Chapter 206: The Commercial Empire
And also, since Suisui is so seriously invested in her work, he, as the Li King, certainly couldn’t fall behind!
The matter of customs duties must be put on the agenda soon, because after spring, Yandi will officially begin trade with the Northern Frontier.
Therefore, during his time in Yanzhou, Gu Changxiao directly moved into the Prefect’s mansion, and he held discussion meetings with Li Heng and a group of officials every day.
Li Heng was trembling with fear! He had previously worried that Gu Changxiao wouldn’t return from the Northern Frontier, so he once again played the fence-sitter, offering no help to Cheng Yu, ignoring the pleas from the border city, and coldly observing Cheng Yu’s maneuvering among the gentry.
He wanted to seize the opportunity to distance himself from the border city and the Li King, fearing that Prince Yu would later hold him accountable for his past assistance to the Li King, and he played the fence-sitter to the fullest.
The outcome was beyond his and everyone else’s expectations; not only did the Li King return alive, but he also killed the Left Wise King and sent an envoy to Chang’an to annoy Prince Yu.
To be honest, when Li Heng received this news, he wished he were twenty years older, immediately retired, and left this vortex.
He was restless day and night, wondering how the Li King would punish him! Compared to the real Li King’s methods, he was more afraid of the fake Li King, that madman, who had once warned him that if he played the fence-sitter again, he would shave his grass!
At that time, when he went to welcome the Li King back to the city, he was mentally prepared to be beaten half to death by the fake Li King.
To his surprise, Lord Li completely ignored him! It was great that he was ignored! It would be best if they treated me like a fart and let me go.
The fake Li King wasn’t seen either. Was he left in the Northern Frontier? Or was he sent elsewhere by the Prince?
That’s great! It’s worth holding a banquet to celebrate the departure of that madman, mischievous monkey, scoundrel, and rogue from Yandi!
However, Li Heng didn’t have a few days of peace before Yan Shiyi personally delivered a message: the Li King was coming to Yanzhou City, and he was also to go and welcome him.
He immediately asked with a trembling heart, “Which Li King?”
Unexpectedly, Yan Shiyi understood him well and patted his shoulder, “Both will come! So, be well-prepared.”
Li Heng almost cried at that moment! He wasn’t afraid of the real Li King; Imperial Princes had a sense of propriety towards court officials, especially since the Li King needed him to keep the gentry in check.
He was afraid of the fake Li King! That one was lawless and would hack anyone when his eyes turned red!
Trembling with fear, he went outside the city with the Yan family members to welcome them. Li Heng’s eyes widened as he searched the entire procession. His heart settled back into his chest; the fake Li King hadn’t come.
Although Yan Shiyi’s attitude towards the woman beside the Li King was strange, he didn’t have the mind to look at a beauty. The Li King’s decision had not yet been made, and it was like a knife hanging over his neck; he was uneasy!
It wasn’t until the Li King moved into the Prefect’s mansion that the hanging knife finally came down. The Li King intended to reform customs duties and needed him and the other officials to propose regulations.
Li Heng’s spirits immediately lifted. As long as the Prince still used him and he handled this matter well, his past fence-sitting would be forgotten!
As a result, Li Heng was even more dedicated to the new customs duty laws than Gu Changxiao. He led the officials in poring over the Great Xia Commercial Law, striving to present a border trade tax law that would satisfy the Prince before spring.
Gu Changxiao, of course, didn’t wait in vain at the mansion. He would chat with Jin Sui about commercial tax matters when she had time. Jin Sui explained modern customs duty terms like ‘luxury tax,’ ‘domestic industry protection,’ and ‘import and export tax.’
Gu Changxiao felt as if listening to Jin Sui was better than reading ten years of books. He immediately had new ideas and went to discuss them with Li Heng and others, aiming to draft a comprehensive customs duty law in one go.
Later, they added basic labor laws: “The more products the Northern Frontier needs, the more workshops will be built in Yandi, and the gentry will also need more workers.
If they use their own slaves or sign workers to fixed-term contracts, they can evade the protection of court laws. Therefore, when we set customs duties, we will also include worker protection laws.
Minimum wage, working hours, overtime pay. The most important thing before was that agriculture must not be neglected for commerce. If there were actions that encouraged abandoning farming for commerce or profiting from agriculture by engaging in commerce, we could openly sanction the gentry!”
“Don’t forget our other important objective: to use the prosperity of trade to make the gentry willing to give up land for commerce, curb land annexation, and fundamentally restrict the expansion of the gentry.”
This era is not like later generations where capitalists can flee abroad. The gentry have nowhere to flee. It’s also because Gu Changxiao’s military capabilities are not yet sufficient that we are using such gentle means to deal with the growing problem of aristocratic clans and powerful families.
“While I’m in Yanzhou, we must finalize the customs duty issue.”
This was Gu Changxiao’s task, while Jin Sui’s task was to finalize the wool textile workshop and map out the shipping routes during her visit to the Yan family.
Everyone was very busy. Even Miss Yan was busy expanding the Rouge Shop. The market in the Northern Frontier was too large, and she wanted to take this opportunity to earn more money for Suisui. She also wanted to earn money herself to buy back the Han slaves and to sponsor poor female students at the Academy.
The trip to the Northern Frontier had greatly matured Miss Yan. She had completely stepped out of the life of a young lady from a prominent family. A new kind of responsibility had fallen upon her shoulders, but it didn’t feel heavy; instead, it gave her motivation.
She admired Suisui. Whether it was the fake Li King who disguised herself as a man in the past or the current Miss Ji, Miss Yan admired and liked her.
She wanted to learn from Suisui and become a unique woman in the world, achieving something extraordinary, rather than being a well-bred young lady waiting to marry and raise children.
Soon, Yan Shiyi discovered that since Miss Ji had moved into their home, his Eldest Brother and younger sister seemed like different people. Eldest Brother used to often stay up until midnight, with stewards coming and going daily to discuss matters with him.
Now, the lights were often on until dawn. Some sea merchant stewards, who had been placed in the old residence by Eldest Brother and prevented from entering Yanzhou City, also quietly entered the city to talk with Miss Ji.
Only he seemed to have become a second Steward Yan, his daily tasks being to host banquets, run errands, and find things.
Yan Shiyi used to like this, being a carefree young master, wandering out with his friends, and asking his Eldest Brother for pocket money.
But now Yan Shiyi didn’t like it. He felt that everyone around him had changed, and only he was left behind.
He felt lost and dejected. He had no interest in the activities of his friends and wanted to join the conversations between his Eldest Brother and Miss Ji, but he found he couldn’t understand them at all.
“What should I do? Since Miss Ji, the demoness, came to our house, I’ve become stupid.”
Miss Yan was writing down a new perfume recipe. This was a formula given by Suisui, but she had written it hastily, and her handwriting was messy. Miss Yan was copying it in small regular script, giving each step to the relevant steward and sealing the secret formula with wax.
Hearing Second Brother’s “whining,” she really wanted to say, “You’ve never been smart!”
But turning to see Second Brother genuinely dejected, she could only comfort him, “Second Brother isn’t stupid! But Second Brother, everyone is busy expanding their businesses. You can expand your business too!”
Yan Shiyi was eating a raw tomato. He had learned this from Jin Sui. Every time they met before, Jin Sui was eating tomatoes. He had curiously asked if she never got tired of eating them.
Jin Sui teased him, “Eating too many will make you smarter.”
From then on, Yan Shiyi ate three raw tomatoes every day. When Eldest Brother was away, he ate five a day!
“But the restaurant I’m collaborating with Miss Ji on is already the number one restaurant in Yanzhou City because of the hot pot. I can’t open a restaurant in the Northern Frontier, so how can I expand this business?”
Miss Yan rolled her eyes at him, “Can you stop calling her Miss Ji, the demoness? Miss Ji will be angry if she hears it.”
She remembered hearing Suisui occasionally tell Grandpa Ling about making Central Plains eateries into ‘chain brands.’ She didn’t understand what a chain brand was, but she overheard a bit: the same recipes, decor, and shops opened in different prefecture cities.
She immediately said to Second Brother, “You can make the hot pot into a chain restaurant! Not just the largest restaurant in Yanzhou City, but open it throughout all sixteen prefectures of Yandi!”
She thought she was exaggerating, “Suisui said some chain stores have opened a hundred!”
Little did she know this was the truth; McDonald’s and KFC have over ten thousand stores worldwide.
Yan Shiyi immediately sat up straight, “It can be like that?”
“Why not? Tomatoes, chili peppers, and potatoes are only available in the border city. In other prefecture cities, just the unique ingredients alone can make other restaurants pale in comparison!”
“I’ll give you a suggestion. If you’re worried that Suisui won’t help you with ideas, bring Miss Ji’s Central Plains Hodgepodge and say directly that you’ll open one hot pot restaurant a day and leave the adjacent shops to the Central Plains Hodgepodge.
Suisui will definitely help you write a proposal immediately, and your hot pot restaurants can open all over Great Xia!”
Yan Shiyi’s spirits immediately soared. He felt that his perspective had been too narrow before, being content with just one restaurant becoming the best.
Even his sister was thinking of expanding her rouge business throughout the Northern Frontier, yet he was so narrow-minded! Eldest Brother was right; he had read too little!
Yan Shiyi immediately went to find Jin Sui, but saw Jin Sui leaving in a carriage.
He was shocked. Eldest Brother hadn’t said anything!
“You’re leaving today, right? Have you finished talking with Eldest Brother about your matters?”
Jin Sui shook her head, “No, the Tuntian Camp has a greenhouse that’s harvesting tomatoes and chili peppers today. I’m going to check on the situation and will be back tonight.”
Yan Shiyi quickly said, “Then I’ll accompany you.”
Jin Sui didn’t commit. Looking at him getting into the carriage, she said as if reminding a child, “Don’t mess with the tea stove, be careful not to get burned. I’ll do some accounting, you play by yourself.”
Yan Shiyi: …
He suddenly felt a bit sad. Perhaps in Miss Ji, the demoness’s heart, she didn’t see him as a man capable of handling things independently!
He watched Jin Sui calculating with an abacus, occasionally frowning in thought, and occasionally writing things down.
She was truly so intelligent and so busy. She could handle so many things in an orderly manner and knew so much. The old stewards and accountants in the mansion, who were much older than her, were all sincerely convinced by her.
Yesterday, they heard she had modified the ledger. It was like a register for refugees, with horizontal and vertical lines drawn. Eldest Brother immediately announced that from now on, the Yan family would use Miss Ji’s accounting method.
She was clearly not older than him! Intelligent people were truly terrifying!
Yan Shiyi’s gaze was too intense. Jin Sui couldn’t focus on her documents under his stare. She closed her notes and asked with a smile, “Is there something you need?”
She wasn’t so narcissistic as to think Yan Shiyi liked her and was looking for an opportunity to be alone with her. That was Mary Sue literature, not this kind of agricultural infrastructure story.
Moreover, she believed that Yan Shiyi feared her more than liked her.
“Yes, yes, there is something.”
Jin Sui smiled encouragingly at him, which made Yan Shiyi feel very guilty for privately calling her Miss Ji, the demoness.
If Jin Sui knew, she would definitely comfort him, “It’s okay, I also call you a silly turtle in private.”
Yan Shiyi explained the franchise model that Miss Yan had told him about. Jin Sui immediately understood his intentions. It was a good opportunity to switch gears, and she praised him:
“It’s great that you have this idea! I’ll probably be too busy to spare any energy for the restaurant business in the next one or two years. Since you have this idea, let’s have a good talk.”
“First, tell me what you’re thinking.”
Jin Sui’s gaze was like looking at Jin An, full of encouragement. This greatly boosted Yan Shiyi’s confidence, making it much easier to speak with her than with Eldest Brother.
Because with just one glance or a frown from Eldest Brother, he would lose his confidence and become hesitant, or his tone would be full of doubt.
He didn’t expect Miss Ji, the demoness, to be so gentle and calm when she was in a good mood. Talking to her felt like a spring breeze.
“I’ve been thinking, if I open restaurants in other prefecture cities, it’s too far from Yanzhou, and it would be difficult to manage if something happened. If I send a steward over and they encounter trouble with local gentry, it would also be troublesome.
How to train the workers? Train them in Yanzhou and send them over? Or recruit and train them locally?”
“How to transport the ingredients? The journey is so long that our dishes would spoil by the time they arrive. If we buy them locally, the recipes would be different.”
Jin Sui praised him, “The fact that you can think of so much shows you’ve put in the effort.”
Yan Shiyi’s chin lifted slightly, like a proud rooster.
Jin Sui suppressed a smile. Sometimes, coaxing children was also quite enjoyable.
Then she told Yan Shiyi about the ‘franchise’ model. Yan Shiyi was immediately startled, “Isn’t that giving profits to others?”
Jin Sui said, “But this way, our risk is also much smaller! We only need to supervise and can still collect money. The brand is ours, and the hot pot base and some specialty ingredients are also ours.
In comparison, the other party invests more capital and manpower, while we gain more profit. How good is that?”
“I believe with your Yan family’s capabilities, opening ten restaurants in ten prefectures should be no problem. What about a hundred? A thousand?”
“A, a thousand!” Yan Shiyi’s eyes widened like Sheriff Black Cat’s.
Jin Sui exaggerated, “Do you think it’s impossible? The world is so big, a mere thousand is nothing.”
Yan Shiyi thought she was crazy, but then he considered that Miss Ji, the demoness, had always been a bit crazy. He had to keep up with her thinking.
He swallowed the saliva that had formed due to excitement, “Is this possible?”
“Why not?” Jin Sui drew a circle on her forehead, “Expand your thinking, be bolder, and we can completely build a commercial empire!”
She gave Yan Shiyi time to process and began writing down the franchise model, “If you’re worried that hot pot won’t spread beyond Yandi, you can start by opening in the sixteen prefectures of Yandi! I believe you can find willing franchisees in all sixteen prefectures.”
“We can also do this: as long as they franchise the hot pot, we can sell them tomato and chili seeds, and teach them how to make potato and sweet potato vermicelli. But the secret recipe for stir-frying the hot pot base must remain with you.”
Hei Hu’s voice came from outside the window, “The boss has arrived.”
Jin Sui was surprised, “So close? You’ve reclaimed land all the way to the border of Yanzhou!”
Happy New Year, Happy New Year! Wishing all my darlings a happy and prosperous Year of the Snake! Good health! May your wealth roll in!
