Negotiation (2)
What, exactly, is sales?
Is it dazzling the other party with a silver tongue until they cannot think straight?
Or is it moving them to tears with painstaking flattery and devotion?
Those things matter, of course. But the single most important thing in sales is something else entirely: making the other party take an interest.
In that sense, now that the other side had already come all the way to the Sichuan Dang Family, Hwi-yeom’s sales pitch could be considered more than half won.
“The Green Forest,” he said, “possesses a unique advantage that no other sect or clan in the Central Plains can claim. We hold every worthwhile mountain pass in the realm in our grip. Anyone who wants to run a caravan through the Central Plains has no choice but to set foot on a mountain ruled by the Green Forest. Not even the Nangong family, so-called greatest of the great houses, nor Shaolin Temple, the greatest of the orthodox sects, can do a thing about it. That is the Green Forest’s private weapon.”
“You are taking a very long road to tell us things we already know. It is rather confusing.”
Hwi-yeom had tried to lift the mood with a little flattery; the man called Deok-im cut through it with a sharp edge. The meaning was plain: do not muddy the real issue.
Hwi-yeom nodded and continued.
“The real point begins here. Yes, the Green Forest holds the good passes. Keeping them is another matter entirely. You never know when government troops will come crashing in. You never know whether the merchants will quietly pay the toll or decide to fight. And if a true master happens to be hiding among the escorts, things get very ugly very fast. But if you work with us, none of that happens.”
“None of that happens… Could you explain that in more detail?”
“I assume you already have a rough idea of the projects we are running.”
“The roads and the iron rails you mentioned earlier. Is that right?”
When Deok-im showed interest, Hwi-yeom nodded.
“Exactly. It sounds grand, but stripped down it is simply this: we open roads. We intend to establish a private company that will manage the roads we build and collect tolls on them. We will charge the merchants who travel those roads a transit fee. We spent our own money to build the roads and we spend our own money to maintain them, so if you want to use them, you pay.”
“Just for using a road? Do you really think people will accept that?”
The unspoken question was obvious: if that sort of pitch actually worked, why would the Green Forest leave perfectly good words behind and do business with swords and axes? Hwi-yeom clicked his tongue the way a civilized man might while watching a native marvel at a bottle of cola.
“If you sit by a river and scoop up water to drink, and someone demands money for it, they will call you a madman. But if you build a handsome pavilion by that same river and serve the water in a teacup to the people who come looking for the pavilion, no one thinks twice about paying for a cup of plain boiled water.”
“Well… I suppose that could be true.”
“We are not talking about the old mountain paths that already exist. We are talking about properly engineered roads that anyone can see were deliberately built. Of course people will pay. And we will also borrow the authority of the government offices.”
“Borrow the authority of the government… Are you saying the authorities have actually given permission for them to use us?”
“Of course. Though you will have to peel off the Green Forest label. You will no longer be Green Forest bandits; you will become employees of a private enterprise.”
“It all sounds very fine when you put it that way, but I still have a few questions. First, even if we put on the mask of a private company, our true nature remains that of Green Forest men. How can the authorities simply look the other way?”
“You need not worry about the authorities. We have already spoken with the Provincial Military Commander. It is not an official endorsement, of course—merely tacit approval. And if any of you threaten or harm merchants, the government will move without the slightest hesitation.”
“…I understand what you mean.”
No one walks around with “I am a Green Forest bandit” written across his forehead. Hwieon Comprehensive Construction would guarantee their identities; they would work as staff of the Nokshan Road Traffic Safety Management Corporation. If the truth ever came out that they were Green Forest men, the yamen would simply cut off the tail and wash its hands. It was a perfectly understandable honeymoon arrangement. Privateers had always operated on the same principle, after all.
“But we are not allowed to threaten travelers? Granted, once the facilities are in place and you wave the government’s name around, most people will pay, but…”
Deok-im still had doubts.
“What are we supposed to do with the ones who refuse to pay?”
Hwi-yeom answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“You let them go.”
“What?”
What kind of nonsense was that? Then were the people who paid just suckers? Seeing Deok-im’s dumbfounded expression, Hwi-yeom spoke with complete seriousness.
“I will say it again: this is a matter of tacit understanding with the authorities. In other words, it is a lawful exercise of rights. If anyone uses the road without paying the toll, the moment they set foot on Sichuan soil the government will arrest them. They will either receive the appropriate punishment or be forced to pay the toll, and that money will be returned to you as compensation.”
So… the court itself would lean on the difficult customers who refused to pay?
To Green Forest ears it sounded like a dream too good to be true. Both Deok-im and Im-wi sat with their mouths hanging open.
“…So it really is a completely legal business.”
“Of course it is!”
“But I have one more question. What about the people who travel by routes other than the roads we manage?”
There would always be contrarians, and there would always be people who deliberately took animal tracks or narrow side paths just to save a few coins. Deok-im pointed it out.
“If word spreads that we are collecting money on the main roads, some will slip off onto the side trails. Catching every last one of them to squeeze a few coins out of them would be… well…”
“You can leave that much alone. The Green Forest already controls every mountain path wide enough for a cart. If someone is willing to turn a three-day journey into a ten-day detour just to dodge a few coins of toll, that is something we can afford to overlook. And any merchant who has ever used a proper broad road will know the truth: even if you pay a little, traveling this way is simply more comfortable.”
“That is not entirely empty talk.”
“It is not empty talk at all. It is excellent talk.”
Deok-im understood that the business proposal the Dang Family had laid out made rational sense. What remained now was the realm of feeling.
“Still… if we peel off the Green Forest name, join a private company created by the Sichuan Dang Family, manage roads built by the Sichuan Dang Family, and then split the profits with the Sichuan Dang Family… the shape of it feels a little like becoming a subordinate branch of the Sichuan Dang Family. That bothers me somewhat.”
“Subordinate? Subordination is when one side can order the other around at will. In this case, ‘partner firm’ is the more accurate term, don’t you think?”
“Mmm…”
That was true enough. No matter how Deok-im turned it over, the entire enterprise was impossible without the help of the Green Forest, the true masters of the mountains. So… was it acceptable after all?
“I have listened carefully. I will convey everything you have said to the other fortress chiefs and to the King of the Green Forest. Even so, I doubt it will be easy. The Green Forest has countless mountain strongholds, and the web of interests is tangled.”
“Which is exactly why I suggest we begin by limiting the project to the Sichuan region. The Green Forest could not suddenly convert every stronghold to this model overnight in any case. And the roads we are building are limited to Sichuan, not the entire Central Plains. The understanding with the authorities is likewise limited to Sichuan. So we run a pilot project here first. If the results are good, we expand later.”
“Ho. If it is only that much, there may be a little more room for persuasion.”
Deok-im continued to fire questions of every kind; Hwi-yeom answered every one without the slightest hesitation. At last Deok-im looked at Im-wi and gave a small nod. Only then did Im-wi, who had been listening in silence the entire time, speak.
“All the hard talk is finished, then? In that case I will ask just one thing. What does the Dang Family gain from this? I find it hard to believe you are going to all this trouble just to split a few coins of road toll with the Green Forest.”
“The essence of this enterprise, as I see it, is seizing control of the great flow called logistics. And the one who grips logistics can make the flow of all the money under heaven his own.”
At Hwi-yeom’s bold declaration, Im-wi nodded.
“…I see. I have heard enough. We will take our leave.”
“Before you go, allow me one last word. If you accept my proposal, from that day forward you will no longer be Green Forest bandits. You will be ordinary subjects of Daegyeong—employees of a company. In other words, you will no longer need to live hidden in the mountains.”
“Ordinary subjects.”
“Yes. You will be able to rent ordinary houses. You will be able to walk down to the market and buy goods, food, and wine. You will be able to meet someone you love and marry them, and build a household under the blessings of many. You will become good neighbors to those around you, and proud fathers who can stand tall and support your children’s futures.”
“….”
“I do not believe a single one of you entered the Green Forest because you wanted to become bandits. Every last one of you fled into the mountains because you were sick of an unjust world and the corrupt practices of the yamen.”
“That is true enough.”
“If you had been wicked demon heads or packs of marauders who slaughtered civilians and lived by plunder, I would never have spoken a word of this. But I know that once you were ordinary fathers and sons. And even now, as Green Forest men, you prefer to collect a toll and send people on their way rather than pick needless fights. That is why I make this offer.”
“….”
“That is all I have to say. Think it over carefully, and please convey the matter to the King of the Green Forest and the other fortress chiefs.”
“I will report to the King of the Green Forest and bring you an answer.”
“Understood. Safe travels.”
“We will meet again before long.”
Im-wi and Deok-im exchanged parting courtesies and rose from their seats.
For a long while after leaving the Dang Family, as they climbed the mountain paths, Im-wi and Deok-im said nothing at all. Only after they had crossed several ridges did Im-wi finally open his mouth.
“So, what do you think, Chief?”
“Hmm.”
The frail-looking man who had played the role of the chief’s strategist—smiling nervously and wiping cold sweat—now straightened his back and turned to look down the road they had come. Gazing at the distant, massive walls of the Sichuan Dang Family, Deok-im—no, Im Deok-wi, Chief of the Great Tiger Fortress—let out a short breath of admiration.
“They called him a dragon among men, didn’t they? Pure rumor. That one is no pure and noble hero like a dragon.”
“Then what is he?”
“A jiao—a flood dragon that carries deadly venom. If it benefits his family, he will not hesitate to join hands with the very bandits people shun. He judges everything solely by the profit of his house. Men who decide by profit and loss alone become extremely cold when the moment of decision arrives. He reminded me of Cao Mengde, who claimed he would employ talent without regard to birth or status.”
“So you are actually going to listen to that ridiculous proposal? You really mean to join hands with the Dang Family and play road guards?”
“Look at the big picture, Wi-jin. Look at the board he has laid out. He means to gather the entire logistics of the Bashu region into one hand, and from there seize the logistics of the whole realm. Look at that ambition and the concrete plan behind it. And look at the fact that the boy is only sixteen.”
“Even so, is it not just the bold talk of a snot-nosed child?”
“The ambition of a snot-nosed child? Yes, at that age everyone talks of becoming the greatest under heaven or standing just below one man and above ten thousand. But among those who spout such words, very few truly believe they will become that person. And among those who believe, almost none draw up a realistic plan and actually push it forward. Yet look at this plan: a logistics network that begins in Sichuan and eventually blankets the entire realm. In a world this vast, that is not something finished in ten or twenty years. And still he has drawn the concrete picture and is advancing it step by step. Childish bravado? No. That is the product of a mercilessly cold insight that has already abandoned empty dreams and hopes about reality.”
Im Deok-wi clicked his tongue.
“A martial artist who actively colludes with the government to create a business that mints gold, then shares that gold with the government in order to secure his own position. At the same time he quietly expands his influence over the martial world, and whenever the martial world talks back he crushes it with the government’s backing… That is not an idea a son of a martial family should be able to conceive. Even the Sima and Zhuge families, who crawl into bed with the authorities, do not operate like this. They climb into official posts to grow their influence; they never think of wringing every last drop of usefulness out of the officials themselves.”
“I see.”
“I stake my name on it: fifty years from now, when people list the greatest heroes of the age, that boy’s name will be among them. A little temporary shame is nothing. I must speak to Father.”
Im Deok-wi, son of Im Deok-sul the King of the Green Forest, had seen straight through to Hwi-yeom’s essence.
The Sichuan Dang Family received a letter containing only the two characters “Agree” roughly half a month later.
And then, before the full-scale road construction could begin, another letter arrived: the King of the Green Forest wished to meet the head of the Sichuan Dang Family.