Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 107 Why

Xie Chongjun would naturally not seek advice from Xie Yuyan as Master Xu had suggested.

Despite his elaborate schemes, he ultimately bought the land from Xie Yuyan. If he were to show weakness to Xie Yuyan again, he would truly become the biggest joke in Daming Prefecture.

Xie Yuyan looked at Master Xu and said, "The three of you will come with us to the Yang family. I have some matters to discuss with you."

“Of course,” Master Xu said, making the decision for his two younger brothers. “We should have come today, but some people delayed us. Since it’s still early, we should get down to business.”

Xie Chongjun's face turned purple, his anger clearly uncontrollable. His servants all gripped their sticks tightly, ready to rush forward and attack Xie Yuyan and the others at Xie Chongjun's command.

Xie Yuyan stood there motionless, seemingly unaware of the danger.

A gust of wind blew open the window, and Xie Chongjun immediately woke up.

He almost fell for Xie Yuyan's trick again. If he had made a move in front of the county clerks... unless he killed everyone in the house, He Tan would definitely have thoroughly investigated the Xie family when he returned.

He could kill, but he wouldn't dare to do so so brazenly in broad daylight.

"Sir," Xie Yuyan said to the county clerk, "before selling the land, we also unearthed some coal mines. Can we take these with us?"

The atmosphere in the room was tense, and sweat beaded on the clerk's forehead. Upon hearing the title "Sir," it felt as if a nerve in the clerk's body had been pulled.

Yes, he has duties to perform, so how could he not speak up at this time?

The clerk came to his senses and said, "Since these are ores that were mined previously, they should be under your disposal."

Xie Yuyan looked at Meng Jiu: "The usual procedure: send the crushed coal to make lotus root charcoal, and take the whole pieces to Sanhe Village to give to the iron smelting craftsmen."

Meng Jiu responded.

After dealing with the coal mine, Xie Yuyan looked at Madam Yu and said, "Let the Yang family come in and take the money!"

When the Yang family members entered, they still had blank expressions on their faces. They knew that Master Xie was here, but they couldn't guess what had happened inside the house.

When Yu's mother said she was going to move some things, the first few people looked around the house but didn't see anything to move, so they looked to Yu's mother for help.

They were thinking it must be lotus root charcoal, coal dust, or even some of the household items...

“Isn’t that it?” Mother Yu pointed to several large boxes.

The boxes weren't closed yet; some contained large silver ingots, some contained broken silver pieces, and most contained copper coins.

Only after being reminded did everyone notice the pile of silver coins.

so much?
The Yang clan members were unsure whether to be panicked or overjoyed; in any case, their hearts were pounding.

"Get him out of here quickly."

The steward and his wife were the first to recover their senses, and they did whatever the mistress asked them to do. This amount of silver was nothing; there would be much more to come.

She was the manager of the water shop and had personally witnessed the sudden increase in water sellers roaming the streets of Daming Prefecture.

However... that's still too much.

They had previously worried that since the eldest daughter-in-law had returned all the money to her clansmen, she might not have enough to spend, and they were even planning to go back to their homes to gather some money to take over.

Unexpectedly, the money appeared in the blink of an eye.

Then, it's easy to guess why Yang Zongdao suddenly changed into that state.

Deserve it.

The man and woman cursed inwardly, "They colluded with outsiders to harm the eldest daughter-in-law; they deserved that fate."

As boxes of silver were carried out, Xie Chongjun's expression grew increasingly grim.

"Madam, I'm taking all my belongings with me too."

As Cheng Qi spoke, the Yang clan members swarmed like locusts, leaving nothing but desolation in their wake.

“There are still a few main beams left. I’ll bring people to dismantle them tomorrow,” Meng Jiu said.

In short, they won't leave the Xie family a single penny of what they can take.

Xie Yuyan led the group away, leaving Xie Chongjun with only a barren land.

The clerk coughed and said, "We still have official business to attend to at the yamen, so we won't stay any longer." Having seen Xie Chongjun suffer such a great loss, what were they going to do staying? Wait for the banquet to begin?
After the officials left, Xie Chongjun remained standing there, seemingly lost in thought.

The people in charge didn't dare to speak.

They didn't know how to get back to the Xie family. The family was waiting for the master to take over the mine and the method of making lotus root charcoal. The Yang family's water shops would all be renamed "Xie" tomorrow.

"Well..." the manager said in a low voice, "In any case, there's no problem. The Xie family also admitted that the lotus root charcoal they sold to us was made correctly. Perhaps the Xie family just... thinks selling lotus root charcoal is too troublesome and wants to make a big profit."

is it possible?
Xie Yuyan did this for?

Xie Chongjun said with a stern face: "Didn't they already dig the mine pit? Let a few people go in and take a look at the coal underground."

The foreman led a few people to the field to look for a mine pit.

The footprints and tire tracks on the ground are still there; you can find the shaft by following them.

only……

The manager looked at the flat expanse in front of him.

Are the men of Sanhe Village just bored and have nowhere to use their strength? Why is it being filled in again? Yesterday, I was so tired from digging the mine pit that my whole body ached, and the pain hasn't even subsided yet, and now this is happening again.

"It's been filled in again?" the steward reported, not daring to look at Xie Chongjun's face.

“Alright,” Xie Chongjun actually laughed, but after the laugh, his blood-red eyes were filled with murderous intent. “She mustn’t fall into my hands.”

Otherwise, he would have thrown her into the mine and buried her.

Since the old mine is no longer usable, let's dig a new one.

"Go and summon Zhou Hu."

He instructed Zhou Hu to find a location and have his servants dig a shaft. He needed to know whether there were any coal mines underground. He wanted to understand where he had gone wrong.

……

"So, there really are coal mines underground?"

Several people sat down in the main room of the third house, and Third Master Zheng asked about the piece of land in the north city.

Xie Yuyan nodded: "Yes, we've dug up a lot of coal fragments these days and made them into lotus root charcoal to dry."

She paused slightly at this point, then added, "However, there are more large pieces of coal, and they are even better than those from Sanhe Village."

Master Zheng always felt that Madam Xie's reluctance to accept that piece of land was related to what she said, perhaps because large pieces of coal were not suitable for making lotus root charcoal.

"Large pieces of coal have other uses; it would be a waste to use them to make lotus root charcoal."

really.

Similar to his guess, but Master Zheng knew that he was only scratching the surface; Madam Xie was the one who truly understood coal mines.

Master Xu said, "Wouldn't that benefit Master Xie? He can still sell the coal he mines and make a sum of money."

Xie Yuyan smiled and said, "Not all coal can be sold."

They didn't understand, and the three of them looked at each other.

"What is the situation with the coal mines in the hands of the three of you?"

Master Xu said, "There is indeed coal, but what we dug out is far inferior to what we saw in Sanhe Village. It is yellowish in color. We also tried to burn it, but it produced a lot of smoke and was very difficult to ignite."

At this point, he asked Xie Yuyan, "Can this be used to make lotus root charcoal?"

Xie Yuyan nodded: "Yes, but the method is different from the lotus root charcoal we make now."

The methods are different, but it works. Master Xu grasped the key point.

"You've all worked hard these past two days," Xie Yuyan said, looking at Madam Yu.

Mother Yu brought over several trays, on which were six ingots of silver, each weighing twenty-five taels.

“Carrying copper coins is inconvenient, so I converted them into silver as payment,” Xie Yuyan said. “Things here are almost done. If the three of you are in a hurry, you can leave Daming Prefecture tomorrow.”

Looking at the silver, Master Xu seemed to only now remember that they had come to Daming Prefecture to help Madam Xie with her opera performance. Now that their mission was accomplished, it was time for them to leave.

Madam Xie also gave each of them fifty taels of silver, more than she had previously promised.

But none of the three reached out to take the silver.

Finally, Master Zheng couldn't help but speak first: "Madam Xie, what you said before about doing business in lotus root charcoal with us... is that still possible?"

Zhao Sanye was anxious and continued, "If you make money, it would be fine to give us a smaller share."

Master Xu said, "Yes, if you don't want to teach us how to make lotus root charcoal, then you can buy crushed charcoal from us... We... are reluctant to do so."

(End of this chapter)