This approach wasn’t something Meng Chengwei had considered. He had thought about it from the very beginning.

But what he wanted most was the Ye family’s tea-making methods and Ye Chongming’s connections as the head of the Tea Guild.

Poaching tea growers would mean openly breaking with the Ye family, harming others without benefiting himself. After all, it would take a large amount of silver to lure away the growers. By next year, if he didn’t offer such high prices, those growers would certainly not cooperate with him; if he continued to offer high prices, he would feel at a significant disadvantage.

Buying raw tea without knowing the proper processing methods would be pointless—he couldn’t produce good-tasting caked tea or loose tea.

So he had never seriously considered this approach.

But now…

His mood was extremely agitated.

Seeing him pacing back and forth in the room, Liu Qilin continued: “If something happens to the Ye family’s young lady, they’ll certainly suspect us of setting a trap. If they suppress the news, refusing to acknowledge that their daughter has lost her virtue, and hastily marry her off to some poor household, our plan would fail.”

Seeing that Meng Chengwei seemed thoughtful and was taking his words to heart, Liu Qilin became more animated and continued: “But if we apply pressure on the tea growers’ side, trying to poach them, the Ye family will have to seriously consider cooperating with you. Since the carrot in our carrot-and-stick approach isn’t working, using the stick on two fronts would be more reliable.”

Meng Chengwei turned around, sat down in his chair, and smiled, praising him: “Well said, Manager Liu. Your words make good sense.”

“Time is of the essence. You’ll be in charge of this matter,” he said, adding, “Act quickly, or it will be too late.”

The custom in Lin’an was to pay taxes to the Tea Bureau on the second day of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Once the Tea Bureau completed the procedures, tea merchants and growers would immediately find a place outside the bureau to sign contracts for pre-ordering tea leaves.

This way, merchants wouldn’t have to make another trip up the mountain, and the growers could enjoy a meal hosted by the merchants without spending their own money—killing two birds with one stone.

Before accepting the task, Liu Qilin needed to clarify one point: “Previously, fearing we might alert them, we didn’t inquire at the Tea Bureau about which growers cooperate with the Ye family. Now we need to find this out, which will take some time. At the earliest, we can only go up the mountain to look for these growers tomorrow.”

Although they hadn’t inquired about the growers who cooperated with the Ye family, Liu Qilin had, on Meng Chengwei’s orders, established connections at the Tea Bureau by giving gifts to a minor official, becoming acquainted with him.

Therefore, he only needed to invite that person out for a meal and present generous gifts to obtain the list of growers who cooperated with the Ye family. This would save some time.

Meng Chengwei nodded: “Go ahead.”

……

While Liu Qilin was establishing contact with the minor official at the Tea Bureau, Ye Chongming had already arrived at the home of one of the Village Heads.

This Village Head was named Zhou Jiawang, in his sixties, around the same age as Ye Chongming. Having known each other for decades, and with Ye Chongming being skilled at building relationships, the two old men had developed a deep friendship.

Ye Chongming was direct and explained the situation to him, saying: “I have no other choice but to come ask for your help. I know that in the face of significant profit, you can’t guarantee that every grower will listen to you and reserve their tea for the Ye family. I’m not asking you to do much, just to go with me to the yamen after the growers sign the contracts, to convert them to red contracts. I’ll cover all expenses.”

“Additionally, the tea currency matter is voluntary. Originally, I was worried that if the tea money was stolen, I wouldn’t have enough silver, so I negotiated with Baofeng Bank to issue tea currency. Now that the tea money is safe, continuing with the tea currency is merely to show gratitude to the bank’s owner for extending a helping hand in my time of need. I’m offering the growers half a wen interest per hundred taels of silver. Those growers who aren’t in urgent need of money and wish to earn this interest can take the tea currency.”

As he spoke, he raised his hand, and Li Fu opened a wicker box, revealing one hundred taels of gleaming silver before Zhou Jiawang. Besides the silver, there were several bolts of bright and lustrous silk.

Zhou Jiawang’s expression didn’t change much, but Ye Chongming could still detect a gleam in his eyes.

As a Village Head in the prosperous tea-growing mountains of Jiangnan, Zhou Jiawang’s family circumstances were quite good. But this “quite good” was only relative to the surrounding growers; they weren’t truly wealthy. Being able to save over a hundred taels of silver in a year through frugal living would be considered very good.

These hundred taels were a significant sum for him. Moreover, those several bolts of silk were visibly worth dozens of taels.

Ye Chongming’s request wasn’t excessive—just converting white contracts to red ones, without requiring the growers to pay taxes themselves. As long as they properly sold their tea to the Ye family, whether the contract was white or red made no difference to the growers.

As for the tea currency, if the Ye family couldn’t produce silver and could only offer tea currency, that would be troublesome. But since the Ye family had silver, growers who didn’t want tea currency could directly take silver, and the interest on the tea currency was not low, so this matter posed no difficulty.

These two tasks were effortless for him, allowing him to do the Ye family a favor without harming the growers’ interests in the slightest, all while gaining a hundred taels of silver. How could he refuse such a good deal?

“Alright, we’ve been friends for a lifetime; there’s nothing more to say. I’ll take care of this,” he said generously.

Then he made a show of refusing: “Take this silver back; I can’t accept it.”

Ye Chongming naturally wouldn’t agree, and the two went back and forth in polite refusal before Zhou Jiawang finally accepted the silver.

Having received a hundred taels for nothing, Zhou Jiawang felt obliged to do something in return. He said: “Come, I’ll accompany you up the mountain. While it’s still early, we can cover the two nearby villages. You don’t need to go back tonight; just stay at my place to avoid the trouble of going up and down the mountain.”

This was Ye Chongming’s plan all along. Even if Zhou Jiawang hadn’t suggested it, he would have asked the Village Head to send one of his sons along.

Now that Zhou Jiawang was willing to go personally, it couldn’t be better.

Those two villages were located at the foot of the mountain, and the roads within the villages could accommodate carriages.

As they boarded Ye Chongming’s carriage, Zhou Jiawang said: “When we reach the village, don’t mention the outside tea merchants. Just say that there have been many disputes over contracts in previous years, and now the government requires everyone to sign red contracts.”

Ye Chongming responded with feeling: “That’s why I came to you first, Brother Zhou. No one else is as kind-hearted and considerate of my interests as you are.”

These words made Zhou Jiawang burst into hearty laughter.

At the foot of the mountain, one village had about thirty households, the other about forty. But between the two villages, only about thirty households owned tea gardens on the mountain. With Zhou Jiawang, the Village Head leading the way, Ye Chongming smoothly signed contracts with these thirty-some tea growers.

Regarding the red contracts, Ye Chongming and Zhou Jiawang merely informed them, without requiring them to go to the yamen personally. As the Village Head and guarantor, Zhou Jiawang would only need to go to the yamen with Ye Chongming to complete the procedures. The growers had no objection to this, and the Village Head essentially received their verbal authorization.

That night, Ye Chongming stayed at Zhou Jiawang’s home.