Gaojiazhuang, blue bricks and white cracks, black tiles and green trees.

In the courtyard where guests live, the shade is lingering on the ground, and cicadas are chirping.

The windows in the open study are bright and clean, with only desks, bookshelfs, piano tables, incense burners, and only a pair of freehand landscapes of Shen Zhou are hung on the walls. The furnishings are simple but elegant.

Ma Xianglan burned a furnace of sandalwood, put the cushion she brought with her on the chair, and then held her hair high. Then she sat down and put on her own gold-rimmed glasses.

She took a spoonful of clear water from the water bowl and dripped it gently onto the inkstone. Then she picked out a piece of Huangshan pine smoke ink with golden thread from the ink box, twisted it with her delicate jade fingers, and grind it slowly.

The afternoon light shone on the desk through the supported windows, which seemed to have cast a sacred color on the work.

While grinding ink, Ma Xianglan planned and thought about the content of the book repeatedly. Her literary talent was naturally enough, even surpassing many scholars. However, the "newsletter" that the young master asked her to write was the audience of the group's managers who were well-versed in writing, or even employees who had just completed literacy. Obviously, they had to use popular plain language to achieve the best communication effect.

Although she still loves beautiful poems and songs, Sister Ma is willing to accept it. A smart woman like her naturally doesn’t want to be just a beautiful vase, she also wants to occupy a place in the great cause of the young master.

‘Let me add glory to the young master’s career!’

Sister Ma took a deep breath, stretched out her wrist, lifted up the Zihaohu pen, and wrote lines of beautiful small calligraphy on the golden Xuetao paper.

"Jiangnan Newsletter" "Long San06" issue headline newsletter:

"On the sixth day of the third year of Longqing, Zhao Gongliben, former right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue of Nanjing, accompanied by the Hanlin Review and the founder of Jiangnan Group, Zhao Gongzi, came to Gaojiazhuang thousands of miles to bring holiday blessings and good wishes to Gao Gong, the second assistant of the former cabinet who was retired and the former censor of Jiangdu Gao Jie, and participated in traditional festival activities such as fishing, military training with great interest."

‘The next morning, Mr. Zhao also participated in the morning exercises organized by the high school chief, which was highly praised by the old senior. The high school chief held Mr. Zhao’s hand and said excitedly, “Okay, very energetic!”

‘At noon on the seventh day of the lunar month, Gao Ge Lao cordially met with Mr. Zhao under the grape trellis in his main hall, and the two sides held friendly talks. Mr. Gao Ge highly praised Mr. Zhao’s efforts to improve water conservancy and grain transportation, which benefited the country and the people, and expressed his appreciation for his and Jiangnan Group's consistent adherence to the principle of "loyalty to the emperor and patriotism".’

'Our Master Zhao humbly said that he and Jiangnan Group are still young and need old seniors to help him get on the horse and give him a trip, and urge him to be honest with the people, follow the public opinion, return to work as soon as possible, and make another contribution to the Ming Dynasty.'

‘Gaoge Lao said that he was in good health. If His Majesty and the country needed it, he would be willing to work hard again at any time. The talks ended in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Gaoge Lao also personally cooked and baked leek boxes to entertain Mr. Zhao.’

‘Foreign reporter Malan.’

After writing this newsletter for the public issuance of Jiangnan Group, Ma Xianglan changed another piece of paper and rubbed her wrist and continued to write:

‘Internal Reference’ ‘Long Sanyao 2’ period (confidential: only communicated to group management cadres):’

‘This talk was positive and fruitful. During the talks, the two sides exchanged views frankly and agreed to look to the future, put down their burdens, seek common ground while reserving differences, gather similarities and transform differences, and jointly build a strategic partnership of win-win cooperation. The two sides should rely on partnership, adhere to the concept of win-win, strengthen practical cooperation in various fields, establish an effective coordination mechanism, prevent misjudgments, strengthen communication and coordination on major issues, and work together to achieve peace, stability and prosperity in the Ming Dynasty.’

‘Component Shouzhen.’ Ma Xianglan used his real name as the communication pseudonym this time.

Then she changed into the third piece of paper and asked Mr. Zhao as a secretary and drafted:

‘Submitted to the Group Board of Directors, Strategic Decision-making Committee:’

‘I basically reached an understanding with Xuan Weng during this trip, and the two sides made three decisions:’

‘1. Put down the burden of history and move forward lightly. Jiangnan Group and Xishan Company fully support Xuan Weng’s recovery. They also fully cooperate with Xuan Weng’s future governance reforms (excluding the ten prefectures in Jiangnan).’

‘2. Xuan Weng promised that after the resumption, he would immediately start promoting the shipping of grain, and try his best to safeguard the interests of the Group in Jiangnan and overseas. He would not interfere with the governance and reform of the ten governments in Jiangnan, but the premise was that such governance reforms would not harm the interests of the court.’

‘3. The appointment and removal of local officials from the ten prefectures of Jiangnan must be consulted first. The Group has a veto power for the appointment of Governor Tian. However, the Group should be consistent with Xuan Weng for the appointment of officials outside the ten prefectures of Jiangnan.’

‘Zhao Hao’

‘June 8, 3rd year of Longqing.’

After writing three different articles on the same thing, Ma Xianglan put down her writing and expanded her chest, put the three manuscripts into a clip, and took light steps to go to the outside room to review.

~~

Zhao Hao had just returned from Gao Jie's injury. He put his feet on Qiao Qiao's legs weakly and asked her to apply medicine to his toes.

Qiaoqiao carefully applied potions to the cracks of his toenails, while complaining that Gao Wu had not taken good care of the young master.

The tall brother was so sad that he almost burst into tears, and he became more and more speechless.

"I don't blame Brother Gao, I'll smash the sword myself." Zhao Hao hurriedly rescued Gao Wu and said, "Fortunately, it was a knife handle on the foot. If it was the other end, at least cut two toes."

"How long will the young master stay with that old man crazy?" Qiaoqiao burst into tears. Zhao Hao, who had served from Beijing to Xinzheng for 1,500 miles, was white and tender. After only three days of visiting Gaojiazhuang, she had been burned into tanning soil oil.

"It's almost done." Zhao Hao smiled happily, "I'm not going to let my injuries down, how can I train?"

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, thinking that the young master would not deliberately pretend to be injured in order to avoid training, right? Of course, no one dared to ask about this.

At this time, Ma Xianglan came from the study and saw Zhao Hao's appearance, so she naturally felt deeply distressed again.

Looking at Sister Ma's crying look, Zhao Hao quickly took the clip from her hand and diverted Ma Xianglan's attention: "Come on, I'll see how it's written."

Sister Ma really didn't care about the pain, and grabbed the corner of her skirt with a little cramped voice, "I'm not used to these two styles, especially the first one, I feel that I'm writing too broadly this time."

"It's good to speak plainly, just to make everyone understand it." Zhao Hao said with great satisfaction after reading it: "It's good, I'll send it back."

Qiao Qiao looked at Secretary Ma with enviousness as a reporter, and thought to herself that it would be good to be knowledgeable...

"Yes." Ma Xianglan breathed a sigh of relief, took back three letter papers, took out two translated cipher texts from the clip, and handed them to Zhao Hao and said, "Young Master, the urgent report I just received."

"Oh?" Zhao Hao took it and saw a message from Jiang Xueying from Suzhou, reporting on the end of the financial battle with Hengtong.

Mr. Zhao received a report from Hengtongji that he maliciously ran the Xuzhou Branch of Jiangnan Bank half a month ago. However, he was not too worried. He had established a defensive system for Jiangnan Bank that exceeded the times and arranged for elite soldiers to take charge of the rear. There was no big difference between himself and not.

The only thing he cares about is whether he can kill the Luo Shizi Hengtongji in one fell swoop.

In the secret letter, Jiang Xueying told him that with the help of Pan Zhongcheng, Jiangnan Bank would ship the 7.5 million taels of silver in Linqing in advance to Xuzhou and successfully survive the run.

At the same time, in order to retaliate against Hengtongji, she announced that all Hengtongji depositors could transfer the money to Jiangnan Bank within five days and give three times the interest.

As a result, within three days, Hengtongji in Wuxi, Songjiang, Jiaxing and other places were successively run and closed. It turned out that their money had been misappropriated by Song Xiaoming and deposited it in Jiangnan Bank as a position to attack the Xuzhou branch.

Hengtong Ji Xingye from Huai'an Base Camp and mobilized silver ships to head south, but it happened that the Yangtze River Navy was practicing in the Guazhou Waters and could not go south for a while.

Now, all Hengtongs in Jiangnan had to close their business one after another.

Seeing that Hengtongji was about to lose his money, the angry depositors surrounded Hengtongji's money shop, grabbed the shopkeeper Chaofeng, and forced them to pay back the money, otherwise they would burn the store and catch them to meet the officials!

The run plan that Song Dashang Manager planned was perfectly staged in Jiangnan. However, the winner became his own Hengtong Record.

The government had to go out for mediation. Finally, with the mediation of Cai Guoxi and others, Hengtongji borrowed 5 million taels from Jiangnan Bank to liquidate with depositors. At the cost, Hengtongji not only had to pay high loan interest to Jiangnan Bank, but also had to close Hengtongji's semicolon south of the Yangtze River after liquidating all debts, and never be allowed to enter the ten prefectures of Jiangnan.

For the shopkeeper Song, the conditions offered by Jiang Xueying are not only extremely humiliating, but also very fatal!

Jiangnan is the economic center of the Ming Dynasty. If Hengtong Ji's tickets cannot be passed through Hangzhou Jiahu, Susongchang Town, Susongchang Town, and Taiping Yingtian Prefecture in Yangzhou, then which business can use it? In addition to the canal transportation system, who else would store money in Hengtong Ji?

What’s worse is that if sea transportation emerges in the future, canal transportation will not be the only choice for freight from north to south. It’s time for the canal transportation government to ask those merchants not to abandon the canal and go on the sea route. What’s the confidence to ask them to record the accounts from Hengtong?

With Song Xiaoming's eyes, of course, he could understand how serious the seemingly fair conditions would cause to Hengtongji.

But if he did not agree, dozens of Hengtongji families in Jiangnan would be seized by the government at the same time, and all the shopkeepers and Chaofeng would have to be imprisoned.

Moreover, Jiangbei's general account is also responsible for unlimited joint and several liability. The government in Jiangnan will definitely request the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice to seize the Hengtong Ji of Jiangbei and arrest him, the shopkeeper, to bring him to justice.

Although the other party may not succeed, the trouble will occur, and Hengtongji, in Jiangbei and even Shandong, will also break out in an unstoppable run. He and Hengtongji will soon be dead!

Between fast death and slow death, of course, we should choose the latter...

After all, as long as you are alive, there is still hope of turning the tables. Maybe Jiangnan Group will suddenly die, and Hengtong will be reborn?

So Song Xiaoming agreed in pain. The hero cut off his arm to protect Hengtongji north of the Yangtze River.
Chapter completed!