "Cao's family is a well-known merchant, and I have heard about it for a long time. Today, seeing Mr. Cao is really worth seeing once!"

Cao Sanxi could tell that this was a polite remark, and he needed to play a few more cards before these two old tricksters would really believe it.

He thought about it and said:

"The two elders of the pavilion know that the four items of tea, horse, salt and iron are the major players in our trade with Xilu, but how did the eleven Shanxi merchants own the iron?"

"Shanxi is a big province of salt and iron. There are iron mines and salt farms in every prefecture. Last August, the Qu family in Qi County heard that they had mined an ocher mine of excellent quality in Daning."

"The villain doesn't know whether the Qu family has reported to the government. The villain just knows that the Qu family has made a lot of money since then. Right now, the mine supervisor of the Imperial Capital Supervisor's Mansion is only set up in Shuntian Mansion...?"

Having said that, Cao Sanxi stopped abruptly, and looked at the two with a half-smile.

Hu Shiguang immediately stood up and said solemnly:

"Private mining of iron ore is a serious crime to kill the nine clans! Cao Sanxi, if your news is not true, you are also guilty of copying your family and exterminating your family!"

Chapter 587 Zhu Youxiao's Game of Chess

After leaving Cao's mansion, the two found a remote tea shop, intending to have a real talk. This time, there was no open and secret fighting.

Because they all know that now has reached the moment of life and death.

Speaking of which, Emperor Tianqi did this a few years ago. At that time, no one thought so much, but today it became a key link in the fate of the two of them.

The imperial court had set up the Dujian Mansion a long time ago, and the Dujian Mansion was divided into two types: mine supervisor and military supervisor. When it was first established, it aroused opposition from the government and the opposition.

But after so many years, the mine supervisor has never been established, and most of the military supervisors have been withdrawn after Xiong Tingbi recovered Liaodong. At present, there are still areas assigned by the military supervisor, only Denglai and Fujian and other places.

After a long time, everyone has forgotten it. In addition to the emperor's various measures to strengthen the centralization of power in recent years, there are not so many people who dare to oppose it in a high-sounding manner.

After so many years, this pending mine supervisor is like a sharp sword that has been placed on the heads of businessmen and local tyrants, and it may fall down at any time.

After hearing the news about Cao Sanxi, both of them thought in unison that it might be time now.

"It seems that His Majesty's intention is not only to allow the Royal Chamber of Commerce to take over the situation in Jinzhong, but more importantly, to take back the minerals in Shanxi."

Xu Weijing said, looking a little flustered.

Hu Shiguang also knew that it was indeed a bit late when he realized this, and no one would have thought that the emperor would actually play this game of chess when he first succeeded to the throne.