Longzang

Chapter 300 It's time to feed the grass.
Xu Su brought six attendants with him, carrying a total of eleven boxes. The boxes contained feng shui array plates, items to suppress bad luck, and six golden toad and Pixiu statues.

A group of people followed Wei Yuan into Yong'an City, arriving at the eastern ward district. At present, the ward district consisted of only a few roads and weeds, with no shops or restaurants yet.

Hundreds of raggedly dressed people were digging ditches on both sides of the road, while another group was laying strips of bluestone into the dug ditches and then building the walls. Several cultivators who had achieved the Great Perfection of Body Forging were supervising and instructing them, occasionally joining in the work themselves.

The caravan's followers watched this scene with some curiosity. Those who had reached the Great Perfection of Body Forging already held a certain status; even without hope of establishing a Dao Foundation, they could easily become minor officials of the ninth rank in the mortal realm, such as the head of the county yamen's constables or the warden of a prison. Why would they do such a lowly job?

Xu Su paused, carefully examining the ditch and the piles of stones, before continuing on her way.

After surveying the neighborhood, Xu Su quickly selected the location of the Chamber of Commerce branch, immediately began to delineate the courtyard area, determine the feng shui of the area, and then chose a good feng shui array point to bury the feng shui array plate.

Wei Yuan and Cui Yu left first to select regional specialties for Xu Su to take back.

Holding the feng shui array plate, Xu Su periodically re-measured the distance of the array. Finally, he placed the six guardian beasts one by one, thus completing the first step.

A young girl beside her said, "Master, this city is dilapidated, there isn't even a decent house, and there aren't many people. I roughly calculated that there are at most 20,000 people in the city. With so few people and such a poor place, is it worth setting up the Six Auspicious Blessings Array? This array costs several thousand taels of immortal silver! How many years will it take us to earn that back?"

Xu Su patiently said, "Observation must be meticulous, not just superficial. What you see are only shantytowns and people dressed in rags, and you see that there isn't a single tall building in the whole city. But if you look closely, you will find that the road in front of us is quite straight and can accommodate four carriages side by side. In the future, it will be paved with hard stones and become a main road."

If you look closer, you'll find that many of the overgrown open spaces are actually planned blocks. Furthermore, drainage ditches with bluestone bases have been built along both sides of the main roads. Another detail is that each block has at least two public latrines, which are regularly cleaned and maintained. Therefore, we never encountered a foul-smelling situation along our journey. This is quite rare, even in a capital city.

The girl thought about it carefully and said, "That's really true!"

Xu Su smiled slightly and said, "Although Wei Yuan is young, his ambitions are enormous. This city is planned to house at least 200,000 people, and there is still room for further expansion. I don't know if it's his own idea or if he has a master or mentor guiding him, but it doesn't matter to us. A mere prefect can't stop such a person. If Chen Dao goes all out, he might succeed. Unfortunately, Chen Dao has many constraints, and this is not his ideal place, so he won't put in too much effort."

The girl listened with little interest and said, "Master, we're just running a caravan. What do those big shots' infighting have to do with us?"

Xu Su remained patient: "Don't underestimate the caravan. If you succeed, you'll inevitably get involved in the conflicts of these big shots. If you can't figure out the subtle relationships between them, you might not even know how you died. Think about it, why did I go through all that trouble and take such great risks to bring the caravan to this barren land?"

The girl finally showed some interest and said, "Isn't it because there's no other choice?"

Xu Su laughed in anger, saying, "You ignorant girl, all the things I taught you, you've forgotten them all in your dreams! If I just shift slightly east, Chen Dao and Li Weisheng, who don't have potential? They're worth investing in!"

The girl said helplessly, "Alright, alright, you have such keen insight and a clear understanding of the world situation, is that alright?"

To everyone's surprise, Xu Su shook her head: "No!"

"What is that?" The girl finally became curious and began to ask.

Xu Su said, "A big shot sent word that I was specifically requested to make this trip. Otherwise, how would I have known about this auspicious place?"

"A big shot? How big of a shot?"

"I don't know either, I only know that the news came from the palace."

The foundation of the grand formation was now in place, the six auspicious creatures were in their positions, and several attendants began digging the foundation within the designated area. A group of people from the caravan would stay behind to continue construction; once the basic framework was complete, more local laborers could be hired to build the courtyards and houses.

Xu Su was already envisioning the future prosperity and smiled, "I wonder what kind of goods they will be able to bring out tomorrow."

The girl pouted and said, "Isn't it just the stuff we brought out from our sect? It's not like we don't have access to the Taichu Palace."

"That's true." Xu Su's smile faded slightly.

At dawn the next day, Wei Yuan arrived at the caravan's encampment. Behind him were several cultivators, each carrying a cargo box.

Xu Su had been waiting for a long time, and all the junior stewards in the caravan were also present, all wanting to see what Wei Yuan had brought.

Wei Yuan then instructed the cultivators to open the cargo boxes. Two of the boxes contained a steel block a foot thick with a strange shape, while the other two boxes contained piles of neatly stacked loose parts.

Wei Yuan personally peeled off a thin piece from each of the two steel blocks, pieced them together, and surprisingly, it became a breastplate. He then attached a few loose pieces, and in the blink of an eye, a complete sleeveless breastplate appeared before everyone. Xu Su and several deacons gathered around, examining it closely. The young girl, however, became curious about the two steel blocks. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that they were actually pieces of breastplate and backplate stacked together, but they fit together so perfectly that they looked like a single, solid steel billet. She counted them; this nearly foot-thick billet was made up of fifty pieces of armor.

After examining the wound carefully, Xu Su drew his longsword, which ignited with fire. He then pierced through the breastplate with a single strike. As he pulled out the sword, all the stewards crowded around to examine the wound.

After a moment, Xu Su exhaled and said, "This breastplate is made of excellent steel. What's rare is that dozens of them are identical in design. Wearing them would greatly enhance the morale of the army. Hmm, it also has some ability to resist Dao power, not inferior to the standard heavy armor of the border army, and is close to a low-grade magic weapon. The Realm Lord should have quite a few of these breastplates, right?"

Seeing the fore and aft decks stacked almost as one, Xu Su knew that these armors must have been mass-produced.

Wei Yuan nodded: "There are still some, but you probably can't move them all at once. Mr. Xu, what price are you willing to offer for this set of armor?"

"This breastplate is close to a low-grade magic weapon. The purchase price in the armies of the nine kingdoms of Great Tang is about the same, around fifty taels of immortal silver. The price I can offer the Realm Lord is... twenty-three taels."

The price was even higher than Wei Yuan had anticipated. Not only had Xu Su traveled a long distance, but even if he brought it back, he couldn't just sell it immediately; it would definitely go through several hands. Military armor, such important items, would attract the attention of high-ranking officials in the imperial court.

Fortunately, while border troops inevitably faced layers of exploitation in their defense against foreign tribes, there were limits. Those like the Western Jin dynasty were, after all, a minority.

Wei Yuan said, "Twenty taels for a pair."

Xu Su almost thought she had misheard.

"Twenty taels." Wei Yuan repeated, then pointed to the two boxes of loose parts and said, "These two boxes of loose parts are a bonus. Mr. Xu can find a craftsman to make them according to this design and complete the armor. I only sell breastplates and backplates here now, twenty taels of silver per set."

Xu Su was both surprised and delighted. He had carefully examined the individual pieces; the craftsmanship was excellent and the techniques exquisite, but his own craftsmen could easily replicate them. The techniques used for these individual pieces were noticeably different from the breastplate and backplate, but the final quality was roughly equivalent. His initial estimate was that crafting all dozen or so pieces would require about one and a half taels of immortal silver, making it a potentially lucrative business.

In fact, the guild's craftsmen could also forge breastplates and backplates, and even forge them to a higher quality and more exquisite and magnificent degree. However, such a complete, one-piece armor plate would require a great deal of time and effort. A craftsman with mastered body casting skills might need more than ten days to forge just one piece. And it would be absolutely impossible to achieve the precision of dozens of pieces being as one.

Xu Su bowed deeply and said, "Thank you, Realm Lord! May I ask how many suits of armor you have here?"

How many can you take with you?

Xu Su picked up a pile of neatly stacked armor plates, weighed them in his hand, and said, "We currently have nine trucks, which can take away a maximum of two thousand sets."

Wei Yuan nodded and said, "Then two thousand sets will be delivered to you first thing tomorrow morning."

Xu Su was taken aback again. A skilled craftsman would probably need one or two months to make just one set of armor like that. Qingming had only been established for a few months; how could it possibly have one or two thousand skilled craftsmen?

However, Xu Su thought again that it was not entirely impossible for Wei Yuan to receive the strong support of the Tai Chu Palace and for his sect to send several thousand craftsmen directly.

Xu Su then said, "This time, I only brought an exploration caravan, which can only carry a limited amount of goods. Next time, it will be a regular caravan, carrying more than ten times the amount. No matter how many suits of armor the Realm Lord has here, the Six Realms Merchant Guild can take them all for twenty taels each."

Wei Yuan was somewhat surprised: "Are the border troops so short of armor?"

Xu Su laughed and said, "Lord of the Realm, you may not know this, but the demand for military equipment and armor is endless. We have no shortage of people, and we can form an army as many as there are armors and weapons. So no matter how much you have, we can consume it all!"

Wei Yuan's heart skipped a beat. Forging machines weren't difficult to manufacture, and with a specially made hammer mold, they could create a forging machine capable of crafting front and back breastplates. Once a few more batches of Foundation Establishment cultivators appeared in the realm, Xu Su wouldn't be presented with just a few thousand or tens of thousands of breastplates; it could be hundreds of thousands!

Wei Yuan didn't know how much such breastplates cost to craftsmen outside, but there was a surplus of molten steel in the realm at present. Many Dao Foundation cultivators usually worked to solidify their Dao foundation and improve their will, which was part of their cultivation and they didn't need to pay for it.

The biggest cost of this breastplate is actually the addition of some immortal silver, which makes it more durable and provides a slight resistance to Dao power. Wei Yuan estimates that a set of breastplates only costs one tael of immortal silver, of which six qian is the added immortal silver.

Those dozen or so individual parts were small and intricate, many of which could only be handcrafted. Including various costs, they would cost about one or two taels of silver. With the limited number of self-taught craftsmen in the realm, it was difficult to even supply themselves, so Wei Yuan directly lowered the price by three taels and outsourced this part of the business.

Back at his residence, Wei Yuan rummaged around and found an exquisite jade box. He then asked his master to carve the four ancient characters "厚德载物" (meaning "great virtue carries all things") on it with his sword energy, making it look quite impressive. Wei Yuan then carefully filled the box with three catties of Netherworld Soil, adorned it with flowers, sealed the lid, and delivered it to Yu Zhizhuo.

Uncle Yu has worked hard and made great contributions; it's time for him to be fed.

(End of this chapter)