Chapter 385 The Mastermind
The door opened slightly, and two white servants came in carrying a middle-aged man. They pushed him heavily to the ground and reported, "Master, the prisoner has been brought here!"
Sun Shaozong raised his hand to signal the two to step aside, then he lowered his head to look at the so-called "profiteer". He saw that the man was about thirty years old, with dark skin, thin body, and wrapped in coarse cloth. He looked more like a coolie in a coal mine than a wealthy businessman.
The 'scoundrel' fell heavily, but he didn't dare to cry out in pain. He hurriedly climbed up and said with his head on the ground: "My Lord, I have always obeyed the law and never done anything that harms the world!"
Pah~
Without waiting for Sun Shaozong to speak, Jia She slammed the table and angrily shouted, "You swindler! You have deceived the master with your tricks, how dare you say 'obey the law'?!"
The dark and thin profiteer saw Jia She for the first time. He was stunned for a long time, and then he cried out: "Master Jia, what are you talking about? Even if I have the courage of the sky, I dare not deceive you, Master Jia!"
"You still dare to say that you didn't lie to me?!"
Jia She became more and more annoyed as he spoke. He simply stood up, walked over with his belly sticking out, and kicked the dark and thin merchant to the ground. He pointed at his nose and shouted, "Don't you know what the quality of those 500 Tao Zhu gold shells is? You dare to fool me and say that you can make a fortune by reselling them!"
Seeing him so angry, the dark and thin merchant did not dare to get up. He just lay on his back, stretched his neck like a turtle and cried, "Master, you have wronged me. The gold shell has risen to five taels of silver each. I offer four taels of silver. Can't I make a profit by reselling it?"
"As for the quality..."
"I have never told Master Jia that those are top-grade 'Tao Zhu Jin Bei'!"
Before he could finish his words, Jia She kicked him again, scolding him, "How dare you continue to talk nonsense now? Don't you dare to shut up, Master!"
The thin and dark businessman felt very aggrieved after being beaten, and he didn't know what he had said wrong.
The Sun brothers who were listening to this could not help but sneer. Even though Jia She was calling the businessman a profiteer, if you really counted the numbers, he was probably a hundred times greedier than this thin and dark businessman!
But he was an elder after all, so the two brothers didn't want to point it out to him in person. So they waited for him to kick them a few more times before Sun Shaozong said, "Uncle, please be patient for a while. How about I ask him a few questions?"
Jia She knew that his true colors had been exposed, and his face was a little hot. However, he was a man who was used to playing tough, so he turned around and said sanctimoniously, "My dear son-in-law and nephew, don't listen to his nonsense! This guy is clearly selling inferior goods as good ones, and he insisted on selling me those useless shells for ten taels of silver each!"
The word "must" is used very cleverly!
Sun Shaozong was not poor now, but he could not imagine how an ordinary businessman with no background could "insist on selling things" to the master of Rongguo Mansion.
And what Jia She said at the beginning seemed to be fifteen taels of silver for one gold shell, right?
He was speechless for a moment, but after all, he slept with his daughter, so Sun Shaozong didn't want to argue with him about these trivial matters, so he smiled helplessly and said, "Don't worry, uncle, I don't want to ask about these trivial matters, I'm just quite curious about the origin of Tao Zhu Jin Bei."
When Jia She heard this, his wrinkled old face immediately lit up, and he urged again and again: "Yes, yes, yes! Hurry up and find out the origin of the gold shells. We can send people to collect some ourselves. Isn't it better than being a middleman?!"
Ever since that audit when a lot of stolen money was confiscated, this guy has become completely obsessed with money - but even though he is greedy for money, he doesn't even blink an eye when it comes to spending money.
Moreover, Jia She's words made it seem as if asking about the origin of the "Tao Zhu Gold Pearl" was an attempt to seize someone else's wealth, which made Sun Shaozong feel uncomfortable again.
However, the black-faced man was very sensible. He immediately got up after hearing this, and without waiting for Sun Shaozong to ask any questions, he told the origin of the Tao Zhu Jin Bei in detail.
It turns out that this so-called 'Taozhu Golden Shell' is indeed from the Western Regions, but it is not produced in a foreign wilderness thousands of miles away as rumored, but comes from the Four Guards outside the Great Wall thousands of miles away.
The four guards outside the Great Wall are located on the plateau in the northwest border. The area is vast and sparsely populated, and the main inhabitants are pastoralists. Although it is also considered the territory of the Great Zhou, few people are interested in it.
Therefore, it was not until a few years ago that a group of vendors selling tea bricks discovered this shell with copper coin patterns near a saltwater lake called "Cowinbu".
At that time, this incident was just one of many legends about the Western Regions and was only circulated among some merchants, without attracting much attention.
Until last summer, a certain vendor had a sudden idea. While selling tea bricks, he bought a batch of shells with inscriptions on them from local herdsmen. He named them "Tao Zhu Jin Bei" and tried to promote and sell them in the capital.
Who would have thought that this item would become famous overnight and was highly praised by many gentry. In just two months, its value increased dozens of times - for some of the items that could make out the text content, its value increased by more than a thousand times!
As soon as the news spread, merchants who knew the situation immediately rushed to the vicinity of "Cowinbu Lake" to buy goods - this dark and thin merchant was one of them.
"I was afraid that I would miss the market if I delayed too long, so I only took four or five hundred good-quality coins, and also took back more than a thousand inferior ones."
When Sun Shaozong heard this, he asked again: "How many of these 'Tao Zhu Jin Bei' have words on them?"
"To answer your Excellency's question, the real 'Tao Zhu Jin Bei' is rare among millions!"
Then the dark and thin merchant said depressedly: "I got these two thousand coins back, but only three of them have words on them, and they only have vague shapes of words, so they are not worth much at all."
Seeing that Sun Shaozong seemed unconvinced, he quickly explained, "Local herdsmen often preserve shells with words on them as rare items, so the man surnamed Hu collected more than a hundred of them at once. However, he probably didn't expect that the 'Taozhu Golden Shells' would be so valuable. He sold them all at a low price. Now it's too late to regret it."
Having said that, the thin and dark businessman couldn't help but feel a little gloating.
In this way, this 'Taozhu Jinbei' can really be regarded as a scarce resource.
Sun Shaozong pondered for a moment, then asked, "Now the price of the 'Tao Zhu Jin Bei' changes every day. Not to mention the mid-quality ones, even the inferior ones have risen to four coins of silver per coin. Is this due to the merchants like you working together to drive up the price?"
"The great Lord of Heaven has made a wise decision!"
The black-handed man knocked his head to the ground and complained: "I don't know about others, but I am just a traveling merchant, how can I have such ability?"
"Originally, I just wanted to make a fortune with the help of 'Tao Zhu Jin Bei'. Later, I found that the real Jin Bei was hard to find. I was unwilling to return empty-handed, so I tried to collect some ordinary goods, hoping to earn some hard-earned money."
"Who would have thought that after arriving in the capital, I would find that many of the vendors had the same business as me. There were thousands of ordinary goods piled in one place, but where could I sell them?"
"There was no choice but to sell the gold shells to others at a low price of a few coins."
"Because the people who bought the gold shells seemed to know each other, I was cautious at the time and only sold out the inferior ones, but secretly kept the 500 pieces of slightly better quality."
"Sure enough, after the summer, not to mention the ordinary gold shells, even the prices of those defective ones have doubled!"
"I thought I had a good plan and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, but who knew..."
Having said this, the thin and dark merchant looked depressed again and glanced at Jia She.
There is indeed someone behind this matter!
Sun Shaozong's spirits were lifted. Since there was a 'mastermind' behind the scenes, it would be more justified for the Criminal Law Department to investigate the matter thoroughly.
I just don't know who is so generous that he could create such a momentum in such a short period of time and even get some gambling houses in the capital to endorse this gold shell.
"Let me ask you!"
Sun Shaozong was trying to figure out the identity of the 'mastermind' when Jia She asked anxiously, "If I send someone to the vicinity of that lake to collect some gold shells and sell them, will it be too late?"
"this……"
The dark and thin merchant hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "The number of these golden shells is limited, and most of the gold threads on the shells are messy and cannot be considered golden shells at all. If we go to buy them now, I'm afraid we won't be able to find too many."
Jia She suddenly slumped back into his chair like a deflated ball.
Seeing that Jia She had lost interest, Sun Shaozong ordered Bai Yi to take the dark and thin merchant to the Criminal Law Department to re-transcribe his confession. He also instructed Lin Delu and others to focus on investigating the identity and background of the "mastermind" behind the scenes.
clang~!
At this time, the sound of gongs could be heard outside, and it meant that this morning's "Sun Gong'an" was about to officially begin.
The first to come on stage was not the protagonist 'Sun Shaozong', but Liu Xianglian and a few scholars. After they sang the background in a few sentences, they began to quarrel with each other in a rhythmic manner.
Everyone's attention was drawn to it, and they were all waiting quietly for Jiang Yuhan to speak.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open, and Jiang Yuhan, dressed in a theatrical costume, rushed in and called out anxiously, "Brother Sun, please excuse me for a moment!"
At this time, how could he still have the time to talk to me?
Sun Shaozong did not dare to neglect and hurriedly followed Jiang Yuhan out of the private room, only to see Jiang Yuhan reach out and grab his wrist, saying excitedly: "Something happened, Brother Sun! Zhu Er, who played the carpenter, was stabbed to death just now by someone unknown!"
