Chapter 154: Starting Gang Wars
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Gradually, residents of Jade City began to refer to Shangguan Ru and her killers as the "Kun Society". Even Master Ru herself did not know who invented this name, however, as this name was already widely known, she had no choice but to accept it.
Everyone in the city was looking forward to seeing how the Tenth Young Master of the Golden Roc Fort would compete with the Fifth Young Master of the Meng clan. Many thought at first that it would be a good show.
As the animosity between Shangguan Ru and Meng Mingshi had built up to a very high level, everyone believed that the Kun Society and the Horned Dragon Society would start a gang war very soon. Gu Shenwei did not spare any effort to make matters worse.
Once he was back at the Stone Castle, he gave a detailed debrief to the Tenth Young Master about the incident over the hiring of machetemen in the Rouge Forest. Shangguan Ru expectedly was furious and wished that she was present at the scene, so that she could personally teach a lesson to that devious scoundrel from the Meng clan who had betrayed her. She felt that under these circumstances, the killing of Bigmouth Liu was justified.
However, because of Lady Meng's objection, Shangguan Ru could not even leave Golden Roc Fort now. The Lady was still worried about the 'evil spirit' in her daughter's body and forbade her from entering South City. Although Shangguan Ru had not had any outbreaks recently, no one was able to confirm that the spirit had been totally removed.
Shangguan Ru had waited for many years to be completely independent and naturally did not want to be restricted. Mother and daughter had a quarrel over this issue.
In the end, Gu Shenwei came up with a solution. He offered Shangguan Ru Tie Hanfeng's residence at North City as her base camp. It was close to South City and was a convenient command center for her to direct her killers and machetemen.
The level of safety at the North City was only slightly lower than that at the Golden Roc Fort and many times higher than that of the South City. Eventually Lady Meng agreed.
Shangguan Yushi kept finding faults with Slave Huan's work. Firstly, she complained that it took too long to hire the machetemen and that Shangguan Fei's team had already long been formed up. Then it was criticism directed at Huan Slave that he only managed to hire old machetemen who were previous of the eldest Young Master. Lastly she devalued the manor at the North City, saying that it was too small and unfit for someone of the Tenth Young Master's stature.
Shangguan Ru was not so fussy and was satisfied with everything. On the first day after leaving the mountain, she summoned all of the machetemen.
51 machetemen entered the North City empty handed and presented themselves in the yard (which was not too wide), for their new master's inspection. They demonstrated a few formations.
Shangguan Ru's performance proved that she was indeed the Supreme King's daughter. She had an air of authority yet meanwhile still appeared to be approachable. Her time at the Iron Mountain camp taught her numerous techniques of socialising with adult men. Hence, after a contest of machete skills, drinking a round of good wine and playing two rounds of dice with them, even those machetemen who despised women the most were impressed and pledged their lifelong allegiance to the Tenth Young Master in a drunken stupor.
After partying for three days, the machetemen returned to the South City along with five killers. Only five remained at the North City, and the Tenth Young Master now had to consider the real problem of survival.
According to the rules of the Golden Roc Fort, a young master would only receive 20,000 taels of silver during his or her first year of independence. If they wanted to earn more money, they had to expand their business in South City. They would have to start from the ground up, but there were tried-and-tested ways to do it.
The first method was to collect protection money. There were many merchants in the South City and everyone of them had to look for one or multiple protectors. The only problem was that most merchants in the city already had people protecting them and there were not many new merchants. If the Kun Society wished for a share of the pie, it would not be easy.
The second was to provide bodyguard and armed escort services. This was a field facing intense competition, and the main rival would be the Golden Roc Fort. Fortunately, there were many cargo owners who were keen on cost savings. Besides, as Tie Hanfeng's disciple, Gu Shenwei could easily get some orders from the merchants in the southwestern area of South City.
The third choice was entering the assassination business, which had once been Golden Roc Fort's main source of income, but now hit jobs were few and far between. Take Shangguan Ru for instance, even she herself did not understand the inner workings of how the business was run.
Shangguan Yushi spent all of her effort on the Tenth Young Master and naturally left the lowly task of earning money to Slave Huan.
Gu Shenwei requested for Maid Lotus, three other killers and the 51 machetemen to follow him. Thus, he began the tough task of setting up business.
There was now a good opportunity up for grabs in the South City. After Shangguan Chui was killed, his Outer Hall organization was disbanded and those merchants under the protection of the Young Master were looking everywhere for new protectors.
These merchants were from all types of industries and spread out across the South City.
The Kun Society entered this market a little late as most of the merchants had already found new protectors. Gu Shenwei did not give up because of this. He got a list of merchants from Tuo Nengya and found out about the standard rates for protection money from the Xu siblings. After he was sure of how to do it, he began bringing his men to visit each merchant to establish contact.
Some of the merchants wanted to maintain the peace. They were willing to pay for extra protection but demanded a significant discount. Others refused to accept the Kun Society's protection and asked them to talk with their new backing.
Most of the time, these new protectors were the Horned Dragon Society.
Gu Shenwei delined to offer the merchants any discount. He only told all the merchants peacefully that Shangguan Chui's business should be given back to Golden Roc Fort and the only people who were eligible to take these business over were the Ninth Young Master and the Tenth Young Master.
He was waiting for a suitable opportunity to showcase his ability.
The chance came soon and the location was at the Blacksmith Village at the side of the city.
The shops in the Blacksmith Village were the most important assets of the eldest Young Master. After Shangguan Chui's death, the blacksmiths did not immediately look for new protectors, and as a result both of the twins came here looking for opportunities.
This was the first direct confrontation between the Kun Society and the Horned Dragon Society. At first, the machetemen from each side egged each on the tested each other. When they realized that neither side would back down, they started fighting and there were multiple injuries as a result.
This caused the blacksmiths to be displeased as these small confrontations greatly affected their business. They grouped together and elected a few representatives who presented themselves to the leaders of both groups, requesting to set a time for both groups to face off in a duel, the winner of which would be the recipient of the protection money from the Blacksmith Village.
This seemed to be a reasonable suggestion and therefore on an afternoon where snowflakes floated all over the air, the decisive duel of over a hundred machetemen begun.
Gu Shenwei and the other killers listened to the advice of Tuo Nengya and looked from the outside without intefering. This was the first duel consisting purely of machetemen which they saw and they realized it was of a different flavor compared to that of killers.
Tuo Nengya brought only over 30 machetemen with him and the opponent had an obvious numerical advantage - they had over 70 men.
They did not act like killers who concealed their true skills while looking to kill in a single blow but rather like two groups of theatrical performers - there were people calling out their opponents and making loud noises, people throwing things and people making various taunts and humiliating gestures. From early morning till mid-day, both sides only sent out three to four pairs to duel with win and loss for each round. There was no one dead from the duels.
When it came to meal time, both groups dispersed to eat and the more experienced hawkers had already carried their dumplings and noodles over for sale, waiting outside the Blacksmith Village. The machetemen ate with glee and there were even men from opposing sides sitting together chatting happily. This scene did not seem to come from a duel but rather a temple fair.
In the afternoon, as the snow started to fall heavily, machetemen from both sides gathered again and re-enacted the scene from earlier in the morning. Finally, just as dusk approached, the duel began.
The fight lasted for an hour and spotches of red were left behind on the snow covered ground. The sounds of kiling shook the heavens and the blacksmiths put down their tools and watched at their doorsteps, pointing out intermittently which weapon in which brave macheteman's hand were crafted from their shops.
Tuo Nengya proved his worth and his thirty over machetemen formed ranks and attacked or retreated with discipline, proving more than a match for the oppenent who were fighting without any form of cohesion. After a few rounds of fighting, the machetemen from the Horned Dragon Society were routed and fled.
What left the biggest impression on Gu Shenwei was that although a substantial amount of blood was spilled by both sides, not one person was dead.
The entire thing was like a farce but Tuo Nengya explained to his youthful chief afterwards, "Machetemen are out to make a living, if they can manage to not make enemies they would, today's enemy could be yesterday's neighbour, tomorrow they could serve the same master, so why should they put their lives on the line? But we also have our basic rules, that is wins are won by ability alone and the winner normally would spare the loser's life, while the loser would know his place and leave the scene of the fight."
Kun Society's reputation grew greatly after they secured the Blacksmith Village. Many merchants that originally belonged to the eldest Young Master now were willing to switch allegiance to the Tenth Young Master. Gu Shenwei immediately faced another problem which had nothing to do with the Horned Dragon Society but caused by the elder twin brother of the Tenth Young Master, Shangguan Fei.
As the twins had set up their killer teams at the same time, something which was unprecendented in the history of the Golden Roc Fort, a fight over their elder brother's interitance could not be avoided.
This matter was settled personally by Shangguan Ru. She invited her elder brother to the North City manor and negotiated seriously with him. As usual, she won hands down and Shangguan Fei was so angry that he nearly cried. After throwing a useless tantrum, he flung his hands and left. The result was still giving away much of the benefits to his sister.
At the end of the month, Gu Shenwei had gathered enough taels of silver to pay the salaries of his employees but the capital of 20 thousand taels of silver he originally held was still reduced. Of the merchants who originally were under the protection of the eldest Young Master, only 20 to 30 percent switched their allegiance to the Tenth Young Master and they also found all sorts of excuses to reduce the protection fee given. After some calculation, Gu Shenwei found that he could only collect 10 thousand taels of silver or so each month, which was not enough to cover his costs.
As the end of the year drew near, an atmosphere of peace came over the Jade City. The confrontation between the Kun Society and Horned Dragon Society were all small fights and arguments so far and residents within and outside the city treated it as a show. Gu Shenwei had always wanted to stir up a huge fight but there was never a suitable excuse for it.
Entering the twelve month of the lunar calendar, the excuse presented itself.
The Xu siblings had loyally carried out their duties of listening out for information and although most of it were of no value, they kept at it happily. Gu Shenwei had also offered them encouragement all along. Finally, there was one day where Xu Xiaoyi brought a piece of news to Gu Shenwei which stirred his interest: There was a change of manager at the Southwall Tavern.
The new manager did not look like he came from the South City and the siblings had never heard of him. However many who kept money with Shopkeeper Lyu had received advance notice and went to meet the new manager to fix the amount. It was said that Shopkeeper Lyu would from now on take on a role behind the scenes and move to the North City to live a life of luxury.
Xu Xiaoyi had especially sharp ears and had heard of this news three days earlier. Gu Shenwei knew immediately that something was amiss. He knew that this show of changing managers was most likely aimed at him and while at first he wanted to bring his machetemen and killers over as a show of force, he had a new idea suddenly.
The next day morning, he went to the North City to see the Tenth Young Master. Firstly he gave a clear report on the financial situation and stated that they were still making a loss every month. As a solution, he wanted to contribute his Master Shifu's inheritance to the funds.
Shangguan Ru was shocked and Shangguan Yushi was skeptical, but in the end still accepted this offer of goodwill and loyalty from Slave Huan and insisted on calling it as a loan.
Ten days later, after the new manager of the Southwall Tavern had taken over his post for a few days but Gu Shenwei had not received any notice to ratify his funds, he decided to go to get his money.
Because of these 300 over thousand taels of silver, the Kun Society and the Horned Dragon Society had their first confrontation which resulted in many deaths. The citizens of the Jade City who were preparing to welcome the New Year suddenly realized that the game was now turning into a tragedy.