Glory

This method was not something Meng Chengwei hadn't considered. In fact, he had thought of it from the very beginning.

But what he wanted most was the Ye family's tea-making methods and Ye Chongming's network as the head of the tea trade.

Snatching Estate Holders was something that, once done, would mean tearing up all pretenses with the Ye family, harming others without benefiting oneself. After all, it would require spending a great deal of silver to poach Estate Holders. By next year, if he didn't offer such high prices, those Estate Holders would certainly refuse to cooperate with him; if he offered high prices, he felt it would be a loss.

Buying Crude Tea without the tea-making methods would be useless, as he wouldn't be able to produce tasty Pressed tea or Loose tea.

So he had never seriously considered using this tactic.

But now...

He was extremely agitated.

Seeing him pacing back and forth in the room, Liu Qilin added, "If something happens to the Ye family's young lady, they will surely not look favorably upon us and will definitely suspect we set this up. If they forcefully suppress the news, refusing to admit their young lady has been defiled, and simply marry her off to some impoverished family, our plan will fail."

Noticing that Meng Chengwei seemed thoughtful and had taken his words to heart, Liu Qilin felt encouraged and continued, "But if we apply pressure on the Estate Holders and try to snatch them away, the Ye family will have to carefully consider cooperating with you. If kindness combined with authority doesn't work, then using authority alone from both sides is a safer bet."

Meng Chengwei turned around, sat in a chair, and smiled, praising, "Well said, Housekeeper Liu. Your words are excellent."

"Without delay, I leave this matter to you," he said, adding, "Act quickly. Any later and it will be too late."

The custom in Lin'an was to pay taxes and fees at the Tea Monopoly Bureau the day after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Once the procedures at the Tea Monopoly Bureau were completed, tea merchants and Estate Holders would immediately find a spot outside the bureau to sign contracts for pre-ordered tea.

This way, tea merchants avoided the trouble of traveling up the mountains again, and Estate Holders could have their noon meal hosted by the tea merchants, saving themselves the expense—a win-win situation.

Before taking on the task, Liu Qilin had to clarify: "Initially, to avoid alerting the enemy, we didn’t inquire at the Tea Monopoly Bureau about which Estate Holders were cooperating with the Ye family. Now we still need to find out, which will take a little time. At the earliest, we can go up the mountain to look for those Estate Holders tomorrow."

Although they hadn’t inquired about the Ye family’s Estate Holders, Liu Qilin had, under Meng Chengwei’s orders, built connections at the Tea Monopoly Bureau during this time. He had gifted a minor official and become somewhat familiar with him.

Therefore, as long as he invited that person out for a meal and presented generous gifts, he could obtain the list of Estate Holders cooperating with the Ye family. This would save some time.

Meng Chengwei nodded. "Go ahead."

...

While Liu Qilin was busy building rapport with the minor official at the Tea Monopoly Bureau, Ye Chongming had already arrived at the home of a village head.

This village head, named Zhou Jiawang, was over sixty years old, around the same age as Ye Chongming. Having been friends for decades, and with Ye Chongming being adept at handling relationships and intentionally fostering goodwill, the two old men had developed a deep bond.

Ye Chongming did not hide anything and directly explained the situation to him, saying, "I have no other choice but to come to you for help. I know that in the face of heavy profits, you can’t guarantee every Estate Holder will listen to you and reserve their tea for the Ye family. I don’t ask for much—only that after the Estate Holders sign their contracts, you accompany me to the magistrate’s office to have the contracts officially stamped. All expenses will be covered by me.""Furthermore, the matter of tea certificates is entirely voluntary. Initially, I was concerned that the Tea Silver might be robbed and we wouldn't have enough funds, which is why I discussed issuing tea certificates with Baofeng Bank. Now that the Tea Silver is secure, I'm still offering tea certificates out of gratitude to the owner of Baofeng Bank for extending a helping hand during my time of crisis. The interest I'm offering Estate Holders is half a qian per hundred taels of silver. If any Estate Holders aren't in urgent need of money and wish to earn this interest, they can take the tea certificates."

As he spoke, he raised his hand, and Li Fu opened a rattan case, revealing one hundred gleaming silver taels before Zhou Jiawang. Besides this hundred taels of silver, there were also several bolts of exceptionally vibrant silk.

Though Zhou Jiawang's expression appeared unchanged on the surface, Ye Chongming could still detect a glimmer of light in his eyes.

As the village chief in these prosperous Jiangnan tea mountains, Zhou Jiawang's family circumstances were relatively comfortable. However, this comfort was only in comparison to the surrounding Estate Holders – he couldn't be considered truly wealthy. Managing to save over a hundred taels of silver through frugal living in a year was already quite good.

This hundred taels of silver represented a substantial sum to him. Not to mention those bolts of silk that were clearly worth several dozen taels each.

Ye Chongming's request wasn't excessive either – merely changing white contracts to red contracts, with no need for Estate Holders to pay taxes themselves. As long as they peacefully sold their tea to the Ye family, whether the contract was white or red made no difference to the Estate Holders.

As for the tea certificates, if the Ye family couldn't produce silver and could only offer tea certificates, he might have some reservations. But the Ye family clearly had silver – Estate Holders who didn't want tea certificates could take silver directly, and the interest on tea certificates wasn't low either. So this matter presented no difficulties.

These two matters were simple tasks for him, allowing him to curry favor with the Ye family without harming the Estate Holders' interests in the slightest, while gaining a hundred taels of silver for nothing. Why would he refuse such a good deal?

"Alright, we've been friends our whole lives – what more needs to be said? Leave this matter to me," he declared generously.

Then he made a show of refusing: "Take this silver back, I can't accept it."

Naturally, Ye Chongming wouldn't agree, and after some back-and-forth politeness, Zhou Jiawang finally accepted the silver.

Having gained a hundred taels for nothing, Zhou Jiawang felt embarrassed not to do anything in return. "Come," he said, "I'll accompany you up the mountain. Let's finish visiting the two nearby villages while it's still early. Don't go back tonight – stay at my place to avoid the trouble of going up and down the mountain."

This had been Ye Chongming's plan all along. Even if Zhou Jiawang hadn't suggested it, he would have requested that Zhou send his son along.

Now that Zhou Jiawang was willing to go personally, it was even better.

The two villages were located at the mountain's base, with roads accessible by carriage.

After boarding Ye Chongming's carriage, Zhou Jiawang said, "When we reach the villages, don't mention anything about outside tea merchants. Just say that there have been many contract disputes in past years, and now the government requires everyone to sign red contracts."

Ye Chongming looked touched. "That's exactly why I came to you first, Brother Zhou. No one else is as warm-hearted and considerate as you are."

This made Zhou Jiawang burst into hearty laughter.

One of the foothill villages had about thirty households, the other forty. But only thirty-some households across both villages owned Tea Gardens in the mountains. With Zhou Jiawang, the village chief, leading the way, Ye Chongming smoothly signed contracts with all these thirty-plus Estate Holders.As for the red deed matter, Ye Chongming and Zhou Jiawang merely informed them and didn't require their personal appearance at the yamen. Since Zhou Jiawang served as both the village head and guarantor, he only needed to accompany Ye Chongming to the yamen to complete the formalities. The Estate Holders raised no objections to this arrangement, effectively granting the village head their verbal authorization.

That evening, Ye Chongming stayed at Zhou Jiawang's residence.