Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 859 Selling Beads

No wonder he looked so confused, the market before him was really beyond his understanding...

On a wide street, shops were lined up on both sides in an orderly manner. Many lanterns were hung high, lighting up the entire road. There was a high observation tower every hundred steps in the entire market. On the tower, Ming soldiers looked down from above, with their spears flashing a dazzling cold light, making people afraid to act rashly. However, no one was willing to act rashly. Most people had expressions of surprise and joy on their faces, and they happily walked through the shops one by one.

This is the "commercial street" planned by Zhu Su himself. Most commercial areas of this era were planned randomly, with no rules or regulations. In less developed areas, the government simply marked out a piece of open space for the people to set up stalls. I'm afraid that in the entire feudal era, only Zhuque Street in the Tang Dynasty could be compared with this regular structure.

Not to mention them, even if we look at the entire Ming Dynasty, we can't find a second one for the time being. How could these three chieftains who have never left Lianzhou have ever seen such a novel and lively scene?

They thought that the so-called market was just something that the King Zhou did casually. How could they have expected that the King Zhou would actually create such a decent thing in Lianzhou Prefecture? Seeing such a high-end shop, the three chieftains felt a little regretful. If they had supported the King Zhou at that time, they might have had a few of these neat and clean shops.

But the shop is only a minor detail, the real big money should be the profit from selling South Pearls. So they simply followed the crowd, moving forward step by step along this commercial street, looking for shops selling South Pearls.

Soon, they found a shop, "Shangrenxuan". As soon as they heard the name, they knew that this shop was opened by the chieftain of the Ye family.

Seeing this huge shop with great decoration and a constant stream of customers, the chieftain surnamed Qin felt a little jealous. He asked his men to check first and make sure that the chieftain of the Ye family, Ye Shangren, was not in the shop and there was no risk of being recognized. Then he walked in leisurely with the other two chieftains.

"Please come in, gentlemen! Are you here to buy pearls? I wonder if you are buying for your own use or in bulk for trade. If you want to give them to your families, we still have two strings of the best South Pearl bracelets left..." The three men were dressed just like the Han people, and the waiter in charge of receiving them did not notice anything and greeted them enthusiastically.

The three chieftains were startled when they heard this. The chieftain surnamed Qin was the quickest to see the opportunity. He had already noticed the difference between the way the Ye family sold pearls and the past. He asked without hesitation, "Huh? Why do you only sell finished products now?"

The waiter was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and said with a smile: "It seems that the three masters were also our regular customers in the past."

"Yes, from today on, our chieftain will no longer sell river beads. Instead, he will sell finished beads... All of our pearl necklaces are made by the best craftsmen in Suzhou and Songshan. You see, they all have certificates. If you need any special shapes, you can also place an order and let the masters make them..."

The three chieftains had no intention of caring about these business tricks. Chief Tian simply got straight to the point and asked, "How are you selling these beads now?"

They were certain that these Han chieftains were using South Pearls to start a price war with them...so as long as they knew the price, they could just turn around and sell it at a lower price than them.

Even if they have found a master and are now selling finished jewellery, they still cannot match the huge reserves of South China Pearls... As long as they use price wars to squeeze these Han chieftains out of business, why would they be afraid of their petty tricks?

"This... the price of beads in our shop depends on the workmanship of the specific jewelry. However, this kind of rough beads only costs ten strings of treasure notes..." said the waiter.

"Ten strings of cash?" Chief Tian's eyes widened. "Are you trying to rob me?"

The beads in Xiao Er's hand were of poor workmanship and of different sizes. In the past, such low-quality beads would have been too expensive even if they were sold for one tael of banknotes. But they were so brazen as to want to sell them for ten taels of banknotes?
"You can't say that. Our shop clearly marks the price and we are honest, how can you say that we are robbing?" said the waiter. "If you three gentlemen don't want to buy, you can just leave our shop. Why are you slandering us? This string of beads was made by the famous Suzhou artist 'Diaohua Li'. We have the certificate. How can we allow you to slander us?"

The waiter looked at them unfriendly, as if he was going to report them to the Ming army on the watchtower for causing trouble.

The three of them didn't dare to act rashly, so they had to leave the store with gloomy faces. They had already asked about the price. The chieftain surnamed Tian asked, "Why are the prices of these Han chieftains selling South Pearls much higher than before? Those merchants don't come to buy the South Pearls we have?"

"Perhaps, Ye Shangren has messed up his brain." The chieftain surnamed Qin was also puzzled. In his opinion, these Han chieftains had a small reserve of South Pearls, and they even raised the price. Wouldn't it mean that even fewer merchants would patronize them?
After much thought, they could only conclude that Ye Shangren was eager for quick success and wanted to take advantage of the fact that the market had just opened and foreign merchants were unaware of the situation to make a quick buck... Perhaps the reason why those merchants did not come to them to purchase South Pearls was because they were looking for the secret from other Han chieftains.

But after they walked around the entire market, visited several other Han chieftains' shops, and finally came to the door of Shang Renxuan, they saw those Nanzhu whose prices were raised to a level they could not even imagine. These chieftains who were of Li people and Xuhu origin were completely stunned.

"Why? Why are these Han people selling South Pearls at a higher price, but there are still no merchants willing to come to us to buy South Pearls?" The chieftain surnamed Qin's face turned pale. If it weren't for the fact that this place was crowded with people and he needed to be more respectful, he would have wanted to tell fortunes on the spot according to the customs of his tribe...

I really can't understand it!

The other two chieftains were also confused, not understanding what went wrong. But the chieftain surnamed Gao was sharp-eyed. He saw a Fujian businessman who had come to them to buy South Pearls a few days ago coming out of "Shangrenxuan" and quickly grabbed his shoulder and said, "Boss Lin, how are you?"

"Oh, you are... Mr. Gao?" The Fujian merchant turned around, squinted his eyes, and realized that it was the local chieftain. He hurriedly bowed and said, "Hello, Mr. Gao, you are here to visit this market too? Yes, Lianzhou is different now, it is really lively..."

Chief Gao didn't have the time to talk nonsense with him, so he went straight to the point: "You came into Shangrenxuan, are you here to buy beads?"

"Why don't you come and buy our beads, but buy the Ye family's expensive beads here?"

(End of this chapter)