Tianliangyuan

Chapter 87 Idiot

Jiang Ning has money, but it's limited.

After all, no matter how favored she was, she was still just a female member of the Jiang family, and an unmarried girl at that, so she didn't have much money at her disposal.

After she told the Prince about the harsh winter, she began to make preparations.

As for grain, the Prince of Zhong had already made his move, so Jiang Ning set his sights on cloth based on the money he had on hand.

However, Jiang Ning was a young lady from a noble family, and had no idea about the price of such common people's clothing.

Moreover, she herself usually wore silk and brocade, while only her servants wore cotton. So she subconsciously assumed that the common people also wore cotton clothes.

Therefore, the only order she issued was to purchase cotton cloth.

She never even imagined that there were things like linen and hemp cloth in this world.

She thought that hemp clothing was only used for funerals, and who would wear it normally?

Because of this, Jiang Ning's cost price has been raised invisibly.

After all, Xu Zhaozhao's shopkeeper mainly uses linen, hemp, and cotton cloth, so when you take it all into account, their costs are reduced significantly.

Xu Zhaozhao's thoughts about Jiang Ning were immediately clear to her.

However, Jiang Ning was a housewife in her previous life, only knowing how to fight among women, and had no idea how to do business.

These things outside were unfamiliar to Jiang Ning. Even though she had been reborn, she only had a vague concept of many things.

Therefore, Xu Zhaozhao accurately identified Jiang Ning's weakness and subtly planted her own people into the Jiang family's businesses.

The purchase price of ordinary cotton cloth is about two coins per foot, while the price of coarse cotton cloth is even lower.

However, the price quoted by Jiang Ning's men was four copper coins per foot. Jiang Ning herself did not understand this price. She usually bought the silk she wore by the silver, so she naturally looked down on four copper coins and thought that cotton cloth was too cheap.

Therefore, this gave those below the gate an opportunity to cause trouble.

Jiang Ning was clueless about such mundane matters, yet she was arrogant and unwilling to let others think she was ignorant. When the account books were handed to her, she only glanced at them and didn't think there was anything wrong with them.

In fact, at least two coins from each foot of cloth were sent to Xu Zhaozhao by her subordinates under the guise of purchasing.

The shopkeeper understands this, but the problem is that the people below are also shrewd. Besides the fact that the large-scale purchase of cotton cloth led to the price gouging by those weaving workshops, there are also transportation costs and so on, which must all be included in the cost.

If you slip some more benefits into the shopkeeper's hands, wouldn't everything fall into place naturally?

In just half a month, Jiang Ning had already stockpiled tens of thousands of bolts of various cotton cloths.

Each horse is forty feet long, which means that nearly 800,000 coins have already flowed into Xu Zhaozhao's hands.

There were also a large number of defective fabrics that had been purchased, and they were of varying thicknesses. However, because of the large quantity, even the shopkeeper did not notice these problems. After all, he could not possibly check every single piece of fabric, and he had many other things to manage, so he could not just keep an eye on one warehouse.

After the 800,000 coins reached Xu Zhaozhao's hands, she exchanged them for silver ingots and sent them to Jizhou, along with a letter to inform Xie Zheng to make preparations in advance.

Eight hundred thousand coins, that sounds like a lot.

But for Xu Zhaozhao, that wasn't enough!

So we still need to find ways to get more freebies.

She earned her money through legitimate means, which was perfectly honest and aboveboard. As for whether Jiang Ning would report her to the authorities afterward, she wasn't worried at all.

How can the granddaughter of Grand Tutor Jiang not even manage a shop properly? What face does she have to report to the authorities?

In the end, it will be the Jiang family who loses face!

"My lord, Prince Zhong has already purchased 200,000 shi of grain. Judging from this trend, they seem to be increasing their purchases. Do you think we should avoid them?"

Xu Zhaozhao chuckled: "Yes, we should avoid it. Don't worry, I have a way to handle the food."

“Miss, the price of grain in Jiangnan is supposed to be the lowest, but if it is transported here, plus the cost of loading and unloading by carts and boats, it may not be cheap.”

"Tell Zhu Zi to go directly to Jiangnan and transport the grain to Jizhou, instead of coming to the capital. Also, I will be staying at Baiguoyuan for a few days tomorrow, which will be a good opportunity to check on our wine."

"Yes, ma'am."

Xu Zhaozhao has plant-based superpowers, so she can never lack food.

However, her abilities were limited before, so she had always acted cautiously.

Now that she has purchased grains from outside to cover up her actions, she can also cultivate some whole grains on a small scale to see how long she can last.

Xu Zhaozhao simply fenced off a plot of land on the back mountain. It wasn't much, less than an acre. She specially ordered two experienced farmers to wait there. Before she even showed herself, the two of them could already smell a fragrance.

Then, their eyes began to glaze over.

"sowing!"

The land had already been tilled, and although they didn't know why the master had given such an order, they still obeyed.

Fortunately, the weather is not particularly cold and the ground has not frozen, so these things are easy to do.

After the two finished sowing, Xu Zhaozhao began to try to accelerate the growth. In less than a quarter of an hour, all the wheat was ripe and ready for the owner to harvest.

However, Xu Zhaozhao's face was a little pale; it seemed she had overestimated her abilities.

If it were her past life, how could she have been so weak?

Fine, let's try it once and for all. Since it's produced using supernatural abilities, the yield is exceptionally high.

After the two men harvested the land, Xu Zhaozhao had them turn over the soil and bury the exposed roots.

The harvested wheat still needed to be threshed, a task that was naturally left to the two of them.

The final result was that less than an acre of land yielded nearly a thousand catties of wheat.

This achievement is quite gratifying.

Xu Zhaozhao ordered some seeds to be set aside so she could try again later.

Of course, it's impossible to grow large quantities of grain solely through Xu Zhaozhao's special abilities. However, unlike the Loyal King, she didn't directly purchase grain within the Great Xing Dynasty. Instead, she had already arranged for people to go beyond the Great Wall to buy grain.

Food is a valuable commodity in any country, and large grain traders naturally exist in every country.

Xu Zhaozhao did not want to confront the Loyal King directly. In addition, she had something better than money to exchange with those countries, so she directly arranged for people to go to the border to exchange grain with the foreign tribes.

It just so happens that Xie Zheng is stationed in Jizhou. It would be foolish not to use someone with such connections!

"Miss, the Prince of Zhong's grain hoarding is quite large, it seems to have alarmed the Second Prince. I received news this morning that the Second Prince has also sent people to Jiangnan to purchase grain."

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhaozhao's expression hardened slightly: "Idiot!"