Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 234 Everything is turned upside down
On September 15, the Ministry of Revenue approved the Cangzhou salt industry license, and the process was smooth and unimpeded. The Cangzhou salt permit was issued immediately. Among the first batch of selected salt merchants, only the imperial merchant Xue family was on the list, and the Jinling family was shocked when they heard the news.

On September 20, Xuejiafeng went north and delivered Changlu salt to the capital. With the support of the royal family, the capital had been building momentum for a long time. Xuejiafeng followed Yue Ling's request and launched a pre-sale model that was unheard of in the world. The salt bricks were the same quality as the refined salt bricks awarded by the royal family, and the whole body was crystal white. A salt brick weighed about ten kilograms and was priced at five hundred coins.

The pre-sale is limited to 1,000 people. After registration, the products will be delivered to your doorstep when the official sale begins. A gift card of the Xue Jia Feng brand will also be given. You can also enjoy the same preferential treatment when purchasing other goods. This move further satisfied the vanity of the dignitaries in Beijing. For a time, the five Xue Jia Feng brand stores in five cities were crowded with people.

In the end, a registration spot was even sold for hundreds of taels of silver.

On September 25, the pre-sale was very popular, and the Xue family recovered 13,000 taels of funds. With this, they opened 20 stores in the capital and sold Changlu salt to the general public at the same time, with a price of 5 wen per catty, which was half the price of 10 wen per catty of Shanxi merchants' mineral salt.

The capital was shaken.

On the first day of October, Changlu Salt was officially put on sale. Due to the previous hunger marketing, sales in 25 stores in the city were even hotter. And because Xue Jiafeng claimed that the taste of ordinary Changlu Salt and refined salt bricks would not differ much, there were many buyers in front of the stores.

One thousand salt permits were consumed that day, and one salt permit was exchanged for 200 kilograms of salt. A total of 200,000 kilograms of salt were sold at a price of one thousand taels.

The other customers attracted by Changlu Salt bought up all the other seasonings, grains, tea and other commodities, with sales exceeding five thousand taels a day.

For a time, Changlu Salt and Xuejiafeng were the most popular.

But people with insight know that the manipulator behind all this is one person, Yue Ling, the third-rank official, the Minister of the Secretariat, Marquis Anjing, the Grand Commander of the Capital.

……

In the west of Beijing, there is a Jinshang store under the Sun Jiaying brand.
After Xue's business opened, the stores of Shanxi merchants became quite deserted. Because Shanxi merchants were powerful in Beijing, the stores they chose were basically in the best locations, not much different from the Fengzihao stores everywhere. The long queues outside the Fengzihao stores from afar were even more striking.

The waiter lay on the counter bored, and couldn't help but worry for a moment whether the shop could survive. If the shop went bankrupt, where would he make a living?

"Waiter, do you have any Changlu salt here?"

The absent-minded waiter suddenly came to his senses when he saw someone walking into the store, but when he heard the person speak, he couldn't help but secretly spit, "Bad luck."

But since he was a guest, he didn't dare to spit at him. He just smiled and said, "We are Ying brand, a century-old brand. People in Beijing are used to eating salt from Jinzhong. For many years, people in Beijing have been eating our salt."

"What? Why do you run a salt business without Changlu salt? I've been eating your salt all this time, it's time to change my taste."

After saying this, the man strode away.

"Damn it! Him!" The waiter wanted to pick up a carrying pole and beat the man up, but was stopped by the people around him.

"Don't get excited. If you hit someone now, our reputation will be even worse. If you accuse us of forced buying and selling, even the boss will be in trouble."

The waiter sighed helplessly, "Yes, that's right, I was reckless."

"The boss doesn't know if there is any solution. I'll go ask."

"Yes, go ask. The brothers also have an idea in their minds."

The waiter walked through the alley and came to the back hall deep in the shop, where he saw the owner and the manager tasting the Changlu salt they had just bought and the salt bricks they had purchased at high prices from the wealthy families in Beijing.

"This taste is indeed more refined than ordinary sea salt, with fewer odors, comparable to well salt and mineral salt. How did he do it?"

The boss was a middle-aged man with a sad face.

"Does it matter how they did it? We are not near the sea. The cost of our salt permit is nearly three cents, and it costs nearly five cents to transport it to the capital by land. He only sells it for five cents. How can we compete with him?"

"This move is to drive all the salt merchants in Jin out of Hedong."

"We, the Jin merchants, have never had any grudges against Marquis An Jing, so why would he want to kill us all at once?"

After hesitating for a while, the host said, "Forget it, let's avoid the attack first. The Marquis has His Majesty behind him, who can go against His Majesty? All the salt shops in the capital will be closed first. I will go back to Jinzhong and clarify the situation with the leader of the meeting. He should make the decision."

……

Rongguo Mansion, Lady Wang's Courtyard,

As Mrs. Wang listened to the message outside, her face was filled with gloom and the meaning was unclear.

Caiyun and Jinchuan were serving in the room, standing on both sides, one watching the fire and heating tea, the other standing closer to serve. Both of them dared not even breathe, for fear that Mrs. Wang would take her anger out on them the next moment.

"The Xue family is really relying on the big tree of An Jinghou. I really thought they had something to deal with, but they dealt with such a big thing. It really opened my eyes!"

"This deal will make us a fortune in the capital. As long as Marquis An Jing is here, we will make money. Will the Xue family still care about us and the friendship of the Jinling nobles?"

Mrs. Wang felt that the anger was stagnating in her chest and she took a few deep breaths in unbearable pain.

"Madam, Master Bao is here to pay his respects."

Jinchuan's biological sister, Yuchuan, was carefully passing on messages outside the door.

"Let him in."

Madam Wang glanced at the empty teacup on the small table, then looked at Caiyun. Caiyun shuddered, and hurried to Jinchuan to get the teapot, and poured two cups of tea on the table. "Have some sense. Those who don't know the etiquette in this room should be sent out, so as not to embarrass the master."

Caiyun and Jinchuan knelt down in panic and bowed their heads to admit their mistakes.

Immediately, Baoyu walked into the room with a smile on his face. After looking at the scene in the room, he did not dare to say anything nice directly, so he had to sit opposite his mother on both sides of the table.

Mrs. Wang glanced casually and said, "Everyone, get up. I'm going to talk to Baoyu. You guys kneel aside. He's not feeling well either. Go to the next room first. I'll call you if there's anything else."

"Yes."

After the maids left, Baoyu asked with concern: "Madam, please don't be angry. They are just little maids. Although they did something wrong on weekdays, I think it was unintentional. Madam, you have always been kind and tolerant. Why do you have to be angry with them?"

Hearing the words "generous and kind", Mrs. Wang felt a little relieved. She called Baoyu to sit beside her, held him in her arms and asked, "It is impossible for a person to understand people's thoughts better than the flesh that has fallen from one's body. Come and show your Baoyu to me, what he looks like now."

Baoyu obediently pulled out the four-colored thread from his neck, took off the jade, and placed it in Mrs. Wang's palm.

Mrs. Wang stroked it and said with a smile, "This is a fine jade. You are also a fine jade. Now, what are you doing here? I was told in advance that you would ask me to persuade your father not to hire a master. That is impossible."

Baoyu shook his head. "No, no, I heard that the Xue family's business in the capital is booming. Is that Xue's elder sister? Oh no, is Xue's aunt coming soon?"

Mrs. Wang was startled, and the anger she had just let out seemed to come back again.

In front of him, Mrs. Wang coaxed Baoyu helplessly, "It should be coming. When I sent you a letter a few days ago, I said that after the matter of Xue Pan was dealt with, he should come."

Baoyu said happily, "That's just right. My sisters don't really want to talk to me now."

Seeing Mrs. Wang's eyes narrowed slightly, Baoyu hurriedly tried to make amends, "I think it's my fault for disturbing you. It's not the sisters' fault. When the elder sister from the Xue family comes, there will be more people in the house, and it will be more lively."

Without waiting for Mrs. Wang to reply, Baoyu hurriedly changed the subject and said, "I am not used to this new salt. Madam, can you ask the kitchen to serve me the old salt when I eat?"

Mrs. Wang replied, "Okay, I'll do whatever you want with this little thing."

At that moment, a few female relatives came in from outside, and their sweet laughter could be heard from outside the door.

"The Imperial Changlu Salt tastes better, why can't we get used to it? We're worried that we can't buy it."

The women of the four princes and eight dukes entered the room together, and the first one was Princess Liu of the Prince of Dongping's Mansion.

"I've met the princess."

Liu looked at it carefully and said with a smile, "It's Baoyu. Everyone has his own taste. If he is not used to it, he must be nostalgic and infatuated."

Many female relatives laughed along.

Baoyu blushed at the teasing and left immediately.

Mrs. Wang welcomed everyone in again and called Caiyun, Caixia, Jinchuan and Yuchuan to serve.

Seeing this large group of people, Mrs. Wang couldn't help but complain in her heart, "It's hard to invite them normally, how come so many of them are here today? What could be going on?"

Liu smiled and asked, "My dear master, are you in good health?"

Madam Wang nodded, "That's right."

"That's good. Recently, the four great families in Jinling have been the center of attention in the capital. The Xue family has recently done something. What was it?"

Liu turned around and asked the people around her.

Wu, a female member of the Xiangyang Marquis's household, responded, "It's called the 'membership system'."

Liu clapped her hands, "Yes, that's it. You don't know how popular this is. We didn't take it seriously at the time, but we didn't expect that even people like us who lined up couldn't get in."

Liu took Madam Wang's hand and said, "You have a close relationship with the Xue family. The mistress of the Xue family is your sister. You can do this for your sisters, right?"

Mrs. Wang smiled awkwardly. No matter how reluctant she was, she could only keep it to herself. "This is not a rare thing. What good can it do?"

Liu waved her hand, "Hey, the benefits are huge."

Mrs. Wu stepped forward and counted on her fingers, saying, "First of all, the goods you order will be delivered to your home, and any Feng store will offer discounts, and there are special gifts during festivals. Feng also said that it will open a clothing store in the future. I just want to go shopping. People like us also have special receptions and avoid ordinary people."

Liu said, "Listen, there are great benefits to this. Second Madam, you are not unwilling to help with this matter, are you?"

Mrs. Wang reluctantly agreed, "Okay, I'll write a letter right away and ask for you, how many families are not on the list?"

"None of us here are ranked, and there are still seats. The girl from the Zhen family in Prince Beijing's mansion is ranked fifth. Can you ask if you can get us a higher seat?"

Mrs. Wang: "..."

(End of this chapter)