Ai Qian squinted and sat in a side room outside the Great Chu Mansion, waiting for Ma Xiangnan's summons. After they arrived in Shangjing yesterday, they had already submitted their credentials to the court of Chu State, and today they were informed by the protocol officer of the head of the Chu State Rite Department that the first assistant would receive him today.

Ai Qian is really not a high-ranking official above the Ming court, he is just a director of the Commercial Bureau, a six-rank official. In the Ming Dynasty, the level of the six products is actually not low, because not long after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the first product, in addition to the late Yiguo Wang Hou was posthumously sealed, the others, even if they are the first assistant, are only the second grade, and the squire of each department is only the third grade, and down to the county guards, the fourth grade is the top of the sky, and there are some small counties in remote places, which are just five grades.

In the words of Wang Hou, the Duke of Yiguo, who was in charge of official reform at that time, to leave a promotion rank for the officials of the Ming Dynasty, the official quality is set high, and it is inevitable that the corpse will be vegetarian, get by, and lie on top of the official product to make a living.

Therefore, Ai Qian is only in his thirties, and he has already risen to the sixth grade, which is already very good.

But in the capital city, the center of Great Chu, there are really as many as dogs. Ai Qian heard that in Shangjing, if you throw a brick on the street, you may be able to hit a five- or six-grade official. In Shangjing, Liupin is probably the most basic dogleg role.

In Daming, people like Jiang Qian have hundreds of thousands of dollars in their hands every day.

The envoys sent by the Ming Dynasty were headed by Ai Qian, a mustard petty official in the eyes of the Chu State, in the eyes of the Chu State, this was an act of extreme contempt, but there was no way, there was also a queen mother who was now in charge of the capital! Moreover, it is now the state of Chu seeking the state of Ming, not the other way around.

Therefore, the court of Chu State could only pinch his nose and receive this small official with the highest standard, but the Ministry of Rites Shangshu couldn't pull down the son to greet Ai Qian in person, but a second-grade waiter of the Ministry of Rites came. This made Ai Qian quite complacent.

What are you doing on your own? Ai Qian knew it.

In a word, rip-off.

The state of Chu was defeated by Qi, and they urgently needed to find some face on the battlefield to boost the extremely low morale, and they urgently needed to use victory to boost the morale of the whole country. But the most elite eastern border army has been wiped out, and tens of thousands of fire phoenix troops need to sit in the capital, if they want to win the battle, what to fight?

Although Cheng Wuben stabilized the Jinghu defense line, it was only stabilized, Zhou Jiyun, the general of Qi State, had approached the Jinghu defense line, Cheng Wuben's current troops, the defense was already stretched, where can he fight back? If you can't fight back, how can you talk about victory?

Therefore, the state of Chu is now in urgent need of the sharp weapons of the Ming army. Ai Qian, to put it bluntly, is here to sell weapons. Naturally, the relevant matters had already been negotiated, otherwise Ma Xiangnan would not have been in such a hurry to summon him the day after he arrived.

The more urgent they are, the more they occupy a favorable position, how not to knock on this bamboo bar, how to be worthy of the attention of the superiors to themselves?

Ai Qian was born in a merchant family, but he has also read books for many years, but in Qianyue, he tried repeatedly, he had already lost his career, and was ready to concentrate on learning to do business with his father, but in just a few years, the city changed the banner of the king, and the Qianyue collapsed, and on the ruins of Qianyue, the Ming Dynasty rose.

Soon after entering the capital of Yuejing, the vigorous reform of the Ming Dynasty began, and the opening of the department was not like the previous article for life, and the subjects of the examination were five and eight, no matter which subject you are good at, as long as you are good at it, you can basically stand out from the encirclement.

Ai Qian is the lucky one who stood out in the first wave of Daming scientific examinations. Because he is not only good at learning, but also has a good understanding of current affairs, knows arithmetic, and is good at business, he was still the object of competition in several departments at that time in Daming, where there was a shortage of officials. In the end, it was Wang Yueyao of the Commerce Department who went through the back door through his father and got him to the Commerce Department with a paper order.

Facts have also proved that Ai Qian is indeed suitable for this yamen, in the Department of Commerce, he has done well, and within two years of hard work, he has grown into one of the most important principals under Wang Yueyao.

Ai Qian admired the most, in addition to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, there were only two people, one was the boss of the Commercial Bureau, Wang Yueyao. Although she is a woman, Wang Yueyao's keen sense of smell in business, as well as her unparalleled business skills, make the Commerce Department even if she gives up control of most industries, but the Commerce Department still firmly controls the direction of the entire Daming business, as long as Wang Yueyao is willing, she can easily let an industry live and let an industry die.

And the second one, but not an official anymore, and this person is not willing to be an official at all, that is the legendary businessman Geng Jingming of the Ming Dynasty, as a second generation of officials, this young man in a very short period of time, he became a big businessman with a rich net worth in the Ming Dynasty. When the railway department was formed, funds were raised, and the Shafeng line was built, he was forcibly recruited to the railway department to do odd jobs. This person's ability to make money out of nothing made Ai Qian's admiration of the five bodies to the ground.

Big money is bad, and it's bad money. Ai Qian knew this very well, so this trip, he had to get enough windfall for Da Ming. There is nothing more effective than ripping off the bamboo at this time. Thinking that before leaving, Su Kairong, the head of the household, made an appointment to meet him, and he looked pitiful when he talked about the treasury and murderous when he mentioned the state of Chu, Ai Qian couldn't help but laugh when he thought about it.

The purpose of the Su Hu Department is only one, to get money, to get more money, to grasp the Chu State, the unjust big head, to extort money fiercely, the more it knocks, the more beneficial it will be to the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, getting money is an important purpose of Ai's previous trip, but it is not the whole purpose, this time the Ming Dynasty is targeting the Chu State, but it is a systematic project.

He has been sitting in the side hall for a long time, and the tea on the coffee table has no taste, but Ai Qian has not been the slightest bit anxious. Their family is not a wealthy businessman, but a small business, richer than ordinary people. And in order to make a business, sometimes the humiliation is unimaginable.

What's the point of being cold now? Just thinking about the next pleasant process and the opponent's angry but helpless expression, Ai Qian felt extremely comfortable.

Ma Xiangdong, the first assistant of the Chu State, is the eldest brother of the Ming Changyang County Shouma Xiangnan, this kind of relationship once surprised Ai Qian, but he knew that Ma Xiangnan was very respected by His Majesty the Emperor, and this old man was indeed admirable. However, I heard that his eldest brother, although he is talented, his virtue is not so good.

But what does it matter? He must have thought that Da Ming was going to ask for a price, and now it is understandable that he deliberately slows down and regains a little bit of poor self-esteem. It is already a rare thing for a small six-grade master to be able to sit and discuss with the first-grade head of the Chu State. Under normal circumstances, the two countries intersect, and this kind of drop is uncommon.

If it weren't for the death of Duke Yi Guoyao, maybe Lord Wang would have come to the negotiation this time, how would Lord Wang deal with Ma Xiangdong?

Along the way, he had already made several sets of plans, touched the things in his arms, and Ai Qian couldn't help but smile.

Suppressing people with great momentum, he likes it very much.

The door of the side hall was pushed open with a creak, and an official walked in and bowed to Ai Qian: "Your honor, we have a first assistant." ”

Ai Qian stood up, flicked his already meticulous official robe in a chic manner, and helped his hat again, and then returned the salute: "There is a noble official to guide the way." ”

"Please!" The officer stretched out his hand.

Ai Qian smiled and raised his head forward, "Da Chu's tea is famous all over the world, and this tea tastes really good." He suddenly dropped a sentence, and the Chu State official glanced at the tea on the table that was already like white water, and his face immediately turned red.

Ma Xiangdong was indeed very unhappy in his heart. This time, after the emperor returned, in a private summons, he scolded him to the blood. Of course, it is precisely because Ma Xiangdong is the emperor's confidant that he has this kind of treatment, and in this scolding, Ma Xiangdong found that what His Majesty hated was not that during his siege, he was given the great power to oversee the political affairs of Great Chu, but that he did not prevent Cheng Wuben from being appointed as the military commander of Great Chu.

For this matter, Ma Xiangdong is really aggrieved! At that time, the situation was so critical, who else could you rely on if you didn't rely on Cheng Wuben? And this is an order given by the Queen Mother to sit on the throne of Her Majesty with the prince in her arms, where do you dare to stand hard? Even if he knew that there was a problem with Cheng Wuben, in that case, he wouldn't dare to hard-top!

It's good now, there is a big black cauldron smashed down, negotiate with the envoy, only succeed, not fail! The current Great Chu needs the all-round support of the Ming Dynasty, not only to maintain the constant pressure of aligning people on the border, but also to purchase all the most advanced weapons and equipment of the Ming Kingdom.

Before we talked, Your Majesty had already set the tone, only success, not failure! This is simply to let yourself be blackmailed by your opponent without any scruples! The state of Chu needs those militaristic weapons, but what does the state of Chu need to pay? Ma Xiangdong couldn't imagine that after the agreement was announced this time, he was afraid that he would be saddled with the name of a traitor.

When the time comes, I'm afraid that this position of the first assistant will not be kept.

He was very angry, so he put the envoy in the side hall for half a day. Even if he is going to be blackmailed, he must be knocked noble, the other party knows that the extortion is about to succeed, at this time, even if he offends him, he will pretend not to know.

As he expected, the other party sat on the cold bench for a long time, not only did not have the slightest anxiety, but was comfortable and confident. After listening to the description of this Ming official, Ma Xiangdong just sighed, and knew that this guy was a hob meat and was not easy to deal with.