Although Zhu Cunji's patience had already been ground down to dust, he ultimately chose not to unleash his accumulated fury.
After a long moment, he forcibly steadied himself and spoke in a low, controlled voice:
"Very well. I won't waste words on nonsense anymore. I'll be direct, Li Daoxuan. Cooperating with those so-called upright literati officials won't earn you much silver. But cooperating with this heir—your coffers will overflow."
Li Daoxuan replied calmly, "My coffers are already overflowing. Why would I need to cooperate with Your Highness? Where's the necessity?"
Zhu Cunji:
"..."
The anger gauge twitched upward again.
Suppressing it, Zhu Cunji continued, "I've heard that you've been buying land everywhere, building all sorts of strange factories—mines, chicken farms, cement plants, and the like. But forgive my bluntness: very little land around Xi'an doesn't already belong to my estate. If you want to expand further, you won't get very far without cooperating with this heir."
This time, he finally struck the key point.
And it was precisely the reason Li Daoxuan had tolerated all his posturing until now.
Almost all land surrounding Xi'an belonged to the Prince of Qin's estate; only a small fraction was held by ordinary people. Recently, Li Daoxuan had already spent a fortune acquiring shops related to food, clothing, housing, and transport. But when it came to large-scale construction—coal mines, iron mines, farmland, breeding farms—he couldn't bypass the Prince of Qin's territory.
If Gao Family Village had already broken openly with the Ming court, they could have simply marched in, seized the land, and redistributed it. But at this stage, open conflict was clearly unwise—especially since Li Daoxuan's "field of view" still stopped nearly a hundred li short of Xi'an.
In other words—
Helping the Prince of Qin's estate make money was, in truth, helping the future Gao Family Village make money.
There was nothing to worry about.
Any wealth accumulated by the Prince of Qin's estate would merely sit inside the residence—perhaps buried in cellars, much like the hoarded silver of the Hedong Salt Administration Bureau.
When Gao Family Village eventually swept in, they could dig it all out and turn it into wealth for the people.
That could be done anytime. It depended only on will.
With that in mind, Li Daoxuan deliberately frowned, putting on a troubled, hesitant expression.
The silicone face stiffened unnaturally. That frown, frozen and eerie, made Zhu Cunji's scalp prickle.
Why is this man's expression always so strange? Zhu Cunji thought uneasily.
It doesn't feel… human.
After pretending to deliberate for a long while, Li Daoxuan finally spoke.
"Wu Shen and Shi Kefa have treated me generously. Both promised me half the profits if I help them solve the people's livelihood problems."
Zhu Cunji chuckled.
"If they can give you fifty percent, this heir can give you sixty."
Li Daoxuan widened his eyes.
"Oh?"
Zhu Cunji pressed on. "Build a fertilizer plant on my land. The profits will be split sixty–forty—sixty for you, forty for me. The only condition is that the fertilizer produced must be used on my farmlands."
"Oh, oh, oh, oh!" Li Daoxuan exclaimed dramatically.
"Chicken farms, pig farms, mines—everything can follow the same arrangement," Zhu Cunji said smoothly.
Li Daoxuan lowered his head, appearing deep in thought.
Zhu Cunji secretly sneered.
Merchants chase profit. As long as the numbers are right, how could he refuse? Heh. You won't escape my grasp.
But inside Li Daoxuan's mind, calculations were already racing.
There's a coal mine in Baqiao District of Xi'an, right on the Prince of Qin's land. Mining there would let me supply Xi'an directly—far more convenient than hauling coal from Heyang County.
Baqiao doesn't just have coal. It has iron as well. Coal mining, iron mining, and smelting can all be done on-site.
The vast fertile plains along the Wei River also belong to the Prince of Qin's fief. If I introduce scientific farming and raise yields, the estate won't be able to consume everything. They'll have no choice but to sell.
And they won't be able to jack up grain prices, either. Gao Family Village's grain stores can sell cheaply, forcing the market down. The Prince of Qin's estate will be compelled to follow suit—benefiting the common people.
Moreover…
The Prince of Qin's estate has zero experience running modern factories. They'll have to rely on Gao Family Village's managers. Over time, our people can gradually raise the wages of tenant farmers and long-term laborers, improving their livelihoods across the board.
In short—
As long as the rigid old system loosened even slightly, advanced productivity would seep in like water through cracks, dismantling the old power structure piece by piece.
History had proven this countless times.
After a long show of contemplation, Li Daoxuan raised his head. A terrifying silicone smile spread across his face, making Zhu Cunji instinctively shudder.
"Your Royal Highness," Li Daoxuan said pleasantly, "how about a seventy–thirty split?"
Zhu Cunji shook his head without hesitation.
"No. Sixty–forty. Not a fraction more."
"Fine!" Li Daoxuan laughed. "Sixty–forty it is. A pleasure doing business."
All the fury Zhu Cunji had bottled up for so long vanished instantly.
There was no ultimate move to unleash after all.
Meanwhile—
Daizhou, northern Shanxi.
Chuǎng Wang Gao Yingxiang and Chuǎng Jiang Li Zicheng, leading twenty thousand rebel troops, advanced toward Daizhou's city walls.
By this point, northern Shanxi had become a paradise for bandits. Aside from Taiyuan Prefecture—which remained unassailable—every other city, prefecture, and county had been ravaged. Local officials scrambled to organize militias for survival. Many imperial officers died alongside their cities, and countless captured towns had their walls torn down, left exposed like turtles stripped of their shells.
Chuǎng Wang glanced at Daizhou ahead.
To him, it looked no different from the small cities they usually crushed—fragile, unremarkable, nothing to worry about.
He waved his hand.
"Attack!"
Rebel soldiers surged forward in great waves.
Just then, movement appeared atop Daizhou's walls.
A tall, imposing gentry member stepped forward, flanked by his household retainers and the city militia.
This man was Sun Chuanting—eight feet tall, broad-shouldered, imposing. He had once served as a director in the Ministry of Personnel's Bureau of Merit Evaluation, but had resigned in disgust during Wei Zhongxian's tyranny and returned home, idle for years.
Facing the charging rebels, Sun Chuanting showed not the slightest fear.
He drew his bow, nocked an arrow, and let loose.
Arrows rained down on the attackers. The Sun family retainers moved with discipline, advancing and retreating in perfect order, fighting no worse than seasoned troops.
Chuǎng Wang and Chuǎng Jiang had truly run into bad luck.
They had never expected such a formidable figure to emerge from an obscure prefecture.
After a brutal assault, Daizhou still stood firm—unyielding like Mount Tai.
With no way through, the rebels were forced to withdraw.
Unable to break Daizhou, they could not advance further north.
After a period of hesitation and grim deliberation, the rebel army turned south once more, sweeping toward central and southern Shanxi.