Chapter 74

Lv Fang revealed a smile, "Your Majesty, please give the order. This humble official will not refuse to go through fire and water, and will definitely complete the task Your Majesty has entrusted."

What a joke!

With the Zhou Emperor standing behind him, what difficulty couldn't be solved?

The Zhou Emperor turned around, stroked his beard and said: "Good! I will send you to Wuyincheng to persuade Shen Kangbo to invest and help popularize the Great Zhou News. As long as you persuade him, I believe it can be popularized in the nineteen states in at most half a year."

Shen Kangbo?

The richest man in Great Zhou!

Lv Fang's eyes lit up. In the final analysis, the obstacle to the popularization of the news was that the national treasury had no silver, or was unwilling to use it at this juncture.

As long as the silver was solved, everything would be solved.

Persuading the richest man in Great Zhou to invest in popularizing the news didn't seem difficult to him. Why did the Emperor say there was only a forty percent chance?

Just as Lv Fang was about to ask his doubts, he saw the Zhou Emperor smile and say: "You can discuss the specific matters with He Zixuan, I won't disturb you here from washing away the Blood-Slaughter Curse."

"Respectfully send off Your Majesty."

"Respectfully send off Your Majesty."

After the Zhou Emperor left.

Zhou Heng, the supervisor of the Imperial Observatory, made a gesture of invitation and welcomed Lv Fang into a quiet room. Just as he sat on the meditation cushion under the indication, a dense sound of crisp bells rang out.

Lv Fang looked up and discovered a brass bell the size of a palm floating in mid-air and shaking. Strangely, it should have been very noisy, but he felt his heart was very calm.

Unknowingly, he had entered a meditative state.

When he left the meditative state and Lv Fang walked out of the palace, the sky was already slightly dim.

"Lord Wenguan!"

He Zixuan's head poked out from a carriage.

"Such a coincidence?" Lv Fang stepped forward to greet him.

He Zixuan smiled bitterly: "Didn't you agree to the Emperor to go to Wuyincheng? I was ordered to tell you the specific matters. Get on."

Lv Fang nodded with a smile, got on the carriage, entered the carriage, and sat down.

He Zixuan said softly: "Looking at Lord Wenguan's appearance, you are very confident in going to Wuyincheng to persuade Shen Kangbo? Do you know that Shen Kangbo is eccentric and says one thing and means it? He said long ago that he has no interest in Great Zhou News."

Lv Fang restrained the smile on his face and hesitated: "Does the Emperor mean that Shen Kangbo dares to disobey?"

He Zixuan smiled bitterly: "Under normal circumstances, he naturally wouldn't disobey. But do you know that just last month, Shen Kangbo donated ten thousand times ten thousand taels of gold to the national treasury, and ten thousand carriages of various materials for the four frontiers."

Lv Fang frowned, "Since Shen Kangbo is willing to contribute to Great Zhou, he would even less disobey the Emperor."

He Zixuan smiled but not smiled: "But no matter how much money Shen Kangbo has, he can't stand taking silver out like this. He donates silver to the national treasury every year, not once or twice. The Emperor originally intended to talk to him about the popularization of the news."

"However, Shen Kangbo said in advance that he didn't want to interfere in the news. The Emperor knows his eccentric character of saying one thing and meaning it, so he was embarrassed to make things difficult for such a person who has made contributions to the country."

He Zixuan paused and continued: "That is to say, you are going as an individual to persuade him, not by imperial decree. In this way, if you can't talk it over, it won't hurt the harmony between the two sides."

Lv Fang let out a heavy breath, "It doesn't matter. The business opportunity contained in Great Zhou News is huge. As long as I can meet Shen Kangbo, I have confidence..."

He Zixuan interrupted: "The Minister of Revenue said that no matter what, the profits from selling Great Zhou News must be turned over to the national treasury. Even if you have eight mouths, can you persuade Shen Kangbo to only pay money and not profit? Anyway, the Emperor has already agreed."

"Cough cough cough..."

Lv Fang was choked by his own saliva and coughed repeatedly. Good fellow! No wonder the Zhou Emperor didn't make it clear face-to-face. With such conditions, let alone Shen Kangbo, who would be willing to do it?

Let alone a forty percent chance, he estimated there wasn't even one percent.

He Zixuan gloated: "Listening to the Emperor's meaning, Shen Kangbo thinks quite highly of you. I heard he has a granddaughter he regards as the successor of the Shen family. Maybe he will recruit you as a son-in-law, and everything will be solved."

"That's not impossible."

Lv Fang rolled his eyes and said angrily: "Not letting go of any profit at all, how could anyone be willing?"

He Zixuan shrugged and said: "The Emperor said that except for the profits from selling Great Zhou News which must be turned over to the national treasury, you can make concessions in other aspects depending on the situation."

"..."

Lv Fang had a sentence he didn't know whether to say or not. Besides profit, what else could he make concessions on?

Three days later.

In the northwest of the Great Zhou Dynasty, on the official road outside Wuyincheng, a carriage was driving slowly in the thick fog.

"Young Master, you are from out of town, right? Our Wuyincheng is surrounded by thick fog for a hundred miles. It is rumored to be a defensive formation set up by the Shen family ancestor. It will be fine once we enter the city."

The coachman sniffed and said.

Lv Fang, sitting in the carriage, tightened his cotton robe and said: "I heard the Shen family ancestor is eccentric and says one thing and means it all his life. I don't know if it's true or false?"

The coachman chuckled:

"That is indeed the case. And don't look at the Shen family ancestor as old, his heart isn't old. It's been less in recent years, but before, he often disguised himself to go out and talk about love with women without admitting he was old. Everyone in Wuyincheng knows this. Young Master, just listen to it as fun, but don't say it in the city, or you will be expelled from the city by the Shen family."

Lv Fang chuckled: "Since the Shen family ancestor disguised himself, how would you know?"

The coachman smiled: "The Shen family ancestor has a strong body and is seven feet five inches tall. When he first sneaked out, he did disguise himself, but his figure didn't change at all, especially his temperament. As long as you have seen him, you can recognize him."

"Later, he became smarter and changed his figure quite a bit, but with that temperament of his, he could never change it."

"So it became known to everyone in the city, and he issued a rule not to discuss him in private. They have another family rule that is even funnier: the Shen family is not allowed to intermarry with those surnamed Shen. Isn't this 'there is no silver three hundred taels here'?"

"Hahaha..." Lv Fang laughed out loud. So interesting, how could he be eccentric and rigidly say one thing and mean it?

"Whoa whoa whoa!"

The carriage stopped suddenly.

Lv Fang had just steadied his body when he heard the coachman say impatiently: "Where did this beggar come from? Are you tired of living? If I hit you to death, you can't blame me."

Lv Fang lifted the carriage curtain upon hearing this and discovered that in front of the carriage, a young man wearing a hat with a dirty little face and a patched cotton-padded jacket was spreading his arms wide.

The thick fog was so big. If the coachman hadn't been careful just now, he would have definitely hit him. No wonder he was so angry.

The young man in the hat sniffed. His voice was a bit soft, and a bit deliberately sharp: "How are you talking? I am Shen Kangbo's son who has been left outside. Once you send me to the Shen family, the gold my father rewards you with will be enough for you to spend for a lifetime."

"Go go go!"

The coachman waved his hand impatiently to drive him away.

Lv Fang stopped the coachman, looked at the young man in the hat with a smile and said: "If you are willing, I can send you to Wuyincheng."