Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Get out of the carriages?
The government troops had suddenly surrounded them. Who would dare get out now? What if they were stabbed full of holes?
The merchant bosses sat silently in their carriages, daring only to lift a corner of the curtain and sneak a look outside.
Why had Liang Wanda surrounded them? Did he intend to force a sale, or simply rob them outright?
The merchants said nothing, and neither did Liang Wanda. The two sides remained locked in a standoff for a while before Liang Wanda finally cleared his throat. “Are the honored proprietors displeased that I came so late? My sincerest apologies. I had urgent business outside the city. As soon as I returned, I rushed here to see all of you.”
“Prefect Liang governs an entire prefecture, while we are merely humble merchants whose words carry no weight. How could we dare take offense? Of course we should wait for you.” A northern merchant’s sarcastic voice drifted from the convoy. “It’s simply that, from what this commoner can see, there are already plenty of merchants here. Lord Liang probably has no need for our meager grain. We might as well read the room and leave early.”
They had agreed to come because they had spotted an opportunity for enormous profits and because someone had asked them to see whether they could use the trip to open a trade route between north and south.
They were not from Yizhou and rarely dealt with southern merchants, but anyone capable of transporting so many grain carts thousands of miles into Yizhou naturally had considerable power behind them. Liang Wanda’s official authority did not frighten them in the least. Besides, Yizhou was desperately short of grain. As the saying went, the hand that fed you was your mother. Even as Prefect, Liang Wanda was no more than a destitute beggar pleading for grain in front of them now.
If he wanted to throw his official weight around with them, he had badly miscalculated.
“Hahahahaha! No need to worry, honored proprietors. Yizhou has plenty of mouths. We can swallow however much grain you brought!” Liang Wanda laughed with hearty ease, then offered in an accommodating tone, “Instead of worrying about that, why not unload your goods right here? We can discuss the price while you do. How does that sound?”
“Unload right here?” Another merchant could not resist poking his head out of his carriage. “Surely you must be joking, my lord?”
“Is there a problem?” Liang Wanda’s face assumed an innocent look of surprise.
The merchant was rendered nearly speechless by his reaction. Patiently, he explained, “Lord Liang, we heard that every County Magistrate from Yizhou’s disaster-stricken counties had gathered inside Jiangdu and that you intended to assign us to the various counties to sell our grain. That is why we all came here.”
“Yet now you’re telling us to unload outside the walls. What is that supposed to mean?”
Once they unloaded, they would only have to load everything back onto the carts before transporting it to the other counties. Why go to all that pointless trouble?
Liang Wanda swept out a sleeve and laughed. “What are you talking about, honored proprietors? Aren’t we standing inside Jiangdu right now? The ground beneath your feet is Jiangdu City!”
He pointed to the gate behind him and said meaningfully, “Outside the gates is where the refugees are.”
The merchant bosses: “???”
Wait, what kind of nonsense was that? They understood every word on its own, so why did none of it make sense together?
“Hahaha! What you don’t know, honored proprietors, is that refugees from many disaster-stricken counties have fled to Jiangdu County over the last few days. I was afraid hunger might drive them mad and that, if they lingered here, they would loot your grain carts. That was why I deliberately opened the gates to let them in and temporarily sealed them up…”
Liang Wanda pointed first to the ground beneath them, then toward the gate, smiling as he explained, “So now, this is inside the city, while that is outside.”
The merchant bosses: Oh~ Oh!!!
So that was it!
Prefect Liang certainly had an odd sense of humor!
But by that logic, Prefect Liang had protected their grain carts. If they had not been delayed for those few days at Yizhou’s passes, they might truly have run into those starving refugees.
Once the refugees started looting, the merchants could have lost everything they owned!
“So we misunderstood Lord Liang!” The merchant bosses hurried down from their carriages and gathered together again. The northern merchants in particular instructed their attendants to bring out the gifts they had prepared in advance.
Although these visiting merchants did not fear Liang Wanda’s official power, they might open a trade route between the two regions in the future. Naturally it would be better to maintain a good relationship, so certain courtesies still had to be observed.
Liang Wanda did not stand on ceremony. He accepted every gift.
One of the merchants suddenly remembered something and asked, “Lord Liang, where are the other County Magistrates now? Weren’t the magistrates from all the disaster-stricken counties supposed to come here?”
Liang Wanda paused, then sighed with complete seriousness. “Unfortunately, they encountered bandits on the way and were all hacked to death. I considered honoring my promise by transporting their bodies here to meet you, but that did not seem entirely appropriate, so I left them where they were.”
The merchant bosses: “?”
What in the world???
Seeing their astonished, bewildered faces, Liang Wanda silently wiped away what looked like heat-induced sweat from his brow.
Of course those County Magistrates were not dead, but in Lord Shen’s and the Second Prince’s eyes, they had long been no different from corpses.
The explanation he had just given was another line the Second Prince had specially taught him to keep the lie going and steady these merchants.
He had to admit, spouting this kind of outrageous, deranged nonsense was far more exhilarating than all the words he had used as an official to flatter his superiors and bully those beneath him~!
“There’s no need for alarm, honored proprietors.” Clearing his throat, Liang Wanda kindly reassured them, “The County Magistrates may be dead, but the refugees are still alive! Aren’t they all waiting outside the city for grain? Now you won’t need to make a special trip to the other counties. You can simply sell all your grain to me right here!”
With that, he clapped his hands. Shen Yuan, who had been watching from the side, stepped forward and opened the small wooden chest in his hands.
The merchants crowded around for a look and gasped.
The little chest was packed with banknotes. The top note alone had a face value of ten thousand taels. Judging by the thickness of the stack, there had to be more than a million taels inside!
How could Prefect Liang be so rich?
Was this disaster-relief silver from the imperial court? Since when had the court been this wealthy?
“This money isn’t just for buying relief grain. It’s also for…” Liang Wanda trailed off with an expression loaded with unspeakable meaning.
The perceptive merchants immediately caught the scent of opportunity.
If the money was not merely for relief grain, what else was it meant to purchase? Was Yizhou about to begin some enormous construction project?
Could they be building a river embankment?
No, no. The merchants from Lizhou and Yuzhou shook their heads. In their experience, building an embankment would not require such a massive expenditure.
Then what could it be? And what business opportunities might they find in it?
The merchant bosses fidgeted with burning impatience until one of them blurted out, “What exactly do you mean, my lord?”
Liang Wanda smiled. “I won’t keep you in suspense. You cannot set the grain price too high. Of course, I know how difficult it was to transport your grain all the way here. You certainly deserve to make a profit, so I am willing to buy your grain above the market price.”
“However…” Liang Wanda paused. Under their ravenous gazes, he said mildly, “Yizhou will soon begin an enormous construction project. But flash floods have struck many counties, leaving them desperately short of supplies. Most materials can only be purchased from outside merchants. If all of you agree to lower your grain prices and sell to me, then in the future, the customs duties at the passes and the taxes on the goods you sell…”
He gave the merchant bosses a meaningful look. “With a permit issued by my office, those charges would naturally be greatly reduced. Going a few years without paying any tax at all would not be out of the question.”
The merchant bosses’ eyes flew wide: “!!!”
What had he just said?
A government permit that lowered customs duties and sales taxes?!