The rollout of presale housing gave a tremendous push to residential construction throughout Qingming and Yizhou, and merchant firms quickly caught wind of the scent of Qingyuan.
The managers heading these firms were the shrewdest of the shrewd. A single calculation was all it took for them to see the immense profit to be made, and they immediately mobilized every connection they had in an attempt to buy in. Before this massive opportunity worth tens to hundreds of millions in Qingyuan, countless people went wild. Even Xiaoyu's maternal aunt and Xu Henshui's cousin were enlisted as lobbyists.
However, Xiaoyu, Xu Henshui, and Bao Yun turned all these lobbyists away and came to Wei Yuan instead, leaving the decision to him.
Upon hearing that even Xiaoyu's aunt and Xu Henshui's cousin had paid visits, Wei Yuan was momentarily taken aback before composing himself.
The prominent aristocratic clans were all tied together through marriage and kinship. To mobilize the cultivators of the Palace of Grand Beginning—and even Bao Yun—to lobby Wei Yuan required influence of no ordinary caliber. Bao Yun, of course, was different from the rest; she had primarily come to see Wei Yuan, and the lobbying was merely a pretext.
By the time Wei Yuan realized this, Desolate Roar had already receded a bit further.
In truth, the merchant firms had overlooked one crucial fact: Qingming's architecture was fundamentally different from that of the Nine States, and the standards were completely dissimilar. The cement had already been upgraded by a generation, construction methods had subtly changed, and even many template cultivators specialized in construction were incapable of building the latest designs without undergoing new training.
Facing the merchant firms eager to participate, Wei Yuan was no pedant. On one hand, he threw the doors wide open, allowing any firm to take part in residential development as long as they posted a set deposit of Qingyuan. On the other hand, Wei Yuan swiftly issued strict, exhaustive construction standards and mandated that participating development firms possess the capability to meet them.
These regulations numbered well over a thousand, forming a veritable thick tome. When the merchant firms received the freshly minted standards, they were left utterly dumbfounded. Most of the rules were things they had never even heard of, leaving them completely at a loss. Yet these merchants were sharp; they immediately realized that Qingming's local construction firms had to be intimately familiar with the standards. Wouldn't partnering with them solve the problem?
Thus, outside merchant firms scrambled to collaborate with native Qingming construction cultivators to jointly take on building projects.
Wei Yuan agreed to bring in outside merchant firms partly to emulate the competitive mechanism of the realm beyond the sky, and partly to draw in the capital and social networks of the prominent aristocratic families. The deeper and more extensively they became involved, the more firmly they would stand on Qingming's side.
Afterward, Wei Yuan divided the residential plots into smaller parcels—ranging from single buildings to several dozen—and distributed them one by one, allowing different firms to choose which ones to undertake.
With loans in hand, the residents of Yizhou brimmed with enthusiasm to purchase homes. Many buildings sold out the instant they were put on the market.
Even so, Wei Yuan had underestimated human greed. A select few firms did nothing more than dig a pit in the ground before daring to sell buildings that existed only as drawings on paper. In the blink of an eye, these too sold out, hauling in a massive amount of Qingyuan.
With vast sums of Qingyuan in hand, the manager of one such firm began harboring improper ideas. He figured that honestly following Qingming's standards to construct the building would require an investment of a million Qingyuan just to earn a net profit of five hundred thousand. Yet now, he already had 1.5 million Qingyuan in his grasp, while digging a hole had cost merely a few thousand. If he quit while he was ahead and fled the scene right now, even if he forfeited his hundred-thousand Qingyuan deposit, he would still walk away with a net profit over a dozen times his investment.
Thus, the firm's managers secretly plotted to abandon construction entirely and run. Yet the very morning after they finalized their scheme and prepared to slip out of Qingming in disguise, Qingming law enforcement cultivators kicked down their doors and arrested every single one of them.
The same scene played out in various corners across Qingming. Within days, Qingming law enforcement mobilized in full force, raiding more than thirty foreign merchant firms and arresting hundreds of conspirators.
Naturally, the managers had not understood that just as they believed they had spotted an opportunity, others had noticed the loophole as well. With so many individuals conspiring at the same time, the heavenly secrets were disrupted. Ji Liuli picked up on the anomaly, cast a single Primordial Hexagram, and divined that these people intended to abscond with the funds, prompting an early strike that rounded them up in one fell swoop.
As for the interrogations, under the methods of the immortal Dao, mere dharma idol and Dao foundation cultivators stood no chance of hiding anything. In half a day, complete confessions were secured.
This incident alerted Wei Yuan to the loopholes in the existing system and gave him a fresh understanding of the audacity and greed of merchant firms. Consequently, Wei Yuan revised the rules: all homebuyer payments had to be deposited directly into the Qingming Bank, and outside firms were required to front the construction costs themselves, receiving the buyers' funds only after delivery.
Most firms daring enough to take on projects in Qingming were flush with capital. Seeing this as an excellent way to raise the barrier to entry and suppress their competitors, they readily agreed.
The implementation of the new policy did more than seal the loophole; it brought an unexpected windfall. Once homebuyer payments were deposited in the bank, they could be lent out again as mortgages. The moment residents took out mortgages, the money promptly turned back into home payments deposited right into the bank, allowing the Qingming Bank to issue even more mortgages...
By now, Qingming's loan business was remarkably developed and reached virtually everywhere. Almost everyone relied on loans to enjoy an affluent life ahead of time and embark on the path of cultivation. Meanwhile, the common folk in the lands surrounding Qingming had to toil bitterly to cultivate raw materials and mine ores, selling them to Qingming at rock-bottom prices only to purchase high-end goods like weapons and armor at exorbitant rates.
Discerning individuals across the various states had already begun pointing out the problem: Why did they have to trade tens of thousands of jin of ore just to obtain a single hundred-jin suit of armor from Qingming? Why couldn't the common folk afford to eat the spiritual rice and fruit they had painstakingly grown themselves? Why did sericulture farmers spend all year raising silkworms and reeling silk, yet never afford a single garment of loom-woven brocade?
These questions quickly stirred a wave of introspection across the State of Zhao. Yet just as the discussions grew heated, mysterious figures paid quiet visits to their doorsteps.
Soon afterward, numerous discerning scholars began regularly collecting writing stipends from the Qingming International Development Agency. The focus of their essays shifted from those troubling questions to arguing that "Zhao could not match Qingming's high-quality goods in another three hundred years," which then turned into appeals that "buying is better than building, and renting is better than buying," and "surrendering now still allows for a dignified defeat."
Qingming was no longer merely transforming itself; it was shaping the surrounding states and even the Li Shamans.
In the blink of an eye, the third month of the thirteenth year of Hongjing arrived. Wei Yuan had still not encountered Cangwu, feeling an empty void within, as though something was missing. Right around this time, Li Zhi made a belated appearance, finally paying a visit.
Reuniting after so long naturally delighted Wei Yuan, who personally welcomed Li Zhi into the study before asking the reason for his arrival.
Once seated, Li Zhi said in a low, heavy voice, "Brother Wei, I intend to rebel. I ask that you lend me your aid!"
Wei Yuan was taken aback by these words. He had not even finished his own preparations—how was Li Zhi already making a move?
Only when Li Zhi explained his full purpose did Wei Yuan relax. It turned out this fellow merely wished to trigger a catastrophic calamity of a chaotic era, using the banner of purging the court of traitors... Purging the court of traitors?
As Great Tang's Military Commissioner of Qingyang and Military Commissioner of Yizhou, and the State of Ji's Duke of Xuan and Military Commissioner of Xianghan, Wei Yuan found the phrase 'purging the court of traitors' particularly grating.
On paper, Wei Yuan was the most powerful minister in Ji, commanding military forces, ruling his own territory, and wielding terrifying authority. If Li Zhi wanted to purge the sovereign's court, who exactly did he intend to purge?
Noticing the unfriendly look in Wei Yuan's eyes, Li Zhi hurried to explain. After a lengthy clarification, Wei Yuan finally understood: Li Zhi's claim of purging the court of traitors was merely an excuse. His true aim was still outright rebellion.
Rebellion???
Wei Yuan remained somewhat bewildered. What exactly was the Four Sages Academy planning by entering the fray at this time, and which side were they actually on?
Wei Yuan sat calmly, waiting for Li Zhi to convince him. For a matter of this magnitude, Li Zhi had surely given it deep, comprehensive thought and secured the full backing of Southern Qi's Li family and the Four Sages Academy. He almost certainly had other hidden cards he had yet to reveal. Furthermore, on top of gathering martial strength, he must have thought through the crucial question: how to handle the royal house of Ji—which was to say, how to endure the karmic backlash from the Martial Ancestor's grand scheme.
Wei Yuan genuinely wanted to hear Li Zhi's reasons for rebelling now, and why he believed he had a chance of succeeding.
Yet Li Zhi merely stared intently at Wei Yuan and asked a single question: "Will you help me or not?"
Chapter 1092