In the beginning, he was ranked alongside An Shigeng as a spoiled brat.

Duan Zhengchun, on the other hand, was fiddling with a wheel. He discovered that, just as Lin Zhennan had said, the outermost edge of the wheel could indeed be crushed and contracted.

In this way, even if traces are left on the ground, they will not be particularly noticeable.

Especially the mysterious steel ball ring in the middle; with a casual flick of his wrist, the wheel spun so fast that it completely ignored the core that he hadn't touched.

Mechanical arts!

"Chief镖师 Lin, were all these wheels designed by Young Master Zhang?"

"Indeed, this is the first time I, Lin, have ever seen such a wheel in all my travels."

If it had appeared earlier, Lin would not have been unaware of it; it can be said to be a masterpiece.

Just as a slow horse struggles to pull a heavy truck, this wheel can easily pull a truck carrying a heavy load, saving at least half the effort.

Not only for carrying goods, but also for carrying people, the carriage was simple and effortless, and its speed was comparable to that of a galloping horse.

Duan Zhengchun couldn't help but gasp.

From the tests just now, he knew that Lin Zhennan wasn't bragging; these wheels really were high-tech.

In this way, it can be considered a true treasure.

"Brother Emperor!"

"Hmm, Chief Escort Lin, are you selling these cart wheels?"

“We will sell them, but not these. We still need to transport some raw stones back. Ordinary carriages would be a waste of effort and time, which is something you don’t want, young master.”

Therefore, before his departure, Young Master Zhang anticipated Emperor Duan's intentions and thus gave Lin a list. Emperor Duan, please take a look!

The order form is similar to a menu, listing the product name, price, and the quantity needed.

·········Requesting flowers·· 0

The wheel in front of you is one of them, priced at ten gold coins each, limited to ten thousand pieces.

The price was marked as being based on rubber and rollers, especially rubber, which was scarce at the time and was a special commodity brought by the Zhang family from Persia.

There's also diamond wire, worth a thousand gold pieces per foot, specially used for cutting raw stones, limited to ten feet!

A single dragon-elephant horse costs five thousand gold coins, with a limited edition of ten males and ten females!

Top-quality soaps, silk soaps, rouge, and lipsticks—one gold coin per item, unlimited quantities!

···

Looking at the items on the delivery list, Duan Zhengming's lips twitched. They were treating the Dali Duan family like easy prey.

"What is diamond wire? It's so rare!"

"This is a ten-zhang length of Vajra Thread that Young Master asked me to bring. The thread is made of golden silkworm silk, and the Vajra is made of diamond."

Diamond wire is made by fusing diamond particles into golden silk threads. It can cut through gold and jade, but it's not as sharp as golden silk threads and generally needs to be replaced annually.

"So simple?"

"Simple?"

Lin Zhennan shook his head. A line and a stone, combined together, is not as simple as it sounds.

0 .... 0

Even when he held the diamond wire, he couldn't detect anything other than the fine graininess.

After receiving the diamond wire, Duan Zhengming immediately found a piece of raw stone to test it.

Sure enough, a diamond with a hardness of 10 can easily cut jadeite with a hardness of only 5 or 6.

Moreover, this is not internal skill, but rather a stretching motion like saw teeth, something an ordinary person would do.

Seeing that the diamond thread was no different from ordinary silk thread, Duan Zhengming immediately wanted it all.

The Duan family of Dali, who had just received three million gold coins, were incredibly wealthy.

Ten thousand rubber wheels, top-grade silk soap, glass...

It cost over 300,000 gold coins, causing quite a stir.

However, these do not need to be purchased directly by the Dali Duan family; they can simply be deducted from the year-end dividends.

Therefore, the cost is not a big burden.

It's like mobile payments in later generations—money you can't see, just a string of numbers.

"Your Majesty, Your Highness, Your Lordship, the gold has been counted."

This gold totals three million taels, and it's all pure gold of extremely high purity.

The finance minister approached, his face beaming with excitement; this was three million taels of gold.

And what about pure gold?

The gold must be at least 99% pure.

Only the government offices of the four great empires could forge official ingots of pure gold, but the Zhang family paid them with pure gold, not official ingots.

Moreover, the Dali Duan family's gold reserves were only around five million taels of gold.

Now that they had directly received three million taels of gold, even though they understood what was going on, they were extremely excited.

Meanwhile, the ministers of the Ministry of Finance were even more astonished by the Zhang family's ability to casually produce three million taels of gold.

The powerful families of the Central Plains are comparable to a nation!

"I see!"

Duan Zhengming nodded, even more amazed.

"Your Majesty, this is the receipt that the young master asked me to bring."

"I know!"

Duan Zhengming was well aware of the enormous quantity of gold involved, and that not a single detail could be overlooked.

Only after a receipt is signed can the gold be stored in the warehouse, which is considered a formal completion of the transaction between the two parties.

Chapter 290 The Sun Rises in the East, I Am Undefeated

Half a month later, the Zhenyuan Escort Agency set off again, leaving Dali Royal City with a hundred horse-drawn carts full of raw stones.

The transportation fee for Zhenyuan Escort Agency this time was 30% of the value of the jadeite rough, which was also a benefit given to Zhenyuan Escort Agency by the Zhang family.

The shipping fee of 30,000 gold for the previous 3 million gold was a sealed bid.

For open bidding, the freight commission charged by escort agencies is generally between 5% and 10% of the value of the goods.

Of course, this is just the normal shipping cost.

This time, the Zhenyuan Escort Agency has staked three million taels of gold, traversing nearly 20,000 li from east to west. If paid according to the agreed-upon ratio, it would amount to three hundred thousand taels of gold.

Moreover, if robbed, Zhenyuan Escort Agency wouldn't be able to afford even one percent of the losses, even if they went bankrupt.

Even if the goods were secretly bid at 30,000 gold coins and then stolen, the Zhang family would not seek compensation from the Zhenyuan Escort Agency.

After all, with so much gold, most powerful forces wouldn't dare touch it even if they knew. Moreover, if they took the Zhang family's things, the Zhang family would go directly to their master, so "040" wouldn't need to contact the Zhenyuan Escort Agency at all.

Therefore, when the gold was delivered, all the major forces in the martial arts world who received the news were dumbfounded.

Right under their noses, the Zhang family actually gave away three million taels of gold, without them receiving any prior notice.

Based primarily on past experience, and considering the depth of the carriage and its speed, they found no indication that the Zhang family's caravan was carrying heavy loads.

After all, goods weighing over two thousand kilograms would inevitably have a bumpy and slow journey.

This is also the function of the ball bearing axle; it can save most of the frictional force, and the speed is similar to that of a typical horse-drawn carriage.

With the truck full of goods, it's not impossible that the load exceeds a thousand kilograms.

Between truth and falsehood, reality and illusion, how many bandits' dreams of getting rich have been shattered?

And those powerful forces wouldn't risk offending the Zhang family for ordinary goods like tea and silk.

For a time, all the major forces in the martial arts world were abuzz with discussion.

The wailing led to a missed opportunity!

Three million taels of gold, the law of conservation of energy—their experience had never failed them.

The same hundred cartloads of raw stones, before even reaching the Zhang family in Lin'an, had already been divided up.

At a price of a thousand gold pieces per cartload, these stones attracted curious buyers wherever they went, and were sold out before even reaching Yangzhou (the Nine Provinces).

After all, gambling on jade is no secret, and few people aren't curious about it.

As for the authenticity of the raw stones, that's a matter of the Zhang family's and the Dali Kingdom's reputation!

On this one trip alone, Zhenyuan Escort Agency earned 60,000 gold coins, more than they had accumulated in nearly 60 years.

After the remaining 40,000 taels of gold were delivered to the Zhang residence, Lin Zhennan led a group of镖局 (bodyguard agencies)镖师 (bodyguards) back to Fuzhou.

As for the Zhang family's goods, they basically won't need to get involved anymore.

Even if the gold dividends were distributed, the Zhang family would send them to Dali via their fleet of ships from Southeast Asia.

Waterways are much safer than land routes.

The main problem this time is that there's too much gold, and it's bound to be robbed by the escorting kingdoms if it's transported by water.

That's over a million taels of gold, who wouldn't be envious?

····

"The sun rises in the east, and I alone am invincible!!"

Deep within West Lake, a faint voice echoed, its origin and destination unknown.

A month ago, Zhang Xiaoshan spent a huge sum of money to get the "Sunflower Manual" from Tong Guan, after which Dongfang Bubai went into seclusion.

The perfected Sunflower Manual indeed enabled Dongfang Bubai to break through his cultivation level.

Although the sound was transmitted underwater, it still traveled for miles, and many literati and scholars who were boating on the lake heard this famous saying.

Most people don't understand what this sentence means?

But many people still understood the meaning—Invincible East!

Wasn't Dongfang Bubai dead?

And why is Dongfang Bubai here? Suddenly, such a question was uttered.

On the lake, Ji Yaohua, who was boating with her sisters, suddenly changed her expression, her beautiful peach-blossom eyes looking warily into the water.

Others might not know, but how could she not sense that some terrifying monster was about to awaken at the bottom of West Lake?

It seems that Dongfang Bubai has already broken through the legendary realm.

"Big sister, is it really Dongfang Bubai?"

"It should be. Last time, Mr. Zhuge reminded us that Dongfang Bubai might be blown up."

Her sudden appearance here, coupled with her astonishingly profound skill, suggests that she has likely broken through that bottleneck.

"Breaking through the bottleneck? Wouldn't that be...?"

Ji Yaohua nodded solemnly. The thought of Dongfang Bubai practicing eunuch martial arts, and that it was the Zhang family who took Dongfang Bubai in, sent a chill down Ji Yaohua's spine.

"Hahaha···"

Suddenly, a long laugh rang out, and a red figure slowly rose from the water, standing on the surface like a water ghost.

Everyone, including Ji Yaohua and the group of female constables, was completely dumbfounded.

What shocked them was not Dongfang Bubai's unfathomable skill, but that the legendary powerhouse was actually—

She was a woman, and one of the most beautiful courtesans in the Red Mansion!

With an absolutely stunning face and a graceful figure, she is definitely not a eunuch or a pervert dressed as a woman, but a real woman.

If it weren't for the commotion just now, Ji Yaohua would never have believed that the other party was Dongfang Bubai.

"Wait, we're from the Zhang family too!"

Suddenly, Ji Yaohua noticed Dongfang Bubai's murderous intent and quickly stopped him from killing her to silence her.

"The Zhang family? So what?"