I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 1031 - Chapter 1031 Everyone Knows

Chapter 1031: Everyone Knows Chapter 1031: Everyone Knows Editor: Atlas Studios Due to Mu Yangling’s repeated reminders and it being in trend for Westerners to be ‘explorers’ in other countries, Fan Zijin had always regarded them with the greatest malice.

To him, the arrival of the English envoy was not a good thing.

Qi Haoran, on the other hand, thought more simply.

He believed in the supremacy of strength.

If one’s country was strong, one would naturally not be afraid of other countries plotting against them.

Although he could not immediately take back the territory that had been occupied by Great Jin and West Xia, it was not a problem to deal with the England envoy who had come from afar.

Therefore, his answer was simple and crude.

“Ask them what they want.

If it’s beneficial to us, we’ll do it.

If it’s not, we’ll reject him.” The corners of Fan Zijin’s mouth twitched.

What exactly was he up to?

However, Fan Zijin still did as he said.

As he received the envoy, he sent someone to inform the Ministry of Rites and the Emperor.

The reason for the English envoy’s visit was very simpleaEUR”England wanted to establish diplomatic relations with Great Qi officially and establish good trade conditions between the two countries.

The specific details would have to be negotiated when the envoy entered the capital.

When Fan Zijin heard this, he did not dare to hand this matter over to the Ministry of Rites completely since this involved business.

If he handed it over to those bookworms from the Ministry of Rites, wouldn’t Great Qi suffer a huge loss?

As Fan Zijin got someone to escort the envoy into the capital, he requested that the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Revenue and the Maritime Trade Bureau be jointly responsible for this matter.

The Ministry of Rites was only responsible for receiving the envoy and various etiquettes.

As for the negotiation, it was better to leave it to the Ministry of Revenue and the Maritime Trade Bureau since they were professionals.

Seeing that he was worried, Qi Haoran said, “If you’re afraid that the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the Maritime Trade Bureau will look down on business matters, why don’t you nominate a few cunning businessmen to negotiate with them?

Aren’t there also businessmen in the Westerners’ negotiating team this time?” “Their customs and national situation are different from ours.

How can we imitate them?” Fan Zijin was still worried that Great Qi would suffer a loss.

As a negotiator, he knew very well how thick-skinned and cunning the Westerners were.

“In the West, even the earls can be pirates, and dukes can personally steer ships out to do business.

In Great Qi, scholars, agriculture, industry, and commerce are considered the lowest class after all and do not have a high status.

Although the ministers of the Ministry of Revenue and the Maritime Trade Bureau need to deal with money, they still look down on businessmen.

Asking them to work with businessmen is worse than killing them.” Don’t think that this was them being pretentious; this reflects a certain type of values.

Mu Yangling couldn’t understand why these people looked down on business while sending their servants to handle the business matters and enjoying the benefits of doing business.

She had done some research on this and found that this idea was artificially promoted.

The division of scholars, farmers, and industries was artificially promoted by someone after the Han Dynasty.

Naturally, it was not because businessmen pursued profits.

In this era, be it scholars or businessmen, they basically had a precious qualityaEUR”honesty.

The reason was that commercial activities could bring greater benefits to people, but agricultural activities had little benefits.

Food was the most important thing to people.

If there was no suppression, who would farm the land in this world?

Where would the grain tax come from?

What would everyone eat?

Thus, for the sake of the country’s stability, the Imperial Court could only suppress the development of commerce.

Other than the layers of tariffs, the status of merchants was also greatly belittled.

Even from the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, merchants were restricted from taking the Imperial Examinations.

Even now, Great Qi still restricted merchants from taking the Imperial Examinations.

They felt that if merchants could also enter the bureaucracy, plenty of people would give up farming to do business.

Therefore, when Qi Haoran mentioned this suggestion, Fan Zijin immediately rejected it.

He was not only worried about the emotions of the courtiers, but he also wanted to limit the development of commerce.

Although as a businessman, Fan Zijin did not look down on businessmen, as he grew older, he gradually understood the importance of focusing on agriculture and suppressing commerce.

He was not willing to break this rule.

Qi Haoran stroked his chin and said, “Since the Westerners want to discuss business matters, it’s fine to let the merchants listen in.

They can raise their opinions with the Imperial Court later and negotiate with the Westerners after the Ministry of Revenue and the Maritime Trade Bureau sort out their opinions.” Fan Zijin thought about it and agreed.

They could choose not to give the merchants the right to negotiate, but they could let them listen in to ensure Great Qi didn’t suffer a loss.

As this matter involved their personal interests, no one was more concerned than them.

Fan Zijin immediately wrote a memorial to Qi Xiuyuan, but privately wrote to him to make sure to choose a few officials who could accept other opinions and were not biased against businessmen.

As soon as this news spread, the merchants were overjoyed and rushed to the capital.

They only hoped that they would be lucky enough to be chosen to listen in.

Even if they were not qualified to speak, they would at least be able to show their faces in front of the Emperor.

As the envoy was already halfway there, Qi Xiuyuan didn’t have time for a slow selection.

He picked five or six merchants from the various chambers of commerce in the capital and asked them to negotiate with the diplomatic team.

Four of these six people were once Fan Zijin’s creditors.

In other words, they had used their financial resources to support the establishment of Great Qi.

Thus, the Emperor had a good impression of them.

Many people could not help but stomp their feet.

Back then, Fan Zijin had tried to borrow money from many people.

But because they knew that Fan Zijin was borrowing the money for the Emperor, some were afraid that they would not be repaid, so they declined.

In the end, only five or six people were willing to lend Fan Zijin money.

Now, it seemed that their gamble had paid off.

Not only had Fan Zijin paid off the money they owed, but they had also left a good impression on the Emperor because of this.

Look, all six families had become Imperial Merchants.

Now, four of those families could even directly listen in on government affairs.

The other two family heads, who were far away, couldn’t help but stomp their feet, regretful that they had gone out to do business when they should have been staying in the capital.

This way, they would have a spot in the team too.

This huge earthquake among the merchants contrasted the calmness in the Imperial Court.

This was because it was not a big deal for them to receive the English envoy or let the merchants listen in on the negotiations.

Considering the West was too far away, the courtiers weren’t too concerned about this matter.

Their attention was focused on the diplomatic letters from the Jurchen Jin Dynasty and Western Xia, both of which requested the opening of additional trade markets.

The letters proposed a total of 27 new markets.

Currently, the combined number of markets along the borders of the three countries was only 13.

Opening 27 more would have exceeded even the scale of those established during the Tang Dynasty.

Many officials felt that it must be a conspiracy seeing as Great Jin and West Xia had submitted the diplomatic letters at the same time.

In addition, Great Jin and West Xia would be sending envoys over because of this.

Recently, the court had been arguing about this.

Who could still remember the English envoy who was about to reach the capital?

At this moment, the Emperor’s attention was on the fact that the royal family was about to welcome a new member.

He said happily to the Empress, “Haoran has been looking forward to this child for many years.

Do send them more things.

Oh right, pack a few pieces of Mingzhu’s clothes and send them to Ah Ling.

Isn’t there a custom of putting boys’ clothes under the pillow if one wishes to give birth to a boy?

Haoran and Ah Ling have been looking forward to a daughter, so they should place a girl’s clothes under her pillow.” Li Jinghua agreed with a smile.

She brought Wen Cui to rummage through the cabinets and found many of Mingzhu’s old clothes.

She then had them packed up to be sent to Mu Yangling.

Qi Xiuyuan also opened the inner treasury and bestowed a lot of things upon his brother.

The palace had always been the place that attracted the most attention.

Even if Qi Xiuyuan did not issue an edict, the palace still attracted everyone’s attention by sending three to four carts of items to Guangzhou at this time.

Hence, the noisy courtiers realized that the Emperor wasn’t quite putting his attention on the right things.

Upon asking around, they found out that Princess Consort Rong was pregnant.

Hence, Mu Yangling became famous overnight.

This wasn’t much different from back then when the Empress was pregnant with Princess Mingzhu.