The Most Powerful Young Master of the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 9: First Earnings

Despite his reputation as a reckless playboy, three days later—after Wang Xiaoya had been crying more and more often—eggs finally appeared. This time, the little girl’s eyes sparkled with joy, her face as radiant as a lilac blossom. She had been working for the Wang family ever since she could walk, and this time, it was the happiest she’d ever been in all that time. That’s because today she’d collected the most eggs yet—eleven of them. Carrying her basket out the door, the little girl smiled and said, “We’ve collected a lot of eggs this time—eleven, in fact. Since we’ve had these chickens, this is the most Xiaoya has ever collected in a single day. Before this, the most she’d ever picked up in a day was seven. Not only are there more of them, but the eggs are also quite large—two of them weigh as much as three used to.” After she set the basket on the ground, Wang Bang crouched down, picked up an egg to examine it, and added, “There should be even more tomorrow. We’re lucky—we’ve hit their laying season just right. Starting today, we’ll keep the amount of feed per meal the same but increase the feeding frequency. We’ll aim to build on this momentum and squeeze out as many eggs as possible during this period.” The little girl nodded eagerly, like a chick pecking at grain. She thought her brother was amazing—he always seemed to know everything. Come to think of it, this batch of chickens at the Wang family’s was quite good—they started laying eggs a few days earlier than Wang Bang had expected. The reason they suddenly stopped laying eggs after being switched to feed—even though they’d been laying before—was that they weren’t used to it. Their digestive systems needed time to adjust, and with their range of movement restricted, they no longer needed to forage for insects—just like someone quitting smoking who feels uncomfortable without a cigarette between their fingers. Moreover, during that period, they were still “forming a flock” and acting on instinct; as long as one leader refused to lay, the rest would follow suit. That’s just how chickens are—or rather, that’s how most herd animals behave. As long as someone sets the tone and misleads them, a whole crowd of mindless followers will inevitably join in the chorus. Later, we adopted a “frog in slowly heating water” approach. Following Da Bang’s ingenious plan, we gradually restricted their range of movement and then separated them into individual pens. By preventing them from “colluding,” they finally began laying eggs obediently. In later eras of advanced productivity, the price difference between a jin of eggs and a jin of rice was negligible. However, in the early years of the People’s Republic, when the exchange rate was high, one jin of eggs was worth five jin of rice. During this period of the Song Dynasty, the ratio could reach ten to one or higher. This was simply due to limited knowledge and the lack of such productive capacity. It all came down to luck and chance. Furthermore, because wealthy families demanded eggs while productive capacity remained underdeveloped, this led to excessive consumption of the general populace’s staple food—rice—causing grain prices among the common people to skyrocket. Apart from the circumstances mentioned above, there was another factor at play: the “Egg Gang.” The Song Dynasty was rife with gangs; each gang had its own territory and line of business. For many commoners, even something as simple as crossing a bridge or taking a ferry essentially meant dealing with a gang. The Butchers’ Gang, the Egg Gang, and the Beggars’ Guild—these are the very groups referred to as “all walks of life”—and by leveraging their influence, they have established a certain degree of monopoly. Since they hold a monopoly, the profits reaped by the Egg Gang, which controls the distribution channels, are astronomical. So, after surveying market conditions over the past few days, I’ve reached the following conclusion: the price ratio of eggs to rice in the Great Song Dynasty is 1 to 20. Meanwhile, compound feed costs less than one-third the price of rice. In later generations, the best record achieved in a certain impoverished village under Wang Bang’s guidance was 2. 1 jin of feed producing 1 jin of eggs. That’s where the profit comes from. So the profit margin right now is terrifying. Of course, this only applies to small-scale operations; once production is scaled up and clustered, it becomes an entirely different story. With my daydreaming done, I told the young maid to set aside three eggs at home to fulfill our quota, and the two little rascals left the house with the remaining eight eggs. They planned to sell them for money and then hide the cash… At the entrance to the official market in Qiaozifang—a prime commercial hub—an old man at one of the stalls had been holding the eggs and examining them for quite some time. This old man was Chen Jiaohu, the notorious leader of the Egg Gang in Shuzhou. “Can we make a deal? If you think they’re too dirty, I’ll wipe the chicken droppings off the shells with my sleeve,” the little girl said timidly. Any other child who said something like that would have been taken in, but thankfully, even with Chen Jiaohu’s three leopard-sized guts, he wouldn’t dare cheat the son of the prefect whose entire family had been wiped out—unless he wanted the Egg Gang to go out of business. “Stop staring—you’re ruining the eggs just by looking at them. If you don’t go ahead and make the sale to the young master like a good girl, tomorrow I’ll have Old Liao come inspect every aspect of your business, including but not limited to: sanitation, fire safety, the ‘Three Responsibilities’ for the area in front of your shop, and business taxes. We’ll also check for any hidden weapons or market extortion—in short, we’ll get to the bottom of this.” Once the little devil opened his mouth, he was far more ruthless than Erya. Holy crap—those words nearly took Old Chen’s breath away. If they were going to investigate, they’d surely find something wrong. In reality, it was all just about extorting money. It wasn’t exactly uncommon for the sons of officials to come extorting money; Old Chen had smoothed over plenty of such situations before. However, this little brat was easily the most despicable spoiled brat in history—he’d never seen anyone act so shamelessly! Old Chen quickly put on a smile and turned to order, “Longjiao, hurry up and fetch some silver to pay tribute to Young Master Wang. Are you blind? You didn’t even warn me that a distinguished guest had arrived. My old eyes are failing, and I didn’t recognize him, so I ended up offending him.” “Yes, sir.” The young man went to fetch the money. To avoid being slaughtered by his demon-like father when he got home, Wang Bang dared not accept the money. He said, “Old Chen, I’m not here to extort you. Just show some sincerity—inspect the goods and pay for them.” “Really?” Chen Jiaohu asked. “I mean it,” Wang Bang nodded. “I’m just a little short on cash right now, but I’m a man of principle—I sell things to make money.” So Old Chen picked up the egg again to examine it. Their size didn’t faze Old Chen. After all, exceptions always happen—when buying eggs at low prices from small-scale farmers, he’d occasionally come across large ones. What surprised Old Chen, however, was that all eight eggs this young man had brought were large and uniformly sized. He’d never seen anything like it before. Old Chen fetched a bowl, cracked the eggs into it, leaned in for a closer look, and then gently lifted the egg whites with his chopsticks to examine them. “Oh no, he’s starting to nitpick,” the little girl thought nervously. He examined them closely: the egg whites were clear, and the yolks had a reddish tint. Based on Old Chen’s experience in the business, these were undoubtedly top-quality eggs. Not the absolute best, though. The reason was that Wang Bang’s current formula was designed for convenience and low cost; the quality was ultimately inferior to that of eggs laid by insects. When insects were plentiful, chickens from other households had a chance of laying eggs of even higher quality. However, what made them so valuable was that, in the past, one would only occasionally come across a particularly good egg. Yet this kid’s entire batch of eight eggs was like this—there was clearly something special going on. Ordinary eggs, of course, are sold as ordinary goods. But the exceptional ones are naturally treated as luxury items and sold to the super-wealthy. The price for those would skyrocket—it’s just that in the past, Old Chen didn’t often have top-tier eggs to supply to the ultra-rich, so his profits were limited. “I’ve read a lot—you can’t fool me. These eggs are worth a fortune. Think carefully before you name your price; don’t try to scam a kid,” Wang Bang said again. “Young master, would this old man dare to deceive you?” Old Chen said with a wry smile.