Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 58 New BRICS Chamber of Commerce

In the latter half of August of the 29th year of the Tianli calendar, it was time to leave the pass once again.

Just like last year, a huge crowd gathered in front of Yongji Pass. The oxcarts and horse-drawn carts transporting goods were also prepared in advance at six stations outside the pass, under the protection of the advance troops.

The roads pointed to by these stations still have trees that were cleared and cut down last year, but now the sunny side is covered with green moss and the shady side is sprouting mushrooms.

The rainy season in the Lingjiang River basin is drawing to a close. After the clouds disperse, the sky suddenly becomes hot, but under the cover of the dense forest foliage, water retained from the rainy season still lingers in the soil, with trickling streams visible everywhere. This water, seeping from the forest humus, may have just soaked carcasses in the forest a few hours earlier. Therefore, unlike in the north, some seemingly flowing, clear pools here contain extremely high levels of microorganisms and are considered "poisonous springs."

Some streams formed on the mountains by the condensation of water vapor on the rocks in the morning and evening are "sweet springs" that are drinkable.

Wu Fei's army continued along the route of last year's armed march, advancing south even faster. Thanks to Wu Fei's combination of kindness and force over the past few years, a group of tribal youths were willing to guide the army. With the guides' assistance, this time the route was much easier than before, and the army built more military outposts along the way.

This time, the legion was more skilled in marching than last year. The hunters sent by those "uncivilized" barbarian tribes south of Lingjiang, who could reach the edge of the camp last year, were pounced on and bitten to the ground by the war mastiffs in the servant camp when they encountered those of their own tribesmen in the north who were wearing clothes.

This year, Wu Fei's military plan remains focused on a standoff with the tribal groups south of the Lingjiang River. Large-scale operations across the river will not be conducted.

However, in terms of economic work, we need to properly manage the businessmen.

Inside the tent, Wu Fei glanced at the goods being transported across the border: earthenware pots, jars, cloth, salt, rope, and the like. Merchants made huge profits crossing the border, and the Wu family could use those profits to win over a large army within the border. However, the greedy Wu Xiaoque felt it wasn't enough. Upon careful consideration, she realized that the services the merchants were providing to the army when they crossed the border no longer warranted the low-risk, high-return benefits.

Wu Fei's heart is calculating and cold-hearted!
In Wu Fei's other ledger, the goods that merchants purchased in the Southern Frontier were recorded. The main items were still the same three categories: jade, timber, and livestock (including slaves). If the merchants knew that Wu Xiaoque had such a detailed ledger, they would definitely be wary and want to know, "Why is Wu Fei keeping this ledger instead of focusing on fighting the war?"

The businessmen knew very well that when Wu Fei wasn't doing his job properly, he was actually quite good at business.

In the past two years, businessmen have sensed Wu Fei's growing distance from them.

They are very sensitive to Wu Fei's practice of setting up checkpoints and collecting money in various business channels over the years. It's as if Wu Fei wants to cut off every single one of their money-making channels. And he does it actively.

Several wealthy merchants within the pass had repeatedly hinted to Wu Fei: "Sir, you just need to focus on fighting the war; leave the money-making to me!" Faced with such "kind words," Wu Fei remained unmoved.

Wu Fei scoffed inwardly: Do you think I don't know what you're up to? The term coined by the oligarchs in his previous life was "Long live the free economy," which meant "minimal or no government intervention, ideally complete ignorance of all commercial channels, and simply listening to economists' PowerPoint presentations."

That said, Wu Fei does respect the free market and doesn't personally get involved to directly extract commercial profits.

However, while supervision should be strengthened where necessary, Wu Fei insisted on leaving his "sweat" (hand sweat marks on mahjong tiles) at every channel the merchants used, even though his share of the profits was small. This insistence on taking a cut from every single source made the merchants feel very insecure.

For businessmen, security comes from having a business channel that is uniquely their own. A businessman treats his channel much like he treats his wife; Wu Fei's situation is, well, like... cough cough cough.

Returning to the topic, Wu Fei's dissatisfaction with these merchants stemmed from the fact that the goods they purchased from various tribes outside the pass were only useful once transported inside the pass, and were useless to the army. The army had to protect them outside the pass, and while the army had spare capacity during the recent armed demonstrations, these caravans would become a burden should a violent confrontation occur.

Furthermore, many officers in the army have intricate connections with merchant caravans, making it difficult to ensure strict discipline in the event of a strategic miscalculation requiring the evacuation of tens of thousands of troops. For example, if a merchant encounters difficulties during the retreat, an exclamation mark above their head indicates they have been given the mission to retrieve goods from a bandit camp.

Within the Wu family army, it's not acceptable to say that the army is engaged in business; rather, one must consider which team leaders hold shares.

According to the investigation by the "Security Bureau" within his personal guards, Wu Fei knew which merchants his subordinate officers had dined with and which women they had taken with after returning to the pass. Wu Fei didn't interfere too much in his subordinates' dealings with merchants, nor did he dare to. Therefore, he could only investigate from the perspective of the merchants.

Wu Fei had the following plan for the great war to completely conquer the southern border: First, the army needed to be able to buy food and various supplies outside the pass. To obtain these supplies, the local tribes needed to adopt agriculture.

What does agricultural modernization require? It requires a feudal system, oxen, and iron plows. Oxen are available locally, and Wu Fei is already laying the groundwork for a feudal system. But what about iron plows? These cannot be supplied by the current group of merchants.

…Wu Fei needs to support other businessmen…

Yu Bai walked along the mountain road. Before leaving the pass this time, he had a very exciting experience, which was to bypass the local business guild and meet the general directly. He was accompanied by other merchants.

In Wu Fei's words, they were all private entrepreneurs with ambition and a spirit of adventure, and they needed to be supported. Although Wu Fei only provided a glass of water for the banquet, Yu Bai and the other individual business owners were so excited that their faces were flushed.

When Wu Fei met with these small business owners, his mobilization efforts were modeled after those at micro-business conferences. However, compared to the empty promises made by micro-business owners, Wu Fei certainly had sufficient resources and a precise market plan.

These humble small business owners have been excluded and even discriminated against by the large merchants who have received the BRICS agreement in recent years.

Because some of their things that seem very bad to people inside the pass, but good to Wu Fei: either they have direct intermarriage with southern tribes, or they have southern tribe blood themselves.

Yu Bai has Claw People blood because his mother is a Claw People. In order to eliminate his overly sharp claws, his father specially asked the village elder to give him a suitable name so that he could play with the children in the village. This was a way of being humane and eliminating the overly obvious barbarian characteristics.

And now, Yu Bai is one of the merchants who has seized the "spring breeze". He is sitting in the village and using his eloquence to discuss with the village chief, with whom he has been dealing for more than ten years, how to turn the thousands of acres of land outside the village into irrigated fields.

Yu Bai: "Chief, your land is just a bit overgrown with weeds, but it's fertile. With a little plowing and sowing of seeds, each acre will yield a bushel of grain. Right now, the General goes out of the pass every year, so there's no worry about selling the grain." — He was using his silver tongue to promote his plow.

Of course, he had already drawn a map of the area outside the village.

A few hours later, a batch of plows was sold, and the deal was struck. To ensure that the plows would actually produce grain, he thoughtfully introduced him to some "expert farmers" from within the Great Wall, who were actually farmers who had lost their land.

After he finished his work, he did not return to Yongji Pass, but instead took the map and gathered with the other small merchants at the main camp.

In Wu Fei's words: "We need to take them back with us and not let them wander off."

Yu Bai returned to the camp and discussed the answers with the merchants, connecting the boundaries between the mountains on the map. Yu Bai heard the other merchants talking about terms like "area" and "exclusive".

…The waves are surging outside…

Inside the camp, Wu Fei looked at the documents and asked a crossbow captain beside him, "Lu Si, I heard yesterday that your old friend was looking for you."

The crossbowman captain honestly replied, "General, I am indeed, but..."

Wu Fei: "I'm not here to question you about your crimes, I just want to have a chat with you."

Although Wu Fei was only twenty years old, he had been in the army for five years and had a lot of menacing aura about him. The crossbowman captain told Wu Fei everything.

Wu Fei nodded: "Let me remind you, eat and drink as you please, but if the topic comes up in my 'traveling merchant's' tent during the march, just eat and drink. If you can't avoid it, just grin and pretend you don't know."

Then Wu Fei raised his hand, pulled his mouth shut, and instructed, "That's it." Lu Si replied, "Understood."

Wu Fei shook his head: "Understand? You just didn't dare to do what I ordered, but that doesn't mean you understand. You are my soldier, and we are of one mind on the battlefield. Let me make it clear to you: soldiers have soldiers' enemies, and merchants have merchants' enemies."

Wu Fei tapped his head with a book. "I borrowed merchants to use them as weapons to kill enemies on the battlefield. They (merchants) came to you to borrow your weapons to kill their enemies (business rivals)."

Lu Si asked blankly, "Sir, you mean...?"

Wu Fei: "Your old friends are just trying to get close to you now, right? If they get too close, they'll reveal their true colors next, trapping you in some vulnerable spots and making you help them deal with those 'traveling merchants' in my camp."

Lu Si: "They dare?"

Wu Fei shook his head: "Of course they dare. The grudges and hatred between merchants are no less than the hatred you and I have for the enemy on the battlefield."

Wu Fei's principle: I should only use merchants as weapons to deal with my military enemies, and I should never let merchants use me as weapons to deal with their commercial enemies.

Lu Si: "Understood, I will return the gifts they sent immediately."

Wu Fei nodded: "Don't return the normal gifts, just don't gamble these next few days. Your military pay is with me, I'll give it directly to your mother."

Lu Si pleaded, "My lord?"

Facing Wu Fei's gaze, Lu Si hung his head dejectedly: "Your subordinate obeys."

Wu Fei: "After we return to the pass, you can visit the brothel, it's on me."

After seeing Lu Si off, Wu Fei reviewed the contents of the account book. Lu Si was not the first person that the "golden brook" merchants had tried to infiltrate and bribe. Wu Fei had also called many people in the account book and explained the situation to them one by one. The merchants would definitely come to persuade him again. However, Wu Fei's words would spread, and the army would be wary of these "golden brook" merchants. It would be much more costly for the merchants to find out about the "trading merchant camp".

High-end business warfare isn't about mutual investigations followed by courtroom showdowns with highly skilled lawyers; it's more about planting spies, seizing company seals, and reporting tax evasion. In the "free business" of America, business warfare is much more straightforward: it's about sabotaging your competitors and their families.

Why did Wu Fei send Yu Bai and the other small merchants back to the main camp immediately after they went to various tribes to dig canals? Because he knew all too well the nature of those guys known as the Southern Merchants by Donghua County. If they were sent back to Yongji Pass on their own, they might all lose contact, and then the canals would fall into the hands of those gold-brick merchants.

The profits from the iron trade are enormous. In the past, Wu Fei had completely blocked the iron trade, preventing anyone from participating and forcing some outsiders to smuggle it at high risk. Now that Wu Fei is loosening his policies, these BRICS businessmen will seize this opportunity, leveraging their influence within the Wu Fei Group to pry open Wu Fei's hands and transfer these low-risk trades to them.

As for why not transfer the iron trade to them?

The calculating Wu Xiaoque said: "Because this part of the profits should be given to them. They earn it too easily and are too opportunistic. They have not put in any effort in the past, nor have they put in any effort in developing trade routes now. They will not stand on my side in the future and be willing to protect the trade routes for my military group. Why should they share this profit?"
Indeed, Wu Fei, through the "Security Bureau's" slaves, had already investigated thoroughly. These wealthy merchants, after receiving the money, were focused on securing their profits. They bought houses and land within the Great Wall and hired tutors to train their family members for official positions. In other words, in their minds, if the Wu family army did not serve their interests in the future, they could use other means to support other power groups to protect their interests.

If it were an ordinary general, he might have let it go without a second thought, but Wu Xiaoque was more petty than a chicken. "She eats my rice, yet she dares to covet other people's nests?" Wu Fei was already quietly gathering the net in his hands.

…The salt and iron monopoly, the Tusi (chieftain) administration—the textbooks have formulas for these, and these are related application problems…

A year ago, after confirming that the big businessmen were half-hearted, Wu Fei began to support certain bold businessmen.

Coincidentally, during the Battle of Yongji Pass last year, Wu Fei mobilized the villages near the pass to inspect the mountain trails, preparing for the possibility that the enemy might "sneak across Yinping" and guarding against bandits from the southern tribes crossing the border to cause trouble for him.

Later everyone learned that the southern tribes had transported their goods through the earth's veins, without taking these mountain paths. However, they did manage to catch quite a few peddlers like "Yu Bai" who burrowed into caves.

Wu Fei: Good heavens, you can carry loads of dozens of kilograms of goods across the mountains, leading donkeys and carrying knives to protect yourself from wild animals. You risk so much to make a living, why can't you sell this "bloody labor" to me? You handle the risky work of opening up mountain roads and dealing with the barbarians in various regions outside the pass, while I'll do the work of protecting you from the encroachment of other interest groups inside the pass.

…The perspective shifts to the rear…

Inside the pass, merchants from various families quietly gathered together. Although there was a lot of business now, they were not happy because the General's Mansion's new business outside the pass completely avoided them.

It was initially a group of astute merchants who noticed cotton cloth, ironware, and pottery being carried in and out of the area next to where they were stockpiling goods. At first, everyone thought these were just supplies for the army, but later they discovered that the carts carrying these supplies did not set off with the army, and after leaving the pass, they did not travel with the army, but instead turned and went to various mountain valleys outside the pass.

The largest merchant houses began to "open their hearts" to each other. Alas, merchants are rarely truly honest; it's all about testing each other.

Shang Jia: "It seems that the lord doesn't trust us anymore."

Shang Yi: "Brother, do you have any news?"

Shang Jia: "No, no, there is."

Shang Bing: "I do have an idea, but—"

Shang Ding: "What time is it? Stop keeping me in suspense."

Shang Bing asked everyone to listen carefully.

Shang Jia: "Isn't this a bit inappropriate? Isn't this clearly displeasing General Yuan Chang?" (Wu Xiaoque's cunning and Gui Che's temper are now combined.)
Merchant Ding: "If we don't do it this way, are we just going to hand over our hard-earned money to those peddlers (a derogatory term for donkey hooves) to earn?!"

In the end, the merchants made their decision.

…boring schemes and plots…

Six days later, outside the pass, Wu Fei received news from inside the pass that merchants had filed a large-scale report alleging that traveling merchants were smuggling contraband such as ironware across the border, and had compiled a large amount of evidence.

Wu Fei: Tsk tsk, a businessman, huh. That's just how it is.

A few minutes later, Wu Fei walked to the merchant camp and gave assurances to the merchants who were kneeling on the ground pleading for their families. He said that all economic cases involving the sellers in the area would be frozen and would have to wait until he returned to deal with them. He also assured them that their families inside the pass would be safe and secure in the area arranged by the General's Mansion.

When Wu Fei made the promise, he activated the Security Bureau and used his token to transfer people from the reserve team of bodyguards. He then had this reserve team take over all the prison cells and bring all the merchants' families to a safe place.

At the BRICS banquet, only Wu Fei, the one who set the table, had the authority to overturn it; as for the dishes on the table, no one had the right to do so.

(End of this chapter)