Chapter 273 is progressing smoothly.

Thanks to the imperial court's consistent efforts to allow the people to recuperate and thrive, it is actually quite rare to find someone who is truly destitute and cannot even afford a little fruit and vegetables to exchange for cheaper agricultural tools.

In each village, there are only one or two households that are so poor that they have to rely on the teachers or guards of the girls' school to assign them work because they lack able-bodied men.

Of course, as the saying goes, there are all kinds of birds in a big forest, and the girls' school staff did encounter bad people during their itinerant teaching.

They are like a piece of fine pork belly to be looked at. They are people who are trying to profit from them, and some even have their eyes on them without any sense of proportion. They can run into some of these people every time they change teaching locations.

Xie Wanniang had repeatedly emphasized to those who dealt with such people that they must not be lenient.

Fight if you need to fight, confront if you need to confront, and don't be afraid to bother the clan chief or village head if necessary. If they refuse to handle the matter fairly, then simply withdraw and never allocate any resources to this village again.

As for those villages that were notorious for their unreasonable and bandy behavior, Xie Wanniang simply excluded them and wouldn't send anyone there at all.

Of course, if people from other villages voluntarily leave their villages to study at mobile teaching locations in other villages, Xie Wanniang's girls' school will not refuse them admission.

The main point is that while education is inclusive and not afraid of financial losses, the personal safety of faculty and long-term students must always be the top priority.

After hearing her repeatedly say, "Being responsible is essential, but protecting yourself is even more important," the teachers and long-term students of the girls' academy all paid extra attention to protecting themselves and their fellow students.

They always kept Xie Wanniang's instructions in mind. They would also share the various tricks and schemes they encountered with their companions as soon as possible, hoping that everyone could quickly learn from the villagers' various antics.

Thanks to everyone's constant vigilance, so far, none of the girls' school students have been harmed by those treacherous villagers.

Xie Wanniang was extremely satisfied with the effectiveness of the agricultural tool promotion and the progress of the girls' school. While instructing everyone to continue to replicate their successful model in other counties of Baoding Prefecture, she began to think about where to open the first branch of her Yaweixuan, a shop that sells snacks, desserts and drinks.

Because of its novel, delicious, and hygienic products, and its frequent promotional activities, Xie Wanniang's Yaweixuan restaurant has always been very popular.

Many people who don't live in the prefectural city will even send people to the prefectural city to buy large quantities of this delicious food.

Those that could be stored were fine, but for some that couldn't be stored for long, they even had to go to the store in the prefectural city to order and eat them on the spot.

Therefore, many people hope that an identical Yaweixuan restaurant can be opened in their own state capital or county town.

As the owner, Xie Wanniang certainly couldn't just watch the business opportunity slip away, so she had already prepared the funds and manpower and planned to open two more Yaweixuan restaurants in the near future.

It's worth mentioning that because Yaweixuan's business is so booming, since its opening, there has been a constant stream of people trying to steal the food recipes and playing dirty tricks behind the scenes.

Fortunately, although Lady Jiang was not as eloquent as Lady Wang, she was just as clever and vigilant. With her in charge, Yaweixuan had not suffered any losses so far.

Of course, this was also thanks to the fact that from the very beginning she bought a group of people to train, and made each of them only responsible for making a few specific items, instead of selecting two or three people with basic pastry skills to teach them how to make everything in the shop.

Everyone only knows the production methods of a small portion of the products, and the other party's indenture is still in Xie Wanniang's hands, so the possibility of leakage is naturally greatly reduced.

In addition, Xie Wanniang arranged for a group of guards to be stationed in Baoding Prefecture to help her protect the county magistrate's mansion and her two businesses. It was clear that if anyone made any underhanded moves that went beyond the scope of normal business competition, she would use force and power.

Those who coveted the daily profits of her shop, even if they secretly wished they could take over the entire Yaweixuan restaurant, would still think twice before making any underhanded moves, trying their best not to cross the line, lest they anger Xie Wanniang and provoke her furious retaliation.

Those who wanted to snatch away this golden goose but dared not go too far and completely offend Xie Wanniang were all prominent figures in the prefectural city.

Merchants without powerful backers dared not lay their hands on Xie Wanniang's private property.

Xie Wanniang was well aware of this, and she also knew very well that they actually looked down on her, a county princess who was out in the public eye and running a business, who had not been recognized by her ancestors and was not a proper member of the royal family. But as she said before, as long as they didn't come in front of her, she wouldn't waste her time arguing with them.

The same goes for the shop; she can handle normal business competition on her own, so there's no need for her to interfere.

But if they cross the line, she wouldn't hesitate to retaliate in kind.

Accompanied by the well-behaved and adorable little An'an, and protected by his subordinates, he conducted an on-site inspection of the three prefectures under the jurisdiction of Baoding Prefecture—Yizhou, Qizhou, and Anzhou—and ultimately decided to open the first and second branches of Yaweixuan in Yizhou and Anzhou, respectively.

As for Qizhou, which is actually no less prosperous than the other two prefectures, Xie Wanniang gave up opening a shop there because the prefect of Qizhou's new concubine's family is now the largest merchant family in Qizhou.

Ever since he established a relationship with the prefect by selling his daughter, his family has been brazenly competing with the original number one merchant in Qizhou for business. Because his family had the prefect's favor, the other party openly and secretly supported them, and in just one year, they lost nearly half of the profits from the year before.

This was all under the premise that the other party had been paying tribute to the officials of the prefectural government, both high and low. Although these officials did not dare to openly oppose the prefect, they secretly tipped him off.

Otherwise, his family would have been forced into even more dire straits.

Xie Wanniang certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to plunge headlong into such an unhealthy business environment.

Although she was a county princess, and even the prefect might not dare to openly help him take over his concubine's family's property, he might not dare to do so openly, but he might still resort to some dirty tricks in secret.

She couldn't stay in Qizhou forever. If the other party took advantage of their power and fabricated charges against her employees, they could imprison them and torture them severely. Wouldn't she lose both her wife and her army?