novelraw Chapter 112: Merchant Caravan
Chapter 112: Merchant Caravan
Chapter 112: Merchant Caravan The younger generation of the Zhao family formed a group to buy land and build houses in Jingxing District. When the Shen family brothers learned of this, they were furious and wanted to question Wen Gu, but there was nothing they could do.Madam Shen sent someone to issue a warning first.
Thus, within a few days, a group of young people from the Zhao family in Zhaohui District and the young people from the Shen family in Xianghui District got into another fight, and each proclaimed their victory.
At the same time, they were all holding a grudge and would exchange barbs whenever they met.
Shen Family: Our Wanfu Garden will definitely be built first.
What's the point of you buying land? Can you make money? You can all eat our dust!
Zhao Family: We want to buy land, we want to occupy an area! It doesn't matter if I make money, I just love seeing you "dislike me but can't do anything about it"!
Afterwards, the Shen family's Qingliu brothers sent two more supervisors to Jingxing District, ostensibly to oversee the construction site, but in reality, to monitor the Zhao family's movements.
The Zhao family, after some private consideration, also sent people to settle in! Although construction couldn't begin immediately and there was no need to send supervisors, the facade had to be maintained.
They couldn't lose in this aspect either!
Soon, a workstation for an adult appeared in the small office where Zhao Han and the others were painting. Young members of the Zhao family would take turns to show their presence and help their younger siblings with some manual labor, as they couldn't just sit there idly.Wen Gu paid no attention to the feud between the idiotic youths of the Zhao and Shen families.
Before the merchant caravan arrived, the picture album was finally printed.
On a page in the picture album not related to the story, there was an illustration. Zhao Han, while drawing, inserted a private piece of his own: a character image from the story "Spiritual Fire Punishing Evil," with one depiction showing the character in the uniform of the Patrol Division!
In the eyes of children like Zhao Han, among Xin Prefecture's three major military institutions – the Patrol Division, the Xiànsòu Army, and the City Defense Army – the Patrol Division was the coolest.
Therefore, when drawing, various imposing military uniforms and armor flashed through his mind, and he finally chose the Patrol Division as a reference.
Regardless, this private piece passed the Young Master Zhao's review and was eventually printed.
The deluxe edition, with color pages, was supplied to the noble families, and it was also expensive. Of course, "expensive" was only relative to ordinary people.
After a trial read, the wealthy families bought them in batches of five or ten, with more than half of them being commissioned to merchants to be taken to other prefectures.
However, those sent out might be abridged versions – with the pages containing the private illustrations removed.
Several more days passed.
There was no more snowfall recently, and the temperature rose slightly.
The merchant caravan finally began to stir.
Merchant caravans from outside needed to be quarantined for more than a day at a designated location in the Outer City area of Xin Prefecture City.
As soon as the caravan arrived, Wen Gu received the news.
The first to arrive was the merchant caravan from the Sheng family.
"The main figures in power among the Sheng family nowadays are two people, Sheng Feng and Sheng Ren. It is said that both are shrewd, capable, and decisive individuals.
They have now pledged allegiance to the Dong clan."
Wen Gu recalled the information about the Sheng family and asked Cheng Zhi and Little Brother He to learn more.
Little Brother He, who was copying documents, stopped his brush and said, "Sui Feng Nian Ren (Prosperous Year, Bountiful Harvest)? Could they be grain merchants?"
"Sheng He Grain Shop, have you heard of it?" Wen Gu asked.
Little Brother He shook his head.
Cheng Zhi quickly found something in his memory: "We have one there! There used to be a Sheng He Grain Shop in the city where the academy was located, and there's one in the town where my old home is!"
The small town where his old home was located was next to the river channel, with many boats transporting goods, which sometimes stopped there. Transporting grain was also convenient.
Cheng Zhi recalled a story that circulated in the town back then and said, "I heard that the boss of Sheng He Grain Shop, whose ancestors were just farmers, became a great grain merchant in just a few decades! They have excellent fortune!"
Little Brother He showed admiration and envy upon hearing this.
In terms of status, among scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, the status of merchants was indeed lower, but it depended on who you compared them to!
Cheng Zhi and Little Brother He, both of whom were supported by their families' desperate efforts to study, were far from comparable to those wealthy families.
Wen Gu just smiled and said, "We should just listen to rumors from the common folk and not take them too seriously."
When did Sheng He Grain Shop appear?
It was when the imperial court's policies loosened, and people from merchant families could take the imperial examinations to become officials!
Before that, the Sheng family was not well-known, but their ancestors were not ordinary "farmers"; they were large landowners!
The Sheng family's prosperity had lasted for more than a century!
When merchants were not allowed to take the imperial examinations, the Sheng family was "farmers."
They exploited loopholes in household registration, bypassed the "status isolation" of separating industry and commerce, connected with scholars, and gained more power, perhaps they had been doing it for a long time!
And once the imperial court's policy towards merchants shifted from "complete prohibition" to "limited opening," and merchant children could take the exams, Sheng He Grain Shops would appear openly across the prefectures and quickly dominate the market.
Their reputation was also well-managed, with inspirational stories circulating among the common folk about "ordinary farmers relying on their own hard work and good fortune to become great merchants, and their descendants entering officialdom through examinations."
This information about the Sheng family was told to Wen Gu by his aunt, Madam Shen.
The Shen family was also a merchant family, with considerable wealth.
However!
The descendants of the Shen family were completely envious of other families when it came to their aptitude for studying!
Even with the loosening of policies, no one took the examinations.
Was it because they didn't want to?!
They dreamed of it every night!
It was simply that they lacked talent in that area!
Let alone the imperial examinations, even the talent for doing business was not much inherited by the next generation.
The late Master Shen, who was Wen Gu's maternal grandfather, had made several preparations. Since the path to officialdom was blocked, he chose the path of marriage alliances!
His children's marriages were specifically to scholarly families with potential, like the Wen family.
And to declining noble families with potential, like the Zhao family from the Northern lands.
Although the Shen family's descendants lacked talent in studying, they had money!
It had to be said that it was precisely because Master Shen had paved the way back then that the Shen family received this unexpected windfall today!
Wen Gu recalled the information about the Sheng family and asked Cheng Zhi and He Xiao (He Da's younger brother, assumed typo for clarity) again, "In our Xin Prefecture, are there any capable farmers or agricultural officials?"
Cheng Zhi performed a search and replied, "Capable farmers, I don't know, but agricultural officials, there definitely are! Xin Prefecture is engaged in the pacification of refugees, water management, and reclamation of barren land.
These all require officials who understand agriculture."
Wen Gu nodded.
Such matters needed to be handled by professionals. Food, which is essential for survival, of course, could not rely solely on inventory.
Uncle Zhao attached great importance to agriculture.
However, how diligent were the agricultural officials sent down in their duties, how much did they hold back, and were they perfunctory? That was another matter.
In any case, as far as Wen Gu knew, the harvest of the nearby ordinary villages that had dealings with their Jingxing District had not been good in the past year.
On the other hand, the harvest from farmland associated with dignitaries was said to be passable.
Such was the way of the world. It was impossible to bring those agricultural officials over to teach those ordinary villagers how to farm, right?
Wen Gu did not have that much power for the time being, let alone the fact that these agricultural officials were connected to many noble families and dignitaries.
He pondered.
"The Sheng family's merchant caravan… it seems like quite a few people came this time…"
Wen Gu called He Da and Tao San over and assigned them some tasks.
"Our Jingxing District is a new district. Merchant caravans from other places will surely be unfamiliar with us.
We can warmly welcome them and increase mutual understanding…"
(End of this chapter)