Chapter 94

“Little Ye, we didn’t get this territory easy—it was me and Hao Jian running around town by town to secure it.

As the saying goes, when a man leaves, his tea grows cold. If we move our base to Yangcheng, what if someone else snatches our old ground? There are plenty now who eye our business with envy.”

“Brother Li Ye, didn’t you say channels are our lifeline? We’ve barely built a name for ourselves in these surrounding counties—we must guard them tightly.

Last month, some southern outsider came to scout us. He looked powerful, but after seeing our strength, he turned right around and left...”

Hearing Li Ye say he planned to move their “foundation” to Yangcheng, Hao Jian and Jin Peng couldn’t understand it and immediately voiced strong objections.

Of course, they only tried to persuade Li Ye—not outright oppose him.

Or rather, by now, they’d lost the courage to oppose him.

When Li Ye first led them from a few hundred yuan to twenty thousand, it still seemed like he’d just gotten lucky with his “educated mind.”

But now, from twenty thousand to fifty thousand—and soon to be over a million—Li Ye’s image had quietly been deified in their hearts.

Reverence had silently taken root and grown wild within them.

Li Ye handed each of them a bottle of beer from his bag, took a small sip himself, and asked: “What do you think a territory is?”

“What’s a territory?” Jin Peng thought a moment. “Qingshui County is ours! No one dares snatch our business—we’re almost got the neighboring counties locked down, all our friends.

Even though the provincial capital’s big, in clothing alone, we still have a voice...”

Damn, Jin Peng, your thinking is dangerous!

In his future life, Li Ye knew exactly what happened to these “market tyrants”—glorious in their prime, but when they fell, not even a bone fragment remained.

“Brother Li Ye, I think a territory is your channel—it’s a treasure pot, pulling gold for us day and night. We’ve got to guard it tight!”

Hao Jian’s awareness wasn’t high, but he spoke plainly.

In these few counties where they flipped clothing, they were truly making a fortune—both men wished they could keep one eye open at night just to feel safe.

Any outsider daring to compete? Scaring them off was the mildest thing they’d do.

Just like back when they sold malt candy—Jin Peng and Wang Jianqiang always reached for bricks. Even now, Jin Peng never left home without a knife on his waist!

Blocking someone’s livelihood is like killing their parents!

Li Ye asked Jin Peng: “Brother Peng, if what you say is true, did you win these territories because you have so many friends?”

Jin Peng nodded: “Yes. But Little Ye, don’t worry—I only pick trustworthy friends. If anyone tries to stab us in the back, I’ll handle it myself.”

Li Ye understood: Jin Peng treated every “downline” in the clothing trade as a friend.

That was how many merchants operated in this era—after all, Shenzhou was a place where human ties mattered.

“Alright, I’ve got another question,” Li Ye asked Hao Jian and Jin Peng: “Do you plan to spend the rest of your lives guarding just this patch of Dongshan?”

“..........”

Hao Jian and Jin Peng were embarrassed—their expressions like someone holding ten thousand yuan, going to negotiate with a billionaire, who casually handed them a one-hundred-million-yuan order and asked if they could handle it.

Don’t crush us like this, okay?

Even Hao Jian, who prided himself on having no shame, blushed: “No, Little Ye, our territory now is only part of the provincial capital and a few surrounding counties—we’d never dare claim all of Dongshan Province...”

Jin Peng cut in: “Hao Jian, you’ve got narrow eyes. If Little Ye says Dongshan Province, then it’s Dongshan Province.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll head east, you head west—we’ll take over every county’s clothing market in the whole of Dongshan Province...”

Li Ye interrupted: “How? Make friends one by one, throw banquets table after table? You’ll die of alcohol poisoning that way.”

Jin Peng chuckled: “How could we? We’re drinking good stuff now—two yuan and thirty fen a bottle...”

Li Ye had no patience for their nonsense anymore. These two stubborn fools were blinded by a little money, like old landowners who’d rather die than sell their ancestral fields.

Li Ye straightened his expression: “Capital controls channels, controls markets—not through drinking, not through personal ties.

It’s through profit, through talent. Personal ties can be a supplement, but ultimately, it’s about how much money you let the people on your channel earn.”

“Starting now, you gradually step back from frontline retail sales. Take control of the source supply, pick the right people to train, and let them manage wholesale operations on the frontlines.

Also, identify suitable secondary wholesalers and support them—they’ll handle channel maintenance in each county. You just need to send people for periodic oversight.”

Li Ye began detailing to Hao Jian and Jin Peng the expansion methods of wholesale businesses from his future world.

Though his knowledge was rough, as long as the direction was right, in the blank-slate market of 1982, spreading like wildfire wasn’t impossible.

Move customers with emotion? Maintain markets with friendship?

Joke’s on you—expansion always moves fastest by poaching people, profit first.

But just as Li Ye was getting fired up, he saw Hao Jian and Jin Peng staring at him in shock.

“What? Capital? Little Ye... you’re going to make a mistake!”

“Little Ye, you can’t say things like that. A few years ago, those words alone would’ve gotten you in trouble.”

“........”

I’m giving you a lecture to expand your thinking, and you’re lecturing me on ideology?

Li Ye was furious—he decided to unleash his ultimate move, to shock these two stubborn country bumpkins.

“Hao Jian, when you sold malt candy, your daily turnover was a few dozen yuan... If you sold clothes yourself now, you’d max out at a few hundred yuan a day.

But if you train dozens or hundreds of secondary wholesalers—even if you only make one-fifth of your current profit... how much would that be?”

Hao Jian’s eyes went hazy, stars swirling—but his mind mechanically calculated.

Li Ye added softly: “Don’t just count Dongshan. What about Xishan? Beihé? The whole country?”

“.........”

Hao Jian couldn’t go on—he froze, crashed.

Both he and Jin Peng became frogs with mouths wide open, forgetting to breathe.

Li Ye felt a quiet, smug joy—and a strange sense of accomplishment.

He remembered years ago, when he’d been a three-year office drone, watching his boss—who’d spent his days with courtesans and models, utterly drained—lecture nonstop for two hours at a new-hire meeting, not tired at all, even getting more energetic.

Only when he saw the new recruits, faces flushed, eyes full of longing for a bright future, did Li Ye finally understand.

The boss had used a worthless pie to not only fool the newcomers into submission, but also to fool himself into euphoria.

Because once a man is fooled, he kneels—bowing, worshipping, seeing you as a god, feeling invincible.

In 1982, godlike legends were everywhere. Though Li Ye’s claims were surely exaggerated, and the clothing market couldn’t possibly be dominated by one man alone... yet, anything was possible.

“No, Little Ye... you’re... you’re blowing way too hard... you’ve blown yourself up...”

Hao Jian snapped back to reality, stood up, and began pacing in circles around a nearby tree, muttering over and over: “Blown too big,” “Blowing bullshit.”

But he held his beer bottle upside down—beer foam spilled everywhere, soaking his sandals—and he didn’t notice.

Beside him, Jin Peng sat utterly calm, silently gnawing on the mouth of his bottle, making a crunching sound.

Li Ye snatched the bottle away—this isn’t a qigong demonstration, why are you biting the bottle?

Five minutes later, Hao Jian squatted down again, grabbed a new beer, bit the cap off, and drained it in one go.

Then he started smoking—cigarette after cigarette.

He’d come to Li Ye for five million, and Li Ye had painted him a bigger pie—almost choking him.

Li Ye gave him no time to digest—he said directly: “All that I said is future talk—we can take it step by step.

But starting tomorrow, all large sums of money will be transferred to Yangcheng, none kept in Dongshan. Only a small reserve for emergencies.”

“Alright, do it that way.”

Jin Peng agreed instantly—he was smart enough to know that when he didn’t yet understand something, following Li Ye, the smarter man, was the right move.

Hao Jian, however, was better at thinking independently and asking questions.

“Little Ye, if we let outsiders control distribution in each county, what if they betray us?”

Hao Jian still wanted to keep every link of the retail chain under his own control—even if it was more trouble, he felt safer.

Li Ye shrugged: “We only have fifty thousand now, but crushing a disloyal distributor in a county? Easy.

Just support another distributor to dump goods at low prices.

When we have five million, then ten million... you can figure out how to play it yourselves. I don’t really understand it—you can feel your way across the river!”

“...........”

【You don’t understand? Then who does?】

Seeing Hao Jian and Jin Peng gaping, speechless, unable to retort.

Li Ye took their silence as agreement—team consensus mattered deeply.

“Arrange quickly—one of you stays permanently in Yangcheng, the other comes with me to Jingcheng.

Within two years, don’t draw attention in Dongshan. Learn to be low-key. Learn to hide behind the scenes.”

Li Ye said two years because in 1984, Guo Jia would officially permit private companies to form. For the coming 1983, caution was still wise.

Had Hao Jian and Jin Peng broken the law?

No—but it wasn’t clearly legal either.

That’s the gray zone—otherwise, how could you make so much?

Hao Jian and Jin Peng understood at once.

From the start, Li Ye had hidden behind them. Now, they too must learn to gradually hide behind others.