Chapter 1038: Gathering the Families and the People

With the country currently in a state of turmoil, Liu Bei's side could barely manage to maintain control over the villages through a layered household registration system. However, on Cao Cao’s and Sun Ce’s sides, they had to rely on the noble families to oversee these areas.

Therefore, stabilizing the prices of commodities like salt across the entire Han Empire was impossible without the cooperation of these noble families. If they chose to only follow orders on the surface but secretly defy them, Chen Xi would be left with no choice but to rely on his intelligence system to track and punish each offender, a process that would be painstaking and inefficient.

"One shi of salt for 100 coins?" Wei Ji, Wei Zi, and Wu Yuan—representing the three major merchant families—all frowned. Although salt and iron monopolies were dominant in this era, for families like the Wei and Wu families, the line between government-operated and privately-operated industries had long since blurred. In many ways, they were the government.

"This price would leave our Wu family with a small profit, but other families might not be as fortunate," Wu Yuan said with a faint smile, shifting the burden back onto Chen Xi and the other families.

"This price is too low," the families that dealt in salt all voiced their concerns. It wasn’t that they opposed Chen Xi's proposal, but rather that forcibly selling at such a low price, against economic principles, wouldn’t benefit either side.

"You don’t have to sell at a loss. We will supply the salt ourselves and sell it at 100 coins per shi. We can offer it to you at 50 coins per shi," Chen Xi said, shaking his head. He couldn’t expect an entire class to engage in loss-making activities. There must be give and take; otherwise, it wouldn’t follow the natural economic order.

In Chen Xi's view, a profit margin of 50 coins per shi was already quite substantial. After all, salt was a necessity, and with daily consumption averaging 5 grams per person, the profit from salt at 50 coins per shi would still generate 400 million coins annually for the Han Empire. If the country were unified, essential goods like salt would undoubtedly fall under strict government price controls.

"Lord Chen, you may have overlooked something. Some of the families here built their fortunes on salt production. If they are reduced to merely selling it, it would mean handing over control of their family's lifeblood to others. Although this might simplify their operations, it’s not always a matter of mere profit; sometimes, it’s about safeguarding the family’s core business," Wei Zi said, shaking his head. While their family did produce salt, it wasn’t their sole enterprise, unlike some others.

Chen Xi paused, realizing he had indeed overlooked a crucial detail. For some families, certain industries were their exclusive domain, industries they had honed over generations. To suddenly dismantle such a system through aggressive market disruption would…

"Hmm, I understand now. I missed a key point. But since I’ve proposed this, it won’t be halted. Families whose ancestral business is solely based on salt production, please stand," Chen Xi said, nodding thoughtfully. Pushing forward violently was an option, but avoiding negative consequences was preferable.

About a dozen family representatives stood up. Chen Xi nodded slightly. He knew there wouldn’t be too many such families. In any given region, competition would inevitably weed out most, leaving only one or two dominant players. That was the nature of survival of the fittest.

"Since it’s just these families, the others should have no problem with my policy. Keep in mind that once this policy is passed, any future attempts at defiance will be met with severe consequences," Chen Xi said with a cold glint in his eyes. He was no longer the naive scholar who had first arrived. With numerous lives already in his hands, his demeanor carried an unspoken authority.

"You now have two choices. The first is to transition from salt production to developing preserved foods. I believe you have experience in this area, and we at Taishan will provide support by purchasing your preserved goods," Chen Xi said after a moment's thought.

With centralized production in place, families could take over poultry and meat processing, which Chen Xi had initially considered managing himself. Now that he had these families, he no longer needed to worry about inefficiencies. Their established scale would make it easy to train them for the task.

The families from Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Yanzhou, Jizhou, and Qingzhou that had built their fortunes on salt production quickly agreed. The reason was simple—resistance was futile. The salt from Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping was already selling like hotcakes in these regions, and there was no stopping it. To not agree would be suicidal.

"It seems this option isn’t too appealing to some of you, so there’s a second option," Chen Xi said, gesturing for Xu Chu to retrieve his industry development chart from home. As Chen Xi expanded industries, he often found himself moving onto the next phase, sometimes overlooking or forgetting something, hence the need for this chart.

After all, during the late Han period, many industries were still undeveloped, or even non-existent.

Since that was the case, Chen Xi simply assigned some suitable industries to the regions where these families resided. According to the planned development of the Han Empire, these areas would eventually be built up anyway, so there was no rush.

Xu Chu quickly returned with the chart, and after a brief glance, Chen Xi assigned cotton farming to the families in Yongzhou, Liangzhou, and Bingzhou—essentially the Yellow River basin. Chen Xi promised that once the cotton grew, he would buy it.

Regardless of whether the families were satisfied, Chen Xi didn’t care. When it came to monopolistic businesses, there wasn’t much to discuss. According to Qu Qi’s guidelines, all they had to do was plant. With Taishan as a guaranteed buyer, they might be nervous in the first year, but after that, they’d have no complaints.

For the other families, Chen Xi selected certain medicinal herbs that could only be grown in their regions, assigning them to focus on herbal medicine production and processing. As for the planting techniques, those would have to be shared privately. Given the deep attachment people of this era had to land, Chen Xi had little more to say on the matter.

The Zhang family of Yizhou, however, expressed interest in producing high-proof alcohol. After some consideration, Chen Xi agreed. Yizhou wasn’t short of grain, so they could do as they pleased.

In truth, some families were better suited to producing cement, but the timing wasn’t right, so that idea would have to wait. As for the major merchant families, while they weren’t thrilled with the fixed salt prices, it didn’t hurt them too much. They’d just make slightly less money, so they begrudgingly agreed to support Chen Xi.

"One last item: I need you all to gather up the refugees and beggars in your various regions. Furthermore, if we go to war with Cao Mengde or Sun Bofu, any internal unrest that results in more refugees will also require your assistance in managing. The cost of feeding and clothing these refugees will be compensated," Chen Xi said, moving on to the final agenda item.

To be honest, the Battle of Jizhou hadn’t caused much direct destruction, but the aftermath of fleeing soldiers and bandits had wreaked havoc on the region. They had caused almost complete devastation across Jizhou, and the destruction of villages and towns had led to a massive increase in refugees. Some of these refugees had turned to banditry, while others had perished before Chen Xi’s administration could reach them.

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