Chapter 77

When the Ninth Marshal said that Ma Bao had died in battle, that was the case, regardless of the hundreds of eyes watching from the harbor. Ma Bao was still considered to have died in battle. This was the authority of a commander, and the power that the Han officials had gained after their transformation.

"Send three thousand taels to Ma Bao's family. Such a fine son is gone, tsk tsk tsk..." Zeng Guoquan sat back in his chair from the window, sipped a mouthful of fragrant tea, and his face was as calm as if he had just crushed an ant.

The massacre in the harbor continued. After the death of the scholar-official and Ma Bao, the next to be executed were the ruffians under Little Braid Sun. With the assistance of countless outlaws, the entire underground force in Tanggu was swept away, and nine out of ten of Little Braid Sun's followers were eliminated.

On the wharf, the flashes of swords and the rolling heads of people in queues, with blood spurting into the air, created a tangible stench that assaulted people's noses. Zhou Mingkui, the sub-prefect, was after all a civil official, and the task of supervising the execution was forced upon him by the Ninth Marshal. He had never seen such a bloody scene before; after just two rows of people were executed, he crawled to the side and vomited.

Not only him, but all the merchants and civilians present were vomiting. The number of dead they had seen over the past two days was too much, and those with less firm minds were on the verge of breaking down.

Especially the group of merchants led by the manager of the Four Seas Trading Post, who stood in a corner with ashen faces, watching the scene of rolling heads before them. They had nothing left in their hearts but despair.

Why had they come to this? Joining forces with the Huangs and Little Braid Sun was asking for death. They were merchants, lowly merchants, bullied by both the black and white worlds. How could they have chosen to join in the chaos? Now they had thoroughly offended Xiao Letian, and the next wave would be their heads.

The merchants had come with the resolve to die, and now the entire city of Tanggu was under martial law. They could not escape even if they wanted to, and they did not dare to escape. Yesterday's riot had left their businesses looted, and except for the heavy, worthless goods, all the movable assets had been taken by the mob.

Seeing their smashed and broken storefronts and the burning warehouses, they knew that their lifelong efforts and struggles were now completely ruined.

Even more terrifying was that they had made an enemy of a fierce dragon like Xiao Letian, who not only had armed forces under his command but also had a good relationship with the Xiang Army. What could they do? Ma Bao and Huang Juren were dead; could they, the merchants, survive?

Now their only hope was that since they had not directly participated in the riot but only competed in business, perhaps Xiao Letian would not completely destroy them.

The atmosphere became increasingly oppressive. The merchants who were vomiting on the ground finally broke down. Wang, the first merchant to sell pig bristles to Xiao Letian at Letian Trading, suddenly rushed out of the crowd, knelt at the foot of the warehouse where Xiao Letian was, and kowtowed like a madman.

"Master Xiao, Master Xiao, please be merciful. I am just a lowly merchant. My whole life is just about picking up what others leave behind. I really didn't mean to oppose you... I was truly afraid of the threats from Huang Juren and Little Braid Sun. Please understand... I will exchange all my property for my miserable life. Please be merciful..."

With these words, he kowtowed repeatedly, his forehead bleeding. One person leading the way, another followed. The merchants, who had lost their courage in the massacre, were now willing to do anything to save their lives. They took out the deeds and silver bills from their pockets, raised their hands, and begged Xiao Letian to accept them, hoping to save their families.

At this moment, even the executioners stopped, staring in shock at the hundreds of merchants kneeling on the stone pavement, their cries shaking the sky. Zhou Mingkui also secretly wiped away tears, muttering, "If only you had known this would happen. I told you, the great master of Western learning is a star reincarnated, even if it's a Western star, it's not something you can insult... tsk tsk tsk, how tragic!"

Xiao Letian stood by the window, looking at the kneeling merchants. He felt no excitement or satisfaction from revenge. His heart felt as if it had fallen into an abyss, leaving only a sense of desolation.

This was the Great Qing Dynasty, and these were the merchants, the lowest of the four classes. They were often described as unscrupulous and profit-driven, with low morals, but who knew what kind of life they had led under the rule of Confucian thought for thousands of years in China.

In feudal dynasties, did any of the famous Chinese merchants have a good end? Take Shen Wansan in the early Ming Dynasty and Hu Xueyan in the Qing Dynasty, both top merchants, but what was their final fate?

And the people kneeling before him were small merchants who did not deserve to be recorded in history. They worked diligently, struggling between the black and white worlds, and any person on the street who could be called "master" could trample them.

Yes, they were not moral gentlemen, and they could not guarantee that their business was always conducted with integrity, but they were not lowly. They were living, breathing individuals who used their hard work and intelligence to earn profits. What was their crime?

Look at them. This deep-seated fear of power had become a nightmare for the merchant class for thousands of years. Just a small display of wealth, and they thought it would cost them their lives.

This almost obsessive fear of being victimized made Xiao Letian want to cry. He suddenly felt that these merchants were pitiful. He had only slightly demonstrated the power he possessed, and it had already terrified these merchants into offering all their property to save their lives. How tragic was this?

Xiao Letian took several deep breaths and said to the merchants, "You wanted to compete in wealth with me, so today I will show you just how wealthy I am..." As he spoke, Xiang Shaolong signaled to the distance, and two orderlies quickly ran off.

"Stand up, men, your knees are worth gold. Crying and kneeling like this, don't you think it's shameful?" Xiao Letian signaled, and a group of guards rushed forward to pull the merchants, who were sprawled on the ground, to their feet.

Almost simultaneously, the sound of wheels rolling over the stone pavement echoed from the distance. Soon, a single-horse-drawn flatbed cart appeared before everyone, carrying several heavy silver chests, the lids of which were already open, revealing the gleaming silver.

"Wow, silver! Such large silver ingots..." The crowd gasped, trying to get closer, but they were blocked by the soldiers forming a human wall.

One cart after another appeared before the people, and the merchants were dumbfounded. They had spent their lives dealing with money and could see clearly that each chest could hold ten thousand taels of silver. With so many carts, it must have been at least three hundred thousand taels of silver.

Just as everyone was stunned, two shrill cries came from the prisoners who had not yet been executed. "Mine, that's our Huang family's silver... Heaven, why don't you open your eyes and take away these bandits! They are robbing us, that's our Huang family's silver..."

The cries came from Huang Juren's wife and son, who were also on the list of those to be executed. They were likely to be next. Xiao Letian sneered, "Miser, you still don't understand what money is even on your deathbed..."

At this moment, the Ninth Marshal spoke, "Oh? So you understand what money is!" The old man asked with interest. Xiao Letian blinked, "Money is a public tool, not belonging to any individual but to the entire society. Fools cling to money, even burying it in the ground to let it rot..."

"But the wise are different. They not only know how to make money but also how to spend it. Money represents the resources one can mobilize in this world. The truly wise use the power that money brings, not the money itself. Miserly people will always end up like this..."

"Good..." Zeng Guoquan slapped the table and stood up. "You are right. Many people fail to understand this power. Throughout history, great men have always risen with the tide and used every means to push and transform the world. A true man cannot be a miser; money must be spent to be money. Otherwise, it's no different from donkey dung..."

Zeng Guoquan liked this young man more and more. Although he still couldn't fully understand him, he was thoroughly convinced of Xiao Letian's talent. The Zeng family needed to secure such talent to advance further.

As the Ninth Marshal was lost in thought, the display of wealth on the street below had already begun. Ten carts carrying three hundred thousand taels of silver led the way, followed by a long line of strong men. Two men carried a large basket, filled with eagle dollars, with each basket containing about five thousand.

"Good grief, how wealthy is Xiao Letian!" The onlookers, both merchants and civilians, involuntarily swallowed their saliva. Especially those merchants who had tried to compete in wealth with Letian Trading, seeing the millions of eagle dollars being carried past, all lowered their heads, and the manager of the Four Seas Trading Post was already blushing with shame.

Xiao Letian stood on the second floor of the warehouse, sighing deeply. "This Tanggu business war is finally won. Fortunately, I had Xiao He Xin transport another batch of silver coins in advance, or I wouldn't have been able to impress these experienced sea merchants."

Before Xiao Letian arrived in Tanggu, he had already defined the main business of Letian Trading. Initially, it focused on overseas trade, but later it would gradually shift to silver trade with the United States and Mexico. Ultimately, Letian Trading would transform into a modern bank, with banking as the main business, which would be more profitable than physical trade.

To achieve this, Xiao Letian had prepared a large amount of silver coins, intended to exchange for the scattered silver used by the Tanggu merchants. His goal was to establish the currency credibility of the Mexican eagle dollars in Tanggu. Unexpectedly, this second batch of silver coins became his greatest support in the wealth competition.

Xiao Letian later transported half a million eagle dollars from Yixian, using eighteen barges, and adding the previous four hundred thousand eagle dollars, Letian Trading now had nine hundred thousand silver coins available. With the addition of the three hundred thousand taels of silver ingots seized from the Huang family, Xiao Letian was no longer afraid of any merchant's challenge.

In the entire city of Tanggu, who had the most liquid assets? Besides Xiao Letian, there was no one else.