Repudiating a Good Wife Is Out of the Question

165. Decentralization

Translator: Sissy That Walk

They arrived at Xingchang City this day, but surprisingly, this rich city looked rather desolated. There was no one but some beggars on the street in the middle of the day.

Cao Mo frowned as he saw those closed shops, “People have been talking about how richly endowed this region is, but the streets are saying otherwise.”

“Never mind, have your decoction first.”

“But I’m completely fine now.”

Prince Xing thought the local officers had cleared the path for them for safety, but he soon realized what was actually going on after he settled in his temporary residence but he only had received few visitors.

‘Someone has leaked the information about my arrival, everyone now must be panicky now, they don’t want to be the first offender,’ thought Prince Xing. He pressed his forehead in pain, in the meantime his gums were swollen, his lower back and upper thighs were all overworked. But he still asked Eunuch Liu to invite Cao Mo and Xiao Yi over to discuss a further plan after they settled in.

Xiao Yi walked in on Yao Wenyuan feeding Prince Xing the decoction.

“Are you sick as well, Your Highness?”

Prince Xing raised his head in pain, he pulled a long face when he saw there was just Xiao Yi, “Where is Cao Mo?”

“He is having a fever, he needs to rest for a few days before he can do his part.”

“I heard it’s because of the haemorrhoids?”

Xiao Yi’s face darkened, “Your Highness, let’s focus on raising grain for the army.”

“Right, what do you think of the merchants’ behavior today?” Prince Xing rubbed his cheek to relieve some pain.

“They just want to deal us a head-on blow at the first encounter, but there are only twp possible outcomes. First, the big merchants are rich enough to stall, but the longer they stall, the more complaint people will utter, and they will blame you for the inconvenience in life, then what follows that is Censorate’s impeachment about your misconduct.”

“What’s the second outcome?”

“The small tradespeople and pedlars for sure will go bankrupt if they join the strike as well, they will end up horribly, and they will blame everything on you.”

“How come everything sounds like my fault?”

Yao Wenyuan now chimed in furiously, “It’s you and Cao Mo who has come up with the whole plan, no way His Highness is going to take all the blame.”

Prince Xing beamed with smile, he felt so warm that Yao Wenyuan was defending him.

That was too much sweetness for Xiao Yi, he continued, “Well, it’s not that tricky, we need to support a merchant who ranks in the middle in the city, who is neither too coward or too ambitious, as a matter of fact, me and Mo have already picked someone before we left the capital city.”

“Who is he?”

“Master Qi Three. He is Big Second Madam’s cousin, we are not too close, but still we are on good terms. He has about five hundred hectares field in the region as well as several thousands of forests, I think he will be the perfect middleman for us to raise army provisions.”

Prince Xing nodded, and all of a sudden he felt his gums were less swollen, and he thought he wouldn’t be so agitated if he had known Cao Mo had it all figured out.

“You are in charge of this matter then, I will carry out a thorough investigate about the local government, they must have some serious backup to be this bold and obstruct our conduct like this.”

“Humph, it’s high time they got punished!” Yao Wenyuan looked grave.

Xiao Yi said ‘good luck’ for the local magistrate in the heart, he knew Yao Wenyuan was out for blood.

… …

Cao Mo didn’t mention his plan to anyone else, no one knew about this Master Qi Three.

Master Qi Three was Big Second Madam’s cousin, he tried to collaborate with Cao Mo when Cao Mo started his soap business, but it was too late for Cao Mo had already gave the secret formula to Big Fourth Madam’s granddaughters. But Master Qi Three and Cao Mo had been contacting with each other since that, Master Qi Three had even sent Cao Mo new year presents.

Cao Mo had his reason to pick Hunan and Hubei as the pilot region, there were Master Qi Three and his powerful family to support the system.

Xiao Yi saw Cao Mo lying in bed when he returned.

“You left in a hurry, he and you discussed the merchants’ strike, yeah?”

Xiao Yi nodded, “Do you need to give Master Qi Three a message?”

“Not necessary, he will come to us himself. We need to leave them alone for now, just spread the words, Prince Xing is going to select a few merchants to deal imperial grain exclusively, and the merchants who get picked will no longer be registered as merchants, people will no longer look down upon them.”

“You haven’t told me this before, merchants’ register is one of the most controversial issues.” Xiao Yi frowned.

Cao Mo smiled, “I know, it could be seen as our trump card, the merchants will do whatever we say to get the new identity. I will suggest Prince Xing to set up a new office to take charge of imperial grain matters.”

Xiao Yi listened attentively.

“An office like that is a must, otherwise people will panic a great time in a lean year, and get worried about the storage and sell in a good year. A special office which takes charge in collecting imperial grain can solve those problems once and for all.”

Xiao Yi pace back and forth in the room for a while, he knew where Cao Mo was coming from, but he also knew how hard it was going to carry out this plan. Numerous people would interfere in this, especially the Ministry of Revenue for setting up a new office like this was no difference than decentralizing their authority.

Xiao Yi’s eyes sparkled on thinking of that, “I know what you are up to now!”

“Decentralization is the way, I’m not helping Prince Xing to take over power or anything.” Cao Mo winked at Xiao Yi, the two smiled at each other knowingly.

“You are a genius!” Xiao Yi grabbed Cao Mo into his chest and started to rub him and cuddle him until Cao Mo begged for mercy.

“I’m going to tell Prince Xing right now, salt, iron, alcohol, livestock, medicine… … we can set up an office for each item! Then it’s just going to be a matter of time to make it all happen!” Xiao Yi jumped for joy.

Cao Mo knew the minister of the Ministry of Revenue would defy death to oppose this, he said a prayer in his heart for a smooth running for everything.

Mohua rushed in as soon as Xiao Yi had left, “Shizi Madam, there are people making disturbances at the gate, they say you are just a courtier who coaxes Prince Xing and seduces Shizi, and they request an apology from you.”

“Bastards!” Cao Mo was so mad that he spring to his feet from his bed, “Who is the leader, no one is there to confront them?”

“Shizi has gone to suppress them, Prince Xing says he will throw the leader in jail.” replied Mohua nervously.

“They are making a huge mistake by taking me as a meek cat when I’m a vengeful tiger! Requesting an apology from me! They think they can treat me like this, yeah? I will teach them a lesson that they will remember for a lifetime!”