Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan Volume 2 Chapter 4 part1

Book 2 Chapter 4 - Great Scheme of Acquiring Wealth

After walking for more than twenty days in the southeastern direction, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, the pair that was hard to differentiate which one was older and which one was younger, arrived at Yuhang [district, Hangzhou, Zhejiang], a big county town by the sea.

After having their stomach full, Kou Zhong said, "Now that everybody is after our treasure-trove, which make famous, if we roam the Jianghu without training exceptional divine skill first, we might have a miserable or even tragic ending. But if we look for a place to hide and shrink our heads like a turtle, not only we won't achieve what Niang was hoping for us, we will never be able to kill Yuwen Huagu either. What do you think we should do?”

Xu Ziling sighed and said, "I really wish to see Li Dage and Susu Jiejie; but Gaoyou is so close to Yangzhou. That old muddled-egg Du Fuwei must be in Yangzhou doing some treasure hunt; there is a pretty good chance we will come across him!”

He sighed again before continuing, "Now we have only a little silver left, and I am tired of picking other people's pocket. We don't even have a place to stay, what do you want me to do?”

Kou Zhong's eyes lit up. "Li Dage must have thought that we are dead; how could he wait for us at Gaoyou?” he said, "You are right, right now we have to get some money; otherwise, how can we have enough travel expense to go to Luoyang to look for He Clan's Jade Annulus?”

"Do you have good idea on how to make a fortune?” Xu Ziling asked happily.

Kou Zhong already had the answer, "All great schemes to acquire wealth are inevitably linked to set your hand on it when the price is low, and let it go when the price is high. This is a salt-producing area. As long as we buy his granny's cart of salt and smuggle his bird's [must be swear word like ‘his granny'] into inland area where there is shortage of salt, we can exchange salt to money just like gold. At that time when we practice Li Dage's Bloody Battle Ten-Style, we won't need to use ridiculous tree branches.”

"Do you know a place where salt is scarce?” Xu Ziling wondered.

Kou Zhong's eyes flitted toward a table on the left side of the wine shop; he said in low voice, "Look, that girl is so cute!”

Xu Ziling was more worried over their livelihood [orig. firewood and grain of rice]; he was not interested even to look. "Come on!” he urged.

Kou Zhong put on an air of importance; pointing to his own noggin he said, "The most useful thing in the world is a smart mind. Right now the Ol' Du has cut off the river route along the Great River. Unless people with power and influence like Song Clan, nobody has the ability to transport salt to the region west of Liyang. Therefore, if we can ship his bird's one cart of salt over there, even if we have to set up a stall on the ground [fig. to start up a new business], we will earn a bowl full, a basin full of profit. Come! If you want to get rich, come with me!”

After paying the bill, the two left the wine shop. They asked around where the salt wholesale place was, and immediately set out on their mission.

Xu Ziling wavered. "We have financial resources to buy salt,” he said, "But where would we find the money to buy a mule cart?”

Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, "You did not seem to have heard of a reliable means of transportation called the wheelbarrow[1]. Come on!”

The two boys walked for half a sichen [reminder: 1 sichen = 2 hours] before reaching the dock outside the town. They saw boundless ocean extending indefinitely in front of them. This was the first time they saw ocean that they were dumbstruck.

Kou Zhong breathed out a mouthful of cold air as he said, "It would be better if we could steal a boat and then go to the other side of the ocean to take a look. Based on our skill, maybe we can be the emperor of another country; at that time, it won't be a problem for us to take a dozen concubines.”

As far as his eyes could see, Xu Ziling saw countless ships and boats, the masts were like a forest, and there were hundreds, if not thousands, of porters loading and unloading the boats, with merchants and travelers coming and going in unending stream; it was really bustling with noise and excitement.

Pushing along Kou Zhong, who was still having a longing look on his eyes, he said, "Getting rich is more important, let's go!”

The two boys joined the throng. They saw not only all kinds of Jianghu personalities, they also saw a lot of government officers mingling among the crowd.

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling were unsure whether there were wanted notices on them in this place; seeing the officers, they tried to avoid them as far as possible.

Soon afterwards they reached the street where the most famous salt distribution center was located. There were more than a dozen large, spacious stores with open areas where row after row of salt were on display. These stores were built against the sea, behind these stores were the piers, where big cargo ships and small boats were moored.

There were over a dozen shops, but each and every one of those shops was jam-packed with people. The salt piled up like a mountain, it was so cheap that it looked like one could just take a sack or half sack without paying anything.

Encountering this kind of situation, the two boys merely stood timidly. After some argument, Xu Ziling was elected as the designated negotiator. They decided on an elderly gentleman standing behind the counter, doing some calculation with an abacus.

With great difficulty Xu Ziling squeezed himself through the crowd, and then clearing his throat, he said, "Laoban [boss]! We want to buy your goods.”

Without even looking up, the elderly gentleman replied coldly, "For the next three months all the goods here have been pre-ordered. Which store are you from?”

While Xu Ziling was at a loss and did not know how to answer, Kou Zhong pushed him from behind and said, "Let's go to different store!”

The elderly gentleman acted as if he was not even aware of their existence; he continued concentrating on his abacus.

A man leaning against the counter stared at them coldly; he said, "Two Xiao Xiongdi looked unfamiliar; are you from out of town?”

Xu Ziling nodded, "We are from out of town,” he replied.

The elderly gentleman mumbled, "Ol' Liu, if you want to gossip, get out of the shop, don't obstruct people picking up their order here.

Ol' Liu winked at the two boys, and led them out of the shop and onto the street, where he sized them up and down, and then with a condescending manner said, "Looks to me you came here to buy goods, thinking that you can transport it inland to make a fortune. It's just that I rarely see someone as young as you are doing it. How much money do you have?”

Since childhood Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling grew up in the marketplace, how could they not know that they have met a swindler? Shaking their head, they turned around to leave.

Ol' Liu's countenance suddenly changed. He blocked their path and said menacingly, "You think you can go that easily?”

‘Bang!' Kou Zhong's fist landed on his lower abdomen.

Immediately Ol' Liu doubled up in pain like a shrimp, and then he dropped on his knew with his hands on his stomach, followed by his entire body slumped on the ground; he did not even have any strength to groan.

One after another the people nearby scattered to avoid them.

Xu Ziling looked at Kou Zhong's fist; he gasped, "When did your fist become that formidable?”

Following his gaze, Kou Zhong also looked at his own fist; stunned, he said, "Could it be because I have mastered the first level of Nine Mysteries Great Method that I am one sixth as formidable as Niang?”

Noticing that hundreds of eyes were looking at them, while this Ol' Liu's life and death was still unclear as he was still lying on the ground and became an eye-sore, Xu Ziling pulled Kou Zhong away into the crowd, which automatically made way for them.

They were just about to enter another salt store to try their luck when from behind someone called out, "Two Xiao Xiongdi, please hold your steps!”

The two boys knew that trouble has arrived; they stopped and turned around.

They saw three men wearing dark green clothes walking toward them in triangular formation. The man taking the lead was about thirty, with straightforward appearance. His manner and movement indicated that he was a man who was used to run amuck.

However, this time his face carried a smiling expression as he cupped his fist and said, "I am Tan Yong, the Fu Duozhu [vice helmsman] of the Hai Sha Bang [sea sand gang] Yuhang division. Seeing two Xiao Xiongdi's skill and toughness, my heart itches to make friends with you. What do you say we find a place where laoge [old brother] can play a host to you?”

The two boys felt he was giving them a lot of face, but at the same time they realized that they had offended an underworld gang member, so nothing good would come out of this.

Xu Ziling shook his head and said, "We still need to hurry to buy some goods to do business.”

Tan Yong quickly came over, "If two Xiao Xiongdi want to buy salt, you need not bother to waste your time. Let's not talk about all the goods here have already been divided up among a dozen big firms, even if someone is willing to sell some to you, not only the gangs [orig. ‘bang hui', clan/gang and society] will want their share, the officers will want their share, the authorities will want their share, and lastly you have to pay salt tax. In short, for a hundred hard work, the profit is not enough to spend three days in a low-grade brothel, and I mean the cheapest rural town low-grade brothel.”

Hearing this, the boys' two hearts sank to the bottom. Wouldn't their great scheme of acquiring wealth result in nothing?

Tan Yong laughed and said, "Come!”

The two boys exchanged glances, and then they followed him to a small restaurant nearby to sit down. Tan Yong introduced his subordinates first, the other two men, to them, one was called Xie Feng, the other Chen Gui, before casually asked the two boys' background.

Kou Zhong answered all his questions, but naturally he gave him fabricated answers. He wanted to be a Wulin's martial art master, but he has not climbed up that high yet. However, speaking about lying, even Du Fuwei was duped by him, much less Tan Yong, who was practically a nobody; of course they believed everything he said without any doubt.

He believed the two boys were Fu Zhong and Fu Ling, that their martial art skill was handed down in their family from generation to generation, and that currently they were looking for an opportunity to make money by becoming daring small-caliber gangsters.
[1] I found an interesting article on Chinese wheelbarrow, which is different from modern wheelbarrows, here:

Chapter end