The Jing Family was huge.
Five mines, nineteen plantations, dozens of factories scattered across various locations, three fleets, all kinds of shops—in total, the workers, slaves, and sailors who depended on the Jing Family to make a living numbered over ten thousand. On top of that, the Jing Family had also organized armed forces for the mines, which could turn into a local warlord force at any time.
The Jing Family was vile.
Workers averaged over fifteen hours of work a day, and every plantation had a monthly death quota. Their ledgers even openly recorded a "loss rate"—anyone crippled or killed was included in it. The loss rate and profit rate were both important operating metrics for every unit. Naturally, the lower the loss rate, the better, but most units hovered around ten percent. The worst mines even reached twenty-four percent.
Jing Garden's loss rate was thirteen percent, too.
In other words, of the eight servants Le Yu had seen along the way, one would become crippled... or even die this month.
On top of that, the Jing Family had a very complete employment system. Although Profound Candle Prefecture was a cesspit and the other capitalists were hardly any better, the Jing Family was clearly the cesspit among cesspits. Ordinary people rarely sought work with the Jing Family unless they were completely desperate.
Therefore, to make people desperate, the Jing Family joined forces with other merchant associations to prepare a complete employment pipeline: the gangs opened numerous gambling dens, brothels, and lotteries outside the Outer City and the prefecture, established underground banks and arenas, and even set up underground Battle Card arenas where dark duels were held. No matter what you liked to play, you could always find something suited to you—and then lose everything.
The rampant wave of money