Win-Win Alliance

  Porcelain plates produced in Jingdezhen were popular at that time, and some Huizhou merchants made a fortune by selling such porcelain overseas.

  Yu Guozhen made another gesture, and Qi Niu and Luo Jiuhe walked over with a wooden basin. The basin was filled with half a basin of water, and apart from that, there were dozens of clams.

  The merchant's gaze suddenly shifted from the two girls to the wooden basin, could it be that pearls were born from these common mussels found in rivers?

  Just then, Yu Guozhen smiled slightly and said: "Everyone, look at this. This is our Yu family's harvest last year."

  He said as he took out two cloth bags and came before Liu Ruyi and Xiao Lian, opening the bags.

  The sound of pearls entering the plate is so pleasant to hear, those merchants are almost drunk. These are all silver flowers, that one bag of pearls, well-operated, at least worth a thousand taels!

  Yu Guozhen poured out two bags of pearls, and Liu Rushi and Xiaolian placed them on the table. Yu Guozhen said: "Everyone who comes today should be an expert in the pearl industry, so don't hesitate to come up and appraise the authenticity of these pearls."

  Suddenly five or six people came over, and several others wanted to stand up, but seeing the crowd, they sat back down.

  The masters of appraisal invited by Huishang and Jinshang carefully examined the quality of those pearls, even holding them up to the light from outside for a long time before discussing in hushed tones.

  "These are all river pearls, although they're not the best quality, but still quite good." After a while, the oldest one among them spoke on behalf of everyone: "Rare, rare!"

  Yu Guozhen smiled faintly: "The best quality also has, but needs to be picked out, in these two bags, there should be more than ten of the best quality."

  The appraiser's face turned slightly red, as he was entrusted by the merchants to depreciate the value in order to lower the price. However, Yu Guozhen's words exposed his intention, making him somewhat embarrassed, and he muttered: "That is, that is."

  "Everyone look."

  Yu Guozhen pointed to the basin after he finished speaking, and Luo Jiuhe took out a shell from it. He skillfully opened the shell with his knife and retrieved five pearls from inside. Two of them were of extremely poor quality, which he put aside, while the other three were placed on a ceramic plate.

  Several jewelry masters went up to appraise, and during their appraisal process, Luo Jiuhe continuously cut open the clams. In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen clams in the basin were all cut open, and one to three pearls of good quality were taken out from each clam!

  Everyone present was stunned by this scene.

  It was previously heard that Yu's family had the art of cultivating pearls, and although everyone believed it, they didn't expect that every oyster taken out would actually have a pearl!

  "This is... this is Jinshan!" someone muttered as if in a dream.

  "Now, I suppose you all believe that our family indeed has this extraordinary skill. In fact, this extraordinary skill is something I gained insight into by reading ancient books and exploring for three years before achieving success. If you are willing to explore on your own for three to five years, then there's no need to buy it from me, and you can save a large sum of money."

  Yu Guozhen said this with a very sincere smile on his face, but the merchants below him secretly scolded him for being cunning. If it were really as easy as he said, would everyone still need to come running?

  Only one of the relatively younger Huizhou merchants suddenly spoke up: "Young Master Yu, what book of ancient people are you talking about?"

  According to the Ministry of Rites' Shangshu Xie, there is a method for cultivating pearls. Using the artificial pearls made today, select those that are shiny and round, take slightly larger clams, soak them in clear water, feed them when they open their mouths, quickly throw the pearl into it, change to clear water immediately, and place the clam under the moonlight at night to play with the moon's glow. After two autumns, the pearl will be formed.

  Yu Guozhen said this, Jin Shang was somewhat inexplicable, but many Huishang people had already rolled their eyes. The younger man smiled brightly: "It seems that the skill Yu Xiaodi wants to sell is not so simple. If it's so simple, why haven't we heard of such a pearl technique since Song?"

  This man spoke very humorously. Yu Guozhen looked at him and cupped his hands: "Brother, you're absolutely right. May I ask your honorable surname and given name?"

  "I dare not, my surname is Xú, my humble name is Lín, and my courtesy name is Zhòngyuān."

  "Brother Xu is right. Although the Song people have records, unfortunately they are too brief. Our Yu family spent three years to restore this ancient skill to the world."

  Yu Guozhen emphasized that the technique of artificially cultivating pearls has been around since ancient times, because he heard the story of "Gui Bao" released by Xiang Jiao, and he knew that today's prince was not a person with a broad mind, who had done many things to kill people with rumors. If he found out that he had something to do with the turtle spirit, he might send someone to clean him up.

  "Gentlemen, you are all intelligent people. My family has been guarding this golden mountain, originally it was enough for generations to eat and wear, but now we have no choice but to take it out." Yu Guozhen slightly nodded at the reason why he wanted to sell the pearl cultivation technique: "We are only doing this for self-protection, not to harm others. So, this pearl cultivation technique, my family is prepared to sell twelve shares, plus two shares that we plan to give away, and one share that our family will keep, a total of fifteen shares. That means, from now on, there will be fifteen families in the world who can cultivate pearls."

  As soon as he spoke out, both Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants were suddenly in an uproar!

  Originally, it was thought that the technique of cultivating pearls would only have one copy, and whoever paid a high price for it would get it. Therefore, whether it was Huizhou merchants or Shanxi merchants, they all had an unspoken agreement within their groups: if one family got it, all families would share the profits, and absolutely not raise the price. But Yu Guozhen's arrangement easily broke through their plan, making it seem like more copies of the technique were being sold, which would naturally lower the price. In reality, however, this caused the alliance between the merchant families to break apart: one Yu family was easy to deal with, but if all the other merchants who had bought the pearl cultivation technique joined forces, they would be absolutely not easy to deal with!

  After the commotion, there are vigilant eyes and hidden hostility!

  Original allies instantly turned into opponents. Although everyone knew that this was caused by Yu Guozhen's tactics, they still had to swallow this tactic!

  If only one family obtained the Zhongzhu technique, the other families that did not obtain it would join forces to force them to spit out the Zhongzhu technique. And if twelve families obtained the Zhongzhu technique, it also means that about one-third of the families present will form a profit alliance. They must avoid being excluded from this profit alliance, and the only way is to bid as high as possible.

  Suddenly, all the crows and sparrows fell silent.

  After a while, Yu Guozhen smiled and turned to his right hand. The people sitting here were all Shanxi merchants. His eyes scanned the Shanxi merchants, then he said calmly: "Our Yu family did not invite the Shanxi merchants to come here..."

  As soon as this was said, there was another stir. The Huizhou merchants all had joyful expressions and thought to themselves that this Yu official was indeed a man from Anhui, and it seemed he still leaned towards them somewhat. The Shanxi merchants, on the other hand, looked rather displeased.

  Yu Guozhen continued slowly: "However, since you have come from afar as guests, naturally all of you also have the right to bid."

  The Shanxi merchants were delighted, while the Huizhou merchants gritted their teeth. Yu Guozhen continued slowly: "However, I heard that among the Shanxi merchants, there are those who secretly collude with the Eastern Barbarians and the Later Jin, with Fan Yongdou and Wang Dengku being the leaders. I wonder if there are people from these two families among you?"

  Yu Guozhen's words completely grasped the initiative, making people feel twists and turns, and when his last sentence came out, everyone in the room was shocked.

  "You... you dare to spout such nonsense!" One of the Jin merchants jumped up, pointing at Yu Guozhen and cursing loudly: "You little thief, how dare you insult us! Our family, the Fan clan, has always valued loyalty and righteousness, we are a family of merchants who have passed down our business for generations, we respect Lord Guan and uphold the law, where did we ever secretly collude with the Later Jin!"

  "Right, right, our Wang family is also like that. Since the time of Gao Xiang, our Shanxi merchants have been trading with Mongolia. If this can be considered as secretly trading with the Jin..."

  "Alright, stop being so worked up." Yu Guozhen coldly waved his hand: "Among the Shanxi merchants, most of them are people who have gone through hardships and dangers to become rich. I am extremely respectful of such Shanxi merchants. However, as for the Fan family and Wang family, get out now!"

  "You... have a big nerve!" The merchant from the Fan family pointed at Yu Guozhen: "Framing an honest man as a thief..."

  He was so eager to quarrel, the reason is simple, Fan's family and Houjin indeed have a collusion, this is a crime of confiscation and extermination, he doesn't know where Yu Guozhen got the news, but in any case, he wants to clear himself of this matter.

  Yu Guozhen smiled slightly, and immediately two young house guards rushed over, pinning down the Fan family merchant. The Fan family merchant also had accompanying bodyguards, but they were blocked outside the wine tower, so although he struggled and cursed loudly, he was still dragged out.

  Just as they were about to drag him out, Yu Guozhen suddenly spoke up: "Wait a minute, we are the Xiang'an Patrol Inspectorate. I almost forgot this matter. I suspect this man of tax evasion. Er Zhu, take him away and interrogate him thoroughly."

  Gao Er Zhu nodded and responded with a "yes", then went to the side of the Fan surname merchant. The Fan surname merchant was shocked and angry, not expecting Yu Guo Zhen to be so reckless!

  That Wang surname Jin merchant seeing this appearance, his face was ashen. He stood up: "Since we Jin merchants are not welcome, we will leave. Why must you frame us with false accusations? Everyone, what are you still doing here? Are you waiting for them to drive us away?"

  The Shanxi merchants present looked at each other in dismay. They had come to seek wealth, not disaster. Behind them were also some official forces. After returning, they could naturally use these official forces to put pressure on Yu Guozhen, but now it seemed that there was only this way to leave.

  Then the Shanxi merchants stood up one by one, some of whom were originally just making a gesture, as long as Yu Guozhen gave them a step down, they would follow suit and leave, but Yu Guozhen had a cold smile at the corner of his mouth, yet he didn't make any indication.

  The Shanxi merchants could only turn around and leave, heading down to the wine house. As they walked away, many of them still looked back at the two porcelain plates with a reluctant gaze.

  They were all astute people, even if the technique of cultivating pearls was shared among fifteen households, but for the vast population of tens of millions, pearls were still in short supply. Moreover, there were also the outer grasslands and overseas barbarians. Therefore, seeing such a gold mountain slipping away from their hands, they couldn't help but feel extremely regretful.

  Huizhou merchants were delighted, however, as the departure of these Shanxi merchants meant that their own chances of success had increased.

  But will Yu Guozhen let them have their way?

  Dividing line ah dividing line

  Thank you Bookworm for the reward, asking for Sanjiang votes ~~ Recommending a friend's new book

  [bookid=2310787,bookname="The Cultivation Student"], the author's life is not easy at Starting Point, just collect it if there's an empty space on your bookshelf!