A Red-Hat Merchant? The Whole City Calls Me Benevolent Xu!

[Corrupt Red-Hat Merchant] [Let the Grain Fly] [Rice Prices in Goose City]

Xu Sanchuan, an overworked office drone who died suddenly from working overtime, opens his eyes to find himself a small-time trader on the border of the Great Li, smuggling military salt and awaiting execution as a traitor.

Luckily, he has a pair of treasure-appraising eyes: at a glance, he can tell how much anything in the world is worth in silver.

Those eyes save his life from a fierce general's blade, and land him with the border army's hottest mess:

A warehouse of moldy grain, and three days to scrape together a month's pay for the entire camp.

From then on, he specializes in deals no one else dares touch.

During a famine, he doesn't hand out porridge. Instead, he raises his prices to buy grain, drawing merchants from every direction to the border. When refugees surround the city, he doesn't offer charity. He gives them work.

Every move looks like taking advantage of people in their hour of need, yet in the end grain prices fall, military households get paid, and refugees survive.

He cares about nothing but silver, yet the people of the city insist on setting up shrines to him and calling him "Great Benefactor Xu."

Silver buys trust, trust wins official credentials, and by the time that red-topped hat settles on his head, who will remember him kneeling beneath a blade?

Someone asks him what he hopes to gain from doing so many good deeds.

Xu Sanchuan only has three answers:

"Make money!"

"Make money!"

"Make damn money!"