Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 167 Legitimate Business

Half an hour later, just as Shao Shuyi and the others were standing by the roadside, idly cracking pine nuts, Yang Jin finally returned.

Perhaps fearing that Shao Shuyi would become impatient, Yang Jin waved from a distance behind a ram-horn cart (wheelbarrow).

Shao Shuyi's gaze fell on the sheep-horn cart.

The vehicle was loaded with four burlap sacks, one on each side, emitting a strong, pungent stench that drifted on the wind.

Immediately, everyone around Shao Shuyi recognized the smell; it was salted fish, something they were very familiar with.

Needless to say, this is definitely a salt smuggler, a fellow professional.

Behind the ram-horn cart followed two men carrying wooden buckets. The buckets had lids, and through the gaps, one could see the white salt inside.

Good heavens! Selling smuggled salt from street to street, not even bothering to hide from people, who knows which boss's henchmen they are.

Yang Jin walked around the sheep-horn cart and saw that Shao Shuyi had his eyes on these vendors, so he explained, "Brother Cao, these people are all Wang Zongsan's men. He has been controlling this place for a long time, and basically everyone has to ask him for salt."

"I see." Shao Shuyi smiled and asked, "What has Wang Zongsan been busy with lately?"

Yang Jin's expression changed upon hearing this. He said, "Brother Cao, I was just about to tell you. Wang Zongsan has been having an insatiable appetite lately. He wants to go to places he wouldn't have dared to go before, and do things he wouldn't have dared to do before. It seems that after Zhu Ding's death, this man has taken it for granted that he is the next Zhu Ding, and he's fighting with people everywhere." "Let them fight it out for now. Anyway, we're short on money right now, and I don't want to expand the private salt trade too much in the short term. Let's take it one step at a time," Shao Shuyi said.

As they were speaking, a burst of urgent curses suddenly rang out from not far away.

A moment later, five or six burly men appeared in everyone's sight. Without saying a word, they rushed to the sled and overturned it to the ground.

Seeing that things were going badly, the two porters instinctively tried to blend into the crowd and escape, but they were quickly caught, white salt was scattered all over the ground, and they were beaten up.

Wu Heizi, Gao Daqiang, and the others standing behind Shao Shuyi burst into laughter, even stopping to eat their pine nuts.

"Go ahead and fight. It'll be more interesting if someone dies."

"They're just small fry, their fighting skills are mediocre, and they weren't even armed. How could they possibly kill someone? I don't believe it."

"His limbs were weak and powerless, and he wasn't ruthless enough. He wasn't really trying to kill anyone; he was more like trying to scare people."

"Forget it, it's not worth watching."

The group chattered incessantly, one after another. The hooligans who were fighting heard them and glared at them hatefully.

Tie Niu stepped forward and shielded Shao Shuyi behind him.

He was burly, almost a larger version of Shao Shuyi, with a ring knife hanging at his waist. His eyes had long lost their innocence and kindness, instead revealing a fierce glint, causing the hooligans to instinctively keep their distance.

As expected, the hooligans' commotion caused a stir in the market.

A moment later, the first to arrive were not the archers from the patrol office, but their respective reinforcements.

The two sides fought fiercely until the archers of the patrol bureau, who had recently suffered heavy losses, finally arrived. Then they each disappeared into the crowd without a trace.

"We might encounter something like this in the future," Shao Shuyi said, turning his gaze away. "Money can be a powerful motivator. People will do anything for money. You all need to be aware of this and not think you can keep selling salt peacefully forever."

"Yes." The group clasped their hands in a respectful bow and replied in unison.

Shao Shuyi nodded, quite satisfied with everyone's attitude.

In his view, after the deaths of Zhu Ding and Chen Xianwu, the Jiangyin private salt market was in great chaos, with no agreed-upon boundaries formed by the various parties. It would take several more intense clashes before it could stabilize again.

Therefore, he couldn't leave for the time being. As for the blueware shop, he could skip work for now; he didn't care anymore.

"Brother Cao." Seeing that things were settled, Yang Jin gently reminded him, "I've made all the arrangements; everyone's waiting for you." Shao Shuyi hummed in agreement and said, "Alright, let's go now. Lead the way."

There were already five or six people scattered around inside the teahouse, which was probably the maximum number Yang Jin could attract.

They were gathered around two tables, deep in thought and looking worried.

As soon as Shao Shuyi stepped into the teahouse, his gaze swept over them. Hmm, all honest businessmen.

The waiter was about to come up and greet them, but Yang Jin stopped him.

"Gentlemen, this is Brother Cao I told you about," Yang Jin said with a smile. "Brother Cao, this is Manager Huang of Huang's Cloth Shop. This is Master He of Jiangxia Dyehouse, who also deals in printed cloth. This is Master Yang, who specializes in raw silk and silkworm cocoons. This is the one who makes ironware..." Yang Jin introduced the two sides.

Several businessmen looked at the excessively young "big brother" with suspicion, somewhat doubting his abilities. However, after seeing that the thugs Wu Heizi, Gao Daqiang, Tie Niu, Liang Tai, and others treated him with utmost respect, they didn't say anything, only clasped their hands in greeting and said some meaningless words like "I've long admired you" and "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Shao Shuyi gestured for everyone to sit down.

There were no private rooms in the small teahouse, so Wu Heizi said to the customers at the nearby tables, "Sit over there, don't sit too close."

The guests were dissatisfied, but in the end they didn't dare to argue with Wu Heizi and obediently left with their tea.

Shao Shuyi smiled at Wu Heizi, casually found an empty seat, and said, "I'll get straight to the point. I'd like to get involved in your waterborne cargo transport business. What do you say?"

The group exchanged glances, and for a moment, no one spoke.

"If you don't say anything, I'll take it as a yes," Yang Jin said, observing the situation. "Don't let Brother Cao get angry if he sees you using other people's ships to transport goods."

Upon hearing this, everyone became restless.

After a moment, Manager Huang cleared his throat and asked, "May I ask where Cao She is from?"

Shao Shuyi glanced at him and said, "It's no trouble to tell you, you're from Taicang."

Manager Huang felt relieved. It seemed they really wanted to do water transport business, and weren't using this as an excuse to extort money.

"There are many seafarers in Taicang, so I suppose Cao She must own quite a few ships as well?" Manager Huang asked tentatively.

"Transporting several thousand shi (a unit of dry measure) is no problem." Shao Shuyi knew what they were thinking and said, "Back in Liujiagang, I saw that foreign merchants and seafarers loved Jiangnan cotton cloth and transported it away by the ship. I was intrigued at the time. I wonder what the quality of Manager Huang's cotton cloth is like, and whether it has been sold to Liujiagang." When Manager Huang heard the words "Liujiagang," most of his fear disappeared, and he immediately said, "I sold a batch of three thousand bolts two years ago, but I haven't sold any more since. It's a real pity."

When Shao Shuyi observed his expression and realized that it was genuine regret and pity, not feigned, he understood what was going on.

Which merchant doesn't want to sell more goods?

Jiangyin Prefecture was one of the earliest places in the Yuan Dynasty to establish a cotton management office, and it has been promoting cotton cultivation for decades. Its history and scale of cotton cultivation are even longer than Songjiang Prefecture's. Its cotton textile technology is also quite good; in fact, over six decades of improvement in textile techniques, it has developed several unique skills, making its overall level quite high. Old Huang sold three thousand bolts of cotton cloth two years ago, and then had no harvest for three consecutive years. This wasn't necessarily a quality issue; most likely, his connections weren't as strong as his competitors, and he was replaced.

"Bring over a few bolts of cloth in a bit, all kinds of styles and colors," Shao Shuyi said. "I'll have someone take them back to Liujiagang and ask around." Manager Huang was a little stunned for a moment; this was not what he had expected.

I initially thought he was just some thug short of money, so I went to extort him. But after learning he had a boat, I thought more highly of him, believing this Brother Cao was relatively decent—at least he'd put on a show of modesty by robbing me and offering to help transport goods. Now it seems he actually has connections in Liujiagang? He can even help me carry goods? Why didn't you say so sooner!

"Okay, okay, I'll have someone deliver it over in a bit. It's the same teahouse, right?" Manager Huang nodded repeatedly.

Shao Shuyi nodded, then looked at the other person.

"This is Master Yang, who is accustomed to transporting raw silk from Wuxi and also buys silkworm cocoons in Jiangyin to resell to merchants from afar." Yang Jin introduced him again, fearing that Shao Shuyi might not remember.

"Why not reel silk and weave cloth yourself?" Shao Shuyi asked curiously.

"We can't sell them." Master Yang said with a forced smile, "There are actually people in Jiangyin who weave silk. I wouldn't say it's particularly exquisite, but it's at least no worse than the silk from Changzhou, Wuxi, or Zhenjiang. Unfortunately, we're a small place, and our silk isn't famous. Nobody buys it, so it just sits on our hands." "I see." Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "Bring over a few bundles of raw silk and a few bags of silkworm cocoons. I'll take them to Liujiagang and ask around."

"Good, good." Like Manager Huang, Master Yang was overjoyed when he heard that his raw silk and silkworm cocoons might be sold to Liujiagang. He agreed repeatedly. Shao Shuyi then looked at the third person.

Yang Jin then introduced the man again, saying, "This is Master He."

The meeting lasted for more than an hour before it finally came to an end.

The wealthy men, no longer with their deathly expressions when they first arrived, bid farewell and left amidst laughter and chatter.

Shao Shuyi picked up the tea, which had already cooled down, and drank it all in one gulp.

Previously in Taicang, besides Madam Shen, he only developed one or two other clients, and those were one-off deals, no second chances. When he went to ask them, he learned that they had no goods available for transport at the moment, which most likely meant they had found someone else to transport them.

Is doing business difficult? It really is.

But now he finds out that it's not that difficult. As long as you have a group of fierce-looking burly men by your side, and someone who is quite famous in the local underworld accompany you, you can easily snatch some business by coaxing and intimidating them.

Damn it, they're going further and further down the path of no return—the underworld. Getting used to intimidating others with violence, isn't that addictive?

But it feels really good, both relaxing and prestigious, provided you can withstand all sorts of open and covert attacks.

"Yu She," Shao Shuyi called out.

"Brother, I'm here." Yu Yuan raised his head and looked at Shao Shuyi.

"Find the Liu brothers, Liu Bao and Liu Gen, and have them provide a small boat. Then take these merchants' goods back to Liujiagang and meet Manager Mo," Shao Shuyi said.

"Okay," Yu Yuan immediately agreed.

Shao Shuyi stood up, as if he had thought of something, and instructed, "Buy some local specialties in Jiangyin. Don't be stingy. Spend one ingot of paper money at a time, or two ingots if you want. Take them back with you as a gift for Manager Mo."

After saying that, he left the teahouse.