The Royal Merchant of the Red Chamber

November [-]th is a very commemorative day.

Although the busy people of the Yong Dynasty did not understand what this day meant to Xue Pan who traveled through later generations.But everyone understands another thing, that is, the Xue Family Fuxi newspaper, which has been planned for more than two months, is finally freshly released on this day.

As soon as it was released, all outlets in Shenjing were sold out.Especially in places like Fuyuan Pavilion and rouge gouache, where the traffic is dense, dignitaries and dignitaries who are concerned about current affairs, after hearing that the Xue family has launched a new product, bought a copy or Check out a few copies.

What's more, the price of this newspaper is really not expensive, only twenty cents for a copy.

On the one-foot-square newspaper, ink marks were printed on the front and back.Among them, large and small squares are divided to write different contents.In the words of Xiaotong, who is in charge of selling newspapers in the Xue family, this is called typesetting.

The officials of the aristocratic families in Beijing are naturally not interested in the so-called typesetting.They originally just wanted to please the Xue family with this small gesture.You can wait until tomorrow when you go to court, and during the shift, you will pretend to mention it casually to Xue Zhizhang, "I heard that your family has released new things. Yesterday, I asked the servants in the house to buy some newspapers. After that, this thing is really interesting. Your son is worthy of the name of the little God of Wealth, a gold-earning genius. I heard that he is also planning to entrust the compradors in the palace and the court to pay, what else did he do? The tender..."

Of course, the latter sentence is serious.After all, people eat whole grains, no matter how high-sounding and awe-inspiring the words are, who really live in the world, take care of their families and eat food, rice, oil and salt, who doesn't care about money!

Before the Xue family wanted to eat alone, it was naturally outraged by the public.But now that I understand it and change it, then everyone earns money, and everyone is still friends.

Thinking of this, the heads of the various families couldn't help but be patient to see what was written in this so-called "newspaper".

Unfolding the square newspaper, the first thing that catches the eye is the big black headline with bold ink——

"The Japanese invaders are ambitious and invade our Dayong territory again. Woo call me a hot-blooded son. An Neng is calm and calm, and tolerates the clown who jumps on the bridge to invade our Dayong border at will?"

In the following text, it is straightforward to write the news that on the night of November [-]th, three thousand Japanese pirates invaded the Fujian area of ​​our Dayong Dynasty with pirate ships. .

Next, the article described in detail how the pharmacist Xu Fu took three thousand boys and girls to Dongying to live and multiply since Qin Shihuang asked for the elixir of immortality. Later, during the Han and Tang Dynasties, how the people of Dongying came to the Central Plains to learn and teach, and bowed their heads and bowed their heads. .Then how ambitious, invaded the border of our Central Plains.In particular, list how much money was spent and how many people died in the battle against Japanese pirates in the previous dynasty, and by the way, praise the heroic deeds of famous anti-Japanese generals such as Qi Jiguang.

Finally, with sharp words, he encouraged Da Yong Erlang to join the army to serve the country and go to Dongying, threatening to pay the blood of the clowns and robbers in Dongying.Let everyone know that our national prestige of the Dayong Dynasty is inviolable, and those who violate my mighty Yongtian prestige will be punished even if they are far away.

The article is not too long, only three or four thousand words from beginning to end.And abandoned the meaning in ordinary poems and prose, rhetoric piled up.The language is straightforward and the tone is sharp. It lists very accurate numbers, time, place, people, and events, so that the viewer can feel as if they are on the scene. It will cost countless silver and flesh and blood.And suppose that if the money is not used for war, but for the people to build roads and bridges, reduce taxes and taxes, and subsidize farmland, how much benefits the people can get.

Seeing this, most people couldn't help but calculate.In each battle, tens of thousands of dollars will be spent in the end. If Erlang dies in battle, the pension for each soldier is 20 taels, which seems very generous, and the annual expenditure of ordinary people is no more than that.The higher the position, the higher the pension.However, how can the value of a human life be calculated with a mere few taels of silver?

What's more, the fact that the army is corrupt, empty pay and embezzlement are not uncommon, although the pension distributed by the court is 20 taels.But how much money can really reach the hands of the people?Moreover, the soldiers who died in battle were compensated. Those civilians who were tortured, killed and looted by the Japanese pirates after they landed did not die in vain. Who can give them pensions?

As the saying goes, a penny stumps a hero.Many people have carefully calculated, combined with their own environment, imagining that there would be no such war, and how much their own men would work in the fields, and how much they could earn after a year of hard work until the autumn harvest... Finally came to a conclusion, if there is no In the case of war, the Holy Majesty has lowered taxes twice after he became the throne, and his family should have lived a good life.

However, there is no if.Although the court has not made it clear for so many years, in fact, every year when the times are bad, there will always be one or two waves of pirates along the coast who come to rob and shoot.Thinking of this, the local people all involuntarily turned gloomy.

Of course, the generals and officials don't care much about these concerns of the common people.Although 10,000+ taels of silver is a lot, it is not enough for them to embezzle and bribe for a year.And if there is no war, where will they embezzle?

It's just that they don't care, and they don't mean that the "clean and honest" civil servants don't care, so one by one, they asked for a report, accusing the military department of being incompetent and humiliating our Dayong Guowei, the generals of the military department Officials must be held accountable for this.

After all, civil and military officials dislike each other and have a long-standing grudge against each other.If you have this opportunity to impeach, among other things, it is first of all to relieve your anger.

Naturally, the military officers and generals were unwilling to accept this accusation, and they were forced to go to the table one after another, voluntarily asking for a fight, and they were determined to earn back their face.What they think is also simple. After all, there are only a few who earn money by embezzling food and salaries. If it is really as rich as the newspapers said, the little Dongying, and lead troops to attack the front line. much better.And the reputation is even better!

As for whether they will lose or not, all the generals expressed their disregard.Those who were immortal before just had no motivation. If the Japanese pirates were really disabled, they would not come every year, and they would have no chance to ask the court for money. Wouldn't they be in trouble?

If it is really serious to fight, are the barbarians overseas powerful?In a rage, the king of Nan'an County captured more than 1 defeated generals?

All of a sudden, the hearts of the people in the Dayong Dynasty were all agitated by this piece of article.He even had a straightforward temperament, and the straightforward ministers played openly at the court meeting, begging the court to send troops to attack Dongying.There are also a lot of folks responding to join the army, especially in the Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan, and Zhejiang areas, which have been attacked by pirates and Japanese pirates all year round.

Tu Zhen took advantage of the situation and put on the agenda the plan to attack Japan.The huge state machinery began to turn, and Xue Zhizhang, who served as Minister of the Ministry of War, became more and more busy.

Xue Pan had nothing to do with the planning of the imperial court's actions. What he had to consider was the bidding meeting to be held in mid-December.This piece of information was also publicly published in the newspaper.In order to make the first bidding meeting more grand and brilliant, Xue Pan released the news nearly two months in advance.Of course, prior to this, Xue Pan's words also leaked it intentionally or unintentionally, and all the more important princes and officials in Beijing knew it well.It's just that after reading this message, he collected the money more carefully to ensure that he could successfully bid at the bidding meeting.

At the same time, Xue Pan notified most of the powerful businessmen through the chambers of commerce held in various places to ensure that they arrived in Shenjing on the day of the meeting.After a few actions, the bidding will be no less low-key than conscription.At this time, Xue Pan simply auctioned off the tickets and bidding numbers for the bidding meeting at a high price.

Each admission ticket is 50 taels of silver, and each bid number is 50 taels of gold.Merchants who wanted to participate in the bidding naturally didn't care about these little money, so they searched all over the world, and before the bidding meeting started, all 100 admission tickets and [-] bidding numbers were sold out.The two together made a net profit of about [-] million taels of silver. Everyone was dumbfounded and couldn't help admiring the young master of the Xue family's money-raising methods.

At the beginning, Xue Pan said that 60% of all transactions of the Xue family would be handed over to the internal treasury.So on the day when the admission tickets were sold out, Xue Pan took [-] taels of banknotes and entered the palace, happily looking for Tuzhen to share the spoils.

This was the first time the two met after their sour and soft confession.Xue Pan didn't care, but Tu Zhen felt a little uncomfortable.There is a feeling of guilt and uneasiness at work.Seeing this, Xue Pan secretly smiled.On the face, he said calmly: "This is the 60 taels earned from the tickets for the bidding fair. I will send it to the Holy Majesty first. I will write a plan and hand it to His Majesty for the arrangements after the bidding fair."

Tu Zhen nodded, looked at Xue Pan for a long time, finally let go of his anxiety, and changed the subject: "The march to Dongying is also going well, and if there is no accident, the Southeast Navy will be able to set off in the next year. "

Xue Pan chuckled: "Those dwarves who came to Dongying are suffering from a lot of trouble at the moment! First, they were burned, killed and robbed by a group of pirates on the island, and they had no choice but to go to the border of Dayong to find some comfort. Unexpectedly, the originally soft Central Plains is also tough. Get up. After receiving the news that the Dayong Dynasty intends to send troops to the south, the Dongying devils still don’t know why they are uneasy! It’s just that the people under His Majesty’s hands pretended to be pirates and already searched for gold and silver treasures first. After the navy has arrived in Dongpu, what oil and water are left?"

Tu Zhen shook his head, and said with a smile: "It's obviously your ghost idea, but now you're making fun of me again? Although the people in my hands got some gold and silver, they didn't get out anything from the ground. When the navy and other entourages of the Yong Dynasty landed on the island, there will naturally be better things for them. I just don’t know how to explain to the benevolence and Taoists in the court at that time.”

Xue Pan sneered, and said: "Is there anything to explain, when the white money is sent to them, those who are sensible will naturally sing praises. Those who are not sensible... Your Majesty may as well send people to Dongying with their families. Bian'er has made some contributions to the enlightenment of the saints."

When Tu Zhen heard it, he thought it was true.Among the officials who can be the center of the imperial court, how many of them are true saints.It's nothing more than trying to make money for yourself in the guise of Confucianism.If it is dangerous, the tongues of those Qingliu scholars in the folk may be more terrifying.

Xue Pan guessed what Tu Zhen was thinking, shook his head, and said, "Scholar's business is also easy to handle. One, we have been advocating it in newspapers for a while, and it has aroused most people's hearts to fight for profit. Two, my master also takes care of it." Well, with the support and suppression of the Taibai Poetry Association, there will be no big troubles. If there are one or two people who don't have eyes, you don't have to be polite. As the saying goes, people who are not of my race will have different hearts. I sympathize with Japanese pirates, is it true that I have something to do with them? Otherwise, why would I ignore my deep hatred towards the common people and blindly speak for them?"

What a nonsense, the last word!

Tu Zhen smiled lightly and shook his head, stretched out his hand and tapped Xue Pan's forehead and teased: "Speaking is still so tricky, it's really like a knife piercing the heart."

Hearing Tu Zhen's puns, Xue Pan couldn't help sneering, twitching the corners of his mouth and said, "It's fine to talk tricky. What I'm afraid of is tricky doing things. That's better than Ling Chi." It still hurts!"

Tu Zhen's eyes dimmed, and he stretched out his hand to pull Xue Pan into his arms, put his chin gently on Xue Pan's neck, and said softly, "Are you still angry?"

"If I'm angry with you, I really can't survive this life! It's just that I let go here, and you don't need to be grudges for the rest of your life. The days to come are still long, you are always so awkward, and you are not tired ?"

At first, Tu Zhen felt sad and uneasy, but when he heard the word "backward" from Xue Pan's mouth, he felt warm in his heart for some reason, and felt that there was nothing more ironic and warm than these two words. .The corners of his lips curled up in satisfaction, and he softly discussed with Xue Pan: "I thought, your mother is about to give birth too. When your younger brother grows up, I will send him to Xuan'er as a servant. What do you think?" Sample?"

Feelings are to be cultivated from an early age.For example, don't you and Pan'er also "love each other for a long time"? (Huh, something's wrong?)

Hearing this, Xue Pan shook his head disapprovingly, and said, "I don't care about this matter, you can do whatever you want."

After a pause, he said again: "Actually, you don't have to worry. My father is a very measured person. For the long-term consideration of the Xue family, he will never do anything that destroys his future. I heard that he recently The matter of tinkering with family rules and ancestors presumably has something to do with the current situation the Xue family is facing... and wait patiently, you can always find a way to get the best of both worlds."

There has always been an insurmountable gap between powerful ministers and wise masters.The emperor relies on his courtiers, and the courtiers also depend on the emperor. This relationship will destroy the balance if you don't pay attention to it.After all, it's not a family, don't talk about a family...

family?

Tu Zhen stared at Xue Pan thoughtfully, and remained silent.

Xue Pan didn't pay attention to what plans Tu Zhen had in mind, he took out a few newspapers from his pocket and handed them to Tu Zhen, and said with a smile: "I've been so busy these days, I didn't bother to go to the palace to greet you I didn’t show you the new tricks I made. Now I’m bringing you all the newspapers I’ve accumulated for several days. When you’re tired of reviewing the memorials, you can also read the entertainment and gossip sections of the newspapers. It’s easy. easy."

Tu Zhen looked at the newspaper in front of him, hooked the corners of his mouth, stretched out his hand and took out a few newspapers from under the folder, and said with a smile: "Pan'er has worked so hard on new things, how can I not support you? When you distribute newspapers every day, I will So I sent someone to buy it. I took a look at it when I had nothing to do, and I found it very interesting."

As he spoke, he pointed to the serialized stories and anecdotes, and said, "Especially the Legend of the Condor Heroes, I think it's really good. I just don't know what will happen to Guo Jing after he enters the Central Plains. Pan'er Can you tell me something?"

Xue Pan grinned triumphantly and said, "No spoilers."

After speaking, he pointed to the first page of the advertisement proudly and said: "Since the newspaper was published, I have published the information of many shops under the Xue family on the first page of the advertisement. It is only ten days now, and the number of stores The business has actually increased by as much as 500% compared to last month. After seeing the effect, other merchants all flocked to it. I begged my grandpa to sue my grandma for bribing the editor-in-chief. I only hope to publish my own shop on this small forum Information. I am preparing to launch the investment promotion standard. An advertisement space can be published for a month, depending on the size of the page and the location of the space. There are so many merchants who come to me. This is only in Shenjing, if all the states and provinces in the north and south of the river are counted, there is no telling how many people there are, and they almost lost money."

Seeing Xue Pan's pained and terrified expression, Tu Zhen couldn't help but shook his head and laughed out loud. "Then Pan'er, what good idea do you have?"

"Of course." Xue Pan looked at his tail and said, "I made a decision right away. I will also bid for the advertising business in the bidding meeting. The highest bidder will win. How about it, isn't it good?"

"Make the best use of everything, Pan'er is indeed a genius in business." Tu Zhen's words were admiration from the bottom of his heart.He had never seen anyone collecting money from Pan'er like this, and most of what he did was empty-handed.Tu Zhen saw it in his eyes, and was only lucky that he had a housekeeper who could grab money.Otherwise, I don't know why I would have a headache when I received such a debt-laden empty shell from my father!

What's even more rare is that Pan'er really thought of him wholeheartedly and never asked for anything in return.Official positions are given, and they are not given or asked for.The only time an important official still didn't want to talk about being uncomfortable all day long, and what he got was a useless idle job.The family didn't listen and helped appease that old fox Zhongxinhou.

In fact, if you think about it carefully, all members of Xue's family are loyal and loyal. They have worked for the court for so many years, and they didn't plan for anything.Whether it is a title or a promotion, they are all given by themselves, and there are many unspeakable purposes hidden in it.Outsiders don't know the truth, they only say that Xue's family is really lucky that the ancestral grave is smoking.But only the parties like Tu Zhen knew that if these credits were placed on other people's family, it would definitely not be settled so easily.

Besides, the two principals of the Xue family, let alone Pan'er, are the ones who don't care about it.Xue Zhizhang also knows how to advance and retreat every inch, and never makes Tu Zhen feel embarrassed or threatened.

On the contrary, it was me who had gone mad a while ago, and even took precautions everywhere.I don't know what to think.If he really wants to do something like a cunning rabbit's death and a running dog's cooking, what is the difference between him and the other emperors he despises the most?

Thinking of this, Tu Zhen felt more and more guilty about all the tricks and narrow-mindedness before.

What Pan'er said is good, you can't give up eating because of choking, and you can't justly do things of betrayal because of unwarranted suspicion.What's more, I have two hidden guards at the blood drop and the sticky pole in my hand. I can see every move of the Xue family in my eyes, and I don't have any taboos. Why should I be suspicious too much?There are Pan'er on the left and right who are planning for themselves.

If you can't trust others, can you still trust Pan'er?

If even Pan'er didn't believe it, Tu Zhen wouldn't be Tu Zhen anymore.

Thinking of this, Tu Zhen only felt that the big stone on his chest was finally removed.After thinking about it, he finally chose to believe in Pan'er.This is also his only choice as a disciple.

He breathed out lightly, held Xue Pan's hands and said earnestly: "Pan'er is a genius, and I will also be a wise king. Let us, the monarch and minister, work together to create a peaceful and prosperous world!"

Even if you leave a name in history, I still hope that the person who is worthy of the monarch and his ministers is you.

Xue Pan took a fixed look at Tu Zhen, and replied softly, "Okay!"