Chapter 55: Counterattack

The Ye family’s tea money was not robbed, and their funds were not lacking. However, if they denied this, explaining the issuance of tea currency would be difficult.

So, since the rumor said the tea money was robbed, Ye Chongming neither confirmed nor denied it, using the phrase “the robbery incident” to obscure the truth.

Although Ye Yaming had told him to let the rumor spread for a while and not rush to refute it, that was only if the rumor wasn’t directly confronted. Now that it was brought up to their faces, some things had to be clarified. How to clarify it was a matter of skillful speech.

At some point, Yang Hong had come up from the first floor and stood at the staircase, listening for quite a while. Hearing this, he couldn’t help but sneer and said, “Keeping your word? Uncle Ye, isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration? I heard that this time, you gave the tea farmers not silver but a piece of paper called ‘tea currency.’ Isn’t that just an IOU?”

Ye Chongming knew Yang Hong had colluded with Meng Chengwei to deal with the Ye family. Seeing him here now, he was highly disappointed.

The Yang family also had a tea house, so Yang Hong only came to Jixiang Lou when there was business with the tea guild. He never usually stepped into Jixiang Lou. Now, he came specifically to kick the Ye family when they were down, which was despicable.

As the saying goes, “A gentleman loves wealth, but he acquires it properly.”

It was understandable that the Yang family wanted to compete with the Ye family, and others wanted to take the tea farmers from him. But merchants should also act like gentlemen. If merchants didn’t give people a bad impression, such as being unscrupulous, cunning, calculating, and only seeing profit, why would their status be so low?

As the guild head for so many years, he had always restrained the tea merchants in Lin’an with morality and integrity, and he was pleased to see the good atmosphere. But now that he was in trouble, the true faces of these people were immediately revealed, which made Ye Chongming deeply saddened.

Ye Jiaxing stood behind his grandfather, clearly seeing everyone’s true faces, and was greatly shocked. Since he was born, the Ye family had been so wealthy; since he was sensible, Ye Chongming had been the guild head. Wherever he went, people were polite to him, and some tea merchants’ children flattered him because of his grandfather’s status.

But now he saw the coldness of the world. If his cousin hadn’t predicted everything in advance, and the Ye family really got into trouble, seeing these changing faces, he would have collapsed.

“Yes, because of the disaster, the Ye family was short of silver for a while, so we cooperated with the money shop and let the Mei Family’s Baofeng Money Shop issue tea currency to pre-order spring tea from the tea farmers. The tea farmers can exchange the tea currency for an equivalent amount of silver at the Baofeng Money Shop. If the tea farmers exchange it with me when trading tea in the spring, the Ye family will pay a certain amount of interest.”

He tried to ignore the various expressions on everyone’s faces and cupped his hands to the crowd, saying, “If any of you are short of silver for pre-ordering tea in any year, you can refer to my method today and cooperate with the money shop. Although this move is out of necessity, it is also a way to solve the problem of funding shortages, and I am not unworthy of the position of guild head.”

As soon as he said this, many people started discussing it.

To be honest, although the government implemented the tea monopoly system, it still left a certain profit margin for the tea merchants. The reason everyone did this business was because of its high profits. Therefore, every year, everyone wanted to pre-order as much spring tea as possible. However, tea had to be pre-ordered six months in advance, and not only did they have to pay the tea monopoly office, but they also had to pay a deposit to the tea farmers, which could be thousands or tens of thousands of taels of silver or even more. How many people had such a large amount of liquid funds?

From the Mid-Autumn Festival to Qingming, there was almost half a year, and the tea they had on hand couldn’t be sold out in half a year. The tea pressed in their hands occupied money. Therefore, many people had to endure the pain and only pre-order a small amount of tea each year, even though they knew the profits were high.

Now that Ye Chongming suddenly proposed the concept of “tea currency,” everyone’s thinking was opened up. If this tea currency really worked, could they also do this when they were short of funds?

So, someone became interested and asked about the tea currency.

“Old Master Wang, Old Master Li, Old Master Yue…” Ye Chongming named a few people who had just spoken to comfort him or showed sympathy, “Let’s go to the third floor for a cup of tea.”

As he spoke, he gave a meaningful look at the tea house manager, Lin Zhensheng, and glanced at Yang Hong.

Lin Zhensheng, who was in his fifties and had been working for Ye Chongming since he was a teenager, understood immediately. He nodded slightly.

“Alright, alright.” The invited people were pleased and followed Ye Chongming to the third floor.

The others looked at each other.

Yang Hong, having lost face, felt uncomfortable. Seeing this, he couldn’t help but mock, “Hmph, that tea currency is just like an IOU. It only worked because the tea farmers respected Old Master Ye. But if you do it too often, who will buy it? Saying it’s a way to solve funding shortages, you’re just flattering yourself.”

When the other bosses surrounded Ye Chongming, the tea house manager, Lin Zhensheng, came out. He had intended to help his master, but it wasn’t necessary.

Yang Hong had come to the Ye family’s tea house specifically to mock Ye Chongming, which was already extremely low. Now, saying such things made Lin Zhensheng furious. He immediately said, “Master Yang, a few days ago, you were still flattering my old master, and now you’re here to mock him?”

“Although it’s normal for people to be fickle, my family is just short of some funds, not seriously injured, and not showing any signs of decline. Yet you suddenly turn your back on us, kick us when we’re down, and come to our tea house to embarrass my old master. Your behavior is too ugly.” He glanced at the crowd, “Everyone, be careful. Don’t encounter difficulties in business, and pray for smooth sailing all your life. Otherwise, you will see this ugly face of Master Yang.”

As he spoke, he called a few waiters and pointed at Yang Hong, “Throw him out.”

Several waiters immediately rolled up their sleeves, grabbed Yang Hong, and pushed him downstairs and out the door.

“Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? Is there no law…” Yang Hong didn’t expect the Ye family’s manager to dare to lay hands on him and was caught off guard, losing his dignity and shouting all the way.

He had brought two servants, but since this was the Ye family’s territory and to prevent troublemakers, the waiters hired were all tall and strong. The two servants of the Yang family, even if they wanted to save their master, were each held by two waiters and sent to the first floor and the door together.