Longzang

Chapter 611 An Alternative Form of War
Wei Yuan was unaware of Tang Shi's decree, and even if he had, he wouldn't have taken it seriously.

Just like when he rose from a commoner to become the military governor of Dingxi, this position of Qingming, the second-rank military governor, was earned through his own hard work, not through anyone's reward.

Now that Qingming has begun its slow expansion again, Wei Yuan has countless tasks to complete. Simply sending people to survey the surrounding terrain is a massive undertaking.

Without even going far, just exploring outwards for a little over a hundred miles, expanding from over four hundred miles to six hundred miles, this increase in area is already a terrifying number.

Now that there are enough people, and adhering to the principle of not letting anyone be idle, Wei Yuan organized 300,000 people to prepare for reclaiming another 2 million mu of land. Once the reclamation is completed, the total will reach 8 million mu.

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye after Wei Yuan decided to sell silk. Merchants rushed to transport their stockpiled silk to Qingming, but less than a million catties could be transported.

The chamber of commerce leaders naturally looked helpless, and upon returning to Qingming, they poured out their grievances, recounting the coercion and inducements they had been subjected to. But how could such an explanation possibly fool Wei Yuan? It was obvious that someone had taken bribes and then sold the goods to the other party.

However, this was within Wei Yuan's expectations. He had already recorded all the officials who had disobeyed his orders, and those whose actions were particularly serious had been excluded from the subsequent plans.

At this time, the fiftieth weaving workshop had been completed and successfully tested, and had begun producing brocade. After inspecting all the workshops, Wei Yuan halted the subsequent plans and transferred all the cultivators back to the weapon forging workshop to continue producing infantry cannons and shells at full capacity.

Fifty brocade workshops can produce nearly 20,000 bolts of brocade a day, which is enough to support the next phase of the plan.

Previously, Wei Yuan realized that he had overlooked a problem: Jin Xing and the forces behind Jin Xing would definitely not sit idly by and wait for their doom. They would definitely try every means to resist and struggle, and might even resort to desperate measures, triggering another battle.

Moreover, although they had repelled the Rain Kingdom, Qingming's strength had been greatly depleted, and with no powerful enemies around, they were in a state of being strong but not powerful. Wei Yuan felt that perhaps someone was trying to jump out and reap the benefits.

Wei Yuan then received news that the Wu Clan's caravan had arrived.

Wei Yuan had already calculated the timing. When the caravan resold the silk to Xu Family Brocade Shop, he had already notified Tianyu to come and collect the goods. During this period, the workshop that had been built earlier had produced 800,000 bolts of machine-made brocade. In addition to the inventory from the previous period, Wei Yuan planned to give Tianyu one million bolts.

In just three months, Tianyu had grown like an inflating balloon, at least doubling in size in all aspects. He was now two heads taller than Wei Yuan, and Wei Yuan's head couldn't even reach his chest muscles.

This enormous Heavenly Language Staff was carried off the carriage by eighteen witch clan girls. Wei Yuan stared at it for a while, then asked in confusion, "Where are you injured? None of your five legs are broken?"

Tianyu said lazily, "These little witches will be my hands and feet from now on. They're even more considerate than my own hands and feet. Let me show you what the life of a wealthy witch is like."

As he spoke, Tianyu gave a demonstration. He opened his mouth wide, and a young woman from the Wu tribe immediately poured a vat of body-tempering pills into his bottomless mouth.

Tianyu chewed the pills with a crunching sound, flames constantly shooting out of his nostrils, indicating that the medicine in this vat was quite potent. Subsequently, Tianyu's aura began to slowly rise, and his cultivation level actually began to increase.

With a single movement of his aura, Wei Yuan discovered that Tian Yu had already become a Great Shaman in the mid-stage of the Dharma Aspect realm! His cultivation speed was almost on par with Wei Yuan's.

Moreover, his aura contained a hint of hot, desolate energy, unlike the aura of this world. Therefore, Wei Yuan asked, "Have you already been to the Desolate Realm?"

Tianyu nodded proudly: "That's right, not only did I successfully enter, but I also established a small source land there. It's just a pity I can't tell you much about the situation in the Desolate Realm, otherwise you would understand how genius I am to be able to establish a source land at this time!"

But looking at Tianyu's paralyzed appearance, Wei Yuan couldn't connect him with the word "genius".

"Have you brought everything?"

"Five million catties of thunder sand, five million catties of limestone, not a bit less. There's just too much cargo; this trip has exhausted me," Tianyu complained. Although he himself had the beautiful witches carry the goods, his body wasn't tired, but looking at so much cargo, Tianyu felt mentally exhausted, so he felt that he had also done a great deal of work.

Wei Yuan said, "I have prepared a million bolts of brocade for you. In terms of quality, my brocade is much better than the old brocade of the Xu family. You can sell this batch of brocade for twenty taels, not a tael more. Sell as many as you can. I will give you another 500,000 bolts a month later, and the price will be reduced to fifteen taels."

Tianyu gave Wei Yuan a deep look, pondered for a moment, and said, "We have some land here suitable for growing mulberry trees. Do you want us to rent it to you? The elders are worried that you won't have enough silk." The elders of the Desolate Ancestor Tribe are quite farsighted... Wei Yuan thought to himself, then said, "Aren't you afraid I won't return it after renting it?"

Tianyu grinned and said, "Actually, my suggestion is to buy it. It's not much more expensive than rent. Our tribe's daily living environment is drier than that of ordinary witch domains, making it more suitable for human sacrificial animals. You can buy some sacrificial animals to grow mulberry trees and then produce sacrificial animals regularly."

Wei Yuan became serious and said, "Human sacrifice is my bottom line. I will never send anyone to your altar!"

Tianyu was somewhat dismissive: "Aren't the offerings you've sold us enough? Besides, if you don't sell, there are plenty of others who will... Alright, alright, I won't say anymore. If you don't want to give offerings, that's fine too. You can just pay some brocade as tax based on the land area each year."

Wei Yuan looked at the location of that piece of land. It was more than three thousand miles away from Qingming, and its location was very strange. It was also very close to the Leize tribe.

"This land doesn't actually belong to you, does it?"

Tianyu chuckled and said, "I knew you'd see through it, but the Ancestor just wouldn't believe me! Hey, Ancestor, you lost. Remember the two great-granddaughters! I'll go pick them when we get back!"

The face of the Great Wilderness Day appeared from the void, and said irritably, "You have no choice! You get whichever one is given to you!"

He then turned to Wei Yuan and said seriously, "Strictly speaking, that land originally belonged to us, but the Leize tribe later seized most of it. It's a good place for human sacrifices to live, so everyone is fighting over it. If you're willing to send troops, I can hold off the Leize tribe's shamans for you. Once you take it, all the human sacrifices there will be yours."

How many people are there on this land?

"It's probably around 200,000, maybe 300,000, I can't say for sure."

"Alright, let's make a vow!"

On the day of the Great Wilderness, his entire form appeared, his expression solemn. He had just said "Ancestral Witch above" when Wei Yuan interrupted him, and then Wei Yuan handed him a thick book full of densely packed clauses.

Wei Yuan said, "This is a new type of oath I developed. All you need is a drop of blood and your real name. The oath is already filled in on this page."

On the day of the Great Wilderness, he took the thick text of the oath and actually sat down to carefully read it page by page. From this, Wei Yuan realized that the old shaman's rough and unrefined appearance was all an act.

Even though he read extremely fast, it still took him a full fifteen minutes to finish. Tianyu only read three pages before feeling dizzy and lightheaded, and then put the notebook aside.

Finally, after finishing reading the Great Wilderness Day, he said, "It's not bad, just a bit wordy. Surprisingly, there aren't any traps. You humans are quite honest."

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "There's a long road ahead. I can lie to you once or twice, but can I keep lying forever? If we're caught even once, our relationship will be over."

“That makes sense!” On the day of the Great Wilderness, he signed his name with blood and then returned the oath to Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan also signed his name with blood and then said to Tian Yu, “The faster this batch of brocade is sold, the better. The main goal is to block the Leize tribe’s brocade sales channels. From now on, we must ensure that they cannot sell a single piece of brocade!”

Tianyu nodded, then discussed some details with Weiyuan. What followed was the lengthy handover and transfer of goods.

Wei Yuan returned to Qingming ahead of time, summoned several trusted caravan managers, and instructed them: "I will give you 100,000 bolts of brocade. You can sell them in your own trading houses in the eight prefectures. The price should always be one or two taels of silver lower than the current market price. Each merchant is limited to selling 100 bolts per day. Make a big splash and let everyone know that we have cheaper and better brocade here."

One of the managers said, "Impressive! This way we can block their distribution channels with a very small quantity. However, to maintain this price in the future, we'll need a large amount of brocade. Do we have that much?"

"You don't need to worry about that. Just find a way to block Ningzhou Jinhang's shipments within the next two or three months."

Three months later, Ningzhou Jinhang could not sell a single piece of brocade.

(End of this chapter)