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

”Jiu Si, if you let him study openly, and he manages to learn all the policies of our Huangzhou Prefecture, wouldn’t he be able to build another Huangzhou Prefecture? Wouldn’t that become a huge threat to us then?”

Chen Xiaohu looked at Chen Jie and put forward his idea.

Chen Jie listened and said, ”Heh, anything I dare put out in the open is stuff I’m not afraid of them learning. Besides, if they want to learn, the pressure they face isn’t only economic, it’s also from their officials. So if they want to copy us, they first have to re-train and规范 their entire officialdom.”

”If a regime with weak control wants to imitate us, the results will definitely be unpredictable. In this whole realm, the only one who can truly learn my model of governing the people is Zhu Chongba alone.”

Chen Xiaohu said, ”I know, these livelihood policies of ours are basically the government office footing the bill to subsidize the commoners. Over these years we haven’t concealed this from the surrounding prefectures, but once they saw how much silver coin we were putting in, they all backed off—especially the officials. This is shoving all of their grease money straight into the people’s mouths. If they can manage not to bleed the people dry, that already counts as being upright and incorrupt.”

”And you still expect them to dig into their own pockets to help the common folk? That’s pure wishful thinking—dreaming!”

Chen Xiaohu said.

Chen Jie said, ”So I’m not afraid of him copying this superficial stuff. Huangzhou Prefecture has developed to where it is today not just because of some simple reform of livelihood policies. Behind it we’ve also reinforced it with commerce and technology.”

”Especially technology. It generates sky-high profits year after year, and only that can support us in carrying out these livelihood reforms.”

”If Zhu Chongba only looks at our livelihood reforms, but can’t get hold of our core technologies—like textile technology, refined salt, sugar refining technology, glass-making technology, soap-making technology, and all the other high-value technologies—then they’ll never have enough money to carry out reforms.”

”And all of this is also paired with commercial operations. In this respect, our Shen Wansan, Minister Shen, really is a heaven-sent talent. I can say this outright: if this world were to compete on who can make the most money, when our Minister Shen claims second place, no one would dare call themselves first. No matter those so-called ’smartest men under heaven’ or some ’king’s perfect aide’—in the way of commerce, he’s an invincible existence.”

Shen Wansan truly is a genius in business, especially after Chen Jie instilled some commercial theory into him; the achievements Shen Wansan has made in commerce are absolutely unrivaled.

If Chen Jie didn’t have troops and officials in his hands to fundamentally keep Shen Wansan under control, he might even have felt the urge to kill him.

Fortunately, Huaxia is a magical place. From childhood, people here are indoctrinated with one concept: the official-centric mindset, where official power always trumps financial power.

No matter that Shen Wansan’s wealth rivals a nation’s; as long as the ruler gives the order, then Shen Wansan must leave his life behind and hand over all his property as contribution.

That’s also why Shen Wansan is now wholeheartedly helping Chen Jie. His wealth isn’t even counted among the top level in the whole Huangzhou Prefecture, because he knows that in the end, money can’t compare to power. And Chen Jiusi has given him power, making him Minister of the Commerce Ministry of Huangzhou Prefecture, in charge of commercial operations.

And Shen Wansan is obviously a smart man. After he obtained power, he voluntarily handed over a huge portion of financial control to Chen Jiusi.

Because he knows what happens when a subordinate has too much money. You could say a big reason Huangzhou Prefecture has developed so rapidly is that Shen Wansan unconditionally donated his original commercial foundation to Huangzhou Prefecture.

Huangzhou Prefecture leveraged his commercial base to launch a rapid development straight away, while he only kept enough silver coin for the Shen Family clan to spend comfortably.

Moreover, Shen Wansan has said that in the future he doesn’t want to leave too much property to his children. What he wants to leave them is sufficient knowledge and learning. He wants the Shen Family to become a scholarly clan.

Chen Jie naturally understood Shen Wansan’s thinking, so he promised that as long as the Shen Family doesn’t engage in commercial monopolies that harm people’s livelihood, he can guarantee them wealth and honor for several generations.

With Chen Jie’s promise, Shen Wansan became even less interested in money. And Chen Jie is very willing to have Shen Wansan manage the money, because only when someone who doesn’t lack money is in charge of it will major problems not arise.

If you find someone who’s never seen real money, and each year they see the huge commercial assets of Huangzhou Prefecture, it’s impossible for them not to grow greedy.

Whereas Shen Wansan simply isn’t greedy—that’s what makes Chen Jie most at ease with him.

Precisely because of all these reasons, Chen Jie feels no sense of threat from Zhu Chongba studying him.

As the saying goes: Those who copy me die; those who understand me live.

How is Zhu Chongba going to learn to be like him? Is he also a transmigrator who understands a lot of modern management methods and modern technology?

How is Zhu Chongba going to learn to be like him? Does he also have a top-level commercial genius like Shen Wansan to help run his commercial operations and help him sweep up all the silver coin under heaven?

Just these two points alone are enough to leave Zhu Chongba far behind, unless Zhu Chongba starts a new save file and has some commercial genius from later generations transmigrate over.

And even if Heaven helps Zhu Chongba and lets him master these two points, don’t forget we still have the first-mover advantage.

We’ve been developing much longer than Zhu Chongba, and our operation has already reached scale. Even if he wants to copy us, he can only chase from behind. He can work himself to death and still won’t be able to catch up in a short time.

So Chen Jie simply isn’t afraid of Zhu Chongba learning from him, because at most he can grasp the superficial layer.

In fact, his study of these things is laying the groundwork for Chen Jie. Once he’s improved the livelihood of Haozhou, it’ll save Chen Jie a lot of effort when he eventually takes over. In truth, Zhu Chongba learning from him is still a good thing.