Chapter Thirty-Three: A Dead End

  When Chen He and Fu Jiahe lowered the wood price to the lowest, Lin Chunhong took action. He sent Zheng Tiancheng to station in Jingzhou, buying a large amount of wood. The cost of wood for Chen He and Fu Jiahe was originally higher than that of Lin Chunhong, after all, they had arranged a lot of people at Nanjing Pass to intercept the wood. Now that Lin Chunhong bought a large amount of wood, they were caught off guard, and with the recent rumor that Lin Chunhong got 200,000 taels of silver, they felt like falling into an ice cellar, feeling cold in their hearts. After discussion, the two decided to cancel this price reduction and temporarily stop competing with Lin Chunhong, raising the wood price back to normal level. However, Lin Chunhong decided not to let them go, selling the wood he bought at a low price during the previous period, causing the wood price to plummet again, leaving Chen He and Fu Jiahe unprepared.

  The fluctuation of wood prices in Jingzhou has left the common people bewildered, with sudden surges and drops like a roller coaster ride. Those who can't understand it can only tighten their purse strings and refrain from buying. However, a group of wood speculators emerged in Jingzhou City, constantly monitoring the market, ready to make a fortune. But their funds were no match for Lin Chunhong's wealth, nor did they have a large source of goods, so they could only scrape together some small gains in the cracks. As a result, most people lost their shirts, while a few overnight successes left the common people of Jingzhou City talking with relish.

  Chen He and Fu Jia sat in the garden, surrounded by gloomy clouds and mist. They sighed and groaned at times, their faces filled with anger, looking as if they had lost their last hope.

  "Good grief, Teng Yu Hao has long since not been of one mind with us. It was all for naught that we racked our brains." Fu Jia He said through gritted teeth whenever mentioning Teng Yu Hao.

  "Heng Yu Hao is just a small role, no need to mention. If the King's palace doesn't bring up that 1.2 million, we can still continue to deal with Lin Chun Hong, what do we do now?" Chen He has clearly calmed down now, his anger and sadness not affecting his judgment."

  Speaking of King Hui, the Fu family was even more furious, cursing: "These bastards are all the same, the Chu king of Wuchang is also insatiably greedy. How did Emperor Hongwu give birth to these worthless things!"

  Chen He let out a sigh and said, "I only have 20,000 taels of silver left in my hands now. How much do you still have?"

  "Just over 10,000 yuan."

  "I still have some salt certificates here, I want to mortgage them out and get 50,000 to 60,000 taels of silver, then mortgage the house in Jingzhou again and get over a million taels. With this, we can fight against Lin Chunhong!"

  Fu's family hesitated and even feared that if they continued to fight, they might end up losing everything. He said: "Why don't we talk to Lin Chunhong and follow the agreement from last time? We'll take a bit of a loss, what do you think?"

  "Don't you remember how we humiliated Lin Chunhong at Jinyiulóng last time? He definitely won't agree to it!"

  Fu Jiahe also agreed with this judgment, and he continued to say: "If not, we might as well not do the timber business? Let Lin Chunhong take over this line of work, we still have money, at worst we can go do other businesses!"

  "It's unbearable! What business can make money as quickly as selling wood? The king is also involved in this, I have no say in this matter, I need to go ask the king!"

  The two men discussed it back and forth, and finally decided to go ask King Hui to make a decision. As a result, when Chen He saw King Hui, he was scolded until his face was covered in blood. King Hui was still fuming with anger and directly issued an order: "I don't care if you're losing or making money, but by the end of the year I want to see 40,000 taels of silver as dividends!"

  Chen He and Fu Jiahe had no choice but to go all out, taking out all their family property to compete with Lin Chunhong. They continued to sell wood at a loss, most of which flowed into Lin Chunhong's hands, piling up in Jingzhou. For a time, the entire city became an ocean of wood, making the authorities nervous, fearing that if a fire broke out, the whole city would be destroyed in an instant. Strict orders were given to Zheng Tiancheng to take precautions against fires, and Lin Chunhong, of course, did not dare to slack off, dispatching his most elite forces to patrol day and night, preparing large quantities of firefighting equipment.

  Zheng Tiancheng is currently at the most exciting time, he has never enjoyed the feeling of several tens of thousands of silver coins passing through his hands, this feeling will become one of his best memories for life. When Lin Chunhong called this struggle a "business war", Zheng Tiancheng raised his hand in agreement a hundred times, only to feel that he had become the commander-in-chief of thousands of soldiers and horses, fighting fiercely with Chen He and others. Zheng Tiancheng has truly found the stage where he can play to his strengths, every day and night observing the market, gathering information from all sides, choosing the best time to buy or sell wood. After all, his opponents are not just Chen He and others, but also some scattered households that make him dare not be careless, although they do not have a decisive impact on the overall situation, ignoring them will pay a heavy price. In less than a month, Zheng Tiancheng bought a good piece of land from a bankrupt household to build a warehouse. The approval for this came down soon after, as Zhang Daohan had pulled in many officials into the Yiling Warehouse's shares last time in Jingzhou, and they looked more favorably on Jingzhou this time, secretly helping out a lot.

  The construction of Jingzhou Warehouse is about to begin, who will be sent to take charge? Lin Chunhong encountered another problem!

  It's not that Lin Chunhong lacked talent, but rather that Chen He and Fu Jiahe had invested all their family's assets, over 100,000 taels of silver, in a desperate bid after being suppressed. This indeed put immense pressure on Zheng Tiancheng. Although Lin Chunhong had gathered over 300,000 taels of silver to engage in a fierce battle with Chen He and others, Zheng Tiancheng was unaware of how much more wealth Chen He and Fu Jiahe could muster, or whether the 300,000 taels would be enough to completely exhaust Chen He and his partner. The pressure on Zheng Tiancheng suddenly increased, and at over twenty years old, he began to show faint white hairs on his temples. Frightened, Zheng Tiancheng couldn't help but suggest to Lin Chunhong that they settle with Chen He and others according to the terms previously proposed.

  Lin Chun-hong analyzed to Zheng Tian-cheng, our bottom line is that Chen He can more or less guess, now Chen He can continue to fight with us, it's estimated that he has nothing to fear, but now the fight has become difficult to distinguish and resolve, both sides cannot stop. We still have over 100,000 taels of silver stored, let's hold on for now and see who can't hold on first. Even if we lose all our 300,000 taels of silver, the sky won't fall, Lin De-shao has already started making a profit in Yuezhou, with over 1,000 taels per month, and the Jingzhou warehouse is being prepared, at worst, we can build the Jingzhou warehouse and sell it. Slowly, we can achieve a balance of income and expenses, as long as our income and expenses are balanced, Chen He will have no way to deal with us, at most, he just won't be able to cut down trees.

  Zheng Tiancheng got the bottom of Lin Chunhong's heart and felt a lot more at ease. Now, what he most wanted to know was how much power Chen He still had! So, with Wang Yi's cooperation, he strengthened the information collection on the streets and alleys, in order to find out Chen He's secrets from subtle clues. Just as Zheng Tiancheng was worried, Guan Renmei came to visit, and Zheng Tiancheng hastily welcomed her into the hall with courtesy.

  Guan Renmei and Zheng Tiancheng had known each other for a long time, and they had already met in Yiling. After Zheng Tiancheng arrived in Jingzhou with 300,000 taels of silver, he couldn't hide it from the astute Guan Renmei no matter what. Guan Renmei was amazed by Zheng Tiancheng's rapid rise to prominence in just a few years and admired him greatly. He even envied Zheng Tiancheng's thrilling experience of throwing away thousands of taels of silver, unlike himself who had been following the same routine for years without any excitement. As a result, Guan Renmei often contacted Zheng Tiancheng, and they would exchange business ideas during their conversations.

  Moreover, when Guan Renmei learned that the mastermind behind Zheng Tiancheng was Lin Chunhong and that Yiling Warehouse was also one of Lin's businesses, he had been looking for an opportunity to get to know Lin. This time, with Yiling Warehouse pooling shares, Guan Renmei saw great prospects in the warehouse and spent over 50,000 taels of silver to buy a 15% stake, becoming the second-largest shareholder after Lin Chunhong. After Guan invested in the warehouse, he naturally shifted all his large-scale transactions in Yiling to the warehouse, also bringing many merchants to trade there, resulting in the warehouse's transaction volume increasing day by day, with monthly profits now exceeding 12,000 taels of silver.

  The good prospects of the Yiling warehouse made those who had hesitated earlier regretful, and they inquired if there were any other warehouses that could be invested in. Upon receiving a negative response, they were extremely disappointed. However, this did not deter their desire to invest, and some people approached the merchants and officials who had purchased shares earlier to see if they would sell their shares. Some thought of selling their shares at an increased price of 30% or 40%, or even 50%. With this idea in mind, they went to ask Zhou Feng, the manager of Yiling warehouse, if she could sell shares. They were a bit uncomfortable with the fact that the manager was a woman, feeling that it was beneath them as men to listen to her. However, the temptation of money made them overlook their pride, and they consoled themselves by thinking that even if the manager were a cat, as long as she could make them money, it didn't matter.

  After receiving this request, Zhou Feng did not dare to act alone and wrote a letter to Lin Chunhong for instructions. Lin Chunhong replied that it was okay to charge a fee of one cent, but they had to do a good job of filing and reporting to the Yiling State Government, and assign special personnel to be responsible for this matter. Lin Chunhong was naturally pleased with this development and was also surprised by the cleverness of the Ming merchants. What Lin Chunhong did not know was that such stock transactions had already appeared in the Song Dynasty. Now his own warehouse's shareholding system was far from perfect, there were no shareholders' meetings or board of directors, so what's the hurry? Let's take it one step at a time, Lin Chunhong comforted himself.

  Guan Renmei would never sell his shares, he was looking at the long-term, not just making a quick buck. After entering the hall, Guan Renmei pulled out a contract and waved it back and forth in front of Zheng Tiancheng.

  "What's going on? Is Guan Shu still pretending to let me catch him?"

  "What's 'luring in by pretending to release'? You little brat, you've made no progress at all with your idioms, getting them all mixed up. This is the contract between me and Chen He Ding, take a look."

  Zheng Tiancheng immediately snatched the contract from Guan Renmei's hand and examined it carefully. It turned out that Chen He had borrowed 60,000 taels of silver from Guan Renmei, using 30,000 dan of salt as collateral. Zheng Tiancheng felt a chill run down his spine, after all, Chen He now had an additional 60,000 taels in funds. He complained: "Uncle Guan doesn't care about us younger generation at all, and yet he lends money to Chen He at such a critical moment."

  Guan Renmei didn't get angry at all, and instead smiled: "With Chen He's 30,000 dan of salt certificates, where can't he borrow money? Do you know that one dan of salt is now worth more than three taels of silver? Anyway, Chen He is dead for sure, and I've made a big profit this time."

  Zheng Tiancheng thought for a moment and asked, "How did Guan Shu determine that Chen He was no good?"

  "Think about it, 30,000 dan of salt is worth at least 100,000 taels of silver. Chen He was in a hurry to raise funds and after mortgaging, he only managed to raise 60,000 taels of silver. Isn't that obvious? The cash in his hands can't exceed 100,000 taels."

  Zheng Tiānchéng listened and felt a great sense of relief in his heart. He stroked his forehead and let out a long sigh.

  Gu Renmei took the tea cup lid, swirled the water in the cup, took a sip, closed her eyes, savored it for a moment, and said: "This is indeed Rong Mei green tea? Hmm, not bad, rich flavor."

  Zheng Tiancheng nodded and smiled: "That's right. Previously, everyone didn't know about this tea, and we didn't know if it would be popular either. We brought some over for everyone to try, and the result was that sales were quite good, so we continued selling it in Yiling and Yuezhou. I also brought a few catties from Yiling here. If Gu Shu doesn't mind, I'll give them all to you?"

  "That's great, haha." Guan Renmei wasn't polite either, directly laughing and accepting, "So it seems that your relationship with Rong Mei Tu Si is quite good? I've had contact with Rong Mei Xuan Fu Shi Tian Chu Chan before, he's extremely clever, if you can purchase tea leaves from him, it would only be beneficial for him."

  "It's just this principle. With the precedent of Baiyue Cave and Sichuan, Gongmei Tusi has no qualms about cooperating with us either. Lin Laoban is driven by the idea that everyone makes money together, and Gongmei also benefits greatly, so they won't refuse. However, they are quite dissatisfied with Chen He's logging on their turf, but intimidated by the power of King Hui, they don't dare to refuse."

  "Haha, good for you to make a fortune together. You also made those locals in Sini and Baigong Cave earn a lot, they must be grateful to you. So, do you want to knock down Chen He immediately?"

  "What's the solution?"

  "You just said that Rong Mei was dissatisfied with Chen He and Hui Wang, didn't you!" After finishing speaking, Guan Renmei smiled at Zheng Tiancheng. Zheng Tiancheng patted his head and immediately came to his senses, saying: "This needs to be decided by Boss Lin, and the documents will be sent over right away!"

  "Don't be in a hurry, I still have something to trouble Lin Dianshi with, and you can tell him together. It's like this, Ma Lian has an iron mine, but unfortunately it belongs to Rong Mei Tusi. I secretly went to investigate and found that it's very good for mining on the Qingjiang River bank. Can we ask Lin Dianshi to contact Tian Chupan on my behalf? Whatever profit Tian Chupan wants is no problem, we can discuss it, as long as he agrees!"

  Zheng Tiancheng was shocked and asked: "Privately mining for minerals, isn't this going to get us into trouble with the authorities?"

  "Don't worry about this, I won't take a wrong path, I wouldn't dare mine. As long as Tian Chu produces agrees, there's no problem."

  Zheng Tiancheng agreed with suspicion and reported these things to Lin Chunhong at the same time.

  After Chen He made up his mind to fight Lin Chunhong to the end, he quietly arranged for his family to take a boat to their hometown in Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province, and stayed alone in Jingzhou, also making preparations to run away at any time. Chen He doesn't hate Lin Chunhong now, but he is resentful towards the Huiwang Fu. After all, Lin Chunhong fought him according to the rules, and even if he lost, he would have been convinced. If it weren't for the Huiwang, how could he possibly lose to Lin Chunhong?

  Just as he was dazed, a subordinate rushed in hastily, shouting: "Master, it's bad, it's bad!"

  "What's going on? Rushing to a funeral?" Chen He angrily asked.

  The subordinate finally stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath and handed Chen He a letter: "Boss Fu left this for you."

  Chen He's face turned pale and defeated as he read the letter, learning that Fu Jiahe had left a note behind before leaving to seek better opportunities elsewhere. Chen He felt guilty towards Fu Jiahe, thinking that if it weren't for his own persistence in fighting against Lin Chunhong with all his might, Fu Jiahe wouldn't have lost so badly that he didn't even have the energy to recover. Originally, Chen He had thought that the 100,000 taels of silver would be enough to crush Lin Chunhong, but it seemed that Lin's wealth was endless.

  Fu Jia and others advised Chen He in a letter to withdraw early, keep the principal, and plan for another rise. Chen He smiled bitterly, can he still withdraw now? What about the 40,000 taels of profit that King Hui mentioned? Although King Hui has no power in the local government and is restricted everywhere, it's easier to crush himself than to crush an ant.

  Chen He struggled on for another month, until he received a report that Tian Chu's troops had surrounded the logging site, demanding a fee and inciting the loggers, who had not been paid in two months, to riot. Chen He knew his time to flee had arrived, so he entrusted his nephew with the last 20,000 taels of silver to take back to Zhejiang, then vanished from sight, leaving no one knowing where he went. King Hui was left with nothing but a broken Song dynasty vase.

  Lin Chunhong heard that Chen He and Fu Jiahe had gone missing, and he was also very sorry to hear this. These two people were also among the best in the world, but they chose the wrong partner. The descendants of the Zhu family had long been despised by everyone, greedy, short-sighted, and magnifying all the shortcomings of the world on their bodies. It's strange if you don't fail when cooperating with them. Lin Chunhong ordered Zheng Tiancheng to buy Chen He's remaining property at a very low price, and he personally went to Sanduoping and Nanjinguan to comfort the rioting loggers, paid their wages on behalf of Chen He, and selected some capable people from among them to join his team. The boatmen in Nanjinguan returned to Zhang Zhao, while the loggers in Sanduoping were arranged to Qingjiang, and a part of them was dispatched to Sanduoping to guide the local people to cut wood under the leadership of Lin Dehai, with Qin Bangding and Damao'er as his deputies. Damao'er's real name was Cheng Qidan, who was talkative but had a good relationship with the locals, and even married a local woman. Lin Chunhong trusted him very much in handling relations with the locals.

  Lin Chunhong decided that, apart from directing the logging and purchasing of wood, he would personally slow down his logging work and gradually withdraw brave and strong people from the logging team to replenish the guard team.

  Chen He's subordinates heard that after joining Lin Chunhong, as long as they worked for two years, they would have a share of the profits, and they were excited like it was Chinese New Year. Rong Mei Xuan also agreed to send people to cut wood and sell it to Lin Chunhong, which was much better than watching Chen He make money without getting a single cent themselves. As for Guan Renmei's request to mine, he demanded a 20% share of the profits and priority rights to purchase iron products, which did not exceed Guan Renmei's bottom line, and Guan Renmei gladly agreed.

  As the timber market returned to normal, Lin Chunhong had a large amount of silver in his hands, with monthly income and expenses balancing out, leaving over 30,000 taels in surplus. In the foreseeable future, the silver in his hands would only continue to grow. He wanted to greatly expand his military equipment, but didn't have the guts for it, and at this stage, there didn't seem to be any wars worth Lin Chunhong worrying about. Although Chongzhen was plagued by disasters, it wasn't up to Lin Chunhong to worry about it, and if he tried to share the worries, he might even be accused of plotting rebellion.

  Lin Chunhong saw Guan Renmei investing in iron ore and also wanted to dig mines through Guan Renmei's connections, but was tactfully rejected by Guan Renmei. In short, buying iron is okay, but mining is not allowed. Lin Chunhong didn't take it to heart either, after all, who would want others to dig a piece of flesh from their own mouth?

  The Baiya Cave and the Siniang boundary also have a lot of iron ore, Lin Chunhong saw some mountainous areas with broken tree heads, the local people think this is the result of the gods' anger, and they dare not set foot in this place. At first, Lin Chunhong thought it was strange, after asking experienced craftsmen, he knew that there were iron mines underground, attracting lightning, which caused the broken tree heads to be particularly numerous here. But Lin Chunhong did not dare to mine, after all, the salt and iron official business is not a joke.

  Lin Chunhong had no choice but to gather his brothers to discuss how to spend the money. This made his brothers feel like they were in a different world, just a few months ago they were discussing ways to make money, and now they were discussing how to spend it. But this also made his brothers proud and look forward to the future, who would complain about having too much money?

  Alas, livelihood is settled, how to make oneself have stronger muscles? Let's hear the next volume analysis.