Tomorrow is the Lantern Festival, and Kaifeng City is preparing to welcome a carnival.

At the beginning of the founding of the Song Dynasty, the old customs of the Five Dynasties were inherited and the Lantern Festival was opened for three days. In the fifth year of Gande, Taizu issued an edict to increase the lanterns to burn on the 178th night of the first lunar month, and the Shangyuan Lantern Festival in Kaifeng Prefecture increased to five days.

At this time, lanterns were picked out in front of every household on the streets and alleys, and even the big girls and wives walking on the street had special small lanterns on their jewelry.

In addition to the Imperial Street in front of Xuande Gate, there are only the most lively places by the Bian River. Not only are there lanterns hanging on the big willow trees, but in front of many larger restaurants, there are also several lantern mountains built in front of the colorful buildings in the past.

In a small winery by the river, Sun Wanglou looked at the lively crowd outside and apologized to Xu Chang: "Supervisor, I didn't expect that the few large restaurants around had no empty spaces, so I had to invite a drink in this small winery, and I felt very ashamed!"

"You are also a small broker. It is not easy to make some money. It is cheap and affordable here, just right for us to sit on."

Xu Chang said as he sat down at a table.

After calling the servant to ask for food and drinks, the two of them talked casually. Sun Wanglou said, "The supervisor asked me to find a vacant land a few days ago. I have already seen each other in the past two days. After the Spring Festival, I should be able to settle down."

Xu Changxi said: "So quickly? I've entrusted this to you to the right person! A few days ago, we were going to expand the mansion outside the city. I don't know how much it took to buy the surrounding land, but it was still outside the city gate."

"Wanshengmen is much more lively even outside the city than in the northwest of the city. To be honest, my noodle shop is full of vegetable fields, and there is not even a personal home. It is naturally much easier to buy land there."

The area in the northwest of Kaifeng City is vast and sparsely populated. This is what it has been passed down from the previous dynasty. It is far from comparable to the places where land is valuable in the east and south. Xu Chang knew about this, but he didn't expect that buying land would be so easy.

As the New Year passed, the Sansi will open several new venues in the northwest of the city, mainly producing the novel things that Xu Ping brought from Yongzhou. Around these venues, the Xu family will also open some factory shops to make money together, which is what Xu Chang is doing.

At this time, few of the powerful families in the capital were dedicated to these industrial and commercial industries, and their main business of making money was mainly concentrated in three industries.

The first is naturally the Jiaoyin shop and some related supporting merchants. However, this industry is quite complicated when operating, and it is also a thorn in the eyes of many officials in Beijing. There are basically no powerful families who come forward directly. They are entrusted to professional workers. They are hidden behind their backs and directly pay for profits and dividends, and provide support in secret.

The second industry is the housing rental industry, including the rental of private housing and the rental of commercial hotel warehouses. There are a large number of foreign populations in the capital, and this industry is small in risk and stable in profits, and is highly favored by powerful families. In Kaifeng's real estate industry, the largest practitioner is naturally the home shop business under the Sansi, and the second largest force is these powerful families.

The third largest industry is Jieku, also known as the quality warehouse, but the names of the north and the south are different, but it actually means the same. Jieku is basically equivalent to pawn shops in later generations, and also engages in usury business. Since officials are prohibited from lending, this industry should also rely on people, and the official home provides capital and makes profits.

Xu Ping's family is already a wealthy family in the capital, but they are not involved in these three industries at all.

The main business of the Xu family is the planting and animal husbandry of Zhongmu Manor. The thousands of acres of wasteland received from Chunze supervisors were enough for Xu Ping to develop for the rest of his life.

The second largest industry is naturally the wine-making and selling wine that Xu Zheng started in the year. There are hundreds of thousands of troops in the capital. This consumer group alone can bring rich profits to the Xu family's liquor.

With Xu Ping's return, the Xu family's industry will also expand, but it is still concentrated on the industry.

Since the Chinese New Year, Xu Chang has been looking for land in the northwest of the city and is preparing to open several workshops. These industries are not competitive with other powerful families, and do not deal with the government very much, so they are relatively less prominent.

Sun Wanglou opened a rice and noodle shop, and the noodles mainly relied on the Shuimo West Servant on the Wuzhang River to the northwest of the city. The people there were familiar. The northwest corner of Kaifeng had a small population and was suitable for opening a factory. Xu Chang entrusted him to find a suitable open space.

After eating a few more glasses of wine, Sun Wanglou smacked his lips and sighed: "Supervisor, your official is now the deputy envoy of salt and iron. The salt and tea cases are under his own control. Although the wine cases are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue, it is still easy to open a factory. Why do you have to work hard to open a factory? You can just make some tea and attract salt. You can only buy hundreds of thousands of coins of copper coins. It is easy to make money without making money, but it is so troublesome. You have to hire workers and build a flat house. Why do you have to do it?"

Xu Chang said: "You don't know that our family has a shallow foundation, so how can we dare to extend such money? Our family is a teenager, and there is no strong family support. The promotion is fast. I don't know how many people are staring at it. Besides, you only look at the merchandise shop and make money, but you don't know how much money it takes. Once you lose, everyone will be hurt."

After hearing Xu Chang's words, Sun Wanglou laughed out loud: "The supervisor is joking. Will the deputy envoy of the Sansi lose money in this business? That money is like fallen leaves in autumn, and the ground is swept to the house casually!"

"Where is that easy?" Xu Chang smiled and shook his head.

Sun Wanglou became a little drunk and stared at him, "Why is it not easy? Have you heard that the tea method of Southeast Tea Farm is about to change recently? Isn't this a chance to get rich!"

"Even you have heard of it, I naturally know. Although my family members don't talk about political affairs when they go home, the Zhizhai in the family of other ministers who usually come and go. This time, the one who presided over the reform was Li Zi's husband. He was careful in his work and considered everything. Where can there be a loophole for people to make money easily!"

"Oh, supervisor, your family is honest and I don't know the tricks in the middle." Sun Wanglou sighed and shook his head. After knowing Xu Chang these days, he also realized that the people in the Xu family were particularly obedient. Even if they were to cling to the national uncle Li Yong and such powerful relatives, even if Xu Ping became a high-ranking official, they still did not do anything.

Xu Chang didn't say anything. After Xu Ping returned, the Xu family became a newcomer in the capital, and many of them were from high-ranking officials and nobles. Xu Chang had a lot of contact with other supervisors. Seeing that some supervisors were generous and had a wealthy family, it was impossible for him to feel no trouble. But he still liked the steadily living like this. Although Xu Chang's income in the Xu family was not as good as those rich businessmen, he was still better than ordinary businessmen, and he lived a steadily life.

After drinking another glass of wine, Sun Wanglou put his head on the table, lowered his voice and said to Xu Chang: "Supervisor, do you know how those escort shops make money now?"

"How can you make money? I know that the tea method needs to change, it is nothing more than snatching food from the merchants from Shaanxi. I also know that the court's appropriation is relatively cost-effective for tea merchants. The merchants and tea merchants are holding both the merchants from China. Once the tea inverts, there will be money to be paid. But in the end, there is a lot of capital to be put in. It is not easy to exchange tea in for discounted money."

Sun Wanglou burped and shook his head repeatedly: "The supervisor is an honest person, and he can only think of an honest person's method. Those people in the escort shop are all clever and sly, how could they use this method?"

"So what can they do?"

"I don't know how they will do this this time, but I know that in the first year of Tiansheng. At the time of the change of the new and old tea methods, the people from the shop received tea entries from the merchants in the middle, colluded with officials who dealt with goods, and directly replaced the old tea entries with tea at the joints of the new tea method. In this way, not only did they eliminate the discount on the replacement of the new tea method, but they had the existing tea in their hands. After the new tea price rose, they made a lot of money."

Xu Chang was surprised: "This can also make it possible? When changing tea, the goods service will suspend the tea transfer. How can they exchange tea?"

"Of course, the officials in the goods are in charge of the internal affairs, and the tea merchants must take over it. This kind of business can only be done. So I said, the officials in charge of your family are in charge of the tea case, so why don't they do this kind of business? It doesn't have to be with your family, or even if they know it. Just say something, and a large amount of money goes into your own home like flowing money."

"As long as I say something, why? What's the matter of the official family is not the final word!"

"Those officials are under the jurisdiction of your family. They only hope that you will have the opportunity to say good things to them in front of them in the future and have a chance to make a comeback. You must know that they have money in their hands and cannot give it to your family."

After hearing Sun Wanglou's words, Xu Chang suddenly understood in his heart. Why do some servants with powerful officials in the capital have such a wealthy wealth? It turns out that just a word is valuable.

Xu Ping is a person who makes his own decisions about big things, but if Xu Chang specifically says good things for a minor official, it can still affect Xu Ping's attitude towards that person. This is trust in his family, and there is no reason. This influence is everywhere. If Xu Chang is willing to exchange this for money, Xu Ping's status is a big number.

Many officials in the capital actually do not take care of housework, and those who have business are handed over to their trusted servants to take care of. They do not know that their government affairs are inadvertently exchanged for money. And the more inconspicuous a trivial matter, the less conspicuous this power monetization will be, and the officials will have no psychological burden.

Like Zhang Qi, he was still petty when he was a Privy Councilor. He saw every copper coin in his family. Even the servants in his family tried every means to earn back the wages. Instead, he did nothing in the business world in the capital and became a joke in the eyes of others. A family that really made money would be fine as long as they could use people.

The Xu family naturally didn't need to make money in this way, but after hearing what Sun Wanglou said, Xu Chang finally slowly understood the tricks of the powerful family in the capital.

...
Chapter completed!