Chapter 1173 That Woman!

When Bai Yuanyuan heard the name Xiao Cui, a strange look flashed across her eyes. She hesitated for a moment and then instructed Aunt Liu:

“I know about it, don’t tell anyone else…”

"Yes! Madam!"

Bai Yuanyuan waved her hand and Nanny Liu bowed and left. Bai Yuanyuan immediately opened the note again and saw four big words written on it!

"Wan Xinghe! Danger!"

Looking at these four words, Bai Yuanyuan's expression became solemn. This Wanxinghe refers to the Wanxinghe business name of their Bai family, and the meaning of the word Wei is self-evident!
Although it is still unknown who left this note, it is obvious that the other party is using this note to warn her that someone wants to destroy their Bai family's Wanxinghe business!

After realizing this, several names immediately emerged in Bai Yuanyuan's mind, and her expression became somewhat uncertain!
Although she didn't know whether the contents of the note were true or not, Bai Yuanyuan had a bad feeling in her heart. She subconsciously felt that this matter might be related to something that happened some time ago!

Previously, the Chen family, the maiden family of Gu Sansi's favorite concubine Chen Wanting, was affected by the case files. Not only was their Jiubao business forced to shut down, but they were also visited by debt collectors. What's worse, some people wanted to take advantage of the situation and took advantage of the internal troubles of the Chen family to buy up the Chen family's property at a low price.

The Chen family was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy within a few days, so they turned to Gu Sansi for help, hoping that this cheap son-in-law of the Chen family could save the family from the dire straits...
But unfortunately, Gu Sansi himself was greatly affected by the "file case". Not only was he dismissed from his position as the Minister of Personnel, but he was also demoted three levels from the second rank to the third rank. Now is the time to be careful at all times, so he cannot speak for the Chen family and can only help the Chen family raise money to pay off their debts.

But unfortunately, Gu Sansi was born in a poor family and had no family support. He was also a well-known honest official in the Yijing court and did not have much money on a daily basis. Although the Marshal rewarded him with a lot of property, most of these properties were fixed assets and it would take some time to cash them out.

The Chen family is now in dire straits, with creditors blocking the door. Just when Gu Sansi and the Chen family were both overwhelmed, Bai Changjiu's wife Cui proposed to her father-in-law Bai Wanhao that the Bai family lend money to the Chen family to pay off the debts!

At that time, Cui thought that in order to help the Chen family pay off its debts, Gu Sansi not only took out all the silver in his hands, but also mortgaged the antiques, calligraphy and paintings, gold and silver objects awarded to him by the Marshal to the pawn shop.

From this we can see that Gu Sansi and Chen Wanting have a very good relationship, and he really cares about Chen Wanting. Chen Wanting is pregnant again now, so lending money to the Chen family now is equivalent to lending money to Gu Sansi!
Although Gu Sansi was disgraced because of the file case this time, the Marshal still let him lead the Ministry of Personnel, which is enough to show that the Marshal still trusts Gu Sansi. Therefore, this is just a short period of dormancy for Gu Sansi. It may take one or two years at most, or half a year at least, for Gu Sansi to be reinstated and make a comeback...

As the saying goes, it is better to help someone in need than to add icing on the cake. In the past, when Gu Sansi was in power, even if you wanted to get close to him, he wouldn't even look at you. But now you are helping Gu Sansi once, which will make him remember your kindness!

Gu Sansi is an important official in the imperial court. If the Bai family could establish a good relationship with him, it would bring enormous benefits to the Bai family!
Regarding his daughter-in-law Cui's suggestion, the old man Bai Wanhao thought about it and felt that it seemed to be true, so he also learned about the situation of the Chen family!

Bai Wanhao also acted very quickly. After a few days, he got the information that the Chen family owed a total of five debts, which added up to about 80,000 taels of silver. The creditors were all well-known figures, so the Chen family didn't dare to shirk their responsibilities even if they wanted to!

Although Bai Wanhao was initially interested in lending money to the Chen family, he became hesitant after learning about the Chen family.

The first reason is that after the Fengwu Army conquered the south, Bai Wanhao expanded the business of Bai's Wanxing and trading companies to the south to seize the local market. He spent more than 100,000 taels of silver on this item. Therefore, Bai Wanhao did not have much cash in his hands, and there were only about 90,000 taels of silver left in the family.

Therefore, if he lent the money to the Chen family, Bai Wanhao would have almost no working capital. If something happened to Wanxing and the company at this time, the situation would be very passive...
Secondly, Bai Wanhao discovered that the younger generations of the Chen family were all second-generation rich kids who were addicted to eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, and none of them could support the family. Therefore, if you lend them these 80,000 taels of silver, it would be like the money is being wasted, and you can't even expect them to pay it back!

Eighty thousand taels of silver is indeed not a small sum. You have to know that the annual tax revenue of Liaoyang Province is only three or four hundred thousand taels. So Bai Wanhao felt that it was not worth it to spend eighty thousand taels of silver to do a favor for Gu Sansi!

The third reason is that Bai Wanhao discovered that someone seemed to be deliberately squeezing the Chen family, making it impossible for the Chen family’s properties to be sold at a normal price, and the Chen family’s creditors seemed to be the guns of certain people.

Although Bai Wanhao did not find out who did this, he felt that the person who had the courage to do so must be a big shot. Therefore, if he lent the money to the Chen family at this moment, it would undoubtedly ruin their good fortune and easily make them jealous. Based on the above three reasons, Bai Wanhao did not want to lend the money to the Chen family at that time, and this idea of ​​Bai Wanhao was fully supported by his eldest daughter-in-law, Mrs. Hu.

After learning about her father-in-law's idea, Cui was very disappointed and unwilling, and even had a quarrel with her elder sister-in-law Hu!
Seeing that her father-in-law seemed determined and unwilling to pay the money, Cui placed her last hope on her sister-in-law Bai Yuanyuan.

Cui asked someone to send a message to Bai Yuanyuan, hoping that her sister-in-law could come forward and persuade her father-in-law to let Bai Wanhao take the money!

After reading the letter from her second sister-in-law, Bai Yuanyuan thought about it and understood why her second sister-in-law was so persistent in asking her father Bai Wanhao to lend the money to the Chen family.

This is not because her second sister-in-law, Cui, has any relationship with the Chen family, but because her second brother Bai Changjiu is now the deputy governor of Anqing. It is very likely that he will be promoted to a regular position in the future, and there is even hope that he will be transferred back to the central government or even join the cabinet. In this matter, Gu Sansi, the actual Minister of Personnel, has considerable say!
On some issues, it is no exaggeration to say that if you can do it, then you can do it. Whether you can get promoted or not is just a matter of one word from others!
When the Fengwu Army system was still the Personnel Bureau, Bai Changjiu had competed for the position of deputy director of the Personnel Bureau, but ultimately missed the position. Shen Changhong eventually became the deputy director and is now also the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel!

The reason why Shen Changhong was able to get to the position was because Gu Sansi spoke for him. Bai Yuanyuan knew that her second sister-in-law Cui had always been brooding over this matter, and thought that if Bai Changjiu had gotten to the position at that time, it would be her husband who would have a bright future as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel now!
It is for this reason that Cui is unwilling to let go of the opportunity to please Gu Sansi and establish a good relationship with the Minister of Personnel, Gu Sansi. In her eyes, even if the Chen family simply does not return the tens of thousands of taels of silver, as long as her husband can ascend to the throne, it will be well worth it!
In fact, her sister-in-law, Mrs. Hu, also understood this truth, but why was Mrs. Hu unwilling to let her father-in-law Bai Wanhao pay the money?

The reason is very simple!
Although the last division of the Bai family was prevented by father-in-law Bai Wanhao, the idea of ​​division has also taken root in the hearts of the first and second wives...
Therefore, in the eyes of Hu, the wife of the eldest son of the Bai family, most of the Bai family's property should belong to her now. Her husband is a military officer, and his official career is not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel. Therefore, even if she lent the money to the Chen family to please Gu Sansi, it would not help her husband's career. So why should she spend her own money to help the second son of the family?
Bai Yuanyuan's attitude on this matter tends to be towards her second sister-in-law Cui. After all, Bai Yuanyuan intends to let her son Jingheng win the throne in the future, so it would be very good if she could establish a good relationship with Gu Sansi!
Although she intended to persuade her father Bai Wanhao to pay the money, Bai Yuanyuan knew in her heart that if this matter was to succeed, she would most likely need the approval of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Hu!
Perhaps it is because most of the Bai family's assets will be handed over to the eldest son Bai Changrong in the future, and the eldest son Bai Changrong is a military officer who knows nothing except fighting, so Bai Wanhao intends to cultivate the business talent of his eldest daughter-in-law, Hu. Now, most of the daily operations of Bai's Wanxing and business companies are also managed by Hu!

Therefore, Mrs. Hu has a considerable influence on the father-in-law Bai Wanhao. If we can get Mrs. Hu's help, then this matter can be said to be basically accomplished!
As for getting the eldest sister-in-law, Mrs. Hu, to agree, Bai Yuanyuan also gave an idea to the second sister-in-law, Mrs. Cui, to agree!
Bai Changrong and Hu had a son named Bai Enshou. Because he was a premature baby, he was weak and sickly since childhood. Therefore, Bai Changrong gave up the idea of ​​letting Bai Enshou learn martial arts. Instead, he hoped that Bai Enshou would study hard and become a civil servant in the future.
Therefore, Bai Yuanyuan believed that as long as she used her eldest nephew Bai Enshou as a breakthrough point, and appealed to his emotions and reason, she could completely make her eldest sister-in-law Hu change her attitude and persuade her father-in-law Bai Wanhao to pay the money!

I have to say that Bai Yuanyuan's plan was very clever. Hu, who had originally been sarcastically saying that Cui's son had no regrets about selling his grandfather's land and that tens of thousands of taels of silver were wasted, changed her attitude after Cui pointed out her weaknesses and made a series of guarantees. Not only did she not object to paying the money, she also began to persuade Bai Wanhao to pay the money!

Bai Wanhao, who had originally decided not to lend money to the Chen family, finally changed his mind after the joint persuasion of his two daughters-in-law and one daughter!

After a series of more detailed considerations, Bai Wanhao made the final decision to lend 50,000 taels of silver to the Chen family. Although 50,000 taels of silver accounted for more than half of the Bai family's current cash flow, the Bai family still had more than 40,000 taels left. If there were any disturbances in their business, they could deal with it with these 40,000 taels of silver.

In addition, with the Bai family's 50,000 taels of silver, although it cannot completely make up for the Chen family's debt, but with the silver given by Gu Sansi and the silver that the Chen family scraped together, it is still possible to basically pay off the Chen family's debt.

In order to eliminate unnecessary hidden dangers, when the Bai family lent the silver to the Chen family, they also deliberately transferred it from an underground rice shop.

After completing this task, Gu Sansi did not express any opinion to the Bai family. However, recently the Ministry of Personnel received news that Bai Changjiu had performed well in the annual assessment of the Ministry of Personnel. This greatly encouraged the Bai family...

Just when Bai Yuanyuan was immersed in the possibility that her second brother Bai Changjiu might be promoted to the governor of Anqing, she did not expect such a thing to happen!

Although there is currently no evidence to prove that the information on the note is true, Bai Yuanyuan personally tends to believe that this is true!

The reason why Bai Yuanyuan thought this way was that she had always suspected that the person who secretly squeezed the Chen family was that woman!
Although she had never opened up to that woman, as sisters for such a long time, Bai Yuanyuan had some understanding of that woman's thoughts!
She knew that the woman had always wanted to conquer Gu Sansi, but she had never had a good opportunity. Therefore, since the Chen family had such a good opportunity, Bai Yuanyuan believed that the woman would definitely not let it go!

The reason why Bai Yuanyuan decided to try to establish a good relationship with Gu Sansi was actually because she didn't want that woman's conspiracy to succeed. After all, the power that woman now possesses is already very great. If her conspiracy succeeds again, then other people in the future will have no hope of winning the throne!

In order to avoid being tracked down by that woman, they even used an underground rice shop to make the deal, but now it seems that they still couldn't hide it from that woman!

Thinking of this, Bai Yuanyuan couldn't help but show a hint of worry in her eyes. Although she didn't know what the woman was going to do, if things were really as she thought, then with that woman's character, she would definitely not let the Bai family go easily!
Realizing this, Bai Yuanyuan looked a little regretful, but it was too late to say anything now. The only thing she could do now was to pass the news back to the Bai family and let her family make preparations early and be careful in case of emergency...
(Everyone can freely express their thoughts and opinions on this southern tour and the palace fighting. Tongming will listen attentively!"

(End of this chapter)