Chapter 1 The Gondor Land Auction

Although the Grand Theater was a more spacious and charming venue than the Yi Zhan Tower's lecture hall, the Gondor land auction in Danyang was still held in the latter. From this day on, it became a tradition that the Grand Theater's various performance halls would never be used for any commercial activities unrelated to performances.

Several months had passed between Ye Tao's announcement of the design and plan for the new city of Gondor in Yunzhou and the auction. During these months, everyone had ample time to understand the location of each plot, the surrounding environment, the passages and distances to the city's important public buildings, the elements of water supply and sewage facilities, and the general landscape that each plot could offer. As a result, insightful merchants could estimate the approximate value of each plot. These months also allowed everyone to raise funds, as they would have to pay cash for the plots they wanted to bid on in the auction. This huge sum of money would be frozen on the Gondor construction site until the city was initially built. The impact of this financial shortfall on the businesses of these bosses also had to be taken into account. It seemed that everyone was treating Gondor as an extremely important business venture, placing even more emphasis on it than on the still-under-planning new capital city.

Some people believed that the new capital city was merely an expansion of Danyang. As the capital of Dongping, Danyang was already somewhat busy but basically met the needs. The expansion was mainly to meet future development needs. Although there was room for appreciation, the investment cycle would probably be longer. However, the investment in Gondor would show results within a few years. As the future central city of the entire north, whether for Yunzhou alone or for the entire northern territory, including the existing borders of Northern Liao, Gondor was a newly emerging and indispensable entity. Its position was irreplaceable in terms of politics, military affairs, and economy. Some people were purely attracted by the grandeur and beauty of Gondor. These people might not bid on or invest in the urban areas, but they would spare no expense to buy the plots along the river or those within the fortress circle, in the areas rising along the mountainside, protected by layers of city walls, where only a few plots were allowed to be sold. Still others had gathered enough funds to cover two super-large auctions, and if the new capital city were to learn from Gondor's model to分散資金壓力 (fēnsàn zījīn yālì, distribute financial pressure), they would actively invest in it as well...

In any case, when the date, time, and location of the Gondor auction were finally decided, the seats themselves became a hot commodity just to be able to enter the auction. Due to the rearrangement of the seating in the entire hall, it was divided into three hundred seats, each with two places. One hundred of these seats were by定向邀请 (dìngxiàng yāoqǐng, direct invitation) to representatives of powerful aristocratic families, chambers of commerce, business groups, and wealthy merchants. The remaining two hundred seats were originally intended to be open to anyone interested, but when too many people expressed their desire to attend the auction, this open-door approach became extremely daunting. In the end, Ye Tao, with his "rich experience," came up with a solution: queue up to get a number, then conduct a public lottery, and those who win the lottery would be admitted...

To be honest, most modern people would be quite familiar with this process. When the distribution of number plates began, it was a grand occasion. Almost all interested merchants sent more than one person to queue up and get a number plate. Naturally, the more number plates they had, the greater their chances of winning the lottery. That day, starting from early morning, no fewer than two thousand people queued up to get a number. At this point, Ye Tao somewhat regretted not setting a higher threshold for getting a number, such as charging a registration fee. However, once the words were out, they could not be taken back, and the Yi Zhan Tower had to grin and bear this troublesome matter. In the end, a total of more than three thousand two hundred numbers were issued. The lottery itself was full of ups and downs. Because the four-digit numbers were generated individually, and duplicate numbers were re-drawn, this lottery alone took two whole days. However, this relatively fair method was quite popular with everyone.

What happened next was no longer entirely under Ye Tao's control. Many merchants who had obtained admission tickets but did not have strong financial resources suddenly realized that the tickets were actually quite valuable. They were also the most advantageous tool for them to associate with those big merchants and powerful families with whom they previously had no connection. After several days of private circulation, the price of an admission ticket could be as high as twenty thousand taels of silver.

The person who spent a fortune to buy this admission ticket was none other than the current Chun Nan envoy to Dongping: Song Xiangjun, someone no one expected. Song Xiangjun, who was doted on by Yan Gong, represented not only the Song family of Chun Nan, but even quite a few of the long-standing aristocratic families who, like Yan Gong, were optimistic about the development of Yunzhou. These aristocratic families had often experienced dynastic changes, and some with a long history had even experienced them more than once. Their consideration of long-term interests always transcended national boundaries and focused solely on family-level issues. Song Xiangjun had originally planned to bring an assistant skilled in business, but unexpectedly, after learning of this matter, Jiang Yan requested to go with Song Xiangjun.

This was someone Song Xiangjun would never dare to refuse. Not only did Jiang Yan come, but in just a few days, he borrowed the Flying Eagle of Dongping and obtained the consent of the Chun Nan King, temporarily borrowing two million taels from Deloitte Accounting Firm. This was the largest short-term loan in the history of Deloitte Accounting Firm, and it actually came into contact with Chun Nan's "national power capital." This short-term loan of just ten days could also bring Deloitte Accounting Firm more than fifty thousand taels in revenue...

When things reached this point, not only the upper echelons of Dongping, but almost the entire Central Earth Continent was shocked by the scale of the interests involved in Gondor City. Preliminary statistics showed that the funds prepared by all the merchants who entered the venue added up to about five to ten times the average national treasury income of the four countries of the Central Earth Continent over the past five years... The amount of money was simply appalling. This money, gathered together, could be used to do almost anything, and now, Gondor had actually stirred up such a force.

On the day of the auction, those large business groups and big merchants who were most watched did not attend, but instead sent their deputies to participate in the auction. The person with the highest status in the venue was once again the old chieftain Golan. He represented all the tribes on the entire Benlang Plain, as well as all the merchants and aristocratic families who were close to them. The funds in his hands were almost unlimited. Because the deputy he brought was none other than Guan Yinhang, whom Tan Weixin had just cultivated and prepared to appoint as the first president of the Yunzhou Bank in the future. This guy, whose name could be homophonically read as "管银行" (Guǎn Yínháng, Manage the Bank), was originally just the young owner of the Ningcheng Yun Kiln, a low-level officer in the Blood Kirin Army. However, after leaving the military post, and even after the Ningcheng Yun Kiln was incorporated into the Jingdezhen porcelain production system jointly established by the Ye Family Workshop and the Internal Affairs Department, and he was no longer in charge of the Yun Kiln, he gradually became a trusted deputy of Tan Weixin, a junior banker. Guan Yinhang, who was still a senior executive of the Yunzhou Development Fund, received instructions from Tan Weixin that as long as Golan needed it, he could authorize Golan to use a credit line of millions of taels of silver at any time, but only for the two Gondor City land auctions in Danyang and Ningyuan.

Jiuzhou Business Society and Qihai Business Society would spare no effort to invest huge sums of money to buy the land they wanted, even if only to support Ye Tao and Tan Weixin, not to mention that the appreciation potential of Gondor City was still so huge. However, Old Master Qi Zhentao was now in Nanyang, and Qi Zhu represented Old Master and the entire Qihai Business Society at the auction. The assistant he brought was Liu Qing's younger brother, Liu Zhu.

The first to be auctioned were several plots along the Di River, adjacent to Gondor's port area, which were quite commercially valuable locations. Each plot had already been numbered, and for those aristocratic families and merchant representatives who were determined to win, they had long been familiar with the value represented by each number.

"Plot number 119, the starting price is sixty-five thousand taels of silver. The silver purity is calculated according to the official ingots of the Dongping Ministry of Revenue. The auction now begins." The auctioneer was an unknown young man, and as instructed beforehand, he didn't need to say much to stir up everyone's emotions.

"One hundred thousand taels." The first to bid one hundred thousand taels was actually Jiang Yan. Raising the price by thirty-five thousand taels at the start was indeed a good start to the entire auction.

However, one hundred thousand taels was only a not-so-optimistic estimate of the value of this plot. As soon as Jiang Yan finished speaking, another voice rang out. The bidder was the young owner of the Tu family, who had not been paid much attention before, Tu Jihai. "One hundred and twenty thousand!"

The craze was thus driven up. Merchants, aristocratic families, and business group representatives would indeed pay attention to their relationships with each other in normal times, and pay attention to maintaining authority, which might bring them potential benefits. However, the problem was that in the middle of the auction venue, there were really too many forces intertwined, and it was almost impossible to consider every aspect in a comprehensive way. Moreover, no single force was strong enough to control the entire Gondor. Of course, if there really were such a person, Ye Tao and Tan Weixin would also have enough ways to control them. Everyone was just showing off their financial resources, wanting to get a better starting point in their own areas of expertise. Qihai Business Society, the inland river shipping aristocratic families, etc. were concerned about the port area and the area planned as a shipyard, as well as the surrounding warehousing area, auxiliary functional areas, etc. Those who were keen on commerce would pay attention to the commercial areas and the plots around the residential areas. The Yunzhou Pacification Commission maximized its control over the planning, construction, and use of the city's ordinary living areas, precisely to avoid the situation where ordinary people could not afford to buy houses. Ye Tao and Tan Weixin, who had lived in modern society, naturally understood what a house that could be passed down from generation to generation meant to ordinary people.

However, those high-end residential areas with good scenery, especially those with the condition that the Ye Family Workshop would undertake the design and construction, were priced higher and higher, becoming a symbol of some people's wealth and status. Especially the two plots on the mountainside, even fetched an ultra-high price of more than one million two hundred thousand taels, including design and construction costs...