Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 912: Chapter 656: Honored Guest at the Door

In the study of the General Mansion, Yang Chengye and Niu Zhuang sat together, looking at the grain tax collected this year.

“The autumn grain has already been fully stored, but our grain storage is still not much, only less than two hundred thousand shi!” Niu Zhuang rubbed his brow, feeling a headache.

Actually, the situation has alleviated quite a bit this year. Last year was the toughest when Zhou Lan merely settled thirty thousand refugees and emptied Chongshan Town.

Fortunately, after more than a year of recovery and rest, those thirty thousand refugees have already settled down.

Now, these one million refugees seem many, but in fact, many have been settled for over half a year.

They have passed through the hardest stage; though still impoverished, they can at least harvest some grain from the land.

But this is only the territory of the five provinces of Longyuan; Longyuan in total has thirteen provinces, besides Longyuan there are also Longxi and Longnan provinces.

Longyuan’s three provinces have gone through three years of drought, countless bandits ravaging, population reduced by half, but now combined the three provinces still have nearly ten million population.

To thoroughly resolve the issues of Longyuan’s three provinces, Chongshan Town and Beiyuan Town still need to endure several years of hardship.

This wasn’t their responsibility initially, but now nobody can be relied upon, only themselves to do it; one cannot just watch the remaining people of Longyuan’s three provinces continue to live in deep water and scorching fire,

“How much silver do we have left in storage?” Yang Chengye looked down at the ledger and asked.

“Less than a million! It should be around nine hundred thirty thousand liang!”

Niu Zhuang said in a deep voice: “These silvers cannot be touched, or it will affect ourselves. If the Chi Ci Tribe remains peaceful, that’s good; once they provoke war, we also need a large amount of Silver Coin and provisions!”

Chongshan Town is a key border town, everything must be considered for war.

Don’t be deceived by the current division in Wuliang Royal Court, the Chi Ci Tribe, Wanggu Tribe, Tatar Tribe, and Wula Tribe are hugging together for self-defense, not daring to provoke Chongshan Town, but what if?

Chongshan Town must keep enough surplus grain to cope with any future wars that may arise.

“What if we borrow money? Selling debt tickets with Chongshan Town’s funds!” Yang Chengye suggested.

His idea is to learn from Yang Zhenshan and issue debt tickets to borrow money for buying grain.

Niu Zhuang pondered for a moment and said: “Issuing debt tickets is not hard, but we have no place to buy grain now!”

“Liaodong can still buy some grain, but the quantity shouldn’t be much! Li Sheng Dynasty is in chaos, it’s impossible to buy grain from them!”

“Desheng Dynasty is also chaotic, a group of daimyos fighting each other to seize sea trade shares.”

“As for Jiangnan, don’t count on it, Yun Gui’s rebel army is almost hitting Jiangnan. Now Jiangnan probably also lacks surplus grain!”

The current issue isn’t Silver Coin, but the chaos of the situation.

Da Rong internally doesn’t need much elaboration, but both Li Sheng Dynasty and Desheng Dynasty are not peaceful.

Now there’s nowhere to buy grain.

Just as the two were troubled by the grain issue, Luo Bo entered the study, “Marquis, there’s a letter from the old master!”

Yang Chengye’s expression shook, “Bring it!”

Luo Bo quickly handed the letter to Yang Chengye, who opened it and read, first shocked, then showed a strange look.

The little uncle went to become a rebel?

Yang Zhenshan did not elaborate in the letter, after all, when this letter was sent, Yang Mingzhao hadn’t returned to Divine Wood Island.

However, Yang Zhenshan made one thing clear, that is to ask Yang Chengye to rally Chongshan Town’s forces and head to Divine Wood Island for a trip.

The reason to rally Chongshan Town’s forces is naturally to wait for the message to be confirmed before taking action, as prior to confirmations, Chongshan Town shouldn’t make any hasty moves.

“Does the old Marquis have any matters?” Niu Zhuang saw Yang Chengye’s strange look and couldn’t help but ask.

Yang Chengye shook his head slightly, saying: “No, just wants me to go back for the New Year this year!”

“I see! It’s already the twelfth month. If you’re going back for the New Year, you need to set off soon!” Niu Zhuang didn’t suspect anything, just followed the comment.

“Hmm! We’ll leave it at that this year. Just as well, when I go back this time, I can see if I can buy grain from other places!” Yang Chengye said.

“That’s right, East South Sea Domain should have a lot of grain, maybe can buy from there!” Niu Zhuang agreed.

Then the two talked briefly about Chongshan Town’s affairs, only then did Yang Chengye return to his own residence.

His residence isn’t large, though bearing the plaque of Marquis Jing’an Mansion, it’s actually just a four-yard setup.

Returning home, Mrs. Yu was preparing festival gifts; today was already the sixth day of the twelfth month, the festival gifts for the New Year must be sent out by the tenth, mainly those for the Capital City, time must be spaciously allotted to ensure the gifts can be delivered on time.

After Yang Mingcheng left Da Rong, such social interaction matters fell on Yang Chengye’s shoulders, though the Yang family’s business sometimes sent Yang Zhenshan’s festival gifts to some friends and family, certain families not very close to the Yang family but cannot be ignored need Yang Chengye to maintain the relations.

“Eh, why are you back so early?”

Seeing Yang Chengye return, Mrs. Yu was somewhat surprised.

“Got a letter from home, we’re going to Divine Wood Island for the New Year this year!” Yang Chengye said.

“Divine Wood Island?” Mrs. Yu didn’t know that the Yang family had already moved to Divine Wood Island.

Yang Chengye smiled and explained: “Grandfather and the others have occupied a large island again, it’s called Divine Wood Island, said to be thirty times larger than Star Moon Island!”

“Oh!” Mrs. Yu showed little interest in Divine Wood Island, hesitated to look at the big box beside her, and asked: “Then what about these?”