258: Chapter 258 Merchant Leader Shang Ziling

Yu Ji was in the crowd, secretly watching Xiang Yu.

Every young girl has thoughts of love; Yu Ji was incredibly moved by Xiang Yu.

When she thought about her brother introducing her to Xiang Yu, her cheeks turned even redder.

As expected, Xiang Yu became the top champion of Fangling Commandery, and he would represent Fangling Commandery to compete for the title of Hegemon-King of West Chu in the Chu Region war zone.

The battle for the title of Hegemon-King of West Chu was set to take place in Shouchun.

Zhao Fusu knew that this battle for the title of Hegemon-King of West Chu would inevitably attract a massive crowd of onlookers.

To reduce the occurrence of crowding and stampedes, Zhao Fusu, in addition to sending the army to maintain order at the scene, required tickets to enter the competition arena.

This was definitely not because he wanted to squeeze money out of people.

To give the audience a better experience, Zhao Fusu had Shouchun build a Boxing Arena.

Seats were set up within the first thirty meters; the closer the seat was to the front, the clearer the view of the ring, and the price was correspondingly more expensive.

A single seat ticket in the first row cost three hundred coins.

There were fifty seats in total.

A single seat ticket in the second row cost two hundred and eighty coins, with sixty seats in total.

The further back the seats, the lower the ticket price; there were thirty-five rows in total.

The ticket sales alone could bring in four to five million RMB.

The enthusiasm in Shouchun was extremely high; they hired a large number of workers to build the Boxing Arena.

During the competition, one could only enter the venue by purchasing a ticket.

The use of entry tickets made of Paper already raised the barrier of entry.

To prevent people from forging entry tickets or using one ticket multiple times,

the entry tickets were arranged in sequence by section, and tickets were also checked according to the section sequence.

For example, seat tickets from 1 to 100 were sold at window number one.

Seat tickets from 101 to 200 were sold at window number two.

Those with seat tickets 1 to 100 would have their tickets checked at entrance number one.

Those with seat tickets 101 to 200 would have their tickets checked at entrance number two.

After receiving the ticket, the ticket checker would use a special nail to tear the ticket before returning it to the holder.

If someone tried to enter with a ticket already torn by the special nail, they would not be allowed in again.

Doing this would avoid people fishing in troubled waters as much as possible and reduce their losses.

Not only was Shouchun building a large-scale Boxing Arena, but all the commandery cities hosting the King of Boxing Competitions were building large-scale Boxing Arenas.

Zhao Fusu had a large number of mobile toilets prepared inside the Boxing Arena to make it convenient for those watching the match to relieve themselves.

After all, once you entered, the ticket was torn. If you left and wanted to come back in, you might need to buy another ticket.

Therefore, mobile toilets needed to be set up within the Boxing Arena.

The collected excrement could then be used for composting and sold for money.

In addition, food could be sold within the Boxing Arena.

This was yet another way to make money.

In short, Zhao Fusu's arrangements were full of commercialization.

Shouchun.

Inside a loft, there was a translucent screen.

Behind the screen was a beauty in purple clothes wearing a purple veil over her face, with jade pendants hanging from her waist.

“Merchant Leader.”

Someone entered from outside the loft and looked toward the translucent screen.

He could not see the woman behind the screen clearly.

But just seeing her silhouette was enough to make him swallow his saliva desperately.

The curves of her figure reflected on the screen were prominent where they should be and slender where they should be; every inch was just right, like a work of art meticulously carved by nature. Just looking at it made a man's blood boil and tempted one to commit a crime.

A fragrant breeze occasionally wafted from behind the screen, and the man couldn't help but sniff his nose.

His heart was burning; the leader was truly fragrant.

If he could get the leader to spare him a single glance, it would be worth dying for.

“Everything has been investigated. This First Great Qin King of Boxing Championship was proposed by His Majesty the Head of State, and the regulations were also personally formulated by His Majesty the Head of State.”

“You may withdraw.”

The woman in purple spoke, her voice as pleasant as an oriole's.

“Understood!”

The man reluctantly withdrew from the loft.

“Your Majesty the Paramount Leader, you truly are an interesting person!”

The woman in purple blinked her watery eyes; her pupils were purple.

There are very few people in the world with purple pupils. Purple pupils are not determined by a specific race but are a rare phenomenon determined by genetic factors. People with purple pupils are very scarce; according to statistics, the total global population with purple eyes does not exceed six hundred people.

Purple eyes are a special trait of Eurasian mixed-bloods.

The woman in purple was a Eurasian mixed-blood; her father was a man of Chu, and her mother was a distant Westerner.

She didn't have many memories of her mother.

Back then, her father sold grain to the Xiongnu and followed the Xiongnu people to the Western Regions.

After learning there were countries west of the Western Regions, he followed a merchant caravan from a Western Region country further west, where he met her mother.

At that time, her mother was being pursued, and it was her father who stepped in and saved her mother.

Not long after her father brought her mother back to the Chu Region, her mother gave birth to her.

Because Great Qin attacked Chu, chaotic troops broke into her home, and her mother died from fright.

Great Qin emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, so her father's business was affected, and her mother indirectly died at the hands of the Qin Army. Her father had no goodwill toward Great Qin.

Influenced by her father, Shang Ziling had no goodwill toward Great Qin from a very young age, and even felt hatred.

Under the suppression of Great Qin's policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, the living conditions of their merchant clan became worse and worse, and business became increasingly difficult.

Great figures of the merchant clan were arrested or exiled whenever it was decided, even exiled to that miasma-filled Lingnan.

A large number of the merchant clan's pillars died in Lingnan.

Among the Hundred Schools of Thought, the Merchants were even more miserable than the Mohists.

At the very least, those who knew Mo Techniques were still treated well by Great Qin.

According to social hierarchy, they, the merchants, were ranked as 'Scholar, Farmer, Artisan, Merchant,' placing them at the very bottom of society.

Even a farmer carrying manure had more dignity than they did.

To revive the merchant clan, her father traveled far and wide, eventually falling ill from overwork and dying in bed when she was fourteen.

Her father's greatest obsession was that he did not want the Merchants to completely decline like this.

After her father died, the merchant clan basically scattered in all directions.

After Shang Ziling inherited her father's caravan and industries, she thought about managing them.

But the general environment was one of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce; Shang Ziling had already done her best just to keep her branch of the merchant clan from falling apart.

Shang Ziling's appearance was that of a mixed-blood, and she was quite different from ordinary Chu people.

To negotiate business, she needed to travel frequently.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, she put on a veil.

In the past six months, life for their merchant clan had improved significantly.

This all came from the Paramount Leader who seized power in Great Qin and opened up the grain trade, which allowed Shang Ziling to earn the price difference by buying grain from places where prices were lower and transporting it to places where prices were higher.

What Shang Ziling didn't expect was that opening up the grain trade was not the end, but only the beginning.