(The fact that the second sacrificial priest shouldn't have fluttering hair and beard was my mistake; I've been a bit muddled these past few days. P.S. I still need those monthly tickets, everyone, please don't find it annoying.)

Although many people didn't sleep well that night, many were busy, and some didn't sleep at all. Despite the significant events in Suzhou City, the second day of the Internal Treasury's New Year tender proceeded as scheduled.

This was the rule, the court's long-standing rule.

So even when Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng, citing the strict curfew in Suzhou and the assassination attempt on Xia Qifei, requested the Transportation Office to postpone the tender date by a few days, Fan Xian firmly and powerfully insisted that the tender must begin on time, without a moment's delay.

The Ming family had already gained a night's time. If they were given more time to react, who knew what might happen?

Fan Xian rubbed his aching brow, forcibly concealing the fatigue on his face, and watched the merchants file in. He noticed that although the expressions of these Jiangnan tycoons were still calm, there was a strange emotion hidden in their eyes. It seemed that the assassination attempt on Xia Qifei last night had also brought them considerable trouble. Fan Xian was just temporarily unable to judge whether this change was good or... bad for his plan.

The Ming family father and son were the second-to-last group to enter the Internal Treasury's mansion. They were followed by the family's stewards and accountants, bowing warmly in all directions. Officials and merchants casually reciprocated before shifting their gaze; no one dared to show too much intimacy with the Ming family in front of Fan Xian.

When the Ming family father and son bowed before the main hall, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng treated them with gentle words, clearly showing their support. Fan Xian watched coldly, smiled, and waved them to their seats - Ming Qingda's expression was strange, appearing very calm. It seemed that, for some reason, he wasn't too afraid of Fan Xian's retaliation for last night's assassination attempt on Xia Qifei.

Before the gate closed, the Jiangnan Water Camp also arrived.

Behind Xia Qifei, apart from the few old officials from the Ministry of Revenue that Fan Xian had sent, only three close bodyguards remained. The rest of his brothers had been buried on the long street last night.

Xia Qifei's face was pale today. It seemed that his serious injuries were impossible to recover from, but today's matter was of great importance, so he had to come despite his condition.

Compared to the bandages on his body, the white band on his forehead was particularly dazzling and bright. The subordinates behind him also wore white cloth bands on their heads, emitting a cold, icy aura in the spring season.

Wearing mourning attire into the Internal Treasury's gate was unprecedented in decades.

The gazes of everyone in the mansion were cast upon this group of strongmen from the B4 Bureau wearing mourning attire and exuding murderous intent. Merchants led by the Xiong family from Lingnan and the Sun family from Quanzhou came out of the room to greet Xia Qifei and offered quiet words of comfort.

Supported by his subordinates, Xia Qifei slowly walked to the front of the main hall, without even glancing at the Ming family father and son in the first room, and said softly, "Xia has arrived after all."

Eunuch Hong and Guo Zheng had strange expressions on their faces.

Fan Xian's eyes twitched slightly, but he quickly regained his composure, calmly spread his right hand, and said steadily and firmly, "As long as you come, there will be a place for you here."

Everyone understood the meaning of Fan Xian's words, and Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng couldn't possibly criticize Fan Xian based on this statement. Today, Jiangnan Governor Xue Qing was claiming illness and hadn't arrived. Now, Fan Xian was the highest-ranking official in the mansion. It was obvious that Xue Qing was letting Fan Xian handle things freely.

However, the Ming family's backers wouldn't just watch the entire situation be controlled by Fan Xian. After a moment of contemplation, Eunuch Huang said, "Mr. Xia, I heard that there was another Jianghu fight in Suzhou last night, and your subordinates suffered heavy losses... However, wearing mourning attire into the courtyard is against etiquette."

After all, Xia Qifei's background wasn't honorable, so the Ming family's old matriarch dared to hire experts from the Junshan Society to carry out the assassination. After all, if Xia Qifei could be killed, it would solve too many problems, and afterward, it could be attributed to Jianghu infighting.

Eunuch Huang's statement at this time was nothing more than wanting to confirm this point.

Fan Xian didn't bother to argue about these nominal things. Instead, hearing Eunuch Huang say that wearing mourning attire into the courtyard was against etiquette, his anger gradually rose. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he said softly, "Eunuch Huang, don't force this official to get angry."

Although these words were spoken softly, the voice sounded as if it were scraped out of the cracks of an iceberg, surging out of the abyss of the earth... so cold and gloomy that it made the listeners shudder.

Don't force this official to get angry!

These words entered Eunuch Huang's ears, causing the old eunuch to shudder involuntarily. He quickly shut his mouth - he wouldn't argue with this damned young woman. Let him go ahead. Anyway, the Ming family had prepared all night. As long as he kept an eye on things, there wouldn't be any problems. If Fan Xian were allowed to flare up at this time, who could stop him? Ruining the big picture would be bad.

Guo Zheng, who was about to speak, also felt a chill in his heart and quickly swallowed the words he had prepared. Last night, they all thought that Fan Xian would act rashly in a fit of rage, so they had already written memorials and made preparations, ready to seize Fan Xian's handle... Unexpectedly, Fan Xian had been maintaining his composure, which disappointed him and Eunuch Huang greatly. They also knew that Fan Xian's inner fire had been suppressed and didn't know when it would erupt.

Thinking of the ministers who had fallen at Fan Xian's hands, Guo Zheng also retreated. Princess Chang was protecting the Ming family's share, not the Ming family's face.

……

……

Another cannon blast, and paper scraps flew乱fly outside the Internal Treasury's mansion, with smoke gradually spreading.

Fan Xian squinted, watching this somewhat familiar scene. For some reason, he thought of last year, on the day he left the Northern Qi capital, when he learned of Zhuang Mohan's death. On that day, the firecrackers that saw him off outside the capital's gate seemed to be seeing off Zhuang Dajia.

Were today's firecrackers seeing off those who died last night?

Xia Qifei led his subordinates silently back to the B4 Bureau, took off the white band tied on his head, carefully laid it on the table, straight as an arrow. The brothers behind him also took off their white bands along with their leader, laying them straight, one after another, vigorous and powerful.

Fan Xian's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, wondering what he was thinking.

The official in charge of announcing the proceedings for the Internal Treasury once again stood on the stone steps. The second day of the Internal Treasury's tender officially began.

A total of five bids were made yesterday. The Internal Treasury had a total of sixteen bids. Apart from the final two bundled eight bids, there were still three bids left, which were announced at the beginning.

The Ming family still didn't bid, according to the agreement among the Jiangnan merchants. Instead, Xia Qifei didn't seem to be affected by what happened last night and began bidding very calmly, winning one of the bids. The remaining two bids were won by the Xiong family from Lingnan and the Chen family from Hangzhou. This was probably something that had been discussed among the Jiangnan merchants last night.

The bid that Xia Qifei won was still the route north. After Fan Xian received the quotation from the flower hall and confirmed that Xia Qifei had won this bid, he couldn't help but nod secretly. Xia Qifei hadn't acted impulsively, which he appreciated.

The bidding for these three bids was uneventful, and the prices were basically the same as in previous years, with nothing surprising. However, all the merchants and officials in the room didn't react much, because everyone knew that the main event today was later, in the eight bids that the Ming family was determined to win.

……

……

"The two wards of goods on the southeast and sea routes, a total of four bids, start submitting bids, the highest bidder... wins..."

The official of the Internal Treasury Transportation Office stood on the stone steps, announcing expressionlessly. He didn't know how many years he had been announcing this sentence. Every year, after this sentence was announced, only the Ming family would bid, and no one would compete with the Ming family. Therefore, he felt dull and uninspired when announcing it.

But, this year was different.

As the announcement ended, the first to push open the door and hand in the sealed kraft paper was the B4 Bureau!

A buzz of discussion erupted throughout the mansion. Xia Qifei, the seventh young master who was rumored to have been abandoned by the Ming family, had finally begun to take action against the Ming family.

Ming Qingda in Room A1 remained unchanged, as if he had expected this situation. In previous years, because of his family's strong strength, coupled with Princess Chang keeping an eye on things from behind, none of the Jiangnan merchants dared to bid against him. Therefore, the Ming family, like the Cui family in the first six bids, were performing a solo act in the last eight bids.

Performing this act for a long time would eventually become tiresome. Today, someone finally came to compete with the Ming family, and Ming Qingda felt a slight sense of excitement in addition to a slight sense of apprehension.

He smiled and said to his son beside him, "Duo'er, suppress him."

Ming Lanshi was shocked. His father meant that the first round of bidding should be 20% higher than last year's fixed price? If Xia Qifei really had enough silver in the second round to continue following, how could he withstand it?

Ming Qingda picked up the teacup beside him, took a sip of tea, and said slowly, "The extra 20% is not suppressing Xia Qifei, but others."

Ming Lanshi was puzzled, thinking who else in today's Internal Treasury mansion dared to compete with his family for these two big bids, besides Xia Qifei, who had the support of the imperial envoy? In this young master of the Ming family's mind, he still firmly believed that Xia Qifei's confidence came from the silver that Fan Xian had privately transferred from the Ministry of Revenue, and no one else had this strength.

Ming Qingda didn't say anything, but he was very clear in his heart that Fan Xian had let Xia Qifei sweep up goods everywhere yesterday. This was to turn the other Jiangnan merchants into hungry wolves, and a hungry wolf dared to gnaw on anyone's meat.

……

……

When the two sealed kraft paper were handed into the flower hall, all the merchants and officials who were paying attention to this matter put their buttocks back on their seats and let out a sigh of relief, knowing that the good show had officially begun.

But it seemed that many people hadn't guessed the direction of this show.

The door of Room B1 was also slowly pushed open, and a sealed kraft paper was handed to the official in front of the door.

The Sun family from Quanzhou!

The whole courtyard was in an uproar. No one had expected that the Sun family from Quanzhou would dare to grab this hot potato when the two tigers were fighting!

"The Sun family!" Ming Lanshi looked at his father in shock and said, "Where did their family get so much silver?"

Ming Qingda's face remained unchanged and said, "One Sun family is not enough. Can't a few families put it together? Don't you think that old man Xiong Bailing has become too quiet today? And those few families who have been staring at us, if they don't have something on their minds, why would they stare for so long? I don't have flowers growing on my face!"

On the main hall, the officials sitting in the three grand master chairs also had their own thoughts. Fan Xian had expected this development, so he wasn't too surprised. Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng gnashed their teeth, thinking that the Sun family from Quanzhou was too bold and dared to mess things up at this time!

Amid everyone's nervous attention, the results of the first round of bidding came out. Fan Xian looked at the quotation comparison list from the flower hall and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, thinking that it wasn't without reason that the Ming family had been entrenched in Jiangnan for so many years.

In Fan Xian's plan, the last four bids were the time for him to desperately compete with the Ming family, because the silver transferred from Northern Qi, although huge in number, required too long a route for turnover and ultimately had a limit. Moreover, Xia Qifei had paid a huge deposit after winning five bids in a row.

If he could engage in unlimited false bidding, Xia Qifei could completely bid empty-mouthed and make the Ming family bleed continuously. The problem was that Fan Xian had never understood Ming Qingda. This nominal owner of the Ming family seemed to be more than just nominal. Fan Xian couldn't judge whether Ming Qingda would disregard Princess Chang's strict orders and make a decisive cut if he really engaged in false bidding!

With the silver Fan Xian currently had in his hands, if he used it to compete, he would only be confident in seriously injuring the Ming family in the second group of four bids.

What if the Ming family really played a ruthless move in the third round and gave up on these four bids... Xia Qifei had pushed the price too high, and there could only be two outcomes. One was that he couldn't come up with the 40% deposit at all, and the other was that after successfully winning the previous four bids, he would have no energy left and would watch the Ming family win the next four bids effortlessly.

The second outcome was not what Fan Xian wanted. He had no way to control the shipping routes to Dongyi City, so the four bids that were indispensable to the Ming family were like chicken ribs to him. He didn't want Xia Qifei to really win these bids, but if he watched the Ming family win the next four bids so easily, Fan Xian... couldn't swallow this breath.

As for the first possibility... If the price really exploded, under the watchful eyes of Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng, and in the sight of so many people, the matter of the Internal Treasury would really be abandoned halfway, and Xia Qifei would probably have no way out.

……

……

In summary, in the plan that Fan Xian had prepared in advance, the first four bids were intended to let the Sun family from Quanzhou set off a firecracker, and Xia Qifei's bidding was just a feint and he didn't intend to risk his life.

But looking at the quotation sheet handed over from the flower hall, Fan Xian knew that the old master of the Ming family had already guessed his arrangement, so the first round of bidding had reached such a terrifying figure!

The reason why the Sun family dared to take action today was because of the information he had passed on through Shi Chanli last night.

But facing the Ming family's overwhelming offensive, coupled with the Ming family's blatant assassination attempt on Xia Qifei last night, the fire of civil and military affairs collided... Fan Xian began to worry that the Sun family might be too scared to bid again in this round.

The development of the situation was indeed sliding towards the situation that Fan Xian didn't want to see. When the official in charge of announcing the proceedings announced the Ming family's high bid of three million eight hundred thousand taels of silver, the entire courtyard was in an uproar.

And the door of Room B1 had never been opened again since then. The Sun family was indeed frightened.

Fan Xian narrowed his eyes, looking at the Ming family father and son in Room A1, and began to calculate whether the father and son were really not involved in last night's assassination attempt, as the Supervisory Council's investigation had shown, and that the person in charge was purely the Ming family's old matriarch.

Assassinating Xia Qifei seemed rash, but when paired with today's fierce bidding, it could scare away many enemies who wanted to take advantage of the chaos to seize profits.

If Ming Qingda was really someone who knew how to take advantage of the situation and even used his own mother, Fan Xian felt it was necessary to re-examine the other party.

As soon as the first round of bidding was announced, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng stroked their beards and smiled. However, there was no beard under Eunuch Huang's chin, so it seemed a bit funny, but at least it could be seen that the two were quite satisfied with the Ming family's actions and everyone's reactions.

Everything was calm in Room B4. Through the window lattice, Xia Qifei looked at Fan Xian with an inquiring look.

Fan Xian sighed helplessly and smoothed the stray hairs on his forehead with the palms of his hands. The meaning of this code was to let Xia Qifei proceed slowly. Since the Sun family had withdrawn, Xia Qifei must continue to bid, but the extent of this bidding must be well controlled.

He had to make the Ming family hurt, but not too much, and he also had to let the other party take over these first four bids with great satisfaction, without suddenly having a brain cramp and giving up, throwing these four bids to him.

This was a very difficult situation, and even if Xia Qifei had several old officials from the Ministry of Revenue to help him, it would be difficult to handle it flawlessly.

The official in charge of announcing the proceedings once again stood on the stone steps, and so on for two times. The great family feud between the Ming family's eldest son and seventh son that people had been expecting didn't happen. The B4 Bureau's thugs had completely lost yesterday's fierceness and were bidding extremely cautiously.

However, even though they were cautious, the price of this first four bids was still slowly raised to a jaw-dropping level!

This was undoubtedly because the Ming family's first round of bidding was 20% higher than last year's winning bid. Another reason was that the B4 Bureau was clinging to the other party like chewing gum.

In the end, the one who bid successfully... was still the Ming family, this result was the same as in all these years, but the price that was bid had undergone too much change compared to previous years.

Five million one hundred and twenty thousand taels!

Everyone opened their mouths wide, listening to this bid, thinking that if the bidding rules for the Internal Treasury were five rounds, the B4 Bureau's Xia Qifei and the A1 Bureau's Ming Qingda would raise this price to twice last year's bid!

This price was indeed already ridiculously high.

But Fan Xian knew that this could only show that in previous years, under Princess Chang's control, the price of the sales rights for the Internal Treasury was ridiculously low. The Ming family wouldn't lose money with this price, and they might even make a big profit - of course, this must be the case if the Ming family still dared to do pirate business and still dared to smuggle to Dongyi City under Fan Xian's nose.

So Fan Xian smiled, very satisfied with this result. The Ming family should just wait to throw money into these bids this year.

"A1 Bureau, Ming family, five million one hundred and twenty thousand taels, won!"

The official of the Internal Treasury Transportation Office in charge of announcing the proceedings, who had been somewhat listless, now announced the largest bid amount in the Internal Treasury's opening tender in more than a decade and finally seemed to be energetic. The voice of the quotation was powerful and sonorous, resounding on the ground, and the word 'won' came out and disappeared immediately, without any delay, appearing extremely decisive.

Merchants who held all kinds of attitudes towards the Ming family also felt a sense of excitement and began to cheer for this number.

On the contrary, the Ming family father and son in Room A1 didn't have any joy on their faces, especially Ming Qingda, whose brows were filled with a faint worry.

What he was thinking was the same as what Fan Xian was thinking. Without the help of some shady means, these four bids... would definitely lose money.

And the most critical thing was that Xia Qifei's bidding seemed to have a master to assist him, who had grasped the measure extremely well. These five million one hundred and twenty thousand taels for this bid meant that a deposit of more than two million taels of silver would have to be left behind later... What's more, the other party's true life-risking bidding must be at the end.

Last night, Mingyuan raised silver overnight, and the six rooms together only raised more than sixty thousand taels, far less than the one million three hundred and fifty thousand taels share set by the Ming old matriarch. And this four bids had exceeded Ming Qingda's psychological budget too much. What should he do later?

Half of the supply of silver from the Taiping Qianzhuang was still remaining, but no one knew what would happen later. Ming Qingda's hands gently pressed on the wooden box beside him, lost in thought.

Ming Lanshi looked at his father's tired face and felt extremely distressed. He knew that his father had not slept all night and had gone to several large money shops in Suzhou overnight to transfer silver. It was not until dawn that he finally got the reassuring amount. The wooden box contained the urgent bills opened by the Zhaoshang Qianzhuang.

"Do you think the imperial envoy will still want these next four bids?" Ming Qingda sighed wearily.

Ming Lanshi didn't know what to say.

The sun had already shifted to the middle, and the Internal Treasury's tender was temporarily adjourned. Yamen servants from Suzhou Prefecture and the Transportation Office carried in meals to provide for the adults and merchants. Although the food provided by the government was not as delicious as the delicacies in the homes of these wealthy people, these merchants still ate with relish, gathering around the Sun family from Quanzhou, who had a decadent look on their faces, and asking about something.

People were looking forward to the afternoon. That was the final battle. The terrifying amount of five million taels of silver had already been opened in the morning. How gorgeous would the afternoon be?

No one noticed Ming Qingda silently walked to the main hall and came to the side hall where several important figures were having meals. He didn't avoid suspicion too much and said with a smile, "Greetings, Eunuch Huang, Imperial Censor Guo. I have something I want to report to the imperial envoy. Please make it convenient for me."

Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng were greatly stunned, thinking, what trick was this? Could it be that the Ming family wanted to lean towards Fan Xian in front of them? But it was impossible to be so upright and aboveboard... Ming Qingda had been in charge of the Ming family for a long time and had close relations with high officials in the court. He had a kind of majesty in his chest. Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng looked at each other, deeply believing in his words, and smiled and withdrew, leaving him space to speak with Fan Xian.

……

……

There was no one in the hall. Ming Qingda lifted his front hem with some difficulty, knelt in front of Fan Xian, and did not speak.

Fan Xian held a bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, searching for something delicious to eat in the dishes. He didn't even glance in that direction, but just said, "The next four bids, this official... still wants to grab them."