Chapter 60: Doing Business

Zhao Da remained silent, but Wang Duo could not turn a blind eye. He continued to press the matter:
"My lord, how are we going to pay the remaining balance? If we default on this money, it might lead to a disaster."

As a veteran hardened in the campaigns, how could Wang Duo not know the consequences of owing bounties to these rough soldiers? Right now, despite appearing calm in front of Zhao Huaian, his back was soaked in sweat.

Zhao Huaian thought for a moment, realizing the severity of the situation as well. He had no choice but to tap into his final reserves:
"Don't worry, don't worry. Old Liu still has some money on his end. Go find him later, make the situation sound grave, and have him cover the rest. If we are still short, we will just wait for the camp followers and merchants coming up behind us. When the time comes, we can sell a portion of the prisoners in the camp to make up the bounty."

Only then did Wang Duo put his mind at ease. He bowed and hurriedly went to find Zhao Liu to discuss the remaining funds.

How could he possibly know that at this very moment, his lord's heart was practically bleeding?

The money he had stashed with Old Liu consisted of the reward fees previously contributed by Song Jian, Xianyu Yue, and some of the recently rescued wealthy gentry from Chengdu. After arriving in Qiongjun, these people had re-established contact with Chengdu, contributing a total of around one thousand strings of cash.

Originally, Zhao Huaian had intended to use this sum to bottom-fish in the Chengdu real estate market. He had previously heard Xianyu Yue mention that because Nanzhao forces had advanced as far as Shuangliu, housing prices in Chengdu had plummeted.

This gave Zhao Huaian an opportunity, and he planned to snap up several residential properties at rock-bottom prices. But now, his capital was wiped out, and this investment could no longer be made.
Ah, a massive loss, a massive loss.

At this moment, Zhao Huaian deeply understood just how expensive maintaining an army truly was.
He was merely distributing bounties right now, and it had instantly wiped out his entire savings, let alone the daily expenses of keeping an army.

Therefore, without a stable supply base, trying to raise a loyal army was harder than ascending to the heavens.

This, however, revealed Zhao Huaian's little scheme. Why did he pay for the bounties out of his own pocket? Because the Baoyi troops were officially registered on the military rolls, which meant their rewards needed to be reported to Chang'an, where they would be verified and disbursed by the capital.

Yet Zhao Huaian chose to pay these rough soldiers out of his own pocket precisely because he understood that no matter the dynasty or era, soldiers would obey whoever paid their rewards.

Hence, Zhao Huaian had to shell out this money, and he had to do so in a big way. Just as he told Wang Duo, money itself was not important; what mattered was troop morale.
With morale, one had everything.

Yes, this was how Zhao Huaian comforted himself, but no matter what he said, it could not change the fact that his heart ached terribly.
No, he had to orchestrate a major move to win back everything he had lost, tenfold.

At this point, the lumber business previously proposed by Song Wentong—which Zhao Huaian had initially considered too risky and unprofitable—began to cross his mind.
There was no help for it; supporting an army of this scale had him thinking about how to make money every single minute.

...

Staying at Jinma Stockade for another two more days, some daring traveling merchants finally approached after learning that there were prisoners here.

This was, in truth, a common practice within the military. Although military men universally loathed these traveling merchants, they could not live without them either.

These rough soldiers might seem arrogant on the outside, but they actually harbored much grievance.
For instance, they campaigned far from home year-round, seeing their families very rarely. Or, for example, they might receive their bounty today, only to die in battle the very next day without ever spending a coin. Sometimes, they even had to reluctantly abandon their loot simply because they were on the march.

Yet these pain points could all be resolved by the traveling merchants.
Did you miss your loved ones? Fine, have a military scribe write a letter home, and we will deliver it for you. Are you worried you might die before spending your money? Fine, hand the money over to us, and we will mail it back for you. Is your loot inconvenient to carry? Fine, come to us again, and we will pack and buy it off you, relieving you of any worries.

It was precisely because these traveling merchants firmly grasped these pain points that the rough soldiers still did business with them despite the lowball offers, sometimes even doing so with great urgency.

Just like right now, Zhao Huaian was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the merchants for no other reason than the fact that he, Zhao Da, still owed his brothers six hundred strings of cash.

For these rough soldiers, you could borrow money from outsiders to pay bounties to your brothers; once the brothers were happy, they would support you to sit as a regional military commissioner. But if you did the reverse—owing money to your brothers—then you had better contemplate the consequences.

Therefore, when the first wave of daring capitalists approached Jinma Stockade, Zhao Huaian immediately invited the leading merchants into his military tent to host them.

...

These major merchants all belonged to prominent aristocratic families in Chengdu, including merchants from Xianyu Yue's clan.

Such a business could only be handled by these great families; after all, only a family with a sterling reputation would give the rough soldiers the peace of mind to entrust them with sending money back home.
If they were minor merchants and happened to run off with the money, these rough soldiers would have nowhere to cry.

Yet, even these major merchants would fleece others if they could, for in this world there were neither rules nor justice, only fists.
Whoever had the biggest fist was the one to be obeyed.

The business Zhao Huaian primarily discussed with them was the sale of Nanzhao captives.
This time, he had captured roughly three to four hundred people, all able-bodied men, among whom seventy or eighty were warriors of exceptionally fine quality.

However, Zhao Huaian only intended to keep the Nanzhao garrison soldiers. These were respectable commoner households from Nanzhao with good discipline and obedience.
On the contrary, those seventy or eighty warriors, despite their formidable combat prowess, were too scheming and impossible to truly tame. It was better to leave them for these Chengdu aristocrats to discipline themselves.

These aristocratic families also favored these Nanzhao warriors, sometimes finding them even handier to use than their own people. Thus, they were all willing to engage in this trade, though they still squeezed the prices as much as possible.

Zhao Huaian had originally wanted to quote different prices to them separately, but these people had long since colluded in private, maintaining a unified front.

Zhao Huaian was not entirely ignorant of the "art of negotiation," such as starting with an unacceptably high price and then bargaining down step by step.

However, in private, the merchant from Xianyu Yue's family revealed two pieces of military intelligence to him, which forced Zhao Huaian to abandon any thoughts of haggling.

It turned out that the reason the Nanzhao army had suddenly retreated from Shuangliu was indeed because High Commissioner Gao Pian had led reinforcements into Shu.

Yet Zhao Huaian could never have imagined just how arrogant and imposing this High Commissioner Gao truly was.
The moment his troops reached Jianzhou, he dispatched couriers galloping to Chengdu, ordering the city to open all four gates.

At that time, the main Nanzhao army was surrounding Shuangliu and could break into Chengdu at any moment. Yet Gao Pian actually dared to order Chengdu to open its four gates, showing no fear that the Nanzhao army might seize the opportunity to slaughter their way in!

Naturally, someone tried to advise Gao Pian against it at the time, but he simply retorted:
"I crushed twenty thousand barbarians in Jiaozhi. Hearing of my arrival, the barbarians are fleeing in a panic; how would they ever dare to brazenly violate Chengdu!"

Then, citing the approaching warmth of spring and the accumulation of hundreds of thousands of people within the city walls which could breed pestilence, he ordered the authorities in Chengdu to open the four gates.

At first, Zhao Huaian could not comprehend such behavior.
Gao Pian had not even arrived in Chengdu yet, and he was already declaring that the city would suffer from pestilence?

However, the Xianyu family merchant subsequently explained it to him.
It turned out that earlier that year, while Gao Pian was still on the road, the imperial court learned of Military Commissioner Niu Cong's defeat at Baishu Waters. They directly dispatched imperial edicts to Gao Pian's camp, appointing him as the Military Commissioner of Western Sichuan.

From then on, Niu Cong officially became a figure of the past, and Chengdu welcomed a new military commissioner in Gao Pian.

At this, Zhao Huaian began to catch the drift.
It turned out Gao Pian was putting Chengdu's administration through an obedience test; this display of dominance was rather fierce.

Following that, the Xianyu family merchant stated that Chengdu had indeed opened its city gates according to Gao Pian's instructions, and this counter-intuitively frightened the Nanzhao army into retreating.

The spies and intelligence agents of the Nanzhao army in Chengdu had hurriedly rushed back to report the news of Gao Pian's impending entry into Chengdu to the main Nanzhao camp.

Astonishingly, the Nanzhao army actually abandoned Shuangliu, pulling back their forces toward Baishu Waters and even further back to the Yazhou region.

Hearing this, Zhao Huaian could not help but click his tongue in amazement, thinking to himself:
"Hoh, this Gao Pian is certainly imposing. Without even arriving in person, his mere reputation was enough to scare away tens of thousands of Nanzhao troops?"

This was the first piece of news brought by the Xianyu family, explaining why the Nanzhao army had suddenly withdrawn. But what truly made Zhao Huaian sit up and take notice was the second piece.

The merchant told Zhao Huaian that just yesterday, High Commissioner Gao's carriage and canopies had entered Chengdu, and on that very day, he had announced his intention to launch a counteroffensive against the Nanzhao army.

Orders had not yet reached Shuangliu, let alone Jinma Stockade.
Therefore, the Xianyu family had sent this word to prompt Zhao Huaian to make early preparations so that he might perform distinguished service in the ensuing pursuit, thereby earning a favorable impression in the eyes of the new military commissioner.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Huaian retorted:
"When I marched out of the city to guard Jinma Stockade, would that not leave a good reputation before this High Commissioner Gao?"

The man gave Zhao Huaian a strange look and uttered words that dealt internal damage to him:
"Commander Zhao, this High Commissioner Gao has brought troops from Changwu, Fengfang, and Hedong, and the forces of Guanhua and Zhaoyi are also on their way by imperial decree. With such vast numbers of troops and generals this time, the Chengdu突将 (elite vanguard) to which our young master belongs are simply not regarded by that High Commissioner Gao."

The rest of the words were left unsaid, but Zhao Huaian still understood that he had been looked down upon by others.
No, he hadn't even registered in their eyes at all—how hateful!

Regardless of how others viewed him, however, reorganizing and preparing for battle was the matter of utmost urgency. If he wished to expand his strength, Zhao Da had to seize every opportunity in the upcoming battles.

Time was pressing, so Zhao Huaian no longer had the heart to slowly negotiate with the merchants. He directly sold off those elite Nanzhao warriors at a price of sixty strings of cash per man.

This price was undoubtedly a bargain. Those Nanzhao warriors were formidable with both swords and bows; normal employment would cost around ten-odd strings of cash a year. Now, for just over three years' worth of wages, one could buy them to serve indefinitely.

Of course, whether these men could be successfully tamed depended entirely on the capabilities of those aristocratic families.

Making a swift and decisive move, Zhao Huaian sold the warriors but kept over twenty men skilled in archery and horsemanship. These were cavalrymen from the Nanzhao army and constituted the rarest of resources.
Therefore, Zhao Huaian kept them by his side, raising them as cavalry slaves so they could train the men of his own command to become horsemen.

In this manner, Zhao Huaian completed another transaction, successfully recovering three thousand six hundred strings of cash. After distributing the six hundred strings owed to his subordinates, Zhao Da's military coffers grew considerably replenished.

The merchants who partook in the trade were equally satisfied. Not only did they undertake the delivery of home letters for many Baoyi soldiers, but they also proactively offered to help Zhao Huaian's subordinates transport their money back to Daci Temple for safekeeping.

Yet Zhao Huaian smiled and refused.
Are you kidding? If Daci Temple can run a bank, surely I, Zhao Da, can do the same?
If I, Zhao Da, can get a grip on these rough soldiers' purses, would I ever have to worry about failing to win their hearts?

Consequently, Zhao Huaian planned to establish a military pawnshop of his own later on, dedicated to storing the bounties of the army and utilizing the funds to engage in ventures such as bottom-fishing in real estate.
Look at that, wouldn't the money just flow right back in? This proved why he said Wang Duo was short-sighted—see, didn't those thousands of strings of cash scatter only to return once more?

And so, lacking any military transfer orders, Zhao Huaian continued to hold Jinma Stockade and prepare for battle. On the third day, the military orders finally arrived.