C61 (1/2)
Chapter 61 - Great Gambling
Just as High Scholar Huang was about to bring his servants around to deliver their gifts, Xiao Letian was happily bringing his subordinates along as he prepared for the opening ceremony tomorrow. The bank used clean water to wipe the whole thing inside and out. The dirt on the door was placed on three layers, and was tampered three times. It was firm and smooth, but the key was to cover up the stench from yesterday.
Tanggu's three hundred foreign banks and the Black and White Society's friends all had to have an invitation card delivered to them. The other party might not come, but they could not refuse this etiquette, otherwise it would be troublesome for them.
There were many things to do at the opening of the restaurant, the Coastal building had to take care of the area, so the seats had to be prepared in advance, and tens of thousands of shots of firecrackers were ordered from Liu Yang, they had to be taken care of by someone, and there were even tea bowls for the guests, including the scattered copper coins to reward the beggars, they had to be prepared well, and not a single mistake could be made during a day of great celebration.
”Higher up on the left, hey, right...” ”Useless trash, are you going to hang yourself or hang yourself …”
”Here, here, balance it out. Use more strength! I'll treat you guys to lunch and then ignore it …”
”What?” Let me write two invitations... ”Do they recognize me when I write foreign characters? Go play while I write …”
Xiao Letian was obviously very excited today, as he scurried back and forth in his Letian Firm. He didn't help in any way and instead caused quite a bit of trouble.
In his previous life, Xiao Letian never thought that he would be able to start a company one day, let alone a multinational company. In the end, it was Fan Lian who forced Xiao Letian to go out and relax, and everyone finally managed to get rid of this troublemaker.
Xiao Letian brought Dragon Lord and two other clever shop assistants, walking back and forth in the Tanggu Pier in boredom. One moment he was teaching Dragon Lord how to recognize the flags of the various countries, and another moment he was haggling with fishermen who sold seafood, he did not know that a group of people was secretly observing him from within the guest rooms on the second floor of the warehouse.
The one hiding behind the window was the Keeper Niu who had drunk wine with Huang Juren before. He was obviously the leader of this group of merchants.
Keeper Niu watched for a while, then closed the window and whispered to everyone, ”Everyone knows what happened last night, right? This Xiao Letian is not someone to be easily bullied, he is a fierce dragon, the Xiao Pi Sun is completely screwed. I heard that a few people surnamed Xiao managed to kill him off … ”
Today, the people of Tanggu already knew about the huge fire in High Scholar Huang's house, and the people also knew that the fire was very weird, but only the big figures knew the secret behind the fire. Keeper Niu and the surrounding merchants were the ones who had the qualifications to know this secret.
It took a long time before someone finally spoke out. ”Keeper Niu, even if we agreed to work together with Yellow Lord to deal with Xiao Letian, we shouldn't go back on our words. ”This really frightens me. In the end, we are still merchants. Is it really good to provoke someone like him?”
One of them opened his mouth and everyone agreed, but there were also voices of opposition, ”Then what do we do?” He had already promised Huang Juren, yet he was going back on his words now? What can't he and the Xiao Pi Sun do? When the time comes, don't vent all your anger on us … ”The sales have just started to improve, and I can't stop this from happening …”
”Then what do we do? The left side can't afford to offend him. The right side won't dare to offend him. In the end, we'll be the unlucky ones …”
Keeper Niu saw that everyone was discussing and sighed, ”Quiet down, complaining won't solve the problem. We are merchants, so we need to use a merchant's method to solve it. I have a plan, but everyone, let's see if it is feasible or not …”
With that, Keeper Niu took a sip of tea to moisten his throat, ”Usually on the day of the opening of a trading company, one or two trades will be arranged to get a good reward, this is also a rule. However, this Letian Firm has a lot of fun. Yesterday, Fan Ru actually came to visit me, and wanted to buy some pig hair from me … ”
Through the Keeper Niu's introduction, people found out that the Letian Firm had actually received such a large transaction. The pig hair business of the French Merchant Shipping 'Lucky' had actually been won over by the Letian Firm!
In the Tanggu's port, just last month, a French Merchant Shipping Lucky arrived. It took ten days for the cargo to be completely emptied, along with Indian smoke and soil, as well as Javanese spices, including European hot velvet, crystal lamps and other miscellaneous items. Now is the time for big purchases.
In addition to the fixed tea leaves, silk and porcelain, there was also a very important cargo the merchant ship wanted to buy from China, which was pig mane.
The average person might not understand, but how could Pig Hair become an important commodity in the Ocean trade? But in the recent history of mankind, the trade in pig mane is really a very important commodity.
In the absence of the oil and chemical fiber industry, if humans wanted to make a brush, all they could do was choose animal hair. Most of the animal hair was too soft to make a brush. Only the pig's hair was an exception. Not only was it springy, but it was also easily mass-produced due to the animal hair on its body. This was why humans treated it as a very important commodity.