It wasn't until Wang Gongling left that Li Wanming came to her senses.
Five hundred jars...
Her wine shop had been open for a little over half a month, and on its best day, it had only sold sixteen jars!
Yet Princess Chengping had asked for five hundred jars in one go!
As expected of a princess!
Apart from the Empress Dowager, she was the most extravagant woman in the Great Sheng Dynasty. She was truly wealthy!
This huge order that had suddenly dropped from the sky meant that the raw materials in stock at the wine shop were no longer sufficient.
Thankfully, the fermentation tanks dug earlier were large enough, and there was enough yeast stored. However, there was a significant shortage of raw materials such as glutinous rice, millet, and broomcorn millet.
So, early the next morning, Li Wanming sent Xiao Jingnan and Chuntao to the warehouses in Changyi Fang to purchase the raw materials.
Changyi Fang was close to the outer city, where large warehouses and granaries were located.
Since a large quantity of raw materials needed to be purchased this time, Li Wanming was not at ease with Chuntao going alone. She asked Xiao Jingnan to go with her to oversee the goods.
But after waiting for a whole day, neither of them returned.
Although Changyi Fang was far away, it was only in the outer city. They should have been back within a day.
Just as Li Wanming was thinking about whether to send someone to check, she suddenly saw Chuntao limping towards her.
"Miss, something terrible has happened!"
Her hairpin had come loose, and there was a cut on the corner of her mouth. The hem of her skirt was stained with mud from somewhere. As soon as she opened her mouth, she said:
"Sir... Sir has been arrested by them!"
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Doing business in the capital required consideration of many factors.
Cost, price, location, staff... But apart from these, there was one other thing that was also very important - commercial guilds.
It was only now that Li Wanming learned that in the capital, for larger business trades, there would always be a commercial guild.
There was a rice guild for rice sellers, a cloth guild for cloth sellers, and naturally, a wine guild for wine sellers.
Among them, the thirteen largest guilds were known as the Thirteen Guilds in the Capital.
Unfortunately, Wei Chengbiao, the deputy head of the Thirteen Guilds in the Capital, had made his fortune in the wine trade.
The largest winery in the capital - Zuihuazhuang - was opened by him.
Apart from Muyun Pavilion, almost all the restaurants and inns in the capital used the wine supplied by Zuihuazhuang.
At first, Wei Chengbiao didn't take Li Wanming seriously when she was just starting out.
In such a large capital, new wine shops and stalls opened every day.
Such small - scale businesses didn't catch his eye.
But he didn't expect that Li Wanming was a real troublemaker!
She came up with new ideas every day. First, there was lychee wine, then there were display stands for promotions, and later, there were flower wines and fruit wines. Her business was getting better and better... And she had even received an order from Princess Chengping!
When the manager of the winery reported this to him, he couldn't believe it.
Although Princess Chengping had never held a grand banquet, the wine for daily consumption in her mansion had always been supplied by their Zuihuazhuang.
But now, this business had been snatched away by Li Wanming for no reason. This made him sense a bad sign.
Was the Princess Mansion going to change its wine supplier in the future?
Princess Chengping was a real powerful figure in the capital. Once she had this thought, what about other noble families?
"A little girl dares to challenge me?"
Wei Chengbiao bared his teeth and sneered. "Doing wine business in the capital without paying respects to the guild! Then we'll let her know who really rules the wine trade in the capital!"
After hearing his instructions, the manager was a little worried.
"I heard that Li Wanming is the daughter of General Xuanwei. Moreover, her father - in - law seems to have once worked as a doorman for the Cheng family of Langya..."
"What's there to be afraid of just because she's the daughter of a general? Anyone who dares to do business in the capital must have some connections, whether legitimate or not!"
A cold glint flashed in Wei Chengbiao's eyes. "Don't even mention the Cheng family of Langya. Even if she worked in the Prince Ning's Mansion, she couldn't afford to offend the person behind us!"
...
Chuntao and Xiao Jingnan drove the carriage to the warehouse in Changyi Fang. However, the shopkeeper looked embarrassed and told them that all the grains had been bought that day.
"All bought?"
Chuntao couldn't believe it. "There's not a single grain of glutinous rice, millet, or broomcorn millet left?"
The shopkeeper didn't dare to meet her eyes and nodded hesitantly.
Chuntao stood on tiptoe and looked behind. She saw the porters coming in and out, and occasionally, a few white glutinous rice grains would spill from the sacks on their shoulders.
She was puzzled and pointed behind. "Aren't these all glutinous rice? How can you say there's none?"
The shopkeeper lowered his head and didn't say a word. Then, a short man stepped out from behind.
"I've bought all the grains here! What, is there a problem?"
The man was short, with high cheekbones, a narrow forehead, and a mole the size of a broad bean at the corner of his mouth. He looked sneaky and extremely sinister.
Xiao Jingnan sensed something was wrong and pulled Chuntao. "It doesn't matter. We'll just go to another warehouse to buy."
But that short man stepped forward to block their way and said arrogantly, "I've also emptied the other warehouses!"
A few burly men stepped out behind him, and one of them even flatteringly brought a chair for him.
He sat down casually and crossed his legs.
"To be honest with you, today in Changyi Fang, no warehouse or granary will sell anything to you!"
"Why?"
Chuntao was anxious. "Who are you? You're forcing people to buy and sell!"
Wei Chengbiao let out a "huh" sound. "Don't slander a good person out of thin air, little girl!"
He glanced sideways at the shopkeeper. "I paid the money, and he provided the goods. We've always had a fair deal, with money and goods exchanged voluntarily. Where's the forced buying and selling? Shopkeeper Wu, am I right..."
Chuntao also looked at him. "Shopkeeper Wu, we've always bought goods from you. When I asked you a couple of days ago, you said there was plenty of glutinous rice and millet, as much as we wanted. Why have you sold them all to him today?"
Shopkeeper Wu lowered his head and didn't dare to meet her eyes.
But Wei Chengbiao stood up and shouted, "Did you pay him a deposit? Did you sign a purchase agreement? Since you haven't paid the money or signed a contract, it's perfectly normal for him to sell to me instead of you, isn't it?"
He walked over, lifted Chuntao's chin with his folding fan, and said lewdly, "Little girl, I think you're quite good - looking. Why are you selling wine? Why don't you come back with me, and I'll take good care of you?"
Chuntao shook off the fan and was about to scold when suddenly a figure flashed by. With a "slap" sound, there were five clear fingerprints on Wei Chengbiao's face.
Wei Chengbiao stared at Xiao Jingnan in disbelief. "You dare to hit me?"
Xiao Jingnan said calmly, "I hit you. Do I need to pick a date?"
"Damn it, you asked for this!"
Wei Chengbiao was furious. With a wave of his hand, more than a dozen big men emerged from the warehouse and were about to surround them.
Xiao Jingnan quickly pushed Chuntao out and said, "Go back and report the news!" Then he closed the warehouse door behind him.
Standing outside, Chuntao was stunned for a moment, and then she heard a series of clashing sounds from inside.
She was both anxious and scared and quickly ran back. But after running a few steps, she saw a team of officers and soldiers arrive at the warehouse door.
Chuntao originally thought that someone had reported the incident to the authorities and that the officers and soldiers were coming to uphold justice. She even felt a little happy.
But unexpectedly, after the officers and soldiers went in, they arrested Xiao Jingnan.
They said he had beaten someone and caused trouble and were going to lock him up in the jail of the Capital Prefecture...
Seeing the situation was bad, Chuntao ran back desperately. She even fell on the way and cut her mouth.
After Li Wanming heard her story, she immediately said:
"Lu Ping, Wu Yao, come with me to the Capital Prefecture to find out the situation."
"Chuntao, go to the Liu family and find Yiyi. She knows more about the capital than I do!"
Using the Capital Prefecture to arrest someone meant that the forces behind the other side were not small.
The Capital Prefecture must have known that she was the daughter of General Xuanwei, but they were still willing to be their lackeys. This time, their trouble was probably not going to be small...
Li Wanming's heart sank.