The handover between Wang Can and the Jin family proceeded smoothly. In just a few days, all the pharmacies bearing the Jin family's sign in the imperial city were converted to branch pharmacies of the Four Great Medical Halls. While not exactly overstaffed, over a hundred former shopkeepers and assistants remained, enough to manage the workload.
The other medicinal merchants in the imperial city were stunned by Ji Zizhao's swift actions. They were still in the process of strategizing how to acquire the Jin family's establishments to maximize their own profits, never imagining that before they could even finalize their plans, the Jin family's businesses had already changed hands.
Coincidentally, the Jiang family was hosting their annual merchant alliance banquet these days. A group of medicinal merchants, who had missed out on the golden opportunity, sat in the Jiang family's main hall lamenting their misfortune.
"I didn't expect the Four Great Medical Halls to be so fast. The Jin family's pharmacies have reopened in just a few days."
"So much time has passed, and the Jin family's pharmacies are still selling their medicinal materials at the previous prices. I suspect the Four Great Medical Halls won't use this opportunity to inflate prices."
"I truly wonder what goes on in the minds of those people from the Four Great Medical Halls. How do they always manage to get ahead of us in everything?"
The medicinal merchants who had long held sway in the imperial city had suffered numerous setbacks at the hands of the Four Great Medical Halls over the years. Whether they tried to speculate on medicinal herbs or drive up market prices, as soon as they plotted some scheme, the Four Great Medical Halls would inevitably step in to douse their ambitions. They had suffered so many losses at the hands of the Four Great Medical Halls that they could probably host a grand banquet with the spoils!
Jiang Guangcheng sat at the head of the table, listening silently, a complex mixture of emotions churning within him. In the past, he would have undoubtedly shared the curiosity and complaints of the other merchants. However, now, knowing that Ji Zizhao was the one controlling the Four Great Medical Halls, he found himself unable to speak.
With the current undercurrents in the imperial court, how could the Fourth Prince possibly have the spare capacity to manage the affairs of the medical halls for Ji Zizhao? Therefore, the only person who could be orchestrating all of this from behind the scenes was Ji Zizhao herself! He had been constantly denying everything about Ji Zizhao recently, even believing that her position as the head of the Four Great Medical Halls was solely due to her connection with the Fourth Prince. Yet, Ji Zizhao, time and again, shattered his assumptions with her own capabilities.
This feeling was deeply unsettling. So unsettling that he didn't even want to utter another word.
After finally seeing off the medicinal merchants of the imperial city, Jiang Guangcheng's mother led him to meet prospective brides. Looking at the bevy of young women before him, Jiang Guangcheng felt only repulsion and disgust.
His mother, noticing her son's sentiments, quickly lowered her voice and said, "These are all daughters of well-known merchants in our imperial city. I've also heard about the Four Great Medical Halls. Now, the Jiang family depends on you. Only by marrying one of them can you further solidify the Jiang family's status in the imperial city."
Jiang Guangcheng looked at his mother and asked, "Mother, do you know who is advising the Four Great Medical Halls on this matter?"
"Who cares who it is? The most important thing is that our Jiang family cannot be led by the nose by the Four Great Medical Halls." Jiang's wife was also alarmed by the Four Great Medical Halls' methods, but she simply didn't believe that a woman could come up with such strategies.
Seeing Jiang Guangcheng remain silent, his mother assumed he still couldn't forget Ji Zizhao. "There are thousands of girls in the world, and any of them are better than that Ji Zizhao. She's just a cheap woman who sells her looks for favor. If I'm being blunt, only someone like the Fourth Prince, who isn't valued by the Emperor, would fancy her. She could never hope to climb the high branches of our Jiang family!"
Jiang Guangcheng looked at his mother with a bitter smile. He desperately wanted to say that the very Ji Zizhao, whom she called a woman who sold her looks to climb high branches, was the one controlling the Four Great Medical Halls. It wasn't that she wasn't qualified to be his wife anymore, but rather that he, her son, was no longer worthy of her!
The more Jiang Guangcheng thought about it, the more agitated he became. He raised his hand and pointed to a woman across from them, "Her, then." After all, whoever she was, she certainly wouldn't be another Ji Zizhao.
Jiang Guangcheng's mother followed her son's gaze and immediately broke into a wide smile. The woman was the daughter of the Fang family. While the Fang family wasn't involved in the trade of medicinal herbs, they owned vast tracts of land for cultivation, making them a prominent merchant family in the imperial city. That very evening, Jiang Guangcheng's mother personally visited the Fang family and finalized the wedding date.
The alliance between the Fang and Jiang families caused the medicinal merchants of the imperial city's Jiang family alliance to puff up with pride once again. Some even boasted that even if the Four Great Medical Halls acquired eight more Jin families, they still wouldn't be able to match the combined strength of the Fang and Jiang families.
Xin Bi and Wang Can, both hot-tempered individuals, couldn't tolerate such talk! They immediately went to confront the medicinal merchants who had made such remarks. The merchant, emboldened by the alliance between the Jiang and Fang families, insulted Xin Bi and Wang Can, leading to a brawl between them in a fit of anger.
When Ji Zizhao heard about the incident, she immediately instructed Mo Hen to release a message: "From today onwards, sever all contact with the medicinal merchants of the Jiang family alliance." She wanted to see just how much courage the Jiang and Fang families had given these merchants to dare such open provocation!
News quickly spread throughout the imperial city that the Four Great Medical Halls had officially cut ties with the medicinal merchants of the imperial city. When Xin Bi and Wang Can heard this, they were both taken aback. They had only wanted to vent their frustrations, and they hadn't even suffered any losses. They hadn't expected their leader to take it so seriously.
That evening, when Ji Zizhao arrived at the Four Great Medical Halls, Xin Bi and Wang Can felt that escalating the matter to this extent was unnecessary. Chen Gang also advised, "Leader, we must consider the bigger picture."
"The bigger picture? The people of the Jiang family alliance, relying on the marriage between the Jiang and Fang families, insulted my shopkeepers. That *is* the bigger picture. If we swallow this insult, it will only embolden them further. Now that half the medical halls in the imperial city are under our name, do they think they can provoke us without consequences?" Ji Zizhao stated calmly. She had no intention of indulging the temper tantrums of the Jiang family alliance! Her shopkeepers were people who had followed her through thick and thin. If she couldn't even defend their honor, what right did she have to continue as their leader? Those who dared to strike her shopkeepers would have to pay the price. If she couldn't make the members of the Jiang family alliance lose some flesh this time, then she wouldn't be Ji Zizhao!
The members of the Jiang family alliance truly did not expect the Four Great Medical Halls to be so ruthless, abruptly cutting off cooperative relations on both sides. Just as Ji Zizhao had said, after the Four Great Medical Halls acquired the Jin family's establishments, they controlled half of the medical halls in the imperial city. Now that the Four Great Medical Halls were not sourcing goods from them, what were they to do with the stock they had accumulated? Let it rot?
Ji Zizhao, of course, was not worried. The Four Great Medical Halls had originally relied on her fourth sister to individually transport many rare medicinal materials back to the imperial city. Although cooperation with the medicinal merchants of the imperial city had been severed, the two medicinal cultivation grounds under the imperial court still produced herbs. As for the remaining medicinal materials, they would rather buy them at a higher price from other cities. With this mutual compensation, the Four Great Medical Halls actually hadn't lost much money.
As a result, the medicinal merchants of the Jiang family alliance were completely bewildered. The merchant who had openly taunted Xin Bi and Wang Can had already cried himself unconscious in his own outhouse!