Chapter 109 Zhou Lan's Rayleigh Method

The next morning, Yang Mingzhi took a dozen cavalrymen to Jianning Wei, but he returned that afternoon.

Zhou Lan only asked him to bring back one sentence to Yang Zhengshan, which was to tell him not to worry about those messy things and just focus on expanding Yinghe Fort.

After getting Zhou Lan's reply, Yang Zhengshan felt relieved. Since Zhou Lan said so, it meant that Zhou Lan had already made up her mind and he didn't need to worry about it.

The expansion of Yinghe Fort was very fast. In just one month, the project of widening and raising the city wall of Yinghe Fort was completed. All that remained was the construction of houses and streets inside the fort.

However, Yang Zhengshan still wanted to go faster, so he transferred a group of young and strong men from Sanshan Fort and Xiangyuan Fort to help.

Time passed slowly, and the entire Yinghe Fort was like a large construction site with everyone busy.

Inside the garrison, young men with bare chests were building houses.

Outside the garrison, three hundred cavalrymen were training by the river, a large number of women in the garrison were taking care of the crops in the fields, and on the hillside, Li Erhu was leading a group of people to plant trees.

The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and the charcoal business had long stopped, but Yang Zhengshan did not let Li Erhu and others disband.

They still make charcoal two or three times a month. Although they cannot sell it now, they can store it and sell it in winter.

In their spare time, they would go to the mountains to cut trees and plant trees at the same time, following Yang Zhengshan's requirements, cutting down one tree and planting two.

Since there is no room for planting on the hillside, we plant on the wasteland at the foot of the mountain.

The trees they plant are mainly pine trees, but they also plant some chestnut trees, hazelnut trees, persimmon trees, red date trees, etc.

Pine trees were planted for charcoal, while other trees were planted to provide the military households with more food.

If it were possible to find too many saplings, Yang Zhengshan would have wanted to set aside a piece of wasteland specifically for planting chestnut and hazelnut trees.

When the time comes, we can set up a few small stalls selling sugar-roasted chestnuts in Guancheng, which will also be a good small business.

Under Yang Zhengshan's management, Yinghe Fort is changing every day.

Before we knew it, it was August 8th of the twenty-fifth year of Chengping.

After nearly four months, the expansion of Yinghe Fort was completed, many military households have moved into new houses, and the commercial street planned by Yang Zhengshan also welcomed the first batch of merchants.

These merchants are all military households in the garrison, and they are not merchants.

As for whether anyone will pursue these issues, there is actually nothing to pursue.

Among the four classes of people, scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans had a low social status, but military households were almost the same, or even worse than merchants. At least merchants had money.

For scholars, doing business was a taboo. For example, the court had clear regulations that family members and relatives of officials were not allowed to do business, and merchants were not allowed to take part in the imperial examinations.

However, in fact, all those official families are involved in business affairs, but they just do not participate in person.

Many people look down on businessmen, but they do things that only businessmen can do.

As for the military households, if someone were to investigate and change their nationality to that of merchants, they would probably worship that person as a bodhisattva.

Military households have to conscript men into the army, but merchants do not.

The children of military households had to guard the border and risk their lives on the battlefield, while the children of merchants, although having a low social status, did not have to risk their lives.

So when Yang Zhengshan offered to rent out the shops in Yinghebao, many military households in the garrison were interested, and he didn't have to do anything as more than 20 shops were sold out.

There are even many people who regret not being able to grab a store.

Of course, no matter how sorry they were, they didn't dare to jump out and cause trouble.

Now, Yang Zhengshan's reputation in Yinghe Fort has reached an unprecedented level. As long as he gives an order, men, women, old and young in Yinghe Fort are willing to go through fire and water and risk their lives for him.

Today was the day when all the shops in Yinghe Fort were open, and everyone went to the commercial street at the east gate to join in the fun. Even many people from the surrounding fire piers and beacon towers came to join in the fun.

For a moment, Yinghe Fort was bustling and lively.

Yang Zhengshan went to inspect the commercial street and came back. Everyone felt a little uncomfortable when he was there, so he stopped being annoying.

When he returned to the government office, he brought back someone.

Luo Shang, this is the big boss of Yinghebao Commercial Street.

Although the shops in Yinghebao were all rented to military households in the garrison, most of the goods they sold were provided by Luo Shang.

With the support of Yang Zhengshan, Luo Shang's business is growing bigger and bigger.

Yang Zhengshan opened a needlework workshop in Linguanbao, where he helped sell cloth shoes and get orders.

Yang Zhengshan made charcoal in Yinghebao. He helped sell the charcoal and even opened a grocery store specifically for this purpose.

When Yang Zhengshan was buying up bargains in a shop in Guancheng, he followed suit and bought even more than Yang Zhengshan.

Luo Shang did not forget his old business. He opened a cloth shop and an embroidery workshop in the West City District and South City District of Guancheng respectively.

He actually made the most money doing business with Yang Zhengshan.

In just over a year, the scale of his business has increased more than ten times, and he has become a well-known businessman in Guancheng.

However, he was still respectful to Yang Zhengshan, because he understood that everything he had now was given to him by Yang Zhengshan.

People are afraid of becoming famous just like pigs are afraid of becoming fat. The more assets Luo Shang has and the more famous he becomes, the more people will be eyeing him.

If he didn't have a backer, he would be eaten up quickly.

Yang Zhengshan is his backer. Although Yang Zhengshan is only a defense officer of a thousand households, he has Zhou Lan behind him, and he is also a well-known person in Liang Chu's department.

"Sir, I heard that things are not going well in Jianningwei!"

After entering the study, Luo Shang immediately served tea and water to Yang Zhengshan.

"It is a little uneasy, but don't worry. No matter how uneasy it is, it won't affect you!" Yang Zhengshan said indifferently.

The unrest in Jianningwei was caused by Zhou Lan. This woman is really cruel.

In just a few months, she almost plowed through Jianningwei.

She drove away Liu Qiong and Ye Zhaoquan, the co-commander of Jianning Guard, Qiu Zhen, the garrison commander of Chishan Fort, and Guan Shanhe, the garrison commander of Ruizhou City.

Even when Xie Shanhe went to her to plead for Guan Shanhe, she rejected him.

It is said that Prince Qing also wrote a letter to her, but nothing happened in the end.

Some people even impeached her in the court, but nothing came of it.

In this regard, Yang Zhengshan can only say "awesome".

As for Duan Heshun, who was targeting him, this guy was thrown into prison on the third day after Yang Mingzhi delivered the letter. The charges were embezzlement of food and wages, killing innocent people to claim credit, and misappropriation of military rations, etc., which was enough to punish him by beheading.

Originally, Yang Zhengshan was worried that Zhou Lan would not be able to cope with it, but the result once again refreshed his understanding of Zhou Lan and the Ningguo Mansion.

Zhou Lan does have the confidence to rush around in Chongshan Town.

After hearing what Yang Zhengshan said, Luo Shang felt relieved.

He was not afraid that Jianning Wei's affairs would affect himself, but he was afraid that it would affect Yang Zhengshan.

Because he believed that even if he was eaten up, as long as Yang Zhengshan was still alive, his family would not starve to death. But if Yang Zhengshan fell, he would also be eaten up quickly.

This is the trust he has in Yang Zhengshan's character after knowing him for more than a year.

"Have you had any difficulties recently?" Yang Zhengshan asked casually.

Now, Yang Zhengshan no longer needs to worry about the needlework workshop in Linguan Fort or the charcoal business in Yinghe Fort, so he and Luo Shang no longer talk about business matters.

Luo Shang thought for a moment and said, "Sir, I really have a problem here!"

"What difficulties?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"It's about cloth. Your Excellency may not know that the cloth in my cloth shop is all provided by the Luo family in Qizhou City. In the past, I only had one cloth shop, and the cloth provided by the Luo family was enough for me to sell. But now I have three cloth shops and two embroidery workshops, and the cloth provided by the Luo family is not enough for me!"

Luo Shang briefly talked about the difficulties she encountered.

In fact, it is the lack of supply.

"Who is the Qizhou Luo family?" Yang Zhengshan asked curiously.

Qizhou is located in the south of Jing'an Prefecture, at the tail of Changqing Mountain, which is the Changqing Mountain Range where the back mountain of Yangjia Village is located, and the Qi River also flows through the territory.

Due to its special geographical location, Qizhou City has become a gathering place for water and land transportation in Liaodong area.

Almost all merchants traveling from north to south who wanted to enter and exit the Liaodong region had to pass through Qizhou City.

Therefore, Qizhou City became the most prosperous city in Liaodong region.

Yang Zhengshan knew about the prosperity of Qizhou City, but he had never heard of the Qizhou Luo family.

"The Luo family of Qizhou and I are relatives, but the Luo family is very wealthy and powerful, and relatives like me cannot marry up with them. I have a cousin who manages the business for the Luo family, and he has been helping me transport cloth over the years!" Luo Shang explained.

A big family and a big business!

That is, a wealthy businessman.

If it is a family of officials, then it should be said that it is a family of scholars. If it is a family of martial arts, then it should be said that it is a family of martial arts.

As for clan relatives, this kind of relationship is actually very unreliable.

For example, all the people with the surname Yang in Yangjia Village are his relatives, but he can't even remember the names of some people.

For example, Lu Zhou is a relative of the Anning Lu family, but Lu Zhou can only work as a blacksmith in a blacksmith shop.

"Cloth!" Yang Zhengshan thought for a moment and said, "I can help you get in touch with them, but I'm not sure if I can find the source of the goods."

Speaking of cloth, the first person he thought of was Mr. Liang Sanye.

Mr. Liang Sanye was his relative. Since the engagement with the Liang family, Yang Zhengshan had not neglected this future relative for more than a year. He would send him a gift every year.

Similarly, Mr. Liang Sanye did not forget him and often wrote to him.

Mr. Liang Sanye has connections with the Liang family in Jing'an. Although he is a bastard of the Liang family, he should have no problem helping to transfer some supplies from the Liang family.

This is also a good thing for the Liang family.

If the Liang family's approach doesn't work, he can still ask the Lu family.

Although the Lu family does not engage in cloth business, they are the local tyrants in Anning County and have close ties with many aristocratic families.

Maybe Mr. Lu can find a way to find a source of cloth.

"Then thank you very much, sir!" Luo Shang did not refuse or decline, and naturally accepted Yang Zhengshan's help.

Now he and Yang Zhengshan have reached a tacit understanding. Yang Zhengshan is his backer and he does things for Yang Zhengshan.

There was no need to state such a relationship explicitly; Yang Zhengshan and Luo Shang already understood it.

For example, in the commercial street of Yinghebao this time, Yang Zhengshan only asked Yang Minghao to go to the city gate, and Luo Shang knew what he should do.

Then Yang Zhengshan wrote a letter and asked Luo Shang to take it away.

After Luo Shang returns to Guancheng, he will give the letter to Shopkeeper Lu, and Shopkeeper Lu will then give the letter to the Lu family's caravan, which will take it back to Anning County and hand it over to Yang Zhengxiang. Finally, Yang Zhengxiang will send someone to deliver it to Mr. Liang Sanye.

Although Guancheng is only more than 300 miles away from Anning County, it takes at least four or five days to deliver a letter.

(End of this chapter)