readytorunbook Chapter 668: There are policies from above and countermeasures from below
Chapter 668: There are policies from above and countermeasures from below
Zhang Xiu was really starting to lose his composure. The distance between Jiangdong and Xuzhou was not short, and it was not easy to bring goods from Jiangdong. Now that he had finally come over, he was being asked to take the goods back again. That would be a huge loss.
Chen Yu spread his hands and said, "There's nothing we can do. Unless you can deliver the goods directly to Xiapi and into the Chen family's warehouse, our Chen family will not dare to accept this batch of goods."
Zhang Xiu said speechlessly, "Sending it directly to the Chen family's warehouse, isn't that just being a scoundrel?"
Chen Yu pondered, "I don't want to either, but I have no other choice. If you don't mind the distance, you can transport it to the coast of Youzhou."
Now, Qing and Xu provinces are basically under Luo Tong's control, only the coast of You province is still undeveloped, but it is too far away.
Zhang Xiu immediately refused, saying, "Absolutely not. I didn't bring that much food. What if I starve halfway through the journey?"
The ship is mainly carrying cargo, and the little food we have is only enough to last until we reach the coast of Xuzhou and then return to Jiangdong. But you want me to cross Qingzhou to Youzhou to distribute the goods. I guess we'll go hungry before we even reach Youzhou.
Zhang Xiu said with dissatisfaction, "You handle this matter. I don't believe that the gentry of Xuzhou have no countermeasures and just stand by and watch Luo Tong make a mess of things."
Chen Yu sighed and said, "Recently, the gentry of Xuzhou have indeed discussed strategies to avoid the detectives, but after much discussion, they have come up with only one solution: to break up the goods into smaller parts and bring them in through narrow, winding paths."
The detective team only blocked the main roads; they couldn't stop many of the smaller roads. Moreover, the detective team was conducting a case in a different area and was unfamiliar with the local terrain. They were unaware of many of the narrow, winding paths known only to the locals. They could easily break up the goods and smuggle them into the country. After all, the coastline is so long; how could a detective team of only a few thousand people possibly block it completely?
What the Xuzhou gentry feared was never the blockade and arrests by the detectives, but the punishment that followed.
If you walk by the river often, how can you avoid getting your shoes wet?
The gentry of Xuzhou did have ways to avoid the detectives, but could they avoid them once or ten times? If they were unlucky enough to run into the line of fire one day, they would have to give back all the money they had earned before.
The detective team is the cat, and the smuggling merchants are the mice. The cat can fail countless times, but the mouse is finished after just one failure.
This is similar to the laws of the imperial court. The laws cannot punish every criminal, but their existence can deter everyone and make them think about the consequences of their crimes before committing them.
The same applies to the detective team; they can't catch every smuggling team, so these smugglers have to consider the consequences of being caught.
Therefore, even though they know there are narrow paths that can evade the detectives' search, the gentry of Xuzhou dare not use them lightly.
Zhang Xiu didn't care about any of that and said unreasonably, "Then you decide what to do. Anyway, I can't take my goods back to Jiangdong. These goods are all on credit. If I take them back, how am I supposed to pay them off?"
Chen Yu was so angry she wanted to hit someone. "How much have you made from our Chen family? Why do you need to buy such a small amount of goods on credit?"
Burning newspapers at a grave? Are you kidding me?
Although he didn't want to take any risks, he still needed Zhang Xiu's help and dared not offend this guide who was leading the way to see Liu Bei. So he could only sigh and say, "Alright, give me two hours and I'll make the arrangements."
After saying this, he returned to the small boat and went ashore again. He hid the goods in the homes of farmers near the shore, and planned to break them down into smaller quantities and transport them into Xiapi City when he found an opportunity.
As for settling the bill, too many copper coins were inconvenient to carry, so the Chen family had prepared several boxes of gold in advance. Originally, these were intended for Chen Yu to use to make connections in Jiangnan, but now they had to settle the bill with Zhang Xiu first, and the Chen family would have to find a way to make up for the shortfall later.
The two worked until late at night before finally completing the transaction and returning to Jiangdong by boat. On the way, Zhang Xiu put his arm around Chen Yu's neck and laughed, "There's still a way, isn't there? It seems our transaction doesn't need to stop; it can continue."
Chen Yu did not refute, but only smiled bitterly. If Luo Tong was not dealt with, who would dare to take the risk?
As it turns out, he was too timid. There's never a shortage of adventurers in the world; as long as there's profit to be made, there will be people willing to take risks.
Luo Tong's series of actions did indeed catch the Xuzhou gentry off guard, frightening them into not daring to act rashly in the short term. However, commercial activities did not stop because of their retreat and continued as usual. It was just that Luo Tong's crackdown caused a shortage of goods, which drove up the prices of all goods from Jiangnan, some of which even increased several times over.
The Xuzhou gentry, who had previously given up, were stirred again by the tempting price and began to ponder how to proceed.
To continue doing business, one must avoid the police, and at the same time, take precautions to isolate risks so that even if the goods are unfortunately seized, it will not implicate the family.
The aristocratic families' solution was to find spokespeople among the common people and pay large sums of money to small business owners who traveled from street to street to make the deals. In this way, when the detectives seized goods, they would only arrest the small business owners who made the deals, and would not implicate the families behind the scenes.
If you're still not entirely comfortable with this, you can outsource a few more steps, with A in charge of B, B in charge of C, and C in charge of the specific transaction details. This way, if C is unfortunately caught, you can simply send A and B away or kill them to cut off the trail and protect your family from losses.
There's no need to worry about finding middlemen like A, B, and C; as long as the money is right, there are plenty of people willing to do it.
After all, people have a sense of luck, and even if they get caught, they can leave a large fortune for their children and grandchildren, so why not?
After implementing risk isolation measures, the gentry of Qing and Xu prefectures became active again. However, this time they did not dare to transport goods collectively through the official roads. Instead, they chose to break up their operations and take narrow, winding paths that were difficult for the detectives to find. Many backpackers even appeared.
As long as you can earn a tempting wage by carrying a bag of tea or a batch of silk through the detective team's checkpoint and handing it over to the owner, who wouldn't be envious?
It's worth mentioning that these middlemen and backpackers know they are risking their lives to make money. They might make a fortune today, but tomorrow they could be arrested by the police and lose both their money and their lives. So most of them choose to engage in revenge spending, spending their earnings either drinking or visiting brothels, which greatly boosts the gray economy in Xuzhou.
Meanwhile, the suppliers in Jiangdong were not idle either. Merchant ships sailed directly to Youzhou or Liaodong, covering the entire coastline within their delivery range. For a time, the sea was full of smuggling fleets.
In response to this rampant smuggling situation, Commander Luo's detective team was not idle. While increasing patrols, they also sent out many undercover agents to act as middlemen for the gentry, thereby obtaining the specific time and place of the transactions, and then intercepting them.
Although this action resulted in the interception of a considerable amount of goods, due to risk isolation, the aristocratic families suffered no losses other than the intercepted goods. Moreover, the goods were so valuable that even if they occasionally lost one or two batches, they could still make a profit, so business continued.
In addition, Luo Tong's navy in Qingzhou also went out to sea to patrol. Although the Wei navy could not defeat the Han navy, it was still no problem to deal with the merchant ships coming from Jiangdong, provided that you could find them and block them.
Under the attack of Luo Tong's navy, Jiangdong merchant ships also began to suffer losses. However, due to the high profits, Jiangdong merchant ships did not stop and continued to flock to the border of Cao Wei.
After the initial intense struggle, the three parties—buyer, seller, and detective team—gradually reached a balance, and each made money.
Sellers make money from buyers, buyers make money from distributors, and the detectives make money by robbing buyers and sellers, just like bandits. All three parties are quite satisfied with this situation.