Manager Zhou pondered for a long time, then sighed softly and said:
"It's really hard to say in this situation. Take these raw stones from Yuanshui for example. They are all produced by some small mines in the west, while the raw stones in Xiao Taiyuan's hands will not be transported to Yuanshui."
Some of his raw stones were transported to major cities in the Central Plains, but most were transported to foreign countries and small kingdoms in the Western Regions.
As for where so many miners came from, that's hard to say. It wasn't recruited from various places as they claimed. It seems many miners have dubious origins; otherwise, why would he need so many thugs?
"Are any of his miners from neighboring small countries?" Zhao Xian asked.
"I don't know for sure, but one thing is certain: he transported many raw stones to some neighboring countries, which shows that Xiao Taiyuan did business with some foreign merchants."
When Manager Zhou finished speaking, everyone fell silent. They had a general understanding of the situation in the Yuanxi jade market and knew who their competitors were.
"Manager Zhou, what should I do if I want to purchase a large quantity of raw stones from Yuanxi?" Li Xue asked.
Zhou Tong's eyes lit up, and he asked, "How many raw stones does this young master plan to purchase?"
"We didn't bring many silver notes this time. We plan to purchase 100,000 taels of silver worth of raw stones. If the quality of the raw stones is very good, we can purchase more."
A single order of 100,000 taels of silver is far too large for his small mine to handle, and he couldn't help but feel a little regretful.
Seeing Zhou Tong's expression, Li Xue knew what was going on. She feigned ignorance and asked:
"Is Manager Zhou not interested in this deal, or is there some other reason?"
“Young master, you don’t know this, but who wouldn’t want to do such a big business deal? Unfortunately, my jade mine is too small to handle such a large order,” Zhou Tong said helplessly.
"It seems I have no choice but to negotiate this business with Xiao Taiyuan. However, according to what you just said, Xiao Taiyuan bullies his peers and engages in private trade with foreign countries. The government will investigate him sooner or later, and he may be convicted of treason."
If I do business with him now, I'll be implicated sooner or later. Therefore, I absolutely cannot do business with him.
Zhou Tong was taken aback, then his face lit up with surprise, and he asked:
"Is this true? Will the government really punish Xiao Taiyuan?"
Li Xue nodded and said, "The imperial court's crackdown on treason is extremely severe. From imperial relatives to ordinary people, once a case is verified, no one will be spared."
Of course, to determine whether someone has colluded with the enemy or betrayed the country, there must be concrete evidence. In Xiao Taiyuan's case, without anyone reporting him, the government would not know anything about him, since the emperor was far away.
I am a merchant from out of town, and I know nothing about Xiao Taiyuan's situation, nor can I report him. But seeing so many high-quality raw stones from the Great Northern Dynasty flowing abroad, especially being stolen by foreign countries, breaks my heart.
After Li Xue finished speaking, she sighed, lowered her head, and looked extremely heartbroken.
Seeing this, Zhao Xian couldn't help but give Li Xue a big thumbs up. It seemed that Li Xue wanted to use Zhou Tong to report Xiao Taiyuan, or to learn more about Xiao Taiyuan through Zhou Tong.
"I haven't yet had the pleasure of asking your honorable name, young master," Zhou Tong asked.
"My surname is Li, and I am from the capital. My family has been imperial merchants for generations. According to the family's arrangement, I will be in charge of the family's jade industry from now on. The main purpose of this trip is to investigate where the best raw stones in our Great Northern Dynasty are located."
Just now, I realized that the best raw stones in the Great Northern Dynasty should be in Yuanxi. But I never expected that Xiao Taiyuan would appear in Yuanxi. Although he has a large number of high-quality raw stones, I still cannot do business with him.
"If I don't do business with him, where am I going to buy so many raw stones?" Li Xue began to worry.
Li Xue's words stirred up Zhou Tong's heart. He was a shrewd businessman, and if he could cooperate with the imperial merchants from the capital, he would have endless money to make in the future.
Could he use this young master Li to bring down Xiao Taiyuan of Yuanxi so that his jade business could grow stronger? Otherwise, he would never have a chance to rise in the world. Thinking of this, Zhou Tong spoke up:
"I didn't expect you to be Young Master Li from the capital. My apologies. The Yuanxi jade mine is a gift from heaven and cannot be monopolized by Xiao Taiyuan. If Young Master Li wants to buy the top-quality raw stones from Yuanxi, he must eliminate Xiao Taiyuan."
"Our strength is limited, and we cannot contend with Xiao Taiyuan. However, I can help Young Master Li gather evidence of Xiao Taiyuan's treason and collusion with the enemy, and eradicate this malignant tumor from our Great Northern Dynasty."
Li Xue was secretly delighted. If she could get help from Zhou Tong and other local jade merchants from the west, her chances of defeating Xiao Taiyuan would be much greater. Thinking of this, she said:
"If I can eliminate Xiao Taiyuan's influence in Yuanxi, I can do jade business in Yuanxi with peace of mind. I wonder how Manager Zhou can help me."
“In Yuanxi, there are many jade merchants like me who own mines. They have long suffered from Xiao Taiwu’s oppression and dare not resist at all.”
As Xiao Taiyuan's power grows, he will eventually swallow up our small businesses, making it difficult for us to continue our jade business. The only thing we can do now is to unite and deal with Xiao Taiyuan.
However, even if we unite, we cannot defeat Xiao Taiyuan. The only thing we can do is to collect evidence of Xiao Taiyuan's treason and report him to the government, and use the government's power to eliminate him.
"This is just my personal idea. If I were to actually do it, would it be a huge undertaking and very difficult to achieve?" Zhou Tong said, then lowered his head.
"If Manager Zhou has any concerns, please feel free to speak them."
“In Yuanxi, although the people there are all subjects of our Great Northern Dynasty, a considerable number of them are descendants of foreign tribes. They do not identify themselves as people of the Great Northern Dynasty, which increases the difficulty of government administration.”
Therefore, the security situation in the Yuanxi area was not good, and some serious incidents often occurred. The government was unable to solve the problems, so the locals did not trust the government.
If I were to find the jade merchants there and join forces with them to deal with Xiao Taiyuan, I estimate they would be unwilling to do so, fearing they might get into trouble.
Of course, it wasn't that they didn't trust me, but rather that they didn't trust the government. Even if we collected evidence of Xiao Taiyuan's treasonous activities and reported it to the authorities, the local government wouldn't dare do anything to Xiao Taiyuan, because he did indeed have the power to rebel in the area.
What Zhou Tong said was indeed the truth, which was also the reason why Xiao Taiyuan had been entrenched in Yuanxi for many years and his strength had grown stronger and stronger.
Based on Zhou Tong's feedback, he has found the target to deal with during his trip to Yuanxi, which should be their biggest gain from the source of water.
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