Zu An immediately became dumbstruck when he heard her words. “You want to go to a brothel too?”
Chu Chuyan rolled her eyes impatiently. “Of course it’s not me. I just want you to arrange a spot for one more.”
“Who?” Zu An was a bit curious.
“Wang clan’s young master, Wang Yuanlong.” Chu Chuyan said seriously.
Zu An looked at her strangely. “You and that Wang clan dude don’t have a thing going on between you two, right? I heard that our clans get along pretty well. Is there some childhood sweetheart thing at play here? Damn it all, why is my fate so cruel…”
Man, if I knew about this ahead of time, I wouldn’t have saved that Wang kid. Should’ve let Chen Xuan finish him off.
Chu Chuyan was humiliated and furious. Her hand snatched his ear. “Stop howling like an idiot already! What could there be between us? Just what kind of nonsense goes through your head every day?”
You have successfully trolled Chu Chuyan for +123 Rage!
Zu An immediately became happy again. “Then why do you want to arrange a meeting with him, moreover in a place like Immortal Abode?”
“I’m not the one who is going to meet with him, but rather the two of you,” Chu Chuyan corrected.
Zu An blinked his eyes, clearly completely lost.
Chu Chuyan thus said, “Sang Hong called over my father, as well as Zheng, Yuan, Wang, and various other clan leaders for a meeting. He mentioned that the royal court will be sending troops north against the foreign tribes. The country is in dire need of provisions, which is why they have asked all wealthy clans to lend a hand and make more contributions.”
Zu An nodded. Chu Chuyan mentioned these contributions before.
“There was a huge contribution requested last year. Even the biggest clans will find this difficult if they are asked to donate so often. That is why all of the great clans are feeling a bit of reluctance,” Chu Chuyan continued, “My father used the rampant illicit salt trade as an excuse, expressing that he wouldn’t be able to immediately make any contributions.”
Zu An couldn’t help but say with a smile, “Master seems so proper and honorable normally. Who have thought that he had this crafty side to him.”
“Is that how you praise someone?” Chu Chuyan shot him a glare. “Unfortunately, that old fox Sang Hong already predicted that we would use this as an excuse. As such, he expressed that he will have Sang Qian listen to all of father’s assignments in the future to take out the illicit salt trade.”
Zu An sighed with amazement. “This is probably the exchange of interests you mentioned before. The Chu clan will make contributions, while the Sang clan will offer their assistance in rooting out the illicit salt trade.”
Chu Chuyan nodded. “My father’s thoughts are that this illicit salt trade has indeed greatly affected the Chu clan’s business. Sang Qian has command over the River Patrol Army. With his assistance, it will become much easier to take out those illicit salt gangs. If we can completely destroy the illicit salt business with this opportunity, then paying some contributions is still worth it. That is why we agreed to donate a hundred thousand taels of silver first. Once the illicit salt trade has been completely eradicated and the income from the official salt rises, we’ll contribute the remainder.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Zu An nodded inwardly. Chu Zhongtian wasn’t the master of the house for nothing. Even though he normally seemed a bit square, he still had his share of shrewdness.
“Everything did sound good,” Chu Chuyan said with a sigh, “but Wang clan suffered serious losses recently, their trade station plundered by the foreign tribes. They had to use a lot of their fluid funds to fill in this loss, making them quite strapped for silver. Thus, they requested to be excluded from the contributions this time.”
Zu An recalled her mentioning that salt in the Great Zhou Dynasty could only be transported and sold with salt permits.
These permits weren’t things you could buy just because you had money.
Instead, only if you transported provisions to the border where the war situation was dire would you have the right to purchase a corresponding amount of salt permits.
It wasn’t convenient for many salt traders to send provisions to the borders, which was where the Wang clan came in.
Their main industry was bringing provisions to the border in exchange for salt permits, and then selling these salt permits to other salt merchants.
But transporting provisions to the borders really was too difficult, the journey itself would exhaust a lot of resources, thus resulting in costs that were too high. That was why these merchants all chose to clear out wild areas and set up farmland by the border, and then send their foodstuffs straight to the corresponding border.
This type of farm was precisely the so-called trade station.
“Robbed by the foreign tribes?” Zu An sighed. “That’s rough.”
“Indeed. The Wang clan really was hurt badly this time. They couldn’t even undertake the important task of contributions.” Chu Chuyan said with a sigh, “That Sang Hong didn’t say much on the surface either, instead even offered some words of consolation. However, in the end, he immediately presented one of Wang clan’s exchange permits over a bordering commandery to Chu clan, saying that this was a reward for those who contributed to the nation.”
“Exchange permit?” Zu An was confused.
After listening to Chu Chuyan’s explanation, he had a rough idea of what it was.
According to the Great Zhou Dynasty’s laws, the transport and selling of salt required salt permits. But when the salt is actually being sold and purchased, not only were salt permits required, they even needed a government approved exchange permit.
Exchange permits were equivalent to the rights to sell something within a specified region. A clan can only sell salt if they have the exchange permit for that region.
If you tried to sell salt in a region you didn’t have an exchange permit for, then it would be illegal. Not only would you be investigated as an illicit salt dealer, the clan that engaged in this practice will also be punished.
It was just like his past world’s tobacco. Interregional selling wasn’t allowed.
When he understood all of this, Zu An immediately reacted. “Sang Hong really is ruthless! Wang clan is Chu clan’s ally, but this move not only deals Wang clan a heavy blow, it has successfully driven a wedge between Wang and Chu clans.”
He couldn’t help but feel some respect for Sang Hong. He didn’t have to give up a thing himself, instead used Wang clan’s property to drive a wedge between this alliance.
The most important part was that all of this was in accordance with the Great Zhou Dynasty’s laws. The Wang clan indeed couldn’t offer contributions, so the royal court used this chance to take back an exchange permit to give to someone who did. Even if this was reported to the capital, no one would be able to criticize this decision.
The Wang clan could only take this hit. All of that pent up resentment they couldn’t show the government would instead be directed at the Chu clan, since they were the ones who received the ultimate benefit.
“All of us are fully aware that he is trying to drive a wedge between us,” Chu Chuyan’s eyes were full of worry as she said, “but knowing is one thing, actually doing something about it is another. It is hard for people to remain absolutely rational. Quite a few people from the Wang clan have criticized our Chu clan over this. They feel like the Chu clan deliberately schemed against them for their exchange permit.”
“There will always be some idiots in a clan,” commented Zu An, “and I reckon Sang Hong definitely had some people fan the flames. So did you want me to meet with Wang Yuanlong to explain this misunderstanding?”
“That’s not all,” Chu Chuyan replied. “Clans like our Chu clan, Wang clan, and Zheng clan are all large, government approved merchant leaders. When individual sellers come from different places to purchase salt in bulk, they often need to pay a deposit a year upfront. Meanwhile, once the merchant leaders receive this deposit, the money will already be moved around. After all, this money will be theirs in the coming year, so it wasn’t an issue if they used it ahead of time.”
“But now, Wang clan’s exchange permit was even given to us. This means that they have to return those individual sellers’ money.” Deep worry flickered past Chu Chuyan’s eyes. “It isn’t too big of a deal in normal times, but the Wang clan is already finding it hard to make ends meet after their trade station was plundered. Together with this deposit they must return, their chain of funds might be broken. If that happens, the massive Wang clan might directly collapse.”
Zu An immediately became alarmed when he heard this. “This Sang Hong really is merciless! His action might really reap lives!”
“Indeed. However, our Chu clan naturally won’t just watch from the side,” said Chu Chuyan. “That is why I wanted you to entertain Wang Yuanlong, privately pass on the deposit to them, and then they can return it to those individual sellers. We can use this chance to ease their sore spot.”
Zu An’s eyes brightened. “Nice! This won’t only get rid of the Wang clan’s emergency, it ingeniously deals with the wedge Sang Hong wanted to drive within us. I wonder which brilliant person came up with this idea!”
“It can’t be considered that brilliant. It’s just some tricks I picked up after spending these years in the business.” Even though Chu Chuyan spoke calmly, a bit of pride couldn’t help but appear between her brows. She was clearly that brilliant person.
A smile immediately appeared on Zu An’s face. She was normally so cold on the outside, who would have expected that she had this childish side to her?
“But why do you guys have to make such a detour through me? And even in a place like Immortal Abode?”
Chu Chuyan explained, “The main reason is to fool the others. We’ve cried poverty to the government after all, yet we are immediately helping the Wang clan with this sum of money. This doesn’t make the royal court or the Chu clan look great, and this might give our political enemies a chance to attack.”
“The second reason is that the Wang clan is still a great clan in Brightmoon City. If others learned that they couldn’t bring out this amount of money, it might easily tarnish their prestige and disrespect their dignity. That is why if we are not careful, we might not only fail to achieve our objective, it might even easily result in a feud.”
Zu An couldn’t help but sigh in praise. “Honey, you really are meticulous! You’ve even thought about all of this stuff.”
At the same time, he grumbled no wonder you even picked up the slightest bit of female perfume from me. Seems like I have to be really, really careful in the future.
A faint smile appeared on Chu Chuyan upon receiving his complement. “The third reason is that I heard you helped Wang Yuanlong out in Immortal Abode last time, so he has to return the respect and won’t produce any unnecessary misunderstandings.”
“Most importantly, no one will expect us to pass on such an important task to you.”
Zu An immediately became upset when he heard this. “Are you praising me or mocking me?”
Chu Chuyan’s mood gradually became better. She revealed a beautiful smile. “Do you have no concept of what kind of image you have in the clan?”
Zu An: “……”
This woman’s mouth seems to have gotten sharper after sticking around me for a while.
“Are you done with this serious talk yet? If you are, let’s begin today’s treatment already,” said Zu An gloomily.
Chu Chuyan’s face became a bit red. Only after a bit of time did she quietly voice her acknowledgement.
The expression of a tyrannical CEO returned to Zu An’s face. He gave her a cold look and said, “Strip!”
