Chapter 162: If Gold Is Not Enough, Local Specialties Will Suffice

The wait was not long, only three to five minutes; the crowd was terrified that if they wrote too slowly, Zhu Gaoxu would go back on his word.

After collecting the various written agreements, Zhu Gaoxu tucked them away into his sleeves, appearing to do so quite casually.

He then said to the crowd, "You all have taken a great advantage. I won't hide it from you: this Daming Gun is one of the divine artifacts of my Great Ming, and it was written about in a strange book."

"This strange book has helped my Great Ming with more tasks than I can count, saving my Great Ming from countless crises."

Hearing these words from Zhu Gaoxu, some thought of the Mahjong they had seen earlier.

They remembered that when they first saw the Mahjong, Zhu Gaoxu had also said he only understood its wonders because of a strange book.

And as products of the same strange book.

The Daming Gun was already so formidable, yet Zhu Gaoxu valued this Mahjong even more.

From this, it was clear that thing had an even greater use than the Daming Gun!

The crowd were no "fools," and they instantly realized this point.

One of the envoys could not help but speak up and ask Zhu Gaoxu, "Your Highness, those tiles we saw when we first arrived here—could you sell those to us as well?"

Zhu Gaoxu had thought it was about to end, and he was stunned upon hearing this.

Rushing to hand over money?

Immediately returning to normal, Zhu Gaoxu deliberately put on a troubled expression.

And to the crowd, this meant there was a chance!

"Since Your Highness thinks so highly of us and calls us family, please, Your Highness, do not hold back!"

"Your Highness treats us as family, and we surely treat Your Highness as kin; please, Your Highness, do not hold back!"

"......"

Once the group saw there was a chance, they immediately began speaking one after another, hoping Zhu Gaoxu would sell the Mahjong to them as well.

Hearing these words, Zhu Gaoxu seemed to be moved, sighed, and said, "Sigh, very well!"

Hearing Zhu Gaoxu relent, everyone's eyes lit up, waiting for him to speak.

Zhu Gaoxu seemed to struggle internally for a moment before saying, "This matter is different from the Daming Gun. Although the Daming Gun is a sharp weapon of the battlefield, its utility is not even one ten-thousandth that of Mahjong."

Hearing that Mahjong was ten thousand times more powerful than the Daming Gun, everyone widened their eyes.

Even their breathing became somewhat rapid.

A treasure, this is a treasure!

As if he had not noticed the group's abnormality, Zhu Gaoxu continued to mutter, "Besides, my Imperial Grandfather instructed me long ago that I could sell anything, but this Mahjong could not be sold. If I were to sell it to you, my Imperial Grandfather would surely call me a spendthrift again for the low price."

Hearing this, the few finally understood.

Zhu Gaoxu was clearly worried about the price, and judging by his words, he had not been a stranger to squandering wealth in the past.

This was clearly a big sucker.

The few exchanged glances and immediately decided to strike while the iron was hot, not letting Zhu Gaoxu go back on his word.

Thinking this, one of them took the lead and said, "Your Highness, we are all family; if you have any difficulties, just speak up, and you may set the price as you wish."

Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu nodded as if he had made a firm decision: "There is no use in you buying too many of these; I will sell you one set each, and you can go back and make them yourselves."

Hearing this from Zhu Gaoxu, the crowd was even more excited.

This was equivalent to buying the technology along with it!

Thinking this, everyone looked at Zhu Gaoxu with anticipation, waiting for his price.

After hesitating for a long time, Zhu Gaoxu said, "Then let it be ten thousand taels of gold per set!"

Hearing this, everyone's face turned dark.

They never expected it to be so expensive!

Previously, Zhu Gaoxu said the Daming Gun was one copper coin per barrel and even included so many extras.

They thought, how expensive could it possibly be?

They did not expect Zhu Gaoxu to open his mouth like a lion, actually demanding ten thousand taels of gold!

For small countries like theirs, this was no small sum.

It was an amount they could not produce even by exhausting the strength of their entire nation.

Of course, this also indirectly showed that this thing called Mahjong was indeed useful.

Otherwise, Zhu Gaoxu could not have asked for such an astronomical price.

Watching the crowd remain silent, Zhu Gaoxu seemed to be very happy.

He said directly to the crowd, "Since you all feel it is inappropriate, then let us not buy it; we shall discuss it another time."

This remark from Zhu Gaoxu, instead, made the group determined to buy it.

The envoy from Siam took the lead and said, "My country of Siam will buy this. I will draw up the written agreement for Your Highness right now, and I will have the ten thousand taels of gold delivered to Your Highness in a few days."

Hearing this, the other envoys grew anxious.

Among them, Wang Ren saw things more clearly.

He felt that with Zhu Gaoxu's intelligence, it was impossible for him to be this stupid.

After all, the various ways he had swindled him before were simply not things a fool could do.

On the contrary, the shrewd design behind it showed that Zhu Gaoxu was very clever.

But even though he was full of doubts, Wang Ren still could not help but stand up and sign the agreement along with Siam.

This turn of events seemed to be beyond Zhu Gaoxu's expectations.

Zhu Gaoxu reached out his hand as if to stop them, but in the end, he sighed and silently collected the written agreements from the two countries.

The other countries clearly could not come up with that much money.

Thus, they proposed one after another whether they could use their own local specialties or similar things to trade.

Among these, things like warhorses, military equipment, iron, stone, and other materials were all included.