Chapter Sixteen: The Crowd's Indignation

  "This time, I've come to bother the young master and County Magistrate, it's really out of desperation!" Wang, the shopkeeper, showed a worried expression, "To be honest, our business can't hold on any longer, so we thought of asking the young master for a favor, hoping he could lower the price of Fengwei grass, just to give us a way to survive!"

  "Oh, that's a fresh statement, tell me more!" Before Yao Yifei could speak, Wang Guanlan waved her hand and showed an interested expression.

  King Da's heart tightened, but he didn't panic. He spoke fluently for nearly half an hour, and the more Wang Guanlan listened, the more he felt like it was a price hearing of those monopolized departments in his previous life. However, these people were much better prepared than those hearings, with more details, sincerity, and at least they wouldn't use a few bad accounts as registered accounting reports.

  The old man didn't rush either, slowly telling everything that had happened, standing there with a slightly cramped posture, looking somewhat uneasy and tense.

  "Go ahead and pretend!" Wang Guanlan looked at the old man's performance, secretly scolding the old fox in his heart. The smile on his face also gradually cooled down with his words.

  "Are you done?!" After a moment of silence, Wang Guanlan asked, "Is there anything else to add?!"

  "That's basically it!" said Wang Laozhu quietly, having said all he needed to say. As for the final outcome, it was beyond his control.

  "Pretty good, reasonable and well-organized, clear data, sufficient reasons, thorough analysis, not bad at all!" Wang Guanlan nodded in approval, seemingly praising him. At this moment, Green Lotus handed him a new pair of shoes to change into, and he nodded his head in satisfaction. Suddenly, he changed the subject, "However, I disagree, the price of Phoenix Tail Grass will not be lowered, not even one cent! And as for Shun He Xing He Hui, if you want to purchase goods from other places, that's none of my business. But if you want to buy from me in Ning Tai, the price must be increased by 10%, it's settled!"

  After finishing speaking, Wang Guanlan stood up with a smile and said to County Magistrate Yao Yifei, "County Master, I just got some good tea yesterday, let's taste it together!"

  Although Yao Yifei was an old hand, he was still somewhat stunned by Wang Guanlan's completely unreasonable behavior. He stared blankly for a moment before breaking into a bitter smile. "Well, I've long heard that the Cloud Brocade of the Wang Manor is one of a kind in the world. It's just a pity that I never had the chance to see it!" After finishing speaking, he also stood up with Wang Guanlan, and the two of them actually just got up like this, pretending to leave.

  "Halt!"

  A loud shout suddenly came from the hall below, the sound was so sudden and loud that it startled Wang Guanlan, let alone Yao Yifei, this middle-aged man. To be honest, although Yao Yifei thought Wang Guanlan was messing around, he didn't expect that among these businessmen in the hall below, there would actually be someone with such a big nerve, daring to shout like this at this occasion.

  Wang Guanlan smiled and turned his head to look at the middle-aged man who had jumped out, saying softly, "Who are you?!"

  The middle-aged man had just been impulsive, jumping up in front of so many people, and his heart was also a little panicked. Looking at Wang Guanlan's strange attitude again, his face turned bright red, and he couldn't say a word.

  "When he was fourteen, he was Lin Qingmin, the second master of the Zao Yang Lin family!"

  "Zao Yang Lin family?!" Wang Guanlan's eyes became strange, Zao Yang is a small county town in Dianzhou, and the Lin family was originally just a small merchant family in Zao Yang. It wasn't until twenty years ago that a daughter of the Lin family caught the eye of Ning Wang Wang Bizheng and became his concubine, that the Lin family began to rise.

  That woman of the Lin family was none other than Madame Lin Yujie, the seventh wife of the Ning Wangfu. This Lin Qingmin was Lin Yujie's second brother, and also King Guangzhao's uncle.

  As far as he knew, the Lin family had borrowed Lin Yujie's power and had made great progress in recent years. However, due to Lin Yujie's identity, this development was ultimately limited. Therefore, the Lin family's influence was only limited to Zaoyang County, where they were kings in that small county town.

  Of course, as a rising family, there is naturally an expansion of **, which is not decided by one person, but by the will of the group, just like the pursuit of profit by capitalists, it is endless. Therefore, the Zao Yang Lin family has always wanted to expand its power outward, although there has been no substantial progress, but relying on various relationships, their tentacles have also extended from Zao Yang.

  Yicheng is the territory of Ning Wangfu, originally managed by the third son. The Lin family, through Lin Yujie's relationship, inserted their business into Yicheng. Of course, they only opened a small shop in Yicheng and didn't have much power. Other shops were making a fortune, while they were just scraping by.

  Such a situation seems not bad, but for the Lin family, which is in the development stage, it is clearly not enough. They have bigger ambitions and want to go further. No one understands better than them that going further depends on the Ning Wang Fu, looking at Lin Yu Mei's and Wang Guan Chao's status in the Ning Wang Fu.

  If they could previously rely on the Ning Wangfu relationship to get a share of the benefits in Yicheng, then when they learned that Wang Guanlan would take control of Yicheng, the Lin family understood that there would no longer be a place for them on the map of interests. Under this premise, the Lin family did not mind making a big scene in Yicheng, which would allow them to see Wang Guanlan's joke and gain the favor of the third son, thereby getting some compensation or even benefits elsewhere.

  So, in this month, the Lin family jumped to the most violent, their shops were small, but they represented the will of the third son to a certain extent. The third son had controlled Yicheng for many years and accumulated great prestige. With Wang Guanlan's arrival in Yicheng and the strange methods she displayed, they felt a sense of crisis. After repeated provocations, the current situation was formed.

  Lin Qing? Not speaking, Wang Guanlan narrowed his eyes, "You're quite bold, aren't you? With one order, you stopped County Magistrate and Young Master, now standing there silently, playing with us?"

  "Huh, no!!" Wang Guanlan's words were severe, and Lin Qing was startled. "I, I don't dare, it's just that there are some things that require the two of you to decide, so I took the liberty of asking for your forgiveness, esteemed sirs!!" Lin Qing also composed himself after a moment, took a deep breath, and spoke with increasing fluency, his words becoming more confident as he went on, until he finally stood up straight.

  "Not good, two sirs, it's not that we don't know how to appreciate a good thing, but the price of phoenix tail grass is just too high. We're already losing money on every sale, and now you want to raise the price again and push the shipping costs onto us? Our small businesses can't afford it!!" As soon as someone took the lead, others followed suit, and suddenly a chorus of complaints erupted from below. The group of boat owners also joined in, shouting and making a ruckus, filling the entire hall with noise, chaotic and disorderly like a vegetable market at dawn.

  Wang Guanlan's eyes narrowed, his gaze swept around the room, and finally fixed on Wang Dapuzhang, "If I insist on not lowering the price and no longer bearing the freight, what can you do?!"

  "What?!!" Wang Dazhuang's heart skipped a beat, and he detected an unusual tone in Wang Guanlan's voice. He suddenly became hesitant and swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

  He swallowed his words, but there was more than one person present, and seeing Wang Da Zhang's head lowered in silence, someone impatient jumped out.

  "If Fengweicao doesn't lower its price, our business will no longer purchase from Ningtai!"

  "It's all right, we won't stock up anymore. The more we stock, the more losses we'll make. We don't have that much money to fill in!"

  "It's all right, it's all right, and they still want us to pay for the shipping cost on top of that! Is this even humanly possible?!"

  "Even if it's the Ning Wang Fu, they can't be so overbearing!"

  "Yes, now that so much of the herb has been accumulated and can't be sold, if it's stored for any longer, its medicinal properties will all be lost. At that point, it'll just become a useless weed - who would still want it?"

  "We can't go on like this, we must lower the price!"

  "I won't accept it unless you lower the price!!"

  …………

  …………

  The crowd was outraged, what is called the crowd's outrage, this is the crowd's outrage. These businessmen from Yicheng were all like scolded wives, shouting and on the verge of drawing their knives. Of course, they wouldn't be foolish enough to fight with Wang Guanlan, but the meaning behind their words was clear: if prices weren't lowered, they would no longer buy phoenix tail grass from Ningtai, letting it pile up until it lost its medicinal properties and became worthless.

  Yao Yifei became somewhat worried, this old fox had long known that these business firms would put pressure on Wang Guanlan's tactics, but he never thought that Wang Guanlan would be so arrogant and uncooperative, not even having the slightest intention of negotiating with these businessmen, without leaving any room for compromise, suddenly putting the situation to a desperate point. Now, the business firms in Yicheng are starting to make their move, let's see how Wang Guanlan reacts.

  As the county magistrate of Yicheng, he really didn't want both sides to split up. After all, everything in Yicheng was supported by the business of Fengweicao. If something went wrong with Fengweicao's business, it would inevitably trigger a series of chain reactions. The situation in Yicheng over the past month has been the best annotation. Without Fengweicao's business, merchants from outside wouldn't come to Yicheng. These merchants didn't come to Yicheng, and Yicheng had no atmosphere. Along with this, the business of wine shops, inns, and restaurants also plummeted. The originally bustling dock also became deserted. In addition, some daily necessities related to the people's livelihood began to be in short supply. Yicheng has fallen into a state of depression. This is also why he came here today, with the purpose of promoting compromise and reconciliation between the two sides. At the same time, he hoped that this compromise and reconciliation could take place in a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere, rather than like now, where the entire hall was like a powder keg, ready to explode at any moment.

  "Now this kind of enthusiastic appearance makes him somewhat difficult to grasp, so he cast his gaze at Wang Guanlan, "Fourteen Shao, look at this matter, why not talk about it again? There's no need to make things difficult for business, is there?"

  This is what Quan Lan said to King Wang.

  !，。