Longzang

Chapter 648 The Fastest Way
Wei Yuan had been waiting at the border for some time. In the distance, billowing dust filled the sky, an immense and overwhelming sight. The roars of giant beasts, like thunder, echoed from afar, rising and falling in waves.

The sound could be heard from dozens of miles away, which clearly indicated that these were behemoths of Dharma form, and a whole group of them.

The Qingming garrison, all seasoned veterans, quickly took up positions in their bunkers, ready for battle.

Amidst the roar of the behemoth, a steel chariot burst forth from the dust and crashed to the ground like a mountain. Even Wei Yuan, standing at a distance, could clearly feel the tremor.

With a high-pitched roar filled with the aura of a primal beast, the chariot, its exterior covered in barbs, lifted itself upwards, and twelve pairs of thick, powerful hairy legs extended from below. Then, it took long strides and charged forward!

The chariot, like a real behemoth, galloped all the way to Wei Yuan. Its hairy legs slammed on the ground to brake, but the enormous inertia still propelled the chariot forward for more than ten feet. Its thick, hairy legs plowed deep furrows in the ground before it finally came to a stop.

The swirling sandstorm instantly swept over the Qingming Guard's fortifications, giving the soldiers inside a thorough dust bath.

The chariot's roof slowly opened, and Tianyu leaned out, excitedly waving at Wei Yuan. Then, his massive body rose into the air, and twelve little witches carried him out of the chariot, landing steadily in front of Wei Yuan.

Tianyu immediately asked, "What do you think of my new 12-wheel drive vehicle?"

Wei Yuan was speechless and asked in return, "Are you talking about that big guy over there, or these little witches under your butt?"

"Hehehe, it's all the same, we're all the same!" Tianyu chuckled憨厚ly. At this moment, another earth-shattering roar came from the chariot, bringing the momentum to its maximum.

Wei Yuan then realized that the beastly roar came from a particularly loud warrior of the Wilderness Clan. He was sitting in the back of the vehicle, specifically responsible for shouting.

Tianyu explained, "For this car to be truly enjoyable, it needs a powerful roar; speed isn't the most important thing. Mine has a professional-grade roar; that guy is in charge of the battle cry in the clan, and it doesn't come cheap!"

Before Wei Yuan could even comment, Yu Zhizhuo exclaimed from afar, "Great car!"

In the blink of an eye, Yu Zhizhuo arrived at Tianyu's new chariot, circled around it, carefully examined the details, and even reached out to pinch the chariot's big hairy leg, clicking his tongue incessantly.

Tianyu was overjoyed and immediately regarded Yu Zhizhuo as a close friend, even though he didn't know who this person was.

After examining it carefully for a while, Yu Zhizhuo said, "Good idea! I've been worried about that. Those mechanical parts and engines are just too delicate. No matter how I handle them, they break under the slightest magical vibration. And the power is so weak, it has no strength at all."

Now that I've seen this car, I understand—we monks are the best engines; we don't need all those mechanical gadgets!

Wei Yuan knew that his senior uncle had fallen into his old habit again, so he let him study it. He then turned to Tianyu and asked, "What good news have you come this time?"

Tianyu said happily, "The ancestors of our clan said that since you are now resisting the extraterrestrial demons in the Netherworld, you are now one of our own shamans. So they specially asked me to bring an ancient mystic plant seed as a congratulatory gift!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Yuan immediately felt a headache coming on.

Of all the spiritual plant seeds Tianyu sent, only one seaweed survived; the rest remained completely unresponsive. For example, the stone—Yu Zhizhuo has confirmed it is indeed a stone. Although it was once a seed of a celestial plant and still retains a trace of its essence, in the terms of the outer world, it should now be called a fossil.

Seeing Wei Yuan's nonchalant expression, Tian Yu quickly added, "This time it's really different. This was taken from the ancestor's private treasury!" Then, Tian Yu had someone bring over a stone sphere the size of a tabletop.

More stones… Wei Yuan thought to himself, knowing he shouldn't have placed too much hope in things from the Primordial Era. Even immortals couldn't survive into the Primordial Era, so how could these soulless things possibly exist?

However, the transaction is the main event, and these are just minor incidents.

Tianyu brought over a thousand strongmen and hundreds of wagons, carrying a total of tens of millions of kilograms of goods. Wei Yuan also prepared wine and hundreds of thousands of bolts of brocade.

Just as both sides were busy moving the goods, Tianyu said, "We have plenty of gray stone where we are, and a new mine for thunder sand has also been discovered. As for the spirit wood you want, there's a tribe a hundred thousand miles to the west that produces a lot of spirit wood, and they're very willing to exchange it for brocade. All of these will be delivered to you soon. The elders asked me to ask if there's anything else they need us to do?"

Wei Yuan calculated the trade volume in the near future and said, "I think it is necessary for our two tribes to build a road."

"Build roads? What's the point of building those things? Our warriors don't need roads. What can't they jump over?" Tianyu asked, his face full of doubt.

Wei Yuan explained, “Thunder Sand, Gray Stone, and Spirit Wood are all very heavy. Your number of strongmen is limited, and it would be too costly to have them carry these things. Once the road is repaired, trucks will be able to pass, and then ordinary witches can transport the goods.”

Tianyu's eyes lit up immediately: "That's right! Ordinary commoners won't cost much, and slaves only need a little food. These goods don't require strict transportation time, so we can just transport them slowly! The money to hire one Daoist warrior is enough to hire five hundred ordinary commoners."

Nowadays, Tianyu is quite cost-sensitive, and Wei Yuan somewhat misses the naive and easily fooled Li Wu from back then. Wei Yuan continued, "Our transactions are becoming more and more frequent, so there's no need to wait until both sides are fully prepared before trading. We can each set up an account book in our respective locations, and agree on a quantity for each type of material. For anything below the limit, you can ship it to me, and I can do the same. Then we only need to reconcile the accounts once a month, settling the equal amounts and carrying over any excess to the next month. What do you think of this method?"

"Excellent!" Tianyu's eyes lit up as he instantly saw the huge business opportunity.

"How much brocade do you plan to take?" Wei Yuan asked.

"The more the better!" Tianyu answered without hesitation. Then, Tianyu asked in return, "How much gray stone, spirit wood, and thunder sand do you want?"

“Same here, the more the better,” Wei Yuan replied with a smile.

Both sides were now happy.

Afterwards, Tianyu discussed the details of road construction with Weiyuan. The trade route would lead to the Red Sand Oasis, and to allow ordinary trucks to pass smoothly, it would have to bypass some dangerous areas, making the total length nearly four thousand li. In addition to the existing roads, fifteen hundred li still needed to be newly built. Tianyu generously agreed to contract the construction of one thousand li of the road, leaving Weiyuan to only build five hundred li.

After the matter was settled, Tianyu suddenly said, "Now that the road is open, the Wu Clan army will be able to reach Qingming quickly. You need to build defensive fortifications in advance. Our Huangzu tribe is just a small tribe, and there are some things we can't decide."

"Don't worry." Wei Yuan reached out and patted Tianyu's shoulder, even though Tianyu was being carried by the little witches and her shoulder was at a height of 15 feet.

At this time, Tianyu did not understand that the road did not naturally belong to any one side; it belonged to whoever had the stronger military.

After seeing Tianyu off, Wei Yuan immediately decided to build fifty new workshops to double the production capacity of Jijin.

With extraterrestrial demons pressing in, Wei Yuan must accelerate the integration of resources from all sides to enhance Qingming's overall strength as much as possible. This requires a large amount of manpower, and both mortals and cultivators are indispensable.

Under the existing system, ordinary people are of little value in the Nine Kingdoms, but Qingming still has a manpower shortage of at least several million. Relying solely on spontaneously arriving refugees is far from enough. Wei Yuan decided to give Western Jin another push to encourage even more refugees to come.

Upon returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan opened a special map.

The map features several lines drawn by Wei Yuan himself, each marked with a different number. Centered on Qingming, the first line represents the area where refugees can spontaneously reach Qingming. This line extends one thousand li east of Hanyang Pass, the furthest distance refugees can travel beyond the pass. The second line represents the area where Qingming caravans can gather refugees on a large scale, currently extending six thousand li east of Hanyang Pass.

Within the first region, thanks to Wei Yuan's series of actions, grain prices have risen by 50%. Although grain has flowed in from other areas, according to estimates from Renjian Yanhuo, the overall grain supply in this region has decreased by 20 million jin annually.

Assuming that 200 jin of grain can feed one person under extreme conditions, this would result in an additional 100,000 migrants per year. However, in reality, migrants don't leave their homes only when they are on the verge of starvation, so the actual number of migrants would be much higher.

As grain prices rise in this region, grain from areas within the second line will flow here, resulting in a large influx of refugees within the second line. The Qingming caravan will then gather even more refugees.

While this method is a long-term solution, it is slow to show results in the short term. The fastest way at present is to purchase refugees from the powerful and influential people of Jin and Zhao.

As long as there is profit to be made, local officials like Cui Shutong would naturally come up with all sorts of ways to create countless refugees, as many as they wanted.

This method requires a large amount of immortal silver, and Wei Yuan has been thinking about how to earn it. Brocade weaving will be very profitable in the future, but not now. Once the new workshop is completed, Wei Yuan plans to double the quantity of brocade sold to the eight prefectures of Ningzhou, and set the price directly at the cost line of the major brocade companies, putting them in a dilemma where they can neither produce nor not produce.

Ultimately, the goal is to sweep away all the major silk workshops, turning them into raw material suppliers for Qingming, and making them solely responsible for producing mulberry silk.

As for other profitable industries, just look at the various halls of Taichu Palace. They are nothing more than feng shui, elixirs, magic artifacts, and spiritual plants and pets. Those who fight with all their might are the poorest.

After a moment of contemplation, Wei Yuan wrote the words "magical weapon" on the paper. In this era of great strife, the most crucial element is the battle of magic among cultivators. Even the poorest cultivator can forgo medicine and a Daoist partner, but they must possess a suitable weapon.

Many cultivators are even willing to sell their possessions to obtain a superior magical artifact.

With the plan settled, Wei Yuan calculated the time and then left Qingming, heading straight for the northern mountain gate.

The purpose of this trip is twofold: first, to escort the eldest sister to the Netherworld; and second, to consult with Ancestor Xuan Yue on how to deal with the extraterrestrial demons. The threat posed by these extraterrestrial demons is not a matter for one person or one place alone. With the powerful Tai Chu Palace as a backer, why wouldn't Wei Yuan rely on it? Furthermore, having Ancestor Xuan Yue intervene would make it easier to find the obscure records of past ancestors regarding Tianyuan.

The journey went smoothly. With enough spray nozzles and eight sprayers on his body, Wei Yuan's speed surpassed Yu Jing's, and he arrived at the northern mountain gate in just one day.

(End of this chapter)