Chapter 911

According to the hierarchy of the Zhao Character Camp, this Geng Mancang was not qualified to request an audience with Zhao Jin. Any news or messages had to be relayed through Ruhui and Wang Zhaojing.

Back then, this Geng Mancang had boldly set a deadly trap, after which his family property was confiscated and he himself was seized. Fortunately, he performed well when he met Zhao Jin, and was given a chance to atone for his crimes through service.

But Geng Mancang's situation with the Geng family was dire. His family had backing from both capital officials and high-ranking local dignitaries. Geng Mancang's reckless gamble had caused the Geng family enormous losses and offended many people. For such local aristocratic and powerful families, there were established precedents for handling these matters. A few days after Geng Mancang was captured, he was expelled from the Geng family. From then on, his actions had nothing whatsoever to do with the Wuhu Geng family.

Cutting off a limb to save the body—this was a decisive move to keep disaster from spreading to the family. Yet no one expected that after Geng Mancang came under Zhao Jin's command, relying on the might and financial power of the Xuzhou strongman, he would once again build up such a vast operation.

Although Geng Mancang is now merely a manager at Cloud Mountain Trading, the money and grain passing through his hands are far greater than before. Though he personally is not as extravagantly wealthy as he once was, his influence in the business world has grown considerably. Even though Geng Mancang is now permanently stationed in Yutou Town, grain merchants from Qingjiangpu have set up branches and dispatched dedicated personnel there just for him. They have even paid high rents to use the Zhao Character Camp's Cloud Mountain Inn as their own courier station, all for the sake of relaying messages by fast horse.

Every time this Geng Mancang buys or sells, it causes fluctuations in Qingjiangpu's grain prices. For the grain merchants, this often means either great profit or heavy loss.

Relying on his familiarity with grain prices and the support of the Zhao Character Camp, Geng Mancang has indeed rendered great service to Zhao Jin. In the past, the Zhao Character Camp had to periodically sell grain reserves to supply the refugees they recruited. After Geng Mancang took over the management, the cost of purchasing grain dropped by a full forty percent. Moreover, they could buy grain at any time and even sell the produce from the Pizhou New Stockade. Although the quantity was small, this channel was immensely valuable.

Within the Zhao Character Camp's system, people who work steadfastly and possess ability are always valued. If not for the fact that Geng Mancang had been so utterly audacious that day, directly attempting to kill Zhao Jin, he would likely have been promoted and entrusted with heavy responsibility long ago, qualified to take charge of matters on his own. As it is, however, he is still being used as the grain trading manager under Cloud Mountain Trading.

Even so, Geng Mancang's life is far better than when he first started working for the Zhao Character Camp. He had thought he would have to endure years of coarse food and hardship, but unexpectedly, from the very start his living standard was that of an ordinary household. Soon, relying on generous profit-sharing, he returned to a life of wealth and comfort. And the gains did not stop there. When the Wuhu Geng family saw that Geng Mancang had acquired such authority and skill, they actually re-enrolled him into the clan. The confiscated clan properties were returned to him. What was even more amusing was that they even arranged for Geng Mancang's younger brother to take charge of affairs in Qingjiangpu.

After Geng Mancang brought disaster upon himself, the descendants of his branch of the family were all treated poorly within the Geng clan and suffered greatly. Unexpectedly, through the Zhao Character Camp, they were elevated once again. Furthermore, the Geng family properties that Geng Mancang had been forced to forfeit were, before too long, placed back under his own management—after all, he knew the ins and outs and managed them well.

From these various actions, Geng Mancang could vaguely guess that if he performed well, his former family assets might even be returned to him. Adding that to his current earnings, it would be tantamount to reaching an even higher level than he had in Qingjiangpu.

Whenever he thought of this, Geng Mancang found it laughable. Back in Qingjiangpu, he had been considered a top-tier wealthy merchant, yet he could see no hope of rising further and always felt stifled. That was why he had prepared to take a desperate risk and seize Zhao Jin's property. After his failure and capture, he thought everything was lost and could only gamble on a future chance. He never expected that under the Zhao Character Camp, he would advance even further, seeing a larger and broader future, and his status within the clan had also risen considerably.

Borrowed authority is still authority. The prospects of the Zhao Character Camp were his own prospects as well. Moreover, being within this system, he had also witnessed the Zhao Character Camp's two great victories over government troops, which made Geng Mancang all the more utterly devoted.

More than one person had advised Zhao Jin and his companions, saying that someone as wily and worldly-wise as Geng Mancang, a shrewd man who understood how things worked, should not be treated too leniently. He had already harbored disloyalty once; if he did not know fear, he might betray them again in the future.

But Zhao Jin had a different view. This was a time when they needed capable people. Geng Mancang's life, family fortune, and all his escape routes were firmly in the Zhao Character Camp's grasp—there was no fear of him turning traitor. It was better to treat him generously and let him serve with all his might. This Geng Mancang had ability and skill, and he was strongly inclined to gamble and possessed great ambition. Rather than guarding against him cautiously, it was better to invest in making him wholeheartedly loyal.

As things currently stood, Geng Mancang was doing quite well. Not only had he earned considerable money for the Zhao Character Camp in business, making grain storage and transport far smoother than before, but he also used his connections with all parties involved in grain transport via the Grand Canal to gather news and collect intelligence from various routes for the Zhao Character Camp. In Ruhui's assessment, "He is simply too capable."

"For such a capable man to want to advance further speaks well of our Zhao Character Camp. What matter does he wish to report?" Zhao Jin asked with a smile.

"It concerns the Shandong Smelling Incense Sect. The sect wants to buy grain," Ruhui said.

It was impossible for Geng Mancang to bypass his superiors and report directly. Whatever he wanted to say, Ruhui was certain to know. The reason he was still being brought before Zhao Jin was that this matter required Zhao Jin's personal decision. To avoid any potential errors or omissions in relaying the message, it had to be discussed face to face.

"Xu Hongru's side wants to buy grain?" Zhao Jin asked in surprise. Wang Zhaojing's expression was also astonished. Seeing Ruhui nod in confirmation, Zhao Jin directly ordered Geng Mancang to be brought in.

Geng Mancang entered the room and, with practiced ease, knelt and kowtowed. His movements were smooth, but his expression held a trace of oddness. It was because Zhao Jin and the others were too young. In this world, there were many young nobles qualified to receive kowtows, but they carried themselves with brocade-clad reserve and an overbearing wealth and nobility that naturally commanded awe. Yet the Zhao Jin and Wang Zhaojing before him were not only young but plainly dressed, with no airs of reserve whatsoever. Yet these two held such immense power—that felt a bit strange.

"Your humble servant greets Master Jin and Third Master. Your humble servant has already reported to the Chief Steward..."

Having been with the Zhao Character Camp for over a year, Geng Mancang was familiar with the way things were done here. He got straight to the point without excessive formalities or courtesies.

On the nineteenth day of the second month, about ten days after the great Shandong earthquake, a Battalion Commander of the grain transport troops approached Geng Mancang, saying he wanted to introduce a big business deal to him.

If it were a Battalion Commander in the regular army, unless he was a personal guard or retainer of a great general, he would be worth nothing—a mere sesame-seed-sized military officer. But to be a Battalion Commander among the grain transport troops and soldiers was to be a figure of considerable renown. The thousand-li Grand Canal had over ten thousand grain barges, more than a hundred thousand grain transport troops and soldiers, and several hundred thousand affiliated personnel, all under the jurisdiction of fewer than fifty Battalion Commanders. Their wealth was vast, their power immense, and their authority absolute.

The "big business" mentioned by such a figure was indeed no small matter. The first transaction was for forty thousand shi of grain, to be paid in cash at the current market price, with further business to follow.

A figure of forty thousand shi sounds large—several million jin of grain—but it was merely the cargo of a few dozen large grain barges. In the rice market of Qingjiangpu, though not a small amount, it could not be called particularly rare. The official annual amount of tribute grain transported from south to north was eight to nine million shi, and that was only the amount destined for the capital. Adding in all the customary surcharges and fees, the total reached over twenty-four million shi, and even more in good years.

The gap between the official accounts and the actual figure was over sixteen million shi. This amount constituted the customary benefits for the officials, clerks, and runners who collected grain locally, the grain transport troops and soldiers all the way up to the Regional Commander and Governor-General, and the Ministry of Revenue in the capital along with various high-ranking dignitaries.

Rice, wheat, and grain were valuable, but they had to be sold to be converted into silver and coin. The grain transport troops and soldiers, along with those living along the canal, taking grain to exchange for money or goods was merely petty pilfering. The true large-scale trade was the grain merchant commerce in the few key hub towns along the canal. All the various parties under heaven who fed off the grain transport system and tribute grain, especially those at the middle and upper levels, derived their benefits from this.

The northward transport of tribute grain was essentially the south-to-north transport of grain. Grain from Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and South Zhili was first delivered to designated collection points via water and land routes, then gathered into warehouses at several key hub towns in South Zhili, and only then transported north by grain barges.

Originally, there were three Grand Canal hubs for gathering tribute grain: Yangzhou, Qingjiangpu, and Xuzhou. However, after the Xuzhou section of the canal was rerouted to the Jia River in Pizhou, the collection of the tribute grain portion belonging to Xuzhou was reassigned to Qingjiangpu. Similarly, the tribute grain gathered in Yangzhou also had to be re-warehoused and redistributed at Qingjiangpu.

In other words, the vast majority of the hundreds or even over ten million shi of grain outside the official accounts was in Qingjiangpu. Much of it was openly stored in official granaries, where all relevant parties would convert it into benefits and distribute it among themselves.

The Zhao Character Camp's Cloud Mountain Trading was now also a link in this tribute grain profit-sharing chain, and an important one at that. This tribute grain system indeed involved all sides, from rural local strongmen to high court officials—an immensely vast interest group. Anyone who tried to touch it would be crushed to pieces. Yet this could not prevent the Zhao Character Camp's sphere of influence from being right beside the canal, and along the most critical and valuable stretch of it at that.

Moreover, the Zhao Character Camp had done one thing: through the business of exchanging tribute grain for liquor, they converted a sufficient amount of grain into ready silver. This was a highly profitable arrangement. Without the Zhao Character Camp, large quantities of grain would have rotted and gone to waste. Though no one particularly cared, wasn't it better to exchange it for silver and coin?

The existence of the Qingjiang Great Market further allowed grain merchants to find more efficient channels for buying and selling. Beyond this, some merchants had even started a business of this sort: using the Yu family shipping network to transport tribute grain to the Tianjin seaport, then loading the emptied grain barges with more valuable goods for the journey north.

The tribute-grain-for-liquor exchange, the Qingjiang Great Market, and the Yu family shipping line were all under the control of the Zhao Character Camp. Naturally, the Zhao Character Camp could also exert influence over the grain market and grain merchants of Qingjiangpu, and was well-informed of any stirrings within it.

Over these years, outsiders might not be clear on it, but those who truly dealt with the grain transport system understood this change. That grain transport Battalion Commander was a figure of some standing within the grain transport system and naturally understood this. That was why, bypassing so many major grain merchants in Qingjiangpu, he had come directly to Geng Mancang in Yutou Town.

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