"Offer better terms?" Zhao Sifang shook his head helplessly after hearing that. "Brother Qin, I don't want to shortchange them either, but the problem is, we don't have that much money right now. You know perfectly well what shape our association is in... You supplied the assets backing our credit, you arranged for the Administration Department to help with our startup funds, and now practically all our revenue is being funneled into establishing the Zhao Character Legion."
Zhao Sifang spread his hands. "Our association really doesn't have that much money to buy out the other associations' resources right now."
Qin Siyang sighed. "Little Zhao, Little Zhao, why do you have to buy them out with cash? Why not use equity? Even if those associations have lost their leaders, the people left are still experienced, hard-to-find talent. Of course we should bring them aboard and grow the business together. That's our goal!"
"If we buy them out with equity... we'll probably end up with dozens of associations as shareholders. Wouldn't that mean following the Lotus Cloud Merchants' Association's model? But when the Zhao Merchants' Association was founded, we never intended it to become a united merchants' association."
Qin Siyang said, "Little Zhao, I understand your concerns. The Zhao Merchants' Association was established entirely with the Zhao Family's funds, and it's a key part of your family's move out of the shadows and into the open. You don't want uncontrollable factors cropping up along the way and affecting the Zhao Family's prospects."
"Besides, traitors keep emerging from the Lotus Cloud Merchants' Association and the Warren Merchants' Association, and public trust in them has plummeted. With Jiang Hao dead, the Bright Sun Merchants' Association won't be what it once was either. The Three Major Merchants' Associations are battered and crippled. This is precisely