Chapter 339: The Friendship of Gentlemen Is Mild as Water

After taking his leave from Heifu's residence, Ba Zhong couldn't help but heave a long sigh.

"I never imagined that even with the lure of a million in profit, it still couldn't be done."

Just moments before, Ba Zhong had proposed that Heifu share the brown sugar production method with the Ba clan—to plant sugarcane extensively in Shu, extract the sugar and sell it in all directions, splitting the profits evenly.

This was a temptation no ordinary person could refuse; even lords of a thousand chariots, marquises of ten thousand households, and chiefs of a hundred chambers still worry about poverty—people's thirst for wealth is never satisfied.

But after pondering briefly, Heifu personally poured two cups of water: one cup of plain, bland boiled water, and one cup of cloyingly sweet honey water, both delivered before Ba Zhong's desk.

"I wonder if Brother Ba has ever noticed—honey in water is indeed sweet and pleasant, but drink too much and one easily grows tired of it."

"Plain water, however, is different. Though bland, it can be drunk every day, and one never finds it wearisome even until death."

"Thus the ancients said: the friendship of gentlemen is mild as water; the friendship of petty men is sweet as sweet wine. Gentlemen are mild yet close; petty men are sweet yet severed. If friends are joined purely by profit, when hardship and calamity strike, they will abandon one another. Those who associate by nature will, when hardship and calamity strike, still shelter one another."

"Three years ago, Brother Ba and I crossed the river on the same boat, ate salt from the same earthen jar, were trapped together in the lonely city on the Yi Road, and ventured to Wuluo Zhongli Mountain. We endured hardship together. Therefore, Heifu hopes that between us, there can be more genuine feeling and less profit entanglement! Better the friendship of gentlemen, mild as water!"

Heifu's attitude was resolute. Ba Zhong felt somewhat disappointed, thinking Heifu was stingy and unwilling to share, and suddenly felt the humiliation of having pressed a warm face against a cold backside—but then, unexpectedly, Heifu added:

"But then again, the world is vast and living beings are many—how can one man monopolize all its profits?"

"Since your honored mother desires the method of making brown sugar, how could I keep it to myself? I shall write a letter home at once and have the Anlu sugar workshop send a craftsman to Ba Commandery to transmit this method to the Ba clan."

"The Ba clan may plant sugarcane in suitable places in Shu, boil sugar and sell it. There is no need to share the profits with me—let it all be my birthday gift to your honored mother!"

The reversal came too quickly; Ba Zhong had not expected it at all and could only stand there, stunned.

In his ten years of doing business, all he had known was that the world bustles for profit, the world jostles for profit—men toil and rush for their own gain.

But someone like Heifu, who pushed away the fat meat at his lips and even declared he would share trade secrets without holding anything back—such a person was absolutely unique!

Was it truly as he said, that wealth is but an external thing, and he valued only friendship?

He made only one single request.

"The sugar of Ba and Shu must not leave Ba, Shu, and the three commanderies of Dongting!"

Recalling the matter just past, Ba Zhong sighed with deep emotion, shaking his head and lamenting.

"Heifu, ah Heifu, I never imagined you could be so generous, and yet so exceedingly cautious!"

Although on the surface, his family had paid no price and obtained what they wanted, the bitterness within was something only Ba Zhong himself understood.

What he drank was sweet sugar water, yet his mouth was unbearably bitter—because what he truly wanted, he had not obtained.

Though the Ba clan appeared honored, in reality, under the Emperor's broader policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, they were still despised merchants, barbarians scorned by the people of Guanzhong. Dominating Ba Commandery was one thing; arriving in Xianyang, they had to shrink their heads and walk small.

Add to that the matter that was already singeing their eyebrows, and the Ba clan urgently needed to befriend those close to the Son of Heaven, someone who could speak a word for their house in times of peril.

Yet Heifu had refused the enormous profit, and instead made the Ba clan owe him a great favor first.

"So be it, so be it."

Ba Zhong could only mutter helplessly to himself: "In any case, no matter how we struggle, that matter cannot be altered. Since I cannot forge the friendship of petty men, then I can only do my utmost to maintain this 'mild as water' bond!"

……

"Chief of the Left, why give the sugar-making method to the Ba people for nothing!"

Yan had long since woken, but Heifu had ordered him not to show his face, only to stay inside the room, and he had heard the gist of it. The moment Ba Zhong left, Yan came out, and thinking of the profits Heifu had pushed away, this suddenly enriched small trader from Anlu stamped his feet in distress.

"According to what he said, the yearly profit would be no less than a million—this is far more cost-effective than having the Chief of the Left send people to Nanchang to plant sugarcane and open workshops!"

Heifu, however, was stroking his chin in thought, and asked him in return: "Cousin, let me ask you—how much money can the Ba clan earn in a year from cinnabar, well salt, and Bo slaves?"

Yan was taken aback, thought for a moment, and said: "People often speculate, all believing the yearly profit is no less than several tens of millions."

"Exactly. That being the case, the profit from brown sugar is but a single hair on nine oxen—how could the Widow Qing of Ba possibly take notice of it?"

Yan was puzzled: "Didn't the Chief of the Left say that brown sugar might one day stand alongside salt, iron, and grain and become a major commodity?"

"That is a matter of the distant future. Even if the Widow Qing of Ba and her son have far-reaching vision and wish to secure a corner of the brown sugar market early, they could slowly negotiate with me—why be so impatient? Ba Zhong's proposal was never about selling brown sugar; it was a roundabout way of giving me money as a bribe!"

Ba Zhong seemed to be hiding something, and his behavior was agitated. Ever since Yan got entangled in that lawsuit, he had been trying to lend a hand, wanting Heifu to owe his family a favor—it seemed he had an ulterior motive.

Heifu would rather forgo this patent money than be drawn into matters beyond his control.

Yan still couldn't figure it out: "Then didn't the Chief of the Left also reach an agreement with Wushi Yan to sell him two thousand jin of brown sugar next year? What is the difference between the Wushi and the Ba?"

Of course there was a difference. The Wushi were based in Guanzhong, their every move under official control, licensed merchants specially authorized by Qin Shi Huang. Heifu wholesaling brown sugar to them to sell beyond the borders in exchange for livestock was practically a contribution to the state.

The Ba clan, however, was not the same—they were still earning money for their own house, not under the court's jurisdiction, and their power was growing ever greater. From Heifu's understanding of the Emperor, he would not tolerate such a great industrial and commercial magnate, whose wealth rivaled a kingdom's, remaining long in a border commandery. The Ba clan's good days might soon come to an end.

"Besides, can one man monopolize all the profits under heaven? One must never be too greedy. In business, you must think long-term."

Heifu did not feel he had lost out in the slightest: "A thing that looks profitable today might cost me dearly tomorrow. And what looks like a loss today may, in a few years, in ten years, prove a steady, unlosable profit!"

One year to plant sugarcane, one year to make brown sugar—by the time the Ba clan finished all this and truly began to turn a profit, Heifu might well have already produced white sugar and rock sugar. By then, the sugarcane and brown sugar produced in Shu Commandery would not be competition at all, but rather an endless supply of raw material for Heifu to refine his products, and it would cultivate the habit of eating sugar among the people of Ba and Shu. Why not gladly go along with it?

Thinking to this point, Heifu couldn't help but yawn. This matter ended here. He told Yan to hurry back to the South Market, and had Sangmu close the outer gate…

What they did not know was that from the afternoon, when Wushi Yan had come calling with the Mai and Shi clans, to Ba Zhong leaving this place with a face full of regret, to Yan rushing off to the South Market—the entire process, someone had been secretly spying on Heifu's gate the whole time!

……

The next morning, within Zhangtai Palace, the Emperor, who had risen early to handle state affairs, listened quietly as the "Usher" subordinate to the Minister of Protocol reported on the recent circumstances and conduct of Ba Zhong, son of the Widow Qing of Ba. He spoke only three faint words.

"We are aware."

Next, the Emperor summoned the Prefect of the Palace Chariots, Zhao Gao, who had been waiting respectfully outside and had also been listening carefully for the Emperor's attitude, and ordered him to draft an edict on his behalf.

"In the time of Duke Xiao, Lord Shang had the law of 'Attracting the People'; in the time of King Zhao, Fan Ju had the art of 'Attacking Men.' Both were means of moving people into Qin to strengthen and consolidate Guanzhong."

"Now all under heaven has been settled into one, yet Guanzhong and Ba-Shu are vast in land but sparse in people. The Shanglin Park stretches a hundred li, yet the cultivated fields are not two-tenths of it, the plots of land numbering less than a hundred thousand. In the lands of Ba and Shu, the timber, goods, and treasures of the marshes, famous mountains, and great rivers cannot all be put to use."

"Whereas the commanderies east of the mountains have cramped soil and dense populations; the rich hold continuous fields, the poor lack even the point to stand an awl, and merchants rely on cunning and pursue secondary trades—this is because their land is insufficient to sustain their people!"

"Now We desire to reduce what is in surplus and supplement what is insufficient, causing one hundred twenty thousand wealthy households from east of the mountains to be relocated to Xianyang, Guanzhong, and Ba-Shu! Thus, the commoners east of the mountains shall obtain fields to till, and they shall also fill Guanzhong and Ba-Shu, strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches, making clear the honored and the base, so that all things find their proper place!"

This was the great migration the Emperor had long been planning in his heart. As the edict stated, relocating the wealthy households of the six former states to the capital, where they would live intermixed with the Qin people and be watched, would not only reduce the six states' capacity for resistance but also develop the sparsely populated Ba-Shu—a brilliant strategy to strengthen the trunk and weaken the branches!

One hundred twenty thousand selected wealthy households, six hundred thousand remnants of the six states, would soon, after the imperial edict was issued, leave their homes and arrive in unfamiliar lands, losing the wealth and social connections built over ten generations, over dozens of generations, and begin everything anew…

But those forcibly relocated were not limited to the people of the six states.

Zhao Gao noticed that on the long list, the name of the Ba clan of Ba Commandery stood out prominently.

"The Widow Qing of Ba Commandery and her son, relocated to reside in Xianyang!"

Although the Emperor lavished praise on the Widow Qing, enfeoffing her as a Chaste Wife, and the Widow Qing reciprocated by contributing vast sums of coin and silk to aid the Emperor in completing his unification enterprise, that did not in the least hinder him from moving against her entire household.

Times had changed, and the Emperor no longer needed to rely on the Ba clan to stabilize the Ba region. In his view, a Ba Commandery without the Widow Qing would be far more convenient for the court to govern than one with her!

"What a pity!"

After drafting the edict as ordered and stepping out of the Emperor's bedchamber, Zhao Gao clasped his hands behind his back, looked at Heifu—the Chief Gentleman of the Palace Attendants, who still knew nothing of this matter and stood ramrod-straight outside the hall—and muttered to himself:

"Just one step short, and you would have defied the Emperor's will!"

PS: Got back late. Second chapter will be up before midnight.

(End of chapter)