Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 194 Ill-gotten Gains
After the warehouses were opened and grain was released, the price of grain in Cangzhou City began to fall sharply.

All the major grain merchants sold off their stocks, pushing the price down to 15 cents per pound. Even so, grain was still unsalable in the city.

When grain becomes stale and becomes moldy and worm-eaten, its value is greatly reduced. Even if you use it to feed pigs, the pigs will shake their heads.

Yue Ling had already collected a wave of cash from the wealthy businessmen before, and now they were in a dilemma and in a difficult situation.

Selling at a low price will result in a loss, but keeping the products on hand will not only cause loss, but also the additional costs of manpower and warehousing, which will result in even greater losses.

In order to maintain the normal operation of the shop, each family can only use their meager savings to patch up the mess.

But this is just a vicious cycle, getting deeper and deeper.

As a result, Nanpi County became much more lively.

At this moment, the wilderness on the eastern outskirts of the county town was densely packed with people. People wielding hoes and digging the ground formed a long line.

This scene of reclaimed land doesn't look like a disaster at all.

However, these people did not come here to reclaim wasteland. Instead, they were villagers recruited from all around by wealthy businessmen in Cangzhou Prefecture to come here to search for treasure.

There are indeed quite a few ancient artifacts unearthed from Cangzhou.

Since the Three Kingdoms period, the Pinglu Canal dug by Cao Cao was located in Cangzhou. Later in the Song Dynasty, the economy prospered and water transport became more developed.

If we dig along the ancient river channel, we might find some treasures, or even an ancient tomb.

Antiques are not easy to cash in, so the wealthy merchants’ target is still gold and silver.

There were rumors in the wilderness that County Magistrate Chen had no intention of governing the county and was only busy with important matters such as disaster relief, restoring farming, and building canals. He even said that there was no possibility of treasure in Nanpi County and did not care about the rumors circulating in the streets.

As long as no one is killed in the robbery, the government will not interfere.

The more people search for treasure, the more people will come to the scene after hearing the news.

It was noon, the sun was blazing,

Several households in a village sat together in the wasteland, eating the dry food given by the wealthy merchant Hu family and drinking water.

The younger and stronger guys couldn't help but ask an old man who led the Hu family, "Second Grandpa, is there really a treasure in this field? Our village is not far from here, but I have never heard the old people in the village talk about it."

The old man made a gesture to silence the young man, and whispered to him, "Why do you care whether he has treasure or not? At least he has solid food, which is better than the porridge in the porridge stall. If he wants to dig, then accompany him. He can dig whenever he wants."

The young man nodded repeatedly before he understood what the old man meant. He grinned, revealing a row of teeth. His teeth looked very white against his dark skin.

"Everyone, get up and work. If anyone finds something, my master will reward you handsomely. If you find something but don't hand it over, and hide it on your person, I will kill you once I find you!"

A man dressed as a butler, holding a whip, was driving this group of farmers to work, surrounded by the servants of the Hu family.

The old man and the young man looked at each other, supported each other to stand up, patted the dirt off their buttocks, and picked up the hoe and started waving it again.

The old man deliberately led the young man to a place with fewer people, and the young man thought it would be convenient for him to fish and kill time.

After digging for a while, the old man wanted to dig the ground with the hoe again, but there was a sound of metal colliding, and even the head of the hoe broke, and the old man fell to the ground.

The young man hurriedly helped the old man sit up, "Second Grandpa, are you okay?"

While the young man was still asking about the old man's situation, he was immediately surrounded by people.

The butler of the Hu family came over with a whip in his hand and cursed, "Rough man, this is digging for treasure, not hoeing the ground. You broke my master's treasure. How many lives do you have to pay for it?"

The young man's eyes widened, and he was about to argue with the old man, but the old man pulled him down again and shook his head at him.

Soon, someone dug the thing out of the ground and presented it to the housekeeper.

"Butler Hu, it's nugget gold. Is there a gold mine here?"

Holding the heavy gold, which was as big as a fist, Butler Hu was overjoyed. "Okay, okay, okay, don't make it public and keep digging. If we have a few pieces of this stuff, our Hu family will be the most powerful family in Cangzhou in the future."

With gold, we can get through this difficult time. How many families will be left in Cangzhou?

At this moment, Butler Hu's mind was already filled with the vision of returning to the city and being praised by the master of the house and being given several maids as concubines.

In a village not far from here, Chen Youmin, the magistrate of Chen County who was always busy with his work according to the treasure hunters, is now in a private house, flipping through some documents, seemingly waiting for some news.

At that moment, a petty official came to report, "Sir, they have found the gold. Now more and more people are looking for treasure, and the search area is getting wider and wider."

Chen Youmin put down the document in his hand and said with a smile: "Good news, spread the news and attract more people. Say that there was a gold mine here in ancient times, which was washed out from the ancient river channel, and there is only a thin layer of gold. Expanding the scope to search is more useful than digging deeper." "Also, inform the heads of the surrounding villages, and the villagers should not follow the crowd and wait for people to hire them to do work, so that they can earn some food. The main thing is not to give up their own farming."

"The villagers grow crops for their livelihood, so they should know that ill-gotten gains are unacceptable."

The clerk hurriedly responded and went out, "Yes."

Picking up the brush and dipping it in ink, Chen Youmin spread out the rice paper and wrote the letter again, "I will follow the order of the Marquis, and everything will be safe..."

……

In Cangzhou City, on the martial arts field,

A training ground was divided into more than thirty small scattered venues, each with a group of examiners who were there to protect the safety of those who came to apply for military service and to examine the final candidates.

The elite troops of the Beijing Army are usually picked from hundreds of miles away, and each of them is a strong man with extremely strong stamina. The standard is for them to be able to draw a hard bow of one and a half stones, and those who can draw a bow of two stones are worthy of being officers.

Yue Ling had also tried the hard bows in the Beijing camp. It was not difficult to open a three-stone bow, but there was no heavier bow in the military tent, so it had to be custom-made.

The people in Cangzhou City place more emphasis on martial arts and strengthening their muscles. They all practice close-combat swords, spears, halberds, fists and feet. Not many people practice archery, let alone horseback archery.

However, this is not a crucial issue.

Because Yue Ling will definitely develop firearms to gradually replace the position of bows and arrows in the army, and the close combat ability of an individual soldier is particularly valuable and cannot be trained in a short time.

Following Shi Ding's lead, Yue Ling took a tour around the field, where he saw a variety of internal martial arts, as well as punches and kicks. This broadened his horizons in traditional martial arts.

Yue Ling's punches and kicks were mostly based on the fighting techniques he learned in his previous life. As for weapons, he learned them from the master in the Qin Palace, and combined with his own understanding, they also had a sense of officialdom.

Seeing this group of martial arts masters, how could those who practice martial arts not feel itchy to try their own skills?

"Cangzhou values ​​military power, and there are some tricks to it. If these people can lead an army, they will be no less powerful than the elite troops of the Beijing Camp. All they lack is the ability to follow orders and act in unison."

After hearing Yue Ling's words, Shi Ding nodded repeatedly, "That's why I said that it's a pity that we can't train with the Firearms Battalion. However, there is always room for things to turn around. Once there is chaos in Cangzhou, and there are Japanese pirates invading the border, the Cangzhou soldiers will certainly have a place to use their skills, and it may not be impossible to get firearms from the court."

"Of course, the Grand Commander's intention to train this army was only due to a few kind words from your Majesty."

Yue Ling smiled bitterly and said, "We are here to provide disaster relief. We are also training soldiers so that we can have a group of people who are more obedient to us. After all, there are still many things to do next. We can't do it without organization and discipline."

"According to what you said, he would have become a frontier general with his own troops. Have you been in the Nine Frontiers for too long? Have you not changed your mind yet?"

Shi Ding was a little unwilling to give up and asked, "What about the Japanese pirates?"

Yue Ling added: "There have been no Japanese pirates invading the border recently. The Japanese pirates' own country is in great turmoil, so there are fewer pirates on the sea."

Shi Ding shook his head and sighed, and was speechless.

Yue Ling continued to look at the field and saw a boy who was about older than himself. He was wearing bandages all the way up to his arms and was still fighting on the field. He couldn't help but ask, "Who is that person? He looks familiar."

Shi Ding followed Yue Ling's gaze and said, "That's Zhao Hao, the young master of Yunxing Escort Agency that I mentioned. He's holding a wooden sword, which makes him look less sharp."

The two men looked towards the center of the crowd. Zhao Hao was facing a middle-aged man. The two sides bowed to each other. After the sound of the gong, within three rounds, Zhao Hao's blade had already landed on the middle-aged man's neck.

The middle-aged man dropped his weapon helplessly. He could only consider himself unlucky since he had drawn Zhao Hao. He went down the city wall to do rough work, moving bricks and building a house.

Shi Ding fanned the flames again, "The Grand Commander won't show off his skills? This place values ​​martial arts. If the Grand Commander is skilled in martial arts and can defeat them, his prestige will be much higher. Are you still afraid that they won't do anything?"

Yue Ling smiled and said, "General, what you said makes sense. However, I am not bragging. After going around, although they all have some skills, I have not seen any one who can catch my eye. This Zhao Hao is not bad. In his prime, he should be at the level of Liu Xianglian, but he is still far behind me. What's more, he is still injured now."

Shi Ding nodded slightly, "This Zhao Hao is indeed good, and he is also recognized as the best of the younger generation in Cangzhou City. Even if he is injured, no one wants to meet him in the competition."

Yue Ling said: "There is no need to compete with him. Since he is willing to serve the country, I will not hesitate to give him guidance."

As he spoke, Yue Ling took a knife of the same length as the one Zhao Hao was holding from the weapon rack nearby and walked into the crowd.

Shi Ding was so excited that he shouted to the center of the arena, "Zhao Hao, if you beat this man, I will reward you with a hundred households."

Zhao Hao defeated nine opponents and was only one away from successfully joining the army. He finally breathed a sigh of relief, but then he saw a young man of the same age as him entering.

But this was his benefactor who had saved his life, how could he not remember his appearance.

Zhao Hao's mouth shrank, and he asked Yue Ling, "Does the Marquis not want a rogue like me to join the army?"

　I don't know what I ate that made me sick. Today's chapter is still a little short of words. I will update it later. Sorry everyone...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)