Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 333: Chapter 323: Specialties of Liaodong

After entering late October, the temperature in the Liaodong Region dropped sharply. In just a few days, the temperature had fallen below zero.

However, the cold weather did not affect the development of Tenglong Guard.

The training of the soldiers continued, whether they were regular soldiers, camp soldiers, or the navy, none of them stopped training.

Of course, some things were affected by the temperature, such as the salt fields. As the temperature dropped, the salt fields entered the closed period, which would last until next March before they could restart salt production.

Although this would cause the salt fields to be unable to produce salt for four to five months, the production over the past two months had increased. In just two months, the salt fields had produced over a million catties of salt, enough to support the entire population of Jing’an Prefecture for a year.

In addition to the salt fields, construction teams were also impacted, but the construction tasks within the city were essentially complete. The remaining carpentry work was not affected by the temperature.

And road construction tasks were postponed to the next year, as the government office planned to finish the overall road planning for Tenglong Guard before the end of the year.

According to Yang Zhenshan’s requirements, Tenglong Guard planned to build four official roads, leading to Jing’an Prefecture, Qinghua Prefecture, Liao’an Prefecture, and the dock, all of which would be constructed according to official road standards.

Besides that, Yang Zhenshan also planned to renovate the roads leading to the thousand households, hundred households, and garrisons.

He did not strive for every road to be wide, but for every road to be flat and not muddy in rainy weather.

To get rich, build roads first.

Building roads is the most practical construction.

Besides building roads, Yang Zhenshan also prepared to carry out a literacy campaign.

The training of soldiers actually included learning to read and write, but regular soldiers only learned a few basic characters. Most soldiers could only learn a few dozen simple characters during their basic training of a little over a month.

For camp soldiers, they were required to be proficient in reciting and writing everyday characters.

When he was in An Yuan City, Yang Zhenshan had the same requirements, and the soldiers in the garrison were literate, with many soldiers in the garrison also being able to recognize characters.

Now in Tenglong Guard, Yang Zhenshan would do the same.

He could not guarantee that every soldier would be fluent in reading and writing everyday characters, but he would plant the seed, allowing the children of military households to learn reading and writing if they were willing.

Among the new military households, there were quite a few literate people who could play the role of teachers.

Yang Zhenshan required every hundred households to have a school, and children aged eight to twelve had to enter school for education.

Actually achieving this was not difficult, as there were only about a hundred military households in each hundred households, and at most just over a hundred children aged eight to twelve.

Two classrooms and two teachers would be sufficient.

There are a total of just over two hundred hundred households within Tenglong Guard, and finding just over five hundred literate people would be enough.

Yang Zhenshan was only promoting literacy, not preparing them for the imperial examination. The garrison school was only meant to teach people to recognize characters, so they didn’t need highly qualified teachers.

The salaries for these teachers would be uniformly distributed by the government office, according to the standard of camp soldiers’ rations and salary silver, without the need for extra high pay.

Training and establishing schools were tasks for the next year, but the government office needed to be prepared before the end of this year.

In addition to these two tasks, there were two more matters that needed to be handled next year, the first was sea trade, and the second was attracting business to Guard City.

In early November, Luo Shang brought Luo Zhen to Tenglong Guard again.

In the government office’s tea room, Yang Zhenshan looked at the increasingly mature Luo Zhen and asked gently, “How is everything in An Yuan City, have you encountered any trouble?”

Luo Zhen poured tea for Yang Zhenshan and Luo Shang, smiling as he said, “The officials have taken good care of our Luo family; no one would trouble us!”

Although Yang Zhenshan had left An Yuan City, the Prefect was still Lin Shoude, the head of the Military Equipment Department was Xu Jin, and most importantly, Han Cheng was the garrison.

These three were the highest-ranking officials of An Yuan City. With them around, who would dare to trouble the Luo family?

“What about Chongshan Pass?” Yang Zhenshan then looked at Luo Shang.

Luo Shang pondered for a moment before saying, “Chongshan Pass has undergone significant changes recently. After General Ji took office, he has courted many merchants, and although they haven’t targeted us, it has become difficult for us to continue expanding in Chongshan Town.”

Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly, as this was expected.

After Liang Chu returned to the capital, Ji Feiyu was promoted to General of Chongshan Town. In the first half of the year, Ji Feiyu was probably busy consolidating power and handling Fuzhou’s affairs, only later in the year did he start getting involved with Chongshan Town’s merchants.

The business environment in Chongshan Town was a typical military economy, where almost all commercial activities revolved around the military, especially after the opening of Fuzhou, which was primarily dominated by the General Mansion and the Northern Road Deputy General Mansion.

In fact, Chongshan Town had many opportunities for development, such as horse breeding and farming.

Horse breeding needed no further explanation; Chongshan Town had obtained large expanses of grasslands and would surely become Da Rong’s most important horse breeding area.

And as for farming, without mentioning others, just the area around Fuzhou City, formerly known as Fushan City, had plenty of fertile land.

The East Sea Hu Clan was not good at farming, merely allowing these fertile lands to grow weeds. But now that Fuzhou was part of Chongshan Town, aside from the lands occupied by the garrisons, there was still much fertile farmland that could be cultivated.

Now, whether it was setting up horse ranches or reclaiming wasteland in the Northern region, it was a profitable business.

However, one would need connections to undertake such endeavors. It was fine for the Luo family to dabble in small business, but if they wanted to expand on a larger scale, it wouldn’t work.

After all, Yang Zhenshan had left Chongshan Town, and both Liang Chu and Zhou Lan had as well.

Although Yang Zhenshan still had many connections in Chongshan Town, he could no longer support the Luo family’s expansion.

“Let’s just maintain the current business in Chongshan Town; the focus of your Luo family should shift to Tenglong Guard,” Yang Zhenshan said casually.

Chongshan Town might have many opportunities, but Tenglong Guard had even more.

Salt fields and sea trade could earn much more than horse ranches and cultivation.

Now the Luo family not only owned a share of the salt fields in Tenglong Guard but had also acquired the salt trade licenses for Ningyuan Prefecture and Qinghua Prefecture through Zheng Xiao.

Having control over the salt trade in these three prefectures, Luo Shang no longer regarded the horse ranches and cultivation as significant.

“What does Sir need us to do?” Luo Shang inquired.

Yang Zhenshan waved to one of his personal followers beside him, who immediately brought over a layout map of the Guard City.

“This is the current situation within the city, which can be divided into four districts: the government quarter, the market district, the residential area, and the business district!”

“There’s no need to elaborate on the government quarter; it’s mainly for the government offices and officials to work and reside.”

“The market district is prepared for the military households surrounding the Guard City. Next year, we will encourage them to come into the city to set up stalls to sell everything from fruits and vegetables, dried goods and herbs, to handicrafts and so on—as long as there are buyers, they can come to sell. The market district has three hundred stalls, and it only costs one copper coin per day.”

The reason for charging a fee is to prevent people from occupying a space without using it.

“For the residential area, your Luo family can buy a set of houses here. I think that large mansion is quite good; you should buy that one!” Yang Zhenshan said without hesitance.

The Luo family is his affiliated family; naturally, they should be the first to support his work.

Letting the Luo family set an example would also encourage other merchants to come and buy houses.

“As for the business district, there are a total of forty-eight shops, of which twelve will be retained for government use, and the remaining thirty-six will be for rent!”

“These few are more suitable as inns; does the Luo family want to rent one?”

Yang Zhenshan looked at Luo Shang with a chuckle.

Luo Shang’s eyes sparkled, “My lord, could we take all three of these inns?”

He is a shrewd merchant; if Tenglong Guard really develops as Yang Zhenshan envisions, then the inns will no doubt be one of the most stable and profitable businesses.

Currently, there is almost no commerce in Tenglong Guard. The military households mostly rely on peddlers who roam the streets and alleys, and in fact, these peddlers are also military households themselves. They buy some goods from the surrounding counties to sell in the garrisons and fortified villages.

As for inns and taverns, there isn’t a single one throughout Tenglong Guard.

And in the future, these three inns within Guard City are very likely to be the only three inns in the entire Tenglong Guard.

Luo Shang’s idea is good, but unfortunately, Yang Zhenshan shook his head, “That won’t do. I also plan to use these three inns to attract a few more wealthy merchants!”

“Then~~” Luo Shang thought for a bit and said, “Our Luo family will take one inn, one cloth shop, one gold and silver shop, one tea house, as well as one Jinxiu Workshop!”

“As for the houses, we’ll take one set of a large courtyard with three entries, five sets of smaller courtyards with three entries each, and ten sets of standalone small courtyards.”

“We’ll take thirty units of low-rent housing!”

“…” Yang Zhenshan looked at him speechlessly.

What is this old chap up to? Stocking up?

Is he considering getting into the business of reselling secondhand property?

“What do you need so many houses for?” asked Yang Zhenshan.

“For our shopkeepers and master craftsmen to live in!” Luo Shang said matter-of-factly.

“Five shopkeepers for five shops, one small three-entry courtyard for each person. The inn needs a chef, the gold and silver shop needs goldsmiths and silversmiths, and the Jinxiu Workshop requires embroidery girls.”

“Ordinary clerks can live in the low-rent housing, but shopkeepers and master craftsmen must live in standalone houses!”

Yang Zhenshan was speechless for a moment. Okay, Luo Shang, this proprietor, is quite generous.

“If it weren’t for the limited number of houses, I would have asked for a few more sets!” Luo Shang said, seemingly unsatisfied.

“Forget it, just take these ones. If they all go to you, there would be nowhere for other merchants to live!” Yang Zhenshan quickly stopped this overindulged landlord.

The Luo family is truly rich now, buying properties in groupings of tens.

“Later, you can choose for yourself. Just don’t forget to pay the silver to the government office!”

Yang Zhenshan couldn’t be bothered to haggle with Luo Shang any further and continued, “Next March, I plan to send out merchant ships to sea. What do you think would be a good business to start with?”

“My lord, where do you plan to send the merchant ships first?” Luo Shang asked.

“Jiangnan!” Yang Zhenshan said without hesitation.

“Silk, raw silk, tea leaves, porcelain.” Luo Shang also responded without hesitation.

“So what goods should we bring there?” Yang Zhenshan continued to ask.

“Medicinal herbs, dried goods, furs, Snake Pattern Jade Stone.”

“Furs? Is there a market for furs in Jiangnan?” Yang Zhenshan asked in surprise.

“Of course, but ordinary furs won’t do; solid-colored fox furs are quite popular!” Luo Shang replied.

What’s rare is most precious; even though the winter in Jiangnan is short and warm, the region’s wealth cannot be understated—there will always be people who seek novelty.

The ornamental value of furs in Jiangnan far outweighs their practicality.

Yang Zhenshan nodded in understanding, “And the Snake Pattern Jade Stone?”

Snake Pattern Jade Stone should be a specialty of Liao’an Prefecture; its texture is hard and resilient, delicate and warm, with a bright luster and rich colors. It is a very good material for jade carving.

It also has many downsides, the richness of colors means that the stones are quite mixed, and it is difficult to find pure-colored jade, let alone jadeite.

Therefore, Snake Pattern Jade Stone is most suitable for carving large ornaments.

“The jade carving industry in Jiangnan is very prosperous, and materials for large jade carvings like Snake Pattern Jade Stone are very popular. However, transporting large stones is difficult, so in Jiangnan, the bigger the Snake Pattern Jade Stone, the more expensive it is!” Luo Shang said.

Yang Zhenshan hadn’t considered this point.

Transportation is indeed a problem.

To transport a large stone from Liao’an Prefecture to Jiangnan by land, it’s unknown how much labor and resources that would consume.

But if transported by sea, that would be much easier.