CH 45

“Huang Steward, we haven’t seen each other since we parted ways in Blackstone City. I didn’t expect to find you here, as an outlaw.” said Li Jia.

“I’m not a steward anymore. I’m the steward of the Toad Gang now. Let’s not talk about the past.” replied Huang Sanyuan.

“That’s a shame.” sighed Li Jia. “I was hoping to see Cheng, the leader of your gang.”

“Cheng is busy with important matters. He wouldn’t be bothered with something like this. If you have anything to discuss, it’s the same as talking to me.” said Huang Sanyuan.

Chinese negotiation tactics often involve avoiding the main point. If either side reveals their goal first, they appear weaker. Huang Sanyuan and Li Jia were both experts at this tactic, but Huang Sanyuan was not intimidated by Li Jia’s attempts to stall.

Deep down, Li Jia still wanted to meet the legendary Toad King, Cheng Dalei, and discover his true identity.

Now, Li Jia was negotiating with only Huang Sanyuan and Xu Shenji, which meant they didn’t consider Li Jia a worthy opponent. The Toad King was indeed an enigma.

After many rounds of stalling, they finally came to the main point: how much ransom was needed to release Shouli?

“Lord Xue is willing to pay 20,000 guan to release Shouli. It’s a great favor he’s doing, and I am willing to vouch for him.” said Li Jia.

“Haha, Lord Xue is very generous. I think the value of the Shouli goods is worth more than that.” replied Huang Sanyuan.

“You shouldn’t forget that you plundered those goods. They weren’t originally yours.” said Li Jia.

“Don’t forget, we’re bandits. What we plunder is ours by right.” retorted Huang Sanyuan.

“You Toad Gang only has six members. If you don’t give us the ransom, we could easily wipe you out.” threatened Li Jia.

“But we also managed to steal a group of one hundred men from Lu Heng.” countered Huang Sanyuan.

They argued back and forth, using various linguistic tactics to inflate or deflate the ransom amount. It was truly a battle of wits.

Huang Sanyuan looked down on Li Jia, thinking to himself, “You’re a long way from being able to negotiate with me.”

“So how much does Mr. Huang want?” Li Jia wanted to know Huang Sanyuan’s bottom line.

“That depends on how much power Master Li has.” Huang Sanyuan’s psychological price was 30,000 guan, but he wouldn’t easily reveal it with his cunning.

Li Jia cursed and sighed, “If Mr. Huang can’t make the decision, then maybe we should invite Cheng Dalei.”

“I came here to talk to you.” Huang Sanyuan smiled.

Bang!

The door suddenly kicked open, and Li Jia was startled to see a bearded man with an axe burst in.

Could this be the toad king who ate human flesh and drank blood? He looked ferocious.

Li Jia’s heart trembled. Did the other party want to harm him?

“What…what do you want?”

Bang!

“I don’t like bargaining. The ransom is 100,000 guan.” Cheng Dalei slammed his axe on the table. “Do you agree?”

Sweat dripped down Li Jia’s forehead. This guy was really a cannibal. If he didn’t agree, this axe would be smashed on his head.

“I agree, I agree…”

Ding! Received 199 fear points.

Ding! Received 288 fear points.

Ding! Received 266 fear points.

“Okay, Huang Sanyuan, continue to negotiate with him!”

Cheng Dalei left the room with the axe, and as soon as he returned to his room, he washed off the black ash and fake beard from his face. In fact, he was quite happy inside.

It worked. This round brought in nearly a thousand fear points. It seemed that he had found the right method. If this continued, gathering 10,000 fear points wouldn’t be difficult.

Inside the cottage, after Cheng Dalei left, Li Jia and his two followers wiped the sweat off their foreheads.

Huang Sanyuan squinted and smiled, “It’s settled then. You bring 100,000 ransom and Toad Camp will return the birthday gift.”

“Hold on.” One of Li Jia’s men said. He wasn’t from the Wolf Gang, but rather Xue Banchuan’s man.

“What, having second thoughts?” Xu Shenji asked.

At this point, the three of them couldn’t back out, they were afraid to lose their heads. Li Jia and his two companions whispered to each other, and Li Jia said, “The problem is…we can’t come up with 100,000 guan.”

Consistently, one thousand wen is equivalent to one hundred thousand guan, which is one million copper coins. Don’t underestimate Xue Banchuan as the lord of a city, he can’t come up with that much cash. Having just obtained the position of lord of Blackstone City, there are many expenses he must cover, but he doesn’t have much cash. Even if the gift of longevity were calculated to be worth over thirty thousand guan, the sum of one hundred thousand guan is still an outrageous amount to request.

As he spoke, Li Jia felt a bit uneasy, wondering if he might offend the other party.

“No problem, you can pay in installments,” Huang Sanyuan said.

“Installments?” Li Jia and his partners were confused; they had never heard of such a term.

“We’ve already considered this,” Huang Sanyuan said with a third-rate financial manager’s attitude. “If you don’t have cash, you can use food, salt, and cloth to pay off your debt, as long as you make the initial payment. As for interest, we’ll take twenty percent from every caravan that passes through Toad camp until the principal is repaid.”

Li Jia didn’t understand all of what Huang Sanyuan was saying, nor did the two men Xue Banchuan had sent with him. But this wasn’t their fault; the educational level of this era was too poor. One couldn’t expect a gang leader to understand what equal principal payments and equal payments with interest meant. But Li Jia did understand one thing: if he paid thirty percent, or thirty thousand guan, he could take all the gifts of birthday. As for the remaining debt, what could they possibly do if he didn’t pay them back?

It must be said that Li Jia’s way of thinking was quite simple.

“If there’s no problem, then let’s sign the contract,” Huang Sanyuan and Xu Shenji took out a thick stack of paper, obviously well prepared. “The contract comes in two copies. You sign it first and then bring it to Xue Banchuan to sign and stamp. Once the initial payment is made, you can take the gifts of longevity.”

Afterwards, the two sides discussed some details, such as how much food was equivalent to how many copper coins, how much salt and iron were worth, and how to execute the exchange of goods.

These tedious matters were discussed until very late. When Li Jia left with a thick stack of contracts, he couldn’t help but wonder if he had truly completed the task entrusted to him by Xue Banchuan.

Some of the things Cheng Dalei had to consider took a long time to figure out. Of course, the banditry was the way they made a living, and after two consecutive battles, Toad Camp had also made a name for itself. For a long time, Toad Camp no longer had to worry about safety issues.

But cutting off a path of communication can only bring short-term gain. Therefore, a long-term plan was required, and Cheng Dalei didn’t want to sever the economic ties between Blackstone City and Fallenleaf City.

Just staying in Toad Camp was not enough; they needed to grow stronger to support such a passive way of earning money.

Development is the only way forward.