flstandardbreds Chapter 109 Reopening
Chapter 109 Reopening
Unlike the common people who were overjoyed, all the officials, big and small, in Lanzhou City were shrouded in a dark cloud.
Now that the big fish is dead, it's time to deal with the small fish and shrimps that were taking advantage of the big fish's power to bully others.
The guards brought by the imperial envoy personally took action and arrested dozens of officials and yamen runners of all ranks. Depending on the severity of the crime, they were sentenced to punishments such as dismissal from office, confiscation of property and exile. For a time, everyone in the Lanzhou officialdom was in danger.
Those officials or businessmen who were not caught were all trembling with fear. They restrained their previous arrogance and behaved themselves obediently.
The imperial commissioner stayed in Lanzhou City for ten days, then returned to Beijing with his team to report, escorting evidence and confiscated gold, silver and treasures.
Many officials in Lanzhou City were dismissed, leaving many positions vacant. Liu Changhe took the opportunity to promote many people to positions, which was also his job responsibility.
As for more important positions, such as Tongpan, county magistrate, and county magistrate, they could not be appointed directly by him.
After the imperial commissioner returns to Beijing, the Ministry of Personnel, which is responsible for the appointment of officials, will arrange for someone to come and report on his work.
Liu Changhe was not worried that there would be a second Zhao Yongxin in Lanzhou City. He was now the real person in charge of Lanzhou City. As long as he was there, he would not let such a thing happen again.
After dealing with the follow-up of the Zhao Yongxin incident, Liu Changhe began to carry out drastic reforms in Lanzhou City, working overtime every day and was extremely busy.
Lanzhou City also ushered in new development because of this new prefect.
Liu Changhe wished he could use all his sleeping time to handle official business, while Qian Laiye and Chen Shundong were also busy at all.
They witnessed the entire process of Zhao Yongxin's downfall, and Chen Shundong is now completely convinced.
The young master Qian Laiye was powerful but he did not use his power to bully others. Instead, he presented facts and evidence to the public.
Those evidences are not so easy to find, but they have only been in Lanzhou City for a few days, and they have found them all. How powerful do they need to be?
On the second day after Zhao Yongxin was arrested, Qian Lai took Chen Shundong to see the batch of grain that Lin Chuyi left for him.
Chen Shundong personally checked the quality of the grain, and it was indeed of the same quality as what Qian Lai had shown him before.
Chen Shundong stopped hesitating and went home to get the money. He handed over the money and the goods, and took his men to Qian Laiye's place to move the grain, completing the transaction.
Chen Shundong ordered 30,000 kilograms of ordinary rice and 5,000 kilograms of pearl rice from Qian Laiye.
Ordinary rice is for the reopening of the business and for the general public, while pearl rice is a new variety and its sales results are unpredictable, so we need to first test the waters with 5,000 kilograms.
The situation is different now. Without the backing of Zhang Ji, Zhang Quansheng no longer has the capital to be arrogant. His previous behavior of raising prices crazily by relying on his monopoly has long made people dissatisfied.
Now that Chen Ji has reopened, it has launched a promotion to give back to its customers. The ordinary rice that Qian Lai Ye sells to him will be sold as the same ordinary rice sold in normal stores, and it will be sold at the previous Chen Ji price. The promotion will last for seven days.
You should know that the ordinary rice sold by Qian Laiye is of better quality than the refined rice they originally sold.
Not to mention the quality of the rice, the husking machine alone is more advanced than the current stone mill. The rice husk is very cleanly and anyone with a discerning eye can tell which one is better.
The common people have been made miserable by the crazy price hikes by Zhangji and other small grain shops, and there is widespread public complaint.
Many families simply cannot afford such expensive rice. If the price does not go down, they will have to find new ways out.
Now that Chen Ji has launched food that is both cheap and of good quality, it has attracted the attention of a large number of people.
They went to Chen Ji and bought Chen Ji's new rice. When they took it home and ate it, they found that the rice sold by Chen Ji not only looked good, but also smelled good and tasted very delicious. There was no sand in it, and it was much better than the rice sold by Zhang Ji.
Their favorable impression of Chen Ji increased even more.
There is a wooden sign in front of Chen Ji’s shop, which displays the price of new rice and is marked in a conspicuous color to indicate that the price is only for seven days. As time goes by, the numbers on it are constantly updated.
In order to prevent illiterate people from not being able to understand the content and coming to cause trouble after the new rice returned to its original price, Chen Shundong ordered the store employees to bring money and the homemade loudspeakers distributed to them to broadcast the news in real time in the store.
When the people learned that this price would only be used for seven days and then would return to its original price, it would be ten copper coins higher than the current price.
With the mentality that buying is earning, they returned to Chenji and made large purchases. Those who were well-off even made purchases for their relatives.
Chen's dozen or so shops were crowded with customers from morning to night every day. In less than five days, tens of thousands of kilograms of rice were turned into silver.
Chen Shundong quickly asked Qian Lai for replenishment of goods, otherwise he would have to face the situation of having no food to sell and having to close the store again.
Fortunately, Lin Chuyi left a lot of food for Qian Lai, otherwise Qian Lai would not be able to give him food at this time.
Qian Lai also asked Chen Shundong to send a bag of pearl rice to each of the major customers who had patronized his business for many years, as well as those customers who switched to Zhang Ji due to delayed delivery, along with an apology statement and an introduction to the origin and function of the pearl rice.
The statement explained the reason for the delayed delivery and apologized for not being able to complete the transaction smoothly. At the same time, as a token of sincerity, the company promised to sell them new rice at the price of ordinary rice the next time they came to Chen Ji to buy, and also give them a bag of new pearl rice as an apology.
Chen Shundong's heart was bleeding as he looked at the promises and bags of pearl rice that were being given away. They were sold at 80 wen per catty. A bag of ten catties was 800 wen. After giving away all these, he had lost hundreds of taels of silver.
And that promise, if it were to be implemented, he would suffer a huge loss, after all, those people are rich.
What if they ask for tens of thousands of kilograms directly and then sell it at a discount? Will he still be able to do business?
If it weren't for the good business of the store, he would never agree with Qian Laiye's approach.
Qian Lai also saw the painful look on his face and just said something calmly.
"If you want to take it, you must give it first. Don't think they are so superficial. This is the only chance. They made the money but broke off relations with you completely. This is definitely not a good deal. They still have to live in this city, so they won't rush to offend you. Don't worry."
Chen Shundong curled his lips. He understood the truth, but he had been doing business with honesty over the years and believed that he had done nothing wrong to them.
But this time he was plotted against, and they couldn't wait to stab him in the back and tear up the contract. Now they want him to apologize to them and even pay money out of his own pocket. How can he be willing to accept this?