Chapter 513 — Among the People

"Many merchants in the Carol area are buying machines, wanting to build textile mills and brick-and-tile works. The government hall approved our requests, but we have trouble recruiting workers, and the goods we make are not easy to sell... We produce strictly according to the government hall's requirements, yet spreading word of the goods is so difficult...

Gao Yang listened to the great merchant's account point by point, and when the other man finally finished, he let out a soft breath.

"Your Grace," Corde said, as though only now realizing how overly bold he had been, an uneasy look coming over his face, "these are merely some reckless fancies of mine. You may well..."

"These ideas are all very interesting," Gao Yang interrupted, "and very valuable."

Corde looked overjoyed. "Then... you agree?"

"I think it is feasible—of course, it will require rigorous planning and a matching system of regulation," Gao Yang said with a nod. "Can you imagine what would result if newspapers and broadcasts were to allow merchants to publish their own advertisements?"

Corde furrowed his brow in thought, and as he thought he spoke. "Goods would sell more easily; many people would learn of distant specialties..."

As he spoke, he hesitated slightly, but went on nonetheless. "...There might also be those who fabricate wildly exaggerated descriptions, or even wholly false information... If the situation got out of hand, people might even stop believing what appears in newspapers and broadcast programs..."

Gao Yang nodded inwardly—this was indeed a clever man, and a competent man of business.

Before advertising had even truly been born, he had already thought of false advertising—though it seemed he had no intention of employing it.

"As you say, Master Corde, this new thing must be treated with caution," Gao Yang said. "Before we open it up, we must draw up fairly rigorous rules to prevent people from falsifying and from harming the audience. We must establish a review system, and a penalty system as well. And on the other hand, we must establish rules governing those in the government hall responsible for review, to prevent them from abusing their power for personal gain and turning review qualifications into a tool for profit..."

Rigorous institutional constraint—Corde found himself thinking involuntarily of the soldiers before the guard post who had not taken so much as a single copper coin.

Though he did not know by what means the Duke kept the soldiers in check, surely rigorous systems and discipline had played an important part.

The great merchant bowed his head before Gao Yang, wholly won over. "Governing a stretch of land is more complex than I imagined. I took too much for granted."

"Governing a stretch of land is indeed very complex, but I am all the more glad that this land has people like you—diligent and willing to think. Every question you raise makes this land more advanced," Gao Yang said, rising. He left his desk, came to stand before Corde, and offered his hand of his own accord. "Master Corde, thank you for your contributions to Cecil. I will remember your needs. Go back and wait for good news."

The great merchant, flustered and deferential, departed with his son. Gao Yang stood quietly in the study for a while, then turned and returned to his desk to sit down.

He looked at the plan he had drafted, at the half-finished provisions upon it; after a moment's thought, he raised his hand and brushed it across the paper.

The unfinished page turned to ash in an instant.

Then Gao Yang reached for the blank manuscript paper beside him, preparing to rewrite the plan—but before he could, from the utterly empty windowsill came Amber's infuriating voice: "Oh-ho—wrote it all for nothing."

Without turning his head, Gao Yang flung a paper ball at it; hearing the "Mama mia!" yelp from beyond the window, he picked up his pen anew, took out a special notebook from under the desk, opened it, and wrote a few lines in it in Chinese characters:

Ansu, Year 736, Month of Mist, Day 8. A new lesson.

The people do not need you to teach them.

Do not make this mistake again.

(I recommend a book, *Dungeon Players*—a dungeon production-and-construction story brimming with goofy (strike that) delightful fun. Worth a read if you're out of books.)