Chapter 181 Becoming a Royal Merchant
"Cousin, you are awesome!" Wang An said excitedly, "You don't even look down on doing business with the imperial court, how awesome are you!"

Chongzhen was already immune to Wang An's occasional vulgar remarks. Seeing Wang An so excited, Chongzhen said something shocking: "I know you are very excited, brother, but please don't get excited yet."

"Listen to me, you are getting excited."

Wang An was also worried that Chongzhen would look down on him, so he suppressed his excitement and sat down, pretending to be a boss who could not change his expression even if Mount Tai collapsed in front of him, and said in a literary manner: "Please tell me, my dear brother, nothing can cause me any disturbance today."

Chongzhen smiled playfully and said, "Moreover, this merchant is not an ordinary merchant, but a royal merchant of the Honglu Temple. He is issued a Chafa Kanhe by the Honglu Temple, and all payments for goods are settled with the Honglu Temple.

Although we are currently only supplying military funds to Datong, we do not rule out the possibility of purchasing and selling items to the nine important towns and the imperial palace in the future."

Wang An frowned, feeling that something was wrong.

After thinking for a moment, he said in horror: "Damn it, isn't this the Imperial Merchant?"

Chongzhen touched his nose with a guilty conscience and said cunningly, "Is that so? But what does it matter?"

Wang An was stunned when he heard this, and thought to himself, what does it matter whether he is an imperial merchant or not? After all, he is an imperial merchant of the Qing Dynasty.

Moreover, different historical dynasties have the same needs, and sometimes the functions and characteristics overlap, but the names are different, which is not too strange.

And then he thought again that this business had the potential to grow bigger, and perhaps in the future he could become a supplier to the imperial palace and the nine important towns on the border. Wang An was so excited that he didn't know where to put his hands and feet.

When Chongzhen saw Wang An's expression, he knew that this wave was stable, so he smiled and said, "So it seems that brother is willing?"

Wang An nodded desperately and said, "I've given you the money, how can you not be willing to do this?"

But as soon as he finished speaking, Wang An hesitated again.

Seeing this, Chongzhen asked, "Brother, do you have any concerns?"

Wang An nodded, which made Chongzhen nervous.

Could it be that my brother, the 32nd generation successor of the Mayi Sect, had a premonition of something?
Could it be that Man Gui really collaborated with the enemy and secretly funded the Tartars?
After waiting for a long time, Wang An asked solemnly, "Has the Honglu Temple paid the money on time?"

Chongzhen rolled his eyes immediately, not knowing how to respond for a moment.

Wang An saw this and said solemnly: "Don't laugh, my dear brother, this question is very important!"

As a person of later generations, although I have seen many businessmen who did business under the guise of government become rich and powerful, I have also seen many companies go bankrupt due to overdue payments.

There are even some who not only cannot get the money, but are also sent to jail by the government and charged with extortion, and spend decades in jail. It is really an injustice.

Seeing Wang An's serious attitude, Chongzhen had to express his opinion, "Don't worry, brother, I have someone above me!"

Wang An suddenly understood and gave a sly smile that everyone understood.

Wang An had no doubt about this. He thought, kidding! Even the third-rank governor of Shuntian Prefecture could be invited. There must be at least a second-rank official above him, so it was not strange at all.

Next, Chongzhen explained some details, asking Wang An to go to the Honglu Temple to find so-and-so and report so-and-so's name, etc., which was not much different from what happened in later generations.

Finally, Chongzhen asked: "This business is a good one, but I may need you to advance the money first."

Wang An said, "I understand. Of course, the court can't allocate funds to me first." So Chongzhen said, "The first batch of goods will probably need to be worth about 8,000 taels. In addition to hiring people and cars, all other expenses on the road and the wages of the employees, it will probably cost about 10,000 taels."

Chongzhen took out a ticket from his pocket and handed it to Wang An, saying, "This is a ticket from Tianshun. His family also has a branch in Datong. Brother, take it first so that it will be convenient for you to withdraw money."

The Huipiao in the Ming Dynasty was not a silver note, but a side business done by some merchants, roughly equivalent to today's postal remittance slips.

Businesses make profits through commissions, and generally charge a commission based on the distance and amount of money.

Wang An felt a little embarrassed and returned the bill to Chongzhen, saying, "Why do I have to keep using your money? Now I have some money, and I can still get the ten thousand taels if I grit my teeth."

Chongzhen smiled and said, "Since you said you were collecting it, it means you are not good at using the money. I am going to keep it anyway, so why don't you use it first?"

Wang An thought that Chongzhen must have used favors and connections to get such a good business, and he didn't know how much money he spent, but he just gave it to him for free out of kindness.

But he couldn't accept it calmly, so he took the ticket and said, "Then treat this business as your investment, and we'll split it 50-50!"

"No, no," Wang An shook his head again and said, "You have been busy with this business from beginning to end, and now you have invested more money, so I think we should split it 70% to 30%."

Chongzhen didn't care about this little bit of silver at all. Whether it was 73 or 50, it was meaningless to him. In his view, it was just a small amount of money earned by Wang An.

However, since Wang An insisted on giving it, Chongzhen didn't want to hurt his self-esteem, so he waved his hand and said, "You and I, brothers, don't talk about 70% to 30%. Since you insist on giving me a share, then it's 50%."

Wang An immediately smiled and praised, "I knew you were a generous man. Fifty-fifty is fifty-fifty!"

The two chatted for a while, and then Chongzhen stood up and said goodbye.

That night, Wang An was so excited that he couldn't sleep the whole night.

The chemical plant here has reached the final stage of preparation, and Chongzhen there has brought him an order from the court. It seems that he is going to be very successful!

The next morning, Wang An went to the Honglu Temple excitedly, but was stopped by the doorman when he arrived at the gate.

Menzi had an arrogant look on his face and raised his hand to drive it away, but just as he raised his hand he felt it suddenly sink and a new object appeared in his hand without him noticing.

The doorman didn't quite understand what he meant, so he secretly shook the weight, which was about the weight of one or two taels of silver, and immediately smiled happily.

"What is this young man doing here?"

Wang An smiled and said, "Brother, please help me find Dong Lingju and say that Wang Xin introduced him."

Unexpectedly, when Menzi heard this, his expression changed slightly and he said, "Young man, do you know who this Mr. Dong is?"

Wang An suddenly felt confused. Yesterday, Chongzhen only asked him to go to the Honglu Temple to find Dong Lingju, but did not tell him what position this other official was.

So he scratched his head and said awkwardly: "It's indeed too late. I only know the name but not the official position."

The man immediately shook his head and said, "This is our Honglu Temple Junior Secretary!"

(End of this chapter)