Chapter 1159: Tempting Them with Profit

"These salt merchants have truly enjoyed the state's favor for generations, reaping mountains of gold and seas of silver from the salt monopoly for generation after generation. By all rights they should be utterly loyal to the Great Ming, yet the moment a chance to get rich appears—knowing full well that rebels like us are behind it—they still swarm in like bees. It's truly laughable!"

"Big Brother is right. Merchants have no sense of righteousness. At double profit, they'll abandon wife and children; at triple profit, they'll take any risk; at quadruple profit, they'll cast aside all loyalty, filial piety, and great principle."

"That's exactly why the Master set up a dedicated Trade Office and keeps Cloud Mountain Trading firmly in hand. From time to time, people say the Master should be attending to great affairs, that we should all focus on military and state matters and leave the business dealings to the merchants—just have them deliver the money and goods on time, and we'd still collect just as much silver and goods without spending so much manpower or effort. What a joke. Setting everything else aside, isn't Wang Ziyang a living example?"

Wang Zhaojing, Liu Yong, and Zhou Xuezhi chimed in one after another, discussing the merchants' behavior without pause. Zhao Jin glanced at Dong Bingfeng and said with a smile, "Our Zhao Camp does things with too many rules, and we keep the household troops and militia under strict discipline. Because we follow the rules, some people praise us, sure—but far more people grow bold. They think that as long as they don't break our rules, they can say whatever they want and make little moves behind the scenes."

Dong Bingfeng nodded in reply. "Big Brother is right. Old Li over there deliberately wanted his patrolmen to act fierce, and as a result, everyone above and below respects and obeys him. But our household troops can only be reined in like this. With no battles to fight right now, if discipline ever slackens, we won't be able to pull them back."

They chatted idly, yet no one brought up the martial tournament. In the minds of Zhao Jin and his companions, it hardly counted as a matter at all. Eventually Zhou Xuezhi inquired about the relevant details. The previous two tournaments had earned a great deal of silver through betting and gambling. This year the scale was even larger, with more guests attending, so the silver from betting would certainly be even more enormous. How should this money be handled—sent back to the treasury for distribution, or kept directly here in Qingjiangpu? This matter required Zhao Jin's decision.

"Chen Ergou is truly skilled at manipulating the gambling crowd's mindset. The odds he sets get people to place bets while ensuring we take the biggest cut. That's genuinely impressive." Zhou Xuezhi offered a sincere word of praise.

Zhao Jin looked toward Li Dajin, seated below him, and said with a smile, "If Old Li hadn't found him so many people to assess the fighters' strength, how could his judgment be so accurate?"

The most critical factor in setting odds is knowing the relative strength of both sides. Chen Ergou was highly versed in gambling but relatively out of his depth on this point. He needed Li Dajin to arrange sharp-eyed men of the jianghu to help with the evaluations—this was Li Dajin's contribution.

On the third day after Zhao Jin arrived in Qingjiangpu, the martial tournament officially opened. No one knows who started calling it by this name, but it came to be known as the "Number One Under Heaven Martial Tournament." Both the organizers and the participants liked the name; after all, it lent a sense of glory to everyone involved.

However, when this name reached Zhao Jin, he set aside his usual composure and laughed for quite a while. Everyone was baffled. Fortunately, after he finished laughing, Zhao Jin said, "This name is good—well chosen." Otherwise, they would have changed it.

Chen Ergou and the various parties had long since worked out the preliminary match lists and rounds. Those invited by the various factions, those with established reputations, or those widely acknowledged as strong experts would not face each other in the first preliminary round. They would only possibly meet around the fourth or fifth round. The first three rounds involved several hundred matches, and only these specially treated bouts would be held inside the "Treasure Bowl" arena.

During the first four rounds, every single jianghu and marketplace figure Zhao Camp controlled in Qingjiangpu was deployed. Some mingled with the spectators to keep watch, while others were directly pressed into busy work. Every match required people to take bets, maintain order, and even serve as referees. The patrolmen and militia alone were far from sufficient—even the core personnel of the carting firm had to step in.

Zhao Jin did not go to watch these matches. He had far too many official matters to attend to in Qingjiangpu. Meeting and dining with the members of the Qingjiangpu Merchant Association was one such matter, and a very critical one at that. Countless important affairs and commercial dealings had to be discussed on such occasions. Every day, invitations were delivered to his door, and just the ones Zhao Jin planned to accept were already scheduled all the way to the fifteenth day of the first month of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign.

After arriving in Qingjiangpu, in addition to the thousand riders Zhao Jin had brought with him, there were also the local household troops and patrolmen acting as guards. Therefore, only two hundred armored riders accompanied him on each outing. Even this was an imposing sight—men and horses like dragons, iron armor and long weapons, a truly awe-inspiring procession on the road. People were often so shaken that they dropped to their knees by the roadside. Originally, government runners still moved about Qingjiangpu, but after Zhao Jin arrived, the runners dared not show their faces in official robes or livery. Aside from fear, they also felt it was too humiliating.

The wealthy merchants within and beyond the Merchant Association had many matters to discuss. Xuzhou, Pizhou, and the northern part of Huai'an were now all prosperous areas with considerable purchasing power. The merchants of Qingjiangpu wanted to transport goods there for sale and needed Zhao Jin to set the quotas; otherwise, they would surely compete endlessly and even damage their relationships. Moreover, the Xuzhou market was now one of the central trading hubs connecting South Zhili with Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. Specialty goods from the three northern provinces and even from Mongolia beyond the frontier were distributed to South Zhili through the market, and likewise, many goods from South Zhili were sold northward via Xuzhou. On this matter as well, they needed to negotiate with Zhao Jin for larger quotas.

This year, Xuzhou cloth had firmly established itself in the market. Everyone had long been troubled by the shortage of Songjiang cloth, and now that a substitute existed, they needed to confirm with Zhao Jin whether a similar output could be guaranteed the following year. If so, how much could each of them obtain? Large-scale production was still best and most convenient for large-scale distribution. Some even urged Zhao Jin, saying that those seafarers had no roots and no foundation—who knew when a storm might wipe them out without a trace? They argued that the established merchants of Qingjiangpu were far more reliable, adding that after dealing with each other for so long, Master Jin ought to look after them more.

"Next year, the output of Xuzhou cloth will only increase, not decrease. The varieties will be more numerous and of better quality." Zhao Jin's reply drove the Qingjiangpu merchants into a frenzy. Who didn't know the enormous profits of the bulk cotton cloth trade? Compared to Songjiang cloth, Qingjiangpu enjoyed a favorable position for Xuzhou cloth. Not only were there various conveniences in transport, but the purchase price was also negotiable. How much profit could be made from it was easy to calculate.

What kind of alchemy did Xuzhou possess to produce so much cloth? Judging by its scale, no matter how they calculated, they couldn't make the numbers add up. Yet nothing Zhao Jin promised ever failed to come true. Since he had said so, Xuzhou could certainly deliver. Although there was still over half a year before the goods would be shipped, everyone still scrambled to lock in their deals. Many of the larger, more established firms were already prepared to put down deposits directly or to ask Cloud Mountain Trading to set the terms.

Word leaked out from somewhere that those who contributed to the Salt Transport River would also receive priority in Xuzhou cloth quotas. As soon as this was said, everyone's enthusiasm for dredging the Salt Transport River immediately soared. The merchants of Qingjiangpu certainly understood the significance of Haizhou Port and knew that getting involved would bring wealth. However, Qingjiangpu's prosperity was tied to the grain tribute transport, and everyone felt some resistance toward the maritime trade. But once it was linked to making a fortune, no one cared about that anymore.

The salt merchants from Yangzhou Prefecture also hurried over. In addition to the Salt Transport River, they also needed to discuss matters related to the Haizhou salt fields. Neither Zhao Jin, nor Wang Zhaojing, nor Zhou Xuezhi, nor even the worldly-wise managers at Cloud Mountain Trading had expected the salt merchants to propose such terms. They actually wanted to hand the salt fields over to Zhao Camp to manage. These were their very lifeblood, and yet they wanted to give them up.

The salt produced each year had a fixed quota, but every year the salt fields produced in excess—this was one source of the private salt. The salt merchants' idea was this: once Zhao Camp took over the salt fields, as long as the annual salt supply exceeded the combined quota of official and private salt, the surplus production would be Zhao Camp's profit. According to them, this quota was nothing compared to the salt fields' actual production capacity. But currently, there was too much leakage and too much neglect. The salt-making households and salt workers not only stole from within but also shirked their work severely. Rather than dragging on in this half-dead state, it would be better to transfer these salt-making households and workers into more profitable enterprises.

This was a plan to use Zhao Camp's manpower to produce salt. Zhao Jin had some understanding of the lives of the salt-field households. These people were much like the artisan households and military households—in a state of semi-slavery, with incomes insufficient to feed themselves and treatment so harsh it was unbearable. Under such conditions, they naturally had no motivation to work. And the salt administration, which already reaped enormous profits from its monopoly, had no inclination to manage them. Thus, the salt fields had been left to decay and fall into ruin.

The salt merchants' sudden inspiration for this idea was not born of kindness or a desire to reform corrupt governance. Rather, it was because Zhao Camp had presented many ventures that seemed worth investing in and looked even more lucrative. These ventures required not only silver but also considerable manpower. This was what prompted the salt merchants to think of freeing up capacity—dismantling the Great Ming's salt industry to fatten their own purses.

To this proposal, Zhao Camp agreed to go back and consider it. The matters the salt merchants raised did not stop there. In a sense, they were much like the wealthy merchants of Qingjiangpu. Zhao Camp's territory now completely surrounded the Haizhou salt fields. Official salt might be one thing, but the distribution of private salt depended entirely on Zhao Camp's goodwill. Moreover, the establishment of the salt market had standardized the private salt trade, and the private salt purchases by the Xu family's sand-ship fleet and the Li Family Gang had opened up new sources of revenue for them. Whether they liked to admit it or not, the salt merchants' prosperity and very survival were held in Zhao Jin's grip. If they wanted to earn more, they needed Zhao Jin to grant them larger quotas in the coming year.

Furthermore, Zhao Jin's allocations did not depend on how many salt certificates you held, nor on what official connections you had, nor on any past precedents. They depended entirely on your relationship with Zhao Camp and your contributions to it.

Thanks to the three old friends "Duan Yichen," "Wind Dragon King," and "Xiaoqi Civilization Miracle" for their tips. Thanks to everyone for your subscriptions and monthly tickets. Thank you all for your support.