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Chapter 75
Chapter 75 - Conning the Merchants - Part 2
The merchants read the details in the scroll, then their eyes were glittering from greed.
"Are you sure that you can give us such perks?"
The merchant leader was baffled. The promise was unbelievable. He even thought that Tong was stupid and naïve.
In the scroll, Tong gave them the right to buy the renowned soap in bulk at the price of 20 gold a piece, which were only lower than the market price by half.
In exchange for that right, they had to sell any food product to the city government with the amount of at least 10, 000 tons with the fixed price that the city government had set.
For 10, 000 tons of food that they sold, they could buy 1, 000 bars of soap from Tong. If they brought in 20, 000 tons, then 2, 000 soap bars could be purchased. The more they brought the food here, the more goods they could take back.
The fixed price that the city used was 5 tons of any food for one tael of gold, which the merchants would suffer deficit if they complied with the condition. However, the profits from the margin of the soap would make up for their loss.
"I forgot to tell you one thing. I'm the one that sold all of my soap to Yuan family. You catch my drift?"
Tong's revelation made the eyes of merchants opened wide. After processing the information with their brain, they could see the big picture now.
"I see. So you don't want to deal with Yuan family, you've come to us instead. Most importantly, you are the creator of this goods."
Tong shrugged and kept quiet. He pretended that he did not want to answer or gave them any more hint.
The merchants had wicked smiled on their face. They whispered among themselves for 10 minutes, then they concluded their decision.
"We accept these conditions. We want to buy the soap from you right away, and we also want to buy the soap recipe."
Tong raised his hand up to stop them.
"I'm afraid I can't sell you any soap at the moment. First, all of you have to sign the contracts, that you acknowledged and accepted these conditions with your own free will. Second, you have to sell the food to the city government before we can sell you any soap. We need to know the amount of food that you have, so we can fulfill our conditions. And also, you need to make a reservation in advance. It takes times to make each batch, so first come first served. As for the soap recipe, I will put it in the incoming auction. It would not be fair if I sell it to any of you right now."
Lu Zhi walked forward and handed a scroll to each of the merchants with a pen and ink. They were the contract that Tong had written beforehand.
The merchants did not reread the contract. They signed it immediately and frantically tried to reserve a large amount of soap at once. Tong had them signed another contract, which indicated the amount of soap they wished to buy and the amount of food that they would bring.
After the signing was done, all of them rushed back to their stores and formed up multiple convoys to the nearby cities. They were planning to buy every kind of food and provision from other cities or counties, and then they were going to transport all of them back to Julu.
In the contract, the five of them had reserved for 50, 000 bars of soap, which were higher than what the Yuan family used to trade with Tong.
Seeing how frantic the merchants were, Tong grinned. Meanwhile, Lu Zhi gazed at Tong with an odd look.
"Are you sure that this is the right idea? This is a lucrative business. Why did you promise them that you will put it in the auction?"
After two days that Tong came under his tutorage, Lu Zhi realized that Tong was already better than him in terms of creativity and domestic management. However, in terms of his character and culture, he needed improvement. There were also many things that he lacked, but Lu Zhi planned to teach him slowly. For now, he would sit on the side and would criticize him if he did something weird or out of ordinary.
"It's alright, master. In the future, one of our workers will eventually leak out the recipe. Before that happens, I'll just reap as many golds as I can at the moment. Once it the recipe gets into the hands of noble, I'll just sell these cheaply to the commoners."
With this trade, Julu city would acquire 500, 000 tons of provision. Tong would also profit from the soap trade by 899, 900 gold, which had already deducted the soap processing costs and the provision costs of 100, 000 gold. If the merchants knew that the cost of 50, 000 soap was actually only 100 gold, they would die from anger.
Fifty thousand soap bars could be made within a month and a half as long as he had enough helpers. The ingredients were also easy to gather as they were sold commonly in the market.
'Before the other reincarnators or nobles dib their hands into this, I'll crash the market first. '
...
...
January 13th.
The officials post the auction announcement news on the signboards around the city. All merchants and nobles were excited about this event.
At the same times, Tong placed an announcement that he would hire ten thousand employees for his soap business factory, shops, carpenters, blacksmiths, and tinkerers. Strangely, the announcement restricted a few jobs as they only accepted female employees. All the applicants would be trained by the government officials for free.
The third announcement was made later on the same day. The city hall would construct unique buildings within each outer district in different directions. They would be named as "Swing-Eleven Convenient Store" and "Wall-marked Convenient Store". No further details were announced of what these buildings were for. The soap factory and various shops would also be constructed on top of the previous land of the executed nobles.
Meanwhile, the five representatives that visited Tong yesterday rushed out of the city with their caravan. They determined to gather every food they could buy or find, so they could buy more soap and make more profits.
...
February 1st. Ye City.
The news about the auction and the soap business caught the ears of a young big-body businessman. He was the eldest son of the wealthiest merchant in this city.
His name was Te Langpu. He had a unique hairstyle, which he combed it to the front and the side as if he was bold and wanted to cover it. His fat face was in squire-shape. The chubby fingers of his were shorter than average men. His lips were thin and his mouth was so small and gave off obnoxious feeling to the point that whenever he smiled, it made people around him wanted to punch him in the face. However, because of his status and wealth, nobody dared to bully him.
If Zhang He saw him, he would kill him on the spot. This man was the one who had conned him 1, 000 gold and made him fell into debt.
"Are you sure this is not fake news?"
"Young master Te. I've confirmed this news from that fatty's follower. It's true!"
"A ten thousand tons for the right to buy a thousand soap? That's a bigly rip off! Why did those losers run around for Zhang Tong!? Is the soap business that profitable?"
"Young master, the current price for soap is 40-50 gold for one bar. But Zhang Tong promised them that he will sell it at 20 gold each."
Te Langpu clicked his tongue. He had a rough idea about the ingredient costs for one bar of soap, but he did not have a clue of how to make it. He knew that Tong made a killing in this deal, and the merchants would be the one who shouldered the risk.
"What about the soap recipe? Can anyone get a hand on it yet?"
"No, sir. But Zhang Tong is recruiting workers. There should be a leak soon. Oh, and they are planning to put the soap recipe in the next month auction!"
Te Langpu used his chubby short fingers to touch his chin and fell into deep thought.
"It's bigly late, but we can make our family great again! Gather our gold, we will attend the auction next month!"
"Sir, but half of our money was spent on grain. We don't have many lefts."
"Bah, I get it. Just take all the remaining."
"Sir, but I don't think we can buy it with the current fund."
"... We'll see what happens."
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