After ten years of accompanying me in my studies, the entire court begged me to shut up.

Zuixianlou is the largest restaurant in the capital.

In a private room on the second floor, a dozen or so people sat around a large round table; they were all prominent managers of cloth shops in the capital.

Yang Chunhua sat at the head of the table, with an empty seat next to her.

Zhou Youcai was puzzled. The old chairman had suddenly called everyone together today, saying he had something important to announce.

He inquired all the way, but no one knew what it was about.

Manager Sun leaned closer and whispered, "Chairman Zhou, what is the old chairman doing?"

Zhou Youcai shook his head: "I don't know."

Manager Sun then asked, "Could it be that there's been a resolution to the matter in Shuntian Prefecture?"

Zhou Youcai had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but he didn't respond.

If it were just that one thing, informing everyone would have been enough; there was no need to make such a big fuss.

At that moment, the curtain was lifted, and the waiter bowed and led in a young man.

At the age of fifteen or sixteen, he was handsome with delicate features, dressed in a moon-white long robe, and had a refined and scholarly demeanor.

Everyone looked over and whispered among themselves.

"Whose young master is this?"

"Never seen it before."

"He is quite handsome."

Yang Chunhua stood up, beaming with smiles, and went to greet Yang Shen, taking his hand and leading him to the seat of honor.

"Come, come, my dear nephew, sit here."

Seeing this, everyone became even more puzzled.

When did the old chairman start treating a junior so politely?

Yang Shen took his seat and bowed to the crowd.

Yang Chunhua cleared his throat and announced loudly, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have invited you all here today to announce something very important."

The private room fell silent, and everyone looked at him.

Yang Chunhua pointed at Yang Shen with a beaming smile: "This is Yang Shen, the son of my cousin! He passed the imperial examination at the age of thirteen, and the whole capital is abuzz with talk of him as a child prodigy!"

Everyone stood up and clasped their hands in greeting.

"So it's Young Master Yang! I've heard so much about you!"

"Your father, Yang Zhanshi, was the pride of our Xindu County!"

"His reputation as a child prodigy is legendary, and seeing him today, he truly is a remarkable young man!"

Yang Shen stood up and returned the greetings one by one.

Zhou Youcai also stood up, cupped his hands and said, "Young Master Yang is a promising young man, and he will surely surpass his teachers in the future."

But in his heart he was wondering, what did the old chairman want to do with this young master?

After several rounds of drinks and five courses of food,

Yang Chunhua picked up her wine glass and stood up.

Knowing that the important matter was about to begin, everyone put down their chopsticks.

Yang Chunhua looked around and slowly began to speak.

"Gentlemen, I've grown old and my energy is waning these past few years, so I've mostly left the guild's affairs to Youcai. But the position of guild leader has been vacant for so long, and it makes me uneasy. Today, I'm here to settle this position."

Zhou Youcai's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously straightened his back.

In recent years, the former president has basically stopped getting involved in the affairs of the guild; he has been handling everything inside and out.

Although he hasn't officially become the president, everyone knows in their hearts that this position will be his sooner or later.

He picked up his teacup, took a sip, and tried to appear calm.

Yang Chunhua's voice continued: "From this day forward, the president of the Beijing Cloth Merchants' Guild will be my nephew, Yang Shen!"

puff--

Zhou Youcai spat out a mouthful of tea.

Manager Sun stared with his mouth agape, not even noticing his chopsticks fall onto the table.

Everyone at the table was stunned, and the entire private room fell silent.

Yang Chunhua, still all smiles, raised her glass: "Come on, let's toast the new president together!"

But no one moved.

Zhou Youcai put down his teacup, his face ashen.

He took a deep breath, suppressing his anger and trying to make his voice sound calm.

"President Yang, isn't this... a bit hasty?"

Yang Chunhua glanced at him: "What? You have money to burn, so you have something to say?"

Zhou Youcai stood up, cupped his hands in greeting to Yang Chunhua, and then cupped his hands in greeting to Yang Shen.

"Young Master Yang is a prodigy at a young age, and I, Zhou Youcai, admire him from the bottom of my heart. But Chairman Yang, doing business is not the same as reading and writing articles; they are two different things."

He looked at everyone present and continued, "Although our guild is not large, it still has a turnover of several hundred thousand taels of silver a year. We have more than a dozen merchants, more than twenty shops, and hundreds of people who depend on us for their livelihood. The position of guild leader requires knowledge of the market, connections, and interpersonal relationships; it's not a position that just anyone can hold."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Manager Zhou is right."

"That's right, the president has to make decisions for everyone."

"President Yang, would you please reconsider?"

Yang Chunhua didn't answer, but just looked at Yang Shen with a smile.

Yang Shen stood up, cupped his hands in greeting to everyone, and then said, "I'm sure you managers have some doubts. That's alright. To be honest, I didn't initially intend to become the president of this association."

The group looked at each other, some even annoyed.

Yang Shen continued, "However, since my uncle insisted, I had no choice but to accept this position as chairman."

A group of people working together?

Zhou Youcai's lips twitched.

Yang Shen looked at him and smiled, "Now that I've become the president, there's only one thing I need to do: lead everyone to make money, and make a lot of money. It's that simple!"

Zhou Youcai sneered and said sarcastically, "Young Master Yang, you probably don't know how badly the fabric business has been squeezed out by sweaters. In the past month since winter began, cotton-padded coat sales have dropped by 50%! Making a profit? Everyone's lucky if they don't lose too much."

Yang Shen nodded: "Of course I know."

Zhou Youcai was taken aback: "You know?"

Yang Shen said, "Because I am the owner of the sweater shop, I still have the list of the people you arranged to cause trouble in front of the shop a couple of days ago."

Zhou Youcai looked up, his face full of astonishment.

"Young Master Yang, you said... sweaters are your business?"

Yang Shen nodded calmly.

The others, however, were not calm and exclaimed in surprise.

"What? The sweater belongs to Young Master Yang?"

"So what have we been doing all this time...?"

"Oh no, I've offended the wrong person!"

Yang Shen looked at Zhou Youcai and said calmly, "I won't hold your underhanded tactics against me against you. As for Manager Li, Zhao Wu, Wang Er, and the others, I've already had the Shuntian Prefecture release them."

Upon hearing this, everyone blushed and wished they could disappear into the ground.

Yang Shen and the others quieted down a bit and continued, "But this matter is not over yet. The cotton textile industry has indeed been greatly affected by sweaters. However, these are all immediate problems. We need to take a long-term view."

Zhou Youcai composed himself and asked, "Does Young Master Yang mean that the current market should be ceded to sweaters?"

He paused, his tone becoming somewhat tentative: "You just said you wanted to help the guild make money, but I don't know how you're going to do that? You can't just have us contribute to your sweater business, can you?"

Yang Shen laughed: "Let me ask you, why would the appearance of sweaters affect the sales of cotton-padded coats?"

Zhou Youcai thought for a moment and replied, "Because sweaters are cheaper and have a similar warmth retention as cotton-padded coats, ordinary people will naturally choose the cheaper one."

Yang Shen nodded: "You're right, price is the most fundamental issue. If cotton-padded coats and sweaters were priced similarly, wouldn't they be unaffected?"

Zhou Youcai was taken aback, then frowned: "Young Master Yang, are you suggesting we raise the price of sweaters?"

Yang Shen shook his head: "On the contrary, the price of sweaters will not change. What I need to do is to lower the price of cotton-padded coats."

Zhou Youcai was even more confused: "If the price of cotton-padded clothes drops, we'll make even less money. The cost is there; lowering the price means losing money. Are we all going to starve?"

Yang Shen looked at him and said, "Since I've taken on this role as guild leader, my goal is to make the guild bigger and stronger. To be honest, your previous size was far too small."

Everyone couldn't help but sigh; a turnover of hundreds of thousands a year was actually considered too little.

Zhou Youcai couldn't listen any longer and asked, "How much is Young Master Yang planning to achieve?"

Yang Shen said, "Achieve five million within a year! Achieve twenty million within three years! If I can't do that, I won't resign as chairman."

The private room was so quiet that you could hear the wind outside the window.

The group looked at each other, thinking they had misheard.

Five million a year, twenty million in three years, what does that mean?

The tax revenue collected by the national treasury is only two or three million taels a year.

If we convert the grain and cloth into silver, it would amount to approximately twelve million.

This new president, before even taking office, boasted that the annual turnover would exceed the national treasury's tax revenue and that it would exceed the national treasury's total revenue in three years. Isn't that just a pipe dream?

Zhou Youcai opened his mouth, but it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence.

"Young Master Yang, you said... five million taels?"

He swallowed hard and continued, "Do you even believe what you're saying? If you could really do it, forget being the president, I'd treat you like a god!"

Yang Shen looked at him, nodded, and said, "I'll remember what Manager Zhou said."

He stood up, took a scroll from his sleeve, and placed it on the table.

"Gentlemen, why don't you take a look at this first?"