Chapter 177: Racketeer
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
All the generals were speechless upon hearing how sharp a tongue Yun Yang had.
He was generous just a second ago, but had somehow become a sticky, glass-hearted miser - stingy and prepared to take advantage of his guests…
There was nothing they could do about it, though.
What Yun Yang had said had mostly been true. Yutang’s top-tier brewery did favor their country’s militants and disliked holding a grudge against the other empires; it was also true that they would not be able to buy the wine; it was impossible to ask Tie Zheng to buy it or them, since Yutang’s military would probably be troubled by the price that they should be paying for the Blood of the Hero in the future!
"Brother Yun, how much can you get for us? Just name me a price, I won’t say another word!" A burly man with a curly beard grabbed Yun Yang’s shoulders and said earnestly, "I, Old Sun, will take everything you've got!"
The generals standing beside him immediately chastised the greedy man, "The one with the surname Sun, how can you be so shameless? Whether we can purchase it or not, what are you leaving for us if you want all for yourself? Are you spoiling for a fight?"
General Sun's face was flushed red in embarrassment but he held his ground. "I’m striking a deal here. We’re willing to pay more, we have more people, so we’re buying everything!What are you going to do about it?"
The crowd began to bicker, everyone was filled with indignation. "Bullsh*t! You have a lot of people, do you? Does any of us have lesser? Your father’s side has hundreds of thousands of men, you dare to f*cking say you have more people? Do you think thta only your country is wealthy? We will be willing to pay more and buy it all, how about that?"
General Sun was flustered as he looked at Yun Yang. "Brother Yun, please act in the interest of justice. I have only one thing to say; I won’t bargain on the price!"
Yun Yang coughed and replied, "General, you have placed me between a rock and a hard place. If I could get my hands on a million pots of Blood of the Hero for one thousand and five hundred silver taels a pot, are you going to want them all?"
General Sun was caught unawares then, bending his fingers to count but was unable to calculate the total price.
An old man beside him chortled and said triumphantly, "Bastard, can't you even do this simple math? Let this old man tell you! If you want them all, that’s a total of a hundred and fifty million silver taels! You couldn’t pay that even if you sold your soul! Your great show is crumbling all around your ears, my good man!"
"Ptui!"
Han Sanhe spluttered as he began to cough violently.
The others who understood his reaction immediately laughed, as they complimented the hapless man in unison, "Great math indeed!"
"We’re impressed!"
"If you folks can really buy the pots of wine with this price, I will match you, and double the price! If I don’t have enough to pay, I’ll go back and turn my troops into bandits so I can buy them!"
A few people among the crowd chortled too but their laughter felt awkward. It was obvious that they could not calculate how much the total should be; even with ten of their fingers, they were asking those beside them as they scratched their cheeks, "So how many silver taels in total for the wine? Is it really that figure?"
The young man in black behind Han Sanhe could not help grinning too, exposing two neat rows of his pearly whites.
Yun Yang’s attention was caught by the strange man, and he went over to question him, "What is brother’s family name? Why do you look so unfamiliar?" As he spoke, he tried to sling his arm over the young man's shoulders in an attempt to express his friendliness.
The dark-skinned youth stealthily avoided the arm, abhorrence coloring his eyes as he answered in a low voice, "I’m no one important, Young Marquis Yun need not concern himself about it. We won’t meet again after today."
"Nonsense. Put aside the fact that you’re my guest, they say that it is fate people meet – how much fate do both of us share?" Yun Yang had long noticed that this young man was unusual, so his arm raised in another attempt. "Since we’re fated, how can we not be closer?"
Anger flashed in the dark youth’s eyes as he avoided the man’s groping hand again and said, "Young Marquis Yun, please have some self-respect."
Han Sanhe who had noticed the exchange discreetly placed himself as barrier before Yun Yang and laughed, saying, "Young Marquis Yun is indeed capable if you can obtain such an exquisite brew as the Blood of the Hero. I have nothing much to say. Dongxuan plans to purchase fifty thousand pots of Blood of the Hero from Young Marquis Yun! Is Young Marquis Yun willing to help?"
He had subtly diverted Yun Yang’s attention far away. The youth in black had taken the opportunity to hide at the back of the crowd, murmuring under his breath.
Yun Yang chortled and retracted his groping arm somewhat regretfully as he said, "How can it not be when Marshal Han asks for it? Fifty thousand pots is certainly not a problem! But the payment has to be made first; at least half of the seven hundred and fifty million silver taels needs to be paid to me first. The goods will be delivered within three months, will you be agreable to that?"
"Seven hundred and fifty million taels? How did you come up with this sum? Why don’t you go and hang yourself?" The youth in black finally exploded in indignation.
Han Sanhe chuckled and said, "Alright, seventy-five million silver taels it is. I shall first pass this sum to Young Marquis Yun later."
Yun Yang scratched his head. "Is it seventy-five million? Did I count wrongly?" He began counting on his fingers.
Han Sanhe smiled helplessly; he could see that he was just playing the part of the fool.
It would be the biggest joke if he really could not count right!
However, it had been a tricky situation earlier. If he had not been thinking clearly and had agreed, the consequences would have been dire indeed.
Rumors were made out of words; as long as Han Sanhe had made a slip of the tongue, this mountebank before him would definitely make a shameless scene – we were selling it for one thousand and five hundred taels a pot but we would not mind if you all wanted to pay seven hundred and fifty million silver taels for fifty thousand pots. After all, not only was it common to see the buyer paying tips in a such transaction; it would be reasonable too. More importantly, Marshal Han Sanhe had agreed to this price in the beginning, right in front of all the foreign generals of this continent. Could it be that Marshal Han was bullsh*tting?
If when the lump sum would not be given to him then, his reputation would be gone, destroyed.
"No matter how expensive this wine is, we have to bring some back. Otherwise, our brothers will grumble and complain until our deaths once we return," a general said, sighing and shaking his head, seeing that Han Sanhe was making his purchase.
Yun Yang questioned curiously, "Didn’t General Tie prepare some for all of you? Have you all not made such requests previously?"
Han Sanhe smirked. "Young Marquis Yun is very well-informed if you knew that we’ve requested some wine previously."
Yun Yang guffawed. "Why would Tie Zheng keep this from me? I’m his groomsman anyway, did all of you forget that I was here too?"
As they thought about it, they realized the accuracy of his words.
One of the old men said, pursing his lips, "A groomsman who only reaches the groom’s stomach after standing straight… yes, we’ve all seen you. You don’t have to mention it repeatedly with so much pride; we shall forever remember Young Marquis’ glamor in our heart and never forget it."
The heartless crowd burst out in laughter.
Yun Yang rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, I don't know, I do believe that I haven't fared too badly. Unlike some of those among us two hundred people; forget the groom’s stomach, the groom’s buttocks will be an unachievable height as well. Isn’t that so, a certain someone?"
As he spoke, he directed his gaze at the dark-skinned youth who was hiding at the back to intentionally anger him.
The dark-skinned young man was spewing fire through his eyes then. If he had not held himself back forcefully, he would have charged out to fight Yun Yang to the death.
Why is he picking on me?
The rest of the crowd chided him, laughing, "Talk about the wine, talk about the wine."
One fellow complained, "Your Marshal Tie is a terribly stingy scrooge! He has set a twenty pot quota for each country; what can these twenty pots do? If these twenty pots were really brought home, forget about drinking them – they’ll be gone with everyone coming up to take a sniff!"
His words almost made the crowd burst out into laughter again.
"I see the case now. Then you all have to buy the wine! Not only should all of you buy the wine, you should buy as much as you can. Marshal Han has ordered fifty thousand pots, any other countries want the wine? There’s no more once you miss this chance, speak up if you want any; this ‘shop’ will no longer be operating after you pass this place." Yun Yang began to set in motion his money-making scheme.
One could not blame Yun Yang for shamelessly selling wine, he was about to go mad when he thought about how pathetically poor he was now.
At this point in time, Yun Yang was even poorer than Tie Zheng.
They could be said to be brothers in affliction – one poorer than another.
However, Tie Zheng’s debt need not be returned, while he also had two million silver taels of monetary gifts to aid him. Yun Yang, on the other hand, was still owing money for jades. Now that there were so many fatheads from other countries here, it would be a waste not to profit from them.
Once they entered the city and had contact with others, he would no longer have this opportunity.
Therefore, Yun Yang began collecting signatures, holding his finance book to realize his windfall profits.
Han Sanhe had wanted fifty thousand pots of Blood of the Hero; the other nations would want no lesser. Every country had ordered fifty thousand pots of wine. After Yun Yang was done obtaining their signatures, he began collecting the deposits.
The deposits alone were easily a large amount of manna from heaven.
He had collected twenty million silver taels worth of banknotes from each party. It meant that eighty million taels had gone into his pocket in the blink of an eye.
Once the fortune was his, Young Master Yun was beaming so much his eyes had disappeared into crescents. "Come, come! Let us go to the Tower To Heaven Inn now. Please prepare yourselves; everything is great at the Tower To Heaven Inn but its fee is a little exorbitant. I can’t afford that amount of money myself…"
This time round, even Han Sanhe was unwilling to talk to him anymore.
Are we not your guests? It is only reasonable that you, as the host, should pay the entrance fee.You are especially wicked child indeed! Having just collected a huge sum of eighty million silver taels from us, you've put it aside with just a turn of a head. You actually want us to pay for our accommodation!
What kind of a person is this?
Along the way, Yun Yang talked and joked enthusiastically, looking as if he was at the top of the world.
In spite of this, he could clearly feel at least thirty to forty pairs of eyes boring holes into him like sharp arrows among the two hundred people behind him.
Each gaze was composed of pondering and questions.
Obviously, his performance had not brought down the guard of these old folks who had long been on the battlefield. On the contrary, a lot of them were even more wary of him now!