The destiny of all heavens begins in the Red Chamber

After the other martial arts forces and powerful figures suffered heavy losses in their clashes, they dared not continue their antics.

No one can guarantee whether they can withstand the consequences if they completely anger Jia Huan, the head of the gang; the consequences are likely to be quite severe.

So what if there are officials backing them up?

Jia Huan's identity is no secret, and how many officials in the capital are not wary of the Rong family's power?

And so it was true; in the core territory controlled by the Ningrong Street gang, things were truly calm and peaceful.

It is said that some people and even families who are tired of the conflicts in the martial arts world have begun to relocate to the villages and towns along the artificial waterway, a situation that Jia Huan did not expect.

But this is a good thing!

As long as the other party follows the rules and their arrival can boost the local economy, he doesn't care.

However, that's about all the Jianghu affairs that the gang directly intervenes in.

This is also the main reason why Jia Huan did not consider himself a江湖人士 (jianghu person, someone from the martial arts world).

As for those ambitious underlings who occupied Tongzhou and Tianjin docks and formed their own independent gangs, they were simply peripheral forces.

Their relationship with the Ningrong Street branch wasn't one of superior and subordinate; they were simply close collaborators.

With Jia Huan in charge of the branch, the bosses and underlings of the two branch offices would give him some face and maintain a fairly good relationship with the branch office.

However, if Jia Huan is unable to regularly oversee the branch offices, his relationship with those two branch offices will inevitably become cold and distant; this is bound to happen.

He's the boss himself, and with the convenience of the canal transport, he's quite wealthy and has a lot of underlings. How could he possibly be content to remain subordinate to others forever?

Jia Huan understood human nature, so he did not impose any coercive measures on these guys.

The best way to bind people together is through shared interests, not through so-called loyalty or friendship.

Under Jia Huan's leadership, the relationship between the Ningrong Street branch and its two sub-branches remained quite good.

In particular, the Xue family's large-scale transportation of goods over the years has brought a steady stream of revenue to these two branch businesses, so it would be strange if their relationship wasn't good.

That's all there is to it; don't even think about interfering in their internal affairs.

Sure enough, the Tianjin branch was provoked by outside gangsters. They heard that the situation was not good, but they showed no sign of asking the Ningrong Street branch for help.

How could Jia Huan not understand the thoughts of the boss of the Tianjin branch?

Therefore, upon hearing Xue Panyan say that the order of the martial arts world in Tianjin was unstable, he did not intend to immediately send people to provide support; he decided to wait and see.

It's still because of the allure of self-interest!

Previously, Tianjin, as a node in the northern canal transport, had gradually developed into a relatively prosperous town, but that was all.

The benefits that can be brought by the canal transport are, after all, limited.

Given Tianjin's economic level at that time, only one underworld force could be allowed to exist.

This was the power that the Ningrong Street branch separated from after the Caobang branch was driven out. Once it gained a foothold, it could dominate the area. The economic level here could only support one branch.

But the situation is different now!

With the advantages of Tianjin's access to the sea coming into play, the area has ushered in a period of rapid development.

The continuous flow of goods from the canals and the sea, along with specialties from Korea, made Tianjin the largest distribution center for goods in the north, making its rapid development inevitable.

The money involved in the port and wharf every day is calculated in units of hundreds of thousands.

In an agrarian society, what an astonishing speed of money circulation this would be!

Just a little bit of its fur was enough to make the locals in Tianjin very rich, and it quickly developed into a highly sought-after commodity in the eyes of outsiders, a goose that lays golden eggs.

Those who acted first were naturally the underworld forces that had caught the scent of wealth.

It's possible that powerful figures are pulling the strings behind the scenes; no one really knows for sure.

In short, it is clearly unlikely that the group of brothers who split off from the Ningrong Street branch will be able to continue to monopolize the interests of the Tianjin docks.

What they need to consider now is how to withstand the impact of external forces from the martial arts world and maintain their status and strength.

If they can weather this storm, and Tianjin rapidly develops into the largest seaport in the north, coupled with the convenience of canal transport, it might even surpass the main hall in size.

Of course, if they really thought that way, Jia Huan could only say it was wishful thinking.

At present, we hope that they will have the self-awareness to avoid escalating the conflict and disrupting the normal operation of the docks and ports, otherwise they will face utter destruction.

Chapter 278 Absurdity (Please Subscribe)

July arrived in the blink of an eye, and the weather was already quite hot.

In Tianjin, the fleet of ships bound for Korea set sail again, this time on a much larger scale than before, with more than a dozen additional vessels.

I've heard that this is a perk the current emperor has given to his trusted ministers, allowing them to purchase ships and join the Imperial Household Department's fleet to go to Goryeo and make their fortune.

The die-hard fans these days are quite active, and their cheerful attitude all day long is disgusting.

Prince Zhongshun was so angry he almost vomited blood!

He never imagined that people could be so shameless these days, playing this game of generosity at other people's expense with such ease.

It was a complete slap in the face, and in front of everyone at that.

Although he did not monopolize overseas trade with Goryeo, he was merely a pioneer.

However, Prince Zhongshun still felt that the current behavior was going too far.

If you want to win people over, can't you do it in private? Why make such a big fuss?

People who don't know better will think you're deliberately targeting them. How will you ever have the nerve to go out and meet people again?

Fortunately, the fleet under Prince Chungsun had other intentions in heading to Goryeo; otherwise, if it were just about overseas trade, they would probably be furious.

Not only was he angry, but the other members of the royal family were also quite angry.

They haven't even had a chance to get involved yet, and now they're already pulling their confidants together to make a fortune. Do they look down on their royal brothers?

Korea is only so big; even if we take a large figure, its population is at most around ten million!

Those who have both the strength and the ability to purchase goods from the Central Plains are, after all, a minority!

If you make several trips back and forth a year, I'm afraid Korea simply can't absorb that many goods.

At yet another internal gathering, Prince Chungsun expressed his deep sorrow and grief.

These words were secretly conveyed to this person by Jia Huan's intermediary, and the purpose was self-evident.

Sure enough, the royal family members, who had been calm and collected, suddenly panicked.

Thinking about it carefully, what Prince Zhongshun said makes a lot of sense; this won't do!

Then, the current emperor and the retired emperor were harassed by a group of members of the imperial clan.

The gist is that we're all family, so don't side with outsiders.

This really gave the people of today quite a shock.

He never expected the royal family members to react so strongly.

Looking back, the concerns of these royal family members were not without merit!

Goryeo was just a small country, and it had been harassed by the barbarians of the Later Jin for many years. It should have had very little money and its purchasing power was limited.

Not wanting to incur the collective displeasure of the royal family members, they had no choice but to guarantee that the fleet sent to Goryeo would not be expanded unless a royal family member's ship joined them.

But just then, bad news came from the south.

The imperial envoys dispatched to investigate the salt tax issue all died within half a month due to various unexpected events. When the news reached the capital, it caused a great shock in the court.

The emperor, enraged beyond measure, burst into laughter in the imperial court, demanding that the cabinet and local authorities thoroughly investigate the matter.

At the same time, a higher-level investigation team was immediately dispatched!

Since Prince Zhongshun revealed the salt tax issue, the court has been in turmoil for almost half a year.

At first, it was Prince Zhongshun's men who caused all sorts of trouble, their aim being to get rid of the current emperor's trusted ministers and make things difficult for him.

Later, more and more court officials were implicated, after all, the salt administration was extremely lucrative.

Later on, the current ruler couldn't resist his greed and wanted to touch the powder keg that was the salt tax.

After all, five million taels of salt tax a year is not the same as eight or even nine million taels of salt tax a year, okay?

If we can use this process to fix the annual salt tax revenue at seven or even eight million taels, why not?

The current officials' intentions are obvious, and a group of officials with significant interests in the salt administration are not happy about it.

If this were to happen today, their annual income would be significantly reduced.

The logic is simple: if the government sells more salt, the share of private salt will naturally decrease rapidly, and the benefits that stakeholders can obtain will naturally decrease as well.

Of course, the major salt merchants in Yangzhou will be the ones who will truly suffer a major blow.

The amount of money that the high-ranking officials in the imperial court are supposed to receive each year cannot be reduced by even a fraction!

But they also knew that this couldn't go on for long!

Once those big salt merchants go bankrupt, it will be impossible for them to have the current huge profits.

As a result, the salt administration issue escalated in the imperial court, causing more and more officials to suffer, while the number of officials involved continued to increase.

While we don't necessarily have to stop the current reckless and chaotic behavior, we certainly can't let it be done according to the current mindset.