Chapter 28: The Embryonic Form of Chamber of Commerce

  With only a dozen or so days left until the end of the year, Ao Lie waited anxiously for Tong Yuan's arrival. Tong Yuan had said in his letter that he would bring two disciples with him, which filled Ao Lie's heart with anticipation. Based on his past experience, Zhao Yun was probably only fifteen or sixteen years old now and hadn't yet come out as a master, so he should be coming with Tong Yuan this time. This gave Ao Lie the advantage of being close to the water tower first getting the moon, and as long as Zhao Yun came, Ao Lie had confidence that he could bring this fellow apprentice brother who he had never met before under his wing.

  As for another fellow apprentice, Ao Lie had probably figured out who it was after some calculation. It should be Zhang Liao, the Northern Territory Gun King who later became famous throughout the land. Although Zhang Liao's martial arts were not considered top-notch in the Three Kingdoms era where talents emerged one after another, he was still able to rank among the first-rate generals, and Zhang Liao's value did not lie solely in his military strength. It is worth noting that Zhang Liao was a skilled commander who had defeated Cao Cao three times in Wan City, killing Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang and nephew Cao Anmin, as well as Guo Sheng, who was serving under Cao Cao at the time!

  In Ao Lie's expectation, before Tong Yuan arrived, he had already brought back his uncle Ao Lao Zhai who was traveling around for business. It was almost the end of the year, and Ao Lao Zhai also wanted to return home for the new year, so he hurried back. Liu Yu and Mrs. Ao welcomed Ao Lao Zhai into the mansion, while Ao Lie rushed back from the military training ground to meet him.

  Old Master Ao sat in the main hall with a hearty smile, looking at Ao Lie and said: "This time I went on a business trip, the harvest was bountiful, it's still thanks to your credit, Lie'er. The golden silk leaves you made were sold well in Jiangdong, the income from them is enough to fill three large carts with money, accounting for 40% of the total profit."

  Liu Yu and Mrs. Ao looked at Ao Lie with comfort, then Liu Yu said: "Father-in-law, you've worked hard this time, why not stay at home for a few more days? You don't have to rush to go on business again."

  "Impossible," said the old man, shaking his head. "I have no son, only Snow as my daughter. All of our family's property will be yours and Snow's in the future. While I can still move around, it's better to earn some money for you both."

  Ao Lie heard this and his heart moved slightly. He stood up and bowed to Ao Laozhang, saying: "Grandfather, I have a suggestion, I don't know if it's suitable to say or not."

  Old Man Ao smiled and looked at Ao Lie, saying: "There's nothing that shouldn't be said, but it doesn't matter if you say it."

  "Uncle, Father, Mother, you see, Uncle's age is also advanced, and it's indeed not suitable for traveling around to do business. So, Lie'er thinks that why don't we establish a trade association in Ji County, specializing in selling fresh goods? At the beginning, we can slightly lower the prices to earn reputation and credibility. As the scale of the association gradually expands, when we do business with those powerful families, we can appropriately raise the prices, while still following the principle of low profit and high sales when doing business with ordinary people."

  Liu Yu's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he praised: "This is a good method." Ao Laozhang thought carefully for a moment, then slowly said: "The method isn't wrong, but in today's world, most resources are monopolized by the aristocratic families. We have very few resources in our hands, what can we use to compete with those powerful aristocratic families? Unless it's like Golden Silk Leaf, something that only we have and others don't."

  Ao Lie nodded and said, "Grandfather's consideration is very correct. Lie Er's intention is also the same. Since most of the existing resources are now monopolized by the aristocratic families, we don't have to fight for those remaining trivial profits. We should follow the principle that rarity is precious and open up new sources of goods."

  Liu Yuqi said, "But where does the new source of goods come from?" Mrs. Ao smiled and interrupted beside him: "You, you don't understand business at all, what are you messing around with? How much do you understand of what Father and Lie'er say?"

  Everyone burst out laughing at the same words. Ao Lie laughed for a while and then said, "Jin Si Ye is our golden brand, but it's not the king yet." As he spoke, Ao Lie took out a small cloth bag from his pocket and handed it to everyone. The small cloth bag contained a small handful of tea leaves, but these tea leaves were different from the ones people usually drank. Usually, people drink tea that is directly picked from the tea tree without any processing, just dried in the sun and then infused in water. But the tea leaves Ao Lie took out were not only more green and shiny, but also shaped like embroidery needles, with each root clearly visible.

  Watching everyone's puzzlement, Ao Lie smiled and picked up a tea leaf and put it into the cup. Then he added boiling water to the cup. After a moment, the tea leaves in the cup gradually dispersed and sank to the bottom of the cup, presenting a clear soup with green leaves, making people want to taste it at first sight.

  Ao Lie divided a cup of tea into three small cups and handed them to his grandfather, father, and mother. He said: "First taste the tea I made, how is the flavor?" The three people picked up their teacups and tasted it one by one. Mrs. Ao was the first to say: "Sweet and refreshing, mellow and fragrant, really good." Liu Yu followed and said: "At first, it's slightly bitter, but the more you taste, the more flavorful it becomes, and when you swallow, a hint of sweetness and refreshment emerges."

  Mr. Ao didn't express his opinion, but looked at Ao Lie with a profound gaze and said: "Lie'er, does this tea have a name?" Ao Lie replied: "This tea is called Liu Yang Xue." Mr. Ao nodded and continued to ask: "Is there any difficulty in the production process?" Ao Lie shook his head and said: "It's not difficult to produce anything, but Youzhou is a cold and bitter place in the north, without tea trees, all raw materials and tea varieties need to be purchased from the south.

  "Actually, that's not a problem," said Ao Laozhang in a soft voice. "Jingzhou and Jiangdong are both rich and prosperous places, where the wealthy families only drink honey water, while only the poor common people would drink tea. So buying tea seeds is not difficult at all, and the price is also very low."

  "Low-cost procurement from that side, and then we process and manufacture it, and sell it at a certain price. After deducting the cost of purchasing tea varieties, transportation costs, and subtracting some spices and labor costs added during the production process, we can still make a big profit."

  Seeing Ao Laozhang's continuous nodding in agreement with his own opinion, Ao Lie threw out another blockbuster: "In addition, I also secretly brewed a kind of wine, which is made by distillation method. I dare not say it is the best wine in the world today, but it can definitely be ranked among the top three!"

  "What is distillation? And when did you learn how to make wine?" asked the three old men in unison.

  Ao Lie said with a straight face, "Brewing wine is very simple, just take one look and you'll learn it." Liu Yu exclaimed in surprise, "Lie Er, aren't you not fond of drinking? How did you end up learning to brew wine?" Ao Lie suddenly felt his head spinning, it seemed that lies really couldn't be told casually. He was being tormented by his master Wang Ao's hellish training every day, and whenever he had a bit of free time, he still had to go to the military camp to spar with Zhang Liao and the others. Where did he have the time to learn about brewing wine? The so-called distillation method and all that were things he learned from knowledge of later generations. But could he say this to someone else? Was he supposed to tell Liu Yu that his son was a transmigrator from a later generation?

  No choice, Ao Lie had to push everything onto his previous master, Purple Light Scattered Person: "Father, didn't I say that I learned some miscellaneous skills from my previous master? That's how I learned to make wine and tea." Ao Lao Zhi sighed: "Indeed a superior person, unfortunately we have no fate to meet."

  "Ah, Grandfather, let's just focus on these three products: Jin Si Ye, Liu Yang Xue, and this... uh, let's call it Xi Feng Lie. We'll use them as our main brand to establish the credibility and reputation of our business association first, then think about expanding later."

  Listening to the new words popping out of Ao Lie's mouth, Ao Laozhang couldn't help but feel dizzy for a moment. Words like "brand" and "reputation degree", although Ao Laozhang had never heard them before, he could still understand their meanings. After some deliberation, Ao Laozhang made up his mind: "Alright, let's follow Lie'er's words and establish a business association, but I have one request."

  After a pause, Ao Laozhang's gaze swept over Liu Yu and his wife, then fell on Ao Lie: "After the Chamber of Commerce is established, all the benefits obtained will be divided into five equal parts. Lie'er's contribution is the greatest, and these three rare items are also made by Lie'er, so Lie'er will take two shares; Bo An and Xue Er, you two will take one share each; and although He Er is far away in the capital, he should also leave a share for him, temporarily kept by Bo An on his behalf. The last share will be left to Lao Fu, in case of future needs. What do you think?"

  Ao Lie hastily said: "Not good! With Grandfather above, and Father and Mother also above, how dare Lie take two shares of reward?" Liu Yu smiled and said: "I think there's nothing wrong with it, the allocation by your father is very reasonable. However, I didn't expect that there would be a share for me too."

  Mrs. Ao smiled and said: "Isn't this getting paid for doing nothing?"

  Old man Ao burst out laughing and interrupted their argument, saying: "It's settled then. Come, Lie'er, let's discuss some specific matters." Ao Lie saw that the dispute was not going to end, so he could only give up, sighing as he said: "Grandfather, I just had a sudden idea to make a few rare items, besides, every day I have to practice martial arts, study military tactics, and train my soldiers. Why don't I assign a few people from my troops to help Grandfather instead?"

  Upon hearing Ao Lie's words, Liu Yu nodded his head in satisfaction. He was extremely pleased with his son and had high expectations for him, naturally not wanting him to waste his time on business ventures. Seeing Liu Yu's actions, Ao Lao Zhang could only say: "Alright then, let's do it this way. Lie Er, have your assistant come find me tomorrow and we'll finalize the details as soon as possible. We should take advantage of the New Year's period to establish the Chamber of Commerce."

  Ao Lie nodded to show that he understood. This was what Mrs. Ao said: "Since we're preparing to establish a Chamber of Commerce, we should have a name for it." Old Man Ao thought for a moment and slowly said: "Let's call it the Wan Tong Business Association, symbolizing the prosperity of the business and the convenience of transportation in all directions."

  Liu Yu and his family of three cheered in unison.

  The next day, Tian Chou came to Ao Lao's residence with a dozen or so fine soldiers under Ao Lie's orders. Of course, the soldiers brought by Tian Chou were not the elite of the Blood Killing Battalion, but ordinary soldiers selected from the county troops. Ao Lie would not spare his own blood-killing battalion elites to be partners in a commercial store; their value could only be reflected on the battlefield. At the same time, Shuang Er and her four sisters also came to Ao Lao's place, after all, they were the most skilled at making golden silk leaves. In addition, Ao Lao also selected several capable helpers from his own business team, these people were Ao Lao's trusted followers over the years, who were both reliable and able.

  Here is the translation:

  And so, under Ao Lie's proposal and with the careful addition of details by Old Man Ao, Wan Tong Commercial House was officially established. The establishment of Wan Tong Commercial House may not have attracted much attention at the time, but soon after, due to its good reputation and the introduction of rare products that were hard to find in the market, every new product launched by Wan Tong Commercial House would be immediately sold out. This also made Wan Tong Commercial House a financial pillar for Ao Lie, helping him establish an elite special forces unit later on.

  All of this is after the fact.