Princess Promotion

The sun shone on the bustling streets, and a commotion suddenly arose among the crowd.

The woman was wearing a bright red dress, and the hem of her skirt swayed gently with her steps, like a flower blooming in a blazing fire, both flamboyant and noble.

Following closely behind were the women's guards, all wearing uniform black attire with golden emblems embroidered on their chests. Each guard wore a mask of the same style.

The group of people walked through the street in a mighty procession, and passers-by stopped to watch, with curiosity and awe intertwined in their eyes.

An Tian walked in front, and Fu Hongxuan and the guards followed closely behind in unison.

Their masks concealed their expressions, but every movement revealed their well-trained nature. In this solemn atmosphere, people could almost feel an invisible pressure.

When they arrived in front of Baosheng Building, An Tian smiled slightly, waved his hand, and gestured for them to enter the pawnshop.

Suddenly, the guards rushed into Baosheng Building like tigers descending from the mountains, and roughly pushed the customers who were doing business out one by one. Their actions were ruthless and their attitudes were extremely arrogant.

The customers and employees in the store were all panicked, some even fell to the ground, their faces filled with fear and panic.

An Tian walked into the pawnshop leisurely, with a faint smile on her face.

"Let your boss come out." An Tian's voice was not loud, but it revealed unquestionable majesty.

As An Tian finished speaking, the store fell into silence, leaving only the heavy breathing of the men and the noise from the street outside.

Everyone's eyes were focused on the uninvited guest, but An Tian remained calm.

This scene made Li Yi feel that his group of people were simply a group of bullies who exploited the local people.

It's so depraved, so depraved.

At this moment, An Tian looked at Li Yi. Li Yi was shocked. He thought that his employer had found out that he was taking advantage of the situation. He would have his wages deducted if he did not do this.

Li Yi immediately grabbed the waiter beside him with a fierce look in his eyes and said sternly, "Are you deaf? Didn't you hear what our boss said? Hurry and call your shopkeeper out."

Li Yi and his group of people are bloodthirsty people who came back from the battlefield. They are inherently murderous and are not comparable to ordinary street thugs.

The clerk was so scared that he nodded and said he would go and call the shopkeeper over.

Only then did Li Yi let go of the waiter with satisfaction and played the role of a bully thug to perfection.

An Tian withdrew his gaze with satisfaction, but Fu Hongxuan looked at Li Yi with a strange look, which didn't seem like he was acting.

The shopkeeper came hurriedly from the inner room, with beads of sweat on his forehead.

The shopkeeper's eyes shifted between An Tian and the group of thugs behind her who were eyeing her with eager eyes. He already knew in his heart that the woman in front of him must be from a very complicated background.

"I wonder what brings you to our shop today?" the shopkeeper asked cautiously and respectfully.

An Tian smiled slightly, took out a yellowed bill from her sleeve, and gently slapped it on the counter. "I'm here to get some money. This is my bill."

The shopkeeper took the bill and felt a sinking feeling in his heart.

The recent loans to grain merchants have exhausted the cash reserves, and the woman in front of him is obviously not someone to be dealt with easily.

He spoke cautiously, "Sir, could you please give us a few days? We are really struggling..."

An Tian raised her eyebrows slightly, "Grace? Are you kidding me, boss?"

The shopkeeper's face changed. He knew that today's matter would not end well.

Shopkeeper: "Sir, do you know who is behind this Baosheng Building?"

An Tian said meaningfully: "I don't know!"

Just when the shopkeeper was about to say something harsh.

An Tian continued, "But the family behind me has a deep connection with the Xiao family of Qi."

As soon as these words came out, the shopkeeper's face suddenly changed. Even though he was from the Western Zhou Dynasty, he knew that the Xiao family of Qi was a noble and important official of Qi.

It is a well-known existence that he absolutely cannot afford to offend.

However, when Fu Hongxuan heard this, his eyes twitched. It turned out that none of the subordinates of this scoundrel were good people.

Let the Xiao family take the blame. If this matter is really exposed later, the Xiao family will definitely not dare to deny it. Even if they don’t admit it, no one will believe it.

An Tian watched the shopkeeper's expression change with satisfaction. She knew that her goal had been achieved, so she said no more and only added lightly, "So, shopkeeper, go prepare the silver and money."

The shopkeeper was sweating profusely at this time, but the pawnshop was out of money at the moment and could not even get the money out even if he sold the money.

He gritted his teeth, trying to find a glimmer of hope. "Sir, how about this? We are willing to pay a higher interest rate, and we only ask that you give us a few days' grace."

An Tian's eyes flashed with impatience, and she shook her head gently, "Interest? I'm not interested in those petty profits. I just want my principal, not a cent less."

The shopkeeper's heart sank. If he was not interested in such a small profit, it meant that what he gave was not enough.

He took a deep breath and tried to make his voice sound steady. "In that case, does your Excellency have any other solutions? As long as our shop can do it, we will definitely do our best to meet your needs."

"In that case, I'm not an unreasonable person." An Tian's tone suddenly softened.

Li Yi thought to himself, since you have surrounded their store with people, they will have to listen to your reasoning.

"I heard that he acquired a lot of land and shops a while ago..." An Tian didn't finish his words.

The shopkeeper suddenly realized that they were here to take advantage of the situation and rob people.

Seeing this, the shopkeeper quickly said, "Recently, many merchants have mortgaged their land and shops with us. If you are interested in acquiring these land and shops, the price can be negotiated at a very low price."

Now the situation is stronger than people, and the shopkeeper can only sell off the goods with tears in his eyes.

An Tian's eyes flashed with a gleam, and she seemed quite satisfied with the proposal. "It sounds good, but..."

The shopkeeper's heart tightened, but he still asked, "I wonder if you have any other concerns?"

An Tian said slowly: "I don't have that much cash on hand right now."

The shopkeeper fell to the bottom in an instant. Could it be that he wanted to get something for nothing?

An Tian ignored the shopkeeper's ugly expression and said, "But I have a batch of precious pepper spices, which are worth a lot of money. I can use them to compensate you."

When the shopkeeper heard the words "pepper spices", his eyes suddenly lit up. This kind of scarce goods has a high price but no demand.

If you can get a batch, you can definitely make a fortune by selling them.

The shopkeeper nodded quickly, "Okay, okay, this is fine."

The two parties quickly signed the contract. An Tian put away the deed and turned away gracefully.

The shopkeeper breathed a sigh of relief as he watched An Tian leave.

At the end of the day, An Tian followed the same routine and used the same method to exchange spices for a large amount of land and shops from various banks and pawnshops.

Even those merchants who had stored grain had a large amount of grain exchanged by An Tian for spices.

When the merchants saw that the price of grain in the market was being pushed down, they thought they would lose everything.

The reason why they are still holding on is that there must be a battle between the Qi army and the western border. Although food is not so scarce, there is still a certain gap.

Now someone has come to take over. Although it uses spices and pepper, this thing is not much more valuable than food and gold. The price will only go up and not down.

Although it is suspected that the Qi army may be secretly purchasing grain, the risk of grain is too high now. If it gets stuck in their hands, it will be all over.

Li Yi was shocked from the beginning by the amount of silver that An Tian signed, fortunately he was wearing a mask.

Until now, Li Yi only felt that this silver was not silver, it was a mountain of gold and silver!

After An Tian finished negotiating each contract, he put the signed contract into a big box.

At that time, Li Yi was still complaining in his heart why he had to put such a big box to store just a few pieces of paper, and he had to carry it with him on the journey.

Afterwards, An Tian took Fu Hongxuan and started traveling day and night, for no other reason than to reach the next town as quickly as possible.

As soon as An Tian arrived in the town, he immediately rushed to famous pawnshops, money houses or merchants to exchange spices for land, shops and food.

The signed contracts used to not even fill the bottom of the box, but now they fill up the entire box.

There were only a few counties left for them to reach the imperial capital.

Although he was rushing along the way, An Tian was still in high spirits, although he was a little thinner.

Instead, Fu Hongxuan became more and more taciturn, and often even stared blankly at the box containing the deeds.

Li Yi actually understood the general's current mood.

Damn it, when I was in the army, the Ministry of Revenue allocated money to me, but I cried poor every day and said there were disasters somewhere and the people were suffering.

For this purpose, Fu Hongxuan often paid out of his own pocket to subsidize the wives, children and mothers of some fallen soldiers.

What kind of suffering did that mean to the people? He had never seen so much food in his life.

No matter how stupid Li Yi was, he knew that the people behind these merchants must be the officials in the court who talked about benevolence, righteousness and morality.

It is impossible for a merchant who has no one in the court to grow big. At the beginning, he was clamoring that he had someone in the court, but when he heard that it was a noble from Qi, he instantly became a coward.

Li Yi was so angry that he wanted to slap them twice.

An Tian seemed to have endless spices and pepper in his hands, although Li Yi didn't have much money.

But after following Fu Hongxuan for these years, he had seen a lot of the market, so he naturally knew that pepper and spices only came from Persia, and only the nobles and officials in the palace could afford them.

It is worth a fortune precisely because of its rarity.

But along the way, the spices and peppers that An Tian exchanged for must have weighed at least several thousand kilograms, if not tens of thousands of kilograms.

I'm afraid the spices in the palace are not even one-tenth of what An Tian has.

The closer they got to the imperial capital, the more contracts An Tian signed. By the time they arrived at the imperial capital, there were already two large boxes filled with contracts.

After days of travel, they finally arrived at the imperial capital.

An Tian stood at the city gate, looking at the towering city walls and the bustling people, and couldn't help but feel relieved.

She turned to Fu Hongxuan and Li Yi behind her and said, "Thank you all for your hard work along the way. After we meet the last one tonight, we will come to an end."

Fu Hongxuan nodded. He was indeed a little nervous along the way. Even Fu Hongxuan felt a little nervous when he saw the deed for such a large sum of money.

Outside Cuiyun Tower, the lights were bright and the sounds of stringed instruments were endless.

"Cuiyun Tower" - one of the famous brothels in the imperial capital.

Li Yi looked at An Tian with stiff eyes. Coming to the brothel again?

An Tian nodded nonchalantly and walked into Cuiyun Tower.

Li Yi... What kind of thing is this? I have lived for more than twenty years and have only been to a brothel twice, and both times I was brought there by a girl. What kind of thing is this?

An Tian led Fu Hongxuan and Li Yi through the bustling hall and came to the reserved private room.

The merchants, money houses and pawnshops that signed contracts with An Tian along the way were all inquired about or booked in advance.

Although it seemed that An Tian was the only one who was moving between different businesses along the way.

In fact, An Tian's subordinates had already set out to make arrangements.

An Tian must use spices to cash in as much food and silver as possible in the shortest possible time.

Spices are comparable to gold because they are rare. If they are too numerous, they are just a bunch of worthless dry grass.

What An Tian needs to do is to make the most profit from spices before the news spreads.

Fu Hongxuan couldn't understand it because he had never seen this method of cutting leeks.

Not to mention Fu Hongxuan, even the merchants probably couldn't imagine that An Tian had so many spices on hand.

This technique is very commonly used in the modern stock market. When you know which stock will fall badly in the future, you can find someone to sign an agreement to borrow a lot of shares and return more shares in the future.

Then, once the shares are in hand, they are sold at a low price to cash in. If the stock goes up at this time, all the money will be lost.

But if the stock price drops, you can buy back the shares at a very low price and return them to the party to the agreement.

The difference in price is the profit you make.

If An Tian had purchased these spices in a normal way, the price would definitely be low because of the large quantity.

But if you use these spices as collateral, you can sell them at the highest value.

As a wealthy businessman in the Western Zhou Dynasty, Mengchangjun was famous for his wide reception of guests and his frequent visits to his house.

However, I didn't expect to fall into such a big setback recently.

A large amount of food has been hoarded, but the price of food has been falling again and again.

Mengchangjun was able to become a wealthy businessman in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and he was far superior to those small businessmen. Even if he failed this time, he would only lose some money.

He never thought that the grain he had could not be sold. Even if there was no war, there would still be a disaster.

By then you will be able to make a lot of money.

What? You said we don't know when the disaster will come.

This is not a simple matter. As long as the fields cannot grow crops, it is a disaster year. Planting crops is not easy, but destruction is easy.

What made Mengchangjun most angry now was that the hunting dogs thought he fell when he stumbled.

A woman dares to come and take over his business. It seems that these people want to see him fall and divide up his business.

Mengchangjun wanted to teach this woman who was said to have a backer a lesson, so that those who were secretly coveting his business could see clearly.

He, Mengchangjun, has not fallen yet!

In the private room of the brothel, Mengchangjun sat at a carved mahogany table, surrounded by several seductively dressed women who were pouring wine for him and entertaining him.

An Tian walked into the private room calmly, as if he was in an empty place.

An Tian said, "Boss Meng, I have long heard of your great name. It is truly an honor for An Tian to have the opportunity to discuss this with you today."

Mengchangjun raised his eyebrows, his tone tinged with sarcasm, "Oh? Miss An actually dared to set foot here. You are truly courageous."

An Tian smiled faintly and responded, "Boss Meng, although I am a woman, I also know that the importance of business is not about gender, but about talent, intelligence and integrity."

When Mengchangjun heard this, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

Mengchangjun looked An Tian up and down. He had never thought that this female shopkeeper was so beautiful.

When Li Yi saw Mengchangjun looking at An Tian with such a vulgar look, his fists began to harden.

An Tian was the only one left at the scene with an unchanged expression, as if she didn't notice Mengchangjun's malicious look.

An Tian continued to smile and said, "Boss Meng, let me be frank. I came here for the food in your hands..."

Mengchangjun raised his hand, interrupting An Tian's words and saying, "I can give you as much as you want, but I have one condition."

After saying that, she stared at An Tian's pretty little face with lustful eyes. The more she looked at it, the more itchy she felt.

The people present were not fools, and they could all see what Mengchangjun was planning without him having to tell them.

Fu Hongxuan stepped forward to wash Mengchangjun's eyes, but An Tian raised his hand to stop him.

An Tian's face showed no sign of shame or anger. She even smiled and said, "Boss Meng, do you know the Xiao family of Qi?"

Generally speaking, merchants would be scared when Lord Xiao was brought up. After all, the people would not fight against the officials, and they would not be able to win anyway.

But Mengchangjun said without hesitation: "It turns out that Lord Xiao is also a guest on the bed of a beauty. I, Meng, am a gentleman and I do not want to take away what others like. I only want to spend a night with a beauty."

An Tian still maintained a smile on her face and said, "Since Boss Meng doesn't want to do this business, then I'll take my leave first."

After saying that, An Tian turned and left with firm steps and without a trace of hesitation.

Li Yi stopped Mengchangjun who was trying to keep him and glared at him viciously.

If I hadn't seen that An Tian didn't want to cause any more trouble, I would really like to teach this Meng a lesson.