Chapter 436: Reluctant Conciliation

Everyone knew of the Zhao Family Distillery's mountains of gold and seas of silver. **** Town had grown prosperous precisely because of liquor-making. If Hanjing Famous Liquor were produced in town, it would surely bring a revival. Moreover, **** Town lay in a no-man's-land where three jurisdictions met — the borders of Xuzhou, Huai'an Prefecture, and Fengyang Prefecture. A minor overland hub, its commerce enjoyed uniquely favorable geography. If Zhao Jin set up a trading firm here, it would be tantamount to shielding this place, and with Zhao Jin's reputation for turning stone into gold, it was bound to attract merchants in droves.

A distillery and a trading firm — anyone could see that **** was destined to flourish. And with Zhao Jin letting them take shares in it, just imagining the fortune they'd make was enough to make them laugh.

Zhao Jin nodded. He would not stay here long; once he had given his instructions, he would lead his men away. Escorted by the elders of **** Town, he mounted his horse. Once in the saddle, he suddenly pointed at a man and asked, "Just now, when I was giving benefits to ****, why did your face look so grim?"

The question came abruptly. The man's expression froze, then went pale. He was about to dismount to explain, but Zhao Jin waved his hand with a smile and said, "No need to dismount. Ride up and talk."

He spoke with a smile and even let the man stay on his horse to explain — clearly the matter wasn't that serious. At his side, Dong Bingfeng hurriedly explained, "This is Jiang Mutou from Fangcun Market. He brought all forty riders under his command and followed us here."

No wonder this man's face had looked so sour while he stood listening at the edge when Zhao Jin was bestowing favor on **** Town. This was Jiang Mutou, the local magnate of Fangcun Market.

On their way here, the guide had mentioned that the decline of **** Town was due to rumors of having offended Zhao Jin, and those rumors were connected to Jiang Mutou.

Fangcun Market and **** Town were just over ten li apart. If one declined, the other could flourish. With Zhao Jin promising so many benefits to **** Town, it was no wonder Jiang Mutou, whose power base was Fangcun Market, had looked so grim.

Zhao Jin's sharp question had also been partly in jest. Everyone who had come to the rescue this time was a close ally of the Zhao Character Camp. Even if they hadn't been before, after this experience, they were now. Regardless of any opportunistic or self-serving motives, the mere act of coming showed where they stood.

Besides, Fangcun Market was the closest to **** Town and could gather intelligence clearly. Knowing how dangerous the situation here was, he had still followed them here, and with his entire force at that. A person like that naturally deserved to be treated as one of their own.

"You're Old Jiang — Jiang Mutou?" Zhao Jin asked with a smile.

Jiang Mutou was a lean man, not very skilled on horseback. He had been somewhat uneasy, and now, suddenly treated so courteously by Zhao Jin, he became utterly flustered. He tried to perform a grand salute from horseback and nearly tumbled off.

Zhao Jin smiled and reached out a hand to steady him, saying, "We're on the same side. No need for excessive courtesy."

At the words "on the same side," Jiang Mutou's face immediately broke into a delighted grin, and his demeanor and movements instantly relaxed.

"**** Town and Fangcun Market are so close. If one prospers, the other won't fare poorly either. Instead of thinking how to prosper together, you're worrying whether it will affect your own turf. How shortsighted!" Zhao Jin criticized from horseback.

The main column was not moving fast. With the words "on the same side" as a foundation, Jiang Mutou wasn't too frightened by the scolding and merely nodded with a wry smile.

"When more traveling merchants arrive and the market town flourishes, can't you do business with them too?" Zhao Jin added.

"Master Jin, that's easy to say, but the location over in **** is far better than my little place. Once it booms, every shop will want to move there. Food and lodging will all be taken care of right in ****. My place really won't get a share of the profits," Jiang Mutou couldn't help but say.

Expecting a rural magnate like this to have any flexible business sense was probably unrealistic. For him, spreading rumors to sabotage **** Town was likely already a rare stroke of genius.

Zhao Jin shook his head from horseback, thought for a moment, and said, "I'll give you two lines of business. From now on, all carts and horses in **** Town will be operated exclusively by you. No private goods may be stockpiled in **** Town — they can only be stored in Fangcun Market."

Jiang Mutou shuddered on his horse and asked urgently, "Master Jin, do grain and salt count among these private goods?"

"Private goods" referred to merchandise that bypassed the customs tax stations. In the South Zhili region, it often meant the southern and northern goods smuggled along the grain canal. When such goods were bought and then transported and sold by powerful gentry or officials, it was legal. If common folk touched them, they faced confiscation and fines. But because the profits were huge, plenty of ordinary people still dabbled in it. On the whole, the risk was not great.

However, when people spoke of "private goods," they generally only thought of two things: one, canal grain smuggled or stolen; and two, private salt.

Canal grain came with all sorts of customary fees, so selling it off cost nothing, making the price extremely low — flipping it meant huge profits. Private salt went without saying. But both were strictly investigated by the authorities. Within the deeply entrenched system, one was safe; outside it, rashly meddling would invite disaster.

"Without grain and salt, what benefit can you get?" Zhao Jin asked with a smile.

Jiang Mutou was beside himself with excitement on horseback, the hand gripping the reins trembling uncontrollably. Xuzhou was a transportation hub, a thoroughfare connecting north and south. In earlier years, when the Grand Canal passed through, this was obvious enough. Even now, the canal still ran along Xuzhou's edge, not to mention that Huai'an Prefecture, the source of Huai salt, was right next to Xuzhou.

Year in, year out, no one knew how many goods, how much canal grain, and how much private salt passed through. It was like a great river of silver flowing by every day. But Jiang Mutou was very self-aware. He knew he could only watch; the slightest meddling would see him crushed to pieces. A local magnate who could field over forty riders and two hundred manor guards was not weak, but before the business of canal grain and private salt, he was nothing more than a tiny ant.

Now Zhao Jin had granted him these two lines of business. Even if it was only storage, the benefits were enormous. As long as there were stockpiled goods here, people would come to buy. That meant activity and business, which would bring many other advantages and elevate his own standing in the underworld.

Jiang Mutou was already calculating in his head. He couldn't touch the various parties connected to Zhao Jin, but beyond that, who knew how many goods needed to be distributed through Xuzhou to other places? Getting his hands on those would be more than enough — he probably couldn't even handle it all himself.

They rode in silence for a stretch. Many in this large column were eyeing Jiang Mutou with displeasure. A rare chance to cozy up to Zhao Jin, and this Jiang Mutou was hogging that spot and refusing to leave. He truly had no sense of how the world worked.

Zhao Jin was relaxed in the saddle, though a wave of exhaustion involuntarily washed over him. Who could have imagined that a trip to scout the details of the Grass Den would turn into days of desperate flight and battle on the return journey? And just when he thought they'd have to fight a bitter defensive stand, reinforcements arrived, and everything became safe again.

"Master Jin, I'm just one man with one household. I don't have the manpower for such a big operation, and I've never done it before. I truly dare not take it on. Could you send some of your people to run it, and I'll just assist on the side?" Jiang Mutou, struck by a flash of inspiration, said these words.

Zhao Jin held the reins and said nothing. Jiang Mutou thought he had misspoken. After another moment of silence, a smile appeared on Zhao Jin's face. He turned his head and said gently, "You really are small-minded, pushing away a benefit delivered right to your door."

Jiang Mutou's heart went cold, thinking he had made the wrong choice. But then he heard Zhao Jin continue, "The Zhao Character Camp has a Student Corps that recruits sons from various families. If your family or clan has any suitable candidates, you can send them over."

When the refugees besieged Xuzhou, Fangcun Market had also sent men to help, but the Jiang family had not. A few other families did. As a result, those families later had members join the Zhao Character Camp. Originally, Jiang Mutou's word was law in Xuzhou, but once those families grew close to the Zhao Character Camp, their standing immediately changed. If not for the fact that Jiang Mutou had always worked for Fangcun Market's benefit and everyone remembered his good deeds, his position as head of the local magnates would already have been shaky.

Now, that problem had naturally vanished. But Jiang Mutou felt a faint regret. Zhao Jin had given him little, and he had indeed said the wrong thing just now. It wasn't worth it at all.

"Invest in some shares of the **** Town business as well. I won't be coming here often, so someone needs to keep a close watch on it for me!" Zhao Jin added casually.

Worth it! Completely worth it! Wild joy filled Jiang Mutou's heart. Subconsciously, he yanked hard on the reins, and his horse let out a whinny.

Seeing Jiang Mutou flustered and overjoyed, Zhao Jin smiled but said nothing. **** and Fangcun Market together served as the gateway to the east of Xuzhou. Large quantities of private goods transited here, involving immensely lucrative sums of money and benefits. But more critically, after the falling-out with the Feng family, this place had become an outpost and the first line of defense.

In the past, Zhao Jin had not controlled this area tightly. Even now that he was paying more attention, deploying forces and establishing a system would take time. Until everything was fully in place, he needed a trusted local strongman to keep watch. As things stood, Jiang Mutou of Fangcun Market was the best choice.

Whether Jiang Mutou was greedy or not made no difference to Zhao Jin. The profits generated from the transit of private goods could be given away for now. Once everything was arranged, they could simply be taken back. As for what Jiang Mutou would think then, it wasn't even worth considering. If there were any real resentment, it could be easily wiped away.

However, this man Jiang knew how to behave. He hadn't greedily tried to monopolize the profits, hadn't thought his turf couldn't admit outsiders, and was willing to invite the Zhao Character Camp's assistance, actively inviting them into Fangcun Market. A flexible and sensible character like this naturally deserved to be propped up as a model. The shares wouldn't be many, but as long as the Jiang family made no mistakes, they could hold onto them for generations.

In Xuzhou, the Zhao Character Camp was the strongest. In Xuzhou, no one dared defy the Zhao Character Camp. And in fact, that was true. Yet beneath the surface, the situation was not so simple.

The so-called local gentry and magnates — their foundation was their native soil. Their armed force was the village braves and private troops in their hands. Moreover, most of them were narrow-minded, able to see only their own tiny patch of land and unwilling to accept change. On the surface, they revered and submitted to Zhao Jin and the Zhao Character Camp, but privately, they were suspicious and guarded.

These petty calculations couldn't exactly be called gravely harmful, but they hindered Zhao Jin and the Zhao Character Camp from further integrating and absorbing Xuzhou's strength. Therefore, the Zhao Character Camp could only be considered the hegemon of all Xuzhou for now — allied with gentry and strongmen great and small, accepting their cooperation, and nothing more.

To achieve total control down to every household and every individual, the Zhao Character Camp's strength could certainly use thunderous measures to crush all resistance. But the imperial court still stood, the officials still governed, and the king's law still held. To do so would instantly make them a target of universal condemnation, an enemy of the entire realm. So for now, they could only proceed by the method of conciliation.