Chapter 120: Killing frenzy, everyone's gone mad!

Shiqiang Mucai Chang.

Li Jiaci watched the middlemen at the gate dwindle, and the vehicles coming to pick up goods; instead of feeling anxious, he smiled with ease.

Over the past few days, aside from Hong Bo who knew what was going on, everyone else was on edge.

Liu Jiang and a few brothers had conferred and decided to talk to Li Jiaci.

He came up behind Li Jiaci, hesitated for a while, was just forming his words in his mind, but Li Jiaci turned around and looked at him first.

"What are you doing?"

"Sneaking around, are you trying to ambush me?"

Liu Jiang shook his head.

"Brother, could I be that kind of meddlesome person?"

"I just want to ask you, what exactly are you thinking?"

"You want to expand the wood factory, yet you refuse to lower the prices!"

"The brothers are afraid you'll lose money on both ends!"

Hearing that, Li Jiaci glanced at the few younger brothers standing not far away.

They, like Liu Jiang, were all worried.

Li Jiaci sighed.

"How much money do we have in the account now?"

Liu Jiang lowered his head to count, then said: "Besides the 200,000 we need to pay Bei Bang right away, there's still seven or eight hundred thousand left in the account that we can freely use!"

Seven or eight hundred thousand!

How is that not a huge sum at present?

That could buy several houses!

"Do you trust me, brother?"

Li Jiaci raised an eyebrow.

Liu Jiang had no hesitation, nodding directly: "Of course I trust you! You've raised us like both father and mother, afraid we'd go hungry or cold, even willing to starve yourself to feed us well!"

"Just trust me!"

"No need to say anything else!"

"Brother will never do anything to screw you over!"

"Rest easy!"

Li Jiaci forced a smile.

At that moment, Hong Bo and Li Yihu rushed back.

Li Yihu brought over the sketches of several warehouses for Li Jiaci to review.

"Brother, these are the only warehouses currently vacant!"

"But as soon as they heard we wanted to rent, they immediately asked for a lion's share, jacking the price up several times over!"

"They probably see our business doing well and want to take advantage to make a quick profit!"

"Should we still rent them?"

Li Jiaci looked at the sketches in his hand.

Setting aside what Li Yihu said, he was still quite satisfied with these warehouses.

As the saying goes, "Meet the enemy with generals, meet the flood with earth."

The other side's abacus beads were practically popping onto Li Jiaci's face.

In return, Li Jiaci couldn't be vague either.

Li Jiaci put away the sketches and handed them to Liu Jiang nearby for safekeeping.

Then he pulled Li Yihu close.

"Go pick a few workers inside, pretend to be people looking to rent warehouses and negotiate the price; if they ask what business we plan to run, say we're opening a garment processing plant, a flour mill, and the like!"

Li Yihu nodded with a smile: "Brother, you're still the smartest!"

"Go on!"

Li Jiaci waved at him.

Liu Jiang overheard all this talk.

He muttered behind Li Jiaci's back: "We still have to thank Li Qinglan; if she hadn't sparked our brother's brain, he couldn't have come up with all these crazy ideas!"

"What are you muttering about, you little brat?"

"You got something in your eye, huh?"

Li Jiaci turned back and glared at him.

"Nothing, brother!"

"I just wanted to say the brothers all believe in you!"

"Go ahead and do it!"

Liu Jiang said that while running off.

Although the number of outside customers had dropped by half, the factory floor still echoed with the sound of machinery operating.

Hong Bo watched the busy workers and told Li Jiaci: "Boss, after these days of the stalemate, Zheng Degui has lowered the price again by 50, now it's 430 per unit!"

"Keep pressing it down, cut another 20!"

"Got it!"

A few more days passed.

Outside the Nian Yong Timber Factory, the middlemen unexpectedly formed a long dragon.

This was their most prosperous business since the factory was established.

Zheng Degui was so happy his face twisted into a grin.

He asked Wu Gang, "What's the situation over there?"

Wu Gang snorted, his eyes full of contempt.

"It's been no good for a long time!"

"I went to their factory yesterday and took a look; there were already three people standing at the gate!"

"Inside the factory it's lifeless, as if it's about to go bankrupt!"

"But..."

As he said that, Wu Gang's smile froze.

Then he scratched his head and continued, "Even though they're like that, they show no sign of stopping; the machines run nonstop, and the timber inside the factory piles up higher and higher!"

Hearing this, Zheng Degui couldn't help but snort.

"What is this?"

"Putting a scallion in a pig's nose and pretending it's an elephant!"

Wu Gang asked, "Should we keep pressing the price down? It's already 220 per unit; if we press further..."

Before he could finish.

Zheng Degui directly interrupted: "Press, of course we must!"

"Boss, many peers are protesting now, saying we're deliberately disrupting market prices and want to report us to the market supervision bureau!"

"The market supervision bureau are all my people; this year alone I've given them over a hundred thousand in gifts—this small matter isn't worth worrying about!"

"That's also..."

Wu Gang turned his head and released the latest price.

Shiqiang Timber Factory.

Li Jiaci was sitting in the office drinking tea when he looked up and saw Hong Bo, dust-covered, walk in.

"What's the price now?"

Hong Bo, without catching his breath, said directly: "Zheng Degui has pushed the price down to 170; outside the Nian Yong Timber Factory there's a huge line of vehicles, so many they can't even move!"

Liu Jiang, standing aside, frowned.

He had seen such a scene every day before.

Those middlemen kept saying they only work with Shiqiang Timber Factory.

Zheng Degui merely flicked his wrist, and they turned against him, refusing to acknowledge him.

Thinking of this, Liu Jiang asked, "Brother, should we keep following them?"

"Follow, why not?"

"As usual, press down another 20!"

Li Jiaci answered readily.

Hong Bo added: "Although the Nian Yong Timber Factory has a lot of traffic, the timber they produce is either substandard passed off as good or mixed quality; those middlemen couldn't fail to notice, but the profits are so huge that even if they saw it they wouldn't say anything!"

"That's a matter for later; for now we don't worry about it!"

"Tell the workers under me, no matter what rumors outside, keep your ears covered!"

"I will pay their wages without fail!"

Li Jiaci gave these instructions.

Afternoon.

Wu Gang then told the news to Zheng Degui.

"Do they still dare to follow?"

"Heh, are they planning to go head-to-head with me to the bitter end?"

"Then press it down another 50!"

"Let's see how long he can hold out!"

Zheng Degui smiled sinisterly.

But Wu Gang was not as excited as before.

"Boss, pressing down another 50 would make it 150 per unit!"

"There's never been such a low price on the market!"

"We've been running a loss-making business this whole time!"

Zheng Degui gave him a cold glance.

"Do you understand, or do I understand?"

"Am I supposed to let you teach me how to do things?"