Are we scammed?

Chapter 88 – Are we scammed?

After the demonstration had ended, Tong gathered up the citizens who had come to the auction house and taught them the cooking methods on the stage.

He also reminded them that these spice and ingredients could be bought at SE shops around the city, and the utensils at WM shops. The price was cheap as a small 50-gram spice bottle would be sold for 5 coins if the buyer was a citizen with identification token, but it would cost 50 coins if a merchant from another city came here to buy it from the shop.

The citizens had the privilege to buy everything in the shop at only 10% of the market price!

They repeatedly nodded and dispersed to spread the news with their friends and families back home.

…

Meanwhile, Feng Ji and the Yuan family representatives, who had no idea about the citizen privilege, returned to their camp outside of Julu City walls. Because their troops could not enter the city and weapons were prohibited, the Yuan escort troops had to camp outside.

All traders, who had been in the auction hall this morning, were busy begging the Yuan family members for a share of the concession or tried to reserve a portion of goods that they could buy.

Feng Ji grinned from ear to ear watching the sight of the frantic greedy merchants. They competed with each other to appeal to him and his representative members, which exhilarated Feng Ji. He loved being in the spotlight and got all the attention to him.

Feng Ji eventually bragged with the workers and claimed the credit of this auction and the profits that they would gain in the future. It was him who forced the representative into bidding the concession right and won it in the end.

He sneaked a glance at Tian Feng, who was the leader of the current caravan, with his mocking eyes. Feng Ji still held grudge against Tian Feng.

'See? It is me who can bring out the greatness of our Lord! For someone who doesn't even have the balls to enter the city, you can suck your thumb and watch me step on you to the top! I'll reclaim what's mine!'

After two months of isolation imprisonment in the Yuan guess house, he was released and allowed to continue serving the Yuan family. However, he had to climb up from an ordinary servant position again.

Feng Ji swore that he would take back his position as the head butler back from Tian Feng and crushed him underfoot. It should be him who stood above everybody else in this branch family, not a newcomer.

…

Tian Feng ignored the prideful Feng Ji and helped his aide and the staffs jotting down the order reservation from the merchants. He would send Feng Ji inside the city again to negotiate the first lot of spice and other goods that they would buy from Julu for reselling.

Tian Feng had to admit that Feng Ji had contributed greatly for winning the concession right from the auction, even though it cost them half a million taels of gold.

However, the benefits that the Yuan family could reap from this was massive. The price tag for 50 grams bottle of spice was 50 coins, but they could buy it from Julu City for 10 coins each. If they resold it in other cities, they could get more than 50 coins for certain. Thus, the profit from this trade was 400% of the investment at the minimum.

With another 200,000 gold investment, they could recover their invested capitals back in no time.

Despite all the profit that they could get in the future, Tian Feng was worried.

'Why did Zhang Tong sell this to the outsiders? What did he gain from this? Gold? Trying to amass the fund for raising armies? This is too odd. They cut down the taxes to garner the favor of the people. They showed that their financial status was healthy. Yet, why are they amassing the fund with this means? I can't understand Zhang Tong's logic. Is he stupid? Of course not. He's up to something that I don't understand.'

Within Tian Feng's brain, simulations and analyses of Tong's action were being processed while the right hand of Tian Feng was writing down the lists of merchant names and the number of goods that they reserved.

Feeling helpless and unable to come up with the logic behind Tong's action, Tian Feng stopped his hand and broke away from the task. He returned to the inner camp to ask for an opinion from a certain person.

…

Te Langpu had been sitting idly around the caravan, gazing at the nervous merchants with cold eyes.

He accepted the invitation of Tian Feng to increase his security and ensured that he could not be assassinated by Tong. As a result, he had to merge his guards from his caravan with the Yuan Family escort troops. For his properties, he retained everything that belonged to himself. The rest of the servants was given to Tian Feng.

Te Langpu was not a historic ignorant. He had learned about the history of ancient China before as he had to lead his own country to compete with this country. Because of that, he knew about the events that the Yuan Family had to face in the future.

'This is year 182. I have another decade to plant my roots into the northern region. Once Yuan Shao expands to the east and gets the territory on the east coast, I should move there ASAP. I think China's salt mines, coal mines, and iron mines in the other world located somewhere there? I should ask for a map from Tian Feng for more research.'

Te Langpu also planned to use the fund of this family to establish his casinos around the country of China. Once Yuan Shao met his end in the future, he would break free from this family and surrendered to Cao Cao or stayed neutral for the entire civil war period.

His free time did not last long. Tian Feng visited him and told Te Langpu about today demonstration at the auction house.

"From all of his auctions and that concession, what do you think Zhang Tong is trying to achieve? I believe it was to amass the fund for his army. But I want your opinion."

Te Langpu had a smug look on his face. He shook his head while he answered.

"Have you checked the source of the spice and other goods? Where do you think they get all of those from? Do you even research the origin of the products? If you can't answer my simple questions, all of you have been conned by Zhang Tong."

Tian Feng frowned after he heard the frank opinion of Te Langpu. It also reminded him that it was the first time he heard about such ingredients and new types of food. Because of the stubborn Feng Ji and the promising income that they could reap from this trade, he overlooked these simple practices.

"Why do you think that we are being scammed?"

Although Tian Feng had a suspicion, he still asked Te Langpu for his opinion and his experience as a veteran trader.

Te Langpu glanced at Tian Feng with the corner of his eyes and replied to him with an indifferent face.

"First, the cost of those products is dubious. It cannot be this cheap because he has to include the cost of the workers, the time consumed, and other factors before he set up the price of a product. In this case, it is too cheap!

Second! The origins of these peppers, chilies and the likes cannot be found or explained where they are coming from. Without the source of these crops, how can Zhang Tong acquire all of them in a large amount and in a short period of time?

For these two reasons, I can only think that Zhang Tong can probably acquire these ingredients for free or from a secret source! If he gets his hands on these goods for free, he can manipulate the price as he will!

It will be the worst-case scenario if he has an infinite amount of those things. He will drain all of our gold into his city. And because of his policy of gathering food from merchants and farmers, he will not lack both gold and provision! You should know what will happen next if Julu has become prosperous! Do you understand what I tried to convey to you?"

As a fellow reincarnator, Te Langpu guessed that Tong should have a skill that could create these spice and food ingredients out of thin air or ability that could accelerate the growth rate of a crop.

By thinking outside the box, it was not hard for him to come up with this theory after listening to Tian Feng.

Listened to Te Langpu's logic, Tian Feng was stunned. He only gave out a few pieces of information about Tong to him, yet he analyzed the situation faster than he could.

However, Tian Feng still doubted whether Tong could amass the spice as Te Langpu had predicted. He decided to wait for the spy report before he made the conclusion.

"If Zhang Tong really scammed us, what should we do to fix this?"

Tian Feng continued to probe Te Langpu, which made the latter frowned in annoyance.

"There are two solutions for this. If the goods are in limited quantity, buy all of them. If this is the case then Zhang Tong is being stupid. However, if we used up our cash and Zhang Tong still have those spice in stock, then just buy the first batch of spice then sell the concession to those five fatties. They went to the auction yesterday and bid 400,000 gold, do you remember? Sell them at that price and say something like you want to bail out or your financial is not ready."

Tian Feng nodded and left Te Langpu alone. He returned to his duty while he considered the suggestion of Te Langpu in his mind.

'His idea isn't wrong. It is the best option if we want to withdraw from this wholesale trading. But I still have to wait for the inside report to get more information. But why was he so confident when he said Zhang Tong acquired the goods via other channels? On what basis is his theory coming from?'

Tian Feng decided to hold on to the concession for now. Once he had obtained more information from the spies inside the city, he would make the decision later.

He still could not put a 100% trust on Te Langpu even though Yuan Shao wanted to recruit him.