Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 258 Grandpa's Tea

Yuwen Rong's relationship with the Yuan family was extraordinary. Yuan Qianyao not only recommended and promoted him, but they were also close political allies. Without Yuan Qianyao's strong protection, it would have been difficult for someone with Yuwen Rong's personality to have such a smooth journey.

Zhang Dai didn't expect to sow discord between the two sides with just one conversation. Moreover, he was simply stating a fact: Yuan Fu's abilities were simply insufficient to assist Yuwen Rong. If Yuwen Rong placed too much hope in him, it would inevitably lead to both of them being misled and ultimately to failure.

Insidious and cunning schemes will only alienate people; presenting facts, reasoning, and sincere persuasion are the only ways to win their hearts.

Although Yuwen Rong and Yuan Qianyao's family had a close relationship, he also had a strong sense of ambition. Moreover, he was in a very awkward position because he had been ousted from the capital due to personnel disputes in the court, but the personnel resources he controlled far exceeded those of an ordinary governor of Xiongzhou.

Such a situation is bound to be unsustainable, because once the personnel disputes in the court come to an end, the prime ministers will likely have to make Yuwen Rong their new target.

Therefore, Yuwen Rong must seize the opportunity and make outstanding achievements as the governor of Weizhou as soon as possible. Only in this way can he win the opportunity to return to the court and avoid being suppressed by the prime ministers in the prefectures and counties and having his power gradually diminished.

In this matter, Yuan Qianyao could not help Yuwen Rong much. In fact, due to Yuwen Rong's demotion, Yuan Qianyao's presence in the central government became increasingly weak.

Therefore, Yuwen Rong had high hopes for the plan to reopen the Wang Mang River, hoping to break through the encirclement with it, and naturally could not tolerate his incompetent teammates holding him back. Zhang Dai's suggestion that he should concurrently serve as the governor of Bianzhou undoubtedly greatly appealed to Yuwen Rong.

Even if he were to consider Yuan Qianyao's feelings and continue to tolerate Yuan Fu's continued tenure as governor of Bianzhou, his incompetence would ultimately lead to the failure of the plan to reopen the Wang Mang River, resulting in wasted resources and manpower. This would undoubtedly become another excuse for his political enemies to attack him.

With Yuwen Rong's return to the capital hopeless, Yuan Qianyao will become increasingly marginalized. Even if Yuan Fu remains as the governor of Bianzhou, what good will it do? Can we really expect Yuan Fu to turn the tide? It's likely that he will be stripped of his post soon!

However, Yuwen Rong also understood that although the principle was sound, directly stating it would inevitably create a rift in the relationship between the two parties. He had been promoted by Yuan Qianyao, but in the end, he had taken away the position and power of Yuan's son, which inevitably made him feel indebted to him.

For the rest of the day, Yuwen Rong pondered this problem, to the point that he became somewhat absent-minded and even lost the will to deal with some public works projects, so he simply postponed the approval.

"Zhang said this grandson is indeed no ordinary person. With just a few words, he has greatly disturbed my mind!"

Even after nightfall, Yuwen Rong still couldn't sort out any clues. At dinner, he realized that he had wasted most of the day and couldn't help but complain.

Although he was complaining, his thoughts couldn't help but drift to what Zhang Dai had said about wealthy families in Bianzhou raising hundreds of thousands of strings of cash.

If this is true, it is indeed very surprising. You should know that Yuanfu has been causing trouble in the prefecture for so long, but he has only received a few hundred thousand strings of cash, yet he has already caused the city of Bian to become desolate.

After thinking about it for a while, he picked up his pen and wrote a letter about the matter, and ordered his servant to send it to Bianzhou as soon as possible, so that Yuanfu could investigate it in depth. He also wanted to take this opportunity to test Yuanfu's abilities.

If Zhang Dai, a mere passerby, could accomplish something like this, there's no reason why Yuan Fu, the dignified governor of Bianzhou, couldn't. If Yuan Fu could also be inspired by this and generate further revenue, providing a continuous stream of support to Weizhou, then there would be no need to abandon Yuan Fu.

Since Zhang Dai had told Yuwen Rong about this, he wasn't afraid that Yuwen Rong would inform Yuan Fu, which was one of his goals in the first place.

First of all, this matter is still unresolved. Although the wealthy families in Bianzhou have a lot of money, they are not stupid. How could they rush to give Zhang Dai hundreds of thousands of strings of cash after only meeting him once?

Even if they really intend to join Feiqianxing, they will have to invest in batches and only make additional investments after seeing returns.

After all, they each had their own businesses in the state. Even if their profits from buying and selling were reduced due to Yuan Fu's mismanagement, and they wanted to explore more sources of income, they hadn't yet reached the point of gambling away their entire fortune.

Previously, Zhang Dai had asked them to raise 10,000 strings of cash. If the amount was split among the families, it would only amount to a few hundred or a thousand strings of cash. Even if there was no return on the business, it would be worthwhile to get to know Zhang Dai, a top playboy and the top scholar in the imperial examination. Naturally, there would be no objections.

Even though the profits from flying money are astonishing, and the two capitals have already been a very successful case, which has greatly tempted these people, when it comes to actually spending money, they still have to consider all aspects carefully.

Rushing in isn't a good business practice. If they don't have corresponding bargaining power and sufficient protection of their rights, they probably won't be foolish enough to hand over their money. Unless some other variables arise that put real pressure on them, they might not make any concessions in the future.

If Yuwen Rong were to tell Yuan Fu about this, it would undoubtedly provoke Yuan Fu's displeasure. Although investment is a private choice and action, the movement of such a large sum of money, especially given the ongoing disaster and economic devastation in Bianzhou, makes it all the more sensitive.

Is this behind-the-scenes collusion simply a business partnership, or is it a sign of dissatisfaction with the state government's policies, or even a desire to transfer assets abroad and escape state control?

If Yuan Fu were willing to communicate properly and have a full exchange with them, he would naturally realize that Zhang Dai was just bragging, that this matter was completely fabricated, let alone the hundreds of thousands of strings of cash in capital! But the question is, is Yuan Fu willing to communicate properly? Or does he think those wealthy merchants and magnates within the territory are worthy of his polite and respectful communication? If he were willing and believed that everything could be discussed, would Bianzhou be in this mess now?

You say there was no fundraising, then how do you explain the previous 10,000 strings of cash? Was that all? Zhang Dai spent more than 10,000 strings of cash along the way when he entered the prefecture. Is it really worth giving you such a big face for 10,000 strings of cash?

Of course, these were all Zhang Dai's own assumptions. How the personnel situation in Bianzhou would actually evolve depended on how clever Yuan Fu would act. Or perhaps Yuwen Rong had already completely lost faith in him and simply hadn't informed him of the matter.

Zhang Dai then stayed in Weizhou for a period of time, mainly visiting and observing the market.

Although he frequently visited the boat market and the North and South markets in Xintan while in Luoyang, Luoyang was still heavily influenced by politics, and it did not adequately showcase how resources and figures from the common people were commercially circulated.

The market in Weizhou is very active, with merchants from the north and south frequently exchanging various kinds of goods.

The prosperity of the commodity market here was quite rare in ancient societies that were based on agriculture.

On the one hand, natural disasters have made it difficult for many people to continue farming and weaving, disrupting their original self-sufficient way of life, and many necessities have to be obtained from the market.

On the other hand, Hebei's handicraft industry was also relatively developed. For example, the book "Qimin Yaoshu" written by Jia Sixie of the Northern Qi Dynasty not only recorded the production and processing techniques of many cash crops, but also the market prices, in addition to the basic agricultural production techniques.

Given the vast territory of the Tang Dynasty and the stable development of the world today, it is possible to offset a considerable portion of the damage to production caused by natural disasters and man-made calamities through cross-regional communication and mutual assistance.

Natural population growth could also alleviate the pressure on land and people to some extent through the diversion of people to handicraft industries. At least during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, internal conflicts had not yet accumulated to the point where they were bound to erupt.

However, the rent-labor system implemented by the Tang Dynasty forced a large number of people to maintain the production mode of farming and weaving, even though they no longer had important means of production such as land.

The tax system in the Tang Dynasty was also evolving. Adjustments to the ratio of poll tax and land tax, as well as alternative methods such as rent reduction for cloth production and market purchase of light goods, all reflected the rulers' awareness of where social wealth was flowing and how to collect it more efficiently.

This understanding only led them to improve their methods of accumulating wealth, but it did not attempt to coordinate and promote the emergence of new modes of production and relations of production. This was undoubtedly a very irresponsible approach, and the world paid a heavy price for it.

Zhang Dai's current market research isn't focused on profound social changes, but rather on how to more efficiently acquire and integrate resources. To put it more bluntly, how can he make more money and attract more people?

While the million canal workers certainly had great potential, the canal resources were entirely controlled by the government, and the workers were dependent on the canal for their survival. Therefore, they had to cooperate with powerful figures to develop. Moreover, there were significant limitations. The transportation of goods rented from various regions alone consumed a large amount of manpower each year, which could not be flexibly allocated.

What industries or products have great market potential, many operational links, and a wide geographical span, and can legitimately gather and allocate human resources through various links such as production, transportation, and sales?

Zhang Dai wandered around the Weizhou market for several days. Salt and iron, traditional advantageous commodities, quickly caught his eye, but he soon rejected them.

These two types of products are too traditional and too advantageous, so much so that the room for operation becomes very small, and there is always the possibility of violating the law, not to mention the possibility of gathering and deploying a large amount of human resources.

Persistence pays off. After some investigation, Zhang Dai quickly identified a commodity with equally great potential, but whose value had not yet been fully realized: tea!

By contracting mountains to plant tea, hiring people to pick the tea, transporting it by boat and cart, and selling it far and wide to the Hehuang and Shuofang regions in exchange for cattle, horses, hides, tendons, and horns, a large number of people and materials can be organized in a reasonable and rational manner through this series of links, and then transported across regions and over long distances!
Although tea at that time did not have the same broad market and strong performance as it would in later years, it was not a rare commodity in the Weizhou market. Many shops sold it, either as a beverage or as a medicine.

Although the price is not low, the quality varies, and the sales volume is very stable. Although it is not a hot seller, it is good because it is a steady stream of business.

Tea cultivation can employ a large number of tea farmers and make full use of hilly terrain that is difficult to cultivate. Especially over time, it will become increasingly strong in foreign trade and will never have to worry about finding a market.

"We'll go back and lease the entire mountain to build tea plantations!"

Zhang Dai was planning to lease all the mountains in the vicinity of Longmen, Beiman, Zhongnan, and Huashan to grow tea. Once the tea gardens were established, who in the Northern government would dare to challenge him? He would simply take them up the mountain and sell them as tea!
He even came up with a marketing plan: pretty young ladies near Xintan in Luoyang and Pingkangfang in Chang'an, as well as princesses sent abroad for marriage alliances, would all say, "My grandfather grows this tea," and who wouldn't be confused?

(End of this chapter)