Chapter 129: The Land of Abundance
Besides, ten thousand catties were obviously not enough, so they had no choice but to make Qin Fu return for another shipment.
What could he do? He had to give it. After all, the recipient was his father-in-law.
Thirty thousand catties of charcoal were delivered in full, and a commercial caravan was hired at a high price to rush the shipment over to his father-in-law.
Because of this, both Qin Miaoniang and the mother-in-law had nothing but high praise for this capable and brilliant son-in-law. After all, since Old Master Qin handled social relations so well, he would suffer fewer hardships in Yizhou.
Yet Wu Ning had grievances that he could not voice.
The kind of commercial route ecosystem he had envisioned had not yet been established. In other words, the southbound caravans had not yet been able to start low-cost transportation.
Current transportation fees were no laughing matter; they were vastly more expensive than the Wuzhu charcoal itself, and Old Nine Wu simply could not afford the shipping costs.
...
However, after some twenty days, Qin Fu returned once more.
"The master asks the young master to dispatch another thirty thousand catties."
"Aah~!" Old Nine Wu completely gave up. "We aren't supposed to be this generous, are we?"
He knew that Qin Wenyuan might have been giving away the charcoal to quickly open up sales channels, but that was all money!
Whose household could possibly endure the old man's way of giving things away?
If this batch were shipped out, the little family fortune he had accumulated from selling vegetables, selling charcoal, and hoodwinking his father-in-law—which had already dwindled significantly just from purchasing the charcoal kilns in Chenjiashang—would be completely squandered.
"There is no more!"
"The master has spoken," Qin Fu said with an air of absolute reason. "Do not say more, just dispatch the goods promptly."
"..."
"Can we not ship them?"
"No!"
"..."
And so, Old Nine Wu gritted his teeth and sent another thirty thousand catties over.
This time, even the matriarch refused to let the matter rest. Stomping her feet, she scolded Wu Ning for failing to be the master in his own household and allowing his father-in-law to hold him completely at his mercy, while cursing Qin Wenyuan from head to toe.
"Is he squandering the family fortune?! At his advanced age, all he knows is how to squander wealth! Sooner or later, he'll ruin our charcoal factory!"
Wu Ning could only listen, not daring to utter a single word in retort.
What could he do? Who told his father-in-law to be so unreasonable and excessively generous this time?
...
Another twenty days passed, which was ten days ago.
Faint-hearted and with pockets even emptier than his face, Old Nine Wu nearly turned around and fled the moment he heard Qin Fu had returned.
His coffers were empty; his family fortune had long since been depleted. He truly could not afford any more shipments!
As a result...
As a result, Qin Fu was quite considerate this time, leading the commercial caravan straight to his doorstep.
Wu Ning looked at them and thought, is he trying to squeeze me dry?
"Leave!" Old Nine Wu said with a crying tone. "There is no more charcoal. Winter has passed, and the kilns have all shut down."
"Go back and tell the honorable old man to make a fuss again when winter comes at the end of the year..."
"How about that?"
Wu Ning's sincerity was palpable; he was practically begging.
However, unexpectedly, he saw Qin Wenyuan's loyal lackey, Qin Fu, raise his chin triumphantly.
"Fifty thousand catties of Wuzhu charcoal, at five cash per catty, to be delivered within two months."
He pointed to the hemp sacks piled high on the wagons of the caravan. "This is the deposit..."
"One thousand strings of cash!"
"!!!!"
...
"What is going on?" Wu Ning was dumbfounded.
Fifty thousand catties?
The exorbitant price of 5 cash?
And he even gave a deposit of one thousand strings of cash?!
This father-in-law of his was truly something else—a born sales talent with explosive performance!
One must know that the price levels of the current Tang Dynasty were quite low. A dou of rice cost merely a hundred cash; white flour was slightly more expensive at a hundred and fifty cash per dou; and a bolt of hemp cloth cost only three to four hundred cash.
Meanwhile, in Fangzhou, charcoal scraps and split firewood could be bought for a few catties per cash, while broken charcoal cost anywhere from one to two cash depending on its quality. Only premium items like Wuzhu charcoal or carefully selected large chunks of high-grade charcoal could command a price of three cash.
He had heard that during the reign of Emperor Taizong, prices were even more absurdly low, with a dou of rice costing only three or four cash.
Yet even now, aside from the price of charcoal, Old Nine Wu was already quite satisfied!
As for Yizhou, although prices were slightly higher since it was a major city, he had previously made specific inquiries and learned that the market price for timber charcoal in Yizhou was not much better than in Fangzhou.
For one, the Bashu region was dotted with fire wells.
What were fire wells? They were none other than natural gas wells.
Who would have thought?
Neither had Wu Ning expected that the Tang Dynasty of fourteen hundred years ago actually possessed natural gas, and it wasn't just used casually either; the utilization of these fire wells was extremely widespread and advanced.
The people of Shu not only used natural gas wells close to the surface to boil salt and roast tea on the spot, but in some places they even used bamboo tubes and wooden pipes to pipe the gas directly into households.
This was piped natural gas directly into homes; just thinking about it felt unbelievable!
...
Secondly, Bashu was abundantly rich in bamboo materials, and the production of bamboo charcoal by the people of Shu was immense. Moreover, the quality of bamboo charcoal was considerably superior to ordinary wood charcoal, making regular wood charcoal something only used by the impoverished in Bashu.
Therefore, the price of charcoal over there was actually quite similar to Fangzhou's, and sometimes even cheaper than Fangzhou.
Yet under such market conditions and in such an environment, Qin Wenyuan was still able to sell it at the high price of five cash, and contracted an order of fifty thousand catties in a single go. Wu Ning had no idea how he managed to pull it off.
...
"This, this, this..."
"Spring has already arrived; can they possibly use that much charcoal?" The pleasant surprise was so great that Wu Ning still felt somewhat uneasy.
Who would have thought that Qin Fu would wear an expression of utter disdain? "Ninth Young Master is truly ignorant of this. How can the land of Yizhou be compared to tiny Fangzhou?"
At this time, Yizhou ranked among the top major cities in the entire Tang Dynasty, boasting a urban population of no less than two or three hundred thousand. Even outside of winter, the sheer volume of charcoal consumed just for cooking and boiling water was by no means a small figure.
Fifty thousand catties tossed into Yizhou might not even cause a single ripple.
"If not for the master worrying that the Ninth Young Master might fail to deliver within the two-month deadline," Qin Fu, that sycophant, spoke as if he had personally sold those fifty thousand catties himself.
"If not for the master worrying that you couldn't deliver on time, a million catties would have been sold off long ago!"
"..."
Aside from being speechless, Wu Ning had no energy left to bicker with Qin Fu over this petty gloating.
Smacking his lips in wonder, he thought to himself that his perspective had still been too narrow—he had underestimated the purchasing power of the people of Bashu!
...
Wu Ning did not know that the region of Bashu was renowned as the Land of Abundance.
What was meant by the "Land of Abundance"? The term originated from the *Rites of Zhou*, and its original meaning referred to the officials in charge of the empire's treasures and imperial storehouses.
To use such an official title to describe the territory of Shu, one could easily imagine how wonderful this place must be!
In truth, it was indeed so.
If a place possessed salt and tea, produced grain and silk, had mineral resources wherever you looked, possessed a prime natural environment, and was walled in on all fours by mountains forming a natural barrier...
The only minor flaw was that the plains surrounding Yizhou had slightly inconvenient water conservancy resources, so they simply went ahead and built the Dujiangyan irrigation system.
In short, basically all the advantages one could imagine in this world were claimed by it (leaving aside the climate), so how could its population be small?
...
He assured Qin Fu with absolute certainty, "Rest assured, fifty thousand catties will definitely be delivered on schedule!"
He thought to himself, perhaps I should move into Sichuan as well.
...
Ever since Qin Fu brought the money back, Wu Ning no longer complained that Old Master Qin was too generous, nor did the matriarch accuse him of squandering wealth. Down in the mountain valley and extending all the way to Chenjiashang, they frantically began building kilns.
In Qin Fu's words, "You have no idea how wildly popular Wuzhu charcoal is in Yizhou!"
There were many wealthy households in that place, and the common folk also pursued a comfortable lifestyle. Fine charcoal like Wuzhu charcoal, which produced little smoke and carried a pleasant fragrance, was even more beloved than bamboo charcoal, and people were fighting over themselves to buy it.
Even if Wu Ning chopped down every mountain in Fangzhou and burned them all into charcoal, it would still sell out completely.