xymnovel Chapter 197 Overseeing and Cultivating
Chapter 197 Overseeing and Cultivating
"You—" Liu Xing stared wide-eyed at Shao Shuyi.
"What do you mean, 'you'? It was consensual!" Shao Shuyi grabbed Liu Xing by the collar.
Liu Xing was about to resist, but when he saw Tie Niu's imposing figure appear in the corridor, he immediately froze.
He had privately sparred with Tie Niu, and the two were evenly matched in strength. However, he was still somewhat afraid of Tie Niu, as a domesticated beast could not compare to a wild one in the mountains and forests.
Shao Shuyi pulled him into the tea room, looked at Liu Xing's large, plump figure, and said, "I didn't want to say much. Whether you study diligently or live a life of debauchery is none of my business, but one..."
Shao Shuyi sighed and said, "Have you thought about what you want to do in the future?"
Liu Xing was taken aback and said, "It's not like I don't practice martial arts."
"Will you practice today?" Shao Shuyi asked.
Liu Xing was speechless.
"Three days fishing, two days drying nets," Shao Shuyi sneered. "If you don't practice for one day, you'll know; if you don't practice for five days, your peers will know; if you don't practice for ten days, outsiders will know. Don't you understand this principle?"
Liu Xing was speechless.
"Is it meaningful to fawn over actors every day?" Shao Shuyi asked.
Liu Xingben kept his head down, seemingly wanting to speak but then stopping himself.
"Still trying to talk back?" Shao Shuyi punched him and said, "Look at you, you're much stronger than me, but I train my strength every day, and one punch from me makes you unsteady on your feet. Is that fair?"
"I'm drunk, I can't stand up straight," Liu Xing shook his head and muttered.
"Shut up!" Before Shao Shuyi could speak, Madam Liu walked out of the bedroom and scolded her brother.
Liu Xing looked over and found that his sister's clothes were intact, but her hair was still unkempt and was just hanging there.
"Sister, he is one," Liu Xing pointed at Shao Shuyi.
"He's arranged a position for you as a clerk in the Patrol and Inspection Office." Madam Liu simply tucked her hair back and said, "The clerk in Shipai was implicated by Lin Xuan and dismissed from his post. Shao She has smoothed things over for you; you only need to donate one hundred shi of grain. Others would beg for this opportunity, so don't be ungrateful. Don't go anywhere these next few days; just stay home. Once your elder sister has prepared the grain and the official document and seal have been issued, you can go and take up your post."
Liu Xing was dumbfounded.
How long has it been? His sister and Shao Shuyi have already conspired to teach him a lesson. How can he possibly live like this? However, his sister has a long history of authority, so he dares not argue back. And Shao Shuyi is no pushover either. After thinking it over, Liu Xing could only lower his head and say, "Fine, I'll go. What can you do about it?"
Seeing that he was relatively honest, Shao Shuyi gave him a few extra words of advice: "Shipai is a strategic location, and the patrol office has as many as twenty-eight people; it's a complicated place. When you get there, don't think about what to do first, but rather make friends with your comrades before considering anything else, understand?"
Liu Xing did not answer.
Liu's gaze glared at him, and Liu Xing felt a chill run down his spine. He could only reply with a "Yes."
Shao Shuyi turned around and smiled at Liu.
Now that things have come to this, his arrangements in Jiangyin have already begun, and now it's just a matter of time before they are realized step by step.
Some things take time, unlike playing a game where you get immediate feedback.
The salt market in Jiangyin Prefecture will conservatively take several months, or even a year, to stabilize. The distributors who have recently come to join us also need time to be carefully evaluated before an efficient distribution network can be established.
The biggest problem is that I can't stay in Jiangyin for long periods of time. I need a capable person to be in charge and handle all sorts of complicated matters. Some things aren't actually difficult, but they just require time and effort to deal with.
His initial plan was to have Yu Yuan take charge of overall management, while the Liu family could open several more stores to share the burden—currently, the Liu family owned four stores: Wenmiao, Xiapu, Yunting, and Jiangxia. Now, they were preparing to open four more stores: Chaozongmen, Nanzha, Changjing, and Gushan, marking a significant expansion. While building the distribution network, Shao Shuyi's most pressing issue was the source of salt.
On the eighth day of the fourth month, the two ships, Pingjia and Pingyi, arrived at Matuosha.
"Yu She, you should go back first," Shao Shuyi said, sitting in the monks' quarters in the backyard of Chong Sheng Temple, stamping several money slips as he did so.
The monk's hut was located next to the drill ground, surrounded by dozens of tall paulownia trees, and with a small river in front of it. It was quite quiet and was used by Shao Shuyi as his office in Matuosha.
The seal was engraved with the two characters "Cao Luo," which was the alias he used in Jiangyin.
As he spoke, he carefully examined the most recent expenditure of 140 ingots for salt purchase. After finding no problems, he signed and stamped the document—Yu Yuan had already withdrawn the money in advance, and now he was simply completing a formality.
After the payment was made, Shengye Trading Company still had a little over five hundred ingots left in its account. Fortunately, more than four hundred ingots of salt payment would be received after the Dragon Boat Festival, at which time the funds would be much more plentiful. "Brother, after you leave, will I still be buying salt?" Yu Yuan sat down and asked.
"I'll take two hundred ingots, and you can keep the rest," Shao Shuyi said. "If you have enough money, you can pay back the one hundred ingots you owe Master Zheng. Hmm, give me an extra twenty ingots; we can't be rude."
"What about Madam Shen? It seems like it's been dragging on for several months." Yu Yuan glanced at Shao Shuyi and asked cautiously.
"I'll return it myself; we need to show some sincerity," Shao Shuyi said.
"Oh. I knew it would be like this," Yu Yuan said, withdrawing his gaze.
"Hey, you little rascal, when did you go astray?" Shao Shuyi stopped what he was doing, looked at Yu Yuan, and said, "Why do I feel like there's something behind your words?"
"No." Yu Yuan shook his head repeatedly.
Shao Shuyi smiled and changed the subject, saying, "Are you confident leaving me alone in Huangtian Port to deal with a thousand people who are neither entirely innocent nor entirely innocent?"
Upon hearing this, Yu Yuan subconsciously bit his lip.
"It's alright, I believe you," Shao Shuyi said. "Back at Liu's Grain Shop in Xiapu, you dealt with the dozen or so people Yang Jin brought. At first, things were a bit awkward, but later it went quite well, didn't it?"
"At that time, I was actually quite unsure, but when I thought of you sitting behind the curtain, and a group of brave and daring brothers in the backyard, I felt reassured," Yu Yuan said. "Actually, one..."
"Actually what? Tell me." Shao Shuyi looked at him encouragingly, then casually picked up the Huangtian Trading Company's accounts and began to look through them. "When I first started dealing with those people, I was always worried that I would ruin things by saying the wrong thing, or that I might offend them with an unintentional action and ruin everything," Yu Yuan said. "But later, I realized that those people were actually more afraid than you. As long as you don't go too far, to the point that they can't stand it, you won't ruin things."
Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "It's good that you've grasped this point. I call this 'error tolerance.' How can you be completely without making mistakes in life? Maybe one day you'll be in a bad mood and say a few harsh words, causing someone to hold a grudge, but so what? You're my brother, so we'll naturally share the burden if something goes wrong, and we'll share the benefits too. Just keep in mind that you should do your job well. As for the outcome, besides human effort, we also need to look to fate. Don't worry, it's not a big deal."
Yu Yuan nodded and said, "This time it's the entire Jiangyin area, with several times more people than before. However, with Yang Jin sharing the workload, we should be able to manage. It will just be a bit more tiring than before, but I will do my best."
"You can also look for more candidates in Jiangyin," Shao Shuyi said. "But there's one condition: you must be very selective, better to have none than to have the wrong one." "Yes," Yu Yuan nodded emphatically.
Shao Shuyi lowered his head and finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Huangtian Trading Company had 101 ingots of cash in its accounts by the end of March.
Goods transportation between Huangtian and Liujiagang contributed some of the profits, but the bulk of the profits came from the brokerage fees (3%) paid by Manager Huang and others, which enabled the trading company to turn a profit last month.
He put the ledger aside, looked at Yu Yuan, and sighed, "Work hard. I'm short-handed, so I can only rely on you guys."
Hearing Brother Shao speak in such a slightly disheartened tone, Yu Yuan's heart tightened, and he immediately said, "Brother, don't worry, I'll definitely handle it." "Relax," Shao Shuyi smiled and said, "Actually, it's not necessarily that there's no one available. You never know how far you can go until you push yourself. Two years ago, could you imagine yourself shooting someone?"
A year ago, could you imagine yourself sitting there, chatting with a dozen ruffians, wandering knights, and merchants?
This year, you will face even more people, including perhaps some powerful figures in government.
Do you ever feel like you're being pushed forward?
Yu Yuan nodded repeatedly.
"Some people, who stay at home all day, only interact with familiar people, or only do what they usually do, will progress very slowly. Even after five or ten years, their gains will be very limited," Shao Shuyi said. "But if you constantly push yourself forward and do more things that you find challenging, you will gain a lot, whether you succeed or fail. I don't believe you are necessarily worse than anyone else. Even if you are not as capable as those who have made their mark in history, you haven't reached your limit yet, and you can still reach another level."
Yu Yuan was deeply moved and immediately said, "Brother, don't worry, I will take good care of things here."
Shao Shuyi nodded.
There's no other way; these are the only people we have. We have to motivate them and at least prevent them from developing a fear of difficulties.
In addition, he wasn't just bluffing.
He genuinely believed that while a person's talent might have a limit, 99% of people in the world never actually reach that limit in their entire lives, leaving a lot of room for development.
Even if you can't give someone a genius with the ability to turn the impossible into reality, it's certainly possible to cultivate a competent person to govern a region. Push them forward, give them more responsibilities, let them experience different challenges, accumulate experience in various aspects, while you control the overall situation from behind, stepping in to clean up messes and pay their dues when necessary—perhaps you'll be pleasantly surprised.
It's that hard for people who start from the bottom.
You're not from a prestigious family, and you don't have family-trained military, political, logistical, and diplomatic talents by your side from the very beginning. What else can you do? You'll have to accumulate experience little by little on your own.
On the tenth day of the fourth month, the matter of Abbot Huiyong being appointed as the abbot of Chongsheng Temple was reported by the Jiangyin Prefecture Monastic Administration to the Hangzhou Xingxuanzhengyuan for approval.
Prior to this, he had already taken over the management of the remaining seven monks in the temple and continued to control the religious world of Matuosa.
After touring the island and organizing a group drill for the island's inhabitants, Shao Shuyi left Matuosha the next day and returned to Liujiagang by boat.
Next, he will no longer be Manager Shao, nor Brother Cao, but the Great Sage of the Flat-Tension.