Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 925: Chapter 661: The Greatest Obstacle

After the fifteenth of the first lunar month, Yang Chengye set out and left Divine Wood Island.

Yang Zhenshan and Yu Qingyi stood at the port, watching the gradually distancing ships, lost in thought.

“We also need to make a trip to Da Rong!”

Yang Zhenshan said.

“For what purpose?” Yu Qingyi inquired.

“To visit some old friends and remove the greatest obstacle for Chengye!” Yang Zhenshan replied.

“The greatest obstacle?” Yu Qingyi was puzzled, “Who?”

Yang Zhenshan chuckled, “Xuanzhen, that old thing!”

Currently, Xuanzhen is undoubtedly the most powerful person in Da Rong.

An Yuxing has already entered the Dao, with considerable attainment in Dao Intent, but Xuanzhen has also entered the Dao, and his understanding of Dao Intent surpasses that of An Yuxing.

With Xuanzhen’s strength and the prestige of Wuzhen Taoist Palace in the worldly society of Da Rong, it’s not to say they can sway the entire realm of Da Rong, but their influence is substantial.

Although the Yang family is currently very strong, to the point of being somewhat outrageous, Yang Zhenshan cannot look down on the people of the world.

Take Wuzhen Taoist Palace, for example; it’s a sect with a millennium of heritage, its foundation is beyond imagination.

Yang Zhenshan estimated that Xuanzhen’s cultivation might not be much inferior to his own, far surpassing An Yuxing.

The other Innate Martial Artists in Da Rong can be dismissed by Yang Zhenshan, but not Xuanzhen.

Yu Qingyi nodded, and Yang Zhenshan added, “We also need to visit Zhou Lan and Liang Chu!”

“They’re different from us. Our Yang family has only recently risen in the last hundred years, while the Duke Ning Mansion and the Changping Marquis Mansion, especially the Changping Marquis Mansion, share weal and woe with Da Rong. It will take some persuasion to make them completely abandon Da Rong!”

Yu Qingyi naturally had no objection to this, “Let’s go then, wherever you go, I’ll follow you!”

“Hahaha~~”

…

Yang Zhenshan arranged matters on Divine Wood Island, then set off with Yu Qingyi for Da Rong.

There were many matters on Divine Wood Island, but Yang Zhenshan didn’t need to worry too much.

However, there were still many things on Yang Chengye’s side that needed the assistance of Divine Wood Island, especially in terms of financial support.

In order to support Yang Chengye, Yang Zhenshan practically emptied his family’s resources, giving Yang Chengye as much as ten million taels of Silver Coin without affecting the operation of Divine Wood Island and the Yang family business.

The Silver Coin accumulated by the Yang family over the years wasn’t as much as imagined, this ten million taels of Silver Coin were mostly donated by Luo Shang and Mrs. Zhang.

The Yang family business was very profitable, but the Yang family’s expenses were also considerable, with annual living expenses alone amounting to hundreds of thousands of taels of Silver, not to mention the immigration and construction now needed on Divine Wood Island, which also required a lot of Silver.

So, Yang Zhenshan could only provide this ten million taels of Silver Coin.

Yang Chengye didn’t take this ten million taels of Silver Coin back to Chongshan Town; he left it with the Yang family business, as he needed them to help him purchase food, armaments, medicinal materials, elixirs, fabrics, cotton, and other war supplies in the Ten Thousand Miles Sea Domain and the southern dynasties of Da Rong.

Although it’s not yet time for Chongshan Town to raise an army, it’s never wrong to stockpile various supplies in advance.

At the same time, as Yang Zhenshan and Yu Qingyi left Divine Wood Island, both Divine Wood Island and the Yang family business were moving to support Yang Chengye.

Yang Mingcheng was still staying in the space, so the affairs supporting Yang Chengye were taken on by his two uncles, Yang Mingzhi and Yang Minghao.

As for Yang Mingzhao, he also went to Da Rong, having promised to help Yang Chengye conquer Bashu.

Chongshan Town still needed to await the right timing, but for the Taiping Army, there was no need to wait; they could hasten to devour all of Bashu.

Yang Mingzhi had already instructed the Yang family business to acquire as much grain as possible. Truthfully, importing grain from the Ten Thousand Miles Sea Domain to Chongshan Town was a very unprofitable venture.

The voyage was long, transport was difficult, with nearly half a ship’s worth being consumed by the crew and sailors, plus labor costs, ship maintenance costs, etc., making the cost price at Chongshan Town 50% higher than the local grain price.

But it couldn’t be helped; the issue in Chongshan Town and Liaodong wasn’t the high grain price but the lack of enough grain to buy.

Unless Yang Chengye was willing to raise the grain prices in Chongshan Town and Liaodong, he might receive ample grain in Liaodong, but doing so would certainly affect the livelihood of Liaodong’s people, something Yang Chengye would not want, so he could only spend more of the Silver Coin to buy grain from the Ten Thousand Miles Sea Domain.

The Yang family business found it relatively easy to buy grain; not to mention others, the Zhang Dynasty and the Dajing Dynasty alone could provide Yang family business with a million bushels of grain.

The Zhang Dynasty and the Dajing Dynasty could harvest rice three times a year; these two dynasties had no shortage of grain, and in the Ten Thousand Miles Sea Domain, many islands could also do three harvests a year.

Thus, grain prices in the Ten Thousand Miles Sea Domain were genuinely cheap.

The grain issue could only be resolved this way, while Yang Minghao had to procure some armaments for Yang Chengye.

On the twentieth of the first lunar month, Yang Minghao arrived at Earth Fire Island.

The Third Master Zhu Yanshan of the Zhu family personally welcomed him.

The most striking feature of Earth Fire Island is the volcano at the center of the island, with a crater reaching a height of a thousand zhang, constantly emitting black smoke, yet never erupting.

The Zhu family’s greatest strength isn’t their forging skills, but their ability to control a volcano on the verge of eruption, preventing it from erupting.

From afar, one could see numerous openings on the massive volcano, with sturdy men continuously transporting ore up the volcano.