latelenovela Chapter 44 Fighting Courage
Chapter 44 Fighting Courage
??
Lin San drew his knife and stared at Gao Hongtu. Gao Hongtu took a deep breath, got out of bed, and slowly walked a few steps to the window, seemingly trying to calm himself down.
Liu Ye opened an account book, which recorded bribes to officials at various levels in Hangzhou. This wasn't unusual, but what was surprising was the inclusion of records of bribes from officials in Xiangyang. Bribing government officials didn't seem like a big deal, so Gao Hongtu's nervousness clearly wasn't about that. He put down the book and picked up another one.
The second book contained similar content. When he turned to the third book, the contents made his eyes widen.
Gao Hongtu stared at him, and seeing his expression, he knew he had seen what he least wanted others to see. He sighed inwardly, closed his eyes, and prepared to call for help. Even if it meant mutual destruction, he couldn't let these two leak a single word.
Liu Ye seemed to know his thoughts. He put down the ledger and said in a low voice, "Wait! I have men outside. Each one of them can take on ten men. They can easily break out with this ledger. Even if you keep us here, it won't help. Do you want to test the consequences, Boss Gao?"
Gao Hongtu narrowed his eyes and said calmly, "Why do you think I want to keep you here? If I wanted to call for help, I would have done so long ago. Why wait until now?"
"Just because of this!" Liu Ye held up the ledger in his hand. "You quietly left the bedside, firstly to distance yourself from your woman, so that even if we wanted to kill her, one of you would have a chance to shout for help; secondly, you were closer to the window, making it easier for you to call for help at any time, so that we could all perish together and prevent the contents of the ledger from being leaked."
Gao Hongtu closed his eyes, appearing nonchalant, but in reality, his mind was far from calm; his thoughts had been guessed.
He originally thought these two were just seeking revenge or robbing money and would be easy to deal with, but he didn't expect that they would get involved with the account book. It was no longer a matter of losing money; his own life, and even dozens of members of the Gao family, were in danger.
Liu Ye waved the ledger: "I found it strange when I saw the record of bribing officials in Xiangyang. You're a merchant from Hangzhou, yet you've extended your reach to Guangdong. Of course, it's your ability to do business so extensively, even to the capital. However, this ledger records that in the third year of Chongzhen's reign, you traded with a man named Gao Yigong, exchanging goods. He provided gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, and paintings, while you provided weapons, liquor, medicine, and cotton cloth. The price of this transaction seems very favorable to you; the jewelry and antiques were sold at a bargain price!"
Gao Hongtu remained silent, but clenched his fists, as if he were ignoring what was being said.
"Where did this Gao Yigong get so many jewels and antiques out of nowhere, and why is he in such a hurry to sell them at a low price, only wanting goods like swords, spears, liquor, medicine, and cotton cloth? Let's assume that the jewels and antiques were obtained through robbery and looting, while swords, spears, and medicine are essential items for military campaigns. The equipment needed by the imperial army is naturally allocated by the relevant authorities, so the only group that would need to purchase such items in large quantities privately, especially those near Hubei, could be rebellious refugees from Shaanxi! I've heard that the leader of these refugees is named Gao Yingxiang, known as the 'Chuang King.' What is the relationship between Gao Yigong and Gao Yingxiang?"
Gao Hongtu could no longer pretend to be deaf and interrupted him: "Stop talking!"
His last shred of hope vanished. The other party had analyzed the items and location of the transaction so thoroughly that they must already know the answer.
Liu Ye stared at Gao Hongtu and said, word by word, "Supporting rebels is a crime punishable by confiscation of property and extermination of the entire family!"
Gao Hongtu's face gradually paled. He took two steps back, sat down on the bed, and asked with his head down, "What good will it do you if my family is raided and wiped out? Name your price. How can you let this matter go?"
Liu Ye didn't answer him immediately, but instead began to calculate in his mind. His purpose in coming here was to kill Gao Hongtu, and his motive for killing him was to prevent the Gao family from getting involved in the cotton cloth business. Now that he had the account book as a major bargaining chip, it would be a waste to use it merely to prevent Gao Hongtu from interfering in the cotton cloth business. After all, this was something that could lead to the execution of the entire Gao family—the imperial court was more wary of bandits than the Later Jin. Emperor Chongzhen himself and the high-ranking officials in the court believed that bandits were the real threat. If Emperor Chongzhen knew that the Gao family was directly funding bandits through trade, he would probably even dig up the Gao family's ancestral graves and whip their corpses.
Liu Ye decided to find out Gao Hongtu's motives before making any plans. He asked directly, "Boss Gao's money exchange business is thriving, why would he want to associate with rebels? It doesn't make sense."
With the other party holding the leverage, Gao Hongtu had no intention of hiding anything and revealed the whole story.
It turns out that Gao Hongtu was not a native of Hangzhou; his ancestral home was Mizhi, Shaanxi, making him a fellow townsman of Gao Yigong. In the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, due to consecutive years of disasters and poor harvests in Shaanxi, Gao Hongtu came to Guangdong to seek refuge with relatives, learn to do business, and married the daughter of a local merchant. Within a few years, he became the manager of a shop.
The opportunity that truly propelled him to become a tycoon came from his hometown of Shaanxi: After Gao Yingxiang and his followers rose up in Shaanxi, they were besieged by government troops, lacking medicine and clothing, and their large haul of looted jewels and antiques was insufficient to feed them. Gao Yigong was sent by the rebel leader to find merchants to trade with, and inadvertently made contact with Gao Hongtu through a fellow Shaanxi native. Gao Hongtu, very bold, transported a batch of medicinal herbs and cotton cloth to Xiangyang, where he traded with Gao Yigong, making a fortune from this opportunity. Emboldened by this success, he traded four more times from the seventh year of the Tianqi reign to the third year of the Chongzhen reign, bringing back jewels and antiques that fetched high prices in Hangzhou. He used this money to open a money exchange, quickly becoming one of the leading merchants in Hangzhou.
Liu Ye's thoughts: "The bandits need medicine to treat their wounds and to replenish their weapons. Liquor can be drunk and also used for disinfection, so cotton cloth can be used to make clothes?"
The rebel armies don't engage in production; they rely on looting for food and clothing. Their armies are massive, often numbering in the tens of thousands, resulting in enormous consumption and a huge demand for medicinal herbs and cotton cloth. No wonder Gao Hongtu, who was running a successful money exchange, insisted on acquiring Wan Hua Lou. He not only saw its success but also its potential, hoping to obtain a large amount of silver to buy cotton cloth from Hangzhou to supply the rebels. Damn it! If you swallow up Wan Hua Lou, which I've worked so hard to build, and use it to fund the rebels...
Having learned the whole story, Liu Ye had an idea. He stuffed the account book into his pocket and said to Gao Hongtu, "To be honest, I am a merchant who owns Wanhua Tower. I thought of sneaking into your Gao residence because I was afraid that you would collude with the government to take over my Wanhua Tower. As for what I want to do, you should be able to guess."
Gao Hongtu smiled bitterly: "I'm afraid you'll kill me, Gao, to resolve the crisis at Wanhualou, right? As long as I die, my son is still young, and the Gao family will have no successor, so it will fall apart, and naturally no one will try to seize your Wanhualou."