82: Chapter 82 The News Leaked

The day Wei Feisen accepted the gang leader's token, over a hundred people knelt in the main hall.

You sat at the position to his right.

The new gang leader's first order of business was to announce that Deputy Gang Leader Lin Shuangwan would be in charge of all logistics, finance, commerce, and intelligence affairs within the gang.

Once the news broke, it caused an uproar.

That same night, three Hall Masters gathered in a restaurant in the west of the city, closed the doors, and cursed for half the night.

"What is she supposed to be? A woman the gang leader fished out of prison, who thinks just because she has a pretty face she can ride on our heads?"

"She hasn't even been in the gang for a year, doesn't even count as a formal Disciple, and she's made Deputy Gang Leader right away? Was all the blood and sweat us brothers shed for over a decade for nothing?"

"I think the gang leader has been bewitched by that woman's beauty."

Such voices were heard almost every day for the first half month.

Some said it openly, some said it secretly, some were snide to your face, and others slandered you behind your back.

A Hall Master of a branch, surnamed Zhao, openly refused to execute your order to allocate provisions and even chased away the messenger you sent.

The next day, Wei Feisen personally took men to Hall Master Zhao's residence.

When they came out, Hall Master Zhao was missing two fingers on his left hand.

On the third day, two centurions from the East Camp were whispering at a dinner table that "the Deputy Gang Leader manages affairs by day and serves the gang leader by night," which was spread around.

Wei Feisen did not go personally.

He had those two centurions hung on the flagpole of the training grounds, exposed to the sun for an entire day, without giving them any water to drink.

After that, no one dared to discuss it openly again.

And your method was to let them discover that listening to you earned them more than not listening to you.

In the first month, you put the soap recipe into production.

You rented three abandoned dye houses outside the city, converted them into workshops, and hired sixty idle members of the gang to work. The workers only handled the specific process they were responsible for, so no one knew the complete process.

The first batch of soap, five hundred pieces, was priced at five hundred wen each.

It sold out in three days.

The second month, refined salt.

Using the "brine salt-making method" you had tested in your past life, you purified coarse salt into snow-white fine salt, which was three times whiter than the official salt on the market, had five times fewer Impurities, yet was only twenty percent more expensive.

A merchant caravan bought up three thousand jin of your goods at once.

In the third month, you established the "Dragon Trading House".

On the surface, it was an independent trading firm, but behind it, all the silver circulating was from the Black Tiger Gang.

You expanded trade routes to three neighboring provinces; the soap and refined salt were like two constantly running money-printing machines, and white silver flowed into the Black Tiger Gang's treasury day and night.

In the fourth month, each hall received its first extra dividend.

The amount was so large that those Hall Masters who had once looked down on you were collectively struck speechless.

The East City Hall Master, his ribs already set, came to the main headquarters to pay his respects, asking if there were any tasks he could help with next month.

In the fifth month, you introduced a welfare system for gang members.

There were medical expenses for injuries, pensions for those killed in action, extra rewards for meritorious service, and children could attend the gang's private School for free to learn to read.

The old gang members' eyes reddened, saying that after spending most of their lives in the gang, it was the first time they felt they weren't just lives that could be thrown away at any moment.

In the sixth month, the sign of the "Dragon Trading House" was hung simultaneously in the six cities of East Province.

No one questioned your position as Deputy Gang Leader anymore.

——

A year later.

The Black Tiger Gang's membership expanded from the original eight hundred to four thousand six hundred people.

Among them, one thousand two hundred were full-time elites who practiced Formation and crossbows daily, equipped with half-body iron armor and standard long sabers you had forged with the profits from the Dragon Trading House.

There were also three hundred cavalrymen, with horses smuggled from the north.

The warehouse was stocked with eight hundred repeating crossbows, three thousand iron spears, and enough provisions to last for half a year.

You hid these things very deeply.

The elite troops were stationed in a valley thirty miles outside the city, publicly called the "Merchant Escort Battalion." The provisions were stored separately in six different warehouses, and the forging workshops for iron armor and weapons were built deep within the mines, where outsiders could not enter.

But the truth could not be hidden forever.

With over four thousand people to feed and house, the fodder for the horses, and the consumption of iron ore, once these figures were noticed by those with ulterior motives, they could not be brushed off by the four words "Merchant Escort."

East Province, Qingqi Sect.

Tianquan Mountain, main peak grand hall.

Sixteen stone pillars, each as thick as a person could embrace, supported the dome. In the center was a three-zhang square tiger-skin rug, with twelve rosewood chairs arranged in rows on both sides, and at this moment, someone sat in every chair.

Qingqi Sect, the number one School in East Province.

Sect Head Sect Master Shen Heming, a Great Grandmaster in the Late Stage, had led the Qingqi Sect for twenty-three years, with over ten thousand Disciples under his command, governing seven counties in East Province; he was the one who truly called the shots in this land.

The Black Tiger Gang was merely the most useful dog among the many vassal forces under his feet.

Today, he gathered the Elders of the twelve halls to meet in the grand hall, but he had not stated the agenda in advance. After everyone took their seats, they looked at each other and whispered.

"What is the Sect Head's business today? We just discussed the autumn harvest accounts last month, it shouldn't be this soon again..."

"Shh, didn't you see that the two true Disciples are here? Would small matters warrant their presence?"

"Could it be that there is friction with the Iron Saber School in the West Province again?"

Just as everyone was guessing, the curtain at the main entrance of the grand hall was lifted from the outside.

Three figures walked in.

In the center was a middle-aged man, slender in build, with a gaunt face, a three-inch short beard under his jaw, wearing a grey-green robe, with a sheathless short sword hanging at his waist.

Following on his left was a young man, in his early twenties, with sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, standing tall and straight. The scabbard of the long sword at his waist was inlaid with a fingernail-sized piece of jade, which swayed gently with his steps.

On his right was a young woman, appearing to be seventeen or eighteen years old, with a cold expression, carrying an air of arrogance in her brows that did not match her age.

The Elders stood up, cupping their fists in unison—

"Welcome, Sect Head!"

Sect Head Sect Master Shen Heming raised his hand, stepped to the main seat, and sat down. The two true Disciples stood on both sides, standing straight.

"Sit."

Everyone sat down.

Sect Head Sect Master Shen Heming's gaze swept from left to right, with a faint, imperceptible smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Do you all know why I summoned you here today?"

The Elders exchanged glances with each other and shook their heads one after another.

Sect Head Sect Master Shen Heming tapped the armrest lightly.

"The Black Tiger Gang, you all should know of it, right?"

The Elders looked at each other, somewhat confused as to why the Sect Head would ask such a question. The Black Tiger Gang was their Qingqi Sect's black glove; who didn't know that?

Although they didn't know why, the Elders still nodded one after another.

"Correct." Sect Head Sect Master Shen Heming nodded. "Then do you know whose handiwork the Dragon Trading House, which has recently become famous in the six counties of East Province, is?"

Everyone was stunned.

Dragon Trading House, this name had been unrivaled in the East Province business world for the past year. Those two items, one called "soap" and one called "refined salt," were sold all over the streets, and the profits were said to be ridiculously high.

"Dragon Trading House..." an Elder hesitated, "Isn't that a new trading firm in our East Province? Does the Sect Head mean..."

"Behind the Dragon Trading House is the Black Tiger Gang," Sect Head Sect Master Shen Heming said. "To be precise, it is the Black Tiger Gang's newly appointed Deputy Gang Leader, Lin Shuangwan."