(The Second priest cannot have his hair and beard float. This is my mistake. These days, I have indeed been a bit muddle-headed. Please forgive me. PS: I still need a monthly ticket. Please don't find it annoying.)
Although many people did not sleep well that night, many people were busy, and some people did not sleep at all. Furthermore, such a big thing had happened in Suzhou. However, the second day of the palace treasury's new year bidding still arrived as scheduled.
This was the rule. This was the usual rule of the court.
Thus, even though Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng used Suzhou's tight security and Xia Qifei's assassination attempt as an excuse to ask the transport company to push back the bidding by a few days, Fan Xian still resolutely and valiantly demanded that the bidding begin on time and not be delayed for even a moment.
The Ming family had already fought for one night's time. If they were given more time to react, who knew what else would happen?
Fan Xian rubbed the sore spot between his brows and forcefully hid the tiredness on his face. He watched the merchants file in. He found that although the expressions of these Jiangnan merchants remained calm, there was still a strange emotion hidden in their eyes. It looked like the matter of Xia Qifei's assassination attempt last night had also brought them great trouble. Fan Xian was temporarily unable to determine whether this change was good or bad for his plan.
The Ming father and son were the second to last group of people to enter the palace treasury courtyard. Behind them were the long attendants of the clan and the accounts master. With warm expressions, they bowed in all directions. The officials and merchants only gave a perfunctory greeting before moving their gazes away. No one dared to appear too close to the Ming family in front of Fan Xian.
When the Ming father and son bowed in front of the main hall, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng greeted them warmly. It was clear they were expressing their support for each other. Fan Xian watched with cold eyes and nodded with a smile. He then waved his hand for them to sit. Ming Qingda's gaze was very strange. He appeared very calm. It looked like for some reason, he was not afraid of Fan Xian's revenge for the assassination attempt on Xia Qifei last night.
Before the main door closed, the Jiangnan water bandits also arrived.
Behind Xia Qifei, other than the few old officials of the Ministry of Revenue that Fan Xian had sent, there were only three personal guards left. His other brothers had already died on the long street last night.
Today, Xia Qifei's face was deathly pale. It seemed that there was no way for him to recover from his serious injuries. However, today's matter was of great importance, so he forced himself to come.
Compared to the bandages on his body, the white bandage on his forehead was particularly dazzling and bright. The subordinates behind him also wore white bandages on their foreheads. In this spring, they exuded an icy chill.
It was the first time in decades that a mourner had entered the door of the palace treasury.
Everyone in the house had their eyes on the bandits from Room B4, who were wearing mourning clothes and had a murderous aura around them. The merchants led by the Xiong family of Lingnan and the Sun family of Quanzhou walked out of their rooms and greeted Xia Qifei, comforting him softly.
Supported by his subordinates, Xia Qifei slowly walked to the front of the main hall. He didn't even glance at the father and son of the Ming family in the first room. In a quiet voice, he said, "I still came."
Eunuch Hong and Guo Zheng had a strange expression on their faces.
The corner of Fan Xian's eye twitched and immediately returned to normal. Calmly, he spread out his right hand and said steadily and firmly, "As long as you come, there will be a place for you here."
Everyone understood the meaning of Fan Xian's words. Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng could not use these words to criticize Fan Xian. The Jiangnan governor, Xue Qing, had said he was sick and did not come. Presently, in the large house, Fan Xian's position was the highest. It was clear that Xue Qing was letting Fan Xian do as he wished.
However, the Ming family's backers would not watch as the entire situation was in Fan Xian's control. Eunuch Huang paused for a moment and then said, "Sir Xia, I heard that the jianghu fighting broke out again last night in Suzhou. Many of your subordinates have died … however, entering the courtyard in mourning is not proper."
After all, Xia Qifei's birth was not honorable. That was why the old matriarch of the Ming family dared to invite the aces of the Junshang Conference to carry out the assassination. After all, if they could kill Xia Qifei, it would solve many problems. Furthermore, they could push the blame onto the jianghu fighting.
Eunuch Huang's words right now were nothing more than an attempt to make this point a reality.
Fan Xian felt it was beneath him to bicker with him about these nominal things. However, after hearing Eunuch Huang say entering the courtyard in mourning was not proper, his anger gradually rose. Narrowing his eyes, he said in a quiet voice, "Eunuch Huang, don't make me angry."
Although these words were spoken lightly, the voice seemed to have scraped out from a crack in an iceberg and scuttled out from the abyss in the ground. It was so cold and sinister that it made those who heard it tremble in fear.
Don't make me angry!
These words burrowed into Eunuch Huang's ears and made the old eunuch involuntarily shiver. He quickly closed his mouth. If he didn't want to be angry with this damned sissy youth, then let him go. In any case, the Ming family had already prepared all night. In a moment, as long as he watched, there wouldn't be any problems. If he let Fan Xian use this opportunity to fly into a rage, who could stop him? It would not be good to ruin everything.
To the side, Guo Zheng, who was about to open his mouth, also felt a chill in his heart. He quickly swallowed back the words he was about to say. Last night, they had all thought that Fan Xian would act rashly in his anger. Thus, they had both written memorials and made preparations to grab hold of Fan Xian's weakness. Unexpectedly, Fan Xian had maintained his calm the entire time. It made him and Eunuch Huang very disappointed. They also knew that the evil fire in Fan Xian's heart had been suppressed for a long time. They didn't know when it would explode.
Thinking of the ministers and officials who had fallen under Fan Xian's hands, Guo Zheng also retreated. The Eldest Princess wanted to protect the Ming family's share, not their face.
…
…
Another explosion rang out. Outside the courtyard of the palace treasury manor, paper flew chaotically, and smoke gradually filled the air.
Fan Xian narrowed his eyes and looked at this somewhat familiar scene. For some reason, he thought of last year, the day he left Shangjing in Northern Qi and the moment he heard the news of Zhuang Mohan's death. On that day, the firecrackers outside Shangjing's gates to send him off seemed to also be sending off Master Zhuang.
Were the firecrackers today to send off the people who died last night?
Xia Qifei brought his subordinates and walked silently back to room B4. He took off the white ribbon on his head and carefully laid it out on the table in a perfectly straight line. His brothers behind him also followed his eldest brother and took off the white ribbons and laid them out straight. One by one, they were strong and powerful.
Fan Xian's brows furrowed imperceptibly. No one knew what he was thinking about.
The palace treasury official responsible for announcing once again stood on the stone steps. The palace treasury's second day of bidding officially began.
Yesterday, there had been a total of five lots. The palace treasury had a total of 16 lots. Other than the last two that were tied to eight lots, there were still three lots left to be announced at the very beginning.
The Ming family still followed the agreement between the Jiangnan merchants and did not call out a price. On the contrary, it was Xia Qifei who did not seem to be disturbed by the events of last night. Very calmly, he began to bid and took one of the lots. The other two were taken by the Lingnan Xiong family and the Hangzhou Chen family. This was probably something that had been discussed at the Jiangnan Restaurant last night.
The lot that Xia Qifei had taken was still the North route. After Fan Xian received the bid from the Flower Hall and confirmed that Xia Qifei had taken this lot, he couldn't help but nod his head quietly. Xia Qifei did not let his emotions affect his decisions. This was something he admired.
The bidding for these three lots proceeded in an ordinary and uneventful manner. The prices were basically the same as in previous years. There was nothing surprising about them. However, none of the merchants and officials present had much of a reaction. Everyone knew that the highlight of the day was at the back. It was in the last eight lots that the Ming family was determined to win.
…
…
"Goods from the Southeast Road and the Sea Road. Four lots in total. The bidding begins. The highest bidder … wins …"
The palace treasury transport company official stood on the stone steps and called out expressionlessly. He didn't know how many years he had been calling out these words. Every year, after these words were called out, only the Ming family would bid. No one would compete with the Ming family. Thus, when he called it out, he felt it was dull and uninteresting.
But, this year was different.
As the call fell, the first to push open the door and hand out the leather envelope was room B4.
Countless voices of discussion rang out in the courtyard. Xia Qifei, the Seventh young master rumored to have been abandoned by the Ming family, had finally begun to act against the Ming family.
In room A1, Ming Qingda's expression did not change. It was as if he had long expected this situation. In the past few years, because of his family's strength and the Eldest Princess watching from the back, none of the Jiangnan merchants dared to bid against him. Thus, the Ming family in the last eight lots was the same as the Cui family in the first six. They were all playing a one-man show.
After playing this kind of show for a long time, one would eventually grow tired of it. Now, someone had finally come to compete with the Ming family. While Ming Qingda felt a slight sense of fear, he also felt a glimmer of excitement.
He smiled slightly at his son beside him and said, "20% more, hold him down."
Ming Lanshi paled in shock. Father meant to say that the first round of bidding would be 20% more than last year's fixed price? If, in a moment, Xia Qifei truly had enough silver in the second round and continued to follow, how could his side hold out?
Ming Qingda picked up the teacup beside him and took a sip. Slowly, he said, "The extra 20% is not for Xia Qifei, but for someone else."
Ming Lanshi was confused. He thought to himself, in the palace treasury courtyard, other than Xia Qifei, who had the support of the imperial envoy, who else dared to compete with his family for these two big lots? In the heart of this young master of the Ming family, he still firmly believed that Xia Qifei's confidence came from the silver Fan Xian had secretly moved from the Ministry of Revenue. The other people did not have this kind of power.
Ming Qingda didn't say anything, but his heart was as clear as a mirror. Fan Xian had Xia Qifei sweep everywhere yesterday. This was to turn the other Jiangnan merchants into hungry wolves, and a hungry wolf dared to take a bite or two of anyone's meat.
…
…
When the two leather envelopes were handed into the Flower Hall, all of the merchants and officials paying attention to this matter dropped their buttocks back to their seats and let out a breath of turbid air. They knew a good show had officially begun.
However, it seemed that many people did not guess the direction of this show.
The door to room B1 was also slowly pushed open. A leather envelope was handed into the hands of the official in front of the door.
The Quanzhou Sun family!
The entire courtyard burst into an uproar. No one had thought that the Quanzhou Sun family would come to snatch this hot cup of soup when two tigers were fighting.
"The Sun family!" Ming Lanshi looked at his father in shock. "Where did their family get so much silver?"
Ming Qingda's expression did not change. "If the Sun family alone is not enough, can't a few families come together? Don't you think that Xiong Bailing, that old thing, has become much quieter today? And those families that have been watching us this whole time, if they don't have something to hide, why would they watch for so long? It's not like there are flowers growing on my face! "
In the main hall, the officials sitting in the three grand chairs all had their own thoughts. Fan Xian had long expected this development, so he was not very surprised. However, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng gritted their teeth. They thought to themselves that the Quanzhou Sun family was too daring to come out and make trouble at a time like this.
Under everyone's nervous gazes, the results of the first round of bidding came out. Fan Xian held the bidding list from the Flower Hall and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He thought to himself that it was not without reason that the Ming family had been in Jiangnan for so many years.
In Fan Xian's plan, the last four lots would be when he and the Ming family would do their utmost to raise the price. Although the amount of silver moved over from Northern Qi was large, it required too long of a route. In the end, there was still an upper limit. Furthermore, after Xia Qifei had won five lots in a row, he had also paid a large amount of money as a deposit.
If he could carry out an unlimited fake bid, Xia Qifei could completely call out an empty bid and make the Ming family cough up blood. The problem was, Fan Xian still did not understand Ming Qingda. This nominal master of the Ming family did not seem to be as simple as in name. Fan Xian was unable to determine whether or not Ming Qingda would disregard the Eldest Princess' strict orders and cleverly cut off his hand if he truly carried out a fake bid.
Given the amount of silver in Fan Xian's hands, if he used it to raise the price, he could only be confident that he could heavily injure the Ming family in the second four bound lots.
If the Ming family really went all out in the third round and let go of these four bound lots … if Xia Qifei raised the price too high, there could only be two possible outcomes. One was that he would not be able to take out 40% of the deposit, and the other was that after successfully winning the first four bound lots, he would have no more strength left and watch as the Ming family effortlessly won the next four bound lots.
The second outcome was not what Fan Xian wanted. He had no way of controlling the shipping routes to Dongyi, so the four bound lots that the Ming family could not do without were of little value to him. He did not want Xia Qifei to actually win this lot, but if he watched as the Ming family so easily won the next four bound lots, Fan Xian would not be able to swallow it.
As for the first possibility … if the price really exploded, under the watchful eyes of Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng, under the watchful eyes of so many people, the matter of the palace treasury would truly be for naught, and Xia Qifei would most likely not have a path of survival.
…
…
In summary, in Fan Xian's earlier plan, the first four consecutive bids were to have the Quanzhou Sun family come out and fire. Xia Qifei's bid was only a feint. He did not plan on risking his life.
Looking at the list of bids handed over by the Flower Hall, Fan Xian knew that the old master of the Ming family had long guessed his plans, so the first round of bids had reached such a terrifying number.
The Sun family dared to make a move today because of the message he had sent through Shi Chanli last night.
Faced with the Ming family's mountain-like attack, and then thinking of the Ming family brazenly sending people to assassinate Xia Qifei last night, the flames of civil and military fighting each other … Fan Xian began to worry that the Sun family might be scared by this round of bids and not dare to raise the price.
The development of the situation was indeed sliding toward a situation Fan Xian did not want to see. When the announcing official yelled out the Ming family's bid of 3.8 million liang of silver, the entire courtyard burst into an uproar.
From then on, the door to room B1 never opened again. The Sun family was indeed scared.
Fan Xian narrowed his eyes and looked at the father and son of the Ming family in room A1. He began to think about whether or not the father and son were truly as the Overwatch Council had found and did not participate much in last night's assassination. The person in charge was purely the old matriarch.
Assassinating Xia Qifei seemed rash, but when paired with the ferocious bidding today, it could scare off a number of enemies for the Ming family who wanted to take advantage of the chaos.
If Ming Qingda was truly someone who could borrow power and even use his own mother, Fan Xian felt that he needed to re-examine him.
After the first round of bids came out, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng stroked their beards and smiled. However, Eunuch Huang did not have a beard on his chin, so he appeared comical. At least it could be seen that the two of them were satisfied with the Ming family's move and everyone's reaction.
Room B4 was quiet. Through the window lattice, Xia Qifei glanced at Fan Xian with an inquiring gaze.
Fan Xian sighed somewhat helplessly and used the palms of his hands to smooth the flying hair at his temples. The meaning of this secret signal was for Xia Qifei to slowly plan. Since the Sun family had backed out, Xia Qifei had to continue bidding. However, he had to control his bidding well.
He had to make the Ming family feel pain, but he couldn't be too ruthless. He also had to make the other party take over the first four consecutive bids with satisfaction and not suddenly give up and throw these four consecutive bids to him.
This was a difficult situation. Even if Xia Qifei had the help of a few old officials of the Ministry of Revenue behind him, it was still difficult to deal with it flawlessly.
The announcing official once again stood on the stone steps. This happened twice. The anticipated great family battle between the eldest and Seventh brother of the Ming family did not happen. The bandits in room B4 completely lost the ferocity of yesterday and carefully bid.
Although they were cautious, the price of the first four consecutive bids was still slowly raised to a jaw-dropping level.
This was, of course, because the Ming family's first round bid was 20 percent higher than last year's. Another reason was that room B4 was like a sticky candy clinging to the other party.
In the end, the successful bidder … was still the Ming family. This result was the same as it had been for many years. However, the price they bid was very different from previous years.
5.12 million liang!
Everyone's mouths were wide open as they listened to this price. They thought to themselves that if the palace treasury bidding rule was five rounds, Xia Qifei in room B4 and Ming Qingda in room A1 would probably raise this price to twice last year's price.
This price was indeed ridiculously high.
Fan Xian knew that this could only mean that in previous years, under the Eldest Princess' control, the price of marketing rights had been ridiculously low. At this price, the Ming family would not lose out. Perhaps they would even make a large profit. Of course, this was only if the Ming family still dared to do the pirate business and still dared to smuggle goods into Dongyi under Fan Xian's eyes.
Thus, Fan Xian smiled and was very satisfied with this result. The Ming family was just waiting to throw money into this bid this year.
"Room A1, Ming family, 5.12 million liang, win!"
The palace treasury transport company announcer, who had been listless the entire time, announced the largest bid in the dozen years the palace treasury had been open for bidding. He finally became spirited. The voice of the bid was powerful and powerful. The word "win" left his mouth and disappeared without delay. It appeared very straightforward.
No matter what attitude the merchants had toward the Ming family, they all felt a glimmer of excitement and cheered for this number.
On the contrary, the father and son of the Ming family in room A1 did not have any joy on their faces, particularly Ming Qingda, who had a faint worry between his brows.
What he was thinking was the same as what Fan Xian was thinking. If they didn't have some shady methods to help them, this four consecutive bids … would definitely be lost.
Most importantly, Xia Qifei seemed to have the help of an expert when he called out his bid, and he had a good grasp of the situation. This bid was 5,120,000 taels of silver, and just the deposit alone would cost him more than 2,000,000 taels of silver … Moreover, the other party's real bid would definitely be at the end.
Last night, Ming Garden had gathered silver overnight. In total, the six branches had only gathered 600,000 liang. It was far from the 1.35 million liang the old Ming matriarch had set. Furthermore, this four consecutive bids had already exceeded Ming Qingda's mental budget by too much. What should they do next?
There was still half of Taiping money house's silver tribute left, but no one knew what would happen next. Ming Qingda's hands gently pressed on the wooden box beside him, deep in thought.
Ming Lanshi glanced at his tired father and felt his heart ache. He knew that his father had not slept at all last night. He had gone through the night to a few large money houses in Suzhou to transfer silver. It was not until the early hours of the morning that he finally received the amount he could be at ease with. Inside this box was the banknote that Zhaoshang money house had hastily opened.
"Do you think the imperial envoy still wants the four consecutive bids?" Ming Qingda sighed tiredly.
Ming Lanshi didn't know what to say.
The sun had moved, and the palace treasury bidding temporarily came to an end. The bailiffs of the Suzhou government and the transport company brought in food for the various officials and merchants to eat. Although the food provided by the government was not as good as the food in the homes of these wealthy people, these merchants still ate with relish. They gathered around the dispirited Quanzhou Sun family and asked about something.
Everyone was looking forward to the afternoon. That was the final battle. In the morning, the terrifying amount of 5 million liang of silver had already been opened. How dazzling would the afternoon be?
No one noticed that Ming Qingda silently walked into the main hall and came to the side hall where the major figures were eating. He did not avoid arousing suspicion and smiled slightly. "Greetings, Eunuch Huang, Imperial Censor Guo. I have some things I want to report to the imperial envoy. I hope the two of you will make things easier for me."
Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng were startled, thinking, What game is this? Does the Ming family want to lean toward Fan Xian in front of their faces? But, it was impossible for him to be so open and aboveboard. Ming Qingda had controlled the Ming family for a long time and had many dealings with the officials in court. He had a sense of authority. Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng met each other's eyes and deeply trusted him. They smiled and retreated, leaving him and Fan Xian space to talk.
…
…
There was no one in the hall. Ming Qingda lifted the front of his robe with some difficulty and knelt in front of Fan Xian. He did not speak.
Fan Xian held a bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other. He was searching between the dishes for something delicious to eat. His gaze did not even glance in that direction. He only said, "The four consecutive bids at the back, I … will still fight for them."
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