freenovelworld Chapter 121: Hold an Auction
Chapter 121: Hold an Auction
Su Qin nodded in agreement: "Okay, there's no need to ask too many people. We need to go the high-end route. We should first find a few of the most capable people to hold the first auction. If the first auction goes well and the foreigners get a taste of the sweetness, they will spread the news among themselves. Then they will take the initiative to find us. The initiative is in our hands. We can set a threshold and raise the threshold. Only those who meet our requirements are eligible to do business with us. Correspondingly, we also need to set a threshold for receiving goods. We can't accept everyone who wants to exchange things. We need to create an impression that being able to do business with us is a symbol of status. We won't receive people of low status. In this way, those with status will come to us to patronize, whether they need it or not, to show off their status."
Qi Lusheng was stunned when he heard this. He looked at Su Qin and asked, "Miss Su, where did you know all this? How are you so smart?"
Su Qin smiled and said, "It's nothing. Anyone who does business knows that scarcity makes things valuable. Once a threshold is set for something, a lot of people will rush in regardless of whether they need it or not. People are vain and follow the crowd. It's human nature."
Qi Lusheng gave Su Qin a thumbs-up in admiration: "Amazing, what you said is really good, no wonder my father told me to listen to you from now on."
Su Qin smiled and said, "We learn from each other. Without the support of Master Qi and the Marquisate, we would just be doing small things, bartering from door to door like peddlers on the street. There's no way we could hold an auction."
Qi Lusheng was flattered and stood up, saying, "I'll go find out about the situation and send you the list of goods later. Let's try to get this auction going as soon as possible."
After saying that, he left in a hurry.
Su Qin looked at his departing figure and couldn't help shaking her head. This man was really resolute and decisive. She had also planned to leave here to rest, but when she turned around, she found that Zhao Liangchen was staring at her intently.
Su Qin was a little surprised. She looked down at herself, trying to find out if there was anything wrong. However, she didn't find anything unusual. So she raised her head and asked Zhao Liangchen in confusion, "Is there something wrong with me?"
This question brought Zhao Liangchen back to his senses, and his face flushed red. He stammered, "Nothing... nothing!"
He was secretly upset, wondering how he could be so out of control and keep staring at a girl.
But in reality, Su Qin's eloquent speech was so dazzling, as if she were radiating light. Zhao Liangchen couldn't help but be drawn to her confident and resolute expression, unable to extricate himself for a moment. Facing Su Qin's question, he felt deeply embarrassed and ashamed.
Su Qin was not a pure white rabbit. Seeing Zhao Liangchen's face flushed with embarrassment, there was nothing she didn't understand. However, she didn't expose him because she had to save some face for the man.
She turned around and went to rest. She would definitely be busy next, and now that she could rest, she didn't want to move any more.
Only after seeing Su Qin leave did Zhao Liangchen breathe a sigh of relief. He touched his inexplicably restless heart and despised himself again. It was already a certain time now and his safety was not even guaranteed, yet he still had time to think about all sorts of things.
He didn't come to see Su Qin for the next two days, and Qi Lusheng didn't come either, but he sent someone to deliver a list that listed what the Wu'an Marquis Mansion could provide.
Su Qin didn't know whether Qi Lusheng had written down everything in the Wuning Marquis's warehouse. The list was extremely long. If someone didn't know, they would think that the Wuning Marquis's mansion had fallen on hard times and had to sell off its property to make ends meet.
It took Su Qin a whole day to pick out the goods she needed. It wasn't too much, just a hundred pieces of silk fabrics of various colors, a hundred sets of various porcelains, some storable black tea and Pu'er tea, and some particularly luxurious-looking jewelry.
She had dealt with foreigners several times and knew that they were different from those in her dynasty. Most of them liked things with bright colors and exquisite patterns.
Although these things sound like a lot, they are nothing to the Wuning Marquis Mansion. Even if they don't have so many goods in their mansion, they have ways to get goods of good quality. Su Qin is not worried about this.
The items were selected and a venue was needed. When Zhao Liangchen went to deliver the order, he discussed it with Qi Lusheng and decided to hold the first auction at the farm outside the Wuning Marquis Mansion where they had visited last time.
It's outside the city, so it won't attract attention, and it's big enough to accommodate many people at the same time.
Marquis Wuning has already given it to Qi Lusheng. No matter what Qi Lusheng does in there, it is his personal behavior. Moreover, the servants of the Zhao family are still on that farm, so they can be used directly.
After the place was chosen, Qi Lusheng sent people to deliver things one after another. However, they were moved from the Wuning Marquis Mansion to a farm under the Wuning Marquis Mansion. Since they were all his own things, no one would suspect anything.
Su Qin also went to the farm early to make preparations. She left from Zhao Liangchen's house and got into the carriage in the house. To outsiders, it seemed that Zhao Liangchen had gone to Qi Lusheng's farm to recuperate and did not know that Su Qin had followed him.
When they arrived at the farm, any purchases that needed to be made were done by Qi Lusheng's people, and any work that needed to be done was done by the Zhao family's people.
Those people stayed on the farm for a while longer and did farm work. They were exhausted every day, so being able to help Su Qin with work was considered a leisurely task. Therefore, they all scrambled to do it, fearing that if they worked slowly, they would be sent back to farm.
There is a theater in this manor. The space inside is very large and the decoration is exquisite. Su Qin thinks it is very suitable for holding an auction, but it needs some modifications.
She drew a blueprint and asked the Zhao family's servants to modify it according to the outline.
She also wrote an auction slogan based on the goods sent by Qi Lusheng.
Then Xing'er trained several of her pretty young maids to perform the demonstration.
At first, when they learned that they were required to demonstrate their goods to customers, they were reluctant to do it, as they felt like prostitutes being stared at by men in public.
Su Qin did not force them, but just told them that if they did a good job, they would be given commissions based on the sales volume of goods. The more they sold, the more silver they would get in the future. When they saved enough silver, they could redeem themselves. If they were unwilling to do it, they could continue to do some rough work.
How could Xing'er and the others be unwilling now? Being able to redeem themselves and become good citizens is the dream of all servants.
Su Qin's progress was smooth, and the emperor also transported things out of the palace three times, all of which were destroyed as soon as they were transported out.
After watching for a few times and not noticing anything unusual, King Liang's men began to stop taking it seriously and became lazy.
His attention was focused on Zhao Liangchen. After checking him for a while, he did not find any problems with him. He also felt that the last time the emperor smashed Zhao Liangchen's head, which caused a rift between Zhao Liangchen and the emperor. It was a good opportunity for him to win over Zhao Liangchen. So he asked someone to find Zhao Jian and asked Zhao Jian to tell Zhao Liangchen that King Liang would help him with his promotion to deputy commander.
For this reason, Zhao Liangchen went back to the Zhao family. When he heard Zhao Jian say that King Liang was willing to help, he seemed very surprised.
Exactly ten days had passed, and the time the emperor had given Zhao Liangchen to reflect had come. His injuries had also healed, so the court again proposed that Zhao Liangchen be appointed as deputy commander. This time, with the strong support of people on Prince Liang's side, and Zhao Liangchen's private connections with officials, he became the deputy commander as he wished.
The appointment from the Ministry of Personnel came down quickly, and Zhao Liangchen went to the palace to express his gratitude.
The emperor sent everyone out of the hall and left Zhao Liangchen alone to play chess, with Liu Jin serving on the side.
The emperor often chatted with Zhao Liangchen. They were of similar age, so no one would think it was wrong. Even the people around the emperor, Prince Liang, did not think that the emperor and Zhao Liangchen were plotting anything.
Zhao Liangchen briefly reported the progress of the matter to the emperor. When the emperor learned that Marquis Wuning was willing to participate, he was very happy.
He had secretly sent people to win over Marquis Wuning before, but they were all rejected by Marquis Wuning politely. Although Marquis Wuning did not hold an office in the court, he had considerable influence, and he really could not do anything to him.
Now that Marquis Wuning was willing to join him, he was of course happy. He patted Zhao Liangchen on the shoulder and praised him, and his suspicion of him was reduced a lot.
Hearing that they were going to hold an auction, the emperor was surprised that there was such a way of doing business and said that he also wanted to try the waters and take things out to participate in the auction. However, he had no intention of touching the things in the Shangfu Bureau. For the first few times, he wanted to use things from his own private warehouse.