Chapter 237 The Awakening of Merchants (Part 2)
Lu Huiqing was very proud, but he was also smart and knew that his pride had to be treated differently.
Among his peers and colleagues, he was extremely arrogant, but in front of Lu Sen, he was not so exaggerated, and even a little humble.
The reason was simple. He felt that he was still a human being, while Lu Sen was no longer a human being. He was even much more handsome than himself.
There is nothing comparable to this inhuman thing.
He thought so and did so.
Therefore, Lu Huiqing, who has always been jealous, has never compared himself with Lu Sen or had any negative emotions towards him.
Therefore, he placed himself in a relatively low position and kept paying attention to Lu Sen's facial expression. Now seeing him frown, he asked, "But these wine and food are not to Master Lu's liking?"
Lu Huiqing was not very familiar with Lu Sen, and his impression of Lu Sen was mostly hearsay.
For example, the rumors about Lu Sen when he was still in Bian Jing.
When Lu Sen and Yang Jinhua got married, they invited some acquaintances to their home for the wedding banquet. Later, rumors about "Xianju" leaked out and slowly spread in the officialdom, becoming more and more distorted.
Although it is not too exaggerated, it is already very different from the 'original'.
For example, Lu Huiqing heard that Lu Sen was living a life of poverty at home.
So I guess Master Lu doesn't like this mundane meal?
At this moment, everyone's eyes were on the two of them, except for the wealthy businessmen below, who were looking up at them.
Seeing the two people talking, even the musicians subconsciously lowered the volume of their performance.
Lu Sen pointed at one of the meat dishes and said, "This dish is poisonous!"
When these words were spoken, everyone was shocked, especially Lu Huiqing, who stood up in fear and glared at the meat dish on the table.
Big beads of sweat flowed down his forehead, and his face looked extremely ugly.
He hosted the banquet, and any problems that arose were related to him.
At this time, a guard who was standing below jumped down. He had excellent lightness skills and his temperament was in line with the cold personality of a master. He had a stern face, as if everyone owed him a million or eight hundred thousand.
The man walked up to Lu Huiqing, bowed and clasped his fists, and said, "County Governor, please give the order."
"Seal off the entire Fugui Building." Lu Huiqing looked around at everyone and said coldly, "Don't let anyone go, whether they are guests or workers here."
Lu Huiqing came with his own private soldiers, who were waiting outside the pleasure boat.
At that moment, more than a dozen men with knives blocked the entrance to the houseboat.
Only then did Lu Huiqing turn around and look at Lu Sen. He clasped his fists and said, "Master Lu, I will definitely give you an explanation for this matter."
"It's okay." Lu Sen sat down and said, "Although it's poisonous, it has no effect on me. I'm just worried that something bad will happen to you after eating it. I found that besides our table, other people's tables also have one or two poisonous dishes."
Lu Sen's voice was not loud, but to other people it sounded like thunder.
Especially the wealthy businessmen below, they were all frightened after hearing this.
Some people who had eaten before Lu Sen came were desperately trying to get the food out of their throats.
Lu Huiqing wiped the sweat from his forehead, his slightly immature face full of fear!
Not only Lu Sen can eat these dishes, but he can eat them too!
In other words, someone really wants to harm them, but they don't know who they want to harm.
Is it him? Is it Lu Sen? Or is it someone else present?
Looking at the messy hall, Lu Sen sat down. As soon as he put the wine glass in front of himself, someone came with a wine jug and poured him a glass.
Lu Sen turned his head and found it was Liu Qingqing.
Although the woman did not appear to be afraid, her hands were shaking as she poured the wine.
Lu Sen didn't think much about it, because no matter who it is, no one would be able to remain calm when encountering such a thing.
Even a high-ranking official like Lu Huiqing is extremely nervous now.
Lu Sen observed Lu Huiqing's expression carefully. He saw that the other party was panicked and angry. He thought it was not him who poisoned him, so he said calmly, "Lü Junshou, I'm not in a hurry. You can investigate slowly and we will continue to talk about things later."
Lu Huiqing was stunned for a moment, then asked, "Master Lu, are you willing to continue the discussion?"
"If we just leave so easily, it will be what those people who poisoned us want." Lu Sen sighed and said, "It's a rare trip, so we have to get things done, otherwise it's a waste of time."
Lu Huiqing sat down and said with a smile, "Why, even a deity like Lu Zhenren would lament that time flies by so quickly?"
"I haven't become an immortal yet, so my current abilities are only longevity and life extension. I can't achieve immortality." Lu Sen took a sip of the Fenjiu that Mr. Liu had poured for him just now, and told the truth.
Lu Huiqing seemed to understand, not quite. He seemed to have grasped some key information, but also seemed to have grasped nothing.
Afterwards, Lu Huiqing made some arrangements, and soon his private guards dispatched more officers and soldiers to surround the entire pleasure boat, and even brought in some rebels.
Wuzuo was an old man. He came up to Lu Sen and Lu Huiqing, bowed repeatedly, and took out the dishes. At the same time, he went downstairs and asked his apprentices to take out the dishes on the tables of all the rich businessmen.
About half an incense stick later, Wu Zuo came back. He clasped his fists and said, "Your Highness, the dish is indeed poisonous. I tested it with a rooster. In less than ten breaths, the rooster screamed and vomited blood and died. After the autopsy, the blood turned black and thick. At the same time, the poison burned a big hole in the rooster's stomach."
Lu Huiqing's scalp tingled when he heard this: "What kind of poison is this, so overbearing?"
Wuzuo shook his head helplessly.
"That's all." Lu Huiqing sighed and said, "Throw away all the food and wine in the pleasure boat and replace them with our chefs."
As the local county magistrate, Lu Huiqing also has a "professional team of chefs" at home. Now they were called over, and in less than half an hour, the food and wine were served again, and the taste was even better than before.
This is a very normal thing.
Chefs also have their own aspirations. Cooking for a brothel owner is not as good as being a cook for a high-ranking official.
Therefore, those who were really good at cooking at that time were not those who worked outside or opened shops, but were supported by high-ranking officials in their families.
There was no system notification for the dishes that were put back on the table. Lu Sen looked at the colorful dishes in front of him and said with a smile, "It smells delicious. County Magistrate Lu obviously knows how to eat."
"Thank you for the compliment." Lu Huiqing picked up the wine and said to the people below: "Something unexpected happened just now. I am deeply grateful to Master Lu for looking up to me and giving me face. Here, on behalf of everyone, I, Lu, would like to toast Master Lu."
After saying that, Lu Huiqing raised his head and drank it all in one gulp.
The wealthy merchants below also followed Lu Huiqing's example and drank the wine in their glasses first.
Lu Sen also took a sip, gestured to everyone, and then put down his glass.
Seeing this, everyone was truly relieved.
Lu Sen was holding chopsticks and was about to pick up a piece of chicken in front of him, but someone next to him had already passed chopsticks over to help him pick up the chicken and gently put it into the bowl.
It was Liu Qingqing who did it!
Without a good eye, you can't become a great person.
Liu Qingqing is naturally not bad in this regard.
Lu Sen picked up the chicken in the bowl, chewed it for a few bites and swallowed it, then asked, "Lü Junshou, we can talk while we eat. Now you can tell me why you invited me to dinner this time."
Lu Huiqing took a sip of wine, calmed down, and said, "It's not a big deal, I just want to ask Master Lu for some advice."
Um?
Seeing Lu Sen's confused expression, Lu Huiqing explained.
It turned out that the people who entertained Lu Sen this time were almost all "land merchants", while the Nanshan Club over at Bitian Pavilion was almost entirely made up of sea merchants.
In this era, businessmen also pay great attention to "connections".
If you want to do business, no one will pay attention to you. But if you want to become stronger and bigger, you must first prove your strength, enter a certain circle, pay a certain amount of "favors", and then you can "help" each other to do business.
That's what we call a circle.
Land merchants have their own circle, and maritime merchants have their own circle, and they don't interact much with each other.
Because asking about other people's "ways" of making money is a taboo in itself.
The ones who carried forward this "circle characteristic" were the "Shanxi merchants" who were corrupt to varying degrees in later generations.
This happened after the Northern Song Dynasty, so let’s not talk about it for now.
At this time, the mainland businessmen were obviously jealous.
In the past, land merchants had their own way of making money, and they even made money more comfortably and easily than sea merchants.
Especially the salt merchants, they are truly the richest of the rich.
But now with the Spice Islands, the situation is different.
Salt is indeed a necessity, but spices are expensive. The same weight of spices costs more than fifty times that of salt. Some rare spices can even be sold for hundreds of times the price.
In the past, the cost of obtaining spices was relatively high, but now there are shipping routes, and as more ships travel back and forth on the routes, they can communicate with each other, and the hydrological characteristics and climate change on that route have been understood more clearly.
Moreover, it is clearly stated that there is a small port suitable for resting.
It was not difficult to transport a large amount of spices back from the Spice Islands, and the cost dropped sharply.
So now selling salt... really can't make money as quickly as selling spices.
These mainland merchants were jealous and wanted to get involved, but they couldn't find an opportunity to intervene. Now that the Nanshan Association had been established, the maritime merchants were almost united and extremely xenophobic, so they couldn't get involved at all.
I don't dare to use force, after all, the matter of the Spice Islands was 'revealed' by Master Lu. If I act rashly, will I offend Master Lu?
These are all things they have to consider.
After Lu Huiqing finished speaking, he smiled and said, "So, these people found me and hoped that I would arrange a dinner and invite Master Lu to come over to have a chat. Whether it succeeds or not, it doesn't matter."
Lu Sen first looked towards the lower hall on his right. A group of businessmen were staring at Lu Sen, each with desire in their eyes.
Lu Sen turned around and looked at Lu Huiqing again, and asked, "What benefits did these merchants promise to Governor Lu?"
"If I can invite Master Lu, they will donate a large amount of grain and salt to the court." Lu Huiqing smiled proudly and said, "If the deal is successful, they are willing to pay twice the amount."
“Is it a large amount?”
"Very big." Lu Huiqing thought for a moment and said, "Even if the plan fails, the salt and grain they donated will be enough for Xi'an City to confront the Xixia people for another five years."
This is indeed a lot. No wonder Lu Huiqing, such a proud person, is willing to act as a matchmaker for these businessmen.
Then Lu Sen thought about it again and felt a little disappointed.
This is just the food that merchants casually "donated", which is enough to provide food for more than 300,000 people for several years. If you really calculate the wealth of these people, it is estimated that they can support the food supply of the entire northern border for more than 30 years.
You can imagine how rich these businessmen are.
It is no wonder that later generations said that the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties provided the soil for the budding of capitalist society.
These people are just too rich.
"Since they are so rich, why do they still want me to show them the way?" Lu Sen sighed, "Haven't they made enough money?"
How can you possibly make enough money? This is what all the businessmen present were thinking.
But no one dared to say it.
Lu Huiqing is not the key either. Anyway, he has invited Lu Sen over, and the salt and grain promised by the merchants must be given.
He has already got the 'guaranteed bonus', so he is not worried.
But the merchants sitting in the hall below were panicking.
They looked at Lu Sen eagerly, hoping to get a positive answer.
Lu Sen ate his wine and food leisurely, and no one dared to rush him.
Liu Qingqing watched from the side and saw that those wealthy businessmen, whom she had to be cautious with before, were like minions in front of Lu Sen.
Looking at the sky of Hangzhou City, Magistrate Lu, whom he had previously revered as a god, now behaved like a subordinate.
Then she became intoxicated and looked at Lu Sen's profile with fiery eyes.
Few women can resist being attracted by a man who is extremely handsome and powerful.
After drinking for a while, Lu Sen said slowly: "Even if I know where to make money, will they dare to go?"
Lu Huiqing asked: "Is there any danger?"
"To do big business, there are always risks." Lu Sen said with a smile, "The first time they went to the Spice Islands, the merchants were risking their lives , and they didn't care if they lost money. They were quite heroic. After going there a few more times and getting familiar with the route, they gradually felt that there was not much danger. But going out to sea always involves risks, and one's livelihood depends on the weather. Before big winds and waves, few people dare to say that they will definitely come back."
The merchants were discussing the matter. Some thought that what Lu Sen said made sense, while others thought that... the merchants just had to fight against the sky and the sea.
Unlike them, they have to fight with others, and no one knows what kind of people or things they will encounter when doing business outside.
Human hearts are much more unpredictable than unexpected disasters.
Someone immediately shouted, "Master Lu, we are not afraid."
There were many people who echoed him.
A slight sneer appeared on Lu Huiqing's lips... He was laughing at these businessmen who valued profits at the expense of their own lives.
But it has nothing to do with him... With so many donations, it would be a great achievement as long as he reports to the court.
Lu Sen smiled and said, "I do know that there are still some places where I can make money, but... let me tell you, what can I get?"
