Daily Intelligence System: Don't Kill Me, Honey!

Do not underestimate the merchants of this era. When Chen Jie announced this bid solicitation, the leading heads of several major buildings from Huangzhou Prefecture, and even Hubei, came directly to bid for rentals.

Even though the rental fee was as high as ten thousand taels per stall annually, it was still in great demand.

Because now everyone knew that if their shop didn’t have a stall in the luxury marketplace of Huangzhou Prefecture, it wouldn’t be considered upscale.

So these restaurant owners scrambled to rent, fearing their establishments might not appear classy.

Below, the two lower floors were the clothing city, and local clothing stores rushed to rent stalls here, though people of this era were unaware of the power of brand influence.

Thus, Chen Jie directly established a few ready-made clothing shops and set up three styles: high, medium, and low-end, while dividing them into male and female styles.

The high-end style was called ”Dominion Men’s Wear,” and its advertising slogan was: ”The men’s wear that the Prefecture Lord wears.”

The promotion focused on the exclusive clothing team for Chen Jiusi, the Prefecture Lord of Huangzhou, creating a craze driven by the advertisement effect and the desire some had to get closer to Chen Jie.

The female styles were divided into two stores, Yun Jin Clothing and Wanwan Clothing, respectively endorsed by Su Yunjin and Huang Wan’er.

For a time, they became the choice of the noblewomen citywide.

Of course, as for the mid-end range, Chen Jie left it for other privately-owned clothing factories, and for the low-end, Chen Jie supported the opening of government-operated stores by the Huangzhou Prefecture Government, branded as ”For the People.”

The prices were quite affordable, with the slogan: ”Let the people of Huangzhou Prefecture afford ’For the People’ brand clothes!”

Certainly, this so-called affordable price was still pricier than those of street clothes. Besides, there were also shops selling fabrics, and people could buy the fabric themselves.

Additionally, there were other fabric products like bed sheets, duvet covers, shoes, etc., all having their stalls in this large mall.

The first floor was dedicated to gold and silver jewelry, with various jewelry shops opening here; while the bottom floor, connected to the pedestrian street, was filled with small snack shops selling seeds, candies, etc. These were small businesses with small shops and low rent, but the profits were substantial.

The mall’s daily customer flow was in the tens of thousands, and the security was top-notch, directly guarded by the government troops of Huangzhou Prefecture, where absolutely no one dared to cause trouble.

Following Chen Jie’s endeavors, the commerce in Huangzhou Prefecture directly flourished.

Chen Jie’s personal wealth also skyrocketed crazily because, as the most precious person in Huangzhou Prefecture, he wouldn’t let himself suffer. Among the thousands of shops in the commercial street, around over 200 were owned by Chen Jie himself.

Moreover, that largest department store was also Chen Jie’s personal property, which in the future would be counted as Royal Family property.

In addition to these, Chen Jie held wealth from mines, salt fields, factories, truly rich enough to rival nations.

This was intentional on Chen Jie’s part. He didn’t necessarily need all this wealth, but ultimately decided to take it as his own, or part of the current City Lord Mansion, so that if he truly reigned over the world one day, all this money would belong to the Emperor’s Inner Treasury.

The reason is that Chen Jie prepared to enhance personal influence.

In the future, as rewards to meritorious generals or officials, the country would likely focus more on honors, and such rewards - all would be resolved by Chen Jie’s personal treasury.

Thus, every awardee would be grateful of the Emperor’s tremendous favor.

Besides, Chen Jie also controlled resources like an arsenal, essential martial arts resources in this world, thereby cementing loyalty to Chen Jie within Huangzhou Prefecture to an extreme level.

You could say, if Chen Jie stomped his foot, the whole of Huangzhou Prefecture would quake.

However, the million-tael engagement gifts still shocked the Ruyang King. A million-tael engagement gift every year, and these assets nearly compare to one-seventh of Ruyang Royal Mansion’s annual production.

Bear in mind, the Ruyang King crosses over a vast power spanning Jiangnan Five Roads Eighty-One Prefectures, and such a power’s annual output was only about seven to eight million taels of silver.

Whereas the engagement gifts Chen Jie offered now exceeded one-seventh of the mansion’s income, and it’s annual! It made the Ruyang King feel slightly underestimated by Chen Jie.

Since Chen Jie managed to provide this engagement gift, it indicated that the foundation of Huangzhou Prefecture was surely deeper than this annual million taels.

The Ruyang King trusted Chen Jie and Zhao Ya’s feelings and believed Chen Jie brought out somewhat of his reserves but definitely didn’t believe Chen Jie gambled all his assets, hence Huangzhou Prefecture was surely richer.

While the territory of Huangzhou Prefecture spanned only the Six Prefectures of Huangzhou: Huangzhou Prefecture, Qianjiang Prefecture, Tianmen Prefecture, Huanggang Prefecture, Xiao Gan Prefecture, and Xianning Prefecture.

Occupying an area at most two-fifths of Hubei, such a small capacity. Yet it produced such huge economic benefits, which the Ruyang King couldn’t believe, considering his Jiangnan Five Roads Eighty-One Prefectures fetched yearly taxes of no more than seven or eight million.

Chen Jie’s actions hinted that his Six Prefectures of Huangzhou could produce profits of over ten million annually!

In reality, the Ruyang King underestimated Huangzhou Prefecture. Huangzhou Prefecture’s annual combined revenues were no less than twenty million taels.

And that didn’t even take agricultural tax into account, that is, grain since the grain of Huangzhou Prefecture wasn’t allowed to be sold outside, and the people must pay taxes with grain.