Chapter 126: Troubles One After Another
Jia Hao frowned when he saw the worried look on Cai Yixue’s face. Getting up, he also followed them.
The ten villages are all under the Cai Family, who work in their field and give them tax along with the Imperial Family. The farmers are a huge source of income for the Cai Family.
Therefore, if anything happens to them Cai Family’s finances will take a huge toll.
‘ Half of the Cai Family’s villages grows grain. And the remaining ones produce silk and cotton respectively. Despite that, the production of cotton and silk remained quite profitable.’
‘ But they simply sell the silk and cotton to other merchants and families as raw materials. The profit from raw materials are simply low when these people sell the products made from them more than five times of the price.’ Jia Hao couldn’t help but sigh in frustration.
When he walked out, he saw the village heads sitting, explaining the situation to Cai Yixue.
‘ Well, As usual, they are probably going to say the rain is less this year, so the hail of grain has decreased. Then they will ask the Cai Family to reduce taxes.’
And what he expected was indeed somewhat true. However, there was a bigger problem among the cotton and silk farmers.
” Young Lady, the merchants of Nanhai City are driving down the prices of cotton and silk.” A villager complained.
” How is that possible?” Cia Yixue couldn’t help but raise her brows. ” Cotton and silk have been precious commodities. Especially silk, which I believe the production went well this year?”
” Young Lady, you are right.” The village leader nodded. ” However, The problem is…what are we going to do with all the product if no one is willing to purchase it?”
” What do you mean?”
” The Niu Family, The Shen Family, and Silkward Chambers have joined hands.” An old man cupped his fist as he muttered in a low voice.
“They received a giant order from nobles of the north and even the Imperial Family. Not to mention, they have gathered materials from other provinces, so they are saying they don’t need our goods anymore.”
” What? They are not buying?” Cai Yixue finally grasped the clutch of the problem.
” They are the main purchaser of the silk and cotton. If they don’t buy, we don’t whom to sell these things.”
” The production of silk is extremely well this year. We were expecting a profit of over a thousand tael of gold for each farmer. However, if things go like this, we might not even get two hundred taels.”
” Young lady, we have already taken loans. If we can’t sell our silk and cotton, it would be disastrous.”
” The villages are currently in dire need of money. Everyone is looking for the money after selling the silk.”
” I understand.” Cai Yixue rubbed her forehead with frustration. ” Please give me some time and wait in the main hall. I shall see what I can do.”
” Young lady, we request you to not overlook our plight.”
” Young lady, you are the incarnation of goddess. Please have mercy on our villages.”
” Young lady, if we don’t receive money, our children…”
” I said…Wait…Outside.”
Jia Hao shivered when he saw Cai Yixue’s cold face. Her chilling tone made everyone shut up instantly. They all hurriedly bowed and retreated.
‘ Damn, Wifey is really angry.’ Jia Hao wanted to joke, but he didn’t find any courage to do so.
” Young Miss…”
” Minmin, prepare tea for me and bring it the way I like.”
” Yes.”
Cai Yixue seated silently, without moving a single inch. Jia Hao was simply amazed when he saw her like that.
She looked like a statue carved by a heavenly sculpture himself, completely picturesque. She gently nibbled her cherry lips as her chest rose and fell, indicating the building up anger.
” What do you want to say?”
” Should I?” Jia Hao spoke in his usual light hearted tone. ” I believe you need some time to gather your thoughts.”
” Hmm….” Cai Yixue didn’t look at Jia Hao. Soon, Minmin came back with a teapot and cup. As she poured the tea, Jia Hao realized that the tea wasn’t steaming hot and turned a bit cold.
Cai Yixue held the cup and drank slowly, savoring its taste. ” You want some?”
” Sure.” Jia Hao didn’t hesitate as Minmin passed him another cup. When he tasted the tea, he couldn’t help but turn speechless.
The tea was lukewarm and relatively sweet. ‘ I guess my wife uses sweet tea to cope with her anger? How peculiar…’ Jia Hao couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.
” So, What’s with those Niu Family bastards plotting this time?”
” The profit of silk and cotton is over 700,000 taels of gold. And this year, it should be around a million taels of gold.”
” Do you know what a million tael of gold is? It’s almost ⅔ of our early budget. Without it, the Cai Family is as good as dead.”
” So, The three factions joined forces to take down Cai Family?” Jia Hao looked at her and asked. Cai Yixue took a deep breath of air and nodded. ” Indeed, That’s right.”
” Since we don’t own any cloth workshop, raw materials are as good as dirt in our hands. Not to mention, selling them outside of our province is very difficult in a short period of time.”
” But is this really true that Niu Family, Shen Family, and Silkward Chambers joined their hands?” Jia Hao looked at her. ” Do they possess enough material to not buy our goods?”
” It maybe possible, or maybe not.” Minmin shook her head. ” Even if it’s a false alarm, I believe the three association pooled all their money together, which is enough to crush the Cai Family.”
” After all, a military family’s wealth is much less than a merchant family.”
” Hmm, So even if they don’t buy from us, there won’t be any disadvantage. And if they are going to buy, they will buy our goods at dirt cheap price.” Jia Hao rubbed his chin.
” So, Either the Cai Family has to lower their head and sell silk and cotton at the price of dirt or not sell to them. In both cases, the Cai Family will lose.”
” Not to mention, we need to pay a million tael of gold this month as repayment of the loan.”
” I see… Wait, What?” Jia Hao’s eyes turned wide. ” What sort of loan are you talking about?”
” Well, You have visited our treasury, right?” Cai Yixue ‘s smile became bitter as she looked at Jia Hao. ” How much gold you see there?”
” Uhh…Now you say…” Jia Hao was dumbfounded. Indeed, there are various items, but gold taels are pretty low, around a couple of hundred thousand taels?
” You can’t be…” Jia Hao stammered. ” That’s all?”
” That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less.” Cai Yixue nodded.
Jia Hao was speechless when he heard that. After all, why would he doubt the Cai Family? He simply thought as a powerful family, they must have stored their gold in some secret place.
After all, don’t all rich folk do that? They don’t have much liquid money, but a lot of assets and investments.
How could he know that’s all the money Cai Family had?
‘ Fuck, and I myself hogging over 200,000 taels of gold? Won’t that make me a traitor?’ Jia Hao couldn’t help but mumble in his heart.
” Ten years ago, Father and uncle brought the entire Cai Family army to fight off against the tribals and barbarians of western plains.”
” However, Cai Family didn’t have enough funds at that moment. Therefore, we borrowed ten million taels of gold at that time.”
” And, although we won the war, the loss was also pretty great.” Cai Family bit her lips. ” Thankfully, His Majesty Emperor granted us immense lands and titles. However, the direct monetary support was very less.”
” Wait, Can you tell me the interest rate you borrowed the money?” Jia Hao suddenly asked.
” Around…Ten percent?”
” …”
Jia Hao calculated the money and sighed in his heart. ‘ Fuck, the loan just got doubled.’
” And how much have you paid by now?”
” Above eleven million taels of gold?”
” Well, That seems… good.” Jia Hao nodded. ” You sure have a talent of managing money.”
” I learned it from my mother.” Cai Yixue nodded. ” Perhaps, all female members who married into the Cai Family had good brains for business. Otherwise, this family would have perished long ago.”
” Anyway, they are pressuring us to pay three million taels of gold this year because we already exceeded the time of complete repayment.” Cai Yixue rubbed her forehead.
” Therefore, we were supposed to pay over a million tael this time around. However, things aren’t looking good. If we can’t repay, we have to give them a few villages and a few hundred acres of fertile land to them.”
‘ And whom did you borrow the loan from?”
” Silkward Chambers.”
” Haah…Why does everyone have beef with our Cai Family?” Jia Hao couldn’t help but sigh in frustration.
” Because, currently, the Cai Family is one of the very few families who has military power and are still neutral.” Cai Yixue replied truthfully.
” If we get involved, the politics of the entire Great Yan Kingdom will be tipped off. Besides…Our ancestors took the pledge to remain loyal to only the emperor and the emperor himself.”
“Alright, Enough of this.” Cai Yixue looked at Jia Hao. ” Do you have any idea?”
Jia Hao’s lips curled when he heard that. ” Idea? Hmm, I wonder? Why does wife think I have a way out?”
” Do you not?” Cai Yixue stared at him.
” Young Lady Cai, Lady Lian from Silkward Chamber is asking to meet you.”
