Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 660 The Biggest Obstacle
After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Yang Chengye set off from Shenmu Island.

Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi stood at the harbor, looking at the ship going farther and farther away, deep in thought.

"We have to go to Darong as well!"

Yang Zhengshan said.

"What are you going to do?" Yu Qingyi asked.

"Visit an old friend and remove the biggest obstacle to inheriting the business!" Yang Zhengshan said.

"The biggest obstacle?" Yu Qingyi was a little confused. "Who?"

Yang Zhengshan laughed and said, "That old thing Xuanzhen!"

The strongest person in Darong today is none other than Xuan Zhen.

An Yuxing has already entered the Tao and has made considerable attainments in the Tao, but Xuanzhen has also entered the Tao, and his understanding of the Tao is even greater than An Yuxing's.

With Xuanzhen's strength and the prestige of Wuzhen Taoist Palace in the world of Darong, we cannot say that he can influence the situation in Darong, but the impact is also enormous.

Although the Yang family is very strong now, even ridiculously strong, this does not allow Yang Zhengshan to underestimate the people in the world.

Take the Wuzhen Taoist Palace for example, it is a sect that has been passed down for thousands of years, and its foundation is absolutely beyond imagination.

Yang Zhengshan estimated that Xuan Zhen's cultivation level might not be much worse than his, and was far superior to An Yuxing.

Yang Zhengshan could ignore other innate warriors in Dayong, but he could not ignore Xuan Zhen.

Yu Qingyi nodded, and Yang Zhengshan said, "We still have to visit Zhou Lan and Liang Chu!"

"They are different from us. Our Yang family is just a noble family that has just risen a hundred years ago. The Ningguo Mansion and the Changping Marquis Mansion, especially the Changping Marquis Mansion, are related to Darong. If we want them to completely abandon Darong, we will need to spend some time and effort!"

Yu Qingyi naturally had no objection to this, "Just go, I'll follow you wherever you go!"

"Haha~~"

……

Yang Zhengshan arranged things on Shenmu Island, and then took Yu Qingyi to Dayong.

There are a lot of things on Shenmu Island, but Yang Zhengshan doesn't need to worry too much.

However, Yang Chengye still has a lot of things that require help from Shenmu Island, especially matters of money and food.

In order to support Yang Chengye, Yang Zhengshan almost emptied out his family fortune. Without affecting the operation of Shenmu Island and the Yang family business, Yang Zhengshan gave Yang Chengye a full 10 million taels of silver.

The money that the Yang family had saved over the years was not as much as imagined. The 10 million taels of silver were almost all donated by Luo Shang and Zhen Yang.

The Yang family business was very profitable, but the Yang family's expenses were also high. It cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year just to support the family. In addition, Shenmu Island now had to accommodate immigrants and carry out construction, so there were many places to spend money.

Therefore, the only silver money Yang Zhengshan could take out was 10 million taels.

Yang Chengye did not bring the 10 million taels of silver back to Chongshan Town. He left the money in the Yang Family Business. He needed the Yang Family Business to help him buy food, weapons, medicinal materials, elixirs, cloth, cotton and other war supplies in the Wanli Sea and the southern dynasties of Dayong.

Although it is not yet time to start an uprising in Chongshan Town, it is not wrong to store various supplies in advance.

Just when Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi left Shenmu Island, Shenmu Island and the Yang family business also started to operate to support Yang Chengye.

Yang Mingcheng was still staying in the space, so the task of supporting Yang Chengye was taken over by his two uncles, Yang Mingzhi and Yang Minghao.

As for Yang Mingzhao, he also went to Dayong, and he promised to help Yang Chengye conquer Bashu.

Chongshan Town still has to wait for the right opportunity, but the Taiping Army does not need to wait and can swallow up the entire Bashu as soon as possible.

Yang Mingzhi has asked the Yang family business to purchase as much grain as possible. To be honest, purchasing grain from the Wanli Sea and transporting it to Chongshan Town is a very unprofitable business.

The voyage is too long and transportation is not convenient. To transport a shipload of food, the guards and sailors on board will consume less than half of the ship, plus labor costs, ship maintenance costs, etc. When the food arrives in Chongshan Town, the cost price is 50% higher than the price of food in Chongshan Town.

But there was nothing that could be done about it. The problem in Chongshan Town and Liaodong was not how expensive the grain prices were, but that they simply could not buy enough grain.

Unless Yang Chengye is willing to raise the grain prices in Chongshan Town and Liaodong, he might be able to receive a lot of grain in Liaodong, but doing so will definitely affect the people's livelihood in Liaodong, which is definitely a result that Yang Chengye does not want to see, so he can only spend more money to buy grain from the Wanli Sea.

It was very easy for the Yang family business to buy grain. Not to mention other things, the Zhang Dynasty and the Dajing Dynasty could provide the Yang family business with millions of shi of grain.

The Zhang Dynasty and the Dajing Dynasty could produce three harvests of rice a year. These two dynasties had the least shortage of food, and in the vast ocean, there were many islands where three harvests of rice a year could be achieved.

Therefore, the price of food here in the Wanli Sea is really cheap.

The food problem can only be solved in this way, and Yang Minghao needs to purchase some weapons and armor for Yang Chengye.

On the 20th day of the first lunar month, Yang Minghao arrived at Dihuo Island.

Zhu Yanshan, the third master of the Zhu family, came to greet him personally.

The most conspicuous feature of Dihuo Island is the volcano located in the center of the island. The crater is a thousand feet high and emits black smoke all year round, but it has never erupted.

The most powerful thing about the Zhu family is not their forging skills, but that they can actually control a volcano that is about to erupt and prevent it from erupting.

Looking from a distance, you can see many holes on the huge volcano, and a large number of strong men are constantly carrying ore to the volcano.

And on one side of the volcano there is a red river, which is not water, but magma.

The Zhu family led the magma out of the volcano and let it flow like a river.

There are many black solids of different sizes in the magma. They are not stones, but metals melted in the volcano.

The so-called underground steel is actually steel that has been smelted several times by volcanic magma.

Melting, forging, melting again, and forging again, after several cycles, the ordinary pig iron will become tough earth-fire steel.

Standing under the volcano and looking up at the entire volcano, no one will fail to marvel at the Zhu family's unparalleled craftsmanship.

Using volcanoes to forge weapons is unique in the world.

There may be blacksmiths in this world who are more powerful than the Zhu family, but there is definitely no force like the Zhu family that can use volcanoes to forge weapons in large quantities.

This was not the first time Yang Minghao came to Dihuo Island, but he couldn't help but be amazed every time he came.

"If you forge ordinary weapons and armor, how many can you forge in a month?" he asked Zhu Yanshan beside him.

Zhu Yanshan asked doubtfully: "Ordinary weapons and armor?"

"Well, it's the armor of ordinary soldiers in the army, armor forged with fine steel!" Yang Minghao said.

It is unrealistic to equip a large number of weapons and armor forged from earth fire steel, because the output of earth fire steel is very low. The Zhu family can only forge three or four hundred earth fire steel weapons every year, which obviously cannot meet the needs of Chongshan Town.

Zhu Yanshan showed a look of realization, "If it's just forging fine steel, it's easy. For swords, 3,000 pieces can be forged in a month. If it's just spearheads, that's even more. 30,000 pieces a month is no problem!"

Yang Minghao's eyes widened when he heard this. "It's a fine steel weapon, not five- or ten-refined steel!"

The so-called fine steel is actually steel that has been tempered hundreds of times.

The iron is repeatedly heated, folded and forged to make the steel dense, uniform in composition and reduce impurities, thus improving the quality of the steel. One refining is heating once, that is, how many times the refining is done.

The standard weapons in the Darong Army have a minimum requirement of thirty tempers, but in reality, most of them are nine tempers. Generally speaking, weapons forged with hundred tempers of steel are very rare.

For example, the gilded flying fish spear used by Yang Zhengshan at the beginning was actually a weapon forged from hundred-fold tempered steel.

Apart from the difference in material metal, weapons forged with hundred-fold tempered steel are already the best steel weapons.

Zhu Yanshan scratched his head. "The ordinary weapons we forge are no worse than the weapons forged with Hundred-Refined Steel!"

"Is that so?" Yang Minghao was a little confused.

He knew that the weapons forged by the Zhu family were all very good, but he didn't know much about the Zhu family's forging skills.

"Well, that's it. To forge a fine steel weapon, you don't need a master chef to do it himself. Just let the younger generation practice!"

"Forging weapons is easier, but forging armor is much more troublesome. If you forge armor, you can only make a thousand sets at most in a month!"

Zhu Yanshan explained.

Yang Minghao felt that he had underestimated the Zhu family.

In fact, the Zhu family does not like to make fine steel armor because it is somewhat embarrassing.

What they like to create most are magical weapons, not those meaningless weapons that can be mass-produced.

Therefore, they have not sold many fine steel weapons so far. They just let the younger generation practice and make some fine steel weapons. All the master chefs with some skills like to make earth fire steel weapons, or magical weapons made of special materials.

Such as meteorite iron, black gold, cold iron, thunder-patterned copper, etc., using these precious minerals to create magical weapons is their pursuit.

They are not blacksmiths, they are forge masters.

What else could Yang Minghao say? He took out a list and said, "We need these weapons and armor!"

Zhu Yanshan took the list and glanced at it, also a little confused.

"30,000 fine steel long swords, 100,000 spear heads, 5,000 sets of fine steel light armor, 5,000 sets of fine steel cavalry heavy armor, and 500,000 pieces of fine steel armor plates?"

"Brother Minghao, what are you doing?"

Fine steel armor plates are used to make cotton armor and leather armor. The Zhu family definitely does not know how to make cotton armor and leather armor, so they can only ask them to help forge the armor plates.

"Fight, fight a big battle!" Yang Minghao said.

"Is this armor enough to equip a hundred thousand soldiers?" Zhu Yanshan was not stupid, so he could naturally see how many soldiers these armors could equip.

"Well, this may not be enough." Yang Minghao said.

Zhu Yanshan felt a little embarrassed. "Brother Minghao, we haven't made the arrowhead you ordered before. As for this one, it will probably take three to five years to complete!"

If the Zhu family and the Yang family were not close, the Zhu family would never accept an order like this one because it was too unskilled.

"Three to five years is too long. We have to finish it within one year!"

Yang Minghao laughed, "All these weapons and armors must be exchanged for wine and beverages, and my Yang family won't spend a penny!"

“Exchange all for wine?” Zhu Yanshan’s eyes lit up instantly.

"Of course, can we exchange three thousand jars of wine for these weapons and armors within a year?" Yang Minghao said.

The magic weapons are the specialty of the Zhu family, and the wine is the specialty of the Yang family.

Although the Zhu family did not discover that the best effect of the Yang family's wine was to improve potential, the effect of strengthening physical fitness and reducing injuries alone was enough to make them excited.

The key point is that Yang’s wine is not sold but only given away, so there is nowhere to buy it if you want to.

"Yes, absolutely!" Zhu Yanshan said without thinking.

"Why not discuss this with the two seniors?" Yang Minghao said with a smile.

Zhu Yanshan shook his head. "No need. This place is under my control now. If I say it can be done, then it can be done!"

He said this with confidence.

Although he is only ranked third in the ranking, he is the only blacksmith in the Zhu family who is at the innate level.

After he broke through to the innate realm, all the forging workshops on the volcano were under his control.

"That's good. After I go back, I will send someone to deliver the wine and weapons. Your weapons will be delivered in four batches, one batch every three months. Is that ok?" Yang Minghao said.

"No problem!" Zhu Yanshan said.

Although the master chef of the Zhu family is unwilling to make these ordinary weapons and armors, the ordinary children of the Zhu family are definitely willing to do so.

Zhu Yanshan had thought it through. He used wine as reward and asked the ordinary children of the Zhu family to make these weapons and armors.

He would take out one third of it as a reward, and it would be enough to complete it in less than a year.

As for the remaining two thousand jars, they will naturally be divided among the main veins!
In this way, the honest Zhu Yanshan turned into an evil middleman.

With the food from the Zhang Dynasty and the Dajing Dynasty, the weapons and armor from the Zhu Family, plus the spiritual spring medicine soup and various medicinal materials from the Yang Family, and the war horses from Chongshan Town, isn't that all?
As for other miscellaneous things, just take your time.

……

Shenmu Island began to busy itself with transporting food and medicinal materials to Chongshan Town, while Yang Zhengshan had already arrived in Songhe Prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River.

The Wuzhen Taoist Palace is located in Luyang Prefecture, just on the southern foot of Wanshanling. Sangzhou Prefecture, where Cuixia Valley is located, is just to the east of Luyang Prefecture, and the Wuzhen Taoist Palace is actually also on the mountain of Wanshanling.

If Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi wanted to go to the Wuzhen Taoist Palace, the most convenient route was to take an inland waterway boat from Songhe Prefecture, sail upstream along the Song River for 500 miles, then follow the Rushu River into Nanchao Lake, and after crossing Nanchao Lake, enter the Fengle River and finally arrive at Longshu County. The Wuzhen Taoist Palace was located on Daogong Mountain, 50 miles north of Longshu County.

After Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi arrived at Songhe Prefecture on the merchant ship of Yang Family Trading Company, they let the fleet of Yang Family Trading Company do its business.

The fleet of the Yang Family Trading Company has been very busy recently. They have to transport various supplies to Chongshan Town, but the company's own business cannot be stopped.

Yang Zhengshan has already given all his coffin money to Yang Chengye. From now on, hundreds of people in the Yang family will have to rely on the Yang family business for their livelihood.

Therefore, the business of Yang family company must not only not stop, but also expand its business and trade scope.

Yang Zhengshan naturally would not delay the business of the Yang family company because of himself. Besides, he had traveled all over the country with Yu Qingyi over the years and did not need anyone to lead the way.

(End of this chapter)