Chapter 62: At The Grand Banquet, Host Not Yet Seated, Guest Starts Eating
After the exit closed-door cultivation killing spree in the second half of the 29th year of the Shu Tian Calendar, Wu Fei stayed another half year inside Yongji Pass, in order to preside over the exit closed-door cultivation after the spring opening in the first half of the 30th year of the Shu Tian Calendar.
Wu Fei did not stop because the Southern Border work needed to transform now, and the key tasks needed to change.
This year’s mobilization only needed to mobilize very few Yongji Pass garrison troops as well as a large number of vassal army to escort these merchant caravans to various tribes for distribution.
The Wu Family Army’s current key task had already turned to supervising farming, namely specifically watching those Tusi tribes on the North Bank of Ling River that were not seriously farming, or even persecuting the farmers he had sent over.
From intelligence reported by regional dealers, Wu Fei quickly caught a typical case, namely the farmers of a Clawed People tribe were locked up and living together with livestock.
In response, Wu Fei, who “hated iron for not becoming steel,” imitated the Da Yao Emperor’s teaching template of frying the Marquis of Qi three hundred years ago, and directly had the vassal army go over and bring that tribe leader to the altar in Fen Xing City to be chopped up and sacrificed to heaven! He made all the tribes participate in this priest ritual.
Wu Fei: The Southern Region on the south bank of Ling River was terrified by my ambush last year, so your united front value on the north bank has decreased. All of you, farm for me.
Thus, these tribe leaders who had accepted Da Yao indoctrination all expressed that they absolutely could not disappoint General Wu’s earnest expectations and must go home and farm diligently.
The united front value decline was not only for the North Bank of Ling River tribes, but also for the great merchants who had once made “sweat and horse merits.”
Under Wu Fei’s sun-like radiance, the Southern Border became increasingly tame, which meant the trade risk in the 300 kilometer range south of Yongji Pass had decreased. With risk decreased, the cost of military escort for commerce and trade decreased.
After exiting closed-door cultivation, the risk threshold for merchants inside the pass increasingly decreased, and at the same time Wu Fei felt: the sales prices outside the pass should also undergo a round of decrease. Although Yongji Pass’s taxes would decrease, the construction investment procurement prices outside the pass would drop, which fit his future strategy.
But getting merchants to lower prices was extremely difficult, and Wu Fei was stationed in Yongji Pass precisely for this.
The “futures exchange” listed in Yongji Pass went public. This exchange ensured price issues for bulk goods like cloth and salt, and of course was also a reminder to the merchants! It was best to sell according to this price, otherwise if they couldn’t sell regularly, the General’s Mansion would forcibly acquire it at the lowest market price from the futures exchange over the past half year.
Wu Fei taught these merchants accustomed to hoarding and price gouging a new term: “forced liquidation.”
As the listed prices did not meet past expectations, Wu Fei knew the merchants felt unhappy inside.
Even some great merchants, after seeing Wu Fei’s gaze, were already restless, suspecting whether their conspiracy had been leaked, so they were being warned now.
Wu Fei was unaware of the merchants’ secret meeting, and only discovered a bug that needed fixing while auditing the blood reward system.
When fighting with the wind at one’s back, officers and soldiers paid little blood labor, but the system held high allocable blood rewards; when fighting against the wind, the required blood labor was high, but the blood rewards the system could pay were few. Thus, this was an important reason why dynasties could be unstoppable at the start but strapped in the end years.
The Southern Border was now fighting too smoothly, with investment and income almost at the highest cost-performance ratio, but? Would the war machine under Wu Fei in the future only bully weak opponents in the Southern Border?
If it really was like that, why was Wu Fei still learning tactics and strategy? The future still required hard battles, so he could not let the various interest groups in the war eat too full. If accustomed to this “little blood labor much blood reward” mode, it would be disadvantageous for the future.
Anyone in any system found it hard to accept treatment decline. If some people must have their treatment decreased! Wu Fei would absolutely not let those holding knives suffer this grievance.
Thus, the bloodletting needles for the merchants all had to be inserted in advance.
Xuan Chong drafted the list of merchant groups exiting closed-door cultivation from Yongji Pass: In future external wars, he could not count on those poor wretches inside to eagerly donate and self-fund the war, right? Expanding commercial interests through external war was ultimately the matter of internal interest groups. How could they prepare to transfer family assets and jump out to neutral, then jump back in after victory to seize the dividends? Now none of them could think of running; they must honestly bind their interests tightly to the Wu Family Army’s war chariot.
In Yongji Pass, Wu Fei not only began establishing the “futures trading platform” and personally entered the field to control the Southern Border raw materials market; at the same time, he was also preparing to write down terms like “banking” and “commercial insurance” in his notebook. These terms were very fashionable, Wu Fei would not misuse them, but as long as he confirmed the violent system could suppress it and it helped him allocate blood rewards, he would boldly try.
…The entire Southern Border reflected in Wu Fei’s pupils…
Yongji Pass and Fen Xing City, these two cities were now like the two claws of Wu Xiao Que grasping the Southern Border.
Yongji Pass as a defensive point stood alone like a golden rooster, inserted into the western region, overlooking from above. It could radiate most areas of the Western Southern Border along multiple mountain roads, while Fen Xing City was the eagle claw protruding eastward.
Without Yongji Pass in the west, Fen Xing City’s strategic position would be like Jian’an guarding the river but not the Huai, with huge strategic gaps. But now with Yongji Pass in the west, enemies could not form clusters of camps above ten thousand scale in the west. At this time Fen Xing City could serve as a forward base, tearing and pulling open the Southern Border barbarian tribe group bit by bit.
From January to February, merchants like Yu Bai negotiated farming terms in multiple villages within over a hundred li near Yongji Pass. At the same time, Wu Fei had already planned in advance where to establish grain stations when the main army attacked in the future.
Wu Fei looked at himself; this year he was twenty years old! He had enough time to stabilize and implement this strategy long-term.
On this point, Wu Fei was a bit self-satisfied; although he was not Li Mu, he had more time than Li Mu to grind enemies to death.
…Young dividing line…
At the end of June in the 30th year of the Shu Tian Calendar, Wu Fei was busy properly inside Yongji Pass when the family elders sent someone to relay a message.
Wu Fei had to ride an ox cart back home for his coming-of-age ceremony. Although ritual law inside Da Yao had collapsed in some domains, it was not something the mid-level ruling group could casually violate. This was just like how in the mid-to-late Eastern Han Dynasty, Liang Ji was arrogant enough to feed the emperor biscuits, which was bad enough, but later people still could not accept Lu Bu killing his own patron Ding Yuan whom he had commended his name and entrusted his quality to.
If Wu Fei did not hold the coming-of-age ceremony, currently it did not seem to have much impact, but it would make him seem like a “brat.” Although Wu Xiao Que did not care about his nickname, if he really did not hold the coming-of-age ceremony, others could openly shout this nickname.
And the family side also decided to properly handle things for Wu Fei, inviting locally prestigious elders to observe the ceremony.
Moreover, with Wu Fei now formally taking charge of military affairs in one area at age twenty, he was already an important decision-maker in the family, and his marriage was also within the scope of the clan elders’ worry. Once married, he could inherit the marquisate.
The Wu Family had five marquisates, but what could support the family’s wealth was still the court’s position of General Who Pacifies the South.
Currently this position belonged to Wu Hanluan. According to court conventions, if Wu Hanluan met with misfortune, the other marquisates of the Wu Family could take the seal.
But in reality, everyone inside the Wu Family knew that to really hold up this wealth, it still depended on the clan disciples stepping up.
Inside the Wu clan, several elders sighed emotionally about the past. Of course, more was sighing emotionally about Wu Fei’s situation; ancestors bless, the family was thriving with people.
Five years ago, Wu Fei was not favored; in terms of bow and horse proficiency, he was only at the level of an ordinary soldier.
Even seven years ago, he had suffered a great plague, resulting in some loss of vital energy.
At that time, there were elders in the family who felt: In the bloody and masculine ranks, Wu Xiao Que would find it hard to command one side.
At that time in the clan, the favored line was Wu Hanluan’s; in that year’s Southern Border great plague, among the Han generation, only he of that generation survived, the rest died in the malignant disease. And Wu Hanluan’s son, namely Wu Hengyu, had been powerfully built since childhood, nine chi tall, and as a youth could seize a cow by both horns and slam it.
But for some reason, after Wu Fei survived his great illness, Wu Hanluan took Wu Fei as the cultivation focus, personally gave him the courtesy name “Yuan Chang,” and sent his own son Wu Hengyu up to Qingyuan Mountain. Obviously intending to pass the General Who Pacifies the South position to his nephew. This puzzled the clan for a time.
Eight years ago, Wu Fei was still twelve, and when he first entered the army he cried and fussed wanting to go up the mountain to cultivate immortality. Some elders in the clan could not bear it and asked Wu Hanluan to leave a line for his already deceased brother’s descendant. Do not let him really die on the battlefield.
Five years ago, Wu Fei formally took control of several camps; due to being too steady, some camp leaders without merits gossiped, and at that time the clan doubted whether the skinny Wu Fei could command the military camp.
Just like that, Wu Fei’s ten-plus years in the ranks were spent rolling and crawling amid various criticisms. Along this path, it could not be separated from Wu Hanluan’s support.
Now these storms had passed, Wu Fei, courtesy name Yuan Chang, was undoubtedly now the pillar of the family in the clan, of course the process still had to be gone through.
In the Wu Family ancestral hall, the vote began to determine the Wu Family’s next generation decision-maker.
At the large round table, eight elders holding walking sticks and teapots sat. The Wu Family’s oldest Elder: “Our Wu Family is currently divided into southern and northern routes. The northern route was led by Hanluan to the north, enduring three years, with constant court rewards. While the southern route is near Yongji Pass, Xiao Que exits closed-door cultivation every half year to rampage, also with gains. Let’s discuss.”
The Wu Family’s old uncle who watched Wu Fei grow up on Yongji Pass knocked his solid iron walking stick: “In this current world, it needs someone like Yuan Chang to steady the situation.”
Then the clan elders all nodded. Every household in Tianchi City had male descendants in the ranks. The male descendants in the southern route army brought back silver coins every year, got cloth coupons, sugar coupons and such benefits; those in the northern route army could also write letters reporting safety every year and promptly send items. — All this orchestration behind the scenes could not be separated from Wu Fei.
In the end, everyone unanimously passed that the Wu Family would be led by Wu Fei.
…Perspective to this side…
Wu Fei entered inside the pass and went north all the way. Outside the ox cart was field after field of millet sea. Farmers were laboring in the fields. Wu Fei changed into local cloth clothes, poked his hand into the mud, felt the soil, then began conversing with the farmers.
Of course, when Wu Fei approached the field, the farmers could still tell he was not a farmer. Farming, who doesn’t bend at the waist; the shoulders of crop experts have slight indentations from carrying hoes and picking night soil. Wu Fei had indentations on his fingers, from holding a pen.
Of course this did not hinder Wu Fei from chatting with the farmers, exchanging copper coins in hand for some red taro to roast and eat.
While waiting by the roasted sweet potato earth pit, in the inquiries Wu Fei heard from the farmers’ mouths good days: Since the Southern Border opened up, no household this year had the lean period, the grain harvested from the fields was not only enough to eat but could also be exchanged for some copper coins.
Namely, the exchange of taro, miscellaneous sweet potato, and millet on the market was always fair. The farmer kept a little cunning, exchanged his own food into taro, kept the millet in the warehouse, waiting to sell at the highest grain price in May.
Farmer: Do not look at us here not worrying about food anymore; the north still has to go hungry in April.
When the old farmer smilingly said this, he was obviously very proud of the current days. Then he explained to Wu Fei that this year he used two loads of grain to exchange for a properly grown child bride for his son.
This child bride was not from the south, but brought from the north fleeing famine. Wu Fei glanced; this appearance was skinny and dry.
…Fertile water flows through the canal…
After Wu Fei got on the cart, he picked up the pen to record his insights. The happiness of that farmer working in the field, Wu Fei could empathize with; this was the situation after opening up to the outside to absorb capital wealth, with dividends permeating to the lower levels.
Just like in his previous life, when just opening up foreign trade, all small and medium citizens saw wages grow, the old four major appliances at home changed to new four major appliances. And because they could gradually afford small exquisite mobile phones and travel automobiles, experiencing happiness in the growth.
But Wu Fei, who was currently always “taking history as a mirror,” knew that the dividends the farmers were eating now were just a drop in the bucket of the current war dividends. This old farmer being able to find a child bride for his son was just the great households picking up scraps. In this war, those great households that invested properly were absolutely widely accumulating slaves.
If a force obtained huge dividends from outside but could not properly handle internal distribution, that was a bad thing.
First define what wealth is: possessed labor power (ancient slaves, modern cattle and horses), possessed means of production (ancient estates, modern industrial production chain positions, key technology, sales channels), the above is first wealth. Strictly speaking, gold, bonds, and various bills are not first wealth, but tools for dividing first wealth.
Xuan Chong: Historically, Spain and Netherlands obtained large amounts of precious metals through trade, but after precious metals flowed into the country, first wealth largely concentrated in the hands of nobles and priests.
It was the same now; the dividends from currently opening up were huge, but due to the current easy strategy, soldiers had not gone through blood battles, but strictly speaking a large amount of first wealth had not entered the soldiers, nor the farmers supplying the soldiers. Even though Wu Fei exhausted himself to guarantee, it was only letting soldiers and farmers eat a tiny bit of “scraps”; even so, the greatly relieved farmers and soldiers were all grateful to Wu Fei.
And actually massively expanding first wealth were the merchants and their own General’s Mansion. These two groups acquired large numbers of slaves and workshops. Despite Wu Fei investing his obtained labor power and means of production into reproduction, such as opening up Yongji Pass to the south, investing in minerals, and in occupied areas supplementing with Tusi system construction investment in farming.
These by ancient standards already had quite an emerging look, but the nitpicking Wu Fei still felt something was off.
Currently, there were problems with the allocation of the vast majority of first wealth. Merchants hung under clans to accumulate slaves and maidservants, buying too much land. And these clan noble families were not grateful enough to Wu Fei!
Wu Fei threw the sweet potato skin on the ground, a nearby field big yellow dog immediately wagged its tail and came over. Wu Fei: Eat my food, drink my drink, yet not as sensible as a dog; even a dog knows to wait to the side!
The Wu Family Army’s current war dividend permeation area: Everyone wanted to live in big mansions, buy land, buy more maidservants, meat every meal. But currently, merchants were first buying land, hiring slaves, setting banquets.
Wu Fei was very clear that his soldiers under him who held knives to exchange for blood rewards, when returning home at year-end, seeing these great officials setting banquets, would feel unhappy inside and need two taels of wine to douse the fire in their hearts.
Whether previous life or now, in Xuan Chong’s childhood family teachings, when sitting at the table for a banquet, without waiting for important people to arrive, without waiting for the host to raise cup and start the banquet, others could not move chopsticks! The host is the one orchestrating this banquet.
Wu Fei looked at this war feast inside the pass; this current banquet was orchestrated by him, the army lit the fire, the hundred Southern Border tribes entered the pot. But the merchant class was now first moving chopsticks, starting to seize first wealth, eating themselves “rich first.”
Wu Fei: This was quite impolite.
Wu Fei stood up and took some countryside soil, “The trade quota from opening up cannot let merchants use for first wealth allocation inside the pass; must open a bank, bond office, make them deposit all their money in it. The gold bricks side, temporarily cool it first, handle slowly later.”
Wu Fei recorded in his little notebook, launch banking business; this year those donkey-leg merchants’ earned money all stored in the bank, next year they could directly use the bank’s money to pay for goods like “iron plows,” could prioritize getting goods, and depositing in the bank gives three percent interest per year.
Wu Fei began deciding to draw a pie for the industry and commerce drawing close.
Mid-year, in the clan, Wu Fei who held the coming-of-age ceremony also drew a pie for the clan elders: “Currently chaos in the country, but our family is thriving day by day; in the past Central Plains great clans looked down on us military men, wait a few years, when they are strapped, I must demand a noble lady for marriage.”
