The inventory tallying continued into early sixth month.
Shopkeeper Wang Sheng was reasonably cooperative, specifically assigning several clerks to assist Shao Shuyi so that the warehoused goods could be logged as quickly as possible, allowing him to settle accounts with the porcelain kilns.
On the third, having finally received his monthly wages, Shao Shuyi could breathe a sigh of relief. It was on this very day that Wang Huadu quietly arrived.
Shao Shuyi had dinner sent up from the kitchen to his room, ordering four large bowls of meat porridge for the two of them to share.
"Have you spent the past few days doing nothing but day labor at the docks? How did you get so dark?" Shao Shuyi asked once the hired hand had cleared away the bowls and chopsticks.
"Dock labor indeed," Wang Huadu said with a nod. "So many ships have docked that I can't even keep their names straight. One vessel after another, laden with all sorts of goods. Whenever the river breeze blows, the air far and wide reeks of spices—it's sickeningly rich."
Shao Shuyi nodded.
Ever since late in the fifth month, incoming foreign merchant vessels had steadily increased. The docks urgently needed vast numbers of seasonal laborers, opening up far more work opportunities than before, and wages had nudged upward as well. Some shipowners even provided two or three meals a day, eager to unload their ships quickly, close their deals, and free up capital to purchase return cargo. They transported high-value goods and genuinely did not care about a few spare coins; the cost of wasted time was far greater.
Wang Huadu had sought dock work at just the right moment, striking it lucky.
"I found that Sun Chuan you asked me to look for," Wang Huadu continued. "I thought he would be hard to track down, but his reputation is truly enormous. He's constantly at the docks waiting for incoming ships, never leaving it to anyone else. There are five or six licensed brokers and six or seven unlicensed brokers at the celadon brokerage, and Squire Sun is the most famous among them. So many people know him that a bit of casual asking was all it took."
"How did you go about asking?" Shao Shuyi rose to check by the doorway first before returning to his seat, asking in a low voice.
"I'm not that stupid," Wang Huadu chuckled dismissively. "First, I looked around based on the description you gave me, then struck up casual conversations with the folks on the docks as if by accident. Soon enough, I knew which one was Squire Sun. Once I recognized his face, inquiring further was easy."
"Did it cost you anything?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"Just a few coins for tea, practically nothing," Wang Huadu said nonchalantly.
Shao Shuyi stood up, fetched a jar of pickled vegetables and three liang of granular salt from the corner of the room, set them by Wang Huadu's feet, and counted out ten guan of paper money. "Take these."
"What is this for?" Wang Huadu frowned, displeased. "I offered to help purely out of our friendship, not for this."
Shao Shuyi pressed the paper money into his hand. "I still have money left for myself; take it. You stayed at your lover's home for so long—you should give them something in return."
Wang Huadu's mouth hung open, utterly speechless.
Shao Shuyi smiled faintly. "How is Cheng Ji doing?"
"How else could he be?" The smile slowly returned to Wang Huadu's face. "The Crossroads Army only has three or four thousand men, and more than half of them are out doing day labor. Some haul cargo at the docks, some tend vegetables for wealthy households, some do handicraft work, and others serve as hired hands. It's been ages since they could assemble enough men for army drills. The most infuriating part is that those who venture out to make a living have to pay tribute from their earnings; otherwise, they aren't even allowed to leave the barracks. Cheng Ji managed to survive on that dou of grain you gave him, but he's still scraping by in camp."
Once again, Shao Shuyi felt a wave of shock.
Why did this sound so familiar? It was reminiscent of the Song dynasty's prefectural armies, where soldiers worked as tavern servers, farmers, shepherds, domestic servants, or even street performers—everyone did everything except learn how to fight.
Meanwhile, the officers turned a blind eye, tacitly permitting the soldiers to leave camp to earn a living, even collecting kickbacks from them. If a force like this ever met real warfare, even if pitted against feeble peasant rebels, they would collapse under the strain and suffer immediate defeat.
"Let's not dwell on that," Shao Shuyi said with a wave of his hand. "Tell me about Sun Chuan."
Wang Huadu sat up straight. "You wouldn't believe it—Sun Chuan is legendary at the docks. The stories about him—"
"Just get straight to the point," Shao Shuyi cut in.
As if he had not heard, Wang Huadu wagged his head and continued, "People at the wharf saw Squire Sun bring several large carriages, welcoming crowds of foreign and seafaring merchants to his manor. Then he sent his servants in all directions to slaughter oxen and sheep and buy wine by the cartload..."
Shao Shuyi listened in silence. Such outside intelligence was impossible for him to gather on his own, given how restricted his movements were.
"When I was helping carry spices, one of my co-workers pointed out an opera house and said Squire Sun closed most of his deals right there," Wang Huadu went on. "He has a silver tongue; there isn't a trade he brokers that doesn't go through. The foreign merchants trust him implicitly. Last year, one of them even presented him with a branch of coral worth a fortune—plenty of people saw it with their own eyes."
"Who gifted the coral?" Shao Shuyi promptly interrupted to ask.
"A foreign merchant, of course," Wang Huadu replied with wide, blinking eyes, as though the answer were obvious.
"Why give it?" Shao Shuyi pressed.
"Supposedly, Squire Sun saved the merchant a lot of money and helped him secure goods at a bargain."
"I see. Go on," Shao Shuyi said, nodding and waving for him to continue.
Wang Huadu's account sounded simple, but Shao Shuyi knew there had to be more beneath the surface. In his eyes, Sun Chuan was exceptionally successful in the brokerage trade: not only did he collect vast amounts of commercial taxes for the authorities, but he also brokered countless domestic and maritime transactions, wielding immense influence and authority.
Considering that brokerage fees were set at three percent, the rate of wealth accumulation was staggering. The question was, could Sun Chuan have other sources of income beyond that three percent commission? Could he be playing both sides, taking a cut from foreign merchants as well as local sellers? Shao Shuyi considered this highly probable.
The simplest scheme would be to persuade local merchants to lower their prices, allowing foreign traders to purchase Central Plains goods like celadon and silk at a discount, in exchange for kickbacks from the foreigners.
As for how to convince local merchants to drop their prices, that was a trickier matter, but by no means impossible.
He could fabricate information, claiming that fewer foreign ships had arrived this year compared to previous years, that accumulated stockpiles would not fetch good prices and might even go unsold, and that if they agreed to lower their prices, he would prioritize selling their goods—provided he received a handsome fee. There were bound to be merchants who fell for it.
Alternatively, he could collude with the agents representing local elites, officials, and merchants who negotiated the prices. After all, those living in comfort rarely handled every chore personally, often entrusting the responsibility to trusted subordinates. That opened the door for kickbacks; after all, wealth was a powerful temptation.
Wang Huadu had not thought through any of this. Beaming with excitement, he recounted what he had overheard: "Squire Sun has dozens of concubines and maidservants, along with five large ships sailing everywhere. They say he's from Zhenjiang, with a sprawling country estate there, hundreds of bondsmen, and thousands of fertile mu. He's dripping in wealth—so many people envy him! Ah, I'd love nothing more than to rob him blind and grab some coin to spend."
Shao Shuyi could not help but laugh. All this fellow ever thought about was robbing and killing.
"Did you see anyone from the celadon shop meeting with Sun Chuan?" After his laughter subsided, Shao Shuyi instinctively glanced out the door, lowering his voice.
"Not a soul," Wang Huadu replied. "When I saw Sun Chuan, he had only his own nephews and foreign merchants beside him."
Shao Shuyi hummed in thought. That made sense. If Sun Chuan were to meet Wang Sheng and the others, he would certainly choose a discreet location, or at the very least a private room reserved for him in a teahouse or opera house. How could they possibly conduct their business out in the open on the docks? It was already quite an achievement for Wang Huadu to discover this much; he could hardly demand more.
Having finished sharing his observations from the docks, Wang Huadu glanced at Shao Shuyi and whispered, "Xiaohu, do you think Wang Sheng and Sun Chuan are up to something underhanded?"
Shao Shuyi hesitated for a moment, then gave a slow nod.
"Then you have to be careful," Wang Huadu warned gravely. "The business between them must be enormous. Even a tiny concession from Wang Sheng or the foreign merchants would amount to an astronomical sum. That kind of money is enough to buy our lives many times over."
Shao Shuyi looked at him in surprise.
Wang Huadu had received no schooling and lived in poverty. At his lowest, he had freeloaded at an Erke'un temple and even sponged off widows and orphans without a shred of shame. Yet he was clearly not foolish; he understood matters from the most fundamental premise—cutting off someone's livelihood was as good as murdering their parents.
"I haven't openly made trouble for Wang Sheng yet. Right now, he's only anxious that I might ruin his plans," Shao Shuyi said. "But just as you said, the bulk of his ill-gotten gains likely hinges on Sun Chuan. The petty pilfering in the shop is probably beneath his notice—that's the domain of people like Wu Youcai and Zhang Neng. Even if they have to kick back a portion to Wang Sheng, the sum shouldn't be very large."
"Even so, it's dangerous," Wang Huadu said. "When I came in earlier, I saw that Zhang Neng standing under the veranda, his face dark as thunder. Xiaohu, you're lodging right in this hostel. If someone decides to take a desperate gamble, you'll be in terrible trouble."
Shao Shuyi let out a soft sigh, rose, and paced a few steps. "For penniless, powerless folks of lowly status like you and me, do we really have a choice when trouble comes? Back home, I couldn't even afford to eat, hounds were knocking at my door to collect debts, I was on the run, and next year I was even slated for miscellaneous corvée duties. The moment my family scraped together a bit of wealth, the court would wipe it out with an order for court purchases and requisitioned labor. And now? I have enough to eat, three square meals a day, and meat or fish every couple of days. Isn't this far better than before?"
Wang Huadu listened in a daze, finding it hard to disagree.
"If you want to gain something, you have to pay a price," Shao Shuyi concluded. "It's true that Master Zheng Song is very likely using me as a pawn. But if you lack even that much utility and can't even serve as a decent pawn, why would Master Zheng bother employing you? Did he really think Taicang couldn't produce another person literate in writing and arithmetic? To say nothing of further afield, there are certainly plenty over by Salt and Iron Creek. It's just that they are either the Zheng family's kinsmen, fellow townsmen, or trusted retainers who have served them for decades. Every one of them is worth more than me, and losing one would sting."
At this point, Shao Shuyi let out a self-deprecating laugh. "If I die, Master Zheng won't even need to pay a copper in condolence money. Wouldn't that be saving expenses to the absolute extreme?"
Wang Huadu was stunned, yet had to admit the logic held up.
"You're truly ruthless," he marveled, looking at Shao Shuyi with a sigh.
Shao Shuyi shook his head. "In truth, I'm merely doing my duty, and I bear no irreconcilable grudge against Wang Sheng. Wu Youcai is a mediocre man—greedy enough, but a coward at heart. Zhang Neng might be bolder, but he wouldn't dare pull anything in the shop; Wang Sheng wouldn't allow it. Go back to Taicang and stay there for a few days. Tell Cheng Ji to bring his bow and arrows on the tenth."
"Understood," Wang Huadu agreed without hesitation.
Chapter 24