Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 534 Crisis
In an antique shop on Chengqingfang Street, the White Lotus Mother, who goes by the alias Li Tao, has never suffered such a loss.

He had originally planned to visit this antique and jade shop, but since he hadn't found out where Chen Ce lived and was bored in the Honglu Temple, he decided to come to the capital to take a look.

She traveled all over the Ming Dynasty, but never came to the capital.

She had just picked out a nice-looking bracelet. When the shopkeeper handed it to her, she accidentally dropped it on the ground and the jade broke into pieces, so the shopkeeper asked Li Tao to compensate for it.

"You broke it yourself. What does it have to do with me? Why should I compensate you?"

The shopkeeper snorted and said, "Didn't you say you wanted to see the jade bracelet? I clearly handed it to you just now, and now the jade bracelet is broken, but you say I broke it. You are making up a story!"

This is the reason why it is said that jade should never be separated from one's hand. In the process of buying and selling jade, it is best not to have the two parties hand over the jade in the air, but it is obvious that Li Tao does not understand these rules.

"Fifty taels of silver, not a penny less! This is a piece of Hetian jade of excellent quality!"

"If you don't compensate me, I will report it to the authorities and let them judge the case."

Li Tao said angrily: "Go report to the police now! Go now!"

Chen Ce and Zhu Houzhao stood at the door and watched for a while. Chen Ce shook his head slightly. He didn't want to meddle in other people's business. However, Zhu Houzhao was full of justice. He walked in with his hands behind his back, pointed at the shop owner and cursed him, saying, "You cheap businessman, how can you do business like this?"

"I think you are clearly cheating others! Who will dare to buy things from your store in the future?"

The shopkeeper hurriedly said to Zhu Houzhao, "Young man, please don't say anything careless. It was clearly she who broke the jade bracelet. How can you slander her?"

Chen Ce sighed helplessly, then walked in. He looked at the broken jade bracelet on the ground, then pulled Zhu Houzhao behind him.

There is no way to argue with each other about this kind of thing. In this age without surveillance, who can tell what is right or wrong?
However, Chen Ce still said, "The jade in your bracelet is of low quality. It is not the best quality Hetian jade. It is definitely not worth fifty taels of silver. One tael of silver is enough. If you give this girl another bracelet and she gives you one tael of silver, you should still make some money."

It was good enough to reduce it from fifty taels to one tael, and Li Tao was not short of money. She was just simply angry and didn't want to be treated as a fool.

The shopkeeper said with a look of shame and indignation: "I will report it to the police. You are clearly in the same group. Are you bullying an honest merchant like me?"

Chen Ce was silent for a moment, then said, "No need to report to the authorities. If you really want fifty taels, that's fine, but I will tell Wang Zhiming about this tomorrow. I hope you can still stand firm in the business community in Shuntian Prefecture in the future."

Chambers of commerce were established in various places to regulate the industry. The president of the Shuntian Chamber of Commerce was recommended by Chen Ce, but he was just an unknown little-known figure, and his level was not high enough to be personally received by Chen Ce.

After hearing what Chen Ce said, the merchant dared not say anything more. In the end, he obediently followed Chen Ce's suggestion and sold another jade bracelet to Li Tao for one tael of silver.

Li Tao smiled and thanked Chen Ce and Zhu Houzhao, saying, "Thank you very much."

Chen Ce nodded slightly, then took Zhu Houzhao away.

"Little brother, when did you meet the president of Shuntianfu Chamber of Commerce? How come I didn't know?"

On the way, Zhu Houzhao asked Chen Ce with curiosity.

Chen Ce said: "It's just a small matter, why do you want to know? When business develops to a certain extent, naturally someone needs to come forward to maintain the rules in the business field."

"The imperial court alone cannot manage local merchants well. There will always be a few unscrupulous merchants, so civil organizations are needed to regulate their behavior and protect the consumer rights of the people."

"With the development of commerce, these things can no longer be left to the people alone. The government should also organize corresponding organizations soon. Otherwise, the sellers will be too strong and the buyers will be too weak, which will cause chaos in the business industry and make the people suffer."

"Also, in the future, when dealing with these disputes, you don't have to argue with them. Find the people they are afraid of and use them to suppress the other party. This is a good way to solve the problem." Zhu Houzhao thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Yeah, it's the same when governing officials, right? In the future, I don't have to do everything myself. Find the people that the officials are afraid of and just focus on governing the people above them."

"Your Highness is smart, you can draw inferences from one example!"

Zhu Houzhao seemed very proud and complacent after receiving Chen Ce's praise.

……

Li Tao didn't take the little thing just now to heart, and didn't even ask the other party's name to express her gratitude. If she had asked, she wouldn't have to go through so much trouble, because the person she wanted to kill was right in front of her.

She no longer had to think of ways to force Chen Ce to come forward.

Qianqing Palace.

Warm pavilion.

The Minister of Revenue Qin Hong found Emperor Hongzhi with a serious expression and said, "Your Majesty, something has happened."

Emperor Hongzhi asked in confusion: "What?"

Qin Hong said: "It is not possible for all places to hand over enough purple materials within three months."

After the Annan envoy arrived in Ming Dynasty, Li Yi signed a silk order worth hundreds of millions of Ming Dynasty new currency on behalf of Annan and Ming Dynasty.

But they had requirements for this batch of silk. Annan admired purple, so this batch of silk order was for 100,000 pieces of purple silk.

Purple silk is difficult to make. It requires a mixture of red dye and blue dye. Red dye is easy to obtain, but the preparation of blue dye is a bit troublesome and requires many cyan flowers as raw materials.

But for some reason, all the raw materials in Jiangnan, Huguang and other places that are rich in blue material have been bought up, and it is difficult to find so many raw materials in a short period of time.

If the Ming Dynasty fails to meet Annan's demand for purple silk within three months, according to the contract, the Ming Dynasty will have to compensate the other party three times the loss.

Emperor Hongzhi narrowed his eyes and said indifferently: "How dare these Annan envoys play tricks in the territory of my Ming Dynasty?"

If he was still unaware at this time that Annan was so bold as to plot against the Ming Dynasty in secret, then he would not be worthy of being the emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

But even if they knew, what could they do? They couldn't just break off relations with each other. They wouldn't admit it, and the Ming Dynasty couldn't resort to force or threaten them. If that were the case, who among the other small countries would dare to trade with the Ming Dynasty in the future?

"How should we respond?" Emperor Hongzhi looked at Qin Hong, who also looked embarrassed.

Emperor Hongzhi had to summon the six ministries of the cabinet to discuss the matter.

On the other side, inside the Honglu Temple Embassy.

Li Yi stared at Li Tao with anger on his face and asked, "Are you crazy?!"

"How dare you plot against the Ming court? You asked me for money because you bought all the raw materials for Ming purple silk. Are you forcing Ming to break its promise on this order and then let them compensate us for our economic losses?"

"We, Annan, are just a weak country. How can we withstand the wrath of the great Ming?!"

(End of this chapter)