Chapter 87 – Public Demonstration
Within the auction hall, many merchants and wealthy men from yesterday auction were present. They were attracted by the advertised "New Products" which was written in the schedule board at the side of the auction hall.
The Yuan family representatives and the five merchant alliance were here as well. They returned to their VIP section that they had been assigned with yesterday.
Meanwhile, the one hundred civilian representatives, who were invited by Tong, were being intimidated by the environment and sat in groups while they looked around in nervousness.
On the stage, the workers arranged tables, cooking stoves, pots, utensils, and pans as if they were building a kitchen.
The crowd gazed at the stage in confusion. They were wondering if they were trying to cook a food on the stage.
Tong walked up on the stage later after the setting was completed.
He did not talk to any staffs or the audience. Tong simply brought out vegetables, raw chickens, dough, and spice then started to cook. He ordered his staffs to help him with the basic boiling, cutting and other mundane tasks as if he were Gord*n Rams*y.
The crowd was puzzled. Tong really cooked on the stage! They had no idea what to think anymore.
Suddenly, the tempting scent of fried chicken got into the noses of everyone. They stopped talking with each other and concentrated of the event on the stage.
For an hour, Tong cooked 10 different kinds of dishes. Each dish was poured into a 60x30cm size tray and was placed on the narrow table in front of the stage.
The audience drooled while their stomach growled. The aroma was unbearable. They wanted to jump out of their seats and ate everything on the table. If it was not for the scary security guards patrolling at the side and in front of the table, they would not hesitate to rush out.
The staffs walked out with hundreds of small empty plates. They put a small amount of food on each dish onto the plates and served them to the drooling crowd.
The merchant, who had been focusing his attention on the buffet trays, got impatient. He grabbed the plate and took a spicy chicken wing into his mouth. The moment he took a bite, he moaned out in ecstasy. He hallucinated about himself wearing a chicken suit and danced around in the grassland.
The person nearby saw his friend reaction and was shocked. He questioned in his mind if this food could make his idiotic friend turn even more stupid. Then he took a piece of strange bread with a sticky yellowish thing on top of it into his mouth. The sensation of cheese, bread, ketchup, and various spice made his eyes opened wide. He also hallucinated that he was wearing strange black and white clothes and was propelling a small boat on the river which had town building on both sides.
The two of them came back to their sense after a minute. They noticed a writing on a sign beside the tray. The first one said "New Orleans Chicken Wings", and the second one was "Super Cheese Pizza".
The staffs continued to serve the food sample to everyone until the food in the 10 trays was empty.
Ten minutes later, the auction hall was in chaos. Although the sample food that Tong distributed to the audience had run out, the spoiled merchants and nobles demanded a second serving. Meanwhile, the timid merchants and the citizen representatives only glanced around at the empty food trays with pitiful eyes.
Tong clapped his hands to get their attention.
"May I have your attention, please?"
The ruckus stopped and all eyes were on Tong on the stage. They calmed themselves down and paid attention to the speaker.
"What I cooked and served all of you just now was part of the demonstration of the new products that the city hall will sell."
The ears of the merchants perked up. The food just now was otherworldly. They had never had eaten something like those before in their lives. If the food was the new product, they would totally buy it for themselves.
"Are you selling that food?"
"Those chicken wings, are you selling them?"
"I'll buy the noodles. I meant the "Pasta"!"
"I'll reserve "Pizza", "French Fries", and "Donuts"!"
Tong had not finished talking yet, but these people were already this impatience. He raised his both hands forward and tried to appease the crowd.
"Please calm down everyone. I haven't finished yet. Please listen carefully. What we are selling is not the finished food that you have eaten, but the ingredients and the recipes."
The uproar got worse. Half of the audience stood up and began shouting, trying to buy the recipes and ingredients. Tong had to signal the guards to step forward and control the crowd.
"Again, please be patient while I'm talking. By the way, all of you should have seen the weird buildings "Wall-Marked" and "Swing-Eleven" right?"
Everyone nodded. They were also curious about what these buildings were for and why it was located in the commercial areas or in the middle of residential areas.
"Those buildings are the markets that are managed by the city government. Every product there belongs to the city hall and all incomes from the selling will be going to the city hall treasury."
Tong did not conceal or hide the purposes of those buildings. He intended to give the citizens an image which Zhang Jiao was a trustworthy and transparent governor, unlike the crook officials in the past.
"All the recipes for this food will be posted on the public announcement boards around the city and in front of all city hall shops!"
"Nani!?"
"What!?"
The merchants could not believe their ears. Those recipes could easily be the trade secrets of any successful tavern, restaurant, or shop, yet Tong was going to give away the recipes for free?
"Secondly, the ingredients that are used in this food will be sold in the building "Swing-Eleven" and all necessary utensils will be selling at "Wall-Marked"."
The eyes of the merchants glittered. Their brains calculated and simulated countless business plans while they were listening to Tong as they found a business opportunity.
"I want everyone to take a look at the small bottles on the stage. These are the new items that have never appeared anywhere else before. The first bottle is pepper. It is used for …"
Tong narrated the description and the use of each type of spice. Because there were over 20 kinds of spice, chilies, and herbs on the stage, it took Tong an hour and a half to explain everything to the crowd.
"I'll repeat again. These spice will be stocked in "Swing-Eleven" for everyone to buy. However, only citizens with identification token can buy the goods in there."
The merchants were shocked and disappointed by the sudden bad news while the group of citizens was delighted.
The merchants wanted to buy them directly from Tong or planned to buy everything from the shops from the get-go. Yet, Tong stopped them before they made the move.
Meanwhile, the ordinary people could get their hands on such luxurious food by cooking it themselves, which gave them opportunities for their future if they wanted to open a food stall or sell it at their taverns.
"As for those who wish to buy it in bulk, I'm afraid you will have to ask the Yuan Family for that. They have won the concession right from the auction, so in the agreement, they are the sole group that can buy all of the goods from Julu City Government in great amount."
All merchants turned their heads to look at the VIP section behind them where the Yuan family was located.
The Yuan representative smiled as he was appreciated from Tong's advertisement. They were the only one who could buy the ingredients and resell them to the small-time merchants.
The concession right that Tong had auction yesterday was nothing but a contract between a wholesaler and a distributor.
The wholesalers could guarantee that they could sell a large number of goods in one go, while the distributors got the goods in low cost and could profit from the price-margin by reselling them to the local markets.
It was a win-win relationship at glance. However, Tong had planted a bomb inside the contract. It would not explode any time soon. But once the time was ripe, Tong would flip the switch, and the Yuan Family might even go bankrupt.
Tong glanced at the VIP section where the Yuan members sat. He grinned at them.
'I've made you my biggest distributor, so you'd better dance for me, b*tches!'
Although the Yuan family had done a number on Tong and his family, Tong put away his grudges from the past incidents for the greater benefits of the mass.
Tong understood the way of the politic world. There was no eternal enemy nor forever ally, only the mutual benefits. As long as they could use each other, Tong also would not mind using his former enemy for his future growth.
'Feng Ji. I'll do you a favor. I'll feed you till you're so fat that Yuan Shao will listen to everything you say! I'm going to use you for killing Tian Feng later in the future. Don't disappoint me!'
…
Feng Ji, who was sent as part of the representatives of the family, smirked as he glared back at Tong.
'Do you think that I haven't found out what you are planning? Trying to sabotage our family strength by commerce? Humph, you are still wet behind the ears. You've underestimated our financial power! Thanks to you, our family will make a killing and my status will rise! Lord Yuan Shao will favor me over that Tian Feng! Zhang Tong, I'll use you as a stepping stone for the road of my greatness!'