Chapter 58: New Gold Brick Merchant Guild
In the eighth month of the Shu Tian Calendar 29, the second half, another year of Exit Closed-Door Cultivation had arrived.
Just like last year, a sea of people gathered in front of Yongji Pass. Ox carts and horse carts transporting goods were also protected by the vanguard force, prepositioned in advance at six stations outside the pass.
On the roads pointed to by these stations, the miscellaneous wood cleared and cut last year could still be seen this year, but their sunny sides were covered with green moss, and their shady sides had mushrooms growing.
The rainy season in the Ling River basin had entered its final stage. After the clouds disappeared, the sky suddenly became scorching hot, but under the shelter of the lush jungle leaves, the soil still retained water from the rainy season, with trickles of water visible everywhere. These waters seeping from the jungle humus might have soaked rotten corpses in the forest just a few hours ago. Therefore, unlike the North, some seemingly flowing, clear small pools had extremely high microbial content inside and were “poison springs”.
While some small streams formed on mountain ridges by morning and evening water vapor condensing on rocks were drinkable “sweet springs”.
The army led by Wu Fei followed last year’s armed parade route, advancing south faster than last year. Moreover, due to Wu Fei’s combination of kindness and authority over the past few years, there was a group of tribe youths willing to voluntarily lead the way for the army. Under the guides’ direction, this time was even more familiar than the last, and the army also built more military stations during the march.
This time the army corps marched more proficiently than last year. The hunters sent by those “uncivilized” savage tribes south of the Ling River could still reach the edge of the main camp last year, but this year they encountered kin from the north wearing upper garments and were pounced on by war mastiffs in the vassal army camp, biting them to the ground.
This year, Wu Fei’s military plan still involved confronting the tribes south of the Ling River across the river. There would still be no large-scale combat crossing the river.
But it was time to properly manage the merchants in economic work.
In the military tent, Wu Fei checked the exit goods: pottery jars, earthenware pots, cloth, salt, rope, and the like. Merchants made huge profits exiting the pass, and the Wu Family could win over the army through profits inside the pass, but the greedy Wu Xiao Que felt it wasn’t enough, because upon careful calculation, the services merchants provided to the army at this exit time no longer deserved low-risk high returns.
Wu Fei’s heart was petty and calculating, and cold-blooded!
In Wu Fei’s other account book, it recorded the goods merchants bought in the southern border, with the bulk still being those three major items: jade, wood, livestock (including slaves). If the merchants knew Wu Xiao Que had such a detailed account book, they would certainly be vigilant and wonder, “Wu Fei isn’t properly fighting the war, why keep this account book?”
Merchants knew very well: when Wu Fei wasn’t focused on his legitimate profession, he really would do business.
Over these two years, the merchants’ sense of smell had already detected Wu Fei’s growing distance.
They were very sensitive to Wu Fei’s collections at various commercial channels over the years, equivalent to Wu Fei pinching every one of their money-making channels. And he pinched actively.
Several major households inside the pass had repeatedly hinted to Wu Fei: Sir, you just focus on fighting the war, leave making money to us! Faced with such “good advice”, Wu Fei remained unmoved.
Wu Fei sneered inwardly: What are you up to, do I not know? Oligarchs from his previous life created the phrase “long live free economy”, “government interferes less, or not at all, best to know nothing about all commercial channels, just listen to economists’ PPT reports”.
That said, Wu Fei still respected the free market quite a bit and hadn’t personally entered to directly skim commercial profits.
It was just that regulation should be strengthened when needed, and Wu Fei insisted on leaving his “sweat mark” (mahjong term for hand sweat mark on tiles) on every merchant channel. Although the half percent profit share wasn’t much, insisting on dipping chopsticks in every bowl made merchants feel very insecure.
Merchants’ sense of security was a commercial channel exclusively their own. Merchants treated their channels like their own wives; Wu Fei doing this was like, ahem ahem.
Back to the topic, Wu Fei’s dissatisfaction with these merchants was: the goods they bought from various tribes outside the pass were only useful inside the pass, useless to the army, which still had to protect them outside the pass. Currently, during these armed parades, the army had spare capacity, but once intense confrontation occurred, these merchant caravans would become burdens.
Moreover, many officers in the army had intricate ties with merchant caravans, so if a strategic mistake occurred requiring tens of thousands to retreat, it would be hard to enforce strict discipline. For example: midway through retreat encountering distressed merchants, an exclamation mark over the merchant’s head led to a task to retrieve goods from bandit camps.
In the Wu Family Army, you couldn’t say the army was doing business; rather, it was that those squad leaders held shares.
According to the “Security Bureau” investigation by personal soldiers, Wu Fei knew which squad leader officers dined with which merchants after returning to the pass and accepted which women. Regarding his subordinates dealing with merchants, Wu Fei didn’t care! Nor did he dare control too strictly. So he could only act from the merchants’ side.
Wu Fei had the following planning for the future great war to thoroughly conquer the southern border: first, the army outside the pass needed to buy grain and various supplies. To need such supplies required local tribes to undergo farming transformation.
And what did farming transformation require? It required a feudal system, draft oxen, and iron plows. This place had draft oxen, Wu Fei was starting to layout the feudal system, but iron plows! These couldn’t be supplied by the current wave of merchants.
…Wu Fei had to support other merchants…
Yu Bai walked on the mountain road. Before this Exit Closed-Door Cultivation, he had a very exciting experience: bypassing the local commercial guild and directly meeting the General, along with other traveling merchants.
In Wu Fei’s words: they were all private entrepreneurs with initiative and adventurous spirit, who needed support. Although Wu Fei provided only a glass of white water at the banquet, small individual traveling merchants like Yu Bai were all excited with flushed faces.
When Wu Fei summoned these small merchants, his mobilization referenced micro-business conference models. But unlike micro-businessmen painting big pies, Wu Fei indeed had sufficient resources and accurate market planning.
These lowly individual small merchants had been excluded by the major traveling merchants holding gold brick contracts in recent years, even facing discrimination.
Because some things that looked very bad to people inside the pass but very good to Wu Fei: namely, they either directly intermarried with southern tribes or had southern tribe bloodlines themselves.
Yu Bai had clawed people bloodline, because his mother was a clawed person. His father specially asked the village old mister for a suitable name to blunt his overly sharp claws, so he could play with the village children, harmoniously eliminating obvious barbarian traits humanely.
And now, Yu Bai was one such merchant seizing the “spring breeze”. He sat in the stockade, using his eloquence and over a decade of relations with the stockade chief to discuss turning the several thousand mu of land outside the stockade into irrigated fields.
Yu Bai: “Stockade chief, your lands just have a bit more grass, the soil is fertile. Plow a bit, scatter seeds, and each mu yields one shi of grain. With the Great General exiting the pass every year now, grain won’t lack buyers.” — He slickly sold his plowshare plow.
Of course, he had already drawn a map of the area outside the stockade.
Several hours later, a batch of plows was sold, the deal closed. To ensure real grain production, he thoughtfully introduced some “grain-growing experts” from inside the pass, actually farmers who lost land inside the pass.
After finishing, he didn’t return to Yongji Pass but took the map to the main camp to gather with other small merchants.
In Wu Fei’s words: lead them back together, don’t wander.
Yu Bai returned to the main camp, compared notes with the merchants, linking up the drawn maps at mountain top boundaries. Yu Bai heard other merchants talking about terms like “district” and “exclusive agency”.
…Waves surging outside…
In the main camp, Wu Fei looked at the clerk, asking a crossbowman captain beside him: “Lu Si, I heard yesterday your old friend came to you.”
This crossbowman captain said honestly: “General, indeed, but~”
Wu Fei: “Not punishing you, just chatting.”
Though Wu Fei was not yet twenty, he had been in the ranks for five years, with heavy killing intent. This crossbowman captain told Wu Fei everything.
Wu Fei nodded: “A reminder: eat and drink as you should, but during main camp marches, on topics in my ‘traveling merchant’ tent, just eat veggies and drink, if can’t dodge, grin and play dumb.”
Then Wu Fei raised his hand, pulled his mouth, instructing: “Grin like this.”
Lu Si: “Subordinate understands.”
Wu Fei shook his head: “Understand? You just took my order and won’t do it, but that doesn’t mean you understand. You’re my soldier; united on the battlefield. Let me explain plainly: soldiers have soldiers’ enemies, merchants have merchants’ enemies.”
Wu Fei knocked his head with a book, “I borrow merchants as knives to kill battlefield enemies conveniently. They (merchants) approach you to borrow your knife to kill their enemies (commercial rivals).”
Lu Si blankly: “Sir means?”
Wu Fei: “Your old friends are just cozying up now, right? If cozied too tight, next they’ll reveal true intentions, wrapping you in key points to make you deal with those ‘traveling merchants’ in my tent.”
Lu Si: “They dare?”
Wu Fei shook his head: “Of course they dare. Resentments between merchants aren’t less than our battlefield hatred.”
Wu Fei’s principle: only I borrow merchants’ knives to solve my military enemies, can’t let merchants borrow my military knives to solve their commercial enemies.
Lu Si: “Subordinate understands, subordinate will return their gifts.”
Wu Fei nodded: “Don’t return normal gifts, just don’t gamble or play around these days. Your military pay is stored with me, I’ll deliver directly to your old mother.”
Lu Si pleaded somewhat: “Sir?”
Facing Wu Fei’s gaze, Lu Si drooped dejectedly: “Subordinate obeys.”
Wu Fei: “After returning to pass, you can visit brothels, my treat.”
After sending Lu Si away, Wu Fei flipped through the account contents. Lu Si wasn’t the first point those “gold brick” merchants tried to infiltrate and bribe. Wu Fei had also warned many in the account one by one. Those merchants would try persuading again, but Wu Fei’s words would spread, making the army vigilant toward these “gold brick” merchants, raising the cost for merchants to figure out “traveling merchant camp” matters.
High-end commercial warfare isn’t mutual investigations then hiring highly professional lawyers to showdown in court; more like planting spies, stealing seals, reporting tax evasion. And in “free commerce” America, commercial war is even simpler: make rival’s whole family get shot in the back and suicide.
Why did Wu Fei make small traveling merchants like Yu Bai return to main camp immediately after digging channels in various tribes? Because he knew too well the nature of those called southern merchants in Donghua Commandery. If let them return to Yongji Pass on their own, they might go missing one by one, channels falling to gold brick merchants.
Ironware trade profits were too huge. Previously Wu Fei choked ironware trade, no one could do it, only off-system merchants smuggled at high risk. Now Wu Fei would loosen policy, these gold brick merchants would ride the wind, using their power in Wu Fei’s group to pry open Wu Fei’s mouth, transferring these low-risk trades to them.
As for why not transfer ironware trade to them?
Petty Wu Xiao Que: because giving them this profit share, they earn too easily, too speculative. No past blood labor, no current blood labor in trade route pioneering, won’t stand with me in future to secure trade routes for my military group, why share this profit?
Right, through “Security Bureau” slaves, Wu Fei had investigated clearly. These big merchants, after getting money, thought only of securing bags. Buying houses and land inside pass, hiring teachers to train family heirs for office. Meaning, in their mindset, if Wu Family Army didn’t suit their interests in future, they could support other power groups to protect their interests.
If an ordinary general might let it slide heartlessly, but Wu Xiao Que’s mind was smaller than a chicken’s, “Eat my rice, dare eye others’ nests?” Wu Fei was quietly tightening his net.
…Salt-iron monopoly, tusi management, textbooks have formulas, this is the applied problem…
As early as a year ago, after confirming big merchants’ divided loyalties, Wu Fei started supporting certain bold merchants.
Coincidentally, in last year’s Yongji Pass campaign, Wu Fei mobilized nearby villages and stockades to inspect small paths in mountains, preparing for enemies possibly “stealthily crossing Yinping”, strictly guarding southern tribe bandits from crossing the border to trouble him.
Later everyone knew southern tribes transported via earth veins drilling through, not using these small mountain paths. But caught quite a few peddlers like “Yu Bai” drilling caves.
Wu Fei: good grief, carrying loads, leading donkeys over mountains with dozens of kilos of goods, knives on back guarding beasts, taking such risks for livelihood, why not sell this “blood labor” to me? You execute risky work opening mountain roads outside pass and dealing with barbarian tribes in areas, I’ll handle inside pass blocking other interest groups’ erosion.
…Perspective to the rear…
Inside the pass, various merchants quietly gathered. Though trade was plentiful now, they weren’t happy, because General’s Mansion’s new exit business completely bypassed them.
Earliest, some sharp-eyed merchant subordinates discovered in adjacent areas to their stockpiles, cotton cloth, ironware, pottery jars etc. entering and exiting. Initially thought army supplies, but later found these supply carts didn’t depart with army, and after exit even detoured to various mountain gullies outside pass.
The largest merchant firms began “heart-to-heart” talks. Sigh, merchants have no sincerity, just mutual probing.
Merchant A: “Sir seems distrustful of us now.”
Merchant B: “Brother, any news?”
Merchant A: “No no.”
Merchant C: “I have an idea, but—”
Merchant D: “At this time, don’t sell the pass.”
Merchant C had everyone lean in to listen.
Merchant A: “This way, not good, right? Isn’t this openly displeasing General Yuan Chang.” (Wu Xiao Que’s pettiness and Guiche’s temper now ranked together)
Merchant D: “If not, we hand pure silver leaves to those donkey hooves (peddlers’ derogatory term)?!”
Ultimately, the merchants made a decision.
…Boring conspiracies…
Outside the pass, six days later, Wu Fei received inside-pass news: merchants massively reported traveling merchants exiting with smuggled ironware and other contraband, listing large amounts of evidence.
Wu Fei: tsk tsk, merchants huh. Just like this.
Minutes later, Wu Fei went to traveling merchant camp, gave guarantees to the traveling merchants kneeling and begging for their families: all economic cases involving district sellers would be frozen, to be handled upon his return. Their families inside pass would reside in areas arranged by General’s Mansion, all with security guarantees.
While making promises, Wu Fei activated Security Bureau with his token to draw personnel from escort reserve team, letting this reserve team take over all prison cells, moving all traveling merchants’ families to safe places for resettlement.
Gold brick banquet, only Wu Fei the table-setter can flip it; as for dishes on the table, no qualification to flip the table.
