xymnovel Chapter 156 Affairs and Institutions
Chapter 156 Affairs and Institutions
After returning to Liujiagang, Shao Shuyi also had a lot of things to do.
First, a funeral was held for Chen Si.
Old Chen still held some prestige among the seafarers. Back when he was transporting the bronze artifacts, he could instantly gather twenty men, which clearly gave him some influence. However, he had lost that physical influence.
He was struck in the face by a flying axe, his face covered in blood, and he died before the battle was over.
Shao Shuyi personally covered all the funeral expenses and then gave a substantial amount of compensation.
He doesn't lack money now.
That night, he looted a lot of banknotes, gold, silver and valuables from Zhu Ding's residence in Caijing, which greatly replenished his cash flow. As of now, he has more than 284 ingots and 20 strings of cash in his account.
As for valuables like brocade, he didn't take any; instead, he rewarded all the brothers who had followed him into battle, making everyone smile with joy.
The injured Wei Erdi and Zhao Xiaosan also received money for medicine. Their injuries weren't serious; they would recover in the eleventh and twelfth lunar months and wouldn't affect their New Year celebrations. On the fourth day of the eleventh lunar month, Shao Shuyi led his men to the "new house." After cleaning and tidying up, everyone sat together, drinking and eating meat, having a great time. "Brother Wu's kick was really powerful. Ordinary people kick with their toes, but Brother Wu, did you kick with the instep or sweep with your heel? I didn't see it clearly at the time," Shao Shuyi asked with a smile after drinking two cups.
Seeing Shao She praise him in front of everyone, Bian Yuanheng was very pleased and said, "It's just a trivial skill. A kick with the instep and a sweep with the heel can also work, but that won't be effective."
Wang Huadu and the others found it utterly unbelievable.
They had practiced martial arts and were still practicing, but they knew they couldn't possibly kick someone's jaw off with one kick. Looking at Wu Song's thick thighs and strong calves, they were full of admiration and offered him a toast.
Bian Yuanheng was also very happy and accepted all the drinks offered, drinking three large bowls in a row.
When a new member joins, the most important thing is to show off their skills and let others know how capable they are, thus establishing their position.
Without realizing it, he had already come to enjoy this feeling. Or perhaps, he was born with a love for doing great things with others, he just hadn't realized it before. The authorities were right to arrest him; he was bound to walk this path sooner or later.
After the commotion subsided, Shao Shuyi looked at Wang Huadu and said, "You dog, go to Sanlin in a few days. Your uncle said you're short of money. Go to Liujiagang to buy some materials, recruit a few acquaintances, and transport them over by canal boat. Also, take a hundred ingots with you; leveling the wasteland this winter has cost a lot."
"Okay." Wang Huadu agreed without further ado.
Although he really wanted to go to Jiangyin with Shao Shuyi again, he knew in his heart that leveling the wasteland was equally important. His uncle had already recruited dozens of local people to clear the land during the two winter months.
This is no easy task. Clearing away weeds, bushes, stones, tree roots, and other such things is very troublesome. You also have to feed and drink these dozens of people well, and even buy some wine and meat. This part will cost half of the hundred ingots.
The remaining amount might not even be enough to pay wages, repair tools, buy seeds, or purchase farm implements.
Furthermore, his family has also bought land in Sanlinli, not far away, and it's about time they spent money to level the land...
"Yu She." Shao Shuyi patted Yu Yuan's shoulder again, who was sitting next to him, and said, "In a few days, recruit a few people and go to the market or crossroads to see if there are any famine victims fleeing south. If there are, buy or hire them, and bring ten households here first. After spring, send them to Sanlinli to farm."
Yu Yuan responded, then added, "Brother, I'm afraid there won't be much of a harvest next year."
"That's why I'm only asking you to find ten households; any more would be too much of a burden," Shao Shuyi said. "Actually, it's not just next year; I'll have to support them the year after, and who knows what will happen the year after that."
Yu Yuan nodded, "It's good that Brother Gongming knows."
The cost of employing people is considerable, and many salt smugglers are unwilling to spend the money. Even he himself felt extremely distressed after learning that Sanlinli had only hired a few dozen able-bodied men, and that it would cost hundreds of ingots to clear the fields for an entire winter.
"Brother Shao, Brother Shao, this house is nice. Where did you get it?" Wu Heizi asked, pointing to the rather large house.
"I borrowed this place from someone else," Shao Shuyi said with a smile. "It's been empty for several months, and the owner won't be back for a while, so I'll just stay here for now." This house, called "Shengyou Garden," was registered under the name of a man named Zhang Song. But this man had never appeared before, and it had always been used by Madam Liu. Sun Chuan didn't even know such a place existed.
Shengyou Garden is also in a good location, near the old city of Kunshan Prefecture, not far from Sima Bridge, with convenient transportation. Boats of several hundred liang can go up the Loujiang River, moor near the old city, and then walk about two li to reach the garden.
Shao Shuyi really liked this place.
It is quiet and secluded, and away from the political and economic core areas of Kunshan Prefecture, making it suitable for him to do some special things.
"I want to own a house like this someday." Wu Heizi's gaze lingered on the carved railings, painted beams, and precious plants, he was extremely fond of them.
"Hei Zi, once the world falls into chaos, will the house be able to be saved?" Shao Shuyi asked with a smile.
Wu Heizi was speechless, but still muttered, "Then get a smaller one."
Shao Shuyi laughed heartily. As he laughed, he gained a deeper understanding of Wu Heizi.
He may not be content with a modest life, but he is ambitious. It's quite clear why he's working so hard.
Many people shared Wu Heizi's attitude, observing with their own eyes that the world was becoming increasingly chaotic. But here's the problem: their expectation was only "chaos," and that the world would still belong to the Yuan Dynasty, because no one believed that the Yuan Dynasty, which had unified the world for only seventy-odd years, would collapse in the near future—it was simply too unbelievable.
If Shao hadn't possessed the ability to see the truth, he probably wouldn't have believed it either.
This is his greatest advantage, an unparalleled advantage.
Even though he has been quietly changing some things, he still cannot change the most core and fundamental contradictions in this society. Some things are bound to happen. For example, the court has begun to discuss repairing the Yellow River and the Huai River. This is a long-term policy of the Central Secretariat and will not be changed by anyone's will. For the Yuan Dynasty, repairing the Yellow River and the Huai River and even dredging the Grand Canal are things that must be done. It is a "century-long plan".
"Baijia slave." Shao Shuyi picked up a bowl of wine and gestured to Kong Tie, saying, "Thank you for your trouble in recruiting men for Ma Tuosha." Kong Tie nodded, picked up the wine bowl and drank it all in one gulp, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said, "I'll take this opportunity to go and ask around before the New Year, see which families are willing to go. But raising an army isn't just about supporting one person, it's about supporting the whole family. Have you thought it through?"
"I've already thought it through," Shao Shuyi said with a smile. "The men will train in martial arts and tactics at Ma Tuo Sha, earning thirty strings of cash a month. The elderly, women, and children will help with pickling salted fish and will also receive wages. In this way, the whole family will be well-fed and clothed. What do you think?"
Kong Tie thought for a moment and said, "Soldiers can eat and live in the camp and support themselves. Thirty strings of cash probably won't be enough to support their whole families, but if they can help with the salting of fish and earn a wage, then it won't be a problem. So, some people should be willing to go. In this world, it's not easy to feed the whole family. Let Ma Tuo Sha be a bit desolate; it might not be unacceptable to them."
"The point is to make people come willingly," Shao Shuyi said. "This isn't a den of thieves, so I can't do things like recruiting Latins here." When everyone heard the words "not a den of thieves," they all burst into laughter.
Shao Shuyi didn't take it seriously.
He was telling the truth. The world hadn't descended into chaos yet; Jiangnan was still maintaining basic order. The government's true colors were still visible, but they were still wearing clothes and hadn't been stripped bare.
What was the purpose of Latin enlisting at this stage? They were accepted if there were volunteers, and left vacant if not, that was all.
"Where were we?" After everyone gradually quieted down, Shao Shuyi, slightly tipsy, said, "Right, recruiting men to carry sand on horses, that's the third thing. The fourth is transporting goods to Jiangxi; we have to leave this month. I'll go see Manager Mo tomorrow to finalize the itinerary. Although we're smuggling salt, we can't neglect our legitimate business. That's the fourth thing. The fifth thing is to inquire about the situation in Jiangyin Prefecture; we'll have to go back again, but there's no need for a major operation..."
As he spoke, Shao Shuyi realized he had a lot to do and was so busy he couldn't stop.
The position the Zheng family gave him was truly limiting his development and was a huge hindrance. However, he wasn't sure if resigning now would anger Zheng Guozhen. If he were forced to sail grain hauls, things would get complicated. He couldn't very well rebel now, could he? That would be utterly hopeless; the willingness to rebel was low in the Jiangnan region. After much deliberation, he decided he had to continue working for the Zheng family to maintain a basic level of respectability.
"Brother Gongming, since you're going to be involved in both smuggling salt and transporting goods," Yu Yuan suddenly said, "I think we should separate them. From now on, we'll operate on two separate paths and keep to ourselves."
Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.
"Why did you suddenly have this thought?" Shao Shuyi looked at Yu Yuan and asked.
"I'm afraid something might happen," Yu Yuan said, bowing his head.
In fact, his elder brother Yu Chu had given him some advice several times, saying that since he had been following Shao Shuyi, he should try to do legitimate business in the open and avoid getting involved in those shady industries.
After hearing it many times, Yu Yuan developed a clear understanding of the boundaries, unlike many others present who conflated the legitimate and criminal businesses without making a clear distinction.
"This is an excellent plan!" Shao Shuyi patted the table lightly and praised, "Our business is expanding so much that we really should set some rules." As he said this, his gaze swept over everyone.
When Wu Heizi met his gaze, he sneered, "Could it be the Incense Society?"
Shao Shuyi shook his head and chuckled, saying, "We're not members of the White Lotus Cult, why would we learn from the Incense Society?"
However, Wu Heizi's intention was not wrong.
The incense society is an organization with a hierarchy and various positions. Although it is not particularly tight, it is much better than many disorganized bandits and salt smugglers.
Some people are good at fighting and killing; they're brave and capable. But if you ask them to design a system to keep up with the ever-growing size of their gang, that's really asking too much of them.
They either don't know how at all, or they have an extremely crude and primitive system of having a head leader, a second leader, and a third leader.
The foundation is not strong, and the ground shakes the mountains.
Any group, regardless of its political affiliation, will face increasingly larger problems as it develops if it doesn't thoroughly understand its operational mechanisms.
This may be one of the reasons why many underworld bosses fail to develop their businesses: a lack of top-level design capabilities.
"How about learning from the government?" Bian Yuanheng said in a surprising way. "When my father was the commander of the salt fields in his early years, I worked as a trainee clerk in the government office for a while. As far as I know, your canal administration is under the jurisdiction of the Secretariat, which has departments, offices, bureaus, and sections, etc. I don't remember them very well."
"Brother Wu, don't talk nonsense," Liang Tai reminded him.
Bian Yuanheng knew he had made a mistake, so he picked up a glass of wine as punishment.
Shao Shuyi thought about it and realized that Bian Yuanheng was right.
The Secretariat, the Left Office, the Grain Office, and the Maritime Transport Office were all subordinate to each other, and their systems were already somewhat similar to those of later dynasties. It wouldn't be a big problem to copy them directly, but you can't do that. At least you can't copy the names; you have to use a deceptive method.
"Let's set up a trading company," Shao Shuyi said. "This company will generally consist of five parts: general affairs, accounting, transportation, land management, and commerce, with people in charge of each. Hmm, I can't think of everything right now, let me consider it carefully. You all should also think it over and offer your suggestions. It's normal to have problems at the beginning; we can improve it gradually."
After he finished speaking, everyone had different expressions.
Kong Tie glanced at Shao Shuyi, seemingly lost in thought.
Liang Tai lowered his head and remained silent.
Yu Yuan nodded repeatedly.
Gao Daqiang, Wu Heizi, and the others didn't quite understand, but they didn't object.
Bian Yuanheng frowned and pondered deeply.
Shao Shuyi took in everyone's expressions. Actually, his heart was pounding too; he had a feeling that he had done something terrible.
Does this count as establishing a system?
The General Affairs Office was responsible for administration, personnel, logistics, performance evaluation, and other related work. It also had several functional departments—though initially, not so many were needed. The Accounting Office was responsible for income and expenditure, distributing funds and provisions, and preparing budgets.
The transport warehouse is a legitimate business of hauling goods.
Yingtianfang was responsible for land reclamation in Sanlinli and Matuosha, including some civil engineering work.
The "Huozhifang" was actually a private salt trading operation, but it used the term "Huozhi" to cover up its true nature.
It appears to be a commercial company, but it is neither a syndicate nor a trust; rather, it is structured as a large conglomerate.
Designing this system, even in its most rudimentary form, wouldn't pose much of a problem for later business people and political experts, who could always offer some explanation. However, for those aspiring to rebel at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it was truly incredibly difficult.
Their level of education was so-so; at best, they could only inherit the original system of the government, copying it blindly, but that wouldn't work now, since the Yuan Dynasty wasn't dead yet. Shao Ze was truly a mudslide among the gangsters at the end of the Yuan Dynasty; he could do anything.
If the Iron Pot Emperor were to write "Four Great Bandits" on his screen, it wouldn't be an injustice at all.