Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 17 - Light and Salt (3)
Chapter 17 – Light and Salt (3)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Fortunately, the lay disciples in the Outer Court were resting.
The lay disciples did not have schedules packed as tightly as the main-sect disciples.
There was no point in teaching them too carefully anyway, since they were outsiders in the end.
“What is it all of a sudden?”
There were many people around Jeon Oh-su.
As expected of a smart bastard, it seemed he had already charmed quite a few people.
“Ah. I had something to say.”
“Privately? Then come inside…”
“No. Everyone here.”
There was no way there would be any useless people around Jeon Oh-su.
He was someone who judged people carefully and excluded the incompetent.
Sure enough, among those standing beside him was a face that looked frail.
It was Yeo Hong-yang, the Merchant King’s son.
I had no idea how Jeon Oh-su had discovered him, but it was an impressive bit of skill.
“What is this about?”
“No one here is from a Shanxi merchant family, right?”
That was the first thing I needed to confirm.
Jeon Oh-su tilted his head, then nodded.
“Right. Why would a Shanxi merchant family send a lay disciple all the way to Wudang? They’d send him somewhere closer, like Mount Hua of Shaanxi, Zhongnan, or Shaolin in Henan.”
“True enough.”
Still, I had to check just in case.
No one ever truly knows how the world will turn.
Fortunately, none of them were connected to Shanxi merchant families.
That made things simpler.
Then again, if there had been a Shanxi merchant here, there was no way he could have stood in the same crowd as the Merchant King’s son.
The Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants were rivals.
“So what exactly is going on that you’re looking for Shanxi merchants?”
“The Shanxi merchants are coming to sell salt at the Yichang market this time.”
At that moment, I saw Yeo Hong-yang’s expression change for just an instant.
The others didn’t notice, but I did because I had kept my attention on him.
“So? Shanxi merchants coming south of the river to sell salt happens all the time.”
“They’re coming to fleece the people of Jiangnan, that’s what.”
At my bombshell statement, the eyes of Jeon Oh-su and the others widened.
Of course, there was nothing especially shocking about it.
Merchants cheating one another was more common than people thought.
In a way, that itself was a merchant’s skill.
“What do you mean by that?”
But that did not mean it wasn’t something to be angry about.
Merchants were tied together according to regional culture.
That was why terms like Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants existed.
If people from another region came determined to swindle your region, then of course you had to act.
“Wait. Talk to me.”
Unexpectedly, it was not Jeon Oh-su but Yeo Hong-yang who spoke.
It seemed everyone here already knew that Yeo Hong-yang was the Merchant King’s son, because no one looked surprised that he stepped forward.
No merchant here, no matter who he was, could match the wealth and scale of the Yeo Clan, which made up part of the Huizhou Fifteen Clans.
He was fully qualified to speak to me privately about this matter.
Yeo Hong-yang dragged me into the building the lay disciples used.
“How did you know?”
As soon as he shut the door, Yeo Hong-yang spoke directly.
“So you did know.”
“Of course. I am a hall master who already controls one hall within my merchant company. There is no way I could fail to know something like this.”
“You mean that the frontier supply system is about to be abolished?”
The moment I took the initiative like that, Yeo Hong-yang’s eyes gleamed.
When I had seen him earlier at the Three Purities Hall, he had looked painfully timid, but of course it had all been an act.
There was no way the Merchant King’s son would have been raised without nerve.
Yeo Hong-yang tilted his head.
“How strange. As far as I know, you’re the son of a farmer, so how did you learn that information? Even the officials in Beijing do not know it well yet.”
“A merchant’s weapon is neither the sword nor the tongue. It is secrets.”
Yeo Hong-yang let out a hollow laugh.
Naturally he did.
Those were none other than the words of his own father, Yeo Bul-jin.
No one would have heard that saying more often than he had, so hearing it from me could only feel absurd.
I was merely quoting a phrase of Yeo Bul-jin’s that had also deeply influenced me, since it emphasized the importance of asymmetric information.
“In any case, if you’re a Huizhou merchant, don’t you have a duty to defend Jiangnan from people coming to stab it in the back?”
“That would be difficult.”
“Why?”
“Because the elders have already made an agreement among themselves. The Huizhou merchants agreed to overlook the Shanxi merchants profiting from this.”
“Really? I see.”
“You accept that pretty easily.”
“You must have received something in return. Perhaps their smuggling trade would be overlooked.”
Right now, a sea-ban order was in force throughout the Central Plains, forbidding maritime commerce.
Yet the merchants along the southeastern coast still slipped out to sea in secret and conducted trade.
That was because the profit margins were enormous.
The Huizhou merchants, whose sphere also touched the coastal region of Zhejiang, were likewise profiting heavily from smuggling at this time.
Yeo Hong-yang’s expression changed in an instant.
Until then he had looked interested, as though probing me.
Now he looked at me as though I were some incomprehensible thing.
“…You know even that? That agreement was made only among the Four Families of Shanxi and the Huizhou Fifteen Clans.”
I had just thrown it out because I remembered that the scale of smuggling had grown around this time, but it seemed such a deal really had taken place.
Still, I had no intention of calling it luck.
Using luck was itself a kind of skill.
“I’m just a man with a lot of secrets.”
“Did that information leak from the Huizhou Fifteen Clans’ side, or from the Shanxi Four Families’ side?”
“What would you even do with that answer?”
“If it leaked from the Huizhou Fifteen Clans’ side, then it may continue leaking in the future. If the person involved really is tied to the Huizhou Fifteen Clans, and if you tell me who it is, then I will give you enough money to eat and idle away ten years.”
Yeo Hong-yang’s expression was serious.
In the end, he was asking me to snitch.
I understood it.
For a merchant, plugging the hole through which information leaked was only natural.
I could only shrug my shoulders.
There was no way someone like me, in my current position, could truly be connected to the Huizhou Fifteen Clans.
“I won’t say.”
“I see. Understood. I was prepared to give you ten thousand nyang of silver.”
“…Really?”
That was enough seed money that I almost felt tempted to lie.
It would have been an enormous help when I became a merchant later.
But I could not do that.
If I intended to become a merchant at all, then I could not afford to be marked by either the Huizhou merchants or the Shanxi merchants.
“I still can’t tell you.”
“Quite principled. Or else you have that much money already. You’re an interesting fellow.”
Yeo Hong-yang did not press me further.
Just as before, the style of the Huizhou merchants was neat and clean.
“In any case, that is why the Huizhou merchants are not participating in this Yichang market.”
“So they’re just going to overlook the other merchants taking losses?”
“If someone profits, then naturally someone else takes a loss.”
As expected, merchants were cold-blooded.
Yeo Hong-yang already had more than enough of a merchant’s qualities.
That was only natural, considering he was the Merchant King’s son.
“So then let me ask this. What gain can you possibly obtain there, that you’re trying to obstruct the Shanxi merchants?”
I answered honestly.
There was no need to hide it.
I told him how Wudang’s sect leader had given me the absurd order to buy the salt cheaply without making an advance contract purchase.
Yeo Hong-yang’s lips twitched as he listened, and in the end he burst out laughing.
“Ha ha. You’re truly a funny man. To think you even tried to defy Wudang’s sect leader.”
“I didn’t think he’d take it this far.”
“Khh. That’s fair. To be honest, if it had been me, I would’ve just thrown myself down on the spot and said I couldn’t do it. Since you’re only a lay disciple, it’s not as if they’d kill you.”
“Maybe I should have done that.”
“And yet, seeing that you’re here scheming anyway, it seems you’ve found a route forward.”
“I’m just trying something. But if the Huizhou merchants can’t help, then is there any point in my explaining it to you?”
“People are going to tell me anyway. Just say it.”
Come to think of it, that was true.
So I briefly laid out my plan.
After hearing it all, Yeo Hong-yang pushed out his lower lip and nodded, like a hall master reviewing a proposal.
“We’ll have to try it and see. It’s certainly worth attempting.”
Naturally it was.
I had decades of merchant experience behind me.
This level of scheming was nothing.
Yeo Hong-yang and I came back out of the building.
Jeon Oh-su and the others must have been intensely curious, because they were all still standing exactly where we’d left them.
But I could not explain the strategy I had told Yeo Hong-yang here.
For some reason, Sagong Hyeon’s crowd had mixed themselves in.
“Participating in the Yichang market? In that case, I’m curious too. Ascending Thunder Gate has also received an escort request.”
Ascending Thunder Gate was also an orthodox sect located in Hubei.
Naturally, it wasn’t as if only great merchants like the Shanxi merchants existed.
Smaller merchants also hired smaller sects for escort work.
That was something I hadn’t considered.
“You’re not even the one going, so what does it matter to you?”
“Even so, it concerns my sect’s business, so I’d like to hear it. What’s your scheme?”
I couldn’t tell Sagong Hyeon.
Sagong Hyeon already bore a grudge against me, and if it became known that I had devised this strategy, then the Shanxi merchants would definitely remember me.
At least the people here from the commercial world would be participating in it, so I didn’t need to worry about them exposing it.
But Ascending Thunder Gate was not part of the commercial world, so they could easily go around blabbing.
“I don’t want to say.”
“That would be troublesome. Then I suppose I’ll just go around telling the people participating in the Yichang market to be careful of you. I’ll say you’re a fellow with some kind of scheme.”
“How childish.”
And yet effective.
Just hearing that much would make people wary.
Of course, it would not have much real effect.
I was not going to be moving directly in the Yichang market anyway.
I was merely the planner behind this strategy.
Still, it was irritating.
“I’d appreciate it if you’d stop getting in the way and leave. This is a matter of the commercial world.”
Those were exactly the words I had wanted to say, but they did not come from my mouth.
They came from Yeo Hong-yang.
Sagong Hyeon’s expression hardened.
“Arrogant, just because you’re the Merchant King’s son. Why should I move according to your words?”
“Because I said so.”
Yeo Hong-yang answered in an arrogant tone, as though it were only natural.
There was no need to say how well that arrogance suited him.
“Shall I have the signboard of Ascending Thunder Gate taken down?”
Yeo Hong-yang’s cold face moved right up in front of Sagong Hyeon’s own.
Even that gaunt, weak-looking face appeared intelligent and icy when it turned cold.
People truly did have an aura about them.
Sagong Hyeon could not say a word in front of Yeo Hong-yang pressing his face close.
Naturally, if it came to a fight, Sagong Hyeon would win.
But Yeo Hong-yang’s weapon was not the sword.
Sagong Hyeon went pale, stumbled backward, then turned and fled.
But the ones in his group did not follow after him.
By running away, Sagong Hyeon had just proven that he could not become an oligarch among them.
It was effectively proven that the real power among the lay disciples was not Sagong Hyeon, but Yeo Hong-yang.
Sagong Hyeon now had only two choices left.
Quietly withdraw, or grit his teeth and complete the lay disciple course while ostracized.
Neither would be easy.
Of course, it was not my concern.
“Whew. Whew. I really thought I was going to die.”
Meanwhile, Yeo Hong-yang placed a hand on his chest and panted hard.
Knowing what he was really like, I knew it was all an act.
He was continuing to play the role of a weak-hearted man.
It was a good strategy.
If the Merchant King’s son stood out too much here, it would not be good for Wudang, and it would burden Yeo Hong-yang as well.
I then explained my strategy to the gathered merchant scions.
Their eyes lit up.
I adjusted the finer points of the strategy and came to an agreement with them that we would continue sharing information.
The one who took charge as their representative was, as expected, Jeon Oh-su.
“This should be interesting.”
Jeon Oh-su summed it up in a single phrase.
“It will be.”
I answered.
After the strategy had been set, several days passed.
It was the day the market opened in Yichang.
Ah.
And as for Sagong Hyeon, I heard that not long after losing face before Yeo Hong-yang, he withdrew from Wudang altogether.