Chapter 184 How Much Filial Piety Is
But the doorman was suddenly at a loss because Wang An remembered that he didn't know Dong Lingju at all.

I had no choice but to follow the doorman's greetings and go to see the man called Shaoqing. Seeing that he was an old man in his fifties, I went up to him hesitantly and asked, "Excuse me, is this Master Dong Lingju?"

Without waiting for the man to answer, the doorman hurried over and pushed Wang An away, scolding: "This is the Right Junior Secretary, Master Dong hasn't come back yet."

When the old man heard that he was looking for Dong Lingju, he didn't scold Wang An for his rudeness, but just walked past him with a cold look. Wang An apologized a little embarrassedly and stood aside waiting obediently.

But when no one passed by the door and there was no sign of Dong Lingju, Wang An suddenly became disappointed.

Just as he was about to leave, another man in official robes riding a tall horse came towards him from afar, and Wang An felt hopeful again.

Sure enough, this time the doorman shouted, "Master Dong is back."

As he said this, he stepped forward to help Dong Lingju hold the horse.

After hesitating for a while, the concierge said, "Master Dong, someone is looking for you and has been waiting at the concierge all morning."

At first Dong Lingju didn't care much, but after a pause he suddenly asked urgently: "Is it a young man named Wang An?"

The concierge then remembered that he had not asked Wang An's name, so he replied, "I don't know his name, but he is indeed a young man."

Wang An, who heard the conversation between the two, was sure that the person in front of him was Dong Lingju, whom he was looking for. He hurried over and was about to introduce himself when Dong Lingju suddenly held Wang An's hand and said, "Oh, I must have kept you waiting for a long time, right?"

"Something happened during the morning court today, so it took longer than usual. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

Wang An was very sure that in both of his lives, he had never known Dong Lingju, but why was the other party so enthusiastic towards him when they first met?

Wang An was a little confused for a moment.

However, it was not just Wang An who was confused; the doorman was also bewildered.

Looking at Wang An, he secretly complained in his heart, "It turns out you have such a good relationship with Lord Dong, and you still brag that you don't know him!"

Damn it, do I have to return the one or two taels of silver I just received as a gift?
However, before the doorman could finish his fuss, Dong Lingju scolded him without any politeness: "You are so ignorant. When Prince Wang came, you didn't even invite him to my official room for tea. Why didn't you just stand at the door and wait?"

Menzi felt even more miserable, thinking, I know who he is, so I'll just invite him to your public housing. However, he didn't dare to talk back, so he could only bow his head and admit his mistake.

Fortunately, Wang An stepped forward to explain for him: "Master Dong, please don't blame me. I am grateful to this doorman for inviting me to wait in the door room and serving me a pot of tea. Otherwise, my legs would have broken if I had stood there for so long."

Dong Lingju looked better after hearing this. He turned to the doorman and said, "From now on, whenever Prince Wang comes to see me, please invite him to my official room for tea. Got it?"

Menzi looked at Wang An with gratitude, and then nodded quickly.

Dong Lingju ignored the doorman and took Wang An's hand and walked into the gate of Honglu Temple.

Only Menzi was left looking at Wang An's back with complicated eyes.

After sitting down in Dong Lingju's public housing, Wang An couldn't wait to tell him about the imperial merchant.

Although Dong Lingju knew this a long time ago, he did not interrupt Wang An. Instead, he waited until Wang An finished speaking before taking out a memorial from his sleeve. It was handed to him by Wang Chengen in the morning, and it was the supplies that Datong General Man Gui requested to purchase.

Dong Lingju did not hand the memorial directly to Wang An, as that was against the rules. Instead, he copied the materials listed by Man Gui onto a piece of paper and handed it to Wang An, saying, "Take a look, Shopkeeper Wang. These are the materials that Datong needs to purchase. If there is no difficulty, please quote a price."

Wang An took a quick look and saw that there were quite a lot of things they wanted.

It’s not that Mangui wants a lot of supplies, but there are many types.

Salt, iron, cloth, iron pots, porcelain, tea, medicinal materials, etc., this trip was equivalent to moving a supermarket over there, but the total value was not high, only about 8,000 taels.

Especially since there are fragile porcelain items among them, the difficulty of transportation will be greatly increased.

However, everything is difficult at the beginning. After doing it more often, you will gradually find better transportation methods.

So Wang An didn't say anything, but carefully probed: "To be honest with you, my Lord, this is my first time to go to the border, and I don't know the prices of these goods. I wonder if you have any previous price references?"

Dong Lingju was stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect that Wang An had never done any border business. However, he didn't say anything. He searched through the case for a while and found out some prices of various items purchased by the Honglu Temple.

"This is also the first time that our Honglu Temple is supplying military funds to border towns, so we are not very clear about it. However, here is a price list for purchasing supplies for the imperial palace and various government offices. You can refer to it."

After saying that, Dong Lingju also reminded him considerately: "But the border towns purchase differently from the imperial palace."

"The imperial palace is nearby, and most of the merchants are from the capital. There is no transportation cost, so the price is naturally much lower. You are transporting it to the border this time, so you can increase the price as appropriate."

Wang An was immediately troubled when he heard this. Although he liked Ming history, he had not researched many specific details and did not know how much to add.

Dong Lingju seemed to see Wang An's embarrassment, so he said, "But I have heard that generally, when transporting goods to the border, more than 50% of the original price will be added as consumption and expenses."

Wang An was overjoyed, but he didn't care whether what Dong Lingju said was true or not. The most important thing was to have a reference.

Even if 50% of it is untrue, it doesn't matter much. Wang An didn't intend to make any money from this first batch of goods. As long as he didn't lose money, his main purpose was to accumulate experience and cultivate connections.

So he nodded very straightforwardly, and then said a little embarrassedly: "I am a straightforward person, please don't be offended if I say something wrong!"

Dong Lingju nodded, indicating that it was okay to say it.

Wang An then hesitated and said, "I just don't know, sir... no, no, no, how much of a tribute should I give?"

Dong Lingju thought Wang An was going to say something, but it turned out he was referring to kickbacks. He was stunned for a moment.

Wang An was introduced by Emperor Chongzhen, but I didn't expect that he would ask him in person how much percentage he wanted!
Dong Lingju hasn't lived enough yet, and he dares to take advantage of Wang An. If this gets to Chongzhen's ears, he will lose his head!

But on second thought, although Wang Chengen strangely asked him not to reveal Chongzhen's identity, it seemed that Wang An in front of him did not know Chongzhen's true identity, but it was hard to say whether he was not here to blow him up.

(End of this chapter)