Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
"Big Uncle, the lands of Zhao are good, but I"ve already thought of a place." w.a.n.g Chong suddenly spoke, interrupting w.a.n.g Gen"s words. The seated w.a.n.g Gen"s expression froze, his entire body stunned.
"…I"ve also thought for a very long time about the question of the fief. Although Zhao County is good, for me, there"s an even more suitable place."
w.a.n.g Chong blew the bubbles off the surface of his tea and took a sip, his expression unperturbed as he spoke.
"You already have an idea?"
w.a.n.g Gen"s eyes widened, his mind unable to grasp the notion. w.a.n.g Chong"s words had caught him completely by surprise.
"Where do you want your fief? What place could be better than Zhao County?"
"Wushang!"
w.a.n.g Chong extended a finger toward an unremarkable location on w.a.n.g Gen"s map, to the west of Longxi. Upon seeing the place that w.a.n.g Chong pointed out, w.a.n.g Gen found himself growing nervous, the smile fading from his face.
"Chong-er, are you joking with me?" w.a.n.g Gen said in wide-eyed disbelief. His first reaction was that w.a.n.g Chong was playing a joke on him, he had misheard, or w.a.n.g Chong had pointed to the wrong place on the map. But the earnestness on w.a.n.g Chong"s face clearly indicated that this was no joke, so w.a.n.g Gen quickly turned serious.
"Chong-er, a fief is no minor matter. Do you know how many clans and n.o.bles are envious of us? These are the golden words of the Sage Emperor, a major affair unprecedented in the last few decades. Other than the capital, you can pick any place in the entire Great Tang. This is an enormous show of favor."
w.a.n.g Gen had always viewed his nephew with great importance and trust. From a certain point of view, he favored him more than his own son. Others said that w.a.n.g Chong, not his own son w.a.n.g Li, was the Qilin son of the w.a.n.g Clan, the number one figure of the w.a.n.g lineage"s younger generation, yet not only was w.a.n.g Gen not displeased, he felt honored and proud of such praise.
But this time was completely different.
"Wushang? Do you know what sort of place that is? "Of all the places in the world, no place is more prosperous than Longyou." There"s no better choice than picking a fief in Longxi. Moreover… although you developed a few conflicts with Geshu Han during the Regional Commanders incident, the fief is by His Majesty"s decree, so not even Geshu Han would dare to object. If this matter is done well, it will be of enormous benefit to both you and our w.a.n.g Clan. And yet you want to set up your fief in this barren and impoverished land near Qixi? Just what are you thinking?"
w.a.n.g Gen spoke these words with great solemnity, and he straightened up and looked gravely at his nephew.
w.a.n.g Gen had no impression of this place known as "Wushang", but he did know the place that w.a.n.g Chong had pointed out on the map. If w.a.n.g Chong had picked a slightly better place, w.a.n.g Gen would have never reacted this way. But w.a.n.g Chong had insisted on picking this barren land on the road to the west. This was a complete waste of the fief that the Imperial Court had given to w.a.n.g Chong and the w.a.n.g Clan.
"Haha, Big Uncle, I know you find this very difficult to accept, but I naturally have my reasons for this."
w.a.n.g Chong smiled at the rebuke and took a light sip of his tea. His expression was calm and natural, not at all nervous.
"Then what is it?"
Perhaps influenced by w.a.n.g Chong"s demeanor, w.a.n.g Gen took in a deep breath and relaxed a little.
"Haha, Big Uncle, Wushang truly is an impoverished land without much prosperity. But, Big Uncle, take a careful look. Where is it located?"
w.a.n.g Chong gestured his finger over the map. w.a.n.g Gen had not noticed it at first glance, but his eyes widened as he noticed this time. He probed, "You are speaking of the Silk Road?"
"Yes! The Silk Road!"
w.a.n.g Chong smiled and pointed at a place close to Wushang. A winding road ran through that place, that famed road to the west frequently mentioned in all of the Great Tang and the foreign kingdoms, the Silk Road.
"You have a plan for this road?"
w.a.n.g Gen glanced at w.a.n.g Chong as he contemplated the matter, his expression slowly losing its sternness. The Silk Road to the west was also the famous Road of Gold. Countless merchants from the east and west traveled along this road, bringing with them silk, spices, jewels, jade ware, porcelain, camels, tea leaves… Almost all the Hu merchants and Western Regions merchants operating in the Great Tang used this road.
The immense price disparity between the goods of the east and west had resulted in immense profits, giving rise to many extremely wealthy merchants.
Those Hu merchants who traded with the Great Tang were all fabulously wealthy. Pearls, agate, jade ware… they treated them like earthen tiles.
The products they traded in were all staples, and the fortunes they had acc.u.mulated were so vast that it was impossible for many people to even imagine it. Even the great clans felt inadequate before such wealth. In terms of importance, the road to the west was the world"s number one, far more important than the famed Tea Horse Road of the southwest.
From a certain perspective, the Great Tang owed no small part of its current prosperity to the Silk Road that connected it to the various other countries.
"Big Uncle, the lands of Zhao truly are decent, but it"s stagnant water. The most revenue it can make will be two hundred thousand, but the Silk Road to the west is different. Whether it was the Great Han Dynasty, the previous dynasty, or this dynasty, the first thing they did after uniting the realm was to reopen this Silk Road that connects the east to the west. One can easily imagine the importance with which the empire views this trade route," w.a.n.g Chong declared with confidence.
"Big Uncle, you also know just how affluent the Hu merchants of the capital are. Those Hu merchants from the Western Regions, the spice merchants from the Abbasid Caliphate, and the jewel merchants from Charax Spasinu spent every year crossing vast distances to reach the Great Tang, all of them carrying vast sums of wealth with them. Has Big Uncle ever thought about just how much wealth pa.s.ses through this trade route every day, with all these merchants constantly traversing this road?"
"This…"
w.a.n.g Gen had nothing to say. He knew even more clearly than w.a.n.g Chong the great importance that the Great Tang Imperial Court placed on this road to the west, and this regard was inspired solely by the Sage Emperor himself.
No one in the Great Tang, not inside or outside the court, would ever dare to question the Sage Emperor"s decision.
This was why that trade route had remained so easy to traverse.
Moreover, w.a.n.g Chong was also correct in that this road to the west truly was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with wealth. Even the Bureau of Revenue of the Imperial Court found it difficult to calculate the amount of wealth flowing through it each day, much less others.
"So, Chong-er, you intend to s.n.a.t.c.h some of this trade route"s wealth for yourself?"
"Mm!"
w.a.n.g Chong gave a firm nod, his gaze profound and his expression appearing to gaze far into the future.
"But this way will be fruitless. The east-west trade is the exclusive business of those Hu merchants, and they don"t permit anyone else to enter. In the past, when the Silk Road was opened, no small number of great clans and n.o.ble houses eyed this trade route. Even a few of the princes of the imperial household partic.i.p.ated. But they quickly realized that we couldn"t understand the languages of the Western Regions, Arabia, and Charax Spasinu. Adding onto that the fact that the Tang view learning barbarian languages with contempt, the long and arduous journey required to reach Arabia and Charax Spasinu, and our unfamiliarity with the environment, those efforts were essentially all failures. After failing several times, the great clans and n.o.ble houses completely gave up on the idea.
"Chong-er, it"s not that I want to reject your idea. It"s a rather good one, but carrying it out is quite implausible."
w.a.n.g Gen shook his head and looked worriedly at w.a.n.g Chong. w.a.n.g Chong"s ambition to use the Silk Road to the west and take some of its wealth for himself was truly worth his acknowledgment.
But he was clearly treating things too simply.
If one could so easily get a cut of the profits, then in all the years since the founding of the Great Tang, the numerous n.o.bles would have long ago part.i.tioned up the profits. How could this situation have lasted until it was finally the w.a.n.g Clan"s turn?
In the southwestern war, w.a.n.g Chong truly had revealed an extraordinary talent for the art of war. But the art of war was different from the art of commerce, and even w.a.n.g Chong didn"t seem capable of mastering both fields at the same time.
"Haha, Big Uncle, you"ve misunderstood."
w.a.n.g Chong unexpectedly smiled.
"I have no intention of dipping my toe into the Silk Road"s trade of silk, spices, and gems, entering the Abbasid Caliphate or Charax Spasinu to buy and sell. The road to the west is more than ten thousand li long. In one year, you can at most run one or two caravans. The time needed for return on investment is far too long."
"Return on investment?"
A hint of surprise flashed through w.a.n.g Gen"s eyes, but he completely regained his composure. He was already used to the astonis.h.i.+ng statements made by his nephew. The line "the one who laughs last laughs best" was known by everyone in the capital.
"If you don"t plan to enter this business, then what is your plan?"
w.a.n.g Gen was truly rather confused. The most profitable venture on the road to the west was the trade of silk, spices, and gems… If he wasn"t planning on involving himself in this trade, then how did he plan to make money?
w.a.n.g Gen truly found it impossible to see through his nephew.
"Haha, I naturally plan to build a city there and make profit from those merchants!"
w.a.n.g Chong smiled as he brought his tea cup down onto the map with a thud, placing it on the Silk Road. This move was beyond all expectations, and w.a.n.g Gen stared in a daze at that cup on the map of the Great Tang, speechless.
"Big Uncle!"
w.a.n.g Chong pushed back his chair and stood up.
"The road to the west is a place of great fortune, but the road is long, and as they say, a long night brings many dreams. As a result, the road to the west is plagued by bandits, and the complexity of the terrain makes it difficult for the Imperial Court to restrain them, with many suppression missions having been forced to return in failure.
"Previously, for the sake of the Hyderabad ore, I ordered Li Siye to destroy the largest bandit group on the Silk Road, the Black Dragon Bandits. But the Black Dragon Bandits were only one of the groups. Before them were the Flowing Dragon Bandits, the Black Flame Bandits… and there are certain to be more bandit groups in the future. As long as there are profits, this situation will continue to crop up no matter how many times you stamp it down.
"Imagine for a moment if there was a city on the westward road. All the traveling merchants could obtain protection and supplies there. Would they be willing to come? And those merchants traveling to the west all have ma.s.sive caravans with hundreds of members, perhaps even exceeding one thousand. Having this many people stop for a single day will result in significant expenditure. What if we let them buy and sell things without fee there? Would anyone be willing to start a business there? And the merchants traveling to the west are quite generous in this aspect.
"And once a lot of these people gather, we can start collecting a tax. How does Big Uncle think such a city will fare? After all, this is an exclusive business!"
w.a.n.g Chong turned and gave a faint smile to w.a.n.g Gen.