Volume 1: Mission in Danger Chapter 25: The First Appearance of the Richest People
After Wu Guoying and his uncles, sisters-in-law and brothers left, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.
The two brothers Wu Chengjun and Wu Chengjian had been planning their division of labor for the past few years, hiding it from others, but not from Wu Guoying. However, he felt something was wrong with what happened just now, and after thinking about it carefully, he suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, this brat is acting again. I was also deceived by him!"
Aunt Yang just came in and asked, "Who is playing a trick? Who hid it from you?"
Wu Guoying glanced at her and said, "Nothing, the third brother just lied to me and I just remembered it now."
Aunt Yang took the opportunity to ask, "Should we call him over again so that the master can teach him a lesson?"
"No," Wu Guoying said, "Let's talk about it after the birthday banquet."
He was thinking, "There were only three of us in the room just now, and the third brother refused to tell the truth. Was he suspicious of my sister-in-law or the second brother?"
One of them was my son, and the other was my daughter-in-law who had been married to the family for twelve years. They were both close relatives. The thought of suspecting them made me feel irritated, so I said, "We'd better call him over. If I don't give him a good scolding, I won't feel comfortable tonight."
Aunt Yang was overjoyed and sent someone to call for him, but she didn't expect the report back to say, "The Third Young Master has been called to the General Merchants' Office."
Wu Guoying was a little puzzled: "It's not the annual settlement, nor the election. Why go to the head office? Is there an imperial decree?"
After Wu Chengjian left the backyard, he wanted to go back to the left yard first, but unexpectedly someone came to invite him urgently, set a time, and asked Wu Chengjian to go to the head office to discuss matters.
Wu Chengjian took the invitation and thought to himself, "Finally it's here."
He still went back to the left courtyard, changed into a specially woven and thin rose purple jacket, carried a Jinling silk melon-shaped hat, stepped on a pair of blue satin and pink-bottomed boots, and asked Xia Qing to carefully straighten his braids. Wu Chengjian had taken good care of himself since he was young. At the age of 24, his skin was smooth and tight. Compared with his contemporaries, he looked like he was less than 20 years old. When he put on this set of clothes, he looked dazzling.
Xia Qing had a pair of deft hands with excellent craftsmanship. She quickly straightened his braids, and then smoothed his eyebrows and tidied up his face. She then walked away a few steps to look at him, and said with a smile, "Third Young Master, are you going to find a wife? You look so seductive."
Wu Chengjian smiled and said, "You dressed it up, didn't you?"
He asked Qiuyue to take the folding fan again. Qiuyue asked, "Which one?" Wu Chengjian said, "The one in the box."
It was a Jinling fan with a carved ebony handle. The entire Heart Sutra was carved on the fan ribs. On one side of the fan was inscribed four Buddhist verses by the Sixth Patriarch, written in Zhangcao by Zhu Yunming. On the other side was a painting of Donglin by Shen Zhou. There was also a jade pendant with a Buddha's hand carved by Lu Zigang. This fan was not written by a famous artist, but was conceived and then made by a master of calligraphy, painting, and engraving. Only the powerful people of the previous dynasty could do it. The fan was based on Zen sutras and scenery, but in the end it became full of rich and noble atmosphere. Wu Chengjian did not usually use it.
Chun Rui was slightly surprised: "Are you really going to look for a wife?"
Wu Chengjian smiled and said, "We are going to fight. So we need to prepare horses and weapons."
Xia Qing sneered and said, "You are like this, going to war? You can even go to the emperor's banquet!"
"If I really go to see the emperor, I won't go through so much trouble." Wu Chengjian sighed, "It's a pity that this is Guangdong and the weather is still hot, so many of my clothes can't be used." He turned his hat, waved his fan, and went out.
After he left the house, he had asked Wu Qiyin to bring a sedan chair to wait outside. He actually didn't like to ride in a sedan chair when he went out, but he got one now. There was ice in the sedan chair. The sun was blazing outside, but once he got in, the sedan chair was filled with cold air. Wu Chengjian got in leisurely and said, "Let's go."
The head office of Shisanhang is located in the middle of Shisanhang Street. The sedan chair stopped and Wu Chengjian walked out. The sedan bearers and Wu Qi, who was running, were sweating profusely. However, Wu Chengjian, who came out of the ice steam, felt refreshed without any sweat at all.
He looked up and saw the small storefront. On the top of the plaque were five words written in a very low-key manner: Baoshang Consultation Office . There was not even the word "Head Office".
The calligraphy is not from a famous calligrapher, and the plaque is just a piece of wood. It looks shabby when placed on Shisanhang Street, and doesn't match the famous Shisanhang. If an outsider came, who would have thought that behind this door is the meeting place of the richest group of people in the world?
Wu Chengjian had come to this place to play when he was a child, but he hadn't been here since he grew up. At this time, he covered his forehead with a fan to avoid the glare of the sun, looked up and looked again, only to find that the plaque had not been changed for so many years. Although the gate was cleaned, it looked much older than before.
Wu Qi stepped forward: "Third Young Master?"
Wu Chengjian nodded, walked in, and passed through a corridor. He arrived at the meeting room. The people standing at the door saw him and sang loudly: "The agent of Yihe Bank, Lord Hao, has arrived."
This house faces south and north. After entering the door, there is an altar in the middle facing south. Behind the altar is a blank white wall. On both sides of the altar, six on the left and fifty-one on the right are arranged face to face. Nine people are already sitting on the eleven chairs.
"Shisanhang" is just a common name among the people. In many cases, the number of insurance companies is not exactly thirteen. For example, there are only eleven companies that have obtained insurance company licenses.
The Qing dynasty favored the left, so the order of the eleven chairs can be used to infer the ranking of the businesses represented by the eleven chairs in the Thirteen Lines. The first chair on the left side of the altar is the first person in the Thirteen Lines, that is, the head merchant, the first chair on the right is the second person in the Thirteen Lines, and so on.
Wu Chengjian stood at the door and looked over:
The sixth chair on the left side of the altar is the one closest to the door. It is occupied by Shunda Xingma Merchant. The seat opposite him is empty.
On the fifth seat on the right side of the altar sits Yang, the merchant of Maosheng. Opposite him, on the fifth seat on the left side sits Liang, the merchant of Sanjiang.
The fourth person on the right side of the altar is the merchant Kangtai Yi, and opposite him, the fourth person on the left side is the merchant Zhongtong Pan.
The third chair on the right side of the altar was occupied by Ye Dalin, the owner of Xingcheng Merchants, who was also Wu Chengjian's future father-in-law. Opposite him, the third chair on the left side was empty, and Wu Chengjian knew that this chair was reserved for Yihe Merchants.
From here on, there are the four major families in the Thirteen Lines:
On the second chair on the right side of the altar sat Lu Guanhuan, the head of Guangfa Merchants. Opposite him, on the second chair on the left side sat Xie Yuanli, the head of Hongtai Merchants.
The first chair on the right side of the altar was empty again, and Wu Chengjian knew that this was the chair reserved for Pan Youjie of Tonghehang. Opposite it sat Cai Shiwen, the head of Wanbaohang, who was also the general merchant of the Thirteen Hongs today.
The wealth of the four major families, Pan, Cai, Xie and Lu, is much greater than that of Yu Zi. The insurance merchants ranked behind them have to rely on these four major families to a certain extent.
Ancient people often used "a fortune of one hundred thousand taels" to describe the rich, but to enter this room, one must have at least one million taels of wealth to sit on these eleven chairs. If all the people sat in this simple, old room, the combined wealth of the eleven people might even be enough to overwhelm the Qing Dynasty's treasury.
Wu Chengjian had met all of the nine people who were already sitting there, so they recognized each other. Each of these people was rich enough to rival a country, but at the moment they were dressed very simply. They didn't have any gold or jade jewelry, and they didn't even wear silk. They only wore cotton clothes, which were all a dusty gray at first glance. Although they couldn't be said to be shabby, they were as low-key as possible. Wu Chengjun, however, did the opposite. His outfit didn't stand out much when he walked in the Fairyland, but when he came here, he was like a peacock entering a chicken coop.
Although the nine major merchants were sitting, some of them were hunched over, some were hunched over, and some had bitter faces. They all looked like poor slaves and did not look like rich people at all.
They watched Wu Chengjian walk in dressed in fine clothes, with his head held high and his head and fan waved. Many of them sighed in their hearts: "Wu Guoying's good son is used to showing off. He doesn't know how to restrain himself here. Is he dissatisfied with his family's money? Yihe Bank is going to be ruined."
Wu Chengjian was laughing and bowing to them one by one, holding a fan in his arms. He called them uncle or uncle all the way, and spoke sweetly and enthusiastically. The five security guards in front of him, Ma, Yang, Liang, Yi and Pan, also smiled along. When he came to Ye Dalin, he glared at him and said, "You are dressed so fancy, what do you think you are!"
Wu Chengjian said with a smile: "Aren't you here, Uncle Lin? I am the son-in-law meeting Taishan, how can I not dress nicely?"
Everyone in the room started laughing, except Ye Dalin, who frowned even more.
Cai Shiwen, the top left, coughed and said, "Okay, we have something to discuss today, Deputy Wu, please sit down as well."
The two families are considered relatives, but he didn't call him nephew, but agent, which made it clear that he wanted to discuss business.
Xie Yuanli patted the chair he was sitting on and said, "Come on, nephew. You have been to this room a few times, but today is the first time you sit on this chair, so you have to sit firmly."
Although his words were full of hidden meaning, Wu Chengjian seemed not to hear it, so he walked over and sat down, laughing and saying, "It's not the first time I've sat on a chair. When I was five years old, I came in to play, and Uncle Pan also held me in his chair. Hehe, it's the one Uncle Cai is sitting on now, and I even peed on it at that time."
The Uncle Pan he mentioned is the late general merchant Pan Zhenchen, and as for Uncle Cai, he is naturally the current general merchant Cai Shiwen.
Except for Cai Shiwen who had a gloomy face, all the guarantors could not help laughing. On the corner of the altar, a Manchu servant with a standard rat-tail haircut was sitting on a bench. He was wearing a silk shirt and gold rings on his fingers. He was dressed like a local tycoon, but his face was wretched. He smiled unscrupulously and said, "I wonder if this chair has a smell now? I'll find a dog to smell it later. Haha, haha——"
As he spoke he burst into laughter. Actually his words had no hidden meaning and were not funny, and they even embarrassed Cai Shiwen a little. But Cai Shiwen did not dare to get angry with him and just laughed along.
Wu Chengjian knew that this person must be Galau, the servant of the Supervisor of Guangdong Customs, who was sitting there to attend the meeting on behalf of the Supervisor of Guangdong Customs.
