Chapter 258 Borrowing.

"Meet the master, meet the old lady!"

In Ming Garden, the housekeeper led a dozen stewards into the hall, bowed slightly and said, "Some shopkeepers and stewards of the clan want to see the master. I made the decision privately and brought them in first."

Ming Qingda looked a little unhappy, but the old lady nodded and said, "You go down first!"

"Yes."

The butler bowed and retreated, leaving a dozen deacons standing there, their faces filled with anxiety and sorrow.

"What happened?"

Ming Qingda asked in a deep voice.

"Master, most of our clan's businesses have been harassed and investigated. Not counting those fined by the Chamber of Commerce, the number of businesses ordered to suspend operations for rectification has reached four levels!"

"Master, I am the general manager of the neighboring province. Now my employees are in a state of panic. Many people were beaten in the street for no apparent reason. Some were even threatened and intimidated. If they dare to work in the shop again, they will be..."

"I am the head shopkeeper in charge of Hangzhou City. Several companies that previously cooperated with us have successively cut off contact and cooperation with us. Some even tore up the contract and paid huge compensation to cancel the cooperation."

More than a dozen people rushed to talk about the various situations that had happened in the past month, constantly explaining that it was not their responsibility and trying to shirk responsibility.

For a moment, the whole hall was in a mess and it was disturbing.

Before the visitor could finish speaking, he heard a strange noise coming from Ming Qingda's place.

"Snapped!"

The porcelain cup that was in Ming Qingda's hand the moment before had now fallen to the ground!
"How can it be!"

"Why. Why has the situation come to this point in such a short time!"

Ming Qingda was not a shrewd man, but at this moment he had already lost his composure.

The old lady at the side glanced at her son with disgust, and said with a gloomy face: "Why are you panicking? I'm not dead yet!"

"Tell me in detail which relationships have severed ties with us!"

A dozen deacons fell silent. At this time, the head manager of Suzhou stepped forward and spoke silently.

After a while, another deacon took over to report.

When the old lady understood everything, her already terrible face turned even darker!
"How much running water do you have now?"

“Can the projects that were previously won be able to be launched normally?”

A dozen deacons remained silent, looking at each other, not knowing what to say.

"Speak! You are all mute!"

The old lady was furious, and her heart became heavier!
"Previously, all our cash flows were handed over to the government to pay tribute to Kyoto. We didn't have much cash in the first place, and even though a few companies broke their contracts and paid some money, most of it was used to pay the Chamber of Commerce's fines. In addition, many shops have closed down for rectification, and now we just have to maintain daily expenses and take care of various parties."

Ming Qingda said gloomily, "Why are you still fighting? Can't you see that the imperial envoy has taken action against us?"

"nonsense!"

The old lady scolded her son, then turned to the backbone of the Ming family and said, "We still have to take care of what needs to be done. This is not a one-time deal. As long as we can get through this year, how much cash will we have left after setting aside the money?"

"Only enough to fill one item in the inner storehouse!"

"You bunch of bastards!" Ming Qingda stood up with an angry face and shouted, "Tell me, did you embezzle money? The bidding for the inner treasury only requires a 40% advance payment. Once the project is won, the money will be returned! How is it possible that there is still so little money left?"

The head shopkeeper of Suzhou City responded with a cold expression, "It is indeed as the master said, but the three internal warehouse projects that have been launched at the same time are the three largest projects among the dozen or so bids. In order to start running, we must first fill in 60% of the silver! And the partners who previously provided us with raw materials have now terminated the contract one after another at a loss. We have no choice but to buy a batch of raw materials from other places at market prices in order not to delay the operation of the project. This is very expensive!"

Despite listening to the explanation of the chief shopkeeper, Ming Qingda was still furious!

The scene fell into silence for a moment.

After a while, the old lady spoke. She looked tired but forced a smile and said, "We all know the situation. You don't have to worry about the subsequent cash flow. It will be deposited into your accounts before the agreed time!"

"You go down first, calm your employees and comfort them! Once the suspension and rectification period is over, you can resume business." The shopkeepers breathed a sigh of relief. No punishment was the best.

Since it was the old lady who spoke, the situation wasn't so bad that it was irreversible.

"Yes."

A dozen shopkeepers and deacons said goodbye and left.

"Mother, I didn't expect that little bastard to be so cruel!"

The old lady ignored her son's nonsense, frowned and shook her head, and after thinking for a while, she said: "Now we should consider how to get through this difficult time!"

She did a quick calculation and found that her current cash flow was only enough to cover the advance payment for one project.

The other two projects will require 60% of the silver as an advance payment, which should be more than 2 million taels of silver. In addition to the cost of food and transportation, employee interest, etc., at least 3.5 million taels of silver will be needed.

"How much silver do you have?"

Ming Qingda looked uneasy, wondering if he had any reservations. He said, "There are still more than 400,000 taels left."

"fart!"

The old lady could no longer suppress her anger and cursed: "You are really blinded by greed! It's already this time, and you are still only thinking about yourself?"

"You dare say you didn't get a penny back after you massacred that island?"

This damn old woman calculates exactly how much silver she has!

They did not dare to be negligent at the moment, after all, the old lady was still very powerful.

"There are still more than 1.2 million taels left!"

The old lady's expression was slightly relieved, as it was almost the same as what she had guessed.

"I have several hundred thousand taels here, plus the silver I have prepared for emergencies, we still need more than two million taels!"

so much?
Ming Qingda was horrified. He didn't expect that Fan Xian's action this time would bring so much trouble to him and others!

His brows were tightly furrowed.

He asked tentatively, "Perhaps, we can borrow some from the brothers in other rooms?"

The old lady sneered and said, "Why, do you want to divide the shares or something? Those are outsiders, there is no benefit, do you think they will lend it to you?"

"After all, their surname is Ming. Do they expect anything good to happen to us?"

"Oh!" The old lady did not argue with her son. "I will assume they can borrow money, but how much can they borrow?"

The same logic applies.

Among those brothers, except the third one, the rest were just idlers waiting to die.

There won't be much money in hand.

Not to mention that they also suffered heavy losses. Where would they get the money to make up for the gap of more than two million taels?

"Then we can only borrow money!"

The old lady nodded to approve her son's plan. The Ming family had many businesses and a mere two million taels of silver would only cause some loss of vitality but would not hurt any one's bones.

Even though part of the money had been borrowed before the bidding, the foundation accumulated over the years was there, which was why the old lady did not panic.

"That's all!"

The old lady sighed. If she had to choose between letting her son borrow money from the money house or borrowing money from the other families, she would rather choose the former.

After all, money is easy to earn, but favors are hard to repay!
Judging from my own experience, if I had seized such an opportunity, I would definitely take a big bite of flesh and blood from the eldest son's family!

(End of this chapter)