After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

The orange-red sun rose from the horizon, its light intense, but not as scorching as in summer. A gentle autumn breeze carried the warm, golden light.

Chen Ruhai sighed, put down his pen, and ordered his servant to lead his son-in-law to a superior, private room.

In the battle of Black Tiger Mountain, the son-in-law squandered the money of the Prince's Mansion and Changqing Trading Company like water. Even after nearly two months, the company's foundation was still far from recovered.

Of course, even if things recover, the business will not be able to come up with 200,000 taels of silver to fill the hole caused by the son-in-law.

Chen Ruhai's chubby face drooped, his heart heavy, and his steps slowed. As he walked, he mentally prepared a plan, thinking about how to persuade his son-in-law to stop causing trouble.

The emperor told him that this time he could take money from the imperial treasury to help Sujin Pavilion fill its financial hole.

After staying up all night to analyze the possible price increase of cotton, and with the court making an example of someone, it is possible to buy the cotton needed by Sujin Pavilion at three to four times the average price.

However, Sujin Pavilion sells cotton cloth at a fixed price, which is low, resulting in huge losses. They don't have the money to buy so much cotton.

After I take action myself, combined with the inventory and silver reserves of Sujin Pavilion, and with an additional 60,000 to 80,000 taels of silver from the Imperial Treasury, the hole can be patched up.

Although the cost made His Majesty feel resentful, and he asked if he could reduce the amount further, this was ultimately a confrontation between His Highness and Prince Qi, so spending any amount of money was worthwhile.

result.

Last night, my son-in-law squeezed the hole up to 200,000 taels of silver in one go!

"hiss!"

Chen Ruhai took a deep breath of the cool morning air, his face contorted with bitterness, and his stuffy lungs finally felt a little better.

The son-in-law is indeed very capable. Although it cost a lot of money to resolve the Black Tiger Mountain issue, he handled it exceptionally well, and even now, he feels like he's floating on air.

It was so swift and efficient that the officials of the Eastern Palace, who had been preparing to besiege Black Tiger Mountain for half a year, were pleasantly surprised.

In reality, the son-in-law saved the imperial court a considerable amount of money and grain, but... he was spending his own money. The Ministry of Revenue wouldn't dare offer such a reward.

Upon closer examination, if we disregard the cost, the son-in-law indeed purchased all the cotton needed by Sujin Pavilion in one go.

The cotton merchants in Songjiang Prefecture were willing to pay three times the deposits of other buyers in order to sell this year's production to their son-in-law.

Five times the price, a straight line, no room for negotiation. It's straightforward, but what business is conducted like this?

When I met the son-in-law, he was leisurely eating fried dough sticks he had bought outside in a private room.

He hurriedly asked the waiter to serve his son-in-law breakfast, and when making tea, to use less tea leaves and to make sure the duck meat was freshly killed and shredded.

"Ha, Mr. Chen," Ning Nan stood up and smiled, "Good morning."

"Good morning, Young Master Ning." Chen Donghai greeted him with a warm smile.

After exchanging pleasantries, the two sat down together and asked each other how they had been doing. Ning Nan then put down the fried dough and explained his purpose.

"Printing?" Chen Ruhai asked, bewildered.

Ning Nan nodded, his smile gentle: "I spoke with Mr. Chen last time. Didn't Mr. Chen mention that your company has a paper mill and a bookstore? Anyway, I'm looking for people, so why don't we let Mr. Chen handle this business?"

The paper mill makes paper, and the bookstore is involved in printing; Changqing Trading Company does both of these businesses.

"Uh..." Chen Ruhai's expression froze for a moment. "Young master, do you mean you want us to help you print the official gazette?" He slowly frowned.

You're not here to borrow money?

"Hmm, it's not the official gazette either." Ning Nan shook his head.

Newspapers did exist in this era, called "Dibao," but they consisted mainly of official documents written in classical Chinese without punctuation. Although they were open to the public, they were primarily used for studying official documents and edicts, and rarely covered current events.

Ning Nan said, "I'll rent a shop on Datong Street. The name... um..." He thought for a moment, frowned, and then casually waved his hand, saying, "Let's call it Nancheng Daily for now."

Although Chen Ruhai couldn't understand why his son-in-law suddenly wanted to publish a gazette, he had no choice but to accept the order. He casually mentioned that their Changqing Trading Company had an empty shop on Datong Street, which Young Master Ning could use for the time being.

Ning Nan's eyebrows lit up with joy, and he immediately clasped his hands in thanks, saying with a smile, "Then thank you very much, Master Chen."

Chen Ruhai smiled and returned the greeting, saying it was no problem, and then asked what Young Master Ning wanted to have printed.

Ning Nan took out a few sheets of paper.

He pointed it out to Chen Ruhai and said that the Nancheng Daily was different from the local gazette, so we had to print it this way.

Current printing technology only supports single-sided printing, so it was divided into two halves, top and bottom.

The first half—Ning Nan took out one of the pieces of paper—featured an article praising the current emperor, exaggerating the prosperity and stability of the world to the heavens, and saying that the current emperor was comparable to the Han emperor.

The current emperor has never fought a war.

If there has been a war, then the present era is compared to the Zhenguan era.

Without having fought a war, it's like writing a poem.

That way you won't make a mistake.

The lower half is divided into two halves, left and right. The left half is printed—Ning Nan pulled out a piece of paper from the bottom—pointed to it, and said to print this short story.

Chen Ruhai glanced at it, frowned, and said, "The Legend of the White Fox?"

He glanced at it. It was roughly about a scholar traveling to the capital for the imperial examinations. In a mountain, he encountered a newly transformed fox demon. The fox demon tried to seduce him and drain his yang energy, but the scholar remained respectful and refused to make love. The fox demon, who was doing this for the first time, was furious when the scholar wouldn't take the bait, so she raised her chin, revealing her fair neck, and stood with her hands on her hips, yelling, "..." —To find out what happens next, stay tuned for the next installment.

"Uh..." Chen Ruhai flipped the paper over and looked at it, only to find it was blank. "What happened next?" he asked, his eyes wide.

"To be continued!" Ning Nan said, bewildered.

Chen Ruhai took a breath, then hummed in agreement and nodded silently.

As for the bottom right corner, Ning Nan took out another piece of paper and said, "Print this."

When Chen Ruhai took it and looked at it, he found that it was written in vernacular Chinese, just like a storybook.

The above is an article about cotton in the Jiangnan region.

It is said that cotton originated in the Qin and Han dynasties, and was promoted to the Central Plains during the Zhao dynasty. Under the promotion of Emperor Taizu of Liang, cotton was planted throughout the entire Liang dynasty.

After that, the people of the world were no longer hungry and cold.

Then, the article went on to say at length how important cotton was, saying that cotton from the Jiangnan region accounted for a huge proportion of the country's total, and that most of the tax revenue came from cotton.

It is also said that Emperor Taizu once said that cotton is the lifeblood of the people, and the people cannot do without it for even a day.

Finally, it says that cotton is often grown in Songjiang Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, Jiaxing Prefecture and other places, and when it blooms, it is so beautiful that it is a wonder of the world.

Chen Ruhai looked at it carefully. Although he didn't know what the son-in-law's intentions were, he figured it was fine to print these things.

No one has ever printed vernacular Chinese in the official gazette. Is this taboo?

Chen Ruhai frowned and thought for a moment.

But she quickly smiled again.

The son-in-law is no pushover. Half of this official gazette is filled with classical Chinese praises of the current emperor, so he's not afraid of being attacked.

The characters are also common; bookstores have movable type, so there's no need to carve them again.

Including paper, ink, and labor, the cost of a newspaper was about eight coins, not exceeding ten coins.

Then he pointed to the black dots that appeared from time to time on the vernacular text and asked Young Master Ning, "What is this?"

"Punctuation marks," Ning Nan said with a smile. "This is called a comma," he pointed, "and this is called a period. Hmm, let's start with these two. I'd appreciate it if your bookstore could carve these two wooden characters."

The use of punctuation... Chen Ruhai nodded. This was not difficult. With this black mark, reading vernacular Chinese would indeed be much more enjoyable.

He looked at it again, thought for a long time, and after confirming that nothing had been missed, he nodded and said there was no problem and it could be printed.

When he heard the other party say that a thousand copies needed to be printed by 5 a.m. the next day, Chen Ruhai still gasped.

Ning Nan drew out a silver note.