Chapter 110
Ever since Wang Lang was transferred from Yichun and his family moved away, the crisis of Yao's father's furniture store was resolved.
The day after Yao's father rejected Yu Linsheng, the second largest timber supplier in Yichun came to them and offered to provide them with precious timber at a fair price.
After visiting the Liangcai Timber Factory, Yao's father and elder brother decided to cooperate with them. From then on, the precious wood needed for the furniture store would be obtained from the Liangcai Timber Factory.
The Liangcai Timber Factory was opened by the Qi family, a prominent family in Yichun. The other party was interested in making friends with the Yao father and son, just for the sake of Yao Zhubo's face and the strength of the military settlement.
The two sides had business dealings, and the Qi family seemed interested in establishing a friendly relationship with the Yao family. As a result, Qi Xiuyuan, the youngest son of the Qi family, became acquainted with Yao's second brother. Qi Xiuyuan disliked Yao's eldest brother because he was too dull. In contrast, Yao's second brother had a bit of a clever streak, which he preferred.
Once, when they were out at a social gathering and had gotten a bit drunk, Qi Xiuyuan tugged at Second Brother Yao's sleeve and told him, "My old man really admires your sister, Yao Chunnuan. Hiccup, my old man noticed your sister when she first started to show her talent."
After a period of contact, Second Brother Yao also got to know the Qi family a little bit. Old Man Qi was a man who liked to bet everywhere. No matter whether it was talent or industry, as long as he liked it, he would invest.
Yao Erge asked him, "Is this the reason why your Qi family's Liangcai Timber Factory came to us, Yao Ji?"
"Yeah, hiccup..."
So that’s how it is, Yao Erge suddenly understood.
"Yao Er, let me tell you, Yu Linsheng, if he doesn't cooperate with you, he's a fool." Qi Xiuyuan said drunkenly. What kind of place is Yichun? The Diluo tribe is not to be trifled with. After just a year of peace, have you forgotten how terrifying the Diluo tribe is?
Yao Erge casually filled his glass with wine and said, "You can't say that. Maybe Mr. Yu has found a better partner."
Qi Xiuyuan complained, "A better partner? Just Governor Lei?" Count on Governor Lei? If Governor Lei really ran into trouble, he would still count on the Yichun camp.
"Yao Er, just wait and see. Yu Linsheng will definitely regret this. This is what my grandfather said." He let go of the opportunity to make friends with Juntun in vain. It would be strange if he didn't regret it.
"Come on, have a drink, and don't mention irrelevant people like this, it's just a spoiler."
"Unfortunately, my old man is cautious by nature. He wants to observe her for a while before recruiting and training her. You should know what happened next." As he said that, Qi Xiuyuan drank another glass.
Yao Erge knew what happened next. Not long after his daughter An Nuan showed her talent, she was taught by the general and was recruited into his court.
Qi Xiuyuan put down his wine glass and said, "You don't know, my old man slapped his thigh a lot because he was slow to act. He still regrets it to this day." Especially when there was good news coming from the military settlement, his old man would always sigh and lament the talents he had missed.
At the time, Yao Erge thought to himself that Old Man Qi had good vision, but he'd only regretted missing out. And now, he was slapping his thigh and exclaiming in regret. What would he do in the future? He was now involved in some work at the military settlement, and he had a more direct and profound understanding of his sister's status and role there. And it seemed the general was even more inclined to value her.
Yao Erge and Yao Ersao told their wives about Qi Xiuyuan's words during their night talk.
Yao Ersao mentioned this to her mother while chatting. It wasn't that Yao Ersao didn't want to talk to her sister-in-law; she did, as it would make her look nice. But Yao Chunnuan was so busy that she wanted to spend time with her daughter after returning home, besides resting. She wasn't that tactless, and it would be the same if she told her mother-in-law about it; she would definitely talk to the girl.
Yao Chunnuan was really busy. After unifying their thoughts, their top priority was to break free from the government's control over them. Solving the salt and iron problems was urgent.
Among the various talents that Yao Chunnuan had previously recruited, there were some who were proficient in geography. When she released Xiao Jieming, she asked Xiao Jieming to pick two of them. He then followed the caravan and surveyed some special landforms along the way.
The special landforms she mentioned included open-pit coal mines, natural gas depressions, oil fields, iron ore veins, etc. It didn't matter if the geomancers couldn't recognize them. As long as the local residents found them strange, they would mark them and label their morphological characteristics.
Xiao Jieming was only one of the teams here. The other two caravans also had special survey teams like this. The topographic maps they had drawn were now put to good use.
When Yao Chunnuan took out the topographic map, the general and the other two realized that she had done so many things behind her back.
Regarding the salt and iron issues, salt is more urgent and should be found in a place with a beach. Iron, on the other hand, requires iron ore. Furthermore, it would be best if one or both of these places were close to them.
Finally, they set their sights on Wangya Beach. It was the closest beach to their military settlement, and there was also a small, untapped iron ore vein nearby. If they could claim it, they could build fortifications and a saltworks...
After thinking about it for a while, they finally decided not to use military means, but to carry out commercial activities first, such as developing the fishing industry. They sent people to negotiate with the local government first, buy the land they liked, and then send troops there to cover the salt fields hidden there.
After the salt field is built, they will be able to dry out white sea salt, and then process and refine it to get a large amount of table salt. This salt can not only meet the daily needs of their military settlements, but also supply caravans, so that they can do things more smoothly.
This matter has been arranged and Zhu Yongnian will be in charge of it.
The things going on in Yao's father's shop and at home were all mentioned by Yao's mother during her free time. Hearing this, she felt quite happy. It was good that her father and brother could handle these things independently without her having to do it herself. Regardless of whether they were relying on her influence or not.
She simply smiled at the compliment from the old man of the Qi family. Her earliest plan had been to treat herself as a project, and it was only a matter of time before someone with a keen eye would come along.
*******
That day, Yao Chunnuan received a secret report with the word "urgent" written on it in large letters. She quickly opened it, read it quickly, and her face changed immediately. She took the secret report and hurried to find the general.
"General, Ba Yuan is in danger. Please send someone to rescue him!"
The caravan under Yao Chunnuan met him and wrote to her at that time, telling her that they had tried to recruit him to go to Yichun but failed. He just wanted to help the world and didn't want to be confined to one place.
When she heard the news, she felt quite regretful. At the time, the military settlement already had tens of thousands of people, and if they could recruit him, it would provide an additional layer of security. Although she had already paid close attention to recruiting doctors for the settlement, the current military medical department was exceptionally well-built, and the doctors were well-treated. But who could complain about having too many doctors, especially those with superb medical skills? The military settlement was truly short of a renowned and skilled doctor like Ba Yuan. Recruiting him would mean an additional layer of security for the settlement, especially for the soldiers, as he could mean an extra life.
Unfortunately, the other party had no plans to stay in a certain place for a long time, but she also knew that the caravan members must have tried their best. While Yao Chunnuan felt regretful, she also came up with a plan, which was to let Ba Yuan go to the Diluo area to treat the old Northern Di King!
Before the plan was implemented, she had the caravan members explain the stakes to him. Whether he went or not was up to him, and they wouldn't force him. They asked Ba Yuan to go to Beidi to save people, not to harm them. After thinking it over, Ba Yuan readily agreed.
She had reported this matter to the general, and he knew the inside story.
The old Beidi King would have died if he had endured any longer, but thanks to the help of the miracle doctor Ba Yuan, he stubbornly survived. To treat the old Beidi King, Ba Yuan dared to use any medicinal herbs, including precious ones like ginseng and snow fungus, as well as less precious ones like Gastrodia elata and Bian stone, all in order to prolong his life.
As people age, they often fear death. The old King of Beidi simply wanted to live, as long as there was a glimmer of hope. He also didn't want to give up power. He needed precious medicinal herbs to stay alive, and he worried that if he gave up power, the supply of these herbs would be cut off. At this point, he no longer considered the impact his survival would have on the Beidi people.
The old Beidi king was lingering on, but in fact he was draining the strength of the entire Beidi tribe.
Ever since he became bedridden due to a serious illness, his sons had been watching him closely to see when he would die, and they also had to be wary of being framed by their brothers, making it impossible for them to do any real work. Last winter, the Diluo tribe would normally harass Yichun City, attacking it and looting its winter supplies.
However, because the old Beidi King was seriously ill, they halted this military campaign. They feared that if they went out to fight, they would be too far from the royal tent and their father Khan would leave, allowing other brothers to arrive first. However, the old Beidi King experienced several critical illnesses, but each time he was saved by Ba Yuan's miraculous medical skills.
The situation remained at this stalemate for more than half a year.
Until the middle of this year, the drought had severely affected the Northern Di people, with grass dying on large tracts of grassland and many Di Luo people facing the threat of starvation.
Of all the sons of the old King of Beidi, the eldest, Wei Jiandong, came from a powerful maternal family, the second, Wei Tianli, was brave and powerful, and the third, Wei Xizhe, was intelligent. The current situation of the Beidi worried Wei Xizhe, who felt that things could not continue like this.
He saw that their father Khan's illness was not a good thing for the Diluo clan. He didn't dare to kill his father, so he had no choice but to turn his attention to Ba Yuan. Ba Yuan had done nothing wrong; he had always tried his best to treat his father Khan. His mistake was that he tried too hard.
Wei Xizhe was also smart. He certainly would not say explicitly that his old father lived too long because of Ba Yuan's existence. Instead, he slandered Ba Yuan for improper use of medicine and threatened to kill Ba Yuan.
Hearing these slanders against his medical ethics, Ba Yuan was furious. He had staked his lifelong reputation on it, swearing that the medicine he had given Diluo Lao Khan was without a trace of selfish motive. Now that Wei Xizhe had slandered him like this, he felt deeply wronged. He wanted to confront Wei Xizhe!
In the end, Ba Yuan was dragged out secretly by his medicine boy.
Upon hearing this incident, the spies from the Intelligence Department immediately sent her an urgent secret report.
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