xymnovel Chapter 166 Legitimate Business
Chapter 166 Legitimate Business
When Liu left, Shao Shuyi gave her a thousand catties of salt and suggested that she send most of it to Yunting City, keeping only a small amount at the Confucian Temple. The reason was simple: with Zhu Dinggang dead, Shao Shuyi wasn't the only one vying for the smuggled salt market; many others, from top to bottom, were also trying to profit. Given the Confucian Temple's prime location, caution was always warranted.
Furthermore, Yunting is a fairly large market town, only it's far from the prefectural city. The salt can be transported there and sold slowly; it won't be long before it's all sold out. Madam Liu agreed, leaving twenty ingots of paper money. She then loaded the salt onto a boat and had the brothers Liu Bao and Liu Gen transport it to Yunting—these two had practically been Shao Shuyi's personal drivers before, and now they were finally doing some proper work.
After seeing the person off, Shao Shuyi smiled smugly, while Yu Yuan looked at him with an astonished gaze.
"It's nothing." Shao Shuyi patted his shoulder and laughed, "Put the money in the account. Someone might come to deliver salt again, and we can't do without money."
"Brother Shao, we don't even have fifty ingots left in the account," Yu Yuan whispered. "We can't buy much salt."
"The difficulties are temporary," Shao Shuyi said nonchalantly. "Don't we still have plenty of fish and salt?"
"After deducting the salt needed for pickling, there are still more than 5900 catties of salt left over from Ma Tuo Sha. Should we transport it over?" Yu Yuan asked.
"No need," Shao Shuyi said. "Just bring over the latest batch of 8,000 catties of salted fish. Don't delay, ship it in the next few days and sell it to Madam Liu. They should be able to salt another 26,000 catties over there, but we don't have enough manpower. Did a few more families come the day before yesterday?" "Yes, Brother Baijia Nu agreed before he left. There are eight families in Matuosha now, but it's still a bit too few," Yu Yuan replied. "Take it slow," Shao Shuyi said. "Provide them with meals before the New Year, let them help with some work, give them some rewards during the New Year, and after the trading company is established, we'll give them their official starting wages."
"Okay," Yu Yuan replied.
"Don't overthink it." Shao Shuyi turned to look at Yu Yuan and laughed, "There's only a month left until the New Year, and there's a lot to do. Let's not move this year and talk about it after the Lantern Festival. When we go to Tongzhou then, we'll buy a lot of salt. It's too expensive to sit at home and wait for delivery."
"Brother Gongming, there probably won't be much salt left in winter," Yu Yuan reminded him.
"We'll collect as much as we can. If it's really too much, we'll just collect for a while longer. I want to see which inspector is so blind as to dare to run into us." Shao Shuyi exuded an air of domineering arrogance, completely conceited.
"Okay." Yu Yuan looked at Shao Shuyi with admiration, without a trace of doubt.
Shao Shuyi, however, was a little embarrassed and said, "Go and greet the new rascal. I won't show up this time; you're in full charge." Yu Yuan hesitated and said, "Brother Gongming, I...Is I capable?"
"If you don't practice now, when will you?" Shao Shuyi said earnestly, "These are all minor matters right now. If you make a mistake, we can all discuss it together, see where you went wrong, and correct it in the future. After several years of this, you will naturally gain experience, and when you encounter important matters in the future, you won't be completely without confidence. Go on, I'll be listening behind the curtain, but I won't interrupt you."
"Oh, okay." Yu Yuan nodded, took a deep breath, and walked towards the front yard cabinet.
This time, the group that came was still the peripheral members that Zhu Ding had once controlled, a total of five people. They were originally recruited by Wang Chan, one of the Seven Protectors, but now that Wang Chan is dead, these people have lost their leader and have been won over by Yang Jin through a roundabout way. In fact, they didn't have many choices. They could either quit this line of work and live as ordinary people in peace, or they could change sides.
After listening for a while, Shao Shuyi found that Yu Yuan's response was acceptable, so he quietly left.
To put it bluntly, everyone is now profiting from the legacy left by Zhu Ding after his death. Shao Shuyi seems to have won over a large number of people, but there are many more others. This has nothing to do with strength; they are simply suffering losses because they are not locals.
It is foreseeable that there will be further competition in the future, until all competitors are completely defeated.
On the 25th, Shao Shuyi was already preparing to return to Liujiagang.
Before leaving, he took a group of people to conduct an inspection in the north of the city.
Overall, the urban area of Jiangyin is very close to the Yangtze River, roughly only a little over a kilometer away.
After exiting the former North Gate, Chengjiang Gate, there is the Chengjiang River. Between the Chengjiang River and the Yangtze River lies a large market commonly known as "Jiangxia Market" by the locals.
At the end of Jiangxia City lies Huangtian Port, situated along the river. During the Song Dynasty, a maritime trade office was located at Guangxiao Temple on the east side of the port, specializing in foreign trade. Although the maritime trade office has since been abolished, commerce remains very prosperous, but domestic trade has taken its main focus now.
When Shao Shuyi arrived at the place, he found it to be quite popular. No wonder the fourth shop that Liu had mentioned to him was located here; it made perfect sense.
Yang Jin followed and walked at the front, explaining as he went: "Brother Cao wants to do business on the water, and Jiangxia City is the most suitable place. There is a canal (a waterway dredged during the Song Dynasty, later known as the 'Xicheng Canal') in Wuxi that runs from south to north, making it easy to transport many goods here. Once they are exported, they will need to be transported by boat, and then business will come."
"What kind of goods are you shipping?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"Grain, tea, silk, cotton cloth," Yang Jin said. "Brother Cao, you may not know this, but Jiangyin has a cotton management office. It started promoting cotton in the 26th year of the Zhiyuan era (1289). Over the course of sixty years, there are too many cotton growers. Some people even jokingly call Huangtian Port 'Cloth Wharf' or 'Silkworm Cocoon Wharf'."
"I can understand the cloth dock," Shao Shuyi said. "What about the silkworm cocoon dock?"
"The silkworm industry is abundant in the Jiangyin, Changzhou, Wuxi, Changshu, and Zhenjiang areas, but in terms of domesticated silkworms, Wuxi and Jiangyin are the most prominent. However, the people of Jiangyin mostly raise silkworms for cocoons, not reel the silk. Merchants from other places often travel by boat to Huangtian Port and Xiapu to buy silkworm cocoons and transport them back to reel and weave silk fabrics." "People have long said that Jiangnan is wealthy, but I didn't quite understand where that wealth lay before. Now I understand; it's in these little things." Shao Shuyi smiled and said, "The maritime trade of Liujia Port, the salt, grain, and cotton cloth of Songjiang Prefecture, the silk of Changshu, the cotton cloth and silkworm cocoons of Jiangyin... there's so much. Other provinces would be proud to have even one such place, but here in Jiangnan, there are one after another, and they're not too far apart. It's truly very wealthy."
"Brother is right." Yang Jin quickened his pace and soon stopped in front of a shop called "Huang's Cloth Shop".
The shopkeeper was chatting with someone at the door, his face initially beaming with smiles. But upon seeing Yang Jin, his expression immediately darkened, and he turned to run. Yang Jin, in a panic, stepped forward and blocked the shopkeeper's path, shouting, "Huang San, why do you run away as soon as you see me?"
"Ninth Protector, I run a small business, I can't afford to lose money like this, please spare me," Huang San said with a mournful face.
"Why should I spare you?" Yang Jin was furious and cursed, "I'm not here for money, but to discuss a business deal with you."
Huang Sanxin calmed down a bit.
I'm absolutely unwilling to pay money, but I can discuss the sale, even though this deal could very well be a huge rip-off.
"How much cotton cloth and silk does your family ship out each year?" Yang Jin asked.
Huang San's eyes darted around, and he said, "Only a few thousand."
Yang Jin grabbed Huang San by the collar and whispered in his ear, "Don't try to fool me. Brother Cao came along today. If I don't behave well, I'll probably get in trouble, but you'll be in for it too."
"Not many at all," Huang San complained. "At most, a little over ten thousand bolts. There are other cloth merchants in Jiangxia City besides me. If there are too many, no one will buy them." "Ten thousand bolts will do, I can get by." Yang Jin let go of the other person's hand and ran up to Shao Shuyi, reporting, "Brother Cao, this Huang San is in the cloth business. Every two or three months, he has to transport a batch of goods. They should have regular transporters, but I just told Huang San not to associate with these people anymore, and to hand over all transport matters to Brother Cao's fleet."
Did he agree?
"They didn't directly refuse, they just said they wanted to see you."
Shao Shuyi nodded slightly and said, "Find a few more places, then arrange a teahouse or restaurant and invite them all over."
Yang Jin accepted the order and left.
Shao Shuyi smiled; he was now experiencing the "joy" of doing business in the underworld.
When a menacing-looking person approaches, the shopkeeper immediately becomes more subdued. If they were to intimidate or threaten the person further, it wouldn't be difficult to steal the business from the shopkeeper.
After finishing his business with the manager of Huang's Cloth Shop, Yang Jin went to the dye shop next door, grabbed the owner, and started gesturing wildly, using a mix of words and threats. He was incredibly dedicated, not at all like a scholar...
Shao Shuyi watched silently from a distance, thinking to himself that Yang Jin, this local tyrant, knew the situation in Jiangxia City all too well. He figured it was best to make the most of what he had; let this guy run around more, threaten the merchants more, and a legitimate water transport business would be established, right? Although this kind of business-stealing wasn't exactly honorable. He himself had been considering opening a branch office in Jiangyin these past few days.
After all, he couldn't stay at Liu's Grain Shop in Xiapu (West of Huangtian Port) indefinitely; he needed to have his own place to stay.
The new organization's main business is water transportation, namely, using Huangtian Port in Jiangyin as a base to open various shipping routes and provide services for merchants traveling to and from the port. This is also the main reason why he came to Huangtian Port for inspection today.
We must do the smuggled salt business, but we must also do legitimate business.