Because Old Man Xianyu was a businessman in his early years, and a very powerful one at that, his family had already amassed great wealth. Therefore, the Xianyu Mansion was naturally quite luxurious. In the entire Yizhou City, there was probably no other mansion more luxurious than the Xianyu Mansion.
In the entire Jiannan Circuit, the Xianyu Family was now a very influential family. And the reason for all this was because Old Man Xianyu had a good eye. He saw the development of the Yang Family in a timely manner, and then did everything he could to curry favor with them. This was how he earned huge benefits for himself and his family, allowing his family to become a big family in the entire Jiannan Circuit.
In particular, the improvement of their political status was of great benefit to the Xianyu Family. This was because if someone in the family became an official, and a high-ranking official, their family's business would be taken care of very well. They wouldn't have to worry about being hindered behind their backs. Moreover, their family's grasp of the imperial court's information would be more timely, and they would be able to discover business opportunities one step earlier. For example, if the imperial court wanted to do some big projects in Central Sichuan, the Xianyu Family would be the first to know. Then, they would quickly buy the various resources needed for these big projects from the market at a low price, and then they would be able to make a fortune with these materials.
Since ancient times, it was relatively difficult for ordinary businessmen to develop. After developing to a certain level, it would be very difficult to continue expanding their business empire. And at this time, they would have to rely on the imperial court's help. They had to have the imperial court's support, and then they would be able to continue expanding their business empire. Otherwise, they could only stagnate.
The Xianyu Family had long been a large business group in Central Sichuan. Previously, because there was no one in the imperial court, they couldn't further expand their influence and were only considered a big businessman in Central Sichuan. But after Old Man Xianyu became the Provincial Governor of Jiannan Circuit, the business empire of the Xianyu Family developed rapidly, and was no longer limited to this small area in Central Sichuan. In the capital, Jiangnan, and other areas of the Tang dynasty, the Xianyu Family's business banner had already been established. And in Central Sichuan, the Xianyu Family had developed from a big businessman to a regional business leader. The big businessmen who were on equal footing with their family could only admire them now, or rather, follow the Xianyu Family's lead.
Doing business was actually very simple. It was just buying at a low price and selling at a high price. As long as there was enough credibility, the business could be done well. But business also had competition. If many people did business, then the business couldn't be done, and the profits wouldn't be guaranteed. Therefore, in order to protect the interests of businessmen, some businessmen would unite to form a group to distribute the profits. If someone didn't obey the rules, they would unite to suppress them. If there were businessmen with greater strength who refused to join the group, they would be suppressed even more.
In other words, the market was only so big. If you had more, then I would have less. Therefore, in order to let everyone earn money, businessmen would also unite to form a group of interests to distribute the profits. This distribution was naturally not a fair distribution. There was no so-called fairness in business. The distribution of profits was distributed according to the status and strength of each businessman. In other words, people who did different businesses formed a group. You were responsible for selling porcelain, I was responsible for selling tea, he was responsible for selling cloth, and so on. These people who did different businesses didn't have any conflict of business interests between them. It was the easiest to coordinate and form a group of interests. They would help each other. When new businessmen came in, they would unite to suppress them, so that the newcomers couldn't have a foothold or only have a small market.
For example, if a restaurant owner needed to purchase a lot of vegetables and meat, he could purchase them from the butcher shop and vegetable shop in the group. It didn't matter even if the price was a bit higher. As for the butcher and vegetable shop owners, when they needed to celebrate or treat others, they would also come to this restaurant to spend money. They would even call their relatives and friends to eat and drink in this restaurant so that they could take care of each other's business and make money. As for those merchants who were excluded, it would be very difficult for them to have a better business. It would be good if they could barely maintain their business. If they couldn't maintain their business, they would have to close down.
These were all legitimate competitions. After all, although these people formed a group of interests, took care of each other's business, and deliberately excluded other businessmen, this was a matter between them. It belonged to their personal feelings and didn't hinder anyone's business. It was completely reasonable competition, and other businessmen had nothing to say.
Sometimes, this method couldn't stop some powerful outsiders, and once the foreign businessmen took root, the original group of businessmen might be destroyed. It was like a country suddenly opening its market to another country. When a powerful foreign businessman entered, the domestic goods would be immediately unsalable and defeated by the foreign businessman. In this case, if one wanted to protect his own business, he had to impose a large-scale tax on the foreign goods. This tax method was obviously unreasonable. If the tax was too high, the foreign businessman would have no money to earn and would have to leave this place.
In this era of the Tang dynasty, businessmen naturally didn't have the right to tax other businessmen, but they could secretly do bad things to make the new businessmen unable to gain a foothold. For example, when a foreign businessman opened a restaurant, the local restaurant businessmen would find people to make trouble. After putting rat feces in the food, they would say that the food in this restaurant was unclean. They would make a big fuss in the new restaurant, and the customers who didn't know the situation would mistakenly think that the new restaurant was really unhygienic, so they wouldn't come to eat. This would play a role in attacking the new restaurant.
Similar measures could be taken to create obstacles for the new businessmen, making them unable to gain a foothold. The premise of this was that the new businessmen didn't have any foundation. Only then would others dare to do this. If the new businessmen were the relatives of a high-ranking official in the imperial court, these local businessmen wouldn't dare to act rashly.
Take the Xianyu family's business for example. Before Old Man Xianyu obtained the position of Jiedushi, they only dared to do business in Central Sichuan, a place they were familiar with. They didn't dare to go to other places, so as to avoid being bullied by the locals. At that time, the Xianyu family already had Jiannan Jiedushi, and their reputation had greatly increased. As long as they brought out Old Man Xianyu's name, they would be feared no matter where they went. Although they wouldn't be able to cover the sky with one hand, at least they wouldn't go overboard and deliberately create obstacles for you, so as to avoid making a big enemy.
Under such circumstances, the Xianyu family smoothly pushed their business to the capital and the north and south of the river. Their wealth greatly increased, and the family became even more glorious.
As long as a person had strength, there would be a lot of people rushing over to curry favor with him. They would run over to curry favor with this powerful person in order to find a good backer for themselves.
All the reputable businessmen in Central Sichuan followed the Xianyu family's lead. No matter what happened to the Xianyu family, they would come over to help. If they needed to spend money, they would spend it. If they didn't need to spend money, they would support them.
For example, when Ang Lee came, old man Xianyu invited his business friends to a banquet to accompany him. None of these guys dared to not come. They all came early, giving face to old man Xianyu. As such, these people in Central Sichuan could peacefully do their own business. It was said that having a backer was the most important thing. As long as one had a backer, they wouldn't have to worry about others tripping them up.
Because there were a lot of people, the space in the main hall was definitely not enough. However, the main hall was surrounded by open spaces. These businessmen who came to support could only accompany Ang Lee in the open air. Only a few local officials and the most representative businessmen could enter the main hall to accompany Ang Lee to eat and drink.
Yizhou City was the largest city in Central Sichuan. Although the population of this city was only 100,000, it was already considered a very large number in the Tang dynasty era. With such a large population, it ensured that Yizhou City had a large number of businessmen. Almost all the big businessmen in Central Sichuan had shops in Yizhou City. Many of them even set up their headquarters in Yizhou City.
As such, old man Xianyu only needed to call out, and there would be hundreds of big businessmen coming to support him. In addition to hundreds of local officials, the number of people attending the banquet exceeded 500. There were also some necessary guards and servants, causing the number of people in the entire courtyard to exceed 1000. Fortunately, the courtyard where the Xianyu family's main hall was located was big enough. Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to accommodate so many people.
After everyone was seated, dozens of pretty maids in the courtyard began to serve everyone dishes. The first dishes were all cold, but because there were too many people attending the banquet, these maids were unbearably busy.
This Xianyu family was really rich and overbearing. Just the number of maids who came to serve the dishes was already a hundred. On average, each maid was responsible for five tables of dishes. A large wooden plate used to serve the dishes could almost fit five dishes. As such, they could prepare everyone's dishes in one go, and then go back to get another dish.
"Brother Xianyu, your family is really rich to the point of flowing oil! There are so many maids serving the dishes. This is much more than my residence. "
Ang Lee opened his mouth and said.
Although Ang Lee's wealth wasn't any less than the Xianyu family's, Ang Lee's residence didn't have so many maids. All the maids added together were only about 100. According to the division of labor, there were less than 10 maids in charge of cooking and less than 10 maids in serving the dishes. How could there be such a large scale?
This was mainly because Ang Lee was a relatively low-key person and didn't like to treat people with great fanfare. Therefore, there was no need for him to have so many maids in his residence. The scale of the Xianyu family's residence was almost comparable to the imperial palace. Although it wasn't against the rules, it wasn't too far off.
"Hehe, I just like to be lively. The more people there are, the happier I am. A few maids aren't worth mentioning."
Old man Xianyu laughed heartily.
Over 500 people were invited at once, and the standard wasn't low. This expenditure was definitely not a small sum. However, Ang Lee felt that Old man Xianyu wouldn't pay for everything. He invited Ang Lee as a guest and had so many merchants accompany him. Could it be that these merchants were really here to eat and drink for free? This was obviously impossible. They would definitely have to pay, and they would have to fork out some money. Only Ang Lee would be an exception. Old man Xianyu obviously wouldn't collect money from Ang Lee.
Ang Lee swept his gaze over the 500 plus people who came to participate in the banquet. All of them were brimming with smiles. Even though they had to fork out some money, they felt that Marshal Jie thought highly of them. If they were to fork out some money, they would feel very happy. If they weren't invited, they would feel that they had lost face. It was Marshal Jie who didn't think highly of them.
Sometimes, people were so vain. In order to satisfy their vanity, they were willing to spend money. For the so-called face, no matter how much money they spent, they wouldn't even frown. This was especially true for wealthy merchants. Face seemed to be as important as money.
Among these merchants, Ang Lee discovered Third Lady's father, who was also the previous Yang Clan Head. This guy had also come, but he was arranged to sit outside, far away from Ang Lee.
This made him seem a little unhappy. According to his status and seniority, he should sit outside. There wasn't any problem with Old man Xianyu's arrangement. If it was before, he wouldn't have any objections. But now, Ang Lee had stayed in his house for a day and received many gifts from him. He felt that his status should have increased by a lot. As such, how could Old man Xianyu still look at people with his old eyes? Why didn't he arrange his seat to the front? Even if he didn't have the qualifications to enter the main hall, he should at least be closer to the main hall!
Obviously, Old man Xianyu did this on purpose. He didn't have much of an opinion about the Yang Clan Head, and their relationship had always been good. But Ang Lee had actually stayed in the Yang Clan for a night. This made the banquet that he had painstakingly prepared lack the most important main character. Helpless, he could only start the banquet first and let his merchant friends who had been waiting for a long time eat first. He also promised that he would come for another meal tomorrow.
Even though Ang Lee had still come in the end, Old man Xianyu was naturally unhappy that he had to prepare for an extra day. How could he feel comfortable letting the Yang Clan Head steal the limelight? Therefore, he didn't elevate the Yang Clan Head and still treated him according to the previous treatment. This could also be considered a blow to the Yang Clan Head's self-confidence and let this guy understand how much he was worth. Although Old man Xianyu had relied on the Yang Clan to become rich, the Yang Clan Head's core figures were all in the capital city. In Central Sichuan, they were all side branches and didn't have a higher status than him. Therefore, there was no need to be too lenient. A suitable blow could also make the Yang Clan Head sober up a little and understand that he was only a side branch that couldn't be any more biased. He wasn't a very important relative in the hearts of the Imperial Consort and the Right Prime Minister. Even if he was suppressed, the Imperial Consort and the Right Prime Minister wouldn't stand up for him. In Central Sichuan, the Xianyu Clan was the real boss.
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