"The Farmer's Fat Wife": Fat Men Are All Potential Stocks (Part 8)...
Ye Xiqing's blatant provocation was obvious to the manager of the Well Salt Gang. If he didn't go up, he would appear cowardly; if he did, he would be afraid that Ye Xiqing had some ulterior motive.
After some thought, he decided to send two trusted confidants with knives to go up with him. Ye Xiqing's imposing physique alone was enough to overwhelm a thousand troops, so the manager dared not be careless.
The manager of the salt well gang went upstairs with unusual tension. Upon entering, he thought he was being met with a trap, but instead found himself surrounded by a table full of fine wine and food.
Ye Xiqing gestured to the steward, "Please sit down."
Steward: ...
The chefs at Deyuelou were renowned far and wide, and their prices were exorbitant. However, the manager, despite the table laden with fine wine and food, had no appetite whatsoever. He slammed his fist on the table, his bravado masking his inner fear: "Stop pretending! What exactly do you want?"
Ye Xiqing had originally intended to pour him a glass of wine, but seeing his lack of tact, she put down the glass and looked over with a smile: "Do you know why the people aren't buying your salt anymore?"
The manager of the salt well gang had come for this very reason, and upon hearing this, he immediately drew his sword, along with his two henchmen.
This is too impatient! The food and drinks we prepared were practically useless. To prevent them from overturning the table, Ye Xiqing handed him the salt in her hand: "This is our salt. Guess how much it costs?"
"Just like you guys~"
Steward: ...
He took the salt in his hand, glanced at it, and immediately squeezed a handful into his mouth, showing no fear that Ye Xiqing might poison him.
It's not that I believe in Ye Xiqing's character, but rather that the kind of colorless, odorless poison that kills instantly upon contact with the lips, found in ancient times, only exists in fantasy novels.
Such white salt, if adulterated with a little poison, would be as obvious as a black rabbit in the snow, there's absolutely no need to worry.
After tasting it, the manager got angry. "What kind of industrial upgrading are you talking about in a monopolistic industry!"
What good does it do for your Haiyan Gang to raise the bar for something that can be sold even without any effort?
The atmosphere suddenly became tense, but Ye Xiqing smiled and said, "Sit down, sit down, what's the rush?"
"If I run a business on my own, you can blame me, no problem. But what if I want to cooperate with you?"
The manager, enraged, laughed: "Even if Mount Tai and Mount Yi were to unite, the Sea Salt Gang and the Well Salt Gang would never be able to unite!"
Ye Xiqing's attitude did not change: "Manager, you misunderstood. I meant you and me, not the Sea Salt Gang and the Well Salt Gang. There is a big difference between them."
The manager was about to sneer, "What difference does it make?"
Then it suddenly dawned on me, wait, there really is a difference...
If court officials are not wholeheartedly devoted to serving the emperor, how can salt smugglers be expected to honestly serve their bosses?
Ye Xiqing looked at the manager and the thugs behind him, and leisurely shook his head: "I told you to come alone, but you insisted on bringing so many people. What are we going to do now?"
Steward: ...
Two thugs: ...
After thinking for a long time, the manager gritted his teeth and sent his two subordinates away. He then talked with Ye Xiqing inside the room about something.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of chopsticks and chairs being smashed. The two thugs immediately went inside and saw Manager Song, who was furious, jumping up like a bowling ball and yelling, "Don't even think about it!"
The two thugs and the men he brought were about to make their move, but the manager stopped them: "She came alone today. It would be dishonest for us to attack now. Let's fight another day!"
The members of the salt well gang looked at each other in bewilderment, but since their leader had given the order, they had no choice but to retreat.
The food and wine on the table remained untouched. Ye Xiqing called to the waiter to pack some up for her to take away so that her sisters could have a taste.
Seeing that she was about to leave, Shangguan Da Niang, the owner of Deyuelou, immediately came to see her off in person, handing her a food box and claiming that the meal was on the house.
Aunt Shangguan originally sold fish soup by the roadside. Because of its delicious taste, the demand exceeded the supply, and she built such a large restaurant from scratch.
Ye Xiqing not only came to her restaurant for meals, but also tried to sell her smuggled salt.
Others buy smuggled salt because it's cheap, but she buys it because Ye Xiqing's salt is clean. In the food business, even a slight difference in taste makes a world of difference, so it's totally worth the risk.
Could you please not arrange fights at her restaurant in the future...?
Ye Xiqing smiled apologetically, saying she would definitely do it next time. She opened the food box, and there was the boss's salt money inside.
He closed the food box; it wasn't appropriate for someone of her status to count money in front of others, as it would spoil her manners.
He took out a silver ingot from his pocket and placed it in Aunt Shangguan's hand: "This is for renting the entire building."
Seeing the full amount of silver, Aunt Shangguan's eyes naturally lit up.
But Ye Xiqing was leading so many people in the fight, how could he dare to accept her money? He quickly refused.
Ye Xiqing smiled and said, "Please accept it. I am also in business. In business, we value honesty and integrity, and we exchange money for goods."
Although they were both in business, Ye Xiqing's shady business was definitely different from her legitimate business. Shangguan Da Niang immediately felt a sense of redemption, like a gangster boss obeying traffic rules. She accepted the money and thanked her profusely.
Ye Xiqing returned home laden with food and wine, taking the dishes from Deyuelou back to share with her sisters. She didn't eat alone; if she had, the whole table would have been empty, and there wouldn't have been any left.
Contrary to the imagined scenario of gathering a group of people to fight, Ye Xiqing led the villagers mainly to develop their network and refine refined salt.
Everyone put down their work and gathered together, all wanting to try the food and wine at Deyuelou. After just one bite, their eyes widened in surprise.
What is this taste?! Compared to Deyuelou's cooking, they've been eating meat for nothing before!
Forget to speak, they swarmed forward, stuffing food into their mouths as if afraid of missing out, even using the soft white steamed buns to scoop up the soup.
Just as someone was about to lick the last bit of oil off the plate, Ye Xiqing quickly stopped them, saying that the plate still needed to be returned to Deyuelou, and they shouldn't go too far.
Eating so cleanly has already made the restaurant staff laugh at us.
Everyone: ...
In this day and age, there is a rule in high-end restaurants: leave a little bit on your plate after eating, otherwise you are considered a starving ghost who has never eaten well before. The more you leave, the more respectable you are.
Of course, it's not a rule written on paper, but people dining in high-class restaurants, mindful of their status, will spontaneously uphold this unspoken rule.
Some people are so naive that they've never seen the world and will be ridiculed by others.
Having come from the countryside with Ye Xiqing, he never imagined that high-end places would have such rules, and his face turned red.
Ye Xiqing distributed the money she earned to them, telling them to be mindful of their manners and act like respectable people when they went out to eat in the future.
We're not short of money, and we still have our dignity.
Salt is a necessity of life. If you monopolize the salt market, how can you not make money?
After receiving the strings of dividends, the subordinates immediately forgot about losing face and scrambled to grab their share, thanking their boss profusely!
Ye Xiqing accepted the money with a smile, but after distributing it, she solemnly warned everyone that now they not only had money and had joined the Salt Gang, but also power. The people below them would fear them and try to please them.
But no matter how polite or proactive others are in giving them things, they cannot eat or take things for free.
We were all born into poor families. We can't forget our roots just because we have money. Besides, if we do too many bad things, we will get our comeuppance sooner or later.
If you shortchange a vendor by a single penny today, he might report you tomorrow. If he reports you like that, you'll be dead, and you deserve to die.
We're in the business of shady dealings, so we can't lose the hearts of the people. We can only give more, not less.
Being greedy for small gains and losing your life is the most worthless thing in the world.
They had all just come from the bottom and hadn't had time to develop the idea of bullying the common people or acting recklessly. Upon hearing this, they immediately nodded, indicating that they would definitely remember!
After returning home, Manager Song quickly met secretly with Ye Xiqing again, and this time they talked for a long time.
When he returned, Ye Xiqing led his men to raid his dock and looted all of his goods on a set day.
After the goods were confiscated, the manager of the Well Salt Gang in Wei County reported the losses to the gang leader, while Ye Xiqing reported the victory to the leader of the Sea Salt Gang, but did not mention how much salt was seized.
After a while, Manager Song complained to Ye Xiqing, "You can't keep making me lose, can you? If we lose again, we'll have to replace you!"
Ye Xiqing readily agreed, saying that once she had a firm foothold, she would also help him achieve some success.
Then he pushed stacks of dividends onto him. Upon seeing the gold ingots, Manager Song immediately fell silent.
After the profit sharing, the two families instantly became as close as family. Ye Xiqing said with a smile, "Our business is very profitable now. Manager Song, can you get another batch of goods?"
Manager Song, being a seasoned veteran in this business, knew all the tricks of the trade. He grinned broadly and said, "You just wait~"
While the well salt gang and the sea salt gang were fighting fiercely, the two groups in Wei County secretly went their separate ways, something no one could have imagined.
On the salt well gang's side, the manager reported that the newly arrived sea salt gang manager, nicknamed "Dry Land Tiger," possessed the strength of ten thousand men and was difficult to deal with.
On the Haiyan Gang's side, Ye Xiqing had Lin Xiaofu, a thirteen-year-old girl who had joined with her mother, compile battle reports, and they once again routed the Jingyan Gang.
If they fail and the salt is stolen, it means the salt well gang is acting unethically and launching a sneak attack.
At the age of thirteen, he was at the age where he could make up stories, and he could make up both his victories and defeats in a very realistic and dramatic way.
Upon hearing the report, the leader of the Haiyan Gang felt that the situation in Weixian County was very complicated, but Ye Xiqing was able to keep things under control.
The support for her is even greater.
Most things are fake, but some things have to be real. For example, Manager Song is used to being defeated. If the Well Salt Gang sends people, Ye Xiqing has to be responsible for eliminating them.
The newcomers had just arrived and hadn't even disembarked when the hijackers appeared.
Those who had already received "insider information" were infiltrated; once the men arrived, they were to smother their boats. Few women from the Shui family were unable to swim, except for Ye Xiqing.
But she's a land-based tiger, not a water-based tiger, so it's normal that she's not good at water combat.
It's not too late for the land tiger to fight after the person who fell into the water has made it ashore in a sorry state.
It was a beautiful moonlit day, and the people under the moonlight were outlined in exquisite detail.
The enormous black shadow descended like a demon god, and for the first time, the people who came to Weixian regretted their decision.
Ye Xiqing usually carries a knife, but in battle he carries a club. He swings a 20-pound iron club, and with one blow, a skull is shattered and bones are crushed.
Those who managed to escape were terrified and described the land tiger as even more ferocious than what Steward Song had previously reported.
No one in the Well Salt Gang questioned Manager Song anymore. They all felt that it was quite remarkable that he had been able to deal with the Drought Tiger for so long. Was he even human?
Manager Song said with tears in his eyes, "You've finally found out."
Business in Wei County stabilized as a result. Manager Song supplied salt to Ye Xiqing and her group, and Ye Xiqing provided the salt purification technology. The two shared the profits.
After deducting the necessary explanations for the boss, the rest all went into his own pocket.
Ye Xiqing had previously promised to buy 30 mu of land for each person, but it was just wishful thinking. Now it has actually come true!
Seeing the money in his hands accumulating more and more, the farmer, who was used to farming, immediately wanted to go back and buy land.
Ye Xiqing told them not to be too conspicuous and to continue using the same methods as before to recruit villagers and land, otherwise there would be no way to explain why they suddenly became rich.
Now that they have money, in addition to merging small households' land, they can also supplement their land holdings, making Xiawa Village even more attractive.
With a larger population, people can farm and sell salt, thus securing supplies.
Everyone: ...
That makes sense!
...
Thanks to everyone's tireless efforts, the salt trade in Weixian County grew rapidly.
Ye Xiqing and her group had raw salt provided by the Haiyan Gang headquarters, as well as genuine smuggled salt provided privately by the Jingyan Gang.
Their downstream sales network was also monopolized, and it quickly became a system.
Once the system was established, they began to make a fortune overnight, and the people of Xiawa Village became rich overnight.
The reason why private salt is called private salt, and not dark salt, is because in ancient times, the population movement was exceptionally simple, and there was nothing truly shady.
For ordinary people, they knew perfectly well who was smuggling salt.
However, the imperial court cracked down hard on salt smuggling, so ordinary people didn't need to.
To ordinary people, salt smugglers were incredibly kind and benevolent, risking their lives to sell them cheap salt.
When Ye Xiqing and her Qingyan Gang supplied salt to their subordinates, they did not allow their subordinates to store salt.
Instead, the subordinates determine the number of people and the amount of salt needed, agree on a date, and the core members pick up the ordered goods to trade, quickly distributing them to various stores, thus reducing the risk for peripheral members.
If they are implicated by the imperial court, core members must take responsibility and under no circumstances should they expose their subordinates.
Do not resist after being arrested. Once you are in prison, headquarters will try to get you out. Even if you are on the execution ground, they will try to break you out of prison.
If someone betrays them or is reported, they will definitely make that person pay the price!
Salt smugglers established themselves among the people by relying on mutual benefit, maintaining good faith, and using terrorist threats.
Although they were doing underground business, the salt smugglers did not operate clandestinely when they were out in the community.
Ye Xiqing has a public identity in Weixian County: "Boss Han," a pig slaughterer.
Not only does she still help everyone slaughter pigs, but she also sets up a stall at the market to sell pork. She is very generous with her spending and tips, and no one knows where her money comes from but no one will tell.
When the truth really came out, she tried to deny everything. I didn't know she was a salt merchant; I thought she made her money by slaughtering pigs.
Everyone at the market has taken her money, so what can be done?
After engaging in business that could lead to execution, he was able to walk on the street with an even more upright posture than before.
In the past, when people were poor, everyone would kick them while they were down. Now, when they go out, all the small vendors and hawkers immediately smile broadly and welcome them.
The people of Xiawa Village finally understood what it meant that this world doesn't punish the wicked, but only the poor.
Poverty makes people lose their ambition; once they have money, everything seems better, and they become increasingly audacious.
Together they bought a large house on the outskirts of Weixian County and hired a bunch of maids and servants to take care of their daily lives, so that they could have everything done for them.
Even if you want to eat the food prepared by Deyuelou, Deyuelou's chef will come to your door to cook it; all you need to do is prepare the ingredients.
Of course, a reward is indispensable; how do you build relationships? Because relationships are built with money.
Ye Xiqing told everyone not to be shy and to try things out if they hadn't experienced them before.
When a poor person suddenly becomes rich, the first thing they experience is food, clothing, and leisurely idleness. Ye Xiqing was different. One day, an exceptionally luxurious sedan chair suddenly arrived at her mansion.
The sedan chair was covered with gorgeous decorations, the curtains were embroidered with bamboo patterns, and the fans of the two maids leading the way were also embroidered with bamboo patterns. When the curtains were lifted, a woman in a green dress with her face covered by a bamboo fan stepped out.
The woman, with her high-arched eyebrows, stood there like a bamboo pole, looking at everyone with neither arrogance nor servility, and sent her maid to ask, "Is the master home?"
Wu Niang's current public identity is the housekeeper of the mansion. She deals with all sorts of people and has some experience.
Suddenly I realized where this picture came from: there was a group of brothels along the Yi River, each with its own top courtesan.
The bamboo pattern is worn by the top courtesan of Chunfeng Tower, Zhu Jun.
Once they had money, Wu Niang wasn't surprised by what her companions spent. Even if they went gambling, Wu Niang would just scold them a few times and then clean up the mess.
But what are you trying to do now?
Pulling Niu Xiaohuan, who was picking up the person, over, she asked, "Who called this person?"
After smiling and apologizing to the people at Chunfeng Tower, Niu Xiaohuan turned to Wu Niang and said succinctly, "Boss."
Wu Niang: ...
Before she could even comment on this explosive situation, Ye Xiqing had already come out herself, lifted the curtain, and welcomed the guests inside.
Niu Xiaohuan smiled obsequiously from behind, then shrugged at Wu Niang and said, "Well, that's the boss."
Wu Niang: ...
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