The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Daughters or stewards of officials of the third rank or above rarely come to Yun Gui Fang to buy fabrics.

After all, Yun Gui Fang's shop area is only so big, and the materials it can sell are limited, so it's impossible for its target customers to cover all social classes.

Especially the top-level group.

This group's spending power is the most terrifying.

Moreover, once Yun Gui Fang is established throughout the capital, preparations will begin for the establishment of cloth shops, and raw silk will be purchased from Jiangnan for weaving, thus greatly reducing costs.

Once the costs were reduced, Zhou Chu was confident that Yun Gui Fang's cloth would occupy the majority of the market share in the capital.

In this way, Yun Gui Fang could define and guide the trends and fashions of the entire capital.

Prices will naturally need to be adjusted accordingly.

Affordable fabrics can maintain the same prices as other shops, thus giving those shops selling affordable fabrics a chance to survive.

Shops that only sell inexpensive fabrics target ordinary people, and they don't actually make much money from this segment. Even if they were to completely eliminate these shops, Yun Gui Fang wouldn't make much more money.

Those who run these kinds of shops are usually small businessmen without any background, and Zhou Chu naturally had to leave some room for maneuver for them.

The next level of silk production will see improvements in both price and quality, aiming to completely capture the hearts of the high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital and bring all the high-end customers under its wing.

If this goal is achieved, Yun Gui Fang's earning power will become terrifying.

Of course, all of this is predicated on having the Princess's residence as a backer; otherwise, such insatiable greed would lead to certain death without even knowing how.

Zhou Chu briefly explained his plans to Princess Deqing, and the princess's eyes lit up as she listened.

If things really go as Zhou Chu said, the princess's residence will not only be able to maintain its current expenses, but it will also be able to subsidize the royal family.

Princess Deqing was, after all, born into the royal family. She knew in her heart how her father, the Chenghua Emperor, and her brother had died, but she was powerless to do anything about it.

Although she was a princess with a noble status and no one dared to offend her, it was still incredibly difficult for her to do anything she really wanted.

For example, a couple of years ago, Zhu Houcong wrote to her, asking her to save the Lu family.

But she had no choice.

Those civil officials wouldn't budge, and when they refuted them, they all cited classical texts, making it sound as if they were utterly wicked.

This made Princess Deqing extremely angry, but also felt utterly powerless.

If the princess had enough money, she could at least subsidize the royal family financially, which would make her feel much better.

"How much will it cost?"

Princess Deqing asked.

Her private treasury remained largely untouched after she married into the family. It contained 10,000 taels of gold, over 100,000 taels of silver, and even more copper coins, totaling over a million strings of cash. She also had a vast collection of jewelry and jade artifacts.

If all the money in it were converted into silver, it would be about a million taels of silver.

This is roughly equivalent to the emperor's personal expenses for a year.

"Probably six hundred thousand strings of cash."

Zhou Chu knew very well that the princess's residence probably didn't have enough silver.

Six hundred thousand strings of cash seems like a lot, but the emperor's annual expenses, converted into copper coins, amounted to only a little over one million strings.

The value of one tael of silver and one string of copper coins is not much different.

However, those people along the southeast coast, let alone smuggling a ship full of goods, could earn a million kan simply by transporting ten thousand celadon bowls to Japan.

I don't know how much profit I can make from a single shipment of goods.

The wealth of these wealthy merchants, especially those in Jiangnan, has probably already accumulated to an incredibly terrifying level.

This can be seen from the prices of shops in the capital.

The wealth from Jiangnan would be continuously transferred to these officials in the imperial court. The capital city was a place where officials gathered, and the hidden wealth there was probably astonishing.

This is evident from both the business of Yun Gui Fang and the popularity of Zui Xian Lou.

If the interests involved were smaller, these officials in the court wouldn't have joined forces to kill one emperor after another.

They were more afraid than anyone else of the emperor going to Jiangnan to investigate the accounts. They simply couldn't withstand the investigation. Once the emperor found out about the wealth contained therein, he might even send troops directly to Jiangnan.

If it really comes to that, the civil officials will truly be helpless.

In particular, the current Zhengde Emperor has already seized military power, which makes Yang Tinghe, Xia Yan and others even more wary.

Therefore, Zhou Chu was ruthless when it came to making money off these people.

With 600,000 strings of cash, Zhou Chu planned to spend 300,000 strings to open a Yun Gui Fang shop on the southeast, north, and south sides of the capital.

With the Princess's residence as a backer, buying some confiscated shops in Shuntian Prefecture would be even cheaper than buying the original Feng family shops.

This is the difference between having a background and not having one.

Of course, the benefits that should be given to the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture were still indispensable.

Otherwise, the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture would have plenty of ways to shirk responsibility.

Of the remaining 300,000 strings of cash, 100,000 strings were used to purchase cloth shops, and the remaining 200,000 strings were used to purchase a large quantity of raw silk.

Princess Deqing breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the figure of 600,000 strings of cash; she could still afford that amount of money.

"Of these three shops, I will own 30%, and you, Princess, will own 70%."

Zhou Chu thought for a moment and then said.

This is an issue that cannot be avoided, so there's clearly no need to hide it.

Princess Deqing shook her head upon hearing this.

“You take 40%, I only need 60%. I know your abilities. Shops bought through you are much cheaper. None of my men have that ability.”

Even Princess Deqing admired Zhou Chu's competence.

Princess Deqing had previously sent people to investigate Zhou Chu, so she naturally knew the price at which Zhou Chu bought the Feng family's shop from Shuntian Prefecture.

This price is far below the original value of Feng's shop.

Princess Deqing knew she couldn't do it, and none of her own people had that ability.

Therefore, after hearing Zhou Chu's proposed profit-sharing plan, Princess Deqing not only did not bargain, but also offered to give Zhou Chu an additional 10% share.

Don't underestimate this 10% share. Once these three Yun Gui Fang stores take off, even a 10% share will be extremely considerable.

More importantly, Princess Deqing knew Zhou Chu's character very well. The more she tried to gain an advantage, the more she would likely suffer in the end. By giving up 10% of her share, she believed that Zhou Chu would not treat her unfairly.

In any case, the operation of Yun Gui Fang and all its key aspects will be handled by Zhou Chu. If Zhou Chu is dissatisfied with him and uses some underhanded tactics, he won't even be able to detect it.

Those who are unwilling to give up small gains will eventually lose big money.

Using a ten percent profit to win over Zhou Chu's heart is a very worthwhile deal for the princess.

Princess Deqing was always insightful and had an excellent eye for people; otherwise, she wouldn't have entrusted Lin Zhi to Zhou Chu.

Born into royalty, she rarely acted on impulse. Even though Tang Bohu was very close to Zhou Chu, she would not treat this huge business deal as a joke.

She can still distinguish between public and private matters.