The six hired workers were all talking nonsense at this time.
All of them looked uneasy.
Without a job and no stable income, it is really a terrible thing for them who can only earn money by working and have no land.
But now the entire Yingtian Mansion area has been in decline after the rebellion, and even experienced old shopkeepers have difficulty finding new jobs.
Therefore, in order to get a job, they have to continue to come to their boss Du Shouchang.
When Du Shouchang saw that these six employees also hoped that his shop could reopen, he couldn't help but feel a sense of mission and responsibility.
At the same time, Du Shouchang also felt grateful because these employees were willing to give up the wages they owed so that his shop could reopen, and even took the initiative to raise money for himself.
"Du Laoliu! You are here! Let me tell you a good thing! The people from Funinghou Mansion have taken a fancy to your shop and sent the palace steward to sign the deed, and they want to buy you for fifty yuan silver coins. This shop."
At this time, Bai Shaohong, the commander-in-chief of Du Shouchang's workshop, came over.
Behind Bai Shaohong was a fat man wearing a brown brocade robe.
This fat man is the palace steward of Funinghou Mansion as mentioned by the commander-in-chief Bai Shaohong.
The palace steward was riding a horse at this time. He didn't look at Du Shouchang. He only flicked his nails and said, "Kneel down and kowtow to thank you. Thank you, and then sign the deed. These fifty silver coins will be given to you immediately." !”
Before Du Shouchang had time to reply, Hang Chunjiang, an old employee who had been with Du Shouchang for a long time and was also Du Shouchang's former clothing shop owner, started talking:
"This can't be done! This shop is the best in this area. It's adjacent to the street in front and back. It's worth one or two hundred silver dollars anyway. Your price is too high. Boss, you can't agree. ah!"
"Yes, boss, you are an ancestral shop. Besides, this shop is going to become the property of the Marquis Mansion. What should we do?"
Another employee also echoed.
At this time, the palace steward said with a smile: "What should you do? Well, if you want to still make a living, you will naturally sell yourself as a slave and work as a domestic slave in Funinghou Mansion for five hundred yuan a month." Yueyin, work honestly in this shop, and then let your sons, grandchildren, and grandsons continue to work for the Funing Hou Mansion. Your daughters and granddaughters will be our servants of the Funing Hou Mansion. Maybe one day you will be favored by the old man and take over. For the people in this room, you will be prosperous by then! You can ride on my head!"
"I don't want an innocent person to be a slave. Otherwise, I won't have the chance to study and take the imperial examination in the future."
Hang Chunjiang started talking.
"Don't be ignorant of praise!"
The palace steward said nothing, and then looked at Du Shouchang: "Du Laoliu from Renqingfang, why don't you appreciate the grace of our Marquis Mansion? Kneel down and kowtow!"
Du Shouchang first bowed and cupped his hands and said: "Thanks to the kindness of the Marquis Mansion, this shop is an ancestral property, so the common people dare not sell it at a low price, otherwise they will be sorry for their ancestors."
"Do you think other than our Marquis Mansion who can buy your shop, who else has the spare money to buy your shop? Also, your goods and money have been burned and robbed by the rebels, Mr. Bai said, There are eight people in your family. The elderly are sick and the youngest is just born. They are all in urgent need of money. You still owe many employees wages. Your shop can no longer be opened. Why don’t you quickly go and hire fifty silver dollars? The doctor buys rice and pays back wages. Do you still have to hold on and don't care about the life and death of your family?! Fifty silver dollars is enough for me to be merciful. Don't be dissatisfied. Believe it or not, I can take over your shop with just one word. The people from the Yamen will directly transfer your property to the Hou Mansion!"
The palace steward shouted.
"These tycoons are really abominable! Take advantage of this moment to lower the prices and buy shops like ours! Now it's Du Laoliu's clothing shop, and next it should be my paint shop!"
"Yes, they still force us to be slaves. Although being a slave these days can rely on the master's good clothing and food, and be tyrannical, we also lose our freedom, and it affects future generations, and we have no chance to stand up. I'm sorry, ancestors, if If you encounter a bad master, you won’t be able to get justice even if you are beaten to death.”
"The property of the Funing Marquis Mansion almost occupies half of the street. It's not enough. Because his family has a brothel, no one dares to open a brothel here. It's too domineering!"
Because they saw people around Du Shouchang's shop, merchants from the nearby neighborhoods crowded in. After learning the cause and effect, they started talking about it, and they all felt unhappy because of it.
"I also ask the Palace Manager to forgive me. This small shop is not big, it is not worth many silver coins, and it is not very profitable to operate. Compared with the other properties of the Marquis that make a lot of money every day, there is no benefit in occupying it. Therefore, the Marquis Mansion Why take it by force and ask the Marquis to show mercy? Don't be the same as me."
Du Shouchang continued: "In addition, I have already received a loan of five hundred silver dollars from the government-run Daming Bank. It is enough to repay wages, seek medical treatment, buy food and goods, and reopen the shop. Therefore, the palace manager also There is no need to worry about this ordinary merchant, Xiao Xiao believes that his business will be restored to its former glory now that the emperor's favor is so great."
"Boss, is this true?!"
Hang Chunjiang asked excitedly.
"Boss, what is Daming Bank?"
Some of the other employees of the Du family also started asking questions.
"It's the government-run bank mentioned in the Di newspaper, a place where you can borrow money from the government."
Du Shouchang replied.
"Five hundred silver dollars is indeed enough! There is still a lot left over. Anyway, the employees and the shop are still there. We just need to rebuild the warehouse that was burned down and buy another batch of Songjiang cotton!"
Hang Chunjiang continued.
"So, with our wages guaranteed, this shop can be reopened? Is that right, boss!"
At this time, another employee of the Du family asked excitedly.
"Yes! The wages owed to everyone will be compensated immediately, and everyone is also asked to inform other employees who have not yet received their wages to claim it."
Du Shouchang replied with a smile.
"The emperor really means what he says. He said before that he would spend tens of millions of silver dollars to save us. Unexpectedly, he gave the owner five hundred silver dollars. Is the interest high for the owner?"
Some employees took the initiative to mention the emperor because they were Dongchang's informants.
"Because it is less than one thousand silver dollars, there will be no interest for three years!"
Du Shouchang didn't doubt it and just answered truthfully.
"What a good emperor! We didn't pay much business tax, but he still saved us! He also gave us interest-free money, which is much better than those big loan sharks who want to bankrupt us!"
The other employees of the Du family sighed.
But the palace steward of the Funinghou Mansion had a dark face, because the Funinghou Mansion also lent loans at usurious rates that these employees said would ruin their lives, and even forcibly lent money to them. Occasionally, lives were lost as a result.
Of course, what the palace steward was most angry about was that the newly opened Daming Bank of the imperial court obviously prevented the Hou Mansion from taking advantage of the depression in the industry just after the rebellion to annex shop industries and make loan sharks, and also allowed the Hou Mansion to expand the number of slaves in the family. Being stopped also deprived him, the manager, of the chance to benefit from it.
"Du Laoliu, do you think that because you borrowed money from some Daming Bank, the Hou Mansion won't be able to get your shop?! You have to sell it this time, whether you want to sell it or not!"
The palace steward became fierce and threatened.
"Damn it, you have to sell whatever you want, and you have to sell it even if you don't sell it. You don't know, you still think you are the f*cking master here, and you are someone from my patrol camp who is easy to mess with!"
Zhou Yuji, who happened to be passing by, shouted an order when he saw this.
Seeing that people from the patrol camp were coming over, the palace steward couldn't help but shut up. He knew that the people in the patrol camp were all the emperor's people, not local soldiers, so they were not easy to bully. Moreover, the officers could come to the imperial court to complain at any time, so, He turned around and left dejectedly. He didn't want to get his prince into trouble.
"Stop! Did I let you go? Your Lordship failed to discipline you, I am here to discipline you! Disturbing the public order, bullying others, and committing the crime of extortion promulgated by His Majesty! Take this guy down and put him in the prison cell! "
Zhou Yuji shouted loudly at this time.
The officers and soldiers of the patrol battalion immediately detained the palace steward and the others and took them away.
Du Shouchang breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this, and then laughed, feeling very happy, because he did not expect that one day, the people in the government would no longer be afraid of local wealthy families like Fu Ninghou, and would be able to vent their anger on ordinary merchants like himself.
The employees of the Du family and the merchants gathered here were also quite relieved and happy to see the officers and soldiers of the patrol battalion escorting the palace steward and other slaves of the Funing Hou Mansion.
"It's better to have officers and soldiers from the patrol battalion!"
"Yes, unlike other officers and soldiers, like the slaves of wealthy families, they are also the bastards of these wealthy families. They only know how to bully us ordinary civilians!"
"That's natural. I heard that the officers and soldiers of the patrol battalion are the Emperor's Yulin Guards. They are loyal and love the people. They are naturally different from other officers and soldiers! They don't rob people's houses, and they give money to eat!"
The Du family's employees and merchants started talking about it.
Then, the merchants who came here hurriedly asked Du Shouchang about Daming Bank.
"Brother Du Liu, you really got a loan of five hundred silver dollars from Daming Bank. Is it really interest-free?"
Cao Agui from the paint shop first asked about Du Shouchang.
Du Shouchang opened his bag of silver coins and took out the deed, showing off: "Look, especially this deed, it is stamped with the seal of Li Butang, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry! Can it be faked?" ! There is really no interest for the amount below 1,000, and only 1 penny for the amount above 1,000!"
"I heard about it, but I didn't dare to believe it. This time I really believe it. I have to get a loan quickly instead of asking my brother-in-law to borrow money from the Zhenyuan Marquis Mansion!"
"I'll go too! Why should I jump into a river now? It's serious to loan out the money quickly and make the business bigger!"
"It's better for you to be the Emperor! In the past, those gentlemen and princes said that the emperor was cruel and so on, but now we are in trouble. The princes and princes tried their best to raise the interest rate and asked us to kneel down and beg him to borrow money. But now the emperor directly They gave us interest-free and low-interest loans. I was really confused. After listening to the nonsense of those gentlemen and gentlemen, I also thought that the emperor was deceiving people and would not be so benevolent. I almost missed the emperor's grace!"
…
"This, this, let's not talk about it if we don't have rewards. Now they have set up the Ming Bank to rob us of our loan sharking business and prevent us from buying up shop properties! The patrol camp arrests our people at will, and those traitorous ministers around His Majesty It’s so abominable!”
Zhu Youxue established the Ming Dynasty Bank to provide low-interest and interest-free loans, which was considered to have infringed on the interests of local wealthy families. At this time, Funing Marquis Zhu Guobi complained to his retainers quite angrily.
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