Chapter 392: Besieged
In the end, Wei Danbai chose to not have Wei Tianchong go, tacitly accepting the Gu Clan’s delay, even sending a letter wishing Gu Liangde a speedy recovery.
This wasn’t strange. In the end, he was a merchant, not a born fighter. He innately lacked staunchness and courage.
Although he was technically right that sending Wei Tianchong to deal with the Gu Clan would inevitably damage the Wei Estate’s reputation, he did not know that the loss for not acting would be even greater!
All the hubbub around taking over the Gu Clan’s businesses suddenly came to a halt, causing all of Canglong Prefecture to turn their attention to the Wei Estate.
Tang Jie’s decision to remain passive and not intervene in clan affairs served as the foundation for limitless speculation to simmer.
Many people speculated that the Wei Estate had tacitly accepted the Gu Clan going back on their deal because of Tang Jie—not everyone would take this as a sign of magnanimity. More people would take it as weakness.
When one side grew weak, the other side would get tough.
It was in the cities beyond Canglong Prefecture where this phenomenon began to appear first. After all, the Wei Clan’s foundations were shallow in these places.
Dihuo (Earthfire) City.
This was a small city three hundred kilometers away from Canglong Prefecture. Its name came from how a river of fire flowed underneath the city. Although it was small in area, it was an important cultivator town. Ten-some sects, including the Basking Moon Sect, had set up tool-refining workshops here to produce tools for their sects throughout the year. The best art relics were naturally reserved for the respective sects to use, with the mediocre products being handed to the government. The worst products circulated among the common folk, ending up in various escort or bodyguard companies. For this reason, Dihuo City was famous for its weaponry. Every year, numerous merchants would come through to buy or sell. Two years ago, the Wei Clan had expanded to this place for the first time, and it now had seven stores in Dihuo City.
Today, a Wei Clan store received some unwelcome guests.
Their leader was a dark-faced man who wore an unbuttoned jacket, exposing his hairy chest. He said to the manager of the store, “Manager Zhang, my respects. Now that I think about it, the Wei Estate has been operating in Dihuo City for two years. In these two years, how has my Red Cloud Gang treated your honored store?”
Manager Zhang hastily smiled. “Your honored group has treated my small store very well, never taking a protection fee from us. This lowly one has been very understanding and has always brought up this matter with the master.”
The dark-faced man nodded. “It’s fine so long as Manager Zhang understands. But, Manager, you know that my Red Cloud Gang also needs to eat. There are so many brothers in the gang, if no one pays the protection fee, we might as well disband.”
Manager Zhang froze. “Third Captain, you mean…”
The dark-faced man replied, “Starting from next month, your honored store must hand over some silver. Not a lot. My lowly gang has always been very meticulous, charging stores according to their size and scale of business, always making sure that no one is suffering a loss. For a store like yours, we’ll only take half: twenty taels of silver a month.”
Manager Zhang paled. “My Wei Clan isn’t some no-name. It has cultivators protecting the clan businesses, and you would still dare to take a fee from us?”
The dark-faced man’s face turned serious. “Every place has its own rules. The river dragon that is the Wei Clan might have cultivators protecting it, but they’re at the Mortal Shedding Realm at most, not so high that they could avoid paying the protection fee.”
“But my clan’s young master is the True Inheritor of Sunwatch Peak!”
“That’s why I’m only taking half. This is a sign of my boss’s friendship. After all, there’s no such line in the rules,” the dark-faced man replied. “Manager Zhang, my Red Cloud Gang is about both the rules and about friendship. While we’re taking your silver, we’re not taking advantage of you. I hope that you can understand and don’t force me to do anything difficult. Otherwise, if I don’t take the fee from your store, the other stores we take fees from will complain that we’re being unfair.”
He saluted the manager and departed.
Manager Zhang was speechless as he watched the dark-faced man leave.
An employee came over and said, “Manager, what should we do?”
Manager Zhang indifferently said, “What else can we do? We can only agree.”
The employee angrily said, “Isn’t this letting them off too easy?”
Manager Zhang coldly glanced at the employee. “Then what would you do?”
“Naturally, I would have Young Master Wei come and teach them a lesson!”
Manager Zhang said in scorn, “‘Have Young Master Wei come and teach them a lesson’? Are you joking? You think the Red Cloud Gang has no cultivators? Moreover, we’re outsiders here. The Red Cloud Gang could be said to have gone through the proper motions, and nothing they’re doing is against the rules. If we call over the young master, we would be the ones breaking the rules. This isn’t Canglong Prefecture. The Wei Clan can’t control as many things here, so we just have to take it.”
He went back into the store.
The employee spat on the ground. “I fear this is only the first round. There will be more trouble coming in the future.”
This lowly employee’s words had truly hit the nail on the head.
Chaomu City.
This place was located on the edge of the Ling Province, at the intersection of three provinces. As a result, even though it had no special product, it served as an extremely important trade nexus. Every year, large numbers of goods flowed out from it to all over the country, making it a place that merchants needed to fight over.
If the Wei Clan wanted to expand its businesses even farther, it would have to take root in Chaomu City.
Here, the Wei Clan had only a single store, but it was larger than all seven of the Dihuo stores put together, employing many people. It bought and sold, served as an intermediary, and had many other functions. The one in charge was Li Chaoxu, an elder who had worked for the Wei Estate for many years. His nickname was the Smiling Buddha, because he normally greeted everyone with a smile.
But today, the Smiling Buddha had a face like a bitter melon.
In the reception hall behind the store, the Smiling Buddha said to a green-robed scholar, “This is very sudden. Why the increase in rent? And such a large hike.”
The scholar raised his cup of hot tea and used the lid to push aside tea leaves as he casually said, “Manager Li is incorrect. It is not that my master is raising the rent. He is simply returning the rent to what it originally should have been. In the last few years, the trade in Chaomu City has only gotten hotter and hotter, as you have seen for yourself. All the other stores have had their rents increase. It was only your store that was kept at the very lowest.”
Li Chaoxu smiled. “I naturally understand that.”
“But all good things must come to an end,” the green-robed scholar leisurely said. “My master has recently found himself a bit short on money, so he can’t always keep suffering a loss for the sake of the Wei Clan, no?”
“Ha, ha… yes, yes.” Li Chaoxu helplessly smiled, but he inwardly cursed, ‘Suffering a loss for the sake of the Wei Clan’? Bullshit! In these last two years, your Zhong Clan has been raking in the gold from purely the rent, as comfortable as can be.
For this one store, the Wei Clan had to pay 4500 taels of fine silver to the Zhong Clan every year as rent, but it now shot up to 7000 taels.
Although 7000 taels wasn’t particularly outrageous, and was actually reasonable when compared to their neighbors’, enjoying a discount for so long and then having it suddenly taken away was an extremely unpleasant feeling.
Worst of all was that Li Chaoxu had recently spent a lot of money on imports in order to increase their business, only keeping enough money to make the rent. This sudden rent increase had caught him off guard, and he was now facing a shortage of available capital.
Fortunately, the matter wasn’t too serious, and the green-robed scholar clearly didn’t want to push them too far. He indicated that Li Chaoxu had time to gather the money, so he could ask for help from the main clan in Canglong Prefecture.
After some discussion, Li Chaoxu sent off his visitor, and when he returned, his face was stricken with worry.
His page boy saw the state he was in and asked, “Didn’t the Zhong Clan already agree to give us time to ask for silver from the main house? Master, why are you still so worried?”
Li Chaoxu shook his head. “What do you know? When an outside merchant is trying to get into a new market, they will often operate with low prices, trying to get a reputation first, so they will have low profits. I’ve heard that the lady even complained about how the outside businesses aren’t doing well. But even this little profit is only because our rent is cheap. Now that the rent has risen, we might not even be able to keep this meager profit. If we don’t think of something, we might even start suffering a loss.”
Li Chaoxu grew deeply distressed at the thought of suffering a loss.
The page boy nodded. “This really is a problem, but fortunately, Master, you aren’t facing it alone.”
“Mm?” Li Chaoxu looked at his page boy.
The page boy smiled. “Master, do you not know? This lowly one recently heard that our businesses all over the place have encountered similar problems. The Dihuo City store has to pay protection fees to the Red Cloud Gang, the Ding Clan River Ferry is starting to take mooring fees, and Qiansi Town’s Blossom Embroidery is no longer giving our Wei Clan priority and is making us take numbers and bid for goods like the other merchants. I’ve heard that even those brutes that chop wood down at Guwan Village have come out and said that our Wei Clan is paying too little and they won’t work for us anymore.”
Li Chaoxu was flabbergasted. “All this happened? How could that be?”
The page boy replied, “Isn’t it all because of Tang Jie saying that he wouldn’t bother with the Wei Clan’s business anymore? When the Gu Clan heard about this, they immediately came forward and said that they weren’t selling the stores that they had been going to sell to the Wei Clan. And the Wei Clan wasn’t able to do anything about it. This only made things worse, as once everyone saw it, they were naturally able to tell that something was wrong. Thus, Master, you don’t need to worry. Right now, the big boss of the Wei Clan is probably even more worried, so you won’t be blamed for anything.”
Li Chaoxu was startled at first, and then his face twisted in anger as he slapped the page boy. “Bastard! The main house is in trouble and you’re celebrating!”
The page boy instantly got down on his knees and begged for mercy.
Li Chaoxu regained his kindly appearance and slowly sat himself down. “Tang Jie… I’ve heard about what happened with him, and his reaction is quite normal. But Tang Jie is only one person, so how could he have stirred up such a big storm? And how did it all come so quickly? I think that there’s a high chance that someone is helping things along from the shadows… If that’s the case, then there might be even more.”
“‘Even more’?” The page boy was scared silly.
Li Chaoxu snorted. “That depends on how the master responds. This is only the beginning. Everyone is still just probing us and won’t go too far. At most, they’ll just take back some of the perks they gave to the Wei Clan. But if it’s not dealt with properly…”
Li Chaoxu’s voice dropped.
No matter the area, local clans did not like seeing outsiders try to get into their businesses.
To take the Gu Clan as an example, why had it refused to sell to the Wei Clan even though it meant that it went back on its word? Wasn’t it exactly because it wanted to keep a hold of the casino business in Canglong Prefecture? Any clan that wanted to open a casino in Canglong Prefecture couldn’t do so without the Gu Clan’s permission. Selling casinos to the Wei Clan wasn’t just losing out on these casinos, but also quietly agreeing to loosening its hold on the casino business.
It was the same principle elsewhere. In other places, it wasn’t appreciated when outsiders came in and started up businesses, so the strength of cultivators would end up playing a decisive role in whether an entry into a new market failed or not.
If one was strong, the others would have to abide, but if one lacked power, one would naturally be forced to back away.
When the Wei Clan had the two supporting pillars of Wei Tianchong and Tang Jie, it could open businesses in cities all across Ling Province, as its status was akin to a pseudo–Celestial Heart clan’s. So long as it didn’t try to usurp the local powerhouses, it would be fine. But when Tang Jie chose to become passive, the Wei Clan’s status fell, as did the treatment it received.
When one had astounding strength, all expansion was reasonable. When one lacked strength, what was originally reasonable expansion now became “hands that had stretched too far.”
When it came to such hands, the most natural choice was to cut them off.
In this aspect, the moves targeting the Wei Clan weren’t particularly excessive. They were all businessmen, so they understood how to restrain themselves, strictly enforcing the notion that one could only expand as much as one’s strength allowed them to.
But for the Wei Clan, this meant something entirely different.
Expansion required investment, required spending large amounts of silver. They had just stabilized the situation and were yet to even recover their costs, and now they had to retreat? This retreat would mean that all that silver would go to waste. The Wei Clan had put all of its reserves into this venture, even taken out lines of credit. If all their ventures failed, the loss would be enormous.
But if they didn’t want to withdraw, they needed to muster the needed strength.
—————————————
“I don’t agree,” Wei Tianchong indifferently said.
“What did you say?” Wei Danbai looked in shock at his son.
“I said that I won’t intervene,” Wei Tianchong replied. “All these actions are nothing more than minor trifles that the clan itself is expected to handle. What reason do you have for me to intervene? I should destroy the Zhong Clan because they raised the rent? Make a river of blood flow through Qiansi Town because we stopped getting priority? Or should I go to Guwan Village and announce that anyone who won’t work for our Wei Clan will be killed? Father, Sageheart is not some lawless land. Even the royal family can’t act this brazenly!”
“Then what about the Red Cloud Gang? You can deal with them, can’t you? Protection fees aren’t exactly legal.” Wei Danbai’s voice was tired and helpless. It was clear that he had been suffering while dealing with all these problems.
Wei Tianchong bitterly smiled. “Protection fees truly aren’t legal, but the problem is that your son can’t beat them! You think that the Red Cloud Gang can take protection fees in Dihuo City just ‘because’? Their gang is supported by a True Person. Won’t I just be seeking my death by going there?”
“They wouldn’t dare to kill you. You’re True Person Yan’s disciple.”
“That’s true. They wouldn’t dare to kill me. But they could beat me up, strip off my clothes, and throw me onto the streets. When Master is in a good mood, he might come out if some elder is bullying his disciple. But if a disciple goes to make trouble for someone else and ends up being humiliated, the one in trouble would be the disciple! If Master finds out, let alone taking revenge for me, the first thing he would do is grab his sword and cut me down… and it’s not like you don’t know that I don’t enjoy his favor and am barely holding on to this True Inheritor post.”
Wei Danbai gasped. “In other words: you can’t do anything?”
Wei Tianchong shrugged. “Wait until they act more excessively.”
“‘Wait until they act more excessively’? I fear that it will be too late by then! Do you know how much the Wei Clan has lost so far? That’s all money that’s used to support your cultivation!” Wei Danbai frantically said.
Wei Tianchong remained indifferent. “Oh, I don’t care. In any case, I have money to use now, so I don’t need the Wei Clan’s money.”
“What did you say?” Wei Danbai didn’t dare to believe his ears. Glaring at his son, he said, “How could you say such a thing!? You don’t need the Wei Clan anymore, so you’re just tossing it aside?”
Wei Tianchong spread out his arms. “Am I not learning from you, Father? Didn’t you feel like you could no longer use Tang Jie, so you threw him aside?”
Wei Danbai went stiff.
He looked at his son. “I see. You support Tang Jie? He’s doing this to the Wei Clan, and you’re still supporting him?”
Wei Danbai was yelling.
Wei Tianchong sneered, “Dear Father, what exactly did he do?”
What did he do?
Wei Danbai’s mouth opened, but he couldn’t answer.
Wei Tianchong replied, “He just announced that he was no longer interfering in mortal affairs. Given what you did, Father, is there anything strange about his decision? And did he do anything wrong to the Wei Clan?”
“But recently…”
“What does what happened recently have to do with him? Or does Father want to say that this person is so important that the Wei Clan’s development will be greatly hindered without him?”
No matter what, Wei Danbai would not admit that Tang Jie was this important to the Wei Clan.
He glared at his son. “You’re speaking on Tang Jie’s behalf?”
“Your child is just stating the facts.”
Wei Tianchong strode out the door.
After leaving his father, Wei Tianchong let out a long sigh.
He had spent these days caught between a rock and a hard place, but today, he had finally made his opinion known. He had never imagined that butting heads with his father would be so refreshing.
He dared to do this precisely because Tang Jie had chosen to yield.
His constant worry was that Tang Jie would turn hostile, so he had prepared himself to do everything to uphold the Wei Clan.
But Tang Jie hadn’t done anything of the sort, only announced that he would be standing aside. This had been a great relief to Wei Tianchong.
No one understood more than him why Tang Jie was doing all this, which was exactly why he felt very apologetic to Tang Jie.
This was exactly why Wei Tianchong wasn’t frustrated even though the Wei Estate had enemies on all sides. On the contrary, he felt happy and excited, privately thinking, Dad, do you finally understand how stupid you were?
Wei Danbai was his father, so no matter how profound his cultivation was, he could never rebuke his father. But this was also why he was happy to watch as his father suffered.
As for the losses the Wei Estate was suffering, he really wasn’t very concerned.
As had been said before, he was a cultivator, and his perspective on value was the same as Tang Jie’s.
Only spirit coins counted as real money!
Mortal gold and silver, secular wealth that everyone else rushed around to make, was nothing in the eyes of a cultivator.
Moreover, his refusal was not completely without reason. In the current situation, if he intervened, he would only incite rumors. If his master learned that he was running around doing work for his clan, his master might immediately send someone to bring him back.
Unexpectedly, however, it seemed that Yan Changfeng would do this even if he didn’t do anything.
Three days after Wei Danbai had been refused, Nan Baicheng appeared at the Wei Estate.
Standing in front of Wei Tianchong, Nan Baicheng asked, “So, the Wei Clan has been in a little trouble recently?”
Wei Tianchong quickly replied, “It’s just a few minor business problems.”
“Is that so…” Nan Baicheng looked at Wei Tianchong, smirking as his words trailed off. “Since that’s the case, come back
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