Castle of Black Iron

“Erm…erm…the monetary gifts in the funeral ceremony of the old man belong to the public money at home. After the funeral ceremony, we could deal with it slowly; we could deal with it slowly. We could make a considerate negotiation about its distribution…” An uncle evaded from Zhang Yang’s eye light as he whitewashed with a flash of his eyes.

The speaker was Zhang Fan who was delivered by the second wife of Zhang Haitian. This uncle behaved well at home and assumed as a senior executive in Jinwu Shipyard. However, Zhang Tie had not imagined that this senior had already been obsessed with money only in one day.

It was normal. Very few people could remain sober-minded in front of such an astronomical wealth. One could become blind to 10,000 gold coins, 100,000 gold coins or 500,000 gold coins. What about millions of gold coins? Only a few people could remain innocent in front of such a high figure.

The moment Zhang Fan opened his mouth, the atmosphere in the room had become a bit strange. Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang remained silent as they just drank tea. However, Zhang Tie’s dad looked gloomy at once. At home, Zhang Tie’s dad was always uncompetitive; neither did he argue with his family members. However, it didn’t mean that he was an idiot. After realizing that his brothers were going to rip off Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang in such a shameless way, Zhang Tie’s dad couldn’t bear his fury anymore.

“What do you mean by dealing with it slowly? The brat might make a farce, but 9th younger brother, are you also that innocent?” Before Zhang Ping opened his mouth, Zhang Sheng, Zhang Tie’s eldest uncle, had blamed Zhang Fan with a furious look, “How could the old man and Zhang family gain so many monetary gifts from clans with provincial governors outside Youzhou Province? Isn’t it because of Zhang Tie? These monetary gifts were made by Zhang Tie at the bank of the Weishui River at the risk of his life. Although they were sent to the old mansion, we owed Zhang Tie. How could we share them?”

Zhang Tie’s eldest uncle made the starkest condemnation, causing Zhang Tie’s 9th uncle to be silent; however, he still muttered out of unwillingness, “I didn’t mention to share them. No matter what, they sent the gifts for the old man’s funeral ceremony. Aren’t we going to negotiate it…”

“Negotiate what?” Zhang Sheng was driven furious.

“4th elder brother, you don’t need to be that angry…”

Zhang Tie’s eldest uncle still wanted to say something; however, Zhang Tie slightly raised his hands to stop him. After that, Zhang Tie watched Zhang Lin as he asked calmly, “What did my eldest grandma say?”

“She said it’s at your discretion!” Zhang Lin answered calmly.

After hearing Zhang Lin’s words, Zhang Fan’s face turned slightly stiff. Another one who wanted to say something instantly closed his mouth after finding the atmosphere in the room was strange.

Although Zhang Tie was also drooling about such an astronomical figure, he was still sober-minded. He knew that how Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang thought about the people on the side of the old mansion counted most. Without Zhang Tie’s consent, nobody could take away the money. Even if he could, he wouldn’t enjoy it. As was persisted by Hua people, great virtues carried things. If a person lacked virtue, even if he made a fortune suddenly, he wouldn’t enjoy it. Similarly, when a sampan was suddenly loaded with some fully-laden containers, it would sink facing a bit wind or wave. Most of those Zhang juniors might be in trouble in a few years after getting millions of gold coins.

After getting the opinion of the old lady, Zhang Tie nodded inside, ‘Thankfully, there’s someone sober-minded in the old mansion.’

“How about this? The old mansion keeps the part of gifts from the major clans in Youzhou Province. After reducing the expenditure of this funeral ceremony, my uncles could make a decision on how to distribute the rest of them. I will not interfere with it!” Zhang Tie had a sip as he put the teacup onto the table lightly, adding, “As for the rest from other provinces, just use them to create a clan fund. My elder brother Zhang Yang would be responsible for the expenditure of this clan fund. Additionally, we should put away this list of gifts. As we Hua people pay attention to “courtesy demands reciprocity”, we should pay back at proper moments. As for the monetary gifts that we pay, we could take them from this clan fund. We should not be too mean; otherwise, we would be regarded as being impolite. We have to pay more than their figure. The gap would be fixed by Zhang Yang and me…”

Zhang Tie’s opinion was very convincing. Even Zhang Tie’s dad and eldest uncle nodded slowly. That was how a major clan should behave. If being too greedy about money, it would be shameless.

Zhang Fan looked stiff. However, he couldn’t refute Zhang Tie at this moment given Zhang Tie’s words, not to mention Zhang Tie’s identity and authority. No matter what, they couldn’t share the monetary gifts now and say no when they should pay back. If Zhang family couldn’t pay back, it would lose its face completely. That would be preposterous if they took the money now and had Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang pay back later.

After saying these words, Zhang Tie looked straight to Zhang Sheng with a smile as he said, “I heard that two elder cousins in the home of elder uncle had become adults and enjoyed good fame in Jinwu Shipyard these years. After a couple of days, elder uncle could negotiate with my two elder cousins about whether they would like to manage this clan fund together with my elder brother Zhang Yang as his assistants. You could invest in some businesses using the clan fund…”

Needless to say, the clan fund would be at least tens even dozens of times greater than the asset of Jinwu Shipyard. They would have a bright future after joining the management of the clan fund.

Those people in the room were all watching Zhang Tie’s eldest uncle Zhang Sheng with admiring looks. Zhang Sheng blushed as he took in a deep breath and said in a low tone while suppressing his excitement, “I’m afraid that my two sons are not familiar with the management of clan fund…”

“It’s fine. My two elder cousins have good foundations and management experience. They could learn about it slowly. Both my elder brother and I would be reassured about that. In the future, many things about the clan fund would be monitored by people…”

“Fine!” Zhang Tie’s eldest uncle nodded as he fixed this thing. Even idiots would not refuse it.

“In addition, the Liaozhou Province in the north of Yanzhou Province has vast land and is abundant in mines and other resources, although being cold as half of a year there is winter. I was told that Jinwu Shipyard is preparing for prospecting over there and investing in mines in Liaozhou Province. We need helpers there. 9th uncle, you could go there!” Zhang Tie had another sip as he looked at Zhang Yang instead of looking at Zhang Fan whose face had been completely pale, saying, “Elder brother, you could recommend some disciples of Zhang family to do some exercises in Liaozhou Province!”

Zhang Yang nodded. The disciples of the Zhang family are too indolent and depraved. Previously, they even dared screw Zhang Tie with a trick. When the old man was alive, Zhang Tie and Zhang Yang didn’t care about that. After the old man passed away, those idiots couldn’t wait to jump out again. No wonder Zhang Tie would throw these idiots to Liaozhou Province to calm them down.

Watching Zhang Tie’s calm and easy look, Zhang Yang found that Zhang Tie had already changed in one day. He didn’t behave that casually; instead, he started to consider many things.

“I…I…” Zhang Fan stammered with a pale face.

“What? Are you unsatisfied with my arrangement? You don’t want to go there?” Zhang Tie fixated onto Zhang Fan. In a split second, Zhang Fan had felt overwhelming stress which almost shattered him. Not until then did Zhang Fan remember that this man with a young look was not only an unrivaled knight but the grand elder of Huaiyuan Palace…