Deposed Crown Prince: After three years of service on the frontier, the entire court knelt and begge

Da Lei nodded and followed behind Xiao Ce.

After walking a few steps, the merchants saw Xiao Ce walking towards them and quickened their pace.

He ran all the way to Xiao Ce and knelt down to pay his respects.

"This humble subject greets the King of the Northern Desert!"

Xiao Ce quickly smiled and stepped forward to help them, showing great courtesy.

"Gentlemen, rise, rise! There's no need for such formalities. Your presence at my disaster relief auction today, contributing your love to these victims, is enough to show your support for me."

"King of the Northern Desert, we admire your compassion. In truth, we didn't want to stand idly by either. However, there are simply too many disaster victims now, and we can only rely on the imperial court. Our abilities are limited, and even if we were to help, it would be a drop in the ocean!"

"Excellent. Now that we have this opportunity, we certainly won't be stingy. Even if it's just for the sake of the disaster victims, we'll offer our price..."

"Yes, we wanted to provide disaster relief before, but our resources were too limited. We didn't dare to rush into it. Many people, out of kindness, ended up causing their cities to fall, and their inhabitants to become disaster victims..."

The owners of these chambers of commerce were all shrewd and cunning, fearing that Xiao Ce might have designs on them.

Although rumors circulated that Xiao Ce was a useless crown prince, he was still the eldest son of the legitimate emperor of the Great Xiao Kingdom, and someone they could not afford to offend.

Xiao Ce smiled and said, "I understand. It's good that you all have this intention. You're right, this famine can't be solved by any one person! The country needs to step in!"

As she spoke, she looked at Xu Zhiyuan to the side.

Without him asking, Xu Zhiyuan knew what Xiao Ce wanted to know.

"Your Highness, there's still no news from the imperial court! But don't worry, even if everything goes very smoothly, we won't get any news until tonight or early tomorrow morning!"

Xiao Ce laughed: "You're still a mind reader. I haven't even said anything, and you already know. What is it that I want to know?"

"Your Highness, you must be worried about these disaster victims... Actually, it's not just you who's anxious, I'm anxious too..."

Xiao Ce stepped forward and patted Xu Zhiyuan on the shoulder: "Lord Xu, I am indeed anxious, but I am not worried at all. If they do not even agree to my conditions, and if they are courting the destruction of their country, then there is nothing I can do."

When the group heard Xiao Ce say this, none of them dared to respond, after all, what Xiao Ce said was too crazy.

Seeing their complicated expressions, Xiao Ce smiled and said, "Alright, let's not talk about that anymore. Let's get down to business. This way, please!"

As he spoke, Xiao Ce headed toward a makeshift auction hall that had been set up to one side.

A small stage with some seats set up opposite it.

A banner hung behind the stage: "Disaster is merciless, but humanity is compassionate! The Northern King's Charity Auction for Disaster Relief!"

All proceeds from this auction will be used for the resettlement of disaster victims.

Xiao Ce invited the merchants to take their seats.

He then stepped onto the auction stage.

At this time, a large number of people, including disaster victims, had gathered outside the auction house.

These disaster victims were well-fed and watered, and their resentment had subsided.

Moreover, Xiao Ce has already made that promise.

No matter the outcome, he will definitely take full responsibility!

After everyone was seated, Xiao Ce cleared his throat.

"First of all, we welcome the merchants from Anhua City who are willing to participate in this auction."

"As you all know, the purpose of this auction is to help these disaster victims. I am well aware that disaster relief should be the responsibility of the imperial court."

"However, I really couldn't bear to see the disaster victims suffering in such dire straits. So, I thought I would use my meager strength to save as many as I could."

"Of course, I invited you business owners here not because I thought you were easy targets! Because I know very well the hardships of merchants. Many powerful and wealthy families look down on merchants. But I have great respect for them."

"A nation cannot function properly without scholars, cannot be stable without agriculture, cannot be strong without industry, and cannot prosper without commerce!"

"A country's prosperity, without the impetus of merchants, will be like a stagnant pool of water!"

"If the water doesn't flow, the fish, even if they survive, won't thrive! Only when the water flows can the fish be full of life! And merchants are there to make goods flow, to make the economy flow! This allows the country to collect more tax revenue, which in turn leads to greater prosperity!"

"Our country doesn't value businesspeople enough and doesn't provide them with sufficient support. This is one of the reasons why our country's economy has been sluggish!"

Xiao Ce's few simple words stirred the merchants' blood.

Merchants are indeed wealthy, but the Great Xiao Kingdom places them in the lowest tier, and they are hardly respected.

"Alright, enough of that! I invited you all here today not to treat you like suckers!"

"What I have prepared for everyone is absolutely the best."

As he spoke, Xiao Ce nodded to Da Lei.

Da Lei then ordered his men to distribute some of the prepared samples to everyone.

Each person received a small bag of salt and a small bag of sugar.

"As you can see, this item is called Tianshan Snow Frost Sugar and Tianshan Snow Salt! Don't blame me for being stingy and only giving you a little; these things are truly too precious."

"These things were a gift to me by a wandering immortal. The Tianshan snow salt comes from a salt pond within the immortal's cave in the Tianshan Mountains, refined by the essence of heaven and earth..."

Xiao Ce was good at telling stories, and even better at making them up. He told the story that Yin Pan'er and the others had already told him.

After listening, everyone tasted the small bag of salt and sugar that Xiao Ce had given them.

These sugars and salts are truly divine, without a single impurity.

So naturally, they chose to believe Xiao Ce's story.

"Your Highness, we believe you! We'll know whether these things are good or not once we taste them! No matter how much you sell them for, we will definitely not let you down!"

"Yes, Your Highness, rest assured about these treasures. Our offer will definitely not disappoint you... We just don't know how much you'll sell them for!"

...

Once these merchants learned about the quality of these goods, they couldn't wait to make offers.

Xiao Ce smiled and said, "Alright, then I won't waste any more words. I didn't originally intend to sell it all, but the disaster victims are in dire need of money and food. Therefore, I have decided to auction off everything that the immortal gave me."

"There are a total of two thousand catties of Tianshan Snow Frost Sugar and four thousand catties of Tianshan Snow Salt. I will auction them off in portions of one hundred catties each! Please bid enthusiastically! There are twenty portions of Tianshan Snow Frost Sugar and forty portions of Tianshan Snow Salt. I want to say that, so far, besides that immortal, only I possess these items! We are all merchants, and we all know that scarcity increases value."

"The starting price is one hundred taels! Let's begin! The first lot!"

The merchants in the market began to bid.

"One thousand taels."

"Five thousand taels."

"Ten thousand taels!"

The price was raised to an astronomical level after only a few bids, reaching 10,000 taels, which is equivalent to the purchase price of 1,000 taels per catty that Yin Pan'er mentioned.

Everyone seemed to be in perfect sync, and once the amount reached ten thousand taels, they stopped talking.

On a few occasions, the price was 11,000 taels or 12,000 taels per serving.

Xiao Ce shouted very quickly, feeling quite pleased with himself.

He estimated that, due to the gradual reduction in quantity, the average price per serving was around 15,000 taels.

There were a total of sixty portions, which conservatively translates to an income of 900,000 taels of silver.

The last one was sold for 20,000 silver coins.

Hidden among the crowd, Yin Pan'er and Nie Bing, both wearing veils, were stunned.

"Pan'er, these merchants have gone mad! They're selling such a small amount of salt and sugar for a million taels of silver!"

"The main problem is that the prince is practically calling these salt and sugar elixirs magic pills! For something that can save your life, no amount of money is too much."

"This Xiao Ce is really good at fooling people."

Yin Pan'er nodded: "With this money, at least these disaster victims won't go hungry in the short term!"

Then she looked at Nie Bing and said, "Sister, I have a feeling that with his methods, the three-year agreement that the prince mentioned might actually be fulfilled!"