Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 71 The Emperor stirs up evil winds and lights ghost fires

Mao Jiping's face darkened at this time: "Uncle of the King, you are going too far in competing with the people for profit!"

"This is not competing with the people for profit. I am just competing fairly with this wealthy businessman. You are receiving a salary from the court, so you should speak fairly."

Zhang Heling replied.

Bao Zhong also advised: "Yes, Mao Bulang, let's not go out and break the rules. If the rich businessman is willing to continue to increase the price, then he can buy it. If he doesn't buy it, he won't lose anything."

Mao Jiping couldn't say anything more.

Li Deng couldn't help but think: "Well, I'll just repay my master's kindness and add some more for myself!"

So Li Deng gritted his teeth and said, "One hundred and twenty thousand taels!"

Zhang Heling stared at Li Deng: "You!"

"Please calm down, my uncle. If you need money, I have it here."

"We are the governor of Xingming Bank, and we are ordered to help the people, so we are selling a loan of a certain amount of money, with an annual interest rate of only 3%. If you really want to buy this imperial store, you can sign a deed here on the spot. The loan amount is less than 200,000 taels. If there is collateral, you can borrow as much as you want."

Bao Zhong hurriedly persuaded Zhang Heling and started doing business with him.

Zhang Yanling was happy to watch the fun, and he didn't want to see his family members lose face, so he urged Zhang Heling:
"Brother, three percent interest per year is not high. It is much lower than the interest rate of the loan we asked the ancestral temple to lend. Let's fight for it!"

"Fight!"

Zhang Heling nodded.

He now had a gambling mentality, and thinking about the pie in the sky drawn by the emperor, he didn't want to give the fat meat he had obtained to others so easily.

After all, the emperor was willing to let them own the imperial store, so why would they dare to fight for it?

What's more, they have always been resentful of the wealthy businessmen who represent the power of the gentry and officials.

As the saying goes, enemies are extremely jealous when they meet.

So Zhang Heling said, "I'll lend it to you! I'll borrow 30,000 taels first!"

"Okay, prepare your pens and ink!"

Bao Zhong quickly agreed with a smile, his attitude very humble.

Zhang Heling quickly signed and sealed the loan agreement for 30,000 taels, saying, "This imperial store must belong to me today. No one is allowed to take it away!"

"I will not let the late emperor's assets be taken away cheaply by profiteers like you!"

After Zhang Heling said this, he straightened his chest and instantly felt that what he did was particularly just.

"Big brother said it well!"

"We have been raised by the emperor for so many years, we cannot watch these corrupt officials and profiteers sell off the emperor's property at a low price!"

Zhang Yanling also became righteous and could not help but think of his nephew Zhengde. His eyes turned red and he stared at Mao Jiping viciously.

Mao Jiping couldn't stand Zhang Yanling's look and said with a wry smile, "It's not like you guys are not allowed to bid for it, so why do you have to slander Zhongliang like this, my uncle?"

Here.

Bao Zhongze walked up to Li Deng and said, "Whether you are a royal relative or a private businessman, Xingming Bank treats everyone equally and allows you to borrow money at a 3% interest rate. If you are short of money, would you like to borrow some money to compete for the purchase of this royal store?"

Li Deng didn't have much cash. After thinking it over, he decided to be loyal to his master, so he said, "I'll lend it to you!"

"Father-in-law, what's wrong with you?"

Zhang Heling was puzzled by this.

Bao Zhong smiled and said, "Please calm down, my uncle. We at Xingming Bank only serve the people and the country, and we do not favor anyone. Especially in the sale of the Royal Store, we must avoid people saying that the Royal Family favors the relatives of the emperor."

"Eunuch Bao is right."

Mao Jiping said with a smile, and secretly sighed: "Your Majesty is really wise! This will enrich the country and benefit the people!"

Li Deng borrowed 50,000 taels here, so he offered a price of 170,000 taels.

Zhang Heling, who had always loved competing for money with the powerful in the capital, gritted his teeth and continued to borrow and raise the price.

Finally, Zhang Heling took out 100,000 taels and borrowed another 100,000 taels before he was able to take over the Tongzhou Huangdian.

Although Li Deng wanted to fight for his master, he had limited capital and some assets of his own. It was impossible for him to lose everything for his master, so he finally chose to give up.

Zhang Yanling also competed for the Linqing Imperial Store with the wealthy businessman who was originally scheduled to buy it at a low price. In the end, he managed to win the Imperial Store by paying 100,000 taels and borrowing 100,000 taels of loan.

At the beginning, both of them were very proud and felt that they had won the competition for wealth again.

But after returning home, the two felt something was wrong. They suddenly realized that in order to take over this royal store, they had not only spent the 100,000 taels of reward, but also had a lot of debt.

Although both of them knew that the two royal stores would still make a profit even in this situation, they had to run them seriously and did not dare to just resell them for money.

Therefore, Zhang Yanling came to Zhang Heling at noon that day to discuss going to the Royal Store to see how to run it: "Brother, have you eaten?"

"I'm drinking porridge."

Zhang Heling replied indifferently.

Zhang Yanling immediately sat over and said with a smile: "Can you give me a bowl too?" "You don't have anything to eat at home!"

Zhang Heling quickly drank up all the porridge in the bowl.

Zhang Yanling said, "I feel bad for spending so much money all at once. I'll save as much as I can and wait until I've paid off my debts and made up my principal."

"I only have this one bowl, I just finished it."

"Just bear with it for a while, and go to the palace to ask your sister for food."

Zhang Heling hiccuped and said, "However, speaking of this imperial store, I feel sad when I think about it now. I invested so much money in it all at once, and I still owe a debt. It makes me feel uneasy!"

Zhang Heling then asked Zhang Yanling: "You said that Your Majesty will go out to mine ore in the future. Is that true?"

“It has to be true!”

"Otherwise, Your Majesty would not be so generous to give us so much reward and loan us so much silver."

"Brother, we must believe in His Majesty!"

Zhang Yanling replied.

"Makes sense!"

Zhang Heling nodded.

"Brother, do you really have nothing to eat here?"

"I'm really hungry!"

……

"Don't these two relatives have brains?!"

Snapped!
Inside a large courtyard.

A high-ranking official in a scarlet official robe threw the Japanese fan in his hand heavily to the ground and cursed loudly.

There was obvious disappointment in his tone.

"To compete with the courtiers for profit at this time."

"Don't they really care about the court officials fighting for the status of their sister and nephew?"

"In this case, who would still be willing to fight for their Zhang family to have the emperor recognize only their Zhang family as the mother clan?"

The high-ranking official of the imperial court cursed in his heart while gasping for breath.

"Master, calm down."

"It's all because of my incompetence that the imperial store that originally belonged to you was taken away by your relatives, and it also made you angry."

"Damn it, little one!"

Li Deng knelt down and pleaded guilty.

The court official calmed down at this time and waved his hand and said, "No!"

"These two relatives have always been good at nothing except seizing people's land and lending money. How could they become so smart now and want to spend money to buy the imperial store?"

When the court official thought of this, he looked at Li Deng and said, "Go and find out who instigated them!"

"If it's your majesty, it would be even harder to argue about courtesy."

The court official then began to mutter to himself.

Li Deng kowtowed and said yes, then replied: "I did hear a rumor in the brothel that the emperor had no intention of giving silver to the two uncles, but because of the slander of Eunuch Qiu in front of the Queen Mother, asking for land for the two uncles, the emperor had to discuss with the prime minister and changed it to silver. After all, the emperor had just ascended the throne, and it was not easy for him to refuse to show favor to the two uncles."

"Qiu Ju?"

……

Qingning Palace.

Zhu Houcong looked at the two copies of the deeds sent by Bao Zhong, smiled, and said to the eunuch Mai Fu:

"Pass my order to you, sir, and have the Yumin Newspaper praise the fact that the two uncles bought the imperial store out of kindness!"

"Also let the cabinet issue an edict to commend the two uncles."

In any case, this time Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling both indirectly made contributions to themselves. After all, not only did they return the 200,000 taels that he had given out from the imperial treasury by buying the imperial store, they also lent him a loan of 200,000 taels.

In addition, they also sold the two royal stores at a good price, exposing the hypocrisy of the unscrupulous businessmen.

Zhu Houcong naturally wanted to commend him for this, and at the same time, he could also disgust those court officials who wanted him to recognize Emperor Xiaozong as his biological father and these two foreign relatives as his biological uncles.

Because Zhu Houcong remembered very clearly that in history, those conservative ministers who protected etiquette, in order to insist that it was politically correct for Zhu Houcong to recognize Emperor Xiaozong as his emperor father, were so obsessed that they demanded that Zhu Houcong show leniency or even indulgence to the brothers Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling who made repeated mistakes.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong wanted to see if these two relatives were treated with courtesy, and if he asked them to work hard to prevent the court officials from buying the imperial property at a low price, and if he commended them, would these court officials still be happy?

(End of this chapter)