Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 31, Room 3

With a large musket stuck in his mouth, even the cunning Wang Sheng was so terrified that he soiled himself.

He wasn't afraid of Shao Shuyi's scheming, his background or seniority, or even arguing about the accuracy of the accounts—those were things he excelled at. What he feared most was precisely this kind of unreasonable behavior, especially when Zhang Neng's corpse lay stiffly on the ground; he could hardly muster any thought of resistance.

Shao Shuyi asked him to dictate the various illegal activities within the blueware shop, which Wang Sheng did. After Yu Yuan finished writing, he even readily pressed his fingerprint on the document. The only thing he refused to admit was hiring a hitman, even after Wang Huadu beat him severely, almost breaking his old bones, he still gritted his teeth and wouldn't budge.

Shao Shuyi wondered if Wang Sheng really hadn't participated. Unfortunately, Zhang Neng was dead, and Wu Youcai hadn't come to the shop today, so he couldn't verify it for the time being. After his expression shifted between light and dark for a moment, he finally let Wang Sheng go, but instead took him into custody and escorted him to the Zheng family's old residence in Yantietang.

Yes, he also needs to go to the Zheng family to hand over Wang Sheng's confession, thus confirming his embezzlement and Zhang Neng's act of hiring a murderer.

Wang Huadu did not quite agree with this approach, because he was worried that the Zheng family would act unreasonably and take them all down at once.

Shao Shuyi advised him to remain calm and at least try his luck at the Zheng family's place, because fleeing at this point would most likely end badly. Even if he wasn't caught by the authorities, there was a high chance he would die a violent death somewhere.

Wang Huadu reluctantly agreed. He went to the backyard, found a carriage, and escorted Wang Sheng into it. They left the blueware shop and headed west.

After they left, the shopkeepers looked at each other, unsure of what to do. In the end, Cao Tong suggested closing the shop temporarily and waiting for further news, and everyone agreed.

As for whether or not to report it to the authorities, that's just you worrying too much. They are members of the Zheng family, not government officials. Even if someone dies, we have to wait for the old residence in Yantietang to give their opinion first.

The carriage rumbled westward, finally arriving at Zhengjia Boat Factory around noon.

Inside the boatyard, things were still bustling with activity. For months, one riverboat after another had been launched, waiting for the imperial court to "buy them at a low price"—the so-called "buy them at a low price" meant that the imperial court would buy your things at a low price. It was not requisition, but it was no different from requisition. The same principle applied to "hiring them at a low price." Both were means of exploiting the people.

Upon hearing the news, Li Zhuang casually wiped his hands and went to the entrance of the boat shop.

Shao Shuyi jumped down from the carriage, bowed deeply, and said, "Brother Li, I wonder if Master Zheng has returned yet?"

"No, it will probably take several more days." Li Zhuang shook his head and said, "These next few days, the Third She will be stationed at the shipyard."

"Oh? The Third Dormitory is here?" Shao Shuyi asked, his expression turning serious.

"The imperial court was in a hurry to buy riverboats, so he didn't even go to the Sanshe Transport Office, but stayed in the neighborhood to supervise the construction of the boats."

"The three households have worked tirelessly to share the burdens of the court."

"yes."

The two exchanged a few indifferent words and then fell silent.

Shao Shuyi didn't want to beat around the bush any longer. He glanced into the neighborhood and said, "Brother Li, I'd like to see Sanshe. Is that possible?"

"What's there to be lenient about?" Li Zhuang said with a wry smile, "I can't stop you. There are no walls here, so you can come in if you want. As for whether Sanshe will see you, I can't guarantee that. He hasn't arrived yet."

"Thank you." Shao Shuyi bowed again and gestured for Wang Huadu to drive inside.

Li Zhuang stepped aside, and after the carriage entered, he pulled Shao Shuyi aside and asked in a low voice, "Xiao Hu, has something happened?"

After a slight hesitation, Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "I've brought the shopkeeper, Wang Sheng, here."

Li Zhuang was taken aback and stared blankly at Shao Shuyi.

Shao Shuyi offered no further explanation and went inside directly.

******

When Zheng Guozhen arrived at the boat shop, it was already evening.

He was accompanied by three or five attendants, dressed in bright red hunting attire, riding a magnificent horse. He looked imposing and did not resemble a government official, much less a scholar. The image of a rough and uncouth warrior was more fitting.

Upon hearing the report from the boatmen, he became quite interested and immediately turned his horse to where Shao Shuyi and the others were.

"Third quarters." Shao Shuyi stopped Wang Huadu and the others from acting rashly, stepped forward a few paces, and bowed.

Zheng Guozhen reined in his horse and stopped, pointing his whip at the carriage, and asked, "Is anyone inside?"

"Exactly." Shao Shuyi turned around and waved.

Cheng Ji frowned and sighed as he pulled out Wang Sheng, who was bound hand and foot.

"Wang Chunhe?" Zheng Guozhen was taken aback. He immediately dismounted, looked closely, and removed the rag from Wang Sheng's mouth, saying, "Is it really you?"

"Sanshe, save me..." Wang Sheng knelt down with a thud, tears streaming down his face.

Zheng Guozhen did not help him up, but watched him quietly.

Zheng Fan, with a steel knife hanging from his waist, stepped forward a few steps and positioned himself between Cheng Ji and San She.

"Please take a look, Third Dormitory." Yu Yuan took out Wang Sheng's confession, bent down and presented it to him.

Zheng Guozhen casually took it and began to read it. After finishing, he handed it to Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan finished reading quickly, looked at Wang Sheng with pity, and then looked at Shao Shuyi with surprise and suspicion.

"You old dog!" Zheng Guozhen suddenly attacked, kicking Wang Sheng in the chest without any mercy.

Wang Sheng was kicked away and rolled twice on the ground, almost losing his breath.

"I've suspected you for a long time, but Father, out of consideration for our past relationship, has been unwilling to do anything to you." Zheng Guozhen sneered, "I thought that once word got out, you'd restrain yourself a bit, but I didn't expect you to still be so greedy. Stupid and greedy!"

"Third Master..." Wang Sheng struggled to his feet, knelt on the ground, and cried out, "I beg you, Third Master, to spare me for the sake of the two generations of my family who have served me with all their heart."

"A country has its laws, and a family has its rules." Zheng Guozhen shook his head and said, "Return the money, then go see my father and await his judgment."

Wang Sheng's face was ashen, but a glimmer of hope ignited in his eyes.

Zheng Guozhen stopped looking at him and instead glanced at Shao Shuyi. After examining him carefully, he said in surprise, "It doesn't look like him."

Shao Shuyi was taken aback.

"A fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy, how could he be so ruthless as to kidnap Wang Chunhe? How did he do it? Come, tell me." Zheng Guozhen came to Shao Shuyi's side and said with a forced smile.

"This all started with Zhang Neng hiring someone to commit murder..." Shao Shuyi didn't hide anything and directly explained the cause and effect.

Zheng Guozhen listened quietly, occasionally letting out a sigh, like a straight man in a comedy duo.

Zheng Fan then quietly approached Sanshe's side, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, his gaze sweeping over Shao Shuyi's entire body, seemingly searching for the bronze pistol that had killed two men.

"Over the years, Wang Sheng has embezzled no less than 1,500 ingots. Such a scoundrel should be bound and sent to the government office for public execution," Shao Shuyi concluded.

Zheng Guozhen shook his head.

Shao Shuyi looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Wang Sheng's matter will be handled by my family. Why bother the government?" Zheng Guozhen looked into Shao Shuyi's eyes and said, "But you, at such a young age, are ruthless, which really surprised me. Back then, my thirteenth brother said you were timid and cowardly, and worried that you wouldn't be able to fight Wang Sheng if you were thrown into the agate shop. Now it seems that he was overthinking it. But I am worried about how ruthless you are."

"Sanshe, I'm useful to you." Shao Shuyi said after a moment of silence.

Zheng Guozhen's lips curled slightly upward, a half-smile playing on his lips. "Useful? In what way?"

Shao Shuyi did not answer immediately, but took out a stack of papers from his pocket and presented them with both hands: "Please take a look, Third Dormitory."

Zheng Fan stepped forward, took the document, glanced through it briefly, frowned slightly, and then presented it to Zheng Guozhen.

It was a document titled "A Summary of the Audit of the General Accounts of the Qingqi Shop for the Past Three Months," with clear handwriting and a well-organized structure. The first page listed:

I. There were 28 errors and omissions in the original accounts;

Second, he embezzled 136 strings of cash from public funds.

Third, 42 pieces of blue-and-white porcelain were sold privately and not deposited into the public accounts;

IV. The difference between the actual amount traded and the book amounted to thirteen ingots and thirty-two strings of cash and fifty cash.

Even more surprisingly, a "Strategy for Optimizing the Operation of the Greenware Shop" was attached at the end:

"Firstly, separate the 'Procurement,' 'Storage,' and 'Shipment' ledgers, separating authority and responsibility, and allowing for mutual auditing, which can prevent the abuse of one person's arbitrary decision-making."

Secondly, a "customer file" is set up to record the preferences, credit, and payment cycle of business partners, which facilitates price negotiation and collection.

Thirdly, the "style" section records the types of celadon wares favored by foreign merchants, requests different kilns to produce them, notes the materials used, estimates the cost, and once everything is in order, asks the kilns for quotes, and then produces them in large quantities, which is both profitable and cost-effective.

Fourth, inventory checks are conducted on the fifth of each month, accounts are reconciled on the fifteenth, and settlements are made on the twenty-fifth, thus establishing a fixed routine.

Fifthly…

Zheng Guozhen read it once, then a second time, and finally couldn't help but look up at Shao Shuyi again, asking, "Did you...do all of this?"

"Yes." Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "I worked as an accountant at the blueware shop for more than two months, checking the records every day and calculating every night, so I have gained some insights."

Zheng Guozhen slightly suppressed his mockery, his eyes now devoid of any playfulness and filled with scrutiny. He said, "Do you know that my Zheng family owns three shops, a boatyard, and two estates in Taicang? The accounts are far more complex than those of a porcelain shop. Your skills might be adequate in a small shop, but on a large scale, they're probably insufficient."

"That is precisely why I am willing to serve you, sir." Shao Shuyi looked at Zheng Guozhen with neither servility nor arrogance, and said calmly, "If you allow me to continue serving you, I will manage the accounts of the blueware shop perfectly. In my spare time, I can also go to the shipyard to sort out the inflow and outflow of materials—copper, iron, tung oil, hemp fiber, lime, etc., and establish a 'standard consumption table' to calculate the cost according to the ship type. In this way, even if the court lowers the price through 'peaceful purchase,' we can still calculate the profit and loss and not suffer too much loss."

Zheng Guozhen was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "If you can kidnap Wang Sheng today, will you kidnap me tomorrow?"

"No." Shao Shuyi met his gaze without flinching. "Wang Sheng is a parasite, and Sanshe is the backbone. If I want to live, I have to rely on the Zheng family for shelter. Betraying Sanshe is tantamount to cutting off my own path to survival."

Zheng Guozhen stared at him for a few moments, then said, "Wang Sheng has been colluding with Sun Chuan for many years. Now that something has happened, what should we do if Sun Chuan suppresses the shops?"

"Aren't there any other brokers?" Shao Shuyi asked.

"Qingqi Pawnshop has three brokers who handle almost 80% of the business. The most powerful is Sun Chuan, followed by Gao Zhihe, who is the younger brother of Sun Chuan's first wife, and then Qian Hui, who is Sun Chuan's apprentice. What do you think?" Zheng Guozhen asked rhetorically.

"Then why are you still targeting Wang Sheng?" Shao Shuyi muttered to himself.

"The three houses might not necessarily have to be sold to foreign merchants and seafarers," Shao Shuyi suggested, his mind racing.

"How so?"

"Didn't the Yuan Dynasty have any overseas merchants?" Shao Shuyi said, "We can cooperate with them."

"With whom will you partner?"

Shao Shuyi was speechless for a moment, but he quickly recovered and said in a blind-cat-like tone, "I've heard that Shen Wansan is the richest man in Jiangnan and sometimes goes abroad to trade. He must have connections. Why don't we ask them?"

Zheng Guozhen remained silent in thought.

He didn't doubt that Shao Shuyi knew Shen Wansan, because the man was so famous that it wasn't surprising to hear about him.

A moment later, he turned his gaze to Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan nodded slightly and said, "It's definitely worth a try. The Shen family has official connections—"

"Alright." Zheng Guozhen interrupted him, then looked at Shao Shuyi and said, "You may not know this, but the previous manager of the celadon shop wasn't Wang Sheng. He was someone who specialized in visiting the porcelain kilns in Chuzhou and had quite a few connections there..."

Why do you keep giving me bonus questions? Shao Shuyi sighed helplessly.

He paused for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Third Master, I've never really understood why the inn has to buy only porcelain from this province?"

"What do you mean?" Zheng Guozhen asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I've heard that Jingdezhen porcelain is also very famous, why don't you try buying some?" Shao Shuyi said.

Of course, he had never seen Jingdezhen porcelain, but its fame spread far and wide, and its rise to prominence seemed to have occurred during the Yuan Dynasty.

It's important to diversify your procurement sources. Being tied to a single supplier can easily lead to problems; that's a very obvious point.

This time, Zheng Guozhen didn't look at Zheng Fan. After thinking for a moment, he smiled at Shao Shuyi and said, "You will still work as an accountant at the blueware shop. You will be given double the amount of grain, money, salt, and vegetables. You won't be shortchanged. As for what kind of people the shop needs, you can recruit them and just report it to us."

After saying that, he turned and left. After mounting his horse, he took one last look at Wang Sheng and said, "Take him away, you bastard."

Wang Sheng collapsed to the ground, his expression now calm.

Zheng Guozhen spurred his horse and, surrounded by his entourage, gradually rode away into the distance.

Shao Shuyi, with his sharp eyes, noticed short spears, swords, and bow tips stuck next to San She's saddle, gaining a deeper understanding of him.

What a confident martial artist!

The setting sun sinks into the salt and iron pond, and the water ripples with gold.

Zheng Fan, holding Wang Sheng by the collar with one hand, gradually walked away.