According to Ning Yi's original plan, he was supposed to go south to Muyuan County to pick up his wife in a few days. However, Chen Fan's sudden arrival and the news he brought disrupted the original plan. The next day, the seventh day of February, became a busy day.
Since the morning, they had been dealing with the matter of going south in advance. The arrangement of the courtyard outside the city was the most important one. After all, many of Ning Yi's innovative developments were located there. To be a good host and to prevent Chen Fan from staying in the city, Ning Yi took him on a tour and tasted the freshly squeezed juice and salted quail eggs in exquisite porcelain bottles. When asked about his thoughts, he naturally nodded to express that they were delicious, but his eyes were slowly filled with doubt. "You have been doing these since you arrived in Jing City!"
Ning Yi had high requirements in life. Even though Hangzhou was in chaos, he still tried to eat good food when he could afford it. Chen Fan was also quite clear about this kind of thing. In fact, there were juice and quail eggs in these days. Ning Yi packaged them beautifully. He was also testing the antiseptic effect of the quail eggs. If he sold them in Takeshi, he might be able to make a profit. As for innovation, it was obviously a bit messy. However, Ning Yi was enjoying himself. When he left, he took each of them a bottle of juice.
In addition to the courtyard outside the city, they also needed to go to a part of the Su family's cloth store in Jing City. Among them were a few people who had been arranged by Ning Yi to study there. They were originally planned to go south in a few days, but now they had been brought forward. Last night, they had been notified. Today, they came to ask about their preparations.
Chen Fan sat on the steps in the backyard of the Su family's cloth store, twitching his mouth as he watched the process of Ning Yi's review of the five men.
"Are you ready!?"
"Ready!"
"Are you confident!?"
"Yes!"
"How about you guys!?"
"We are the best!"
"Okay, that's it … Go and pack your things. This time it's different from selling things in the store. Be prepared, it's up to you guys."
To say such shameless words so loudly was not in line with the standards of a modest gentleman in this era. Chen Fan was observant. Other than when Ning Yi was lecturing them, these people showed a sense of calmness and confidence. When they turned around, their eyes and temperament were mostly a little uneasy and hesitant. Chen Fan wondered who they were before. Not long after, the two of them sat on a stone bench by the river outside the warehouse, drinking juice. Chen Fan asked the question that had been bothering him.
"You brought these five people south? Are they the advisors you trained?"
"No, they sell cloth," Wang Yao said.
"Ah?"
People were coming and going along the road, and the spring sun shone through the trees. Ning Yi looked back at the Su family's clothing store, which had not yet opened for business. He raised the porcelain bottle of juice and gestured.
"After my family moved north, the Su family's cloth business was managed by my wife. However, it seemed like a woman taking charge of the family had hurt someone in the Zuo family. The cloth company didn't give her any face and had some resistance. In fact, we could open it now, but in order not to cause too much of a backlash, we delayed it until now. Because of this, I have trained a few people to sell to the big families. "
Ning Yi took a sip of juice and smiled. "Among the five people, two of them used to work in the cloth company, one is a young shopkeeper, and the other two were transferred from Takeshi. The cloth company needs them, so we will use them first. This time, I plan to let them expand their business near Muyuan County and visit some rich families. "
Chen Fan understood and furrowed his brows. "Traveling merchants can't make much money."
"That's not true."
Ning Yi smiled and shook his head.
In this era of the Wu Dynasty, there were only two kinds of sales: raw and familiar. Jianghu traveling merchants carried a small load and walked around. Most of these people were wretched and slippery, similar to the carriage and boat shops. They were the kind that should be killed even if they were not guilty. It was not easy for them to do business with big families. Rich people were usually regular customers of some fixed shops. Just like in Jiangning, when some rich families wanted to make clothes, they would go to the Su family and ask the shopkeeper and the craftsman they were familiar with. Or if the Su family launched a new style, the shopkeeper would also go to the Su family and ask the other party if they needed it.
Between these two ways, being a merchant was a lowly profession. No matter how good a shopkeeper was, his speech and temperament would be vaguely inferior.
In fact, speech and temperament were very revealing things at this time. In the pre-Qin period, the School of Vertical and Horizontal could coax people with one or two reasonable words. In the Three Kingdoms period, "looking at a person's speech and temperament" could determine whether a person was worthy of being put in an important position, or immediately make people decide to become brothers with a different surname. In the final analysis, it was still a relationship between knowledge and the popularity of culture. In a place where most people could not go beyond a hundred miles in their lifetime, those who could grasp the general trend of a place, or make some reliable inferences about the general trend of the world, had a good logical ability.
By the time of the Wu Dynasty, although the style of writing was flourishing, the proportion of scholars in the population was still not that high. Among them, there were a few idiots who had gone stupid from studying. Those who had an extraordinary bearing basically had the foundation to move towards the upper echelons of society. Moreover, this kind of speech, temperament, and self-confidence must be built on knowledge and social identity. In the strict Confucian society, there were not many opportunities to use tricks in this area. However, this just happened to be Ning Yi's strong suit.
The first thing that Ning Yi did was to quickly change the way these people treated others, through instigating education and the sales concept of the later generations. These people did not have much knowledge, but as long as they had enough intelligence and logical ability, Ning Yi could give them a set of ways to express confidence, friendliness, and professionalism. From then on, every time he went to a place, he would put on an attitude of "I'm from the capital" and pay a visit to the local rich. He would first find those who were a little more isolated, a little more country bumpkin, and a little more vain. He would tell them about the development of the outside world and the fashion of the capital, and then he would start to promote his goods. Most importantly, he would try to establish a long-term trade relationship. In the future, if there was anything good in the capital, he could do his best to send it to them.
During this period, when the salespeople became more professional and more able to swindle people, he would then go to the more open-minded gentry and slowly use the method of surrounding the city from the countryside. At this time, the gap between the rich and the poor was very big. There were many landlords who had extra money but didn't use it or didn't know where to spend it. If the phrase "Do you know about Amway" could swindle a lot of people in the future, there was no reason why it couldn't be used now.
Of course, the training of these five people was not long enough. Moreover, each place had its own practical situation. As to how to formulate a set of marketing framework according to the current situation, they could only slowly mature. But since the investment wasn't much, even if they failed, these five people could at least become shopkeepers when they returned. Ning Yi wasn't worried about this. After all, people were resources that could be recycled.
Of course, these things couldn't be explained in a short time, and there was no need to. After changing the topic for a while, Ning Yi said, "What do you plan to do after your master's matter is over?"
Chen Fan thought for a while and took a sip of juice. "What else can I do? My life has already been sold to Liu Watermelon. After Hangzhou City fell, I didn't go there, which is already breaking my promise. When the time comes, I should go to Miaojiang to see if there is anything I can do. Maybe when the time is right, I will rise up with her and rebel against you. "
"You still want to rebel …" Ning Yi shook his head and laughed.
Chen Fan sighed. "I don't really care. When I followed my master, there was nothing else I could do except rebel. But in fact, I don't know what I can do after I rebel. When I followed my master when I was young, I saw a lot of people who deserved to be killed. I couldn't calm down without killing them. But after I killed them, I realized that killing people can't solve the problem. Especially when the murderers slowly became people who deserved to be killed, I lost interest. "
Ever since he met Chen Fan in Hangzhou, Ning Yi actually quite admired him. At a young age, he was highly skilled in martial arts. Although he seemed reckless most of the time, he was actually clear about many things. At that time, he didn't have a high position in the Revolutionary Army. Although he was the disciple of Fang Qizhi and was the only one among the younger generation who could stop Liu Watermelon, he didn't take on many tasks with real power.
At that time, there was a vague rumor among Fang Qizhi that the Buddha General cherished his disciple and hoped that he would really do something after tempering himself. In fact, Ning Yi could see that all this was actually because of Chen Fan's own negative attitude. During the war, he could take the lead and be a fierce general. When there was no one else, he could also come out to take charge. But as long as someone took over, he would immediately give up and muddle along. The reason for all this could be seen clearly when he assassinated Bao Daoyi for a group of Academy students.
When he was young, he had no one to rely on. After he followed his master, he ran around for his master's cause. At this time, the Yongle Dynasty was destroyed and Fang Qizhi was arrested. In fact, he was quite at a loss while running around. At this time, when Ning Yi asked, he answered in such a way. After a pause, he smiled and said, "But I don't know what Watermelon is busy with. She has an idea. She hopes that after I go there, I can find a reason to rebel." This was also just a casual excuse. He didn't have much confidence in it. After thinking for a while, he asked, "What about you, Liheng? What's your plan for the future?"
"I'm simple." Ning Yi sat there and spread out his hands. "Like I said before, the Jin are powerful and the Wu dynasty is weak. After the Liao dynasty is destroyed, they will send their army south. I'm probably going to do something …"
"Is it … this?" Chen Fan raised the porcelain bottle and gestured.
Ning Yi smiled. "That's it … If you want to do something, you must have influence. If you want influence, you must have people. If you want people, you must have money to support them. It's like this everywhere. "
"It's enough to have power. What can money do?"
"It's the same. Any official will have a group of people around them to eat and sleep with them. From the Prime Minister to the Seventh Rank Petty Officials, no one will fawn over them, or those who are absolutely honest, they won't be able to do anything. In the end, whether it's the country, the gang, or the clique, they are all united for interests. These interests are both metaphysical and practical. An organization without metaphysical pursuits can't really grow. An organization without practical interests doesn't even have a foundation. "
After a while, Chen Fan nodded. "But I don't think this can make much money."
"That's my specialty."
"Then … let's not talk about whether the Jin will go south. If you stop it, then what? "
"Then … be a rich man, live in a corner with his wife and children, build a manor and find a group of farmers to manage it … I'll teach or something. That's about it."
Chen Fan was stunned, then frowned and drank the juice in the porcelain bottle. "Ha."
Ning Yi shrugged. The two sat by the riverside under the shade of the trees, each with their own thoughts. After a while, Chen Fan remembered and said, "Watermelon won't accompany you to live in seclusion, right?"
Ning Yi nodded. "That's the problem …"
It was already noon, and the two chatted for a while. As for the matter of going south, Ning Yi would not directly participate in the rescue of Fang Qifo. The two had reached a consensus on this. After all, with Ning Yi's current identity, if he really appeared in front of Fang Baihua and the others, not only would many people in the imperial court want his life, even Fang Baihua's attitude might not be good. Therefore, he only wrote a letter for Chen Fan to bring to Liu Watermelon. As for him, on the surface, he would go to Muyuan to find his wife first, and then go south to Jiangning to talk about business. The rest was up to him.
Since Ning Yi would not meet Liu Watermelon in person, Chen Fan, who now had precious time, did not have to wait until the next day to set off with him. He planned to leave immediately after noon. The two had lunch in a nearby restaurant. Halfway through the meal, Su Yanping hurriedly came to find him. "Brother-in-law, I heard something."
Seeing Chen Fan sitting across the table, he whispered in Ning Yi's ear, "I heard that this morning, the Gao Yamen made a move. They found many famous martial artists in Bianliang, saying that they want to make trouble for you, brother-in-law. Among them are Chen Yuanwang, the Earth Character Instructor of the Imperial Boxing School, Ma Jinfu of the Thousand-Mile Escort Agency, and Peng Xianyu of the Divine Fist Sect …"
Su Yanping lowered her voice, but Chen Fan was the most skilled in martial arts among those who were familiar with Ning Yi, except for Lu Hongti. Even Liu Watermelon might be inferior to him. When Su Yanping finished, Ning Yi nodded to show that he got it. "Have you had lunch? If not, let's sit down together."
"Yes, I have something to do. Brother-in-law, you don't need to know about it … Brother Chen, I'm leaving."
Chen Fan got up and cupped his hands. When Su Yanping left, his eyes lit up. "The Gao Yamen in the capital? Gao Qiu's son? Liheng, why don't I help you … "
Ning Yi hurriedly cupped his hands and smiled bitterly. "Brother, I'm afraid of you, alright? Don't do anything rash."
"Hahahaha." Chen Fan laughed happily.
Logically speaking, the two of them were already on different sides. If Chen Fan really wanted to do something and killed Gao Muen, Ning Yi wouldn't be able to clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River. However, Chen Fan was an upright person after all. When he thought of this, he directly said it as a joke. After the meal, he got up and bid farewell.
"I don't know what you're going to do, so I won't say too much. In the future, I hope we can have a drink together again."
"There's no hurry." Ning Yi waved his hand. "Before you leave the city, come to my house."
"Hmm?"
"To see my son. If there's a chance in the future, I hope he can acknowledge you as his master and learn something from you."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
