Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 78 Dividing the Money (Part 1)

The day after leaving the theater, Shao Shuyi took the newly borrowed money, counted out twenty-two ingots, and handed them to Li Fu, saying, "This is the money for the ship purchase. Take the extra too, don't refuse. If you have any debts, settle them as soon as possible. The longer the paper money is delayed, the less valuable it becomes; don't cheat people. Also, recruit thirty unemployed seafarers to go to Shanghai and bring back the goods and the ship. This matter is urgent and cannot be delayed."

"I'll take people with me?" Li Fu asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yu She and Liang Tai will go with you. Yu She will only keep accounts, and Liang Tai will keep things in order. They won't be involved in anything else," Shao Shuyi said. "You can do it just like you used to recruit seafarers to transport grain. You're familiar with the process, so there's no difference."

"Okay." Li Fu nodded emphatically in agreement.

On the 22nd day of the first lunar month, Shao Shuyi returned to the celadon shop and carefully examined the samples sent by various kilns in Quzhou. To be honest, the paintings on them still had a strong Chinese style and weren't quite halal enough.

He invited two of Ali's subordinates to come and take a look, offered some suggestions, and then asked the Quzhou pottery craftsmen to take them back to improve them and make a new batch—to be delivered to the celadon shop by the end of February at the latest.

General operation of Chuzhou Kiln.

The most famous Longquan kiln in the area couldn't lower its standards and only wanted to make the celadon wares it loved to make, since it didn't have to worry about selling them anyway. So Zheng gave up on cooperating with them early on and turned to some less famous Chuzhou kilns instead. Overall, the cooperation was quite pleasant. This time, they also sent samples, which were taken back for rectification.

After finishing all this, the first month of the lunar calendar is almost over.

On the last day, Shao Shuyi paid the rent in one go until the end of the first month of next year. The person who was going to rent the room hesitated and implied that the price was too low last year and would be raised to eight guan a month this year. After some negotiation, the rent was settled at seven guan.

After paying the rent, Shao Shuyi suddenly felt a little out of place.

Recently, my "account" has been seeing a lot of inflows and outflows, mostly in units of ingots, so seeing expenses in units of cash feels a bit unfamiliar.

Perhaps, this is life.

On the second day of the second lunar month, the Wind-Drilling Sea Loach returned to the Old Locust Tree with three canal boats.

Shao Shuyi was extremely bored, and since there weren't many people in the shop, he practiced sword and shield fighting techniques in the backyard. Upon hearing the news, he immediately came to the dock pier.

"Brother Shao!" Wang Huadu waved happily, jumped onto the pier, and said, "I have fulfilled my mission."

Shao Shuyi first carefully examined his appearance and noticed that he had actually gained a little weight before laughing and saying, "When did you become so scholarly?"

"I told you I've been clever since childhood, but you didn't believe me," Wang Huadu said. "Just you wait, starting tomorrow I'm going to learn to read. From now on, I'll be the wealthy Master Wang, and no one will dare to look down on me."

"Good! Good!" Shao Shuyi was very pleased to hear this and said, "Your desire to learn is commendable. It's not too late to start learning characters now."

"Really?" Wang Huadu said it eloquently, but he was still feeling uneasy inside.

"Really." Shao Shuyi nodded affirmatively and said, "There was a man named Han Jian during the Tang Dynasty who was originally illiterate. After becoming a military governor, he had characters engraved on all the utensils he could see so he could learn them at any time. Over time, he learned to read. Han Jian was quite old at the time, while you are younger than him, so of course you can learn."

"Then let's start learning." Wang Huadu put his arm around Yu Yuan's shoulder and laughed, "Yu She, starting tomorrow, you will carve one word on your face every day. I'm eager to learn."

Yu Yuan stood there dumbfounded.

Kong Tie followed closely behind Wang Huadu. Seeing that Wang Huadu was talking incoherently, Kong Tie wanted to give him some advice, but when he saw Shao Shuyi not far away, he stopped talking and went forward to greet him.

"We're brothers, why be so formal?" Shao Shuyi gently patted his shoulder and said, "You've gotten much stronger in a month."

"My dog ​​slave and I almost ate all the ducks—" Kong Tie told the hellish joke in a serious tone, "All we did during the New Year was eat and sleep, and our skills almost went to waste."

Upon hearing this, Wang Huadu chuckled and said, "I told my uncle that I'm going to be a high-ranking official someday. What's a few ducks compared to that? I'll pay him back tenfold, a hundredfold. My uncle didn't believe me, so I told him not to underestimate a young man's potential."

Wang Huadu was joking, but Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "You dog, we're rich now. This batch of goods we brought back sold for three thousand ingots. The Shen family bought it, and Lu Zhonghe will send a ship over to take it away in a while."

"Three thousand ingots? That many?" Wang Huadu exclaimed in shock. "I thought it was only worth two thousand ingots in total, and we'd be lucky to get seven or eight hundred."

However, he quickly realized something, looked around, and whispered, "Brother Shao, if you can take two thousand ingots, doesn't that mean this batch of goods is worth seven or eight thousand ingots, or even tens of thousands?"

"More or less." Shao Shuyi nodded.

"That's troublesome," Wang Huadu sighed. "This amount of money is not insignificant to the pirates. They certainly won't let this go easily. They'll definitely inquire along the way, and once they find out it was us, they'll probably come knocking on our door."

"How could I not know?" Shao Shuyi said. "But tell me, should I take this money or not?"

"That's true." Wang Huadu thought for a moment, then stopped worrying and said, "Then let's use this money to recruit soldiers and buy horses. Let's bring over more idle seafarers and able-bodied men. The pirates can't openly send everyone to Liujiagang, that would be too much of a slap in the face to the navy. With these seafarers around, a dozen or so pirates won't be a problem."

Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "That makes sense. Being afraid of this and that will get you nowhere. I've offended quite a few people this past year, and many have wanted me dead. But if I didn't offend anyone, I'd be the one who dies first." However, he changed the subject and said in a low voice, "Talking about recruiting soldiers is best left to family; don't spread it around outside. Besides, do you have any ideas on how to use this money?"

Wang Huadu thought for a moment, seemingly having many ideas, but then felt they were all inappropriate. Finally, he said dejectedly, "Brother Shao, you are more knowledgeable than any of us. What do you suggest we do?"

"I want to buy land in Pudong."

Wang Huadu was startled upon hearing this and said, "Pudong? My uncle said that there are many saline lands there," so they are mostly used for salt production, and not many people farm there.

"It's all hearsay," Shao Shuyi laughed. "I've inquired. East of the Xiashachang area, salt is the main industry, while to the west, rice and cotton are widely cultivated. Even in the so-called 'saline land' east of Xiashachang, some people grow grain."

Wang Huadu paused for a moment, then seemed to realize something, and immediately laughed, "Alright, alright, alright! Brother Shao, you're still trying to fool me. Fine, buy the land, buy it. Put my family and your family together, and do business together."

Holy crap! Shao Shuyi was somewhat surprised. Did Wang Huadu think that I bought land in Pudong to engage in the illegal salt trade?

However, he was too lazy to correct the fellow and went to tell everyone to moor the boat.

The sea bream was moored on the left side of the pier, while a canal boat was moored on the right.

The remaining two boats had nowhere to dock, so they had to anchor near the shore.

The boatmen were very skilled at this, and they quickly finished preparing before going ashore to collect their money.

As agreed, each person was to pay 20 strings of cash, and a total of 12 ingots were paid. After deducting food expenses, Shao Shuyi only had 20 ingots left. According to the latest balance sheet, he owed Zheng Fan as many as 80 ingots of Zhongtong paper money, while Li Fu's debt had been settled.

The boat owners took their money and left, many of them taking a few extra glances at the cargo on the canal boats as they departed. Some clever and daring individuals even openly approached Shao Shuyi, asking to join his crew.

Of course, Mr. Shao politely declined, but he didn't give a definitive answer, only saying that there would be an opportunity in the future.

After everyone dispersed, almost all members of the "Shaw Family Troupe" were present, except for Cheng Ji.

Shao Shuyi simply had the kitchen bring the food to this side of the pier, and everyone sat on the ground, eating and talking at the same time.

"Of the three boats, take one in good condition and hand it over to the government," Shao Shuyi said. "Take the drilling boat and the other two to Qian's boatyard to see if they need repairs. Pay whatever the due amount is; there's no need to be stingy. I have a use for these two boats; I'll use one myself, and ask Master Zheng if he wants to transport goods with the other."

This is to be expected, there's nothing more to say about it.

The drilling boat wasn't fully repaired the first time; they just didn't bother fixing the parts that didn't affect navigation. During the chase of the canal boats in December, the boats experienced at least two collisions, so an inspection was necessary.

The same applies to the two canal boats; one of them even lost its mast and sail, which cost a considerable amount of money.

These are all necessary investments; unless you no longer need them, you can't save this money.

"The cargo on the ship is the most important thing." Shao Shuyi's gaze swept from Wang Huadu to Kong Tie, Yu Yuan, Liang Tai, Li Fu and others, and said, "In a moment, we will personally take action to temporarily store it in the Qingqi Shop, guarding it day and night, waiting for the handover. Today, Gou Nu, Yu She, and I will go first. Bai Jia Nu, you three should rest well and take over tomorrow until the Shen family sends someone to pick up the goods."

"Okay." Kong Tie put down his chopsticks and nodded steadily.

Shao Shuyi continued, "The third matter concerns money. To be honest, Shen Rongfu is willing to spend three thousand ingots to buy this batch of goods, and we will each receive two thousand."

He paused slightly at this point, giving everyone time to understand and digest what he was saying.

Wang Huadu found out earlier, and he's chuckling to himself.

Kong Tie seemed to have expected this and was not particularly surprised.

Yu Yuan and Liang Tai knew about it even earlier than Wang Huadu, and their excitement had long since worn off. They were both sitting upright with little change in expression, except for Yu Yuan, who looked at Shao Shuyi with extreme admiration.

The only one who was truly surprised was Li Fu, but only for a moment. He seemed to have lost interest in money and didn't care about having more or less.

"Including myself and Mr. Cheng, there are a total of seven people sharing this money," Shao Shuyi added.

As he spoke, his gaze swept over the crowd for the second time.

Wang Huadu met his gaze, smiled sneer, and said, "Brother Shao, let's follow the rules. You contributed the most, so you get eight hundred, and we'll divide the rest among ourselves. If we're really talking about it, you're the ringleader. If we encounter a kind-hearted official, we might be able to survive by chance, but if we're exiled to Hacihuo Prefecture, you're definitely going to die."

Furthermore, without your tireless efforts, we might not have been able to sell it for so much money. The Shen family doesn't accept stolen goods, right? Even if they did, they'd only give a maximum of 30%. Only you could turn stolen goods into legitimate ones.

"Eight hundred is about right. Let's give Master Cheng a little more, and then we'll divide the rest equally."

At this moment, Li Fu suddenly raised his head and stammered, "Brother Shao, I—I'll just take less; I wasn't of much help."

"What are you saying?" Wang Huadu said unhappily, "Without you at the helm, we might not have been able to catch the pirate ship so easily."

Li Fu waved his hand and said, "A few dozen ingots are enough."

After speaking, he lowered his head again, completely distracted, as if his mind was not on the matter at all.