Chapter 13: The Battle of Xudu (6)

  Liu Xie hastily explained: "General, you can distribute these tokens to the officials, one per person, and have them take this token to Yuansheng Wine House for a meal, of course, all free. Each person gets four dishes, one soup, and one jug of wine per meal, with eight options to choose from. I've instructed the kitchen to make sure the dishes are exquisite. As for you, General, you can distribute three-tenths of your salary, so these officials can support their families. I think they won't have too many objections!" Liu Xie couldn't help but feel proud of himself, thinking that he had brought the cafeteria system from later generations to this Han Dynasty, a pioneering move. If in the future, they set up a government cafeteria, it wouldn't be bad either.

  Cao Cao understood, Liu Xie was trying to make money from him. The 70% salary wasn't free, and he must have had an ulterior motive for saying this. However, Cao Cao himself couldn't solve the problem at hand. He had planned to rely on the four major families of Xu Chang to provide financial assistance, but they pushed him away, citing that Xu Chang was busy with commercial wars and couldn't provide support.

  Cao Cao sighed and glanced unintentionally at the wooden sign in his hand - "Kaiyuan Wine Tower"? Why did this name sound so familiar? He suddenly remembered that he had heard about Xu Chang's commercial war and knew something about Kaiyuan Wine Tower. It was just a matter of the Liu family trying to gain a foothold in Xu Chang, but the four major families intentionally excluded them.

  Cao Cao suddenly realized that the backer of Kaiyuan Wine Tower was actually the current emperor. He couldn't help but admire Liu Xie's business skills. Kaiyuan Wine Tower was currently at a dead end, and the entire Liu family business was stagnant. If they could inject some new customers now, not only could they save Kaiyuan Wine Tower, but also revitalize the entire industry.

  Although it meant taking on the burden of providing food for all officials for a month, Liu Xie wouldn't let go of this opportunity without gaining anything. He must have had another condition: "Is there anything else Your Majesty requires?"

  Liu Xie smiled slyly: "The great general is indeed formidable. You just said so, how can I bear the cost myself? I can only consider it a loan. After the matter is successful, I will limit you to repaying me within six months, of course, with some interest added, let's calculate it at an annual interest rate of 10%."

  "Ten percent?" Cao Cao was shocked. The salary of the officials is not less than 10,000 stones, if you calculate 10% interest, wouldn't it be around 1,000 to 2,000 stones? This interest seems a bit too high. I'm afraid I'll have to pay several thousand more, and on the surface, the Kaiyuan Wine House will lose money for a month, but if calculated overall, I'm afraid they've made quite a profit. Liu Xie is really good at doing business, he thought to himself. However, he didn't know that it was Liu Yuan who lost money, and Liu Xie who profited. The monthly loss of the Kaiyuan Wine House was unavoidable.