Come on, Your Highness

On the second day, when the morning star just rose, the soldiers of Wucheng Bingma Division had already lined up on the main roads in front of the household department yamen.

Seeing this situation, the servants squatting nearby immediately stuffed the pancakes they couldn't eat in their mouths, and then rushed to report the news like a monkey jumping.

Then, before the sky showed its full color, one after another in the streets and alleys, there were load carriages with boxes on them, and they were pulled out one by one under the protection of many powerful men.

At this point, there was no one on the street, and these sturdy men plus the carriages that could pull deep marks on the ground were particularly eye-catching.

"Hurry up, hurry up! We must occupy one of the places!"

"Did the horse not feed yesterday? Why is it so slow!"

"Follow up, these are all silver!"

"As long as you get the quota, each person will be rewarded with 50 taels!"

……

The Ministry of Accounts does not accept cashier notes, so they are all real money.

20 taels, converted to a weight of about five to eight tons in later generations, there are more than ten horse-drawn carriages alone, and each family has more than ten vehicles, so the scene was really sensational.

Even the people who were still sleeping were awakened by the sound of heavy carriages and horses outside.

So they all got up and hid behind the window frame to watch the excitement, and some bold ones even walked out of the house, all with curious faces.

Speaking of which, the banks in various places had already exchanged out the maximum amount of silver yesterday, and the servants of several merchants who could not exchange it simply exchanged silver notes for silver taels in the street, and the denomination difference was not small.

The big merchants are all rich and powerful, and they can issue bank notes at will, but not everyone can get together the bank notes in one day.

However, there are always more solutions than difficulties. One family is not enough, and two companies work together. As He Xichao said, there is competition and cooperation among peers.

A mere [-] places is actually not enough.

Fortunately, the household department is not afraid of such a situation.

The national treasury is divided into a money bank and a grain bank. Leaving aside the grain bank, the money bank is often empty, and it has been a long time since today.

After Xie Er received the imperial decree, he led people to clear out the open space in front of the money bank that day and night. It was a large area, enough for dozens of carriages to enter.

The officials from the top and bottom of the household department were divided into several groups, and the chief officials from the other six departments were seconded to help.

Count as much as you come, and the Ministry of Households does its part when it comes to counting silver.

At dawn, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites arrived at the scene with the officials of the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Rites led the order to supervise. Seeing the crowd of people, he suddenly had the illusion that he had entered the vegetable market.

Every box that was unloaded from the carriage, as soon as it was opened, was filled with silver that glistened blindingly.

And after seeing a lot, he calmed down from the shock.

"I have been an official for many years, and for the first time I discovered what it means to hide wealth from the people."

The imperial court was extremely poor, but the merchants were extremely rich. They could really collect 20 taels of silver in one day!The Minister of Rites shook his head and sighed, strangely saying that He Xichao dared to mention the [-]% tariff that has been criticized by officials in the court so far.

This young man is more thorough than the old minister, and he is bold and straightforward, with sophisticated methods, which is really amazing.

"Nowadays, anyone who doesn't praise Mr. Xiao He's ability will say that the God of Wealth descended to earth." Said the doctor of the Ministry of Rites who accompanied him.

"Oh? Isn't it Wenquxing? Why did he become the God of Wealth again?"

"It is said that the one who picks up the pen is Wenquxing, and the one who picks up the ingot is the God of Wealth. The Buddha has two appearances. It seems plausible that Master Xiaohe's two gods coexist." A Yuanwailang joked.

Master Qin couldn't laugh or cry when he heard the words: "It's strange, it's not easy to talk about it casually."

As soon as he finished speaking, a small official from the household department came over and said, "Master Qin, the Fengyang silk merchant's family has already paid the deposit. My lord, please go over and check."

"My lord, let's go quickly."

The Minister of the Ministry of Rites left me to hear the news, only to see Xie Er wipe the sweat off his brow, and said to him: "Master Qin, why don't you check it, 20 taels is not more than one cent, one cent is not less, if it is correct, Please stamp it, and the Yang family will take up the quota."

I saw fifty big boxes neatly opened and placed on an open space, the silver light was dazzling, and blinded the blind man's eyes.

The Minister of Rites said: "It's so open and bright, why don't you worry about it."

As soon as the seal of the Ministry of Rites was stamped, only the sound of gongs and drums sounded in the middle of winter, and the announcing officer shouted: "Fengyang silk merchant Yang's family, 20 taels have been counted, occupy a quota! Put it into the warehouse!"

Just as the gong and drum were beating, someone shouted from the other side: "My lord, the Fang family of the Wuyi tea merchant is also full, please check."

However, after a while, another place shouted: "My lord, this side is fine too, the Zhou family of Chenzhou porcelain merchant..."

Several merchants were quiet merchants at the two meetings, but everyone was stunned when they made a move.

Seeing that the number of places has been reduced one by one, those who have almost tens of thousands of silver taels not delivered can't help but feel anxious.

Suddenly someone shouted: "Where are the salt merchants, mother, why didn't any of those salt merchants come?"

As soon as this person shouted, someone suddenly realized: "Oh no, those bastards already have quotas, so don't worry at all!"

"Then how many places are left?"

"Eight!"

As soon as the words fell, the sound of gongs and drums was struck again.

Only seven left!

But at this moment, the Sun family, the Ping family, the Deng family and the other two came late, followed by a mighty horse-drawn carriage team.

Today, in the court hall, the household department is vacant from top to bottom, and the ritual department is also absent. The ministers already know why.

He Xichao's actions were truly unprecedented in space. For the first time at the court meeting, no one stood up to impeach him.

Everyone looked at him standing indifferently behind the queue, and for some reason, the four words "Young Generation" fell into the bottom of their hearts.

Nowadays, few people pay attention to other political affairs, and they all wait patiently for the guards who come in from time to time to report.

"Reporting to the emperor, the Ministry of Household Affairs has come to report that eight families have already paid the full amount of silver taels."

"160 million taels has been credited." Not long after Hu Ge's old words fell, another guard rushed in and said, "Your Majesty, the nine families have already paid the full amount of taels."

Following the guard's report, everyone silently added 20 taels.

Suddenly He Xichao asked: "Did the salt merchant pay?"

The guard shook his head and said, "The salt merchants just arrived when the humble job came."

He Xichao nodded, and didn't ask any more questions.

What he said suddenly made everyone curious, but he kept silent and didn't explain, this kind of uncomfortable,

Today's He Xichao is like a mobile bank, no one doubts his ability to open source, is there any staggering idea?

The ministers actually wanted to yell out: You said it, what is the meaning of this?

In the end, it was Emperor Tiangan who spoke: "Why did He Qing ask such a question?"

He Xichao replied: "The minister designated five of them to the salt merchants, and only the remaining ten places were scrambled for by merchants from other industries. I tried my best to buy quotas from the salt merchants, which is probably the reason why the salt merchants were late in paying the deposit, they were waiting for others to make an offer!"

"Buy quota?" He Xichao's explanation really surprised people.

Can you still come this way?

Immediately afterward, someone asked: "Can the quota given by the imperial court be openly traded?"

This remark caused a murmur.

"Isn't this not taking the imperial court seriously?" Xiao Ming said quietly.

Xiao Hong turned his head to look at him, and couldn't help laughing: "Xiao Minger's experience notes yesterday are probably written in vain. When it comes to business, the imperial court didn't say that they can't buy or sell when the quota is given. They traded privately and sold the quota. The imperial court can’t control it either.”

"But I don't know how much this quota can sell?"

These ministers' understanding of money has been broken by He Xichao. They used to think that merchants have a low status and should earn some money, but they didn't expect that 20 taels of silver could be collected in one day!

I used to think that the tariff of 100% was simply unreasonable, and no one would agree to it, but I never thought that the tax merchants would not see it at all, and [-] million taels would be sent to the national treasury!

The concept of wealth has been refreshed since today.

"Or add [-]%, [-]%?" someone guessed uncertainly.

Some ministers are more bold: "I don't know if it's feasible to double it?"

However, as soon as he finished speaking, someone shook his head and said, "A net profit of 50 taels? No, it's 100 million taels. That's too much!"

"Isn't this doing nothing, counting the money at home is enough!"

All the adults speculated, but someone asked: "By the way, Mr. He, what do you think?"

Seeing that everyone was looking over, He Xichao could only say, "It's normal to turn up five times."

Minister: "..."

Emperor Tiangan: "..."

Xiao Hong twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "It seems that today I will teach you how to do business."

He Xichao really felt that the imperial court was a bit weird today, he asked dumbfoundedly: "Aren't your lords presenting any important matters?"

"The most important thing today is the 500 million taels of silver!" Wang Ge said.

Even Mr. Xie Ge, who has always been known for his calmness, couldn't help pulling out a few of his beards. He endured the pain and said, "Don't be tricky, just talk about it."

"It's just my humble opinion, just for reference." He Xichao had no choice but to stand up, raised his hand and saluted, and then said, "Salt merchants have a quota, which means they can send all their caravans to the Western Regions in the next two years. , this amount will be much more than last year’s surreptitious and secretly traded by smuggling, at least double, or even triple. The 50 taels of market access is the tax money we calculated based on the amount of previous years, So its actual value is actually as much as 150 million taels. My lords, can you understand?"

The ministers looked at each other, some nodded, some showed hesitation, only the emperor on His Majesty Dan remained motionless, not sure whether he understood or not.

Of course He Xichao didn't dare to ask, anyway, with Xiao Hong around, Emperor Tiangan would always ask his son why he didn't understand.

He Xichao then continued: "Furthermore, to put it bluntly, border trade is still business. Anyone who knows something about merchants understands that there is a kind of market possession. The same thing, the same quality, the same price, whoever enters people's eyes first , seized most of the market. Taking the border trade as an example, if the Wang family occupies the quota, they can trade silk with countries in the Western Regions within the next two years. Everyone knows that this stuff is very expensive, and the quality is much worse. Just right The price of the silk from the Wang family is fair, and the texture is smooth and fine. It is very popular with the princes and nobles of the Western Regions. Naturally, people in the Western Regions are willing to buy the silk from the Wang family. The border trade is completely liberalized, and if other silk products are sold to the Western Regions, they find it difficult to sell the same products, because the people in the Western Regions have become accustomed to the silk of the Wang family. I won’t give up the original Wang’s family to choose someone else’s. This is market possession. Two years is enough for the merchants who get the quota first to seize the opportunity. This is even more important than the one-year market access of 150 million taels , so adding twice as much is not too much, do you understand that?"

To illustrate with an example, in fact, there is nothing more to understand.

Merchants are close by, and good tea is everywhere, but there are only a few people who can pay tribute every year, it's just a habit.

It’s just that no one deliberately paid attention to it, and they didn’t sum it up flexibly. Only when they heard the explanation did they suddenly realize that these are also wealth.

"When Mr. Xiao He said this, we understand it, and it seems ignorant. Who knows that the way of doing business is not easier than political affairs." Hu Ge lamented.

He Xichao smiled modestly: "You are too much."

At this time, the guards came in again and said: "Your Majesty, all the fifteen families have already paid in full. This is the list stamped together by Lord Qin and Lord Xie. Please have a look at it, Your Majesty."

From dawn to noon now, all fifteen families have paid 20 taels, and the ministers don't know how to express their inner surprise.

Emperor Tiangan took it from Eunuch Huang's hand and looked at it, and couldn't help raising his head to look at He Xichao.

Xiao Hong couldn't help asking: "Father, how many salt merchants are there?"

"Sanjia, two quotas have been sold." He looked at the young man fixedly, and finally smiled, appreciating, "He Qing, you got what you said."

He Xichao raised his hand and saluted respectfully.