Chapter 60: Sweet Harbor Storm - The Storm Descends

While Chang Shide was digging pits under the direction of Bei Kai’s indiscriminate coal-digging technique, the South China Sugar Factory in Xuwen was quietly entering the eye of a storm.

The opening of the South China Sugar Firm was very low-key, so low-key that Wen Tong not only refrained from using the commercial promotion methods he was familiar with from his own time, but also did without the firecrackers and lion dances of this time. The newly renovated counting house of the sugar firm quietly took down its door panels one day and began business.

The results of the first day’s business were very good. Although many people did not know that a new sugar firm had opened here, for the cane farmers who came here to process their sugarcane, being able to exchange their sugar for silver without leaving the gate was much more convenient than having to rush to Haian Street to sell their sugar.

Every cane farmer who sold sugar received a passbook with the two percent sugar payment recorded. This new measure was a novelty to the cane farmers. Many of them inquired when they could withdraw the two percent silver. Liao Daxing, according to Wen Tong’s prior instructions, only said that they would be notified when the time came. Although most people were skeptical of this answer and doubted whether they would really be given the two percent sugar payment, it was no loss to them anyway.

After a few peaceful days, they were able to receive nearly one hundred dan of sugar every day. Although Wen Tong was not very satisfied with this, considering that he only had ten thousand taels of silver in total, he was afraid that he would not be able to handle it if the business was too prosperous, so he didn’t pay much attention to it.

On this day, he had just woken up, feeling light-headed. The day before, because he had nothing to do, he had taken A’Zhu, and they had spent a passionate night together. At this moment, under the meticulous care of the female slave, he was brushing his teeth while looking at A’Zhu, feeling that he was truly great—to be able to leave a living, breathing woman who was ready to offer herself at any time, and who was not too heavy on the palate, aside for several weeks to focus on work. A feeling of admiration for his work attitude and spirit welled up in him.

“I should be kinder to myself,” Wen Tong thought, washing his face with a towel. He was wondering when Chang Shide would return from Vietnam and whether there would be any problems paying for the sugar with rice. Just then, Liao Daxing rushed in from outside.

“What is it?” Wen Tong was startled. He had been here for a long time and knew that these people were very strict about the hierarchy. This was the inner residence. A manager like him had to be announced before he could see him. To come in without permission meant that something major had happened.

“Reporting to the manager, something is wrong with the sugar firm today!”

“What’s wrong?” Wen Tong was puzzled.

“There are… too many people…” Liao Daxing was out of breath, his face full of anxiety.

“People selling sugar?” Wen Tong hadn’t caught on yet. “That’s a good thing.”

“Yes, it’s a good thing.” Liao Daxing couldn’t say what was wrong with it. After all, the purpose of opening a sugar firm was to buy sugar. Naturally, the more people who came to sell sugar, the better. But he was an old hand in the business world, and he could smell the precursor of a storm in this sudden change.

“But the number of people is increasing too fast—” Liao Daxing didn’t know how to put it. “It’s strange!”

“Let’s go and have a look,” Wen Tong thought it was better to see it for himself. But Chang Shide was not here, and Bei Wei had gone out on a reconnaissance mission. He had to call Chen Tianxiong over so they could discuss it.

The two of them hurried to the entrance of the sugar firm. The doors had not yet been opened, but the open space outside was already crowded with cane farmers. Ox carts, carrying poles, handcarts, and baskets were all filled with sugar, and more people were constantly pouring in from the road behind. Everyone’s face was tense, and it seemed that everyone was hiding a great secret, but no one was willing to tell others, for fear that the news would leak out and they would miss their chance to get ahead.

It looked very strange, but neither Wen Tong nor Chen Tianxiong could see what the problem was. Time passed, and it was almost time to open the doors. Wen Tong had no choice but to wave his hand and instruct Liao Daxing, “Open the doors.”

As soon as the doors opened, and the firm had just brought out the large scales and other things, the cane farmers who had gathered outside rushed in. Everyone rushed towards the weighing area as if they were jogging. In an instant, all four weighing areas were crowded. At first, there was some order, and people lined up consciously. But more people kept pouring into the open space, all rushing towards the weighing area. The order instantly descended into chaos. The entire open space was immediately filled with people, and the oxen, squeezed by the crowd, began to neigh.

The assistants were stunned by the crowd. Some stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do. Others were busy weighing for the people who had pushed their way to the front.

In the chaos, someone’s sugar basket probably broke, and he let out a desperate cry, “My sugar—my sugar—”

His cry was immediately drowned out by the surging crowd and the impatient neighing of the oxen.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Wen Tong knew that there must be a big problem today. But now was not the time to find the cause. He quickly instructed Wen Qing, “Run to the Qiwei Escort Agency and get all the escorts who are not out! Quick!”

“Yes!” Wen Qing turned and was about to run out.

“Come back!” Wen Tong thought again. What was the use of just the escorts? There were too few of them. “Bring some militia along the way!”

Liao Daxing quickly climbed onto a table and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Everyone, don’t push! Line up! One by one! The South China Sugar Firm is buying all day, there’s plenty of time—”

He shouted until his throat was hoarse, but no one in the crowd responded to him. A terrible thought flashed through Liao Daxing’s mind. Although he didn’t know why everyone was rushing to sell their sugar, he had experienced similar things before. A few years ago, Leizhou had an unexpected heavy snow in winter. After the spring, the government sold rice at a fair price. The people who came to the grain store to buy rice were just like this. Men, women, old, and young almost burst the counting house. The bluestone counter was crushed, and more than a dozen people were squeezed to death before the yamen runners arrived to maintain order.

Could it be the same today? Terrified, Liao Daxing stood on the table like a wooden chicken, not knowing what to shout.

Chen Tianxiong said anxiously, “Manager Liao, keep shouting! If you don’t shout, it will only get more chaotic!”

“Yes, yes.” Liao Daxing started shouting again at the top of his lungs, “Everyone, don’t panic, take your time…”

Wen Tong also wanted to stand up and appease the crowd, but he didn’t know a word of the Leizhou dialect. It would be useless to go up. He was pacing anxiously when Zhou Shizhai arrived with the factory workers’ militia. The militiamen were all holding rattan batons and wearing safety helmets.

They rushed forward and quickly separated the crowd. This improved the chaotic order somewhat. The assistants, who had been squeezed so hard they couldn’t stand, were finally able to return to their overturned tables and continue the work of weighing the sugar.

After a while, the men from the Qiwei Escort Agency also arrived. There were few of them, but they were experienced. They quickly blocked the road and only allowed those who were lined up to enter.

Chen Tianxiong had an idea. He instructed, “Manager Liao, immediately take the people from the counting house and move the silver exchange to the other side of the courtyard.”

This would prevent the crowd from lingering at the entrance of the sugar firm for too long and facilitate dispersal.

“Yes, I’ll go right away—” Liao Daxing’s legs had long since gone soft. He quickly took his men and left.

Zhou Shizhai then led the militia and escorts to clear the entrance and exit roads. The crowd began to slowly disperse. The open space was no longer crowded with people, and the queues were restored. But the chaos of the past ten minutes had already left a tragic mark: dozens of broken straw sandals, more than a dozen crushed baskets, and sugar spilled all over the ground. Someone was crying while picking it up with their clothes.

“What is this! It’s inexplicable!” Wen Tong said anxiously. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but wouldn’t this scene greatly damage the image of the sugar firm? He quickly instructed the newly arrived Wen Xiu, “Go, take a few women to clean up the sugar and return it to them.”

“Strange, too strange.” Chen Tianxiong knew that something was wrong when he saw this. Something they didn’t know must have happened. This chaos was definitely not a good sign. A thought struck him, and he quickly said to Wen Tong, “Hurry to the sugar factory! There are too many people here. I’m afraid the factory will be in chaos!”

Wen Tong broke out in a cold sweat. The escorts and militia are all at the sugar firm. Could this be a diversion? What if someone sets fire to the sugar factory… He quickly instructed Zhou Shizhai to take a few escorts back to the sugar factory and keep an eye on the situation.

But the sugar factory was normal. The number of cane farmers who came to process sugarcane had not increased much. This news brought some relief to Wen Tong and the others. It was just that more and more cane farmers were coming to sell sugar, and the assistants were overwhelmed. The few of them had grim faces, but they didn’t know what to do. They had the assistants ask, but they couldn’t find out anything. These cane farmers were all tense, but surprisingly, none of them were willing to say why they were all coming here to sell sugar.

Chen Tianxiong, with his rich social experience, had a few thoughts and began to understand. He quickly called over an escort and asked him to go to Haian Street to inquire, especially at the few sugar firms, to see what was happening there. The escort had just left when Liao Dahua arrived, running into the courtyard.

“Managers… managers… it’s… not… good…” Liao Dahua was out of breath, his face flustered. “Haian Street—”

“What’s wrong with Haian Street?” Wen Tong’s mind had already figured it out. It must be the Haiyitang causing trouble! “Haiyitang?!”

Liao Dahua nodded desperately. “Since yesterday, they’ve lowered the sugar price to one tael and five qian!”

Everyone was stunned. Lowering the price to one tael and five qian? What were these sugar merchants thinking? No wonder the cane farmers were flocking to them. The difference of one tael per dan was not a small amount! Were they planning to go out of business? For a moment, no one could make sense of it.

But Wen Tong’s face turned pale. No one else here knew how much silver the sugar factory had in stock, but he knew it clearly. When Chang Shide left, it was a little over ten thousand taels. In the past week, they had already spent over a thousand taels on purchases. If this trend continued…

He didn’t dare to imagine. Wen Tong had never thought he would encounter such a thing in this time and space, and he was not a businessman.

“I’m clearly a sugar factory technician,” he thought painfully, looking at the group of people staring at him, waiting for him to make a decision.

Although the others didn’t know how much silver there was, they knew something was wrong from Wen Tong’s expression. Chen Tianxiong whispered, “Old Wen, how much do you have left? Tell us so we can figure something out.”

“Just over ten thousand taels,” Wen Tong subconsciously held back.

Liao Dahua also understood now. The owner was running out of silver! He quickly said, “Manager, I’ll go and check on Daxing right now. How much has been paid out!”

“Alright, go quickly,” Wen Tong was already getting anxious.

The news came back quickly: in the hour after the market opened, the South China Sugar Firm had already received over a hundred dan of sugar. The South China Sugar Firm also did business for five hours a day, which meant six to seven hundred dan a day, requiring a payment of over a thousand taels of silver. Nine thousand taels of silver could only last for six or seven days at best.

Then would come the terrifying rupture of the capital chain…

Wen Tong could only instruct Wen Xiu to send a message to the assistants to take it easy with the purchases, not to go too fast, and to maintain the current average speed to slow down the inflow of sugar as much as possible.

But this was not a long-term solution. As more and more cane farmers arrived, going too slow would inevitably cause a crowd to build up. When chaos erupted, they would not be able to control it.

Liao Dahua whispered, “Master, if we can get through today, let’s also change the price to one tael and five qian tomorrow.”

“That’s the only way,” Wen Tong thought about it and couldn’t come up with any other solution. Although this would be a blow to the reputation of the South China Sugar Firm, at least everyone was lowering their prices, so South China wouldn’t be the only one.

Chen Tianxiong said, “We should report to the Executive Committee and Guangzhou as soon as possible and request countermeasures.”

Wen Tong agreed. He quickly wrote a report, sent a carrier pigeon to Guangzhou, and sent someone back to Lingao directly to report the news.

But the crowd did not decrease at all. Finally, the crowd began to back up on the road. The faces of the people who came were all anxious. The price of sugar had fallen, and it had fallen so low. This was a bolt from the blue for the cane farmers who had worked hard for a year. If they really sold at this price, they would not only not make a profit, but they might not even be able to recover their costs! Especially those who had taken out loans were extremely anxious. They had not only brought their sugar over themselves but had also sent their wives and children to the front to inquire if South China was still buying at two taels and five qian. When they heard that it was, they all breathed a small sigh of relief. They only hoped that their turn would come soon so they could sell the sugar they had worked so hard to produce as soon as possible.

Although Liao Dahua was flustered, he was still somewhat calm. He quickly had Wen Tong draw some women and children from the factory workers to boil straw tea and send it out in buckets, providing it free of charge to the queuing cane farmers to “quench their inner fire.” He also set up some sheds along the road for people to rest. The weather was already hot enough. If this continued, it was hard to say if there would be any casualties. To avoid disputes over queuing, they quickly purchased a batch of bamboo sticks and adopted a system of queuing for bamboo sticks and calling out numbers for weighing. The escorts and the militia also maintained the order of the queue, and finally, order was restored.