The Birth of Ruthless Capitalists and Living Bodhisattvas

South City was a place the aristocratic families of the capital wouldn't even deign to glance at. Year-round, it was permeated with the stench of urine and rotting odors. Two hundred thousand bottom-tier commoners were crammed like wild dogs into drafty shacks. Every harsh winter, the handcarts of the city-patrolling censors would haul away hundreds of frozen corpses from here every morning.

When the eunuchs of the Inner Court struck their brass gongs and pasted the royal recruitment notice in the most conspicuous place in South City, the entire area was first met with a deathly silence, followed by a roof-shattering uproar.

Five taels of silver as a settlement allowance just for entering the factory to work? An old man covered in patches pointed at the notice, trembling. His voice was as shrill as a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Five taels! This old man has dug for food in this cesspit his whole life and has never seen a whole five-tael silver ingot! Could this be the imperial court trying to trick us into going to the front lines to die as cannon fodder?

Bah! What does an old geezer like you know! The Inner Court eunuch reading the notice pinched his fingers elegantly, his eyes revealing a lofty yet oddly enthusiastic look. This is a factory opened by His Majesty himself! Not only is there a five-tael silver settlement allowance, but the most crucial part is yet to come. Prick up your ears and listen closely to me!

The eunuch took a deep breath and roared out the pitch Wang Hao had taught him at the top of his lungs: Whoever signs the contract and is willing to take their whole family to work in the Western Hills, those broken houses and thatched shacks you occupy here in South City will be uniformly appraised by the royal family and converted into ready silver. This will directly offset one-third of the housing cost for a three-hundred-square-meter, two-story house with a courtyard in the Western Hills!

As for the remaining two-thirds of the house price, you don't need to pay a single copper coin right now! The Royal Bank will directly issue you a loan! You will live in the new house, work your jobs, and a small portion will be deducted from your monthly wages to repay this loan, to be cleared in twenty years! The remaining wages will be enough for your family of five to eat white flour steamed buns every meal, and even buy a couple of pounds of pork during festivals!

As soon as these words came out, the two hundred thousand people in South City seemed as if they had been struck by heavenly lightning, collectively falling into a daze.

Live in a large three-hundred-square-meter house without paying out of pocket first?

The muddy ground of their old houses could actually be converted into silver?

Work every month to pay off the debt, and the remaining money could still buy white flour steamed buns?

In this man-eating feudal society, when had the bottom-tier commoners ever seen such a spectacle? In their understanding, when the government came, it was to demand their lives, to skin them alive and pull out their tendons! But now, the lofty Emperor was actually going to give them houses, money, and jobs?

A living Bodhisattva... The Lord of Ten Thousand Years is a living Bodhisattva descended to earth!

No one knew who shouted it first, but immediately after, the old man fell to his knees with a thud in the muddy dirt, kowtowing madly in the direction of the imperial palace. His forehead smashed against the stones, bleeding profusely, yet he remained completely oblivious to the pain.

This commoner will sign! This commoner is willing to sign! My family of seven, even if we have to risk our lives, we will work for the Emperor! Long live the Emperor, long live, long, long live!

Emotion is contagious. In an instant, at the crossroads of South City, countless men in ragged clothes knelt on the ground, crying their hearts out. Their ancestors had rolled in the mud for generations; when would they ever dare to dream of living in a large building with a courtyard?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the capital, inside Zhang Wuji's mansion, the atmosphere was so cold it felt like ice shards could form.

Absurd! This is simply the biggest joke in the world!

Zhang Wuji violently smashed the teacup in his hand onto the floor. Pointing at the servant who had come to report, his beard trembled with rage, and his eyes glared as if he wanted to eat someone alive.

Building new houses for those mud-legged peasants in South City? And giving them a settlement allowance? And using some Royal Bank to lend them money? Has the little emperor lost his mind! There must be some conspiracy in this.

Having been defeated in several clashes with Wang Hao, Zhang Wuji finally found a handle to grasp and had to criticize it thoroughly to vent his frustration: Since ancient times, repairing riverbanks and building city walls by conscripting corvee labor is the natural order of things! Where is the logic in giving money and buying houses for the lowly commoners serving corvee? If this becomes a precedent, how will the local authorities conscript free labor in the future? Wouldn't all the tenant farmers on the estates of the aristocratic families run away!

Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, an advisor echoed with trembling fear, Calm your anger, my lord. This little emperor is still too young, thinking he can buy people's hearts with petty favors. Building twenty thousand houses in the Western Hills, how much silver will that cost? Moreover, that talk of a loan is even more laughable. What will those mud-legs use to pay it back? Isn't this like throwing meat buns at dogs? The way your subordinate sees it, in less than three months, this royal construction company and those factories will completely drag down the emperor's private treasury!

Drag down? Hmph, I wish he would go bankrupt sooner! A sinister cold light flashed in Zhang Wuji's eyes. Go! Contact the censors of the Censorate. At the grand court assembly, I am going to impeach him! I will accuse the emperor of competing with the people for profit, wasting the national treasury, and shaking the foundation of the Great Zhou!

However, whether it was the lofty Zhang Wuji or those bottom-tier commoners kowtowing and bleeding in South City, none of them could understand Wang Hao's modern capital operations.

Inside the Imperial Study of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the underfloor heating was burning hot.

Wang Hao leaned diagonally on the dragon throne, playing with a newly minted silver coin that emitted a mesmerizing dragon's hum. Pei Jingzhe, Commander of the Brocade Guards, knelt below, reporting on the explosive recruitment situation in South City.

Your Majesty's calculations are divine. The two hundred thousand commoners of South City have gone completely mad. The Directorate of Palace Accommodations cannot even print the contract documents fast enough overnight. Those commoners have even set up beds outside the recruitment office just to sign their names sooner. Seeing their fanaticism, I fear that if Your Majesty told them to go fill the sea right now, they would jump in without hesitation. Pei Jingzhe's voice carried a trace of unconcealable reverence.

Fill the sea? That would be too much of a waste. A smile tugged at the corner of Wang Hao's mouth. He flicked the silver coin from his fingertips, letting out a crisp buzz. Pei Jingzhe, do you also think that I am doing charity, acting like a spendthrift boy scattering wealth?

Pei Jingzhe shuddered all over, lowering his head even further: I would not dare! What Your Majesty plans must be a far-reaching strategy, absolutely not something we ordinary mortals can see through.

It's right that you can't see through it, because this bunch of civil officials can't see through it either. Wang Hao stood up, walked over to the massive sand table of the capital, picked up a slender jade ruyi, and pointed it at the location of South City.

How could these idiots understand what a financial closed loop is? How could they understand what capital operation is?

Wang Hao's voice echoed in the spacious Imperial Study: By demolishing the rotten land of South City, these two hundred thousand people have not only vacated the largest piece of prime real estate in the capital, allowing me to use the construction company to redevelop high-end residential housing to sell to the powerful elites, this is the first wave of profit! This is called cashing out on land!

These two hundred thousand young and able-bodied men have entered my six major factories in the Western Hills, working day and night to produce cement, steel, glass, and honeycomb coal for me. The value they create far exceeds the meager wages I pay them! This is called extracting surplus value, and I've earned the second wave!

Wang Hao struck the jade ruyi heavily against the model of the Western Hills, his eyes gleaming brightly. "As for this so-called mortgage, it is a shackle I have placed upon them! A one-third down payment, offset by their already worthless, dilapidated shacks—I haven't spent a single piece of real gold or silver. For the remaining two-thirds, the Royal Bank will charge them a five percent interest rate! For the next twenty years, the first thing they will think of when they open their eyes every morning is that they owe the Emperor money! They will have to work honestly and diligently."

"With both principal and interest, I have made a third wave of profit!"

Wang Hao turned around and looked at the dumbfounded, profusely sweating Pei Jingzhe, a trace of amusement flashing in his eyes. "The most brilliant part is that these commoners currently regard me as a living bodhisattva who delivers all sentient beings! Even if, one day, someone attempts to overthrow my rule, these two hundred thousand people will be the first to pick up their shovels and fight the rebels to the death!"

Pei Jingzhe's breathing had completely stopped. He felt that his forty-plus years of life experience were as childish and ridiculous as kids playing house in the face of this young emperor's casual words.

Using a single mortgage contract to drain a person's lifeblood, while still making them feel deeply grateful and fiercely loyal? This was completely beyond his comprehension!

"Your Majesty is... infinitely wise..." Pei Jingzhe managed to squeeze these words out of his throat. He suddenly felt that if the civil officials of the Great Zhou truly opposed this emperor, their fate would be ten thousand times worse than being torn apart by five horses.

"Enough, put away that expression as if you've just seen a ghost." Wang Hao tossed the jade ruyi onto the desk, his tone returning to a calm state. "Since the commoners of the South City have signed, their relocation must be organized immediately. The Royal Bank must also take advantage of this momentum to maximize the publicity. I want this fire to burn through the entire capital!"